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[mendonca]

For some reason that link isn't working for me.  Is that website down or something?

It's just a dropbox link, might have been down.

Alternate download location here:

http://www.zen102301.zen.co.uk/100heroes/ahundredheroes015py.zip <- source
http://www.zen102301.zen.co.uk/100heroes/ahundredheroes015exe.zip <- Exe

Grabbing it now!

I'll be playing pretty much blind but will let you know what I think.

Edit: First feedback... fixed resolution. The window is incredibly small on my 1080x1920 monitor. Hard to read the font.

You can press PGUP whilst playing to cycle the fonts, as set within the ./data/init/available_fonts.txt (with the font files set in ./fonts/*.png dir)

The default font sizes are 10x10, 12x12, 15x15 and 20x20. You could grab a compliant libtcod-style PNG font file and use your own, if you wanted.

End result is a larger display, the game boots with the 10x10 font size by default. I should really make that an option on the main introduction menu (it isn't at the minute) - and also make it pretty clear that you CAN do that.

Edit2: A minor point. When pressing S to add 5 to your bid, I feel like it should set the price at 5 instead of 6. Maybe have the bid default to zero? It adds an extra keypress if I want to bid in multiples of 5 as I have to then subtract the default 1.

Yeah, I had considered that. I figured the distinction is pretty arbitrary, and 6 is as good as 5 really, but I'll give it some thought.

E: There is also a manual of sorts (manual.txt in the game directory). Might be worth a quick read to get a feel for the things you can and can't do.

[forsaken1111]

Good to know. I'll give it some more time this afternoon, didn't have a lot of time yesterday.

[mendonca]

So cool.... especially noticed all the configurablish files in the directories.  I haven't had a chance to play yet, but I'm salivating.

Hey sorry, just noticed this post

The files are really an effort to externalise a lot of the data, as it was becoming a nightmare to modify that within the body of the code.

You could, if you were so inclined, modify pretty much any file within the data/ directories and everything should work okay - assuming you stick to the general parsing layout for the particular data structures used (it's brought in via YAML).

Adding more writing / items / monsters is probably my next task, after playing it a few dozen more times and trying to nail down any irritating bugs and feeding back in some more figures in to the nebulous 'balance' of the game.

[Zangi]

Finally put some time into this.

Needs more contracting stuff.
For some reason, heroes don't want to ever take 'my' contracts for the '1st/default' dungeon.  Mind you, I have 4 or 5 of em up and they are all for taking loot for me.
Then, they all seem to offer me contracts for loot in the '3rd' dungeon and take those contracts too.

Also, would be pretty cool to have some sort of memorial... maybe.

I'll have to eventually go through the thread and read your posts to figure what the general design decisions are.

[Neonivek]

...

Note: I edited out the suggestion because I do WAAAAAY too much of that.

[mendonca]

For some reason, heroes don't want to ever take 'my' contracts for the '1st/default' dungeon.  Mind you, I have 4 or 5 of em up and they are all for taking loot for me.
Then, they all seem to offer me contracts for loot in the '3rd' dungeon and take those contracts too.

I suspect (based on what I have seen as well) that a $10 item hunt is seen as a sour deal by the heroes (assuming you went with the default price). They will only take a contract if they feel 'safe' enough to do it, modified by price. I'll do some more tests on this, but it's possible that $10 rarely is seen as 'safe' enough. Probably just another $5 would be enough to tip the balance.

It's also possible that there are just better deals out there, when a hero feels like they want to actually do an item hunt (they go for the best price contract generally).

I also suspect (haven't checked the code yet) that heroes can 'petition' the player (like they do other shops), and I didn't put in the checks that I thought I did to stop this.

Also, would be pretty cool to have some sort of memorial... maybe.

Yeah, I like it. Not sure what I could do here, but I like it.

Thanks for the thoughts

[Zangi]

For some reason, heroes don't want to ever take 'my' contracts for the '1st/default' dungeon.  Mind you, I have 4 or 5 of em up and they are all for taking loot for me.
Then, they all seem to offer me contracts for loot in the '3rd' dungeon and take those contracts too.

I suspect (based on what I have seen as well) that a $10 item hunt is seen as a sour deal by the heroes (assuming you went with the default price). They will only take a contract if they feel 'safe' enough to do it, modified by price. I'll do some more tests on this, but it's possible that $10 rarely is seen as 'safe' enough. Probably just another $5 would be enough to tip the balance.

It's also possible that there are just better deals out there, when a hero feels like they want to actually do an item hunt (they go for the best price contract generally).

I also suspect (haven't checked the code yet) that heroes can 'petition' the player (like they do other shops), and I didn't put in the checks that I thought I did to stop this.

Actually, all of em are the same price, all 3 dungeons available at the start are listed as level 1, I put up offers of 20$ each.  They totally favor the '3rd' dungeon, since contract offers from heroes that I've accepted for that dungeon were less then 20$.  Heroes picked up 18$ contract in '3rd' dungeon, ignoring 20$ contract in '1st' dungeon.  '2nd' dungeon is also dawdling there at 20$.

[mendonca]

Thanks for that, that's good to know.

[lecavian]

I know that this might be something minor, but I wanted to let you know that I really enjoyed the comedic elements of the manual.

I've played about 3 months and read through most of the source code.  Also, the game has invaded my sleep a bit lately... 

Oddest thing I saw was what I think you've mentioned already, which is that a hero proposed a contract to me to invade a dungeon. -- Which made me think, it'd be cool if the heroes could put contracts out to acquire x armor, weapon, item, etc. and the player could perhaps compete with the other shops to attempt to fill these special requests.

(Off-topic: Also played some swords and potions... while that game is fun, I have to say the whole token dynamic and the "recruit your friends" thing is really annoying).

[mendonca]

I know that this might be something minor, but I wanted to let you know that I really enjoyed the comedic elements of the manual.

Ha ha! I'm glad someone read it

I've played about 3 months and read through most of the source code.

... but really surprised that someone has read that!  (I apologise for any offensive comments!)

Which made me think, it'd be cool if the heroes could put contracts out to acquire x armor, weapon, item, etc. and the player could perhaps compete with the other shops to attempt to fill these special requests.

That sounds like a good idea. I really need to do a bit of work, generally, on how heroes go about equipping themselves. Whilst it is slightly better now than it was, it's telling how much they struggle to actually find what they want after a few weeks in town, when the balance of items available in the shops has shifted significantly.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

If you are interested, press the 'zero' key to enter debug mode ... you'll notice how often heroes spam the 'buy' command, when there are several of them in town at once ... with virtually no one trying to sell ...

I've noticed that the current 'marketing' logic can severely hamper the decision making process for the Heroes, with them by and large gravitating towards the busiest shop - regardless of whether that has an item they need. I quite like this, in principle (commentary on the idiotic consumer?), but as it currently stands it just doesn't quite work.

Something like the suggested mechanic, tied in with a better merchant cargo delivery logic (Should shops be able to put in orders with the Merchants?), and perhaps a more even spread of item types available, should hopefully help things along here.

The other shops definitely need to take a bit more of an active role, as well. Them being entirely passive just gives the player a HUGE advantage in getting the right levels of footfall to be profitable.

[Neonivek]

My issue with "X-Armor" is somewhat the same issue I have with when Reccetear does it...

Why are they doing it?

[Zangi]

Update on contracts, heroes finally took and done some of my 'other' contracts.  Maybe it was just RNG being really ornery... or a dungeon of the week thing.

At other shops: I can probably easily start completely buying out the other shops now, if not soon. I've already bought out all of 1 type of gear and on my way with the 2nd type... but I want to keep some money on hand to buy directly from the source, adventurers/heroes/merchants.

Buying/selling, in a retail sense and coming from Swords and Potions/Recettear... there really is not a lot of margin to mess with the pricing.
From what I can tell, chance to sell is non-existent once you get around... 40-50% markup of value.  (I try to bring markup to roughly 30% if it defaults to something lower.)
When buying offers, there is no haggling and nearly always offer at or near value... though I guess since NPC shops will buy those up anyways, don't matter much to the heroes.

Suggestion: Sponsoring Heroes, shop gears em up, they give 50-100% of dungeon loot to shop and/or wear logos/advertising.  NPC shops should start with a few of these, so that they have core customers of sorts/first pick.  Will actively search out for another one if theirs croak.

@Gear: It is not so apparent the difference between the more expensive gear and the cheap ones...

[mendonca]

dungeon of the week

I totally need to implement a 'DUNGEON OF THE WEEK' feature ...

From what I can tell, chance to sell is non-existent once you get around... 40-50% markup of value.  (I try to bring markup to roughly 30% if it defaults to something lower.)
When buying offers, there is no haggling and nearly always offer at or near value... though I guess since NPC shops will buy those up anyways, don't matter much to the heroes.

I'm very conscious on how opaque the current pricing is. In principle items should be able to go for much more than their base value (if they are of better than normal quality / bonus). I haven't spent enough time analysing how the heroes truly respond to this, though. In general the answer seems to be 'not very well' - however the current implementation at least allows the game to be 'played'.

Prices, generally, should be (and are, to a degree) modified by the hero personality, and the individual reputation, after a randomly modified 'appraisal' function. Looking at the prices in the shops (which use the same function) it is not as 'random' or variable as I intended it to be. To compound things slightly, the heroes are pretty dumb when it comes to identifying the 'good stuff' - which makes them unlikely to pay much over base value when something good does come along. Makes it hard for the shopkeeper to justify having high prices for good quality items, as they never (or rarely) shift at the raised price.

I reckon it needs a real good design session, as well as some logging and analysis of what actually goes on in the heroes minds, to figure out a better system.

Will be fun to approach it, but as with all these things it's daunting to start it in the first place (as I know how wide-reaching the changes will have to be).

Suggestion: Sponsoring Heroes, shop gears em up, they give 50-100% of dungeon loot to shop and/or wear logos/advertising.  NPC shops should start with a few of these, so that they have core customers of sorts/first pick.  Will actively search out for another one if theirs croak.

I can work with suggestions like these. Love the logo / advertisement idea.

@Gear: It is not so apparent the difference between the more expensive gear and the cheap ones...

Nah, as with the pricing, nothing much is apparent, really. Higher level equipment is however more effective than low level equipment when heroes are down fightin' in the dungeons - but when a hero is in possession of a high quality / enchanted item, this is likely to quickly overpower any level benefits anyway (each level of quality / bonus is equivalent to one level of item - e.g. a fine quality (+2) gladius (lvl 1) is as good as a base quality greatsword (lvl 3).

Heroes roll an x-sided dice against monsters that they meet, monsters get a [power]-sided dice, and x for the hero is level + weapon + armor + clothing.

It's another one of those things that is 'working' (in terms of apparent game balance), but I would like to do a bit differently / better. Ties in closely with how items are generated, perceived, valued, assessed etc. by the various parties. Ideally enchanted / high quality items should be more clearly 'special', less common and much more sought-after. Needs a real good session unpicking the mechanics and putting them back together again.

[Rossol]

I'm having a blast playing this game!
Any updates by chance?

[mendonca]

I'm having a blast playing this game!
Any updates by chance?

That's awesome!

I'm really happy about that

I've kind of internally promised to get something updated for the ARRP in September, but a small child, new job and ongoing house move means dedicating brain space to this is difficult.

I'd love to overcome these psychic hurdles life throws in the way - and get a chance to work on it again, though.