Leveling And Bartering Update in the Works (Patreon)

With MFF just around the corner I'd wanted to get a patron build out before it, but that's not looking like it's going to happen, or at least there won't be enough new content that I'd feel it's worth posting. So instead I'm just going to post this little text update and hopefully get a build out early December.

This month I've been mostly working on updating combat and adding a proper level-up system. Turn based RPGs are something I've always kind of enjoyed but I've also had a lot of problems with them. I find there are a lot of traps with them that make them a little boring and monotonous. A lot of the time turn based RPGs end up as 'Press A until encounter ends, if you win proceed, if you don't go to an earlier area and press A until your a higher level.'

A lot of really popular RPGs have done different things to correct this or improve on it. Things like Pokemon add in status moves, and type advantage/disadvantage which means there isn't going to be a single attack that works in all situations. Super Mario RPG has psuedo QTEs to keep you engaged during the fights. Undertale has the bullet time sections to add a level of skill to the encounters.

Because of the nature of this game, QTEs and Bullet Hells don't really fit and elemental typing doesn't quite suit the solo hero playstyle.

To deal with this and hopefully avoid the "spam A until I win" trap, I'm working on a system that takes some pokemon elements with my own spin. Mobs all have 4 stats Combat, Survival, Acumen and Glamour. An attack will have a base damage and accuracy similar to pokemon. However each attack will also have an attack stat and defense stat which determine the stats used by the attack and defender for calculating damage.

Generally the attack and defense stat will be the same, this means an enemy with high combat will be less vulnerable to combat attack. This means instead of having dedicated attack and defense stats players and enemies will almost always have a situations they are strong in and situations they are weak in. My hope is that this will encourage people to try different builds and attempt encounters in different ways.

On top of the stats, enemies and potentially the player will have vulnerability or resistance (or possibly immunity) to certain damage types. There are two basic types of damage, Physical and Mental which are broken down further into different types
Physical - Magic, Fire, Radiant, Poison, Cold, Lightning, Weapon
Mental - Humor, Crude, Lewd, Passion, Calm, Intimidation

Some enemies will have resistances or vulnerabilities by default based on their race.

On top of all of this is the Condition system which is in the current build and some of you may have seen it in action. Though it's quite fully fleshed out the idea is that occassionally enemies will have a Condition, which will be shown in their name. So instead of fighting 3 Goblins in a row you might fight 2 Goblins then an Angry Goblin. These conditions will have an impact on the fight. Because I don't want every fight to be entirely random and unpredictable because that's just bad design in my opinion, these conditions will have more of an impact on AI. For instance an Angry Goblin will be more prone to physical attack actions and less likely to flee then a standard Goblin. Alternatively a Cowardly Goblin will be more prone to fleeing. In the future I'd like to add rare Conditions that add minor but intuitive resistance/vulnerabilities and stat increases or decreases. For example a Wounded mob may start with 3/4 of their max HP. While a Brutish mob might have a higher Combat stat then normal. Or an Aroused mob may be vulnerable to Lewd or Passion attacks.

That's essentially what I have planned for the combat system, and a lot of it has been implemented, the main thing I need to do is add some extra types of attacks which should be relatively straightforward to do. Then just test and make sure things are balanced appropriately for what I'm going for.

With that said, the other thing I'm working on and the thing that I've been struggling with for the passed two weeks has been a level-up and bartering system. So unlike most RPGs you won't have XP here, instead you'll meet a trainer or instructor who you can trade items to in order to level up. Which extends into the bartering system. As a bunch of prisoners stranded on an island no one really has a lot of use for gold, so everything is done through trade. Items will have a base value and can be given to merchants in exchange for other items.

My hope with this system is that it will create a Dark Souls-ish progression where you can choose to either save items to buy a new weapon or a fancy piece of armor or use it to level up your raw skills or even purchase new skills. Additionally I hope this adds some immersion and flavor to the world.

As of today I have the basic level-up screen working, which should (in theory) mean that I can repurpose this code for merchants which I'll be add in after this next build gets done.

Last little update, I finally found what was causing the player name to not display correctly when talking with Squeeb.

That is everything for this update. I'm really sorry I couldn't get a proper build out, but I just don't think I'll be able to get enough new content in before December. Hopefully in the next two weeks I'll get enough scenes fleshed out to put out an Alpha ver 2