In addition to using feedback, what I really wanted to do here was provide more information about AOEs/ranges. We can use the orange burst to indicate who will be hit by an attack, and we can gray out targets that are outside the currently selected adventurer’s range. All in all, I feel like this is a good level of informational density. Unless feedback convinces me otherwise, I think this will be the final mockup
Here’s what I’m thinking about
Are the ranges/AOEs clear from the attack preview?
Overall I think the mockup looks good.
Here are my thoughts on what you asked and what else I noticed.
I think the attack preview works. My only thought is if someone doesn’t understand what characters are melee and what characters are ranged, they might not understand why enemies are being grayed out. But you can probably explain that in the tutorial level.
I really like all the icons and can understand what they all mean.
I don’t like the cool down timer on the enemies. Any enemy that can attack does so whenever they can. They spend almost all the game in a cool down state and that timer wold be on them all that time. I think it will cover up your awesome bad guy art.
Windows/Firefox, but I have a few things running alongside. I also have only replicated the results once, despite numerous attempts to see if I could trigger it again. My guess is that it is a ‘frame-perfect’ sort of thing, and thus uncommon unless you are spamming the “GO” button (which is how I did it originally).
As far as the new mock-up, I think it looks pretty good, except that I would still like some sort of range/AoE indicator on the characters themselves, so that I can see their range/AoE at a glance instead of only seeing it while clicking on them. Admittedly, you learn them pretty quickly, but sometimes I need a reminder, and if a new character is added only seeing their range/AoE when attempting to attack with them will make it harder to get used to them, at least in my opinion.
Also, like with the character attack timers, I would like to see some sort of numerical indication of current and max capacity shown on all characters so that I can quickly estimate if a given attack will put a character over capacity, and so I can use the right heal character to restore a KO’d character. If KO’d character only has 20 fulness left and I have two healers, one who removes 60 fullness and one who removes 24, I want to know I can use the one that removes 24 and still restore the character from KO. It appears that this info is available when a character is clicked, but I would appreciate it if it was always visible, because at mid-level clicking through 2-3 characters to see who can attack is the difference between an A and an S.
I agree with @FA_Gamer that having the enemy cooldown/run away timer cover the entirety of them is a bit much. I think the current method would work with the new UI, where a number counting down in the upper right corner indicates running away/attack cooldown, and some way of indicating which attack of theirs is next, if they have multiple.
Well I think there already has been enough said I do think there needs something to tell the player which characters can do a melee/AoE attack or possibly whether can target any enemy (like the priestess,witch) or can only hit what is in front of them (everyone else). I can see the use of the orange burst and grey out portraits, but then it looks like the Melon trap is resting due to the color of the portrait (which may lead to accidental choices as the timer portrait is the same dimmed grey resting portait). Maybe an idea is to have the style of attack shown in the Extraction room, to show off how they attack and how much they can do (though are people going to take the time to actually check it out).
Otherwise at least to me the mockup is everything I am hoping for. Can’t wait to see how it plays once it is out.
My reasoning for not wanting the AOEs/ranges displayed is that’s information that never changes, while there’s a lot of important changing information that the player needs to know immediately
I definitely want to display AOEs/ranges during the upgrade state, where things are less hectic
I think I’ll make the information available on mouseover
After 5(?) days (idk i wasn’t really keeping track) and countless runs of Cakes from Hell, I have a 1 million pound Witch. It probably wasn’t as time-consuming as the dude who got the bard to 1 mil earlier in the thread though. I could get ~5.7k pounds from Cakes from Hell by just killing everything with the witch and waiting until her fullness is zero before refreshing her with the bard. And despite the ridiculous timer, my bard can still (just barely) can reduce that to 0 in one heal. This is mainly due to the timer reduction being based on the number for any support ability (heal, buff, and defend). The bard has two of those, which doubles the max timer she can heal. The power increase from weight also increases until it caps at double the base (as in at 0 weight) stat. My bard has 60 in power, which means a stat of 62, and with the two support abilities and high weight, she reduces the timer by 248 seconds.
Perhaps you could implement a prestige system to allow more longevity to the game. Something like resetting a character’s level back to zero but they keep some stats and have higher weight requirements for each image. That way the grind could be a bit more varied later on, as by endgame the adventurers will be at their maximum weight level fairly quickly and for the majority of the time.
Agreed. A “rebirthing” system, as they are commonly called, would be very fun to see. If we do get one of those though, I want the name of it to be a pun. It’s kind of a necessity for me.
I think adding a prestige/rebirthing system would be a good idea. Its something I’ve wanted to do for a while, but I haven’t yet determined what it would actually look like in game
Perhaps instead of (or in adition to) a prestige system that resets the characters, you could do a ‘new game +’ system where enemies have more health (probably ~+50% compared to the previous NG level) and have stronger and faster attacks (probably ~10% faster and 20% stronger), and possibly also something to make leveling harder/more difficult. For example, a static amount of weight (maybe one pound) stays behind when extracting weight and becomes permanent, stacking up as you remove weight, with the amount increasing every time you go to a higher NG+ level (i.e. one pound per extraction at NG+1, 2 at NG+2, 3 at NG+3, etc.). Alternatively (or in addition for a harder challenge), make it to where, in NG+1 and higher, extraction is only available if you complete the last level of a mission, so you can’t just go in and then exit back out to reduce everyone’s weight.
The benefits of going into NG+ would be getting higher weight amounts per run, due to the increase in enemy health, thus allowing for faster leveling. Also, the ability to go to the forum and brag about getting an S on Milk Dragon in NG+100 or some other such crazy thing. New upgrades for the items could also be given (so that they scale with the NG a little).
Going into a NG+ would be dependent on beating every stage in the game with at least an A (so you have all the items) and would be completely optional. Every NG level above one would require the same thing (to ensure you get all upgrades, if any), as every time you increase the NG level your times would be wiped.
Maybe I play too much Dark Souls, but this is the first thing I could think of for true longevity in this game.
EDIT: if you want the prestige system to allow for more powerful characters, you could make the NG+ system always reward one ‘prestige token’ every time a new NG+ level is started. That way players have to carefully choose which characters they prestige instead of just doing it to all of them every chance they get.
Something that occurred to me just now… since we have items that change an enemy’s “flavor,” I wonder if it would be viable to have a support unit with the ability to do that as well…?
good point. though those items can also be used to temporally change an ally’s flavor preference as well, it would be interesting to have a support with that mechanic.
I zoned out. we talking about making the equivalent of a chef character? Sounds nifty. Doesn’t sound too hard to balance either, given the stat system.
I’ve thought that it would be cool if you had a defense mode where a character is filled with all of their level up weight and you need to defeat the dungeon enemies who will only attack the full character making them loose some of the weight. the original idea was for the reset system so that its not just a button.
