August 2018 Update, the Light at the End of the Dungeon?

Here's the place to talk about the features you would like to see in a sequel to KotC.

Re: August 2018 Update, the Light at the End of the Dungeon?

Postby BlueSalamander » Fri Aug 31, 2018 9:10 am

Hello everyone,

First of all, please let me say a big 'thank you very much!' to all recent contributors! I'm very grateful and it will really help me, as I have a bunch of extra expenses coming up in September! You're really awesome!

After doing this post, I'll email the two most generous contributors (Phillip and Sitra Achara).

Also thank you to everyone supporting the project with advertisement and everyone providing feedback on the forum! Much appreciated!

Marinx wrote:I think it would be nicer to also have personality traits so you can be "in character" during gameplay. Something like "Greedy", "Arrogant", etc.
Thank you. Concerning the party members that you create, I think that their personality should be left to the player to decide, and it shouldn't be set during character creation. That being said, I think it would be pretty cool to have a [Greedy] dialogue option whenever the party discusses rewards with someone, maybe together with an [Altruistic] dialogue option too. [Arrogant] and [Humble], I think that they could be sub-tags of [Diplomacy], [Streetwise], [Bluff] and [Intimidate]. So yeah, they would be fine. Just some additional tags to clarify how the party is responding to the NPC.

Now, concerning the companions that have joined the party, and that you did not create, I think that these should definitely have their own personality. This personality will be reflected in their dialogue. They might react to something that's happening to the party, or they might make a suggestion as to what course of action the party should take. The player can also initiate a dialogue with any companion by clicking on them.

it would be nice to have an option to disable/enable classes/races that wouldn't fit into the module, so players can't create that kind of characters.
I agree that it's a nice idea, but not urgent and not essential. You could also specify in the module information that the module should be played with races X and classes Y.

itsdat wrote:Contact various online indie/rpg [or even general] gaming sites. [RPGWatch, RPG Codex, Game Jolt, IndieGames, Rock Paper Shotgun
Thank you for the feedback, itsdat. I do have a list of sites and forums I want to contact or advertise in, but I did not know about Game Jolt and I had forgotten about IndieGames.

Sitra Achara wrote:Good luck with the kickstarter and godspeed!
Thank you so much Sitra!! Concerning the fee, it's really confusing to me. I will send you the details, but it seems to be more than the fee that they take on purchases. Meanwhile, the contribution from Phillip was completely free of fees. I think that this may be because Phillip sent it as Payment Type 'Personal Payment' in GBP, while you sent it as Payment Type 'Goods and Services' in EUR.

So, if anyone wants to send a direct donation to my Paypal, as far as possible, please select 'Personal Payment' and choose the currency GBP if available. Thank you very much!

[Edit:] I'm not so sure any more. Looking at this Paypal UK page: https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/cross-border-and-conversion-fees#fixed-fees, it seems that a cross-border Personal Payment can trigger fees for the sender, though that would depend on the Paypal of the country you are in, not Paypal UK. So I guess that if you choose Personal Payment (and you're outside the UK), you have to pay an extra fee upon sending; while if you choose Goods and Services, you don't have to pay an extra fee upon sending, but the amount received by the recipient is reduced by an additional fee. Which option offers the lowest total cost is anyone's guess, because it depends on the countries and currencies. So please just use whatever seems to be the most convenient for you. It's fine to just buy the game again, too, and the fee for this seems to be slightly lower on my side.

However, if you are in the UK, then please choose Personal Payment, as I think that it will be free of charges for both of us.

screeg wrote:have instructions on how to swap out an alternate set of character/creature images on release
Thank you for the feedback screeg. Yes, it is easy to swap the creature tokens. They are all in PNG format and they are located in the two following folders: (installation path) / Graphics / Tokens / PlayerCharacter and (installation path) / Graphics / Tokens. Anything you swap in these two folders gets swapped in the game. It's as simple as that.

On the use of transparent-edge whole-body monster tokens: personally, I have no strong preference on this. Whether it's just the face, or a part of the creature, or the whole body, or (heck) even an abstract symbol like in Chess, it makes no difference to me. Because the great gameplay remains unaffected. That being said, I quite like the artwork style that Spiderweb Software is going to use in their Kickstarter game, based on transparent-edge, whole-body, non-animated monster sprites. It wouldn't be a problem for me to ask Roman or another graphic artist to draw whole-body creatures like those, but it would be extra money and extra time, that is also diverted away from new content production. So I guess this could be a high Kickstarter stretch goal. Of course, if it's made by the community, well then, that's great.

Yesterday, I implemented the very first riddle of the game: a door requiring you to push symbols in the correct order. It's all done by clicking on the hand-drawn image - not via dialogue choices - and it's very, very cool indeed!

Have a great weekend everyone, and please stay tuned!
'Say there is a chunk of meat. Pirates will have a banquet and eat it! But heroes will share it with other people. I want all the meat!!' - Luffy in One Piece
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Re: August 2018 Update, the Light at the End of the Dungeon?

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Re: August 2018 Update, the Light at the End of the Dungeon?

Postby Marinx » Fri Aug 31, 2018 11:37 am

BlueSalamander wrote:Thank you. Concerning the party members that you create, I think that their personality should be left to the player to decide, and it shouldn't be set during character creation. That being said, I think it would be pretty cool to have a [Greedy] dialogue option whenever the party discusses rewards with someone, maybe together with an [Altruistic] dialogue option too. [Arrogant] and [Humble], I think that they could be sub-tags of [Diplomacy], [Streetwise], [Bluff] and [Intimidate]. So yeah, they would be fine. Just some additional tags to clarify how the party is responding to the NPC.

Now, concerning the companions that have joined the party, and that you did not create, I think that these should definitely have their own personality. This personality will be reflected in their dialogue. They might react to something that's happening to the party, or they might make a suggestion as to what course of action the party should take. The player can also initiate a dialogue with any companion by clicking on them.


That sounds great.

BlueSalamander wrote:I agree that it's a nice idea, but not urgent and not essential. You could also specify in the module information that the module should be played with races X and classes Y.

I agree. It's not urgent but it would be great to have it at some point later (with patch). Well, you'll see how the game will be received and all that after you publish it.

BlueSalamander wrote:Thank you for the feedback screeg. Yes, it is easy to swap the creature tokens. They are all in PNG format and they are located in the two following folders: (installation path) / Graphics / Tokens / PlayerCharacter and (installation path) / Graphics / Tokens. Anything you swap in these two folders gets swapped in the game. It's as simple as that.


Sounds ok.

BlueSalamander wrote:So I guess this could be a high Kickstarter stretch goal.


Seems like a good idea.

BlueSalamander wrote:Yesterday, I implemented the very first riddle of the game: a door requiring you to push symbols in the correct order. It's all done by clicking on the hand-drawn image - not via dialogue choices - and it's very, very cool indeed!


Very nice! Look forward to try it out ;)
Will it be possible to script/code something like this in editor or this is something you put directly in code?

Maybe you should think about putting KotC 1 on Steam and GoG (especially GoG) and lower a price to, let say 5-6€/$ or do a great offer/discount. That way you'll attract more buyers and also you'll get more coverage/PR for KotC 2.
I don't mean to be rude or disrespectful, but it seems to me that 12 £ is little to steep for older game and graphic style like that. For reference, look at the prices GoG have for similar games (Temple of Elemental Evil is 5,19€).
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Re: August 2018 Update, the Light at the End of the Dungeon?

Postby MeimuHakurei » Fri Aug 31, 2018 3:16 pm

Something I glimpsed when reading the KotC II documentation is that appearantly, the races have different stats based on gender. Can you see into removing this distinction in the later versions? I don't want to be statistically punished for what is basically just a flavor option.
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Re: August 2018 Update, the Light at the End of the Dungeon?

Postby BlueSalamander » Tue Sep 04, 2018 7:34 am

[race or class module restrictions] It's not urgent but it would be great to have it at some point later (with patch).
Certainly, I agree.

Will it be possible to script/code something like this in editor or this is something you put directly in code?
It's all scripted. I am creating the entire prologue adventure with scripts. So yes, you can do similar things with scripts.

Maybe you should think about putting KotC 1 on Steam and GoG
Yes, I am planning to put both KotC 1 and KotC 2 on Steam after making new videos for them. I guess that Steam will recommend or choose the price. Steam has periods of deep discount so I don't think that it makes sense to sell a niche CRPG for a base price of 5 or 6 euros or dollars. But we'll see what Steam thinks. In my experience, cutting the price results in a net loss as the slight increase in sales does not compensate for the plummeting income per sale.

races have different stats based on gender.
It's a design choice established a long time ago and I still like it. I don't see how it punishes anyone. Just pick the combination of race, gender and class that matches the kind of character you want to create. In the same way that I don't want races to be all bland variations of the human race, I also don't want genders to be blandly identical.
'Say there is a chunk of meat. Pirates will have a banquet and eat it! But heroes will share it with other people. I want all the meat!!' - Luffy in One Piece
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Re: August 2018 Update, the Light at the End of the Dungeon?

Postby itsdat » Thu Sep 06, 2018 5:41 pm

Pierre, have you know about the game "Realms Beyond"? It's an upcoming [D&D 3.5e] RPG as well [release date: end of 2019 / early 2020]. Their world map design is awesome. Take a look at the video: https://youtu.be/iFHwwlHcB4s?t=374
Is there a chance, that you can implement a world map system like this later on?
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Re: August 2018 Update, the Light at the End of the Dungeon?

Postby BlueSalamander » Wed Sep 19, 2018 5:05 am

Hi itsdat, sorry for the late reply. You mean the system showed at this point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFHwwlHcB4s&feature=youtu.be&t=374#t=17m05s, right? There is already a system like that in KotC 2, but the party is represented by a single symbol.

Realms Beyond is a very interesting project and the game looks very good thus far.
'Say there is a chunk of meat. Pirates will have a banquet and eat it! But heroes will share it with other people. I want all the meat!!' - Luffy in One Piece
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Re: August 2018 Update, the Light at the End of the Dungeon?

Postby itsdat » Wed Sep 19, 2018 2:11 pm

Yep that's it. Hm...so the KotC 2. world map will work like this? I thought that we have zoomed in regional maps. I am kinda confused now. Can you explain that how will it work exactly? :)
PS.
Are we going to have a september update?
PPS.
Yep, Realms Beyond looks decent as well. The next year is going to be awesome for the turn-based RPG fans. :) KotC 2. and RB. 8-)
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Re: August 2018 Update, the Light at the End of the Dungeon?

Postby BlueSalamander » Sun Sep 23, 2018 6:41 am

Well, there are three types of map in KotC 2:

1) Battle and adventure maps: this is where most of the game takes place
2) Regional and city maps: you click on a point of interest and the party travels to the destination instantly
3) World map: when you click on a location, you see the party's token moving towards that location, and the travel time is taken into account.

Unfortunately, I can't make a big September update, as it would take too much time, and I did not do as much as I would have liked during this month, because of a necessary trip I had to take in the second week of September.

But here is a tiny update for now:

- I'm focusing on content creation for the prologue adventure. I've finished the first area which is shown in the August update; it's completely packed with scripts, things to do and tough battle encounters. Now I am starting on the sewers map. After that, there's a village map and a castle map.

- Also I am fixing bugs and improving the AI whenever a bug comes up or the AI does not take the most appropriate action. As far as I can see, there are hardly any bugs left.

Thank you for reading! Stay tuned and please be patient! :)
'Say there is a chunk of meat. Pirates will have a banquet and eat it! But heroes will share it with other people. I want all the meat!!' - Luffy in One Piece
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Re: August 2018 Update, the Light at the End of the Dungeon?

Postby itsdat » Sun Sep 23, 2018 11:39 am

Ah I see. :) Btw, I am ready for bughunting & reporting weird AI behaviour! ;) :D
2 questions. How will the random encounters work on the regional & world map + what kind of world builder options are we going to have with regard to these encounters?
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Re: August 2018 Update, the Light at the End of the Dungeon?

Postby BlueSalamander » Sun Sep 30, 2018 6:20 am

Hiya itsdat, thank you :)

To answer your questions:

I'm not really interested in strictly-random computer-generated battle encounters. However, I think that pre-set travel encounters are very cool (randomised or not). I expect that it will work in the following way: on the world map, you pick a square where you want the encounter to happen and you set an encounter script on that square. It then gets triggered when the party moves through that square.

If you want the encounter to happen in the regional map, you don't pick a square, but you launch the encounter through the script associated with the destination location chosen by the player. For example, the script will do this: if it's the first time that the player is going to the Tower of the Archmage, then launch an encounter in the forest road where the player is ambushed by assassins. If it's not the first time that the player is going, then move the party to the destination without encounter.
'Say there is a chunk of meat. Pirates will have a banquet and eat it! But heroes will share it with other people. I want all the meat!!' - Luffy in One Piece
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