Viridian Games Forums

What a huge improvement. At this point, I consider Inaria a real game.

Bugs from my first pass:

While adjacent to any NPC, right-click an adjacent, empty space. You'll cleave them, even if you don't have cleave. If you hit, you don't use a turn. This does not work with a bow equipped, since it can't cleave. If you're going to make that baby dragon follow me in the finished game, make sure I don't accidentally cleave it to death.

Heal, Enchant Armor, and Enchant Weapon don't consume mana (though you can't use them if you have less mana than they cost).

When cleaving and smiting normally non-hostile npcs, their old names are used (King Gianfranco is called the Inarian King, for example).

Peer shows everything on the map except the player.

Other than that, these abilities seem to work fine. All other abilities, passive and active, seem to work as well (I even tested the three unlocking skills).

Viridian's Armor doesn't have a strength requirement. Also, strength bonuses count when trying to meet an armor's strength requirement. With 2 strength, you can equip Viridian's Armor (+3 strength) and then equip Chain Armor, which requires 5 strength. This might seem silly, but it can come into play, especially (in the future) using a trinket to trick on good armor, then switching to a different trinket.

When shooting/smiting, your path can be blocked by water or lava.

From the Readme:

"Enemies will now aggro if attacked with a ranged weapon."

This works; however, if an enemy is very far away, they'll have no idea where you are. The easiest way to see this is to stand at the edge of the screen and shoot an inactive mushroom on the other edge of the screen. Normally it would come after you, but it will just sit there. When you approach it will begin chasing you, showing that the arrow/smite did provoke it.

My highlights and opinions:

Stat balance in Inaria is top notch; I can't pick out one stat as being any more useful than the others. I look forward to each level up.

Teleport is a great, versatile spell. I beat the game at level 4 using it. Definitely design maps with it (and Peer) in mind. I also want to see more encouragement to use the Enchant spells.

I just noticed that on the island with Sol's Sword and Viridian's Armor, you can walk around the mountains to the other side. I was so happy to teleport from one side to the other, then I realized I could have cheated it since Beta One. I take it you didn't mean for the island to work that way, but I like it. Tiny and surrounded by water, the island basically screams "Don't explore me!" but rewards you if you do.

A Hand of Death told me "You cannot fight your fate" immediately after killing me. I get a big kick out of little things like that.

The game starts tough and stays that way longer, but still eventually becomes a cakewalk. I don't know, but it seems like it takes as long to get from 12 to 20 health as it does to get from 20 to 200.

When clicking an action in the action pane (eg, talk, attack, etc) my cursor turns into a white box until I right-click to cancel, as if the game wants to change the cursor graphic but is missing the asset for it.

If you press 'Esc', there's no visible way to Continue Game. If you touch that key you're resigned to playing with a (currently does-not-work-as-intended) 'Sound Volume' button or 'Quit Game'. Very dangerous key during this beta if you haven't saved recently.

(sorry or the spam -- on a related note, a confirmation dialog box for Quit Game ["Really quit?" Yes/No], or a 'Save before quitting? Yes/No' would be keen -- same with X'ing out the application. It would be cool to have that intercepted and go to the 'Are you sure?'-style exit logic.)

a_p
What a huge improvement. At this point, I consider Inaria a real game.

* Thank you!

Bugs from my first pass:

While adjacent to any NPC, right-click an adjacent, empty space. You'll cleave them, even if you don't have cleave. If you hit, you don't use a turn. This does not work with a bow equipped, since it can't cleave. If you're going to make that baby dragon follow me in the finished game, make sure I don't accidentally cleave it to death.

* Fixed. A bit of stupidity of me not stopping the cleave if there was no initial attack.

Heal, Enchant Armor, and Enchant Weapon don't consume mana (though you can't use them if you have less mana than they cost).

* Fixed. So intent on making sure they had enough mana I forgot to deduct it.

When cleaving and smiting normally non-hostile npcs, their old names are used (King Gianfranco is called the Inarian King, for example).

* Fixed, since you can no longer cleave non-hostile NPCs.

Peer shows everything on the map except the player.

Other than that, these abilities seem to work fine. All other abilities, passive and active, seem to work as well (I even tested the three unlocking skills).

* I initially didn't want to put the player on the peer map because I thought it would be fun for the player to try to figure out where he was. But this would require casting Peer over and over to pinpoint the location, which is kind of dumb. Player now appears on the peer map. Fixed.

Viridian's Armor doesn't have a strength requirement. Also, strength bonuses count when trying to meet an armor's strength requirement. With 2 strength, you can equip Viridian's Armor (+3 strength) and then equip Chain Armor, which requires 5 strength. This might seem silly, but it can come into play, especially (in the future) using a trinket to trick on good armor, then switching to a different trinket.

* I wanted everyone to be able to use Viridian's Armor and Sol's Sword no matter what their "class". But you're right - strength requirements for armor should not take bonuses into account. Fixed. No more strength cheese. (Mmmm...string cheese...)

When shooting/smiting, your path can be blocked by water or lava.

* Oh, poop. That's what I get for only testing this stuff in the starter dungeon. Well, that should be easily fixed.

From the Readme:

"Enemies will now aggro if attacked with a ranged weapon."

This works; however, if an enemy is very far away, they'll have no idea where you are. The easiest way to see this is to stand at the edge of the screen and shoot an inactive mushroom on the other edge of the screen. Normally it would come after you, but it will just sit there. When you approach it will begin chasing you, showing that the arrow/smite did provoke it.

* Yeah, I guess I didn't test this thoroughly. By the way, were you surprised when a carnivorous mushroom got up and started chasing you? :)

My highlights and opinions:

Stat balance in Inaria is top notch; I can't pick out one stat as being any more useful than the others. I look forward to each level up.

* Thank you :) I put a lot of thought into that.

Teleport is a great, versatile spell. I beat the game at level 4 using it. Definitely design maps with it (and Peer) in mind. I also want to see more encouragement to use the Enchant spells.

* Thanks, that's great feedback. I will keep that in mind for the content revamp. I initially put Peer, Teleport and Retreat in just to keep people from getting stuck in complex dungeons (like the Cube).

I just noticed that on the island with Sol's Sword and Viridian's Armor, you can walk around the mountains to the other side. I was so happy to teleport from one side to the other, then I realized I could have cheated it since Beta One. I take it you didn't mean for the island to work that way, but I like it. Tiny and surrounded by water, the island basically screams "Don't explore me!" but rewards you if you do.

* Frumple. You are NOT supposed to be able to walk around those mountains. Teleporting to the other side is fine.

A Hand of Death told me "You cannot fight your fate" immediately after killing me. I get a big kick out of little things like that.

* Hah! That was pure luck, but I'm happy it happened.

The game starts tough and stays that way longer, but still eventually becomes a cakewalk. I don't know, but it seems like it takes as long to get from 12 to 20 health as it does to get from 20 to 200.

* Yeah, this appears to be the one last game mechanic I need to overcome. I want players to feel like they are becoming godlings, but it needs to happen towards the end of the game, not in the middle. And it's all about the hitpoints. I'll fiddle with it.

cfx
When clicking an action in the action pane (eg, talk, attack, etc) my cursor turns into a white box until I right-click to cancel, as if the game wants to change the cursor graphic but is missing the asset for it.

* This was me being stupid with some of my icons. On a lot of computers, OpenGL requires textures to be power-of-two sized, and some of my icons were 24x24. Fixed. Good catch.

cfx
If you press 'Esc', there's no visible way to Continue Game. If you touch that key you're resigned to playing with a (currently does-not-work-as-intended) 'Sound Volume' button or 'Quit Game'. Very dangerous key during this beta if you haven't saved recently.

cfx
(sorry or the spam -- on a related note, a confirmation dialog box for Quit Game ["Really quit?" Yes/No], or a 'Save before quitting? Yes/No' would be keen -- same with X'ing out the application. It would be cool to have that intercepted and go to the 'Are you sure?'-style exit logic.)

Getting the option screen to work is my next priority - you will be able to save or load a game from the options screen, continue your current game, adjust the sound, and quit.

On the other hand...if I press the X in the corner of the window, that kind of says, "I want this application closed NOW" so I probably won't intercept that. Unless it really, really bugs players.

Again, thank you guys so much for helping me out with this.

When reloading in the dungeons, all the killed enemies and taken coins reappear.
When the level-up-window appears, the killed enemy is still onscreen and disappears right after closing the window. Bug?
If mushrooms are more than 4 fields away or blocked by other mushrooms, they dont go aggro on arrows. (Yeah, I was very surprised, when they walked towards me.)
Are there any shortcuts planned for weapon-switching (bow/sword) and inventory/abilities?
Sol's sword and Viridian's armor are worth 0 coins...selling on the black market is not an option, because afterwards they aren't on the merchant's screen anyway.
I agree with cfx that there should be a message box for the X in the corner. Windows users are normally aware that this X means closing the application. But on a Mac this X means mostly, the application is still running but on a lower priority and before that, you're asked to save your data.

When reloading in the dungeons, all the killed enemies and taken coins reappear.

* This is more or less by design; I don't really want to save the actual state of the maps because I feel if I do, the player might be able to get into an unwinnable situation. Of course, you could say that saving when you've got no hitpoints or mana, reloading and watching everything respawn could be considered an unwinnable situation...I'll consider it.

When the level-up-window appears, the killed enemy is still onscreen and disappears right after closing the window. Bug?

* Not exactly a bug; the level-up state appears as soon as you kill an enemy that grants you enough XP to level up, which is actually BEFORE his animation resolves and he is removed from the world. I'll see if I can find a way to make this look better that doesn't break anything.

If mushrooms are more than 4 fields away or blocked by other mushrooms, they dont go aggro on arrows.

* The "doesn't aggro when too far away" has been fixed. You really shouldn't be able to shoot an arrow (or a smite) at an enemy that is blocked by another enemy; I'll work on that.

(Yeah, I was very surprised, when they walked towards me.)

* Tee hee :) Yeah, I realized that sessile enemies, no matter how strong, are stupid in a game that has ranged attacks.

Are there any shortcuts planned for weapon-switching (bow/sword) and inventory/abilities?

* Sol's been pestering me about this as well; I'll probably put in some basic keyboard shortcuts before I'm done, but I doubt the game will ever be playable only with the keyboard.

Sol's sword and Viridian's armor are worth 0 coins...selling on the black market is not an option, because afterwards they aren't on the merchant's screen anyway.

* And WHY would you want to sell them, citizen? Do they not make you happy? Do you not realize that unhappiness is treason? Please report to the food vats for your new assignment. Have a nice daycycle! (In all seriousness, I'll get a price put on them so you can sell them.)

I agree with cfx that there should be a message box for the X in the corner. Windows users are normally aware that this X means closing the application. But on a Mac this X means mostly, the application is still running but on a lower priority and before that, you're asked to save your data.

* Oh, fine. I'll write the code for it...maybe I'll put in an option so it can be turned off, because like I said, I can't stand it when I press "X" and the program continues to do something, even if it's asking me to save first.

I noticed I can't directly fight friendly npcs, but I can cast smite on them (and then attack them)... Is it intentional that you can harm them this way?

@Viridian
They DO make me happy, Big Brother, Sir! But as they're reappearing all the time, I thought I could make some extra money, you know...to go on vacation...have a good time...see some other npcs maybe...

HenryK: No, you shouldn't be able to smite friendlies. That's been fixed.

I played for quite some time tonight. This version is really showing some polish. Here are my 2 items:
1. It seems that attacking from a distance only causes the mobs to attack if you are within 4 squares. Hitting them from beyond that range does not cause them to move towards you.
2. I ran into the mother dragon in the dungeon near Ruby. When I clicked on her, she told me to find her whelp, then that she smelled the blood of the whelp on my weapon and would kill me. When she moved in to attack and I clicked on her again, she thanked me for finding her welp and gave me the dialog about the Slorn king and her being imprisoned. I neither found, nor attacked, nor saved her whelp

I've recently played for some time, I've found that when attacking an enemy, you have to click on the attack icon every time you want to attack, I think that button should work as an engage action, so it would turn on/off combat mode instead of having to click every time twice to attack someone. This is so far what I found annoying, haven't found any bugs so far...I'll keep posting new findings...

Outlaw: Yeah, we've gone back and forth on whether those commands should "stick" to the cursor or not. I think the attack commands (Attack and Smite) should stick, but no other commands should. I'll change the code to reflect that and see how it goes over in Beta 5.

Great Viridian! I think that feature would improve gameplay, so it is a welcome tweak to your code, cheers!

Played through beta 4 and I didn't notice any new problems that haven't already been listed by other testers. Great polishing touches and feels like a real game. I love the new spells / skills, though some tweaking might be needed to balance them. Also noticed that sounds issues are now fixed, which is great!

Great way to level up fast is learning the cleave and save & load in good spot, friend or foe it does not matter for cleave.