Heart of the OHR Contest

Make games! Discuss those games here.

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Baconlabs
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Post by Baconlabs »

Anyone have any news or updates on their entries? It feels like the thread went silent shortly after the bug was brought up.

Four days and counting, right?
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Mystic
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Post by Mystic »

Waiting until the last minute, as I suspect everyone else is.

Also people are discussing their changes in the IRC.
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Post by Spoonweaver »

Alright, I've bugfixed my game as much as I think I'm going to before the end of the bugfix period. I believe there are some minor bugs still, and there are still misspellings.
There are 2 major things I'd like to point out about this update. First, I've activated a lot of NPC's that had been left without a use. Secondly, I've rebalanced almost everything.

I hope you guys enjoy what I have so far.

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Baconlabs
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Post by Baconlabs »

Spoonweaver wrote:I've activated a lot of NPC's that had been left without a use.
This is exactly what I wanted to see happen.
(The other thing was that I thought the later battles were too hard, but that can be fixed with a little grinding)
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Post by NayusDante »

While I do PLAN on finishing Eternity Fragment, my classes end Tuesday so I've been preoccupied. I'll upload a the final version here when it's ready.

Even if it doesn't make it in time for the contest, I really want to finish up EF. I still don't entirely know for myself just how it ends, but I have a few ideas that might work. I've got a few days to decide and implement it, but I'd rather get it right than make it for the contest.

Once I get EF out of the way, I should have the time to finally play the other entries. I thought I'd have done that by now, but I haven't had time to sit down and play much of anything these past few weeks.
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guo
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Post by guo »

Things are coming along nicely.

*1st dungeon expanded, some graphical alterations

*City expanded, graphical alterations

*Night/day system improved. Lighting effects only affect outdoor areas, indoor lighting values remain constant.

*Camera issues fixed, some improved scripting of introductory cutscenes

TODO before end of grace period:

*Fix menus

*streamline combat mechanics, add tutorial

*Add more flavour to dungeons, hospital, new town area

*Music, sound effects
Last edited by guo on Sun Dec 12, 2010 4:50 am, edited 2 times in total.
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msw188
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Post by msw188 »

Okay everyone, I've just uploaded the final bugfix version of Tales of the New World II, my HotOHR entry. There are some hero-based fixes that will require you to start over with this file; I'm not sure how to get around this unless you want to send me your .sav folder and have me 'update' your heroes manually.

I hope people enjoy the game! In the meanwhile, I'm going to start playing the other releases right away.
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Post by msw188 »

Okay, I'm going in order based on the wiki list of HotOHR games, but I'm going backwards so that I play the 'late' games first, and don't start the 'on time' games till after the actual bugfix deadline. So first impressions on Do You Want To Be A Hero, typed more or less as I played:

-No spell descriptions in battle kind of sucks
-Searching mountains for items...? That was weird, and totally unexpected, but I guess it works.
-Loading a savegame doesn't work...? Oh, is it meant to save by world?That's really good for this I think, but was it mentioned somewhere? Also, it shouldn't load the old position THEN fade out THEN load the beginning of the world; this might be impossible to take care of with the engine as is though
-I think timer should pause when menu is up - how do you pause the game if you need to take a pee? Or if I am trying to type these notes in the middle of playing?
-Actually, I think the worlds need a bit more time in general. The time limit is not at all generous, especially when the game is unfamiliar - having to go through the menues to read what my spells that I just learned do, for example. Shopping as well. I ran out of time on both levels 2 & 3, and those felt like cheap losses and made me stop playing, mostly because I DON'T HAVE A WAY TO PAUSE.
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Post by Baconlabs »

msw188 wrote:The time limit is not at all generous, especially when the game is unfamiliar
I think this type of trial-and-error gameplay is deliberate. You're not supposed to be able to clear every level on your first go, especially since you'll probably spend some time reading the intro dialogue. (By all means, don't skip it on your first visit, it's occasionally helpful or even funny - it's worth a quick restart)
Also I'm all for a proper pause button. You never know when you'll need to take a break from the game.
Last edited by Baconlabs on Mon Dec 13, 2010 9:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Mogri »

A pause button is a very good idea, actually. I'll try to squeeze that into the bugfix release.
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Post by FnrrfYgmSchnish »

Just uploaded what will probably be my last bugfixing update before the deadline. A pretty minor update overall, but here's what's changed from the December 4th version:
  • * Went back through and added all of the missing prison guard portraits, which I forgot that I hadn't finished before. All of the different varieties of cops should have their portraits now, so let me know if I missed any.
    * "Stunned by the force of the impact" used to cause a small amount of HP damage instead, but now it actually stuns.
    * The gates in the prison now completely disappear when you flip the switch, rather than leaving a random chunk behind on the top row. I had forgotten to set the tile animation right for those.
    * A minor NPC graphics error that made the scene after Bridget's defeat look a bit odd is fixed now.
    * Knocked-out heroes now gain experience. The only major difference this should make is the possibility of a KO'ed hero reviving to full HP upon leveling up, but... level-ups are uncommon enough that this shouldn't make a really huge difference. One good side-effect is that bosses who give silly numbers of experience will always give the right number even if you have only one guy left at the end of the fight (for example, Sora gives exactly 666 exp to everyone.)
    * The Canadian cop and the Burger Kingdom guard now have more unique textboxes rather than the usual "obey the law" speech.
    * Added in a couple of "stair-stepping sound" NPCs in the prison, for two staircases that were missing them before.
    * Inventory size is now 117 slots. The most items you can ever possibly get at the same time is 115, so hopefully this will mean you'll have more than enough room for everything anyone would realistically have at the same time without having way too much extra empty space at the end.
    * Cut down the HP penalty for the Emo Mask to 75, rather than 100, since Schnee will never get a whole lot more than 100 HP unless you overlevel to the point of insanity. Now, it should actually be possible for her to use it before the end of the game without going into the negatives.
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Post by msw188 »

Okay Mogri, I thought a bit more about DYWTBAH and I wanted to voice my opinions here before you rolled that bugfix.

First off, I think a pause button would be amazing. More importantly though, I think one of two things should happen. Either make menues and shops pause the timer (this would be my preference), or TAKE OUT the bit in the readme that says, and I quote,
The time limits on all levels are fairly generous. Don't rush. Take your time.
This was the biggest lie in the whole game. I died twice from enemies (and once was the first boss before I realized you could search mountains for equipment), but died from running out of time in both chapters 2 and 3. It wasn't battles that caused the time issue - it was reading text in my spells menu, and especially trying to decide what would be worthwhile to buy in the shops. Having to do chapters over again because I was told I'd have time to consider things like learning what my spells do, or judging cost effectiveness of unfamiliar equipment, was not fun.

And I don't want to sound so negative. I think the battle balance is great. I mean, really well done so far. It's not really my style of game, but it seems obvious that a lot of care went into both the singular battles and the layout of the chapters. The only bug I could find was the dying bug (which is rather annoying, as I can't seem to get my choice of what to do upon death). Great work.
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Post by Mogri »

Realistically, I think you are right - shops and the main menu should pause the timer. I'll try adding this as well.

You do realize that dying in battle doesn't lose the level, right? The penalty for dying is fairly minor. You are intended to die against the boss of the first level as part of the tutorial. There's some room for trial and error. If you take a look at the runthrough I posted on YouTube (level 6, I think), you'll notice that I die repeatedly to an early enemy.

I do want to say that you're the first person to voice this particular complaint, and I think that it arises at least partially from your love of analysis. I don't think analysis should be punished, so I agree regarding pausing the timer, but I suspect you may have gone above and beyond the average player in this regard :)
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Post by msw188 »

Oh I'm sorry, I might have been unclear. I was trying to say that dying from battles was not a major concern (I 'only' died twice from enemies), whereas the timer was the main issue in every level. Which it seems we agree upon. Reading my old post now, I'm actually not clear on that at all.
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Post by Baconlabs »

I'm just about done with the latest version of Viridia. I'm adding one more plotscript that'll return the player to the Armory if he dies in battle, which should ease some player frustration to a degree.
I couldn't think up a satisfying ending, unfortunately, so THAT is pretty much the same as it was before. It does, however, transition to the new Music Room, which I had a lot of fun making.
I think I'll rewrite the ending and find something a bit more interesting than having the entire camp ravaged by wolves.
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