FreeHolder Alpha 7
6.21.2017
Battle System Upgraded
It took some time, but I'm pleased to say that the battle system upgrades that included a number of cleaned-up or fixed systems has finally been implemented. These include, among other things, a newer clearer GUI that serves as an interactive menu, the ability to create, save, and load battle gear profiles for easy equipping of different custom sets, vast recoding of massive amounts of old and not so efficient parts of the battle system, and the introduction of use items such as healing potions and throwable fire bombs.
Of particular note is that now quivers and throwing weapons will not have to be dealt with outside of battle. In battle, you can simply choose to take as large a stack as possible of any throwing weapons from your stock, or take a quiver and fill it with the arrows of your choice, and at the end all of these things will be dumped back into your stock again. Fletch away.
Also, equipment and battle gear are two different categories of items. You never equip battle gear outside of combat, and you never equip "equipment" inside combat (with a few necessary exceptions like bows and some accessories). When you create battle gear at your Fabrica, it is simply placed inside your armory, which currently you cannot actually look at outside of combat. This feature will be included in the tool/ledger upgrades I have planned next. I also have to reorganize the Fabrica categories to reflect the actual battle gear types, so I apologize for the lack of clarity. All the gear is available.
More of the changes and upgrades will be listed below. This fancier new system is not without a few remaining glitches that I am continually hunting down, and a few more improvements to be made to the behavior of enemies, but it is my firm hope that it will make combat more fun, accessible, and satisfying. I will be trying to update it a bit more before the weekend. From the 25th up to my birthday the 30th, I am likely to have severely reduced time to work. I am so excited to keep pushing this game ahead to the next stage, so please stand by and thank you for supporting FreeHolder!
P.S. Achievements are coming soon. I don't think it will take that much time to implement but I keep pushing it back. Soon.
Alpha Videos
We are going to revive our necessary but long-dead practice of providing videos for new alpha upgrades outlining the key new features. The video outlining the features of the new battle system will be up as soon as possible. Please provide feedback about anything we can do to improve these if it occurs to you. Thanks!
Upgrades
-Upgraded battle system GUI to interactive equipment display
-Use Items can be used in combat, such as healing, stealth or berserk, or flame cloud attack
-Player can now select which weapon to react with in combat if they have alternates
Development
-Split "equipment" into "equipment" and "battle gear" to clearly differentiate combat items
-Quivers are now loaded only in combat with arrows of choice from stocks
-Throwing weapons are taken and removed from stocks only in combat
-Added Berserk, Exhausted, and Burning status to combat
-Battle gear consists of three (four for promoted warriors) weapons slots and three wearable slots and one use item slot
-Weapons: Main. Alternate. Throwing. (Offhand/Shield for Myrmidons/Gladiators). Alt weapon can be shield. Quiver replaces throwing.
-Wearables: Cloak. Armor. Accessory. Also: Use Item.
Added Features
-Can now create Battle Gear profiles that can be saved and loaded
Bugfixes
-Added revised equipment, XP, and money rewards for faction enemies
-Fixed several battle loading glitches