Vacant Sky Complete Edition: Act I+ Released!

[Crystalgate]

I finished Act II. It was an impressive game, but not without it's problems.

I liked the story. It's interesting and does a good job of conveying that something really bad is going on. Some of the missions didn't feel that important to the main story though.

The structure of the game reminded me of KOTOR 2 where you went to different planets in search for jedis. However, instead of jedis they searched for information and it happened they came a bit off track. When they didn't it was awesome however.

Spoiler

First I did the one where you returned to Act I land. This one was the weirdest. Why would Auria want go to a place where a batshit crazy man who seems to hate her said she would find redemption? You don't go to places crazy people tell you to go. Also, this mission could have been removed from the game and seemingly very little would have changed.

The mission with the medicine was fun, but again I got the feeling it could have been left out with relative little change.

The mission in Orka was awesome. It contained a lot of great information and is highly atmospheric. The secret laboratory or whatever also did a great job of conveying that something was wrong. A little bit to many enemy encounters though.

Combat has some issues. Auria ended up doing the same damage as Raymond and Vanquish despite having a much higher attack. However, I did at one point encounter a boss with very high defense and against it, Auria did more damage. This makes me suspect there's either a cap somewhere or attack doesn't increase damage, it's purpose is to serve as anti-defense.

Auria also somehow managed to take more damage than other defense heavy characters despite having both more defense than anyone else and using the superior damage reducing reaction.

Speed is still inferior to defense. Speed builds needed far more heals than defense builds. They seemed to take about twice as much damage, but far from dodged half the attacks. Not taking as many vital hits could have helped them more if it wasn't for the fact that a normal hit on them did about as much damage as vital hits did on defense builds.

Regeneration and Rejuvenation is based on current HP and SP, not maximum.

This game also falls prey to the "only spend MP on healing" rule. Anything which costs SP, but isn't healing, is way more expensive. This immunizes the game against strategy. Boosting someone's defense or speed will make him/her take less damage, but this will cost more SP than just taking the extra damage and heal up afterwards. Using any form of SP costing offensive move also ends up as a waste compared to just healing.

I do like the idea you have with the different reactions and some skills are really cool. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem the math actually adds up as it should.

 

[ChanceEntertainment]

Well. This game is definitely bad. Aside from the bad mapping outside of the places where there is good mapping, you get an error within the 5 minutes of game play after the intro.

 

[action]

How nice - let's dub a game horrible because of an unexpected bug that has so far only happened to you, that the creator did not intend for. Who doesn't love that?

If you would like to actually play the game, rather than complain about the error that you got, post more about the error, with a screenshot, the Act you're playing, and where it happened, and I'm sure someone can help you. I'm sure someone will be able to figure it out.

(No, this isn't flaming, people.)

I just got a chance to play a bit through Act II, and I'm much impressed - quite a bit of an improvement (although I miss the eyes from the old face graphics, especially seri's) The dialogue has improved, and I'm glad. Ah, and great job Tarranon - this Act's music is amazing! Even better than the last. I love the new jazzy music you've put in. (Rhodes EP forever!)

Gonna go play some more later,
-abreaction

 

[ganonfrog]

Well. This game is definitely bad. Aside from the bad mapping outside of the places where there is good mapping, you get an error within the 5 minutes of game play after the intro.

... You know, there's a fix for just that error right on the first post of this topic. You're awfully quick to judge though, aren't you? How can you properly judge the game given only five minutes of playtime?

 

[ChanceEntertainment]

Well. This game is definitely bad. Aside from the bad mapping outside of the places where there is good mapping, you get an error within the 5 minutes of game play after the intro.

... You know, there's a fix for just that error right on the first post of this topic. You're awfully quick to judge though, aren't you? How can you properly judge the game given only five minutes of playtime?

... because I played the game before it had the intro?

 

[action]

But you still don't have anything but some bad mapping to support your argument. Thin before you speak please. You sort of made it seem that you judged it for 5 minutes, as you said nothing about playing it before it having the intro.

 

[Sailerius]

I finished Act II. It was an impressive game, but not without it's problems.

I liked the story. It's interesting and does a good job of conveying that something really bad is going on. Some of the missions didn't feel that important to the main story though.

The structure of the game reminded me of KOTOR 2 where you went to different planets in search for jedis. However, instead of jedis they searched for information and it happened they came a bit off track. When they didn't it was awesome however.

Spoiler

First I did the one where you returned to Act I land. This one was the weirdest. Why would Auria want go to a place where a batshit crazy man who seems to hate her said she would find redemption? You don't go to places crazy people tell you to go. Also, this mission could have been removed from the game and seemingly very little would have changed.

The mission with the medicine was fun, but again I got the feeling it could have been left out with relative little change.

The mission in Orka was awesome. It contained a lot of great information and is highly atmospheric. The secret laboratory or whatever also did a great job of conveying that something was wrong. A little bit to many enemy encounters though.

Combat has some issues. Auria ended up doing the same damage as Raymond and Vanquish despite having a much higher attack. However, I did at one point encounter a boss with very high defense and against it, Auria did more damage. This makes me suspect there's either a cap somewhere or attack doesn't increase damage, it's purpose is to serve as anti-defense.

Auria also somehow managed to take more damage than other defense heavy characters despite having both more defense than anyone else and using the superior damage reducing reaction.

Speed is still inferior to defense. Speed builds needed far more heals than defense builds. They seemed to take about twice as much damage, but far from dodged half the attacks. Not taking as many vital hits could have helped them more if it wasn't for the fact that a normal hit on them did about as much damage as vital hits did on defense builds.

Regeneration and Rejuvenation is based on current HP and SP, not maximum.

This game also falls prey to the "only spend MP on healing" rule. Anything which costs SP, but isn't healing, is way more expensive. This immunizes the game against strategy. Boosting someone's defense or speed will make him/her take less damage, but this will cost more SP than just taking the extra damage and heal up afterwards. Using any form of SP costing offensive move also ends up as a waste compared to just healing.

I do like the idea you have with the different reactions and some skills are really cool. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem the math actually adds up as it should.

Thanks for playing and the critique! I was really hoping to get some feedback on the updates to the combat system.

The three areas you visited seem random and tangential now, but there was a purpose for each of them that ties into the main story and it'll be visited in Act III.

Speed builds are just as powerful as defense builds as long as you play them correctly. Did you upgrade to Lightning Reflexes, the improved dodge reaction? That will make it so you start dodging 65% of the time, assuming you have high enough Speed.

And I see your point about healing...do you think that would be resolved by lowering the SP cost of First Aid?

 

[Crystalgate]

Speed builds are just as powerful as defense builds as long as you play them correctly. Did you upgrade to Lightning Reflexes, the improved dodge reaction? That will make it so you start dodging 65% of the time, assuming you have high enough Speed.

I made Auria a defense build, so I never got Lightning Reflexes for her. What I did was to compare speed characters like Seri and Vel to defense characters. Seri definitely got Lightning Reflexes, but didn't come close to those 65%. She dodged about half of that. 65% dodge would however certainly be enough, I noticed defense characters toke about half the damage speed characters did. I suppose Auria could become a viable speed character, but Seri and Vel were definitely inferior to defense characters.

And I see your point about healing...do you think that would be resolved by lowering the SP cost of First Aid?

That would worsen the problem.

Let's take Invigorate as an example. It raises an ally's defense for 185 SP. First Aid skills gives 3 HP per SP, so those 185 SP would have allowed you to heal 555 HP. In order for Invigorate to become viable, the extra defense it gives has to prevent 555 HP worth of damage while active. If you lower the cost of First Aid, you raise the amount of damage Invigorate has to prevent in order to become viable.

Granted, defense up moves can be viable by preventing a character from getting killed, but that's rarely the threat in this game. Monsters seem to rely on exhausting characters rather than blitzing them.

You could try lowering the cost of non healing moves. I haven't tested them all, but those I had were hardly this powerful they needed a huge cost. Some stopped being useful altogether once [Attack] II became available.

 

[gRaViJa]

Just finished Act I and downloading Act II as we're speaking. I must say this is one of the best rmxp games i played. Congrats! I was wondering, since there are probably different Volumes each having different Acts, how many acts will you release in total? Look's like a huge project.

 

[Sailerius]

Speed builds are just as powerful as defense builds as long as you play them correctly. Did you upgrade to Lightning Reflexes, the improved dodge reaction? That will make it so you start dodging 65% of the time, assuming you have high enough Speed.

I made Auria a defense build, so I never got Lightning Reflexes for her. What I did was to compare speed characters like Seri and Vel to defense characters. Seri definitely got Lightning Reflexes, but didn't come close to those 65%. She dodged about half of that. 65% dodge would however certainly be enough, I noticed defense characters toke about half the damage speed characters did. I suppose Auria could become a viable speed character, but Seri and Vel were definitely inferior to defense characters.

And I see your point about healing...do you think that would be resolved by lowering the SP cost of First Aid?

That would worsen the problem.

Let's take Invigorate as an example. It raises an ally's defense for 185 SP. First Aid skills gives 3 HP per SP, so those 185 SP would have allowed you to heal 555 HP. In order for Invigorate to become viable, the extra defense it gives has to prevent 555 HP worth of damage while active. If you lower the cost of First Aid, you raise the amount of damage Invigorate has to prevent in order to become viable.

Granted, defense up moves can be viable by preventing a character from getting killed, but that's rarely the threat in this game. Monsters seem to rely on exhausting characters rather than blitzing them.

You could try lowering the cost of non healing moves. I haven't tested them all, but those I had were hardly this powerful they needed a huge cost. Some stopped being useful altogether once [Attack] II became available.

That's a good point. I'll give that a shot.

Just finished Act I and downloading Act II as we're speaking. I must say this is one of the best rmxp games i played. Congrats! I was wondering, since there are probably different Volumes each having different Acts, how many acts will you release in total? Look's like a huge project.

Thanks for playing! I hope you enjoy Act II; I personally think it surpasses Act I in every way. There's going to be a total of three Acts for Contention. I've been playing around with ideas for what to do after that but there's nothing in stone right now.

 

[Sailerius]

Been quiet for a while, but I've been putting hellish hours into Act III. Here's a promo image to prove I haven't been slacking:

 

[gRaViJa]

Looks great. She's wearing another shirt here huh?

About the game: I was really enjoying it, untill I got in the secret rooms of the first Virad. I always won all battles first time, but now I always get killed, and I don't like the mirror thingy to much, honestly. I stopped playing for a week now. Later this evening I'll try again because apart from this dungeon i'm enjoying it a lot.

 

[Sailerius]

Looks great. She's wearing another shirt here huh?

About the game: I was really enjoying it, untill I got in the secret rooms of the first Virad. I always won all battles first time, but now I always get killed, and I don't like the mirror thingy to much, honestly. I stopped playing for a week now. Later this evening I'll try again because apart from this dungeon i'm enjoying it a lot.

What party are you using? Don't underestimate the importance of healing. If you haven't purchased First Aid for Auria, it's a pretty good investment. Sorry to hear about your frustration. ^^; I hope it doesn't dissuade you from finishing. What areas have you been to so far other than Orka?

Also, on a more general note, I've got a track from Act III to show off, titled Into Oblivion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf45s31Y_Qc

 

[gRaViJa]

Looks great. She's wearing another shirt here huh?

About the game: I was really enjoying it, untill I got in the secret rooms of the first Virad. I always won all battles first time, but now I always get killed, and I don't like the mirror thingy to much, honestly. I stopped playing for a week now. Later this evening I'll try again because apart from this dungeon i'm enjoying it a lot.

What party are you using? Don't underestimate the importance of healing. If you haven't purchased First Aid for Auria, it's a pretty good investment. Sorry to hear about your frustration. ^^; I hope it doesn't dissuade you from finishing. What areas have you been to so far other than Orka?

Also, on a more general note, I've got a track from Act III to show off, titled Into Oblivion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf45s31Y_Qc

I purchased First Aid I and II, so in my opinion this dungeon is a little unbalanced. I went to that town with the mysterious disease lurking around before, forgot it's name right now. New song sound good. I'm looking forward to part 3

 

[zchin]

This seems like a very interesting, but for some reason, I can't find the summary or story to the game, I'll try and play it someday this weekend, and give you comments about that, but for now, I just think that it's very important to keep a certain perspective, i found that issue on the last screenshot, or the one with the portal, I'll give you some more feedback after I play the game, hopefully I'll give better feedback :smile:

Edit: okay. I got stuck at the first part when I'm supposed to look for the haunted house or something, all I can say right now is that it's very nice. But I don't really like the comments when you observe things when being a Virad. I stopped playing at the part when (ugh, what's her name...) the main character didn't do her homework, and then I did my homework. The mapping is nice but there are still some mapping issues here and there, If you used an event on the map it might work out (on the map with the main characters house is located on at the top left corner of fences are). At the beginning it bothered me that they the Virad couldn't just move the barrels of explosives or transport behind, and also blast through walls and stuff.



Thank you and have a nice day!

 

[Speedpaws]

I have spent the past 10 hours if not more of my day playing 1 and 2 and have finished them both. I have to say that this is such an awesome game. I haven't played a game this good for a long time. The original music helps a lot, and I have to say there wasn't one song I didn't love. The plot is intense and very interesting. It has certainly drawn me in to love the characters and hate others. You do well with your character development. The battle system was well developed too, with the custom animated graphics. I'm very impressed by the time you have taken with the development of this game. I'm very excited for number 3 to come out. Though I hope for 3, you will allow the save file from 2 to be transferred over so my stats will be transferred. Haha. That would be cool. All in all, I have to say I loved this game. You definitely have a new fan. I've been looking for a fun game to play, and I found it.

 

[gRaViJa]

You could transfer you save file from part 1 to part 2 as well?

 

[Speedpaws]

No you couldn't. At least it didn't work for me. You didn't really need to anyway since all the battles for 1 was planned so the level was known, which always ended at, I believe level 4? The only difference was the training. But for 3, since you could level up whenever you wanted with the demons and virad, i think i would like my level 11 trained peeps go with me to chapter 3.

 

[gRaViJa]

I could transfer my save file and chars from part 1 to part 2

 

[Speedpaws]

Well it didn't work for me. It just didn't load. There's really no point to though. But I'm just saying I hope it works for episode 2 to 3.