Okédoké! La Leyenda Mexicana

I figured I might as well have one of these here, since I had a similar post over on the CP journals and it generated a decent amount of bug reports and suggestions for stuff that was missing from the game or needed to be fixed.
Plus, there's always some people who only post on one forum or the other.

Anybody find a bug that hasn't been fixed as of the July 1st update? How about suggestions on what I could do to improve the game?

"To-do list" so far:

Bug: Leaving Pirates' Turf after beating the gang boss suspends random enemies indefinitely, until you either enter another gang's turf or trigger a script with "resume random enemies" in Chapter 3. Caused by a missing script-triggering NPC; already fixed.
Balancing: Battles run too slow, thanks to very low speed stats. I'm thinking of bumping everyone's speed up by 2 or 3 points to fix this.
Balancing: I'm considering raising steal rates; I thought 20-30% seemed high enough, but I might have just gotten lucky when I was testing the game out before.

20-30% means that, on average, the player will have to steal 4-5 times before getting anything. That's not fun. I rarely use Steal for exactly this reason.

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Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks

I like having a crappy by easy to steal item, and then putting the more interesting stealable in the rare item slot. From an item value perspective it may be the same as a single low-success-rate item, but it feels more satisfying.

I've actually been doing something like this with a lot of enemies--the Border Rangers for example; most of them have an easy-to-find item (like food or a Cowboy Hat) as their common stealable item, then something better/rarer (a Class Ring, Dynamite, etc.) as their rare stealable item.

Of course, a lot of the rare steals had reeaaaally low chances (usually 1-10%) in the previous demos, so I'm guessing most people never saw them.



I've gone through and tweaked the steal percentages a bit; the average steal rates range between 33% and 50% for most enemies now.
I've also gotten rid of all but one or two of the single-digit steal rates, even for really rare items; most of those are at least 10-15% now.

Do those numbers seem like they'd be high enough?

Depends. Do you want the player to have a 50-67% chance of doing absolutely nothing on his turn?

This is personal preference, but I would tend towards making the Steal command too useful rather than useless.

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Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks

Either lower the cost of equipment in the first town or make enemies drop more money.

Also I'd personally raise every hero and enemy speed by at least 4 but that's just me. I like battles to be as fast as possible.

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Super Walrus Land: Mouth Words Edition

I've slightly increased the amount of money that most enemies drop (at least in the desert/mountain areas) at that point in the game, but I think I might lower the price of equipment a little bit too. Maybe increasing the amount of money in some of the chests early on might help also.

I don't want money to be too easy to come by (like in most of the Final Fantasy games, where you end up having money in the tens of thousands that you'll never really have any use for), but I might've overdone it a bit in the contest demo version.




I'm trying to avoid getting to the point where 1 point of speed doesn't mean much of anything (starting around 20 or so, where each point only makes you an extra tenth of a second faster.) There's also a bit of a personal-preference thing involved... I used to like super-fast battles where everyone has 20+ speed (which is what I had in The Kirby Lands; a speed of 18 was actually considered "slow" in that game), but lately I've wanted to slow them down a bit. Once again, though, I probably overdid it in the contest demo, with Señor Rialgo's 6 in speed...

I guess I could raise speed a bit more than just 2 or 3 points; with El Garbanzo bumped up to around 17 or 18, the battles would be faster, but not quite fast enough for speed to not make a difference.



Hmm... maybe I could bump the steal rates up to 50-67% instead; that way you'd be getting an item the majority of the time, except with some of the really rare items (which would still probably get bumped up to at least 20% or so, so even they wouldn't be that hard to get.)

Would having El Garbanzo learn Robbery (which attacks and steals at the same time) a few levels earlier make much of a difference in the usefulness of stealing? Or would it work better if I just got rid of Larceny entirely and give him Robbery from the very beginning instead?

I totally agree with this, but for the very first area of the game, there should be little to no grinding required. The battles are a lot more entertaining once you have multiple characters, but having to grind with one guy was awful.

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Super Walrus Land: Mouth Words Edition

I'm gonna detract from the current discussion slightly to say that I just finished Chapter 3.

Now, I didn't start over, so I can't tell you what I think of it in context of the entire game (like with the improvements to scorpions and whatnot). But I did very briefly re-explore Wrongside and I think the addition of the trash cans really made the presentation better.

I still don't know why I should use the "Rusty Sword." Will it get better in time, or is it just a lousy sword that Garbanzo's father once used?

Now, about Chapter 3, I like how it plays out more like a side quest than a regular part of the adventure. Keeps the chapter short. However, I'm not sure how it really helps the story. I guess that's something I'll have to wait until Chapter 4 or 5 to really see.

The map design was clever. And I appreciated how all points met in the middle (where our heroes tangle with the mysterious woman). And the cut scenes were well done.

I liked the inclusion of readable tombstones. Thought it was a bit disturbing that most of the victims were under the age of 30.

The new character cracked me up. She reminded me of a cross between Harry Potter and Velma from Scooby-Doo. And her special attack is...well...appropriate for this game, though I must admit its effectiveness is nothing more than a gimmick in my opinion, and I think there needs to be some alternative attacks in her lineup for the next update. And I would recommend this for as early as Chapter 3 since she is next to useless against the majority of enemies in the mansion.

Finally, I like the quest you set up at the beginning of Chapter 4. I will be looking forward to this. The walking dog enemies have Scorpion Syndrome, though. Took forever to finish my first random battle with them. Between everyone missing and Schnee's pointless attack, it sort of feels like all your previous bugfixing went wasted. You probably want to start doling out higher experience points for later enemies so that the heroes can at least keep up with the random battles of later areas.

Regarding speed, I think Garbanzo comes into his own by Wrongside. Senor Death is the one that needs some fire under his butt. The others catch up quickly enough as the game progresses. But I agree with Surlaw that it starts off too slow.

I'm impartial to the stealing debate. I don't use it enough to really have an opinion. I'm more interested in seeing Senor Death's elemental attacks deal slightly more damage than they do. I'd also like the higher-cost special attacks to fail less often.

Finally, that Jack-in-the-Box enemy was a beast. I used up most of my healing items on him. And while I appreciated the stat rewards he gave, I was disappointed that he didn't drop anything cool for me to take with me. At least Emo Kid gave me a mask.

But overall I thought this was a good update. Really looking forward to New Hamster.

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Place Obligatory Signature Here

In Chapter 4, there'll be someone in a shop who can clean off the rust and restore the sword to its previous strength. It then becomes the second-strongest weapon in the entire game.



Heh, wasn't sure how well Schnee would go over. Glad you liked her, regardless of the boob jokes.

Two weapons she can get in Chapter 4 allow her to use a normal attack instead of the boob-jiggle; she also learns some direct attacking spells later on, so that will probably help. I'm also thinking of making Jiggle into its own "Random Effects" spell list, and giving her normal attacks for all of her weapons (probably a weak magic-based attack for the magic wands.)

As for her effectiveness against the haunted house enemies... her "Hole" spell (which knocks off 10% of an enemy's HP and stuns them) actually works very well on the Heck Klown. But yeah, she does seem a bit too weak in random battles... maybe I'll give her a new attack or two in the next update. Either that, or just make her learn her attacking spells earlier.



Hmm... kind of odd that only the Critter Dudes gave you such a hard time; there were a ton of enemies in that area with higher Evade stats (Demented Cone, Bananoid, Roach Deluxe, and Hooker.) If you kept your old save file, though, that might explain it--the accuracy fix only applied to new games.

Maybe I need to go through and lower all the enemies' evade, instead of just raising the heroes' accuracy again.



I did give all the Chapter 4 enemies higher experience than anything that shows up earlier. I agree that I might have to boost them even higher, though; after level 10 or so the amount you need to level up starts to get too high for 30-exp random battles to help much. I'll probably end up giving the Chapter 3 enemies experience amounts closer to what the Chapter 4 enemies have now, then boost the Chapter 4 enemies up even higher.



I actually found the elemental hands a lot more useful in Chapter 3; Flame Hand does pretty good damage to most of the undead (especially Deady Bears), and Freeze Hand can take out the Jack-o'-Lanterns in two hits--much better than his regular attack at that point. I might boost their damage a little bit more, or maybe increase their chaining percentages some so the side-effects can make up for their lack of power.

Señor Death learns some stronger elemental-based spells later, but I may have made the levels too high for anyone to actually get them in the demo (he learns the first one, Heck Flame, at level 12; the others come in at level 16 and level 20.)

As for his other spells; Drain shouldn't be missing very often at all (it's set to Good accuracy), and Nausea should hit most enemies without much trouble (though cockroaches, inanimate objects, and undead are all immune to it; you'll see "No Effect" instead of "Miss" when you use it against them.)
Since its aim is set to "Magic," the only enemies I can think of that would consistently be able to dodge Nausea are ones with higher Wisdom scores--other than bosses, that's pretty much just Hobos and Vampires.
Slasher is supposed to be inaccurate, because it would become monstrously overpowered if it could be relied on to hit every time (the secret boss hidden in Chapter 2 becomes almost too easy if Slasher's accuracy is any higher than it is now.)
I guess I could make Slasher more accurate, but then I'd have to make it fail against "No Instant Death" enemies (like the secret boss I mentioned.)

I might just make Señor Death learn his spells faster. Probably the other characters also, since it seems like nobody's really getting much higher than level 10 or so in the current demo.



Heh, yeah... the Heck Klown is technically an optional boss rather than just another random critter-in-a-box, so I'm glad he turned out to be so tough.

While he doesn't drop anything, you do need to fight him to get the Power Bean (which can be equipped to give Señor Rialgo's fart attacks a huge boost in power.) You'll be able to steal Cuff Keys and Dynamite from him in the next update, also.

About the Emo Mask: I'm wondering if the HP loss should be lower, since at the moment Schnee never has enough HP to actually use it, and the stat boosts don't seem like they'd be quite big enough to balance out that much of a drop in HP. Maybe only -50 or -66 HP, instead of -100?

Oh good. Now I don't feel so badly about leaving it in my reserve.



Well, there's nothing regardless about it. The joke was funny, but not enough to keep it running for more than a couple battles. One of those empty chests should contain an alternate weapon for her to use.



This would be better. But I maintain that waiting until Chapter 4 is a bit too late for this. I'd make at least one of those weapons available soon after she joins the party.



Of course, that was one of the attacks I didn't use. Figures. I confess I'm a bad special attack user. Just ask RedMaverickZero. I ended up with underpowered elementals in Halloween Quest 3 because I never used them. I'll try using more special attacks in the future.



Well, the Critter Dudes were the only ones to give me problems because they were the only ones I encountered. If those others were higher, then they'd probably give me problems, too.

(I've actually reloaded the game, so I can tell you in just a second whether the others are problematic, too.)

(Okay, reporting as I go, I just stole $10 from a "Homeless." There's something wrong with that.)

(I also like how Schnee's little distraction yields "No Effect" when the Homeless takes a siesta.)

(And Senor Rialgo just learned "Embiggen" on Level Up.)

(Okay, encountered the "Demented Cones" and the "Hooker." They didn't seem quite as bad as the "Critter Dude." So I don't know what to say about that.)



That might be better. I don't mind missing occasionally, but missing every other hit gets old.



Yes, I think Chapter 3 needs to yield more than it does. You should probably double the average experience gain per chapter, within a reasonable window, of course.



Again, I rely on standard attacks more than I do elementals--for the simple reason that standard attacks are free--so, I tend not to test these as often as I probably should. I did use them extensively on the Emo Kid (I forget his real name), and the occasional stat drops were a nice bonus. However, my comment reflects those times when I do use an elemental and discover that it's only dealing about 5-10 points in damage. I think if I'm gonna have to pay for the attack, it should deal at least 50 percent more damage than a standard attack.



Yeah, I already learned Heck Flame, and I used it against the Heck Klown. In three hits, it managed to take a total of about 8 HP off the Klown, and that's after spending about 15 SP to use it. But I suppose 8 HP is better than Garbanzo's 1 HP attacks. Really, the only saving grace against these types of enemies are Rialgo's "Despegue" attack. I use that quite frequently.

But my average level as of Chapter 4 is 13-14.



I think Slasher is a frustrating attack to use, but I can see why it's set the way it is. I wouldn't worry about changing these so much. I think I'm most annoyed when Rialgo's Despegue misses. It just seems like the kind of attack that shouldn't miss. But I suppose it probably should miss from time to time since it's so powerful when it does hit.

I guess this one's a debate for public opinion rather than mine alone.



I don't think anyone needs to learn spells faster. They just need to earn more experience per battle.



A beast. Sheesh. But a good fight, nonetheless.



Okay, I forgot about the Power Bean. I thought I had picked that up somewhere else. Stealing dynamite seems like a fair trade considering I had to use a stick on him just to cause any damage.



This is a tough call. I saw the stats it gives and I can see where you'd want a low HP to counterbalance it. I think -50 HP is too little of a drop. You definitely want to put her in the "two-three hits until knockout" category with those stats (I don't think they're small at all). The only thing that makes this a non-issue is the fact that she can't really attack anything yet.

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Place Obligatory Signature Here

Yeah, I try not to put any absolutely worthless items in the game. Most of the junk items go toward making some sort of super-item later on, or can be sold for a buttload of money. So far there's only one that doesn't have any use and can't be sold... and that's a reward item for beating Chapter 2's optional boss (plus, having it with you sets a tag that reduces the costs of items in one of Chapter 4's shops.)



Hmm... sounds like a good idea. Originally I was going to have the Magic Wand in a chest instead of having it force-equipped by her joining script; I'll probably put in a "Pointy Stick" (or something along those lines) for her in an extra chest somewhere.



Pickpocket's supposed to have no effect on enemies that don't have much money, so I must have forgotten to set the "Poor" enemy type bitset on them.

I just tested it out, and I'm able to snatch money from the Homeless (and other enemies that aren't supposed to have any money, like Cockroaches) even though the "Is Poor" bitset is set on and Pickpocket is set to "Fail against Poor" and "Do not chain if attack fails"... Huh. Looks like we just found a bug in the program.



Yeah, both effects stun, and almost every stun-inducing attack fails if the target's already stunned (which was intended to prevent anyone from abusing stun attacks too much, but also ends up with some extra side-effects like this one.)



Just luck, I guess. Probably the same reason I didn't notice any problems with accuracy or steal rates when I was testing the game the first time.



Wow, El Garbanzo was only doing 1 damage with his regular attack?? What weapon did he have? There's a Scimitar in one of the chests, plus you can buy them from the ghost back on the first floor; he should be doing much more damage than that if you equipped him with one of those. Especially if you picked up Boxing Gloves (which boost Attack by 5) for him back in Wrongside.

The Heck Klown resists fire, so of course Heck Flame was a lot less effective there than it would've been otherwise. Normally, each hit should be doing 20-30 damage, or even more if the target's weak to fire.

Didn't expect level 13-14, heh... Schnee should have learned one of her damaging attacks by now (Seeker, which doesn't do huge amounts of damage, but isn't resisted by anything and never misses.)
I guess the levels that spells are learned won't be much of a problem, then... as long as I manage to keep the enemies' experience rewards high enough that leveling doesn't get ridiculous.



Yeah, I had somehow forgotten that it boosts all stats... for some reason I was thinking it was just the defensive stats and SP (maybe I had it give those boosts only at some point, then added more to balance out the huge drop in HP.)

If the OHRRPGCE had a "reduce stat by %" option for equipped items, this wouldn't be much of a problem (I'd just set it to 67% or 75% or something like that, so she'd always get a huge drop in HP no matter how much she had to begin with.) I guess I'll set the penalty to something like -75 or -80 for now; low enough that someone could actually use it before the end of the game, but high enough that it'll always be a huge drop in HP.

I think attacks miss too often. I don't like how it is in a lot of other games so much (where attacks hit around 99%, or 98% for an "inaccurate" character), but El Garbanzo only seems to hit around 40% of the time, and his allies fare a little worse. (Maybe I'm just unlucky.) On the other hand, the characters are good at dodging enemy attacks, so maybe this is just something to do with the flavor of your world.

The steal rate was definitely too low, but this has already been adressed. I loved the rare item I got from the pirate.

Rapiers aren't curved weapons; those are sabers. (A rapier is essentially a broadsword with a basket handle; a few inches longer, maybe, and often a bit narrower.) I understand that this is a small thing, having even less importance than most cosmetic errors, but I really felt that I should share my feelings about this.


El Garbanzo and Senor Dialgo are awesome dudes that give off an aura of macho buffness. I wanted to make some of my characters like that, but for some reason I always fail. Good work!
Senor Death is really cool. He's my favorite.

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Remeber: God made you special and he loves you very much. Bye!

Maybe because your protagonists are usually wolves with neon-red fur?

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Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks

Yeah, I really wanted to avoid the "NOBODY EVER MISSES!" thing that a lot of games seem to have--where the only time you'll see a miss is when using super-inaccurate attacks, or when fighting enemies with ludicrously high Evade.
I probably overdid it in the 8-bit Contest demo, though (especially with high-Evade enemies like Scorpions.)
Hopefully, my accuracy/evade changes in the newest demo helped with that.



Whoops! I always get those two mixed up, for some odd reason--I had the right image in my head when I was writing the description (a longer, narrow stabby-type sword) but then somehow screwed up when making the weapon graphics later.



It's Señor Rialgo, actually (though I'm guessing that was just a typo, since R and D are pretty close on the keyboard.)

Glad you liked them. I'm trying to move away from the "Tons of characters without a lot of distinguishing features" thing (The Kirby Lands works pretty well as an example of that) and toward smaller parties made up of better characters; based on the comments I've gotten so far, it looks like I'm doing a pretty good job.
It seems like a lot of people like Señor Rialgo and Señor Death, and I haven't seen any reports of anyone really hating any character yet.