Yay! Yeah I highly recommend a save and/or autosave option during the game in the menu to prevent extra frustration from crashes :)
JRHockney
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A member registered Oct 22, 2019
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ok so I just tested it again by just buying a torch and using first the Exit to title screen option and starting over with my Character file. When I got back in the game, he didn't have that torch I just bought and still had the 30 coins I had just spent.
So then I decided to buy a spear and use the Exit to Desktop option. When I started again, I still have the spear and no coins! At this point, I decided to "exit to title screen" again and load up my character again and I still have the spear and no coins! So apparently the "Exit to desktop" saves the character initially but the "Exit to Title screen" does not. Hows that for bug hunting?! :D ...I only wish I still had my old items but oh well ;p
Note: I started playing with my character and found a tower level where I entered the first stairwell and then the game crashed. Loaded up my character and I still have my spear but none of my recently earned items...so apparently the items to not survive a crash. I recommend creating an extra "save" and/or "auto save" option to fix this for now. I tried playing again for a bit and went to another tower and ANOTHER stairwell crashed me so there appears to be an issue with the tower stairwells on occasion
I'll check the save folder when I get home but yeah I left the game using the setting menu and then started a new one with the listed character file.
The dungeons should probably have the most doors in the tower and pyraminds then get less in the ruins (since they're ruined [rimshot] :p ) and none or moving cave boulder by a lever in caves. You might also consider castle dungeons and Mansion dungeons and you could also have haunted or living (orc or knight) versions of any of these dungeons with their own aspects.
Question, are you planning making the trees burnable to reveal secreta as well or just brush/grass that can be slashed anyways?
Ok So I finished what I think is an entire run and here are the things I noticed/suggestions:
-teleport portals sometime appear over spike traps...not sure if this is purposeful but its a bit annoying. They are still sort of usable but not with losing 50% health.
-Spike traps should probably be more randomized as the levels increase. Different timing or just being always on.
-Fire breathing statues in the dungeons or arrow traps would be a fun addition to the dungeons.
-some torches are not lightable because they are in from of pits or other things. I suggest either fixing this or purhaps allowing fire magic or fire swords to light them from a distance
-Forests still need more distinguishing features that help players tell if they are different and more dangerous if there are going to be more than one per world (which there should be in my opinion especially if the infinite mode is eventually made). I suggest different color/shades of the trees bushes, forest traps (venus fly traps for example?) or road blocks (vines or magic vines for example) that require certain items, and progressively harder enemies (not just harder slimes or mushrooms and they should if they are, they should probably be a noticably different shades or colors). Some notification of the level of forest would be helpful too but as we talked about before, its not necessary if done right.
-the bosses still seem to have the same attack patterns at any level. In the games current from, they should probably add attacks based on level rather than just have them all on the first level and also perhaps have different colors or shades based on level. For example, Liches probably shouldn't get the big fireball attack at level one or be able to spawn any enemies and then get faster and spawn more enemies at higher levels. You could also do a zelda 1 thing and have weaker versions of big bosses as mini bosses to get keys or items.
-More doors and keys in the dungeons would be nice. Different color schemes in different dungeons of the same type would be nice too.
-sometimes if you are killed while lit on fire, you will still be lit on fire when you respawn
-I still miss the big world map option and sailing but I've already talked about this on twitter. I'm hoping it can be used as a quick travel or something at some point to make the world seem alot bigger than it is. It could work by just showing the islands or contentants and the various climate types on each one. When they walk to that climate area, the player could even potentially start at the same place on the climates overworld map kind of like they do currently with villages...even if that is a bit weird but its not a big deal.
-if there is a way to burn bushes/trees to reveal a secret, I still haven't figured out what it is besides just burning the normal grass to reveal a chest sometimes. I've used fire swords and spells to burn the bushes and trees to no avail.
-after I finished everything on all the maps, there was no notification of anything else to do so I went back to the title screen and started a new map...and while my Screen name was still there, all my earned items are now gone?!...is that intentional? I suppose it makes sense from a Zelda 1 second quest standpoint but I thought the point of saving a character was to not lose hard earned/made items.
-the spells are pretty cool so far. Looking forward to the implementation of other element spells
-...I still hold out hope that you can someday implement that Mutt Boss idea from one of my previous posts here :D Its like the ultimate in boss randmonization!...anyways.
That's probably enough for now. I already feel like I"m forgetting something but I'll post again if I remember. Overall it was a fun experience but it will definitely be held back by no saving feature since few people have time to do an entire run through without stopping or leaving it open on their computer.
Ok I Played it for a few hours and here are my initial questions and observations and suggestions so far:
-The new features and minor classes are great from what I can tell.
-level 1 grave dungeons & Lich are WAY TO HARD! He 1 hit killed me with level 2 and 3 gear with that one attack! Needs more difficulty scaling unless I just chose hard one but it was way too close to the starting village. Ghosts should be 1 or 2 hit kill at first. Grave yard dungeons are also a bit too common so far.
-could use more smaller secrets. So far every secret Ive found is a full dungeon of some sort. Could use stuff like secret shops, camps, or kooky old men who give advice, or want to trade items, give quests, or just say "get out!" Lol
-the gray mountain/cave rocks should be much more common and perhaps make up larger sections of the forests. It will make bombing to find a cave a bit more difficult (less obvious), offer more visual variety and you can even make bombable rocks that block paths.
-Different forests could use slightly different color schemes like shades of green or other fall or dead colors.
-Yay Zelda 1 overworld! Glad you went this direction!...but is the world map gone? Haven't run into it or found the option for it yet.
-mushroom enemy jumps too far for level 1 area in my opinion
-spike traps kill followers too easily...timing issue mainly. It would be nice if they were a bit smarter about that.
-have you implemented burning bushes yet? If so, how do you burn them? Sorry I haven't played around with this much yet and haven't read the changelog if there is one
More to come once I play it more
Thanks. Its nice to be able to put forth useful game ideas again :)
Yeah, I like that idea about developing a favorite NPC helper (maybe just default it to whoever the player uses the most) and then having them captured or killed. When I play Skyrim and my long time helper Lydia gets killed I get pissed even though I can just resurrect her with a saved game so I figure a long time helper getting captured or killed might be a decent motivation to play and save them or get revenge ;) Just an idea through. The plotline can take many forms especially with an infinite game.
As promised, in regards to your thoughts about an end boss here’s some ideas/possibilities to consider:
-When you beat the end boss, he says something like “you think you’ve won, but I’ll be back stronger” or maybe something less cliché but something to let the players know they can keep playing for a second quest. There could a 3 months later message following it saying the boss has come back and perhaps did something different like steal a bunch of princesses, friends, important items, or biome specific items or whatever to make it a bit different than however the main quest will turn out. You also just make it so the end boss flees to another far off land without having to do another main quest.
-You could simply make the end boss harder with health each time the player plays through the game or after each series of collecting something or rescuing someone. This might be a tad boring after a while but players might still play through a few times
-You could add more enemies to fight each time you fight the end boss as well including other boss characters.
-You could make a variety of end boss attack possibilities and choose a different combination each playthrough or just borrow from other bosses. The combinations should probably become more complex each time
-Similar to the last one, Each biome could have its own major boss with its own biome based attacks and the end boss could choose a combo of those on top of its own major attacks. Each playthrough the end boss gets one or two more attack possibilities based on these.
-You could make several combinations of boss parts (arms, legs, robes, head, attacks, etc.) and make a randomly generated “Mutt” main boss based on these parts for each main quest…heck you could potentially do this for more bosses if the code/engine will allow it…might be a lot of work but it would be pretty cool and in the spirit of a random generation game.
-You could make it so the end boss and perhaps other bosses in the 2nd+ quests change main attack if it senses you have been not taking much damage on whatever its current attack is.
-One plot line idea that might be simple to implement but emotionally effective in driving the player to complete the quest or 2nd+ quests would involve finding characters (or even princesses) to help you fight in your quest on occasion and then be captured or even killed by a boss or end boss and make the quest about saving that person or revenge or even resurrecting that person.
- One final note is you might also want to make updates to this game friendly to players that already have saved games once saved games is implemented so the players can save their items.
Well, theres some stuff to give you some ideas and the decisions are yours to make 😊 Hope this helps
I have a couple of bugs to report:
-My game crashed again just as I was about to picking up a few items out of a chest (including a really nice high level spear :'( ). I might have pressed F too many times but it crashed the game and once again I lost everything. Really look forward to the monogame save function! ;p
-In a cave secret room I just bombed that had the locked chest in it, I got blocked by a rock and a pit so I couldn't even get to activate the teleporter (see screenshot)
-There appears to be a bug associated with room borders where enemies and especially bosses can get stuck if they go too far off the screen. They appear to get stuck in an inbetween screens state where I ccan sometimes hit them through the side of the screen or trick them into jumping back on the screen but other times I can't and I have to abandon the area (see screenshots)
The above screenshots where taken just as the screen was shifting to the next screen.
Anyways, Hope that helps
Ok I understand the clearings now. I did find one of those maps earlier in a dungeon and just went back and found the treasure since my computer is still running witht the game open 😂 Got another ascension orb 😁 Cool feature!
Regarding the dragons, you might want to consider more progression from the early levels just because even the first one I ran into was pretty hard. 3 heads with a steady fire stream and him physically chasing me around the room if enough to make non lesser experienced Zelda 1 players rage quit...luckily I was good enough to beat the second quest back in the 80s so not me! 😁
...but anyways, since you probably don't have a ton of bosses finished I would start with one head, slow movement speed, alternate attack (exploding fireball or maybe a scroll like power) and maybe short fire bursts and then increase one of these attributes per dungeon level. So by the level 30 or 40, the dragon would fast with alot of abilities and 10 heads!(which is probably enough heads and upgrades). You could also add different elemental dragons to vary the progression even more.
Lastly. I was just reading my last post and realized I had a huge typo and wasnt very clear...I meant to say:
-give certain BOSS enemies (like orc bosses) MORE items and item switching abilities/different attack types at progressivily higher levels. Imagine a level 40 Orc boss switching weapons, setting bombs, and using scrolls 😁. The higher the level, the more options, health, and switching rate they have.
Come to think of it, Wizard bosses could probably be implemented in a similar where they primarily use one scroll like power with no other weapons in the beginning and gradually get stronger and more varied....wizard camps or outposts might be fun too.
Just some ideas for your brainstorming
Ok so I've played for several hours now and its a great game so far but I have a list here of issues/suggestions as I promised on Twitter:
-torches required in every dungeon is not very beginner friendly and a bit frustrating for even zelda vets. I suggest making oil torches on walls of rooms that dont go out once lit. In early dungeons and many later dungeons they should already be lit. But they start being not lit or not present in later dungeons rooms.
-going to stair well restores life without seemingly changing damaged health of enemies. Makes end bosses alot easier which is ok if its intentional but there should probably be a penalty of some kind like partially or fully restored health of the room enemies.
-I thought I remember a bow and arrow in the game before but haven't seen it so far. Would be very helpful against fire breathing bats/little dragons when they go over pits.
-more or some item drops from enemies or at least some reason to kill non-boss enemies. Since the orb of ascension is the way to level up and no experience points appear to be in the game, non-boss enemies seem best avoided besides annoyance factor.
-it would be nice to be able to visit every map land section to look for secrets (hidden caves reveled by bombs, chests under bushes, etc) and use the overworld as more of a quick travel. Over the water might be an exception unless you want to make a fishing or octopus fight options from the ship.
-what is the point of the clearings? I have visited many of them and it just one map square with no enemies or secrets that I can find.
-Villagers so far only say "nice to meet you". They should probably have a more diverse vocabulary for immersion purposes even if their village quests haven't been implemented.
-give certain enemies or items and item switching abilities/different attack types at higher levels.
-could use more environment, building, enemy, and boss diversity but I know that will come in time so I'm not really worried about that ;)
Thats all I can think of at the moment. So far its alot of fun and the dungeons are pretty decent as far as secrets and progression even if they are somewhat linear at first. Great effort and keep it up! :D