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How hard is the game difficulty ramp?
Damn hard!
A bit harder than it should be.
Perfect.
Could be harder.
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googa
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icon How hard is WQ? (0)  
This is for anyone who's playing WQ. There is still time to change some rooms.

The more feedback the better.

Note to Smitemasters: Please answer this from a beginners point of view.
03-20-2006 at 08:19 PM
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silver
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there's little midrange difficulty that I could see. I breezed through 6 or 7 levels and then BANG all the rooms are interdependent and stupor tricky.


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03-20-2006 at 10:32 PM
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kzc
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I agree somewhat with silver - there does seem to be a big step up in difficulty around level 8. I don't know if I'd go so far as to call them "stupor" tricky, though, and I like the interdependence aspect.

Overall, I'd say the difficulty's about right - with the caveat that you may still need to tweak the slope a little bit. Even a little more difficulty would probably still be OK, but personally I like a moderate challenge with an interesting storyline, rather than super brain-busters one after the other.

I tend to like less those WQ rooms that are overly long and/or overly busy; this can be mitigated somewhat simply by adding checkpoints. More complete introduction/explanation of game elements will probably help some as well.
03-20-2006 at 10:59 PM
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googa
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The idea about room interdependency is that it's cool as long as you don't need to restore the game if you exit the room the wrong way.

I personally don't like the eight level, It was the first WQ level I made. The ones I prefer are from eleventh level on.

I noticed the Level 7~8 dificulty boost, I'll try to minimize it.

I think the first real challenge is the forest of the dead(Lucas rooms).

My main doubt is if can anyone who never played DROD, sokoban, or any other puzzle game, finish WQ. How many newbies will give up?

[Last edited by googa at 03-20-2006 11:29 PM]
03-20-2006 at 11:24 PM
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kzc
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googa wrote:
My main doubt is if can anyone who never played DROD, sokoban, or any other puzzle game, finish WQ. How many newbies will give up?
Yeah, obviously that's hard for most of us here to answer, as we're pretty much all veterans of DROD. I think the best thing you can do to make sure people keep interest through the parts they find difficult or tedious is to work on the story and character development. People will put a lot more effort into getting past puzzles that are frustrating them if they believe there's a great plot twist or an interesting new character just up ahead.

Another possibility is look into implementing non-required rooms, and putting some of the hardest rooms in this category. I think DROD has an elegant system, with the master walls available to give players incentive to complete all the secret rooms.
03-20-2006 at 11:40 PM
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googa
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I think the best "campaigns" are always the fan made ones. The main purpose of a game default adventure is to introduce its features, while the fans are free to do whatever they want. They have the possibility to push the game to its limits.
03-21-2006 at 10:50 PM
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asmussen
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Overall I think the difficulty ramps up pretty well. However, there are a few rooms here and there on early numbered levels that are disproportionately hard compared to the difficulty of the rest of the level. Not impossibly so for someone who was already experienced with DROD, but enough so that I think it would be very frustrating for somebody to play the game if Wonderquest was their introduction to this sort of game.



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03-22-2006 at 05:32 AM
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Tim
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Ahem...

I was the one who voted "Incredibly hard". (Sorry not to reply earlier, but I had a lot to do lately.)

It's a bit hard around level 7/8, and so I'm pausing the game for a while... And there are certain places in 7/8 I really think a checkpoint would be very handy.

Personally, it would be "a bit harder than it should be". But since you were asking from a beginner's point of view I would say "too hard".

I still like the game, but Level 8 does have the same problems as KDD Level 8. It makes me stop for a while...

-- Tim

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03-22-2006 at 05:44 PM
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googa
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I'll place some new checkpoints to make levels 7/8 a bit easier.

03-24-2006 at 02:42 AM
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Yeah, I agree that level 8 is a hurdle - I've been stuck there for a long time and am not really all that motivated to get back, partially because the room I'm stuck in (the one with the butterfly swarm) is just not any fun. I can't comment on overall difficulty, of course.

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03-24-2006 at 02:40 PM
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googa
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I have already placed a checkpoint in that room in Quest version 6.0. (second post)

Just to make sure you saw it: I posted a help for this room here some time ago.

[Last edited by googa at 03-24-2006 11:23 PM]
03-24-2006 at 11:22 PM
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silver
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googa wrote:
I have already placed a checkpoint in that room in Quest version 6.0. (second post)

Just to make sure you saw it: I posted a help for this room here some time ago.

And his help worked perfectly for me. I stood in that spot and swung my sword without moving and the horde disappeared.


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[Last edited by silver at 03-24-2006 11:54 PM : grammar]
03-24-2006 at 11:54 PM
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googa
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I still have time to change some rooms, here goes a list of them. I want to polish the game before releasing the final version:

List of rooms that have changed:

-L5 4s
-L7 Dark Island NW

Rooms that will change:

-L8 1s
-L8 1s 1e (remove butterflies)
-L8 4s 46

At least 10 or 12 rooms will be changed. Most on L7, L8 and L9.

Any suggestions are welcome. :)
03-26-2006 at 07:12 PM
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eytanz
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googa wrote:
I have already placed a checkpoint in that room in Quest version 6.0. (second post)

Just to make sure you saw it: I posted a help for this room here some time ago.

Yeah, I know, but the room (in its old version) turned me off WQ for a while, and since I just didn't return. I'm currently debating whether it's worth to return to the beta or just wait for the final release and then play the whole thing in its final form. Note that it's note that I didn't enjoy WQ - I love it - it's just that there are a ton of other things competing for my attention and it seems that WQ is just getting better so I can be patient and wait for it in the most improved form possible.

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03-27-2006 at 01:18 AM
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googa
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The 2.2 Patch will be released in a few days. If anyone have suggestions, just post. I'll try to code it in time for the files release.

-Rooms to be changed.
-Checkpoints to be placed.
-New ideas.
-New Scroll texts.
-Scroll Text correction.
-Etc.

Open your mouth. ;)
04-03-2006 at 03:27 AM
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silver
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I've stopped playing at level 14 - gaia river 5, 2d to last room before the exit. where I have to negotiate both bombs and lasers to drop all the trapdo^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hvolcanic rock. I don't even know if I can negotiate the bombs, but 99% of my attempts to try something which might negotiate the bombs ends with a laser hit.
dunno if that means it's too hard or not, though, considering how rapidly I got there.

I fear that the 2.2 changes will make make me have to replay the whole thing to evaluate. I remember a LOT of rooms depended on the single-ball-or-crate laser behavior.


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04-03-2006 at 05:18 AM
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Radiant
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googa wrote:
The 2.2 Patch will be released in a few days.

What about savegame compatibility? I don't really want to have to restart from level 1.


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04-03-2006 at 10:18 AM
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googa
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Let me explain how the "modifying room" system works:

In WQ you can't restore (From restore screen) from checkpoints. Only from the room entrance points or level start. So, when I modify a room, I change it only in the middle, not the borders. When restoring, the restore file will read the active hero, room coordinate and room entrance point. I'm free to modify It depending on these factors. When restoring, for example, I can't change the borders of the room, because you can have Jax in the middle of the ocean, or in the woods.

What about savegame compatibility? I don't really want to have to restart from level 1.

You won't need. Different Quest versions aren't compatible. But you can restore the game to auto convert the versions.

Hint: Finish the room you're playing and exit it before patching. This way you won't waste a single minute of progress.

I've stopped playing at level 14 - gaia river 5, 2d to last room before the exit. where I have to negotiate both bombs and lasers to drop all the trapdo^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hvolcanic rock. I don't even know if I can negotiate the bombs, but 99% of my attempts to try something which might negotiate the bombs ends with a laser hit.

Small hint:
Click here to view the secret text


[Last edited by googa at 04-03-2006 05:49 PM]
04-03-2006 at 05:47 PM
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googa wrote:
You won't need. Different Quest versions aren't compatible. But you can restore the game to auto convert the versions.

Cool. However if you give us a list of the rooms that have been replaced (as you mentioned removing a few, I assume you've put others in their place)? I'd be happy to give those a whirl.


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04-03-2006 at 06:05 PM
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googa
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Cool. However if you give us a list of the rooms that have been replaced (as you mentioned removing a few, I assume you've put others in their place)? I'd be happy to give those a whirl.

I'll travel now. Wednesday I'll be back with the list.
04-03-2006 at 08:47 PM
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