BattleMaster Community
Toms Other Games => Shopkeeper => Topic started by: Tom on June 06, 2015, 08:05:59 AM
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Here I post important news and changes. I won't post every small improvement (too many), but the ones that you need to know.
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Shops can now have descriptions and I've decided to show the shop details to everyone for now. Later I will hide the gold, sold and profit fields and make it visible only to the player.
Shop descriptions can be about 200 characters max. Post your shop description and I'll update it.
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Potions are now working.
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Characters now make buying and price decisions by themselves.
The formula is:
willing_to_pay = item_value * ( 1.2 + need/5 ) )
In short: You can safely mark up your items by about 20%. For every point of need, the character is willing to pay 20% of the item value additionally.
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Shop sections are now active: http://shopkeeper.lemuria.org/api/sections (http://shopkeeper.lemuria.org/api/sections)
There are two kinds of sections. Interior sections you need to sell equipment. Without weapon racks, you can't sell weapons. You will all keep whatever you have right now and you can sell it, but to buy more inventory for a section, you first need to buy that section.
Outside sections have advertisement effects. They raise customer loyalty for all parties, so you can counter bad loyalty, improve neutral or good loyalty - in short: More advertisement = more customers.
A couple of additional items have been added: http://shopkeeper.lemuria.org/api/items (http://shopkeeper.lemuria.org/api/items)
A lot of additional information is now displayed.
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Quests have been rebalanced
Character resting after quest (instead of blank "reset all attributes") implemented.
info on how quests work: http://shopkeeper.lemuria.org/info/quests
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Delivery times have been added. If you order something, you will pay immediately, and it will arrive in 3 days time. Later on, the delivery time will depend on the item and other things, but right now it's just 3 days. Of course, during playtesting I will run "days" more often.
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You can't see it anywhere (no icons, etc.) but most tables are now sortable by clicking on the headers.
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willing-to-pay prices now depend on customer loyalty as well - loyal customers are ready to pay a little more, disappointed customers expect a discount to be convinved to buy. The effect is not very big, on the order of a few percent.
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If I can ask, what are you coding game's core engine in, Tom?
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Is there a basic framework for the quests? If so, could you provide a 'fill in the blanks' bit and let others create the quests for you to incorporate (I know quest creation is intended for the final game, but this may help get more variety more quickly for the early level basic quests).
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The backend is coded in Symfony (PHP Framework). For the 3D client I will be using Unity 3D.
@James: I've thought about it before. I just don't know yet how to expose it nicely. A web-based wizard would be cool, a "Quest Builder", and it's not horribly complicated, just a little.
The difficulty is that I have a few tricks that I would need to explain and document nicely, especially how to build branching quests or alternate endings.
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The backend is coded in Symfony (PHP Framework). For the 3D client I will be using Unity 3D.
Using CLI or do you handle everything through the browser? I've been developing my homage to Mystic Arena, Fight or Die (working title) without a framework and using the browser, but let me tell you, waiting for a Battle Royale with 64 entrants to finish takes an awfully long time. :p
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I'm using the CLI right now.
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Another higher-level quest added (for level 3-6). Very dangerous this one, I'd like to test character death. :-)
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Item loss and breaking has been implemented.
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You can now issue purchase inventory orders by yourself, without me. The (very primitive) interface is here:
http://shopkeeper.lemuria.org/game/buy
As well as in the navigation under "Alpha Playtest".
To use it, you need a shop KEY. I will send those to you by PM.
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There's now buying, selling and section buying available on that web client. Meaning you do most things without me. :-)
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There's now buying, selling and section buying available on that web client. Meaning you do most things without me. :-)
Thanks, Tom. Just tested it and it's working like a charm. One thing I did notice is that the dropdown isn't updated when you run out of stuff. So if I have 1 Healing Potion and I sell it, I wouldn't expect it to return in the dropdown once the page refreshes. I'm assuming the SQL populating the dropdown doesn't have the relevant WHERE clause. :)
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Buying certainly looks to be working (I don't have any customers to check for selling), and can't buy things I shouldn't be able to either.
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Thanks, Tom. Just tested it and it's working like a charm. One thing I did notice is that the dropdown isn't updated when you run out of stuff. So if I have 1 Healing Potion and I sell it, I wouldn't expect it to return in the dropdown once the page refreshes. I'm assuming the SQL populating the dropdown doesn't have the relevant WHERE clause. :)
Symfony uses the Doctrine ORM by default, so plain SQL is not used, but yes just like the Shop page the drop down box lists everything you have ever had for sale in the shop.
Tom this is probably going to be fixed in a later update, but right now selling for the max price is trivial, just start offering at a high price and drop the price by one each refusal till you succeed.
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Yes, but every failed attempt will drop customer loyalty by one point...
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Yes, but every failed attempt will drop customer loyalty by one point...
oh dear, I didn't notice that :( Good thing it wasn't the Northmen in my shop.
Odd though, the nerix, Party ID 8 now have loyalty 7 in my shop. This is their first visit and I am reasonably sure I failed to sell some items to them
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Yes, but when you sell them something they like, loyalty rises.
This is an interactive element that wasn't visible until now. The idea is that if you have something you want to sell inflated, making them happy first with some cheap but welcome sales works. :-)
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Yes, but when you sell them something they like, loyalty rises.
This is an interactive element that wasn't visible until now. The idea is that if you have something you want to sell inflated, making them happy first with some cheap but welcome sales works. :-)
Could the sales failed, sales succeed message include some of this data? No necessarily the raw numbers, just a descriptive piece of text.
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Not at this stage, because I'm echoing system messages more or less.
Shops also show some sales statistics now.
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A couple of new items have been added, including shields and fany clothes. No, I'm not kidding about fancy clothes.
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Replacement is coming, very soon you will be able to offer characters "up-selling" deals, telling them "I see you already have an armour, but why not take this one instead, it's better".
You can only replace items with better items.
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Replacement is coming, very soon you will be able to offer characters "up-selling" deals, telling them "I see you already have an armour, but why not take this one instead, it's better".
You can only replace items with better items.
Offer trade in prices?
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We now have town events, so you can check what's going on here after every turn:
http://shopkeeper.lemuria.org/api/towns/1#board
@De-Legro: Not planned at this time. You can represent it by giving lower prices.
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Trophies !
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Trophies !
Do we get a hint at what for (or when they get awarded)? Just convinced a party to spend their last gold with me, so hoping that would get something :)
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Trophies are not achievements.
On some quests, parties have a chance to get a trophy. When they defeat the Orc Lord, they have a chance to take his armour, etc. You will see it in the quest log.
When they come back to town, they will offer their trophy for sale. The trophy market is a reverse auction market - every turn, prices will drop and whoever comes first, gets it. So you can wait and get a lower price, at the risk of someone else picking it up before you.
There is also a reserve price. If the auction drops below this price, the party will take the trophy back, not sell it, and offer it again at a later date, or maybe in a different town (once we have multiple towns). The starting price will again be high.
Trophies have one effect: They add reputation.
Right now the actual amount they add is very small compared to what shops have in reputation (or very soon will have), which is another balancing issue and I've done very little balancing so far, so rest assured, when done it will be worth the gold. (among other things because it will be the ONLY way to buy reputation with gold.)
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Potions are now working.
Are they actually being used properly? I see some of them (on individual character pages) have been used multiple times. Aren't they supposed to be one use and done items?
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Are they actually being used properly? I see some of them (on individual character pages) have been used multiple times. Aren't they supposed to be one use and done items?
Yes. And I see them being discarded, so that is strange. Show me links to character pages where I can see it.
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This is the one I noticed it on:
http://shopkeeper.lemuria.org/api/characters/14
Unless that is a tally of all the potions he's used, so he's actually had 5 of them, used 4 and has 1 left?
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Ah, ok. It turns out the "usage" value is actually not the number of times it was used. It's an internal counter I use to evaluate items usefulness. I'll remove it to avoid confusion. Anyway it gets reset for every quest.
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Do items have durability or something or do they have a chance to be randomly be lost or broken?
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Do items have durability or something or do they have a chance to be randomly be lost or broken?
It's mostly random, based on the quest, not the item.
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Current status: Work on 3D client has resumed.
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I've made a lot of improvements to the web client.
You can now log in to your shop and don't have to enter your key all the time (only once), and this allows the buy, sell, etc. sections to be more smart, showing only what you can buy, etc.
Also, you can now replace items when selling.
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Character backgrounds are now included, check them out on the character details pages!
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One new thing that came from the 3D client is that I will introduce "shop layouts".
In the 3D client, these are actual different shop layouts and sizes. I have 4 or 5 so far, in different stages of being finished.
But layout will also determine which shop sections you can buy. The idea is that most shops can't offer everything, I will force specialisation. In the first shop that is ready, that means you can buy any or all of these 4 sections and that's it. For other shops I'm working on an idea of having options, i.e. in that corner you can put either this or that, but not both.
In the final game, you can invest your profit into a bigger shop, or a shop in a better town. That at least is the idea of gameplay beyond the simple buy/sell.
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One new thing that came from the 3D client is that I will introduce "shop layouts".
In the 3D client, these are actual different shop layouts and sizes. I have 4 or 5 so far, in different stages of being finished.
But layout will also determine which shop sections you can buy. The idea is that most shops can't offer everything, I will force specialisation. In the first shop that is ready, that means you can buy any or all of these 4 sections and that's it. For other shops I'm working on an idea of having options, i.e. in that corner you can put either this or that, but not both.
In the final game, you can invest your profit into a bigger shop, or a shop in a better town. That at least is the idea of gameplay beyond the simple buy/sell.
I would be interesting if you have multiple towns. Everyone starting in a small town at first but maybe with enough gold, you can either relocate to a city or create another shop there. Maybe there should be a limit to how many parties being available for different settlement sizes. Maybe a small town can have 10 at most while cities can maybe have up to 30~50.
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Something like that is the idea, but I'm not finished designing it, yet.
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I've done a little progress on the 3D client, slow due to real-life circumstances.
There will be at least 2 shop layouts available for the start of the 2nd alpha. The idea is that I should have 2 starting shops available, and finish the more advanced ones later, hopefully in time for people to be able to trade up.
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Awesome. :)
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I'm also thinking about adding consumable items like food and torches, as a steady source of small income.
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I'm also thinking about adding consumable items like food and torches, as a steady source of small income.
Getting ideas from Darkest Dungeon?
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Getting ideas from Darkest Dungeon?
Of course. I always get ideas from all kinds of places, and Darkest Dungeon is there as well as Deathtrap Dungeon or Legend of Grimrock.
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Light sources are now in. I'll not add food.
The effect of light sources is that some challenges will be in darkness (obviously, in dungeons a lot of them will) and the party will want light in those. If they don't have light, or not enough (they need 2 light sources), then the challenge will become more difficult.
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I have added two new low-level quests for some more variety.
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I have re-enabled detail views for other shops, so I can see what's going on in the game.
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I have reduced maintenance costs, they are now twice what they used to be, but per week not per day, so it's about 29% of the old price. Ultimately, I will shift to weekly payment.