Vilya's Work-blog! (aka Pixel Ferrets behind the scenes)

[KoBeWi]

I don't think that's the case. Because the monkeys are evidence that Grindea's time travel isn't a set line, time can be changed. In the present you can see monkey bones in the lab if you go there first, but after going into the past and letting them free there are monkeys everywhere.

Zhamla wouldn't have gotten his crown without us going through Puzzle World and grabbing it. It would've just remained buried.

Yea, but at the same time, Tessen (aka Cursed Priestess) recognizes you on your first visit in present Tai Ming. This implies that the above time rules doesn't apply to everything and the events of Tai Ming have "happened" when you get there. There can be 2 explanations for this:

1) A "set" timeline applies to everything directly related to Tai Ming accident. Seems like it's connected with Zhamla turning evil and evacuation mentioned in Phasing Facility logs. The related things became cursed in the process, that includes priestess Tessen and Zhamla's Crown, and that makes them unable to be changed. Fun fact is that there's an alternate description existing in translation files for Miki's ball: "You never gave it back... you monster.". It's called "MikiBallCursedDescription". It doesn't seem to appear in game, so we can only speculate that ball became somehow cursed and it can never be returned.

2) Devs didn't really think about this. That's the case with most time-travelling stories. Authors just go full "it's time travel so we can do anything", often contradicting their own rules. However, since SoG is an early access game, devs can put the "curse explanation" or whatever, after reading this post, and pretend nothing happened.

Bag does seem to recognize the crown, though, saying something like "Is that...?", but then dismisses it. So maybe it's just a replica.

So, I think that this IS the crown, but at the time when you unbury it, it's not cursed yet. Bag knows more than he tells. He knows that we are looking for the crown and seeing it, he thinks this might be the Artifact. But it's not the Artifact yet, so he dismisses it.
Now, he then tells something about destiny and how one has to follow their path (that's in Tessen's house). He then says something like "nevermind, I'm just talking too much". Bag was in Tai Ming 1000 years ago, he surely knows what happened to the town and Zhamla. But he doesn't tell this. Maybe he knows that this can't be changed, so he can't tell everything to not meddle in history. Like, if he told you that this toy crown will become Artifact, you could just not give it to Zhamla, then it would never became cursed, probably changing the history of the whole world. That can be why he told it's just a toy.

 

[Vilya]

I just wanna say that my favorite thing about this forum is the story speculations! Please keep speculating, it always makes me smile (and giggle, and occasionally laugh like very evil person)

As for how to get the items you might have missed in Tai Ming, I believe our most recent idea was having some kind of adventurer or archaeologist sell them to you, but it hasn't been 100% decided yet (I do like the idea of making them ridiculously expensive though ). I guess Shady Merchant might work as well, though once we get to implementing it, the idea is that he'll only sell things you've previously sold to someone else, so it could perhaps get a little confusing if he starts stocking up on new things after that gets added.

 

[KoBeWi]

As for how to get the items you might have missed in Tai Ming, I believe our most recent idea was having some kind of adventurer or archaeologist sell them to you

The idea of moving them to different places with new items sounds more interesting to me. Like, finding Miki's house to get Monkey Plushie and Thorn-Worm Plushie if you missed it. Otherwise, the changes opening paths in Tai Ming are useless, if you don't need to travel through Tai Ming anymore
But ok.

it could perhaps get a little confusing if he starts stocking up on new things after that gets added.

He could gain a second option, like "Archaeological findings" or whatever, to separate these items from these you sold.

 

[Own]

As for how to get the items you might have missed in Tai Ming, I believe our most recent idea was having some kind of adventurer or archaeologist sell them to you, but it hasn't been 100% decided yet (I do like the idea of making them ridiculously expensive though ). I guess Shady Merchant might work as well, though once we get to implementing it, the idea is that he'll only sell things you've previously sold to someone else, so it could perhaps get a little confusing if he starts stocking up on new things after that gets added.

In Shining Force 2, every merchant in the game sold both rare items you sold to the store and additionally sold super-rare items you may have missed, like rings, I think. I wasn't confused by that as a kid.

They had Buy, Sell and Rare Finds. In SoG, Buy could be for stuff you've sold to any merchant, Rare Finds for perma-missed items at ridiculous prices.

 

[Own]

November 28

Better things! Everywhere!

http://www.vilyaroo.com/2016/11/im-back.html

First up, and perhaps most importantly - new damage numbers! We've totally revamped the way these work. Take a look below for the old version:

Anything that prevents damage numbers from clogging up the animations is great! Though I still wish for an option to disable damage numbers altogether, like how we can hide the HUD. They're distracting when it comes to knowing when to perfect guard, and I imagine it would look much cooler without them regardless for gameplay videos.

So a bunch of things have happened here! First up, there will be tiny numbers showing how much damage you make with each hit, and a big number showing how much damage you've done in total within a limited amount of time! So long as you continuously damage an enemy this number will continue to increase. When you crit, the damage text flashes and there are pretty stars flying about! We also have plans to have the damage number increase in size the longer/bigger your combo is, and add some smaller stars to the crit-effect as well. But all in good time...

Well, I can easily see a new line of talents based entirely around this.

- Increase the delay before combo resets.
- Add % damage for every # combo.
- Add % crit for every # combo.
- Perfect block adds # combo.
etc

We also plan on doing a ton of improvements on the in-game map before Fred is fully done with all the animations needed to implement the scenes in Tai Ming's third zone! There will be a ton of helpful trackers there, showing you exactly how much you've got left to do before achieving 100% on each area.

Happy to see this being added so soon.

 

[The G-Meister]

First up, and perhaps most importantly - new damage numbers!

This was literally the only thing you needed to do for me to be happy with 6 months of your development work. Will willingly play through the entire game again when this is implemented. Kinda ecstatic right now

 

[KoBeWi]

Though I still wish for an option to disable damage numbers altogether, like how we can hide the HUD.

(Teddy in dev blog comments)

In my ideal world we’ll have settings that entirely removes damage numbers, and possibly even bring back the old ones for people who prefer that sort of aesthetic.

 

[Vilya]

I just checked our in-house build and can reveal that there are settings for bringing the old style back AND disabling the damage numbers already!

(...Teddy didn't even tell me about that yet, but I'm the #1 spy, mwahaha! )

 

[Own]

A whole family of merchants?! And the dudes look sufficiently dudely.

http://www.vilyaroo.com/2016/11/portrait-of-merchant.html

http://www.vilyaroo.com/2016/12/portrait-of-brother.html

http://www.vilyaroo.com/2016/12/portrait-of-father.html

Looks like daughters running the shop, brother is helping but wants to be a collector and papa wants one of them to take over his business.

Maybe you could do a fun Recettear-style sidequest with this one, teach the son he can be both a collector/collector-by-proxy and merchant? You take him to the now unused screen that had the grounded Flying Fortress, which has become overrun with tons of elite monsters from all over Evergrind spawning in waves to attack you. Accessories/other gear drop after each wave, nothing you can pick up. When you're done he comes in and gathers them all up. Then one by one various NPCs/guards come into the shop looking for various items, where you can reccomend things based on the clues to sell the entire stock. Your reward is based on how many you help sell.

Example:

Guard 1: I've maxed the Brutality talent, but it never seems to do anything! What do you have for me?
- Rabbit's Foot (Correct one, boosts +Crit)
- Plasma Bracelet
- Scarf

 

[Own]

January 3

Main story spoilers. Turn back now.

http://www.vilyaroo.com/2017/01/zone03-design-talk-spoilers.html

Spoiler

We wanted this battle to feel a little like battling another collector, as Zhamla is famed for being just that. So Zhamla will have a bunch of spells similar to those available to the player (though we haven't decided exactly which ones yet). Of course, they'll end up look a little different to make it easier to spot friendly fire from his...

My suggestion? Have him able to dual-cast / combine skills, show off how unique he really was.

Example:

Meteor Spike: Peppers the battlefield with a dozen meteors and a dozen earth spikes with an ability no other collector has.

Heroic Toss: Jumpbash sword forward and release it the instant it hits the ground, targeting the nearest player with the projectile sword. It embeds in the ground if it hits a player or not. Sword is left there until a player walks directly between him and his sword (or # seconds have passed), causing it to unearth and rip back towards him - potentially hitting them.

Whirl Smash: Similar to Vilya, if more than one player is around him, trigger this. Take a spinning swipe around that flings away any player hit.

Shadow Spirit: Summons a shadowclone that mimics his attacks, and a crouching shadow somewhere on the battlefield. If anyone gets too near the crouching shadow, it lungs at them for many hits ala Spirit Slash.

 

[KoBeWi]

Have him able to dual-cast / combine skills

Meteor Cloud

or Chain Fireball/Flamethrower as multiplayer move

 

[Own]

January 11

BOSS APPROACHING

http://www.vilyaroo.com/2017/01/battle-preview-spoilers.html

He'll have an ice spell to make movement a bit more cumbersome - though we're looking into changing it into a nova that leaves ice on the ground rather than just a spell that creates ice all over the floor in order to have his spells resemble those of the player a bit more.

Why not combine Frost Nova + Ice Spike for a double whammy?

Stage one: Charge up and unleash a frost nova in all directions. Anyone hit is damaged, slowed and now moving across slippery terrain.
Stage two: Immediately follow it up with Ice Spikes around the edge of the Frost Nova, trapping anyone who didn't get out in time inside of it until the ice melts in # seconds.

and a spell that causes thorns to grow across the playfield (which we'll probably change into another version of the earth spike, again to make the spells closer to the players).

Stone blades in the style of his sword erupting up from the ground would look pretty cool.

 

[xEleaa]

Very nice art xD and love how the combat looks should be fun :O

 

[Own]

Friday the 13th

A SPOOKtacular update! OooooOOoooooOoOOoooo~

http://www.vilyaroo.com/2017/01/housing-items-random-halloween-themed.html

Okay it's just halloween themed housing items. Man, I've had that Painting of Flying Fortress and Small Cactus in my inventory forever. It'll be good to finally display them.

 

[The G-Meister]

I can't wait to use that slime beanbag from arcade. While the icon in the inventory looks a little meh, I reckon it'll make a great addition to a crib if it's large enough. Would totally hop on that and fall asleep after a long day of grinding.

 

[KoBeWi]

A random thought of mine:
Vilya, since all your blog posts are scheduled anyways, why don't you post them the whole week? They are all themed, so it's not like you do one thing a day and then make a post, right? If you e.g. draw three cards on Friday, you can schedule two of them for the weekend.

I'm just waiting impatiently for new updates ;_;

 

[Vilya]

Frankly, writing and preparing stuff (saving progress images, cutting and/or resizing, making post covers & gifs, recording vids, etc) for the blog posts already takes WAY more time than I'd like, so it's unlikely I'll be motivated to do that for more than 5 posts per week sadly

This is actually also why the weekly recaps on our devblog have become more of a recap of what has been written on my blog + some of Fred's stuff, as opposed to completely new and previously unused text (also why I try to keep my blog posts short). I just end up spending soooo much time reading and rereading what I've written, changing words and sentences around in hopes of it becoming clearer/better flowing/whatever. Just writing this reply has taken me like 20 minutes now, LOL....

 

[Own]

January 17

Talkin' 'bout stuff and things.

http://www.vilyaroo.com/2017/01/another-design-meeting-magic-weapons.html

Magic weapon range: Sounds neat to me. Will especially help with the hit-to-get-EP talent.

Easy mode: Git good, noobs. (Or, alternatively, they will eventually learn to buy gear from town... )

Fishing: I was hoping fishing would become a little bit more mechanically challenging than this. Adding pressing up or down into the mix still seems pretty simple, I dunno. I feel like if your fishing pole had an HP bar and the fish did too, your pole losing HP when the fish is outside of the bar and the fish losing HP when it's inside the bar, it would at least be visually interesting. Like actual combat. Maybe even catch more fish to get fishing EXP, gain more fishing rod HP, something? I don't think I'd fish for longer than it takes to get the achievements with the current system, but others might.

Potions: Seems like a great reworking of potions.

 

[KoBeWi]

The problem with easy mode is only because we can switch difficulty. Players can just switch to lower one if they face too big challenge. Maybe removing this functionality (which is quite unique though), or reworking it so you can change only to lower difficulty, is an option. With the latter, if someone chooses to be a noob, he will remain a noob until next playthrough, when he will want bigger challenge.
Or, if people say that normal is too hard, maybe make normal slightly easier, while making hard even more hard. Or rename the difficulties to noob/git gud and pro, so people have psychological incentive to hone their skills.

 

[The G-Meister]

Oh god... please don't make hard harder... it's difficult enough as it is