Winter Wolves - Seasons Of The Wolf - Final act beta! SOTW 1.0

jack1974 Oct 20, 2014

Yes fixed the other map too. In splitpaw pass indeed you can't rest, so I can even put 1, I forgot

Franka Oct 20, 2014

Wow, Act IV was short (!), I gotta see what I can break tomorrow.

jack1974 Oct 21, 2014

Well there aren't many battles but most of them are boss ones. So if you play in Easy/Normal I guess could be short :mrgreen:

Taleweaver Oct 21, 2014

Wow, Act IV was short (!), I gotta see what I can break tomorrow.

Well, Act IV is the climax, and like most climaxes, it doesn't overstay its welcome

I hope

jack1974 Oct 21, 2014

Taleweaver raised a good question to me by email

Where on Aravorn did the shops in small Ninim, out in the middle of nowhere, suddenly get all that sweet Masterwork equipment from?!

I understand if the alchemist has all the usual consumables, but weapons? Armor? Makes no sense whatsoever story-wise.

I was dubious about it too indeed. What do people think ? Since act4 is quite short maybe there's no need of items beside potions? From the story would make a lot of sense, and I think players SHOULD expect it -

I mean, going back into a ravaged town (or at least under siege) they could expect that the shops don't have the latest weapons/armors.

As always I'm worried about upsetting people even if the story seems rather clear. Let me know :mrgreen:

Franka Oct 21, 2014

I was surprised myself. I don't think it's necessary to have strong armor and weapons by this point in the game. You should have gotten what you need by now. You could have the Ratmen carry some sweet goods though.

jack1974 Oct 21, 2014

Ah yes true, they could still have secret ways to trade :mrgreen:

I think will do that then if nobody else has objections! (won't update the game before tomorrow anyway)

fabulaparva Oct 21, 2014

The shops there also have way too much money to buy your stuff. So if you remove all the armour & weapons, remove/lower the amount of money, too. It'd make more sense if the last shop before the Splitpaw Pass would have oodles of cash to buy whatever you wanna sell and then you're on your own (apart from regular potions and whatever the ratmen have.)

jack1974 Oct 21, 2014

OK increased that shop cash to 25,000

Franka Oct 21, 2014

I managed to finish Act IV in 13 fights. It could have been 12 if I was romancing a certain someone. Althea was used in every possible fight, and ended up at lv17. Highest level in the party was 20. That was fun.

I couldn't actually break anything, but there weren't a lot of things to break. I'm guessing you'd have to work really, really hard to not be able to get 5,000 gold for the Gnolls.

Near the end I discovered that Shea hadn't worn any pants throughout the entire adventure... :oops:

jack1974 Oct 21, 2014

I couldn't actually break anything, but there weren't a lot of things to break. I'm guessing you'd have to work really, really hard to not be able to get 5,000 gold for the Gnolls.

Yes, I have already a check in place for that, the gnolls tell you to go sell something to the dingirran vendor just before the pass. Of course not a great thing but as you said it would be REALLY hard for someone to not get that amount (just completing any quest in act3 gives you a good amount of money).

Near the end I discovered that Shea hadn't worn any pants throughout the entire adventure...

A true hero with iron balls! :mrgreen:

jack1974 Oct 22, 2014

Made an update with several fixes, shops, etc. Haven't had the time to fix also the typos or the dwarf dumb AI

Troyen Oct 22, 2014

The Kraken's Leash sound effect seems to be a clicking noise? It's making my computer make strange sounds.

fabulaparva Oct 22, 2014

All Achievements Work (v0.9.4) :D

All SPOILERS in this post are REALLY SPOILEROUS. Do not click unless you've played it all.

Here are the two pages I didn't post earlier.

Plus some fight feedback mostly in spoilers as well.

Page 2:

So yes, it is possible to kill Spirit Bear in NM.

Hunter/Ranger combo as usual...

No manticore poison! But yeah, Bull's Strength was utilized and I think chance has a huge impact on whether you can win him or not.

I did this playthrough at mostly HARD-level (with a couple of exceptions), I had done all the other Boss fights in whole NM game anyway. I did the Spirit Bear fight in NM, by switching from HARD to NM when I left the village for the flesh-eating plant, so both the plant before the bear and the bear were fought in NM and it *shouldn't* differ "notably" from playing with NM through and through. I didn't have extra attribute points. Some might argue, though, that "maybe my levels wouldn't be so high" if I had to go through the grinding in NM. Well, maybe. I'm just saying here that the Bear can be beaten in NM, but it's *LeGasp!* a nightmare.

I retested Deceit and Jul in NM. Both doable even without manticore poison, my trusted friend.

Jul's easier. A bit. I also tried Deceit in HARD-mode. That's quite the nice fight. Difficult, yes, but you won't lose your hair like you will in NM.

Unfortunately, I don't know how the fights are at that difficulty when done with a druid. All my druid teams are still in Shea's POV.

Which is harder? Deceit or the Spirit Bear (with Hunter/Ranger combo, that is)? Well, Spirit Bear fight is helluva lot faster. You'll know quickly, if you'll just lose to him. So more fight starts. More failed attempts. But a lot quicker fight once you get lucky. Deceit on the other hand... that fight can be long. He'll tease you until you'll out of your resources and then boom, you're dead.

So, the fights are longer (at least they were for me) but I could beat him with less trials.

Anyway, the four most difficult fights in the game:

Spirit Bear & Deceit

Jul

Minotaur

And after those guys, Grand Mogul.

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Page 4:

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This wasn't a mega GRIND game. I didn't kill everything that moved in Acts 1 & 2. I did grind in Act 3, but not to the max. (Eg: I think I could've doubled my visits to the crabs and the secret area. Since I was also trying to get the "This is OUR story" achievement, my hero of choice to level up wasn't Althea but Vaelis, who was 26 in the end.

Found an inconsistency at the end:

As Althea, I told Shea about the wolf in act 1. Heck, they threw her tied into a tent for that, so I'm dead sure, but still after killing the Spirit Bear, I get this:

Althea: Listen. I was there. I was the one who took you in, who gave you meat.

Shea: Althea - I had no idea! Why did you never mention that?

Althea: It sorta never came up.

"YOU NEVER MENTIONED IT??!?!?" I HAD TO TOLERATE THAT MASTER OF THE PITS SNEERING AT ME WHILE BEING TIED UP IN THAT BLOODY TENT BECAUSE YOU RATTED ME OUT ABOUT IT, YOU IMBECILE BROTHER!!!

*ahem*

Also, when you play the

evacuate the village quest. I got 5-6 giant animals when choosing the medium/low risk mission (rescue 5 people) and 2-4 animals against me when I chose the high risk mission (rescue 10 people) Were these maybe switched?

All in all. Awesome story and awesome game.! :D

I still have 2 of the ending CGs to unlock so maybe I'll still hold my breath about the romances.

jack1974 Oct 22, 2014

The Kraken's Leash sound effect seems to be a clicking noise? It's making my computer make strange sounds.

It was supposed to be a sound like a cracking whip :lol:

but if is too strange I can change it.

All Achievements Work (v0.9.4) :D

Great, thanks for testing them all

About the boss fights, the "ranking" you made is good because is exactly what I wanted them to be. Maybe the Grand Mogul could be a bit harder, but I want first to hear someone beating him with a Druid class (since he has high Magic, can resist nukes a lot, so... don't want to touch that fight for now).

Regarding the "Grinder" achievement, maybe you think I should raise it so requires a higher level? like level 26 or even 27 ?

About the inconsistency at the end yes I need to say those lines only if you never tell your sibling about the wolf :lol:

Will check the evacuation missions to make sure they're right - there's a bit of randomization at work, I don't remember how I did it though. Perhaps the difficulty changed the enemy level beside the quantity, need to look at it.

Glad you liked the game and the story. Hopefully many people will like it too :mrgreen:

fabulaparva Oct 22, 2014

Regarding the "Grinder" achievement, maybe you think I should raise it so requires a higher level? like level 26 or even 27 ?

In addition to Vaelis at 26, I had Krimm and Jariel at 25 in the end. I started Act 3 at levels 13 to 15, left Shacklesplit at levels 21 to 22 (Vaelis pretty close to 23) and I had Save Chalassa in my pocket.

The 750 extra XP from the Save Chalassa quest had an impact, a noticeable one I believe. I'm afraid raising the requirement to 27 would make it too troublesome to achieve if one doesn't go that route... 26 would probably be okay...but I *did* do quite a few fights with only 4 teammembers, sometimes only 3 when I had 8 available. Should people who'll try to get that achievement be automatically aware that to get it one has to do a lot of fights with less than 6 members? Imagine someone not going through the Chalassa-route, always grinding with 6 teammembers, and then standing at the end with 5 or so members "only" at level 25? So, it could also be left at 25, depending on how hard you want that achievement to be.

(I'd probably leave it at 25...more fair to those who play Shea, too... maybe other testers have different opinions?)

EDIT: My posts today clearly haven't been stupid enough, so I'll have to add based on this:

Near the end I discovered that Shea hadn't worn any pants throughout the entire adventure...

It is The Brotherhood of Traveling Pantless!

jack1974 Oct 22, 2014

Ah OK I didn't know you played many battles with only 4 team members, so no, I'll leave it as it is

there are already the boss fights that are harder achievements.

I should add one if the player never wears any pants playing as Shea? :lol:

(no I'm not going to do that!!)

FireSeraph Oct 22, 2014

Found something a little weird in 0.9.4 where one random battle was permanently available even after clicking on the fight three times. This is in the Ratmen area in Act 4. Not sure if this was fixed already so I'm just going to mention it here just in case. Also leave the grinder achievement at level 25. I don't think it's that easy to reach level 25 as it is right now so it's still fine.

Edit: Cancel that, apparently it's not an endless battle. I did the fight one more time and the arrow disappeared. Maybe it's four fights clumped into one arrow then.

jack1974 Oct 22, 2014

Ah you're right, I didn't check if there can be more than one random fight on the same place, will look at it

Taleweaver Oct 22, 2014

Weirdest bug ever:

- Finish the game

- Go the the Achievements page

- View the "Romancing Chalassa" scene again

- Start a new game

All through the character creation screen, and until into the game, everyone will be wearing the skimpy clothing they're wearing in Rowinda's bathhouse during the VN scenes.