SOTW 0.8.9 - First Act Beta preview!

The tale of the siblings Althea and Shea https://www.winterwolves.com/seasonsofthewolf.htm
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jack1974
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SOTW 0.8.9 - First Act Beta preview!

Post by jack1974 »

Download it here: http://games.winterwolves.com/games/SOTW-0.8.9-all.zip (as always during beta, zipped folder with executables for all platforms)

What's new in 0.8.9
- only tweaked the gear you can get: quarterstaff has base damage 8 so magic bolt is similar to normal melee damage. Armors now can give Attack and Threshold bonuses, though they're rare/smaller than the other stats like Defense

What's new in 0.8.8 (back to normal numbers :lol:)
- you can press i key to access inventory even in the pre-battle screen
- added an extra battle song :)
- balanced better the damage of melee vs magic (before melee were doing clearly too much damage, considering they also don't use SP with their base attack)

What's new in 0.8.7j
Two big changes to balance the battles better (longer battles without too many one-shot kills unless specifically designed for it like Mormont)
- now characters gets 10HP each LEVEL UP (not attributes, that was unchanged), instead of 5 as before. This small change has a bigger impact than it seems, since even a Druid now will have around 70-80 hp at end of act1 even if you don't boost Constitution at all.
- tweaked the damage so there's less variance based on the stats. They still have importance but now is more balanced: while before you would put all points in Magic for casters and attack/defense for melee, now even speed has more importance (because of damage reduction). You can still one-shot weak enemies though, doesn't matter the target HP.

What's new in 0.8.7i
- put the elemental damage calculations as was before 0.8.7h otherwise mages did too low damage

What's new in 0.8.7h
- automatic skill will now pick healing skills as first option if they're not learned yet (either during creation or at level up)
- reduced the item level variation in shops so that most items are usable by current party
- fixed magic bolt bug for enemies (would crash if they tried to use it)
- tweaked the damage (again!) but this time there's no cap except the usual max damage multiplier 2.0.
- The resistances have more impact in determining the damage. Before the difference was too low, making resistances less useful than now. If some enemies are hard, is a mistake of the specific battle, so let me know. But now the resistances have actual importance :)

What's new in 0.8.7g
- changed the impact of the resistances so that minimum duration is 2 turns, except for the Damage Over Time effects (Burning, Frozen, etc) that can be 1
- fixed a bug that was showing negative turn duration for skills that can be lowered by attacks like Bramblecoat
- fixed a bug that wasn't displaying the proper stats for armors/jewelry. Armors don't give base elemental protection (Fire, Water,etc) while Jewelry yes
- Jewelry now can have more than one resistances since there are few item slots and are the only item that can protect player from the 4 elements attacks + dark magic!
- when you use Magicbolt now takes the elemental damage from the kind of staff your mage is using (Fire, Water, etc)

What's new in 0.8.7f
- fixed wrong naming for items that were supposed to give HP/SPRegen
- the non-damaging conditions (Scared, Weakened, etc) duration is now affected by the target resistance value. If a spell says "inflicts Weakened for 4 turns" and target has around 50% resistance the duration will be 2. The reduction can't go lower than 1 turn anyway (was causing weird bugs)

What's new in 0.8.7e
- tweaked the comparison algorithm so that for Weapons the damage stat and for armors the Defense has 50% more weight
- reverted to old spell damage calculation since new one was quite unbalanced :oops:
- fixed a bug that wasn't displaying the 3rd stats column for armors
- fixed a bug with using Bandage while hidden in shadows
- fixed some typos
- made the unique longsword Xsabor more powerful (more damage) 8)

What's new in 0.8.7d
- fixed wrong chances values for some druid spells (barbed spike,etc). Single target druid spells had by mistake 25% chance instead of 100% of causing the effect as it should have!
- changed item generator so that HP/SP regen is applied only to Rare+ items, since could break the game if such items are acquired too early in the story :)
- added item rewards for some quests (bandits and giant spider), both using randomized and fixed items. Didn't add too many since is just the first short act :wink:

What's new in 0.8.7c
- fixed Vaelis final blow skill that was causing insta-kill just hovering the mouse on the skill! :lol:
- fixed a SP/HP Regen bug and a bug in Vaelis recovery stance that was multiplying the values instead of adding with funny consequences (+2 SPRegen item and Vaelis recover = over 25SP regen each round!)
- tweaked a bit the damage formula so now there's more difference of damage depending on target stats (should still be impossible to insta-kill a target with 100hp though)
- Kodiak boss fight now has more HP but lower defense (sucks to hit for 6-7dmg with melee!)

What's new in 0.8.7b
- forgot to include the campfire animation so visiting ninim during chapter3 would crash :oops:

What's new in 0.8.7a
- fixed wrong trait assigned during chargen (this time I put an extra check so I think should finally works!!)
- fixed crash when going in Frozen wood with bandit cave enabled :oops:

What's new in 0.8.7
- each skill range and area are now displayed for all skills, even those you haven't learned. I don't know why I thought was a good idea to hide it from spells that you don't know yet! :shock:
- fixed the "new location cheat", you could get unlimited new location visiting the graveyard without touching the tombstone:)
- increased strikethrough cost since was too poweful :)
- fixed some cosmetic issue in the bandits pelt quest (vaelis staying on screen first, and bandits later)
- fixed bug that was leaving the last active character selected in character screen. Now it checks that is present in the party and otherwise pick another character
- fixed the use item screen layout
- added the tents in the snow tiles to the map :)
- fixed exit button during help in vendor screen
- bug that was causing the bomb to hit twice if dual wielding with hunter
- fixed a major issue with effects/conditions that was causing incorrect increase of a pre-existing condition when you an enemy with another one (negative/positive). This should also fix Vaelis stances problem (but haven't checked)

What's new in 0.8.6c
- my bad, removed the extra skilltree from Loren but I forgot I used its name on the "a new character joins your party" screen :oops:

What's new in 0.8.6b
- fixes the stagger value, now is easier to stagger normal enemies (bosses could still be tough like the Huge Kodiak)
- the Hunter invigorating prayer skill now makes the next skill cost 0. Is a rather unique skill, but even if you waste one turn, since is cheap you could use it to get an extra Critical Hit or Double Attack even if you don't have enough SP

What's new in 0.8.6a (I know... putting a letter! but is a very small update and don't want to increase too much the version count)
- balanced the game better now, lowered the damage and the battles in general last longer
- attributes each level up are now: "Easy":7,"Normal":6,"Hard":5,"Nightmare":5 because before the amount was really too high!
- added a check to the AI, to debug better that "modulo by zero" error that sometimes happens when fighting bandits with pelts. So now you should get a very different error message (showing why the AI consider it alive). If you stumble into it please post it! :)

What's new in 0.8.6 (another BIG update!)
- you have access to the inventory in the battle preview screen. the GUI of that screen was rearranged, so if you load a savegame from earlier versions the portraits will be unaligned. In a new game, they work fine.
- Damage prediction: Is now using the actual values, no longer randomly showing critical hits!
- Vaelis' leap attack now does 250% base damage. This because hitting in the back row still has a damage penalty, so the damage wasn't high as intended. And since can be used only on a staggered target, must do decent damage. Might raise it even more if needed :)
- changed the final battle, waves of guards: the heal between each wave is of 5% and last fight is slightly tougher
- failed quests weren't displaying correctly under failed category in quest screen, now works (quest already completed with wrong method still won't be displayed)
- changed the speed impact, now every 10 points above/below 100 will change each skill delay by 1, but reduced the minimum delay to half the base skill speed to be safe :wink:
- fixed wrong value in the character traits screen attribute requirements (some numbers said 3 while was 30). However, I also changed all the requirement to 25 skill since with the new progressive increase of attributes points needed to raise each attribute by 1, is hard to reach 30 in two skills. I might tweak this value based on feedback during later stages of the game.
- added a display of the backrow 30% defense bonus on the battle, so is more clear :)
- tweaked the Threshold value overall, it was too low in general (some enemies had 1 !)
- bleeding effects now apply to Bosses (I think is fair)
- fixed bug that was hiding the backpack if you clicked on a equip slot, moved to another screen (like skills) and then clicked back on inventory
- fixed bug that was changing the spell damage to be reduced too much based on target's HP (now is removed)
- Positioning all members in the back row will no longer work, they'll all end up in the front.
- Fixed positional damage: Wasn't calculating right if the row wasn't full.
- Hunter's double attack was using ranged weapon as base, so was overpowered/wrong (depending on your items)
- Ranged attacks now do full damage against enemies in the front row, still have a penalty if hitting enemies in the back row from front row

What's new in 0.8.5
- removed the bugs introduced in last update regarding damage (hunter melee doing most damage, aimed/normal shot same damage, etc)
- tweaked the damage in a different way, lowering it a bit overall. In the backrow damage is reduced even further from ranged attacks. It SEEMS OK to me now, at least battles should last a bit longer!
- reduced slightly the hunter critical hit to 250% base damage, since with hide in shadows was becoming TOO powerful :)

What's new in 0.8.4
- fixed Strikethrough damage! before was doing 1/3 of the intended damage :)
- starting traits should all work now, please check if you can, but they should be OK
- added failed quest category in the quest screen
- difficulty tweaked again, I personally tested the starting battles even in Nightmare and now are doable with hunter/druid. Probably TOO EASY, but there's no solution so early in the game, so it's fine. The bosses should still be difficult though

What's new in 0.8.3 (lots of changes!)
- tweaked again the boss fights a bit. However is really hard to have a "single boss" as a tough battle (like the Kodiak), because a party will have more actions. For the giant snow spider I added two normal spiders to the encounter, but reduced the range of the poison bite to the frontline (losing the druid with 2 hits from them is not fun :lol:) and changed the attacks of the giant snow. Tougher challenge, was still able to beat rather easily with yayswords party but I'm pretty sure that now he's a "hardcore player" so is fine :)
- the ranged non-magic damage to the backrow was reduced by 30%. I think this is necessary otherwise most battles are like: fastest party act first, has a shooter and using aimed shot kills a weak opponent in back row :) For mages, at least they have to use SP so it's somewhat OK. But for normal ranged attack there should be some kind of penalty otherwise some battles could be frustrating (the early goblin barricade for example).
- fixed damage penalty based on position that would apply also on mage, not just on warriors
- fixed a bug where you could just go back to your hut and sleep like nothing happened when Morran was dying! ROFL
- fixed a bug that was blocking rollback if you reloaded from a save or other points where it was blocked
- changed the Hunter/Thief bomb behavior: it now hits a SINGLE target, and causes 25/50/75 HP of damage + bleeding. So still decent but not game-breaking as probably was before :wink:
- hunter's invigorating prayer now heals 15 SP for 3 turns instead of 50% of total SP

What's new in 0.8.2
- tweaked difficulty in the boss battles: now Huge Kodiak, Mormont and Giant Spider should be tougher. The polar bear too, but I don't want to make the plot-battles too hard for now :wink: the ideal for people who are helping to test would be to have a save before each battle (a few lines of dialogues before to be sure the new enemy definitions are loaded) so they can be tested quickly (if you want to send me those saves you're very welcome)
- fixed a bug that was marking a new location every time you visited the Huge Kodiak cave. So you could leave and come back and increase the counter unlimited times :)

What's new in 0.8.1
- tweaked difficulty in general (all levels now are harder, because before was really TOO EASY) and done specific tweaks for Nightmare, including the boss battles that I personally tested
- fixed a bug, Hunter was doing paralysis and double damage even if wasn't hiding in shadows as long as had any buff on him!!
- now in creation once you've picked a skill it goes forward automatically
- fixed polar quest notification, now it gets added to the quest count totals for the season so you should get the bonus XP

What's new in 0.8
- big change, unfortunately the old saves aren't compatible. They load apparently fine, but you'll get an error regarding "[Default]" sometimes during play. If you start a new game will work fine though.
- removed the stat derivation!! OK YOU WON!! :mrgreen: jokes apart found a way to use a "standard party" to use my system. So I can still do the battles quick as now but with fixed numbers (there's still a bit randomize but is like 2-3% of total value), this way if your party increases HP your enemy won't increase HP too. In the end I think you were right, was worth trying though :)
- reverted to the old global parameters, since the enemies in Nightmare had an attack value too high, in some cases they are also fast, so they could move first and kill a party with 2-3 hits. "Prepare to die" OK, but this was a bit too much for the first Act :lol:
- you don't need to assign all attributes on level up now. The unused points will carry on next level!
- fixed a bug that was causing the BrambleCoat effect to be applied also to Vaelis Recover, Avoidance, etc skills!!
- added help screen to the vendor explaining the basic mechanics

Feedback wanted:
Like before, about class/skill unbalances, but what I said in previous system version still apply: in this first act there are rarely group of enemies so AOE damage might seem useless, but later it won't :) send to this email: Image
Also about specific encounters. Since now I don't use stat-derivation, I can tweak single enemies/encounters to make them easier / harder. Of course before doing any action I'll wait the feedback of more than 1 person :wink:

Savegames
Once you finish the game please send me the savegames so I can playtest the next act with saves from real people which is always good :)
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yayswords
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Re: SOTW 0.8 - First Act Beta preview!

Post by yayswords »

Yayswords, Slayer of Stat Derivation

Oh actually. The giant snow spider should perhaps be a she. AFAIK, among spiders, typically the females are larger. And some spiders and scorpions and maybe other insects... well, the female eats the male after a breeding. Not saying you couldn't find a giant male spider, but maybe you didn't think about it.
If at first try it doesn't explode, it ain't Jack who wrote the code.
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jack1974
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Re: SOTW 0.8 - First Act Beta preview!

Post by jack1974 »

OK didn't know, maybe will change it :)
BTW on reporting difficulty - unless ALL random encounters are too easy in Nightmare now, no need to report if SOME are easy. As I said is the first part of the story so don't want to scare people away. Bosses should be tough though :)
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yayswords
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Re: SOTW 0.8 - First Act Beta preview!

Post by yayswords »

I have 10 attribute points to give Vaelis when he joins, normally 5.

Also I could have sworn I was just allowed to pick a skill upon reaching level 3, but I accidentally continued before giving all and I didn't wanna wait for another level up to assign so I reloaded, and then it didn't happen again :)
If at first try it doesn't explode, it ain't Jack who wrote the code.
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jack1974
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Re: SOTW 0.8 - First Act Beta preview!

Post by jack1974 »

Yes is correct behavior, before was wrong: Vaelis when joins levels up by 2 (party is at level 3) so should have got attributes x 2. Before not :) I might make him a bit weaker to compensate this.
And until level 6 you get a skill every 2 levels. So you get a new skill on level: 2,4,6 then every 3 so 9,12,15,18,21 etc
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yayswords
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Re: SOTW 0.8 - First Act Beta preview!

Post by yayswords »

Yes so I should not gain a skill point at level 3 but I think it happened. Not after I reloaded though.

Anyway

Image

Happened while fighting bandits for recipe, last action taken was Defend by Vaelis, then this happened pretty much instantly, maybe the bandits took 1 action but no time to see it.
If at first try it doesn't explode, it ain't Jack who wrote the code.
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jack1974
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Re: SOTW 0.8 - First Act Beta preview!

Post by jack1974 »

Does it happen everytime? Is really strange since apparently seems that the AI is targeting a party member, and while calculating the current HP with the max HP, the current HP is zero. But that shouldn't happen, the AI should ignore a player with 0 HP (because is KO). :shock:
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Lonestar51
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Re: SOTW 0.8 - First Act Beta preview!

Post by Lonestar51 »

I know I should not have ;-) ... but I managed to load a game save from 0.78 just fine.
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yayswords
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Re: SOTW 0.8 - First Act Beta preview!

Post by yayswords »

No it only happened once. Also did you mess with xp gain? I just dinged level 5 in the first chapter.
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jack1974
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Re: SOTW 0.8 - First Act Beta preview!

Post by jack1974 »

Lonestar51 wrote:I know I should not have ;-) ... but I managed to load a game save from 0.78 just fine.
Yes, but when you'll encounter a battle with certain sustained skills/conditions, you'll get that error message :mrgreen: not wise!
yayswords wrote:No it only happened once. Also did you mess with xp gain? I just dinged level 5 in the first chapter.
No, changed nothing about the xp. I only changed the enemies/encounters, the rest is identical. As long as you finish the first act at around level 6-7(max) is fine :)
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