HardLife - Taunts, Riverside Park, and Parkhaven Newage Bookstore (Patreon)

I've added a new option to combat, the ability to TAUNT your opponents by lowering your guard, flexing your abs, and offering them a free shot.

Choosing the Taunt action will disable counter-attacking for that character, and it will remain off until taking the Guard action again reactivates it.

I'm also working on encounters for the Park, and a hidden shop which should be a very pleasant surprise. For those who do not already know, there are new items available in the game, and they are quite potent.

For the Park encounters, I've split them into daytime and night, but I'm at an issue where I have to refactor combat to allow non human/NPC opponents. Once I have "Mob" support in place, we'll be able to encounter things like a pack of dogs during the day, and of wolves at night; joggers during the day, and ??? at night; etc. -all based on the daylight-level, which currently runs in a Castlevania II style 6:00a-6:00p ( ^vv^ oh, what a horrible night to have a curse... :evillaugh:).

While Mobs cannot be taken home as Slaves, I do plan on adding a Pet option for them. (Slaves might also be moved into that system down the road, though they will retain the plan to become playable characters.)

Some Mobs will be inherently lootable (aka having pockets/wearables), while others... not so much:

Player: "I loot the dog."
DM: "Ooookay... will you be cutting it open, or reaching in, and for the latter, from which end?"

Of course that means changing the existing post-combat actions to something more structured and flexible.

Oh, and don't knock the messy looting example above... while I don't plan on doing anything with dog entrails, there might be some things you want to take parts from, and unlike WoW, there won't be any Murlocs running around with no eyeballs, or Zhevras with no hooves. ;p

(No plans at present for a general dissection system, though once we have more complete anatomies added than just musculature, it would be relatively easy to implement. ["Meet Bob. Bob collects hubcaps and kneecaps. Don't ask."])

I'm also working out the details for a shop inside the gym, that will carry supplements, beverages, and the like. (and somebody in there even has a few things that they aren't supposed to sell... some of which aren't entirely safe ;p)

In the new UI branch, locations will contain rooms. For now, in the old branch, I'm reworking many passages/locations to have different sections that will behave as hard-coded rooms, similar to how the gym works. (Yay, this means S-Mart can finally go from taking up 18 passages to just one!)

And, of course, part of the idea is that locations can have different situations/encounters, based on which room/section you are in. (That was why S-Mart was left as separate passages for so long...)

Once I have enough content ready for the Park and shop, I'll send out another public release. And, once I get the sections set up and a few other small tweaks, I'll post a private beta for patrons.

I'm also planning to add/test out some new powers soon, again one themed and tied to each stat, and some new cheats...

NEW POWERS:
* "Time Dilation [SPD]", which enables multi-strike and increased productivity in general
* "Immortality [END]", which greatly improves regeneration and extends the fatal-injury threshold
* "True Sight [WSD]", which improves your ability to see through illusions and find hidden items
* "Olympian Physique [PHY]", which greatly improves musculature and beauty
* "Amazonian Blood [STR]", which greatly improves athletic and combat ability
* "Genius [INS]", which improves creativity and insights into how the universe works

In addition to the 6 basic stats, I'm also thinking about adding light and dark themed powers (using the light or dark stats, respectively)... but I haven't decided on them yet. And, there's one more non-stat-based power in the works, but it requires some additional traits and metrics be implemented first. (hint: the first word is "Hyper", and the metrics it affects will be given the formula: (base+x)*1.10^x; thus increasing said metric by a compounded 10% per power level, roughly doubling every 7 levels. Depending on the character and content settings, they might also use the revised formula: (base+3x)*1.16^x -- in particular referring to  the FiAB rule, but also applying to BE, and likely will provide the basis for similar metric-scaling powers in the future.)

As to power levels, remember the intended power limits are equal to your current Caliber, which is the triangular-root, or as I like to call it, "unstack", of your level. The higher your level/caliber, the greater your powers can become. Also, remember that your existing power-levels get stronger with you, so a level 1 power at caliber 6 (stat-level/base 21) is stronger than it was at caliber 5 (base 15), even though it's still at power-level 1.

 

NEW CHEATS:
* God Mode is becoming Valkyrie Mode and will now include physical perfection [no damage/fatigue to body], in addition to limitless qi/life-energy/stamina.
* Amazon Mode will increase the Amazon Index by tenfold and have a few other, as yet undefined, effects
* Goddess Mode will make you "all-powerful", as in having/unlocking/maxing-out all powers in the game. (later it will include the ability to freely edit/set ones individual powers - once the power-leveling system is in place)

(sorry for the delay in updates, I've been offline again for almost a week due to router/firmware issues and my ISP's failing microwave tower.)