2 Kingdoms Demo

[luxregina]

Two personns have completed the game :MTEV, and fersteger ! Cheers !
I will put your pseudo, or whatever you want to, in the end credits

By the way, i was thinking building hi-scores/Heroes tables: XP + Name + stats for those who finish : a bit like in the action games - could be fun, no ?

EDIT :I see there is a page change so i report part of the previous post here : don't forget to refresh your cache, i've corrected the demo and added few things

[fersteger]

Hey Lux Ive played the game a lot more and succesfully mastered the demo, I killed every enemy and completed every quest. Ive got some comments and questions for you now.

Some more bugs, when using potions sometimes it takes a couple seconds before the health bar recharges , I thought at first that the potions werent working at all, but after walking around for awhile it eventually fills up.

In the mines a potion and meat were placed on a wall tile and are inaccessable.

When I was supposed to get the armor and shield for completing the book quest. I only had one free slot in inventory so I only got the shield. Perhaps items that overload inventory should be placed on map rather than discarded indefinetly.

The game is much easier now and unless you are about to be surrounded
by enemies there's no need to run anymore which is good, feel like less of a ***** now.

Did you put more potions in this update? It seems like there are too many early on but just the right amount later, in mines. The meat is a good idea, and no longer losing HP while walking is good, cuz you have to do a lot of exploring and backtracking to get the quests. I think people will be much more likely to finish the demo in one or two tries now. But maybe have diffuculty settings if possible cuz having played it for awhile now its ridiculously easy.

Having the super armor and sword on the lava was confusing. I didnt think you could walk on it. Or maybe you couldnt until after killing the demon. I killed it before being asked to and explored more before returing and finding the items.

Two things bothered me about the controls. You could hold left or right arrow and then press up or down and you'll change direction, but if you hold down up or down, and press left or right you dont. Its easier to manuever thru the maze like areas being able to hold keys, it feels more natural and quicker. Also you cant attack if youre holding an arrow key, I think you should be able to.

I think the characters who give you missions should be less out of the way, every mission I ended up completing them before even talking to the person who gives it.

I worry about the save feature cuz saving too often, I think you'll lose any urgency in the gameplay, I think the length of the demo is a good length for in between saves.

also I dont know if you would use this but by using updateAfterEvent on the mouse cursor it updates the graphic every time the mouse moves independant of the frame rate of the movie allowing for smoother mousemovement. The cursor in the game has very bad delay. heres how I use it
onClipEvent (mouseMove) {
Mouse.hide();
startDrag (_root.mouseGraphic, true);
updateAfterEvent();
}


Also what are the cutscenes like? animated or still frame? voiceover or dialogue?

Sorry for posting so much but Its really exciting to see this game being completed, I think its a huge step in Flash game design and I really want the game to be as great as it could be, which I'm sure it will be. =/

You did a great job and I hope everyone in this forum plays this, If you havent yet DO IT!

[skate_boarder_43]

Great game. Ive been waiting for a beta. I cant wait for a full version. I have no ideas that haven't been said already besides that now that you don't lose health when you're walking, I think you should get rid of some of the potions.

Bugs and minor problems
When you start out you go north, east, east, north, and then west and then head to the most northern or southern path and head east. I think the paths should either be blocked by some trees at the end or connected to the map to the east because it seems like the paths should keep on going.
A tiny bug came about when I didnt equip the first sword, got the second sword from the town elders, and picked up two potions. I then picked up the shield that the old man had, but my inventory was filled so it didnt go anywhere. When i left the map and then came back, the sheild was back so this is just a minor bug.
In the second snow map, when you exit to the northeast you are then placed on a snow cliff tile that is supposed to be unwalkable and the tile doesnt show up unless you move far enough away that you can't see it. It is restored when you walk back up there.
Maybe you want a swinging door in the mine instead of just walking through it.
In one of the rooms in the mine a piece of chicken is on a rock where you cant get it.

[SaphuA]

Hy dude srry I'm late!

I don't have internet at home for a while, and I'm at school now...

I tried to vieuw you demo a few days ag (at school) but got kicked out cuz we're not alowed to play games here

Although the start looked very very very good I realy liked it, sound is great inventory worked etc...

I can't say much now cuz I made it to the key (with a direct path), then I got kicked out. So that's not much I guess

So wait for me before ewnding the demo! I wanna be a beta tester

Will have internet in about a week or so...

Greetz,
SaphuA

[luxregina]

Hey !

A corrected version of the demo (ver 1.02) will be online sunday - i will tell you more about the changes then

when using potions sometimes it takes a couple seconds before the health bar recharges
True : it does that only when the health is over 50% : there might be a test messing it up somewhere, i will dig the code for that ...

I only had one free slot in inventory so I only got the shield.

I will try to correct that, though it is tougher than it seems : i have to make sure that the NPC doesn't actually drop the object on a non-walkable tile (though i will check but maybe by droping the object just in front of him (down) it could be ok ...)

Did you put more potions in this update? (...)But maybe have diffuculty settings (...) now its ridiculously easy.
No i didn't add any potions, though i lowered Orcs damages : i will get rid of 2 or 3 potions in the begining - i will also re-script the elf sequence so that when you complete his quest, he uses the book to heal you !
I will definitely put a difficulty level : it will add extra dammage to the enemies and certainly use the life-droping when walking - that way, playing a second time, knowing the maps will be a different challenge

Two things bothered me about the controls
i will check that to see what i can do .

characters who give you missions should be less out of the way
Really ? all of them ? i will see if i cannot make the quests objects appear only when you are aware of the quest. For the prisonner, in the Mines, i will certainly include another prisonner that will hint you to go and deliver his bro this one is really 'out of the way' but he also is in the only logical location he could be - that's the problem with having designed the maps so long ago

I worry about the save feature
You shouldn't : the demo should certainly stay non-savable, as the number of maps do not nessecerly needs that feature ( 46 maps sounds a lot, but it can go pretty quickly if you know where you're going )
I want to keep the fact that finishing the game is a challenge : it's easier now, so i should see more and more people completing it ...

For the final version, i will certainly insert 6-7 maps on each demo 'level' (a.k.a Village, Dark Forest, Mountains and mines) so that the 'episodes' will be longer and the saving feature won't spoil the challenge ( there are basicly 3 episodes in the demo, which means 3 save-points )

Also what are the cutscenes like? animated or still frame? voiceover or dialogue?
Animated with dialogue :
Stupid i am : i forgot to post the links for the cut-scenes that are finished :
http://grafikdezign.free.fr/teaser.htm ( introduction - the demo version starts a bit after that, i have to make few extra maps to correct this )
http://grafikdezign.free.fr/teaser2.htm ( arrival to Galadorn ) there too i will have to change the current map to include hung people and burning houses !

Sorry for posting so much please ! keep doing this : it's valuable comments and helps me a lot !!!

I think the paths should either be blocked in fact, they will be used to insert new maps in the final release !

a piece of chicken is on a rock where you cant get it. this will definitely be dealt with for sunday !!!

Thanks for feedback, again ! - skate_boarder_43 is our new winner ! congratulations !
For those who finished the game but would like to continue testing various features, i can create a 'no dying' version, including some maps of the final release, a general map of the whole world -

Would any of you be interested in designing some levels ? i have my map editor : nothing to code, just drawing, and i could release it so some of you can design whole levels for the game ( and thus, be listed in the credits as 'additionnal level-designer' )

[MTEV]

Hi Lux,

One more thing I forgot to mention in my first post.
When you open your inventory to use a potion (or anything for that matter) the game just keeps going on. Orcs keep hitting me so I can't even change weapons or use a potion...besides that a pause function would be really nice to have (you'd have to code one anyway for the inventory if you like the idea)...I don't know if this is already included in the latest version, cause I din't have the chance to play yet...

Keep up the good work!

[fersteger]

the cinema scenes look awesome,
Did you do the background graphics of the mountains and stuff.?
They look awesome, How did you create those? Photoshop?
How did you do the graphics for interface and titles? Are they photoshopped or 3D?

The text in the beginning is weird "Lothar come back from a long journey" something like that, the grammar is off. The text should stay on screen a little longer cuz I had to watch twice to read it all.

It seems the north,south,east ,west directions are messed up, cuz on the map and in the game it seems the directions dont match up, 'south to the forest'? maybe I missed something though.

I would like to create a map or two as well. I used to make maps all the time for warcraft and starcraft. I wouldnt mind playing some new maps either.

I was also wondering if the demo is the beginning level of the final game or will it be different.

[DELETED_jtnw]

hey lux, you've got pm
btw: the cinema is looking great!

[TiefighT]

Awsome work, great job!

Haven't played it all the way through yet, I got killed about half way into the "get the book of healing" quest because of a glitch (see below), but I will try it again later and see if I can't complete it.

Anyway, here are my comments, some are nitpicky, but only because you have obviously put so much time and effort into the game, I figure you want to have all the info./opinions you can.

1) The orc archers are just too fast. I guess if Sir Lothar is the kind of guy who chases around fat archers at full sprint, waving his sword around like a madman hoping to score a hit it works, but..yah .

Actually, the speed wouldn't be bad if you just had them stop in their tracks occasionally (to see if you are still chasing them?) so you can have a chance to hit them.

2) If you use two potions in a row, the second one updates the actual health variable, as well as the numbered counter (I assume because it is directly linked to the health variable?), but doesn't update the graphical life bar. The life bar remains less than it should be until it gets updated again (you get hit).

3) It does seem easy now, mabey make the potions only heal 20 or 30 points? The difficulty was actually about right for me since I was trying to kill everything I saw, but most people won't do that, and since you can just run right by most enemies, the game would be laughably easy for them.

4) nit-pick alert..When you have a tile that is taller than the standard height, it doesn't get duplicated/attached until it actually appears on screen. The result is that as you go north from a town, the towers gradually move away and then just dissapear suddenly, if you go back down, they pop back in with half of the tower showing. Again this is nit-picky, but you have such an excellent visual style going I thought I should throw it in.

5) I died due to a wierd little bug, haven't reproduced it yet but I will let you know if I can. Basically, I was in the snowy forest and ran away from a couple ogres, but one of them kept swinging, and evertime he swung he kept taking life away (eventually killing me) even though he wasn't visible on the screen any longer.

6) (another nit-pick) I would actually prefer the sound of the sword swinging to outrank the sound of the ogres attacking. When I attack more than one, I eventually *only* hear the ogres grunting, and as a result I don't think I am hitting the guy, when I actually am.

7) Just a re-iteration that the inventory is a little dicey to use in the middle of a fight. Pausing the game when the inventory is up, using hotkeys for potions, or even having the background partially transparent and still allowing movement/attack would all be viable solutions (and it looks like you are working on one or two fo them, so no worries ).

All in all, awsome job! A+ on idea, music, visuals, implementation...heck, all of it

[DELETED_jtnw]

Originally posted by TiefighT
5) I died due to a wierd little bug, haven't reproduced it yet but I will let you know if I can. Basically, I was in the snowy forest and ran away from a couple ogres, but one of them kept swinging, and evertime he swung he kept taking life away (eventually killing me) even though he wasn't visible on the screen any longer.

i got the same bug, i was in the mines, my health was low and i got ambushed so i ran away but died without even getting hit

[sspskater]

Awesome rpg lux. I love the quest system though minor problems that already came to your attention. I agree with everyone else who posted suggestions.

A bug i found was i used a potion and it took life away from me??? I was in the forest with the orcs when this happened. I walked around hoping it would raise my health but nothing happen it just drained life. Im not sure if im the only one.

Can't wait till the full version, thanks for the eye candy
Good luck.

[random10122]

Everything has been mentioned, i have tried a few times now.. everytime i get further but never past the snowy place (I got cornered again on the last turn)

- Just one glitch, When you come out the end of the forest into that little village/camp, with the green buildings - there is a fountain you can walk ontop of.

- Also, if anyone finds it too jerky when raining, knock the quality down to low and it makes fighting wolves etc that little bit easier.

[Olorin]

Well, I've finaly finished the game (those last few dwarves are so easy to kill with the bonesaw and full armour )

It's a very nice game so far, but there are lots of things that could still be improved. (I haven't read all the comments, so there will be things here that have been mentioned before):

- the game played quite slow om my 633 mhz computer, and it crawled when the rain started to fall. Setting it to low quality while it was raining helped a lot though, so maybe it would be a good idea if the rain was a bitmap and not a vector graphic.

- There seems to be a problem with the tile engine in the top corner. Sometimes tiles just disappear and re-appear when you walk around there.

- the game should stop when the inventory is opened

- drag and drop inventory system would be very nice, and maybe an "are you sure ? yes/no" message box when discarding items. (or placing discarded items on the ground, so they can be picked up again later

- scrolling the text should be done on mouseDown not on mouseOver. (keyboard scrolling would be even better)

- Dwarves working with orcs ??? how could you!

Olorin

[Baukereg]

Hé, about the walking-damage; here's an idea:
Maybe, if you are going to add some Mordor-like land, or Undead territory, you can use walking-damage; because the air is poisened, or something like that.

And about the gameplay; you can finish a quest, before you talk with the NPC who tells you about the quest. You could use something like: "Can you help me? I'm looking for my key. I will open the gate to the forest where I lost it." This way, you can only start with a quest if you talked to the right NPC. And ofcourse this way, you can't walk straight to the mines and beyond without completing quests; something like: "Thanks for helping me. Here's the key to enter te mines as a reward!"

[SaphuA]

[DUTCH]
Die Tolkien encyclopedie is super dik vet gaaf

Mooi gedaan!
[/DUTCH]

Srry couldn't find the pm button

[luxregina]

Thank you guys for your replies ! i'm a bit off tonight ( a lot of work...at work ) - The demo should dramaticly improve next week end (or around that... : pause, quest journal and save system + some goodies ) (though i will still release a new demo this week-end)
Your comments are extremly important, as i want to take time to balance the difficulty of the game : there are enough, 'really' bad guys ahead to start easy at the begining !

- Not talking about the rebalance of damages / bonuses in the demo for this sunday, i'm also introducing a new element : the one that have finished the demo know that they (should) end up with a big shield, the plate armour and the bonesaw : i've decided to allow certain XP credits to each 'big' weapon .
Follow me : everytime you kill an enemy, you get XP points that are unused in the game ...until now, i knew i would use them, but didn't exactly knew how :

I was thinking of a system where all important weapons / armours / magic items would requiere a certain amount of XP - this is common - the twist would be that those objects substracts temporarly their need to your XP, that way, you would really HAVE TO kill enemies if you want to go through the whole game, but there would also be a (small) strategic aspect to balance the carried objects according to the XP amount won in combat ... if you have any comments or questions on that, feel free to answer

----- some personnal messages --------
SaphuA -> Feel free to add your comments whenever you want : i know you've been working hard on your RPG too, so you certainly have suggestions

TiefighT -> Tttt...not finished yet ? you're late ! Thanks for your comments : if you have courage, you will read that i already answered few points, but here are the new answers/tweaks you bring :
1)(thanks for putting numbers ! ) -> archers will be slower in ver 1.02 - though they will shoot more often !

3) yeah ! a bit easy - though this is just the demo, and i can still plan this to get much harder - i don't want people to get frustrated because they do not see enough of the game, and it seemed it was the case, so ...

4) aware of that - though, unfortunately, without re-writting the engine, or losing precious processor time, this will be difficult to correct ( Let's say, a sacrifice to 'amateur' God )

5) working on this ! will be corrected , i've experienced it too ...

6) Flash sorts it out itself : can i give priority privilege to a sound ? if someone know, tell me, please

fersteger -> backgrounds for the cutscenes are sometime hand drawn, most of the time pictures that i tweak in photoshop : every GFX aspect of the game is pur pixel photoshop, no 3D involved

sspskater -> potion that takes life away ? i have to check this : this is strange !!!

random10122 -> fontain will be corrected

Olorin -> Rain will become bitmap, you are right !
- the upper corner tiles bug is know, but not yet corrected
- "are you sure" button seems right, though, there won't be drag and drop ( i do not want to re-write that section, to much to do everywhere else )
- Dwarves working with orcs ??? how could you! LOL !!! in fact, being a big 'fantasy' fan myself, you can expect an argumented explaination for this : wait the full game there IS actually a quiet serious plot here

Baukereg -> painfull tiles : this is an idea to dig ! . I will manage so that the further quest will be more obvious, and the quest object farther ... or objects appear only when you know about the quest - however, plan some 'key exchange' quests for the future

Please, keep on playing, commenting, bringing new ideas , that's the best reward for me - i will try the best to tweak 2K so it gets great to play with !

[SaphuA]

Hey dude,

I could finaly test your game!

Played it pretty quick so I didn't came far (I got killed by dwarves!?)

Newayz... like I said, I realy liked it! I don't know any english words that can tell how much I like it

I've made a list of bugs for ya and some funny screenshots It's a bit to much to post here so I'll mail it to you in a sec...
Never mind the huge list, I realy had to look for them and it's just to help you! The game stays great!

[New stuff Added: 18-9]
- Chickens and potions won't always work
- You move to fast to interact with a character, so you'll miss what he's saying.
- These Dwarves I got killed by, can kill you everywhere you stand... even if theres 613853 tiles between it...
[/New stuff Added: 18-9]

BTW, theres a funny screenie in there of the santa , I saw him in your game... REALY!

[SaphuA]

Dude...

where stays your e-mail with your e-mail in it so I can e-mail you?

[fersteger]

The idea of painful tiles is cool,maybe like in the lava in the forge, in order to get the strong armor youd have to be stocked on potions, you could have areas where you have to cross lava to a safe tile, use a potion, move again and get the weopans, so youd have to have like 2 or 3 potions in order to even get them.
Hey Lux if you still want people to design maps Id definetly want to do one.

[ziplockkitty]

I think it was well made and everything, but i didnt like it.
I didnt find it fun at all (sorry if that sounds mean, its not meant to).
Its just my personal opinion on games, i have a dislike for iso-rpgs.
You did a great job though, you should be proud of it.