Hi all,
I would like to first apologies about the length of time it has taken to get this update out. As you may or may not be aware, I recently had a son which has caused delays in game development as you may expect! I also had to focus quite a bit on the WN Dev Contest earlier this year and been properly planning out my roadmap and design of all game systems.
I made the decision to implement a system I was working on prior to this project, which gives the player the ability to craft their own abilities. I spent quite a lot of time tweaking the system to get it feeling okay and would now want to some feedback, suggestions and critique on it.
Firstly I will cover the ability crafting and cover patch notes in the next section.
Ability crafting
To craft an ability, you must choose 3 components. A weapon, a base skill and a method. You can then use the “power slider” to increase of decrease the strength of the ability which effects the amount of adrenaline required to use it.
Sword and shield
Base skills
Assault – Deal direct damage with your weapon
Haemorrhage – Deal damage with your weapon causing the enemy to bleed
Pierce Armour – Pierce armour reducing their physical resistance
Incapacitate – Rend the enemy causing slow
Shield hit – Deal direct damage with your shield
Shield Knockdown – Deal direct damage with your shield knocking the enemy to the ground
Defence Boost – Bolster your shield defences
Methods
Slam – Slam the ground knocking enemies in an AOE to be knocked off balance
Rapid Strike – Strike the enemy three times in quick succession
Thrust – Powerful thrusting strike
Double slash – Slash the enemy twice
Shield smash – Smash the enemy with your shield
Shield charge – Charge forwards and strike your enemy with your shield
Empowered block – Blocking will not consume stamina
Empowered parry – Executing a parry allows an empowered riposte
Two hand
Base skills
Assault – Deal direct damage with your weapon
Leg Sweep – Knock your enemy to the ground
Shield Breaker – Cause high damage to enemy's shields
Disarm – Disarm your enemy reducing their damage dealt
Methods
Diving attack – Leap forwards striking the enemy with your weapon
Uppercut – Powerful uppercut strike
Whirlwind – Spin and hit all enemies around you
Cleave – Cleave enemies in front of you
Bow
Base Skills
Broadhead Arrow – High damage standard arrow
Poison Arrow – Inflict poison on your enemy
Exploding Arrow – Cause an explosion on impact damaging nearby enemies
Rooting Arrow – Cause slow on your enemy
Methods
Aimed shot – Slow powerful aimed shot
Rapid fire – Rapidly fire three arrows
Quick shot – Swiftly fire one arrow
Split shot – Fire three arrows in a cone
Patch notes
Character Creator 3
I have opted to use Reallusion's CC3 for created NPC models. This steam lines a lot of 3D modelling for characters at a high quality, allowing more flexibility and originality when it comes to character design.
Quests
The previous quest system I created from scratch had quite a lot of bugs, mainly surrounding saving the progression, which caused issues when dieing half way through a quest.
I decided to scrap this system and redesign it taking elements that worked well. Up to now *touch wood* many of the bugs have been fixed.
Save Game
Along with the quest bugs, the inventory also brought a few challenges loading in the player's inventory slots. This has also be re-worked.
Sounds
Awesome new combat sounds have been added to the game that have been made by Cai Jones.
Weapon swaps and Hot bar
The weapon swap cool down has been reduced allowing the player to swap more frequently and utilise their weapon skills more frequently.
Hot bar is set up to allow 3 skills per weapon type. When magic is initiated, these skills will be replaced with magic abilities.
Bug Fixes
Fixed a bug when loot failed to drop or would display loot has dropped with no items to loot
Fixed an issue that caused stuttering during movement
Fixed an issue that caused the stamina bar to stop replenishing
Fixed an issue that caused the adrenaline bar to stop filling
Fixed a bug that caused the UI to remain in certain situations such as during the execution
Fixed an issue that causes AI to attack before their current attack has finished