Hey guys,
So things may seem quiet on the forums and last week I missed my weekly update, but things haven't slowed down at all. I mentioned in the "Upcoming Builds" thread that Build 5 was delayed and so I'll elaborate a bit more on that in this post.
Basically Unity, the engine I am developing on has 3 tiers a developer can develop on, "Personal", "Plus" and "Pro". If you subscribe to "Pro" along with all the added benefits, after your 2 year commitment, you can elect a version of Unity released within your subscription period and that version you own, does not require further subscriptions, you also still retain your unlimited revenue cap. "Personal" and "Plus" still have revenue caps. There was a few other issues that made me hesitant to develop on the free version temporarily when my subscribed version expired and that was basically compatibility issues going forward when my license was sorted out and I make the switch back. So basically I lost a few days as I waited to get confirmation on the differences between the versions.
Until this gets sorted, I can't export any new builds to upload, however development will continue as usual. If my update schedule was more sporadic then this wouldn't really even be an issue but I prefer weekly builds. I am already in contact with a representative and hopefully it'll be sorted out in a week or two at the latest.
For the actual details on Build 5, you can visit the thread but I'll summarize the major points so far.
1. Basic perks that improve abilities for all melee weapons have been implemented. It is a series of perks that are available for all melee abilities.
2. A series of perks that increase the chance of you gaining +1 in a specific primary stat by +20%, +40%, +60%, +80%, +100%. You no longer gain any stat gains in stats that your background is not proficient in. In Veteran and Monarch difficulties you gain +1 in proficient stats, in easier difficulties you gain +2.
3. Similar to #2, a series of perks that increase a primary stat in increments of +5 up to +25. These two "perk type effects" will give the player more direct control over their stat progression.
Including abilities, Build 5 will have 275 individual "perks", at least so far at this time of writing. That seems like a lot, but this is where I'll clarify things. These perks are derived from "perk type effects" that I have internally identified. I didn't intentionally try to bloat the numbers either, I just made it this way because I wanted more specialization. IE instead of one perk that decreases AP cost across all abilities of a specific weapon type, I made 5 perks that decreased AP cost for each ability. Not all perks will have several variations of it either, some perks will just be standalone effects. All in all though, it would have been easier for me to just implement one perk that decreased the AP cost of all weapon type abilities, but I wasn't satisfied with it. This was extremely time consuming as everything I had to do, I had to do 4 times over again. That said, I think it was worth it.
All the perks so far can be sorted into these perk type effects:
1. A perk that increases the chance of gaining +1 in a primary stat.
2. A perk that increases a primary stat by X.
3. A perk that decreases the AP cost of a melee ability.
4. A perk that decreases the Use Cost of a melee ability, IE Stamina.
5. A perk that decreases the cooldown period of a melee ability.
6. A perk that increases the ability range of a ranged ability.
7. A perk that increases the Use Count of a ranged ability, IE x1, x5.
However, the biggest thing I am working on is "weapons switching". This by itself is a huge feature and one that I honestly didn't think would even make it in. It affects a lot of systems but so far, the results are good.
Essentially each warrior has slots for a primary weapon + shield then a secondary weapon + shield, 4 slots in total. Bigger weapons would occupy two slots, so you could go into battle with a greatsword and a greataxe, or longbow and a sword + shield. This then of course opens a whole new world of opportunities for combining abilities within a single warrior. The switching itself will be done with an active ability, so again the player makes a conscious decision to create a hybrid build at the expense of perk points, ability slots and specialization of a specific weapon type.
I haven't done much testing of the abilities themselves because as you know I'm just one developer. However, I am very excited to get this into your hands. That said, Build 5 will still only be uploaded to the "experimental branch" rather than the main live build branch.
On top of all of that, I want to start working on the world map by the start of next month. So the rest of this month will be dedicated to the perks system, it doesn't mean it is finished though, but there should be enough to experiment on and to gather feedback on. With the implementation of weapon switching, it opens up more incentives to mix things up as prior to this, you had limited decisions to make when spending perk points.
So if all goes well, by September I will start to focus on the world map, but I will still be paying attention to your feedback on the perks system. Going forward then, I will alternate between both the perks system and the world map.
That's about it for now. As always, thanks again for all the support from the community. It is nice to see that the community is still growing and thanks again to those that have left reviews!
Cheers,
Kevin.