Magic weapons are buyable now but we can’t equip any of them except for the magic dagger
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What do you think about the name of the game? I’m not convinced I like the title, but not sure I have any good ideas… any thoughts?
- I like “The orc raiders from Icepeak Mountain”
- “Text dungeon”
- “Rogue-text”
- “The Icepeak mountains”
- “An adventurer’s life”
- “Other?”
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Two things:
- I love the cover art! That’s absolutely perfect for your game.
- As for the name, I like “The orc raiders from Icepeak Mountain”, but it is kind of a mouthful. It doesn’t quite roll off the tongue haha. I don’t really have a replacement, I’m terrible with names lol.
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I personally don’t feel the name of a setting like that is a good title. I love what I just tried (posting actual feedback later) and I just feel the title could be better. Some ideas of my own:
- The Shadow Over Icepeak
- Raidfall
- Murder In The Mountains
- Icecrawler
- Raiders & Rogues
I’m a bit out of it at the moment, but I don’t think these are bad.
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New version of the game is up. This takes the game past the previous ending, into a town where you can do various things, and links to the beginning of the next two adventures. The town is still not well developed and has some inconsistencies, but should give you a flavour of what comes next.
Eventually, I will “divide” the game into a public and private thread (as I normally do), with only those that give feedback being invited into the private thread that has the entire game (as a reward to those that provide feedback 
)
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Finally getting around to a review lol
First thing I always look for: spelling, grammar, punctuation. What I found:
Errors
None! Nice job there 
More feedback:
- I love the lore behind what you’re building! This could easily turn into a massive fully fledged story if you didn’t want to go the RPG route. There’s so many side stories that could come from this that could turn into full stories on their own haha
- error: i0_shop line 348: Invalid option; conflicts with option ‘Scroll of Climbing (10 gp).’ on line 323
- I’ll admit, when you first posted this, it did seem a bit repetitive. But it feels much better now. I played through 3 times and was happy experimenting with classes and powers and whatnot, even if the story didn’t massively change.
- (side note: was looking through the code, you’ve got some crazy stuff going on haha)
Great work so far!
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Thanks! Just fixed that bug, but I will probably only get around to updating the game at the end of the game. I’m also happy it now feels less repetitive, there should be enough other rooms to make it more interesting… though I am yet to play this new version myself.
I’m glad you like the lore of the game! Maybe I can make a small youtube video to explain how it all came about, but essentially I started to write another game “Wizard: Genesis” in this world, and then got distracted and started to work on this RPG… just for fun… but it will probably be released before I can finish “Wizard: Genesis”…
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Another couple of rooms added to the tomb of the dwarf noble!
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Just made a small video to describe a bit of the philosophy of the game, and some of the background inspiration for the various systems and mechanics.
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Sorry for my long silence, I have been super-busy (plus I’ve developed a slight addiction to Valheim, which has eaten a bit of my free time in the evening…). Anyway, some development of this has continued in the background, and I have now uploaded a new version of the game… which takes it two adventures forward! (as in, what was there previously is now section 1/3 of what is now there).
The game now includes:
-a town sequence.
-levelling up.
-more magic items, objects, spells, etc
-bugfixes, etc
The last section is not fully finished (so I recommend you might want to save the game each time you reach the village).
Also, what is now here is 3/4ths of the game, with a final adventure in the works, which should bring the game to the conclusion of the shaman/warlord you defeat in part 1.
This last part is not yet coded, but (as usual in my games) I will only be inviting people who give feedback to playtest that. Also, gradually some more “side missions” will be added, which only those that provide feedback will be able to access.
Please enjoy, and please let me know any feedback you have (more options you would like to have, bugs, recommendations, etc… I am welcome to all suggestions, as usual!)
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For those that play this new version, could you let me know what you feel this game needs in order to be released/completed? (i.e. what should I prioritize next)
- It already feels almost complete!
- It needs to be longer (I am working on part 4…)
- It needs more magical objects
- It needs more variety of rooms
- It needs more spells
- It needs to have romance options (I am very reluctant to go down this route… but…)
- It needs to have more random encounters when travelling
- It needs more side missions
- It needs more secret rooms
- It needs a bigger variety of monsters to fight
- It needs more lore and world-building descriptions
- It needs more locations to visit
- It needs more abilities to use
- Other (please let me know)
0 voters
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It starts to load forever when you try to buy a magic weapon because you put a capital ‘i’ in the gosub_scene thing at select_weapon_after_buying
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I’ve just had a play through and got to the town. The game crashed when I tried to buy the magic sword. I noted down a bunch of things as I went through - some bugs and other things related to the game design. I also spotted a number of typos and grammar stuff, but stopped noting those down once I got into the dungeon crawling section.
General thoughts
The stat selection could be woven into the narrative a bit more, rather than ‘you must now select your starting abilities…’ Along with the ‘notes’ section, it breaks the immersion of the game. Perhaps putting more of it in the ‘game mechanics’ screen.
In situations where the menu has no options, such as spells as a fighter, I would make the option unselectable. It’s not a problem per se, but improves the experience from a game design perspective for players to not click onto an empty menu.
You might want to round the HP percentage value, I currently have a large Orc on 28.9999999999996%.
When speaking to the shaman at the statue, I can repeatedly ask to speak to the chieftan.
Just from a world design perspective, there are lots of rivers on different levels of the dungeon. That doesn’t feel very realistic to have rivers above rivers, unless each subsequent floor is significantly further down.
I can’t select the magic battle axe as my weapon - I could only do it when I received it in the first place. So I sold it and went to buy a sword instead, which crashed the game.
Typos, grammar and the like
The thread of piracy, bandits, and sea raids from the lizardfolk of the Draltiqqhast Empire means that there is also never a lack of work for those that are happy to fight.
- Should be ‘threat’
Theft and murder are rampant in Blackport and Lady Mizarra, the infamous ruler of the place, is more interested in lining her pockets than keeping real order.
Many wonder why Emperor Dulac XIII allows such rampant corruption and inequity within one of his cities
- Word re-use and also ‘place’ sounds lame considering the personality of Lady Mizarra.
The more knowledgeable point out to a fierce tradition of independence and buccaneering
- Should either be ‘point to a’ or ‘point out a’
forging powerful magical weapons that were yielded by a cast of feared lizardfolk priest-warriors.
- Should be ‘wielded’
though its power and influence is nowhere near that described in the legends of ancient.
- Ancient isn’t the right word here. Usually it is ‘old’. You could say ‘of ancient times’ though.
with the once prominent lizardfold and ekek confined to its periphery.
- Should be capitalised
though why would this interfere with the weather is less clear.
- should be ‘this would’
Lower-cast or slave rebellions are dealt with brutally by the noble class and warrior-priests of Asmahathar,
- Presume this is meant to be ‘caste’, if you’re referring to the ‘caste’ system of social stratification.
It would seem that the stratified cast system of lizardfolk
- I swear I wrote my comment above before turning the page! But yes, it should be ‘caste’. Also capital on Lizardfolk
Any rebellions are harshly suppressed, with survivors being ceremonially slaughteres.
- Should be ‘slaughtered’
One day you’ll get your revenge, and you’ll be the one raiding the Draltiqqhastar. They will pay for the loss of my fingers.
- Perspective shift
I like the game overall - I always enjoy these dungeon crawler type games (Sorceror’s cave, anyone?) There is always something fun about roving through the unknown and beating up on weak monsters.
I would say that I think there would need to be more variety to hold my attention over more than one play through - and to be honest, for a single play through. A lot of the transitions and set pieces are similar and I ended up with the same ones more than once. I know how hard it is to build in this variety, but in truth, I just started clicking next and picking a door, or corridor.
I suspect that multiple runs of the dungeon sequence would play out in much the same way each time and it was quite long, which unfortunately will mean boring.
I don’t know what happens after the town as the game crashed, is it a similar scenario but in a different location? Or does the game change tack?
One of the things that led the dungeon to feel very samey was the fighting. I have only played as a fighter and in the two previous plays of the game I have died fairly quickly. Your health is low and I didn’t have any healing and it’s easy to take a fair bit of damage in a fight (especially if you use an ability that lowers your defence). On this run I just gave myself max defence, picked Orc and I didn’t take any combat damage whatsoever all game - except for the Shaman, which got to round 60 or so.
I think the maths sitting underneath the combat mechanism needs some work as it feels either too easy or too hard to succeed there (I was playing on normal).
Happy to discuss any of these points in more detail if you would like?
Edit:
Just played as a Halfling rogue.
- You can cripple the enemy into negative stats
- Crippling strike is wildly broken - just hit them repeatedly until they have no stats then kill them
- Backstabbing the drunk ogre did nothing
3 Likes
So, there were some bugs that didn’t let anybody get pass the town. These should be fixed now, hopefully…
@0roxson0 should be fixed now, thanks!
@Hector_Lopez no, it should not end there, hopefully I have now found the bug and the game can be played until the current “end”
@Sinnie Thanks for the super-detailed feedback! To go point by point
-I get what you mean about the “brutal” immersion drop… still not so sure how to go about this. Plus, I know what you mean about the notes… the thing is, doing it a different way would mean having to write one introduction for each character class… though maybe that is the way to go?
-Classes without spells should no longer see the option to select spells, thanks!
-The hp bar should be rounded… you mean on the stats bar, or on each of the fights? On the stats bar I currently have that:
*set hit_point_bar round ((hp/max_hp)*100)
*set rounded_MC_hp round(hp)
-Corrected shaman speak to chieftain bug
-Mmmmmm good point about the rivers… I guess I could make it that rivers are only possible on levels 1 and 3, but not on level 2? Would that work, do you think?
-Hopefully the bug relating to buying weapons is fixed… can I check about the battleaxe, only fighters or clerics of Kathos can use one… your character fulfilled those requirements? (I was a bit confused also as to what was the exact problem…)
-Yes, I now there is clearly a problem with the transitions. If you have any ideas for cool ones I could code them… but, it’s difficult sometimes… I mean, a corridor intersection is not so interesting, unless there is something to make it interesting… but what? I was looking through old fighting fantasy books, but even they fall onto the same problem (corridor to the left, corridor to the right, which one you choose?)
-" the infamous ruler of the place… I removed one of the rampant, but what you think of regarding a better word for place? (corrected all the other grammar points, thanks! )
-After the town there are two more “dungeons”. One follows a similar approach, while the other does away with the random element. I hope it should be a significant improvement on the game!
-Game design: I am always happy to hear comment on this (either here or in private… I have VERY thick skin, so fire away… I’d rather hear it from readers at this point in the forum that as one star reviews later!). Some thoughts on this, as possible solutions:
-The idea of loaded dice? (like Larian Studios are doing for Baldur’s gate?)
-Not having healing potions is definitively a problem. Solutions: A. automatically give one healing potion at start. B. provide rations at start, and ability to buy more… but this means more coding, which to be honest can just be solved by solution A. More options?
-You got to round 60 with shaman? Mmmmmm… now, that is clearly not what I wanted with this game… mmmmmmmm any thoughts on how to improve that?
-I now placed extra conditions on crippling, you cannot use it when an enemy attack and defence is below 4 (for normal cripple… ) and 2 (expert cripple). Is this better? Also, you cannot go negative now… hopefully this means it is a little less broken? (or do you feel it is still a huge exploit?)
-About the ogre… looking at the code it seems that you do the damage, though there is no information regarding the damage. I now added that (hopefully now it feels correct?) Or maybe there is a bug somewhere else I didn’t see?)
3 Likes
Yeah, I meant during the fights 
Could do - I’m no expert on geography and where you can have underground rivers above/below others.
I found the battleaxe and it gave me the option to equip it (I was a fighter) which worked fine.
When I got to the shop and looked at what they had and went out of the shop, it took me to the scene where I choose my weapon, but I only had the option of my original hammer or the knife, I couldn’t select the axe (nor could I from the stats screen).
There’s also an issue there where if you don’t buy something, it still gets you to select a weapon.
Perhaps some more active ‘side quests’ which are small in scope, or require the player to pay some attention, such as:
- Several corridors have runes on the walls, appearing in a specific order, then later on you find a room and have to input the correct sequence
- More characters like the goblin that can appear randomly which you can interact with (speak to, attack, help, give items to)
- Another adventurer could be around - you keep seeing them from afar, but could meet them? Or come to their aid?
- Find other random prisoners?
You could have more series of rooms with fake choices (i.e. do you go through the connected dormitories, or out into the eating hall?) - they don’t mean anything in terms of where you end up (or they could) - rather than it being room - corridor - room - corridor
You could also have more interactible sites, such as statutes, pictures, strange creatures.
Other rooms you could just travel through: workshops, store rooms, underground lakes/pools, lava, nesting grounds for animals, mushroom patches.
‘stinking hellhole’? I would just give a description of the place here.
I went through the game using ‘defensive stance’, so hit much less often, but took almost no damage - that’s why the fight went on so long.
How many test runs have you done for combat? I found that if I used an attack that lowered by defence, I was going to get hit and lose HP, you can only do that so many times before you die - and you will die, considering the amount of fights.
Have you modelled out the combat (avg number of fights, avg die rolls, avg stats, avg damage taken, avg healing potions found, etc.)? You might want to get a good understanding of how easy it is to succeed with different stats and skills, becuase you might find that some combinations are way too easy or way too difficult.
@adrao I think something happened in a recent update. When I pick my class, it takes me to the skills screen, I have 0 points to spend, my attack and defence are 12, everything else 7 and HP is 30. It doesn’t ask me about difficulty
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Ups, sorry about that last point… I inadvertently activated a playtesting mode that I make to help me do the random_test function… let me slowly reply to the rest of your comments later today!
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Just uploaded a new version. Changes:
-Found the bug with the hp display, should be corrected now!
-Underground rivers should now only take place every other level
-Maybe I found the battleaxe bug, you were basically playing a cleric of Kathos, right? (this should work fine now, but let me know if the problem persists)
-Changed description to “stinking hellhole”
-I haven’t modelled the combat at all, as it is difficult to do so for every class. I am vaguely following the format and stats of the old Fighting Fantasy books, and trying not to make the stats of the monsters too bad. I was then hoping to get some feedback (the kind you gave here) to tune a bit the difficulty. The thing is, even the Fighting Fantasy books had rations, so in that sense I guess better to start the game on normal with two potions of healing? (increasing to 3-4 for easier levels, but none for the harder levels). How does that feel? (let me know if you feel further tuning is needed). I also placed an additional potion of minor healing inside the loot, and increase the droprate slightly to 20% (from 10%).
Your suggestions are very nice , and I will likely implement some of them. In that sense, some of the new “dungeons” have larger sections that tie into each other (one of the new dungeons has no random parts at all). What do you think about them?
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For the battleaxe, I was playing as a fighter and not a cleric. I found it as some loot somewhere.
I’ll have to replay to see the variety in scenes in other dungeons. Another thing you can consider for variety is in description of the surroundings, for example:
- Mossy, damp, crumbling, scorched, sooty, etc. walls
- Natural caverns vs mine shafts vs dug tunnels vs man-shaped stone walls - of course, you have to ensure there is consistency and you dont keep swapping from an old mine shift to a stone lined hallways
I had a little go at modelling out the combat mechanics for a fighter - because I’m a little nerd and wanted to have a go at it. This is pretty crude and I’m sure I’ve missed some stuff, however…
- Either be an Orc (+2 atk) or half Orc (+1 atk / +1 def)
- Get berserk or not (3 points)
- No extra hp
- You can get an atk/def of 12-14 with the corresponding stat to 6/7
- Assuming the monster is a 7/7
Mighty blow is never worth it, as the malus to defence (/2) is the same as berserk, except berserk gives double the attack. The extra cost of berserk makes no difference (you can buy a single defence point with it). The optimum move is to take bersek and maximise defence. At least 83% of the time you’re blowing the monster’s defence clean out of the water. You are probably getting hit 40% of the time in exchange - which will definitely kill you as you only have 7 hp.
For an 8 atk / 11 def berserker - 83% of the time your final atk is 24-48 and def is 13-16.
A 5/6 monster has an attack of 10-16 83% of the time.
You’re dead in a few fights as that one or two hits per fight take 2hp a time.
As the mechanics work currently, the optimum solution is to get hit less, even if it takes you forever to kill them. Your hp is the only resource that matters.
As a 13/7, 14/6 without berserk, using normal or defensive, you will hit them pretty regularly, but even under defensive you have a final def of 15-27 83% of the time. That may be enough, with more healing added to the game, I’m not sure.
As a 7/13 using defensive, your lowest def is 17 (83% of the time: 21-33), a 7/7 monster’s max is only 19 (83% of the time: 11-17). Even a 10/10 monster has a max of 22. Of course, you’re barely going to hit them either, but it doesn’t matter as the chances of them hitting you are so small, you can just keep going forever.
So, that’s how I ended up in a 60 round bout with an Orc Shaman!
I can’t exactly put my finger on where the issues may be - but more than happy to sit and think about it more if you would find it helpful?
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