Driftmoon - Enchanted Edition

[Petrell]

Driftmoon Alpha 4 has been released!

Driftmoon Alpha 4!
April 4th, 2011 by Ville

A new version of Driftmoon approaches! In fact, it’s already here! As before, preorderers can access it on the secret download page. If you haven’t preordered yet, you can still get your copy for 20% off!

The most visible change is the improved plot, with the addition of the new starting level. It gives the game a much more fleshed out background story, along with a better idea of what the game is about.

The new talent system is worth mentioning, with many unique combat skills and passive talents. I’ve been playing with the more advanced combat skills, and fighting the nasties has definitely become more interesting. There are critical hits, evasive maneuvers, various skills that affect groups of enemies. My favourite is the Arrow Rain Mastery, which reminds me of the legendary triple crossbow in Ultima.

I’ve also noticed the new random object system makes the game a lot more replayable. Since I have to replay it two times every week, I say it’s great!

Game changelog:

» A new level in the start of the game.
» Full Talent tree.
» Recipes can be used to create new items with ingredients.
» Shops.
» Quick Travel. Traveling in Driftmoon was very fast anyway, but this makes it even better.
» Improved terrain and plant graphics.
» Critical hits. Take that, you evil undead monster!
» Enabled VSync by default, for smoother graphics and less CPU usage.
» You can now pick up an Astrolabe to tell the time. There’s a quest that needs you to know the time, so it’s even partially useful!
» Improved texture caching, requires less video memory. You’ll see it as a faster load time when changing levels.
» Feedback button. You can now send feedback directly from the game.
» Stealing prompt. The game now asks if you really want to steal from someone.

Modding changelog:

» Script action to fire a projectile from a trap. For example, see the arrow traps in the tomb level labyrinth.
» The selected object ID is shown in the lower left corner. Useful when you need to know the id for a script.
» Possible to force intro sequences from scripts. For example, see the start of the tomb level.
» Scripted objects are highlighted. No longer need to search for that one scripted object.
» Zooming out in the editor now immediately shows the complete map area, no more waiting for it to render.
» Greatly improved minimap rendering time. From 10 seconds to 1 or better. Not that you will need this very often.
» Added a button to reload all textures. No longer need to restart to see your recent changes to a texture.
» Particles can now have a gravity. For example, see the fountain in the starting village.
» Items can now be placed on moving objects, and they move with them.
» Script activation type StartRandom activates a random script at startup. For example, see the smithy basement, where it’s used to select the kind of chests placed there.
» Shop prices can be edited within the shop by pressing +/- on the item. This only works if the level was started from the editor.

Feedback button:

With this version I’ve gone through the trouble of adding a feedback button. It’s a little button that’s visible in every screen, and you can use it to send us direct feedback. So when you’re playing the game and you feel like something could be better, or there’s an error, just click the button, and write down what you want to tell us. Please use it, we’re very happy to hear your suggestions!

The game even takes a screenshot that can be sent along with the message, in case the problem is visible on the screen. And don’t worry, the button will be moved to a less visible place later.

 

[zelda64whatagreatgame]

Nice bro and good work. Judging by the dialog presented on the previous pages you might want to consider getting someone to help you write and stuff, but that's just my taste

 

[Jaesun]

He's not one of the developers.

 

[zelda64whatagreatgame]

ok

 

[Metro]

Glad this was bumped or I would have missed it. And the top-down looks fine.

 

[BLOBERT]

BROS LOLLOLLOL THE HARDCORE CROWD HERE HATES FAGGY TOP DOWN SHIT YOU NEED 3D GRAPHICS BROS THE GRAPHICS SUCK THIS IS TOP DOWN WE CANT PLAY THIS PC GAMES SOULD BE HALF ASS CONSOLE PORTS WITH GREAT GRAPHICS

 

[Petrell]

Here's the new trailer for the game.

As for offering suggestions or feedback about the game, you could always post comment in one of the developer's blog entries. He does read the comments and often participates in discussions in them.

 

[kougi]

Heh, I knew it was from the creator of Notrium just by looking at the first screenshot. I used to love Notrium - it was a top class freeware game.

The hunger/warmth system was a lot of fun.

Merely for the fact that it reminds me of Notrium, I'm definitely going to give this a try when it comes out.

 

[flushfire]

going sprite-based top-down compared to sprite-based iso with, say, 8 possible orientations cuts your spriting and animations by the factor of 8.

Would just like to comment on this since I've been doing some iso sprites recently, technically you just do half+1 of the possible orientations since the other half-1 are just reversed versions (except when facing towards and back which accounts for the +1/-1. course it still is a lot of work esp. with animations factored in.

I do admit the top-down view is something you don't see in mainstream games these days.

I've been playing cRPGs since the 90s and can't remember even one mainstream title with a fully top-down view. Closest I could think of is Warlords and that's strategy.

 

[Morkar Left]

I've been playing cRPGs since the 90s and can't remember even one mainstream title with a fully top-down view. Closest I could think of is Warlords and that's strategy.

Siege, Siege II, Ambush at Sorinor, Walls of Rome, Zelda, all other JARPGs, Lords, Cutthroats etc.
But yes, not really very important games (besides zelda...)

The game looks fine for me from the engine. It just comes down now how good gameplay and combat controls are.

 

[Yeesh]

For what it's worth, I can't even understand what the graphics haters are complaining about. While top-down is not my favorite view, I think that for a top-down game this one looks good to great.

 

[Jaesun]

Does this game have stats, stat based skills and stat based combat?

 

[flushfire]

For what it's worth, I can't even understand what the graphics haters are complaining about. While top-down is not my favorite view, I think that for a top-down game this one looks good to great.

the orientation i think has other issues besides it's look. for one, it has the most limited view of the environment when compared to iso or FP. it also conveys height poorly.

minor issue i have with a fully top down view is that it omits details i like seeing. books in a shelf? spikes? poles? walls? etc etc.

there are also complaints that arose from the zoom level, which is understandable since the screenshots posted were zoomed close.

 

[Petrell]

Does this game have stats, stat based skills and stat based combat?

Yes it does as shown in earlier gameplay video. The stats are basic: XP, HP, Food,Armor, Deflect change, Strenght, Dexterity, Agility, Constitution and Intelligence.

I did not find any blog post explaining how they affect game (XP, HP and such are self explanatory but Strenght (probably damage) and others may not be). I'll ask a person who has played the current alpha.

 

[Haba]

Ville is taking suggestions for the combat system:
http://www.instantkingdom.com/2011/08/c ... qus_thread

 

[riptide]

A newspost on RPGWatch drew my attention to it. I didn't find it in the Codex Game database so I presume the Codex isn't aware of it.

Apparently you can already play the beta if you buy it.

Here's a link to the official page.

 

[flushfire]

there was a discussion about it before. still not liking the pov.

 

[curry]

Codex is aware of this turd. It's a long time since Ville Mönkkönen made anything worth playing.

 

[Haba]

Driftmoon alpha 7 is out
http://www.instantkingdom.com/2012/01/alpha7/

Game changelog:

• New levels: Monastery, Crypt, Deafly Caverns! (And the quests that go along with them)
• Many new characters, with unique personalities.
• A lot of finishing touches, new alternatives to completing quests, as well as a bunch of new content in the first four levels.
• Combat greatly enhanced: Multiple strategies to choose from against different opponents, and you'll get a wide variety of combat skills as the game progresses. Your choices make a big difference.
• New Companion: Velvet the Panther Queen.
• New Summon: Stone Dwarf, Stone Giant, Stone Titan.
• Many new monsters: Ticker, Smeba, Rollo, Spikey, Crab colony, Ooz, Smog, etc.
• Many new end bosses. Let's keep their descriptions secret. Wouldn't want to spoil it for you.
• Many new blueprints (previously called recipes): Mana potion, Mana mine, Antidote, Ticker, Reverse Ooz powder, Different Arrows.
• Combat skills now use mana. You can increase your maximum mana by collecting silver feathers.
• New talents (Poison Resistance, Blades, Discipline) to choose from when you develop your abilities.
• Three levels to each talent: Apprentice, Advanced, Master.
• The number of quick slots is now 14, and they can hold also combat skills.
• Weapon swap: Button to change between melee / ranged added.
• Your companions now try to imitate your attack patterns by attacking when you attack, and not attacking when you don't. This makes it easier to deal with enemies you don't want to attack just now.
• You can tell Fizz to follow the mouse cursor.
• Shop inventories now show the merchant's items that are on display.
• Improved sound code performance, now works better with single core processors.
• Antidote potions now shield you from future poisonings as well.
• Your companions no longer get in your way in tight corridors.
• New world map, which now highlights new locations.
• Health potions now give health during a period of time instead of immediately boosting the health.
• Fixed bug where you could cross over to sea or mountains on lower framerates.
• Reverse Ooz Powder: Gives you superhuman speed.
• Birds and bees and floating seeds. (Wow, I wrote an accidental poem.)
• Mod installer thread now works on low priority while running the game, so you can leave a mod installing in the background.
• And much more...

Modding changelog:

• Converted all .obj files to .ob2 files. You can now load objects through the toolbar "Import Objects" button. The old object load button will later be removed, so convert any files you've made by loading them with the old object load button, then saving them with the "Export Objects" button.
• Existing particles.dat will automatically be converted to particles.ini files. You are free to delete your particles.dat after that.
• Script timers can now have a random variance.
• It's now possible to set how much sunlight a roof filters. Strangely it can also amplify sunlight.
• If you try to move the player to an unexisting map, you now get an error message.
• renamed removeItem to removePlayerItem, and added removeBotItem.
• Separated the hard coded sounds to a separate file, so that modding is easier.
• Ambient sound emitting can now be scripted, and objects can be ambient emitters.
• Physics debug view button in editor.
• Script selection window now has a search tool.
• Updated the bot type selection screen to show the bots in the order of their difficulty.
• animation frames can now have negative scaling.
• The game now tries to fit all of the player's replies in the dialogue screen, even if there are a lot of them.
• Critical hit chances can now be defined by combat skill.
• Combat hit effects have been separated to a special scripts.ini
• Object ground friction can now be specified in the physics properties tab.
• Added Damaged script type, that is called when the bot is damaged in any way.
• The script feedScript can be used to dynamically add new scripts to objects.
• Particles can now be referenced by their name or their id number.
• Script parameters that require a distance can now use a graphical helper tool to select the distance.
• Undo/redo works much better now in the editor. Use Ctrl-Z to undo and Ctrl-Y to redo.
• The journal button is no longer visible if there are no quests available.
• Map settings tab now has a button to copy all dialogues for the whole map to clipboard. It's useful in case you need to search for a specific part of a dialogue, or to get a big picture of all dialogues.
• Camera shake effect.
• And a whole bunch of stuff (eg. a long list of script conditions & effects) I've forgotten to mention.

 

[Haba]

Driftmoon is ready, "shipping" on Feb 26th.

Here is the launch trailer


Oh man, I wouldn't put my wife in a computer game...

 

[Gakkone]

He's changed the camera angle? Cool, I think I prefer it tilted like that. Still not too excited about the game but it does look kind of charming and nice. Might be a fun little adventure if not a particularly deep rpg.

 

[Jaesun]

Yeah, the camera angle look a lot better than the original. Artwork looks good too. But it's real time combat?

 

[Metro]

Looks that way. Not bad, though, sort of gives me an Ultima vibe.

 

[JudasIscariot]

I like the fact that the dialogue in the game doesn't insult my intelligence. I can definitely see some of Ultima VII's influence here. FYI, Ville has stated that Ultima VII was one of the games that influenced him, the other being Baldur's Gate, IIRC.

 

[Haba]

WTF is Driftmoon?

It is an action RPG made by a small Finnish developer. Specificly Ville Mönkkönen, who has made such games as Notrium, Magebane and Bikez.

Like Mönkkönen's earlier games, it features wonky 3D and stiff physics. His wife has added deeper dialogue and lore crafting to the mix. Even though it is clearly an indie game, it has been in development since 2005 - and that shows.

Driftmoon is clearly labour of love. Tons of attention has been put in its locations and lore, something that you don't have that often in indie games.

It has everything you expect from a modern RPG - smooth dialogue system, crafting, magic and journals.

What it doesn't have is deep combat. It is real time with abilities on cool-down. You can have companions, use ranged attacks or magic to spice it up, but in the end the focus is not magic. Or deep character development - you only get to pick the name for your character, and the character has only five basic stats that don't make that much a difference in the end.

Driftmoon is also the complete opposite of serious.

If I had to summarise it, I'd say that it is a children's fable. It isn't trying for forced "lulz" but rather going for a consistent tone. And since the RPG elements are light weight, the humour will make or break the experience for you.

Is it worth trying? I dunno. Maybe? Try the demo out and find out yourself:
http://www.instantkingdom.com/download/driftmoon.exe