E:ToR ~ Alpha Test thread

[Geekboy1011]

Welcome to the alpha testing thread for Escheron: Twilight over Ragnoth.


This is a closed alpha. What does that mean for you all? It means you need to be granted access to participate. Sadly there are also a limited number of slots due to a request by Zera to keep story exposure to a minimum. No reason to spoil the story to the whole community before the game is out

To be granted access to participate in this beta you must send me a private message detailing why you are good candidate for the alpha, and how much time you are willing to dedicate to the project. What we are asking for is below in the read me included in this post.

/---------Escheron: Twilight Over Ragnoth ~ Alpha--------------
|
|                  Rodger "Iambian" Weisman
|                 Tim 'Geekboy1011' Keller
|                           Zera
|
/----------- All these dots must fit on one line. -------------
|
|..............................................................
|
/---------------------------Preface----------------------------
|
|  This is the initial, and first official, semi public release
|     Of E:ToR. Welcome to the world of Escheron!
|
/---------------------------Scope------------------------------
|
|  In this alpha test we are looking for you to run around and
|     try to break all of the things. No seriously I mean it
|     We want to know all of the bugs you can find. So we can
|     fix them and make this a better game for everyone.
|
|
|  On top of all of that we want your opinion, yes you have
|     one. We want you to let us know what you think of the
|     maps, user interface, Dialog display issues and well
|     anything.
|
/----------------Known Issues And Incomplete areas-------------
|
|   I: Why is there no fancy title screen, Those are the best.
|   S: Because that is a project killer! Would not just want
|          "Another Fancy Title Screen Demo v9001" again do
|          we?
|
|   I: Fey Wood is not a puzzle yet.
|   S: We know it will be implemented in beta
|
|   I: While using NoClip X.....
|   S: Yeah anything abnormal in noclip mode will be ignored
|          Or marked as wontfix. Seriously its for debug use
|
|   I: Why is it not smooth scrolling?
|   S: Pepperidge Farms rememebers we tried that once.....
|
|   I: Using DevBlock while on the (air)ship makes me fly/sail
|          indoors.
|   S: Yeah we know. Its fun right? Call it a feature.
|          (Its a debug item people....)
|
|   I: I can't take items/delete spells on the Guest NPC's
|   S: We know, it's coded that way to save you from deleting
|          important items as we do not track their inventory
|
/------------------------Controls------------------------------
|
|  2nd = Comfirm
|  Mode = Back
|  D-Pad = move
|
/----------------------Debug Controls--------------------------
|
|  Y= Debug info, Toggle Noclip mode
|  Del = Generate and spawn in a random Underdeep map
| 
/-----------------------Debug Items----------------------------
|
|  Devblock = Use it to return to the debug map from anywhere
|
/---------------------Additional Notes-------------------------
|
|  The battle engine is not completed. Instead you get a popup
|     saying what you would have encountered. You can figure
|     out what you encountered in Src/Data/EnemyFormations.z80
| 
|  We want to know what you think of the flow of maps. Do they
|     feel appropriatly sized and spaced, Not confusing etc.
|
|  The underdeep is 8 floors deep. Using Del will reset you to
|     floor 1
|
| 
/--------------------Thank you for testing!--------------------
|
|Coffee Coffee Coffee Coffee Coffee Coffee Coffee Coffee Coffee
|      Rrrrrraaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!~~~~~~
|

Those of you accepted into the alpha will be granted access to "supported" Alpha dev builds. After the alpha period is over we will gladly send you a new build to continue testing as we add new feature and what not. All you need to do is ask. Hopefully that is some good incentive for you all to apply!

Seriously everyone if you have the time apply. We are not looking for any specific skill set in this. We are just looking for some people with the time and inclination to scour the game for bad/messed up content, because quite frankly we have been staring at this for way to long and have a long time to go. So some fresh eyes are really welcome!
 

I will add a list of accepted alpha testers upon me making that decision. Currently I have received 3 request for participation.

[Geekboy1011]

The alpha testers have been decided!

They are
@calcdude84se
@Chirlian
@merthsoft
@pimathbrainiac
@Escheron
They have been sent the alpha, Thank you all for your applications. Now lets get bug hunting! Hopefully this thread will get active now

[Escheron]

BUGS:

* Equipping armor / armlets does not apply relevant Agility adjustments.

* Equipping armor / armlets does not apply relevant Intellect adjustments.

* Magic shops claim that characters have no room left, even though they do.

* Spells cost 0 MP to cast.

* Poison status has no effect.

* Stat-up items have no effect if a character is dead. Shouldn't they be usable either way?

* Essentially every (weapon) shop inventory has incorrect listings. For example: Ragnoth's weapon shop (in the village) offers Collosus claws, Ebony armor and Spartan clothes. Its inventory should be Staff, Clothes and Fairy armlet. The erroneous listings actually have the same buy values as the items that are supposed to be there.

* The flame in the Tristran lighthouse cannot be extinguished. (At least, not by Edmund?)

* Why isn't the aforementioned flame animated?

* The guy in Ragnoth's root cellar has a line that should end with a quote: [have to use swords."]

* Floor 6 of the Underdeep dropped me into a room filled with random tiles. (See screenshot)


* On the airship / party swap, Maya should be facing up, not right.


NITPICKS:

* The item properties string "Has no spell charges." should perhaps be without a period to appear more consistent with other menu strings.

* The Emergency Exit tile in the Underdeep doesn't enclose the period inside the quotation marks. This is inconsistent with my style of grammar.

* The encounter rate in the Underdeep is still fairly high. Considering the length of each floor, the encounter rate should probably be closer to half of what it is now.

* When navigating to the equipment or magic screens, the cursor retains its position depending on which character you selected. In the case of the equipment screen, this results in the first item highlighted being the shield slot or armor slot. Shouldn't the cursor position be reset each time you enter a new menu or sub-menu?

* For ease of navigation, should pressing a directional button while on the status screen switch to another party member's status?

[Iambian]

@calcdude84se
@Chirlian
@merthsoft
@pimathbrainiac

Bug fixes pushed in revision 427 (c3730ade74ee)

 Magic shop display bugs
 Mana costs
 Airship: Maya should face up
 Lighthouse event fixed. Yes/No event repaired.
 Underdeep warp location moved
 Walking around while poisoned should hurt.
 Ragnoth root cellar, typo (missing quote)
 Item description consistency fix
 Item shop description scrollability
 AGI and INT should update in status screen wrt equipment

Note: Underdeep and shop bugs were not reproduceable due to Escheron using a non-clean build.

[Geekboy1011]

Alpha branch updated. Zip was updated to reflect the new alpha.

@calcdude84se
@Chirlian
@merthsoft
@pimathbrainiac

[pimathbrainiac]

I shall be taking a look today! Thanks!

[calcdude84se]

This is all with respect to revision 428. If any of this warrants reporting on Bitbucket, let me know.

• The Window, Zoom, Trace, and Graph buttons act like the direction arrows. Presumably it's because of how you're scanning the keys.
• When you can't obtain an item from a chest because your pack is full, the item stays in the chest but the chest appears open. If you come back to the map later, the chest is closed.
• It'd be nice if scrolling wrapped top to bottom, since it would make it quicker to access later items / spells.
• Exiting a map back to the overworld sometimes puts you on the space corresponding to the map, and other times one square in some direction which varies per map. It'd be nice if you consistently came out the same way.
• Exiting the boat onto the airship leaves you standing on top of the airship, while exiting a submap that moves you onto the airship makes you start riding it. This feels inconsistent.
• The speech boxes sometimes have little arrows in the bottom corner to indicate continuation. However, it's not a reliable indicator of that, since a good amount of multi-screen dialog doesn't always use them.
• Selecting a spell to display its description shifts the upper border down by 1 pixel, which I find distracting
• Using "equip" to change out equipment works differently from selecting an item from "items". It doesn't describe the item you're about to equip.
• It would be nice to be able to view the descriptions of equipped items without having to unequip them.
• If you can't equip something, an error message explaining why would be helpful

[Geekboy1011]

Most of this I think could be on the bitbucket. Would allow us to track it a little nicer if you have the time. That aside Can you clarify on point 4 please, Zera would like to know which towns so it can be updated.

As for most of the other things Iambian will look into some of them and see what can be done. Ill explain in more detail in a bit. If he does not get to it first.

[Escheron]

• Exiting a map back to the overworld sometimes puts you on the space corresponding to the map, and other times one square in some direction which varies per map. It'd be nice if you consistently came out the same way.

Do you want the player to appear directly on top of the warp? Since you can enter some areas from multiple directions, I can't place the character one tile away from whatever direction they entered from. IMO, I just didn't think placing the player directly on top of the warp felt right.

• The speech boxes sometimes have little arrows in the bottom corner to indicate continuation. However, it's not a reliable indicator of that, since a good amount of multi-screen dialog doesn't always use them.

This is intentional. The arrow indicates a thought / sentence that exceeds the length of the window. When a thought / sentence is completed, any subsequent dialogs spawn new windows instead of being directed by arrows.

I hope that explanation made sense.

• Selecting a spell to display its description shifts the upper border down by 1 pixel, which I find distracting

Ditto. I also have my gripes with the small amount of black space in shopkeeper's inventories. I think Iambian says the menu layouts involve a bit of compromise.

• If you can't equip something, an error message explaining why would be helpful

I think this has been in planning.[/list]

----

Do you have any thoughts on the game's aesthetics? e.g. World size, dungeon layouts, etc. Map designs are subject to change as well.

[Iambian]

This is all with respect to revision 428. If any of this warrants reporting on Bitbucket, let me know.

• The Window, Zoom, Trace, and Graph buttons act like the direction arrows. Presumably it's because of how you're scanning the keys.
• When you can't obtain an item from a chest because your pack is full, the item stays in the chest but the chest appears open. If you come back to the map later, the chest is closed.
• It'd be nice if scrolling wrapped top to bottom, since it would make it quicker to access later items / spells.
• Exiting a map back to the overworld sometimes puts you on the space corresponding to the map, and other times one square in some direction which varies per map. It'd be nice if you consistently came out the same way.
• Exiting the boat onto the airship leaves you standing on top of the airship, while exiting a submap that moves you onto the airship makes you start riding it. This feels inconsistent.
• The speech boxes sometimes have little arrows in the bottom corner to indicate continuation. However, it's not a reliable indicator of that, since a good amount of multi-screen dialog doesn't always use them.
• Selecting a spell to display its description shifts the upper border down by 1 pixel, which I find distracting
• Using "equip" to change out equipment works differently from selecting an item from "items". It doesn't describe the item you're about to equip.
• It would be nice to be able to view the descriptions of equipped items without having to unequip them.
• If you can't equip something, an error message explaining why would be helpful

Good call. Many of these will be noted on the TODO list to be worked on, which will happen after I get a more automated selective sprite masking system in place.

1. That is indeed the manner in which the keys are scanned. Unless it becomes a major issue, I don't see myself splitting the keygroups.
2. Treasure chest behavior is by design, though everyone else on the dev team is against me on this so... yeah. I'll fix it. On TODO list.
3. Scrolling. Sure, will check on it. On TODO list.
4. I'm a bit late on responding to that. Oops.
5. Haven't noticed that behavior before. Will look into it. On TODO list.
6. This is by design. It was also explained in a post while I wasn't looking. Yay Omni and its warning about other postings.
7. Spell descriptor window. Noted. On TODO list.
8,9,10. Rolled into the TODO list item: "General equip system overhaul to be more helpful."

-------------------------------
Update to revision 438 (9cd9e394d813) default branch. Its commit message is terribly nondescript. Here's some meat.

NOT FIXED:
 General equip system overhaul to be more helpful.
 Magic formulae need to use derived INT, not base.

FIXED:
 sprite automasking
 Inns now checks for empty slots instead of corrupting memory.
 Treasure chests should not be open if you can't get item from it
 Item/magic scrolling should wrap top to bottom
 Spell descriptor is incongruent with spell list by 1 pixel. Fix it.
 Exit locations to overworld and badlands are on top of submap entrance

WONTFIX:
 Exit location to on top of airship autoboards airship. This behavior is critical for Asnoth and Arcanian Summit exit.

[Geekboy1011]

Will pull to alpha and distribute before evening end.

[Escheron]

The alpha phase was supposed to end about a week ago, and unfortunately the only volunteer generous enough to submit any findings was calcdude84se, whom we appreciate very much.

As for our other volunteers - @Chirlian, @merthsoft and @pimathbrainiac - all of them seem to be MIA. As a result, Geekboy1011 keeps pushing the deadline further. Bear in mind, we're losing valuable development time waiting for these reports to come in. If you guys have lost interest in the project or simply do not have enough free time to continue, I would appreciate your forwardness.

Lastly, a gentle reminder: Volunteers not actively participating in the alpha will not be included anywhere in the game's credits.

[pimathbrainiac]

Sorry about that. I haven't had time to do anything with school and all. I'll give some feedback over the weekend. Promise.

[123outerme]

Are you guys going to need testers for the CSE version? If so, I'll send me application. (And yes, I know I've asked like 20 million times, sorry )

[Escheron]

I'll give some feedback over the weekend. Promise.

That would be much appreciated. Any feedback you can submit will be helpful.

Are you guys going to need testers for the CSE version?

Insofar, the CSE port is just the base game with a compatibility layer tacked on. Escheron won't be properly ported to the CSE will full color support because that would necessitate a complete rewrite.

Whether or not @Geekboy1011 will want to submit a test release is entirely up to him.