These are always the funnest updates and I've been working on this one in conjunction with the gamepad support. Four new Summons, one new Enchantment, three new Structures, and four new Spells (Conjurations)!
Exploring New Phylum
So back when running the Kickstarter I got called out for only having "cute" creatures. While this was kind of subjective and possible false (hey, I don't think snakes are all that cute), they did have a point when they pointed out that there were no spiders or slugs. Well, guess what? That's right, now you too can summon more bizarre creatures.
This update includes four new summons: Pirate Macaw, Nephila Architect (Spider), Crab Battlemaster (Coconut Crab), and Giant Snail.
Going wider means adding new features. Now there is also a new ability some characters will possess. After all, what's the fun of a spider if you can't climb walls!
As a side note, I'm a bit arachnophobic, so I hope you all enjoy the beast.
Other Magics
So there are already a lot of Enchantments in the game, so I reigned in my enchantment love and added only one, Earth, to round out the elemental enchantment set.
Structures get a good bump. Now you can build Turrets, Barracks, and Keys. Adding some flavor beyond just platforming elements to the spell type.
Spells (Conjurations) get the biggest bump with four new instant creations. Boulder and Ice Blast round out the launchable element set. And the addition of Alchemy and Persuade add some interesting twists to what player can do in game.
I'll be detailing half of these new spells in upcoming blog posts, so keep your eyes open. Or ... jump in the game, unlock the new spells, and see what you can do!
As always, thanks for reading. All questions, suggestions, and feedback are more than welcome.
-Del
And for fun, let's look at content tallies for the game.
Control Layout Screens You can now view the control layouts from the menu screen. There have been a few tweaks to gamepad controls.
Generated Level Fixes A few fixes to Generated Levels have been made. You should no longer see floating mission objects.
Sorry for another small update. The next one will be cool, I promise!
-Del
Small Update 0.2.34 Gamepad Support & Healer's Tent
Gamepad Support The first pass of gamepad support is in. I've tested it with a 360 controller and it seems to work pretty decent. So if you like gamepads on your PC games, give it a go and let me know what you think. I'll start doing some tweaking with it in a few weeks.
Healers Tent Having only one tent to choose from at the start felt cheap. Sure there are quite a few to unlock within the game. But I wanted to give the players a few more choices to start. So I've added the Healer's Tent. It lets players cast Heal twice from their starting camp. I think it's a good option for beggining players too.
As always: all questions, suggestions, and feedback welcome.
-Del
Update 0.2.33 New Unlockable, New Achievements, Tutorial Updates
New Achievements Four more achievements have been added. Each one attempting to teach the players the nuances of each spell type. One such one is Enchant Enemy. Sure, you can enchant yourself. Even allies. But the fun comes when you learn to debilitate your enemies!
Of course, what's a new achievement without a title!
I also added this handy achievement button to the main menu so you can track what achievements you've achieved as well as their rewards.
New Unlockable For those brave enough to complete difficulty five, there is now a new reward to unlock. The reward is well worth the effort though. Good luck!
Tutorial and Other Fixes I spent a bit of time touching up the tutorial just a bit as well as a few other additions.
Now return to camp is a button and not an alternate attack. Hopefully this will be easier to learn and remember for players.
Missions now have a split for difficulty. Harder missions only show up on harder difficulties.
The Steam overlay should now be working properly (thanks MadSpy).
As always thanks for reading. All questions and suggestions are always welcome!
Extended Tutorial I've still be recieving feedback of confusion on the game. Believe me, I know the game is different, that is very much intentional. But good news! The tutorial section is now almost twice as long! I've tried to keep the earlier tutorials focused and repetitive of similar facts. Hopefully, this will let players get a good feel on the nuances of the mechanics. Then there are a few more sections that ramp up in size and let the player play with their new spells.
Leaderboards Using Steam4C2 has opened up the possibility of leaderboards, so, I figured, why not? Now you can compare your best score versus your friends! Unfortunately I can check for cheaters, so this is currently a friends only leaderboard.
Trading Cards, Badges, Emoticons, & Backgrounds This one has be asked for by several Steam players, so, here it is! Trading Cards come in sets of Wardens and Realms.
There are then the unlockable badges of various levels.
And of course the rewards of various emoticons and profile backgrounds. There is a background for each Realm and emoticons for each gem type and guide.
Other Things And of course there have been a few bug fixes and polishes.
Player light should not shudder.
Environments Effects optimized.
AI optimized.
Aligned generated level castles.
Thanks for reading. All questions, suggestions, and feedback are welcome!
-Del
Update 0.2.31 Achievements & Little Spotted Kiwi
Achievements One of the first things asked for when Four Realms went live is achievements. Well, I'm pleased to announce they are now ready! Thanks to the Steam4C2 plugin, I now have a wide range of options available for Steam users. (Leaderboards anyone?)
Most are the standard run of the mill "beat the game" achievements. But I have added a few others to encourage players to really use those spells. There are 18 now, but I'm more than happy to add more. Let me know if you have any ideas!
Unlockables Most of the unlockables have technically been in the game for awhile now. Have you been wondering why there are arrows next to the Guide and Tent? Well guess what? Beat the game with various Wardens and difficulties and you will unlock new Tents and Guides to spice up the game.
Note: Difficulty five doesn't currently have a reward ... yet.
But that's not all, some of the achievements also unlock new Titles. Tired of being called Lord, Lady, or Warden? Then earn a new name for yourself. How about "Commander"?
The Kiwi is Back! OK, so most people didn't know it was gone. I implemented it and wanted it live on the start of Early Access. Only, when I was playing it right before going live, I found the Warden to be way over powered. The original power reduced the costs of Spells (not Structures, Summons, or Enchantments) by one. You could essentially cast those powerful Fireballs & Lightning Bolts for free and save up for big allies.
Now the Kiwi adds just one use to the Spells. I was hesitant to do this at first since the it seemed less powerful than the other Wardens. Oh, silly me. I think this one is just right, let me know what you think.
Since I revamped the Kiwi, I also had to revamp the Arcane Pavilion (the tent unlocked when you beat the game with the Kiwi). Now it increases your max Spell List size by one.
Which Warden?] Now that we have the full four Wardens. Which is the one to choose?
The obvious first choice is the Rainbow Mandarin Fish. Flexible and easy to understand, those extra gems come in handy. But while flexible, this Warden is not necessarily the strongest.
The next early pick is the Pinnochio Anole. While not as obvious as the Mandarin Fish. Load your list up with structures and you'll find you get a lot of more bang for your buck.
The Guinea Pigs are definitely where we enter into the intermediate zone. They clearly get a strong early bonus of an extra ally per stage, so it's not bad for beginners. But their real power comes when you understand how to maximize Skills, Equipments, and Tents.
The Kiwi is certainly the most advanced of the Wardens. It's potential doesn't shine until you've unlocked enough Spells. Then you can cleverly leverage some powerful spells to easily turn the tide.
As always thanks for reading. All questions, suggestions, and feedback is welcome!
-Del
Small Update 0.2.30 AI, Climbing, & Knockback
Note: You may need to start a new game for all changes to take effect.
First of all a special thanks to @Chobin for all the excellent feedback.
*Ladders have been improved on the AI now follow appropriately and you should not get stuck in the wall above.
*AI bugs have been addressed, they should be able to always "see" you and not get stuck idling.
*Knockback has been tweaked for a shorter duration. Also a bug was fixed where you weren't invulnerable momentarily after a knockback.
All questions suggestions and feedback is welcome!
Thanks
-Del
Update 0.2.29 Improved Tutorial
Small Things & Easier Yet A few optimizations were added. Mainly a bit of trimming to Level Generator rooms and some text database optimizations. Also, a few minor bugs were fixed such as blerbs being broken from the new HUD and a few collision issues. One bigger bug of Scaffolds not working Generated levels has been fixed. Also Events no longer require a minimum of one day. Making the game a tad easier.
I also did a few more tweaks to make the easier difficulties a even easier yet. Your Warden now starts with a health boost. Also, all environment platforms (Rain Leaves, Sun Flowers, etc.) are always on for the easy difficulties.
Health Numbers Several players have suggested using numbers instead of bars. So I've implemented it. Let me know what you think! Here is a before and after shot.
The Old Bars
The New Numbers
Expanded Tutorial The biggest thing I've noticed is players not using Spells and Allies, which is the core of the game. So, I've expanded on the tutorial to really emphasize this. There are two more sections and several more tips that point players in the direction of utilizing allies more. Play it and let me know if it helps.
Also created a few tips signs to make the finer points re-readable.
First Review (Elo Talk)] And Four Realms has it's first review. A big thank you to Kayla from Elo Talk for trying the game, sharing it on Twitch, and posting a review.
Thanks for reading. All questions, suggestions, and feedback are welcome.
Thanks
-Del
Small Update v0.2.28
Bugs
One user reported various menu bugs. While I was unable to repro most of them, I made fixes that should (or may) fix some of the issues. Exiting map menus will now always work on ESC. The cursor should not disappear. You may still get stuck on the Spell Menu, but fixes were made around this issue.
Additionally a few screen resolution bugs on the map screen have been addressed.
Optimizations
The rain effect was previously one large texture, this created serious runtime lag. It is now generated with a tilemap and should improve performance when playing in the rain.
Generated levels feature rooms with excessive climbables (plants, grates). Having so many objects created runtime issues, these issues were made worse by when multiple rooms with them were put together. Rooms now have less climbables (objects).
The Info board was still lagging the game up. It has undergone extensive optimization. It now features Sprite fonts instead of text objects. They aren't as pretty, but are far more efficient. I will try to pretty them up later, but it'll be tough to do much. And there is no Kerning adjustments for Sprite Fonts.
Additionally, resistance, weakness, and damage type were turned to icons. Object titles and info were put into seperate databases for faster loading.
In short, the Info Board should work much better!
Ongoing
There are some ongoing issues. If you have these issue please feel free to share details of how you got to them so I may have more information fixing them.
Stuck unable to exit the Spell List Menu.
Game lags, possibly from particles, then crashes. Only one report so far. If you have this issue let me know.
Direct X (DLL) lag. Some users are having issues with the game running slow, it this is likely caused by Direct X DLL issues with Construct 2. If you have this issue and want to help me look for solutions let me know. To check if you have this issue, run the tutorial level. The game will run constantly at a low FPS. If the tutorial runs fine and you have lag elsewhere, this is likely a bug, please report it.
Update v0.2.28
Bugs:
*Fix for map screen resolution bugs.
*Fix for exiting large menus on map.
*Probable fix for disappearing cursor.
*Unlikely fix for Spell Menu not returning.
Optimizations:
*New rain effect.
*Removed excess climbables from Level Generator Rooms.
*Massive update on HUD and info bar.
All questions, suggestions, and feedback welcome.
-Del
Update v0.2.27 It's getting easier.
Hey Everybody,
Just one small announcement. I haven't had a lot of feedback but I know some people are struggling with the difficulty of the game. With update v0.2.27 I made difficulties 0 and 1 easier.
Now they feature more starting Gems and more Spell Uses. This should allow you to get more Spells going and make more mistakes.
As always, all suggestions, questions, and feedback are welcome. And please, tell me about the game. Good or bad, I won't bite.
