1/4: New Items, Balance Changes, and maybe Linux support!

Build link: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-sx_4eW-B5hWnhNZlRPclZLeUU&usp=drive_web

The new build containing a slew of new items and some good refinements to the game balance is finally ready! Also new: an attempt at a Linux build. I have no direct or even second-degree access to a Linux machine at the moment though, so I have no idea if that actually works or not. If you try it, let me know how it goes. :) Without further ado, here are the update notes. :)

 

Update Notes, 1/4/2015

Items
- Approximately 30 new items have been added to the game, some of which replace previously existing items, but most of which are new. Some of them can do some very interesting things indeed, like allow you to sacrifice one demon to bestow a modifier on another.
- Items that inflict status conditions no longer check the user’s cunning, they simply have a base (and usually rather high) chance to work.

Interface
- Selection lists now support a scrolling behavior, most often seen when looking in your inventory, or when discarding abilities when you have too many. Controls are up arrow and down arrow for line by line scrolling, page up and page down for page by page scrolling.
- Portal Search’s keyboard control is now just p, instead of Shift+p.
- Portal Search no longer has a hotkey button.

Balance Changes
- Global increase of about 15% to damage and healing.
- Made most “defeat the target” captureables slightly shorter in duration.
- Significantly reduced the effect of Level on combat effectiveness.
- Removed default immunity to Light from humans, including most starting player packages and most enemy summoners. Some humans may still have Light immunity (such as a certain red-headed paladin…), but it is no longer default for humanity.
- Adjusted T:1 and T:2 to be a bit more deadly. Wouldn’t want people to get the wrong idea at the start. :)
- OffDown, DefDown, AccDown, and EvdDown are now less effective.
- SpdUp and SpdDown are now considerably more effective, but have shorter durations.
- Life-draining a hero or minion now removes heroic defense/minion vulnerability from the healing you receive. In essence, you will heal more HP than before when draining heroes, and less when draining minions, but the damage they each take is unchanged from previous builds. Also applies to maximum health drains.
- Heroes now apply ‘heroic defense’ to Stamina drains.
- Heroes now apply ‘heroic defense’ to self-damage to health and stamina from abilities such as Draw Wounds and Refresh. Minions also apply ‘minion vulnerability’ to these abilities.
- Fireball can now be “shot over” a low profile.

Bug Fixes
- Fixed a bug that gave characters with Lucky Dodge or Evade Step two chances to Dodge projectile attacks. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be hiding from everyone who ever died to Raiju packs (all of two people, almost nobody gets to T:13+ anyway :) )
- Fixed a bug that caused the maximum number of items possible to spawn on each dungeon level.
- Fixed a bug with the Bane ability that caused it to behave suspiciously like Exorcism.
- Fixed a bug that caused the shortcut keys shown for viewing your recently killed allies at game over to be “off by one.”
- Fixed a bug where auto-explore did not always stop after picking up an item (usually if a second item was also visible.)
- Improved the AI’s ability to evaluate abilities that give buffs or debuffs.
- Fixed a bug where NPCs Vitality gains for a given level did not contribute to their maximum HP until the next level (in essence, from Level 2 on, they were always short a small amount of maxHP.)
- Yet another attempt to get Adria’s AI working right. :P

 

Enjoy, and don’t forget to drop a post in the high score thread if you do particularly well. :)

New build in testing this weekend, hopefully out next week.

It’s been a loooong ride, but I’m finally almost done with the next build, which will be the first of 2015 and should hopefully be ready to play by sometime next week. :) A whole slew of new consumables (including the ones you need for fusing demons together), significant balance changes, and bug fixes are coming soon. This will also be my first attempt at a Linux build, a fellow on the Temple of the Roguelike forums mentioned he would be willing to test it for me since I don’t have a Linux box around of my own, but wouldn’t mind a few other testers. I’ll go digging around and see if I can find a few after the builds are pushed out. Happy new year everyone! :)

Comments Off Posted in Demon

Zombie + Slime = Vile Slime

Two of the new items coming in the next build allow you to sacrifice one demon to apply a modifier to another. Modifiers have existed prior to this, but were only generated randomly. Now you’ll be able to (when you find the appropriate item) exercise some control over them directly. :)

Once you find one of the items (either a Silver Matrix, or, if you want to modify a unique demon, you’ll need a Gold Matrix) and use it, you first select a demon to sacrifice. The modifiers each potential sacrifice provides are shown:

SelectSacrifice
Then, choose a demon to gain the modifier:

SelectTargetForSacrifice

Next, you’ll be shown a preview of the result. It’s easy to back up a step or two to change the sacrifice and the target, so you can quickly review the various combinations and their previews:

VileGandayahPreview

Once you find a combination you like, press Enter on the preview screen to confirm and ta-da, you have a newly modified demon, complete with new abilities!:

VileSlimeIsBorn

This feature has taken longer to work on than I’d have liked, but I think the next build including these and the other 20 or so new items will be pretty exciting. :) I’ll keep everyone posted on progress. :D Happy holidays!

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Item Progress and Scrolling Support for Lists

First, an updated build link: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-sx_4eW-B5hWnhNZlRPclZLeUU&usp=drive_web

There’s no new build as of 11/9, but Dropbox finally ticked me off enough to ditch it after they started bugging people downloading things to sign up. Compared with the false positives web browsers rarely gave about any download from Dropbox being malware, I reluctantly went back to Google Drive and its somewhat terrible interface for actually downloading things. Boo.

Persona Q has proven quite the lengthy distraction (70 hours played so far and still not done), but given Demon is in part based on Shin Megami Tensei, I suppose it’s fair to call this research. :) Despite that, I have still been working on the items and their related interfaces, just taking a bit longer than expected.

One of the major parts of that that I just completed is scrolling support for list interfaces, which is required now that Demon will be supporting over 30 item types (way more than could fit in a non-scrolling list.) Here’s a screenshot of the new list support in action (if a screenshot can ever be said to be in action :P ):

ListInterface

Persona Q Detour

Hey. :) No official update this week due to the release of Persona Q. Shin Megami Tensei is one of Demon’s major influences, so I always take time to play new entries in the series when they pop up. :) Progress on the consumables is still going well though. :D Happy Thanksgiving!

Up next: Improved consumables

I’m currently working on a fairly major revamp of the consumables in Demon: I’ll be going from 11 items to over 30 in the process, including some rather interesting goodies I don’t want to spoil.

The major goals of the revamp are:

* Standardize items into ‘types’ a bit to help with understanding what items do and how they are used (i.e.: Runes are things you use on enemies, Stones are things you use on single allies, Essences are things you use only on the main character, etc.)
* Add some consumables that, rather than just being ‘save me from bad things’, are exciting treasures that do awesome things, such as permanent stat boosts, extra training points for your favorite allies, etc.

I’m still working on implementing the items, but the art is already complete, so I can share that with you. :)

ItemAtlas

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11/12: Welcome laptops and Retina displays!

Link to builds: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/akfvy4z8fmsavdm/AACrg9QrE7tcXDtLQOsYb_7Ga?dl=0

This post is actually a bit late, with apologies, the build’s been up for a few days. :) Finally got laptops and Retina displays working by adding support for a smaller resolution (1080 x 720 in addition to the previous 1152 x 864) and tweaking my sprite code a bit. (“Sprite code?” you ask? Yeah, Demon started before Unity 2D was around, so I still use my own stuff. :) )

If you tried playing before on a laptop or Retina display and had trouble, give the new build a go and things should be much better. :D

One note: The resolution Demon runs at is chosen by Demon itself when you run it: it will pick the best of the two your system can support. :) No need to select it manually.

Here’s a couple of screenshots of the two resolutions (1152 x 864 followed by 1080 x 720):

DemonNormalSize

DemonSmallerSize

11/1: Download Hosting Switch and another Sharing Saturday

NEW Build Link (older links no longer valid!): https://www.dropbox.com/sh/akfvy4z8fmsavdm/AACrg9QrE7tcXDtLQOsYb_7Ga?dl=0

Switched to Dropbox for build hosting because even I was tired of Google Drive’s “how do I download the thing” interface issues. Dropbox can occasionally cause Chrome to throw ridiculously overblown warnings about downloading .exes, but I’m hoping that won’t happen much. :P And now, to the update notes!

Update Notes, 11/1/2014

Interface
- Continuing to adjust ‘new player help’ features, such as hint banners for summoning and
recruiting on the party display, and glowing buttons in the hotkey bar when there context
is relevant.
- Recruit, Item, and Train now display glowing hotkey buttons when appropriate.

Bug Fixes
- Fixed a bug causing Distract, along among debuffs, to not target through enemies.
- Fixed a bug with the grammar engine that caused improper pronoun usage in some cases for uniques.
- Fixed a bug with Poison Needle’s icon.
- Fixed a bug with how enemy summoners reacted to player portal usage.

A screenshot of what some of the new player help features look like in action:

NewPlayerHelp

10/25: Sharing Saturday Build

Build link as always: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-sx_4eW-B5hWnhNZlRPclZLeUU&usp=drive_web

Added some very minor “new player help” functionality to address issues players have had picking up on the summoning mechanics, as well as fixed a number of minor to moderate bugs. :)

Update Notes, 10/25/2014

Interface
- Added purple “hint” glows to Summon, Dismiss, and Rest when you should consider using them
to help new players get a bit of a nudge in the direction of Demon’s summoning mechanics.
- Will probably add more of these and/or make adjusts to how they work in future builds.

Bug Fixes
- Bloodlust no longer falsely claims to restore SP on missed attacks.
- Improved Adria’s AI further, maybe this time it will stick :P
- Fixed several interface/AI bugs related to “protect the target” capture mechanics.
- Sleep no longer sometimes gives a double turn to the victim once they wake up.
- Spin Slash now uses the correct messaging ‘verb’.