Welcome to Dungeons of Chaos!
The game has recently been released for PC, Mac and Linux on STEAM (STORE PAGE. Video trailer link), and has been available for Android (GooglePlayStore Link) and iOS (Apple Store Link) since 2016. It was originally released (Dec 2014) for iPad-only, but that version has been removed when this one came out.
There was a successful kickstarter associated with the ‘chapter 3’ expansion which is now included in the game. If you want to get similar chances to add fan-based things or get some in-depth insight and involvement, you can still message me and let me know what reward tier you would like (details HERE). People have also made small donations and in return can choose texts that appear on tombstones, pub poles or graffiti. If you are interested in that, contact me.
And if you want to support my ongoing work, please consider supporting me on PATREON.
If you wonder what this game is about, here is a list of all the reviews:
And on 8th December 2016 THIS happened:
On this website you will find
- My latest blog posts capturing further game developments, developer thoughts etc.
- Help on how to play this game (and not die too often)
- A WIKI page with a bucket list of extraordinary things to do/try/achieve, detailed articles on spells, skills, classes etc.
- Some info about the creation and philosophy behind the game
- A page to post your most precious loot
- A page to read and post about issues and support
- A way to get in touch and provide feedback and suggestions (post a comment on this or any other page)
- SNEAK PEAKS of things to come in future updates and the Unity version of the game
Coverage (of the previous version) to date:
MOBIL.SE (swedish)
Also reviewed on TOUCHARCADE, the leading iOS gaming site.
PRIVACY INFORMATION: NO personal information is gathered, stored or transmitted by this app (DoC and the God Mode app).
Dungeons of Chaos 
First of all thank you very much for your feedback. I am responding here as opposed to the forum it was initially raised in because the question may come up a lot.
Tough one. I am just a hobby programmer and had started with ‘versions’ of this game in Delphi (1990’s), Javascript (~2005) and Flash (~2007). Always struggling with the framework (and object oriented programming) at some stage.
It was the attempt I started 18 months ago, with Xcode + Cocos2D + KoboldTouch that yielded success and created the App I have now. The framework allowed me everything I wanted to do despite my somewhat limited skills and VERY limited time. That Xcode choice already restricted me to Apple Devices but I was just eager to get started. So when you say ‘universal’ I assume you mean something like what UNITY does: iOS, Android, Windows, OSX etc… unfortunately that is not what the current game is set up to do as it was built in Xcode. But I come back to that later.
As to iPhone vs. iPad, that was a separate decision altogether: I intended to build the game for both, but encountered the following restrictions which would give an iPhone version an ENTIRELY different feel and would mean spending twice as much work on designing user interfaces etc:
a) I use 32 pixel tiles cause I like them and they are readily available via opensource.
b) I wanted tactical/special combat similar to Ultima 4 and 5, but then thought to be really tactical the arena should be bigger.
c) I use a few features like skills and spells, as well as pathfinding when walking in the map, that requires aimed touch controls.
With the above in mind, an iPhone version would either
1. have a smaller tileset (or higher density of resolution) and keep the size of the visible area the same –> this leads to it being too small to touch a particular tile. the whole pathfinding would be scraped and targeting in combat would be by scrolling through possible selections. I did not feel that would work (and if it did cost me 6 months delay to implement).
2. have a similar visual size of each tileset on screen compared to the iPad, but show less tiles in fight and map view. Something like a 10×8 fight arena and map view. To be honest that is feasible but would alter the way the game feels: the fight would be mostly melee; the exploration would not let you see a dimly glowing volcano in the distance, it would just be in-your-face upclose features in the landscape immediately next to you.
To design a game for iPhone that is 90% like DoC is possible, but it is a separate effort altogether as each thing needs to fit in.
To be perfectly honest, I have not ruled it out but it is a trade-off between:
– spending 6 months making an iPhone version (in Xcode) that works and spending another 3 months fine-tuning to match the new feel of it
– spending 12-18 months making a Unity version of it (anyone know a good tilemap renderer plugin for Unity2D??)
– spending the next 3 months writing Chapter two for DoC as an upgrade
– spending any such time on my 2nd project (secret. not a RPG however)
I have not decided yet which path I will take but my current thinking is the latter 2 together: writing the next chapter and starting my 2nd project. But I take note of all feedback!
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Please please please can we have a universal version ?
http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?p=3426378
I’m sure you’ll sell more if it could run on iphones
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Well, good news! The Unity5 development is in full swing, which will make DoC available for Android devices, iPhones and probably even PC and Mac!
Read more in my recent post. It is going very well (=fast) and I have re-designed (for smaller screens) a few of the problematic screens already! I think it is quite likely this will hit the GooglePlay and AppStore before Christmas.
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Any chance of an Android build on Google Play? Dungeons of Chaos looks epic.
A quick websearch of Xcode, Cocos2D, and KoboldTouch suggests those languages can be used on Android. If nothing else a Unity version would certainly be cross platform compatible, if not already possible.
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I have answered the query in more general terms in the other comment above. Essentially it is too much work for me as I spent years finding a way to make it work the way it is. Plus KoboldTouch is discontinued now.
I know that Unity is the way to go for all my future projects, however to port DoC instead of starting a 2nd project is a big decision. For now I promise to expand DoC by releasing chapter 2 in a few months.
Another issue is that Unity, and Android game development in general, only works with scalable graphics. Pixelart does not scale. To get the right outcome you need to build for exactly one resolution and display ratio. At max, which is what I did, you can handle a simple “2x” retina factor. To do tile-based pixelart games in Unity will look awful I imagine, Unity is build for the typical 3D (or 2D) vector and texture based approach. I am sure there is some crazy flexible way to design a game like this and the whole UI adjusts to what display the device has, but I am not that good a programmer so it would just drive me mad to try and fail at that.
If I had plenty of time, yes I would give porting a serious thought.
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I just wanted to say I picked up this game the other day and so far it was well worth the couple of dollars I spent. Great job and I look forward to future updates!
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Thanks, feedback much appreciated! Working on Chapter 2 already. Probably a March update. Anyone having suggestions on story, side quests, monsters, skills please email me: dungeonsofchaos @ gmail.com.
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I picked this game up and I’ve been absolutely loving it. Most of my characters are 14th level and I am doing the quest for the Living Flame in the Tower, but I keep getting bounced down levels in the tower. Am I missing clues somewhere on how to circumvent this? I’ved tried talking to everyone I’ve met, but that didn’t give me any leads. Sorry to ask for a spoiler, but it’s got me really frustrated.
Thanks
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You are in what the owner of the tower (lich) designed as a trap. It wears out any usual adventurer and feeds his need for corpses…
Like with most traps, the cunning observer might find that the way to get ahead is not the obvious route.
If you ignore what a stair looks like, and if you accept the fact that immediately going back the way you came from does NOT take you back, then your mind will adapt to the puzzle.
** SPOILER ALERT **
The lich has magically re-linked the stairs. There are steps looking like they lead up but they actually take you down to a previous level. The ‘trick’ to get to the upper levels is to note which ‘down’ looking stairs actually do not lead down … and if you make some progress but end up bouncing around even more, you may need to start defining a number for each level and noting where each stair leads to, using the MAP function may also help.
** SPOILER ALERT **
I am actually very proud now that there is a puzzle that is not too easy… 8^)
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Before i forget: delighted to hear that you like it. please consider leaving a review and rating on the Appstore and spread the word. Thanks!
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What a great game. Congratulations. Reminds me of playing Ultima I-IV as a kid.
Quick question — is it possible to change the order of party members? For example, if I switch a member from a melee weapon to a ranged weapon, and then want to position him in the back of the combat formation rather than the front, I am drawing a blank on how to do this.
Thank you!
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Hi, glad you like it!
At present this is not possible apart from the initial character creation stage. Just me being short on time,
I will include this in the next update (1.2.7), I had always de-prioritised this feature as there were other things to implement.
If you like the game please consider leaving a review in the AppStore, and any word of mouth (in person or in gamers forums) would be great as well. Thanks!
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Functionality created! Just need to see what else I want/need to include in 1.2.7 then I will upload it.
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Hi Volker,
Thanks for creating Dungeons of Chaos. Im pretty addicted to it right now, but I have some (hopefully constructive) feedback.
Confession: I actually left a 3 star review on App Store, but as I now see you are a single developer and very passionate about your game, I will change it to 5 stars shortly, and leave my feedback here instead.
Here’s my suggestions to improve the game, in order of importance (IMHO anyway).
Long post… sorry!
1) The day/night cycle is wayyy too short. You can only move maybe 80 squares on the main map and then its night again.
Trying to travel in the dark is a real pain, so it usually ends up continually running a short distance, then resting until daytime, then travelling a bit more. I play with a single finger, so I tap the main viewport to move rather than using arrow buttons (which I found too slow even when theyre large).
Day/Night is a good idea, but IMO its heavily detracting from the game at the moment.
I’d like to see day made much much longer, with night being fairly short (not realistic, but a better experience)
Alternatively, your view distance during the night could be made larger, so travelling at night isnt so painful. This would have the additional benefit that when you’re actually in a dungeon or cave, it feels more claustrophobic compared to being outside. The light spell would still be useful in dungeons etc.
2) In combat its hard to identify what each spell icon means (and some spells I’m not even sure what they do). It would be useful to show a tooltip when you first tap it
3) Auto combat is a really great feature. I’d love to see it include ability for cleric to automatically heal players so the battle doesnt keep stoping and starting, and also allow Mage to select which spell to use (it seems the only choice is mana funnel atm).
I’d also highlight the player in the right list, when its his turn. This way you can easily see his health and decide whether or not to run or attack. At the moment you have to try and match up his icon in the list, which only takes a second but could be avoided.
4) It took me a good while to get used to the interface, which is a little quirky in places.
I read its been developed using MVC, so I can kinda understand why its this way. (ie, I guess you have a generic set of buttons for each screen, which are toggled on/off or populated at various times).
Some bits could still be made easier though.. For example if you press Talk or Shop, and theres only one person within range, you can just jump straight into Shop/Talk screen without asking user to select a square or press again.
Maybe there could be 3 or 4 ‘party spell’ buttons for when you’re not in combat. You could assign commonly used spells to these, like Unlock and Light, which means you dont have to wade through the spell selection dialog each time.
5) A simple quest log would be awesome, right now you have to talk to someone, and find whoever gave you the quest to see the exact description.
6) Finally, all the buttons use red text on a grey background, which is really difficult to read. I’d replace this with more contrast, perhaps yellow or even just white text.
Hope you find my feedback useful, and it gives you some ideas for future updates!
Its a great game but with a few tweaks I think many more people would invest time in it.
Thanks
Paul
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Great feedback, thanks!
I will reply to each in more detail soon.
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Re (1) day night cycle:
I agree. I felt the same when I occasionally test out new areas, as I have to sleep quite often.
Overall I initially added it so that I could configure some monster spawners to activate at night only. That I want to retain. And then I thought: what would make the player even consider travelling at night? Well, convenience of not having to sleep every now and then. So I am wrestling how to keep that true as well. Unfortunately only few people would consider it a useful investment of their talent points to boost the light spell.
I think making the light spell more powerful should do the trick.
Maybe I will also double the cycle time as well.
Ideally I wanted to add a moon cycle, so that your minimum view distance at night is larger at times, shorter at others.
**quick update**
have decided to lengthen the day/night cycle by 50%. this is not in 1.2.7 but will be in next release.
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Re (2) spell tooltip:
Agree it would be helpful. As it is a touchscreen, mouseover does not exist so I need to decide where to place it because it will hide some part of the fight arena. Ideally I would check which part is free, and place it there. Or you could hide it via a button. And/or it fades away by itself after a few seconds. Not at all impossible to do, just need to make some decisions and find the time…
But this one is definitely on my to do list now.
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Re (3), the auto fight options are currently designed the way they are due to the degree of automation I wanted to allow (vs. fully retro do it all yourself), vs. the annoyance of low level encounter fights, vs. my coding ability and time.
An intelligent approach differs for each spell and skill:
– HEAL is pretty easy to implement, and I think it would not make the auto-fight option too dominant either. So I will implement that, but it will take some time because the cleric has to decide who to heal first (based on absolute hp lost? or relative hp lost? or those actually still actively in melee contact? or those who are also bleeding?). I will see how it will work out, will take me some time.
– HEALING HANDS is too complex because it only works in close range. you would not want your cleric to wander off too close to where the action is. in manual combat having a monk or cleric with healing hand behind the fighter is a powerful option though, because it heals more the more wounded the target is, so carefully timed this boosts the fighters ‘stamina’ a fair bit.
– spell for a mage or druid to use: lightning strike, hotspot or magic missile would be ok because they are single target spells, but others are too tough to do, like poison dart with its super short range or frost ball or fire ball with the area effect. The next decision would be however how I would re-design my menu and keep track of spell level etc. Just a bit of time involved to sort this out, so I will put it on my to do list and see how I go.
I think the above would not make auto-fight too much of an alternative for fights that matter. It would be quite risky to use AUTO when fighting a boss monster. I hope. Because I would like the tactical combat to be needed and used to defeat at least those.
Highlight the player in the right list: easy, done. Will be in 1.2.7.
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RE (5), there is a quest log (and some other hints, NPC lists etc.): you need to press HELP from any of the character screens/inventory, the button is at the bottom. I did not have space to put it into the main screen, which is where people may expect it (sorry).
Once you press it, the default is to show the quests: separated by OPEN vs. CLOSED. The information presented also shows whether you claimed your reward yet, and the name of the NPC and the map/location he is in. Hope that helps!
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Re (6) I had this feedback from my wife all the time, I found the buttons ok but now that it comes from the player audience as well, I will change the graphics to reflect a WHITE text. I will also try and find a more bold / retro font to use actually.
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re (3),
version 1.2.8 (or I may call it 1.3.0) will have a 50% longer day/night cycle.
And in terms of showing the active player in fight on the right hand panel: this is included in 1.2.7, currently with Apple for review!
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Wow it never amazes me what I can find in the App Store on a Sunday afternoon where I spend about an hour sifting through all the crappy games that has the word PRO in it. Anyways, I’m very impressed with DoC just by what little I’ve played in the Lite version and has a whole lot of depth for a pixel game. I enjoy games like this if done right, and I also own all of Spiderweb Softwares games on my iPad. Dungeons of Chaos is definitely a Pixel Avernum/Avadon type of a game that I know will be getting some major play time. But what I find very impressive is how you decide to just make this an iPad only platform versus going with the iPod/iPhone route. The visuals kinda remind me of Warlords on iPad which is also Awesome!
Excuse me for mentioning other games on your page but I really enjoy playing games like Endless Depth, Endless Nights, 9th Dawn, and few others that has that awesome Pixel art on my iDevice. Your game kinda blends all of the games mentioned in this comment all in one. Will be making a full purchase after this post, but was wondering if you have a twitter, FB, or Youtube account for you should take advantage to get your game out.
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Thanks! I am very time-deprived so simply haven’t had a chance to develop a marketing strategy. I will kick off FB, twitter and YT shortly I hope. In the meantime please spread the word and leave an app review once you have had a good play through.
Out if curiosity, if you can let me know (email to dungeonsofchaos @gmail.com) what forums, user groups and websites you look into to get news on games such as this, that would be great.
Thanks,
Volker
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Will do! Been gaming on iOS for 4 years solid and after the 1st year I pretty much follow only the most legitimate of sources when it comes to game blog websites for iOS/Android/Pocket gaming.
Wil
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Hello
I’ve almost finished the whole chapter1, just trying to solve the lich maze.
Yet i’ve just done the last uptdate : and guess what?
When i load my saved game, all my characters are lvl1 and back in the 1st cave
Plz help
PS: great game, reminds me U3 back in 1984. And so it came to pass that on this day …
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Sorry to hear that, and thanks for the compliment. U3 and U4 was a life-changing experience for me as odd as that sounds, so trying to create a similar game was my goal.
Good and bad news:
Good news is there is nothing in the game that would ever reset a character’s level.
Bad news: that means I have no clue what just happened to you. so I need to ask a few questions to find out what it could be that happened here, feel free to either respond here or email me at dungeonsofchaos @ gmail.com:
– can you please check if the savegame that loads is the exact savegame you used? there are 3 as you know, does this lvl-1 savegame represents a different savegame you had in another slot? are the other 2 slots taken? can you try them to see if they look odd?
– can you confirm all the player names and classes are the same as you had? unfortunately what you describe is a scenario that matches the “my kid/wife/flatmate tried the App and overwrote my savegame” case. The only way you would really be able to see a savegame replaced with a starter party in the cave, is when you overwrite it. So please let me know if you notice anything that indicates this is NOT your same party earlier in its life, but rather a party unknown to you.
– is there anything odd about the equipment or inventory?
– what does it show when you click HELP in one of the character screens and move to QUEST, are these empty as if the game is a fresh one?
– do you use a jailbroken device? any reason like that or similar indicating something could have happened to your underlying files?
I always keep old savegames from previous versions and use them to test my new update, I never save so I always have an old version to test out. What you describe has never happened to me so I am really at a loss what this could be.
Kind Regards,
Volker
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Hi volker
It took me some Time before i was able to send you these answers.
The saved game was in slot 1. Never used N 2&3
The names were the same (the best is Kafar the thief : it means cockroach in french)
Fortunately (for her), my 2 years old daughter didn’t Touch my ipad. I would have casted up on her maze, otylug freezing sphere, polymorph other, symbol of sleep and bigby’s spanking fist
No jailbroken device ( i only cheat taxes)
I’ve lost my equipment (holy shit my vorpal +5 toothpick)
…
BTW, i’ve started a new team
It took me a few days to cook again the spiders, crucify the warlords, bless the lich, roast the baby dragon ( perfect with thyme and salted butter), and shit down the neck of the headless knight.
And now i think i must wait for chapter 2. A door cannot be open in the village, a volcano and The Flame cannot be reached, a den in the desert cannot be explored.
Well, good game (5 stars) and like i said previously : “what now lies ahead in the dungeonsofchaos saga can only be pure speculation. Onward to chapter 2”
Best rgds
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thanks!
good to hear that it did not kill the replay-enjoyment. Not sure what would have happened to that savegame, I checked my code and there is never any event that can or would lower your levels, or be able to reset to a previous point in history altogether. Really strange.
There are still a few things to be cleaned up I agree (the ant hills are meant to be too small to enter, sorry if it appears like they can).
There are two tough doors in the village: the one in the leader’s house is tough but can be opened. The one in the mausoleum/grave in the northeast cannot be, it is profoundly magically locked and the key will only be obtained in a later Chapter… I wanted to leave behind some avenues to connect later storylines back to this island.
As to the Flame, what do you mean you cannot reach it? Have you not found it or can see but not reach it? the ‘ENTER’ button to the lava cave (from the overland map) is set to appear when you stand in FRONT of the tile, not on it. this is unusual I know but I thought the ENTER button popping up would be noticed. It did not look right for the player to appear like they climb a mountain when I tested out having the entrance point set on the tile itself. Once inside the cave, the Flame is a long way down/in I agree. This is the way to reach him:
** SPOILER **
1. first cave hug the left wall and follow it west until you get DOWN.
2. head left until you quickly hit a pointy wall. keep close to it heading west until you see a rock in the ground. stand on it. head 9 spaces west than 3 south. get DOWN.
3. head all the way west past the lava pool then at the end there is a way DOWN in the southern corner.
4. head south until you see the lava pool. go to the other side of it then go NORTHWEST staying on the northern wall all the way. this is one of two paths DOWN from here.
5. the next way DOWN in cave 5 is pretty much directly south however with a few walls in the way, cave is small though.
6. you are in the main cave now! don’t get confused by the second path which also leads here. you do not want to leave this cave through any exit. head south, around a big block of rock. you can now see a massive lava pool to the south that almost seems endless. go east then south on its edge and in the south end you will then notice a way to safely reach a small island inside the pool, where the Flame hangs out.
** SPOILER END **
Glad you enjoyed the game! If you have any suggestions by what means I can reach like-minded retro RPG fans please let me know.
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@Wotan I have managed to reach The Flame. What problem are you having? – from what I recall its quite a complex map though, so lots of running around trying different staircases 🙂
> a den in the desert cannot be explored
I see this too. There is a red dot on the world map but no corresponding entrance on local map. I seem to remember it has been mentioned before and it was listed as a bug, but Im not 100% sure
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> a den in the desert cannot be explored
thought I had fixed that, odd. Fixed it (again) now, will show up correct (non-red) in 1.3.2. thanks for letting me know.
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Another thing: don’t save it once you load it. This way the original data is not altered. In the main game menu where you select one of the three slots for loading, does it show the right party member names and levels? Or also level 1 etc?
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One other thing: a teleport back to the cave upon loading of a game is possible. This happens if you saved the game in a random dungeon prior to random dungeon maps (Orc lairs) saving properly. A few updates back this was fixed. This only impacts location, no change to anything related to your party itself.
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Hi Volker,
Thanks for taking my earlier feedback on board. The new day/night cycle in the latest update is a big improvement. Just some more suggestions/questions….
I’m a bit stuck in the game, as I think Ive done everything apart from kill the lich king.
But he’s really difficult for my party as they can barely hit the spectres he spawns (Im using fire and undead spells, but I cant get close).
I think I need to grind a bit and try to level up some more, but even the hardest random spawns I can find are only giving 7 or so XP, whereas most my party needs a few hundred to next level.
I guess this brings me to my suggestion… during the early stages of the game, your progress is blocked in many places by locked doors.
I levelled up Unlock a lot to get past these, but now I think maybe I should have been focusing on making my party stronger instead.
It would be useful to have some sort of item available in shops (fairly rare and expensive, single use) which can open a locked door – maybe a Crystal of Opening or something like that.
This would help balance it a bit and allow you to progress without having to max out Unlock.
Even after maxing my Unlock and casting Unlock spell, there is still one door I cannot open (its in the circular cave rooms, the one which is split into 9 sections). Im not sure how to progress beyond that, maybe Im not meant to just yet
Thanks
Paul
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Thanks for the feedback. I agree with your comments and have made the following changes already:
– vs. undead bonus and the exorcise skill was too weak. Against incorporeal it can do no damage sometimes in fact. I changed that, will feel better in 1.3.2 which I will submit soon
– you need to invest in ‘holy chant’ as that makes every melee or ranged attack a vs.undead attack. Against the lich, this deals a lot of damage for about a minute of fight time. In 1.3.0 which will be available in the next few days, holy chant also does some ongoing damage to all undead which can clear weaker monsters
– you need to make sure all your weapons have some elemental damage, electricity or magic damage works well against spectres.
– you may want to consider changing your difficulty just before the lich fight.
– I have (in 1.2.7 already ) made the Orc encounters in the Orc lairs tougher and reduced the chances of rats. I have also set some Orc groups spawn limit to unlimited. So Orc lairs should prove not only huge but actually in some respect unlimited potential for grinding.
– you may need to find all the special items in the game: there is a young dragon with a good stash, there is a unique crossbow in a very cold and lonely place, there is an old mage’s hideout in a dry dark place…
– make sure you get the (lvl1) exorcise skill. Against the lich it should do a few hundred points of damage even in its current form.
– my personal strategy against spectre and lich: find a melee weapon for your fighter that does good elemental or good vs.undead damage. Get him to attack close by. Get your monk or cleric to cast ‘resist evil’ as often as they can on him. Makes him almost immune to the life draining attacks they do. This will seriously occupy them as well having a fighter in their face. Use spells and ranged elemental/vs. undead attacks while he is occupied.
– in a few days 1.3.0 is out which opens up a bonus mission: a cursed shipwreck shows up. Your party can get insignia (class specific, spell and skill boosting items) there and there is also a few enemies that will give some good xp. Although the boss there is probably not any easier than the lich…
– make sure everyone uses the most advanced attack style for their weapon. Way to forget when you change a weapon.
– alternative fighter build: all the strength-boosting items you can get your hands on (you should reach about 35 that way) and focus on shoulder and shield bash. Doing both you can have each attack use either continuously. Spectres don’t get stunned (I think?) but lich’s do. A stunned enemy is basically reduced to half their actions/speed AND they are easier to hit.
Many other tips I can share. I have really build so many tactical options into it that there should be plenty of weaknesses to exploit. Focussing your talent points on unlock may pacify your rogue, however it will also pay off as only you can then open th edoor in the smugglers leader’s house. And a lot of chests in the game. You would then be able to spare your Mage from spending on unlock spell, so it all balances out.
Let me know how you go!
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Hi Volker, thanks for the advice.
I only just noticed your reply after I got an email notification for a different post.
This looks really useful. I have lots of new things to try against the lich now 🙂
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As to ‘crystal of opening’: I did a lot of thinking about the concept of ‘consumables’: mana replenishing gems like in Bard’s Tale II, food like in Ultima, healing potions like in Diablo. I have to say, I mostly dislike what these bring to the game. Sometimes they reflect a type of realism that adds no fun (food), or they make you invincible as long as you continuously suck on potions (Diablo).
In terms of doors: no blocked door will cause a problem in advancing in the storyline, nor is there any place with such doors that you cannot revisit later. So at present it adds to the feel/mystery/replay value without causing grief.
If I added a consumable item , it would have to cost a lot and/or be rare. Then people won’t forgive me if they use it on a door with hardly anything worthy behind it. May actually add grief.
Some doors are actually un-unlockable. I call them ‘number8′ because door of types 2-7 are unlockable and of increasing difficulty. Number 1 is open but makes a door sound when passing through.
Number8 doors relate to quests, whether optional or story quests.
One such door is at the very start when Parnosz gives you access to starting equipment via a key.
Another such door is in the outlaw village at the graveyard. That door does not open in Chapter1…
Everything in random dungeons can be opened, with low to medium difficulty. With no guarantee it is worth it of course.
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The orc quest for the smugglers. The orc warlord was behind a door I could not unlock. I had to gain quite a few levels grinding and it really stalled the game at an odd point.
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“no blocked door will cause a problem in advancing in the storyline” The orc warlord I had to kill for the smuggler’s quest to advance the story was behind a door I could not unlock. I had to wander off an grind for a quite awhile to and had to keep returning and trying. It really stalled the game at an odd time. I was using the unlock spell, and it took quite a few points in it.
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Sorry to hear this was frustrating for you. I put three safeguards in to make it unlikely one would get stuck for a long time, not all of them may clear of course: 1. On lower difficulty locks are easier to open. So a temporary change in difficulty would be one solution. 2. There is a second warlord warlord spawning in another Orc lair so there is two chances of getting easier access. 3. The ‘unlock’ spell will help with difficult locks.
For me to see whether I need to tweak something, can you let me know which ones you were aware of?
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So far I’m kinda getting the hang of the game. It took a minute for me because like all new games you have to get use to the UI and in game mechanics by way of trial and error. Will more than likely start a whole new game on next play. Really sad day for Spiderweb Software for they won’t be developing for the iPad due to 8.3 breaking the game 😦 While this is sad news I do believe in fate which is what brought me to buying this game last weekend. It kinda sucks because I was really looking forward to A2CS, but at the same time I’m happy because DoC came right on time and has really aroused my interest to read more tips on your blog about the game as well as explore past other CRPG past and present.
Btw GOG gave me three free Ultima games years back (Ultima 4, Martian Dreams, and Savage Empire. Didn’t pay it no mind at the time because I never played an Ultima game before, but after hearing how you were influenced by these games I’m going to give them a shot starting with Savage Empire. I read that people favorited IV and VII the most and will check those out eventually.
Keep up the great work and hope you get your social network going so you can gain more customer which will inspire you to make another game or two. Quite possibly a post apocalyptic one like Wasteland or Fallout 🙂
AM
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Thanks! My recommendation is to start with Ultima4. It is groundbreaking. A CRPG with no villain. Instead you strive to morally lead the people. Hard to explain.
As for social networks: yes I will try and so more soon. Please also spread the word!
Thanks, Volker
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Good morning volker and Paul
Thx for the hint : i did not find the entrance of the cave : i was stuck in front of the volcano.
Now i’m going to invite the Flame for breakfast.
Smoke it !!
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Hey!
Just got the update as of this post. Funny thing is that I was playing DoC at the gym this morning while on the exercise bike for 40 minutes. I really do dig this game! 🙂
Is it common for a team member(s) to die and be revived or do you need to recruit a new member? This time around I decided the computer to generate my team versus me doing it because they always died.
Keep up the great work and it still amazes me how this little nugget on the iPad can pack so much content.
AM
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Glad you like it!
Reviving should be the option, I don’t think you need to abandon a particular party. There are some mistakes you could make at the party creation stage, like not having a brawler (fighter/berserker) or a healer (cleric/monk).
Frequent reviving is a sign that you have your difficulty setting too high, or you may need to deploy more serious tactics (ranged attacks, boosting attack spells, move your fighter forward and cast ARMOR BOOST on him), or give them better equipment to deal with damage. You might really want to have on tank, being a fighter with lots of armor class. If you face poison or fire attacks, change the equipment to boost that just prior to the fight. I keep precious RINGS in my stash to swap out before certain fights, to focus the defensive boosts on what I will face in terms of monster abilities/attacks.
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Hey volker
Just got update and thought id stop by and congratulate you . 🙂 congrats . I havent got a look into the game proper. will post my thoughts when i do.
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Thanks!
Still on the edge of my seat hoping there are not too many bugs in there. Found two already, 2.0.2 under Apple review now to fix them. 8^(
Please let me know (dungeonsofchaos @ gmail.com) how Chapter2 feels once you are into it, very keen to get feedback.
Cheers,
Volker
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Hiya Volker,
Thanks for Chapter 2. I’m exploring it right now, and have found the nice cave with the river area.
I keep getting stuck on one bit though, which is to kill the Lich King. I’ve revisited the area about 7 times now, levelling up a few times in between
Is this intended to be a late stage quest?
When I started playing it was only about the 7th quest I received so it felt like it should be doable with my party by now, but it seems so difficult 😦
I think I saw some comments from you that fire is the way to go, so I have a fire weapon on my main fighter, aswell as undead spells from cleric, and my archer taking pot shots at him. But my party seems to have a big problem fighting undead… spectres take a lot of battling, and by that time the lich has teleported and I cant get near him
Any advice welcome, thanks 🙂
Paul
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Sure!
The LICH quest is the last quest in Chapter1, after that the FLAME will give you the ORB as promised and Parnosz can send you into Chapter2…
As for the lich, there are many ways to kill him and the spectres, the key is to be flexible and rethink your previous approach.
You need the following:
1. a good tank. being a melee fighter that has equipment that grants him:
– good RESISTANCE TO DRAINING/EVIL because that is the spectres, and some of the lich’s, attack type. you can see that because it has a purple colour when they hit you. and from some of the narrative used when they attack. they hardly deal ANY physical damage so you need to switch your focus. my party has 2 sets of weapons and equipment in STASH to deal with undeads (resist evil boost), some to boost poison resistance, some to boost fire resistance. you will very rarely find an item that is good in facing all possible monsters (dragons, spectres etc.).
– you can also, or should regardless, boost the tank once he gets up close, with RESIST EVIL spells. clerics and monks have some starting ability with this, spell level 1 or 2 is fine. Note: it does not last too long but it STACKS!
– if you ever get into a situation where the next few rounds really count (3 spectres around you, or close to lich when he is not yet able to teleport again for a while), have your cleric or monk use HOLY CHANT. you get this, and can train it up further, at the cleric in the shelter. it also stacks, if there are 2 chants activated undead really start to hurt: ongoing demage to them, damage bonus to you, lower fight attributes for them, to-hot bonus to you … but you need to pick the right time
– have the fighter use RAGE when he is about to get close to an undead and has vs.undead boost.
2. a useful set of ranged fighters. archer and ranger can boost their skill to 30 or 40 with training. but even a druid can use a sling!
– Make sure you use ‘strong shot’ or some other advanced attack style with your weapon. big mistake is to switch weapon and at some stage and forget to select an advanced fight style. you can do this in combat (click the ‘attack’ label at top right, but don’t select a ‘?’ as that might crash the App until 2.0.2 is out), or in the party menu under SKILLS -> set actions -> weapon.
– against spectres, magic damage is good. against the lich, fire is better. electricity works against both.
– a druid with a good sling works wonders: a perfect weapon would be ‘rune sling’ with an accuracy bonus, +vs. undead, stun bonus. to stun an enemy is a very powerful thing as they are out for a short while.
– lots of items with DEX bonus as that means faster attack and better accuracy. they are no good in melee combat so you need to favour things that make their ranged attacks better.
3. the insignia from the dead wizard’s chest in the shipwreck. once you defeated an orc warlord, the shipwrecked wizard will appear southeast of the shelter. you need to fight some undead beasts which by the sounds of it you won’t enjoy, but there are a limited amount of them in there and the loot is WELL WORTH IT! the insignia give you super bonus to each player class.
4. a cleric or monk that has learned the EXORCISE skill from the monk in the smuggler’s village (train). only level 1, but used at the right time (has range 2!) means they can help out to hit hard.
5. if you really struggle to deal with multiple enemies, have one enemy chase a player that is otherwise not very useful. a monster that runs is a monster that does not have as much time dealing out damage.
6. last resort: reduce difficulty to EASY or NOOB before the fight. It influences MANY things, from spell damage you deal, to spell damage they deal, to skill duration, to monster HP … it makes a difference. you can switch back later and not tell anyone.
I had a party with all level 3 players and I beat up all the ghosts and spectres in the undead wizard’s tomb. I simply gave 3 of them vs.undead melee weapons (you can find some low level ones in the hollow tree if you follow the river into the mountain west of the shelter), being fighter, rogue and druid. The spectres therefore became vulnerable. And their HP is so low that they are not that tough once their non-physical nature is addressed. I need to cast about one heal spell on average between fights but otherwise could plough through them all simply due to how I selected the equipment I enter the fight with.
Hope that helps!
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just started a wee bit into the game. I had stopped for 6 months n barely remember where I stopped. I think i pretty much cleared the game chap 1 barring some addon u did, which I’ll slowly try to uncover for myself with no hints pls.
At this point i just need one beacon. I heard u say the archmage will teleport u to main land where presumably we will enact out much of the chap2 content u have installed for us. I did try to talk to archmage but there wasn’t any option to leave the island.
Also, btw, found a dying mage who hinted about some undead knight on the presumably undead ship anchored near the southern coast. Got a nice surprise to find i need to manual fight against the skeletal beasts. I remember i pretty much can auto fight thru chap 1 . Not sure what u did to bump up difficulty but I’m liking it for a start. Cheers
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Once you get the ORB (kill lich for Flame, return to Flame), the archmage can use it to teleport you.
Any oddities let me know and quote what your quest log says about open and finished quests.
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Awesome, thanks for all the advice, I’ve lots of things to try now
I haven’t been using a dedicated tank character so much, just throwing a fighter and barb into melee with a rogue backing them up, and mage/cleric/archer taking pot shots from a distance. But as you say it means the cleric is trying to heal them all and soon falls behind. I didn’t realise the resist evil spell stacks either 🙂
Just some more general feedback..
1) Love the ability to scroll the mini map, great addition. The map itself is very small though, are there any plans to make this larger… sometimes its quite difficult to identify an exit, or see where you are on the map.
2) I wouldn’t really call this a bug, but just something I noticed… At the end of a battle, there are two buttons which suddenly appear very briefly, on the right panel
I don’t recall which exactly, but I think Help, and another one further up. You cant tap them anyway, since the ‘end of battle’ dialog has appeared, but it just threw me a few times when I first saw it.
3) Finally, in the character screen, there is a help menu at the bottom. I think it would be useful to move this to the main panel perhaps? There is a lot of good info in there, and it took me quite a while to discover it, and realise it contains a Quest Log and other useful stuff, not just Help text etc
Thanks
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Thanks Paul for all the insight. I have definitely made a lot of add-on changes to the user interface that now make it appear cluttered or unorganised.
A complete re-vamp of all the buttons is on my pile of things to do, but I am always afraid to break things in the process plus my day job is currently quite stressful, so overall I am not sure about when this will be changed.
Re (1), the map represents each 32×32 tile as a 3×3 tile. This looked quite neat. But if exits and position are not easy to spot I may make those brighter/more contrast. I will look into that one for sure.
Because there is currently an issue with 2.0.2 and iOS7 (at least that is my current view), would you mind emailing me (dungeonsofchaos @ gmail.com) what device and iOS you are using? And if you have not updated to 2.0.2 and are playing 2.0.0 instead, it may be best to keep it that way until 2.0.3 is out because 2.0.2 seems to crash on some iOS7 devices.
Thanks!
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Hi volker
I had apparently finished the lich quest and had been given the orb. The quest log mentioned the flame leading to orb quest is done. Speaking to archmage about ” teleporting” and the old system message pops up about checking for update in May/April and continuing to explore the island etc. -.-
It seems i cannot continue to chap2 at this point unless I’m missing a key plot line?
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Can you go into your preferences -> usage -> click the DoC App and tell me what it says the version is you are using?
if 1.x.x, go into the AppStore from your iPad and download the latest update. The only way the old message would show is if you are not yet on 2.0.x.
Fingers crossed that is it…
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oh, before I forget. make sure it does not say “reward outstanding” in the Flame quest log. that means you haven’t yet told the Flame that you killed the lich and hence would not have been given the orb yet.
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It says rewards received ( quest completed) if i remember right. Nothing ambiguous as i recall.
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I checked and version is 1.3.2 lol. Apparently the update didnt go right. But i still did and finish the shipwreck add on. Now was that pre 1.3.2 or after?
I’m updating now as i typed this. Fingers crossed it will be fine after
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shipwreck was added in 1.3 to keep people entertained. saw your crash note. 2.0.3 will hopefully fix that. was me starting to work on code for an iPhone port. 8^(
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Ok right after i updated and verified its2.0.2 i start the app and its the 100% crash bug at the loading screen. Check the support page where i left some details
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I tried to delete app. Reinstall the game . Checked its 2.02. Run the game and it promptly crashed again
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ok. good news: means I know exactly what happened.
bad news: you need to await 2.0.3 to fix that.
Sorry for any inconvenience. Seems related to iOS7. iOS8 runs fine.
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At least you know the problem thats the crucial part.
Ok i m assuming you can produce a quick fix and send in 2.03 to Apple quick?
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Yes but they won’t allow another expedited review. Normal review time is 6 to 10 days.
I am devastated, such a small thing and neither my testing nor Apple review picked it up.
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Hi volker and other players
I’ve found a new Bug : after scouting the battlefield, the game in dungeons is uncreadibly slow.
I mean a single step lasts for nearly 10 seconds. It’s unplayable. When i walk outside the speed is normal. I’ve then tried the minautors den, yet the Bug is still there, even if it’s slightly better.
Btw i’ve set the two delays at 1 in the options
Rgds
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Thanks for reporting this. I have not come across this but am generally aware that there are issues with older iPad2’s and maps that are really large. It is not the map size itself that is the issue but the number of monsters, monster spawners and in some cases light sources.
Can you please confirm:
– what device you are using, and what iOS
– what version of DoC you are playing (2.0.0 or 2.0.2)
– what the location bar at the top right says the name of the map is, for each map this happens in.
Also please note there is an issue with 2.0.2 so if you are using 2.0.0 please don’t update yet. Just to be safe.
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Hi,
Here are the info :
– iPad 4 (A1458)
– IOS 8.3
– v. 2.0.2
– name of the map : a place of death. The thing is the speed decreased while I was playing. At the begining it was normal. It may be stupid but I fought a lot of undead wizard before the glitch, and I saw there were casting major curses -slow. Could this has an effect ? i mean the spell stack and the effect continue.
– name of the map : a raided keep. As i said, speed is slightly better but the game is still unplayable.
– I haven’t checked any other map but I can if you want
Rgds
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thanks, I will test this out on my iPad2 (the slowest experience should be on that one). If I can find out what is causing it I will fix it. It is strange though that an iPad4 would give this experience. The raided keep has only the same amount of light sources, monsters and spawners as an orc lair in chapter1.
Thanks for reporting it, I will let you know what becomes of this issue.
Regards,
Volker
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if you want you could try this, it would help me find out comparatively what this may relate to:
– if you enter the catacombs (quest from Lord Aldrich to find JAIMAR), does it appear slow? that map has very few light sources but is a good size and has about a dozen spawners.
– if you enter an orc lair back in Chapter1, (without saving of course, you could quickly go back to Chapter1 by getting killed in a fight and be revided at the archmage’s) does that appear slow? if you spend some time wandering around, does it get slower?
I found it very interesting that you said that it deteriorated while you were walking around in the dungeon. This could only happen if it is the monsters themselves, as opposed to light sources or spawners, that cause the issue.
Can you also please let me know if you have terminated all other applications in the background of your iPad?
thanks!
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Hi,
Here are the results of the tests you’ ve asked me to do :
– i’ve terminated all other apps of my iPad
– The speed in the cave of death was still pitiful
– i’ve managed to get killed by a mob of skeletons and an undead wizard (my best friend). The speed during the fight was correct. After Being resurrected near partnoz The travel between the cave and the orc compound was weird : my party started to run, then they slowed, and ran again. No Matter if i was in the plains or a forest. Underground the speed was lousy as in the cave of death.
– the trip home from the elves started well with a good pace. A few block from lord aldrich the party slowed.
– and finally walking in the catacombs was slow yet playable.
I can film with my iPhone some actions and mail them to you if you want.
Awaiting the next to do list
Rgds
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Thanks! I think it is simply the lighting routine. I am very surprised an iPad4 would suffer that much but I will probably add a switch in the options to set permanent daytime effect. There aren’t too many places where nightfall adds to atmosphere, in fact most players seem to hate casting light. Line-of-sight effects would still show of course.
A video would help if not too much trouble. Any instance where this happens in chapter1 in particular ( Island map, orcs etc.). Maybe upload to YouTube as private and invite me.
Many thanks!
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Did a few screen captures. This is my old ipad2 in an Orc lair after walking around a fair bit. Yours should never be slower than this. (In an Orc lair)
Can you let me know how Orc lairs compare to you?
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I think I found a great solution. I enhanced several things and now this is how a huge battlefield runs on an iPad2: http://youtu.be/Br0uOK79l70
This will be released as 2.0.4. Still not sure why your ipad4 gives as much slowness as you described, but this should help.
2.0.3 is currently in review so 2.0.4 is probably 2 weeks away from going live.
Kind Regards,
Volker
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Great
I’m glad to hear this it’s really good News
However i Will send you some screen captures so that you could see the mess.
Rgds
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Hi volker
I’ve just installed v 2.0.4.
I feel … Devastated
It looks some things have changed. Yet speed in the dungeons is still sooooooooo loooooooow.
I’ll send you some videos by mail.
What must I do ?
See ya
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I am planning to look at anything else I can think of, but so far it is a blind chase because I was not able to replicate it. Everything works fine even in my old iPad2.
All maps are the same when it comes to their data, and the valley for example is even bigger than any of the dungeons. So I think it must be to do with the automap knowledge tracker or the amount if monsters and spawners.
Can you let me know how bad the speed is in these:
– main valley on max speed (lowest movement speed in options)
– main valley with doped set to slow (highest value in options)
– Minotaur keep on max speed
– exorcists’ dungeons (evil place) on max speed
– Orc lair with the same party on max speed
– Orc lair with a freshly started game on max speed
It would help me identify remotely what is making the difference for your game.
What I will also do is I will introduce some cheat options in 2.0.5 so you can deactivate monster movement, automap knowledge etc. So you can more accurately debug for me. That is the only way I think it can be resolved.
But my gut feel is that a new game should be absolutely fine until you venture deep into random locations again. That somehow triggered it I think.
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I was able to replicate it, and I have fixed it. It was the data about how many monster groups were ever killed for a spawner. The exorcist dungeons have about 200 spawners each and it checks the data from a 2-dimensional array which takes ages once you have come into range of a lot of them.
I have changed this so that the data is now compiled when entering the map, and after a fight. It now runs super smooth. The only thing you will notice now is that (only in those dungeons with lots of spawners) it does a one second calculation when entering the map and after each fight.
I will submit 2.0.5 on Saturday. It also includes auto-heal fight action choice which also makes the game more enjoyable when grinding.
Apple will probably release 2.0.5 ~ 6 July.
Kind Regards,
Volker
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> It also includes auto-heal fight action choice which also makes the game more enjoyable when grinding.
Thanks for the updates. The ability to turn off day/night is a really nice feature
Really looking forward to the auto-heal in the next update 🙂
Paul
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2.0.5 is in the AppStore now, please advise if any issues remain.
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Hi volker.
You like challenges. Have a look at this one.
I’ve installed 2.0.5. I ran from the Castle to the place of death. Everything was fine. I started grinding the place. The speed during exploration and fight was really good.
But after a fight, i felt something was wrong. There were some lags. And during a save, the game shut off. I launched again the game, but it froze. I’ll mail you a screen picture.
Now i’m not able to play any more. Even if i terminate all other apps, restart the iPad, wait for several minutes. No way i can go beyond this screen.
Any idea?
Rgds
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At that point in the routine it creates a data set that avoids any lag later. This can take a few seconds. Since your ipad (comparatively) seems slower than any I have seen, try and give it a while and see if it finishes. Your data set (all monster spawns that ever occurred) is rather large given how much you have been grinding. My routine avoids constant checks at the trade-off of creating a single data set at the loading if a level. My hopes are this is just a long wait that occurs when you enter a huge level.
Let me know if it still stalls after waiting 1 minute. I will separately try and reproduce this one.
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Forgot to mention: for it to ‘shut off’ during a save could be fatal, no doubt about that. If a savegame gets corrupted that would not be salvageable. You saved manually after a fight? Anything that you noticed may have caused the app to crash?
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My love for computers and gaming both started when my stepfather introduced me to Wizardry in the mid-80s. I played Bard’s Tale and Wasteland and loved them too.
I didn’t play a lot of the Ultima type of games at the time (other than Ultima 3 on Nintendo). It wasn’t until I found Exile (later Avernum) that I fell in love with the top-down RPG.
These days I’m old and have a kid so my gaming time is largely restricted to when I’m in bed and on my iPad. And so it was that one day recently I was searching for Ultima on the App Store and ran across Dungeons of Chaos.
The learning curve is sharp, the pace is slow burning, and the entire game has a home-cooked feel. In short, it’s everything I loved about the games of old. I can’t get over the level of detail that has gone in to this game! This is clearly a labor of love. You’ve been working on this in some level since the 90s and it shows. Thank you for the best $2 I’ve ever spent. 🙂
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Thanks! Your comment means a lot to me. Please spread the word to the like-minded!
Working on small updates to keep all fans entertained…
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Voller, it amazes me how much you update this game and how interactive you are on this website! I truly hope you find success with this game, and at the very least find solid footing for your passion. I will definitely look forward to any game you make, as I know support will continue you for it for quite a time. Definitly happy to find an Avadon replacement! Found your game initially through toucharcade fysa. Keep up your hard work!
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Volker I meant, IPad airs automatic spelling fix haha.
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Thanks! I am very excited how closely I seem to have ‘met the brief’ that I set for myself. The enhancements I am making now (Heal, berserkers, warlocks etc.) are comparatively less work for more gain, so it actually becomes more enjoyable for me over the last months, with bugs becoming more and more rare.
I actually have 4 more game ideas, but they are more along the lines of clever puzzle games where I try to mix in depth through merging other genres (mostly RPG). These are at least a year away though…
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Hi volker.
Strange things happened.
I loaded my latest save. I waited nearly 7 minutes yet eventually the game started.
Movements and fights were ok. But some lags occured at the end of some fights. Some, not all. It was before and after the loot screen. I made a few saves and it was ok. Fortunately i was not so far the exit, and i managed to reach it. I left the place of death to the sub basement of the church. One final save and … The game kicked me outside.
I wait for your suggestions before give it another try
Rgds
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to be honest this is really strange. I assume your game is now saved in the outpost map. this may be important.
Few key things:
1. In theory, loading and playing can never corrupt a savegame. so to try things out, as long as you don’t save, is always ok.
2. the slowness in the past were caused by checks performed for each monster spawner against your party’s previous track record of monster groups that spawned from any spawner anywhere. this took time if your database grew over time because you grind a lot and everywhere. this was fixed with 2.0.5 and only a once-off delay occurs now when you ENTER/LOAD a map. this should not be more than a few seconds though.
3. this means that in theory, starting a new party/savegame should feel very fast because the whole accumulated data is blank/small. So it would be good to know how a freshly started party feels like. if that is slow, then there is an issue with your iPad’s performance overall.
4. Loading your current savegame, in the outpost map, should work fine. It will create a dataset on loading the map, but it should take less than 7 minutes. If it does take a few minutes, but the freshly started party was fine, then my conclusion would be that somehow your data/savegame got corrupted. I don’t think this could be possible though because 99.999% of cases any corruption will not cause delays, but instead an immediate crash. For data to be corrupted but not crashing the app would be super rare.
So if you can let me know how a fresh party and a new load of your current game goes that may help. But I have not been able to reproduce this so I am clueless as yet.
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Well. Things are not getting better.
I loaded my saved game. 6min58sec later i was back in the place of death with the same glitches.
I Will send you a screen capture after a fight against an undead wizard and skeletons Warriors. The weird thing is that i had to collect 6 items, but none appeared in the loot screen.
I left the place of death, Walked a little bit in the countryside, then launched a save. The app shut after nearly 30 sec. I made a small movie i’ll Also send you.
Then i started a new party : i played for several minutes against the rats, made a couple of saves. Everything was running well.
It seems i have found the 0,001%.
Is there anyway i van send you my saved game ?
Rgds
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Unfortunately not. I have found toe things I need to fix, if you can wait a week for 2.1.2 that should sort it out. You are no longer the only example of this but you have the most drastic one. I can’t promise this will be fixed but I am 90% sure (because the game loads fine which is the biggest thing. If ever it would not load at all, that would be bad).
Sorry for the inconvenience.
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Apple did a super fast review, 2.0.6 is in store now!
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Hi
Everything is now going smooth and by the Numbers.
Speed is ok, no more lag.
I’ve finished chapter 2. Awaiting now for the next chapter.
Two small glitches i’ve noticed :
– I was able to kill only two master beholders instead of the three required for the quest guild. I left the abyss for a few days and came back but there was no respawn of such a beast. Only normal ones.
– in Eharforn when i spoke to glawon he proposed to teach several spells but the button “train” did not appear.
And other things i haven’t solved :
– the quest from Elric about the DXXXX : they did not let me in their harvest
– and of course the numerous doors which stayed closed even if i’ve maxed the ” open lock” skill. But I think it’s normal.
Once again congratulations for designing such a game. Old rpgs are for a specific kind of fans. ( the ones who defeated vecna and exodus will know what i mean). I hope young players Will Also enjoy.
Best regards,
Martin.
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Wow, this is great! I was of course hoping for that to happen but somehow expected some troubles to remain.
In terms of master beholders, there are two spawning at small abyss like rock cliffs. But if you explore thoroughly, there is a bigger outcrop deeper in the abyss that spawns unlimited master as well as ancient(!) beholders. Ancient beholders have a good chance to drop spell books as well, so good place to grind!
I am currently playing through the game myself with the intention to try out grinding options, but all on SPARTA difficulty setting. quite interesting, definitely enjoyable as a challenge and easy to do with the H/H+ fight options. Just occasionally I go to manual for my wizard and cast METEOR or MAGIC RUPTURE to balance the fight out, or my knight to use RAGE.
How did you find the difficulty overall, did you change the difficulty setting to balance out the feel of the game?
I will release the BERSERKER expansion in a few days, it brings not only the berserker guild into the game, but also an ARTEFACT that allows you some specific teleportation. But after that I am probably heavily investing my time into the iPhone port.
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Hello there. Loving the game so far, but I seem to be stuck. I’m not sure if I’m just missing something or what. I’m doing the main quest trying to get the orb right now. I took out the orc warlord and got the satchel. Then the guy told me to bring the satchel to the deep mine to the left side of the volcano. I got to the cave, ran away from the Dragon (after it killed my party a couple times), and it seems that there’s a large pool of lava at the bottom of this room. The guy told me to find “The Flame” at the bottom part of the cave. I explored every other part and found nothing, so I think this is where I’m supposed to be. But what am I supposed to do now that I’ve found it? Do I have to kill the Dragon first? Thanks!
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you ran down the wrong location. you are in an old mine. instead, on the other side of the mountain next to the volcano (!) there is a cave. down that cave you will find the fire elemental.
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It is possible to implement a repeat function for the direction keys? I mean if I press and hold a direction key the character will move in this direction until I release the key.
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yes but it is quite complicated in that it means retained a ‘state’, something that I have avoided to reduce complexity and risk of bugs along the way. I would have to do some thorough testing and given how smooth the game runs at present, I am inclined not to risk it at this stage. Have you tried the ‘dungeon run’ button? it makes you walk into a direction until there is a widening of walk choices or treasure or mobs. and you can break out of it by simple giving it a new target tile, meaning you click next to the party or wherever you want them to stop.
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Mission: Impossible. I’m playing on spartan difficulty. Until the lich quest it was rather easy than hard. Now i’m stuck because a cannot even drop the liches hp by a quarter. Come on, this kind of balancing is not gamer friendly. I already cleared all dungeons on the island, killed the dragon, etc. Spent all my gold for best possible equipment and vs. undead weapons. Did some boring xp grind runs for level gains. Tried different battle tactics. The lich still is laughing at me. Not normal.
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Sorry to hear it is a bit tough. At Sparta this can happen. Only a strong tactic will help you succeed. The lich has weaknesses and a few dangerous strengths.
Biggest Weakness is he is undead. But vs. undead weapon are a false friend here. They make all (literally) difference against ghosts and spectres, but against something with bones a good old hammer or big axe is just fine, and if you had one with a good damage output it will do better against liches and zombies than vs. undead short swords. You need your melee attackers to wield something heavy that can stun him, that will work nicely. So hammer I’d say. Axe is good with bleeding but lich can’t bleed.
But his undead state is still a weakness: visit the cleric in the cave and learn HOLY CHANT. If lucky and you have a monk and a cleric, for for both. Then visit monk in village and learn EXORXISM. Make sure everything is positioned right and the lich has just teleported and not recharged the teleport yet. Trigger holy chant (both if you have) and have the exorcist user ready at distant two (works at range 2). EXORXISM with holy chant active will blow his socks off.
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I dont have either a cleric nor a monk. My barbarian uses a Odd Masterwork Battleaxe, the best 2H-Weapon i’ve got so far. Rouge and Fighter uses vs. undead weapons, mainly for the minions. Archer has a nice dmg bow (also with +accuracy) but often misses the lich, even with extra accuracy through items, high dex, and the attack style with extra accuracy. But its even hard to get past the minions and reach the lich in meelee, before he respawns new minions. Last fight the lich one-hitted my lvl 12 mage at full health…
I dont have any gold left to maybe get better gear, and leveling doesnt make sense since all the respawning mobs on the island only give 5 – 10 xp per fight.
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The best levelling opportunity for you is the gnome burrows, very north of the island has a way to get there. The whole burrow respawns as a new random map every day, and the mobs are tougher and with better loot than orcs. And of course the dragon stash. Dragon cave/mine is far south west. Have you completed on normal before?
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Nah, that annoying gnome caves. I have overall 100+ perception and even with wizards eye they are still too stupid to detect all hidden doors, so you have to start searching manually like an idiot. Also there are not really much mobs inside. Over time a can get a bit eqipment for sale. But xp gain is very slow, so you’re much more faster when killing ants.
First run i played on normal until the dragon cave in the 2nd area, with the same classes. Started again on spartan difficulty, also because it is said you get more and better equipment. Compared to my first run i really cannot see that so far.
Since i dont have an anti-undead class, it seems i have to grind “a bit” before killing that stupid lich. Someone hand over my axe…
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if you are really a bit stuck I would suggest playing out the lich part on normal difficulty. Spartan is set to be very tough. It only improves the value of drops not the count though. But if you haven’t been lucky with drops so far you may struggle. What you could do is try to sneak around the lich to the top floor, get the nice spell books and loot (LOAD if you don’t line the loot and try again), and then revisit the lich when you found something nice. Or take that all-the-way-down stair with the loot, grind a bit, and come back to the tower later.
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Nah i’ll kill him on spartan difficulty. Thanks for the tips, i’ll keep trying.
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Hi Volker, thanks for an RPG worth every penny. I’m playing on Android OS on an older phone and the game runs beautifully. I am having some trouble with the Lich dungeon due to all the ghostly guys being hard to damage, but I’m working on overcoming that with fire magic, holy chant (just got it to level 2) and collecting weapons with extra damage to undead. That’s not a complaint. I’m playing on the normal difficulty and enjoying the challenge. It felt pretty good defeating that nasty spider boss!
My question is, how complete is the game at this point? What guilds are implemented, and how far am I going to be able to progress before hitting a wall? So far I’m still in chapter one with plenty to do for side-dungeons, but I just want to know what to expect. Thanks again!
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If you look at all the side quests you have 50 hours of gameplay ahead. Chapter2 is complete (starts once you are off the island) and at least twice as big as chapter1. There are 9 starter guilds and 9 advanced guilds implemented. Only one advanced guild is not: warlocks. And the 2 superior ones (avatar, archmage), they will be hard to get and subject to their own stories later on. Have a look at the Facebook page for fan (visitor) posts, and also bucket list on bottom of page 5: http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=288944
Enjoy!
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I have same problem as Dave, no cleric or monk for anti undead vs Lich. Leveling at this point (mid teen chars) is silly grind doing gnomes, scorps, and crushers. The Lich is not killable in this predicament unless I start over. It doesn’t make sense to need blunt skills now if you have been focusing edge because those are the best drops you got. The Lich path is broken unless you know beforehand what skills you will need, and if you get to the point where he is last quest you have, and you have not done it right, you’re really screwed and there is no way back.
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Lich is rough but can be down without the holy chant skill. If you don’t have monks and clerics, you must have heavy abilities in either melee or in spellcasters.
I have done the lich once with a no-holychant build. It is tougher, but possible.
Since he is of physical form, I would go with 2h blunt weapons. For the spellcasters, level 2+ lightning strike is pretty strong. A high level in magic missile helps against the spectres and keeps the road clear to go after the lich. There should be some ability to have Druid or mage cast resist evil. That helps quite a bit to keep the damage down for whoever meets the lich in close combat. Or spectres. If you know you lack a specific nice item for a weapon or armor, sneak past the lich (around) and in the level above, save before you open the chests hidden in the walls and reload if you don’t find a nice item that helps you in the fight. Let me know if you keep getting beat.
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I’m having problems with the Lich. But, that’s of no consequence as I’m fairly certain I am just in need of a couple more levels and selective talent point distribution to turn the tides of that battle without dropping the difficulty. Reading through the other posts really helped (especially the bit about Holy Chant’s duration).
I do have one question though. I haven’t seen it mentioned so I figured I should ask: is there a way later on in the game to reset talent points? Because I’m eyeing some of the upper classes, like samurai, and wondering how that’s going to work when I haven’t invested in 2h blade.
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There isn’t, and that is a choice I made in the design of the game. But most people reach levels 30-40 with their characters and have plenty of talent points to go round in the end.
Also a good reason to go for a 2nd playthrough.
Also worth noting that key skills (like 2h sword for samurai) get a small boost when you change class.
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That makes sense. And yeah, I understand replay value. Heck, I haven’t made it off the island yet, but I’ve already restarted four or five times because there was a party setup I wanted to try, something I thought would work better, etc.
In short…I’m having a blast with it. Though I think my Nexus 6’s battery hates me rather profusely at the moment.
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Great to hear. Work that battery!
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I went the other way and just mindlessly ground on scorpions for two more levels and then I finally got a lucky shield bash for like 800 damage, which did the trick.
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Nice! Must be a holy chant critical hit combo. Very cinematic thought. Well done!
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The game looks great!
Had a few questions:
-Will the game be made available for Windows? (If so, what time frame?)
-Did you develop the code from scratch or were their specific resources you used to assist in engine development? (I ask because I’m a hobbyist like yourself and find your work inspiring.)
Thank you kindly.
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Thanks!
Windows port would require a major UI rework because PC users are used to mouseover, drag’n’drop etc. Or do you mean Windows phone? Probably too small a market and I have no W phone to test on.
I built the entire code from scratch, in Unity5. Only things not out of my own making:
– the SpriteTile scripts from the Unity store.
– most graphics and sound/music are Creative Commons artwork.
I have just commenced a kickstarter campaign, I can add a ‘behind the scenes’ pledge/reward level for those who want to get some code sniplets and discussions?
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/692638759/dungeons-of-chaos-expansion-retro-rpg-for-android
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No, need those two resources are perfect starting points. Thanks for the reply, I’ll pick up my copy on Android. Regards!
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Hey, thanks for the game, it has been quite fun.
I have a small issue with the Lich tower. I have found the tower. I have solved the stairs puzzle, I have gained access to the tomb room at the top of the tower.
So, am I suppose to fight the lich in this room? Or am I missing a hidden floor?
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The lich is in a room full of bones. If you have gotten the quest from the fire elemental to kill the lich, then yes it is the right time to try and defeat him. After which you can proceed further up into his treasure room etc.
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Hello Volker.
Withe the last update, my save disappeared and now all comes out as being zero lvl and all fighters. Did I lose everything?
Thanks.
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can you update to v1.4.00? I just uploaded that. If this is already under v1.4.00 then this is very concerning and I would need to get more info from you if possible.
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Let me try…..
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Working! Thanks!
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Hi,Volker I purchased the game a couple nights ago and already have a dead party member that I need revived. My party is still new (only 2nd level) so I’d imagine that it’s going to be a while before I can revive on my own. My question is, is there a NPC or other source that I could go to somewhere on the map to get this service? Or am I stuck waiting? Overall and based on what I’ve seen so far it is a pretty fun game.
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The cleric in the shelter ca revive ask him about JOB then HEAL. later, the monk in the outlaw village does the same.
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Got it, thanks so much.
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Hey there…I seem to be in a bit of a pickle. I have cleared just about every creature out of every dungeon. I sell everything I do not need. Well, I now have very few items that have a bonus to undead. I also have a decent spell set, but I cannot defeat the Lich. I always end up with a total party kill. Once I managed to kill it but succumbed to all the other creatures that appeared.
I keep visiting other places hoping monsters will respawn so I can level up some more as I do not want to lower the difficulty level (seems like cheating). However, it seems the only monsters that do not run out are ants and the very occasional crusher in the same area. I must be too high a level as no matter how many ants attack (I have had up to 17), I get no more than 2 XP per person for the encounter. If I have to keep fighting them I will, but it seems like a slooooow grind. Any advice would be appreciated.
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Yes that is a bit of a concern. I don’t think levelling will do much. A few thoughts:
– gnomes in the very north (if you have wizard eye spell on and find their secret passages) give ok loot (so you can buy the stuff to help you), and a rare chance to spawn a gnome shaman with XP and loot. And their gnome burrows completely reset and respawn each day.
– some Orc spawners are set to be infinite. So while XP is low, they allow you to build up loot/gold to afford new gear.
– the shop replenishes stock over time so once you spent a dozen days farming loot, the shop in the outlaw village will probably have almost half of stock refreshed.
– you need holy chant skill against lich and only use it when you are close and when he hasn’t yet recharged his teleport skill
– magic missile works against spectres. Even my cleric has level 1 so he can help out. Lightning strike is not as good because mana cost is higher.
– it helps if you can get the cleric behind your fighters: first to use healing hands which costs nothing (vs heal spell) and second to use EXORCISM skill (has range 2). Preferably on the lich. Or to instakill a spectre if needed. Learn it from the monk in the village.
– BACKUP your savegame so you can return to an earlier point. For example when you make talent point decisions or sell lots of gear.
– the dragon stash loot is great, I assumed you cleared it out already. But have Ou also found the snowy crossbow and loot in the ice? Save beforehand. It spawns 4 cool items, 1 fixed 3 random. Backup the savegame and see what loot helps you.
– have you found the secret mage house in the watery cave?
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Thanks for the tips. Yup I have found and done just about all of that. I did not know the gnomes respawned every day, so I will head back there. I do know holy chant and exorcism but it seems my cleric or someone that needs healing badly usually gets wiped out as he is trying to move across the battle area. I also did not think to use Magic Missile as I have been pounding the Lich with level 4 Lightning and Fire spells.
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Lich is almost immune to magic and while vulnerable to fire, cast a ‘resist fire’ once in a while. My tip: don’t use any spells against the lich. Weapons while holy chant is active, or heavy weapons at any time, can crush a skeleton like him.
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Hi Volker,
Was speed designed to be capped at charterer creation DEX, or not? A fighter with 18 DEX has 200 odd speed, whereas you’d need to take a fighter with 13 DEX to level 60+ samurai to get the same speed. Was that intended? Loving the game and as a min/maxer thinking I should restart if speed is defined from the off.
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Will have a look but Dex is a significant factor. But Dex can be raised with items and talent points. There should not be a massive difference and nothing you can’t change later.
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Brand new lv 1 fighter, naked, elvish, with 18 DEX; 193 speed.
Lv 20 fighter, naked, 18 DEX (raised from 12); 136 speed. Boosting DEX to 25 with items (still naked); 140 speed.
Evasion is only 11 lower; 123 on the new fighter, 112 on the lv 20
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I think DEX is a smaller factor here. What could make the difference is a speed boosting feat (elvish) vs a speed reducing feat (Orc? Troll? Dwarf?).
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Rolled 6 new, all DEX 18,19 or 20. Lowest speed is a rogue with dynamo feat and 211 speed. Fighter with elvish next at 214. Cleric with intellect next at 215. Druid with swiftness and 18 DEX has the highest at 234 speed.
My other save game rogue has DEX 34 at level 16 and 220 speed.
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Oh and original lv 20 fighter has dynamo feat too, so no speed rebuffs.
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Can’t really put my finger on it.
Basically, how my character creation works is it rolls a starting speed. This is NOT yet influenced by Dex but uses a similar invisible parameter than speed (so at creation, high speed and high Dex would correlate closely).
Then a feat can add more or less speed.
Then once the party is up and running, it continuously calculates speed using underlying, equipment bonuses and Dex.
I will have a test if there is anything odd in the creation routine.
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Hello, and thank you very much for the awesome game!
I’m in a situation that I’m having a hard time working through. I’m on the Ember Orc quest, looking for the Ember Orc King so that I can take the spellbook from him.
I’ve located all 10 cave entrances, and have gone through each of them multiple times, searching every square inch of the places several times, and have not found the king. I’ve spent a week methodically searching every open wall space in every one of the dungeons, and am confident that there isn’t anything I’ve overlooked. Still, no king.
Am I missing something obvious here? Where is he?
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hmm, that does not sound good. It is technically possible that a room failed to connect during creation, but very rare. Heard of it twice so far.
To cater for that, I added a king to another cave: the one that you reach if you stand on the south eastern skill and then walk all the way east.
So both that one and the cave with the skulls in front should hold one. Can you make a ‘visitor post’ on the Facebook page and post a few images from the skull cave when you look at the minimap? I will see if I can spot where secret passages may have popped up.
Do you have a good wizard eye spell level and do you keep it on when walking past walls?
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Thanks for the reply! I’m afraid I may end up being in that rare set of circumstances.
I have Wizard Eye level 3, and yes, I keep it on all the time, pretty much. I’ve found secret doors in both of the dungeons that you name that should have a king, and neither of them led to anything noteworthy.
I don’t have a Facebook account. I’ve created two sets of images and will share them here. The first set is from the skull cave, and the second set is from the cave directly to the east of the lowest skull.
First set: http://imgur.com/a/Ln31U
Second set: http://imgur.com/a/dYvip
As I’ve said, I’ve searched every wall in both dungeons manually, and have found nothing.
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I will check if I can see any hints of the boss room being there. Before it gets too frustrating, I would say skip that priest quest. It is not critical for the main story line and your cleric can become an exorcist which is a bit more powerful.
This would be the first case of a boss not spawning in either of the two, but I can’t rule it out.
I will let you know though if a see anything in the room pictures. Thanks.
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can’t see anything obvious you may have missed. but just to check, the 2nd relevant cave I mentioned is this one, have you gone thoroughly through that as well? And I don’t mean for you to do it again, I am sure it is frustrating to do. Just wondering.
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Yes, that’s the other one I pictured above. No luck there.
Okay, thank you very much for the help. I guess I’ll just shelf this quest and move on. On the plus side, my characters are all very leveled up now that I’ve spent so much time destroying orcs and giants!
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Does increasing the difficulty also increase XP and loot quality?
Amazing game also. My only complaint is that I want more content. 2 chapters feels like just a tease. =)
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Higher difficulty LOWERS XP.
But it increases loot drop count. But not quality. Just more of the same. Rare and not rare stuff.
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What guilds will eventually give access to Avatar?
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Not fully decided yet. Current thinking is that in the chapter3 expansion you can either turn someone (anyone) into an avatar, or a spellcaster into an archmage to progress two different story paths.
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Love the game! Is it possible to go further into the elf/Druid village?
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Not in the current storyline, but I leave many ‘doors’ behind so that chapter3 expansion can make use of previous maps and makes the player explore further into existing locations. Like elf city, Zomok’s seal, the grave in the outlaw village on the island, Parnosz’ second door, the sealed mines in the mountain path, the broken bridge…
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Would it be possible to have an additional option added to the Auto-combat selections that allowed characters with Weapon Swap to switch their weapon when an enemy is adjacent to them the first time? It would allow Rangers and the others to use bows, then switch to melee weapons… no need to make it too complicated, just once a combat on the first adjacent enemy.
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I am currently working on expansion and spinoff so would only change DoC for bugs. But I will note it on my list of things to look into over time! Thanks.
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Missed the kickstarter, but this game has sucked me in like the rpgs of my youth! Any chance of post funding access to kickstarter rewards for new pledges and/or a place to donate to the efforts!?
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You can still join the pledgers at any pledge level you like, just email me what reward level you want and I we do it via paypal, I add you to the list and send you things that already went out.
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Cool. I messaged you on the FB page. Couple of things I noticed – one playthrough one of my wizards received a grimoire upon class conversion with “Berserker’s will + 7” – adding BWill to them and then gave them some sweet staves to go toe to toe with dark armor on. Fun stuff, but is that a bug I am guessing?
On the Barbs/Zerkers – is there thought to why they do not have access to sprint? I love them, but they are too slow to match up with assasins and samurai, they never get in place in autocombat due to pathing and the speed of the others.
Is there any plan for allowing per day use powers to be incorporated into auto-combat? poison boost, backstab, determination, etc.
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Thanks! The grim pore sounds like a bug. I will try and track that down.
On SPRINT, I wanted to differentiate the classes a bit, and almost all others have sprint.
On daily powers, I want to keep them manual to let manual intervention feel powerful. And also, daily powers used at the wrong time can mean defeat so I don’t want to try and create an AI that then misses expectations. 😎
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Understandable on the daily use powers. One thing I noticed is that occasionally when coming out of auto-battle, one of my casters is next to a mob and gets whacked before I have a chance to bring up their turn. One fix to consider would be some sort of a blink spell for casters – effectively a shadow shift without being able to select their endpoint – a short range random teleport, increased levels increase how many spaces away the teleport moves them.
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Yes I got a fan suggest the same thing yesterday. Will put it in my list!
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