Zevia's Let's Play

[Matseb2611]

Just finished watching the last episode. Damn, you must've really enjoyed it to play it for 2.5 hours straight. Let me see if I can recall some of the questions/queries you had in the LP.

In the Hostage Rescue sidequest, you do get some reward for rescuing all the hostages. If you remember it said you got 500 EXP right after the dialogue line. It's not a huge reward, but I thought it'd be like an added bonus (100 EXP for each hostage rescued).

Do you think I should give a different quest reward for getting all 4 batteries for the Guardian robot? I realise money might be a bit of a boring reward for a quest that takes most of the game to do.

In regard to the scripted boss attacks and the whole being punished for damaging them too quickly, I personally don't think it's that unfair really. It kind of stops the players from putting all their eggs in one basket (e.g. favouring their offensive power too much and ignoring their defences). It sort of means if you deal a lot of damage, you have to be prepared to defend yourself against a peed off boss.

I think I covered all the other stuff on the game's thread. I agree about the reviving items/skills. I'll increase the amount of HP they restore when they bring a character from K.O. I wonder if anything else needs balancing. I might give those late game bosses a slight crit evasion, because I noticed when the characters learn all those triple and quadruple shot skills, it causes crits to happen a lot (that could also solve the above problem of getting hit by scripted boss attacks when damaging them too fast). Although on the other hand I do want the player to come up with most efficient strategies for the battles and to make the best use of buffs, and you did exactly what I intended to happen, so I'll have to make sure when I balance it, I don't accidentally make this strategy too inefficient.

Thanks again for doing this LP. It's been very helpful and most of all I hope you've enjoyed the game (from your review it certainly sounds like you did).

 

[Zevia]

I think by the time I got the 600 astras reward, I really didn't need the money any more. I think I was just buying random upgrades for the sake of upgrades, not because I felt I actually needed anything at that point. Maybe a skill-giving item that's not available in the shops anywhere, something that's really useful for those last bosses.

 

[Matseb2611]

Cool, yeah, that's what I thought. Something unique. All righty then, I'll try to come up with something. Thanks.

 

[Zevia]

Post removed.

 

[Zevia]

Let's Plays for Daydreamer. My RGSS3 or whatever crashed on me after about 4 or 5 minutes in part 1, but since I just upload raw video from the stream, it isn't edited out. You can skip ahead to about 4:30 in part 1.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

 

[Bonkers]

Thank you kindly for the private review and let's play of the new graphic materials added to Silver Town Zevia!  I'll be showing the vids to the play testers and supports to round up some needed changes. Right now I've started on spread sheets for the actors and enemies, and I've got to tidy up skills.  I'm glad you were able to see so much in one sitting, it helps showcase the changes made since Chris's review.

I've already gotten to work on more behaviors to help enhance that scene you weren't pleased with, and I'll have a few more surprises waiting.  

Take care and good luck with your Let's Plays!

 

[Zevia]

Let's Play for Paradise Blue.

 

[Zevia]

Playtesting my own game, with the version build from 4/24/14. I skipped a lot of side stuff/optional content so as to encourage players to try the game out for themselves, even though real playtesting would involve doing absolutely everything.

 

[Zevia]

Post removed.

 

[Zevia]

Let's Play of the Mana Aeliria demo:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

 

[Mouser]

I'd like to put my demo up for your critique, if I may:

Dammerung: Requiem for Tomorrow (project thread submitted).

Download link: here

My only requests would be that you talk to as many NPC's as you can (they generally have multiple lines, so keep talking till they repeat themselves) and talk again after a significant event (not a specific one in mind, just that after Stuff Happens, their lines change - at least the NPC's that it makes sense to).

A tip: save as soon as you enter Lumina Sound. Every combination brings some advantage (except one, but you really got to want to hose yourself to bring that one down).

The whole demo takes four to five hours, so if you can't do it all, that's cool. (If you can't do it at all, that's cool, too )

 

[Zevia]

I may be able to take a look at your demo tomorrow night.

I'm currently sans headphones, which has been kind of wreaking havoc on my ability to do sound editing for work, and it's been a nightmare trying to find a good replacement pair over the last couple days. My new ones *should* be here tomorrow, so after I'm done with work for the day, I'll probably download and take a look at it.

So talk to NPCs until they repeat themselves, and save after entering Lumina Sound. Got it.

 

[Mouser]

Edit: I shaved the file size down by converting the music files to .ogg.

Should be easy-peasy now.

 

[Zevia]

Got your game downloaded, but the headphones that arrived are unfortunately no good, and I won't both 1) have new ones and 2) be back at my computer for another week and a half, so I'll have to put off doing a LP of your demo until then, Mouser. Sorry about that!

 

[Mouser]

Not a problem. Anytime you can get to it is more than fine with me

 

[blueperiod]

I know you have other projects lined up, but I'd love for you to do a playthrough of my game, LINUS, when you have the time. The demo hasn't been released yet, but I do have a semi-complete build that I'd like to see some reactions/critiques for. It's mostly a storyline affair, with a few battles and a dungeon. It should take you around 90 minutes to complete. If you're interested, let me know and I'll send you a download link.


Here's the project page: http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/4484-linus/


Thanks!

 

[Zevia]

Here's the LP of Dammerung, Requiem For Tomorrow.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

 

[Zevia]

LP for Linus:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

 

[Mouser]

Thank you very much for your Lets Play and review - some good pointers in there for me to look at

I'm getting mixed feedback from where the testers come from (players from an 'open world' game board expect different things than people used to 'traditional jRPG's). The two things everyone seems to agree on though are:

1) Maps are too big and empty

2) Combat needs to be more interesting.

So those are my two priorities. I've redone the main map of Pleroma and the Inn, which I think were the two worst offenders (need to redo the mine a bit, too). Now I'm going back to figure out skills to give non-combat trained people that seem 'real' while making combat more interesting.

A word about the equipment: Combat is based loosely on the Diablo 2 system. When you upgraded Sofia's attack by 20, you were doing 20% more damage. Unfortunately, since you stayed with the base mining pick, 20% isn't much. But it did still show up in the screens (and yes, I need to make color changes to show stat increases and decreases - also on my short list of Stuff to Do ).

For the defense - in the second battle, the slime missed you a couple of times. That was your armor protecting you. Armor (DEF) doesn't reduce damage, it increases the chance the enemy will miss. That particular battle is made pretty tough so if you escape or are defeated you get the message about healing (no Game Over). After you talk to Norbis you can also sleep in your house.

All the info in the very beginning: Yes, that should (and will) go into a manual. But for now I've got to keep it in the game because I don't have a printed manual yet and I think most testers would just jump into the game anyway even if I stuck one in a folder to read. I can't assume that the players know the default RPG maker controls, as I've got this on a lot of other forums I'm a member of where they have no knowledge of this system at all.

Interesting comments on the views of males and females. You pretty much picked up on the "openness" I was trying to project. I may need to throw some comments the other way to show females are just as often the 'aggressors' (Lyrra helps with this later...). A bit tough when you're the one playing the female, but I'll see what I can do there [the 'dancer' and the "I got him at the last revel" chick are supposed to be doing that. Oh, and Pomra, too].

That attitude will change from town to town, some of which will have radically different views on things - and not just sexuality. Sofia coming to terms (or not) with those various viewpoints is a big part of the story. Temples of Kassandria will take on a different 'tenor' as the game progresses as well.

Btw, there was a way to get into that space behind the innkeeper. You started to look for it but stopped just short of finding it - another 50 gold back there (yes, you're robbing your good friend Dalin - YANTH was right ). That would have let you get a stronger axe or weapon for Lyre or Jaxl.

You didn't hit any random monsters - part of that was sticking near the road where they are lot less common, but I'm honestly surprised you didn't hit any walking around the way you were. That would have given you a bit more money to work with as well. The goblins and hobgoblins that show up (and give you fame once that is turned on) are the best source. It doesn't take many to get enough money to give everyone at least some basic equipment (which makes a huge difference in the Tharzak fight), but I've got to make the combat interesting enough for players to want to do that.

You also pointed out I need to put in a common event to let you know when you've talked to all the miners. Now that I know how they work it won't be any trouble at all to put in, so basically you'll get the message you did when about to leave the mine as soon as you talk to the last miner. I may still leave something near the mine door since that event also tells you if you haven't talked to them all, to let you know you need to go back rather than going all the way to Norbis and finding that out.

You missed mole man's comments after the blast  

Oh, and thanks to GrandmaDeb I have found some more female mouths that aren't of the Deliverance / Vampire variety. Honestly, I've been just using the random generator and then using what the face looks like to 'tell' me the personality of the NPC and give me ideas as to what they'll say and how they will react to things (Mole Man's got some crazy eyes on him).

Again - THANK YOU!!! Seriously. You gave it a good play through and great (read: useful) review for me.

 

[blueperiod]

Thanks for the playthrough, Zevia! I should apologise for all those bugs. Most of the ones you encountered have already been fixed, but you still found some that I hadn't come across yet. I'm glad you seemed to enjoy it, even if you don't normally like visual novels.


Thanks again!