All states of the UI ( look, talk, pick locks, etc) now have their own cursors, as well as text that tells you what mode you just entered or left.
You'll now be warned of impending doom with a red, all caps text warning, as well as your current HP turning red.
Friendlies now speak in yellow text, and enemies now speak in purple text. I did this because I found that it was easy to miss what people were saying amidst all the other messages.
You can no longer look at or talk to people through walls, and in order to talk to people you must be less than 3 squares away from them. ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?!
NPC Changes:
Enemies now drop money on death. I didn't want to do this, but you just need that steady trickle of income so you don't have to grind dungeons for money (you're SUPPOSED to be grinding them for XP and enchanted items). So it'll be easier for you guys to stay stocked up on potions now.
The Slorn King, the Evil One, Mandikar the MadMaker and the Oubliette Woman should now be completely scripted. I'd like for you guys to bang on these encounters and make sure they don't break. Slorn King and Evil One are old, but Mandikar the MadMaker and the Oubliette Woman are new. Here's how that encounter should go:
You meet the Oubliette woman in the Oubliette. She is initially friendly, but talks about how she doesn't feel right, that something is driving her mad. She'll then follow you as you try to find the exit.
In the final room you confront a wraith named Mandikar the MadMaker. Upon seeing him, the Oubliette Woman goes mad and starts attacking you. You may then kill her if you wish, but she is immune to Cleave and Smite bounces so she shouldn't die accidentally.
If you kill Mandikar and the Woman is still alive, she regains her senses, becomes friendly again, and gives a final speech before dying. Once you have killed Mandikar, he and the Woman will never spawn again.
Speaking of never spawning again, neither will the Slorn King, the Evil One, or the Baby Dragon if you kill them. The game (finally) keeps track of this information. Also, you can only pick up the Viridian Armor and Sol's sword once. This should prevent the absolute worst of the exploits without making it so I have to save the entire gamestate ( too big an overhaul at this point.
Items:
Warhammers are now in the game. Brain Fart on my part. They're the best melee weapon, too. Unless...
...You get lucky and find something else enchanted with extra damage. Any item in the game can now be enchanted with +damage and +armor. Which is a good thing because you need all you can get, and the indirect damage and dodge from STR and DEX just doesn't cut it by itself.
Spells and Abilities:
Enchant Weapon now lasts 10 turns. These spells come early and can be great for both melee fighters and missile fighters, so don't think that just 'cause you're not a mage you shouldn't get them. Same for Heal. (Especially Heal.)
And that's just what I remember off the top of my head; I've been coding furiously for hours now.
PRIORITIES FOR THIS BETA:
Make sure I didn't introduce any crashers or similar problems with my new code.
Bang on the scripted encounters to make sure they work.
Make sure that the scripted enemies don't come back if killed.
Drink a vodka gimlet.
That's it, and again, thank you all for your help. We're almost there, people. Almost there.
1st playthrough: healingyourself -> one turn lost (by design?) after stepping into the magic-field becoming the slornking, then loading a previous save-point -> crash! restarting, continue -> crash again! (music keeps playing though...)
If you save after picking up Viridian's Armor, loading the save will crash the game. Save next to it, fine. Pick it up, save and load, crash. About to test Sol's Sword.
EDIT: I'm guessing wolfengage is wearing some nice armor.
Does Smite's accuracy ever increase? I hit about 10-20% of the time in the Passages with dexterity and intelligence each over 12.
Yeah, on my playthrough last night I noticed a LOT of missing - by both you and the enemies. Going to try to do something about that. Also yes, healing takes a turn, or you could just stand there and heal to full without your enemies being able to do anything.
I just came to edit that about the Smite accuracy. I think it's tied to will, and my will was 4 at the time. I just won with a bowman, but I think a smiter might be the easiest way (have to see, though). EDIT: I take that back. I just got lucky and it hit for a while. With 5000+ in all stats it has no accuracy.
Right now, dexterity (due to the missing) is the most important stat for a fighter (then strength and will), while intelligence and will seem to be the most important stats for a wizard. Endurance is nice very early , but is easy to skip and not worth it past 7. One point of intelligence for heal isn't essential, but it's the biggest help in the game.
--- You can't shoot/Smite a friendly npc.
Sometimes a shop generates items with an armor bonus (and maybe other bonuses, but I haven't noticed any). It's random whether or not the item you buy will actually have that bonus. For example, I bought a Cloth Armor advertised with 1 armor, but mine actually had 2. I saw a Bow advertised with 1 damage and 1 armor, but had to buy several before actually getting one with that bonus point of armor.
If you wander around with an angry dragon attacking you, they may say some of their lines at random, in purple or white (I think they use white if you're behind a wall).
I noticed Ambushing Bats occasionally 'speaking' in white.
After killing Mandikar, I talked to the woman and she gave her speech, but never died. I left and came back and she was gone for good. I'm going to test this a few different ways.
After killing The Evil One and exiting to Inaria through the passage (The King of Inaria had no idea I did anything), I went back to see if anyone had respawned. The baby dragon was still dead and dragons still hated me (I had also checked this at an earlier state), the woman and the wraith in the Oubliette hadn't respawned (checked this earlier, too), and the Slornite King had respawned. He spoke in white text this time. The Evil One was still dead, but the passage back to Inaria wasn't open anymore. I stepped in the transformation thing and got the message from The Evil One about how that always works.
After winning the game, the game will transport you to a new version of the Inaria map where the Inarian King recognizes that you've won the game and some dungeons (like the Castle and Volcano Heart) are no longer accessible.
Plus there will be a dance party in Emerald.
As for the woman...I kind of didn't want her to actually die in front of you. If you leave and come back and she's gone, then maybe she made it. I know, this contradicts what I said earlier. But I think I'm going to leave it this way.
Merchant items having armor and damage bonuses is a bug; they should always be unenchanted.
You should be able to smite or shoot a friendly, as long as that friendly is not on the overworld. I'll check this out.
when switching between magical items, the program seems to forget, that I actually had maximum points. for example: I have 30/30 mana because a weapon gives me intel+1, then I unequip it, the mana is 29/29. then I switch back to that weapon, and mana becomes 29/30) (not sure, if someone mentioned that before)
cfx: Yes, I don't completely like my GUI progression either. I should probably make that bigger and have buttons for "Return to Game" "Go to Main Menu" and "Quit Game".
I'm in the Mountain Trial, I've re entered several times, due to having to buy new potions or armor, etc. Every time I re-entered, enemies I've killed had re-apeared, thus making leveling up very easy (You can access a healer outside the mountain trial, so It's just a matter of killing everything until hp drops, then go outside, heal, re enter, etc.). Maybe the game should "remember" which enemies got killed.