NPC SIM DEV LOG#1(Lexi) (Patreon)

Lexi is a goblin who likes her money!, as much as she likes cute things. 

So much that she is always trying to act this way too, but don't have her adorable side blind you, she is a incredible powerful mage with the highest intelligence on the party, that is, if she isn't trying to deny the game's common sense or is trying to understand silly things on her on way.

in other details lets talk about what we have planned for the game itself, in his own creator's words!

Core mechanic/Gameplay loop:

You forage for food, you use the food to feed your 6 adventurers. The gameplay loop is largely similar to NPC simulator, with adjustments to common complaints and issues. The following are the common issues found as well as other team-discussed issues and how said issues are addressed in this game. All solutions have been implemented and are complete unless stated otherwise.

1. Grind while foraging:

a. Each foraging day now has a unique map. You will not forage in the same map twice.

b. You will now take 2 adventurers of your choice (also refered to as foragers) with you each day you forage. Each forager pair has unique dialogue and interactions with each other and with the player character. These interactions are triggered with specific events. Some interactions only trigger when a specific forager is present and when a specific forager is present and a specific action was taken by the player concerning said forager. This, while not immediately addressing the issue of the grind, should help to make the grind more rewarding.

c. Changing to the context for foraging each day. The context for Foraging on day 1 is different from the context of foraging on day 2. Foraging on Day 3 and Day 4, while largely similar, are different from the other days, and have certain interactions that serve to foreshadow the main story plot. By varying the context for foraging, it gives each day a different feel  from the others, thus breaking the monotony of ‘find food, press enter.’

2. Confusing and Grindy Feeding mechanics:

a. There is now only a single type of food to gather and feed to adventurers: rations. This allows for simpler inventory management. Also allowed for the elimination of the superfluous and random mechanic of adventurer cravings and preferences.

b. Feeding an adventurer one time now advances their ‘fullness’ stage. At higher weight levels, the amount of rations to feed an adventurer increases, but each feeding will still advance the adventurer’s ‘fullness’ stage. This will reduce the number of interactions to feed an adventurer to ‘immobility’ without making the feeding feel too quick to enjoy(see point on immobility for more on the changes to the old immobility status)

c. There is now a cap on how much you can feed an adventurer. After enough feedings, the adventurer will no longer consume more rations. This cap will help the player to save time, as well as provide feedback as to when extra rations will no longer have any more affect. *This solution is now implemented, but still needs text and scripting.

d. Feed option is now option 1. So if a player does not care to see dialogue or has already seen said dialogue, they can quickly feed an adventurer to the desired level of ‘fullness’.

e. A day and night camp, to allow some flexibility in feeding your adventurers

3. Questing:

a. Each questing day now has a unique map for the player to roam, as well as interactable events dotted throughout. This will give each day a unique feel and reduce ‘text wall fatigue’ 

b. Each questing day also provides chances for a player to find extra rations and some gifts.

c. Other smaller tweaks to streamline and improve the questing mechanic.

4. Immobility:

a. If an adventurer is fed to the final stage of stuffed, instead of preventing the party from moving forward, the adventurer will instead follow behind the party and will be less useful to everyone else. This is to prevent a player from locking themselves into a single day by feeding a single adventurer to their max fullness. The adventurer is interactable while questing in this state and each over stuffed adventurer has special lines of dialogue when the adventurer is fed to maximum fullness.

5. New mechanics:

a. Gifting?:  While out foraging or questing, the player will encounter certain objects that they can give to any adventurer they wish. These gifts will unlock certain scenes in the epilogue of the chapter.

b. Fondness/relationship building: Fondness is built up by taking an adventurer foraging. Certain interactions with an adventurer are only triggered when an adventurer has built up enough fondness with said adventurer. 

 All this new mechanics and more details coming up next week!