Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Image of ship carrying your party remains static regardless of the direction of movement.

  • Major decline. Well worth at least an image for four cardinal directions.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    12
  • Poll closed .

CryptRat

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Sep 10, 2014
Messages
3,624
I completed the game, loved it. The game is a sequel to the first one taking place in the same world, and like the first one it's focused on exploration of an open world with a big hard quest to solve. It's also an improvement over the first game on many aspects.

Presentation is nice, seasons alterate the already varied flora, and monsters are varied. Equipement is visible on characters.
Music is nice too, including the songs your musician will play.

The story is not particularly original but I think it's both cool and well told. It's a good pretext to non-linear exploration of both the world and the story itself, and it is cleverly connected with the story of the first game.

Like the first game, the game takes place in a big open world which you need to apprehend with tons of slightly interconnected little things to find, solve or figure out in any order to finally put things together. There are optional secrets to find as well. You'll spend an important part of the game chatting with the inhabitants of the world looking for precious information via its keyword system. On this aspect Lurking 1 was very good and Lurking 2 is even better, don't expect solving the game without talking to everyone, paying attention to details and taking notes, it's why the game is so good, it's definitely a hard and demanding game and then as much satisfying.

You need to ask musicians for new songs and magicians for new spells, some required to progress. The magicians will ask for an ingredient you'll need to find. You'll also unlock several ways of transport.
Dungeons contain traps which are slightly visible but your thief will first make them more visible then will automatically disarm them as he gets better.
The game has an automap and the size of its visible area is perfect, not ruining exploration.

The game is classless and you create 5 characters (you can create more and switch between them at will in an adventurers' guild). There are 5 stats and 5 skills (combat, archery, magic, music and thievery skills). Skills are upgraded via a learn-by-doing system and I preferred the point allocation system of the first game, probably the only things I liked better in the first game since now you need to use your spells and songs even when it wouldn't be necessary, which is really not a big deal though'.

The equipement system is decent, they aren't tons of variations but you will never have enough gold to buy everything you'd want to and there are some strong items to find.

Combat is not the main point of the game but it is an improvement over the first game. It's easy to avoid since you choose when to enter battle so while crossing big areas again you can just run and maybe be targeted by a couple of arrows. That also makes the battles quicker since you can start a battle directly in front of enemies. Finally, monsters have unique skills now which make encounters more fun. Most monsters pop randomly, a few are handplaced and boss fights especially are fun.

If you hate solving puzzles then you'd probably better pass your way (or you can just try the first game, it's free) but if you like puzzles then you must play the game, you'll certainly enjoy it.
The second game is clearly an improvement over the first one, and if only one it's the one you should play. However I really recommend to play the two games in the right order, the first one is already very good, maybe a little easier so it's also a good practice, and it's very cool to get back to the world for a second ride.

:love::love::love:
 

ShaggyMoose

Savant
Joined
Aug 26, 2017
Messages
614
Location
Australia
Finally picked up the game and just started getting into it. Hope its seeing some sales!

Questions

  • I got told to search the shallows for sling stones. Also, to pick up cattails. I tried searching on what appears to be the right tiles, but nothing ever comes of it? Am I doing something wrong, or is this just flavour text? If its the latter, it seems a bit misleading. Any tips?
  • Is there any auto-combat option when attacked? I got killed by enemies I didn't even see a couple of times that seemed to attack extremely rapidly.
Bugs/Feedback

  • The font seems quite hard to read, especially the scrolling battle narratives. Some tiles make it near impossible!
  • "Runtime error 6 - Overflow" after my party was butchered once by an Annubis... Can't really provide much more information than that unfortunately.
  • The minimise function doesn't seem to work very well, especially when I am trying to switch between the game and Notepad to keep notes. Any reason why the regular Alt+Tab isn't a better option?
    • It doesn't work during conversations or when paused.
    • Any keyboard input into another window seems to get directed to the game as well in this state; things I type into Notepad end up in the conversation window and once I even managed to start a new game (wiping my old one) while the game was minimised!
    • I can rarely get back to the game without stuffing around with Alt-Tab and minimising windows etc.
  • Light sources seem to flicker on and off randomly, especially indoors. Not sure if this is intentional?
  • I find it strange that your party isn't represented on the map, since from what I can tell they are not automatically in the middle of it.
  • Some random characters were appended to one of my characters names in the roster once. I can't seem to reproduce it...
  • Is there a reason why "BACK" only works once in a conversation? A few of the trees are three or four branches deep and starting again from "JOB" is kind of annoying. I guess you can type the next keyword (if you can remember it) but that is probably even slower.
  • Fes'Rah in Meridia has an invalid keyword link "A" when asking about "LEADERS".
  • Someone in Meridia says the lake "drones out other noises". Maybe this is just an odd turn of phrase, but it seems like "drowns out" is more appropriate, even if it appears to be a pun...
 

CryptRat

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Sep 10, 2014
Messages
3,624
  • I got told to search the shallows for sling stones. Also, to pick up cattails. I tried searching on what appears to be the right tiles, but nothing ever comes of it? Am I doing something wrong, or is this just flavour text? If its the latter, it seems a bit misleading. Any tips?
- If one of your guys has an equipped sling then he'll pick up stones when you search on the right tiles.
- You're looking for some special cattail.
 

oklabsoft

oklabsoft
Developer
Joined
Mar 18, 2017
Messages
370
Is there any auto-combat option when attacked? I got killed by enemies I didn't even see a couple of times that seemed to attack extremely rapidly.

Really appreciate you checking out the game. I do apologize for the bugs but I will be getting right to work on those and the suggestions as well. There is not an option for auto combat but one of your characters should always alert you of approaching enemies and direction so at least at first until your party is stronger it is best to enter battle mode right away to go to turn-based.

The font seems quite hard to read, especially the scrolling battle narratives. Some tiles make it near impossible!

I will try to solve this. For now, you may want to go to options and select large font. 'C' will clear the narration if it gets in the way.

The minimise function doesn't seem to work very well, especially when I am trying to switch between the game and Notepad to keep notes. Any reason why the regular Alt+Tab isn't a better option?

This was an issue with the programming language used and limitations (I spent a lot of time trying). I did not realize the game was still receiving input. I will fix this right away and make available during convo for sure.

Light sources seem to flicker on and off randomly, especially indoors. Not sure if this is intentional?

It is intentional. Let me know if you think it is annoying.

find it strange that your party isn't represented on the map, since from what I can tell they are not automatically in the middle of

I can add this.

Some random characters were appended to one of my characters names in the roster once. I can't seem to reproduce it...

I will investigate.

Is there a reason why "BACK" only works once in a conversation? A few of the trees are three or four branches deep and starting again from "JOB" is kind of annoying. I guess you can type the next keyword (if you can remember it) but that is probably even slower.

I only added this to back up by one message. I will try to increase this functionality soon.

  • Fes'Rah in Meridia has an invalid keyword link "A" when asking about "LEADERS".
  • Someone in Meridia says the lake "drones out other noises". Maybe this is just an odd turn of phrase, but it seems like "drowns out" is more appropriate, even if it appears to be a pun...

Thanks for pointing these out. Will fix.

I hate when things don't work right and hope you are enjoying the game despite these. I intend to update before end of weekend now - hopefully sooner.
 

ShaggyMoose

Savant
Joined
Aug 26, 2017
Messages
614
Location
Australia
Thanks for the reply.

Enjoying it so far, but I am just starting and at the "aimless wandering" stage. I hope there is no overall timelimit, since I can see a lot of back and forward will be required and its difficult to travel straight where you want to go due to a very localised map...
 

oklabsoft

oklabsoft
Developer
Joined
Mar 18, 2017
Messages
370
Thanks for the reply.

Enjoying it so far, but I am just starting and at the "aimless wandering" stage. I hope there is no overall timelimit, since I can see a lot of back and forward will be required and its difficult to travel straight where you want to go due to a very localised map...

No time limit. You will get more familiar with world and new faster travel will open up later. Also, the overworld map from L1 still applies to L2. That might help to give you the lay of the land.

https://goo.gl/ERIfY5
 

Morkar Left

Guest
Hey you developer guys, make more noise next time you release your game! Nearly entirely missed the release!:x
 

oklabsoft

oklabsoft
Developer
Joined
Mar 18, 2017
Messages
370
I added an indicator of party position to the mini-map and am working on the other items presented in ShaggyMoose's post...

The minimise function doesn't seem to work very well, especially when I am trying to switch between the game and Notepad to keep notes. Any reason why the regular Alt+Tab isn't a better option?
  • It doesn't work during conversations or when paused.
  • Any keyboard input into another window seems to get directed to the game as well in this state; things I type into Notepad end up in the conversation window and once I even managed to start a new game (wiping my old one) while the game was minimised!
  • I can rarely get back to the game without stuffing around with Alt-Tab and minimising windows etc.

This seemed most important to me but I am having some difficulty. I definitely will add availability of the CTRL-M option to conversation as that is when it is most needed but I checked the code and when minimized by CTRL-M all game functions should stop except for music (so no need to pause). In other words, the only thing able to register with L2 is another CTRL-M. I was unable to repro the game reacting to keystrokes when I typed in Notepad and typing CTRL-M again always returns to the game and resumes it for me. I am using Win10 (not sure if that is relevant). If any other players have had issues with this or if you (ShaggyMoose) can provide any more info it will help a great deal. I am wondering if some other keystrokes such as Alt-Tab from the L2 Minimized condition resumed the game without the window coming back into focus? Sorry for this. I will keep trying to figure it out.
 

ShaggyMoose

Savant
Joined
Aug 26, 2017
Messages
614
Location
Australia
I am using Windows 10. I just reproduced the issue using the following steps.
1. Start a conversation in L2.
2. Use Alt+Tab to switch focus to another application.
3. Type something in the other window.
4. Alt+Tab back to L2 (usually involves some stuffing around with minimising other windows to get focus back).
5. See the text you typed in the other application in the L2 chat window!

Obviously, this is only a problem when you use Alt+Tab instead of Ctrl-M, since you can't use the latter during conversations at the moment.
 

oklabsoft

oklabsoft
Developer
Joined
Mar 18, 2017
Messages
370
I am using Windows 10. I just reproduced the issue using the following steps.
1. Start a conversation in L2.
2. Use Alt+Tab to switch focus to another application.
3. Type something in the other window.
4. Alt+Tab back to L2 (usually involves some stuffing around with minimising other windows to get focus back).
5. See the text you typed in the other application in the L2 chat window!

Obviously, this is only a problem when you use Alt+Tab instead of Ctrl-M, since you can't use the latter during conversations at the moment.

Ahhh. I must read better. Thanks for clarifying. Last night I also got ctrl-m working nicely from convo as well as altered 'back' to back through up to 5 levels of convo. Justin is fixing the mentioned convos so I will test my changes a bit more and update soon.
 

ShaggyMoose

Savant
Joined
Aug 26, 2017
Messages
614
Location
Australia
Since you are already busy fixing stuff... :)

I assume its enough to give you the NPC name and not the location.
  • Verigan says "until the would do his bidding" (should be "they").
  • When asked about his JOB, Tyrone just says "Our"...
  • I'Arda has a hint for REVIEW, but then ignores it.
About the flickering lights; I think the biggest issue is that they seem mostly unconnected to any obvious source. They generally don't happen around candles or braziers and the flickering is so inconsistent and rapid it looks more like a graphical bug. In my opinion the effect could definitely do with some tweaking.

I am enjoying the fact that just about every NPC has something interesting or useful to say. No useless filler or the same conversation repeated ad nauseaum. You really need to pay attention and think about where a particular fact may be relevant. I will admit it did take me about twenty conversations before I worked out that I should be responding to questions! Maybe I was not thinking old school enough, but it really wasn't obvious to me that I could do this. I had to go back and talk to everyone again!

Let me know if you want to test any of the changes before public release.
 

oklabsoft

oklabsoft
Developer
Joined
Mar 18, 2017
Messages
370
v1.1 is now available. Thanks CryptRat and ShaggyMoose for identifying issues and providing suggestions. We have fixed all of them but for a few I am still trying to reproduce.
 

ShaggyMoose

Savant
Joined
Aug 26, 2017
Messages
614
Location
Australia
"Burglar 'backstab' skill activating when not next to an enemy?"

This is the main issue I am still facing. I instantly murder anything that moves from the other side of the screen just by putting everyone on defense.

Let me know if there is a debug version you want me to run.
 

ShaggyMoose

Savant
Joined
Aug 26, 2017
Messages
614
Location
Australia
Also, how do you safely upgrade to v1.1? Is it just a case of replacing the executable, or do you need any of the other files as well?
 

oklabsoft

oklabsoft
Developer
Joined
Mar 18, 2017
Messages
370
"Burglar 'backstab' skill activating when not next to an enemy?"

This is the main issue I am still facing. I instantly murder anything that moves from the other side of the screen just by putting everyone on defense.

Let me know if there is a debug version you want me to run.

Suddenly I can only reply to thread using my phone?..can't type in comment box on my computer? Well, anyway...

I couldn't repro this exactly but I did find a bug where if you defend using the D key it puts character on defense but also attacks if a beastie is hilited. Since there were very few downloads of 1.1 I just fixed and updated 1.1 so if u have time and could redownload let me know if the fix helps.

1.1 had a whole bunch of data file updates to especially convos (all those here and pm). You need to move only your quest folder from 1.0 to replace the quest folder in the new build 1.1 - more info in readme file in game package. Thank you!!! :)
 

oklabsoft

oklabsoft
Developer
Joined
Mar 18, 2017
Messages
370
Also, how do you safely upgrade to v1.1? Is it just a case of replacing the executable, or do you need any of the other files as well?

Sorry for duplicate info but all character and quest data is saved in the ''quest" folder so it is the quest folder that needs to get moved to the newer game package. Also, you can always make copies of the quest folder if you feel like you want to make a ''save state" at a particular time in case you want to revert. I am trying to learn of a better way to handle these things but for now this is how it works. :(
 

oklabsoft

oklabsoft
Developer
Joined
Mar 18, 2017
Messages
370
world_combined_lowrez.png

Looks so much smaller from up here...
 

oldmanpaco

Master of Siestas
Joined
Nov 8, 2008
Messages
13,624
Location
Fall
In the absence of any issues reported, Lurking II: A Madness is now officially released. This game is the intense work of just two individuals over a period of about 18 months. Production cost: $0.00, heart, soul. We are so proud of what we have created. I have lowered the price to $5.00USD because after all, we just want people to experience our game. It can be downloaded from itch.io at the following link…

https://oklabsoft.itch.io/lurking-ii-a-madness

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeANOPY4WAw&t=14s

Journey Onward!

PS, the only thing that could possibly motivate me to make another game is the appearance of a Vermys. :)

You should update the 1st post with purchase info and change the thread title to reflect the game is released.
 

Morkar Left

Guest
Could be as well the worldmap of Pillars of Eternity...

Didn't have time to play the game so far... :(
 

oklabsoft

oklabsoft
Developer
Joined
Mar 18, 2017
Messages
370
I put some maps up on the itch project page... A basic world map and a large world screenstitch.
 

ShaggyMoose

Savant
Joined
Aug 26, 2017
Messages
614
Location
Australia
Thanks for that. I was going to try to put together a stitch map for my own uses, but it would have taken a loooong time.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom