Hey Ponderers!
This is not the patch announcement quite yet, but in the spirit of keeping inline of communication going, I wanted to post where I'm at with this update! As we get closer to the finish line, I thought it would fun to provide a recap and overview of what's to come in v0.6.0!
Progress Report
To give you folks a rough idea, I'm currently about halfway through working on the content for section 5 of 6. The last time I made a dev-update, a month and a half ago, I had just started section 4. So progress steadily coming along. An oversight I made when I made my last post, I thought there would be more up-front development time for this patch than end-development time. That is not true. It's kind of like a V shape. Lots of upfront cost, not a whole lot of middle, but then a lot of end-game content to write and develop. I'm clearly overly optimistic but still super close to done. I mean I've spent a whole year on this thing, soooo relatively... :P
This is also where content development can be easily overwhelming. It's at the point where there is a ton to do and moving forward requires lots of little steps. Introducing one new thing to the player can modify all six sections of the game. This can easily create a crap-ton of burnout for me when I try to rush this process. It's been critical in my development to be diligent and patient with this phase, otherwise progress can just grind to halt.
In the previous two major patches, I've kind of rushed the ritual section in a similar way, which is why it's been the least complete section of the game. (and why the mighty Life Stone has eluded us.) It's way too easy to get antsy to release when you're at the end of a patch and then things gets rushed and burned out. This time around though, I don't want to rush the ritual section, and instead want to give it as much space as the rest of the game, development-wise. Thankfully too, I have a rough idea of the progression path that will be available to the player through that section of the game, and maybe even to the end.
Honestly, this might be far closer to a 1.0 release then I intended.
But for this game to release out of early access, I'll want to get in some major QoLs as well. Things like achievements, some sort of trials, and some sort of NG+. So it'll still probably be a v0.6 release, but I'm feeling like this version mechanics and ideas might be the one that sticks.
So as I approach the end of development for this patch, I wanted to do a recap for those who haven't seen my development logs in the past year and remind for those that have what is to come!
v0.6 -- Scholarism, Druidry, and Weights!
Orb of Creation v0.6 is jam-packed full of new stuff and reworks to old stuff. With almost two completely new sections of content, there are a lot of new mechanics and ideas to explore. And while the game still has the OoC structure and feel, it has been completely renovated, featuring almost a completely new sets of upgrades, spells, and tools at your disposal. Don't get me wrong, you still Gather Knowledge and Attune Orb, but the philosophies behind these gameplay mechanics have been greatly altered and tuned for customizability, longevity and replayability. Here's what I mean:
1) Immense freedom
While OoC has always felt quite open in the player's choices, there were a few sticking points that held back its full potential. One of these was research.
Research has been redesigned to be totally focused on choice. In v0.6.0 instead of development points being automatically generated every second, you gain development points by purchasing attributes. (Attributes being the repeatable upgrades in the game) This means you only get to research something by actually progressing in the game--by generating resources and spending them. Additionally, researches now scale their resource costs together, meaning if you invest a point into one research, ALL researches will have their cost go up. Therefore, as a player, it's a total choice which researches you invest into. You can have 20 points of Expert Wizardry and nothing else, if you'd like.
And these researches matter a lot. Each expert research unlocks an array of spells, tools and attributes to use and purchase, massively improving your abilities in a certain section.
Most importantly though, each expert research unlocks a "Capstone" upgrade: an incredibly powerful research that is only available to those that invest several points into a specific research. For example, beyond 4 base spells slots, the only way to get an additional spell slot in this new patch is by investing into Expert Wizardry, and its subsequent capstone: Casting Mastery. If you don't make those investments, you won't ever have more than 4 spell slots. The beauty of this though, is that every one of the ~12 expert researches has their own capstone which is just as powerful as getting an additional spell slot. So powerful, in fact, that I imagine a lot of you will happily sit on 4 spell slots for your entire play through.
2) The Weight-ocalypse is here
Alchemy's weight system (alchemical bandwidth, mechanical bandwidth, etc.) has been cloned and inserted into almost every other system, with meaningful changes made to each.
For example, when building a spell loadout, your charms and spell-augment glyphs now cost Spell Weight. Want to use Attune Orb? That will cost you 3 weight. Want to add the quick glyph to it? That will cost you another 1. Essentially, the strength of your loadout is now gated by your spell weight capacity, limiting your strength and pushing the system towards this idea that designing your loadout is always a puzzle.
The thing is, your starting Spell Weight capacity is 4, and guess what, one of the few ways to gain more of that capacity is by investing your precious research points in Expert Augments. This is not a choice that not all of you will make, and most of you will probably only invest a few points. But for those that want extremely powerful spell loadouts, oh boy, you can really go far if you want to.
But spells aren't the only thing getting hit by weights. Equipment, Potions, Alchemy, and several other mechanics are all now under this new weight system, leading to an incredibly customized experience for the player. It's an absolute joy deciding which capacities you want to increase, and then experimenting within them.
3) Types, types, types!
v0.6 shifts the focus of spells, upgrades, and tools towards types instead of specifics. For example, right away, you'll see that attributes are focused around upgrading "All Elemental Resources" or "All Magic Resources", and less around upgrading just single things, like Mana or Knowledge.
This may seem small at first, but this approach means that every upgrade, spell, and tool has relevance at all points of the game. Every spell will have some sort of use, and every attribute will be worth leveling. Part of the mastery is then finding a use for the spells and tools in your arsenal. And while this has always been somewhat true, now those uses are going to be far more obvious, and far more juicy-combo-crushing fun.
And so much more...
There is so much more to share about this upcoming patch, from a totally redesigned UI, to the several new mechanics you'll encounter in your play through, but I'll leave that for a future post.
Until then, you all keep pondering
-Marple