Demon Lord Reincarnation - Codexian Developed Blobber

[Darth Roxor]

-More people should be playing this on the Codex.

I was bribed with a free copy but didn't like it at all. Game feels pointless to me. No inventory, no character building, no NUFFIN. Just endless slog through samey combat encounters that are all resolved by putting a paperweight on the enter key. I could play it in bursts of 15 minutes at max and after 10 I was already groaning each time a new combat started.

 

[kites]

Congrats on the release! Just snatched up a couple copies.

 

[flinar]

I'm disappointed that skeletons can be blinded by being poked in their eyes and are vulnerable to slash attacks, and that slime monsters can be tripped. The manual FAQ suggests that enemies have varying weaknesses to attack types, and I was expecting the player would be able to apply logic when guessing what those strengths and weaknesses are.

 

[agris]

That does seem like an oversight, hopefully it’s addressed.

 

[Tyranicon]

That is kind of funny, like a monty python sketch.

 

[Hobo Elf]

-More people should be playing this on the Codex.

I was bribed with a free copy but didn't like it at all. Game feels pointless to me. No inventory, no character building, no NUFFIN. Just endless slog through samey combat encounters that are all resolved by putting a paperweight on the enter key. I could play it in bursts of 15 minutes at max and after 10 I was already groaning each time a new combat started.

Hey, at least you gave it a shot. Can't ask for more than that.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

I'm disappointed that skeletons can be blinded by being poked in their eyes and are vulnerable to slash attacks, and that slime monsters can be tripped. The manual FAQ suggests that enemies have varying weaknesses to attack types, and I was expecting the player would be able to apply logic when guessing what those strengths and weaknesses are.

Skeletons are weak to blunt attacks, and resistant to piercing attacks. Slashing attacks land somewhere in between. As for the blindness issue -- thanks, I'll look into it.

As for tripping slimes -- unless they get stunned (they shouldn't), the attack should still deal some damage.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

I'm disappointed that skeletons can be blinded by being poked in their eyes and are vulnerable to slash attacks, and that slime monsters can be tripped. The manual FAQ suggests that enemies have varying weaknesses to attack types, and I was expecting the player would be able to apply logic when guessing what those strengths and weaknesses are.

Checked the game data, Skeletons are immune to blindness, and Slimes cannot be stunned by tripping. Did you receive a message like "Skeleton went blind", or did the battle messages create confusion?

 

[flinar]

I may have mixed up the status notifications. Would it be possible to create special cases for using skills against certain enemies? Going off the examples I gave, the event notifications against slimes sometimes refers to their "feet" when I execute certain skills (was it "low cut"?). It would be nice if poking a skeleton in the eyes resulted in failure, perhaps with a unique message such as "Tom gouges his fingers into the skeleton's empty eye sockets."

I like the game, by the way. My earlier message didn't communicate that fact.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

I may have mixed up the status notifications. Would it be possible to create special cases for using skills against certain enemies? Going off the examples I gave, the event notifications against slimes sometimes refers to their "feet" when I execute certain skills (was it "low cut"?). It would be nice if poking a skeleton in the eyes resulted in failure, perhaps with a unique message such as "Tom gouges his fingers into the skeleton's empty eye sockets."

I like the game, by the way. My earlier message didn't communicate that fact.

Glad you're having fun!

Unfortunately, not in this game, since creating special cases like these would be out of the scope of this project, especially when you consider that there are 100+ skills and 70+ character/monster types. Even if this was a big project it would require a tremendous amount of work, but I'd like to consider something like this in the future, maybe cut it down to one message per monster family or something like this.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Got confirmation that it works on Windows 7, so I updated the system requirements to reflect this.

agris today is your day.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

is it good tho

if you want a spiritual successor to statbuilder, it is

statbuilder?

Of course I wish you also sold your games on itchio….

 

[agris]

I may have mixed up the status notifications. Would it be possible to create special cases for using skills against certain enemies? Going off the examples I gave, the event notifications against slimes sometimes refers to their "feet" when I execute certain skills (was it "low cut"?). It would be nice if poking a skeleton in the eyes resulted in failure, perhaps with a unique message such as "Tom gouges his fingers into the skeleton's empty eye sockets."

I like the game, by the way. My earlier message didn't communicate that fact.

Glad you're having fun!

Unfortunately, not in this game, since creating special cases like these would be out of the scope of this project, especially when you consider that there are 100+ skills and 70+ character/monster types. Even if this was a big project it would require a tremendous amount of work, but I'd like to consider something like this in the future, maybe cut it down to one message per monster family or something like this.

I think you can drastically cut down on the time it takes to implement something like custom messages for goo's knees being hit, skelly's eyes being gouged etc by smart use of data structures when planning your game.

For example, each enemy can have a datastructure with fields. The fields are relevant to your mechanisms, but in this case there would be resistances, type, and anatomical exemptions. Similar data structures / meta-data for attack types. Thus when an attack type with "attack location" field set to "eyes" interacts with enemy anatomical attack exemption "eyes", enemy's data for "type" is queried and a programmatic message such as

[ATTACK_NAME] against [ENEMY_TYPE] is unsuccessful because [ENEMY_TYPE] lacks [ANATOMICAL_ATTACK_EXEMPTION]

prints to screen, yielding programmatic boutique feedback such as

EYE GOUGE against SKELETON is unsuccessful because SKELETON lacks EYES

This can work for resistances, attacks, really quite a few things. You just have to have most of the mechanics in mind when setting up data structures for game elements.

edit: and colourful language, of course. i know the above is dry as all hell, but such programmatic assemblage of messages is core to, for example, Fallout 1's combat log.

 

[Grauken]

zwanzig_zwoelf

are the chests fixed? or completely random? Or a mix of both?

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

zwanzig_zwoelf

are the chests fixed? or completely random? Or a mix of both?

A mix of both.

I may have mixed up the status notifications. Would it be possible to create special cases for using skills against certain enemies? Going off the examples I gave, the event notifications against slimes sometimes refers to their "feet" when I execute certain skills (was it "low cut"?). It would be nice if poking a skeleton in the eyes resulted in failure, perhaps with a unique message such as "Tom gouges his fingers into the skeleton's empty eye sockets."

I like the game, by the way. My earlier message didn't communicate that fact.

Glad you're having fun!

Unfortunately, not in this game, since creating special cases like these would be out of the scope of this project, especially when you consider that there are 100+ skills and 70+ character/monster types. Even if this was a big project it would require a tremendous amount of work, but I'd like to consider something like this in the future, maybe cut it down to one message per monster family or something like this.

I think you can drastically cut down on the time it takes to implement something like custom messages for goo's knees being hit, skelly's eyes being gouged etc by smart use of data structures when planning your game.

For example, each enemy can have a datastructure with fields. The fields are relevant to your mechanisms, but in this case there would be resistances, type, and anatomical exemptions. Similar data structures / meta-data for attack types. Thus when an attack type with "attack location" field set to "eyes" interacts with enemy anatomical attack exemption "eyes", enemy's data for "type" is queried and a programmatic message such as

[ATTACK_NAME] against [ENEMY_TYPE] is unsuccessful because [ENEMY_TYPE] lacks [ANATOMICAL_ATTACK_EXEMPTION]

prints to screen, yielding programmatic boutique feedback such as

EYE GOUGE against SKELETON is unsuccessful because SKELETON lacks EYES

This can work for resistances, attacks, really quite a few things. You just have to have most of the mechanics in mind when setting up data structures for game elements.

edit: and colourful language, of course. i know the above is dry as all hell, but such programmatic assemblage of messages is core to, for example, Fallout 1's combat log.

Thanks for the feedback, I'll consider it in the future.

is it good tho

if you want a spiritual successor to statbuilder, it is

statbuilder?

Of course I wish you also sold your games on itchio….

I tried that about 5 years ago, but as soon as the Steam version of DGS arrived, Itch sales became so meager that they stopped being worth the time it takes to upload and maintain builds, so I stopped selling there.

 

[Grauken]

Ground Level

Spoiler

Basement 1

Spoiler

Basement 2

Spoiler

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I am saddened. I must be the only itchio user on the dex.

 

[Grauken]

I am saddened. I must be the only itchio user on the dex.

I use itch too, Cryptrat as well, probably many others here, but I don't really care if the game is either on GOG or itch or Steam as long as its DRM-free

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I must resist the dark side of STEAM. I canna let it take over. Musssst RESIST IT!!

 

[Grauken]

I must resist the dark side of STEAM. I canna let it take over. Musssst RESIST IT!!

It's just a game client, not a moral dilemma

 

[Kalarion]

I may be part of the small minority here (glad Darth Roxor agrees at least ), but so far I'm not having much fun. It's a combination of many small irritations that are adding up to me quitting each session after about 10 minutes.

GRAPHICS:
Great. The end.

COMBAT/UI:
Good
- Fast, snappy.
- Gives enough info during action selection to make decisions quickly (once you're familiar with skill effects, anyway).
- Repeat is much appreciated.
- Lots of variety, and I can tell there's a lot to learn even from the first floor. If you pay attention to combat messages, it becomes obvious why the manual suggests you have all damage types covered.
Bad
- using > as a line break instead of a message separator is a huge missed opportunity. I'm encouraged to keep the Enter key pressed for speed. It would therefore behoove the game to make it easy for me to distinguish enemy and ally actions, and easily discern who's doing how much damage to whom. Nothing is more enraging than holding down Enter to get to the end of a long fight round, only to find that one of my characters was murdered from 50+ HP without me knowing it.
- I stopped paying attention to start of battle messages. Ambush? Surprise? Doesn't seem to mean much. Maybe one side or the other just gets to go faster that round? Either way doesn't matter much. Why? Well...
- I don't recall ever doing enough damage in the first round of any fight to kill a monster. Conversely I've had multiple instances of first-round death on my chars. That kind of lopsided result is very upsetting (especially given new chars don't really appear to approach parity with veterans, see below).

CHAR CREATION/DEVELOPMENT:
Good
- Fast, easy.
- Classes can still appear after being killed in battle (this was a huge relief to me).
- It takes a long time before a char's stat increases slow down after a successful fight. Helps mitigate my hatred for this kind of development system.
- Class variety.
- Skill variety.
Bad
- The manual states new chars are "approximately close to current power level". I'm not seeing it. Maybe it's because I haven't really developed any of my chars so far, so new ones aren't starting out with much. But when my old Bishop had 30 or so stat increases and four skills under his belt (three of which were at I and one of which was at II), and my new Bishop appears to have 3 increases and no new skills, it doesn't seem close, approximate or no.
- Personal peeve: I hate random stat increases and skill development after battle ala FF II/Seiken etc. It can (and did, multiple times in my sessions so far) result in very lopsided char dev. For instance, my first Bishop learned heal, then needed another 10 minutes of teeth-grinding fights to get the SP necessary to cast it. Then of course he died two fights later . Next Bishop started with enough SP to cast it several times... then never learned it before being massacred in a 12-monster ambush.

EXPLORATION:
Good
- Known constraints on mapping (20x20 grid, with the assumption each space will be used, even if spaces don't turn out to be). Hits just the right sweet spot for me.
- Treasure chests are a fun gamble that take a little observation to understand (learning what item affects what stat etc). Question: do treasure chest stat gains count toward the cap on stat gains from fights/levels?
- Variable light levels. Used well to enhance the feeling of cautiously creeping forward, nice little rush when you find a darkened door and enter a new room etc.
Bad
- Nothing, at least not yet. If I'd made it to the point of dealing with teleporters I'm sure I'd be launching nukes in the thread (I hate teleporter-focused levels).

RANDOM SHIT:
- I love the RTFM vibe. Having a manual that actually helps you play and understand the game is great.
- The resting mechanic is pretty cool. I've been following the manual's advice (I try to squeeze myself into a 3-wall corner before resting etc), it adds a nice layer of tension to delving.
- For treasure chests you might consider taking a note from Incursion of the Night. Have some treasures that are in fixed positions, which give noticeable bonuses to stats or w/e to the party. Random treasure with random effects are fine. I just don't think it's appropriate to find a chest in some hidden corner of the dungeon, have it sound an alarm and then drain a stat. Talk about a kick in the nuts .
- Some indication of what skills do would be greatly appreciated. Again, Incursion of the Night made 3 words go 500 miles with their snappy, punchy skill descriptions.
- If there's no itemization I suggest making stats have huge effects. +1 DEX should feel like a big deal imo. Currently it doesn't, although I do notice a difference after, say, +5 DEX.

 

[agris]

QQ: from the trailer, it looks the stair graphics don't actually correspond to Up/Down, i.e. a staircase that looks to be going up may actually be leading down a level.

was I just being redacted, or is that truly the case?

 

[Grauken]

QQ: from the trailer, it looks the stair graphics don't actually correspond to Up/Down, i.e. a staircase that looks to be going up may actually be leading down a level.

was I just being redacted, or is that truly the case?

There is one staircase on the ground level that leads up that you can't use (or likely only near the end) and the one leading to Basement 1 or from Basement 1 up to ground level is more subtle so easy to confuse. From Basement 1 to lower you have ladders which shouldn't confuse you.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Kalarion thanks for the feedback, it's going to come in handy in the future. I'll comment on a few things:

The manual states new chars are "approximately close to current power level". I'm not seeing it. Maybe it's because I haven't really developed any of my chars so far, so new ones aren't starting out with much. But when my old Bishop had 30 or so stat increases and four skills under his belt (three of which were at I and one of which was at II), and my new Bishop appears to have 3 increases and no new skills, it doesn't seem close, approximate or no.

New characters always start with 1 skill, but they try to get up to speed with the rest of the party and thus learn/develop skills a bit faster, so fighting a few more battles (preferably easy so they don't risk too much) should solve this. Overall, try to keep party members alive -- escaping always works, and it's easier to run and rest than risk losing a party member in a tough fight.

If I'd made it to the point of dealing with teleporters I'm sure I'd be launching nukes in the thread (I hate teleporter-focused levels).

Don't worry, there are no teleporters in this game to make mapping and navigation easier -- one of the goals is to get more people into manual mapping.

Treasure chests are a fun gamble that take a little observation to understand (learning what item affects what stat etc). Question: do treasure chest stat gains count toward the cap on stat gains from fights/levels?

Yes, and theoretically, you can use them to bypass the stat cap, but it's so high I doubt most players will ever reach it unless they decide to grind for dozens of hours.

 

[Grauken]

Don't worry, there are no teleporters in this game to make mapping and navigation easier -- one of the goals is to get more people into manual mapping.

I think exploration is the game's greatest strength, thanks to having no automap. It's likely also it's greatest weakness because some people just hate mapping with a passion.