development thread

[jack1974]

despite the heat and mosquitoes bites (they really LIKE me!) I managed to get a productive morning of work. I designed several unique items:
13 unique weapons
11 unique armors
3 unique accessories
my goal is to have at least a unique item for each inventory slot of each character (main protagonist excluded, you'll be able to use a variety of items), so it would mean 6 inventory slots x 10 characters = 60 items!

[jack1974]

Dasyra's ultimate item is not a staff, but a Brooch (and the related storyline it's really well written and an interesting story). I might have made it a bit too powerful though In practice allows you to cast her resurrect spell (albeit at level 1) for just 1 SP and at almost half delay. Considering it also regen 1 SP each turn, means almost free resurrects
I tested in some more tough battles and while it's very powerful, against stronger enemies we're not at "cheat mode" levels yet!

[jack1974]

I've added more info in the inventory/vendor screen when an item gives an extra skill to use in combat, so you know what you're buying

[BobTheMob]

That brooch sounds EPIC in what it does!!!!!

One thing I don't understand, though: what's Parry do? Is that a thing like an automatic counter if an enemy strikes?

[jack1974]

If was counter, would be caller counter
It's used to determine if a target is hit or not, like in Queen Of Thieves you can miss the target and deal less damage than a normal strike.
So Parry is added to the calculations (higher value means the character is harder to hit).

[jack1974]

So today randomly found out that I was considering just the generic "attack" value in the RPG calculations And then I added the "Damage" stat to the weapon items only:

and I will also clearly explain in battles how much extra damage you got from the weapon you used (depending on the attack type of course):

In practice before, having only attack, you were getting ALL the weapons bonuses no matter which attack type you did: if you had a bow with +10 Attack, you would get that attack bonus even if you attacked an enemy using a dagger Which is not really realistic. I mean, the weapon can be magic so could empower the character, but there should be some difference if you use melee or ranged attack, depending which weapon you use.
So I swapped the attack value in the weapon items with Damage, which will be added after the normal calculations.
Like in the screenshot above, Kusho would normally hit for 13, but thanks to the weapon he used (an Axe with +4 Damage) the total damage done was 13+4=17.
Obviously this screws up completely all the balance but at least I found it out very early in the game development! Also weapons won't have high damage values since otherwise they would be too powerful (just a +10 damage weapon could be super-powerful!).

[jack1974]

Dryad's earrings are the latest fashion item in Aravorn!!
Jokes apart, having items associated with spells/skills it's quite interesting, you can buy one of those (if you have money) and put it even on a Berseker like Galan, so he can in theory self-heal. Of course, they still consume SP, so those items can never completely replace for example healing potions (which also work on other characters and not just self).
So they don't break the balance but at same time allows the player to vary their builds.
I definitely want to have the possibility to associate skills/spells to item even in the new framework since it's a cool thing!

[jack1974]

this morning finished coding a proper loot screen, even if in this game the loot won't be as big as SOTW, you'll still get some items while defeating enemies

[jack1974]

quest screen added
Also, started coding the arena fights, also known as "The Grinder's Paradise"

As said already the game has a specific number of days, but differently from SOTW you won't feel so rushed. In practice after you do the events of the day, if you want you can go in the arena and do some extra fights to grind for XP, however to prevent madness like people reaching the Loren's final boss fights TEN LEVELS above the enemy, I won't let players regenerate HP or SP. Sure you can buy potions but would be a bit crazy to waste them for those training fights... or maybe not?
I think this will be a very popular minigame for many players... lol

[DarkWolf]

Will grinding be necessary or optional? I am among people who prefer to go weaker for a boss and be able to just barely beat it