Let's Play a Demo: "Terrin's Hunt" - Second Half

[Draygone]

LPisode #76: Terrin's Hunt - Second Half
Game by orius

Draygone figures out the inner workings of this game, kicks tail in the arena, and kills an ELF.

Wanna start at the beginning? Just click [HERE].

Interested in the game you see? Just click [HERE] to download it.
(RPG Maker for PS1 required.)
More info on the game can be found [in this topic].

[orius]

Well, I did post a reply but got timed out and the stupid Pavilion ate the post. I'm not typing at all in again.

This was mainly a tech demo that I set up hoping for some feedback, but as we all know:



So I kind of just set it aside and figured maybe I'd polish it up a bit after finishing my main project.

Like I said, the bookshelves were supposed to be a tutorial, but I rushed to finish the demo because I wanted some feedback, and forgot all about it. So that's why I put the hints in the topic where I first discussed this, but since there wasn't any feedback, I just archived the save files and forgot about them a bit.

Did I not set up the code for the hobgoblin soul? That was supposed to at least give the goblin 5 XP. Anyway, the hobgob soul is the next level of souls for the goblin, each character sprite has 4 palette swaps, so the idea is have 4 different of each kind of monster. So each palette swap of the goblin gives different levels of XP and offers different abilities. Probably the hobgob soul would make the attacks from the basic goblin group attacks.

I know it's grindy. That's one of the key things for me to work on. I know level 2 is 10 xp and level 3 is 25 IIRC, so that's 5 souls, then 8 more. The original plan was that you fight the monsters to capture their souls to power up the party or for currency, and then fight the gnomes for fresh soul gems. But the gnomes were too tough for a starting party, so I put the merchant in (he goes away after you beat the gnomes and they start showing up on the map BTW). I wanted the gnomes to be too tough for a level 1 party but a battle for about level 2. The slime and skeleton were also a bit tougher, which is why you find them deeper in, though as you could see from the mob that formed, the monsters are programmed to move towards Terrin. I think maybe the slime and skeleton would have been on a hypothetical next level, but I don't remember. I didn't want to put too much on the map because of event limits either.

The abilities will probably get tweaked a bit too. Pixie Dust is likely to be changed, since I'm pretty sure attacks wake a target up, and Terrin attacks everything.

Coding the pods was pretty complicated for me, so that might be why the script is messy. I wanted to make sure I could accomplish the basic functions that were intended:

• Activate new party members
• Add and remove party members
• Add experience. IIRC, the scripting limitations of RPG Maker meant I had to remove all the party member except the one being leveled up.
• Add abilities. I know there's a problem there with souls being lost if you try to learn something again, but I wasn't sure how to turn it off except with even more switches.

As it was, I streamlined the code and organized it a bit the best I could. I wrote the basic steps down and also tried to make it easy for the user.

Why is ELF capitalized? It's another one of the game's bad jokes. Triple attack and double attack is something I use quite a bit on stuff like bosses or large monsters to compensate for the fact that there are less enemies on the screen and thus less attacks on the party. Naturally, since the boss is solo, he got a triple attack to make up for it.

Yes, the forest is pretty sparse, but its main purpose is to place events. So it does the job. I put in several side paths and a dead end so it wouldn't be just a boring straight or single path out to the end. Otherwise, since this wasn't intended as a full game I didn't bother dressing it up more than necessary.

I think I just left everything at the default setting, which is why there's a sound effect for the dialogue box. That might be why skills are turned on too, but it looks like I was planning to use that feature in some way. My notes list these abilities for the party members:

Goblin: Attack +1
Fairy: Battle Heal
Slime: Counter
Skeleton: AI

Possibly I didn't put it in because the game only has 15 skills, so that's little more than 1 skill/character, and I like having more than one skill for the character to give a player options. I could still mess around this by using multiple system data in a full game though. Or just have one skill for each character anyway and activate the abilities.

Anyway a full game would have 12 characters to choose from. On the list are medusas, with petrification abilities and reapers with death abilities. Of course there'll be more than that. Each monster has its own small set of complimentary abilities as you can see. Note that the goblin can raise a party members attack or lower and enemy's defense, while the skeleton can raise a party member's defense or lower an enemy's attack. This wasn't set up randomly or arbitrarily, there's also a bit of logic behind it. The slime's silence ability I kind of picture as it forcing a load of slime into the target's mouth and preventing casting.

[Draygone]

Originally Posted by orius

Did I not set up the code for the hobgoblin soul?

Not sure what went wrong with that. I remember peeking at the code, and seeing that the hobgoblin souls were set to give 10XP. But that was a page you were taking over to. So my guess is that you don't have the right page priorities in the originating event. It's a good think you had me to notice this stuff, eh? :P

But the gnomes were too tough for a starting party, so I put the merchant in (he goes away after you beat the gnomes and they start showing up on the map BTW).

I forgot to go over this during the video, but you'd definately need a better back-up source for soul gems. Because, as you mentioned in another topic, if you don't have any monster souls OR soul gems, you're skrewed.

though as you could see from the mob that formed, the monsters are programmed to move towards Terrin.

Yeah, the whole mob scenario was pretty much planned. :P

Coding the pods was pretty complicated for me, so that might be why the script is messy.

The script is messy because you've got a bunch of excess branches.

I know there's a problem there with souls being lost if you try to learn something again, but I wasn't sure how to turn it off except with even more switches.

Yup, definately more switches. It means a bunch get used up, but it's gotta be done.

Possibly I didn't put it in because the game only has 15 skills, so that's little more than 1 skill/character, and I like having more than one skill for the character to give a player options. I could still mess around this by using multiple system data in a full game though. Or just have one skill for each character anyway and activate the abilities.

You could always have skills/abilities that can be used by multiple monsters.

[orius]

Originally Posted by Draygone

Not sure what went wrong with that. I remember peeking at the code, and seeing that the hobgoblin souls were set to give 10XP. But that was a page you were taking over to. So my guess is that you don't have the right page priorities in the originating event. It's a good think you had me to notice this stuff, eh? :P

Possibly I didn't bother debugging that part of the game, because I intended Joker to be about as tough as or tougher than the elf boss. So I didn't check all the stuff for myself like I usually do.

I forgot to go over this during the video, but you'd definately need a better back-up source for soul gems. Because, as you mentioned in another topic, if you don't have any monster souls OR soul gems, you're skrewed.

That's a balance issue. Like the stat boosting drops, I don't want something a player can abuse and break the game with. Balance is one of the trickiest aspects of game design, because what looks good on paper can suck in practice.

Yup, definately more switches. It means a bunch get used up, but it's gotta be done.

I try to be conservative with the switches since I'm a bit paranoid about running out. It might not be a huge problem though. So a full game would have 12 monsters, each with 4 different soul types with 3 abilities each, max. That's 144 switches, which shouldn't be too many when I think about it. That's a little over a quarter of all available switches.

You could always have skills/abilities that can be used by multiple monsters.

I'd prefer each monster to be unique, and give the player some meaningful choices when it comes to teammates. I don't want it to be something like say the dragon, reaper, and angel are the best three at the end, and a player shouldn't choose anything else. I don't like when games offer dozens of classes/abilities, and only a handful of them are worth using. Also, it depends on how the skills work in actual gameplay as well.