Saturday 29 November 2014

Release 2

Zanna the Pixie
This release is brought to you
by Zanna the Pixie
Aaand, here's the second proper release. Real life caught up, so I took a bit of a break. But hey, at least there's plenty of new stuff in this one.

I've been squishing a lot of random bugs, but I've also pretty radically changed some AI routines and whatnot, so new bugs may have appeared. Please report them in comments if you encounter them.

Download the game here (mediafire)
Open the file with Git (download)

As of this release, there are:
* 12 transformable races.
* 2 nonliving forms.
* 2 ways to get enslaved.
* 288 images.

Major changes:

Three new races
One of them pictured to your right.

High score lists
They're kind of experimental and entirely pointless, but they're there.

Special gallery
A gallery with images unlocked when specific conditions are met.

Bane weapons
A new weapon type that works especially well against certain types of monsters. This release only has one such weapon.

Polymorph effects
Temporary transformations that let you to temporarily assume the shape of a monster without truly becoming one. In this release, there is only one form that can be polymorphed into.

Cow improvements
One of most frequent complaints was how boring it was to be a cow. Now, they have at least something they can do (see racial help.)

Full changelog:
* Special gallery added.
* Two new items (one weapon, one consumable)
* Three new races (one of them which doesn't spawn normally)
* Monsters now heal to full when recovering from disabled status.
* New action: Drinking (from something)
* Willpower now regenerates automatically over time; will potions are now rarer.
* There's now a way for cows to gain points.
* Weapon "tiers" (guidelines that the AI uses when deciding which weapon is better) are now visible when examining one.
* Cows can now use the automation commands.
* Disabled players can now use the automation commands.
* Trying to TF a disabled target while an enslaved human now automatically carries the victim towards your mistress.
* During automation, infected humans are now considered to be "interesting" when carrying a remedy.
* NPCs now automatically hand over potions when they feel someone needs them more.
* Item, monster, etc spawn rates have been adjusted.
* Fixed a bug where human-turned-monsters would sometimes vanish.

41 comments:

  1. I knew this wasn't dead!
    Thanks for the next release!
    Glad I kept watching for it.

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  2. Definitely enjoying this. Ran into a bit of a bug, though I'm not sure how it happened exactly. Sanya ended up infected and polymorphed at the same time, which...somehow resulted in her being immortal but also constantly attacking herself.

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    1. Oh dear. I think I can figure out what causes that, thanks for reporting it.

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  3. Yay a new release. I really enjoyed this one, more so the third, hard to get TF. Also, do I sense Vampires in the future?

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  4. Out of interest, is it possible for rilmani invasions to happen? I don't think I've seen more than one of them appear in a game before everyone gets transformed.

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    1. Well, now that you mention it... it seems that I forgot to add their row to the invasion table. So they don't happen. Will be fixed in the next release then, ha ha ha...

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  5. First off, I'd like to show appreciation for making a game like this and sharing it with the world, love it. As far as constructive criticism is concerned, while willpower slowly regenerating differentiates it nicely, making it more than a second health bar, and works together nicely with the new cow mechanics, it does seem to have the unfortunate side effect of making the rusalka form mostly useless, since your special attack in that form only really works on people with low will.

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, that's a good point about rusalka. And also the rusalka trap, since it too only has a chance to affect people with lower than half willpower. If player and NPCs are spending most of the game at high willpower because of the regeneration, I might have to lower the amount a bit.

      Anyone else feel the willpower regen is too high?

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    2. It's not too high when it comes to the rest of the monsters IMO. Perhaps just buffing Rusalka will work.

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    3. Willpower regen is about right towards the high side. I haven't tested it with Rusalka yet, but I'm feeling good about the amount I'm getting. I still seem to get a lot of willpower potions, though.

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  6. I'm glad you're still alive and updating! I keep coming back to this game and it quickly became one of my favorites. I'm going to download the latest version right now, thanks for your hard work making it and also for sharing with random internet people like us! ^_^

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  7. Alright, time to review this release proper. I love, love, love the changes, as well as the new transformations (and enslavements~) Just a couple of things I noticed, going through.
    Early on, you probably won't even see a monster, because the other humans are killing them so fast, it's hard to find them. Also, when a character is transformed into a Rilani (one of my favorite designs, even if I can't figure out how to unlock the gallery), you see the "they step out of the mirror" message from the other side of the mansion. Finally, during a pixie transformation, the transforming Pixie's name will replace the one being transformed about halfway through.

    Other than that, you did a great job on the release, I'm really enjoying it (even if I can't seem to get onto the high score list :P). I see Vampiress is leading in the polls, but all three is really nice, so please, don't wait 1000 years longer to make the second release. As an aside, I keep seeing "crowbar" as "crossbow" and thinking a crossbow weapon would be cool :D

    Also add ponies.

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  8. Where can I see the racial help?

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  9. Angel Grace: Whoops, thanks for pointing out those errors. Hadn't caught those yet.

    If there were more monsters early on, it'd be a bit too likely for super early losses to happen, which is a bit awkward. Difficulty tweaking is pretty hard in general.

    For racial help, just type "form." That command's listed in the regular help.

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  10. Not sure if it's a bug, but you seem to get the messages about people drinking from cowgirls no matter where they are, even if you're nowhere near them.

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  11. I just encountered an interesting bug; My character was polymorphed while infected by slime. When the slime infection triggered, my character turned, but stayed on the human team with my polymorph counter stuck. Using slime attacks, etc, but against monsters.

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  12. I gave the first release a try back then and I clearly enjoyed this one a lot more - the unlockables in particular are a great incentive to replay. Still have to get the right RNG for the rilmanis, but I unlocked the rusalka and that was quite satisfying.

    Some issues I encountered:
    - unlocked the slime and golem gallery pic in the same game - at game over, the message that the slime gallery was unlocked appeared twice (both galleries got properly unlocked, though). No idea if it's due to the simultaneous clear or just a typo in the golem unlock message.

    - enemy slimes can infect people before they faint, and can stack infection up to hasten the process. Player-turned-slimes can only infect stunned, non-infected humans once. A bit frustrating.

    - polymorphed infection immortality glitch is actually excellent: please consider adding a complicated combination of effects on players that end up improving their abilities (as long as someone else snaps them out of a permanent TF, that is). Risking a lot to get some sort of permanent stat boost adds a lot of replayability (gotta beat those highscores !).
    For example, getting freed out of the various rebirths (harpy egg, golem tube, pod seed, mirror) just before complete conversion could bring unique effects.

    Thanks for working on this game, btw. Looking forward to future releases.

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  13. How to unlock cow, rlimani and darkslave. Please tell me.

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    1. Just follow the hints:
      Darkslave: choose Mei, turn into a darkslave and transform Lotta into another darkslave.
      Cow: search around for a cow collar and some mental potions. Put the collar on another girl, then drink from her 8 times (keep an eye on your willpower).
      Rilmani: locate the rilmani's mirror upstairs, defend the other girls from any monster aside from rilmanis. When they get kidnapped, run to the mirror and break it. You have to do it twice. Pretty much the hardest one.

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  14. Idea for pixie balance: currently they seem to dominate. Switch around the conditions for pixie and fairy transformation, that is, if you're already a fairy when knocked out and transformed, you become a pixie, but if you're a human you become a fairy thrall.

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  15. One of my most favorite games. Sad thing it looks dead.

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    Replies
    1. time between release 1 & 2: 4 months
      time between release 2 & now: 3 months

      ... to put things in perspective.

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    2. How about now?

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    3. Now, it looks ripe for a new version. Not dead. :)

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  16. Its too bad, i really loved this game too :( RIP

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  17. Any hope of this still being in development? It'd be sad if this was it.

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  18. While Pashai hasn't been seen in over a year, he is active on www.tfgamessite.com 's forum (Name: passelel). He doesn't say much.

    That said, I'm working on a clone. It's in C++, not Inform, and I work on it in my spare time. Pay attention to the new releases on tfgamessite, it'll pop up there eventually.

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    Replies
    1. Do you mind posting here when you've finished making the clone and what it's called?

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  19. I'll post it in this comment thread, surely. It'll be called "House of Pandemonium: Remastered" and yes, I've spoken to Pashai, he's cool with the re-use of the assets.

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    Replies
    1. dude, that is absolutely amazing. what kind of new content will we expect to see in this clone?

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    2. and when can we expect to see it? im super hyped for it.

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    3. I have a lot going on, but I'm aiming for a release of a prototype on or around New Year. Everyone always has their time devoured at Christmas...

      As for content, it will contain everything in the current version (when it's done) as 'Classic' mode. New content will only include things like new items, armor, and new alternate game modes with different rulesets. I spoke to Pashai and he says a hard drive failure caused a total loss of all the game's original assets, so unfortunately there won't be any new graphics.

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    4. It's a shame we won't see any new monsters, but it's awesome that this game lives <3

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  20. New version soon ?

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  21. I can't wait !!

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  22. So, Salty lied.
    This one is dead.
    Though at least we still have the memories.

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  23. Apologies for not updating, I'm swamped with work. At the moment, I have Podlings, Imps, and Golems working, and I'm fixing up the UI. I'm also dealing with numerous small bugs (which crop up a lot in this kind of program) and trying to make everything run on older machines (by providing a port in SDL).

    I will try to have something out this weekend, even if it's woefully incomplete, in order to get community feedback.

    Also, I spoke to Pashai and he said he'd provide the game's original code, but he didn't get back to me about it yet. So, I'm still reverse-engineering everything, which is slow and less accurate than I'd like. I still don't know how the monster spawn routine rolls up monsters yet.

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  24. Comrades! The first version of the remastered copy has been uploaded!

    http://tfgamessite.com/index.php?module=viewgame&id=843

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