Equin: The Lantern News

"Pete fell in, who was left?"
"Repeat!"
"Pete & Repeat went out on a boat.. Pete fell in, who was left?"
"REPEAT!!!"

--

This was a joke my dad used to tell me as a little kid, and I could never figure out why he kept telling it so many times in a row lol.

ANYHOW

This is relevant because ETL player Stovich had posted on the boards the other day that he fell victim to bribing a guild NPC 3 times and got the same hint THREE TIMES. He said he liked the idea of the tip system, however having the possibility of repeat jobs like this one kind of makes you less inclined to want to buy them.

I agree wholeheartedly, and have spent the past couple days trying to think of ways to change the system so that no tips will repeat themselves. Tonight, I have solved the problem!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1604940859

This chicken scratch I did during lunch at work, trying to get the basic ideas down on what I needed to do. The gist is that when the game is run one of the first things it now does is compare your known tips (via a saved array in the game's folder) to a list of all possible array spot values. Looping through the array, it then changes all known tip values to the dummy string "XXX". These base tip values for comparison were first added to a Clickteam Fusion ListBox object to simulate all possible spots on the tip array (or, 87 lines where the lines read 1, 2, 3, 4, and so on.)

This gives us a big list of numbers sprinkled in with some "XXX" values at the spots of the tip array where you already know said tips.

It might change this:

1
2
3
4
5


To this, provided you know tips #2 and 3:

1
XXX
XXX
4
5


The next step is to cycle through this whole list and then delete all the "XXX" values. Why wasn't this just done before instead of changing the values to XXX in the first place? I needed to preserve those spots in the array for the steps coming up. See, the way a CF listbox works is if I were to delete lines 2 & 3 in the above example then the next array spot for line value "6" would actually now be considered the 4th spot in the Tip Array instead of 6 (because 2 lines were deleted which pushes the entire list up 2 spots, i.e. 6 - 2 = 4)

Which turns our list of unknown tips into this:

1
4
5


The next thing that needed changing was the section where you actually bribe / buy the tips from the Guild. What it does now is randomly select a line from the total list of unknown tips above, and converts it to an interger (technically anything in a listobject is a string / text value, even numerals, so this step is necessary). Then the proper tip is displayed, and the appropriate spot on the Tip Array is set to 1 (or known, 0 = not known).

It looks something like this:

DummyData = Rnd(TipListBoxLines) + 1
TipToLearn = Val(TipListBox, Line "DummyData")
TipArray(TipToLearn) = 1
DeleteLine(DummyData) of "TipListBox"


This will randomly choose either 1, 4, or 5 from our unknown tips list box and make it known to the player. Then the Tip File is updated and that known tip's line is deleted from the list so that it can't be bought again during the game.

--

TL;DR: It works!

Not only are tips non-repeatable, there's an extra variable in the game that keeps track of when you've seen them all, and if that's the case the Bribe option is changed to "- - SOLD OUT - -". This way there's no chance you'll accidentally spend gold pieces on a tip you already know.

If this is all foreign to you, ETL does indeed have a View Known Tips section on the 2nd page of the Start Menu when you first fire up the game. Between this section and the Tutorial (and I'd wager even the in-game Special screen) you should be able to tackle most of the unknown crap I've flung at you.

Bien!



I am super tired, I hope this makes sense.

Have a good night!
-Del_Duio

In the neverending quest to provide you all with the most stable / solid game I can, tonight's small update focuses only on fixing some issues myself and my new playtester C.B. have discovered over the past few days.


This screenshot is unrelated to anything below, but looks nice just the same

• The Offhand Sword can no longer be equipped while you also have a two-handed weapon on. No three-handed rabbits here!
  
  
• There was a bug where fishing out an Old Damp Boot from a pond also somehow gave you a Sea Urchin. I believe this has been rectified.
  
  
• There was a bug where pressing the 'EQUIP' option while viewing a food item's info acted as if you were emptying a potion on the ground. It even gave you an empty bottle to boot! Egads, and fixed!
  
  
• The Soup event where you either get a full belly or take -2 Max HP has been fixed. If you happened to have this event on a floor that had rats on it, the penalty for drinking the soup was falsely triggering a were rat fight instead. Good catch here!
  
  
• Stagnant Water's item type icon is now correctly a bottle (consumable potion) instead of a little apple (food item)
  

--

Aside from that, I've mapped out a way to have it so that the tips you get from bribed NPCs at the guild won't repeat themselves, though this method is not included in this update as it will take a bit longer to accomplish.

But it shall be done soon enough!

Merry (very late) Christmas!
-Del_Duio

Because why the hell not? ːsteamhappyː

• New Game Mode: Red Shirt:
  
  For real crazies, you now have the option to play any run as a Red Shirt. What's it all mean? You'll forever be level 1 and never gain any experience! You'll instantly know if any run's this challenge run because your little guy will indeed be sporting a spiffy red shirt.
  
  
  
  To play as a Red Shirt, simply select the first option on the Xtoli Points screen before going to the dungeon. Don't worry, it won't require any XTP to try. You can still spend additional XTP here to try and help boost your poor bastard's chances of making it past the 20th floor or so though!
  
  
  
  
• New Mechanic: Win back your stolen items:
  
  Now when an enemy steals an item from you, you'll have the opportunity to win it back by killing it. The catch is that you'll want to try and kill it quickly, as with each round that passes your chances to get it back go down by 30%. By default your chance to win your item back is 90%.
  
  The icon for this is a little baggie above the monster's "ENEMY" text on its battle HUD, along with the percentage of getting your item back if it's killed during that round. Enemies that take longer than 3 rounds to kill mean your item's gone forever. Thanks to Toeli for this great idea!
  
  NOTE: If you're a level 7+ Thief you can still attempt to steal from the enemy to get your item back, though since it's only part of its loot pool chances are you may note get your exact item back.
  
  - - -
  
  
  
  
• New Item Type: Souls. These are little ghosties that are equipped on the Rune / Misc slot. Cleric-only, Souls can alter or enhance your abilities. Thanks to reddit user Korikabu for this great idea!
  
  
• New Item: Soul of the Priest! Any Cleric who equips this soul will have his HEAL spell stamina requirement lowered from 9 to 5. HEAL spells will additionally cure the Plague status. If that wasn't cool enough, you'll get +12 max stamina just from wearing it!
  
  
• New Item: Soul of the Templar! And any Cleric who equips this soul will have his shield BASH attacks augmented to severly damage undead enemies. The damage is level-based to the tune of (Level x 3) + 0 to 3. And don't worry, it still counts as a regular shield bash which means the enemy DEF is lowered too. Am I forgetting something....? Oh yes! You'll also get ATK +5 just from wearing it!
  
  
• New Item: Bottled Water! Drink one to lessen- but not cure- the effects of plague. You can also dump it on a fire trap to put it out like the other potions (only now you don't have to waste a decent potion). More on this below.
  
  
• New Item: Skill Ring +1! A great ring that's only useable by Red Shirts trying the level 1 challenge, this grants you your class's level 4 combat skill.
  
  
• New Item: Skill Ring +2! This is even better as it grants you both your class's level 4 and level 7 combat skills. Both of these rings may show up for sale at any Cultist Den and are only equippable if you're running the Red Shirt challenge.
  
  
• Food items now have a their own icon denoting you can eat them to restore hunger (apple icon).
  
  
• Souls have a new ghost icon when viewing their flavor texts.
  
  
• 14 new base maps have been added to the mix. Hooray for variety!
  
  
  
  
• New Mechanic: Fill your Empty Bottles at ponds:
  
  New to the game is the ability to fill any empty bottles you might have with water from a pond. In order to do this, simply walk over any one of the TRILLIONS of dungeon ponds without having a fishing pole equipped. If you also have at least one Empty Bottle in your pack, you'll be given the option to fill it with said water.
  
  
  
  
  
  So, what's Bottled Water all about? Its main use is to lessen the effects of the DEF penalty of a plagued character. Normally when you're stricken by Plague you'll get a defense penalty between -5 and -10, which sucks of course. If you don't have a way already to cure this terrible disease (or a well isn't nearby to drink, which also cures it) you can always take a swig of Bottled Water in the meantime. Doing this will lessen your defense penalty, making it between -2 and -4.
  
  
  
  To keep this from becoming too OP (and making items like Vitrox B totally obsolete) you can only lessen the effects of Plague through Bottled Water once. After that, you're just hydrating yourself for no good reason haha. I've also made it so that you can dump this water on webs, which will instantly disolve them.
  
  Unlike Cauldrons which can only be drawn from once, you can fill as many bottles as you own with pond water. Get a good supply going for the road ahead to keep yourself feeling better or just use them to put out fire traps. Thanks to Toeli for this great idea!
  
  NOTE: If the floor's water supply has already been polluted by you when you dumped a Black Potion into a pond then when you go to fill your bottle you'll get a Stagnant Water instead. Might be a good idea if you're playing the Cultist, actually..
  
  

• The "Easy Peasy" XTP reward has been replaced with the "Red Shirt" option.
  
  
• Runes now no longer have a level restriction. Hoorah!
  
  
  
  
• A small Lantern icon is now displayed on the character select screen. This shows which color phase that particular class will gain that particular effect. Thanks to ROGUELove for the feedback that led to this!
  
  
  
  
• When the lantern changes phases to the color your class gets his special effect a text pop up will now also appear (like the one pictured for Wizards, blue = Spell Boost). Thanks to ROGUELove for the feedback that led to this!
  
  
• Controls screen now shows you can also use the D-Pad as well as gamepad analog stick to play.
  
  
• Drinking a beer at a guild restores a minor amount of hunger now. Thanks to Toeli for this great idea!
  
  
• Soul of the Priest & Soul of the Templar have been added as possible stock options for the XGA Shop (i.e. Red Phase shop w/ the blue knight shopkeeper).
  
  
• All items that give XP upon usage now tell the player they won't work if you're playing a Red Shirt level 1 challenge.
  
  
  
  
• Polluting a pond with a Black Potion now changes the water to look as dirty and gross as it really is.
  
  
• Changed one of the guild tips about the Hit Streak to one concerning the new 'Win Back stolen item' mechanic. This isn't too bad because the HST tip has been part of the Tutorial section for a while now.
  
  
• The enemy battle HUD was lowered and re-arranged to incorporate the new 'Win Back Stolen Item' icon.
  
  
• The 'Refuses to Flee' trait for Clerics has been name-changed to 'True Faith'.
  
  
• The Tutorial page for items and the Items Found Log have all the info and etc. to accomodate the 485 items in the game now.
  
  

• Fixed a very rare and strange bug where getting both a Coven and Icebox floor allowed you to walk into any monster, trigger a fight & somehow instant win it (!) Double-checking my code I discovered I had forgotten to include a catch so that Icebox & Coven floors couldn't co-exist. Yikes!
  
  
• Worms now no longer act like Sea Urchins while in your pack (the enemy would take 3 damage when they touched you.
  
  
• You can now enter Cultist Dens while afllicted with plague as was originally intended.
  
  
• The text pop up that appears when you carve meat from a kill after battle now no longer almost instantly disappears.
  
  
• Some of the newer items were not properly updating in the Items Found Log. They will now.
  
  

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Last but not least, the Excel spreadsheet for all the items in the game has been udpated to reflect all of the changes above:

http://www.dxfgames.com/ETL_ITEMLIST2018.xlsx

--


Have a good weekend, don't forget to tune in to Equin: The Lantern this Tuesday Dec. 25th to pick up your Christmas Tree weapon!

-Del_Duio

Hi all!

I am working on a hell of an update for early 2019 but until then I want you to see this great new Roguelike YouTuber who is now playing Equin: The Lantern. He has 3 episodes up so far with another due tomorrow. Here's episode 3 which just went up today. I figured this is a good one since he learned more about the game's rules and does pretty well.

It's a half hour worth watching!

https://youtu.be/0VRJFxfZ1tU

Ho Ho Holy shit, it's another update!!

• Ten new items, for a grand total now of 480:
  
  Rogue's Bow- A fine bow for both warriors and thieves alike. With its poison-tipped arrows and good attack power it'd be cool enough, but simply holding it allows you to spot those trapped red chests during a Trap Floor Event.
  
  Worms- Sometimes found in barrels, worms are disgusting things to eat in a last ditch effort. You can also simply keep them in your backpack to increase your fishing chances.
  
  Christmas Tree- Yes, it's an actual Christmas tree weapon. Unique in both its tree-ness and ability to be used by all five classes (the only weapon that can be used by everyone, now that I think of it) the Christmas Tree has excellent attack power and boosts every stat. In battle it performs as a spear with some extra nice misc options. Be careful with it near fire though or POOF! IMPORTANT: This item is not normally found in the game, and can only be gotten if you start a new game on Christmas Day, Dec 25th
  
  
  
  Canary- A bright yellow songbird. This guy is only available through one of the new Iron Door events. Should you catch him, he'll remain in your inventory and protect you vs. one death magic spell cast against you. This also turns him into a Roasted Chicken (eh, science and all. It's close enough lol)
  
  
  
  Swiper- The magic glove of some thief. This allows any class to have a one-time chance to steal an item from an enemy. It will be destroyed after a successful stolen item. Not bad!
  
  Halberd- Half Axe, Half Spear, this strong two-handed defensive weapon isn't too rare. It also has some problems actually hitting the damn monsters!
  
  Defender Rune- Equip this rune to power up the Warrior's HUNKER skill in battle. This will also power HUNKER up should you get the ability through another item (ex. The Defender Axe) so guys like Thieves can benefit too, potentially.
  
  Sea Urchin- What better catch could you possibly find living in a non-salt water pond? Wait, wha-? Never you mind! A true rarity among beasties, this spiky bastard can possibly be fished out of the murky depths with trusty rod and reel. You could eat it, if you wanted to. You could also leave it in your pack and let enemies take spike reflection damage every time they touch you too!
  
  
  
  Sandman Powder- This special bag of powdery crap can be equipped in the left hand. During battle you'll be given the chance to sprinkle said powdery crap on the enemy, and possibly put it to sleep. Though not guaranteed to work the powder does have much higher chances than the regular SLEEP attack from gear. The bag is destroyed upon use regardless.
  
  Chaos Cube- Last but not least is the chaos cube. A warped item filled with The Lantern's power, keeping it in your backpack causes chaos with every floor event! The odds of getting floor events spectacularly skyrocket as long as it's in your pack... How long before the madness will drive you to destroy it?!
  
  
• One new random Iron Door event related to the canary mentioned above.
  

• The appropriate changes were made to reflect the game's total items now, up to 480 different things.
  
  
• Defender Rune is now in the Guildmaster's Mystery Rune possibilities.
  
  
• The Chaos Cube is now in Bob's inventory as a possible steal.
  
  
  
  
• The Full Item Spreadsheet was updated accordingly with all the new stuff. You can grab it here of course for free:
  
  http://www.dxfgames.com/ETL_ITEMLIST2018.xlsx
  

None this time.


Christmas came early for this lucky warrior!


So that's going to be it for this year, but I'll be back again with more updates throughout 2019 you can be sure of it.

Just to re-iterate so anyone who wants to fill the Christmas Tree in on their item log: The item is only available Christmas Day Dec 25th as part of the Daily Bonus for new games. If you miss it that day you'll have to wait until next Christmas to get one.

Don't say I didn't warn you!

Merry Christmas!
-Del_Duio