VXAce - The Cube Trail - Demo Version 1.3 [Comedic Fantasy RPG]
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I did notice just a little glitch, you can hop off the inn balcony and get some bread before bed. Maybe you can turn it into a funny feature though haha
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Welp, that's another thing on my list of things to fix or modify. I don't know how I missed that one...View attachment 284582I did notice just a little glitch, you can hop off the inn balcony and get some bread before bed. Maybe you can turn it into a funny feature though haha
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I find that my luck in games usually is about as bad as it could be, so when it comes to battle systems like yours I may be an outlier. But it's still nice to be able to influence that luck so unlucky players can still get something out of the game. Starting the player with basic equipment could help, that way they can focus on buying accessories or better weapons instead of spending all their money on the basic stuff so they don't keep getting game overs.Thank you for the detailed feedback! You made a lot of good points and I'm going to address them so the player experience isn't AS rough as you had it (even I didn't have luck that bad, and I had some terrible luck in a playthrough or two :elswt:). Difficulty is a really hard thing to balance of course, and your feedback was constructive, so I have some thinking to do on how to dial things in better.
The light thing is from a lighting script (the window skin has transparency so it lets the light through unfortunately, if I change that it might fix it), and the crash I really, truly have no idea. I've been using the default music only, so why it's looking for files that never existed is anyone's guess. Maybe some script is interacting in a weird way?
When I've fixed things up, would you be willing to give it another go? No promise on when that'll be as I've been working on my post apocalyptic game a lot recently.
I thought it was a lighting script, it was mostly funny to watch the glowing green from slimes in the sentinel move across the characters' facesets when there was a cutscene.
Sure, I can give it another go once you've updated things. Should I wait another 4 years so I'll forget everything again like this time? :p -
I ended up in that weird Cove town, and let me tell you, I was not expecting a Shadow Over Innsmouth sidequest in my RPG maker game tonight, but I was pleasantly surprised:rwink:.
Unfortunately, I did encounter a softlock here escaping from the window (I think I'm stuck in the wall/a moveroute is happening that infinitely loops) so I'll have to see if I can circumvent it to continue on this side story oof -
Ok, I may be able to fix that for you without you having to restart. I'm uploading a new version, simply move your saves to the same location they were before in the new one andI ended up in that weird Cove town, and let me tell you, I was not expecting a Shadow Over Innsmouth sidequest in my RPG maker game tonight, but I was pleasantly surprised:rwink:.
Unfortunately, I did encounter a softlock here escaping from the window (I think I'm stuck in the wall/a moveroute is happening that infinitely loops) so I'll have to see if I can circumvent it to continue on this side story oofView attachment 284725it should work.I have confirmed it works by downloading the new one and putting my old saves into it.
The passibility of the vines was messed up because another map uses the same tileset, and I didn't want the player to climb the vines in that one. I'll just have them use 2 versions of the same one but with different vine passibility.
Also, that's not the only Lovecraft reference planned, as I have a whole Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath part too that'll come later. -
Thanks! I'll give it a try soon!Ok, I may be able to fix that for you without you having to restart. I'm uploading a new version, simply move your saves to the same location they were before in the new one and
it should work.I have confirmed it works by downloading the new one and putting my old saves into it.
The passibility of the vines was messed up because another map uses the same tileset, and I didn't want the player to climb the vines in that one. I'll just have them use 2 versions of the same one but with different vine passibility.
Also, that's not the only Lovecraft reference planned, as I have a whole Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath part too that'll come later. -
The Cube has cast it's influence on the Island again, this time things are a bit easier for the player
- Removed the most powerful enemy variants/enemies with valuable loot drops (Phasing, Prismatic, Bouncing, Evil, Boss, Ancient, Clockwork, Fated, Geode, Gilded Statue, Relic Statue) from the Seaside Sentinel and Cube Town Forest. Variants in the Catacombs are unaffected.
- Made enemies have a 100% chance to drop loot items. Some enemies have less loot drops than before.
- Rebalanced loot item prices to accommodate the new drop rates.
- Moved some dialog boxes to the middle of the screen so the view of the player isn’t blocked on smaller maps.
- Made a free party heal once per demo at the cot in Dereck’s house.
- Made Stella’s Souls and a few other miscellaneous items unusable in battle as they would skip an action when used.
- Changed the “Goo’d” state so it halves recovery from items, not healing, as it negatively affected Action Point gain.
- Changed Jacob’s class to “Skilled Citizen” to avoid confusion with Charles’ Warrior class.
- Fixed some minor issues.
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I finally finished Sophie's Route (V1.1)! I gotta say, as a simple RPG game I had a lot of fun with this one!
The Good:
- As stated before, I think you killed it with the characterization and character dialogue! They're all super charming and bounce off of each other in really grounded memorable ways despite their strange often magical circumstances. I'd love to see more side-scenes and party chat interactions added.
- I thought Sophie's team synergized really well. I used Sophie as the main attacker, Cory to draw aggro and attack too, and Robert as the support. Building up a strategy based on the new abilities was fun, especially since they learned new useful abilities pretty frequently.
- I liked the differences between the different routes that were there. Of course the dialogue, but also the different strategies/abilities you have access to. I think adding more to that could add more incentive to play through all of them.
The "Needs Improvement":
- Game paths seem to be far harder than others without much warning. For example, Sophie is tough but abilities like her Sailor's Dance counter-attack skill and the fact she gets access to Robert's group support and heal abilities takes the edge off. Meanwhile, Clair has a much more difficult time because her party members are more offensive but they only get her single target healing at lower/mid levels making it tough to stay afloat in dungeons. To a point where I just focused on finishing Sophie's route because the fights in Clair's were getting unmanageable for me.
- I think some of the enemy troupes can be a bit too powerful offensively and defensively. This can make battles with them go nowhere fast when you're always fighting three foes. I found the few fights with one tough foe a big relief and found myself using that Excuse Form item a fair bit to get past particularly mean fights (I think you shouldn't be able to use it on scripted fights though). I think in a game where enemies can deal sudden bursts of damage, having fewer strong enemies per fight rather than always fighting 3 strong foes would be more manageable and limit the chance of having a team wipe turn.
- I think the inn should just automatically take you to your room instead of having to walk there. It would make the repetitive trip from the dungeon to the inn and back a bit faster without losing much.
- I think the game could use a more detailed in-game manual or a little more tutorial-ing to convey just how the cube affects/randomizes attack and defenses and how to mitigate its effects and maybe even how to use it to your advantage. Maybe a plugin or ability that lets you see your target's stats would also be helpful since stats like armor and luck seem to govern a lot of the combat but they're not easy to ascertain just by looking at an enemy the way an elemental weakness or something is
- I never ended up using the elemental/magic/status items, and the statuses overall felt a bit moot. I think in my case, it was a good thing since it made the harder parts of the game easier, but I think they could add that much more strategy to the game.
Overall, it was a fun time! It definitely drew me back in and I'm excited to see you improve upon it. -
Thank you for the high praise, especially of the dialog! :kaojoy:By the way, what did you think about Alexander and Diablo?I finally finished Sophie's Route (V1.1)! I gotta say, as a simple RPG game I had a lot of fun with this one!
The Good:
- As stated before, I think you killed it with the characterization and character dialogue! They're all super charming and bounce off of each other in really grounded memorable ways despite their strange often magical circumstances. I'd love to see more side-scenes and party chat interactions added.
- I thought Sophie's team synergized really well. I used Sophie as the main attacker, Cory to draw aggro and attack too, and Robert as the support. Building up a strategy based on the new abilities was fun, especially since they learned new useful abilities pretty frequently.
- I liked the differences between the different routes that were there. Of course the dialogue, but also the different strategies/abilities you have access to. I think adding more to that could add more incentive to play through all of them.
The "Needs Improvement":
- Game paths seem to be far harder than others without much warning. For example, Sophie is tough but abilities like her Sailor's Dance counter-attack skill and the fact she gets access to Robert's group support and heal abilities takes the edge off. Meanwhile, Clair has a much more difficult time because her party members are more offensive but they only get her single target healing at lower/mid levels making it tough to stay afloat in dungeons. To a point where I just focused on finishing Sophie's route because the fights in Clair's were getting unmanageable for me.
- I think some of the enemy troupes can be a bit too powerful offensively and defensively. This can make battles with them go nowhere fast when you're always fighting three foes. I found the few fights with one tough foe a big relief and found myself using that Excuse Form item a fair bit to get past particularly mean fights (I think you shouldn't be able to use it on scripted fights though). I think in a game where enemies can deal sudden bursts of damage, having fewer strong enemies per fight rather than always fighting 3 strong foes would be more manageable and limit the chance of having a team wipe turn.
- I think the inn should just automatically take you to your room instead of having to walk there. It would make the repetitive trip from the dungeon to the inn and back a bit faster without losing much.
- I think the game could use a more detailed in-game manual or a little more tutorial-ing to convey just how the cube affects/randomizes attack and defenses and how to mitigate its effects and maybe even how to use it to your advantage. Maybe a plugin or ability that lets you see your target's stats would also be helpful since stats like armor and luck seem to govern a lot of the combat but they're not easy to ascertain just by looking at an enemy the way an elemental weakness or something is
- I never ended up using the elemental/magic/status items, and the statuses overall felt a bit moot. I think in my case, it was a good thing since it made the harder parts of the game easier, but I think they could add that much more strategy to the game.
Overall, it was a fun time! It definitely drew me back in and I'm excited to see you improve upon it.
You'll be very happy to try the new version, then! The most difficult enemy variants have been moved out of the starting areas and are only in the Catacombs now (there are still enemies 3 per battle, as it was way too easy with 2, but you are guaranteed loot from each one instead).
Clair's group was actually very overpowered in an earlier version, more than any other party before I nerfed it. It's still quite powerful if you strategize their skills like alternating Clair's and Willow's healing, spamming Divine Shield whenever possible, or using Stella's Dark Soul or Solar Soul after using Willow's Planal Mockery. Personally I'd redo her route on the new update I just released.
I can easily add a script that shows enemy defenses, I'm currently using one in an unreleased project I'm working on. Great idea! Also, you can also review how stats and damage works with the "Combat Notes" item you get from Jacob during the wasp battle. I may change it to a general reference menu at a later date.
I don't use a lot of the one-shot items either whenever I play, but they do have their uses against enemies weak to them (which will be easier to tell after I add the script you mentioned) or in dire situations. I have some EXTREMELY OP ones in there too that you have a chance to get in a secret chest that's hidden.
As far as status effects go, I'm not quite sure what you mean. You think they aren't powerful enough, or what? -
Thank you for the high praise, especially of the dialog! :kaojoy:By the way, what did you think about Alexander and Diablo?
Diablo was definitely one of the highlights of the experience! I always trust ominous skeleton people and he's a bud. Alexander was definitely one of those villains you love to hate, I liked how his too-fancy-for-this-world personality bounced off of Sophie's more grounded personality. I even think you could make him even more of a sucky guy going forward!
I need to play Diablo's fight, but the superboss fight against Alexander was actually really fun and well designed. It pushed me to use more of the attack and status items I got, including the OP ones, but it was still a lengthy and fair fight.
However, I'm not precisely sure what happened but right when I was close to killing him he regained all of his HP, so I just used a Reasonable Request item to finish the battle lol. I could've misclicked an OP item but if it's by design I might remove a bit more of his defensive bulk to compensate for restoring all his health by surprise since getting through his first health bar takes a lot of time alone.
For status effects, I just mean that things like blindness or freezing felt really temporary and low impact compared to other games because they all wore off quickly and didn't affect my strategy much.I don't use a lot of the one-shot items either whenever I play, but they do have their uses against enemies weak to them (which will be easier to tell after I add the script you mentioned) or in dire situations. I have some EXTREMELY OP ones in there too that you have a chance to get in a secret chest that's hidden.
As far as status effects go, I'm not quite sure what you mean. You think they aren't powerful enough, or what?
Beyond making the statuses last longer, be more severe, and/or adding status heal items, a random idea I had and wanted to suggest (that if you like you're totally free to use!) is a feature where critical hits are a bit more common on negative status-afflicted battlers. This would make it so if one of the player characters gets a status, one of the counterplay options is to hide them with the drawback being the party gets one less action until that character's status wears off. -
Both Alexander and Diablo have a skill/skills which allows them to regain their HP. Alexander uses one of his Energy Potions (a modified one, not the one with damage reduction because it was so busted when I tested it) and Diablo has two HP draining skills, including a truly evil one that stuns one of your party members as he sucks their life out. I'm really glad to hear that Alexander's fight was fair, as they are supposed to be really difficult but still beatable at this point in the demo.Diablo was definitely one of the highlights of the experience! I always trust ominous skeleton people and he's a bud. Alexander was definitely one of those villains you love to hate, I liked how his too-fancy-for-this-world personality bounced off of Sophie's more grounded personality. I even think you could make him even more of a sucky guy going forward!
I need to play Diablo's fight, but the superboss fight against Alexander was actually really fun and well designed. It pushed me to use more of the attack and status items I got, including the OP ones, but it was still a lengthy and fair fight.
However, I'm not precisely sure what happened but right when I was close to killing him he regained all of his HP, so I just used a Reasonable Request item to finish the battle lol. I could've misclicked an OP item but if it's by design I might remove a bit more of his defensive bulk to compensate for restoring all his health by surprise since getting through his first health bar takes a lot of time alone.
For status effects, I just mean that things like blindness or freezing felt really temporary and low impact compared to other games because they all wore off quickly and didn't affect my strategy much.
Beyond making the statuses last longer, be more severe, and/or adding status heal items, a random idea I had and wanted to suggest (that if you like you're totally free to use!) is a feature where critical hits are a bit more common on negative status-afflicted battlers. This would make it so if one of the player characters gets a status, one of the counterplay options is to hide them with the drawback being the party gets one less action until that character's status wears off.
I built them to be roughly the same power level, but maybe it'd be better if I made Diablo a tank and Alexander more of a glass cannon. I'll have to think about that.
Alexander and Diablo are going to continue being their horrible selves in a later update, tempting you with powerful loot as long as you deal with their insane requests of invisible instant death mazes and other awful things. Who knows, whichever one you defeat might return even stronger...
I'll edit the negative status states to make themso brutal the player trembles in fearmore effective. I'll also look into the increased critical hits taken thing and see if its possible. -
Just an announcement, everyone. I'm putting development of The Cube Trail on hold while I focus on other projects, and to readjust my personal thoughts about the project.
It's come a long way since the first demo, but I feel like it lost what I felt made the first demo special, so that's getting moved to a new project. I'm going to get back to this at some point but it's probably not going to be anytime soon, unless it's to fix bugs. -
New update, I fixed a really bad exploit and changed some things around.
- Elemental enemy types no longer have cooldowns on their elemental skills so they should use them a lot more.
- Magic classes' basic attack uses their Magic Power stat instead of their Attack Power. This will make them more useful when their skills are on cooldown.
- Reasonable Requests no longer insta-defeat enemies. You can escape from most enemies now, including Alexander and Diablo. Some scripted battles, like the Sea Slug, Elders, and Skeleton Deathlord are exceptions.
- Alexander and Diablo now drop both of their respective one-use items instead of FUN! Potions.
- Alexander and Diablo’s skills have been redone for more interesting combat.
- Crazed Adventurers now drop “Adventurer's Pouch” items which give random white or green one-use items.
- Added “Clockwork Core” one-use item to Clockwork enemies.
- The merchant in the Cube Town Inn now sells “Memory Stone” one-use items that give XP.
- More one-use items have been placed in chests.
- Collin’s Double Bass Drumming skill has been buffed to 75% hit chance from 50%.