Hello!
Welcome to the 10th edition of AM Devlog! AM Devlogs are weekly (when we don't patch) updates on the development progress of Adventurer Manager. These Devlogs highlight our philosophy of the importance of development transparency and player feedback.
We are officially on the home stretch to launch! We have one more big surprise feature to bring to you before we transition to full-time polish and bug fixing. That doesn't mean we aren't already polishing the game. Well, let's dive in!
Aging & Retirement
When we introduced an in-game calendar it would seem odd that no Adventurers would age out and die if you played for hundreds of years. With that, we are bringing you Adventurer aging in the next patch! When Adventurers are hired they will have a birth date. Every year that passes they will age by one year starting as an Adult from age 18. As they continue to age they will transition into different age categories. These are Adult, Middle-aged, Senior, and Old. As they age they will receive penalties to their Attributes. Once they reach the Senior level they will have a chance of dying every year that increases with each new year. Once an Adventurer dies, they will be sent to the Graveyard and be unresurrectable. Finally, we have our Permadeath mechanic in place!
Fret not though, there is a way to make sure your Adventurer does not die in vain. Once the Adventurer reaches Middle-aged a new button will be usable from the Character Window called Retire. When you choose to Retire an Adventurer, a pop-up appears that shows your Retiring Adventurer on the left and an Adventurer silhouette on the right. You may click the silhouette on the right to choose any Adventurer to receive a mentoring bonus. When an Adventurer retires they pass on 3 things: Levels, University Points (free points to be spent in the University), and Attribute points. These three transferable bonuses will allow you to jump-start a new Adventurer to continue playing but with the possibility of even more power due to the free Attribute bonuses. Additionally, the amount of transferrable mentoring increases with the Retiring Adventurers Level and Age. So for instance, a level 50 Adventurer that Retires at the minimum Retirement age of 41 will not transfer nearly as many points as one that Retires at level 50 and age 75. This is a risk though, because as I mentioned previously, every year past the Senior level increases the Adventurers chance of Death. So, do you Retire early and take fewer points to safely transfer to a new Adventurer or do you take the risk to try and let them age much higher for increased reward? Once Adventurers are Retired they will remain in the Adventuring list taking up a slot until they die naturally. They will remain unusable though.
Retirement Menu Preview
With this, the purchasable levels from Allegiance that we have maintained throughout Early Access will be removed. Retirement will be the main avenue through which you level-up new Adventurers. We're very excited about this system so please help us test the numbers when it releases!
UI Facelift
The UI is currently undergoing a facelift and we are pleased with the results. For a lot of menus, UI was strictly placeholder until we were able to get to this point in our development cycle. We understood that most menus and buttons were wildly inconsistent with each other and we are rectifying this issue. The initial facelift will hit next patch, but expect ongoing minor changes until launch.
UI Facelift Sample
SFX
We have slated about 150 more SFX to go in soon! Each Class will have a unique SFX for every Skill they cast. Lots of other UI and world sounds will also have a SFX. As we move forward, Monsters will also receive one SFX per when they attack. These will continue to trickle in, so don't be surprised if you don't hear a sound for an attack as it's probably just not implemented yet. In other related news, we are going to move the overworld music to the Game Save Slot menu and add two ambient day/night tracks will be added. We're always excited to add this level of polish to the game and hope you are as well.
We are closer and closer to our launch and will post the exact date sometime in the near future so stay tuned! Thanks once again for continuing to support our little game!
Happy Adventuring
Thomas Spradling
Game Designer & Producer
VA Studios