Hi everyone,
Last week we talked about replayability of Terra Randoma. One of the most important factors that ensure replayability is the overworld, so this week we’d like to elaborate more on that.
Travelling in Terra Randoma is fun! There is a chance of an adventure with every step you take. You need to plan your route carefully. If you want to travel safely, you can. In order for you to determine that, we have the danger levels shown with exclamation marks at the top of the screen. There are ten red exclamation marks which indicate the danger level of the tile you are on. So if you are on a plain tile in the middle of the day, the danger level is one. It increases as night starts to fall. If you are on a mountain area after midnight, danger level becomes nine.
There are four types of tiles on the overworld: plain, forest, mountain and water tiles. The plain tiles are less dangerous than forest tiles, which are less dangerous than mountain tiles. The water tiles are neutral right now, but we will add pirates and aquatic monsters.
When you are near a water tile and you move to water, your character hops on a boat and you start to control the boat. That is of course if you have at least 10 coins in your pocket. Then every hour you are travelling, you pay 10 coins to the boat owner. That means with every step you take on the water tile, your coins automatically drop by 10. So what happens if you run out of coins in the middle of the sea? With every tile you go without paying, your reputation in all towns drops. If you have negative reputation you will be unable to enter that town.
There is also a day and night cycle. It is safer at day time than at night. So if you want trouble, you travel at night and face the consequences. If you want a peaceful journey back home, however, then you’d be wise to travel at day time through the plain tiles.
The chances of a friendly encounter, for example, with a travelling merchant, or discovery of a hidden treasure, are slim on more dangerous tiles. Likewise, the chances of a hostile encounter, like a bandit ambush or beast attack, are slim on safer tiles.
We have many different incidents and we will add many more. This is one side of the game immensely open for continuous development. We aim to ensure that travelling is always interesting and a unique experience every time you play.
There are alternative ways to deal with a hostile encounter other than fighting. Through making a skill check, you can turn an ambush to your advantage by intimidating the bandits, or pickpocketing them and pay the ransom with their own coins. If you however decide to fight, you will emerge into a procedurally generated battlefield screen.
Another issue about planning your route is hunger. Every step you take on the overworld takes an hour on the plain tiles, two hours on the forest tiles, and three hours on the mountain tiles. We are adding rain to the game and it will further affect the travelling times. If your Survival Skill is high, you will be able to travel faster. In any case, you may run out of food while you travel, so you may want to camp to do some foraging and hunting (Interested? Just scroll down to read the article about camping for further details).