This is something we just changed, but we fixed the image of the needle in the ruins. That’s because the specification of the needle has greatly changed:
This is a nice change to spikes. Being able to bypass them without damage by careful movement makes them like in Spelunky, a game itself which is inspired by La Mulana. Increasing the damage is also good (even 1/5 life seems low damage though).
Even though La-Mulana is an Action-Adventure-Platformer with lots of Puzzles, it has numerous RPG elements. I think there’s a good reason why very few, if any games, implemented finite money, and given that Professor Kosugi can only hold 999 money, a finite system would not work very well in the game, especially if you encourage players to go shopping.
I like these balance ideas a lot, seems to me like they will improve the game. More dangerous spikes that however don’t kill you from the sides are nice! I did get the feeling spikes were becoming much less of a threat as the game advanced. Does that mean spikes kill you in a single hit when the game starts?! Spooky!
Also the fact that roms are gone means we need much less money to begin with, so I don’t think the non-respawning pots will make problems. Unless the roms are replaced somehow, like by archeological treasures or something.
And anyway, being unable to win the game because of the finite treasure seems like a fitting punishment for spendthrifts!
I do agree with what FirePhoenix said in comparison to The Legend of Zelda (ゼルダの伝説) especially when I’ve read other people’s comparisons of La-Mulana to that game.
Well, it’s not like the enemies spent the whole day dropping ammo and money, actually, they did it almost never and eventually they dropped 1 gold coin or, in the Chamber of Extinction, there was a really high likeliness of getting flares from enemies, for some reason.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned this yet, but what about money/weapon drops from defeated enemies? That isn’t mentioned anywhere in this post. If those remain, then I don’t see much of a problem as you can just go around defeating enemies for supplies.
I think the best way to strike a balance between money and subweapon drops would be to have every pot in the game have a random chance of dropping a small amount of either money of weapons, or nothing at all, just like Legend of Zelda games. But in addition to this so you can’t abuse the respawning pots, have a time limit on the item drops. That way when you break open a pot and get some money, you can’t return a moment later and get more. This is the best way i can think of doing it. And you can tweak the drop frequencies for the items so that you have a lesser chance of getting rare items like bombs.
With a random weapon drop system a person can either find the weapons just by exploring and getting lucky, or they can buy them at a shop if they’re impatient. This would allow for people to still find weapons on as they explore but have the shops serve a purpose.
The opinion that money will become limited the way things are going is certainly important. The measures might be needed.
However, because the game balance of La-Mulana has been changed like this, I want you to think that the price of the item has been changed.
The bullet of the subweapon appears from among the pot even though it decreases more than an original version.
As Artemus Harper says , the reason for we is that it is thought that it wants you to use the subweapon systematically originally thinking about the number of bullets.
That is a rescue plan for the powerful enemy who cannot knock it down to show up. (Still, though 500G thinks that it passed of large amount of money… )
Finally, these balance adjustments are to say that it cannot decide it if the game is completed and the test is not repeated.
Ok, I think we already talked about this, but who’s the reckless jackass that said that you can’t die from spikes later in the game? And that you have TOO MUCH money later in the game? Really that was like one of my biggest concerns, building up money for buyng stuff. And keep the pots spawing weapons, for god’s sake, really, if I had to rely on shops for the weapons, I might as well throw myself in the even more deadlier spikes, for what matters.
I generally agree with scattering some ammo for subweapons among the pots as in the original, and then having them regenerate their contents after some period of time has passed.
Much of the time I play I save most sub ammo weapon for bosses and where its required to unlock a passage. Having weights be limited is fine, as there really is a limited use for them, but unless the cost of subweapons is very cheap, I expect players to save them for bosses, and avoid buying them unless necessary.
You could consider allowing a cheap for free refill station which will only stock you up to a limited amount, and then allow players to buy ammo past that limit.
Yeah I think you definetly need to be careful balancing the money and the items, especially without the random weapon drops being in the game anymore.
I agree with Majutsukai and Overkill, if the money in pots never reappears, and you can’t get weapons and weights from pots, this will lead to either,
Like they were saying up there, I never had an excess of money anytime, with having to buy ROMs, bullets for the gun to get ROMs, buying key items, etc. The only way I had ammo for my sub-weapons was from pots, I couldn’t spare money to buy from shops.
I don’t see this as balancing the game, just making it more difficult. If that’s really what you are shooting for with the new money/items system, then that makes sense. But this isn’t my game, just what I think.
I agreed with your ideas for damage balancing in La Mulana, but I don’t really think that this money idea will work.
For instance, in my playthrough of the original, I had difficulty gathering money throughout the whole game. The only thing that changed for ME in the latter half, was the amount of things I could buy.
That said, when I did find something new in a shop that I could purchase, most of my funds would be consumed.
The fact that pot contents will NEVER reappear and there only being a finite amount of money in the game, makes it very frustrating to gather cash later. I mean, I *don’t* want to explore the new, difficult areas to get the money for something that prevents my death in that area. I would rather be able to navigate the safe regions of the game and gather cash that way.
I think you still need pot regeneration. However, I’m thinking that you should have a time-limit before the contents reappear. Like, you have to explore for so many minutes/hours before the pots regenerate.
Also, I liked getting ammo pots! I thought that they were handy way to get back ammo. I think rather than forcing people to go to shops more often, you could scatter ammunition (in LOWER amounts) with coins inside certain pots.
I dunno, it just seems like the money thing would take away a lot of the fun from the exploration of the game by FORCING you to backtrack to stores, rather than finding things as you explore the ruins, and having the option to stock up fully by going to stores later.
As it stands, I currently prefer the old way of getting money to the new proposal made on this blog.
Please rethink this aspect of the game, because I think the balance you’re striving for will be greatly hurt! 🙁
You really won’t be satisfied until I cry every time I play the game. Deadlier spikes. You monsters!
Also, it is considering reckless and rude to take advantage of people in stores. The police may become involved!
So people have been complaining that there is too much money left over at the end? That’s strange, I have never had that problem. In fact, I didn’t have very much money at all near the end due to all the things I had to buy– like the Dragon Bone and Scripture– so I had to actually forego buying a few things such as ammo for the Pistol due to lack of money.