![[ENG] 2021 December Report](https://img5.samsuka.com/storage/11/ex/om/c6f9d9-019e87ec-a0b9-76e8-a020-fcbcb376aee7.png)
[ENG] 2021 December Report
Added 2021-12-30 13:22:39 +0000 UTCThe last report of this year is here!
We decided to release a new build for supporters to see the progress of the game. We highly discourage you from playing it if you don't want to repeat the game many times.
- Punipen
Comments
will you be able to pick whether u want to top or bottom for the routes? cause kakula can wreck me.
drayi
2022-03-08 06:27:50 +0000 UTCYeah, Patreon message system is a bit buggy. I think even in the comment section sometimes people's comment won't go through as well (although it will show up in our email). Thank you so much for what you've done and I'd love to read what you wrote. Could you please either send it to us via email at dudedle.studio(a)gmail.com or post it on itch discussion forum of the game? Looking forward to it! - Punipen
Dudedle Studio
2022-01-09 03:35:23 +0000 UTCFor some reason I'm completely unable to start conversation with you through Patreon message center. It just keeps showing the loading circle and never goes anywhere. I did a bit of testing with two builds and spent rest of the day writing a report summary about them. I'd like to send them to you to see if they are of any use because I don't feel like wasting another 8 hours to test and summarize issues if they aren't useful.
Northie
2022-01-08 22:40:02 +0000 UTCI'd like to point out that I don't mind losing to regular enemies. It's perfectly okay if that happens and sets you back a bit. My problem is that currently it's so that usually going through three enemies means fourth ends up destroying you. There's also heavy luck element. Your ability to keep bars intact is heavily reliant on luck as gems on the board are random. If you are not getting good matches while your enemy ends up getting free actions because a) your hp is low enough for armor breaks because of previous enemy b) it makes multiple four matches c) it rages... well, you are as good as dead and thrown back to start. Combine previous thing with enemies that add burn, bleed and poison gems that you can't always get rid off because they are very far from matches and you are in trouble. By the way I'd like to point out that I feel melee builds that focus on destroying gems are at a much better spot than more magic focused builds for a one very significant reason: you have an ability that simutaneously damages foes and has a high chance of instantly destroying enemy status gems, and is likely to make new automatic matches in the process. As an added bonus you don't need to set them up similar to magic builds that require progressive gem matches, but you certainly can also do that for some like glacial strike. Compare this for example to my wind build which at minimum requires me to set up quick strike with wind cutter. That requires me to make both purple and yellow matches instead of just yellow so I can do the double damage with quick strike and if I want it to be critical I also have to set up wind dash. That's at minimum three actions but in practice it takes at least two to three turns. Very bad for your hp bars. Actually I think I'm going to try following: bash, glacial strike, hilt strike, ice bolt and wind dash. That wind dash should allow me to pretty much repeatedly bash and speed up glacial strike from its glacially slow recharge significantly. At least in theory... Edit: Rephrased for clarity. I don't have a problem with status gems. They add a good amount of pressure without being overpowered on their own. They are only bad if you combine them with current enemy issues and lack any means to get rid off them. Edit2: As expected switching to mostly ice made a huge difference. The crit from ice bolt alone is excellent. I basically steamrolled through moaning cave without losing even a single bar of health despit the fact I ran through dead ends on purpose. I only had trouble at second mantis when I got a string of really bad gem combos. Surprisingly wind dash didn't make much difference except in boss battles. It takes too long to build up for it. I'm going to reroll again and try a prevention build. If you want I can sum up in a post what I find good in any specific combinations though perhaps some other spot than forum is a better place?
Northie
2022-01-08 11:04:55 +0000 UTCThe issue with the dead end route in the dungeon is a good point. We'll take that into account when we balance/rework the dungeons. Also, you mentioning Carnivorous Rose and Stonehead makes me realize that the issue with these two monsters are that they were designed to fit the old battle system where each enemy was supposed to be threatening enough that losing is a possibility. Their skills and armor bonuses can get really out of hand quickly with the constant Physical Boost Gems with no limit. I'll have to do something about this, since with the new system, each enemy is supposed to wear you down instead of being able to kill you in one battle. The Healing Kit is tested and worked without an issue. It can be difficult to see right now since we're still working on a new temporary UI that will let you see your healths at all time, so the amount of recovered health with the healing kits would be more obvious. But if you think there really is a bug that healing kits don't heal you, please let me know. - Punipen
Dudedle Studio
2022-01-08 07:02:08 +0000 UTCOkay so I'm just going to say the healing spot in the 2nd floor makes a world of difference. It's only through two foes unless the layout changes and there's no dead end and you have only one foe between you and the boss (the skeleton warrior which is easy). The boss itself is about where it should be. Took me down to my final bar so there was a bit of a concern he might win but I kicked his tail - actually I don't think I've ever lost to him in any of the playthroughs but he "feels dangerous" so it's all good. The thing is that if you follow the correct path it feels fun and doable with a bit of risk of defeat. If you stray to the dead end on the initial run then it's like "oh, c'mon... whhyyyy?" Like I said above, maybe change the last foe in the dead end path to something weaker like a slime.
Northie
2022-01-07 20:26:19 +0000 UTCRoad to Eastshire is fine. I got my butt kicked by a mantis in the new run but I don't mind being defeated now and then. It only annoys me if it happens repeatedly. I think it was when I was on my way to treasure but overall I feel Road to Eastshire is in a good spot. I feel Moaning Cave is okay but it suffers a bit from the same problem as Round Forest if you follow the dead end path. The initial stone head actually managed to destroy most of my health through attrition on the first run so I died to the next enemy. I retried and got to second stone head and died there thanks to mantis eating most of my hp. My third run through it was like this: stone head 1 bar of armor gone, mantis next bar of armor gone, next stone head and I barely made it and... oh, a dead end and very little hp left... so I ran out and retried, taking the lower path through slime this time with a little bit of my first health bar left so now I'm to 2nd floor first bat. The first change I'd do is swap out that second stone head at the 1st floor dead end with a slime or some other weak enemy. It's a bit demoralizing to go through three tough enemies to only hit a dead end. Of course the direct path with just the stone head and slime to second floor is relatively easy what with me still having a sliver of my "full armor" left. However this all made me realize something that is pretty antithesis to fun which is that even regular enemies get the extra hits in if they break your armor. This happens more often than not because you start the combat with partial bar after having it depleted by previous enemy, so after an enemy or two you are in a situation that the opening attack from next foe breaks your armor and gets free shots which usually end up eating your second bar. Another thing is regular enemies raging. The worst combination is when you are low on health (=armor about to break), enemy gets in chain of attacks and then rages. My wind build is: quick strike, hilt strike, wind cutter, wind dash, winds of regeneration. This for my magic warrior. I'm running moaning cave again and currently at the 2nd floor first bat with a sliver of my first armor bar left and out of healing kits so let's see how this goes... Edit: edited for clarity Edit: actually do those healing kits work at all?
Northie
2022-01-07 20:02:54 +0000 UTCThank you so much for the detailed feedback! Wind Dash is something I definitely want to tweak. It's not a good idea to make it not intuitive like that. Avoid will also be reworked since I never wanted it to be purely random, but we didn't have time to implement the mechanic that I wanted to. Round Forest is definitely going to be balanced again. I'm sorry that it's frustrating right now. A part of it could be because we switched it from the 3rd dungeon to the 2nd dungeon, so we might not change the parameters enough to make it fit the second dungeon. Hopefully we will strike a better balance when we release revised chapter 2. How did you feel about Road to Eastshire and Moaning Cave? And what build did you choose to go with when you chose Wind as your secondary element? These are really helpful so thank you again! - Punipen
Dudedle Studio
2022-01-07 18:55:51 +0000 UTCAlso I've repeated the previous experience now multiple times (currently in moaning cave). It's definitely off when regular monsters are much more scary than the bosses you fight. For example the Treant in round forest was super easy to a point where you have to make an effort to die but the roses specifically sucked. They can easily take two full bars before you can do anything. That paralyze gem along with bloom going boom and their tendency to rage means you are absolutely screwed unless you luck out on blues. Even with my character having a couple of levels to them. Once you are twice their level it's no longer so bad. You probably should add the rest point after the first blocking rose. Mantis are almost as bad and impossible to avoid. Also I'd like to point that you should absolutely never try to avoid a foe as it is now unless you have at least 70% chance to avoid it because enemies always go first if you fail which is pretty much byebye to at least one bar of health before the combat is over. If that happens midway to dungeon you are going to be kicked back into start and have to go through them all again only to be kicked back into start again. It helps if you know in advance where the rest point is going to be but if you don't and just wander around aimlessly... Also the current system for selecting element can make for really bad choices. I picked wind as secondary since I was used to running hurricane-based build later on but boy does it suck early on. It took me a while to realize wind cutter + wind dash is definitely *not* something you want to do despite the fact that it feels intuitive because of the extra speed. Not if you are planning to quick strike. This largely because wind dash is going to disenchant all your vortex gems that your other abilities depend on for minimal gain. You actually have to do wind dash first followed by wind cutter and quick strike. Otherwise setting it up takes forever. It works later on in any order since you will have tons of vortex gems running but initially it's a bit of a trap. Anyhow. Gonna reroll to melee class since I'm gonna go back to glacial strike combos and see if it makes a difference. Actually regular warrior would have been a better choice for quick strikes, too.
Northie
2022-01-07 18:34:07 +0000 UTCOkay so I gave it a few tries with a new character and boy do I hope you are going to rebalance enemies. That carnivorous rose in round forest killed my character two times in a row and third time I got through it with a sliver of a hp bar left. Obviously with 20% healing kit that was not enough so I got tossed back to start of the dungeon repeatedly - which is not particularly fun.
Northie
2022-01-06 17:38:34 +0000 UTCFor some reasons Patreon seems to make your new comment disappear. But to address your concern regarding skills: - You won't be able to learn all possible ice and the chosen secondary elemental skill through level up. - Skills that you cannot learn through level up can be bought from Ukrit and Isandro. They will be available as soon as chapter 2 like in the previous version. - There's a plan to give an option to respec your parameters, but its priority is low right now. I'll implement it when I see that it's necessary. There's actually more details about buying skills but I won't go into them until I actually implement them in the game later. Things might change during the implementation & testing. But basically, you aren't required to restart the game if you need new elements. Enemies have been made weaker overall since they aren't required to be able to beat you (or be threatening enough that losing seems like a possibility) like in the previous version where you fully heal right after battle. Still, we expect more balance adjustments to come. Would love to hear your thoughts if you decide to give this build a go! - Punipen
Dudedle Studio
2021-12-31 13:02:56 +0000 UTCHoly and Dark are supposed to be more advanced elements, so for now I'm limiting the starting choices to 5 elements. As for the health system, yes, you no longer automatically heal after a battle. This was covered in the previous report so you can read it in more details there! https://www.patreon.com/posts/eng-2021-report-59229389 There are checkpoints through out the dungeon where you can heal yourself but this will cause any enemies you defeated to respawn. We want the dungeon to be a small challenge in itself, so it isn't like the old one where it's just a UI for you to fight or see the next event. I threw in a small optional puzzle in one of the dungeons. Hopefully if you run into it you'll find it fun! Thank you for the well wishes and Happy New Year to you too. Thank you so much for supporting us! - Punipen
Dudedle Studio
2021-12-31 01:32:55 +0000 UTCInteresting changes in store, will be fun to experiment with different combos of starting classes/elements to see what all we can do. Also raises the question of what was considered Volga's default class before the changes? Fighter seems like the most likely one, but with his Ice Powers I could see Magic Warrior as a possibility too, he just never gained as much Magic attack as his Physical attack stat when leveling or without using specific gear. Volga's Ice Magic always felt powerful and almost overpowered at times, but I was never impressed with the Water Magic he learned so I like having the option to go with other options instead. I do wonder though why Holy and Dark aren't an option for starting elements, I'd imagine you can still learn those type of skills/spells from the Fortune Teller but not being able to specialize in them is a bit limiting from a character building/role playing perspective. I like the changes to the dungeon system as well, being able to avoid enemies is an interesting feature, not something to do often if you're trying to grind levels or farm for materials for gear crafting, but a nice option to have as needed. I am curious about the part where you said you can leave the dungeon to regain health but have to start over from the beginning though, does that mean your health/armor no longer reset after each battle is over now? Definitely a lot of potential for changing up how you approach a dungeon especially if it's a long one with multiple floors if that's the case. I wish everyone on the team a Happy New Year, and look forward to seeing how the game progresses throughout 2022 and beyond. Keep up the great work.
Richard
2021-12-31 01:11:17 +0000 UTCWhat a great update! Lots of exciting new stuff! Getting to choose your parameters at the start of the game will be a different experience indeed. Those Tharsix CG's are looking hot! Love me a big beefy bottom! Thanks so much for the hard work, and Happy New Year!
Sen
2021-12-30 20:57:50 +0000 UTCThanks for the update, Punipen. I'm glad you chose to release a build of the first chapter, and am looking forward to playing through it and seeing the changes you've been making.
Patrick Neil
2021-12-30 18:47:58 +0000 UTCMore tharsix! Let's go!!!!
IronMation
2021-12-30 18:13:02 +0000 UTCMe too. We try to involve him when we can! - Punipen
Dudedle Studio
2021-12-30 14:12:56 +0000 UTCI'm happy that is nullghost still part of this project. And that tharsix scene looks delicious ππ
michael_0_0_0_1
2021-12-30 13:57:55 +0000 UTC
