Grampy_Bone
Arcane
Looks nice
-
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KickStarter Stoneshard - open world roguelike RPG - now available on Early Access
just play prologue
I'm surprise how good is the game mechanic. injuries, wound dressing, pain, toxication from potion, mental states. I didnt expect such fine crafted mechanics.
Game just looks awesome in motion + all this detailed background. A nice incline after the flood of tile blocks from all roguelikes.
there is no diagonal move - hmm... ok, no big deal. Feel strange to me.
could use WSAD for move, instead mouse
always open/close inventory, when you pick up items is little annoying. Could be able to just pick item from ground, and put it into inventory (consumables, or to check later)
could have some roguelike quickkeys: esp. D'rink, or E'at
could have key command to attack nearest, instead of mouse clicking
could allow to inspect enemies
enemy could become visible if hide beside walls
I'm surprise how good is the game mechanic. injuries, wound dressing, pain, toxication from potion, mental states. I didnt expect such fine crafted mechanics.
Game just looks awesome in motion + all this detailed background. A nice incline after the flood of tile blocks from all roguelikes.
there is no diagonal move - hmm... ok, no big deal. Feel strange to me.
could use WSAD for move, instead mouse
always open/close inventory, when you pick up items is little annoying. Could be able to just pick item from ground, and put it into inventory (consumables, or to check later)
could have some roguelike quickkeys: esp. D'rink, or E'at
could have key command to attack nearest, instead of mouse clicking
could allow to inspect enemies
enemy could become visible if hide beside walls
you can move diagonally..
come close to any obstacle or around enemy, and you will see that character move around in 2 steps. so diagonal movement is only cosmetic.
PrettyDeadman
Guest
You can download demo here -> https://ink-stains-games.itch.io/stoneshard
AnnoyanceCrime
Novice
- Joined
- May 4, 2018
- Messages
- 23
Is it intended that I cant leave the church after killing the boss?
please include Cryomancy
put potion in the quick bar
push box, barrels
could be some map
======
identification;
the concept of using paper scroll as consumables make no sense to me. [spare me this magic and dragons are not ReAL talking]
more believable would be if character has chance to identify items, base on his world knowledge (Int atribute?). And some type of consumable scroll permanently boost hero knowledge and allow to second check of failed item identification. This way knowledge scroll or books (encyclopedias?) would be very precious, cause allow you to reroll again for each unidentified item.
die hard explanaiton: hero read scrolls/books during camping/healing time, and dont share the book with other ["i'm reading it still!"], typical hero life-span usually dont allow to survive even one week, so we assume hero never finish reading. Item vanish from equipment for the UI convenience.
put potion in the quick bar
push box, barrels
could be some map
======
identification;
the concept of using paper scroll as consumables make no sense to me. [spare me this magic and dragons are not ReAL talking]
more believable would be if character has chance to identify items, base on his world knowledge (Int atribute?). And some type of consumable scroll permanently boost hero knowledge and allow to second check of failed item identification. This way knowledge scroll or books (encyclopedias?) would be very precious, cause allow you to reroll again for each unidentified item.
die hard explanaiton: hero read scrolls/books during camping/healing time, and dont share the book with other ["i'm reading it still!"], typical hero life-span usually dont allow to survive even one week, so we assume hero never finish reading. Item vanish from equipment for the UI convenience.
PrettyDeadman
Guest
Scroll containt description of an unidentified item you use it on.
What's the point of leaving it in inventory after you've read it?
Murk
Arcane
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2008
- Messages
- 13,459
This game is bretty fun! Looks and sounds great, and the prologue/demo is very promising. Might chip into this.
Random impressions below, spoilered for space.
Random impressions below, spoilered for space.
There's a lot of status effects that can take place, similar to what I think darkest dungeon has (never played DD, so not sure if exactly similar). no clue what the progression process is like, but it seems that you have to first find tomes in game and then can use skill points to unlock things -- at least for magic. The skill list also seems to have quite a bit.
Graphics are very charming and nice, and it's... voice acted? Quite a bit, actually.
I think this might be a pretty fun game if it gives you enough to do.
BTW if you play the demo, the tab key will swap between the two weapon loadouts.
edit: saw their half-way to their goal. That's promising, and it seems like the game is functionally "done" -- hopefully they can cram a ton of content in now.
edit 2: got to the boss in the demo and it's pretty fun! that fight was actually interesting with multiple things going off, enemy AOEs, different things to focus down. I did notice that some negative status effects sometimes go away without me doing anything about it, like thirst, but it may have been from something I didn't realize was going on -- like leveling up.
Graphics are very charming and nice, and it's... voice acted? Quite a bit, actually.
I think this might be a pretty fun game if it gives you enough to do.
BTW if you play the demo, the tab key will swap between the two weapon loadouts.
edit: saw their half-way to their goal. That's promising, and it seems like the game is functionally "done" -- hopefully they can cram a ton of content in now.
edit 2: got to the boss in the demo and it's pretty fun! that fight was actually interesting with multiple things going off, enemy AOEs, different things to focus down. I did notice that some negative status effects sometimes go away without me doing anything about it, like thirst, but it may have been from something I didn't realize was going on -- like leveling up.
PrettyDeadman
Guest
I poorly translated this interview conducted by a russian streamer *Grind3r* -> https://vk.com/@grind3rs_channel-stoneshard-vopros-otvet-s-razrabotchikami
Take a look:
Take a look:
1. Question: Why did you decide to make a roguelike and not a traditional rpg? It’s not easy to mix low barrier to entry, focus on story and voice-acting with hardcore nature of roguelikes.
2. Response: We love roguelikes for their complexity and freedom. Traditional rpgs are usually more restrictive in nature. There were a lot of tradition rpg released lately, but traditional roguelikes remain to be a niche genre with sparse releases. We would like to amend that.
3. Question: Wll there be different starting options? Or all players will start in the same position?
4. Response: You have to understand that Prologue (playable demo) is a separate story, not a part of a main game. It features a distinct story character and this is the reason why character generation is not available in Prologue. In the full version it would be possible to create a character choosing from various backgrounds and motivations. The start will be similar for every character – they are recruited by Warren – the protagonist of Prologue.
5. Question: Will there be different books and notes in the game containing stories and lore about the game world?
6. Answer: You can already find them in Prologue. The story will be told in various ways: through quests and dialogues, notes and books, environment. That doesn’t mean we are planning to overload players with vast amounts of made-up history and invented terminology like in POE. After all we a making roguelike, not a traditional rpg.
7. Question: Can actions of player affect the ending?
8. Response: Yes.
9. Question: Are you planning to improve user interface: adding the ability to autopickup items with ctrl+click, keyboard bindings, hotkeys for switching stances?
10. Response: Yes, we are planning to do this, but we didn’t have time to implement it in time for KS campaign start. We are planning to put a lot of work on usability after KS campaign.
11. Question: Will character be able to throw potions or use them in other way than drinking?
12. Response: Yes, we are planning to add potion throwing. We also planned to add ability to drench weapons in potions, but we are not sure about it at this moment.
13. Statement: My viewers though that equipment repair system is a bit casual.
14. Response: This system is temporary and will be changed in future. It is implemented in that way because in Prologue other ways of repair like crafting, caravan, smiths in towns are unavailable. The system in Prologue will either be scraped or changed to require some kind of reagents or materials to function.
15. Question: It takes a lot of turns to sort your inventory. I am no sure if this is intended mechanic, but it would be nice to have some kind of autosorting or add some type of “safe space” with no enemies nearby where player can sort their inventory without wasting turns.
I had a situation where I needed to pick up intoxication point but had to waste turns throwing stuff away from inventory to free space for the potion which lead to my death of intoxication..
16. We gave autosort feature a though. I think we need to implement a better algorithm which will take into account items properties and sizes. If we will find an optimal solution – we will implement it, but so far there is no getting rid of manual sorting of inventory. By the way, you can use items laying on the ground without putting them in the inventory first.
17. Question: I felt the lack of variety in traps types, for example poison darts, teleport traps, fire rooms and etc. All the things they have in DCSS.
18. Response: We have a lot of traps planned in future, but we decided not to make life too difficult for new players in Prologue. We will add more content after KS campaign.
19. Q: I would love to be able to use fire in more creative ways. For example I set a book on fire with magic (like in DCSS) – it burns and prevents monsters from passing through or makes them take damage if they stand on it. Or set tables on fire – the fire will spread on shelves and the whole room will burn! I guess game balance should also be taken into account.
Let’s talk about game’s balance. I (and some of my viewers) thought that 2-handed weapons are imbalanced. I don’t know yet if it’s a matter of character class or stats distribution, but it seems strange that a heavy armored character could also through fireballs around…
20. R: We are planning to implement advanced physics based interactions as well as destructibility of environments. As I previously mentioned, we couldn’t implement all the features we wanted in time for Prologue. Initially we had a very grand scope for our game, but at some moment we realized implementing everything will take too much time away from working on the main campaign.
Weapon balance and droprates are not finalized, their main function in Prologue is to showcase the content which is already there. A lot of skills are not in the right place at the moment. In the main game 2-handed weapon skill “Charge” will be tier 2 skill, and not tier 1 like In Prologue which will change the balance of 2-handed weapons. It looks fabulous and is interesting to use which is why we decided to give it to player in Prologue.
As far as magic goes, we haven’t really started working on it yet. What you see in Prologue is a very early work in progress version. We are planning to add items which will affect spellcasting. We don’t want to restrict magic to specific character classes, we want to encourage diversity of character build, the restrictions will be based on character level and equipment instead.
21. Q: Why can a character dual wied 2 bows or a bow and a sword at the same time?
22. R: You can also dualwield shields. It’s possible that the bows will be put into 2-handed weapon class, but it’s not guaranteed yet.
23. Q: I had a situation when a key vanished from my inventory, then I found another one and read its description. It says that keys are one time only. Is this intentional?
24. A: We are planning to redo doors/keys mechanics in the future.
It seems that a lot of people find it strange that keys are one-use only and fit every lock. When we designed that system we took into account what the player has very little inventory space and keys take place. We didn’t want player who decided to run 3 floor to go through a chore managing what key fits what door and made them into universal consumable items. ….
We might change the system so that only chests and special locks require keys, and doors are either picklocked or bashed.
25-26 – Again about keys, don’t want to translate.
27. Q: Can you lose a cursed weapon by breaking you arm?
28. A: Yes. It is possible. When character receives a grevious trauma to their arms they drop equipped weapons on the ground.
2. Response: We love roguelikes for their complexity and freedom. Traditional rpgs are usually more restrictive in nature. There were a lot of tradition rpg released lately, but traditional roguelikes remain to be a niche genre with sparse releases. We would like to amend that.
3. Question: Wll there be different starting options? Or all players will start in the same position?
4. Response: You have to understand that Prologue (playable demo) is a separate story, not a part of a main game. It features a distinct story character and this is the reason why character generation is not available in Prologue. In the full version it would be possible to create a character choosing from various backgrounds and motivations. The start will be similar for every character – they are recruited by Warren – the protagonist of Prologue.
5. Question: Will there be different books and notes in the game containing stories and lore about the game world?
6. Answer: You can already find them in Prologue. The story will be told in various ways: through quests and dialogues, notes and books, environment. That doesn’t mean we are planning to overload players with vast amounts of made-up history and invented terminology like in POE. After all we a making roguelike, not a traditional rpg.
7. Question: Can actions of player affect the ending?
8. Response: Yes.
9. Question: Are you planning to improve user interface: adding the ability to autopickup items with ctrl+click, keyboard bindings, hotkeys for switching stances?
10. Response: Yes, we are planning to do this, but we didn’t have time to implement it in time for KS campaign start. We are planning to put a lot of work on usability after KS campaign.
11. Question: Will character be able to throw potions or use them in other way than drinking?
12. Response: Yes, we are planning to add potion throwing. We also planned to add ability to drench weapons in potions, but we are not sure about it at this moment.
13. Statement: My viewers though that equipment repair system is a bit casual.
14. Response: This system is temporary and will be changed in future. It is implemented in that way because in Prologue other ways of repair like crafting, caravan, smiths in towns are unavailable. The system in Prologue will either be scraped or changed to require some kind of reagents or materials to function.
15. Question: It takes a lot of turns to sort your inventory. I am no sure if this is intended mechanic, but it would be nice to have some kind of autosorting or add some type of “safe space” with no enemies nearby where player can sort their inventory without wasting turns.
I had a situation where I needed to pick up intoxication point but had to waste turns throwing stuff away from inventory to free space for the potion which lead to my death of intoxication..
16. We gave autosort feature a though. I think we need to implement a better algorithm which will take into account items properties and sizes. If we will find an optimal solution – we will implement it, but so far there is no getting rid of manual sorting of inventory. By the way, you can use items laying on the ground without putting them in the inventory first.
17. Question: I felt the lack of variety in traps types, for example poison darts, teleport traps, fire rooms and etc. All the things they have in DCSS.
18. Response: We have a lot of traps planned in future, but we decided not to make life too difficult for new players in Prologue. We will add more content after KS campaign.
19. Q: I would love to be able to use fire in more creative ways. For example I set a book on fire with magic (like in DCSS) – it burns and prevents monsters from passing through or makes them take damage if they stand on it. Or set tables on fire – the fire will spread on shelves and the whole room will burn! I guess game balance should also be taken into account.
Let’s talk about game’s balance. I (and some of my viewers) thought that 2-handed weapons are imbalanced. I don’t know yet if it’s a matter of character class or stats distribution, but it seems strange that a heavy armored character could also through fireballs around…
20. R: We are planning to implement advanced physics based interactions as well as destructibility of environments. As I previously mentioned, we couldn’t implement all the features we wanted in time for Prologue. Initially we had a very grand scope for our game, but at some moment we realized implementing everything will take too much time away from working on the main campaign.
Weapon balance and droprates are not finalized, their main function in Prologue is to showcase the content which is already there. A lot of skills are not in the right place at the moment. In the main game 2-handed weapon skill “Charge” will be tier 2 skill, and not tier 1 like In Prologue which will change the balance of 2-handed weapons. It looks fabulous and is interesting to use which is why we decided to give it to player in Prologue.
As far as magic goes, we haven’t really started working on it yet. What you see in Prologue is a very early work in progress version. We are planning to add items which will affect spellcasting. We don’t want to restrict magic to specific character classes, we want to encourage diversity of character build, the restrictions will be based on character level and equipment instead.
21. Q: Why can a character dual wied 2 bows or a bow and a sword at the same time?
22. R: You can also dualwield shields. It’s possible that the bows will be put into 2-handed weapon class, but it’s not guaranteed yet.
23. Q: I had a situation when a key vanished from my inventory, then I found another one and read its description. It says that keys are one time only. Is this intentional?
24. A: We are planning to redo doors/keys mechanics in the future.
It seems that a lot of people find it strange that keys are one-use only and fit every lock. When we designed that system we took into account what the player has very little inventory space and keys take place. We didn’t want player who decided to run 3 floor to go through a chore managing what key fits what door and made them into universal consumable items. ….
We might change the system so that only chests and special locks require keys, and doors are either picklocked or bashed.
25-26 – Again about keys, don’t want to translate.
27. Q: Can you lose a cursed weapon by breaking you arm?
28. A: Yes. It is possible. When character receives a grevious trauma to their arms they drop equipped weapons on the ground.
Last edited by a moderator:
[agree, no point to keep used scroll in inventory]
with 1 scroll you can identified any item in the world.
f.ex. if in post-apo rpg you find botanic flyer [identif scroll]. After you find strange, not handy, serrated sword. Using flyer on sword, reveal the item true properties. Its a chainsaw, with limited amount of charge.
It takes away charm from mystic items, suddenly you dont need to look for clue [NPC to talk] in game world how to use something, you just use scroll. Also old, wise guys in your team, lose his sage vibe. You dont come into: "my bunch of brats have no chance to use this artifacts, maybe i add some decrepit grandpa"Scroll of Identification should be a piece of lore, that boost hero skill in identifying items. Figuring out the best way of handling items should come from hero knowledge. You might expect wizard to be better at discovering how to activate rune on staff, than barbarians who buy bag of scrolls in shop.
Murk
Arcane
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2008
- Messages
- 13,459
The scroll thing I felt was a direct import from Diablo. It's a very common thing in action RPGs, and unlike other games this one lets you use unidentified items (if you feel like taking the risk). Overall, the game gives strong diablo 1 vibes to me, not the least of which is the inventory/character doll and the sound items make when they fall on the ground.
I remember reading how D1 was supposed to be a turn based true rogue-like, and this may very well be what that idea could have been.
I remember reading how D1 was supposed to be a turn based true rogue-like, and this may very well be what that idea could have been.
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2015
- Messages
- 20,644
PrettyDeadman
Guest
Devs updated the demo (alpha/Prologue). New version is here -> https://ink-stains-games.itch.io/stoneshard
The changelog is here -> https://www.kickstarter.com/project...rld-roguelike-rpg-with-tactical/posts/2191183
The changelog is here -> https://www.kickstarter.com/project...rld-roguelike-rpg-with-tactical/posts/2191183
AnnoyanceCrime
Novice
- Joined
- May 4, 2018
- Messages
- 23
I actually found the demo to be quite fun, but found myself unable to finish it, because one of the friendly NPCs blocked the way. He was immortal, so I couldnt kill him and leave. Devs made this thread, so maybe they are going to read this and fix it.
Doubleshoot
Barely Literate
- Joined
- May 18, 2018
- Messages
- 1
That bug was fixed in previous update.
PrettyDeadman
Guest
I've beaten the demo after rezlizing you can redo floors by going to previous floor which causes things to be re-rolled.
The skills seems not that interesting, but there is a lot of buffs applied through potions. Equipment system seems a lot like diablo, with a bunch of unique cursed items providing effects you can't obtain otherwise.
That they did is very solid, but overall enjoyment of the game will depend on how deep they will be able to make skill/equipment system.
The skills seems not that interesting, but there is a lot of buffs applied through potions. Equipment system seems a lot like diablo, with a bunch of unique cursed items providing effects you can't obtain otherwise.
That they did is very solid, but overall enjoyment of the game will depend on how deep they will be able to make skill/equipment system.
I can not beat the boss. This statue blood AoE vomit gets me traped each time.
========
I play it like always with inventory open. Maybe its possible to pack the inventory window into main screen? Idk reduce icon size, make tiny slot on the right side. Transparent. Cut the frame. [DCSS style inv is handy, Diablo like half screen are worse IMO]
there could be some indicator [character stop jumping, sit, put down weapons = rest, dim hero color = stealth] on main screen, when you in rest mode or stealth.
Modes activation is aesthetically rubbish, maybe swap the shield icon on bottom bar with Rest or Sneak icon?
i'm favoring stealth mode to be default always ON, just the monster may spot or not the hero.
========
I play it like always with inventory open. Maybe its possible to pack the inventory window into main screen? Idk reduce icon size, make tiny slot on the right side. Transparent. Cut the frame. [DCSS style inv is handy, Diablo like half screen are worse IMO]
there could be some indicator [character stop jumping, sit, put down weapons = rest, dim hero color = stealth] on main screen, when you in rest mode or stealth.
Modes activation is aesthetically rubbish, maybe swap the shield icon on bottom bar with Rest or Sneak icon?
i'm favoring stealth mode to be default always ON, just the monster may spot or not the hero.
Gurgaraneth
Novice
- Joined
- May 13, 2018
- Messages
- 15
Kinda reminds me of Bastard Bonds
- Joined
- Oct 14, 2012
- Messages
- 1,879,250
It's about time someone created an accessible ADOM/Nethack - though I guess there are many things that they have to get right for it to work.
Big Wrangle
Guest
Wouldn't be surprised if this somehow begins drawing comparison to Tales of Maj'Eyal.
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