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Driftmoon questions

stubbie 12 years ago

If there is already a thread for general questions about the game I'm afraid I was unable to find it by searching, so that's why I start here.
So..
When I click on a sign on a wall in the game up comes a bit of text like "if you don't like the taste of worms why bother waking up early" for example.
Nice bit of humour but how the heck do I close the text?

It eventually goes away after some seconds but any amount of left and right clicking or hitting keys doesn't get rid of it. It does get in the way of other actions like opening up chests or drawers that are close by.

So is there a way to close these text windows or must I just always wait till they close automatically. (and just to clarify, I am not talking about the text windows you get when you click on the ? icons).

Anne 12 years ago

Good question. At the moment Driftmoon doesn't have the chance for you to close the text windows - and the time the text is visible is currently quite long, to give slower readers enough time. So don't go breaking your keyboard and mouse trying to find a nonexistent cure!

But the idea is actually good, so we'll give it some thought. Maybe you'll see the option to either toggle the amount of time texts are generally shown, or possibly even an option to close the text windows by clicking a certain key.

stubbie 12 years ago

The main quest in The Smithy area is very unbalanced in my opinion.
So far I have been playing the game in Guardian difficulty and have found the fights to be generally tough but doable as would be expected in the highest difficulty setting.
But the main battle in this area is totally gimped.
Mild spoiler ahead.
Not only do you have to fight the main enemy but you have 3 other enemies (one with a poison attack) to battle.
These are very hard enemies (probably each one alone would be a challenge) but all 4 at once is too overwhelming.
The game does not give you a lot of opportunity to grind so you are very restricted on how to raise either your character level or gold stash so as to be able to handle this situation.
After trying all sorts of different strategy I eventually had to resort to playing the game in the lowest difficulty setting for this fight as the only means to defeat this mob.

I now feel I have cheated and no longer have the same enthusiasm to continue playing.

Anyone else agree with me?

ville 12 years ago

It's definitely possible that it might be too difficult. I actually tuned the game by playing the warlord difficulty, so the guardian level might have some unintended difficulty spikes. Anyone else found the battle unbalanced compared to the rest of the game? I might leave one of the baddies out of it, or perhaps think of some additional сlever way to balance the odds a bit.

Wholley (guest) 12 years ago

Will Driftmoon be available through Steam or some other us source. My bank is a pain about doing overseas tranactions (to much CC fraud)? Thanks.

jgprof 12 years ago

ville said:
Anyone else found the battle unbalanced compared to the rest of the game?

As of my last playthrough (version 0.841) on Guardian difficulty I thought that the balance was pretty good and if anything the battles could be a little harder, but bear in mind that this was probably my 5th or 6th playthrough so I've had plenty of time to experiment with battle strategies (stubbie: maybe try some straifing with the bow and arrow?) The only battles that really stick in my mind as being tricky are that bloody spider in the vault in Gaunt Grounds with all its little baby spiders and Marvolo and his gang, but both of these are fine with the right preparation.

One major modification that I would suggest is forbidding saves during battles (in the same way that travelling to different areas is forbidden), because having this option makes some battles too easy. You might even consider allowing saves only in certain areas, say in certain buildings or other safe places. This would force me to make considerable changes to my style of playing; I'd have to plan ahead a lot more and the strategic element of battles would be emphasised.

ville 12 years ago

Wholley (guest) said:
Will Driftmoon be available through Steam or some other us source. My bank is a pain about doing overseas tranactions (to much CC fraud)? Thanks.

We're using Paypal as payment processor, I believe they should work pretty well overseas. It should be a non-issue if you have a credit card. And if you don't have a credit card, the easiest way is to add some funds into your Paypal account (usually that's even a local bank transfer), and pay with that.

Driftmoon is also available through Gamersgate, if you prefer that option. We're planning on including more resellers when the game is complete, so don't forget to get the newsletter so you'll know when Driftmoon is released.

jgprof said:
One major modification that I would suggest is forbidding saves during battles (in the same way that travelling to different areas is forbidden), because having this option makes some battles too easy. You might even consider allowing saves only in certain areas, say in certain buildings or other safe places. This would force me to make considerable changes to my style of playing; I'd have to plan ahead a lot more and the strategic element of battles would be emphasised.

Sounds exactly like the kind of nasty modification the hardest level should have!

But I personally never like when my saves are withheld, maybe it could be an option...
Edited 12 years ago

MageKing17 12 years ago

ville said:
jgprof said:
One major modification that I would suggest is forbidding saves during battles (in the same way that travelling to different areas is forbidden), because having this option makes some battles too easy. You might even consider allowing saves only in certain areas, say in certain buildings or other safe places. This would force me to make considerable changes to my style of playing; I'd have to plan ahead a lot more and the strategic element of battles would be emphasised.

Sounds exactly like the kind of nasty modification the hardest level should have! But I personally never like when my saves are withheld, maybe it could be an option...

I was going to argue with this, but then I decided that giving the player the freedom to save whenever they want actually is more important than preventing save-scumming, so... right on, Ville. Keep up the good work.

stubbie (guest) 12 years ago

Why in the latest patch did you go with adjusting the time that text was displayed rather than making it a simple matter of closing the text window after you have finished reading it?
Sometimes you might want to read the text a bit slower. Why not just make it switch able with perhaps the right mouse key?

ville 12 years ago

stubbie (guest) said:
Why in the latest patch did you go with adjusting the time that text was displayed rather than making it a simple matter of closing the text window after you have finished reading it?
Sometimes you might want to read the text a bit slower. Why not just make it switch able with perhaps the right mouse key?

I like the dynamic nature of the texts, that they go away by themselves somehow feels right to me. But it might not be a bad idea to also be able to close them with a click. I'll think about it.

Dolphinrcj 12 years ago

I've started the Lost Island of Eione but it seems to stop in the middle. I found Rapakivi's eye and was given the quest to find Sblub the Smeba. I've searched the island several times over but cannot find Sblub, or Bobby or any underwater tunnels. Does version 0.900 end at Rapakivi?

Anne 12 years ago

Dolphinrcj said:
I've started the Lost Island of Eione but it seems to stop in the middle. I found Rapakivi's eye and was given the quest to find Sblub the Smeba. I've searched the island several times over but cannot find Sblub, or Bobby or any underwater tunnels. Does version 0.900 end at Rapakivi?

Hi there Dolphinrcj! Sblub can be found on the island, but he's pretty well hidden. You should try searching through all the rocks near the abandoned campsite, just North East of the submarine. You can also press down control, if I remember correctly that might help you a bit. Did you find him now?

Dolphinrcj 12 years ago

Ahah! It pays to look at an object more than once. Thanks for the quick reply!

Anne 12 years ago

Dolphinrcj said:
Ahah! It pays to look at an object more than once. Thanks for the quick reply!

No problem. Glad I could help!

Pete (guest) 12 years ago

So was just wondering if I stumbled on some sort of bug, or if I'm just blind/stupid.

In Nomon docks, after doing everything as far as I can tell (and talking to everyone), my mission is to get that eel into a cage from what I have heard, but there is no such quest in my quest log.
No matter how many times I talk to William about that cage schematic, talk to the people on the submarine, or look around the smithy I can't find the plans for that cage or anything to further the plot. I have trapped the eel in one of the holes, and can try to grab it, but since I have no cage or anything nothing happens.

I do know that I finished the captain part, and sent him to the submarine, before walking back and talking to the submarine chick. I was thinking there might be something wonky there, however I have no idea.

I wanna see that new areaaaaaa!

Anne 12 years ago

Pete (guest) said:
So was just wondering if I stumbled on some sort of bug, or if I'm just blind/stupid.

In Nomon docks, after doing everything as far as I can tell (and talking to everyone), my mission is to get that eel into a cage from what I have heard, but there is no such quest in my quest log.
No matter how many times I talk to William about that cage schematic, talk to the people on the submarine, or look around the smithy I can't find the plans for that cage or anything to further the plot. I have trapped the eel in one of the holes, and can try to grab it, but since I have no cage or anything nothing happens.

I do know that I finished the captain part, and sent him to the submarine, before walking back and talking to the submarine chick. I was thinking there might be something wonky there, however I have no idea.

I wanna see that new areaaaaaa!

Hmmm, let's try this first: Did Sarah tell you about the problem with the unfinished eel cage?
Did William ask you to bring him something from the storage room just west of his smithy (for him to build the eel cage)?
AND were you able to give the ingredient to William? He should build the cage right after that. Did you get it working?

Pete (guest) 12 years ago

Well, I just started it up again now after some time so I can't recall exactly what I got from Sarah. I do know I've exhausted every single dialogue option with her now. She's on the "If I find a cage for the eel. where do I find the eel-monster?" which presumably means I talked to her about getting a cage before. However I have no quest for "find a eel-cage" or whatever, but there is one unfinished quest marked at nomon docks on the world map.

When talking to William/Annie none give any quests related to this. As before I can't recall if William ever asked me to get the ore, but I don't think so (however I still did, because I always explore everything

). William goes on about his fathers unfinished cage, but it doesn't lead to anything at all. So yes I have the notriumite ore, but can't give it to anyone.

Guessing I somehow didn't trigger that last quest, which I suppose was intended to be triggered from Sarah at the sub?

I can check to see if I have any earlier saves to see if I can either get the quest and/or make this happen again.

As always, impressed with your quick response

Pete (guest) 12 years ago

Went back quite a bit and tried the entire area over again. Can't seem to mimic the same error. Now I'm sure it was some kind of bug though, this time I got the quest for the cage with no problems whatsoever.
If you want the save file just let me know (unless I accidentally overwrote it, hm).

Oh and another bug/thing, my entire screen just turns white after alt-tabbing once I got to the islands start (where there's fog). Went back to normal after I entered/exited the sub.

ville 12 years ago

I'd love to get my hands on that save file! Just mail it to ville@monkkonen.net. You probably know this already: the saved files are usually under My Documents\Driftmoon\mainmod

Pete (guest) 12 years ago

Done. Also the new content was awesome

ville 12 years ago

Thanks! There was indeed a bug in the quest, if you managed to save Catdog before Sarah talked to you in the submarine, she would never mention the Eel quest. I'll release a fix soon. I'm glad you managed to get past this by reloading, since this is in fact a completely show-stopping bug.

Oh, and the mist was bugged as well. Thanks for pointing that out!
Edited 12 years ago

Pete 12 years ago

Pete (guest) said:
-snip-

...heeeyyyy...

IMPOSTOR!

ville 12 years ago

Come to think of it, the forum shouldn't actually allow duplicate names even for unregistered users. There's a bug in my forum software! So thanks Pete and Pete, we're happy for both of your findings.

Corwin (guest) 11 years ago

OK, now how do we catch that little eel once we have the cage? I'm fresh out of ideas after talking to everyone. Have I missed something obvious?

ville 11 years ago

It's all about blocking the Eel's passages.
Good to know you're stuck in it, better add some more hints. I can see that it's not obvious, because that isn't done anywhere else in the game.

Edited 11 years ago

Corwin (guest) 11 years ago

I know what I'm supposed to do, it's figuring out HOW to do that I'm having a problem with.

Anne 11 years ago

Sorry about the delay, I just woke up!

You probably noticed that you can drag things around, if you grab them with your mouse cursor, and hold the button down, right? There's a tutorial about it much earlier, but it's not desperately needed in too many places. Well, that's the mechanic here - and there's lots of stuff you can find by looking under things.

(Unless there's some extra special bug with the current version, which is visible on your computer but not on ours, this quest should work - just tried it to make sure...) Here's how: See the boxes scattered around the room? If you click on one, and don't release the mouse button, you can move the boxes on top of the holes by moving your mouse.

By the way - I hope you have been/ have tried using the mouse when walking around? It's not obligatory, but it's very easy that way.

In any case, we better add more help here, to be available through your companions. They do have a question about this, if you ask them, but I don't think they tell you too much.)

ville 11 years ago

Dragging things with the mouse is a pretty central mechanic of the game, but I guess it might be possible to miss the tutorials about it in the beginning, because in some of them you can actually push the object with the player instead of dragging it with the mouse.

Even if that's not the problem here, I still better fix those tutorials, can't have players being frustrated by not being able to drag things.
Edited 11 years ago

Corwin (guest) 11 years ago

Thanks, but are those tutorials the question marks in the first section? I did read a few of them, but missed the one about dragging items. I discovered that by walking into a few items and seeing them move. Using the mouse for movement is the only way I move.

Anne 11 years ago

That's right - the question marks go through the basic things. We're hoping most of the things will be quite intuitive, but the tutorials (question mark boxes) are there to make sure you can learn everything you need.

I can easily understand that players will probably miss at least some of them (I probably would). I guess part of the learning is always by trial and error.

So I gather you were able catch our shy little Eelie now, right? I'm trying to decide how much extra help is needed with that quest... I wonder, did you get through it before or after my answer above?

Corwin (guest) 11 years ago

I'd actually thought to try something like that next, but your post confirmed my hunch and I had no problem with that section after that. Now I'm exploring the rather 'bright' island.

Anne 11 years ago

Good to hear, Corwin. Don't get lost in that fog now!

Ps. And a little teaser for anyone who happens to be reading this. We're currently hard at work preparing everything for a pretty cool new feature we're adding soon. I won't tell you what it is quite yet, but I can say it's a feature that some of you have been asking for, but never thought they'd get.

Cat in the Hat (guest) 11 years ago

Hello there ~ I've been playing through, but encountered a major bug:

In the Giant's bedroom, with the puzzle with the two scales, the first door switch has broken, and I can no longer move those doors.

I placed all the weights [2 small, 2 large] on the north scale, to allow the 2nd door to match up in the middle, but the first door's lever (south) refuses to do anything.

Grr!

There's also a single feather that I cannot work out how to get:

In the frozen ship area, where the puzzle to move the boxes to get the notrium ore is, there is a single feather which when clicked says "Too hot". I've attempted several times now to solve the puzzle so that either a) that carriage gets next to the cold door (doesn't work due to the rails being only N/S) or any combo of the above.

Nor do you get an ice blast from the mages' staff at that point.

Any help would be nice, given that the Giant's bedroom broken lever stops any progression.

ville 11 years ago

Hello! We're very sorry that you've encountered such a problem!

This is the first I've heard of the switches being stuck, and I can't seem to get it to happen here. If possible, I would love to have a look at your save game, it might give us some clues as to what's happening. The saved games are located under My Documents\Driftmoon\mainmod. Thanks!
I think the only way to get past the bug is to use the teleport cheat. Press SHIFT+F1 to activate cheats, then press SHIFT+1 to jump to mouse cursor. I hope that helps.

The feather will be fixed for the next version, in the current version some of them really are stuck inside objects.

Cat in the Hat (guest) 11 years ago

Ahh, apologies - I deleted the save, and reverted to an older one: but it was immune to reloading areas, and I had to revert to an unaffected save.

Completed the game with 66 feathers (which I think is fairly comprehensive, I got the vendor ones as well), all quests completed and 13/13 goldfish. Total time: 322 mins.

Overall -

Atmosphere / writing: 9/10
Graphics / Engine: 6/10
Sound: 7/10
Length: 5/10
Puzzles: 7/10 (although - to be fair, I recognised a lot of them as standard logic puzzles, but still, it's nice to have puzzles in a RPG)
Combat / Gear: 5/10 (much of the gear was for amusement effect rather than anything else, and upgrades etc were rare, and the difference between the starting items and engame items is only 7 points of damage; combat was fiddly in many respects and potion spamming reduced challenge. I died once, at the Evil Machine Boss, although I only played on the middle challenge level)
Replayability: 3/10

Anyhow, I hope you get the Greenlight, the game was worth it, and it was surprising and refreshing to see the humour / emotionally engaging writing style being used to tell an actual story throughout the RPG (even if some of it was directly taken from Monty Python!). However, I do see a price point of E14.99 as too high for the Steam market, and foresee that being slashed when it gets to sales etc. Without being rude, I think a price of E9.99 for steam would be far realistic, in terms of what's on offer there, although I enjoyed the experience.

In any case, I wish you luck in the future - I even remember playing Notrium when it first came out!

Unanswered questions:

In the frozen harbour, you can solve the 'unfreeze the Captain' by either using the diamond or using the lens cap found with the electric eel. There didn't seem to be any plus point to using the lens cap, other than a minor XP reward on returning the diamond (which you can then ask for back). I was hoping, at very least, there'd be a mention of their wedding ring at the end!

Karma: apart from the skill that raises your companions str, and a % reduction on merchant prices that I didn't need (>1k gold by the end spare) it had little effect; I'd have loved to see some conversation choices only available via high karma

Minor Bugs:

In the area where you fight the Black Knight & get the staff, there are graphical bugs (the "unconscious spiral effect") to the <West of the plaque room in the darkness. This tends to make you think that there's more to the area than there is. I also noticed this in the Skeleton Tomb level where you first meet the cooks

The "Cursed Axe" you obtain early on (dam:6) is labeled "cursed". But doesn't seem to give any penalties on use? Ahh, apologies - I deleted the save, and reverted to an older one: but it was immune to reloading areas, and I had to revert to an unaffected save. Completed the game with 66 feathers (which I think is fairly comprehensive, I got the vendor ones as well), all quests completed and 13/13 goldfish. Total time: 322 mins. Overall - Atmosphere / writing: 9/10 Graphics / Engine: 6/10 Sound: 7/10 Length: 5/10 Puzzles: 7/10 (although - to be fair, I recognised a lot of them as standard logic puzzles, but still, it's nice to have puzzles in a RPG) Combat / Gear: 5/10 (much of the gear was for amusement effect rather than anything else, and upgrades etc were rare, and the difference between the starting items and engame items is only 7 points of damage; combat was fiddly in many respects and potion spamming reduced challenge. I died once, at the [spoiler]Evil Machine Boss[/spoiler], although I only played on the middle challenge level) Replayability: 3/10 Anyhow, I hope you get the Greenlight, the game was worth it, and it was surprising and refreshing to see the humour / emotionally engaging writing style being used to tell an actual story throughout the RPG (even if some of it was directly taken from Monty Python!). However, I do see a price point of E14.99 as too high for the Steam market, and foresee that being slashed when it gets to sales etc. Without being rude, I think a price of E9.99 for steam would be far realistic, in terms of what's on offer there, although I enjoyed the experience. In any case, I wish you luck in the future - I even remember playing Notrium when it first came out! Unanswered questions: [spoiler]In the frozen harbour, you can solve the 'unfreeze the Captain' by either using the diamond or using the lens cap found with the electric eel. There didn't seem to be any plus point to using the lens cap, other than a minor XP reward on returning the diamond (which you can then ask for back). I was hoping, at very least, there'd be a mention of their wedding ring at the end![/spoiler] [spoiler]Karma: apart from the skill that raises your companions str, and a % reduction on merchant prices that I didn't need (>1k gold by the end spare) it had little effect; I'd have loved to see some conversation choices only available via high karma[/spoiler] Minor Bugs: [spoiler]In the area where you fight the Black Knight & get the staff, there are graphical bugs (the "unconscious spiral effect") to the <West of the plaque room in the darkness. This tends to make you think that there's more to the area than there is. I also noticed this in the Skeleton Tomb level where you first meet the cooks[/spoiler] [spoiler]The "Cursed Axe" you obtain early on (dam:6) is labeled "cursed". But doesn't seem to give any penalties on use?[/spoiler]

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