RMMZ Chronicles of Vaeltaja: In Search of the Great Wanderer (Early Access October 10th)
- Thread starter Vaeltaja
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Played the demo for a short while. Some critical thoughts:
EDITED BECAUSE I DIDN'T READ INSTRUCTIONS (read them and use your ability points bros)
-damage variance seemed too high to my liking
-sometimes you hit a hard encounter when just turning around a corner
-maybe use a rank plugin for rows?
-music was kind of plain to my liking and the battle sound effects could benefit from more "weight" and energy
-I think it'd be nice if the character portraits had their weapon/shield/etc icons next to them in the battle screen + other things to make it a bit more alive, like the animated enemies which were nice
EDITED BECAUSE I DIDN'T READ INSTRUCTIONS (read them and use your ability points bros)
-damage variance seemed too high to my liking
-sometimes you hit a hard encounter when just turning around a corner
-maybe use a rank plugin for rows?
-music was kind of plain to my liking and the battle sound effects could benefit from more "weight" and energy
-I think it'd be nice if the character portraits had their weapon/shield/etc icons next to them in the battle screen + other things to make it a bit more alive, like the animated enemies which were nice
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Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it!
Did you read the tips from the merchant? Balance between different stats and skills are very important in this game. For example with Priest you have to put points to Intelligence, Spirit Power and Healing to boost the effect of healing spells. You also have to take into consideration that if you want your characters to be able to defend themselves these stats and skills are important: Stamina, Agility and armor/robe skills. If those have low values, character's defense bonus will be low. Armor/robe skills determine how good armors your character can wear.
In this game you only get into trouble, if you just boost your strength and fighting skills, as there are lots of mechanics in the play.
Did you read the tips from the merchant? Balance between different stats and skills are very important in this game. For example with Priest you have to put points to Intelligence, Spirit Power and Healing to boost the effect of healing spells. You also have to take into consideration that if you want your characters to be able to defend themselves these stats and skills are important: Stamina, Agility and armor/robe skills. If those have low values, character's defense bonus will be low. Armor/robe skills determine how good armors your character can wear.
In this game you only get into trouble, if you just boost your strength and fighting skills, as there are lots of mechanics in the play.
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That explains it!@Vaeltaja Bro, you think I read everything that geezer had to say?So actually I didn't put points into anything, and maybe that has to do something with the battles being difficult...sooo, I'll just go ahead and edit some of the comments above, LOL.
No problem, I think you'll get the hang of things just fine.I've been thinking about the row system a lot lately and it might be that it ends up in the release version of the game, as I like that mechanic myself in these kind of games.
But it will be interesting to hear how the game feels when you try to balance different things.
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Alright, here's some words of advice:
Chronicles of Vaeltaja contains lots of mechanics in the play, so here’s few gameplay tips to get you started. When spending stat and skill points to characters, balance is the keyword. You won’t get far by placing all the points to ‘strenght’ and weapon skill, that will only lead to a character build that may hit hard, but is unable to wear better armor and sucks at defending. Therefore characters dealing physical melee damage need to find good balance between ‘strenght’, ‘stamina’ and ‘agility’, and weapon and armor skills.
Some battle techniques may need good values in other stats too: for example some bow techniques may deal better damage if the character’s ‘perception’ is good and so on. In battle ‘strenght’ is important for melee characters, and ‘agility’ is important for ranged characters.
Caster character has to find balance between robe, staff and magic skills. For example mage has to increase ‘elemental power’ and the certain spell skill, such as Flame, to increase the power of the Flame spell. ‘Intelligence’ also affects magic damage. On the long run some caster characters, such as priests, can be balanced to be an effective healer, while being able to deal some physical damage.
Main character has the skills, such as ‘speech’ or ‘lockpicking’, which are used to interact with the world, but also stats will have some affect. For example your ‘speech’ skill won’t help much if your ‘charisma’ is so low that nobody wants to talk to you about anything interesting. There is also a slight random element/dice roll for stat and skill actions, so if you fail to pick a lock the first time, try again. But if you keep failing constantly, your skill is too low.
There are also some skills that can’t be improved, such as Shadow’s ‘shadow cloak’ skill and Priest’s ‘cure poison’. That might change for the final release of the game.
W,A,S,D movement, with Q,E for turning. For activation SPACE or mouse left button. ESC or mouse right button to exit menus.
For ‘fullscreen’ press F4.
Known issues:
1. There happens some stutter occasionally, when the game loads cells that it has divided levels into, but optimization will be done for the final release.
2. In Stat&Skills menu when spending points, arrows that allow to increase or decrease skill value don’t align properly. Changing to different character can help the issue little bit, but it won’t fix it. I’ve been looking into it, but haven’t found a solution yet.
3. Sometimes enemy hit boxes doesn’t register mouse cursor properly, so it’s adviseable to choose enemies with keyboard.
4. Because of the unorthodox camera settings to achieve proper gameplay feel, interacting with the gameworld using keyboard may cause a certain issue: You may be facing a door or treasure chest, but SPACE doesn’t activate it. In this case press W and then SPACE.
Chronicles of Vaeltaja contains lots of mechanics in the play, so here’s few gameplay tips to get you started. When spending stat and skill points to characters, balance is the keyword. You won’t get far by placing all the points to ‘strenght’ and weapon skill, that will only lead to a character build that may hit hard, but is unable to wear better armor and sucks at defending. Therefore characters dealing physical melee damage need to find good balance between ‘strenght’, ‘stamina’ and ‘agility’, and weapon and armor skills.
Some battle techniques may need good values in other stats too: for example some bow techniques may deal better damage if the character’s ‘perception’ is good and so on. In battle ‘strenght’ is important for melee characters, and ‘agility’ is important for ranged characters.
Caster character has to find balance between robe, staff and magic skills. For example mage has to increase ‘elemental power’ and the certain spell skill, such as Flame, to increase the power of the Flame spell. ‘Intelligence’ also affects magic damage. On the long run some caster characters, such as priests, can be balanced to be an effective healer, while being able to deal some physical damage.
Main character has the skills, such as ‘speech’ or ‘lockpicking’, which are used to interact with the world, but also stats will have some affect. For example your ‘speech’ skill won’t help much if your ‘charisma’ is so low that nobody wants to talk to you about anything interesting. There is also a slight random element/dice roll for stat and skill actions, so if you fail to pick a lock the first time, try again. But if you keep failing constantly, your skill is too low.
There are also some skills that can’t be improved, such as Shadow’s ‘shadow cloak’ skill and Priest’s ‘cure poison’. That might change for the final release of the game.
W,A,S,D movement, with Q,E for turning. For activation SPACE or mouse left button. ESC or mouse right button to exit menus.
For ‘fullscreen’ press F4.
Known issues:
1. There happens some stutter occasionally, when the game loads cells that it has divided levels into, but optimization will be done for the final release.
2. In Stat&Skills menu when spending points, arrows that allow to increase or decrease skill value don’t align properly. Changing to different character can help the issue little bit, but it won’t fix it. I’ve been looking into it, but haven’t found a solution yet.
3. Sometimes enemy hit boxes doesn’t register mouse cursor properly, so it’s adviseable to choose enemies with keyboard.
4. Because of the unorthodox camera settings to achieve proper gameplay feel, interacting with the gameworld using keyboard may cause a certain issue: You may be facing a door or treasure chest, but SPACE doesn’t activate it. In this case press W and then SPACE.
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Okay, gave it another go whilst trying to allocate those stat/skill points in a balanced manner. That did help, but I think it's still too easy to get your weaker characters killed. If the enemies happen to target your weaker characters and roll higher damage, you're in trouble. Because of the damage/initiative/target variance I sometimes easily beat 3 fights with bats in a row (without healing), but on another load I got multiple characters killed in the first fight. Your very first battle can also be kind of difficult if you get wolves in it, instead of only bats. Also, even after putting points in priest stuff (though not exclusively), a low roll(?) heal only healed like 7 hp. Kind of wished I'd just spent the priest's turn hitting an enemy instead
I know that in old games / D&D there's 3d6 tier variance, your character can die if you fail one saving throw, level 1 spell casters can die from one goblin melee attack. Not saying it's a bad thing but that makes the battles kind of chaotic for me.
I know that in old games / D&D there's 3d6 tier variance, your character can die if you fail one saving throw, level 1 spell casters can die from one goblin melee attack. Not saying it's a bad thing but that makes the battles kind of chaotic for me.
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Thanks for the feedback! There shouldn't be any wolves in the first battles, so I have to check if there's something wrong with the mob selection.Okay, gave it another go whilst trying to allocate those stat/skill points in a balanced manner. That did help, but I think it's still too easy to get your weaker characters killed. If the enemies happen to target your weaker characters and roll higher damage, you're in trouble. Because of the damage/initiative/target variance I sometimes easily beat 3 fights with bats in a row (without healing), but on another load I got multiple characters killed in the first fight. Your very first battle can also be kind of difficult if you get wolves in it, instead of only bats. Also, even after putting points in priest stuff (though not exclusively), a low roll(?) heal only healed like 7 hp. Kind of wished I'd just spent the priest's turn hitting an enemy instead
I know that in old games / D&D there's 3d6 tier variance, your character can die if you fail one saving throw, level 1 spell casters can die from one goblin melee attack. Not saying it's a bad thing but that makes the battles kind of chaotic for me.
Priest is a class that can be balanced to become a good healer/damage dealer on the long run. I usually use light armor and bow for priest. Also cloaks and gloves give small bonus to defense, so those should be bought also. You can also use certain shields (for hunter and caster classes those are called 'bracers') for casters, given that you put some points to shield skills.
Here's what I usually do: Buy plate armor for warrior, give his chain armor to main character or hunter, and then give her/his leather armor for priest. For mage put couple of points to robes and get him apprentice robes. Staves also give small defense points.
I think I have to lower the cost of Water of Life, so it would be cheaper to resurrect fallen characters.
This game can be kind of rough in the beginning, but once you start to learn the system, it will get easier. But I will keep balancing the combat system for the final game - the purpose of this demo is to collect feedback and see what are the things that people struggle with the most and make them even harder! Just kidding!
I will probably make some update for the demo in the next couple of weeks, but first I'll wait for some more feedback.
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I faced at least the following troops as the first battle(s) if I remember correctly: 4-5(?) bats // 8(?) bats // 2 wolves + 4 bats
There's also not much money to buy equipment and I wouldn't start the demo by making the player circulate basic equipment between characters.
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Yeah, it seems there definitely was one wrong troop in the mix. I'll make a small update to fix that and do some balancing.
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Released a small balancing update.
1. Now there shouldn't be any other enemies than bats in the first enemy encounter.
2. Party has 750 coins at start.
3. Aesis has now better starting gear.
4. Healing spell should be now little bit stronger.
5. Nikarus (wolves) has now slightly lower strength.
1. Now there shouldn't be any other enemies than bats in the first enemy encounter.
2. Party has 750 coins at start.
3. Aesis has now better starting gear.
4. Healing spell should be now little bit stronger.
5. Nikarus (wolves) has now slightly lower strength.
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Minor update for the demo: I've added the camera zoom for conversations and updated the Stat&Skills-plugin, so arrows using to increase and decrease Stat and Skill values should work now properly.
I'm also doing some redesigning for the Skill-system for the full game, so those changes will probably not come to the demo version.
Be careful when carrying that goo of rotten fish in your bag!
I'm also doing some redesigning for the Skill-system for the full game, so those changes will probably not come to the demo version.
Be careful when carrying that goo of rotten fish in your bag!
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I've just released a balancing update for the demo.
Changes:
Fallen party members are revived when resting at the farmer's house.
First bat encounter now only has 2-4 bats.
Changed loot in treasure chests to be more useful in the beginning.
After a certain point in both questlines merchant will have new equipment in his inventory (check before entering the Old Tower).
Warrior's, Hunter's, Mage's and Healer's rings will slightly raise certain stats.
Balanced enemy troops in the Old Tower.
Changes:
Fallen party members are revived when resting at the farmer's house.
First bat encounter now only has 2-4 bats.
Changed loot in treasure chests to be more useful in the beginning.
After a certain point in both questlines merchant will have new equipment in his inventory (check before entering the Old Tower).
Warrior's, Hunter's, Mage's and Healer's rings will slightly raise certain stats.
Balanced enemy troops in the Old Tower.
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I've received quite good feedback from the demo so far and some of it has inspired me to make some changes to the skill system. These changes won't be coming for the demo as I have to focus on developing the full game, but I thought that I share some information about it beforehand.
I've renamed 'Stats & Skills' menu to 'Character'. Stats and skills are still presented in the same way, but there are some changes to how skills work. Each class have two 'class skills', which are the first two skills in the skill list. For example Mage now has 'Warlock' and 'Wizard' skills and Hunter has 'Archer' and 'Survivalist'. These new 'class skills' determine what kind of spells and combat abilities character is able to learn. For example when improving 'Warlock' skill, it will unlock the ability to learn various elemental attack spells, while 'Wizard' skill grants ability to learn different kind of spells. While these new 'class skills' give access to spells and abilities, you still need to buy/learn them from various places.
Under these 'class skills' are listed the basic skills of the class. For example Mage still has skills like Staff, Robes, Magic Armor and so on, which determine what kind of equipment character can use. But there is one quite significant change to these basic skills: Now some of the classes have skills that were previously restricted to the main character. For example now Shadow has 'Lock Picking' skill and Hunter has 'Disarm Traps'. This means that instead of improving main character's 'Lock Picking' skill, you can spend those points to some other skill and improve Shadow's 'Lock Picking'.
These changes will provide much more variety when building your party and leveling up the characters and therefore add even more replay value. You can even try to find two Mages for your party and make one of them Wizard and the other Warlock, or stick with only one who is something in between.
I hope these changes will get you excited!
I've renamed 'Stats & Skills' menu to 'Character'. Stats and skills are still presented in the same way, but there are some changes to how skills work. Each class have two 'class skills', which are the first two skills in the skill list. For example Mage now has 'Warlock' and 'Wizard' skills and Hunter has 'Archer' and 'Survivalist'. These new 'class skills' determine what kind of spells and combat abilities character is able to learn. For example when improving 'Warlock' skill, it will unlock the ability to learn various elemental attack spells, while 'Wizard' skill grants ability to learn different kind of spells. While these new 'class skills' give access to spells and abilities, you still need to buy/learn them from various places.
Under these 'class skills' are listed the basic skills of the class. For example Mage still has skills like Staff, Robes, Magic Armor and so on, which determine what kind of equipment character can use. But there is one quite significant change to these basic skills: Now some of the classes have skills that were previously restricted to the main character. For example now Shadow has 'Lock Picking' skill and Hunter has 'Disarm Traps'. This means that instead of improving main character's 'Lock Picking' skill, you can spend those points to some other skill and improve Shadow's 'Lock Picking'.
These changes will provide much more variety when building your party and leveling up the characters and therefore add even more replay value. You can even try to find two Mages for your party and make one of them Wizard and the other Warlock, or stick with only one who is something in between.
I hope these changes will get you excited!
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A QoL update released for the Chronicles of Vaeltaja's demo.
New Options:
- Full Screen
- Font change
- UI colour change
- Proper 'game over' screen
Patch Notes
New Options:
- Full Screen
- Font change
- UI colour change
- Proper 'game over' screen
Patch Notes
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I've released a balancing update to make the beginning easier. I also made a tutorial video for the demo.
Patch notes:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/2421440/discussions/0/3836550120030219089/
Tutorial video:
Patch notes:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/2421440/discussions/0/3836550120030219089/
Tutorial video:
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The demo will get two more updates which will bring the new sprites for enemies and NPCs. After the second update I will announce a little competition, so three lucky ones will win a Steam key for the release version, but more about that later. 
I also made a short video showing the new sprites in action!
I also made a short video showing the new sprites in action!
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I found a wrong value in bats' stats in the Chronicles of Vaeltaja's demo, which invalidated all the previous balancing updates. This and certain other issues are now fixed. I also added some new sprites for some enemies and NPCs to add immersion.
Sorry for the inconvenience if the demo has felt way too tough in the beginning!
Patch notes: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2421440/view/3663164071059471134?l=english
EDIT: Latest version of the demo is now also available at Itch.io:
https://witchgrove-games.itch.io/chronicles-of-vaeltaja-in-search-of-the-great-wanderer-demo
Sorry for the inconvenience if the demo has felt way too tough in the beginning!
Patch notes: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2421440/view/3663164071059471134?l=english
EDIT: Latest version of the demo is now also available at Itch.io:
https://witchgrove-games.itch.io/chronicles-of-vaeltaja-in-search-of-the-great-wanderer-demo
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