Post by docnutnut in Rise of the Soulmancer comments

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I just had another thought concerning those irritating little Soul Fragment ghosts. Maybe they could also shoot each other. So the area begins with all those ghosts. You move around the screen looking for the fragment but also positioning yourself so that ghosts get destroyed. Eventually it will be much easier to find and collect the fragment as there can be just one ghost remaining as a ghost is not going to shoot itself.

So it can end just slightly harder than no ghosts, but is still a challenge compared to an empty screen.

Also, you said that Hammers drop much more frequently after the Path. I got one immediately after completing the path and none since. I am on level 110 now. Is it a case of being unlucky, like the rest sites, or is 'much' more frequently relative to not at all?

1StepCloser2 years ago (1 edit)

I just had another thought concerning those irritating little Soul Fragment ghosts. You move around the screen looking for the fragment but also positioning yourself so that ghosts get destroyed.

I see, so a way to fight back. Perhaps other objects could exist in the layout that can be used to destroy the ghosts.

Also, you said that Hammers drop much more frequently after the Path.

The chance of getting hammers is much higher as the reward for beating Path of Chaos.

docnutnut2 years ago

Fair enough. It's all relative.

I am infinitely more likely to win a UFC belt than Joseph Stalin.

I'm sure that hammers will drop eventually.

I don't even bother looking for the fragments now. I just die. It's better than getting irritated.

docnutnut2 years ago(+1)

I'm sure that hammers will drop eventually.

One came up as an expedition reward right after writing this message.

Yay!

docnutnut2 years ago(+1)

I just got a hammer from expeditions. It shows up on the expedition inventory page, but not in expansion.

My nemesis: The Hammer!

1StepCloser2 years ago(+1)

By that you mean you've collected a hammer as a reward for expedition completion, and that increase in hammers (presumably by 1) does not show up when you enter expansion?

docnutnut2 years ago(+1)

Exactly.

1StepCloser2 years ago(+1)

Thanks, I'll check on this.

docnutnut2 years ago(+1)

Something else I can't help but wonder.

Did there used to be more creds earned? Maybe an increase in rewards as the Overworld levels progress?

I ask this as I am saving up for those Production rooms and Generators which are kinda pricey, especially when 25-35 is as much as I can expect for a reward be it on level 1 or level 101. I did just get an Orbin Generator as a Puzzle reward though, so that saved me 5.5k creds.

I ask, because this must have taken a while

Then again, you are the dev so I imagine that cash and objects aren't as much of a hassle for you to get than they are for me.

1StepCloser2 years ago (2 edits)

In many cases, it's mostly just attempting to get the balance right (constant process), info such as this helps.

I do need to work on reward scaling with world level, even if just slightly.

However, like expansion, I wanted some parts of progress to be more long-term.

Originally, the issue was that the tile breakers (used to create space for you to place rooms) were super rare compared to the rooms, so I attempted to slow the rate of gain for rooms to match tile breaker gain.

The next question is if you even have space to use your rooms, without that, you could have 50+ rooms without much use.

docnutnut2 years ago(+1)

I imagine that the finer workings of your game keep you up at night.

I consider myself an ideas person, I don't know how something can be done but I love coming up with new possibilities no matter what they are in connection with. I don't expect any of what I suggest to ever make it in to your game, but if they do, they do. Any time I get into something, I consider the 'What if' variations. I tried years ago to get a message to Quentin Tarantino for what I thought would be a perfect film concept for him to make. Without being in the industry myself, it is exceedingly hard to get a message to one of the top directors of our time and the reply I eventually got sounded like it came from his secretary.

I was thinking of something which would relate to the tree idea I had. You have so much space that will probably remain unused within Sanctum. All those underground squares which are unaffected by the Tile Breakers. I had an idea of a root system from the tree. The roots would uncover one square at a time, each square being a new zone and maybe each of these new zones being uncovered each day or week. A zone could be one level or a hundred. It could be all fighting, all puzzles or something else entirely, and each one would have to be completed before going onto the next one as well as being able to repeat them. I have tried to count the number of squares that the Tile Breakers can break. I think there are a little under 8,000 of them, and there are many more than that that can't be touched if you use the mouse wheel to scroll out.

Assuming the hammers work eventually, it won't actually take THAT long to uncover the whole map in Expansion despite you wanting it to be a slow, endgame feature. Though I don't know what is going to happen within the caves, yet. I also wonder if you plan to add armies to Expansion so that the areas that are populated by other forces can be defeated and built upon. So that eventually the entire map would, I guess, be completed. Would this allow for an Expansion Prestige? A new map but with all or a percentage of your existing supplies? Some new buildings, features or currencies? A crossover potential between Expansion and Sanctum?

Ideas. More things to keep you up at night. Nothing more.

I've been writing a Utopia/Dystopia sci-fi book for a while now and I am constantly thinking of how to incorporate the ideas into the story without making the story overly sci or fi. I don't want to add something that is just stupidly and carelessly included like they did with time travel in Avengers Endgame. I don't really know what I'm getting at here so I'll stop writing before this turns into a novel or I just decide to delete rather than send.

I like to write. You have probably noticed this by now.

1StepCloser2 years ago

I don't expect any of what I suggest to ever make it in to your game, but if they do, they do.

I will attempt to add in as many as I can, but prioritizing what appears to be the most meaningful first.

Assuming the hammers work eventually, it won't actually take THAT long to uncover the whole map in Expansion despite you wanting it to be a slow, endgame feature.

That expansion location represents a single sector of virtually infinite sectors. The main idea is exclusive rewards from beating the sector compared to other parts of the game.

I also wonder if you plan to add armies to Expansion so that the areas that are populated by other forces can be defeated and built upon.

There is combat in expansion, but perhaps you mean something else. (For combat it requires a specific building).

A new map but with all or a percentage of your existing supplies? Some new buildings, features or currencies? A crossover potential between Expansion and Sanctum?

There is an exclusive reward for beating the sector, but long-term I'd like that system to become diplomatic, and universally influential, but that will require proper story systems I think (working on it, but it will take considerable time, I might try prioritizing pushing out a barebones foundation though for testing).

I don't really know what I'm getting at here so I'll stop writing before this turns into a novel or I just decide to delete rather than send. Iike to write. You have probably noticed this by now.

I enjoy reading these.

docnutnut2 years ago(+1)

There is combat in expansion, but perhaps you mean something else. (For combat it requires a specific building).

Maybe I'll get to build one someday :P then we can see if we're on the same page.

docnutnut2 years ago(+1)

Another thought and an easy one to implement.

A permanent Sanctum merchant. He sells everything that the wandering Outerworld merchant sells but at 20% (or x%) more. Now I have saved up enough for a Power Generator, it is a bit annoying that the merchants seem to be out of stock!

Also some more furniture would be nice. I have two pieces of furniture for my soulrooms and about 30 items that can be placed on top of furniture.

I was also wondering if these items are purely cosmetic or if they actually do something like increase XP earnings.

1StepCloser2 years ago

I want the incentive to venture into the Outerworld to be high, having a Merchant in the Sanctum even with higher cost would go against this goal in my opinion. Alternative solution would be to slightly increase frequency of the Merchant.

Also some more furniture would be nice. I have two pieces of furniture for my soulrooms and about 30 items that can be placed on top of furniture.

This might just be a probability balance issue. I'll check.

I was also wondering if these items are purely cosmetic or if they actually do something like increase XP earnings.

As of now the items within the rooms are cosmetic, and the rooms themselves are functional.

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docnutnut2 years ago(+1)

Something that has been happening with increasing regularity is the game crashing.

I will finish a level and there will be no way to exit. No menu option and no X. The only way to end is Alt F4 and restart. I didn't say anything at first because I often seem to get extra issues due to being in China. Things don't work, are slow or are blocked, but I don't think this is the case any more. Everything else works fine: uTorrent, Edge, other games etc. I only seem to have a problem with TBD.

When it happened once every few days, I ignored it, but it seems to happen every few minutes now. I play a few levels, the game freezes and I restart with my game pushed back a level or two.

Any suggestions for something that I can do on my end or does it seem like a problem on your end?

1StepCloser2 years ago (1 edit)

Any suggestions for something that I can do on my end or does it seem like a problem on your end?

This doesn't happen for me, however, since other games work fine for you, it's likely an issue with TBD.

I will finish a level and there will be no way to exit. No menu option and no X.

So are we talking soft crashes or hard crashes? If the characters are still animated it might not be a crash at all. Instead, the function that checks for world level completion might not be finding how to end it.

I play a few levels, the game freezes and I restart with my game pushed back a level or two.

Game freezes would indeed be a hard crash, I can release the next version with devtools, so when it happens you can open the browser log to see what the error is. Did this happen before the most recent update?

Is the crash only occurring at the end of levels?

Also what game speed are you using? (x1, x2, x3)

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1StepCloser2 years ago

Another important aspect of this might be the browser you are using which sounds like Edge. I develop and test in Chrome so I'll see about testing in Edge (Usually doesn't work as well as Chrome).

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