Many thanks for the detailed feedback.
#1 - "Start New Game" should flash red to denote it does not work. Is this what do you mean, or does it not flash for you playing on wine? If you don't see the flash, maybe I'll have it greyed out instead until you gen a world.
#2 - do you mean the double grey lines? If so... I don't agree, but interesting feedback. What would you suggest instead?
#3 - Are you using 8x8, 10x10, or 12x12? I'll look at the g/y.
#4 - Thanks :)
#5 - It should display instantly, and it always does for me. Do you mean you press Enter, the game "stops" as it's busy generating that area, then after a second or two the "Offloading..." bit appears? If so, I fear that is a wine-only problem, but I'll look into it.
Otherwise, very pleased it works in wine (apart from those two issues which may be wine-only). How long does it take to gen a map grid?
I've just tried your game under VMware & Windows 7. Works nice and fast. I like the way the game looks. You've implemented character facing and it's pretty neat. How do you indicate which way NPCs are facing? By the way, is it possible to do anything in the game besides walking around?
You should put keyboard controls in the guidebook, right now they are only in the menu as far as I can tell.
#5 yep, exactly what I mean.
#1: Yeah neither start new game nor load saved game flashes red if no worlds/saves exist.
As long as it works properly in windows I wouldn't worry much about it, #5 is only a (minor) issue for people on low end pc's I suspect.
#2: I mean the squiggly white overlapping (pretzel) lines along the main window border. It isn't a big deal, I just think they stand out.
#3: 12x12. I'm unused to read large amounts of monospaced text though, probably why.
Generating a new map grid takes about 10 seconds on an old Centrino 2 laptop.
I can't seem to tell whether there is water under a tree's branches. This could perhaps be a problem in the future if you are fighting something and start swimming without meaning to? Example: The tiles to the east and south of the player is here water. Image (http://i.imgur.com/mQqgLSJ.png)
Consider wrapping for the arrow-key-navigation in the guidebook.
Could you explain what these puzzles are about? I entered a Ziggurat and noticed a few blocks lying around that I could move, but I didn't give it much thought. Perhaps an explicit hint within the game about the puzzle and what needs to be achieved would be good.
About the character facing again. I noticed that when walking, the first key press only changes the direction, and only then the character starts moving. This is mildly annoying in a dungeon (or Ziggurat :)), where you move around a lot. I would suggest moving right away on first press, and for changing direction without moving, use a control + arrow combination.
Thanks for this awesome and detailed feedback. Whilst it is now historical, there are going to be a few unusual things in the game in the future - it will not be staying 100% "realistic", though there aren't going to be fantasy creatures and zombies and whatnot. You'll have to stay tuned for the specifics, but some weird stuff will be happening. Thinks Borges/Murakami/other "magical realist" authors for a good idea of what I mean.Now you got me even more curious about URR! :D
I'm not sure what you mean by the gameplay(...)What I meant was having all features that you have planed for the ziggurats' type dungeons implement so everyone can fully appreciate how these dungeons will play themselves.
(...)if I read your paragraph correctly, you are saying a game like this needs to be "dense" with stuff to do? If so, I totally agree, and I'm working on it :)Yes, that was exactly what I was referring to, keeping the player entertaining but mainly during explorations, as explorations are prone to become boring if not properly handled. But then of course, it all depends on what you have planned and how you want the game to play and feel.
1) Hmm, interesting. Nobody's ever mentioned this before, but two in one thread makes me think I should tone it down. I'll give it a milder colour, and your aesthetic criticism makes sense too.If we are really the only 2 people "complaining" about it, then I don't believe this issue is something you should be worrying about. Though, I still think that if this is something you can easily fix you should do it so, trying to keep as much people happy about it as possible is usually a good thing ;)
2) Correct. You will *not* be able to travel over water in the future without hiring a ship, and similarly, the map will largely start undiscovered. That is just in place for the time being.You will make it then exactly the way I was hoping for! Sweet!
4) The problem is, with procedural myths, legends, histories and so on, there will later be lots of text to read. I'm not really sure what the solution to this is, unless I make all fonts into 10x12, 8x10, etc. I'll have to consider this, and maybe making "tall" fonts is the best plan. Hmm. The problem is that the entire game is built around a grid-based font system, as is the main library I'm using, and I'd have to really search for a solution to that.Honestly, leave it as it is for now, unless leaving it now means having to redesign ALOT more later on. If that is the case then you should really consider a solution as soon as possible. I think this is an issue which will affect most players. Reading mono spaced text is something our brains are not used to, specially cubic letters having the same with and height. But then again, URR will function perfectly well with or without mono spaced fonts, it is just a matter of providing a more comfortable or less comfortable way of reading text, i.e. it won't make the game unplayable or less enjoyable by having mono spaced text.
What do you mean by persistent?I asked this because I wasn't sure if players would need to create new worlds whenever they wanted to start new adventures or if they could reuse existing ones. Honestly, it is fine with me either way because I have mixed feelings about persistent worlds. Well, I actually lean towards creating a new world whenever a new character is created as this way I make sure that each world is unique and that previous knowledge regarding world exploration is not inherited between characters.
About the character facing again. I noticed that when walking, the first key press only changes the direction, and only then the character starts moving. This is mildly annoying in a dungeon (or Ziggurat :)), where you move around a lot. I would suggest moving right away on first press, and for changing direction without moving, use a control + arrow combination.I think miki151 has a point here. The truth is that you can walk while facing another direction. I remember when I fought trolls in an "ancient" version of URR, I would loose a turn to look back to see how far the trolls perusing me were. In a real life situation you would know how close the trolls would be (assuming trolls were real :P) because you could still twist briefly your back and neck to look back as well as hearing the troll's heavy footsteps coming after you. That's why I think 360º view works better because it simulates more effectively the character's senses, including turning your neck in every direction while moving in a specific bearing.
Anyway, about the puzzle, I think there's two things here. Firstly, memory, secondly, the process of understanding the puzzle. As for memory, I always scribble down clues when I'm playtesting them, either in notepad or on paper (though paper is better since I can write down the right orientation more easily than in notepad). If you aren't doing so, I'd suggest doing so. I know a lot of other people playtesting have been doing so, and I think it's the best system. Think somewhat akin to Fez, where if you don't have a pen and paper handy, you're in trouble!I did take notes of the 5 hints on the notepad regarding the puzzle I mentioned previously and this is exactly what I was referring about. I mean, it is totally fine if you rely on paper and pencil to work out logic to solve a given puzzle but I think the game should save the player from the unnecessary task of storing crucial information about puzzles outside the game.
I think there are players for this kind of game as there is for Dwarf Fortress, but this is not for me. I wandered about ten minutes in a forest and then quit. I need more action put in front of me without having to desperately search it in a gigantic empty world.The world feels empty because the author still needs to add content to it. What you see is far from being the final version but the tip of the iceberg composing URR; at the moment it is simply a showcase for general world and terrain generation. You can conclude this after reading all features that the author plans to include in future releases of this massive project of his ;)
Or did you read but it wasn't memorable/interesting enough? If I need to adjust the opening message
Or did you read but it wasn't memorable/interesting enough? If I need to adjust the opening message
I don't even remember any opening message. No one reads those.
Just out of curiosity, have you considered adding mouse support, even if it is the last feature to add into URR?
I have considered it, and there's a good chance I will. Probably for the look function (right click?) and move (left click?) as defaults, but I'd have to think about it. The move option certainly wouldn't happen until I've implemented methods for you to implement a go-to function to a particular square without having to take every tile yourself, for example.I was referring to general interface input administration, like managing the inventory, skill trees, pressing buttons etc but mostly importing, yeah, the look function. I would suggest executing the look function simply by hovering tiles with the mouse without requiring clicks and popping out actions over that tile with RMB (if available). As for moving the character, I actually prefer keys. In fact, I would prefer handling char movement with QWE + ASD + ZXC keys, while having mouse-look-function control with the other hand. That would be neat and feel truly comfortable :D