Hello all!
This devlog is a whole day late, but here we are again!
This time, I promised to talk about the Shroomery, and I will. So, let's just dive in.
The Shroomery
The Shroomery is a building which is unlocked from rescuing its proprietor.
Stephan, as the proprietor is named, is quite handy when it comes to making tonics and decoctions from the myriad mushrooms that have grown since Saren Glass has been resurrected. And, as such, will help his compatriots in anyway that he can - for a small price, of course.
Stephan only accepts vulight pearls for his services, and that's where all these mechanics come together.
Along with unlocking Stephan as a playable character, you unlock the Shroomery, and the bounty board simultaneously - though this may change, especially the bounty board unlock. The bounty board allows you to hunt the vulight cultists, which drop the pearls, which fuel the Shroomery.
Now, why would you want to fuel the Shroomery? Stephan's tonics and decoctions alter the abilities of the imbiber. In practice, this means that you may choose between different variations of the same skill, depending on whatever suits your fancy.
I will go into all of these at a later date when I start going over character spotlights, but I'll give a for-instance with our own Whispering Willow.
Willow's base main attack is a simple arrow shot.
Take the rapid variant, and it becomes three quick shots forward - each dealing less damage, but the average cumulative damage being higher.
Take the spread variant, and you get a fan of arrows that move at different angles.
And finally, take the giant variant, and your arrows grow massive - dealing much more damage per shot, but not travelling nearly as far before falling.
As I mentioned above, each and every skill that each and every character has will be subjected to similar treatment. Currently, only Willow's skills are 100% complete and ready, but all the others are designed and ready for implementation. And, if Willow's Shroomery code was any indication, all the others should follow suit very quickly.
And that, my dear friends, is the Shroomery. I'm quite proud of it, if I do say so myself. I feel that it adds a lot of variety to each character without making them all feel generic. The more I write about this game, the more it excites me to actually have people out there playing it and enjoying it.
Next time, we will be talking about Castle Glass and how difficulty will affect it, since it works in a way that is independent of the level unlock system and wholly dependent on current difficulty.
Until next time,
Thank you for reading,
Lucas