Son of a Witch: Devlog and general discussion

[bigosaur]

I've got four of the new achievements now - I decided to start with the hardest and work down, so I've now done Skele, Pyro, Barbarian, and Knight - Enchantress, Druid and Archer still to go

I unlocked them all in the past few days, but still have got 4 barbarian challenges to do. 

BTW, I just found a bug that the rabbit amulet effect gets removed from heroes often, so I'm uploading a new version with the fix now. This new version includes the change that allows to win those achievements in the daily challenge as well. Version 3.3.7.

[Jubal]

I've now got all the regular achievements. Had a few cracks at hard mode - it's fine, I guess it just feels like another challenge mode at this point (also in that I think I'll probably play it until I get the achievements and not much further). I got a knight as far as the desert but then got petrified, and a wizard to the ice level but he was using a pogonip staff so his main bonus was then nullified. Scrolls and special effect immunities seem to be more important in hard mode, I think.

Out of interest, is the hard mode achievement "complete the game" or "kill the dragon master" - in other words, do I still get the achievement if I barrel-roll or gamble the dragon master fight?

[bigosaur]

I guess it just feels like another challenge mode at this point (also in that I think I'll probably play it until I get the achievements and not much further).

That was the plan. Just another set of challenges for expert players.

Out of interest, is the hard mode achievement "complete the game" or "kill the dragon master" - in other words, do I still get the achievement if I barrel-roll or gamble the dragon master fight?

Just "complete the game".

BTW, I finally managed to beat the Survival challenge and it was without gold diet, mana canteen or strawberry staff. The key was the "dying enemies drop bombs" item. I would lure enemies close to doors and kill them to blast and move into the next room before the battle was over. The boss fights were still challenging, but I got a couple of Escape scrolls, so I evaded the Ice (had no ice immunity nor anything to prevent sliding) and the first Desert boss (I think I'm yet to beat the Elephant). I played with the pyromancer, so the dragon master fight wasn't too hard as I didn't lose too much health from his dragon mount.

[Jubal]

Huh, yeah, I tend to go for a "complete everything" game approach more than I should in the challenge modes, I guess. I've got master of magic now - my main conclusion so far is that speed is even more important in hard mode, my deaths are nearly always just "oops too slow".

EDIT: Got Master of Archery and Master of Melee done today. Ironically, Master of Melee was done more at range and Master of Archery at close quarters - for master of archery (with archer), whilst I had a decent bow my main weapon was a cutlass with 3 runestones on it with which I built my melee up (plus sunset scrolls for later levels), and for Master of Melee (with knight), I had mjolnir, only 1 runestone on it but I had both carpenter's emblem and dwarven spinner so I was chucking out six of them in all directions (also with 2 sunset scrolls for ice level and 3 for final level, and I skipped most of final level with a silver shilling). Up to date with achievements again!

[bigosaur]

Up to date with achievements again!

Nice. A new batch is coming soon. I'm currently looking into the marketing side of the game business but after that is done I plan to add 20+ new specific (i.e. not "win the game type") achievements.

[Jubal]

Cool Will be good to see more!

I might note down a bunch of general thoughts/ideas I had for things you could add after leaving early access, sometime soon? I've got some notes somewhere - many of them might just take too long or not fit in, but there may be a good idea in there somewhere.

[bigosaur]

I might note down a bunch of general thoughts/ideas I had for things you could add after leaving early access, sometime soon?

I would love to read those.

Currently, the launch date is set to May 16th if all goes as planned (It might get moved to June if I get invited to present the game at E3, but I somehow doubt that would happen). I could do it sooner, but there are some big gaming events in March and April, so players will be overwhelmed with new games.

[bigosaur]

Version 3.3.8. is online:

- 28 new achievements ranging from easy to very tricky ones
- tremor status effect now affects orbs, arrows, bombs and throw weapons
- increased the starting hero skills in casual mode
- fixed bug when releasing the attack button with a bow in hand would initiate the backup knife attack
- fixed bug when typing in chat would activate the backup knife attack
- updated some of the translations

This version concludes the content I planned for the Early Access. I will dedicate the next month or so to extensively playtest the game for the final release, so only expect bugfixes and translation updates in this period. I have a bunch of new features I plan to add in the future, but I want the exiting Early Access release to be well tested and bug free.

[Jubal]

Some notes/thoughts:

> Petrification achievement triggers when allies get petrified too, not sure if this is intentional but I managed to get it by taking an army into the desert and them getting casualties from the stonehearts.
> Achievements gained in offline mode seem to disappear when you go online rather than sync. I went achievement hunting yesterday on the plane, but they all disappeared today

EDIT: Got both the gold achievements and the hammer achievement done on the same run - had the glacier, and my pirate-knight, and both avarice and money is power potions combo'd. I literally killed the Dragon Master in two hits, I was ridiculously high buffed by the end of it (I also cleared every room of the catacombs along the way...).

EDIT #2: Also, I dropped you a PM about some stuff

[bigosaur]

Petrification achievement triggers when allies get petrified too, not sure if this is intentional but I managed to get it by taking an army into the desert and them getting casualties from the stonehearts.

It's a bug. I'm fixing it now.

Achievements gained in offline mode seem to disappear when you go online rather than sync. I went achievement hunting yesterday on the plane, but they all disappeared today

This is because I wanted to allow two different Steam accounts on the same computer. So, once the game loads the achievement data from steam, it overwrites any current state. This basically means that you should either play online or offline all the time, but mixing is not possible. Maybe I could fix this by storing the Steam user ID somewhere and preventing "overwrite" if you use the same account. I need to think about it.

both avarice and money is power potions combo'd

I find this combination really enjoyable, especially for melee characters. Since I'm not using mana, I can grab a magic chest and buff it even more.

EDIT #2: Also, I dropped you a PM about some stuff

I replied back with a question (whether to send you the key via forum or e-mail) but never got the reply? Also I don't see a way to read my "sent" private messages. Is that even possible with this forum software?

[Jubal]

I just hadn't got round to replying yet, I'm being a bit slow with things (in my defence, I'm on medical instructions to cut down on things a bit, I've finally managed to actually make myself ill from doing too much). If you go on your messages inbox, there's a button on the left hand side saying "messages", next to "actions" and "preferences": mouse over that, and there's a dropdown with "Sent Items" at the bottom of the list. I think you need to check a box below messages when you send them to save them there, too.

[bigosaur]

I just hadn't got round to replying yet, I'm being a bit slow with things (in my defence, I'm on medical instructions to cut down on things a bit, I've finally managed to actually make myself ill from doing too much).

I hope nothing too serious?

If you go on your messages inbox, there's a button on the left hand side saying "messages", next to "actions" and "preferences": mouse over that, and there's a dropdown with "Sent Items" at the bottom of the list. I think you need to check a box below messages when you send them to save them there, too.

Found it. I didn't notice I should hover the mouse over and I somehow missed the checkbox as well, but I just tried it on the message with the Steam key and it works.

Thanks.

[Jubal]

It's not too bad, it's going to take a while to recover from though - I have medication to help manage some of the symptoms, so I guess at least I can focus on trying to recover in the next few months & know what I need to do.

And yes... maybe I should write a guide to how to use the messaging system, we have a section for site tutorials and that might be useful for people...

[bigosaur]

And yes... maybe I should write a guide to how to use the messaging system, we have a section for site tutorials and that might be useful for people...

Don't bother. People won't be looking for a specific thread to read about that, they would simply conclude that it isn't possible. Website users expect features the be visible on the page where they want to use them and I don't know anyone who reads a manual how to use a website. The real problems are:

- the "sent messages" option only shows up when you hover the mouse over, so it's hard to discover
- the "save copy to outbox" checkbox should be checked by default (and you would only un-check it for certain sensitive messages you don't want to store)

Changing those would actually solve the problems, but I guess it's all built into the forum software and there isn't much you can do.

[Jubal]

I'll add it to the to do list... there's a lot that can be changed about the forum software, and I have the technical ability to do it, just not the time

I got "Challenger", "Necromancer" and "Takeover" in a single Daily Challenge run today. Challenger and Necromancer are both heavily reliant on having the lower catacombs present, I think.