RMMV Luna Sanctus [RPG/Fantasy/Strategy] (Demo Available)

[MushroomCake28]

@Kupotepo It is simply called Republic because there is an elected chamber of representatives that act as advisers. But yeah, legally it should be called a monarchy since the ruling power belongs to a noble family and pass down to the heir, but politically being called a republic is considered better (and technically "okay" there's a chamber of advisers, even if they don't have the final word).

In this world, it is very hard to dissociate nobility with power, since nobility are those who can use magic. Even if the people can elect their representatives to be advisers to the noble family, it's not like it gives them the ability to use magic.

It' complicated, but it's a small detail that gets explain in a side quest at the end of the game (optional of course).

 

[Kupotepo]

@MushroomCake28, thank you for answer everything to satisfy my curiosity. Yeah, part of design is not tell or show players everything, right. I will play your game now.

 

[MushroomCake28]

@Kupotepo Happy to enlighten you! Tell me what you think of the demo after playing it!

For everyone, I forgot to add a new wallpaper for my game. It will be the new default title screen.

 

[Aoi Ninami]

@Kupotepo It is simply called Republic because there is an elected chamber of representatives that act as advisers. But yeah, legally it should be called a monarchy since the ruling power belongs to a noble family and pass down to the heir, but politically being called a republic is considered better (and technically "okay" there's a chamber of advisers, even if they don't have the final word).

Actually, the technically correct word is oligarchy. A monarchy has a single ruler (mono = one).

 

[MushroomCake28]

@Aoi Ninami Well it would also be a federation since you have many states that have their own rulers, but who are under the jurisdiction of a central government (like the US or Canada). But sometimes it is important to dissociate the legal with the politics. Like for example in Canada, we are still technically a Constitutional Monarchy since on paper the Queen still has all the power. But politically, we agreed with the Crown that the Crown will only act when their advisers (Congress) would tell her to. So yeah, legally the Queen has all the power, but politically she can't do anything.

 

[Kupotepo]

My take on your game. Sorry if this review can be sound be very mean. I would be honest and helpful as possible. When I encouraged Shinobi, I feel like too much explanation of different types of skills and it feels overwhelming for me. Other tutorials are very creative on a show, not tell. I like to main characters have a little group conversation with your custom busts.

Why did call the soldier the protagonist “master Azel “? I suggest his title to a prince.
I dislike the attack skill because it is too fast for me, therefore, it makes me dislike the random encounter system. It is about speed typing, instead of strategy. My suggestion would make attack just simple attack or slow down the hitting of an alphabet is too fast. Another thing is hitting of buttons are used for ultimate skills which would be more encouraging.

I hope my words do not your ego too.

 

[MushroomCake28]

@Kupotepo Well yeah of course the tutorials are long and boring lol. Stuff was designed to be learned gradually over the few first hourS of the game, something that is not possible in the demo (that's why there's a tutorial land, which isn't in the full game).

I guess master is just another title. He's the heir of an overthrown empire so not sure if "prince" is still appropriate.

As for the action sequence, I thought it would make stuff more dynamic lol. You know, there's no damage penalty for failing an action sequence. You just don't gain souls (TP).

Did you try the ability system?

 

[Kupotepo]

@MushroomCake28, I do not talk about the long tutorials. I like you overall. I talk about a long conversation at once time on a tutorial. I do not talk about boring, I talk about confusing. I aware that there's no damage penalty for failing an action sequence, but it keeps missing. I try the ability system which is very good and save me a lot of stress. I like a simple hit, while others might like what you are doing. Wait for another opinion too.

I guess master is just another title. He's the heir of an overthrown empire so not sure if "prince" is still appropriate.

I think it is logical for people who know who he is to call and respect him to call prince out of respect. I agree with you on the factual. When someone calls master, I feel it means a teacher of martial arts would be called. Of course, you can call whenever you think it sounds right.

 

[MushroomCake28]

@Kupotepo I guess I'll ask for other opinions on the action sequence too. I mean I could just remove it completely, would be easy.

 

[Kupotepo]

@MushroomCake28, I am kind of strategy player not than a action player. Wait for more people, so you could do survey. I think you would to get a good idea of a general players, however if you are strongly believed your way would please most players. Then by no mean go ahead. I support whatever your final decision.

 

[MushroomCake28]

@Kupotepo Actually I'm more like you lol. I'd prefer without action sequence, and simply added it because some people liked it.

 

[Fernyfer775]

This looks very good, I'm adding this to my list of games to follow. Looking forward to you completing it!

 

[MushroomCake28]

@Fernyfer775 Thank you!

 

[Lightifer]

Check out my let's play for this game! Parts 1 and 2 are out with part 3 coming out tomorrow at 3:45 pm.

 

[MushroomCake28]

UPDATE: VERSION 1.06 IS NOW OUT!

I've changed a lot of stuff: the battle UI is different (more intuitive and more graphical), removed the action sequence, changed the minimap to be less invasive, etc. If you're looking to try out the demo, download it for free on itch: https://kamo-studio.itch.io/luna-sanctus-demo

Changes:

• Changed dialogues of villagers in province of Diamant.
• Some typos in descriptions and dialogues.
• Minimap: change position automatically to not be over the player.
• Minimap: Automatically disappear when an event is ongoing. Reappears afterward if activated.
• Minimap: Reduced the opacity of the black for unpassable tiles.
• Marianne's Witch Step skill: replaced the ability "Paralyze Strike" by "Haste Charm".
• Marianne's Witch Step skill: Mp cost is now 40 instead of 20, and soul cost is now 3 instead of 2.
• Marianne's Seraphic Touch skill: now costs 2 Souls instead of 1. That way, the transmutation ability will give more MP back.
• The help window in the equip menu now display resistances with red for weaknesses and green for resistances.
• The ability description has been modified to match the removal of the active action sequencing.

Battle Changes:

• Changed the overall UI for the command windows.
• Removed the Active Action Sequence from the Attack Command.
• The Soul regen and all effects from ability that required the player to successfully execute the action sequence are now triggered simply by doing a regular attack.
• Attack animations are faster than before since the time for the active action sequence is no longer necessary.

Abilities Balance:

• Tiger Stance has been buff: went from +10% per level to +20% per level (max level now gives 100%).
• Dragon Blood and Wyvern Blood nerfed to +2% per level, and max level went from 10 to 6.

Bug Fixes:

• No longer possible to enter the current map menu scene by pressing S between event commands.
• Fixed a bug that will display incorrectly rewards after battle (occurred when one item dropped twice or more).
• Enemy inspect window's elemental and status resistance bar now scales properly. Bigger bar means higher resistance, so a lower number (the percentage displayed is the percentage of the damage the enemy will receive).
• The item help window now properly displays resistances.

 

[TheoAllen]

Gave this a spin. I'm sorry in advance if this sounds harsh or something, I didn't mean it.

My first complaint about the UI/UX design and the battle system is, in fact, I couldn't tell who is going to act next. You zoom up close to the actor when it's their action, cool, but... I couldn't see any other battlers, both actors, and enemies. Granted, when I'm going to input an action, you zoomed out it. However, the lack of ATB bar shown didn't help either. Upon the idle/waiting phase, my eyes went everywhere seeking who is casting, who is waiting, who is going to act, then a battler acted, and I wasn't expecting it. If you can make the turn order more visible and/or predictable, it may improve the battle experience a lot.

My second complaint is about how slow the animation is. Maybe slow, or maybe lack of feedback? I finished the battle at 4-5mins on average. And I mostly think it's because of how slow the animation is executed. As for the lack of feedback, it's related to my first complaint. Your normal attack sequence and some of the skill animation did a good job of bringing focus on who's attacking and who's getting attacked. However, iirc the enemy didn't do the same. Does enemy has an animation that zooms up close and personal to tell "this enemy is going to attack this actor"?

----
And also my random thought since I'm not sure if this is really a complaint or it's an intended design, or I'm just missing something.

First, the lack of "movement" in the grid battle system. I was expecting I could move around during the battle between the grids to switch into the defensive mode or go full suicidal mode by sending all of them in the frontline. But no, I didn't see any move command to other grid. So the grid is basically just a post that "well you're standing here, good luck surviving".

Second, is the lack of learning curve. True that you have a tutorial land that explains everything cramped in 30 mins (which I think I passed most of it since I already know most of basic RM games rules lol). But at the start of the game, you gave me a full 4 party members with each of them has its own ability I didn't know about. In fact, I used it mindlessly and had no idea what I'm doing lol. I managed to survive most of the encounters though.

Third, is the wall of text intro without a proper image. Now don't get me wrong, I understand that you're no artist. But it's also mean that I might not even understand what was going on, so I ended up skipping the entire intro. Granted, English is my second language. A text-only usually often bore me. Because it's kinda hard to visualize what's going on without an actual image.

----
I think I have some more in my mind that went gone while typing this. But anyway, that's some input for me. Good luck!

EDIT: I've seen through the audio folder and some of the go beyond like 5mb to 10mb. How many kbps are your songs?

 

[VeryXInh]

Well, that's a honest feedback every dev want to hear

 

[MushroomCake28]

First of all thanks for trying it and for the input!

Gave this a spin. I'm sorry in advance if this sounds harsh or something, I didn't mean it.

My first complaint about the UI/UX design and the battle system is, in fact, I couldn't tell who is going to act next. You zoom up close to the actor when it's their action, cool, but... I couldn't see any other battlers, both actors, and enemies. Granted, when I'm going to input an action, you zoomed out it. However, the lack of ATB bar shown didn't help either. Upon the idle/waiting phase, my eyes went everywhere seeking who is casting, who is waiting, who is going to act, then a battler acted, and I wasn't expecting it. If you can make the turn order more visible and/or predictable, it may improve the battle experience a lot.

Honestly I have no idea who to listen to anymore. The thing is... you can have the ATB show up in the active mode (when you're choosing an action), you just have to toggle it on (with A/S). At first people said it was invasive and that there was too much information, so I basically deactivated the whole thing by default and made it possible to toggle on. Perhaps a general timeline with everyone on it would alleviate the problem?

My second complaint is about how slow the animation is. Maybe slow, or maybe lack of feedback? I finished the battle at 4-5mins on average. And I mostly think it's because of how slow the animation is executed. As for the lack of feedback, it's related to my first complaint. Your normal attack sequence and some of the skill animation did a good job of bringing focus on who's attacking and who's getting attacked. However, iirc the enemy didn't do the same. Does enemy has an animation that zooms up close and personal to tell "this enemy is going to attack this actor"?

Yeah I know, I've been working to reduce the animation time (did you get the version 1.06 or 1.05? Cause 1.05 was much worse than 1.06 lol). By overall, some animations are just long and can't be really shorten overall, so I opted to reduce the number of encounters. As for enemies, it is supposed to zoom in on them when it's their turn, then zoom out and show the animation on the actor. Perhaps I should add a zoom in on the actors that get attacked, I think that would help.

First, the lack of "movement" in the grid battle system. I was expecting I could move around during the battle between the grids to switch into the defensive mode or go full suicidal mode by sending all of them in the frontline. But no, I didn't see any move command to other grid. So the grid is basically just a post that "well you're standing here, good luck surviving".

Well to be honest I kind of forgot about it at first lol. I just had a cheat button while playtesting to save time (would instant kill all enemies). When I realized it was missing, I asked some people what they thought about it and they said they didn't mind it so I pushed it down my priority list. But I initially intend to add movement during the battle, and I'll add it into the next build. Not sure about the execution though, don't know if it should take a turn or not.

Second, is the lack of learning curve. True that you have a tutorial land that explains everything cramped in 30 mins (which I think I passed most of it since I already know most of basic RM games rules lol). But at the start of the game, you gave me a full 4 party members with each of them has its own ability I didn't know about. In fact, I used it mindlessly and had no idea what I'm doing lol. I managed to survive most of the encounters though.

That is the biggest problem of my demo. As a demo, I wanted people to try as much of the unique systems (battle, abilities, etc.) so I just threw people right in the middle of the game (like literally half way in the game). The in-game tutorials all happen at the start of the game, up until I'd say the 2 hours mark. Since I threw people in the middle of the game, I had to create a "tutorial land" and condense all the information. I thought I'd be a good solution, but apparently not. I might just remove the whole tutorial and let people discover honestly. I honestly don't know how to address that problem.

Third, is the wall of text intro without a proper image. Now don't get me wrong, I understand that you're no artist. But it's also mean that I might not even understand what was going on, so I ended up skipping the entire intro. Granted, English is my second language. A text-only usually often bore me. Because it's kinda hard to visualize what's going on without an actual image.

See previous point. If I remove the tutorial land that part will just be removed. And honestly I could also just remove it, since it's kind of dumb to summarize the story up until that point and just throw the player in the middle of the game. I realized demos are more for trying out the gameplay rather than the story.

EDIT: I've seen through the audio folder and some of the go beyond like 5mb to 10mb. How many kbps are your songs?

Very high lol. I prefer quality over compression. 10mb tracks are usually about 3 minutes long. I know the audio is taking a lot of space, but the game size is still less than 500 MB so it's not that bad lol.

I hope you at least enjoyed it a little bit. I'll admit that intuitive design and UI are my weak point, I'm working on it. Did you at least figured out a bit how the ability system work?

 

[TheoAllen]

Honestly I have no idea who to listen to anymore. The thing is... you can have the ATB show up in the active mode (when you're choosing an action), you just have to toggle it on (with A/S). At first people said it was invasive and that there was too much information, so I basically deactivated the whole thing by default and made it possible to toggle on. Perhaps a general timeline with everyone on it would alleviate the problem?

In my belief, if there's so much information, then the information is not delivered properly. Also, I didn't know that it can be toggled. I agree that a general timeline would be better. However, you're dealing with 8 battler members, cramp em together in a single timeline, not sure if still manageable. The one I saw that use timeline order has like 5 battler participants. Not 8.

Yeah I know, I've been working to reduce the animation time (did you get the version 1.06 or 1.05? Cause 1.05 was much worse than 1.06 lol). By overall, some animations are just long and can't be really shorten overall, so I opted to reduce the number of encounters. As for enemies, it is supposed to zoom in on them when it's their turn, then zoom out and show the animation on the actor. Perhaps I should add a zoom in on the actors that get attacked, I think that would help.

I download it in the itch.io on the same day I tested and posted the comment. So what version did I get? I didn't check it
I really liked the normal attack animation that brings you close together and executes the animation. Perhaps if any single grid skill's animation is done that way, it's better. Idk about the large are skill though. but maybe you can try a similar approach?

Well to be honest I kind of forgot about it at first lol. I just had a cheat button while playtesting to save time (would instant kill all enemies). When I realized it was missing, I asked some people what they thought about it and they said they didn't mind it so I pushed it down my priority list. But I initially intend to add movement during the battle, and I'll add it into the next build. Not sure about the execution though, don't know if it should take a turn or not.

I have a dev team where we also use grid battle system, so I thought about to play yours so that I know what people think about grid battle system should be. I was surprised that the move wasn't present. Since I thought grid battle is about positioning matters. But no, yours was like a standing post. I was curious if this is really what you're envisioning. And since you said you put em down in the priority list, I'm gonna ask you again "is this really what you're envisioning?".

As for using up turn or not. You can use my approach. You're free to move around. So no, don't take a turn. You have a free targeting range afterall. Like position doesn't matter on where you can attack. Also since you're done when you input an action. Wasting a turn to move anywhere that you can still being attacked doesn't seem fair imo.

That is the biggest problem of my demo. As a demo, I wanted people to try as much of the unique systems (battle, abilities, etc.) so I just threw people right in the middle of the game (like literally half way in the game). The in-game tutorials all happen at the start of the game, up until I'd say the 2 hours mark. Since I threw people in the middle of the game, I had to create a "tutorial land" and condense all the information. I thought I'd be a good solution, but apparently not. I might just remove the whole tutorial and let people discover honestly. I honestly don't know how to address that problem.

Is this because you keep hearing that the demo should throw u in the middle of the game so that something becomes interesting? Because imo, that one failed on me. I'd appreciate if everything is introduced at the start so I know what I'm into, who are those characters, and what kind of the gameplay that is unfolding while im progressing through the game.

Very high lol. I prefer quality over compression. 10mb tracks are usually about 3 minutes long. I know the audio is taking a lot of space, but the game size is still less than 500 MB so it's not that bad lol.

My advice is, compress it. The 128kbps doesn't really sound different than the high-quality one. And average people actually use cheap earphone/headset which doesn't help either (oh, it also me included). Also personally I found out that my hearing range capped at 17kHz instead of 20kHz like normal human being. I'm not sure if I have a higher hearing range I could tell the difference. But really, I tried to try to see the difference between high-quality one with standard CD quality. I didn't notice much difference. However, it starts to fall apart below 128kbps, which it's not an option to compress below that.

Also no, even if your game is not 500mb yet, I actually failed once to download it and had to restart. In fact, it's still close to 500mb anyway

Did you at least figured out a bit how the ability system work?

Like I said, there's no learning curve to process those information slowly. So, what is "ability system" again?
I might have tried it (or not), I might just forgot it.

 

[MushroomCake28]

In my belief, if there's so much information, then the information is not delivered properly. Also, I didn't know that it can be toggled. I agree that a general timeline would be better. However, you're dealing with 8 battler members, cramp em together in a single timeline, not sure if still manageable. The one I saw that use timeline order has like 5 battler participants. Not 8.

Was thinking about a 2 side timeline, with heroes on top and enemies on the bottom. I'll simply use icons with the actor's face and icons of different color for enemies.

I have a dev team where we also use grid battle system, so I thought about to play yours so that I know what people think about grid battle system should be. I was surprised that the move wasn't present. Since I thought grid battle is about positioning matters. But no, yours was like a standing post. I was curious if this is really what you're envisioning. And since you said you put em down in the priority list, I'm gonna ask you again "is this really what you're envisioning?".

As for using up turn or not. You can use my approach. You're free to move around. So no, don't take a turn. You have a free targeting range afterall. Like position doesn't matter on where you can attack. Also since you're done when you input an action. Wasting a turn to move anywhere that you can still being attacked doesn't seem fair imo.

Well I did want to implement grid movement at first, but there was so much stuff to do and fix, and the fact that people didn't seem to care about it pushed it down in my priority list.

Still not sure about the turn thing for movement. I'm thinking about 2 options:
1) It does not take a turn, but once you move (only possible at before taking any actions), you can't go back.
2) Moving does take a turn, but the hero goes back to 50% ATB instead of 0.

Is this because you keep hearing that the demo should throw u in the middle of the game so that something becomes interesting? Because imo, that one failed on me. I'd appreciate if everything is introduced at the start so I know what I'm into, who are those characters, and what kind of the gameplay that is unfolding while im progressing through the game.

It's because all the games I played had demo start right in the middle of the game. The logic is that some systems (such as the ability system in my game) aren't introduced right at the beginning at the game, so to give the player a taste of every available system in the game you throw them in the middle of the game. I thought that was normal, but apparently not with all the negative responses I had. I'll probably change it in the near future to a part of the early game instead of right in the middle of the game (the current demo starts at around 15-20 hours into the game I think).

My advice is, compress it. The 128kbps doesn't really sound different than the high-quality one. And average people actually use cheap earphone/headset which doesn't help either (oh, it also me included). Also personally I found out that my hearing range capped at 17kHz instead of 20kHz like normal human being. I'm not sure if I have a higher hearing range I could tell the difference. But really, I tried to try to see the difference between high-quality one with standard CD quality. I didn't notice much difference. However, it starts to fall apart below 128kbps, which it's not an option to compress below that.

Also no, even if your game is not 500mb yet, I actually failed once to download it and had to restart. In fact, it's still close to 500mb anyway

Do you use Audacity to convert to ogg? When you convert to ogg in there, there's a property called "quality" that goes from 0 (max compression and worst audio) to 10 (less compression and best audio). I simply chose 10 lol. I think as long as the game is under 1GB it's not too bad. Many games nowadays have file size of over many GB.

Like I said, there's no learning curve to process those information slowly. So, what is "ability system" again?
I might have tried it (or not), I might just forgot it.

That thing: https://itch.io/t/364815/ability-system-how-it-works