Greetings! Welcome back to another weekly dev log, let's get into it!
Keeping in line my larger plan to overhaul the game, I decided to spend this week working on an area that should be pretty integral to the game: allies!
The problem that exists for allies is that allies are hard to regularly come by, and they are not incredibly useful while playing. For instance, if you somehow get an ally in the current state of the game they can only follow you around and help in fights. Now, this is not a bad start, but I want them to be capable of a lot more.
What do you have in mind?
For starters, allies should be able to be directed around and told "Stay here." or "Attack this target." to allow the player more freedom in how they play. If you need to stealth around a building, you can't exactly have an ally or two following you around otherwise you would end up setting off all the traps. Allies should be an addition to how player's choose to play, not a hindrance or annoyance that must be kept track of.
Allies should also be capable of using levers and other actions that the player can use. Perhaps you'll use an ally to trigger a trap or flip a lever to unlock a door so that you can steal the item undetected. Perhaps there will be puzzles with multiple activation areas that will require the use of allies to complete. I do not want to force players to use allies; however, I think that there can be some neat ideas to come from considering the use of allies in the game.
There should also be less obstacles to gaining allies. Of course there will be specific classes that have an easier time than others at gaining allies, but I want every class to have the opportunity to gain allies. Some classes will simply use allies as a disposable tool, while others may have their class and play style revolve around keeping allies and buffing them.
As always, there is a lot of work to be done in refining this system and adding to it as well. Feel free to let me know what you think and if you have any ideas of your own!
Until next time,
aGoldenFly