Before we begin, a life announcement! I got married two weeks ago! Yes, that has contributed to a little bit of neglect on my part for Rogues of Europa, but I don't regret it.
I started working a bit on some of the new oddjob quests, particularly "seek and destroy" quests. These are, as I have mentioned, the second step up the ladder of quests, adding a bit more functionality in terms of quest givers, different subordinate objectives (in this case, killing a particular monster). I have developed many new item panels to this end, and started with some implementation.
As I was implementing the quests I went on several tangents, but they were useful tangents indeed. For one, I noticed that the features (generally where quests will happen) were far too far apart. My initial solution was to generate more features, but I decided to just add a few more types of feature as well. I added a lava lake feature (called a cauldron because that just sounds way cooler and I needed a one-word name for the feature), as well as a petrified forest (called a petra for similar reasons). I also added a dome feature, which is just a blank space, but still interesting in its own right. None of these were too ground-breaking, and in fact were very quick to implement, but increase the variability of the game significantly.
The cauldron. I may add some animated patches in the future.
The petra.
These new features will fit into my long term plan of something I call the global reset system. Initially this system was to be designed to make sure NPCs are in the right place at the right time, but this system will also put certain low-level drops in different areas. For example, forests will be good places to find food, and a cauldron might be a great place to find throwing rocks. This will allow you to stock up while exploring, which will be great in a pinch if you have a small pack of rat-men in pursuit.
Which brings me to the next feature added: more mobs. Doing a quest shouldn't be a slog, but it shouldn't be a breeze either. A good amount of combat interruptions will keep you on your toes. The group behavior is still a bit primitive, but monsters can still easily surround you and start punching down your health quickly.
They do move in herds!
Getting the movement right was a challenge but I at least stopped it from hanging, crashing, or lagging, which is positive. Tell me if you notice any wild behavior, and I'll try to lock that down.
Mobs also have a few drops now: coins, ammo, and tonics. My initial idea for ammo is to have a "fair" ammo drop, where monsters only drop ammunition you can use. In theory, you can "farm" ammunition of a certain type by dropping your weapons in town and killing monsters, but I have my doubts about how practical this would be (as opposed to just doing things). I will have to play around with balance a bit. Perhaps the derringer, as pathetic as it is, is too overpowered with its two shots, and I'll replace it with the pipe pistol. 20 might be too much ammo now, and I also might need to raise ammo prices. But we will see about that.
Every penny counts.
Finally, I added a fullscreen feature that was requested in the forums. I want the ratios to stay very much the same to maintain the look of a 4:3 monitor/command terminal, so I letterboxed the fullscreen based on the size of the screen it's currently in and the UI scale. Tell me if you have any issues with it, I'm not a big company or anything so I can't test it on a UHD monitor, a tiny laptop, the weird extremely wide curved ones, or the like.
In the coming week, I will probably make a few minor fixes as they crop up and begin more earnest work on the oddjob quests and the global reset system. Remember to email any questions, comments, and prayer requests you have to [email protected], or just leave them in the comments below.
Changes
New cave feature: Cauldron - a lake of lava
New cave feature: Petra - a forest of stone and stalactites
New cave feature: Dome - a broad, empty cavern
Features spawn far more frequently
Added XP rewards for exploration
Mobs spawn far more frequently
Added mob drops - coins, appropriate ammunition, and tonics
Added focused-fullscreen mode
Mobs now spawn in small packs and maintain group cohesion
Added alert when quest added
Balance improvements
Weapon condition reduction reduced significantly
Healing improved significantly
Bugfixes
General bugfixes regarding mob behavior
Fixed some crash conditions
Fixed some issues with crashes in lairs
Known Issues
Mouse travels outside hot area in fullscreen mode
Quest items are too visible when generating in lairs