Devlog (Patreon)

Hey a huge thank you to all my patrons, This project is still kicking arse but I've got a bunch of stuff to do. Your support is really why everything is comming together.

As a warning I'm going to be unable to work for a few days this week as I upgrade some computer parts. As some of my earlier patrons will remember i had a system fail earlier this year. While a new GPU fixed the problem I've been needing a proper upgrade for a year or two now.

So what I've been at work on?

You can see above I've been experimenting with more custom sliders. I've added more weight options, shoulder size and chest size. I'll see how many character types I can create with this to see if I want to add more. But ideally I'll keep it as simple as possible.

The big news is I've created the entire way the combat system will work. I've nearly made it completely modular. The idea is I create Attacks by fusing multiple different things together.

A Life Steal would be a damage and a heal node fused. It could also support a status effect or a cooldown.

The best part is the combat tester still works and it's no more complex to edit.

So currently the combat system looks like this. But this is the core of the whole system. 

To test the system I have the player fight one monster after the other until the player dies. The sysetm then repeats this over a 1000 times. After which I get the average number of monsters you can kill without dying and how long the battle took.

It's been col oto see the numbers shift as I increase damage, randomisation and cooldowns.

So my next steps are,

Multiple Combatants/Defenders
The current plan is to let you fight more than 1 monster at a time. I'm not sure if you'll have a party but I should let the system support it.

Battle Prediction
Currently I pick moves at random. By running it 1000 times I get a pretty accurate sense of how powerfull something is but it doesn't chain benificial abilties.

My plan is to run a similar system but not pick abilities at random. I want to test every combination of abilities over about 4 turns. Then pick the order that was the best. This system could then be used as the basic AI system.

Visuals
So currently the system works but doesn't look like anything other than a single button called "Fight". I need to upgrade the system so it can wait for an input from the player and wait to play an animation/effect for the attack. I have an idea on how to do this "wait" behavour, but I need it to work while waiting and doing it instantly.

Level Up
I need to link my abilities to a generic leveling system. This will probably only effect damage and health, rather than the actuall ability systems.

Mechanics
The current attacks are very generic. But I have a suite of systems planned, I'll give some examples here but I have a bunch that are being designed

Naughty - Nice  
Damage and Healing.
Each of these abilities increases your Naughty or Nice Value.
Naughty abilities get weaker the more Naughty you are.
The nicer you are the more powerfull healing is but the more damage you take.
Scary - Cute
Mixture of Damage and effects
Sad - Happy
Status effects both positive and negative. These build up over time to become more powerfull.

Physical - Ethereal - Psychogenic
These are the main ability types sort of a Scisors, Paper, Rock idea.
The idea is you have Physical, Magical and Mental.

Magical beats Physical beats Mental beats Magical

A Cute Physical Ability might be "Tickle".
A Nice Physical Abilty might be "Hug"
A Scary Ethereal Ability might be "Cold Wind"
A Naughty Physical would be "Punch"
A Naughty Psychogenic might be "Insult"

But an added layer of complexity is the idea that a Nice abilty might be more powerful on a Sad opponent. Cute better against happy.

As these shift you can try and pick the best attacks.

Keep in mind I might throw this whole system out if it doesn't work. Primarily I want it to be fun. But this idea at least gives me a good way to build things.

Anyway this was a loooong post. I'm going to get back to work and update you later this week.