Alpha 5 review:
the f1 thing worked fine, so I'm starting a new play through.
Obsidian heart:
I'm in the tutorial mission at rookie's road now. During my first fight, I pressed x and it told me my health (my Tierramon's that is) but not the enemy's health. Battle controls are a bit slow to respond, but they do work.
During my second fight in the tutorial, the x key worked fine during battle and told me my Tierramon's and the enemy Tierramon's health. Will continue to report on this issue if it keeps up later.
The x key seems to work fine in battle now. I'm on the third battle and it's reporting both me and my opponent's health properly now. Since it;s now working, I'm glad I mentioned it in case it's now a minor bug or something.
Was just thinking of something ... During fights, I still forget what some moves do, but this will fix that. If say your Tierramon uses life drain, you could have the game say that it it regained health and whatever that amount is. Your game currently doesn't say how much damage moves are doing either, which could be helpful as well. The same could be said for the enemy Tierramons too; have the game say when they do damage how much they did and if they regain health, how much. Not an actual bug or anything obviously, just things to consider adding. Basically what I'm saying here is that in order to keep me (and others who might have this problem) from forgetting what moves do and avoiding needing to report what they do in a long description, just say what a move is doing when it's used in a short-form way. You could have something like this:
Obsidian heart (my Tierramon) I choose life drain (which is already reported obviously). Immediately after life drain is used, you could say "does x amount of damage (insert damage amount here) and then gains x amount of health (insert health amount here). This could work for other moves too, such as provoking blow "raised Tierramon's attack."
Another thing to possibly add. I tend to play my obsidian heart with using provoking blow to strengthen my attacks, using life drain to regain health, and also using the aggressive move with it brawl (decreases my own health). I got to thinking that you should maybe put one of those healing things (I just passed one in the tutorial) that you walk on to heal your Tierramons in the camp. It would definitely make things easier and then you would know that your Tierramons are healed before you go out to fight anything. You could put it near (maybe due south of) the Tierramon storage thing so it would be easy to find.
Another thing to add. I was just remembering this as I talk to the Gavin guy who tells you he's expanded the camp and also mentions that you got shards and found capture stones. It doesn't get reported how many stones you get and you can't find that out until you actually capture a Tierramon. I was thinking of two things with this.
1. When you get the capture stones there, you could have the game report that like "gained x amount of capture stones."
2. Though you won't be able to equip them like with say a health shard, put the Tierra capture stones as an inventory item in the menu to access by pressing enter (the managementt menu). You could have the stones either be reported by pressing a key at that point, or have them be a separate thing in this menu. For instance, a place for equip items where you would then find stuff like health shards and empowerment shards like what you see now and then one for other items, such as the capture stones, which you would interact with only by finding out how many you have. You could also put a section here for reporting how many tierra shards you have too as currency as well here. So you could maybe put in the management menu here press 1 for equip items and then have them listed and be able to equip them, press 2 for capture stones and then be able to either press another key to report how many you have or just have it say that automatically when you choose this, and then press 3 to report your tierra shards (money). I think this would make the most sense and covers all the things I've listed in this portion that could be added to the management menu.
I was just looking at the management menu and some of what I wanted here already exists. So using the layout now, you could keep tutorial as press 1, keep equip items as press 2, add press 3 for capture stones (to report how many there are,) and press 4 for tierra shards (money) to report how many there are. I think this would fix all the issues I was having with not knowing how many capture stones and also how many tierra shards (money) you have. And then just have the game report when you gain items (like you did when you gain tierra shards in the field actually) when you gain the capture shards and Gavin tells you about it. You could have it report that last bit like when you find tierra shards on the ground. have the game say "you recieved x amount of capture stones" or "you found x amount of stones" and that should fix this issue. What I'm basically saying here is like with a pokemon game since you used some influences from those, just report when you get an item (not when you buy one, when you get it outside of that) all the time, andd not just when you pick it up. A pokemon game would say (insert name) recieved the Pokedex when you get it (and also say it was put in your bag). The bag part isn't needed here, but that's the idea.
Another thing I was thinking of was when I was equipping a health shard to my obsidian heart just now. Obsidian hearts (any way you play them I think) and also other Tierramons like Crystal heart, end up loosing health rather quickly. Health shards will help with that, but here's another idea (this'll be a bit long, just stick with me).
I saw on audiogames.net on your alpha tierramon thread that someone (forget who) mentioned mining. I was thinking that you could add mining spots in the game and have the game report them like it would report any other alert. You could then have the player walk up to them and press e to have their tierramon mine for stuff (I was thinking tierra shards as money here, but you could put in the occasional health shard or empowerment shard or something too). That way, you could gain money much quicker and be able to buy those health shards to make sure your tierramon doesn't get knocked out as fast.
The reason I mention this too is that during the first mission I remember having my tierramons fainting a lot so having more tierra shards to buy more health shards is a good idea. And I mean the first mission, not the tutorial mission.
Another thing I was thinking is that you could add naming your tierramons into the game. You could add a section in the management menu for checking your tierramon's health, moves (to review what they do,) and anything else you think is necessary there like what move type they specialize in (aggressive, defensive, etc.). With the model above, you could add press 5 to view your tierramon and then put press 1 for health and stats and have those reported, press 2 for moves and have details on moves reported, and then press 3 for move specialty (obsidian heart is strongest with aggressive moves for example).
When I was doing my first fight in the first mission I got a code error. I was trying to capture the topaz heart bod and the topaz was on very low health (and so was my obsidian heart) and I got the error. Will restart the game and try again to see if this happens again. I restared the game and it seems that the error didn't happen. I was able to fight the topaz heart bod and then capture it.
Got another code error during the next fight though unfortunately. When I restarted the first time, it took me back to camp (which was my previous location) and also took away the health shard I'd had equipped even though the battle never finished. This second time I restarted the game I kept my health shard. Don't know what's up with that. I do find it weird that I was started back at camp again with my obsidian heart and topaz heart now though when I restarted. i was at the first mission when I got the code error; it's like the game thinks I lost the last battle but the thing with the health shard makes no sense.
I got another code error (same as the last two). I'm fighting a crystal heart glarold (think that's how you spell it) when it happens. I use the preparing move (to do damage when the enemy next attacks me) and the glarold uses a move and I get the error. The glarold is using punishing blow and I even tried using another move (provoking blow) and I still get the error then too.
error:
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
ERROR in
action number 1
of Step Event0
for object oCombat:
Variable Index [0] out of range [0]
at gml_Script_scTierraSwitch
############################################################################################
gml_Script_scTierraSwitch (line -1)
gml_Object_oCombat_Step_0
I got around the issue with glarold (and I think it's just that fight and that tierramon at this point for the error I was having). I restarted the game again after the error and fought the topaz bod again, then went back to fight where the glarold was (the second fight in the first mission). It gave me a zinia (think that's how you spell it) and I captured it without any errors.
Another issue. I used the map to get me back to camp after catching that Zinia (silver heart by the way) and it brought me back to camp fine -I did it just in case going to camp would heal me, but not sure it did-. Anyway, the issue came when I tried to walk around after that. I could hear my footsteps, but I wasn't going anywhere. I never ran into a wall and when I tried turning, nothing happened. It's like I went into a glitchy area or the game glitched when I used the map function to go back to camp.
I fought the glarold again and was able to defeat it without an error. I was using the zinia to fight with though and am wondering if this area (the first mission) doesn't like it when your starter (obsidian heart for me) fights them at this spot (the second battle in the first mission if it's glarold). Or maybe the issue is when yu try to catch the Glarold and not capture it?
I just got to the end of the tutorial. It mentions how it's the last mission and whatnot, I went forward, heard an interact thing (sign I think) and then I got the error. Not sure what the interact was since the error popped up before I could check.
error:
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
ERROR in
action number 1
of Create Event
for object oCombat:
Push :: Execution Error - Variable Index [41] out of range [34] - -5.tierraMons(100014,41)
at gml_Object_oCombat_Create_0
############################################################################################
gml_Object_oCombat_Create_0 (line -1).
One more thing to add. When your tierramon dies and the next one is sent out, I tend to have trouble figuring out which tierramon is sent out after. You could have the game say "your tierramon is down I'll send out the next one" and then say "sent out (insert tierramon name)" and it should fix this I think.
Well, that's it for now. I was able to continue after to the end of the alpha after i restarted so there's that. I've captured all tierramons in the game I can now too, so that's possible without errors too. Tried out most items and they seem to work.
Also, say when the manamon uses a lesser empower (or any empower shards) is a good idea to add. It says when they use health shards, but saying when empower shards are used would be a good idea too.