A Customizable Battle Bar
Amongst other things, I've been hard at work on the talent trees, and by extension the skill trees! Now, for those who aren't sure what the difference is, talents are gained when you level up but skills are learned and purchased from (for the most part) shopkeepers. You may encounter some unique skills on your journeys across Brandor too. Talents are passive ( meaning you don't need to select them to take effect, things like +20% chance to hit with swords and so on) ... but skills are active, special attacks like fireball.
Since these skills must be selected in battle, I've been designing a system where you can customise your own 'battle bar' with the skills you want to take into battle. Why can't you take them all in, you ask? Well, in the beginning you will be able to, as you learn skills they will automatically be assigned one of 11 slots on the battle bar, but as you gain more skills, they won't all fit.
In this situation, it will become a strategic decision for the player, which skills will you take into battle? (This has a precedent with S&S III's battle bar, which I found pretty interesting).
There will most certainly come a time when you have more than 11 skills you want to use in battle. I'm going to make it so multiple battle bars can be selected ( for a cost, the Tavern Keeper will sell you new 'battle bar slots' , so you can switch between battle bar I and II, for instance ( up to 3).
Guitars Return To Swords and Sandals
Oh yeah, guitars are also coming to S&S Immortals as part of the Theatrics tree! These were a fan favourite from S&S 3, so they're back. I've got one guitar in the game so far, the Stratoblaster, which you can see in the image above. Guitars will have their own special skills, stuff like 'power chord' that does damange, 'strum' that saps essence and so on.
They are technically melee weapons but they only do a fraction of the damage of a regular melee weapon - meaning you can use them to smash your foe over the head but it's not that effective :D.... I toyed with the idea of making them shatter on impact ( and still might ) but left it for now.
Until next week, I salute you guys!
Oliver Joyce
Whiskeybarrel Studios