I saw a small typo, it's nbd but I thought I'd mention it. "There were stolen from the great Southern Empire in its heyday, centuries ago, by four daring pirates." from the first page on a new game, "There" should be "They"
Hey agat! First of all I'd like to congratulate you on making such an incredibly well-put-together game, I've been playing for hours and hours and yet feel like I still have so much left to explore and discover! Anyway, i'm not sure if this is the best place for asking this, but I really wish you considered redesigning the character creation process in a way that let us mix and match names, classes and objectives as we saw fit instead of having to hit re-roll until we finally get the combo we were hoping for.
Hello! Thanks for your kind comment. I'm really glad you're having a good time with "Archipelago"!
As for your request: other people have also asked about this, so I decided to add it in an update, alongside another small feature I had planned. Combined, the new "Advanced start" option lets you select your class, give the character a custom name and optionally start the game with more EXP and/or silver.
I did not add the option to select the objective, because the objective influences many aspects of the world generation, so it has to be set as the first thing after running/restarting the game. Changing this would be really complicated. However, since there are only 3 objectives, I hope it won't be too bothersome to restart until you get the one you want, then change everything else in the Advenced start menu.
Cheers!
Love this game! I love the open-world feel, and enjoy exploring and completing quests. I was thinking it might be a good idea to add backstories for the PC. These might also add skills to the ones the player has e.g. if a your character was raised by nobility, the charisma skill is added, or increased to 2 where applicable.
Thank you for the feedback!
Right now, I'm not planning any updates to the game, and I'm not quite sure if I'll ever update it at all (other than bugfixing), but if I ever do, I'll consider your suggestion! I think backstories could be nice - your particular example, +1 level of a main skill, seems too powerful, but something like a minor skill, extra cash or a special "heritage" item would certainly be possible.
Absolutely! I also think certain backstories could have quests associated with them. Sticking with my earlier example of nobility, the related quest might entail defending your family’s honor or engaging in political affairs. Also, if you do decide to update the game again, it might be nice to start off on whichever island you were raised on. As it stands, the player is left to wonder, “Where am I sailing from when I first open the travel map?”
This is not as much a bug as a feedback but ever since I've been playing this game I have been thinking...
It would be great to choose your name and character type (Battle Mage, Explorer, etc) instead of having to click through until you find one you like. Just an idea tho :D You don't have to but yeah.
I really love this game as it is :D
Oh, sorry!! I didn't see that, forget i said something!! I need to wear my glasses more :') Thank you so much!! EDIT: Ok now I'm trying to find the advanced start menu I feel so stupid haha
EDIT 2: You can scroll down??? SINCE WHEEEEEEEN okay well uh... I'm going to be having lots of fun with this, thank you so much again, so sorry for the bother!!
Hello! You're not the first player to ask this question. I created a new thread for strategy, and posted some hints about the ancient dragons in it: https://itch.io/t/2655166/hints-and-strategy-thread-ask-questions-share-your-str...
Hope this helps!
Hey agat! I just noticed that after studying a renegade mage , the info you get about them actually relates to rock crabs, not renegade mages. Obviously this isn't a huge issue and the game is absolutely incredible otherwise, but I thought I'd still mention it, mostly because I think it's kinda funny lol.
First off, this game is absolutely amazing! I had so much fun playing it, and it definitely has a lot of replayablity. There's so much to do, and I especially love the procedural aspects of it.
I've actually made a few procedural games similar to this, but never finished them. I spent a while in choicescript, but eventually migrated to javascript so I could do more complex things. But 4x4 is definitely better than the games I made, in terms of actual playability. I looked at the raw html code, and there's over 70k lines of code in this, which is absolutely insane.
I have three suggestions for this:
One: Coral City is incredibly complicated. I had no clue how to escape, and that's with me mapping out every location and where it leads. I eventually ran out of health potions and had to go back to my old save, in which I never entered Coral City.
(This was the little map I made:
EDIT: Turns out my map was actually incorrect. I don't know how that happened, but it did lol. So don't use this as a reference.
Broken Piere: (West: Ampitheater) (East: NA) (Norht: Broken Statue) (N/A)
Ampitheater: (East: N/A) (South: Flooded House) (West: Tower Island) (North: Tower Island)
Flooded House: (West: Merfolk Statue) (East: Broken Statue) (North: Broken Pier) (South: N/A)
Merfolk Statue: (West: Ampitheater (Norht: Broken Pier) (South: Flooded House) (East: N/A)
Tower Island: (North: Ampitheater) (West: 3 Arches) (South: N/A) (East: Ampitheatre)
3 Arches: (North Ampitheater) (West: Tower Island) (East: N/A) (South: Tower Island)
Broken Statue: (South: Coral Hut) (East: N/A) (West: N/A) (North: Flooded House)
Coral Hut: (North: N/A) (South: Broken Statue) (East: Broken Statue) (West: Broken Statue)
As you can see, they all lead to each other, and none of them lead out of Coral City. And I traveled to each location and couldn't find anything that would help me escape.
Two: Allies should fight with you, not only when you tell them to attack. Right now, allies work similar to another weapon, which takes away from the immersion. Also, it would be cool if enemies could group together and didn't have to fight alone. I feel like this would massively improve the combat system. The way I would implement this is:
Each fighter has a dedicated speed value. And if you don't want to add that, just go off their combat level. Whoever has the highest speed attacks first, they attack the weakest enemy. It continues like this. When it's the player's turn, they can choose whom they attack, and then the attack type. I have some code for a system like this, but I've never coded in Twine, so it wouldn't transfer. But if you wanted, I could share it, if it makes this any easier to understand.
Three: When I finished the main quest, it ended the game and didn't let me continue playing. This is probably good for encouraging more playthroughs. But if you finish the main quest early, you're cut off from much of the content. So, in my opinion, it would be better if the main quest didn't end the game.
Keep in mind that these are all suggestions that I think would be better, and that others may or may not agree with me. I hope you keep updating this, because it's actually amazing and has so much potential! Thanks!
Thank you for your kind comment and feedback!
I'm sorry to say that, but right now I have no plans for further updating the game. This is partially because I feel it's complete (previous updates were all things I had planned for the original release, which didn't make it in back then because of time constraints of IfComp), and partially because the game grew so big Twine editor cannot handle it any more. You noticed how long the code is - this is also because it's poorly optimised (I learned many functions as I worked on the game, and didn't learn some useful stuff until later, which would help clean and optimise the code). Right now, adding more stuff to the game would basically require rewriting and improving everything, and I rather make new games based on what I learned from this one. I don't categoricallty exclude the posibility of making a "remaster" of Archipelago one day, and then I'll certainly add new content, but this is all preliminary ideas now.
As for Coral City: it is intended to be difficult, as it's an optional dungeon, and the only puzzle-like one. That's why there is an autosave before you enter and no autosaves in the dungeon - so that you can easily reload if you get stuck. A hint for exploring the City, if you want to return there: pay attention to how long the current carries you each time. It helps figure out where you end up. For full solution, there is this excellent map a player made a while back, which explains everything: https://intfiction.org/t/trizbort-or-other-maps-for-ifcomp-2021/53008/10
Cheers,
Agat
A most excellent game!
My only gripes are with the pacing (the first 3-5 points of renown take longer to collect than the next 20+) and replayability (most side quests, encounters, etc. are shared between the three main quests).
In my humble opinion, it would be cool if, after finishing one of the main quests, you could continue to another, using the same character and world. That way, you can experience all the main quests, without having to grind up to a high enough level three times on largely the same side quests, encounters, etc.
I'm looking forward to playing 4x4 Galaxy.
Finally got around to 4x4 Galaxy and loved it! The fact that it is much simpler and shorter, makes the early game feel less drawn out (it is easy to quickly earn renown) and makes each playthrough more contained and therefore easier to replay multiple times in quick succession. In their own, distinct way both 4x4 games are great!