Goals for 2023. Story Mode Revamped

13 Jan 2023Developer post

Source: Steam Community (opens in a new tab)

Despite the less frequent content updates, significant progress is being made on the new and completely redone Story Mode
- There will be less of a focus on generic missions and more of a focus on a linear set of story-mode battles.
  - Currently, there doesn't feel like there is an objective to train or get stronger. I want the player try the next mission, fail, take on a generic mission or two, and then succeed.
- There will a greater focus on variety. I want each mission to feel different. I will achieve this a few different ways:
- - Enemy or Allied bosses with unique abilities: ones that target all enemies, that target multiple areas, or do other powerful things.
  - There will be more variety in objectives. Defending certain characters, reaching destinations, surviving.
  - In-battle bonuses. Some missions allow your character to gain stats and heal by taking out certain enemies. Additionally, pickups have been added: some missions will allow you to walk over a pickup and immediately gain a bonus, cast a spell, or summon a unit.
  - Having interesting allied units
- There will be less units on the screen at once. Battles will be closer to 6v6 than 7v7 or 8v8.
  - Oftentimes the battles seem too cluttered
  - I want many missions to have AI-controlled allies, but the battles felt like there were too many units on-screen already
- Reinforcements
  - Many missions will have fewer enemies on screen, but enemies will enter battle over time. The same can occur for allied players
    - It is simply more fun for the player's 6 allies to destroy 20 enemies than it is to destroy 6 more powerful enemies
  - Similarly, bosses will have more HP but have less enemies on screen at once (the rest will trickle in)
    - This allows the user to experience the boss more throughout the battle without having him be too powerful or too vulnerable.
  - There will be battles where you selected, say, 7 characters, but only 4 will ever be on-screen at once. The rest will enter the battlefield whenever you lose an ally.
- The Party-Upgrades will only be granted to you in Survival Mode. Epic mode will require the player to unlock the bonuses through completing certain missions (which will be available at any time in its own mission list).
- Other features may be added to the game before I have a chance to finish this story-mode
  - A time travel ability, that rewinds the game, inserts an action, then fast-forwards the game.
  - Limit-Break-like set of abilities for the protagonist, certain enemies, or certain classes.
  - New Tier 2 or Tier 3 classes. I have many ideas.
  - More job-upgrades
- Lastly, I will be continuing to eliminate bugs, improve AI, optimize loading times. All of which have had drastic improvements over the last year.