Ability Toggles
I added abilities that once enabled, re-run automatically per turn, re-applying cost checks and any effects. The player can disable them at any time, canceling the costs and effects.
Costs can include ambient mana levels, so you might have an ability that will run as long as there’s 5 ambient fire mana. Or, it might be based on stored mana, or stamina, or ammo, or something else. If any requirements are not met, the ability auto-cancels.
If a toggled ability is from equipment, the ability will cancel if the item is unequipped.
These abilities require either self or area targeting. I intend to allow damaging auras to be toggled this way, but it can also include health regen, stat buffs, etc.
Power System
Characters can now have a power bar, like stamina or health, to run mundane equipment like force field generators or energy weapons.
Power is currently rechargeable at the base core (free but slow) or with consumables like batteries. Power is also zeroed at death if the user hasn't purchased death protection.
Force Field
I reworked the force field mechanic to exploit ability toggles and power to continually apply a force field buff to the player, as long as the player can afford the power cost. This buff currently increases a defense rating.
I’d like to have multiple items that provide different kinds of powered fields, to, say, increase physical resists, or elemental resists, or primordial resists, or evasion, or health regen, and so forth.
I also want to have fields that use ambient mana, not power (or perhaps both, for more powerful fields).
Max Shop Purchases
Max purchases allowed of paths, abilities, perks, and stat exp in the shop is no longer defined directly by base level. It can be changed by base levels, but also by completed research, or lore discoveries in the world.
So, for example, an earth magic research might add more max path levels for “path of earth magic”. Or, you might uncover hidden lore in a locked room somewhere, that adds a few levels of rare paths or abilities to the shop. :)
Lore and Research
Lore objects can now unlock new research, or add progress to existing research. So, say, studying a strange object in the wilds might boost energy weapons research. :)
Notes on research:
- Excess progress is now applied to next level (allowing multiple research levels at once, if there’s enough).
- Research no longer applies to room max level. I decided that requiring research and upgrade costs to level a room was a double-bottleneck, that would be more frustrating than fun.
- Research length now increases with level. I’d like to adjust this to be modifiable by more than level.
- Research priorities are color-coded to show what is currently researchable (based on lab level). I’m considering, however, whether lab level should just be a research speed boost, and not a gate.
NPCs, Traits, and Behaviors
I’ve decided that NPC behaviors will be customized to their classes. So, a Fire Engineer will always make the same decisions as other Fire Engineers, though they will diverge from Water Engineers.
In short, I want an experienced player to see the character class name and have a good idea of its behaviors without having to click through dialogs to see a trait-set.
It’s still possible for NPCs to change what decisions they can make as they level (so a Fire Engineer that had more access to dark mana than fire mana might have different ability unlocks than one with access to more fire mana).
Demo Scenario
The setting for the main campaign is a world once dominated by a magitech civilization codenamed Dystopia, but destroyed by monsters. The demo starts in a post-apocalyptic Dystopian mining complex in a low-magic sector far in the north of the world.
The complex currently has three major areas: the Pits, a massive, strip-mined, artificial crater with a frozen lake at the bottom; the Refinery, a megastructure where metal was smelted out of ore; and the Rails, which connected the two and now hosts decaying mining machinery and wrecked trains.
I intend the Pits to have a Slime rift, while the Refinery will have a Rat rift. They’ll be fighting each other for territory, mostly in the Rails. The System scavenger base will also connect to the Rails. The objectives will be something like scavenge X resources, get the base to Y level, and close one of the rifts (we’ll see).
Right now, I have about twenty zones I’m building to fill out those areas. I’d like a hidden zone or two, with a nice reward in them, visible obstacles you can either destroy or go around, as well as zones where you might want to clear out some debris to lower terrain difficulty, so you can search the zone better.
More:
- I added logical areas that are collections of zones, simply for text and descriptions.
- Moving to a new zone displays a short description in the player log.
- Moving to a new zone will auto-select a target other than the opening the player just used (if possible).
