Realms of Antiquity: The Shattered Crown - Ultima-like retro RPG

[Ludwig von Eisenthal]

Really? Wow, then I guess I can be proud on my tenacity! It was quite an exhausting experience, I only found the way out by using the old trick (I always walked along the wall to my right and after some time finally found the lair of *youknowwho*).
I found this dungeon by coincidence while I was exploring the river by boat. Is it generally no problem to explore like this or can I mess up something in the game by finding places I'm not supposed to - because they are part of a quest or something like that?

Nope, you should be able to do things in any order you want.

Perfect! I really enjoy this freedom to do what I want when I want. And I find it incredible what you've achieved with a handful of kilobytes, so much adventure and atmosphere.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

Pretty cool as an academic exercise to get this on a TI, but otherwise seems foolish. Quixotic Studios Software is a very apt name.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I took a look at that pdf manual; mmmmm noice. Lordy, I wish i had more physical space as I love sitting back reading nice game manuals. So many lately. While, I'm a newb to the codex my interest really started to spark since the Realms of Quest V game.

 

[Ludwig von Eisenthal]

This game doesn't stop to amaze me! I love how quests are interconnected, how a seemingly banal quests becomes more and more complicated and how much fascinating stuff I find on the way. I'm now up in the Whitecrown Mountains and discovered

Spoiler

the dark secret of the Monastery, while doing so I discovered the Thieves Sanctuary and solved all its mysteries, found the Master's Treasures and the Skeleton Key (I guess this thing opens all doors?). That series of dungeons was simply fantastic! I still felt like it was a place I wasn't supposed to find on my own (?), but it was such a pleasure to solve its puzzles and get the reward at the end!

One question adamantyr :

Spoiler

Bahadur told me that the wizard of their group was the only one who knew the name of their employer in Valstein. I already had discovered the griffin nest with the body of the wizard before I went to the Monastery. I didn't find anything about a name there, only - if I remember correctly - the Flame Scepter (or was it the Mystic Hauberk?). I went back to the nest after I got the information by Bahadur but wasn't able to find anything. Am I supposed to find a hint on the name of the employer in the nest?

Three possible bugs:

Spoiler

- Is it normal that some enemies (especially grues) can make me somehow "immaterial": It happened that they jumped on me and after that I was able to fly over them but couldn't do any other action.
- Griffin nest: When I got there first with full backpacks the message (about the wizard's body) didn't disappear and I was stuck in the screen.
- Master Thief Treasure Room: I brute-forced the lock and found the right combination after seven or eight tries. The game allowed me to do that but two of my characters died during the process. My third character wasn't able to heal them after that.

 

[adamantyr]

One question adamantyr :

Spoiler

Bahadur told me that the wizard of their group was the only one who knew the name of their employer in Valstein. I already had discovered the griffin nest with the body of the wizard before I went to the Monastery. I didn't find anything about a name there, only - if I remember correctly - the Flame Scepter (or was it the Mystic Hauberk?). I went back to the nest after I got the information by Bahadur but wasn't able to find anything. Am I supposed to find a hint on the name of the employer in the nest?

Spoiler

The secret of their employer died with the wizard. End of thread.

Three possible bugs:

Spoiler

- Is it normal that some enemies (especially grues) can make me somehow "immaterial": It happened that they jumped on me and after that I was able to fly over them but couldn't do any other action.
- Griffin nest: When I got there first with full backpacks the message (about the wizard's body) didn't disappear and I was stuck in the screen.
- Master Thief Treasure Room: I brute-forced the lock and found the right combination after seven or eight tries. The game allowed me to do that but two of my characters died during the process. My third character wasn't able to heal them after that.

Spoiler

- Monsters aren't supposed to pounce on top of you... That CAN happen if your character is disabled, though. If they were moving on top of you in other cases that is a bug, and an edge case at that.
- Ugh, the griffin nest was a broken transaction... I will fix that in the next build. Long story short, I added checks for full backpacks but not every transaction was scripted correctly.
- Did you check how many wounds they had? The vault does CRAZY amounts of damage. The Heal spell may not have been bringing it down enough with just one casting.

 

[Ludwig von Eisenthal]

adamantyr

Spoiler

- Monsters aren't supposed to pounce on top of you... That CAN happen if your character is disabled, though. If they were moving on top of you in other cases that is a bug, and an edge case at that.

The strangest thing was the condition in which my character was after that happened: He was able to float over the enemies but wasn't able to do anything else. It happened especially with grues (at least 5-6 times while I was down in the dungeon west of Bleyloch). Anyway, it's nothing breaking the game.

Another thing I noticed:

In combat against some enemies the game can freeze if it's their turn. It's as if the enemy doesn't know what to do and just stands there. It happens - as far as I can say - only with especially big enemies: I had it with a dragon and currently with the "Dark Avatar" in the Monastery.

 

[adamantyr]

Spoiler

The strangest thing was the condition in which my character was after that happened: He was able to float over the enemies but wasn't able to do anything else. It happened especially with grues (at least 5-6 times while I was down in the dungeon west of Bleyloch). Anyway, it's nothing breaking the game.

That is odd... I'll need to see if I can repro that.

Spoiler

In combat against some enemies the game can freeze if it's their turn. It's as if the enemy doesn't know what to do and just stands there. It happens - as far as I can say - only with especially big enemies: I had it with a dragon and currently with the "Dark Avatar" in the Monastery.

Spoiler

Yeah, I have never been completely happy with the pathfinding. It's like 90% there but sometimes bad guys just oscillate or do nothing, especially if there are other units in the way. Big enemies are especially problematic. I tried to make sure they were mostly functional, but they still have odd moments. Hopefully it doesn't make them pushovers.

 

[Ludwig von Eisenthal]

Yeah, I have never been completely happy with the pathfinding. It's like 90% there but sometimes bad guys just oscillate or do nothing, especially if there are other units in the way. Big enemies are especially problematic. I tried to make sure they were mostly functional, but they still have odd moments. Hopefully it doesn't make them pushovers.

Oh they are still a menace, be assured!
It doesn't bother me much if the game freezes because of their inaction I simply close and restart it. It doesn't happen very regularly so it's not that grave.

 

[Comte]

Ok I bought this it looks so fucking cool. How will patches work? I bought it from that arcade site.

Also I don't see the Hero class in the character options. Do I have to unlock this class?

 

[Ludwig von Eisenthal]

Ok I bought this it looks so fucking cool. How will patches work? I bought it from that arcade site.

For the digital version it's simple. At the moment you just have to replace one file in the folder with the newer one. The savegames still work.

 

[adamantyr]

Ok I bought this it looks so fucking cool. How will patches work? I bought it from that arcade site.

Also I don't see the Hero class in the character options. Do I have to unlock this class?

Hero class is only available if you create a party of one. They're kind of a super-class so they start solo. You can find party members to join you though... winning the game with a single character, even a Hero, would be an achievement.

Patches and builds will be emailed out to customers as needed. The version page on the website will include notes on how to patch up games.

 

[Jinn]

So I guess I'm going to have to be that guy in this thread: adamantyr, any chance of a Steam (or GoG for that matter, though I know it's harder to get on their storefront) release in the near future?

 

[adamantyr]

So I guess I'm going to have to be that guy in this thread: adamantyr, any chance of a Steam (or GoG for that matter, though I know it's harder to get on their storefront) release in the near future?

I considered Steam as a possibility, but there were a lot of hurdles there, plus they charge you a flat $100 up front before you can even SEE what options are and if you will have any blockers. I hadn't even looked into GoG. If it was a retrolike (A PC game that LOOKS retro but in fact isn't) I may have gone that route since I'd have more control over it.

Is there a particular issue with buying it as is that's discouraging you?

 

[Jinn]

Is there a particular issue with buying it as is that's discouraging you?

Not particularly, but I generally like to have my digital copies of games in one of my digital libraries. Usually in cases like this, I'll ask if there is a possibility of it coming to one of the storefronts so I can wait until then to purchase.

 

[adamantyr]

Is there a particular issue with buying it as is that's discouraging you?

Not particularly, but I generally like to have my digital copies of games in one of my digital libraries. Usually in cases like this, I'll ask if there is a possibility of it coming to one of the storefronts so I can wait until then to purchase.

That's fair! If you wanted a Collector's Edition you'll want to act sooner, as I don't have plans to do too many of them, but digital will always be available. And I may look into other streaming platforms in the future, but not for awhile. Your call.

 

[adamantyr]

Is it normal that some enemies (especially grues) can make me somehow "immaterial": It happened that they jumped on me and after that I was able to fly over them but couldn't do any other action.

I am investigating this bug now, another player reported the same issue. As of yet I don't have a local repro, but some data would be useful!

1) What monsters were you fighting?
2) How many of them at the start of combat were there?
3) Did you have any of your party members enter combat "disabled"?
4) Were they healed and brought back to their feet?

 

[Ludwig von Eisenthal]

Is it normal that some enemies (especially grues) can make me somehow "immaterial": It happened that they jumped on me and after that I was able to fly over them but couldn't do any other action.

I am investigating this bug now, another player reported the same issue. As of yet I don't have a local repro, but some data would be useful!

1) What monsters were you fighting?
2) How many of them at the start of combat were there?
3) Did you have any of your party members enter combat "disabled"?
4) Were they healed and brought back to their feet?

1) Grues
2) I'm not sure, maybe between 4 and 6
3) Not necessarily
4) No

I think it happened after they used their ability to steal from my food... (my food was about 2000 when I entered the dungeon). I'll try to reproduce the problem again (Thankfully I made tons of copies of the gamefolder at every important step).

 

[adamantyr]

1) Grues
2) I'm not sure, maybe between 4 and 6
3) Not necessarily
4) No

I'll try to reproduce the problem again (Thankfully I made tons of copies of the gamefolder at every important step).

I may have located the issue; the encounter setup was not taking a disabled player into account and leaving a unit value in place on the unit map. (Normally set to blank, so monsters ignore them and move over them.) That would cause a misalignment that could have unexpected effects later.

But if you can repro it without that condition I'll need to know.

 

[Ludwig von Eisenthal]

1) Grues
2) I'm not sure, maybe between 4 and 6
3) Not necessarily
4) No

I'll try to reproduce the problem again (Thankfully I made tons of copies of the gamefolder at every important step).

I'm trying to reproduce it.

But if you can repro it without that condition I'll need to know.

I'll try to reproduce it.

 

[adamantyr]

No, I just reproduced the problem with both characters active. It happened in an encounter with two grues and it happened when one of them jumped at me to steal from my food. I can send you my savegame, if you like. It's just before the encounter.

Sure! Just send me your SAV file at the email I used to send the last build update from.

 

[adamantyr]

Also, I noticed to my chagrin there was no FX for the "food stealing". I am fixing that now!

 

[Ludwig von Eisenthal]

No, I just reproduced the problem with both characters active. It happened in an encounter with two grues and it happened when one of them jumped at me to steal from my food. I can send you my savegame, if you like. It's just before the encounter.

Sure! Just send me your SAV file at the email I used to send the last build update from.

Sorry, that was a false alarm on my side... but I'll try to get it again.

 

[adamantyr]

Sorry, that was a false alarm on my side... but I'll try to get it again.

I know the feeling, trust me. :D

Just send me SAV and SG0-SG3 files if you get it anywhere at any time. I'm going to fix the encounter setup regardless as it IS a hole that should be plugged anyway.

 

[TigerKnee]

If someone has played both Nox Anarchist and this game, can you give me a comparison between the two and which one you think you prefer? I only got enough in the budget for one of them.

 

[adamantyr]

I think I found the issue, it's if a monster is standing on top of a disabled player he is not target-able in melee. I'll have a new build out with that fix in the next day or so.