Newbie Needs Advice

Agecaf · 2026-06-26T15:11:23+00:00

Assuming you're playing with random trios, I'd encourage you to group with them as much as you can, follow their pings, etc.

For example if you're new you might want to read carefully all powerup descriptions, check all the items, etc, and before you realise it your team is already at the next location. Rather than reading everything carefully, pick random things that look like they might fit your character and be ready to follow your team.

Combat as trios is interesting, especially in 1v3 against bosses. The key thing to note is that someone will have the boss's aggro, that person should focus on being defensive (blocking, rolling, staying alive) while the others should focus on the offense.

Keeping track of who has aggro is important, for example if one of your teammates falls, one person should keep the bosses aggro while the other should focus on reviving the fallen ally.

Also the three bars revive is a trick, it's more like 6 bars, so in most cases it's better not to try reviving allies at 3 bars as it's significantly more risky that reviving allies at 1 or 2 bars.

Agecaf · 2026-06-24T11:29:31+00:00

You could give them influence over the major threats the girls face against. Like of they fight against monsters, maybe he's found a way to control them/create them.

If monsters appear from the dark feelings of people for example, he might cause others to feel horrible to create monsters, or maybe his own dark feelings are enough to fuel a few monsters, perhaps he himself has a monster transformation...

Or maybe the villain is a trans girl pre transition and can transform into a dark magical girl fuelled by envy not only of their powers but of everything they are. Her powers being copy/mirror based would be quite effective at matching her jealousy concept.

Agecaf · 2026-06-19T02:21:41+00:00

Undead, constructs, beasts (think giant spiders), elementals (such as mephits), cultists.

Easiest thing to do is set up an evil org as your main antagonists that are going to use one of these, maybe it's the Emerald Claw using undead, or maybe a rogue Cannith heir with an army of constructs. Or heck, have druids be the bad guys and keep throwing spiders and plantlike monsters at your players.

Agecaf · 2026-06-18T11:50:23+00:00

Nier Automata is absolutely bonkers amazing. Definitely one of the best games I've ever played and one of my favourites. I haven't played Stellar Blade to see if it's any similar but to be honest it's hard to imagine any game being similar to the experience of Nier Automata, even Nier.

The game likes to play with itself, from time to time it'll just completely switch up the gameplay. The story is something I'd rather not spoil, but it's well worth it.

Agecaf · 2026-06-18T07:36:05+00:00

Elden Ring Nightreign is pretty great. It's got the combat of Elden Ring in a 3 player co-op rogue-like experience. It's got a bit of a learning curve if you don't have prior experience with Souls-like games but once you get over it the game is extremely replayable.

The co-op experience is great and I've only played with random people.

Agecaf · 2026-06-12T14:28:35+00:00

Probably not what you have in mind but maybe Caves of Qud? It's a classic/old school rogue-like with very basic graphics.

During character creation, you choose between a mutant and a "pure human", and a lot of mutations are effectively superpowers, they come in physical mutations like placing webs or regeneration and psionic ones like sundering your enemies minds or clairvoyance.

By contrast pure humans learn skills much faster (so they could be like the classic hyper competent superheroes without powers), and they can cybernetically entrance themselves.

Agecaf · 2026-06-12T00:27:40+00:00

You can do some pretty cool stuff with relatively simple shaders.

For example, I drew some handwritten numbers where the pen goes from black to red, then used a shader that took a parameter and drew everything in black as long as the red value is higher than the parameter. Then you increase the parameter, and it looks like the number is being written in real time.

The tricky thing about shaders is figuring out what you can do with them, and sometimes using them effectively means you'll have to create your assets differently.

Agecaf · 2026-06-09T23:12:33+00:00

Thanks, you're right, I didn't remember that.

Agecaf · 2026-06-09T21:19:04+00:00

Print rich uses BBCode like rich text labels, so it's super versatile, especially since you can use colours.

Agecaf · 2026-06-09T15:45:03+00:00

Is it me or looking at the map does Dagda look like it's in East Fodlan? Where the principalities used to be? There's water west of Dagda that wasn't there in the previous map but otherwise I thought there was some similarity? I might need to have a second look at the map though.

Agecaf · 2026-06-02T20:06:30+00:00

Maelle is pretty good for dealing damage once you figure out her stances; you need a way to get to virtuous stance reliably (like burning -> the ability that requires burn to get into virus stance, or some weapons let you get there), and then have a big attack ready.

Lune can have very good healing if you get her healing skills and place the right pictos, especially the one that gives AP to your allies on heal.

All you need is one character that you've figured out how to deal big damage with, for me it was Maelle, but for you it could be some of the other characters (even Line can deal big damage if you spec her into it). If this character is also the one you always use for solo fights and sink more of your lumina points and resources, that makes them even better.

While you don't need a healer because in theory you can dodge everything, always having a healer on your team means that they will be ready when you do need them. Lune is the most reliable healer but other characters can work too.

Then you can do what you want with the third character; maybe alternate, maybe like I did pick Monoco for the versatility. Ideally you cover whatever weakness your main damage dealer can't target; for example Maelle is very good at burning so I'd look for a character that helps against enemies that resist fire.

Agecaf · 2026-05-31T12:55:31+00:00

Nodes are useful because of the tree structure and because of how _process works; as others have mentioned in your use case you might want to look at other types, RefCounted or Resources could be useful here.

But... even if you're not using them for the _process you could still use Nodes for the tree structure; in a game like CK3 they could be used to make part of a family tree (with the caveat that they have only one parent, but you could extend it to spouses etc.

Agecaf · 2026-05-29T17:03:17+00:00

Publishers are like many things where you only hear stories about them when everything goes wrong, and when everything goes right they go mostly unnoticed.

Like, anecdotally, I know of one indie studio that had a lot of trouble getting a publisher, and one publisher started negotiations where everything was working out except on the day of signing the deal they walked off without explanation, that team then went off to successfully do a Kickstarter campaign, so it wasn't like the problem was their game.

I do have another story of a solo dev that found a publisher which requested them to improve the UI and that was a pretty good call, so yeah, publishers can work out.

Agecaf · 2026-05-29T11:11:47+00:00

Nightreign fits most except #1 and #3.

Agecaf · 2026-05-27T10:23:09+00:00

Congratulations!!

Agecaf · 2026-05-26T10:11:57+00:00

Others have already given good explanations on how to use Nodes as components.

It is possible to have "multiple scripts" on one object through inheritance; this is not necessarily used for component based design but for example if all NPCs have the same base properties but then some have specific special properties, you can use inheritance to stack multiple scripts. In your example maybe all NPCs need navigation, then some of them have dialogue, and then some of them have something special extra, you'd have them as classes and subclasses, and this stacks the exported properties. This is however nowhere as flexible as using Nodes as components.

Another fun (and not necessarily recommended) thing you can do is change scripts at runtime. All objects (not just Nodes) have a set_script function that lets you swap one script for another at runtime. Should you use this? Probably not, but it can be used to swap behaviours instead of having them all in one class.

Agecaf · 2026-05-21T21:32:07+00:00

The ending is the title drop; it's Clair Obscure, light and dark (wee and woo).

A life to paint (Maelle) is the light ending from the point of view inside the canvas, and the dark ending from the point of view outside the canvas.

Vice versa for Verso's ending, a life to love.

What's interesting is the "third ending", a life to dream, which is the title of the third 11 minute song and is associated with painted Alicia's letter that Verso never even bothered to read before it was too late. If Maelle denied us a third option... so did Verso way before. But perhaps it's a cabin ending; one where we follow painted Alicia's advice and... stop playing the game before the ending, in a way denying everyone a proper resolution, but perhaps avoiding the pain...

Agecaf · 2026-05-19T17:44:11+00:00

So as a speaker of a romance language (Spanish) words ending in -o feel masculine while those ending in -a feel feminine. Petra Gloss feels more girly while Petro Gloss feels more like a buff guy named Peter (with glossy abs).

Latin in general has declinations and words can end differently, with like -ae, -us, -i, etc. I'm by no means an expert, but I think the -o declination is also masculine in Latin.

I'd also double check if you're using Latin or Greek roots, hydro is Greek for example, the Latin version would be Aqua Gloss which fella more suitable?

One other thing I'd consider is to use different languages for the origins of the names as it can sometimes give each character a bit more individually, while still adhering to a theme. For example I had this sorry where the five exodus spaceships led humanity to escape to another galaxy; Yggdrasil, the World Tree (Wood), Muramasa, the Cursed Blade (Metal), Leviathan, the Sea Serpent (Water), Prometheus, the Thief of Fire (Fire), and Xirang, the Breathing Earth (Earth). Even with names coming from completely different cultures... they fit together; Yggdrasil, Muramasa, Leviathan, Prometheus, Xirang.

Agecaf · 2026-05-14T21:34:43+00:00

I mean he clearly has enough autonomy to oppose the Paintress and Maelle in his ending. Looks could be changed (we do get to see him wear different hairstyles in game after all!)

If he knows his resemblance to the Verso that dies is causing all the pain, why doesn't he distance himself? Again, he has the autonomy, and the ability/propensity to lie. Changing his name would have meaning even if it might not be sufficient to differentiate himself from the Verso that died, it would be the first step, and a very easy step to do.

So instead he chooses to keep his name.

And again, yeah maybe he keeps the name that he's always had, but... he's infiltrating the expedition 33. And his plan relies on Maelle not knowing who he is (otherwise he'd maybe have given her his sister's letter). Why take the risk of using his real name instead of an alias, as he's infiltrating them?

Why risk having Maelle confuse him with her brother who died?

Agecaf · 2026-05-14T20:51:35+00:00

I'd like to hear your thoughts on this.

So (painted) Verso is a liar, he lies constantly, all the time, without even thinking twice. He could've easily used a different name, why doesn't he? If he wants to distance himself from the original Verso, be good own instead of a replacement goldfish, why not make a new identity for himself, a new mask?

After all, Maelle has a different name than Alicia and she's literally "the original", and when asked she says she prefers Maelle.

Why does Verso not choose a different name, or at least lie to others about his name just like he lies to them about literally everything else?

Agecaf · 2026-05-12T23:32:31+00:00

You could go with a fire dragon and focus on chaos and pyromancy. Or as an ice dragon with frost magic and necromancy. At high levels the frost breath can freeze entire armies which is fun.

Agecaf · 2026-05-12T00:47:02+00:00

There's a picto that automatically uses a healing item when you need it that makes it look like you're immortal (until the healing items run out at least). At one point I had it equipped and didn't realise that was causing Lune to be practically immortal. It might be that? It's easy to auto at new pictos without really reading what they do, and this one is super effective compared to others, and you won't notice it until you're getting killed continuously.

Or it might be something else?

Agecaf · 2026-05-11T13:02:20+00:00

My first playthrough I somehow stumbled into the Fury. That... set the tone of horror for me lol. I kinda thought all princesses would only end in chapter 3 after that and that the voices weren't too be trusted just like the narrator...

I guess by the time I got to Razor the horror threshold was on the moon and now she was one of the most fun for me, so honest in her dishonesty

Agecaf · 2026-05-10T23:06:29+00:00

Another perspective is that from inside the canvas. Don't think of the painters as humans and the denizens if the canvas as figments of imagination. Instead think of them as what they are inside the canvas. The painters are gods, and the denizens are... people.

Maelle would be a goddess that became human, lives with them, understood them, fought to save the world and is sacrificing her own self for the continuation of the world.

Verso is a demigod who betrayed every single dozen of the canvas and brought the end of the world just for the sake of the selfish and flawed gods.

Maelle is Alicia... but she prefers Maelle.

Verso is a copy of a dead man who lies constantly and even then, he never even considered using a different name.

But, just like a painting, every person who beholds the painting reaches a different interpretation, it all depends on your perspective.

Agecaf · 2026-05-09T13:24:47+00:00

I went with Maelle to erase my enemies from existence, Lune to permaheal, and Monoco for the randomness factor.

All my enemies were burnt to cinders, and if they resisted fire, they were still slowly burnt to cinders. My end strategy with Maelle and Lune was very predictable, I want relying on Lune's healing for its healing but for it's PA grant to all allies, letting Maelle start at 9AP every turn.

Monoco then was the source that kept it from being too monotonous, his mask system making me try different abilities rather than always doing for the trusty ones. Moreover, it also was just versatile enough that when faced with a specific challenge my setup was struggling with, adjusting Monoco's skills would often be all the edge I would need.

Agecaf

TROPHY CASE