Lords of Xulima II - developers are collecting feedback

[LESS T_T]

http://www.lordsofxulima.com/2016/10/14/latest-news-new-game-lox-sequel-and-gameplay-topics/

New Game Incoming

It has been a long time since our last update, yes, but don’t think the Numantian team has been on holidays since then. We have been working hard during these past months on our new game. We will announce it for Christmas and expect to release it for the end of Q1 2017. Although it is not LoX II or even an RPG, we are sure this game is going to please all that have enjoyed Lords of Xulima (even the main developers are playing it a lot instead of working on finishing it…). We will talk more about it in the next update, but let’s drop a tiny hint: its initials are T.A.B. Any guess?


The Sequel: Lords of Xulima II

We decided to create a different game before Lords of Xulima II for two reasons: First, to have more time to design it with new and fresh ideas. And of course, we will be continuing the original story. This story, by the way, will be much more epic than the first one. The first game, “A Story of Gods of Humans” is actually the prequel to the main story. Second, we would love to produce Lords of Xulima II with much better quality in all aspects: graphics, sound, and voice. We believe that the new game will help us reach that goal.

Keep in mind, behind Lords of Xulima, there are 4 years of development. Designing a 100-hour RPG, with the world, gameplay, mechanisms, puzzles, classes, and everything being coherent with the main story was like squaring the circle. And the sequel is much more ambitious.

We are very proud of LoX. It is not perfect, we know it, but we will use all our experience and all that we have learned so far to make the sequel even more special and unique.


Let’s talk about RPG gameplay

Some months ago, we started a thread where the players can give us their feedback for the sequel. We wanted to know what aspects of the original game they liked the most and which of them they did not enjoy as much. We were also interested in new ideas and suggestions.

In this update and others to come, we will discuss different gameplay topics and how they will be implemented in the sequel. We will post new updates every two to three weeks. Each one of them will cover a gameplay aspect.


Game Length and Replayability

We love long games, especially in the RPG genre. In the old-school days, games like Wizardy VII or the first Might and Magic games were huge epic games with 100+ hours of content. Nowadays it is rare to find a game that lasts more than 20-30 hours.With Lords of Xulima, we wanted to bring back those huge stories of the past when you had time to slowly evolve your party from weaker than rats to adventurous young men to powerful demigod heroes.

In this case, we think we went too far since Lords of Xulima is a bit too long. This isn’t a problem in itself, but the third part of the game suffers a bit, as it lacks in fresh content, too much combat, and less variety of enemies. We had to do it because of the long story. The eight temples / gods should have an equal level of importance. But to keep that in the story, the gameplay suffered. Nevertheless, with the last part of the game, it was interesting to drink the blood of a king through the horn of a demon or find an old sea-route in some ancient ruins to reach a small isle and there find a speaking chest with the most powerful weapon )

For the sequel, we plan on making it shorter of about 40-50 hours for the main story. However, it will have different endings depending on your actions. One of the endings will be especially difficult to achieve. Only the most hardcore players will be able to beat it after 100 hours+ of playing.

Additionally, we are going to focus more on the replay value. Since the game follows a story, there must be a lot of static content (dialog, places, puzzles, NPCs …). Though it won’t be a procedurally generated roguelike, there are some aspects of the game that can make every new game more random and unique:

• More Variety of Classes: New classes that make you play the game in a different way. We will talk more about them it later.
• Traps: Most traps will be randomly placed. With each new game, they will change.
• Static Enemies and Random Encounters: In LoX I, they had a bit of randomness but in the sequel, they will be much different.
• Dynamic NPCs: Some special NPCs will travel through the world. Their interaction will have important effects on the player.
• Special random world areas and dungeons: Some world areas like Geldra and Pernitia from the first game will be generated randomly. Also, some optional and special dungeons will be random too.
• Special Items and Artifacts: Every game will have a set of special items whose nature and location will change. Special Bosses: Some bosses will change with every new game, such as their nature and location.

What do you think?

Next time we will talk about “Linear or Open Worlds“.

See you soon!

 

[V_K]

Kinda makes me worried tbh. More randomness is so not what LoX needs.

 

[RuySan]

The only thing this game needs is enemies with less HP on the late game.

Also, some special or unique gear since the loot part could be seriously improved.

 

[Doktor Best]

My feedback: Fuck off with that random shit.

 

[Lacrymas]

Yeah, randomness in excess is bad. Everything becomes trivial and same-y, it doesn't increase replayability, quite the contrary. That's all, because I bought LoX months ago and haven't played it yet, so can't form a competent opinion on the game itself, lulz.

 

[Dux]

I'm 46 hours in now and almost at the end, with dead titans, princes, demons, Randy Savage and a pesky bandit leader in my wake. Randomly generated shit ain't the way forward, as others have already pointed out. It tends to degrade the experience. Hand-crafted dungeons and areas is what gives your game a strong identity. However, that would also have to mean that you're any good at actually creating hand-crafted dungeons and areas. I like LoX but it has some of the lamest dungeon design I've ever come across. Tesla coils, fire heads, floating skulls, teleporter mazes out the ass, statue puzzles, etc. Doesn't help that player movement is borderline crippled (my character looks like he's shit his pants when walking), especially when you have to be precise. Then we have those delightfully charming leeches, mosquitos and scorpions in the outside areas as well. Just why?

In short, Numantian Games has to learn from the first game and hit this one out of the park. Maybe tone down on the text dumps until they actually have something interesting to tell. It's all about the combat and the skills anyway. Oh and actual voice actors too, not your mom recording lines in the kitchen or whatever the fuck.

Man, I'm really mean, aren't I? Look, if they make the second one like the first one with some much needed refinements, I'll buy that shit, no doubt.

 

[A600]

My feedback: Fuck off with that random shit.

My thoughts exactly. I really hope they don't go that route.

 

[Sacred82]

protip: get rid of your German translators. German version sucked ass.

I'm still mad they wouldn't let me help (for free) when their translation was a trainwreck

 

[cvv]

The only thing this game needs is enemies with less HP on the late game.

Also, some special or unique gear since the loot part could be seriously improved.

This. Get rid of the fucking HP bloat and better itemization. Much better.

Also completely revamped UI. The Xulima UI sucks.

 

[Dorateen]

Get rid of Gaulen, and add player character races. (Dwarves)

 

[RuySan]

I really didn't mind the story. I rather have this unpretentious stuff than all the crap from pillars of eternity.

I really liked the whimsical atmosphere that reminded me of old m&m games.

 

[Ludo Lense]

Have something more engaging then do this thing 8 times in a row until your will to live is crushed into oblivion. Don't use a million proper nouns in the first 10 minutes. Get a proper writer.

But neither the developers or people who like this game care about that so:

-More flexibility and balance regarding progression. There are probably more trap builds than proper ones. Realizing that you should just Level speed every time and that you shouldn't touch some classes isn't good design.
-No to the random element. Hand placed gear always makes for a better experience. The town stuff might be interesting.
-Less filler. Good thing the game will much shorter so that should be easier to achieve.

 

[Jaesun]

Fuck yes! Had a blast with the first game, looking forward to a new one.

 

[Blackstaff]

So fucking hyped for that shit. One of the rare game I planned to play right from the release. Also as long as the randomness doesn't affect too much the core story and pathway, I don't think it's going to bother the game too much.

 

[deama]

I tried playing the first one, but it wouldn't allow me to solo; so I'm hoping they'll add that feature.

 

[Darth Roxor]

less cursed hounds plz

 

[Celerity]

SPoiler alert: I'm the Cursed Hound dev. More Cursed Hounds early and stronger lightning. You want some awoo, you got it.

 

[taxalot]

Stop making games faster than I can play them. I bought Lords of Xulima and haven't even downloaded it once

 

[Haplo]

This. Get rid of the fucking HP bloat and better itemization. Much better.

This.
Also add some new skills that will actually feel powerful for a change. And will diversify the classes. Don't have to be super-balanced.
Hint: Absolute balance is overrated and boooring....

 

[Dux]

HP bloat was never a problem for me, to be honest. It takes time to take down a titan with 7000HP but it's perfectly doable. One fucking bandit leader with shurikens though.

I agree about the itemization. It was a bit bland.

 

[cvv]

HP bloat was never a problem for me, to be honest. It takes time to take down a titan with 7000HP but it's perfectly doable. One fucking bandit leader with shurikens though.

A mob that you're nibbling to death for 15 mins while it can't really hurt you is just not a good design. In general fights should never take too long. Ideally a good late game mob should bite the dust quite fast but also be quite dangerous (which you can tech against).

Itemization was barely average, then again nobody except From seems to know these days how a great item system should look like so it's hard to bash Numantian for that.

 

[RuySan]

The titans weren't the problem. The devils in the lava were

 

[Serus]

My voice goes for better items... Itemization was really bad in the game, in fact one of the worst i have seen for quite some time. This alone if it can be improved would make the sequel a much better game. Less hp bloat wouldn't hurt of curse.

And don't introduce an engine with a free-moving camera. Or warrior women if you one day you decide to make a "historical" game. They are great in fantasy tough, especially if half-naked.
(i am obviously butthurt about 2 other games).

 

[TigerKnee]

If you're going to do randomization on items, at least make the numbers swing really wildly - it's really pointless to have random numbers that are within like 10% difference of each other.

Roguelikes usually use it well because you can very well pick up an end-game equipment on floor 1 (and then die to something stupid anyway because you got cocky)

then again nobody except From seems to know these days how a great item system should look like

What are some examples of how they did right?

 

[cvv]

then again nobody except From seems to know these days how a great item system should look like

What are some examples of how they did right?

They checked all the "Good itemization 101" boxes.

- Items are interesting, varied, colourful, they behave differently, have different effects, stats and looks, even some hidden features, you can upgrade and enhance them and finding and acquiring them is interesting, fun and rewarding. Most importantly, there are not too many of them and there's no fucking crafting. (The example of extremelly terrible itemization system is Witcher 3 where CDPR did everything exactly in reverse).

It's no rocket science but devs somehow can wrap their heads around it.