Another tactic is to utilize skills that have increased accuracy against particular attacks or all attacks. For example, the tactics skill set provides weaponside and shieldside attacks. A shieldside attack is great right after an opponent blocks an attack, since the attack is naturally more difficult to be parried. The accuracy skill set has a setup skill that will boost the accuracy of the next attack or two.

Defense plays a pivotal role in combat, and while any character can dodge, parry or block (if they equip a shield), these provide only minor defense bonuses unless the character chooses to specialize in them. A melee character without any melee defense skills must employ a strategy of quickly defeating the enemy, since they will be unable to defend against many of the attacks leveled against them.

This type of combat system makes the basic choice of employing a two-handed weapon vs a one-handed weapon a much more important decision. Two-handed weapons can be extremely lethal, especially when paired with some of the special combat moves, but they also limit the character’s defenses. Not only can the character not block attacks (since they won’t have a shield equipped), but most two-handed weapons have a long delay, which means they will not parry as many attacks. Two-handed weapons are best for characters that intend to quickly overcome the enemy’s defenses.

Magic also plays its role. Not only can spells be blocked and dodged, but each school of magic also offers a melee attack for those who choose to create a hybrid character. Since each choice of melee skill provides a bonus to melee accuracy, it is important for hybird characters to plan accordingly. A character with only one melee skill may find it more difficult to hit the opponent, but if that skill is a core melee skill (slashing, crushing, piercing) or a skill that improves the chance to hit (accuracy), a hybrid character can be quite powerful.

Light magic users get a bonus when using crushing weapons and a spell to help both magical and melee accuracy. They can also equip holy symbols to help with their magical skills, thus negating the need for a mage staff. This makes them formidible melee opponents even without choosing a melee skill. But don’t discount Dark and Nature. Both of these magic types also provide a bonus to melee should the character decide to hybrid in that direction.

Kudos to Apple for looking out for the little guy and not just taking care of the big guys. Also glad this fix got in because it could hang up the game at deeper depths in the dungeon.

The patch is also out on the Android Marketplace and has been submitted to Amazon.

I have fixed the bug and submitted a new version to the app store, requesting an expedited review in hopes of getting it through the process quicker. I can’t say whether or not the request will be accepted, but at the very least, a new version should be available early next week.  I’m hoping they can fit it in before the week is out.

Endless Depths is now available for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.  This turn-based “rogue-like” RPG features randomly generated dungeons and is based on the TitanFire system, which introduces strategy to combat by placing more emphasis on the character’s ability to block, parry and dodge attacks and spells.   Endless Depths shares the old school nature of traditional rogue-like games, with a one-character-one-life theme that puts the emphasis as much on survival as making it down through the dungeon levels to take out Mephistopheles.

The TitanFire RPG system is a strategic combat system where each active defense (block, parry and dodge) has its own delay similar to weapon attacks.  Characters must use a variety of strategic abilities like feints, set ups and quick strikes to overcome the enemies defenses.  With an open-ended class system where characters choose three skill sets from a list of melee sets and spell books, players can devise their own strategy for combat.

The key features in Endless Depths include:

* Randomly generated dungeon levels
* Over one hundred monsters
* Dozens of melee abilities and spells
* Plenty of loot to uncover
* Online Leaderboard and achievements through OpenFeint

Endless Depths is available on the app store for $0.99:

Note: The public domain tilesets used in Endless Depths come from the RLTiles collection. Some tiles have been modified by the author.

Check out Amazon’s App Store.  It’s great to see Android get something like this.

Meanwhile, on the iPhone and iPad side of things, Gluten Free Ingredients finally got enough reviews to be officially rated.  I don’t do any review stuffing or buying reviews, so it took a while, and I’m certainly glad to see they were all 5 star reviews.   I hope everyone is finding it useful.

In making sure this update got into the hands of customers quickly, the character builder’s abilities and skills were only updated for the cleric archetype.  Some corrections are still needed for other archetypes.

Those corrections have now been finished, including small changes from the Rift patch (1.01) that occurred today.  The new version has been submitted to the App store and is awaiting the approval process, which usually takes from 4-7 days.

This new update should make all souls accurate, but if you spot any inaccuracies, feel free to email Nations Software with the ability name and the soul it is found in and it will be corrected in the next release.

Don’t have the Rift soul builder for the iPhone?  You can download it here.

Similar to games like the classic Space Invaders and puzzle games like Bubble Shooter, Marbles Invasion combines the puzzles of a marbles game with the action of an arcade game. Those marbles are coming whether you do something or not!

But the marbles don’t just come in normal colors. There are also two special marbles: the wild marble, which will take on the color it is hit with making it easier to shoot down, and the black marble, which cannot be shot down. Luckily, the black marble is worth a lot of points, so if you can blast out the marbles above it, you can rack up the points.

You can download Marbles Invasion on iOS and Android.

Have you ever wanted to play D&D alone? Now you can with RPG Random Dungeon Generator for iPhone and Android. This handy little D&D random dungeon generator is great for when you want to get a little D&D action solo or with a few friends.

RPG Random Dungeon Generator supports levels 1-30 and parties of up to 8 characters. In addition to a smart encounter system that creates groups of 4e monsters, it also uses 4th edition treasure and traps to round out the random dungeon.

Got an iPad? A super-charged version of the random dungeon generator with a mini-map and a dice roller will soon be released specifically for the iPad.

RPG Random Dungeon Generator Features:

• Dynamic dungeons
• Random monsters, traps and treasure
• Intelligent encounter design with leaders, front line, support and epic monsters
• Uses d20 4e monsters and treasure rules
• Supports characters from level 1 to 30
• Supports solo adventures and parties of up to 8 adventurers
• iPad special features: mini-map and dice roller

You can download the app from the iTunes market or get it on your Android.

The iPhone version gives you quick access to the news with an easy-to-use interface that makes it easy to select your team. And while an Internet connection is required to read full stories, you can still browse summary news you’ve downloaded while offline.

The iPad version delivers newspaper-style headlines that give you summaries of the latest news for your favorite teams all on one page. And with the touch of a finger, you can read the full article on the original website.

Download Headline News: Pro Football News Edition.

Download Headline News: Pro Football News Edition HD.

Gluten Free Ingredients provides a searchable list of safe/unsafe ingredients. So even if the label doesn’t list allergens, you can still check for gluten.

You can download Gluten Free Ingredients from the Android marketplace.