UI Updates and upcoming changes...
Hi friends, fans & family! Long time no see. Life keeps getting in the way so the pace of my updates is a bit slow (to say the least) but rest assured I'm still working on the game!
I don't have a substantial amount of stuff to show actually but I've updated the store page with some new screenshot so make sure to take a look and tell me what you think! The skill trees, inventory screens and load out screens have all gotten a face lift and I've added icons to show the effects of items as well as short biography "blurbs" for the heroes.
Bugs, Secondary objectives and mission design
Most of my work recently has been about killing bugs and making things look better. I've fixed most of the problems with the missions. There are now five types of missions:
- Defend a character
- Escort a character
- Rescue several characters
- Defeat all enemies
- Kill a specific enemy
My goal is to have variation within these types (unique units/scenarios etc) and to add secondary objectives which will be my next task. The secondary objectives will probably be quite "gamey", things like "Get 3 kills with character x" or "Finish mission without anyone dying" etc but they will help to give more variation.
Stamina/energy instead of cooldowns
The other thing I'm toying with is using Stamina instead of cooldowns. Stamina gives me much more freedom since I can add lots of mechanics that affect it while cooldowns are more rigid in that sense. It also gives the player a bit more to think about and adds a bit of complexity (although not too much) which I think is fitting.
Enemy telegraphing might return?
I miss enemy telegraphing and one of the major problems I had with it (apart from it being complicated to code) was that it wasn't easy for the player to predict how the AI would behave but I think I have a solution for that. I'm thinking that different units will have different ways of prioritising their targets. Here are some examples:
- Attack lowest HP
- Attack closest
- Attack strongest
- Attack NPCs first
All this would ofc would be upfront information but I think now that my AI is more predictable the telegraphing would work much better and could help to distinguish the game more in this VERY crowded market :P. But most importantly I like the mechanic and I think it will make the game better!
Until next time! // Luis