Hello everyone!
The past two weeks I worked on the taunt ability, which was exciting because it forced me to make a lot of foundational updates to Those Who Rule that will allow for cool game-play patterns down the line. I'lll expand on this later down. Let's first jump right into the taunt ability, which will be the default ability for the Defender class.
As you can see, there are two main things different about this ability.
- It is ranged.
- It is AoE.
This is exciting because I can now more easily introduce ranged weapons (bows) into the game as well as thrown items: knives, hatchets, javelins, smoke bombs, the possibilities are literally endless! Let me know if you have any favorite types of ranged weapons/items so I can start building up a list for potential new effects!
AoE is also great because it adds variety and rewards good positioning. The most simple example being cleave attacks that hit enemies on the 3 tiles in front of your unit, abilities that I think will add a lot of strategic depth and let skilled players squeeze the most out of every unit's turn.
To circle back on the effects of the taunt ability, it will inflict the taunted status effect on all enemies within 2 tiles. It has a chance to hit based on the users vs the enemies mindfulness stat, rather than skill vs agility. The hit chance starts at 100% so enemies without much mindfulness will be very easy to taunt. Every unit hit by taunt will also turn to face the user, which can open them up to flanks and backstabs.
A taunted unit, in their fit of rage, will take the shortest path to the user, meaning it is helpful to avoid getting back-stabbed by enemies as well. Be careful about spamming it though, as it comes with a higher stamina cost!
Would love to hear any thoughts on this. I tried to make the ability a little more visually interesting with a new animation/sound, but it still feels a little underwhelming to me personally.
As always, I hope you're all having a great weekend and I appreciate you taking the time to read this!