Post by JRHockney in Mystiqa comments

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Ok so I've played for several hours now and its a great game so far but I have a list here of issues/suggestions as I promised on Twitter:

-torches required in every dungeon is not very beginner friendly and a bit frustrating for even zelda vets. I suggest making oil torches on walls of rooms that dont go out once lit. In early dungeons and many later dungeons they should already be lit. But they start being not lit or not present in later dungeons rooms.

-going to stair well restores life without seemingly changing damaged health of enemies. Makes end bosses alot easier which is ok if its intentional but there should probably be a penalty of some kind like partially or fully restored health of the room enemies.

-I thought I remember a bow and arrow in the game before but haven't seen it so far. Would be very helpful against fire breathing bats/little dragons when they go over pits.

-more or some item drops from enemies or at least some reason to kill non-boss enemies. Since the orb of ascension is the way to level up and no experience points appear to be in the game, non-boss enemies seem best avoided besides annoyance factor.

-it would be nice to be able to visit every map land section to look for secrets (hidden caves reveled by bombs, chests under bushes, etc) and use the overworld as more of a quick travel. Over the water might be an exception unless you want to make a fishing or octopus fight options from the ship.

-what is the point of the clearings? I have visited many of them and it just one map square with no enemies or secrets that I can find.

-Villagers so far only say "nice to meet you". They should probably have a more diverse vocabulary for immersion purposes even if their village quests haven't been implemented.

-give certain enemies or items and item switching abilities/different attack types at higher levels.

-could use more environment, building, enemy, and boss diversity but I know that will come in time so I'm not really worried about that ;)

Thats all I can think of at the moment. So far its alot of fun and the dungeons are pretty decent as far as secrets and progression even if they are somewhat linear at first. Great effort and keep it up! :D

Juice4 years ago

Nice! Thanks for the thorough feedback man I really appreciate it!

The torch idea is good, I will probably improve that.

Yeah, my plan was that you should not regenerate life when going up/down the stairs. It's still in the game, haven't fixed that ;)

Have you used a spear against the little dragons? Also works well. But yeah, the bow will come!

Yup, I plan on adding monster drops for upgrading and crafting special items.

I'll try how having more overworld maps feels like, but that's actually a really good idea!

Have you found a note in a dungeon as a reward? It points to a "Clearing" in the current biome. In each clearing there is a stone "chest" in which there is the actual reward. It's sort of like a treasure map you find in a dungeon, get it?

Yup, villagers will say a lot more in the future!

Thanks again for the feedback! :)

JRHockney4 years ago

Ok I understand the clearings now. I did find one of those maps earlier in a dungeon and just went back and found the treasure since my computer is still running witht the game open 😂 Got another ascension orb 😁 Cool feature!

Regarding the dragons, you might want to consider more progression from the early levels just because even the first one I ran into was pretty hard. 3 heads with a steady fire stream and him physically chasing me around the room if enough to make non lesser experienced Zelda 1 players rage quit...luckily I was good enough to beat the second quest back in the 80s so not me! 😁

...but anyways, since you probably don't have a ton of bosses finished I would start with one head, slow movement speed, alternate attack (exploding fireball or maybe a scroll like power) and maybe short fire bursts and then increase one of these attributes per dungeon level. So by the level 30 or 40, the dragon would fast with alot of abilities and 10 heads!(which is probably enough heads and upgrades). You could also add different elemental dragons to vary the progression even more.

Lastly. I was just reading my last post and realized I had a huge typo and wasnt very clear...I meant to say:

-give certain BOSS enemies (like orc bosses) MORE items and item switching abilities/different attack types at progressivily higher levels. Imagine a level 40 Orc boss switching weapons, setting bombs, and using scrolls 😁. The higher the level, the more options, health, and switching rate they have.

Come to think of it, Wizard bosses could probably be implemented in a similar where they primarily use one scroll like power with no other weapons in the beginning and gradually get stronger and more varied....wizard camps or outposts might be fun too.

Just some ideas for your brainstorming

Juice4 years ago

Nice! Yeah I like the dragon stuff. I've already thought about stuff like that but haven't implemented it yet :) Will definitely come tho!

Yeah the humanoid bosses will be more intelligent and use more items the higher level they are! They actually already use health potions, have you noticed that?

JRHockney4 years ago

I'm not sure if Ive seen it yet. Does the loading bar appear over their head when they use the potion?

Juice4 years ago

No it doesn't. But they have the same drinking animation as the player and of course you can interrupt them ;)

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