Some suggestions for the RPG game
Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2014 9:40 pm
Dear Mateusz, Reiner and Adam, first of all compliments for the nice old-fashion and compelling game.
Since it is a constant work-in-progress, let me give you some practical suggestion that hopefully may be implemented with the current core engine.
1 - dumb team: I'm having terrible time moving my team through the maps. My henchmen get stuck against trees or rocks, get lost in the maps and look like a gang of boozers when they move in pretty narrow places. So many times I have to spend time coming back on my previous steps to seek for my lost men since I can't even exit the map! Can you improve this?
2 - increasing strategy. It would be great if you could add the following. A button to select the team formation, hopefully to keep the weakest characters in the center, or to dispose the party in better ways like in in a queue to better move in narrow dungeons. Also, a "behaviour" icon would be great, since so many times my party engages a fight when I'm trying to flee to another map or don't attack especially when there are ranged enemies. Since there is already a script to make my henchmen to attack incoming foes, there could be options like:
- normal: group stays together and automatically attacks foes within a 5 feet radius
- aggressive: group automatically attack foes within 11 feet radius and keep spreading (very useful vs. hordes of weak foes)
- tactical: group automatically attack the closest foes to the main character within 11 feet radius, and keep moving with the main character that behaves like AGGRESSIVE mode.
- defensive: group does NOT attack and just moves accordingly to received commands. A character will only attack if it can't move anywhere else.
3 - better commands to select group and or characters. Too many times I loose my battles and I'm forced to tedious reloads because I can't properly select my characters. When I try to, I mistakenly order my group to move elsewhere or I select the wrong character, with terrible consequences. Can you improve the group button in this way? By clicking on it, it is possible to select or the whole group or to browse among the faces (mini-portraits) of each party member and the showed portrait in the button indicates that only that character is selected.
5 - the mage First of all, you have to know that some spells are bugged, especially the defensive ones since they don't calculate at all the bonus coming from the mana points total owned by the mage. I have noticed it with the Armor spell, that gives only +2 to Armor Class when it should give much more. As well, the healing spell. Anyway, the spells for a mage are really too few: I don't know if there are more in the MMORP but right now I am at level 22 with plenty of money and I don't know how to spend them because I already own the best equipment that I can afford. It would be easy to image fireballs or buffing spells that pump dexterity, strength and speed (both movement and attack rate at once).
Something must be done also about his behaviour: when I tell my party to attack a foe, the mage moves in melee without actually doing anything, except exposing himself to enemy blows.Can you make him to shoot some secure-hit ranged attack that is equal to 1/10 of his mana power? Something that automatically hits and does not rely on dexterity but at the same time doesn't deal much damage and keeps him distant from the melee fight.
Also, it is unclear if the mage gets benefit by items that increase the damage, like rings or magical hats, too.
6 - improve the backpack Within it, just include a "second" page (right like shops that have more than one window and so many items), which works like a mage spellbook. Once you get spells in your backpack, carrying new items is really a problem!
Also, within it, add a button to REST UNTIL HEALED: keeping my mobile on, waiting for my party to heal or recover mana is incredibly boring and battery consuming!
7 - improve the shops It is already known that FT has a huge problem about game balancement, but the problem about equipment suffered with the mage extends to the rest of the party too! So far, I've all the weapons and armors for level 20 or so and the next weapon that I have saw so far is for level 100 characters! Too distant!
8 - greater units list please still having and LG G2 with a great screen, from the in-game help list I cant hardly tell a dragon from a wolf! Can you re-mage it showing greater creature images and their names too?
9 - increasing flavor Wolves stronger than lions? Rainbow spiders running faster than any other creature? Even if this is not a real bug, it negatively interferes with the so called "role" part of RPGs. I understand that you need to recycle the same foe prototype, but at least give creatures some "magical" name to make it to have sense! Do you need war dogs to be more challenging than lions because made for high-level characters? Name them as "hell hounds" or "vampire dogs" and the game is done.
10 - better game rebalance please You know, if people play a game, it is because it is funny. And, after visiting the whole game map and understanding that some areas are just forbidden because of too tought monsters and that you have to repeat again and again and again the same manoeuvres to kill foes and make XP before proceeding ... All this is very boring.
First thing to do: drastically cut the requested XPs to gain levels
And there is not a "must do", nobody here is forcing players to play your game. Sincere there is some empty area map, why just don't you include some some mid-level challenge and new shops with equipment for level 20 to 50 at least?
Also, have you ever noticed that it is impossible to sell many gloves and boots? And what's the purpose of a buckler if an archer can't equip it with a bow? That is what a buckler is made for!
11 - crafing Ok, it is for high-level characters only, but among the requisites to obtain the new items, I have seen boots and mantles and other clothes that I have never seen in shops or dropped by monsters. This is very confusing.
12 - enhance global map could you enhance with different colors the position of teleporters and speakable NPCs, please? It is a pain to seek for them! And sometimes the latest just pop-up in the map, and not even in the same location: it looks like your engine has some difficulty in displaying every element on the map. And sometimes I'm driving mad because I need to start or finish a quest but I can't find the NPC to whom I need to talk, because right several feet distant than the first time!
12 - enhance the closing screen While exiting the game, there is that nasty screen that asks to save before quitting. Please, remove it: it is a trap! It causes the risk to overwrite the game that a player is intentionally willing to load, instead. A more traditional: "are you exiting the game: are you sure? YES/NO" is more than enough.
13 - better giant map improve the global world map by adding arrows that allow to browse among several versions of the same map. Each map version should focus on:
- global world (as the default map)
- tunnels and teleports, connected with lines of different colors.
- resources to be mined
- monsters difficulty.
- NPCs for missions: the ones already activated must be in blue, the ones to be activated in red.
It is all so far, hope you'll enjoy it.
Since it is a constant work-in-progress, let me give you some practical suggestion that hopefully may be implemented with the current core engine.
1 - dumb team: I'm having terrible time moving my team through the maps. My henchmen get stuck against trees or rocks, get lost in the maps and look like a gang of boozers when they move in pretty narrow places. So many times I have to spend time coming back on my previous steps to seek for my lost men since I can't even exit the map! Can you improve this?
2 - increasing strategy. It would be great if you could add the following. A button to select the team formation, hopefully to keep the weakest characters in the center, or to dispose the party in better ways like in in a queue to better move in narrow dungeons. Also, a "behaviour" icon would be great, since so many times my party engages a fight when I'm trying to flee to another map or don't attack especially when there are ranged enemies. Since there is already a script to make my henchmen to attack incoming foes, there could be options like:
- normal: group stays together and automatically attacks foes within a 5 feet radius
- aggressive: group automatically attack foes within 11 feet radius and keep spreading (very useful vs. hordes of weak foes)
- tactical: group automatically attack the closest foes to the main character within 11 feet radius, and keep moving with the main character that behaves like AGGRESSIVE mode.
- defensive: group does NOT attack and just moves accordingly to received commands. A character will only attack if it can't move anywhere else.
3 - better commands to select group and or characters. Too many times I loose my battles and I'm forced to tedious reloads because I can't properly select my characters. When I try to, I mistakenly order my group to move elsewhere or I select the wrong character, with terrible consequences. Can you improve the group button in this way? By clicking on it, it is possible to select or the whole group or to browse among the faces (mini-portraits) of each party member and the showed portrait in the button indicates that only that character is selected.
5 - the mage First of all, you have to know that some spells are bugged, especially the defensive ones since they don't calculate at all the bonus coming from the mana points total owned by the mage. I have noticed it with the Armor spell, that gives only +2 to Armor Class when it should give much more. As well, the healing spell. Anyway, the spells for a mage are really too few: I don't know if there are more in the MMORP but right now I am at level 22 with plenty of money and I don't know how to spend them because I already own the best equipment that I can afford. It would be easy to image fireballs or buffing spells that pump dexterity, strength and speed (both movement and attack rate at once).
Something must be done also about his behaviour: when I tell my party to attack a foe, the mage moves in melee without actually doing anything, except exposing himself to enemy blows.Can you make him to shoot some secure-hit ranged attack that is equal to 1/10 of his mana power? Something that automatically hits and does not rely on dexterity but at the same time doesn't deal much damage and keeps him distant from the melee fight.
Also, it is unclear if the mage gets benefit by items that increase the damage, like rings or magical hats, too.
6 - improve the backpack Within it, just include a "second" page (right like shops that have more than one window and so many items), which works like a mage spellbook. Once you get spells in your backpack, carrying new items is really a problem!
Also, within it, add a button to REST UNTIL HEALED: keeping my mobile on, waiting for my party to heal or recover mana is incredibly boring and battery consuming!
7 - improve the shops It is already known that FT has a huge problem about game balancement, but the problem about equipment suffered with the mage extends to the rest of the party too! So far, I've all the weapons and armors for level 20 or so and the next weapon that I have saw so far is for level 100 characters! Too distant!
8 - greater units list please still having and LG G2 with a great screen, from the in-game help list I cant hardly tell a dragon from a wolf! Can you re-mage it showing greater creature images and their names too?
9 - increasing flavor Wolves stronger than lions? Rainbow spiders running faster than any other creature? Even if this is not a real bug, it negatively interferes with the so called "role" part of RPGs. I understand that you need to recycle the same foe prototype, but at least give creatures some "magical" name to make it to have sense! Do you need war dogs to be more challenging than lions because made for high-level characters? Name them as "hell hounds" or "vampire dogs" and the game is done.
10 - better game rebalance please You know, if people play a game, it is because it is funny. And, after visiting the whole game map and understanding that some areas are just forbidden because of too tought monsters and that you have to repeat again and again and again the same manoeuvres to kill foes and make XP before proceeding ... All this is very boring.
First thing to do: drastically cut the requested XPs to gain levels
And there is not a "must do", nobody here is forcing players to play your game. Sincere there is some empty area map, why just don't you include some some mid-level challenge and new shops with equipment for level 20 to 50 at least?
Also, have you ever noticed that it is impossible to sell many gloves and boots? And what's the purpose of a buckler if an archer can't equip it with a bow? That is what a buckler is made for!
11 - crafing Ok, it is for high-level characters only, but among the requisites to obtain the new items, I have seen boots and mantles and other clothes that I have never seen in shops or dropped by monsters. This is very confusing.
12 - enhance global map could you enhance with different colors the position of teleporters and speakable NPCs, please? It is a pain to seek for them! And sometimes the latest just pop-up in the map, and not even in the same location: it looks like your engine has some difficulty in displaying every element on the map. And sometimes I'm driving mad because I need to start or finish a quest but I can't find the NPC to whom I need to talk, because right several feet distant than the first time!
12 - enhance the closing screen While exiting the game, there is that nasty screen that asks to save before quitting. Please, remove it: it is a trap! It causes the risk to overwrite the game that a player is intentionally willing to load, instead. A more traditional: "are you exiting the game: are you sure? YES/NO" is more than enough.
13 - better giant map improve the global world map by adding arrows that allow to browse among several versions of the same map. Each map version should focus on:
- global world (as the default map)
- tunnels and teleports, connected with lines of different colors.
- resources to be mined
- monsters difficulty.
- NPCs for missions: the ones already activated must be in blue, the ones to be activated in red.
It is all so far, hope you'll enjoy it.
same as above. point 4 is missing.