As I said before, I thought this was going to be a pretty simple update with some cosmetic changes. It ended up completely changing how this game is played and how it will continue to evolve in the future. This was going to be update 1.4 but now it's more like 2.0.
I uploaded a video about the combat revamp here:
For yall who want to read the changes or see what else there is (as there is a lot), then here you go
New Save System
As promised there is now a save system for dungeons. This is useful for fighting bosses as losing to one will spawn you right outside the boss room. Save in this state to take a break if needed without losing progress.
Combat Revamp
I completely redesigned the way that the battle is programmed for the second time to implement many interesting mechanics.
The combat revamp is more meaningful to later floors, but for the demo, there are still a lot of positive changes.
Speed is now back!
This means that a bar does not need to travel from left to right at a fixed speed depending on the bpm. We can have fast or slow bars that are still on the same beat. As I explain in the video, its as if your scroll speed was changing mid-fight in a 4-key rhythm game. I will be incorporating these random fast and slow notes through the whole game starting on floor 2.
Half-Notes
Every enemy starting on floor 3 now has a chance to throw out a half-note. Combined with the speed changes, there are now some very interesting combinations that could be deadly if you get unlucky.
New Warning Indicator
Before, you were warned about a dodge bar coming up by the attack area turning red on the previous beat. The issue is that now there are a ton of mechanics added and many many more coming in the future. I didn't want to represent every new mechanics by a different color. Besides, how would you combine multiple mechanics and still warn the player with all of them at the same time?
My solution was a future-bar. This bar is now above the normal attack line and shows the player everything that will happen in exactly one beat. All you need to do is learn how to memorize one beat into the future while playing and you will know what happens next every time. This is a one-time skill that will be useful for the entirety of the game.
New Hit Indicator
Before, you could tell if you hit the enemy or if you missed by the edge color of the attacking area changing different colors. The new indicator not only shows you just what you hit like a critical, normal, or miss, it also shows you how you did it with the exact timing shown.
Attack Limit
One again, before, you could attack as many times as you wanted as long as the bar was in the light gray area. Now, you can only attack once as indicated by the bar turning green as soon as you attack. This is great for learning the game as attacking twice right before a half-bar would be detrimental as you might not have enough reaction speed to keep up. Plus it overall fits this new gameplay style better.
Improved Note Timing
Another change that comes with the revamp is far more accurate beat timings. I was using a method that was not only inaccurate overall, it got more and more inaccurate the longer you were battling an enemy. I change my "yield return new WaitForSeconds" method into a "AudioSettings.dspTime" method and now it is much better. As far as I can tell, not only is it more accurate, but it stays accurate no matter how long the battle is.
The Future
Outside of the demo, there will be even more combat changes for regular enemies. With an exception of the first boss, every boss' new mechanic will stay in your battles for the rest of the game. The game will evolve and change as you progress keeping it interesting and challenging.
Now for everything else!
Tutorial
General Tutorial Changes
- Updated the tutorial to fit the new combat system in regards tom the future bar indicator
- Changed the tutorial text font and background for better visibility
- The tutorial now works properly if you finish it, quit to the main menu, then do the tutorial again
- There is no longer a white border around the main menu after finishing the tutorial and quitting to the main menu
Dungeon Tutorial
- The monster encounter SFX now plays
Combat Tutorial
- The tutorial no longer counts key presses toward the battle when you are just pressing key to advance the tutorial
- Got rid of a little visual skip that happened while transitioning to the fight
- The dodge button no longer appears stuck after finishing the dodge tutorial
- The tutorial slime can no longer die until you complete the dodge tutorial
Loot Tutorial
- You can no longer delete items in the tutorial to prevent soft-locking, indicated with a negative SFX and the item outline flashing red
- Loot music now properly plays for the amount of time it's supposed to
Stats Tutorial
- The sword you get from the tutorial now fills a collection log slot
- You can no longer just press the stats button to continue, you also need to equip the item; this may have not been the case in a previous patch
- The sword no longer unequips itself after completion of the stats tutorial
- The quit to main menu button is now disabled during the tutorial
Battle
- There are now SFX for when a future bar is warning a half-note's appearance, a SFX for successfully attacking, one for missing, and one for dodging
- It is now common for one of two enemies on each floor above floor 1 to have a faster attack speed
- Dodge bars are now blue instead of red
- The score display is now correct in the tutorial and after the tutorial
- When pressing a key while you should be dodging, you no longer ever take damage a second time when the dodge bar reaches the end (you used to take damage twice if you pressed the correct WASD key on the red bar)
- Refined enemies' animation ques
Boss
- Boss is now actually fightable, my bad if he wasn't in previous updates. I fixed an issue that made him immortal if you fought a normal enemy, then the boss
- Boss IJKL keys are now a different color from WASD to easily distinguish with peripheral vision
- Speed starts at 1.0 and increases by 0.3 after every phase
- Boss loot no longer bugs and stacks items on top of each other
- Made the breaks during a phase change not so quiet and boring
- Loot and dungeon music now play after the boss' death and dungeon music now plays after losing the boss fight
- Bosses now have a different loot music track than normal enemies
- Can no longer press dodge during the boss phase changes
- After you beat the boss, you are no longer soft-locked and the cutscene plays correctly
- Removed any lag on the fourth countdown bar
- Boss' HP bar no longer goes to full for a frame during a phase change
UI
- Updated stats screen to fit more text
- Quit & Save buttons on the dungeon screen are no longer misplaced after the tutorial finishes or you exit a battle
- You can no longer press or highlight buttons of other menus that you aren't on
- Update "done" button and fixed highlighting bugs in the process
- Fixed more bugs with the colors of the 3x3 font buttons
- Changed Q in the 3x3 font
- You can no longer press the quit button during the monster encounter animation
Dungeon
- Decreased enemy generation by %50
- The game now autosaves whenever you regenerate a dungeon including going down stairs
- You can no longer move backwards after entering stairs
Inventory
- Attempted to get rid of any sort of inventory item duplication methods.. hopefully won't be running into any more of those
Items
- Increased bronze platebody powerlevel from 4->5 so that it is not the same as bronze chainmail anymore
SFX
- Loot slide SFX volume was lowered