The Veins of the Earth BETA 12!

[Zireael]

How surprising---based on the current milestones page I figured this was farther out, but hey, no harm in sniping at various milestone goals so long as it all works and keeps apace.   

I've found a friend willing to help us iron out bugs, as a ToME player took the game for a spin and uncovered 2 bugs already known and 2 new ones. The nasty one is, level-up bonuses aren't applied for some reason.

Also, highscores will probably not work until T-Engine 1.0.5.

In the future, probably best to have the resulting zip file labeled accordingly to the version in question.

Yup, a friend already pointed it out to me.

[getter77]

Nice, I'd imagine v1.0.5 can't be all that much farther off either to boot.

[Zireael]

Beta 2 now available!

https://github.com/Zireael07/The-Veins-of-the-Earth/releases/download/v.0.0.8-standalone/standalone.Veins.0.0.8.zip

CHANGELOG:
- skill checks printed out to log
- level-up bonuses applied properly
- halved xp needed to gain level

[getter77]

Is the plan to mimic the good times that is Sil and especially Incursion's reckonings on EXP gain for exploration, stealth, identification---pretty much all sorts of things to support all sorts of playstyles beyond just combat kills being the only way?

[Zireael]

Is the plan to mimic the good times that is Sil and especially Incursion's reckonings on EXP gain for exploration, stealth, identification---pretty much all sorts of things to support all sorts of playstyles beyond just combat kills being the only way?

Yup, that is the plan. When exactly it gets implemented depends on our coding skills

[getter77]

Good deal, couldn't remember if I'd mentioned it before but it really is the ideal solution to keep the grind to a minimum and keep things interesting---room to expand upon the notions as well I'd reckon to bolster Veins outright as a new "standard example" alongside the other pair and Brogue to an extent.

[Zireael]

What is "the other pair"?

Anyway, a hotfix for beta 2 is released, fixing the potion ID and skill select screen.

https://github.com/Zireael07/The-Veins-of-the-Earth/releases/download/v.0.0.8a-standalone/standalone.Veins.0.0.8a.zip

[getter77]

Sil and Incursion

[Zireael]

Version 0.0.9 (beta 2.25) is out.

You can grab it from here. It should be soon available from ModDB, too.



CHANGELOG

* new monsters: drow, goblin, human
* adjusted monster spawn rate
* no XP for monsters with CR < character level - 4
* resting takes longer
* saving throws take the better of two stats (Dex-Int for Ref; Con-Str for Fort; Wis-Cha for Will)
* changed map generator back due to performance issues
* new prestige classes: assasin, shadowdancer
* barbarian speed bonus implemented
* terrain effects implemented
* added tips to stat generator screen
* implemented Swim skill
* armor spell failure chance implemented
* cannot cast spells if key stat is equal or lower than 9

P.S. I'd have waited for 2.5, but I'm leaving for the weekend so I thought I'd give you something to play.

[getter77]

Congrats on this next leg of nicely assorted progress.     Good idea on the improvement to saving throws and exp dropping off in terms of CR versus how much stronger you are.

Things are still ramping up nicely as the 2013 T-Engine module contest looms---lots of good damage being done and noted to get done on the milestones page from the looks of it too.

[Zireael]

Thanks for the compliments.
I've tried to implement some of the stuff listed in the milestones page, but I failed, and Seb seems to be busy. I wish we had someone else to poke around the code. (Both friends who'd promised to help out stepped back due to other demands on their time)

I'm leaving for two days, so:

Version 0.0.9a is out.
You can grab it from here: https://github.com/Zireael07/The-Veins-of-the-Earth/releases/download/v.0.0.9a-standalone/standalone.Veins.0.0.9a.zip. It should be available from ModDB soon, too.

CHANGELOG:
* bugfixes
* money
* more room types
* code cleanup
* improved skill select screen
* expanded item tooltips
* magic item properties
* humanoid templates coded in

[Zireael]

The long-awaited beta 2.5 (aka. 0.0.10) is out.

You can grab it from https://github.com/Zireael07/The-Veins-of-the-Earth/releases/download/v.0.0.10-standalone/standalone.Veins.0.0.10.zip. As usual, ModDB authorization takes some time.



CHANGELOG
* new magic items: boots of elvenkind, cloak of elvenkind, bracers of armor
*  new monsters: giant eagle, shocker lizard, monitor lizard; wolf, raven, rat; monstrous centipede, monstrous scorpion, giant ant, fire beetle, stag beetle
*  improved food descriptions
*  rogue & wizard & ranger start with ammo now; ranger starts with offhand weapon
*  removed highscores since they don't work
*  working auto-ID on pickup
*  offhand attack and iterative attacks

[Zireael]

Another version is out.

You can grab it from https://github.com/Zireael07/The-Veins-of-the-Earth/releases/download/v.0.0.11-standalone/standalone.Veins.0.0.11.zip. As usual, ModDB authorization takes some time.



CHANGELOG:
* new class: bard
* level-up screen now contains tips
* healing now prints out a message in the log
* character sheet shows feats only
*  tooltips added to inventory screen

***
Help needed, especially with debugging and most of the features listed in the issues page.

[getter77]

Always a good metric to see a new class make it in!   

Far as some of the issues at a glance goes:

-Random starting perks are a nice idea, though I wonder if perhaps it might fare better to have a randomly generated pool of possible perks to choose however many from?  This would lessen the odds of "Great, totally useless/detrimental to my class" as well as still nudging players to hopefully adapt to interesting opportunities as opposed to minmaxing an entire character reroll for an "ideal" pool that ideally doesn't actually exist so best foot forward into the deep.

-Likely my ignorance of the specific mechanics talking, but offhand I'd have guessed Favored Classes would have less to do with more rapid EXP advancement and moreso particular/peculiar enhancements/boosts/bonuses by way of those specific racial-based combinations with a given class.  Or in terms of reactions from NPC's one way or another, any sort of Guild apparatus to come for the various groups, and so on.

-Flaws would be served well to take a look at the classic Realms of Arkania games, especially the first one or so, as they had it tightly interwoven into character creation in an attempt to strike some sort of a balance.  It seems like it could be a tricky thing to manage as an overall sandtrap for minmaxing folks though, doubly so given the design of the game IIRC aims to generally avoid the notion of dump stats.  Ideally, having them tie into questing events and cumulative results from decisions made along the way might offer more of a thematic flavor.  ie a Greedy player has far greater odds to find a Genie than others amidst lamps and such, but dealings with said Genie more antagonistic/potentially dangerous by far given that is the type of mortal they are most disposed towards trying to bring low and exploit.

-More nuance in level feelings for special events for specially attuned characters would be nice ie While the CR and amount of items could be quite low, that might be due to some weaker denizens going about a summoning ritual that may well at least greatly change the CR afterwards towards more dangerous ends and perhaps even more than that depending on whether or not intervention is made and how.

[AgingMinotaur]

While I've yet to try this (got to love an Underdark RL, though), I just read getter's last comment, and thought I'd mention that the old rpg Ars Magica has a pretty great set of perks and flaws. It might be work checking out if you're headed in that direction.

As always,
Minotauros