The Blacksmith's Apprentice - Version 1.5 released

[seven]

Awesome game.

You did a great job at making the task of fetching coal seem like something important and worthwhile to do. I also liked how the game kept hinting at something much more important going on. Whatever was going on for the moment was fun and interesting and it always seemed as the future would hold even more interesting things. The characterization is also great. All important characters added something worthwhile and I never felt that a character was boring me.

The battles aren't so good however. Kill 30+ of the same enemy? I have yet to see any encounter that is fun ten times, much less thirty times. Even ignoring the Krakens, there seem to be way to little variety between the enemies.

I'll agree with this. The battles are a bit monotonous.

I think that could be solved with enemies that are simmilar but not the same in the same areas. As for the ghost boss, he dies very quickly, actually. All you have to do is continuosly use Python Dance on him, and make sure Arthur inflicts his poison arrow. It's much harder if you have not yet aquired these skills.

 

[Speedpaws]

My post was a joke post? wow Aeros, your a jerk. I'm serious! I'm stuck in this freakin town because theres an exclimation point and no freakin theif to talk to. But I cant leave the town until I talk to someone who isn't there! It's probably a glitch... it really is pissing me off because I want to move on yet I can't.

Edit: proof here. there's no theif, and when I go over to that area I interact with everything but no one to talk to.

http://img50.imageshack.us/img50/6088/notheifko5.png[/img]

 

[seven]

Hm... I'll wait and let juno take a look at this. It looks pretty nasty.

 

[Aeros]

Hey man, my bad, no need for name calling.

 

[Speedpaws]

Saying someone is a jerk really isnt name calling if they really did act like a jerk...

anyway, back on topic, I hope juno gets on soon and somehow fixes this glitch, I want to keep on playing...

 

[seven]

I sent juno an email. He should come online as soon as he gets the chance. :smile:

 

[dadevvtsvre]

Well, after looking over the project thread, the game looks decent, to say the least. Your mapping needs some improvement, and your font is sort of hard to read. I'm downloading at the moment.

Oh, and I see you're using Naramura battlers and facesets, but I checked over your thread, and fail to see some credits listed there. I'm pretty sure you need to list them there. Unless, of course, they're already there, in which case I'd like to see.  :smile:

Just a word of advice-fogs can make maps look much better as well.

EDIT: Okay, just finished playing the game for about ten minutes. Pretty impressive, I'd say. The whole quest system really helps make the game better. Mapping isn't all that great, especially the indoor maps.

The option to play a tutorial is fairly nifty, I'd say, even though pretty much everyone here knows how to play, anyway. I'm really not liking your font style, it's fairly hard to read. One thing I really liked about the game is the music! Oh man, those are some great music choices! It really helps add some depth to the fairly sub-par maps. And the horse riding option is a really great idea. I know this might be hard to do, but you could make it so Thistle waits for you when you get off, instead of just magically disappearing back to the stable. Just a thought.  :thumb:

Overall, I'm pretty impressed. A great game, really. A few flaws, for sure, but what game doesn't have any flaws, really? If I had to rate my playing experience so far, I'd rate it at about 7 out of 10. Good, but definitely room for improvement. So good luck finishing this thing, man. (10 hours and only 30% complete?  :crazy

 

[seven]

This site needs a 30+ hour game, anyway. The only attractions here these days seem to be MoTW, USG, and Quintessence. It's time for a change, man, CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN. [/John McCain]

 

[Speedpaws]

Haha. Yeah. I really like this game. One of my favorites, but I'm still stuck -.- and i dont want to go back to another saved game because i'm already 5 levels higher than the last save point =(

 

[seven]

Like I said, I emailed juno and he should come and check this out when he next looks at his email. I'm sorry, but at this point it looks like you'll just have to be patient. :/

 

[Speedpaws]

With a game like this, it's hard to be patient :P that's a compliment. lol.

 

[Juno]

Wow, this thread really took off in my absence!  I just moved, and my new home doesn't have internet just yet.  (Hope to rectify that soon, however.)

@Speedpaws:  Sorry for that glitch.  I was hoping I had found and removed any game-killing bugs, but I guess I hadn't.  I'll be posting a fix as soon as I can.  Thanks for being patient!

@KRoP:  The fishing pole problem:

Spoiler

The only one that works is the Wooden Fishing Pole.  If you get the Yew Fishing Pole, you need to take it to Roland's boy, who will give you the Wooden one in return.

 

[seven]

Hm... that doesn't exactly make sense to me, but I guess I could try that some time.

 

[Aeros]

Wow paws, such hostility....

Juno, you might consider renaming those poles. Just make them something so that the first incarnation makes it relatively obvious to the player that it is unusable (or perhaps just add that to the item description), and the traded up version can really be anything.

And for what its worth, my favorite part of the game was the maps. I think they are very well done. I can tell that you were going for something more realistic (there's that word again). 

 

[Juno]

Thanks all for the great feedback, everyone.  It really helps me improve on this beast of a project.  My plan is to post a fixed version tomorrow... I have been adding a bunch of new stuff, mostly scripts based on suggestions from KRoP.  The new version will have a better weather system (CCoa's), the Cogwheel slanted bars for combat, as well as a Stat point Distribution system for when characters level up.  (And credits going to where they need, of course.)  But I want to make sure everything WORKS before posting the new file.  Thanks again for the ideas, King Red!

@ Davevstar: I didn't realize I needed to credit Naramura, since the graphics resources were posted on their main website.  Is that normally done?

@KRoP:  I'm changing the way the fishing poles work, so the fixed version will allow players to fish with either pole.

 

[seven]

Well... It would be more proper to credit Narumara, yes. I'm glad to hear my ideas being heard, too. Good luck with the scripts and such!
Also, another bug. In the forest for the town east(?) of Lief's Haven, in the dog sidequest, I find the dog, he follows me, but there's a thin expanse I have to go through where the dog stops and just walks up and down right next to it (I guess you need to make the space bigger :S), but luckily he was on the map when I went back into town. So... you might want to fix this (as well as Speedpaws' problem).

 

[Speedpaws]

Oh juno, just to make sure you understand, this error happened during the dwarf quest. i left the town and took the carivan back to theifs haven, and thats when i got the glitch with the guy.

 

[Crystalgate]

...as well as a Stat point Distribution system for when characters level up.

Does that mean the player can distribute the stats? This can be the start of many problems, but it would be great if you do manage to get such a system right.

 

[seven]

...as well as a Stat point Distribution system for when characters level up.

Does that mean the player can distribute the stats? This can be the start of many problems, but it would be great if you do manage to get such a system right.

I can imagine this be troubling myself, especially with turn based battles.

 

[Speedpaws]

if you add those systems, will we have to restart the game so it works? that would really suck...