Dungeon Ticker

All right! I encountered the error myself this morning, so I was able to track it down quite easily. To my moderate surprise, it had nothing to do with my recent update (usually when there’s a problem right after you’ve tinkered with something, it means you’ve broken it, whether the change and the error seem related at first or not) but rather a file that I was relying on to be there had gone missing (third-party software, for those who know what that means). I wasn’t experiencing the error because my browser cached it for longer, probably. Anyway, lesson learned: don’t just link to stuff you need. Mostly everything is now packaged directly inside the game files, so that shouldn’t happen again.

Better yet, it seems as though with this fix, most of you shouldn’t lose much. It should, I think, bring you back to where it was the last time it saved properly… maybe a day at most? If you HAVE lost anything, I have been tinkering around with the code I need to falsify savefiles, so I will soon begin to respond to people who asked for one. Most likely you’re better off with the real data, but just in case. :)

Thanks everyone for your patience with this! The majority of those who messaged me were quite understanding, which was a big relief. Thanks for that.

A couple of people have reported their game completely broken. Without more information, I am not sure how to fix it except 1) to request that as many people report this to me as possible, with as much information as you can think to add, and 2) that if you message me with details about where you were in the game, I can use my developer powers to try to create a save-file that approximates where you were. e.g. which prestige, what floor, how much gold, how much equipment, how many components (maybe just add up everything you think you bought) – although if you know the floor I can make a good guess at the equipment at least.

I know it won’t be the same, and it won’t catch a lot of the trophies that you’ve probably earned, but it’s something.

Also, I probably won’t be able to get these done by tomorrow at the earliest. It’s getting late here. Sorry. :(

Alright, update published.

In addition to the three priorities I outlined in my last post, I did add an Achievement system. I called them Trophies because that fit better in the size of buttons I’ve been using.

Since I have not had as much time to test this as I would like (ideally the many, many days that it would take to earn these myself… but people are waiting) some of them may be buggy. Consider it a beta release of the achievement system. :) However, they should recognize achievements previously earned and are not dependent on catching the exact moment you achieve them, so bugs should not be difficult to fix if they are found.

The Trophies do NOT currently give you any in-game advantage. Possibly later… but not yet.

In addition to the comment I just posted in answer to the questions about the mechanics, I had wanted to talk a bit about what to expect with regard to updates. I expect to have a minor update out sometime this weekend, Monday at the latest. My 3 highest priorities for the patch are:

1. Add a reset button.

2. Reword the survival chance indicator to be more intuitive.

3. Alter the Cantrip of Finding so that it has a continuing but decreasing chance of finding components. I believe that this was suggested by someone in the comments, and I like it because it keeps the original spirit of the spell (which was as an in-between choice for when you are not paying full attention and not completely idling, but at your computer and able to check it every so often) and also helps to address a VERY common concern.

The way that I plan for this to work is that every time you find a component without resetting the rest period, the effective level reduces by 1. This would make it unchanged at level 1, but at level 2 you have a 0.1% chance every second, then back to 0.05%, then down to 0 when you have found 2 components.

I hope this will address the main problems that people have with the game as it stands. A more complete patch (with achievements and/or the class system I mentioned) will have to be second priority to these.

(Additionally, I hope to at some point add a “true idle” method, ie an offline component. I don’t think it can work the same as having the game running, because I’m not sure how to code that… but some sort of rested XP which can be converted to coins or components or something… I am thinking about it.)

Cheers all, and have a good Mother’s Day weekend!