Temple of The Roguelike Forums
Development => Programming => Topic started by: jasonpickering on December 19, 2011, 06:58:14 PM
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Wasn't really sure what to call this. but here goes. So I was developing a very small roguelike game over the thanksgiving break and decided to expand on it, because it seemed like the idea had merit. so basically this was the premise. the player is on a very small island with many enemies and only 5 health. most enemies die with 1 hit. there are no items or spells. the spells come in the form of monsters. so as an example: Killing a Fairy will give the player 1 heart, or killing a yeti will freeze all monsters for 3 turns. Do you think something like this could be a decent challenge without adding potions or spells, just giving a wide variety of monsters with interesting mechanics. In game so far are:
1. Mouse - Normal enemy
2. Skeleon - on death collapses into a pile of bones. after 5 turns comes back to life. works as a temporary wall
3. Goblin - normal enemy but takes to hits to kill
4. Fairy - heals the player
5. Yeti - freezes the enemies
So what other monsters and "Spells" do you think i could add. I am running a little low on ideas at the moment. I will try posting a build later so you can see it.
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This seems like a great idea! Perhaps add a "Night and Day" mechanic, so that maybe only easy/useful monsters spawn during the day, and the big bads spawn at night. That would give the player a break. Some monsters might be:
Some aquatic animals, since you're on an island. Maybe add a a swimming element?
Fish: On death spreads fish oil a few squares away. Maybe fish oil slows down enemies?
Octopus: On death blinds (with ink) nearby enemies for a few turns
Shark: On death, make a spike trap (Take the shark's teeth)
Seal: Amphibious, when killed, gives ability to swim (Use seal skin for flippers)
Blowfish: Poisonous, when killed, gives ability to breathe underwater (allows you to go further from land)(use body as like an air tank)
Frog: Poisonous, on death, poison nearby monsters
Some land animals:
Monkey: Able to jump over traps (Skeleton wall, etc)
Bears: Take 3 hits to kill. Big challenge
Pigs: On death, create a 5 turn wall (with the pig's big body), but doesn't come back to life. Can be set on fire
Pheonix: Flying. On death, sets fire to everything within a few squares.
So far, that's what I can think of.
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I like the idea. I suppose it's relatively short since there's no character progression.
Do Yetis take only one hit to kill as well? If so I'd rename the goblin to something scarier.
With the idea of combos in mind, here are some monsters/effects ideas:
- Chief - Fear, all monsters but undeads run away until they get out of LOS - rare
- Necromancer (undead) - All skeletons in sight die for good - rare
- Doppleganger - Take the shape (and death effect) of the last killed monster - uncommon/rare
- Genie - Player hits twice harder for 3-5 turns - uncommon
- Bomber - Unless frozen everything in a 3x3 square (including the player) take 1 hit - rarer than fairies
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thanks Pueo. I thought about adding a night and day before, with most monsters being stronger at night, but it was a little bizarre and really messed up the balancing. I will use some of your ideas, although i might change the creature names. like the pig might be replaced with the troll (trolls turn to stone).
lulero thats probably a good idea about renaming the goblin. I like all those ideas.
Another Idea I had was a Hydra. it has 1 HP. on death it comes back after 5 turns with 2 HP. etc etc.
here is a mockup. to give you an idea. the islands are very tiny to limit movement.
(http://i42.tinypic.com/30vyp83.png)
another idea i had was doing different environments with specific enemies. if the island is a graveyard island there is a higher chance of getting skeletons and that's where the necromancer would be.
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thanks Pueo. I will use some of your ideas, although i might change the creature names. like the pig might be replaced with the troll (trolls turn to stone).
Another Idea I had was a Hydra. it has 1 HP. on death it comes back after 5 turns with 2 HP. etc etc.
another idea i had was doing different environments with specific enemies. if the island is a graveyard island there is a higher chance of getting skeletons and that's where the necromancer would be.
1. Yeah, some of the names might not fit your theme, but feel free to do whatever you want with my ideas.
2. The hydra sounds awesome, but eventually it would just become unbeatable. Would there be a special way to kill it *coughlightitonfirewithmyawesomepheonixcough* ;) or would you just have to avoid it?
3. The environments thing sounds awesome, but would you get a new environment every game, or would they blend together in one level? If you're going for graphical, it might be a little hard to get them to blend right (look at Minecraft - one moment you could be in a frozen wasteland, but step left a few feet and you're in the jungle. It's especially jarring when you see this: http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m591/MinecraftScreenshots/2011-05-24_172904.png (http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m591/MinecraftScreenshots/2011-05-24_172904.png).
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Very nice, I really look forward to play this.
I tweaked my ideas a bit for better interactions, like fear doesn't affect undeads and bombers don't explode if frozen. Is player death the only possible outcome? If not, how to deal with hydras, something similar to that "bomber don't explode if frozen" idea?
There's one thing I'm a bit concerned about. With so few movement options the player might not have the luxury to decide on an order to kill things and it would take a lot of luck. Not sure how to achieve this either, and hard to find out without playtesting.
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Oh, and be sure to try and port it to OS X. I really hope it turns out awesome, and I would be so sad if I couldn't play :'(
You could always use me as a guinea pig :D
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most likely it would be IOs and flash. well the main goal is to get to the 5th island and grab the Amulet. so the game is more like dodging the monsters then killing them all. once you get to the bridge you move on to the next level. similar to stairs in some roguelikes. so for the hydra its basically knocking it down and running like hell before it gets back up.
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Great, can't wait to see how it works out!
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This is a very cool and original idea. Best thing to do is fudge together a quick test version.
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This sounds like it needs a puzzle element involved. Perhaps if the player was able to shunt enemies without killing them it could add a little risk - 'should I try to move this powerup/monster and risk a few hits to get more from its death effect?'
You could also add some environmental hazards to manipulate - lava to be frozen, holes to be filled in (with crabshells or something) rocks to be smashed.
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I really enjoy making lowfi tiles. If there are creatures in your game that you do not have graphics for, I would be happy to make some that match the style of what you have.
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well here is what I had so far.
Test (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21825227/Microuge/Microgo_Build_002.swf)
its mouse controls right now. which are pretty much just clicking the tile you wish to move to. Its only Cardinal directions at the moment.
Current enemies are the Mouse, Skeleton, Goblin, Yeti, and Fairy. there is no ending yet, in the full game you win when you reach the Alter on the 5th island.
Hi: Nah I think I will be fine, but you should make some tilesets. I think one thing we should do as a community is put together a huge amount of 16x16 tiles. It would be a great resource.
Hamish: Yeah it does feel slightly puzzle like and I think I want to continue that route. I don't know what you mean by shunt enemies. I think Environmental stuff could be a good idea.
Darren: thanks
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Nice work. Is your aim an android application or similar (since it would fit a touch interface)?
As I said earlier the limited movement options hurt though. The basic idea is very nice but you don't really get to choose what monster to kill first so it comes mostly down to how the monsters spawn.
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My Aim is IOS and possible just sitelocked flash versions (I will add keyboard controls for it). Don't know about android as I cant test it. Yes the player does feel a little forced as to what monsters they can fight and I would love to give them more of an option. Any ideas?
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Add the ability to throw rocks or something? You start with none and each island would have a rock to pick. Would also add another choice: can you get the rock on this island or do you have to reach the exit?
Probably not good either as you'll always target yetis, so still forced. Maybe with limited range?
Also not sure if you should give the ability to "wait", but it is frustrating when your only available first move gets you at melee range with 2 goblins. Guess you could throw your rock, hence staying on your bridge with only one neighbour tile, which feels like scumming :-/
TBH I don't like this rock idea much. I'll try harder!
Also pretty sure that last island I was on was downright impossible (9 ennemies, mostly goblins and skeletons with a yeti in the far back), what's your take on this for later versions?
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I like the fact that skeletons can be permanently killed with the cost of another turn.
The two things I think would help
- the ability to stand still for a turn
- Frog - lets you hop over one tile when killed
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thanks the skeleton is my favorite so far. yeah the skip turn would be nice, but if the player always has it they can abuse it to get a monster next to them. my original fix is below
oh yeah there is no balance in the game right now. all enemies are equally rare so the balance is really broken. I thought maybe I could give the playable character one skill. it recharges at the beginning of each island. Maybe they can freeze, use a fireball, or swap places. originally the plan was to add potions to the game. the player was given a random assortment of 10 potions. they were then able to choose 5. there was no way to get anymore potions once you embarked, so one had to plan ahead and try and save yourself for any situation. Also using a potion took a turn and many a time I drank a heath potion just to skip my turn and get an enemy closer. the problem was that they broke the game because they made you to powerful. I had an idea of adding them on the island, randomly placed like the monster. they would be auto used as soon as you stepped on their tile.
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Currently I do not have enough control over how I meet the monsters for it to be a meaningful game.
Adding more monsters helps this as the special abilities add more meaningful decisions.
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Yeah the ability to wait a turn would probably makes it even more forced.
Not sure I got Hi's frog idea right, but a somewhat common monster that let you kill it and move in the same turn would be nice. More movement == more options. Make it a slime or something '@' would have to walk over to kill, sword/stick don't hurt them.
I'd keep it the way it is for now and try to tune the death effects with this idea (and simplicity) in mind. Monster rarity will be a must at some point.
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I think you are right. I will need to set up the rarity system at some point, might as well do it now. I think maybe what I should do is list out problems I have and then figure out effects that could counteract those problems. Another thing I plan to add is special attacks. for example. the baby dragon dies in 1 hit. it has no special death, but it attacks by laying down a 3 tile fire attack. this fire will kill anything in its path. so in theory you could take a hit from the dragon and in return take out 2 badguys, and if one of them was a fairy you would be in luck as it would cancel out the damage taken.
it seems the biggest hurdle to the player is movement. the player needs to be able to get around better. I could take a chess example and give the player 8 way movement while keeping the enemies in 4.
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8 ways movements will make the game a lot (too much) easier:
- This mouse will hit first? Move back in a diagonal once, problem solved
- Way easier to run for the exit
- Possible to kill goblins without being hit at all
If you go that way you need to make it harder somehow.
You say the goal is island #5 only? Maybe the answer is to forget about random generation and have 5-10 premade islands for each "level". Some islands can be really interesting even with the current setup, if premade you'd have control over that.
At the very least you'll be able to point out what makes a good setup and come back to random generation later with a smarter algorithm. After all it's more like a puzzle than a dungeon crawler. Because of this aspect, it might also be interesting to make the AI 100% deterministic.
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interesting. It shouldn't be to hard to swap out the dungeon generation code for the premade system. it would give me greater control for testing. right now the game is pure random generation.
Islands are built out of a center node by just adding a tile at a time until they have enough and monsters are randomly chosen from an array and then placed on any open spot. Cleaning up the algorithm could be a big help. Also with the AI so simple I can pretty much don pencil mockups of every level and figure out how the combat would go, without having to write a line of code.
What do you mean by "make the AI 100% deterministic"
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| = | - | - | - | - | |
| # | # | # | # | # | # |
| # | . | . | . | . | # |
| > | . | . | g | . | # |
| # | . | @ | . | . | > |
| # | . | . | . | . | # |
| # | # | # | # | # | # |
In this situation will the goblin move down or left? If it goes down, players goes up and repeat untill there is a way toward the exit.
In this case the randomness is a good thing tho as it can be exploited in a somewhat fun way, but with a tricky setup it might be hard to figure if it's always beatable as monsters move a bit randomly.
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so you mean giving the monster a more specific AI. like favoring left and right over up and down?
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Yep, deterministic is the word. Had some cases where non-determinism (randomness) killed/saved me. Like this one:
| = | - | - | - | - | |
| # | # | # | # | # | # |
| # | . | . | . | . | # |
| > | . | s | . | . | # |
| # | . | @ | s | . | > |
| # | . | . | . | . | # |
| # | # | # | # | # | # |
Player to move, only one heart left. If you paid attention till the start and know which skeleton moves first you have 50% odds to make it.
As long as it is random you might design a level, beat it, but if the monsters move another way it's impossible to win.
Also let's say AI now favors vertical movements over horizontal ones (which makes sense as they might tend to block the exit), level designer can use this fact as a very advanced puzzle element. In the above example if the top skeleton moves first, then the player can move left and win.
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I would prefer nondeterministic because DROD (deadly rooms of death) already exists.
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I never tried DROD maybe I should give that a go? would it be helpful as a reference?
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Most roguelike are random, IMO it's only natural for a puzzle oriented one to be deterministic.
I didn't try DROD yet tho, thank you for the reminder.
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Well I guess the real question is, could I build an Algorithm that followed a set of rules and built good puzzles. I think Desktop Dungeons did a fairly good job at accomplishing something like this. I would just have to figure out where problems are caused, I think the main problem is the lack of choice on the player though. Desktop Dungeons for example allows you so much movement and the monsters dont move or attack unless you strike first. this of course doesn't work for this plan.
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well here is what I had so far.
Test (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21825227/Microuge/Microgo_Build_002.swf)
This is great! It sucked me in for at least half an hour, which isn't to bad considering there's only ~5 levels and no story.
Some things that would make it better:
It seems a little frustrating that sometimes the only thing you can do is walk into the path of a monster. And then you get hit. Maybe add a wait system, but only usable a certain amount of times?
A secondary ranged attack, but only usable once or twice.
Larger islands. It will add more depth and puzzle-ing. Maybe make a fun little pre-made that has a chessboard layout :D Mice in the front, yetis for Rooks, etc. That would be pretty cool, but very hard.
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Glad you liked it. I almost think back to Desktop Dungeons where there are levels you cant beat, but you dont mind because you can jump right back in.
I do agree that some extra stuff needs to be added to help with player movement, which seems to be the main problem now. the player gets stuck in positions with no way out. I think by adding skills it would really help that, but I guess the main thing would be adding skills to make the game easier, but not to easy.
Also I cant make the islands any larger. My original goal was to keep the entire island on screen all the time, so that limited the island size.
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For the level generation algorithm, you could probably still generate them randomly but then have a method to tell how good the generated levels are.
A way to do it:
Have a graph of game positions, the starting one as a root node. A move means an edge leading to a new position/node. Note that you can have cycles so check before adding a new position. It's easier to do if deterministic but not impossible if not, way more complex though.
Winning node: position where the player escaped
Losing node: position where the player died
Winnable node: position from which there is at least a path leading to a winning node
"Choice matter" node: Winnable position from which there is at least a path leading to a losing node
Once you have the complete graph you can easily extract a few interesting figures, probably something like that:
- Beatable, have at least one winning node
- Difficulty, ratio of winning paths versus losing ones (cycle don't count)
- Interesting, number of "choice-matter" nodes
EDIT: Some fixes.
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okay so I would basically solve a puzzle as soon as it was generated, then give it to the player? of course the problem being that any movement of the monsters would throw the whole thing off. Hence your deterministic AI. I completely Understand why the guys at Desktop Dungeons chose stationary monsters. which to be honest I actually thought about before. Giving the player stationary monsters and forcing them to clear the island or kill a certain percentage before being allowed to move on.
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Ok, I think I found a bug: (or it may be intentional)
The second I touch the pedestal/book/amulet thing, I move to a new level, with a new pedestal/book/amulet where the bridge should be. Then I just keep going through levels, reaching the pedestal over and over again.
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Current enemies are the Mouse, Skeleton, Goblin, Yeti, and Fairy. there is no ending yet, in the full game you win when you reach the Alter on the 5th island.
There's a bug with the level generation tho, as the altar can be "reached" by the ground but have nothing under it. Then looks like a boat pretty much heh. Also not sure how the freeze from the yeti works if monsters are already frozen, couldn't make sure but felt like it sometimes refresh, sometimes not (when the effect already about to wear off).
If you don't want to have premade levels nor an oracle, you still can find some heuristics. Like, monsters shouldn't spawn too close from the player to allow him to position himself.
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Yeah The game should end after the 5th island and the 6th island will always have the alter floating, Which the player will never see once the code is changed to redirect to the you win screen.
so I put more thought into the Random Generation or Pre-made puzzles. still on the fence though. I come up with a lot of neat situations in my head, but the fact is that I cant really make sure they happen, because the enemies move and if a player takes a step in a way i didn't suspect the entire level would break. I think if I was doing stationary monsters then I would go with the premade levels. but for now I think tweaking the generation algorithm, adding enemy rarity, and working out a better system of how many guys should be on an island would help out greatly.
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Yeah The game should end after the 5th island and the 6th island will always have the alter floating, Which the player will never see once the code is changed to redirect to the you win screen.
Okay, so it's just because it's not fully finished yet. Thanks
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yeah, its neat and pretty, I'd waste time on my phone with this as it is.
Having played it, I think my initial idea might possibly work. What I meant by shunt was pushing enemies as a way of positioning them and maximising their effects.
Single clicking could attack, double clicking could push an enemy backwards. If they are not directly by the water they would go back two spaces(So as to give them the initiative if they come back at you) or one if that brings them to the edge. If they are directly by the water then pushing would send them over the edge, killing them without getting their death effect. This might give the player more choice regarding the order they engage enemies.
You could also vary the way enemies react to pushing. flying creatures could hover over the water and return to the island on their next move - heavier enemies could resist pushing all together and some enemies would be able to push you, giving you reason to stay away from edges.
Additional enemies you could add:
Mario style turtles, that leave a kickable bullet behind
Spider - leaves a sticky spot that traps an enemy for 3 turns
Bats - can fly over water
porcupines - do not attack you, but cause you damage if attacked directly - they would move at random and block your movements - could be destroyed when frozen or with an indirect attack (turtle shell)
frost gnome {okay the monsters suck but their effect are ok :¬) } would leave behind an ice patch. any creature who walks onto an ice patch immediately slides on to the far square, this would provide a means of speeding movement or extending the effects of pushing.
Lug - 3 hearts but moves every other turn (can still attack every turn of you are in range)
Also, if you wanted a mechanic to stop players from skirting around all the monsters and moving onto the next island you could introduce a boss character. They would occupy the far bridge and only retreat if you kill enough monsters. While they sit there they could lob obstacles like fire and ice, stickystuff etc.
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I just thought that an octopus that leaves slippery ink would make more sense than an ice gnome.
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thanks hamish i think i might actually do that push idea. I don't think double clicking will work, but I am sure I can think of a control scheme for it. I also like the enemy types idea like flying and heavy. I think I might need to create a almanac for the player to look at that has all the enemies in it so they can keep them all straight.
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So throwing in some code for the push I tried something out. basically the player has two attacks now. 1 the normal attack and 2 an attack where you step forward (if the place is empty). using just this and fighting only mice I was able to get to the 5th island only being hit once. I then tried it again with all the enemies and it was still pretty good. I almost died from a goblin, but I was able to get to a yeti and freeze him. I am going to do some quick balancing and give you guys a version with that to see what you think. I think it could be a nice easy fix.
This of course reminds me of a system used in the board games Decent, Doom, and Gears of War. where the player is given two moves per each enemies 1. the moves consist of:
Move Move
Attack Move
Move Attack
Attack Attack
there is also a special move which takes up both turns but gives the player a Special such as health back, or a more powerful attack next time. this could also be another option, but for now I will stick with What I have now.
Edit: Here (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21825227/Microuge/Microgue_uild_003.swf) is a build. Hold shift and click to move and attack.
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Move Move
Attack Move
Move Attack
Attack Attack
So here's what I found. You can either:
Attack Attack - Goblins/Skeletons
Attack Move - Yetis/Mice/Fairies
Attack Attack works as: Shift-Click Shift-Click
You get to attack twice, effectively letting you take out goblins with no damage (if you get the first hit) and taking out a skeleton in one (enemy's) turn.
Attack Move works as: Shift-Click
You get to attack a creature and immediately take its place. I would think of it as a lunge forward.
I don't know how to "Move Attack" or "Move Move"
If I try to "Move Attack", I move, the enemies take a turn, then I attack.
If I try to "Move Move", the same thing happens.
Just my feedback, I'm not sure if it was intentional or not. But either way, great improvement! The game is much more fun now :)
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Nice, doesn't feel as forced now. On the other hand it's a bit confusing at first and too easy. I'd say drop the option to attack+attack, shift lets you move if you kill and that's it.
Managed to get far enough on first try so monsters started spawning on water. At that point you kill monsters facing you till a yeti reaches you and then you kill-move your way (preferably through fairies) to the next yeti.
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Sorry I should have explained better. I didn't actually add the 2 choice thing (move move, move attack). I was only saying I could add it. The only options now are Move, Attack, and Attack & Move.
Lulero: I actually found out you could attack goblins twice after I posted. its a glitch caused by some haphazard coding. so I will fix that tonight.
Next I plan on coding in the you win at level 5. so people don't keep going after they get the end.
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Sorry I should have explained better. I didn't actually add the 2 choice thing (move move, move attack). I was only saying I could add it. The only options now are Move, Attack, and Attack & Move.
Ok, that makes more sense. I think that's a little more balanced.
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I don't know if the kill then move thing is distinct enough as a player option. It does help that there is now more choice involved but i think the second move needs to be something that contrasts with the attack rather than a slightly improved attack. It also makes the lack of a skip turn option more jarring, because you have already entered into some quite fiddly movement rules (if that makes sense)
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so what would suggest Hamish. I found that the skip turn really gets overused especially when the player just needs to get the monster next to them and many times i find myself in roguelikes just pounding the 5 key until a monster gets next to me then killing them.
aslo any suggestions for the movement? you said it seems fiddly, I guess I didn't follow.
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Sorry, if I appear negative. I think what you've made so far is so attractive and compact that it deserves an equally compelling mechanic behind it. What I meant by saying the movment was fiddily is that at the moment the player has a fairly arbitrary decision about their movment that has limited impact on how the level pans out.
What the game needs are meaningful choices for the player, and as the mechanic so far is about monster death effects the players choices should be about when and where those effects are triggered.
I think a good solution might be a combination of my and luleros suggestions.
So each turn the player could choose to:
A) move - one square only, with the ultimate aim of reaching the exit.
B) throw a rock - the player would have no melee attack, but instead can attack the monsters in any order. This would give the player options about which effects to trigger when. If you limit the number of attacks for each island then they would have to come up with strategies to maximise their assets. For example you could freeze all enemies at a precise moment allowing you to sneak past a tough enemy, or trigger a monster that causes splash damage when it would do the most damage.
C) push a monster- instead of moving or attacking the player could push an adjacent mister away, this could be to create space to move, to reposition a monster powerup for better effect next turn, or to destroy an enemy by pushing them off the island (at the expense of their powerup)
each turn the player would have three distinct choices that would effect how the level would play out and would have the opportunity to stratagize.
If you add to those mechanics different monster types in different combinations on different island layouts you have an infinite set of puzzles.
I don't know, it might play like a load of crap, but its worth trying out.
Been, typing this on my phone, its taken ages :-)
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Hamish: I didn't think you were negative at all. You were critical but many people mistake that for negativity. Actually all of those suggestions seem pretty good. I worry about a couple mechanic wise. But I do like the 3 fold move set. It gives the Player some decent choices. The move could be problematic. As it raises some questions about what happens when a monster is behind another monster.
Also this was on my phone too.
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so I thought a lot about this and I think I came up with a solution that works fairly well. It uses a lot of different things that we have talked about in the past. I am going to try skills.
Its something I had talked about for a while. I will probably remove using items and just make them auto-use and limit their drop rate. The main thing will be skills. Realizing that the biggest part of the game is maneuvering yourself and the monsters into position, we give the player 3 Skills, and base the skills off those ideas. so perhaps fireball. they can attack any monster on the board setting off its death effect. or push a monster back. or heal themselves one heart. they are very limited in how they can use these, but they can use them to their effect.
I would also remove the lunge command, but there would be other moves which allowed you to move around the board into position.
the one other idea is also skills are tiered 1 to 3 and that is their mana cost. so maybe tier 1 might be stun enemy, 2 might be fireball, and 3 is swap places with any monster, but I think a better idea is making all spells equal, and making them all effective in certain situations.
Control wise this is pretty easy to. I would go back to the fixed camera idea. tapping moves and attacks, tapping on the player opens the spell screen.
Edit: for an extra degree of choice I could also give the player a list of skills in the beginning to choose 3 from or make different characters with different skills. But that's stuff better used down the line.
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That sounds like it would work just fine, but seems like a departure from the monsters only gameplay concept...
However you work it, i'm looking forward to the final product.
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Yeah it does move away from my original idea of doing monster only spells, although my goal is for the player to use these sparingly, so they will still need to rely on the monsters
Here is a big Update
Try It (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21825227/Microuge/Microgue_005.swf)
I removed the lunge attack and I have stuck with the original melee system. clicking on the player will open up your skill and clicking the arrows will close them, and the purple next to your hearts is your mana.
Now this build is an excellent vision of what the final game will be. (assuming I dont redo the combat system again) It needs a lot of balance, which seems to be the main problem now, but all the combat is in. The player has two skills. these are built in for now but eventually the player will be able to choose which two they head into combat with.
They main thing I am going to do now is try some balancing, weakening stuff that is to strong and strengthening stuff that needs it. the yeti freeze is to powerful so I either need to make it weaker and just an AOE or make the Yeti very Rare.
One other thing that I would like some feedback on is the skill system. right now all skills cost 1 mana. one idea I had is to increase the cost. so your first use of heal costs 1 mana, but the next time you use heal it will cost 2. Now this will cause the player to be a little more cautious about their use of skills, knowing that now they will need more mana for the next use.
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I posted into the Early Development thread. Hoping to get lots of feedback so I can finish this up.
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Bug: Monsters have the ability to 'hide' under items/the amulet, this surprised me quite a bit when a goblin walked out of the altar at the 'end' of the game. I think this is just a layering/precedence thing.
I also think you should try and make the game always 'perfect' winnable, ie, make it so that the game can always be won without getting hit once. I'm not sure how you would do this, specifically, but some basic points:
-Never let a creature spawn 2 squares away from the start bridge (making it impossible to move without getting hit)
-The above might be possible if there is a constant for mana potions: if you are guaranteed at least 1 potion by level two, you can spawn creatures 2 squares away (because they can use the fire spell to kill the monster)
-Never let a goblin spawn without a yeti (again, this can be allowed if potions are guaranteed)
I like the idea of a rising mana cost, the first costs 1, the second cast costs 2, etc.
I think this could be a great little time-waster, but only if you don't stray far from the puzzle element. If it starts to become a randomized thing, people are going to end up just rushing in.
Adding on to Jo's idea (in your other thread), maybe you can make it so that Level 1 has a 15% chance of an attack missing, while Level 6 has a 50% chance. This is predictable (per your calculations), and adds a level of difficulty. While on Island 1, you know you are almost guaranteed to hit. However, as you progress, the creatures become more difficult, making it harder to hit them.