I am working on a new release of The Ground Gives Way. I shared some of the plans for the next few releases in my previous post, on which I still welcome any suggestions. However, sometimes inspiration strikes and I have implemented a new item category in the next release: rods.
Rods
Rods are one-charge magical items with potential area-effects.
Rods are a new type of magic item that has one charge, does not use mana and is recharged upon rest. I have tested it quite a lot and they fit very well in the game in my opinion. They are quite rare, but very powerful items. This is the first of item that may have area-effects.
The Next Release
The plan is to have Release #3 out in August (no absolute promises though), it will actually have quite a lot of new content (items and features), some of the fixes from the previous post and a lot of bug fixes.
Rods look like a wonderful addition. I wonder if having one might’ve allowed me to survive last night when trying to return to the surface only to meet a narrow pathway with no way around and SIX statues guarding the way…
Thank you! Yeah, they’ll make things easier, although I doubt they alone would get you out of that pickle… (really close one it seems, let me know when you win!)
Yeah, that was an especially good run. I found a knife of wounding early on and later had enough money to permanently train three stats. Also some magic and a good stash of arrows to rely on, but all that and it still wasn’t enough! On another note, many of the later enemies are deadly even when alone, much less rooms full of them… Maybe you could add more items that provide alternate ways around obstacles? More teleporting potential. Wands of digging. That sort of thing.
Yeah, those are good suggestions. I will think about it!
A couple of notes from recent plays:
1. Why don’t upgrades at merchants show the resulting stat changes to help make the best decision? (Purchases do, but conversion don’t–would be nice to see them show the same way that inventory equipment swapping does.)
2. Found a bug here:
@###
../.
.##.
Moving to the right in this situation can be used to close the portcullis (‘/’), but can’t be used to open it. (Portcullis is also mispelled as “portculis” in the game.)
1. They do show a comparison when you select it (by pressing space), then you get to answer y/n if you want to make the upgrade. However, yes, it would be more convenient to show it directly, I will probably rework this!
2. Technically not a bug as it’s implemented such that you bump an adjacent wall to close a door. Maybe not so logical in this situation though. Thanks for reporting. But you cannot open doors by bumping walls, that’s intentional. Thank you for the typo, will fix!
1. Oh, I hadn’t noticed the stats show on the confirmation (don’t get too many opportunities to use this feature). Would be nice if they simply showed while hovering, for sure.
2. Whoops, wasn’t thinking there when I mentioned you can’t open the door by bumping the wall… Also, now that I look at it more, I see why it does that (this note I made last night right before sleep… a little too tired!). I guess you have to include diagonal adjacency in the check in order to close doors in corridors, though this particular situation seems weird since I wasn’t near the door. Perhaps you should take into consideration the player’s actual location as well. The easiest check seems to be a player-door manhattan distance no greater than 2–that would work in all cases.
Right now it is also possible to close a door you can’t see behind a wall, which is also not intended behaviour. Checking player distance to the door will do it, good suggestion, thank you!
Oh yeah, I’d forgotten that earlier player comment about being able to close doors from an adjacent corridor/room. If it was me I’d just check that the wall cell is adjacent to the door, then A* from the player to the door itself and check the range on that–not like this is a computationally expensive game anyway! I’m sure you’ve got it figured out, though.
Thank you for that solution. However, both of the bugs were easily solved by just checking whether the player is within Chebyshev distance of 1 to the door.
Ha, okay, overkill by me. I had no idea what Chebyshev distance was, but Wikipedia answered that pretty quickly. Thanks for teaching me something new!
1. Any way to see in the dark? Torch/candle does not do anything.
Also even with trap detection cannot see traps in the dark.
2. Silver gloves, what do they do? Stat box is empty.
3. Is enchantment “of shimmering” supposed to confuse myself?
This is great game btw and I am excited for the next release.
1. Nope. Torch/candle just increases your range. See it as an impenetrable darkness that is not even lit up by light/fires. And yes, even spells of trap detection cannot see through it!
2. They don’t alter your stats, but they do have an effect if equipped. I won’t reveal it now, you have to experiment (if you ever find them again) 🙂
3. Actually yes. It’s kind of a trade off, even though it’s not terribly useful to confuse most monsters right now. Confusion will be more useful in the next release btw.
Really glad you like the game, I think and hope the coming release will live up to your expectations!
Thanks for your response, that is very helpful to know those things. My best run ended when I fell through a hole in a dark room and landed inside a gold vault full of elementals! Trap detection did not save me from this fate like I thought it would. Confusion is very annoying since there is no cure like silverleaf for it.
Some other things I came across while playing:
1. Fast travel down a hallway sometimes puts you face to face with a floating eye. Maybe it should stop as soon as an enemy is in view?
2. Sometimes I find a “map” (the dungeon feature) is unusable simply because it is placed in the corner tile of a room.
3. Under Discovered Monsters, why only monsters that have been defeated?
I might remove the possibility to be dropped in a vault, it is maybe a bit too brutal. I am satisfied with confusion right now. It is only a real problem if you rely on magic, in which case you have to rest. Otherwise you can live with it if you are careful around water/lava.
You other things:
1. Yes, I am aware of this. You do stop when a moving monster is in view. It was a little annoying to have fungi preventing you from running. However, I will rework the running code anyway and hopefully it will end up better.
2. Known bug that I’ve fixed for the next release.
3. Good question… I guess the original thought was that it should be something like a trophy, but you’re right, it would make better sense to have all monsters you have encountered there.
Some other things:
1. A door with a valve on one side, and a mysterious vein on the other, I am unable to close it.
2. Died when I removed robe of health.
3. Empty bottle, I still have no idea what this is for!
4. Shimmering slime gains ranged attack when on a statue.
5. Why knife doesn’t have counter attack? It is like a dagger.
Thanks for the comments!
1. Yeah. Not being able to close a door on a mysterious vein is a bug that I plan to fix. We’ll see what I’ll do about valves.
2. It’s a bug, but it should kill you (hp is tied to maxhp). However, the intended behaviour (fixed in next release) is that you shouldn’t be able to unequip it at all.
3. Keep them in your inventory, you’ll eventually find out. 🙂
4. Actually intended. They have a magic splash attack of range 1. When they stand on a stone (I guess you mean stone) their range is increased.
5. You use the dagger for stabbing quickly, the knife I see as a very small sword with high accuracy (and use for slashing, not stabbing).
Hope that helps!
2. Also if you at low health and wear gear with boost HP when drinking restore potion, you die. I think, your attributes get normal (and you die) and after that bonuses from your equipment add again. Are you gonna fix this too?
Oh! That’s something I’ve missed.
You can die from drinking restoring potions, this is intentional and applies if you have temporary hitpoints.
However, this which you described is a bug since you actually shouldn’t be taken below 0 in hp because of your equipment. It is related to the order effects are processed. I’ll have a look at it, thanks!
Yeah ! Nice add !:)
I have some question :
Can we enchant rods ?Can we burn rods ? (to make campfire (or over effects when you drop it in campfire) by exemple) 🙂
“You drop a rod of healing on campfire”
“the campfire became a campfire of healing!!!” XD
I like your creativity for content 🙂 But I think “campfire of healing” would be too weird even for TGGW! In TGGW only equipment is enchantable so right now you can’t. But there are quite many rods and they can be very useful. They also don’t stack so you can collect several rods to get more charges at the expense of an item slot.
Of course , campfire of healing was just an exemple ^^ (otherwise the game would have been too easy/”wizard mode enabled”).
I love the idea that we can get more charges by picking the same rods : )
Great to hear, it’s pretty exciting to follow this already amazing game develop further.
It is very motivating to develop it further since you and others enjoy it! Thank you!
What about monsters suicides? When I chase fleeing mobs, they constantly try to kill themself in deep water or lava, even if there are other free passages. Is it intended? It could be like they panic or something. But sometimes I really need that meat ration or sea pearl.
It’s actually not intended, even though it actually makes some sense (like you say, panic). I’ll have a look at it!