Say, does this also mean a slider (or typed integer/float, or other such wizardry) to adjust the mix and balance of sounds vs. music in-game will make it to release?
That is currently the plan, if SDL_Mixer will cooperate. Unfortunately, SDL_Mixer doesn't support more than one music object at a time, so crossfading is not possible. I don't think. Unless I do something tricky.
If you die and don't have a save file (or delete it), you can click load and then save to save. When you load, you'll have 0 or -x life, but you can still play.
When you load, everything in the level respawns.
When you load, your Health and Mana Potions are reduced to 1 each.
When you load, the sale price of Health and Mana potions is set to their buy price. The sale price of all your other items is set to sale price + sale price * the level of the map you were on when you loaded your game (or the level the item is generated on). The sales price of purchased items is handled properly (but of course, that will change when you reload the game).
Item duplication: If an equipment slot is empty when you save, you can equip an item then load. The item will still be equipped and you'll still have a copy in your inventory or the cash you used to buy it.
If you have exactly enough money to buy an item (other than Potions, which work properly), you can't buy it ("Not enough money!").
Interface buttons (look, talk, save, load, etc.) are hidden while shopping, but right-clicking where they would be will exit shopping and select the option ("Game loaded.").
The healer in Ruby now heals, but the healer in Inaria Castle doesn't.
You get the Tank trait at 5 endurance, but the 2 armor doesn't show up until 7 endurance, when Hardy is acquired.
Gameplay issues:
If you enter Death's Coil from the exit (path to the Slornite King's Castle), you'll be immediately attacked by a Hand of Death.
Enemies at or close to the edge of the screen don't seem to mind me pelting them with arrows.
Opinion:
The interface is much improved from beta 1. I used to constantly mis-click, but now it's completely intuitive as far as I'm concerned (the selected action's icon being displayed is icing).
Level/stat progression is much closer to balanced. Enemies start off pretty tough, though by the end of the game you will max out your stats if you go through every dungeon (I finished at level 10 with all stats at 12 save one 11, skipping The Oubliette, all but one enemy in the Deadly Maze of Death, and of course the inaccessible Mountain Trial).
Endurance boosts (and Intelligence boosts if abilities were usable) from items are way too strong. I played my first game without picking up an endurance booster, and I had to watch my health closely. Next game, I get a sword and chain armor each with +1 Endurance and the game was a cakewalk (I didn't even bother with Sol's sword or Viridian's armor). An item's Endurance boost grants 1 health per level, whereas a normal point of Endurance grants 1 health and no more. At level 6, +2 endurance gives +12 health, probably a 75% boost at that level.
I really want to take up The Evil One's offer.
My highlights have been using the baby dragon as cover to get away from enemies in beta 2, and hugging the wall and treading carefully in the Underwater Tunnel to avoid enemies when I had no health potions. Also, I like that through knowing where everything is, I can head straight to the Deadly Maze of Death and pick up the sword, bow, and chain armor for a fast start.
I know traps are coming, but hopefully enemies will get some abilities to mix things up, too. I'd also like to see overly powerful enemies roaming about.
There's a lot of cash in the game but only inexpensive potions to spend it on.
As it is, 'look' has no real function. No useful info, nothing humorous or interesting, just the NPCs name.
I'm not so worried about crossfades. While nice, I'm not going to get in your hair about that. I was more interested in 'sfx vs music' volume sliders. But I think you said 'yes, I'll try', so that's good enough for me!
Now my humble additions, some had been already said of course...
emerald: first dungeon south: nearly was killed by a blob. missed him 7 times. Bug? Unbalanced? Unlucky? one slornite thief was on a field with coins. the coins covered him partially. healer northwest doesen't heal. northwest map to female-dragon blocked?
loading is somehow broken: saved at an early point and played a bit, then was killed. lost nearly all my health- and mana-potions (just 1 remaining all the time), but got too much money. before, I had a leather-armor when I saved, now by loading, I got a chain armor, the same I had, when I was killed.
Small list of things I noticed while playing through the Beta 3.
- Balance seems good, though streak of misses seem to common. - By loading I lose all my stacked potions, only one remains. - Could not access dungeon to Female dragon (entrance north from starting city). - I had 10 coins but couldn't buy the dagger (which costs 10 coins), I managed to buy 2 potions though (5 coins each). - I could not heal using the north priestess in starting city. - I can heal from any range if the priestess is eligible to heal. - It's easy to cheat some levels by load & save because loading resets the dungeon. Use bow and mushrooms for this and you'll fly through levels. - Endurance seems way too good stat .. switching +1 (or +2) endurance chest to Viridian Armor dropped my health pool by 10 or so. - Healing potions only heal 1 health? - Shooting enemies from max range doesn't seem to bother them at all. - Bow is way too good in dungeons, because the enemies seem to be bad in finding route to you. Just position yourself so that there's wall between you and the enemy and they can't touch you. - Couldn't hear music at all, sound effects worked fine. - Works also with Wine in Kubuntu .. :)
If you have 1 strength and a bow equipped, your attack is 0, but you always deal at least 1 damage. I understand why it works like this, I just think your attack should always display at least 1.
If possible, even as an update, I'd like to see a perma-death mode.
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For the sake of info (and maybe unknown bugs?), here are how I believe stats work so far. First according to the readme (from Beta 2), then my determination, then how item bonuses work from my determination.
This is what the readme says about stats: Strength: Governs both how well you hit in melee combat and how much damage you do. Dexterity: Governs both how well you hit with a bow and how often you get critical hits. Endurance: Governs how many hitpoints you gain when you level up. Intelligence: Governs how much mana you gain when you level up, as well as the spells you can cast and how well you spot traps. Will: Governs how well you resist magic and trap effects, and how well potions work on you.
This is how I understand they work at the moment: Strength: Governs how often you hit in melee and ranged combat and how much damage you do. Dexterity: Governs how well you dodge. Endurance: Governs your total hitpoints (10 + Endurance). Intelligence: Governs your total mana (10 + Intelligence), as well as the spells you can (want to) cast. Will: Governs how well potions work on you (5% * Will).
And this is how boosts from items work: Strength: Does nothing. Dexterity: Does nothing. Endurance: Grants 1 * level health. Intelligence: Grants 1 * level mana. So at level 10, a 6 Intelligence boost grants +60 mana. Will: Works like a regular point of Will.
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Other Stats:
Dexterity gives more than 1% chance to dodge (5-10%, maybe). Strength gives a similarly increased chance to hit. You have a base chance to hit of at least close to 100%. Enemies hit and dodge based on the map you're on. My guess is ~5-10% * level of the map, maybe with a base 5-10% thrown on top, with a base chance to hit of at least 100% (enemies in the collapsing cave never miss if you have 1 dexterity, though they do miss if you have 2 dexterity). Enemies always have at least a small chance to dodge and hit (like natural rolls of 1 and 20?).
As a result of the hit/dodge formulas, the player and enemies will hit each other less and less often as the game goes on, hitting something like 40-60% at the end, though you'll kill enemies in 1 successful hit most of the time at that point. Enemies will kill you faster and you'll kill them with about as many attacks, though the variance will be a lot higher (instead of killing an enemy in two hits guaranteed, there are decent chances it will take 1 hit or 5). This is a strange kind of balance, but it does mean an increase in tension ("Please miss!") and difficulty (except for having 20 basically free potions and convenient saving) as the game goes on. It also means that every stat (except intelligence for now) is important.
Armor reduces the damage you take by a percentage, rounded up (so you always block at least 1 damage if you have any armor). Cloth armor blocks 1%, Viridian's Armor blocks 16%. Since the strongest enemies deal ~11 damage at most, armor isn't too useful. I'm not 100% sure if the damage is decreased based on the max damage an enemy can deal or the damage they roll for each hit (10 max, but they hit for 2).
I haven't tested glancing damage (when a 36 power Sol's Sword deals 28 or 4 damage, etc.), but some enemies seem to be armored and always mitigate at least 1 damage. Where you can take 0 damage with armor, they always take at least 1.
Active abilities doesn't seem to work for me. Secret doors don't do anything. Sleep fields and teleporters too. Also can't enter the door left of the castle.
Seems like all other bugs already have been reported.
interesting discovery: when I put some potions on the map with the editor, picking them up in the game gives each of them one inventory field (like in the previous beta) and the number 1.