Devlog 36 (Patreon)

More devlogging after a while. So lets dig in.

Firstly we've been working on Hiho arc story update. She gets 2 more small quests, with new locations and more development. First love scene will be now triggered after 2nd quest instead of 1st one, to fit in more with character, since we always found Hiho getting overly excited over Redic returning her an amulet so quickly a bit odd, now we get a bit more build up. New love scene should be available after finishing the 3rd quest.

We actually wanted to avoid adding new enemy type for now, but there was no good way around it, so might do it while at it. Here, you can have a good peek at nice people you are going to interact with in the future.

Writing is currently on finalizing stages, we should start assembling the scripts and locations in the engine soon. Speaking of locations, we'll see one of important landmarks for Halmechians and learn a bit more about their lore.

Additionally, Hiho and Redic will get a small sprite update to add more poses for animation and some graphics updates.

And other big thing we've been working on is the long prophesied combat update. Deck being full on updating our under the hood engine and reworking mechanics we'll need in the future. We wont be able to completely overhaul everything, but we're gonna set the core and part of characters first. Then update the remaining enemies in the future.

So lets go over what we've already changed in combat:

1. Action Points and Armor/Defense system rework. Previously we had only 2 AP, which were converted into movement points and usually attacks ended the turn. This felt very restrictive to gameplay options and not very intuitive. Now characters will start with at least 6ap or more, and can level them up further, to a point you can start using light attacks several times a turn, while heavy ones usually would cost more AP and each hex traveled now costs 2 AP. It feels minor at start but have bigger implications in the future on strategic choices, where player might need to decide between dealing more damage with attacks or saving AP for moving or allowing low AP usage abilities\items to be added.

Defence/Armor system we decided to re-balance a bit. Now the main defense option is an unified bar instead of being separate for each limb, limbs sometimes can have their own separate armor underneath main defence bar, but that would be the exception rather than the rule. This was done to make fighting enemies past 1 maim less punishing, since repeatedly hitting maimed limb returns less bleed damage over healthy one, but going through each limb armor again makes that route also inconvenient. So now generally when you broke someones defense maiming any limb should be easier (unless that limb is heavily armored, like Blackfurs thick skull).

2. Environment hazards. It's a small addition we planned a while ago but never got to add it. Usually triggered by being pushed into them, they will deal additional damage, effect or outright kill the target. We want to incentivize positioning to be a big part of combat, as well as give more utility for pushing/pulling abilities. But be careful, since such hazards apply to the player characters as well.

3. Basic actions\delayed actions. To make enemies kit somewhat predictable and intuitive most enemies will have a basic action assigned to them. It can be triggered by a card or passive, might be played unlimited amount of times per turn in theory. Think of it as signature enemy move around which their kit would revolve. This would allow us to rehash and simplify enemy decks to involve less cards, so it's easier to memorize and get a more consistent behavior. Despite basic action, it's still worthwhile watching enemy deck, since card most often are the ones trigger it and can have additional effect on top, so might be worth force-exhausting enemy A or B class cards.

Delayed actions. To further emphasize positioning and vary up tactical situations we are adding a special card text tag, which basically mean enemy will perform an action on start of their turn. In the Gif example above Blackfur basic action now is a delayed action charge, where his path is marked with red hexes, you have one turn to get out of the way or be trampled. Obviously there will be different versions of such delayed actions, often they are more powerful versions compared to their immediate counterpart attacks, making retreat sometimes be a better option.

As for what we're planning to change more:

1. Changing player/companion ability tree. Some abilities might get minor change to accommodate for new AP pricing, others might be reworked to have new effects completely. 

2. Making most attacks hit either fixed or random limb, making few abilities with ability to select body part either weaker on damage or being expensive\having other limitations. Its less punishing hitting random limbs with now unified defence bar, but will result in more random situation which limb is maimed so player has to adapt to it over situations where its always beneficial to maim limbs in specific order.

3. Reactions. Similar to delayed action, reaction is something what doesn't happen right away, but unlike it reaction needs a specific circumstance to trigger. One of reaction we're planning is attacking whenever enemy walks up or walks away from character performing the reaction. Remember both reactions and delayed actions will be available for player and enemies.

4. Slow/Speed token change. Because old ones were a bit convoluted and doesn't fit new move system we'll change it so speed token can be used as "free" 1 hex move point, and 1 slow token would double the AP cost to move a hex then would expire upon triggering, but only 1 slow token can take effect at a time. Slow tokens will decay in similar manner as weak tokens, as in half the amount (round down) at the end of characters turn. For enemies as they don't use AP slow token would mean -1 hex move range, and then expire amount of tokens as much move speed enemy has.

This be all for now, thanks for your patience guys.