Someone recently tried to access my PSN account, which I haven't used for months since I no longer have a PS3. Sony sent me an email to notify me that my password was automatically reset to counteract any suspicious activity. When I got rid of my PS3, I removed any personal info and card data from that account, so luckily it's not an issue. Everybody else may nonetheless want to double-check any accounts they have connected to their Omnimaga email address.

My email was also bombarded with spam.

1) There are some overworld chests that won't open here:

Those are generic chests found in the debug room, which is the map you initially spawn in. They're not supposed to be filled, or they'll be filled at a later time when Iambian or Geekboy1011 decides to put something in them. For the time being, they're just placeholders.

2) The encounter rate is a little high in general. I'm getting encounters about every 5 to 15 steps, with the distribution closer to 5 than 15.

We're working on balancing that. I feel the encounter rate in the Underdeep is especially too high.

3) The dreadnaught confuses me in the balance of scripted and random encounters. The frequency of scripted encounters, in my opinion, would dictate there be fewer, if any, random encounters. I once went from a scripted encounter, took a single step, and ran in to a random one.

The scripted encounters shouldn't seem confusing, since you actually have to walk up to the guards and speak to them to initiate a battle.

Regardless, the Dreadnought is a late-game dungeon, so it's naturally more of a pain in the ass to navigate.

4) The item limit. I use a few potions, and can only buy up to a certain number back so I can have a total number of items combined. I know it's nitpickey, but it feels arbitrary. I don't know how your item data is stored, though, so it might be necessary.

Intentional design choice, even though it is rather arbitrary. We're going for the look and feel of retro console RPGs, including some of the limitations they imposed on players.

To be fair though, 32 items max is pretty flexible, given the amount of content in the game.

5) I get weird encounter text when I step on this skull. Debug thing, maybe?

Intentional. It's a forced encounter tile, similar to those you'd find in the original Final Fantasy. There are a few other instances of this found in the game.

I had considered the idea of a first-person perspective with scenery, but adding graphics would eat up valuable screen space. If I'm going to describe the player's surroundings in vivid detail, I'll need all of the screen reserved for lines of text.

The reason I wanted to use a text-based approach in the first place is because sprite-based graphics are rather restrictive. With text, I can describe any level of detail I want. Not so much with two-dimensional sprites and tiles.

I had an idea earlier for a text-based adventure for z80 calculators. The idea is to create an experience similar to MUDs - or "multi-user dungeons" - but with respect to the constraints of a z80 calculator. Let me be clear that this is strictly in the conceptual phase, as I'm unsure if memory or processing limitations will even permit it. Nonetheless, I thought I would share some of the ideas I've put together so far.

- Environment and Gameplay -

The game world would consist of a series of interconnected "rooms." Rooms are abstract and not measured by any tangible standards such as width or height, so there's no logical restriction on the number of features or interactive objects a room can contain. A room can be a house, a chamber, a trail in the wilderness, a dungeon floor, a pool of water, etc. Some of these rooms contain obstacles that make passing in certain directions more difficult. The player character has several skills at their disposal that are used to determine their probability of success when interacting with these rooms. For instance, there's an athletics skills that determines how effectively the player can climb walls and mountains, or swim across bodies of water.

Upon starting the game, the player rolls a character from one of five distinct character races. The player's choice of race determines their starting stats and major skills, and what (if any) special feats they'll possess. Instead of assigning a rigid class-based role to their character, the player powers up by training all of their skills independently. Each major skill has a sort of experience level associated with it. Every time a skill is successfully put to use, it gains experience points and eventually levels up. There are no necessary restrictions on what equipment or spells the player can learn to use, as long as they train themselves to meet the necessary prerequisites first.

The player's environment is largely interactive. The player can mine resources and harvest food, poach enemies for their furs and leathers, recruit NPC allies to fight alongside them, propose marriage to specific NPCs, or go around killing friendly NPCs and taking over villages and kingdoms. Some of these actions have long-term consequences or will invoke alternate endings.

- Plot and Setting -

The setting spans two major regions - Ardenvale and Anomyr. The player is free to explore the entire game world at their leisure, and can even bypass major quests and head straight for antagonist's stronghold, assuming they've amassed enough power to survive the conflict.

The plot centers on Ardenvale, which has recently come under the threat of the blackguard Gul Wraith, who is plotting Ardenvale's destruction from his stronghold at the summit of Caldera. Gul Wraith has unleashed four demon generals to lead an army of hellspawn in a conquest of the regions. Gul Wraith continues to draw strength from the terror wrought by his minions, and is mustering to use this strength to awaken the inactive volcano Caldera, blanketing the sky in ash and plunging the world into an era of perpetual darkness.

Lord Caelendal's armies are beginning to thin at the hands of Gul Wraith's minions. Out of desperation, Caeldendal pulls several prisoners from the dungeon depths, offering to pardon them if they will serve in the volunteer brigade. The player assumes the role of one of these prisoners, who undergoes basic training in Caeldendal's "Hall of Beginners" before being thrust out into the world to fend for themselves. The player can report back to Lord Caeldendal for major quest markers or general direction, or they can assume free reign over the world and engage in a number of sidequests. In fact, they can even ignore the threat of Gul Wraith, return to Caelendal after becoming significantly more powerful, and attempt to take over the kingdom for themselves.


Attached to this post are a couple of concepts - a mockup showing the basic textual interface, and a map design outlining all the wilderness areas between the two regions the game takes place in. Villages, castles and dungeons are all sub-maps that will be documented separately.

All in all, I estimate a total number of rooms in the game will range from ~1100 to ~1500. The wilderness areas alone comprise around ~550 rooms.

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?

The Underdeep is home to one of two superbosses that can be found in the game. The idea behind the dungeon was to give the player something to do post-game. Since the floors and loot are dynamically generated, it's a slightly different experience every time the player enters. Incidentally, it's also a good spot to grind since the dungeon houses the strongest enemies in the game, and stat-up potions are littered throughout most every floor.

There are numerous other side-areas besides the Underdeep, and many of those can be completed much earlier in the game. In fact, game balance will sometimes require the player to do some exploring and retrieve equipment upgrades from optional areas before they'll be strong enough to advance through story areas.

The map planning phase is almost complete. I just need to draw up details for a couple of maps and put some finishing touches on a few others.

We're still working out a consensus on how we're going to approach one of the game's optional dungeons. I wanted to implement a randomized or pseudo-randomized dungeon in this particular case, but if we can't implement some sort of logic for that, then I'll design a set of static maps instead.

On a side note, Escheron actually has more side areas than story areas. I didn't want the player to be forcibly tethered to the story progression at all times, so exploration and sidequesting are very abundant, and encouraged. You can in fact access a number of side areas from most any point in the story.