Author Topic: Equin: The Lantern (Now at Weaknesses Addressed Update~) $  (Read 9827 times)

getter77

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Equin: The Lantern (Now at Weaknesses Addressed Update~) $
« on: August 16, 2014, 06:02:33 PM »
http://www.roguebasin.com/index.php?title=Equin:_The_Lantern
http://dxfgames.com/
https://del-duio.itch.io/equin-the-lantern-demo
http://store.steampowered.com/app/547980/

Win, $3, expansive demo

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Story

From the DXF Games website: A young Xtoli adventurer learns of a mysterious dungeon near town ruled by an even more mysterious magic lantern. The lantern changes colors, but what does it actually DO? Take control of either Warrior, Thief, or Wizard and gain levels, stats, and mad treasure as you descend the dungeon's 50 floors to find out.
Features

    Single-player game with 4 equipment slots (head, body, right & left hands),
    Player's backpack can hold an additional 10 items,
    Randomized dungeon of 50 floors,
    Boss enemies to slay along the way,
    Champ enemies that are much tougher than regular ones and drop treasure chests as rewards,
    Hundreds of items and equipment to find or buy,
    Strike enough enemies in a row without missing to gain the Hit Streak bonus for fast XP gains,
    Has food, yet no hunger restriction,
    Combat is turn-based and very similar to the Dragon Quest games,
    Weapons have different movesets- example a dagger gives both a slash and stab option in battle,
    Almost everything you do in the game consumes some stamina from general fighting to fishing and closing doors,
    Fish in ponds, Mine mineral deposits from the walls, Fill empty bottles from cauldrons and more,
    Each class gains a unique skill and sprite upon reaching levels 1 (default), 4, and 7,
    Random events may happen during the journey like darkness floors, graveyard levels, monster infestations and more,
    Purchase items at random shops, get game tips from the guild leader or drink a beer to regain your stamina,
    "The Lantern" itself changes colors over 5 different phases and has mysterious effects on overall gameplay rules.


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This new version v1.2CT is more balanced and a lot more challenging, with plenty of new weapons and items to keep you busy. Look for new class skills, improved magical effect durations, better starting gifts, new graphical changes, some more maps, a new Arena of Death floor event, a secret quest floor from Xtoli heroes past, and hell even a brand-new intro scene. Best of all, unlike v1.2 the v1.2CT demo is only restricted by the floor 15 maximum- That means every new addition and change from the full game is present in the demo this time. Like always, all previous full-game owners will be getting a free v1.2CT update link from me ASAP, so look for it within the next few days guys and thanks again!!
« Last Edit: August 10, 2018, 12:29:43 PM by getter77 »
Brian Emre Jeffears
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Re: Equin: The Lantern (Now at v1.2CT) $
« Reply #1 on: August 16, 2014, 10:27:59 PM »
First impression: when you have the inventory open, pressing Esc exits the game without warning. Unacceptable. >:(  Otherwise seems like a promising little game.

getter77

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Re: Equin: The Lantern (Now at v1.3ST) $
« Reply #2 on: August 27, 2016, 02:36:28 PM »
v1.3ST big update https://del-duio.itch.io/equin-the-lantern-demo

     
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Gamepad support,
    Option to quit & save, then continue where you left off yet still keeps permadeath,
    Brand new music in the old 8 bit style replaces all but the theme song,
    New starting menu- including a way to see all your previously learned help tips from bribing the guild members,
    Ability to unequip gear! Simply press UP on the subscreen to select your equipped gear to remove!
    Players have a WAIT command now to skip a turn,
    New floor Icebox floor event,
    Improved the stealing odds for the Thief Class,
    Improved the fleeing odds for every class,
    Jail cells- Open at your own risk!
    Two Handed weapons system completely overhauled (finally, woo hoo!),
    Bless effect reworked so you can continuously equip and remove cursed items if you really wanted to,
    Warrior's Glove is no longer mandatory and in fact was given a buff to DEF 1, STM +2,
    Every character now begins with 3 starting gifts instead of 2,
    New obstacle- Spider Webs. Both you and the enemy can get caught in them,
    Fire Floors damage reduced from 2 to 1,
    Flowers can appear and can be eaten,
    Mushrooms can now grow on both darkness and rainy floors. You can eat them but they might poison you!
    Player skills DODGE and HUNKER now have a visual icon that appears in the effects HUD,
    If you've been shield bashed by the enemy there's now a visual icon that also appears in the effects HUD,
    Gain the auto kill ability at higher levels to walk into weaker enemies and instantly kill them without entering combat,
    New statues that can teleport you to another section of the floor,
    Dungeon walls change color and there's new music for every 10 floors reached,
    Extra décor about the place (blood-splattered walls, various grasses and floor stones, etc)


The game was released for all on August 27th, 2016 through DXF Games' itch.io page. It has also been submitted to Steam via the Greenlight service and can be voted on there as well. If it gets enough votes to be sold on Steam, then a set of achievements will also be added to the game. The price point for Equin: The Lantern V1.3ST will be $2.99 US regardless of the platform it appears on.

As before, a free 10 floor demo of the game is already available via the DXF Games itch.io page

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Re: Equin: The Lantern (Now at v1.3ST) $
« Reply #3 on: August 28, 2016, 04:11:42 AM »
Looks cool. Trying out the demo now. But is there a way to make it run in fullscreen?

getter77

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Re: Equin: The Lantern (Now at v1.3ST + Steam release) $
« Reply #4 on: November 06, 2016, 06:59:35 PM »
Now on Steam and seemingly a bit of tinkering done:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/547980/

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So yes there's been a lot of improvement on ETL since its release last week and today's no different. I've added a bunch of new map support which means you guys should start seeing even more variety to your runs.

It took a little while to create, but I feel especially in a game where randomization is key to replayability this was super important to knock out now.

I don't THINK there will be any issues with these new changes but as always if you discover something strange please take a screenshot (if possible) and let me know so I can get right to fixing it.

Here's a small update that adds potted plants filled with Spazz Weed. Pick the weed and eat it later. The drugs have been smuggled underground by muggers and thieves and are ilegal due to their unpredictable side effects.

There's about 12 different side effects that can happen. Some good, some bad. I will let you all figure these out for yourselves!

Another small but cool thing is I've figured out a way to make graveyard floors have a lot more gravestones without blocking any dirt pathways. So instead of seeing a few here and there you'll see much much more.

And remember: How many dead people in that cemetary? All of 'em!

I just added an option for volume control in the game's menu header. Whenever you select an option (Max, 75%, 50%, or off) it automatically saves in a new options .ini file located in the game's main folder. Upon starting the game up (or after you die, which reboots the game too) the first thing the game does is pull that value from the options .ini and sets the main volume accordingly.

The Anti-Magic Field is a new floor event that can rarely happen from floor 5 onward. It can also stack with many other floor events which should be interesting.

What it does is completely negate both you and the enemy's magic spells from working. The good news is that the enemy is too stupid to realize what's happening and will try to continue to cast spells, being a big advantage to you. Of course if you're a wizard yourself or are using weapons that have magical spells you better be extra cautious on these floors.

Spells affected by Anti-Magic:

FLAMES
ICE
ZAP
HEAL
RUST
MORPH
BLIND

The HEALTH and STAMINA options a held Totem gives you are special and will still work while in an Anti-Magic Field.

In addition, there is a new item you can get from high tier golden and any shadow chest that will instantly create an Anti-Magic Field when used. Imagine how useful this'd be when you're preparing to go up against some champ or boss enemy loaded with strong spells?

Hypothetical Scenario #1:

So you open a barrel and get- what else?- a banana! So your little text pop up tells you as much and as you're walking south you suddenly run into a troll you couldn't see because the text pop up hadn't gone away yet.

Now you have the option to simply press the action button (or space bar) while the pop up is visible to close the thing right away if you want. No more unwanted surprises!

Here's another tweak that was suggested by ETL player Kevin Feederline: Is there any way we could get the little text pop up to disappear any faster as it sometimes blocks your view for too long.

Hypothetical Scenario #2:

So you're on floor 38 with an inventory full of bananas and over $15,000 in cash. It's been ages since you've last seen a shop.. Suddenly, out of the darkness you see those famous blue sword signs! Excitedly you break for the door, money in hand, and drool as this time they have JUST the weapon that will carry you all the way to the end of the game!

-Only in your rush you totally forget that your backpack is CHOCK FULL OF BANANAS! Now you can't buy anything, and go into a DEEP DEPRESSION.

This will never happen to anyone now! There's now a failsafe in the game where you won't be able to enter a shop with a backpack full of 10 items!
Brian Emre Jeffears
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getter77

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Re: Equin: The Lantern (Now at Cult of the Dragon King Update~) $
« Reply #5 on: March 02, 2018, 11:38:34 PM »
Cult of the Dragon King Update or so~   8)

There's, uh, about 9 pages of weighty changelogs since last checked in on this back when it seemed like it was about done so...yeah.   You may seriously want to consider revisiting this again or contemplating it anew:

Quote
Well it's been a long time (for me) but it's finally available. I present to you all now the largest and most likely last major expansion to my game, "Cult of the Dragon King"!

There are many many changes and additions so bear with me and listen to me blab all about it for an eternity now:

ADDITIONS

    New class: The Cultist! The cultist now joins the others as the fifth playable character in the game. And for equal opportunity and all that it's a little girl! Now she plays a lot differently than the others so listen up-

    + Has very powerful dark offensive skills
    + Can eat rotten food unharmed, and gains double the stamina from said food
    + Gets a 50% Max HP discount when visiting a Cultist Den
    + Can donate $500 in gold there, with a possibility of gaining some stats
    + Gains the Instant Kill effect on the Yellow phase
    - Has serious gear restrictions and in fact can only use daggers, knives, and etc along with clothes and robes
    - Is physically pitiful, and gains stats and levels very slowly
    - She's reviled by most everyone in the dungeon, and is not welcomed at shops or guilds

    This is also the sole class that starts off being locked away to the player. To unlock the cultist class, you'll need to find 50% or more of the game's items. You can easily check your progress in the Items Found Log on the start menu.

    New Floor Event: Disruption Floor! This magic power scrambles the magnetic fields of the dungeon, causing all your controls to be reversed while moving around and negating your compass!

    New Floor Event: Coven Floor! It's now possible to visit an entire floor full of members of the Cult of the Dragon King while playing! Here you'll find cultists and high priests, and if you're really unlucky you might run into the Dragon King himself! This floor is also unique to the game in that there are new specific items that can only be found within locked golden and shadow chests here too.

    40 New items!! This now means my little game boasts a whopping 400 total! That's pretty friggin' good I think :steamhappy:

    15 New maps!! Always a good idea to make more of these.

    New item class: Rotten Food! The game now also has a few items that are.. ah.. past their prime. Rotten food will hurt your HP yet heal your stamina a bit. Think of these as a last resort. If you're playing a cultist though, they'll get healed the HP and take double the stamina from this nasty crap.

    Improved Chamber of Heroes! It's hard to get to, so I made the Chamber of Heroes way better than it was before. It'll totally be worth it now.

    Class selection now has a small description for each! Unsure what a wizard does? Select him from the character select screen and a pop up appears, letting you know all about it. There's one for everybody. Go on, try it now and see!

    New HUD addition for people who are color blind! It's unlikely but I thought hey what if somebody who was color blind tried to play this game? They'd need to know what lantern phase was currently active, right? Well now it's plain spelled out and abbreviated above the HP / STM display on the main screen. And you know what? I think it flat out looks way better for everyone!

    New Enemies: Zombie, Wraith, Cultist, High Priest.

    New major boss: Dragon King! This guy is the real deal:

    If you're equipped with wooden gear it will now warn you you're fire prone on the special screen, along with the qty of items in fire peril.

    Class inate abilities are now listed on the special screen too. For example a Warrior is Magic Prone while the Thief gains a bonus to avoid ambushes.

    1 New Achievement where you have to win the game as a Cultist. It's listed as hidden just in case somebody doesn't read this later and wants to be surprised.

CHANGES
    I've gone back and changed it so that now you'll only see the USE command when an item can actually be used while inspecting it. This takes a lot of the guesswork out of seeing what does what. This works for me however like any big change if you have any issues please let me know in the forums!

    As mentioned above, the lantern color indicator on the backpack screen has been changed to match the HUD but the color's name is fully spelled out.

    Warriors now begin the game with -5 MDEF instead of 0. I know, I know, but honestly the Warrior was too OP. And it makes sense since he's already weak to magic as it is.

    The MORPH ability's success rate has been lowered to 30% + your MAG stat.

    MORPH can now change any enemy into various small / weak enemies instead of just being a slime all the time.

    The THROW battle command now has a 100% hit rate. This change specifically affects the Old Damp Boot and Dodge Ball items.

FIXES
    Fixed a rare bug where if you chose "no" when canceling a new game while a saved game exists and it erased the save file anyway. Holy crap I'm glad I caught this!!

    Fixed a double dip in the Cultist Den that had Pest Scrolls for sale for both 5 & 6 HP.

I believe that's everything. I can't believe how much I've been working on this thing lately in my spare time however I feel this game is now 100% complete. I'm very proud of my game, which has gone from a little thing on the side to share with my kids to a huge and in-depth project that I play regularly for fun myself.

CHANGES
    The RITUAL skill's damage has been slightly nerfed. Instead of incorporating the Cultist's full DEX value it's now half DEX value.

    The DEATH spell's chance of success has been increased by 10%, however all champ monsters get a 5% resistance to it and bosses get 15%. What this effectively does is make the spell work better on regular enemies and - while it can still take out the game's bosses in a single blow - makes it slightly less possible. And when you think about it, how many games even LET you use something like an instant death spell on big bosses?

    For those who are interested, the chance of DEATH's success is:

    If Random(100) <= (40 + MAG) - Enemy Death Resistance Then dead parrot

    Enemies coming out of late floor dimensional rifts have been capped.. sort of. What I mean is enemies will constantly continue to appear from these as long as the total enemy count is less than Int(Dungeon Floor / 2). So at floor 40 dimensional enemies will appear if there's already less than 20 enemies. So you can still have a ton of enemies, just not hundreds or anything too nuts.

    When an enemy steals an item from your backpack it is now added to its own backpack. If you're a thief and try to steal from it there'll be a chance you can get your stolen item back. Very handy if a Mugger just stole your Weebish Blade!

FIXES
    The rare yet nasty battle freeze bug appears to have been fixed now! I could never figure out just why this would sometimes happen but after Gasil discovered how to mega level a Thief up, dodge in battle, and use lots of high evasion gear he summised that it had to do with the Thief's ultimate ability to just be way too good at dodging everything.

    Turns out he was right! There was a couple lines of code where the equation wouldn't make any sense if you had mega DEX and super high evasion, if you also dodged during battle. The enemy's equations never made sense, and the game would hang because of it. The way I fixed it was that an enemy can never have below a 5% chance to hit, regardless of stats or gear or anything else. After testing it tonight, it appears to have solved the problem!

    A couple of enemies had a "Speed Potion" as a possible item to be stolen from during fights. This is great, except that's OLD CODING and I had since changed the item's name to "Potion of Speed"! So if you stole a Speed Potion the game didn't recognize it and didn't give it its own picture or stats, instead displaying the values of the last item in your backpack you last looked at. Though certainly not game-breaking like the evasion freeze bug above, this had to be fixed as well and now it has.
Brian Emre Jeffears
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getter77

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Re: Equin: The Lantern (Now at Weaknesses Addressed Update~) $
« Reply #6 on: August 10, 2018, 12:30:33 PM »
Weaknesses Addressed

Quote
But now that you're here, let's take a moment to go over today's latest update. It adds some cool new things and specifically addresses some of the Cultist's weaknesses.

I don't think anybody will not like this!


ADDITIONS



    There's a new statue variant, of the Dragon King himself! Touching this with most classes won't do a damn thing. If you're a faithful Cultist however all kinds of cool stuff can now happen:

    20% Full power evil blessing
    5% darkness
    5% disruption
    5% +1 all stats
    10% Gives you a weapon if you don't have one equipped: (6% Knife, 3% Pristine Dagger, 1% Putrine)
    10% Full HP & STM
    5% +1-3 Max HP
    5% +2-6 Max STM
    5% Warp 1-2 Floors down (!)
    5% +2 all stats
    5% Gives you a torch
    5% Gives you a rotten chicken
    10% +1-2 Max HP & STM
    5% Instant Kill Effect

    Added more stock to the Cultist Dens, especially on the lower floors.



CHANGES



    If you're a Cultist, the odds of a Shop or Guild becoming a Cultist Den has been significantly increased. The new percentages are bolded below:

    Any given shop has a 30% chance to be a cultist den if you ARE a cultist yourself.
    --> Changed to 70%

    Any given shop on a graveyard floor has a 50% chance to be a cultist den if you ARE a cultist yourself.
    --> Changed to 80%

    Any given guild has a 15% chance to be a cultist den if you ARE a cultist yourself.
    --> Changed to 50%

    Any given guild on a graveyard floor has a 25% chance to be a cultist den if you ARE a cultist yourself.
    --> Changed to 75%

    The Cultist donation amount is now adjusted depending on which floor you're on. This will help early level players make more donations and obtain better stats faster than before:

    Floors 1-15
    Donation Amount $100
    All Stats Increase 0-1 points

    Floors 16-34
    Donation Amount $500
    All Stats Increase 0-2 points

    Floors 35+
    Donation Amount $1000
    All Stats Increase 1-4 points

    The DEATH magic spell has been powered up too! It's now pretty worthwhile to use while playing, so it's not the ol' knife & pony show all the time. Here's how it works:

    If you cast a DEATH spell...

    vs. Undead enemies = fail (immune)
    vs. The Reaper = fail (immune)
    vs. Any Champ = 75% chance to instantly kill
    vs. Any Boss = 60% chance to instantly kill

    Kills everyting else 100% of the time

    NOTE: These are the hard numbers, and can't be increased or decreased. For example, your MAG stat no longer influences the chances of death magic working, since the new odds are so much better overall.

    SLIGHTLY lowered the Warrior's HP gains upon leveling up. Very slightly. Balancing and all, you understand.

    Made a small QoL improvement where the battle cursor can now wrap around left to right and vice~versa. It can save a whole button press when you go to use your skills!



FIXES

None this time!

---

And that's it!

If you're already a cultist fan I think you'll love these changes. And if you're not a cultist fan YOU SOON SHALL BE.

Good night!
-Del_Duio
Brian Emre Jeffears
Aspiring Designer/Programmer/Composer
In Training