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| Thread: [Advice needed] - Would this indie turn-based strategy be fun for HOMM fans? |  This thread is pages long: 1 2 3 4 5 · «PREV / NEXT» |
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dtishin
Hired Hero
www.firesidehero.com
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posted June 18, 2020 11:18 PM |
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monere said:
ok. I'll wait for a different version. Although, I might start new games every now and then cause I like defeating monsters. You should really do something about the combat system because it's very predictable (all of the monsters start the combat with the charm option first, and it's easy to counter them by using knowledge).
Also, most of the time they do use Defend after they run out of hits, so whenever this happens I know it whether or not the interface displays the AI's action, and I immediately use Wait. You might want to randomize the combat sequences that the AI takes a bit more 
Just in case, build 1.0.9 was uploaded several minutes ago.
As for Charm attacks in the first round, that's a bug - thanks for pointing it out! Actually I was planning to overhaul monsters' AI as my next block of work, both making it more intelligent and more varied across different monsters.
Do you think the autosave system can wait for a while?
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Can you find and defeat 5 legendary monsters in 20 days?
Test your skills in Fireside Hero, a compact turn-based strategy with a twist!
www.firesidehero.com
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monere
Bad-mannered
Supreme Hero
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posted June 18, 2020 11:23 PM |
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dtishin said:
monere said:
ok. I'll wait for a different version. Although, I might start new games every now and then cause I like defeating monsters. You should really do something about the combat system because it's very predictable (all of the monsters start the combat with the charm option first, and it's easy to counter them by using knowledge).
Also, most of the time they do use Defend after they run out of hits, so whenever this happens I know it whether or not the interface displays the AI's action, and I immediately use Wait. You might want to randomize the combat sequences that the AI takes a bit more
Just in case, build 1.0.9 was uploaded several minutes ago.
As for Charm attacks in the first round, that's a bug - thanks for pointing it out! Actually I was planning to overhaul monsters' AI as my next block of work, both making it more intelligent and more varied across different monsters.
Do you think the autosave system can wait for a while?
If the game doesn't crash and/or the ongoing combat issue is done with, yes, the autosave can wait cause I'm only interested in being able to finish the campaign and the ongoing combat bug prevented me from that because I couldn't do anything when that happened, except for ALT+F4
Also, if it's not much trouble maybe add a save button to the menu? No big deal, though, just an idea
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dtishin
Hired Hero
www.firesidehero.com
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posted June 18, 2020 11:42 PM |
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monere said:
Also, if it's not much trouble maybe add a save button to the menu? No big deal, though, just an idea
Adding a button is not a problem, but making it save all the necesary stuff and loading it correctly is a challenge You see, everything that you see on screen (heroes, buttons, tiles etc) can't be actually "remembered" - they only exist in your computer RAM. As soon as the game is closed, these objects just get erased. You can only write some data tables into a file, so that when you load the save, the game reads the file and accordingly re-creates the necessary objects from scratch.
Imagine that you drop a dozen marbles to the ground, then decide to "save" their state in mid-air. The only way of doing it is to take a snapshot with a camera, write down the coordinates of each marble in space, then take more marbles, ask your five friends to hold these marbles in these carefully measured positions, then ask them to drop them again. That's more or less what happens when you load a save, but I'm not a professional programmer anyway
____________
Can you find and defeat 5 legendary monsters in 20 days?
Test your skills in Fireside Hero, a compact turn-based strategy with a twist!
www.firesidehero.com
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monere
Bad-mannered
Supreme Hero
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posted June 18, 2020 11:48 PM |
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oh, that's a lot of work...
Oh well, I guess I can leave the game opened in the bar when I'm away, so no biggie
Playing on hard right now and I'll come back with any issue I might be having. The game is honestly good (reminds me of Birthright, although I've never played that game cause I didn't understand it at that time).
If you're going to add an autosave function into this game, and also make the AI a bit more challenging / unpredictable you'll have a winner, ready to be marketed as standalone product
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monere
Bad-mannered
Supreme Hero
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posted June 18, 2020 11:57 PM |
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Edited by monere at 00:05, 19 Jun 2020.
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monere said:
oh, that's a lot of work...
Oh well, I guess I can leave the game opened in the bar when I'm away, so no biggie
Playing on hard right now and I'll come back with any issue I might be having. The game is honestly good (reminds me of Birthright, although I've never played that game cause I didn't understand it at that time).
If you're going to add an autosave function into this game, and also make the AI a bit more challenging / unpredictable you'll have a winner, ready to be marketed as standalone product
EDIT: I'm about to get my a55 whooped in the first battle (against minotaur), and what bothers me is that I missed 2 consecutive hits that had 95% chance to hit. I think you should nerf the chances so that 95% chance to miss really does look like 95% instead of 0%
If all of the battles will behave like this no one can beat the game on hard difficulty (probably on easy, neither)
EDIT 2: he, I actually beat the minotaur, although I did fear for my life at some point when it lowered my HPs to 3 after 2 hits while it was full HPs (13). Once the AI runs out of hits the combat is pretty easy, which I'm not sure if it's good or bad but.. I'm happy with the result 
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dtishin
Hired Hero
www.firesidehero.com
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posted June 19, 2020 12:05 AM |
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monere said:
The game is honestly good
Wow thanks so much, these words are a huge inspiration to move forward! You totally made my day!
As for the changes, besides the combat AI and a save system, I have many things in mind - additional maps, additional types of interactive locations and terrain tiles, more interesting herbs and artifacts, more portraits, updated UI, etc. Maybe terrain influencing combat and stuff like that.
And it would be cool to discuss these features on this forum. Which changes are important? Which simply dilute the game's essence without adding any value? I will post updates about new builds in this thread, maybe people will find some time to try things out and share feedback...
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dtishin
Hired Hero
www.firesidehero.com
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posted June 19, 2020 12:12 AM |
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Edited by dtishin at 00:45, 19 Jun 2020.
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monere said:
I missed 2 consecutive hits that had 95% chance to hit
Can you send a screenshot? Missing twice at the same chance to hit that's greater than 50% is impossible in consecutive combat rounds, I made a special piece of code to prevent that a long time ago and it used to work fine. If it does happen then that's a new bug that needs investigation...
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monere
Bad-mannered
Supreme Hero
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posted June 19, 2020 12:24 AM |
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Quote:
Wow thanks so much, these words are a huge inspiration to move forward! You totally made my day!
cool! Always happy to help
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As for the changes, besides the combat AI and a save system, I have many things in mind
one thing at a time, amigo. One thing at a time. For now - if all the bugs that stop people from completing the game - are fixed, the next step probably is to spread the word about the game. Currently, the game doesn't have too much replayability indeed (although, I haven't even beaten it once), but it can be played
Quote:
And it would be cool to discuss these features on this forum
it would. But this means more people should find out that this game exist and actually give it a try. Not liking it is impossible if they're fans of Birthright, HoMM, or both (which I'd assume most of them are)
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Which changes are important?
more maps is definitely one of the priorities, because the current map can only be played... I don't know, I'd say up to 10-20 times before people start learning it inside-out, or at least learning to read the clues and how to defeat each monster. I think 2 more maps should be your next priority after the game breaking bugs (if any) are fixed.
Next on the list of priorities I'd put: more battle influencing elements. Even though I have not finished the game once I did play over 20 battles already and I already learned how to deal with them: just play defensive until the AI runs out of hits and then inflict 1 damage each turn until it dies/flees. It's a very linear and repetitive combat. It's not boring, honestly, I'm having a blast killing the same monsters every time, even though I know what to expect from each monster.
But more battle influencing elements (morale, random events, maybe reinforcements, etc) will help with replayability tremendously
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Which simply dilute the game's essence without adding any value?
hmm... I think I've started around 10 games so far (due to the bugs), and I've noticed that in each game I have successfully managed to dodge / not be affected by the perils. The perils happen almost every turn, and even though they do fill up several tiles each day I have successfully managed to avoid all of them. And when I couldn't avoid them (because they've been in my way) I went right through the afflicted tile without suffering any consequence. Probably my luck has been that the afflicted tiles didn't also contain monsters/artifacts, which is why I didn't have to station in those tiles for long enough to suffer the consequences.
I think the peril mechanic is welcome, it just needs improvement so that it can impact the player.
Other than this I really can't find other "useless" elements. At least not yet. Maybe later, after I will have played the game more, other elements will pop up, but for now everything looks good. I really, really, REALLY like the adventure map. Is so full of stuff that distract me and don't know which way to go first LOL.
Oh, something else. I think the structures - or at least some of them - should give random bonuses. I'm mainly referring to the bathtub in Rowandale, which always gives +25$ charm (???). It would be nice if it gave one of 3 bonuses instead of +25% charm all the time. It doesn't have to be extra, ultra, uber powerful bonuses. A mere +2 HPs will do. Or anything else, really. But more than 1 bonus, for diversity sake.
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monere
Bad-mannered
Supreme Hero
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posted June 19, 2020 12:29 AM |
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dtishin said:
Can you send a screenshot? Missing twice at the same chance to hit that's greater than 50% is impossible in consecutive combat rounds, I made a special piece of code to prevent that a long time ago and it used to work fine. If it does happen then that's a new bug that needs investigation...
the battle finished and I didn't save 
But anyway, I wouldn't know how to post 2 screenshots of 2 consecutive hits. I mean, after the first missed hit I went like "wow, really?!?" but then continued playing WITHOUT expecting a 2nd 95% chance of hitting to trigger the very next shot. So, I obviously didn't save. But then, when the 2nd hit missed (again at 95% chance of succeeding) that's when I thought about letting you know about this detail. I could have eventually taken a screenshot during that miss, but I would have had to think about it fast enough to capture the tooltip, and then it wouldn't have made too much sense anyway because you didn't have a screenshot of the previous missed hit
So, I'm not sure how I could have taken 2 screenshots of this sequence.
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dtishin
Hired Hero
www.firesidehero.com
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posted June 19, 2020 12:54 AM |
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Edited by dtishin at 00:54, 19 Jun 2020.
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monere said:
So, I'm not sure how I could have taken 2 screenshots of this sequence.
I mean, whenever that kind of thing happens, just take a screenshot with the visible combat log. Each line clearly shows which attack type, force and hit chance you committed, and what was the outcome of the combat round. From that I'll see if there was a consecutive missed hit or not. If Print Screen doesn't work properly, first press Alt + Enter (it will switch the game to the windowed mode) then take your screenshots.
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monere
Bad-mannered
Supreme Hero
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posted June 19, 2020 01:03 AM |
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dtishin said:
I mean, whenever that kind of thing happens, just take a screenshot with the visible combat log. Each line clearly shows which attack type, force and hit chance you committed, and what was the outcome of the combat round. From that I'll see if there was a consecutive missed hit or not. If Print Screen doesn't work properly, first press Alt + Enter (it will switch the game to the windowed mode) then take your screenshots.
Oh, I didn't think about that. Yeah, you are right. Will do it next time I encounter it (good thinking with the log displaying  )
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dtishin
Hired Hero
www.firesidehero.com
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posted June 19, 2020 01:10 AM |
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Edited by dtishin at 01:22, 19 Jun 2020.
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monere said:
I think the peril mechanic is welcome, it just needs improvement so that it can impact the player.
Currently the threshold value for stat check = Base value (random number between 2 and 5) + 0.5*current day. I.e. a drought on day 10 will require a prowess between 7 and 10 or higher (2...5 + 5), depending on random factor for the actual peril. This means that weak "assistant" heroes will most likely fail the checks starting from mid-game, and the main hero will pass most of the checks throughout the game, except the checks for his / her weakest stat.
I actually was thinking to replace this by a 50-50 chance throughout the game, irrespective of the current hero's parameters. This way it will be random but possibly more exciting, too.
Or maybe I should simply raise the requirements (i.e. change the multiplier for days from 0.5 to 0.7 or something).
monere said:
It doesn't have to be extra, ultra, uber powerful bonuses. A mere +2 HPs will do. Or anything else, really. But more than 1 bonus, for diversity sake.
Why have you only mentioned the Baths?
Each of the three primary places (the inn, the baths and the monastery) boost their respective stat (prowess, charm and knowledge). My goal was to create some predictability similar to HOMM, where you know for sure Stonehendge adds +1 to Spell power, Camp adds + 1 Attack and Fort adds +1 Defense, and you can plan your hero's path in advance accordingly.
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dtishin
Hired Hero
www.firesidehero.com
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posted June 19, 2020 01:15 AM |
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monere said:
good thinking with the log displaying
My original intention was that the player finds patterns in the log and deconstructs AI for a specific monster. With the current messy AI logic the intention is kinda wasted, but I hope I'll fix this next week.
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monere
Bad-mannered
Supreme Hero
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posted June 19, 2020 01:18 AM |
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Edited by monere at 01:22, 19 Jun 2020.
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I don't know what to say because I have to do math and I'm not very good at math at this hour (it's 2 AM here in Romania where I live). Also, the perils have affected me too little in my multiple playthroughs to give them enough consideration
The only time I've been drastically affected by peril has been in this game that I'm playing right now where my hero went from 9 HPs to 2 HPs and that bothered me because I had to end turn for 3-4 days in a row until the handicapped had disappeared. So, I had to delay taking the gold mine for several days and when the handicap has finally gone away so had my gold balance gone negative enough to make me fail the campaign. Fun stuff
So yeah, aside for this instance perils didn't bother me too much in this game, although, now that I'm paying more attention to them (ie read what they do and try to understand how their explanations impacts my gameplay) I think they are pretty crippling. Initially, I thought that they only affect the tile they're on, but apparently they do stick around with the hero for several days, in which case I don't think they should be "improved". If anything they should be nerfed, but even this I'm not sure it's a good thing because I haven't played the game long enough to understand if they're balanced or not.
So, I wouldn't stress with perils for now. I mean, they don't bother me too much now that I've learned to avoid them
Quote:
My original intention was that the player finds patterns in the log and deconstructs AI for a specific monster. With the current messy AI logic the intention is kinda wasted, but I hope I'll fix this next week.
the AI is not messy. It just needs a bit of randomizing for less predictability, but I'm only referring to the monsters I have encountered so far in the game (which have always been the same 6-7 types of monsters all the time). Maybe with bigger monsters (probably the ones that appear later in the campaign) the combat is different, but for now I'm only speaking about the combat against hydra, minotaur, vampire, skeleton, elemental, golem, and imp (these are the only monsters I have found so far)
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dtishin
Hired Hero
www.firesidehero.com
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posted June 19, 2020 01:30 AM |
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monere said:
I had to end turn for 3-4 days in a row until the handicapped had disappeared.
Just in case: if you visit the Oasis, it restores your health and removes all negative effects.
monere said:
I thought that they only affect the tile they're on, but apparently they do stick around with the hero for several days
Depends on the peril. Plague and curse stick to your hero until the peril expires, the others are removed when you leave the affected area (but your hero's stats are only restored next morning). Also two peril types (brigands and curse) are instantly removed from the map if you pass the check.
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monere
Bad-mannered
Supreme Hero
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posted June 19, 2020 01:34 AM |
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Edited by monere at 01:36, 19 Jun 2020.
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yeah, I noticed the oasis, but I was scouting around the gold mine at the top-left side of the map when the peril was active. And it was plague, I remember now.
Still playing the game, having a blast with it. The music is also good 👍
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dtishin
Hired Hero
www.firesidehero.com
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posted June 19, 2020 01:44 AM |
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monere said:
The music is also good
The music (main theme and combat theme) are by [url=https://www.quezia.com/]Quezia Lima[/url].
She's planning to write at least one more piece for the "tavern" mode (i.e. when no heroes are selected) - that would most likely replace the current placeholder track with harp playing. Other sound design is by myself, but that was mostly finding, cropping, post-processing, mixing and looping open license sounds recorded by other people. Some ambient loops consist of 10+ separate tracks, others just of one.
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monere
Bad-mannered
Supreme Hero
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posted June 19, 2020 01:49 AM |
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well, I like it.
Also, if you somehow manage to add multiplayer into this game it will kick a55. But this is probably a project for long term
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monere
Bad-mannered
Supreme Hero
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posted June 19, 2020 01:56 AM |
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Question: is it possible for the guys that purchase rumours from me to find the artifact before I do? And if they do, will I still be able to mark the spot where the artifact should be?
I'm asking this because I found the location of the artifact (below the red lighthouse at the top-left side of the map), but for some (unknown) reason I can't mark the spot, and I'm not sure if it's a bug, or if I have sold too many clues to those guys and they have found the artifact before me.
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dtishin
Hired Hero
www.firesidehero.com
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posted June 19, 2020 02:17 AM |
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monere said:
Question: is it possible for the guys that purchase rumours from me to find the artifact before I do? And if they do, will I still be able to mark the spot where the artifact should be?
I'm asking this because I found the location of the artifact (below the red lighthouse at the top-left side of the map), but for some (unknown) reason I can't mark the spot, and I'm not sure if it's a bug, or if I have sold too many clues to those guys and they have found the artifact before me.
The Thieves guild will steal your loot / artifact if they can clearly identify the location from your clues. But it shouldn't affect the process of placing map markers I guess. So it looks like a bug.
What exactly happens when you click the tile? Is the current pointer animation a flag with the question mark? Is there a sound (click, thump, tap - anything)? Does the floating notification appear? Can you place a goal marker on the tile? Can you move the hero onto the tile and back?
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