Overview
Did lots of demo content and rebalancing, with new zone objects, zones, a new hacking skill, rewards from unlocking views, and more. I'm very happy with the progress; I can see daylight on completing the demo, and I'm looking forward to building more scenarios afterwards. :)
Demo Additions and Changes
- Fleshed out the Administrative Office area (which effectively doubled the demo's size in zones).
- Reworked the refinery, rails, and pits area layout.
- Split existing areas, for more refined default environments.
- Since level matters more now, most monsters start at level one.
- Added more views.
- Added locked doors and computer terminals that leverage the new hacking skill.
- Added new objects like server racks, office chairs, garbage cans, wrecked cars, safety posters (you get lore exp for studying them), trash compactors, shredders, and more.
Zone Additions and Changes
- The cost of terrain movement and exploration is now reduced by terrain skill. The terrain difficulty sets the cost.
- Switched heaps of ore to heaps of rubble, and adjusted stats.
- Rebalanced stats for zone object material classes to be every X level (where appropriate).
- Added enchanted blast doors that resist magical as well as phsyical attacks. Must be hacked to be unlocked.
- Unlocking views can now add shop listings as rewards. So, a scenic vista might unlock lore experience for a terrain skill.
Spatial Base Additions and Changes
- The base now spends resources on projects before credits. Projects purchased for credits are no longer instantly completed; they must still be advanced by civilians.
- Teleporting home now preempts and prevents any incoming attacks.
- Teleporting home now clears all damage over time conditions.
- Room construction cost is now balanced to every X level (no up front spike and incremental increase).
Ability Mechanics Additions and Changes
- Hit mechanics now scale damage. Failing an accuracy check means doing half damage and no pierce. A normal hit does full damage and pierce, while a critical hit does double damage, pierce, and steal.
- Heals can now be set to “full heal”. In this case, heal power simply determines whether or not the heal occurs, and then the target stat is healed for its full value. Note that this can still result in less than 100% heal if the healed stat also gets its max buffed the same turn (since that’s procced after heals).
- Food and drink options in the cafeteria now do full heals.
- Persistent conditions now gain max stacks and stack accrual at the same rate.
- Added plasma and laser tech ability power classes. Plasma uses fire pierce and steal, and lasers use light pierce and steal.
- Added unarmed power class (for pugilist abilities, not natural weapons). Adds agility to power, constitution to pierce, and intelligence to accuracy. Lowers base damage; relies mainly on innate attributes for power.
- Did more ability stat balancing, to be per level, as opposed to a static up-front amount with incremental gains. So most level 2 abilities will be twice as powerful as their level 1 versions.
- Balanced damage and heal condition stats the same way.
- The Chilled condition now reduces stamina regen instead of depleting stamina over time. (Negative regen does not proc.)
- Rebalanced the Cold, Windy, and Dusty environments. They now increase the appropriate ambient mana and reduce resists.
- Added the Warm environment, which increases Fire ambience and reduces Fire resists.
Stat Additions and Changes
- Balanced mana investiture to only provide bonuses every ten levels, to reward path mana specialization.
- Affinity now increases the appropriate terrain skill.
- Added hacking skill. The profession uses power as the resource, and intelligence as speed.
Path Additions and Changes
- Rebalanced paths and users such that users will get most of their stats from paths. Path levels, for instance, now provide hit points and stamina per level, and some paths provide more than others (civilian paths tend to provide fewer stats, since they’re specialized to a single skill and attribute).
- The Wanderer path now has a stealth ability.
Character Additions and Changes
- NPCs now get max mana stats created based on their starting paths. (They also get experience for using the mana.)
- NPCs now get one proficiency point per level for all unlocked proficiencies.
- Added a fatigue system for civilians. Working accrues fatigue to a max, at which point they need to reduce fatigue by doing other activities before going back to work.
- Combat NPCs accrue fatigue every turn they spend in the wilds (with a spike for a respawn). Fatigue reduces over time at the base, and they won’t leave base for the wilds unless it’s back to zero.
- Power protection is now vital protection, which prevents any loss of hit points, stamina, calories, or power on respawn. If not protected, stamina and power are added to kill value.
- Total power of buffs at time of respawn is also added to kill value if not protected.
Item Additions and Changes
- Rebalanced item stats around the per level paradigm.
- Repurposed basic goggles to heavy goggles, and balanced non-enchanted shields to be better at physical defense than enchanted (enchanted are more about magic defense).
- Split resist and attribute accessory research among the three primary magic research rooms (elemental, primordial, and orthogonal).
- Crafting items now uses more resources such plastics and alloys.
Interface Additions and Changes
- Added generic info modal dialog links to possible actions and action results.
- Added generic info modal dialog links to the world interface (pane headers and top labels).
- Conditions now log on add and remove and on resist add or remove, with colors indicating good or bad results relative to the player. (If an enemy resists a debuff, that’s bad, but if an ally resists a debuff, that’s good.)
- Damage and heal over time conditions now log effects each turn.
- NPC actions should now always be spotted by the player.
- You now get a hostile spotted alert log entry, at the top of the zone log, for all new monsters and growths spotted, either from movement or spawning. The monster’s zone is included in the log entry.
- The possible action dialog now shows cost, skill, and speed for profession actions (such as research or cooking). Most zone profession stats are no longer shown in the main interface.
- Added item and equipment modal info dialogs to the shop.