Author Topic: Son of a Witch: Devlog and general discussion  (Read 218196 times)

bigosaur

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Re: Son of a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #465 on: February 24, 2018, 11:47:16 AM »
I've had a couple of crash to desktop issues since the most recent version came out - it seems to be triggered when I hit/press a movement key during the game's initial loading screen, though I'm not 100% sure yet.

Do you get the "dinosaur ate your game" for those as well? If yes, getting full.log or crash dump would be really useful.

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And we're done!

Congrats. I'm yet to do it, so you're probably the best SoaW player on the planet at this point. At least regarding the achievements.

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Though I got a "this dinosaur ate your game" crash immediately after finishing the final challenge. Logs attached.

It looks like full.log was re-created later. It shows different game version (3.2.6 vs 3.2.5 in the crash file), I assume you restarted the game before making a copy?

Since we don't have the exact full.log, I cannot see the whole thing, only the crash. From the crash, I assume it crashed when you tried to leave the final screen and selected the option to go back to the main menu? Did you get to see the final cut-scene where you fly away on the dragon before it crashed?

The only thing that could be related are the recent changes I made to the voodoo dolls. The crash log shows that it did crash on some regular item, most likely a voodoo doll, but I can't figure it out. Did you have a voodoo doll in your inventory at the end of the game? Or maybe something else unusual regarding some voodoo dolls in that run?

Thanks.
« Last Edit: February 24, 2018, 12:22:17 PM by bigosaur »

Jubal

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Re: Son of a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #466 on: February 24, 2018, 01:37:00 PM »
Yeah, that's when the crash happened - I did see the cutscene, I think. On the menu loading CTD I don't get the "dinosaur ate your game", it just goes white and then the program stops. There was nothing odd with the dolls going on in that game, and I'm pretty sure I didn't have one in my inventory. It was a good run; I was lucky enough to find the bottomless bag of bombs early, and I had the fox pet, so I barely needed to use any cursed keys throughout the game. I had a pretty pumped-up chanter and a load of gamble and sunset scrolls by the late game, so I was chucking out a lot of damage. I think I still had 4 gamble scrolls left at the end, since I didn't bother using any on the dragon master.

If I have any more end-of-game crashes I'll let you know.
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bigosaur

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Re: Son of a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #467 on: February 24, 2018, 03:40:09 PM »
Yeah, that's when the crash happened - I did see the cutscene, I think. On the menu loading CTD I don't get the "dinosaur ate your game", it just goes white and then the program stops.

That would mean that the problem is not in my code but some of the libraries I use. That will be hard to debug :(

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If I have any more end-of-game crashes I'll let you know.

Thank you. I added more logging in that area now, so full.log should contain even more details. If it happens, make sure you make a copy of full.log before you start the game again.

Jubal

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Re: Son of a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #468 on: February 24, 2018, 06:32:58 PM »
Yes, will do :)

OK, so what's "hard mode" going to look like? I kind of assumed it would bulk out numbers of enemies mostly, but that already happened in overdrive...
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bigosaur

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Re: Son of a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #469 on: February 26, 2018, 10:25:26 AM »
OK, so what's "hard mode" going to look like? I kind of assumed it would bulk out numbers of enemies mostly, but that already happened in overdrive...

Here's the plan:

- heroes start with no items (except arrows)
- a bomb is always on the starting pedestal
- poison is permanent (I know you will hate this one)
- regular enemies have +1 speed
- all enemies have +20% HP per game level (starting from level 2)
- killing one bushido makes them all hostile

Some things I'm considering but am not sure about yet:

- garden/shooting range/baseball room (with many runestones) doesn't show up

- add a red dragon to the final boss fight

- drinking gives you hiccups (maybe every 5 potions) Alternatively "drinking 5 known potions" gives you hiccups to still encourage players to try out the potions to discover the effects

- eating makes you thirsty (maybe after every 3 snacks i.e. pieces of food) This can be a problem if you break a barrel/box and walk onto the piece of food before you even get to see it on the screen. Alternative would be to replace the Sorceress starting staff with some other (Shepherd most probably).

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Re: Son of a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #470 on: February 26, 2018, 12:19:46 PM »
By "poison is permanent" do you mean "poison is incurable" or just "poison never wears off until you cure it"?

The main plan all seems reasonable, though I'd consider +20% damage dealt rather than +20%HP - that would keep things fast moving, and make the later level regulars a much tougher combat challenge, rather than just making all the ice level battles really slow as it'd then take ages to plug through all the high HP enemies. Losing the runestone rooms is also reasonable, and I'm definitely in favour of adding a red dragon to the final boss fight, which can sometimes get a bit underwhelming atm. I feel like the hiccups thing could just get annoying - like, a hard mode should make the game trickier, but I don't think making it more frustrating would help. I think the food -> thirst thing could work fine though. :)
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Re: Son of a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #471 on: February 26, 2018, 08:59:49 PM »
By "poison is permanent" do you mean "poison is incurable" or just "poison never wears off until you cure it"?

Does not wear off until you cure it. Although, I thought about it a lot today after writing it down. Maybe something like 10 btl. would be more reasonable to prevent luck having too much influence.

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The main plan all seems reasonable, though I'd consider +20% damage dealt rather than +20%HP - that would keep things fast moving, and make the later level regulars a much tougher combat challenge, rather than just making all the ice level battles really slow as it'd then take ages to plug through all the high HP enemies.

In some runs I felt like the enemies should have more HP. I would typically do 25 or more per orb / quick sword hit or around 150 with arrows by that time. If the enemies die before they can reach you, higher damage won't help them.

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I feel like the hiccups thing could just get annoying - like, a hard mode should make the game trickier, but I don't think making it more frustrating would help. I think the food -> thirst thing could work fine though. :)

Maybe it would be better if I restrict the hiccup thing to some potions? The main purpose of that effect was to balance potions like "Money is Power", "Barbarian's Friend" and "Apprentizer" from making players OP without any drawback. Maybe I should just add hiccups to those potions.

Problem with food and thirst is that some enemies drop food and it also drops from barrels, so if you're running and hitting stuff with a melee hero, you would pick up food without even noticing. This would make the melee heroes unattractive for Hard Mode. Perhaps I should link the effect to usage of Strawberry staff (you get thirsty every time you use it, or maybe if you eat food created by the staff).

BTW, another player sent me the crash log with the new version and I was finally able to find the bug. It was related to the new way the Voodoo dolls work. I'm uploading a new version (3.3.2) with the fix now.

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Re: Son of a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #472 on: February 26, 2018, 09:19:59 PM »
I think personally I could deal with "doesn't wear off until you cure it" - like, it would make the healing staff a much more important item again, but I'd say there are a lot of games where I never get poisoned anyway. I don't think it'd be too unbalanced.

Regarding HP/Damage, you could try with half and half, 10% HP and 10% damage per level? I'm just worried that the ice level potentially gets quite slow if it's just an HP boost. I guess I feel like it might make the desert level enemies more of a threat, as especially if you have the medusa amulet they're just not that dangerous atm.

You could just remove the potentially OP potions - adding hiccups to them would work in terms of game balance, but hiccups just aren't a very fun effect to play with. I find it fair enough if I get them because I got caught by a skeleton, as that's the game "punishing" me for not playing well enough, but I think being forced to have them to advance your character might just get annoying. Hiccups also penalise melee characters way worse than ranged characters, and archers way worse than wizards, so it would heavily change the balance between the character types I think.

Glad to hear the bug is fixed :)
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bigosaur

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Re: Son of a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #473 on: February 27, 2018, 01:25:43 PM »
Regarding HP/Damage, you could try with half and half, 10% HP and 10% damage per level? I'm just worried that the ice level potentially gets quite slow if it's just an HP boost. I guess I feel like it might make the desert level enemies more of a threat, as especially if you have the medusa amulet they're just not that dangerous atm.

I feel like it 10% is too low for damage, but maybe it would be best to just add it to the game and try it out.

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You could just remove the potentially OP potions - adding hiccups to them would work in terms of game balance, but hiccups just aren't a very fun effect to play with. I find it fair enough if I get them because I got caught by a skeleton, as that's the game "punishing" me for not playing well enough, but I think being forced to have them to advance your character might just get annoying. Hiccups also penalise melee characters way worse than ranged characters, and archers way worse than wizards, so it would heavily change the balance between the character types I think.

I didn't consider how hiccups are a big problem with melee heroes. You're right, removing those potions would be the best idea.

BTW, I'm thinking to really create a printed manual from the unit descriptions you wrote on the forums (I would add pictures/screenshots and more information) so I re-read what you wrote. I don't know if I missed it before, or you added it later but those "background story" snippets for the enemies are very funny. I chuckled a couple of times and even laughed out loud for a couple of those (ex. the wizards and the king). I love them. :)

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Re: Son of a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #474 on: February 28, 2018, 10:54:16 AM »
I'll get round to finishing writing them and updating with the new bosses at some point :) I also realised that I really need to update the unofficial monster guide with a list of which monsters & bosses are immune to which effects like poison etc...

Also, some recent fun. On a daily challenge, I got to the desert with a shepherd staff and about 100 mana left in stock, and I just thought, hmm, maybe...




I feel like there should be an achievement for turning 50 enemies into sheep or something :P One room even ended up with a sheep statue after a stoneheart petrified a sheep before being sheep-ified herself.

Also, I was showing a friend the game, and I decided for once to use medusa arrows (which I never use because I don't want to miss out on the drops). And then I went into the cyclopes boss fight and got *the perfect* shot:

Beautiful double statue with archway :D And got them both with the one arrow on a rage shot, too!
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bigosaur

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Re: Son of a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #475 on: February 28, 2018, 01:14:57 PM »
I'll get round to finishing writing them and updating with the new bosses at some point :) I also realised that I really need to update the unofficial monster guide with a list of which monsters & bosses are immune to which effects like poison etc...

Hope I don't forget something:

Golem is immune to Poison and Petrification.

The Red Dragon is immune to fire.

The Ice Dragon and all the units on the Ice level are immune to freezing.

The Hornet Queen, Medusa, and all the skeleton units are immune to poison.

The Wind Mages are immune to freezing.

All Desert level bosses are immune to petrification.

The Dragon Master is immune to freezing, fire, poison, petrification.

Also, some of the bosses are immune to stun effect, i.e. you cannot interrupt their actions at all: Dragons, Golem, Slime King, Hornet Queen, Yeti Elder, War Elephant, Santa, War Sheep, Snowman.

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Also, some recent fun. On a daily challenge, I got to the desert with a shepherd staff and about 100 mana left in stock, and I just thought, hmm, maybe...

LOL. I actually had one run where I had to do something like that to survive. I don't recall exactly, but it was one of the barbarian challenges. I was down to almost no health on the ice level, without freezing immunity or any protection from sliding. My damage was average and I had no minions. The only thing I had was Mana Canteen, a lot of mana points (about 70 IIRC) and I found the Shepherd staff in a chest :) Managed to use it to get all the way to the desert level boss and died there.

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I feel like there should be an achievement for turning 50 enemies into sheep or something :P One room even ended up with a sheep statue after a stoneheart petrified a sheep before being sheep-ified herself.

That's just hilarious.

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And then I went into the cyclopes boss fight and got *the perfect* shot:

Beautiful double statue with archway :D And got them both with the one arrow on a rage shot, too!

Very cool. You should've uploaded that one to the screenshot section on Steam as well (just press F12 while in game and then click to upload when you end it).

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Re: Son of a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #476 on: March 02, 2018, 05:45:44 PM »
Hard Mode is in. You need to kill the Dragon Master with all 7 heroes in regular game to unlock it.

Poison is +10 btl compared to usual. Using the strawberry staff makes you thirsty. OP potions and Mana Canteen are removed.

I also added 3 achievements when you beat the hard mode with melee, magic and archery hero.

Other important change coming today is the new immunity: slowdown immunity. I decided to make all the amulets consistent, so the Rabbit Amulet now gives you slowdown immunity instead of speeding you up. This means you are immune to all kinds of slowdown (using the War Axe, getting Steel Boots or Green Slime, walking into a slime puddle, Ice Wizards fog, any potion that slows you down, etc.).

The Dragon Master will also have slowdown immunity.

The version with these changes is in beta. I'm testing it and will make it official later today.

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Re: Son of a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #477 on: March 02, 2018, 08:38:08 PM »
Huh, I was thinking of suggesting slowdown immunity as an idea recently. Good to see you got there first! :)

I think the new achievements are good, I was wondering if they could be given more fun names? It feels oddly underwhelming for the achievement to be just called, e.g., "Knight" When it could be, say, "Knight Errant" or "Knight of the Round Table" or something a bit more evocative.

Also, shouldn't the new achievements work with daily challenges? I completed one as a knight yesterday and didn't get the achievement...
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bigosaur

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Re: Son of a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #478 on: March 03, 2018, 01:06:47 PM »
I think the new achievements are good, I was wondering if they could be given more fun names? It feels oddly underwhelming for the achievement to be just called, e.g., "Knight" When it could be, say, "Knight Errant" or "Knight of the Round Table" or something a bit more evocative.

It could be a good idea, although I feel like it could be confusing if every hero had a completely different one.

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Also, shouldn't the new achievements work with daily challenges? I completed one as a knight yesterday and didn't get the achievement...

I though about that, but daily challenges have a slightly different level generator, so I didn't want to mix it up. The difference can be big if you're starting out and haven't unlocked some drops (it's all unlocked in DC). But now that I think about it, I understand it could be a problem for players who have already completed the game multiple times and only play daily challenge, so I will change that in the next version.

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Re: Son of a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #479 on: March 03, 2018, 02:17:58 PM »
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 :)
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