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4x4 Archipelago

A procedurally generated, text-based fantasy RPG · By agat

Feedback thread Sticky

A topic by agat created Oct 01, 2021 Views: 1,590 Replies: 75
Viewing posts 1 to 26 of 35 · Next page · Last page
Developer

Post any bugs and issues you encounter here – I'll try to fix them ASAP!

When entering the academy, one paragraph says:

In the Main Hall you pass by $enteringacademy.

Developer (1 edit)

Thanks for the feedback! I tried to replicate the issue, but couldn't. Does it happen every time you're on the Academy screen, or was it only once? (normally, you should get a brief, randomised description of people, pets etc. you see in the Main Hall in place of "$enteringacademy")

EDIT: I've finally managed to locate and fix the bug with "$enteringacademy" :)

(1 edit)

It happened once in Queen Valarisa quest on my first visit there (I was a battle mage if that matters at all). It never happened again.

Also, I would be grateful for an easy mode someday. Those fights are fierce :D

Oh, and one more thing - I feel the need thank you once again for making Lux. I keep remembering about that game, and it has a permanent spot in both my heart and mind. Every time I see a new upload from you I hope for another text adventure like Lux or Chuck :)

Developer(+1)

Thank you so much for your kind words!

About the difficulty in this game: if you have trouble with early gameplay, you can check How to Play -> Beginner's Tips (from the opening screen or the Journal) for some detailed hints and strategies on how to survive, gain EXP and money.

Developer (1 edit)

Thanks for reporting! With smaller issues like this, as long as the competition is going on, I won't be fixing them immediately (because I don't want my game to have a history of numerous updates on the comp page), but I'll do this as soon as I make the next bigger update.

EDIT: Fixed!

At the start of the fight with the lich in the Necromancers folly, I don't remember exactly what he said but it was along the lines of " With your power, I can get back at the inhabitance of <noInput>" or something like that. Sorry but I don't remember exactly what. 


Also, this game is amazing. I expected a short, hour-long play type game that would be enjoyable but not particularly memorable. Instead, I got a fully developed game with multiple stories, characters, and possibilities that I would have been willing to pay for if it had cost money.

Developer (1 edit)

Thanks for the bug report, I found the issue and I'll fix it in the next update. Also, I'm really glad you're enjoying the game! (edit: I udpated the game, the issue should be fixed now).

I noticed 2 small bugs in Coral City and one probably unclosed tag for if you follow a wisp.

first, if you go to the Amphitheater and examine the building, you are kicked to the Split Island.

second, the second time you get to 3 arches, there is an unclosed <span> tag.

I also found about 4 or 5 minor typos. I'm not sure how best to present them.

I wouldn't have found these bugs if I weren't so interested in the game!

The wisp graphics are attached.

Developer(+1)

Thanks for reporting the issues! Another player also found the Amphitheater bug and the <span> tag at Three Arches, and I've already updated the game to fix that. Are you playing the most recent version?

I'll fix the wisp issue in the next update.

As for the typos, you can simply copy and paste the sentences in question, and I'll locate them using the search function of the Twine editor.

(1 edit)

Oops! Didn't notice this before my next report. I think I downloaded the HTML file yesterday locally. So if anything was changed very recently, I wouldn't have seen it. I could've/should've thought to have a look just in case. Good job fixing these issues so quickly!

(+1)

Also a few minor typos.

When examining Living Crossbow: "When the user's MP if full" if -> is

"Finally, the serpents gives up the chase." serpents -> serpent

"Let's move on, Splayername." when hiring Cassie -> $playername

Line break stuff: "You contemplate the view for a long time" in the snowfield, and also when Hjafnir offers to join you.



Developer(+1)

Thanks! I posted an update which fixes these issues.

More stuff (I really should get to the other games in this comp!) -- I hope this isn't too much of a deluge, because again I've enjoyed exploring a lot in the game.

All this is seen from the latest itch.io webpage for the game as of noon central.

There's stray debug text when gambling:

"Contimie" appears instead of "Continue" in an abandoned building so you can search/replace for that (touch typing?) Similarly, Sprit of the Mist appears instead of Spirit--I forget where I saw it but you can replace it in the source.

And should "a ball lightning" be "a ball of lightning" or "a lightning ball"?

There is also an odd bug with item prices. Here a new trader should have 45, 135, etc., and a battle mage should have 50, 150, etc. But it is reversed. This doesn't happen all the time, and I suspect it is related to how , or how often, a player re-rolls to start.

Trader:

Non-trader: (this occurred even at the start of the game)

Again, the latest build was used.

And one final report for the day ... hope this isn't too much to deal with! This is more like a small feature request.

Once you've bought all the mage spells, should we have different text? Everything's functionally okay, but maybe a "we taught you all you could learn" as for when you learn a 3rd skill would be appropriate. Here's what I see after buying all spells. (Also, could/should "back" be detailed as "back to the main hall?"


Developer(+1)

Thanks for catching all these issues! Especially the one with prices. I added the option to re-roll class only at the last minute, on a suggestion from a tester, and forgot to run the code that calculates prices when you do that...  It's working properly now.

I fixed the typos and the gambling test message as well.

You're right about learning spells, there should be a different message once you've learned all of them. I'll look into this in a future update (I'm out of town for the weekend now, working on a borrowed laptop, and the Twine editor lags a lot, unlike on my desktop PC, so I'm leaving bigger changes for later. Luckily, the worst bug, the one with the prices, was a quick and easy fix!)

(+1)

I’m in a room in the mines with a lot of text. The description text overlaps the compass directions.

Overlapping text in the Basalt Isle Mines

Also, “hitting the the skeleton warrior’s weak spot”

Developer(+2)

Thanks for reporting the bugs! I removed the extra "the" and reduced line breaks in mine descriptions to avoid the overlap.

Trivia with verb tense:

Is it worth putting in conditional text to say something like "The Enchanter will help you repair the compass <if renown < 5>when you reach<else><now you've reached> 5 renown." once the player that level?

More typo trivia:

The Avatar of Doom sends dozens of (crystals spikes) -> crystal spikes (3 places in source)

The Goliath (attack) with its claws -> (attacks) (2 places in source)

Developer(+1)

Thanks for letting me know about these issues! I fixed the typos in today's update and changed the Enchanter message to "The Enchanter agreed to help you repair the compass once you've reached 5 renown".

I'm having trouble with the dragon pearl (which, unfortunately, locks Dragon Island for me):


Combat in dragon form doesn't terminate because of this.

Developer

Sorry about the bug and thanks for reporting! It's fixed now.

I noticed two off-by-one errors during a playthrough.

1. Golem's core/sculptor bug: If the sculptor asks for 3 golem's cores, and you have 2, they take them, and you have -1 golem's cores.

The culprit here is an if-then statement that says >= 2 instead of > 2 or >= 3. (search for "3 golem cores")

2. Levitation potion bug: At the yellow pillar, if you have only one levitation potion, it doesn't ask if you want to use one.

The culprit here is an if-then statement saying "if levitation > 1" which should be ">= 1" (assuming you aren't forcing the player to save their only potion for later e.g. floating to the top of the spire)

Developer(+1)

Thanks! I fixed both these issues (they were serious enough to justify an update during the Comp). With the golem cores, for a long time you only needed 2 (same as with the other items the sculptor may need). I changed it to 3 at some point, because they are easier to get than soul shards and wyvern teeth, but I missed that one line of the code...

(1 edit)

Nice job (again!) Yeah, I agree, that was a good way to balance things...golems are the easiest of the 3 and seem to happen a bit more randomly. Your thanks, of course, is a few more tricky bugs I dug up from my notes.

This is a small bug related to what the player knows.

"You must learn where the Queen's golden harp is, and retrieve it." is technically incorrect once the mer-folk have offered you their goods. So maybe "You know the mer-folk merchants have the Queen's golden harp for sale, but it is expensive!" (or something)

The game is showing text the player can't/shouldn't act on in one very specific case.


In the game, I didn't actually try clicking on the "dig" link, but it seems like it could be exploited to grab the Queen's crown and skip the fight.

Some stuff about the devourer fight:

The text for "one slimed goblin" should have a period after it. Though an alternate solution is to take the "left." from "$enemyhealcharges slimed goblins left." and put " left." outside the if statement.

Would it also be possible to make the "burn a slimed goblin" text conditional, e.g. it disappears once they're all gone? It might be too much to check if you *can* burn a slimed goblin (functions in Twine are tricky from what I understand) but another if statement as in

<<if $enemy.name == "Spirit of the Mist" && $mistnameunlocked != true>>\

And finally, can the specialplayeraction for the devourer be conditional? When one goblin is left it'd be a neat touch to say "Burn the final slimed goblin" instead of "Burn one of the slimed goblins".

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

That was a bunch of good catches and suggestions! I fixed the issue with the crown - now you have to defeat the enemy before you can grab it. I added a new state to the Journal once the player has seen the Queen's Harp among the merfolks' wares. The link for burning slimed goblins now disappears after you've burned the last of them. I fixed the wording with "one goblin left" too. I didn't change the link text to "burn the last goblin", though - I agree it would sound better, but the link text is pulled straight from the enemy object, so changing this would require a lot of fiddling.

While fixing the Devourer stuff, I also realised another issue - if you escaped from that fight after burning some goblins, then re-entered combat, the number of goblins would be reset back to 5. This is now fixed - once you've burned a goblin, it's gone for good.

Another odd bug I found--I think it's related to the initialization bug you found before. In two different playthroughs with an unmodified swashbuckler, I got different prices for trading goods *only* (regular market goods were all correct.)


(right prices below, wrong above)

Developer(+1)

Fixed that :) (I assume the prices were only wrong if you re-rolled your class in the main menu - they indeed weren't adjusted in that case.)

Verifying your other bug fixes, I found a few new ones. They're getting more abstruse, which is of course a good sign.

In this one, the Arch-Lich will keep fighting if you're poisoned and knock it to 0 HP, even if you kill it good and dead. In the screenshot below, it had 15 HP the previous round. So the volley would put it at -28 and I think the 10HP boost wouldn't get it back to zero.

This would make for an interesting puzzle to make the Arch-Lich harder to kill so you may want that. But I didn't see anything in the codex to indicate that. I suppose this could be resolved either by noting this in the codex, checking for the total net hit points, or cutting combat off and saying the arch-lich is dead if you hit 0 HP, before the check for poison regeneration.

This is a feature request for a convenience to tell the player the location of the Enchanter and Witch, if they know it, on the front page of the Journal. The Journal mentions a lot of other locations. So "The Enchanter" would become "The Enchanter of Swan Island" -- I'm pretty sure this would happen all the time. Though there may be a case where you're told the Enchanter is worth looking for before you find him.

I think I've seen something similar with the Witch--it might be worth a check, too.


In the following mine room, an "also" would make the text read smoother in this rare case where you see 2 passages at once e.g.

Upon closer examination of the room you <<if $passagesYet == True>>also <<endif>> find a tiny passage in the wall


Finally, some typos. This is a bit of a text dump, as they're probably best done at once, searching through the source, but let me know about any concerns with my individual suggestions.

Your opponents seems ecstatic at her victory.

-> Your opponent seems ecstatic at her victory.

"Luckily, they were empty, as aren't transporting any cargo."

missing "you" plus a shift in verb tense

-> "Luckily, they were empty, as (you) (weren't) transporting any cargo."

Tell the Inventor you're a recpected member of the Academy

-> Tell the Inventor you're a respected member of the Academy

"You dare intrude upon Arch-lich Egros, mortal?" the undead hissess

-> "You dare intrude upon Arch-lich Egros, mortal?" the undead hisses

It's clear telling his story costed him a lot, and that he's utterly desperate.

-> It's clear telling his story cost him a lot, and (that) he's utterly desperate.

("that" is minor stylistic stuff)

When Quicksilver Crossobw is the active weapon, there's a chance that using ranged techniques

-> When Quicksilver Crossbow is the active weapon, there's a chance that using ranged techniques

This may or may not make a difference anywhere in the output, but a variable name was off.

While wandering through the dense jungles of $currenislandname you walk into a small clearing and stop in amazement.
-> While wandering through the dense jungles of $currentislandname you walk into a small clearing and stop in amazement.

The market is noisy and crowded; goods from all over the Archipelago are being traded, people are chattin, haggling and buying food at street stalls.

chattin -> chattin' (or more likely chatting)

I may call some beastie after you if you really help me.

-> "I may name some beastie after you if you really help me." (semantics: calling after is different from naming after. "Call" implies he will call the beastie to chase you.)

Finally, the serpents gives up the chase.

-> Finally, the serpent gives up the chase.

Sungleam doesn't deal physical damage, instead ...

-> Sungleam doesn't deal physical damage. Instead, ...

???? also in the Sungleam description

armour, but is -> armour but is

Coral Cave monument text:

Both leaders were convinced the other side is preparing to attack them.

-> Both leaders were convinced the other side was preparing to attack them.

The skeleton dragon roars and flies at you, trying to crush you!

-> The skeletal dragon roars and flies at you, trying to crush you!

(both are grammatically ok--"dragon skeleton" sounds a bit better than the reverse IMHO--but skeletal dragon is the name of the enemy so I think that's what's best)

(+1)

Finally, one bit of syntax recurs 4 or 5 times...

attackallmessages:["The drowned one claws at you", "The drowned one hits you", "The drowned one bites you"],

attacknormalmessage:["The drowned one claws at you", "The drowned one hits you", "The drowned one bites you"],

"The drowned one hits you" results in "The drowned one hits you, and hits you for X damage" or "hits you, but misses," which sounds either redundant or contradictory. So I would suggest going through attacknormal/all messages and replacing "hits you" with "swats at" or "slashes at" or "lunges at".

Developer(+1)

Thanks! I fixed this, as well as all the typos/grammar issues from your previous post, and, most importantly, the Arch-lich bug (which affected the "normal" lich as well. Now both enemies die as soon as they've been reduced to 0 HP).

I like your suggestions about the journal and improved dungeon room descriptions - I added that to my notes for a post-comp release.

When returning the statue to the temple after finding a thief, I seriously think the player should gain some renoun for doing this. Since the guards didn't chace the thief into the sewers, and the  villagers thought they'd never see their treasure again, surely this is worth a small bit of renoun, or would the quest be considered too insignificant, due to it being a small village? I do have a counterpoint to that, even. Surely, the villagers would spread word about this, and the beginner's tips do say you gain renoun for doing good deeds. What are your thoughts?

Developer

Thanks for your comment! The idea here is that you get bonus EXP for returning the statuette. You can think of it that way: the priests, who wanted it back, mostly stay in the temple and rarely talk to others, and common people weren't that interested in the artifact. But the other (probably bigger) reason is, I wanted to have some variety with quest rewards, so this one gives more EXP, while several other quests where you help the common folks can raise your Renown (I don't know if you've run into them, as sidequests are randomised and you don't see them all in a single playthrough).

that's fair. Thesame can be said for the one about the children and the curse in the village, as the villagers just seem suspicious of everyone but you get some good experience.

Do you think you'd also be adding the ability to pick what objective you try for a playthrough, or do you think it'll just be a list of classes? I do wonder how many there are, as when I played a couple of weeks back I kept on getting the story of relics and the story of spire, but when I started again yesterday, first time, I got pirate captains, which is a completely new one to me. I do wonder how it'll go, and am enjoying it so far. Managed to explore several islands on this playthrough and this time, I have magic.

Developer

I'm not planning to add the option of selecting the objective (long story short, with how the procedural generation works in the game, it would be complicated). But there's only 3 main objectives - you've actually seen them all :)

(+1)

Reporting a few typos (which may already be fixed since I played a little while ago):

  • The wise Queen saw through the Serpent's lies and lead her army to fight it. —> led
  • Lost Gem Island used to be the source of the clearest, most valuable gemstones in the Archipelago – until the ever expanding marshes have flooded the mineshaft the stones were found in. —> "have" seems extraneous
  • You know, You know, most people only know about Lahni from the great leap story, —> double "You know"

Also, this game is so good and I love it <3 <3

Developer

Hi, Passerine! Glad you're enjoying the game! Thanks for reporting the typos – I fixed them.

Passerine's post reminded me of a few more miscellaneous typos to sweep up whenever... (my local index.html reads 11/2)

(Red Knight)

But you look like and adventurer

-> But you look like *an* adventurer

(Hunting Fury)

The monsters emerges

-> The *monster* emerges

(Various combat)

The stone eel shoots a ball lightning out of its mouth

The tamed stone eel shoots a ball lightning out of its mouth at $enemy

The elementalist summons a ball lightning and sends it flying at you

(general search/replace) a ball lightning -> a ball of lightning

Developer

Thanks for reporting the typos – I fixed them. (Also, with the IfComp judging period over, I'll now try to fix small issues like these ASAP instead of waiting for a big bugfix to post an update ;)

I gotta be honest, it's a kinda hard to start out for me. I can't beat anything, everything hits more damage to me than I do to them and has more HP. Don't mean to complain but some advice would be appreciated, especially since I'm slowly going broke without any source of income LOL.

Developer

Hi there!

You can find some basic hints on getting started inside the game, in Journal -> How to play -> Beginner's tips.

There's also a great (and very detailed) strategy thread on the game, with lots of information compiled by a player. Available here:https://intfiction.org/t/4x4-archipelago-strategy-etc-warning-spoilers/53190 (it contains a lot of spoilers, but they're all tagged. Also, it's based on an older version of the game and doesn't mention things from the 1.2 update, like perks, but what it does mention is still accurate).

Hope that helps!

Thank you so much  ^^ I read everything of it. I gotta say I didn't understand of it but the gist is I'm gonna be collecting exp and leveling up my character, see how that goes xD. Thanks again ^^ 

Developer

Yes, the strategy thread goes into a lot of detail about all the individual quests etc., so it can be confusing if you haven't encountered them in the game yet! To simplify, the safest early game strategy would be to avoid combat (you should always carry a couple of Bottled Mists to be able to escape from strong monsters without rolling) unless with really weak enemies, check rumours on various islands to start quests (some will be too hard at first, but many require no combat/skills at all and give significant rewards) and visit markets (you can earn a lot of money by buying and selling trade goods). If your character has Charisma, listening to stories at inns and later "selling" them to the lady at the Academy also gives you a nice silver/exp boost.

That's what I've been doing ^^ I've been trying to find non-combat exp and it's worked so far. I'd say I'm on my way to a pretty good game. I have one further question; every time the game says savespot I assume it'll save, but I just died with a thousand plus silver on me (I seem to die a lot lol) and the last save it did had only 2 silver on my character... I assumed the islands were savespots, so that would be completely my fault if it wasn't just curious ^^ 

But all the help means a lot to me :D Thank you so much :) It really means a lot 

Developer(+1)

The game autosaves after you've sailed to a new island, not every time you visit the island's "main screen". You can still save manually in each "Savespot". (This is because the size of the game - as you've probably noticed, saving takes a lot of time, and I didn't want to introduce this long pause every time a player goes back to the island's main screen). Basically, whenever an autosave gets recorded, you get a "Game saved automatically!" message at the top of the page, and Savespot means you can save manually. Sometimes both happen at once.

Glad I could help, and good luck with the rest of your run!

(2 edits) (+1)

Ahhh yes I see I see that makes a lot of sense ^^ I was just confused since I thought it meant I saved those sweet 2000 silver and then I lost them xD. It just said 'approaching' and I was like 'eh????' 

BUT I got the silver back. Turns out I still had the map to it lol. Anyways I shall try my best to finish all the stories ^^ The first one I did was the pirate one, but I never got to finish that one cuz I lost the game and I finally found it back. And then I was like 'wait where are the pirates? huh? Tragic queen? Tower? What?' and then I noticed there were multiple story lines so I'm trying to finish them all :) 

All that's left is to figure out how to swap weapons xD cuz I read that you can do that in battle in the game but I had no idea EDIT: Figured that out too :') How did I never notice the inventory button still sitting there LOL. All this time I had acess to my character's precious stuff... (I'm uh... not so good at gaming XD but I'm having fun and that's all that matters if you ask me ^^) 

I hope you have a wonderful day and thank you so much for your time and patience, it really means a lot ^^ 

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