Heyo,
After processing the feedback we received during December's playtest and celebrating the holidays, level generation is finally here!
In previous versions, levels were picked from a (very) limited selection of static, hand-made levels where content like (player / enemy) spawn points, obstacles and mission-critical units would always appear in the same configuration.
Now, with this new system, that content will instead be procedurally populated based on layout templates. These layout templates are still hand-made for the time being, but they only serve to define an empty battlefield and environment. All of the content within that battlefield will be procedurally placed based on mission parameters.
We also made a couple of changes to our enemy systems to fix some jank and minimize 'unfair' situations:
- Enemy spawners now operate on a token-basis, where enemies require more tokens to spawn the more powerful they are.
- Enemy spawn points are now chosen based on a new rating system, rather than being (mostly) random.
- Enemies will now take a penalty to initiative if they spawn within attack range of any hero.
- Reworked enemy brains to be more robust in 'less than ideal' situations (mainly fixing the issue where they would sometimes just stand still and do nothing).
- Most enemies can now use the Dash action.
We'll continue to rebalance and improve these systems as development continues, so make sure to keep reporting any issues you might still encounter.
Oh, and some more 'minor' stuff:
- Cauterize is no longer considered an attack (which could cause things like 'flame blade' to add damage to the action's output)
- Added a specific tutorial popup to explain that any damage dealt to a cage will be transfered to the prisoner inside.
- Fixed some missing LODs
Happy new year!
- Jimbo