Note of the outskirts - blobber by Cryptrat

[V_K]

they turned around quite a bit in the very beginning [...] However the beginning of the game was already balanced.

See, here's the fallacy - it's balanced for people who already went through it several times. Not for new players.

 

[CryptRat]

they turned around quite a bit in the very beginning [...] However the beginning of the game was already balanced.

See, here's the fallacy - it's balanced for people who already went through it several times. Not for new players.

Let's be clear, I'm not talking about random encounters, I can add a random encounter difficulty option which will lower the number of enemies on average if you want it. However these top right fixed encounters (junkies, cowards ..., the drug dealer is slightly special for having a paralysing grenade, which is punishing if you've got no gas mask and at this point you don't, you need to kill him fast) but he's not fast nor won't use it all the time, these 3 or 4 encounters are easier than your average early encounter in The Bard's Tale, Might & Magic 2 or Wizardry (as long as you have breast plates and about any weapon).

 

[V_K]

The biggest problem are status effects, whether from random combats (I've met poisoners in those, and more enemies who can paralyze or "cast" sleep) or from traps you couldn't detect in time. They're everywhere and you can't simply walk them off. If you wonder into the teleporter without fully equipping first, it's restart time. And your first few parties will definitely do that, first, because you don't know the systems yet; and second, because the fucking teleporter is trollishly positioned right on the most logical exploration path, so that it takes several restarts to figure out that it even is there, and then where exactly it is.
And even if you fully equip, but run out of supplies in the upper right before you find new ones - which basically means, before you kill of a few parties to find the location of treasure caches and make a beeline for them with a new party - it's also restart time.
None of this is fun.

 

[CryptRat]

About afflictions, I get you, I wondered at first if you got too much afflicted when I started to test the game as intended, the thing is they're not linked to the amount of damage taken (possible damage to armor is), only to failure to elemental resistance check against your own elemental resistance stat (and critical hit) and the result is you'll get much less afflicted as you equip better armors, plus secondaries parts such as helmets (helmet give +1 dice to resistance against piercing and impact for example). Permanent afflictions are a bit overwhelming in the beginning but it gets much more tolerable as you progress.

 

[V_K]

Permanent afflictions are a bit overwhelming in the beginning

...which is precisely why opportunities to get them in the beginning should be toned down by an order of magnitude.

 

[Butter]

Never play an RPG the year it releases guys. I'm personally waiting until tomorrow on this one.

 

[Reinhardt]

Never play an RPG the year it releases guys. I'm personally waiting until tomorrow on this one.

Cyberpunk will still be shit.

 

[CryptRat]

On a serious note about the next version, I need to check why you don't get any feedback when using items directly in the inventory. Most items you would equip to be able and use the items in combat too and then you would use it directly on exploration screen and get the feedback inside the log, but it's a problem for surgery specifically because surgery kits can't be equipped so you can't get the feedback of what's happening when you're performing a surgery, which is particularly misleading since the problem (like a broken leg) does not stop immediately, you need to operate so it'll be cured under a little less than one day. I can't remember if it's mean to close the sheet and fill the log or gives the feedback (and not close the sheet), either is fine but currently it does neither anymore.

There's a weird behaviour where you have exactly 20 items in your inventory (=1 page) that I need to check.

I will also double check item descriptions and skill descriptions for any mention of spells and will probably find some other mistakes compared with current behaviour (also switch damaging trap to spike trap).

I still need to check the half-baked WASD thing, and will also eventually tinker a zoom-in function to automap.

Not sure about the time stamp though'.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Took a break from getting pummelled by sentinels, junkies and lizards, and headed into invisible wall town. Found some EMP grenades, which ought to come in handy. And besides that, something's beginning to take shape...

I also made it to level 2. This feat list is a cornucopia of riches, men
Is there any chance you could increase the feat points gained per level to, like, seven? That would be very good game design.

 

[Strange Fellow]

On a more serious note: feedback in combat is not great. The thing that irks me the most is how all the effects a round has on your characters are displayed on the character list immediately and all at once, instead of timed to the scrolling combat log. I suspect that this might not be an easy fix and has to do with how you've structured the code that handles combat resolution (or for all I know, it's intended behaviour), but I'm finding the combat hard to follow regardless of the speed setting, because everything happens all at once and blurs together. If it's possible to display on the character list the results of each combat action as they show up in the log, that would be much better.
The smooth scrolling also plays a part in this, and I think that even without the above change, you'd get an immediate improvement if you just had the log update on each action with a pause between each one, and have the speed setting set the duration of the pause.

I feel like I'm expressing myself terribly, but I hope you understand what I'm getting at.

 

[CryptRat]

Yes, implementing your first suggestion will be worth it eventually, besides the confusion there's also a lack of adrenaline which should come from getting the results as they come instead of everything at once before the log even started scrolling.

On a related note I'm translating the game into French in a hurry for a friend who's on vacation, so it might not be great with some ridiculous syntax errors especially but a version with French translation should be released sometimes tomorrow.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Yes, implementing your first suggestion will be worth it eventually, besides the confusion there's also a lack of adrenaline which should come from getting the results as they come instead of everything at once before the log even started scrolling.

Precisely. It's a silly thing, but when I look at the character list before the log, it feels like a spoiler.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Is the Long-Armed feat supposed to increase the range of melee attacks? If it doesn't, it should say so (and the feat should be renamed to something less misleading); if it does, the effect is not showing up on the character sheet.

 

[CryptRat]

Is the Long-Armed feat supposed to increase the range of melee attacks?

Sure it does. Or at least it should, I just doublechecked and I managed to slash 10m away enemies with a katana.

if it does, the effect is not showing up on the character sheet.

The effect only appears after you've validated the feat choice (leave the sheet and the game asks to validate, when you get back it should be shown).

There's range and max range (I could change the labels for something better, and maybe inverting the current two would have been better).

Range is the actual max range of one attack of the weapon (targetting further enemies will do nothing, the reason you can is that there could, at least in theory, be some distance change before the character acts, with pushing or pulling skills and such) and depends on this attack. EDIT : For thrown weapons it depends on the attack and on the strength of the character. Long armed increases this range.

Max range depends on the character's perception, and is the max range where the character gets no penalty to chance to hit.

I hope this answers your question.

 

[CryptRat]

I forgot, for thrown weapons range also depends on the strength of the character.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Yeah, looks like it works, I was looking at Max Range. Definitely switch the names.
So Long-Armed will let my character attack enemies 10m away, but since his Perception is 1, he will do so with a CtH malus? Guess I'll have to remake my party again with more Perception

One more thing. Looking at some of the descriptions:

What does it mean that it can't exceed the max attack value of the weapon?

 

[CryptRat]

Oops, it means nothing anymore. The system is complex enough that there should be no such mistakes, I'll take another look at descriptions, sorry for that.

I'll have to remake my party again with more Perception

At least one boss in the second floor is wearing glasses which raise perception by one point.

 

[CryptRat]

By the way, in case you meant remaking the party literally, just swap the few characters you don't like for new ones instead.

 

[CryptRat]

I'm thinking of removing the reputation loss (which raises the hostility of enemies) for critically failing to steal in a shop and keep it only for attacking a mechant.

In some sense it sets trying to steal a bunch of consumables just because you're passing by a shop where there's nothing you absolutely need on the same level as trying to haggle such consumables for the same reason, which is a bit stupid, but the different skills used, the different difficulties depending on the items (heavy items are hard to steal) and the different times you'll need to wait before being allowed to enter again if you critically fail (3 days for stealing against only 1 for haggling) means leaving both options to the player could be a better choice.

 

[Strange Fellow]

^Won't matter to me, I still think stealing and haggling are stupid and I won't use them.

Now onto more important business:

Those enemies in melee range are out of range of my melee attack

(I think it happened because the character had previously targeted those enemies while they were further away, and when the party moved closer the range didn't update. Possibly.)

Edit: I savescummed my way through the fight and still had to reload because my bleeding dude ate up 4(!) bandages without stopping, from someone with a First Aid of 5. This is no good, my man. You really need to do something about status effects in the early game.

Also, bug reports:

1. (T)rading an item that a character has equipped in his belt and where you have to specify the amount, like several bandages, crashes the game.
2. (D)ividing credits from the inventory screen doesn't work as it should. It just multiplies the money of everyone in the party.

 

[V_K]

But is the character performing the attack himself at melee range?

 

[CryptRat]

Those enemies in melee range are out of range of my melee attack

Is he in the first rank (first half) of the party?

my bleeding dude ate up 4(!) bandages without stopping, from someone with a First Aid of 5

Is the character using the bandages really the one with 5 in first aid? This would be extremely unlucky, he rolled at least 4 tails among 5 coins 4 times in a raw. Already missing this 2 times in a raw is the exception rather than the norm.

1. (T)rading an item that a character has equipped in his belt and where you have to specify the amount, like several bandages, crashes the game.
2. (D)ividing credits from the inventory screen doesn't work as it should. It just multiplies the money of everyone in the party.

Thanks, fixing those.

^Won't matter to me, I still think stealing and haggling are stupid and I won't use them.

If you have a character who's very good at it (6?) then haggling the price of rations to buy some more with a discount after you already bought enough to survive is cool, same with ammo.

Chances to haggle depend on the haggling score of the merchant, which you can have an idea of based on his prices, the fast-food in front of the recruitment office sells rations 8 while regular shops sell those 12, and hidden shops 16 or something like that, so the former is easier to negociate with while the latter are not worth even trying to. To be precise with 6 in haggling I think it's a shame not to negociate some rations in the fast-food after you've got some, you've got 1 chance over 2 to suceed and 1 chance over 8 to critically fail, which is not a big deal.

 

[CryptRat]

V1.0.4 released

Fixes :

- Trading all the items of a kind directly from the equipment of one character to another character would make the game crash. This was fixed.
- Dividing money among the party did not work. This was fixed.
- Several text fixes.

Changes :

- Critically failing to steal an item from a shop used to lower the reputation of the party. It does not anymore.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Is he in the first rank (first half) of the party?

I think so. He's in the third position:

I tried it some more and I have no idea what triggers it. Sometimes the range says Melee, sometimes it says Out of Range. I dunno what's going on here.

So anyway, there are front and back rows in this game? Might want to mention that somewhere, especially since you can't rely on the old 3-3 convention when there's an odd number of party members.

Is the character using the bandages really the one with 5 in first aid? This would be extremely unlucky, he rolled at least 4 tails among 5 coins 4 times in a raw. Already missing this 2 times in a raw is the exception rather than the norm.

Yes, I'm sure. And when you risk spending 4+ bandages even with a First Aid of 5, and every single party member is liable to start bleeding multiple times per encounter, it gets to be excessive. I'd need to carry hundreds of bandages.

 

[V_K]

His name and number are spaced to the right, which means he's in the back row.