Author Topic: Son of a Witch: Devlog and general discussion  (Read 218166 times)

Jubal

  • Megadux
    Executive Officer
  • Posts: 35494
  • Karma: 140
  • Awards Awarded for oustanding services to Exilian!
    • View Profile
    • Awards
Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #195 on: March 23, 2017, 02:42:23 PM »
Could you have a hireable companion in the tavern room that changed partly depending on level? So a tavern in the forest would give you the chance to hire someone fairly useless, but one in the castle would give you the Bushido option...
The duke, the wanderer, the philosopher, the mariner, the warrior, the strategist, the storyteller, the wizard, the wayfarer...

bigosaur

  • Moderator
  • Posts: 520
  • Karma: 2
    • View Profile
    • Bigosaur
    • Awards
Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #196 on: March 24, 2017, 08:48:51 AM »
Could you have a hireable companion in the tavern room that changed partly depending on level? So a tavern in the forest would give you the chance to hire someone fairly useless, but one in the castle would give you the Bushido option...

Good idea. I think that could work.

bigosaur

  • Moderator
  • Posts: 520
  • Karma: 2
    • View Profile
    • Bigosaur
    • Awards
Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #197 on: March 25, 2017, 06:09:30 PM »
(I also still think that poison shooters in the castle level are OP and should be more like poison 5b rather than permanent poison, just got caught by them on another run - I really do think there needs to be a 4b/5b limit which would actually make the player feel incentivised to fight on with low health rather than just feeling like they may as well give up, which is how I usually feel in those circumstances.)

I was thinking a lot about this yesterday because I'm making a Hornet boss which has a poison attack. And then I figured out what might be the problem: do you know that the Healer NPC (the one that shows up in Potion Shop) has a staff you can use the remove the poison? And it always drops when you kill her.

To recap, if you get permanent poison you can:

  • drink an antidote
  • drink a dragon fire potion
  • find a Retort and create potions until you get one of these two
  • get the poison amulet
  • find a potion shop and get the Healing Staff

I feel like there's enough options to remove poison, you just have to be prepared. If you see a Potion Shop, maybe it's time to risk it now and have a poison-removal option with you at all times. Just like carrying a potion or Retort it takes an inventory slot, so it's a trade-off player needs to consider.


bigosaur

  • Moderator
  • Posts: 520
  • Karma: 2
    • View Profile
    • Bigosaur
    • Awards
Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #198 on: March 25, 2017, 06:17:37 PM »
BTW, here's a new video


I got a Mana Canteen and no useful magic items/weapons, so I had around 30 mana when I defeated the King and took the scepter. So I summoned about a dozen guards to fight for me. That part starts here:

https://youtu.be/z86JYOAwTTo?t=26m22s


« Last Edit: March 25, 2017, 08:37:08 PM by bigosaur »

bigosaur

  • Moderator
  • Posts: 520
  • Karma: 2
    • View Profile
    • Bigosaur
    • Awards
Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #199 on: March 29, 2017, 01:38:38 PM »


A new boss is added to the Battlements: A giant Hornet Queen. She can attack you or lay eggs from which the regular hornet enemies hatch. Both the Queen and the regular hornets have poisonous attack. The poison wears off after one battle.



This boss starts showing up after you defeat a Dragon (either a fire or the ice one).

Jubal

  • Megadux
    Executive Officer
  • Posts: 35494
  • Karma: 140
  • Awards Awarded for oustanding services to Exilian!
    • View Profile
    • Awards
Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #200 on: March 30, 2017, 10:16:55 AM »
I'm taking a bit of a break from the daily challenges, looks like there'll be plenty more to murder me when I get back :)

It's interesting how much some of these tweaks change my strategy - I used to regularly run and do the boss level for forest as soon as I saw it, in case it gave me something useful like the mana carrier that I could build up with. I'm completely stopping doing that since the golem was added, I'm definitely finding the golem far harder than the ogre mama and possibly harder than the dragon, especially trying to tackle it in melee where it has very big close-quarters attacks and you can only get a solid set of hits during one of its attack moves (head-bowling, which it doesn't do that often).
The duke, the wanderer, the philosopher, the mariner, the warrior, the strategist, the storyteller, the wizard, the wayfarer...

bigosaur

  • Moderator
  • Posts: 520
  • Karma: 2
    • View Profile
    • Bigosaur
    • Awards
Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #201 on: March 30, 2017, 01:14:13 PM »
It's interesting how much some of these tweaks change my strategy - I used to regularly run and do the boss level for forest as soon as I saw it

Funny, I was doing the same. Now I always make sure I have a Voodoo Doll with me before the boss fight. It makes it so much easier because you can throw it anywhere on the screen, stand on it and make him drop meteors on it.

head-bowling, which it doesn't do that often

You can trigger it if you stand right in front of it.


Jubal

  • Megadux
    Executive Officer
  • Posts: 35494
  • Karma: 140
  • Awards Awarded for oustanding services to Exilian!
    • View Profile
    • Awards
Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #202 on: March 30, 2017, 08:26:58 PM »
Ahh, hadn't worked that out - I've been terrified of standing in front of it in case it giant-fist-hits or rolls into a ball at me... and yes, the voodoo doll does seem like a good plan!
The duke, the wanderer, the philosopher, the mariner, the warrior, the strategist, the storyteller, the wizard, the wayfarer...

bigosaur

  • Moderator
  • Posts: 520
  • Karma: 2
    • View Profile
    • Bigosaur
    • Awards
Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #203 on: April 01, 2017, 08:44:33 PM »


The Pyromancer character is ready (not yet in the Steam version, I need to do a lot of testing first). He starts with the Fireball Staff and has permanent fire immunity. This means you can walk on campfires which makes some rooms much easier. The fire spitting traps in the castle and the Red Dragon's breath only do a small impact damage to him, but cannot set him on fire. Because of all these advantages he starts the game only with 3 health bars (60 HP).

He can be problematic for co-op, as you can easily set the other player on fire. A good strategy is to give the Fireball staff to the other player to activate, so he gets fire immunity. Or, if the other player is a magic caster, just swap the staffs at the start and play like that.

To unlock the Pyromancer, you have to find Amanda somewhere in the forest and escort her to one of the shops in the castle. This means that you have to go all the way through the Battlements level without her dying. It's a very challenging and interesting quest to complete.

Jubal

  • Megadux
    Executive Officer
  • Posts: 35494
  • Karma: 140
  • Awards Awarded for oustanding services to Exilian!
    • View Profile
    • Awards
Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #204 on: April 02, 2017, 11:59:10 PM »
Ooh, looking forward to meeting the pyromancer :)

Recent testing notes: I've encountered the hornet a couple of times now - works well and seems balanced, similar toughness to the dragon, the second time round the poison did the damage and I got taken down shortly thereafter, first time I had a powerful wizard with good spread of orbs and took her down without injury. The mana cost for a couple of items doesn't quite stack up to me - I think the bag of bombs costs is one or two too high, and the royal sceptre perhaps a little low? I'm still not convinced on the eternal poison shooters either after some more testing - it's not because I think it's unfair per se, but because it feels too powerful for a little dart-shooter compared to the fire and ice ones where you can recover more easily: I'd be more inclined to switch and have a permanent poison effect coming from the hornet queen's sting and only a temporary one from the shooters, because the boss feels more appropriate as a really powerful effect that the player should prepare and use inventory slots for, whereas a really powerful effect that you need to actively prepare for coming from a regular bubble-shooter just feels embarrassing. Of course it's your call though, and my problem with it is more about the feel of the thing than a real balance issue. I also used the turret staff for the first time and killed the king, both of which work well and are fun. The summoned guard didn't seem to have a health bar which confused me a bit? I've still not managed to find and use the shepherd staff yet, but I'm looking forward to doing so :)

Also, one query - will the strawberry wand/staff be available other than as that specific character? It could make for some nice combos with other characters (as it allows keeping a boar alive much longer) if it was available as a rare item in chests or rocks or something.
« Last Edit: April 03, 2017, 12:07:55 AM by Jubal »
The duke, the wanderer, the philosopher, the mariner, the warrior, the strategist, the storyteller, the wizard, the wayfarer...

bigosaur

  • Moderator
  • Posts: 520
  • Karma: 2
    • View Profile
    • Bigosaur
    • Awards
Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #205 on: April 03, 2017, 08:33:06 AM »
I think the bag of bombs costs is one or two too high

Bombs have many uses and can make any run OP since you can use a bomb to escape any room except the boss room. I initially tried a couple of runs with cost being 5, and I noticed that I would only use mana for bombs. Also, if two or more players are playing any lower cost would mean creating a lot of bombs.

Quote
the royal sceptre perhaps a little low?

Possibly. I plan to balance that once we have 4th level (Dungeon).

Quote
I'd be more inclined to switch and have a permanent poison effect coming from the hornet queen's sting and only a temporary one from the shooters, because the boss feels more appropriate as a really powerful effect that the player should prepare and use inventory slots for, whereas a really powerful effect that you need to actively prepare for coming from a regular bubble-shooter just feels embarrassing.

I never considered that point of view. I'll have to think about it and maybe change it.

Quote
The summoned guard didn't seem to have a health bar which confused me a bit?

In the first version they were all the same color, so I thought that would be a good way to separate summoned ones from regular ones. But now that we have two colors, perhaps I should add a HP bar.

Quote
will the strawberry wand/staff be available other than as that specific character? It could make for some nice combos with other characters (as it allows keeping a boar alive much longer) if it was available as a rare item in chests or rocks or something.

I guess I could add it as a low-chance drop in the rocks, just like the Snake Staff.

Thanks.
« Last Edit: April 03, 2017, 08:38:26 AM by bigosaur »

bigosaur

  • Moderator
  • Posts: 520
  • Karma: 2
    • View Profile
    • Bigosaur
    • Awards
Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #206 on: April 06, 2017, 11:12:09 PM »
The VioleNt Knight is a new boss for the 3rd level (Castle):



They come in tandems and start showing up after you defeat the Executioner. The knights are small in size and have a moderate amount of HP, but are really quick. They have a regular strike attack and a dashing attack similar to the playable Knight character. One of the knights always drops his sword, which players can pick up and use. The sword has the greatest reach of all the swords in the game and does 10 base damage (+12 for strong attack). The sword's special ability is giving full rage to the player after every kill.

Beside the new boss, I made several bug-fixes and improvements:

- The Hornet Queen now tries to catch up to the player before doing the sting attack
- Telepathy potion effects now stack over multiple battles if you drink more than one
- Dashing attacks now have a damage threshold below which they cannot be interrupted
- Escape scroll no longer opens the doors blocked with the stone rubble
- Added a sound effect for the Royal Scepter summoning effect
- The Strawberry staff can be found randomly in the rocks sometimes
- Flying units and thrown goblin bombs don't get stuck on locked gold chests anymore
- Health Bar is now shown for player-summoned guards

Jubal

  • Megadux
    Executive Officer
  • Posts: 35494
  • Karma: 140
  • Awards Awarded for oustanding services to Exilian!
    • View Profile
    • Awards
Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #207 on: April 06, 2017, 11:58:53 PM »
Aie, more fast enemies, my reaction times can't cope! They look very cool though, I look forward to them murdering me a lot :)
The duke, the wanderer, the philosopher, the mariner, the warrior, the strategist, the storyteller, the wizard, the wayfarer...

Jubal

  • Megadux
    Executive Officer
  • Posts: 35494
  • Karma: 140
  • Awards Awarded for oustanding services to Exilian!
    • View Profile
    • Awards
Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #208 on: April 09, 2017, 12:10:20 AM »
I need to get more cautious on daily challenges. I think I've played so many of them that I tend to go for broke and try and build a really powerful character very fast, so either I get right through and have a very solid character by the end or I die really early doing something stupid like trying to rob a shop with almost no bonuses... :/
The duke, the wanderer, the philosopher, the mariner, the warrior, the strategist, the storyteller, the wizard, the wayfarer...

bigosaur

  • Moderator
  • Posts: 520
  • Karma: 2
    • View Profile
    • Bigosaur
    • Awards
Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #209 on: April 10, 2017, 01:00:17 PM »
I need to get more cautious on daily challenges. I think I've played so many of them that I tend to go for broke and try and build a really powerful character very fast, so either I get right through and have a very solid character by the end or I die really early doing something stupid like trying to rob a shop with almost no bonuses... :/

 :o

Yeah, I often die when I get too confident as well :)