VXAce - Northwall v1.0.1

Okay I saw the new demo uploaded with the fixes and decided to try it.

EDIT: Okay all the videos are up.  Within the hour they should be ready for streaming.

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0ByuTxMPbRZgjLV9KbXFmMng3T3c&usp=sharing

Here is the link to the folder and each video is now divided in a 30 min segment.

There are 9 videos, and the remaining play time and my attention to one of the puzzles(Including all exploits) will not be posted on this thread due to the wishes of the OP.

 

 I did some leg work for you:

1) A large ogre (not 32x32)

2) A large spider (not 32x32)

3) A large plant (because it's 4 enemies in 1, so not 32x32), so basically a plant body with no vines, then 3 vines, each with their own 3-frame animation

4) A snake

5) A large red worm (not 32x32), not earthworm-like, but more sandworm from Final Fantasy

6) A large blue worm (not 32x32)

7) A treasure chest mimic

8) A large werewolf (not 32x32)

Okay:

http://ameblo.jp/makapri/page-6.html (worms)

http://ameblo.jp/makapri/page-5.html (Knight which can double as a commander)

http://ameblo.jp/makapri/page-4.html (Werewolf animated sprites for battle and moves and downed)

Treasure Chest is Deebs(Edited Deb reposted it with the proper link!)

http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/27422-deebs-zelda-monster-and-other-fine-resources/

Be sure to credit her from material taken from her list

Snake is very easy, the large snake from Magi Chronicles is taken from FSM.  You can find it there.

The Ogre, plant, and spider are also available in FSM forums.  I don't have the links, but I've seen them browsing.  Happy hunting!

Ah, found the snakes.  Credit to Mack and Grandma Deb and Vibrato:

http://www.rpgmakervx.net/index.php?showtopic=15704

You can find them here.

Ah, found the Ogre.  Credit to Vibrato:

http://rmrk.net/index.php?topic=37534.0

Found the plant tendrils:

http://makapri.web.fc2.com/map/tenta01

Credit to Makapri, I was unable to find the main body.

Oh gosh, sometimes I wish I could give more than just 1 like per post to palladinthug, he's too awesome seriously.

@palladinthug:

I believe you should definitely start doing some Lps, you're entertaining and you also give good critiques without being harsh.

Somewhat minor update today, lots of bug fixes, combat tweaks, and things of that nature following some playtester feedback. The list of changes can be found below:

- Tilana's name gets revealed before you actually name her in a single dialogue box. This has been fixed.

- Clarified in the item description that food items permanently increase stats, not temporarily.

- Changed the shop scene to display "Owned" instead of "Possession" when referring to how many of a particular item you already have.

- Changed the examine dialogue for the pot of flowers in Marion's house. The cleric will no longer know it's Marion's house until after she's found resting there.

- If you try to leave Elblum after talking to the captain, but before picking up the ward, you will no longer see, "We still need to speak to the captain."

- If you did not receive the quest to turn in one of Galarand's books to the guild mistress by examining the statue of Galarand in the magic guild in Elblum, then you will receive it after looting the codex in Mount Flarus.

- Fixed a couple passability issues in the Mount Flarus caves where you could walk into the ceiling.

- Several citizens of Elblum referred to outsiders, plural, even though Tilana is actually waiting outside the town. In some cases, it was fine ("we don't serve outsiders"), but in others, it was strange ("don't touch our weapons, outsiders").  These inconsistencies have been cleaned up.

- Added a little more clutter to the snowy area of the world map.

- The Elblum citizens in the pub now actually have drinks.

- Fixed passability issues in the Northwall ruins where you could walk along the top of the walls.

- Fixed a bug where the ruins music was not playing when you left and re-entered.

- Added in Modern Algebra's State Viewer script. Now you can access a list of states from the party menu to see what their effects are. I've only included the ones that have similar icons (such as heaven's wrath and chill) or that are not readily apparent from the skill descriptions (such as debuffs that bosses can apply or unique buffs that some enemies can have).

- Ben and Rick will now hang around in the cave platforming event until you complete it, instead of disappearing if you fall.

- Belzar has been significantly rebalanced. Changes include:

-- A new enemy has been added to the fight: Power Source. Belzar no longer has an MP pool, and instead the power source will restore his crystals to full power. It has a maximum MP of 200, and recharging a crystal costs 100 MP. It will slowly recharge itself over the fight, but only up to 100 MP - it will not exceed 100 MP unless the sapphire charges it over its "maximum," or it absorbs damage. When the power source is damaged, it heals back to full health and gains mana equal to the damage it took. In most cases, it will immediately recharge a crystal the moment it has enough MP to do so. This new enemy was added because the fight became quite trivial if Varsena spammed blaze and Suven spammed holy barrage. Now spamming AoE will cause the power source to constantly power the crystals back up, encouraging a more thoughtful and generally more single-target strategy to the fight.

-- Since Belzar no longer spends a turn to recharge crystals, he is capable of doing more damage over the course of the fight. As a result, his HP has been reduced from 1400 to 1000 1100 to make the fight shorter.

-- Since the power source instantly recharges crystals upon reaching 100 MP, the crystals have lost their 25% damage reduction so they are easier to power back down. However, they are now immune to burn and chill.

- The revive item now only restores 55% health, instead of 65%.

- The revive skill now restores 80% health, instead of 65%.

- Cleanse now only uses up half an action, allowing the caster to act again sooner.

- Sanctuary now also restores 15% MP over 3 turns in addition to its previous effects.

- Scan no longer uses up a turn, allowing the caster to immediately act again. However, it no longer grants TP.

- Infusion now lasts for 3 actions, up from 2.

- The angelic form quest has been changed. Previously, you would choose one of Galarand's books to turn in and receive angelic form in return. However, it meant giving up an accessory that provided a skill and 5 MAT. Now, turning in a book permanently teaches you the associated skill, raises your MAT by 5, and teaches you angelic form. You can turn in all 3 of Galarand's books if you find them.

- The girl's altered form ability Slash now does 115% ATK and ignores 35% of the target's armor, up from 100% ATK and ignoring 25% of the target's armor. Previously, rapid strikes was proving a better choice too frequently, so this should bump Slash's usefulness up some.

- Cleaned up the werewolf and moon pictures, notably removing stray pixels and rough edges.

- The maximum amount of TP Suven, the girl, and Varsena can carry over between battles has been increased by 5, 10, and 5, respectively.

- Added Yanfly's Ace Shop script, primarily so you can now equip items in the shop instead of having to exit out.

- General Celandine has had his difficulty reduced in the following ways:

-- Heaven's Wrath now also slows General Celandine when you're fighting him. He can remove the slow effect by using scorching rage.

-- General Celandine will no longer attack General Cosgrove 4 times after you kill his 2 guards. Previously, the only practical way to save Cosgrove was to leave at least one guard still alive, making the fight harder. However, this is an unintuitive solution, and prevents you from receiving one of Galarand's books (as Cosgrove only gives it to you if he's alive at the end of the fight). Now, when you kill his 2 guards, he uses shattering strike and burning slash. While this may kill a wounded Cosgrove, it is much easier to save him.

- New accessory: Cloak of Regen. Protects against burn, poison, disease, and increases recovery rate by 10%.

- New accessory: Ring of Mobility. Raises AGI by 1, EVA by 5%, and makes the wearer immune to stuns.

- New accessory: Reinforced Plating. Raises the wearer's DEF and MDF by 5 and makes the wearer immune to the broken debuff.

- Marion's Sword Dance is now a certain hit to help deal with hornets.

Darn. That is a lot of balancing you've been doing all this time. Curious to see how Belzar fight will turn out now with the new enemy added.

I had hoped to leave the Belzar fight with the same difficulty it had before, but less prone to being easily dealt with by just AoEing everything. I did a 2-hour runthrough from start to finish before uploading the new version, and I'm concerned that Celandine and Belzar are a bit too easy at the moment - but I always need feedback from people who didn't program the game. I am happy to report that I wasn't able to beat Belzar with minimum levels and starting equipment this time around, though - at least not on my first try.

I only recently started working on it again, though - I've been really busy over the last couple months, including a couple vacations. However, coming back to the game after having some time away from it was nice. I still see a few things from older areas that I want to touch up, but ultimately I'm just trying to build up the enthusiasm to begin mapping again for the last area. I'm planning to move soon, though, and once again be very busy, so we'll see how it goes.

Nice. I look forward to seeing new content. I'll be very happy to playtest that along with the update to Belzar's fight.

Small content update today, along with a slew of ability balances, some bug fixes, new items, that sort of thing. A comprehensive list can be found below:

General

- Players can now access the events following Mount Flarus, including the return to Northwall. Will Maestro finally reveal why he's been following the party around and causing so much mischief? Or will he string them along, lie to them, and manipulate them even more?

- Added several small maps for cutscenes that used to occur on the world map. These include:

-- A new map for the brief cutscene following the events in the cave.

-- A new map for Ben and Rick asking the cleric if he wants to go to the ruins or not.

-- A new map for the cutscene following the forest.

-- A new map for the cutscene after the events in Aylan.

Bug fixes

- Belzar's scan indicated that he still empowers crystals, which is no longer the case. This has been fixed.

- Fixed a bug where remorse would still heal people with Deadly Wound on them.

- Remorse now gives 10 TP, up from 3. It was not intended to give such low TP.

- The Wizard's Hat has been fixed so that only the cleric and mage can use it.

- Fixed several issues in the Belzar fight where he would not properly cast crystal shield on himself despite all four crystals being active.

- Fixed an error where Elemental Shield's description listed the damage reduced being equal to 20% - it is actually 50%.

- 8/16/14: Fixed a bug where the power source in the Belzar fight would power up any crystals that were down when it reached 100 MP, when it should only power up one crystal per every 100 MP it has.

Ability tweaks and balances

- Meditation now also increases TP generation by 50%, in addition to its previous effects. Meditation now also only uses half an action, in addition to its previous effects.

- The player version of Contrition now restores HP based upon the amount of MP used up by the ability. E.g., if Contrition is used while at 80% MP, then 80% of the target's max health will be restored.

-- Contrition now only costs 50% of the caster's MP to use, but still revives a player with a percentage of health equal to the amount of MP the caster had when using it. For example, if the caster has 70% MP, then casting contrition will cost 35% MP, and restore her target with 70% HP. If the caster is at 26% MP, contrition will cost 13% MP and restore her target with 26% HP.

- Cost of Blaze increased from 10 MP to 45 MP. Damage decreased from 1.2 * a.mat to 0.9 * a.mat.

- Hybrid form now removes and makes the user immune to the accuracy-reducing effect of Distract.

- Lunar Strength now lasts for 5 actions, up from 3-4.

- Elemental Shield now lasts for 5 turns, up from 4.

- Lightning Strike damage reduced from 1.4 * a.mat to 1.25 * a.mat.

- Flame Pillar and Freezing Blast have had their variance reduced from 20 to 10.

- Purify now only uses half an action.

- Lupine Blur now lasts for 2 actions instead of 2 turns. Lunar Strength now lasts 5 turns instead of 5 actions. Lycanthropic regen now lasts 4 turns instead of 3-4 turns. Lupine Blur now lasts 4 turns.

- Lupine Blur renamed to Lunar Blur.

- Hybrid Form now also refreshes Lunar Blur.

- Frenzy, Maul, Deadly Wound, and Piercing Strike are now normal attack elements instead of physical.

- Lunar Wound is now a holy attack element instead of physical.

- Saint's Watch tooltip updated to show that any character who is transformed will still revert back to normal form if they are reduced to 0 HP. They will remain alive while Saint's Watch is on, however.

- Saint's Watch now prevents the use of transformation skills (Altered Form, Hybrid Form, Angelic Form, or Manifest). If an actor is transformed when Saint's Watch is applied, they will still remain transformed until it otherwise wears off.

- Rage, Despair, and Guilt transformation costs reduced from 10 to 5 TP.

- Divine Shield cost increased from 10 to 15 MP.

- Angelic form now prevents the use of items. Revert has been added to angelic form in case the player wants to drop it early, but the TP cost will not be refunded.

- Lunar Madness MP cost increased from 5 to 10. Still costs 15 TP in hybrid form.

- Divine Burst now deals 140% MAT holy damage, 210% MAT against targets with holy fire, down from 160% MAT holy damage, 240% MAT against targets with holy fire..

Enemy tweaks and balances

- Mount Flarus enemies now give a little more XP per monster, making it easier for people who have done all the optional content to be level 9 when they fight Belzar.

- Belzar now gives 1500 1300 XP, up from 900.

New abilities and items

- New ability: Somatic Shield. Lowers MDF to 0, increases DEF by 400%. Elemental damage taken increased by 25%.

- New ability: Phrenic Shield. Lowers DEF to 0, increases MDF by 150%. Physical damage taken increased by 25%.

- New ability: Lunar Madness. Consumes all lunar buffs currently applied to apply Lunar Madness. Consuming Lunar Strength applies a 100% chance to crit. Consuming Lunar Blur applies a 100% chance to counterattack any physical attacks. Consuming Lycanthropic Regen applies an immediate 60% max HP heal. Lunar Madness prevents the reapplication of any lunar buffs while active.

- New ability: Meteor. Deals 125% MAT damage and has a 50% chance to slow and a 50% chance to burn enemies. Requires Rage form to cast.

- New ability: Atonement. Transfers 25% of caster's mana to a party member. Party member receives an additional 8% mana. Requires Guilt form to cast.

- New ability: Bless. Restores 10% of the target's max HP. If the target has infusion applied, then it consumes infusion and applies a buff for 2 actions. If the target has a higher ATK than MAT, the buff increases ATK by 35% and causes their attacks to do holy damage. If the target has a higher MAT than ATK, the buff increases MAT by 35% and reduces the cost of spells by 20%.

- New armor: Steel Aegis. Increases defense more than targe, reduces fire damage by 15%.

- New armor: Steel Visor. Increases defense more than iron helm.

- New armor: Enchanted Headband. Increases defense more than leather cap. Increases AGI by 1.

- New armor: Leather hauberk. Increases defense more than leather armor.

- New armor: Mage's Mask. Increases MDF more than Wizard's Hat. Increases MAT slightly. Regenerates 5% MP every turn.

- New weapon: Mage's Staff. Increases ATK and MAT more than Simple Staff. Reduces MP cost of spells by 10%.

Item and equipment tweaks

- Potions now restore 36-44% max HP plus 22-27 health, up from 20-30% max HP plus 20-30 health.

- Mana draughts now restore 45-55% max MP plus 9-11 MP, up from 24-36% max MP plus 8-12 MP.

- Revive item now restores actor with 30% health, down from 55%. This is to encourage the use of the revive and contrition skills before using items.

- Cloak of regen now protects against burns, poison, and deadly wound, instead of burns, poison, and disease.

Personally, I don't really like dark and serious games, but Northwall's story is really interesting, and is well told.

Really good story-telling skills. The sense of urgency is never undermined. I don't notice story inconsistencies that are present in quite a few paid games.

The fact that there are no typos (or none that I've seen), makes it much easier to stay immersed in the story.

Very good battle mechanism. I like the way you can combine skills to increase attack chance, and to increase damage output.

Nice selection of mini-games to break the pace with really good rewards.

 

Bugs/Suggestion:


- Try switching out battlers for side facing ones, or place the actors' battler on the front, so that the actors and enemies are facing each other.

 

- Upon entering the northwest building in the refugee village, the fire in the fireplace goes off and the entire room lights up. This happens every time upon re-entering the building, as long as the player has not yet chosen to rest. After resting, the fireplace remains lit, and the room remains dark as though it is night time (although it is already daylight outside).

- Trying to enter the houses in the refugee village, causes some some events to disappear temporarily (eg. lanterns, campfire).

- Randomly unable to interact with the four characters in West Silth when attemtpting to determine time of death. (I can go more into detail in PM is you need it).

- Random crashes when entering battles (Not sure what causes it).

- Very rare Game_interpreter crash after battle in the forest south of Aylan. (Encountered only twice, and it was looking for "@id")

- The Refresh skill does not revive party members.



 

Overall, I find Northwall to have an excellent story, and battle mechanism. Very well balanced battles. Good pacing.

 

Can't wait to see the ending, whatever may come.

Thank you very much for playing my game and providing feedback, Susan. While I have my own list of things that I'd like to finish, improve upon, and generally change, I find other players' feedback significantly more helpful - both good and critical. I'm glad you enjoyed the story - I find myself often torn between working on the final dungeon and going back and improving earlier parts of the game (I feel the story - and game - needs a lot of work before Aylan).

I hope you'll be up to finishing the game and perhaps doing some more playtesting and feedback when I have another major update - thanks again!

It's been awhile since I've been able to work on the game for any length of time, and I was going to hold off on updating the game again - however, some major bugs that needed fixing have been dealt with and I wanted to get the newest version uploaded so newer players wouldn't be prevented from progressing in the game.

General

- The introduction has had an additional cutscene added. Some dialogue has been changed, as well. More changes are in the works for the introduction and early areas of the game.

- The West Silth puzzle has had some improvements made to it so that you cannot select the same choice of death order for the characters - that is, if you decide one person has died second, the option to choose "died second" will be removed from the other characters unless you finish the puzzle, fail the puzzle, or choose to start over by interacting with a character you've already made a choice for.

- The point where the "playable section" ends has been bumped slightly farther as a teaser.

Bug fixes

- Fixed a bug where actors were not being reverted after scripted combat scenes. The various common events associated with the reverts are now called after each scripted battle. There are no longer any parallel process common events - the various "revert" common events are now called at the end of each battle. Their function is to remove transformations, reduce TP if it's above the cap, and to restore the flask if the party looted it in the forest. Previously, these were all parallel process events that were erased after operating - however, it was discovered that they were actually running infinitely in the background. This should significantly boost game performance for people who may have been experiencing lag.

- Fixed a bug where Guilt would not revive Despair or Rage during the West Silth boss fight.

- The sapphire in the Belzar fight, when scanned, would indicate it restored MP to Belzar. It actually restores MP to the power source - this has been fixed.

- The West Silth puzzle had a bug where sometimes you couldn't interact with characters and you'd be unable to progress the game. This has been fixed.

- The West Silth puzzle had a bug where, if you saved the game immediately after entering the room, quit to title/exited the game, then came back, the characters would be gone, and you'd be unable to progress the game. This has been fixed.

Ability tweaks and balances

- Divine shield no longer reduces damage by 99% for 2 turns. Instead, it absorbs a certain amount of direct damage (not poisons or absorbs) and makes the target immune to burn, chill, bleed, broken, deadly wound, fire vulnerability, and thunder vulnerability.

- Party members are now restored from death after battle. Refresh no longer revives party members, but still restores their health to 100%.

Enemy tweaks and balances

- The East Silth boss no longer uses a potion at 50% health.

well i finished the demo and am quite hyped for more!

the storys good and the choices having a considerable effect on the game make it all the more amazing!

my favorite character is

the grammar was quite good and im extremely thankful for that. far too often its god-awful and i have a list of mistakes which ruin immersion

for once i was able to relax and just enjoy the game! : D

i dont know what else to say :3 play it! its good!

Thanks for taking the time to try my project and leave some feedback, Shayoko. I did make a small fix to the forest map thanks to you pointing out the transfer error.

hmm i rarely like to change anything a author does so long as the grammar is correct for what he/she was trying to express (would exclude accents)

Just a progress update today along with a handful of fixes that have been included since my last post. Here's a little teaser video to show what I've been working on. There are still treasure events, battles, and a lot of other things that will need to be done, but you can see some of the maps, a hint of the story progression, and a particularly neat effect I achieved for one of the puzzles. You can also hear me lending my voice to the game in the form of "creepy whispers."




Listed below are a handful of other changes made:

General

- New tutorial elements have been added, including:

-- During Ben and Rick's fight with the bandit, the CTB gauge and how agility affects turn order is explained.

-- During Suven's fight with the orcs, the difference between MP and TP is explained.

-- During Suven, Ben, and Rick's fight with the two worms, status effect icons are explained.

-- The first time Tilana transforms, an explanation is given on how hybrid form works.

Bug fixes

- In Northwall, if you return to the hallway where the bandit fight occurred, the sprite reappears (though cannot be interacted with). This has been fixed.

- Impale could be selected from the menu, though it didn't do anything. This has been fixed.

- If the player hit enter to speed up the text and progressed too quickly when talking to Grim after returning the power source, the game could potentially freeze from move routes being activated too soon and an event not being able to walk where it should. This has been fixed.

- Fixed a mapping error in the Aylan forest that transferred you to the wrong tile.

- All the post-battle common events were also being called on the first turn of each battle. This has been fixed.

- The regrowth flask was not being added to the inventory when it was first received. This has been fixed.

- A couple shading errors have been fixed in the Aylan forest map.

- General Celandine can no longer taunt General Cosgrove during their battle if he's already been killed.

Ability tweaks and balances

- Zeal no longer uses up a turn, allowing a player to immediately act again after activating it. The enemy form of Zeal still uses a turn.

- Tilana's ability Hybrid Form now only costs 15 TP, down from 25.

- Tilana's Altered Form ability Slash now ignores 75% of the enemy's defense, up from 35%.

I'm also planning on adding an additional story branch to the game once the primary storyline and other higher-priority things have been implemented - if you hesitate to save Tilana, you will be granted an additional choice to let Marion kill her, in which case Marion will instead join your party. This will obviously mean a lot of work, but I'm excited to write new cutscenes and dialogue featuring a completely different character in the party, as well as figuring out how to balance combat for a new party member.

First things first, though - the game should be finished before I go about that sort of undertaking. I'm always looking for more playtesters and feedback, as well, to improve upon things as I continue working on unreleased content, so do feel free to give the game a go and let me know what you think!

Spooky. This has become like a horror game now. I really like that mirror effect, how you can see your character's reflection actually moving.

I promise there will not be any jump scares.

A mixed update today with some important bug fixes and ability changes, as well as a new section of the final dungeon available for play. A new script has been added, so if you try to continue playing from an old save file, it will not work - as a result, anyone who has played to a particular point and would like to see content they have not experienced yet may send me a message requesting an advanced save.

The final dungeon will eventually have three "wings" available to play through, and one is effectively complete. There are currently no random encounters in the final dungeon, nor is there any intraparty dialogue available. Once the wing has been completed, the player will be informed that all playable content has been completed and be returned to the title menu. The new content available since the last update includes a handful of puzzles and a boss battle, along with some new "party members" of sorts. It also reveals the final ability Varsena will learn.

I'm always looking for new players to get additional feedback on the game, as well, and Let's Play videos are especially appreciated since it allows me to see things that players may not otherwise comment on in their feedback. A big thanks to everyone who has helped me get the project to where it currently is.

Below is a list of all additional changes made to already available content.

General

- Added additional tutorial elements, including:

-- During the fight with the bandit, the damage range for special abilities is explained

-- During the fight with the ogre, the difference between a turn and an action is explained

-- During the fight with the worms, special attention is called to the scan ability

- DoubleX's RMVXA Counterattack v1.05a script has been added. This addresses a handful of issues.

Bug fixes

- The various post-battle common events were not being called after the Aylan, Flarus, or spirit boss battles because they are technically aborted, not victories. This has been fixed.

- Guilt's ability Remorse was reviving dead party members when it healed them. This has been fixed.

- Despair's ability Dispel was removing Belzar's Crystal Guard. This has been fixed.

- Unburden could be used outside of battle. This has been fixed.

- Enemies that were using skills as a result of the Force Action command were not being properly bumped back on the CTB gauge. This is an issue with a script that is no longer supported, and so as a work-around, any time an enemy acts as the result of a Force Action, they are also briefly stunned to create the illusion that the forced action was their turn. In particular, this affects:

-- General Celandine attacking Cosgrove if his two soldiers are killed first.

-- Belzar's crystals after they've buffed him every 6 turns.

- Counterattacking previously wouldn't display an animation. Now it will.

Ability tweaks and balances

- Added some MP to any enemies Varsena might encounter, so that her energy sap ability won't have zero effect, except on obviously physical enemies. Also added an anti fail tag to it so that trying to sap enemies with no MP should say "0" instead of "Failed" to make it more clear what's happening.

- Ben and Rick can no longer use the shield ability. Defense was low enough at the beginning of the game that a 25 (or even 50)% increase was hardly noticeable. Ben can now use shield wall, which reduces damage taken by 25% and regens 2% HP each turn. Rick can now use poison spear, which deals 125% ATK damage and applies poison to the enemy.

- Penance and Atonement no longer have an MP or TP cost, since they were already transferring health and MP, respectively. Adding an additional cost seemed unnecessary.

- The player ability Energy Sap now also increases AGI and MAT by 15%, in addition to its previous effect of draining 20% of the enemy's max MP.

- Poison now lasts for 4 turns, instead of indefinitely.

- A target now takes damage before counterattacking, and does not automatically avoid the attack.

- Tilana will now use a basic attack in human form to counterattack, Rapid Strikes in altered form, and Frenzy in hybrid form; using these abilities does not cost any TP or MP.

Enemy tweaks and balances

- During the West Silth boss battle, the shadow can no longer be directly targeted until the other three members are defeated.
 

As a general note, progress is still slow on the project due to time constraints. My average work day over the last couple months has been about 11 hours on the clock each day, and my rare time off has been spent on more important activities. On the plus side, I've been supplying a number of voices for another project called Sydney's World that has been Greenlit on Steam, so do keep an eye (or an ear) out for that in the near future.

Current goal for the Northwall project is to lay out the second wing of the final dungeon, which will include solo content for Tilana, with a reward of Tilana receiving a handful of additional "final" abilities. After that, the third wing, which will bring the party to the final boss and to the conclusion of this game's story, and then on to creating the alternate storyline for having Marion in your party if you choose not to spare the girl in the forest.

As an additional note, I will be absent from home for a much-needed two-week vacation in June, though Summer is also expected to be the "busy season" for work, so I expect the next wing will not be available for awhile as I expect continued 11-12 hour work shifts. Nonetheless, any gamebreaking bugs that are discovered will be attended to ASAP, so do feel free to send me a message or leave feedback - and I'll still be updating my project internally as I get more response from testers.

Been a very long time since I was able to work on Northwall, but I'm happy to say I've finally got the opportunity to pick the project back up.

For those of you who have been following this thread, you may have noticed that I frequently spoke more and more of having less time due to my job, working 11 hour days and such. It eventually got to a point that I was regularly working 14-16 hours a day, such that my life basically only had time for eating, sleeping, commuting to and from work, and being at work. We started spilling work over onto Saturdays, so I was working a 6th day each week, and when it didn't, I was sleeping most of Saturday and far too exhausted on Sunday to do just about anything. In short - I did absolutely nothing except the job.

However, good pay and benefits just aren't worth that kind of life, so I've put that behind me in favor of catching up on much-needed time with the people in my life and the various hobbies and projects I'd let fall to the wayside. Included is, of course, Northwall!

Not a whole lot of updates today, mostly bug fixes that I wanted to include for any new players. If you have already played through the project, there's not much you haven't already seen. The list of changes are below:

Bug fixes

- When the girl uses Lunar Blur, the battle message is "x uses Lupine Speed!" This has been fixed.

- Shield Wall will now properly be removed after battle.

- Varsena will now properly split from and face Suven when examining the storage capsule in Elblum regardless of where you're standing when you interact with it.

- Belzar's crystals will now properly be gone if you leave and come back.

- Added Mithran's Script Debugger to try and address random "RGS33 has stopped working" crashes that otherwise don't report any issues.

- Just before Guilt's battle in the final dungeon, Lady Celandine turns invisible when she shouldn't. This has been fixed.

- During the Belzar encounter, the power source was sometimes naturally regenerating over 100 MP. This has been fixed.

- During the Belzar encounter, the power source was sometimes not reviving crystals despite being at 100 MP with a crystal down. This has been fixed.

- In the first floor of West Silth, the lights would move with the screen instead of moving along a fixed line on the map. This has been fixed.

- A handful of states showed up in the State List that were not supposed to. This has been fixed.

Ability tweaks and balances

- Lunar Blur now removes the Immobile state in addition to its previous effects.

Enemy tweaks and balances

- During the Belzar encounter, the power source now uses an animation-less skill to show how much MP it regenerates each turn.

General

- In the cave, the forest, and Mount Flarus, the number of random encounters remaining will no longer reset if you leave the dungeon and come back. Some players would finish the boss fights, but decide to come back and explore the dungeon for puzzles or other items they missed, and having to clear out random encounters again seemed frustrating.

- If you manage to get yourself stuck in the rock-pushing puzzle in Mount Flarus, Tilana will chastise you and push a rock out of the way so you can leave the room. For the curious, here's a video demonstrating:




Here's a little teaser image of the east wing of the first part of the final dungeon, for those of you who've played through the project already. You may recall that Varsena got her own section of the dungeon to play through - Tilana gets one, as well.



Once Tilana's wing is finished, there will just be the "main wing" for the party to explore through before encountering the final boss of the game! Who could it be? There's a lot of tense feelings amongst the party, and it's still hard to say if Maestro is being honest or lying about Galarand and leading them into a trap.

Bit of an update today - I was planning to finish something up before posting another one, but someone asked to do a Let's Play of my game and I wanted to give them the most up-to-date version I had. Changes found below:

Ability tweaks and balances

- Lunar Madness now seals the skills Lunar Strength, Lycanthropic Regen, and Lunar Blur. Previously, it only made the user resistant to their respective states. This is to prevent the player from wasting a turn trying to apply a buff that will not function.

- Marion's ability Tendon Slash has been renamed to Crippling Slash. In addition to its previous effects, it now also removes any rage effects (that is: Swarm, Coiling Anger, and Lunar Strength).

- Marion's ability Cross Strikes has been renamed to Combo Strike. Previously, it used to be a certain hit ability to deal with hornets' high evade. Now, it deals 60% weapon damage, but rewards 8 TP (16 when in Zeal).

- Protective Aura now reduces incoming physical and magical damage by 20%, instead of raising MDF by 30% and DEF by 15%.

- Purify now also protects against burn, chill, poison, and diseased for 3 turns in addition to removing them.

- Heaven's Wrath now reduces enemy defenses by 75%, up from 50%.

- Rapid Strikes now does 70% weapon damage, down from 80%.

Enemy tweaks and balances

- The cave spider has been redesigned. It can no longer stun party members. It now starts the battle with a web shield and 3 eggs in play, and can occasionally create a new web shield or spawn more eggs. An egg that is not killed within 2 turns spawns a spiderling. The web shield makes the spider untargetable until it is destroyed. Web creation and egg laying have cooldowns of 4 and 5 turns, respectively.

- Hornets have been redesigned. They no longer have a 50% chance to spawn a new hornet in each turn, and instead all appear at once. They no longer have a chance to evade attacks. Now, only one hornet will act at a time, but its attacks will be empowered by the number of remaining hornets.

- Snakes will no longer stun.

- Snakes can now use Coiling Anger, increasing ATK by 25% and reducing physical damage taken by 20%. This counts as a rage effect.

- Snakes can now use poison bite.

General

- Enemies have had their battlers replaced with sprites. Thanks to Hiddenone for her cave spider and lava fiend sprites!

- The cave dungeon has been redesigned. It is now multiple screens instead of a single one, and its story has been expanded a bit.

- Grim's dialogue has been modified to fit the game world better.

- Removed conversational gabs from the dungeons. While they were originally designed to help flesh out characters through random chit-chat while exploring dungeons, they have ultimately become an awkward and unnecessary addition to the game.

- Tilana's wing is now partially available in the final dungeon! You will be able to explore the puzzles that it brings, but the boss battle is still in development.

Big changes for this particular update are that all enemy battlers have been replaced with sprites, and the first dungeon has been redesigned. The dungeon's boss previously felt very bland and boring, and was notably easier and simpler than the first boss of the game, so it has been redesigned to be more complex and engaging (as well as punishing attack spam, which the previous one didn't do much about). Stuns were also removed from early enemies - you should not see them until you have at least 3 party members with more than one way to remove it, and even then, it's an extremely rare ability.

The forest enemies have been largely redesigned, as well, with Marion's abilities being changed up to interact with them in more interesting ways.

The other big change is that the final dungeon has been expanded upon more. Tilana's wing is largely complete, continuing the story and allowing the player to explore a couple unique puzzles. The playable section will end just before her boss battle, however, as that is still being developed.

I'm planning to do another playthrough, myself, and to record it so I can do some screengrabs to reflect the updated content - most notably, enemy sprites instead of battlers.