Indie Legendary Journeys - a new open world blobber - now available on Early Access

[Kevin French]

http://www.blindmonkeygames.com/baal/baalIndex.html

Spoiler

Hi all,

My name is Kevin developer of Legendary Journeys; a new blobber for those who like them and those who have never played one.

I don't have any AAA background; nor, have I been developing games since 1994 (Jeff from Spiderweb). What I do have is a long history with being a dungeon master and running D&D campaigns. As such, this game is inspired by some of my favorites: Baulder's Gate, Wizardry, Might and Magic, and Everquest. I'm a software engineer by day and game developer by night. This is my first major game that I wanted to share with the RPG community. When you get to play it, if you like it, GREAT! And, if you don't, well, that's fine too.

Legendary Journeys lets you take a party of adventurers (that you create) into the world of Farmoor. You'll be able to perform simple tasks for the locals for some quick coin; get involved in some more interesting issues; and, piece together an (I think so, at least) interesting story through your adventurers. I can tell you this: your party is not out to save the world. This game is heavy on exploration. Please, don't go in expecting heavy BioWare dialogs. It would take WAAAY to much time to write in that style.

Some Features:

• Turn Based Combat
• Free Movement (no grids)
• Crafting - weapons, armors, enchanted items
• Class System - with some sway in the skills your characters can learn
• Overworld and Dungeon zones for your party to explore
• Obligatory loot and monsters to slay

Some Screenshots (expand to view)

Spoiler

Early Pre-Alpha Footage (this video is a bit old - working on a new one)


If you made it this far, maybe you are interested in this style of game. I'm working toward a Steam EA release by August 2018. And for those who don't use Steam, I'll have a download link available as well. I have been posting updates on at http://www.blindmonkeygames.com weekly since the site went live a few weeks ago. And, you can sign up for the monthly newsletter as well.

Thanks for reading this far. Please, let me know what you think.

http://www.blindmonkeygames.com

 

[CryptRat]

Hi,
I have been following your game, I like what I see so far.

 

[Hobo Elf]

I can definitely see the EQ inspiration. Looks good to me. I don't buy into Early Access games anymore since I've been burned too many times for it to be worth it, but I'll be sure to follow development and hopefully get the game once (if) it is finished.

 

[Werdna's Revenge]

Free movement blobber? With an early 2000's aesthetic? You've got my interest, at least enough to sign up for the newsletter.

 

[I'm Big Into Anal]

currently having a blast with the quest so if im not burned out by then i will buy

 

[Werdna's Revenge]

I really should get back to The Quest and finish it, it's such a satisfying game. I do prefer the tactical options of turn based blobber combat though, really hoping this one gets it right.

 

[agris]

Hey Kevin French, welcome to the Codex. Hope you brought some lube.

Can you please explain how you plan to handle crafting of items as it relates to itemization in your gameworld - specifically how you intend to keep found items (whether through exploration or PvE) meaningful in a world where one can craft their own? At least two of the games you've listed as inspiration, BG2 and EQ, use items as a way of defining and advancing character power progression. Furthermore, both games are great examples of found loot that matters, as compared to the diablo-style "loot fever" seen in more moderns games such as PoE, Diablo 3, Divinity Orginal-ish Sins, etc. So how do you plan to implement items such that they matter while also implementing a crafting system? No one put together a crew to defeat Trakanon to find a platinum raven's feather of +14%, they did it because of the gear.

 

[Leitz]

Is the Eye of Baal some trivial ball shaped object that I can find in a dungeon? If so - I'm in.

 

[Grauken]

I'm seeing a strong Wiz8 influence

 

[Dorateen]

Player character races?

 

[Kevin French]

Wow! Didn't expect any response to this post for a little while. Thanks for taking a look. And, I'm glad you like the direction I am heading with this project. I'll answer all in one post.

Love The Quest ! I've been playing it as well. It has given me some inspiration in a few areas.

Hobo Elf - I completely understand. A lot of factors come into play for me to even consider an early access title.

agris - KY in large quantities
The primary means of party advancement is character skills, abilities, and equipment. I'll be honest; crafting wasn't originally planned. I did do some crafting in EQ back in the day as something else to do other than bash mobs upside the head. I think the crafting system was put in just for this along with those who wanted to play a merchant type of character. The spell crafting systems in the Elder Scrolls series (I started playing when Arena first came out) I messed with just a little bit. It seemed purchasing the spells was more cost effective. With that in mind, I started thinking of questing ideas which would require crafting, though it would not be required to complete the game. The Coldain Prayer Shaw quest is a good example; or, the need to put a broken artifact back together (yeah, I recently watched Lord of the Rings again).
Currently, I have Alchemy and Enchanting in game. Alchemy is used to make poisons and potions (these can be purchased in shops also). Enchanting is used to enchant mundane weapons, armors, and jewelry. If you have ever played a Dungeons and Dragons game, think Longsword +1 as the enchantments available right now. Right now, loot is the best means of upgrading equipment. Either dungeon crawling, mob bashing, completing a task, or purchasing. As for crafting armors and weapons, I'm still debating on if it will make it into the game. Feel free to provide any input on the subject (anyone for that matter)

Leitz - almost :D

Dorateen - Right now, Humans (MM6). Considering adding Dwarf, Half-Elf, Dark Elf, Elf, Half-Orc. If I add additional races, I need to make sure there is a good reason to choose that race over another beyond +2 STR. I didn't really want it to be a cosmetic choice.

 

[Citizen]

Right now, Humans (MM6). Considering adding Dwarf, Half-Elf, Dark Elf, Elf, Half-Orc.

Go full MM8. I want to play a badass party of vampires, dragons and minotaurs. Who needs sissy humans and pointy-eared fags?

 

[Kevin French]

In case anyone is following this thread, thought I would post a high level overview of the combat system

Combat is resolved by a TO HIT roll calculation. This calculation results in a number from 1 to 100 (a percent) and a D100 roll takes place. The higher the percent,
the better chances of landing a blow on your opponent. The TO HIT formula involves level difference, stats, weapon, and armor skills of the attacker and defender.
For the attacker, strength, luck, and to certain degree, perception are involved. The attacker's skill with the weapon they are using is a vital part in their attack.
For the defender, perception and reflexes are involved. The armor (AC), or natural armor for monsters, for the defender is important in avoiding damage.
Finally, a d20 roll for both the attacker and defender is added. This is to add a bit of randomness (and to eliminate ties as much as possible) to combat.
Before any damage is determined on a hit, the defender has a chance to block the oncoming attack. Perception and Reflexes of the defender are used.
A weapon in the hands of a skilled warrior should be feared. Their skill can lead to a higher chance of a critical strike which could result in a devestating injury (not just 2x or 3x damage)
As you can see, I tried to incorporate stats and skills into combat. On a final note, level difference doesn't mean it will be impossible to beat a high level monster. There is a chance to beat
the higher level monster just a slim one. This works both ways.

Another important aspect are the resists of the defender. In the world of Farmoor, their are two types of resists: magical and physical. Physical resists are used against melee strikes. These
include: Physical, Piercing, Slashing, Crushing, and Cleaving damages. Magical resists are used against magical and environmental strikes. These include: Fire, Cold, Electrical, Poison,and Disease.
The lower your score (yes, backwards for the most part) the better resist. The resist is a percent based resists. So, a score of 80% means you will take 80% of the damage. A score of 0% results in
immunity to that damage type. When it comes to melee damage, the type of weapon and armor become a vital factor when stepping into combat. Let's look at the skeleton as a simple example. They take 25% damage when struck
with piercing damage type. However, they suffer 200% (2x) damage when struck with crushing damage type. And when facing cold damage, they are immuned (0%). Right now, you cannot change equipment or weapons once engaged in combat (subject to change per feedback).
The idea behind this is to make you plan a little before going into combat.

To help provide a little more strategy to combat, various status effects are in the game. Status effects include such things as knockdowns, stuns, poisons, blinding,debuffs (weakness to various magical attacks for example),
and buffs (stats or immunity to certain status effects). Status effects result from the use of spells and attacks. A quick look at the knockdown effect: this causes the combatant to lose 1 - 3 turns depending on the
type of knockdown. It, also, reduces (or even eliminate) the combatant's defense capabilities making them a tasty target for a quick kill. These effects work both ways - monsters can cause these same effects on your
party. I have lost a few party members to a knockdown in my play testing. Injuries (a type of status effect) are being evaluated. I'm thinking of implementing them when you revive a character (ala Dragon Age: Origins); or,
as a result of an attack. A highly skilled attacker would have a greater chance of causing an injury which could lead to instant death (crushed skull when using a war maul for example). I might experiment with both - adding
a few inuries from a resurrection and a few during combat- and see which works best. I'll get input from future players as well to see which works best.

One last feature which I just started to add is combat abilities based on the type of weapon being used. If you have played Dark Age of Camelot, you may recognize this feature. Giving a dagger to your thief who is well versed in
using said weapon would have special attacks (used like a spell in game) with that weapon. Right now, as long as you meet the requirements and equip the weapon, the ability is available for use. What I haven't decided on is
whether or not to make the ability require training from a trainer before it becomes available. My thought process for the current setup, when you visit a trainer to get the next rank, the ability in question is part of the training;
thus, it becomes available as the training is for knowledge about the skill. Not the character's adeptness with the skill (skill level). I'll save skill discussion for next time.

 

[Werdna's Revenge]

Kevin French

A couple of things

Is the d20 addition in combat on raw damage? I hope your weapon damage/hp scale is relatively flat if that's the case. I like randomness, but would like to make sure you have it being meaningful without being overpowered.

Also, please stick to not letting the player switch out equipment in combat. Or if you really feel you have to implement it, make sure there's some nasty penalties.

 

[Lady_Error]

Looks like Wizardry 9 basically. Personally, I prefer step-based movement, but everything else is right up my alley.

The outside graphics and the enemies look nice, only the dungeons are a bit bare-bones and not very atmospheric. Looks like too much light (you should not be able to see that far) and not enough variety. Hope this can be improved until release.

 

[Kevin French]

Werdna's Revenge: I based the HPs of monsters and weapon damage around D&D's d20 system. Melee damage is based on the weapon plus the attacker's strength score bonus. And, in the case of fists, based damage of 1d4 + strength bonus. So far, I don't feel that the randomness is overpowering. It has provided that uncertainty of chaos in combat. For instance, there is chance that the heal spell you are trying to throw on a character could fail. Which could very well change your strategy the next round. I know it has bit me in the butt a few times resulting in a character death the next round. Originally, the spell couldn't fail. That did not feel right for the type of combat that I was after. So, the spell can fail now. To offset this, you can use a healing potion (various strengths in game) which is guaranteed to work. This guarantee is offset by how many potions you have in inventory. Again, a failed spell and down to 1 health potion - makes you think about the next round. I've even ran from fights as the chaos started unfold in the monster party's favor. I hope I answered your question.

Lady Error: I like step-based as well as free movement. Since, at the time I started, everyone was making step based, I went free movement; plus, there aren't too many free movement blobbers out there. The dungeons are first passes. I was mainly working on figuring out how I want them to flow. Bare bones - I agree. Still need to be "cluttered" up. Lighting is tricky. I'm looking for that sweet spot of just enough for mood and playability. Too dark, it feels clausterphobic and mysterious as a dungeon should but can be difficult to see on scren; too bright, well, you shouldn't be able to see everything as you said. So, in time, yes this will be worked out with the hopes of giving the atmosphere and playability.

Thanks for the comments. Every little bit helps.

 

[Lady_Error]

aweigh You hope it won't be improved until release? Or what do you disagree with?

 

[Lady_Error]

Lighting is tricky. I'm looking for that sweet spot of just enough for mood and playability. Too dark, it feels clausterphobic and mysterious as a dungeon should but can be difficult to see on scren; too bright, well, you shouldn't be able to see everything as you said. So, in time, yes this will be worked out with the hopes of giving the atmosphere and playability.

Yes, it's a bit tricky. Personally, I would look at the classic dungeon crawlers for inspiration on how far ahead one should be able to see. Ultima Underworld or Wizardry games, for example. It may be a good idea to include some kind of light spell - but that too shouldn't expand the view too much, just a bit more than usual.

And glad to hear that the dungeons are only a first pass. As I said, the outside and the enemies already look pretty good, though I guess there is always something that can be added for variety and atmosphere.

 

[aweigh]

making items like a torch is also good for those who like beginning these games without a light-spell having character or whatever.

you can just make the torch item cast the in-game low level light spell when used in the inventory and give it the same duration or whatever - just a thought.

traditional the light spell (or torch item) in wizardry lasts for a combination of steps taken and number of battle rounds fought.

also will dungeons include rotating tiles or spinners or Dark Zones or areas or floors where magic and skills are prohibited (or limited)/

what about sliding floors that go in one direction and floor pits and chutes for navigation and puzzle solving/

will movement be done by using WASD (or arrow keys I guess)/

during combat will commands be able to be confirmed by keyboard keys or (similar to above question) force laborious mouse clicking on commands instead of hotkeying them/

how will the feedback battle log work/

will mapping be tied to a char-skill (not a good idea IMO) or will you utilize a combination of magic spell(s) or items (a magic map)/

 

[aweigh]

also what about ranges of weapons and will there be a formation system or will you utilize traditional front-row and back-row systems/

will there be an identification system

how will lock picking and trap disarmament work

video footage looks good btw Kevin French good luck with it we need more turn-based crawlers

 

[Lady_Error]

also will dungeons include rotating tiles or spinners or Dark Zones or areas or floors where magic and skills are prohibited (or limited)/

I think completely Dark Zones only work with step movement. Spinners also don't make much sense.

On the other hand, deep dungeon levels where your magic is limited for some reason sounds like more fun. I remember that one of the my favorite dungeons of all time was the one in Eye of the Beholder II where you could not rest on a couple of the deepest levels due to nightmares - so you had to rely on consumables or sneaking by and not getting involved in too many fights.

during combat will commands be able to be confirmed by keyboard keys or (similar to above question) force laborious mouse clicking on commands instead of hotkeying them/

Yes, that's a good idea. Or even better, make it like in Grimoire where there is an option to remember the combat choices from last turn and just repeat them - unless you choose to change it for one of the characters, eg. spell casters.

 

[Kevin French]

I have included a torch light spell and torches in game just for this. Originally, the dungeons were extremely dark - almost claustrophobic dark. It made play testing really rough; so, I brightened up the dungeons. I'll revisit the lighting when I re-visit the dungeons. As I said, the few early dungeons were first pass in order to get a work flow down along with game flow. I love dungeon crawling. They will get the attention they deserve.

Movement is WASD by default. You will be able to rebind keys. Hold down the right-mouse button for mouse look (again, re-bindable).

Currently, commands are issued via menu mouse-clicking. I look into keyboard driven and remembering the last combat choice to repeat commands - couple of good ideas here. Side note: actions that you select for the character is processed immediately for that character. You are not selecting actions for the party and then watching it unfold for that round. I felt this makes turn-based combat feel less sluggish for those simple fights (rats); yet it still gives you that time to think for those harder fights.

Regarding dungeon design, just to give you an idea, I have a teleportation puzzle that needs to be solved, there is a chasm that you need to find a way over, a "pit" that you need to get to the bottom and out with a needed key to name a few puzzles. There are traps and secret doors to avoid and discover.

There is no mapping in-game at this time. I have experimented with a few systems back in the early days of development; neither of them I liked as a player. I'm open for ideas on this one.

Battle information is given like the Might and Magic series - sentences in a notification window. It is formatted like: "rat A suffers 3 points of fire damage". If you are looking for a scrolling window of all the messages (like many MMOs and modern RPGs have), there is a window that can be brought up (console window) without the formatting - "rat A takes 3 points of damage".

I do not have Front-Row/Back-Row type of combat system. It's more like JRPG (or Paper Sorcerer if you have played it). I'll try and capture some video and post this week for you to view. A formation system wouldn't work too well with the system I have in place. The front/back row system would work. I'll mull this around a bit as I like that type of system as well when I'm in the mood.

No identification system is planned at this time.

Trap disarming is based on character skill, the trap's difficulty rating, and the roll of percentile dice. When you come across a trap, a dialog will be presented to choose which party member will attempt to disarm the trap. The roll needed is calculated with a formula which uses the character's current skill level and bonus for higher knowledge in the skill (Expert or Master) and the difficulty rating of the trap (set by me of course). I don't have any locks to pick in game yet; but, it will work the same way that I just described for the disarm trap. No mini-game to pick a lock (sorry if you like those).

I think I have answered everything from yesterday's posts. Keep the questions and comments coming!

 

[Grauken]

You should have an option in the options menu to activate mapping, and when switched on a windows pops up showing Print graph paper, yes, no?

 

[Lady_Error]

Except graph paper doesn't work without rectangular tiles, so mapping of some sort is kind of important in-game. I think it's enough to include a separate full-screen map.

Front row and back row is generally a good idea in blobbers, I think. Though it might make more sense with more than just four characters. It's probably not that important either.

 

[Kevin French]

Grauken That made me laugh out loud this morning when I read the post while drinking my coffee at work. Had a few looks my way.

Lady Error Yeah, so far, with the 4 party members, front/back row hasn't been an issue when planning strategy during the fight. The turn-order is where I start looking when I run up against a difficult group. Full-screen map: a map of the current zone you are in or general world map?