Devlog #069: Lots of things (Patreon)

So! I've been able to do a lot of stuff this month.

The first thing I worked on was the pre battle screen. A lot of people were confused about how to select a character, so I improved the UI (or rather added one), making it very obvious that you can choose your character. The selected character's equipped spells & relics, heart weapon and remaining lives are now also shown.

I then improved the result screen. When a character levels up, an icon will show up next to their XP gauge. Clicking it will show how the stats have increased. On top of that, I've added the "my turn" mechanic. Once you win a fight, every other character in your party will have a "my turn" icon above their head. Clicking it allows you to redo the fight with another character. You can have up to 4 characters in your party, so this means you can fight the same enemy up to 4 times. the first win grants you 100% of the XP/money, the second one grants you 75% of it on top, the 3rd one 50% and the 4th one 25%. What's really interesting about this though is that if you didn't find the drop you were looking for on the first try, you can try again without having to look for that same monster. Also, each consecutive win gives you +1 drop, so if you can win the fourth fight and reach 100 combos, you can get 5 drops (max nb of drop) without having to get lucky while clearing the grid.
A bit of a long winded explanation, but the point is that it will limit grinding for items.

I've also improved the almanach a little bit, each monster's dropped soul will now show under their drops if you've found it.

The map has been improved as well! It used to be way to small. The rooms are now bigger. I've also improved the current room icon. Instead of being small decoration around the room you're in, it's now a blinking icon, making it much easier to notice. This same icon also displays in the map menu, and disappears if you're looking at a different area's map (obviously). If you're looking at a different floor of a same area however, the icon will blink in the room that corresponds to the room directly above or below the one you're in.

Now, for the fights! There has been several changes. The most obvious one is that I've improved the UI, and it is now easier to see where is what. I think it also looks better overall. The health gauges have also been improved and now look better, and their animation when losing/gaining health is also better. A small new addition on each side of the grid is mini health gauges. They're the same as the big one, but it can be hard to look at a corner of the screen when you're focusing on the grid + shapes. With the minin gauges being closer to the action, it will be easier to check your and your opponent's health.
I've also added a new, much nicer looking end of fight animation, but you'll have to wait for the next demo to see it ^^
The biggest change though, has to do with the damage system. The one you know has damages/heals added in a purple skull which serves as a timer. Once the timer runs out, the skull closes, and the target's health is updated. This is an old, and slightly convoluted system, and my biggest gripe with it something you've no doubt experienced: "Oh, I guess I won"
Winning (and losing) kinda just happened without you realising it, and I didn't like that very much, so I changed it.
Now, damages/heals are still shown in a box and applied after a timer runs out, but instead of being applied all at once, their are gradually applied over time. Taking more damages/heals while they are applied will reset the timer. If you (or your opponent) reach 0 HP, you won't lose immediately. In fact, your HP could even go into the negatives! However, as soon as you reach 0 or less HP, you will enter the Moribund state. If you can take damage in this state, either through an enemy spell or through a shape, you will instantly lose. The same goes for the monster, if they are Moribund and receive a damaging spell, or if you destroy a shape, they will be KOed instantly. Or course, it's always possible to heal out of the Moribund state, so reaching 0 or less HP doesn't necessarily mean death.
I find this to be a much more interesting system, on top of feeling better since you now actually have to inflict the final hit to win.
Now, the old fighting system hasn't actually been removed. You might have noticed these 3 black slots at the bottom of the screen in the pre battle screen; These are for fight effects. Depending on certain conditions (usually the area you're in), there is a chance that some effects will be applied to the fight. If one or more effects happen, these black slots will contain an icon representing it. There will be all kinds of possible effects some positive, some negative. Some will simply affect stats, weaknesses, XP gain and such, and others will have a direct impact on the gameplay. One such effect is Skull mode, which causes the old battle system to happen instead of the new one.

So yeah, that was a lot.

But there is more!

First of all, there is now an option in the settings for fast movement, which reduces the time for walking between rooms by about half.
I then put quite a bit of work into a secret mechanic which I'm very proud of, involving Tril. You'll have to wait for the next demo for that one, but I think it's very worth it. For reference, there is about as much to say about it then there was about the fights. ^^
I also added a follower system. It's not diectly a gameplay mechanic, more of a story related thing. At various points in the story, characters will accompany your party, without being playable. They will follow you in the overworld like normal characters.
I also added an oyon color indicator. During fights, differently colored oyons appear in the grid. These colors are determined by the area you're in. Now, hovering the cursor over the lower part of the map in exploration mode will cause the oyon indicator to show up, displaying which colors of oyons can be encountered in the current area. This color indicator also shows up in the pre battle screen.

Finally, I fixed various smaller bugs and improved some stuff. In the overworld, some objects can be interacted with and will respawn/refill after a certain number of steps. These steps only count when you're walking in dangerous areas, where an enemy encounter can appear. Or at least it was supposed to, walking anywhere in the demo allows these objects to respawn. I've fixed that.
I've improved the save room so it doesn't cause slowdowns anymore.
Some buttons require you to double click, and have a dark purple effect appear in them after the first click. The purple was hard to see, so I made it cyan instead.
Sometimes, when talking to the walking Voleians, the dialogue box would teleport to the other side of the screen once the NPC exited the screen. This has been fixed as well.

And I believe that is pretty much everything. Many of these changes weren't clearly described in the TODO list, and I have a clearer idea of what is left to do, so I've updated it a bit:

 ̶-̶ ̶I̶m̶p̶r̶o̶v̶e̶ ̶n̶o̶r̶m̶a̶l̶ ̶f̶i̶g̶h̶t̶s̶

 ̶-̶ ̶I̶m̶p̶r̶o̶v̶e̶ ̶s̶h̶a̶p̶e̶ ̶f̶i̶g̶h̶t̶s̶

-  ̶I̶m̶p̶l̶e̶m̶e̶n̶t̶ ̶u̶n̶i̶q̶u̶e̶ ̶s̶p̶e̶l̶l̶s̶

-  ̶I̶m̶p̶l̶e̶m̶e̶n̶t̶ ̶e̶q̶u̶i̶p̶a̶b̶l̶e̶ ̶f̶i̶r̶e̶ ̶p̶a̶t̶t̶e̶r̶n̶

-  ̶I̶m̶p̶l̶e̶m̶e̶n̶t̶ ̶p̶a̶r̶t̶y̶ ̶s̶k̶i̶l̶l̶s̶

 ̶-̶ ̶I̶m̶p̶l̶e̶m̶e̶n̶t̶ ̶f̶i̶g̶h̶t̶ ̶e̶f̶f̶e̶c̶t̶s̶

-  ̶I̶m̶p̶l̶e̶m̶e̶n̶t̶ ̶K̶O̶ ̶s̶t̶a̶t̶e̶

 ̶-̶ ̶I̶m̶p̶r̶o̶v̶e̶ ̶r̶e̶s̶u̶l̶t̶ ̶s̶c̶r̶e̶e̶n̶

 ̶-̶ ̶I̶m̶p̶l̶e̶m̶e̶n̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶"̶m̶y̶ ̶t̶u̶r̶n̶"̶ ̶m̶e̶c̶h̶a̶n̶i̶c̶

 ̶-̶ ̶I̶m̶p̶r̶o̶v̶e̶ ̶m̶a̶p̶

- Improve almanach (15%)

 ̶-̶ ̶I̶m̶p̶r̶o̶v̶e̶ ̶e̶x̶p̶l̶o̶r̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶

- Implement gallery

- Implement character intro

- Clean a bunch of code

- Small dialogue related fixes

- Sound options & improvements

- Improve title screen

- Story mode

- Other fixes and improvements

While I've added about as many tasks in the list as I've cleared this month, none of the new ones require even remotely close to the same amount of work as what I did this month, so no worries. They're mostly listed as their own thing so you know what to expect.

The Almanach still needs some improvements, I'd like to add a Shape section, Almanach girl related things, and a bit more.
Character intros are just a quick scene which introduces important characters, a bit like a Smash reveal kind of thing, or Kirby Star Allies boss intros.
Clean a bunch of code is just what it sounds like, a bunch of optimisation that are important but maybe notvery interesting from a player's perspective.
Dialogue related fixes is basically nothing.
Sound options in the settings, to set music and SFX volume. I also need to improve the way the music works a little bit. It's hard to tell currently since the only place where fights happen is the ocean, which has a very ambient track, but the music resets every time a fight ends, and I can't have that.
Title screen improvements are about multiple save files (probably 3), and the ability to delete a save file.
Story modes will be necessary in several instances, and will consist of small scenes that look like the overworld where the characters will speak, interact, etc. Kind of like of some of the dialogue in Disgaea happens in the maps themselves.

That was easily the biggest devlog I wrote. Don't expect another one of this size anytime soon, not because I won't work as much, but because most of what is left to add won't require so much explaining.

Alright, that's it for now!  :D