FreeHolder Alpha 7 Hotfix 12
2.15.2020
Mini Fix
I did not get as much done at the end of the week as I would have liked. My wife is traveling for work and the baby and I are going with her, so I've had a lot of logistical preparation and housework to take care of to get ready. The good news is, that once we get there, I'll have my computer with me and, aside from watching my daughter, I should have a pretty decent amount of time to finish up what I'd hoped to achieve for this weekend, and then some. Expect another update on Wednesday or Thursday of this coming week, containing not only a plethora of battle fixes and tweaks but some tightening up of weather, fatigue and disease mechanics to accompany the clothing reworking. For this fix, I've simply addressed a couple of the most recent bug reports, and fixed that battle status effect thing I talked about two fixes ago. The fix was only temporary and not the more elaborate thing I intended because I've decided to redesign status effects more than I originally thought. This is in the interest of enhanced simplicity and strategy. I will elaborate below in dev notes for those that are interested. I think I will place dev notes at the BOTTOM of updates from now on so bugs will be a little easier to see. I'd love for everyone to read them but it's not necessary. But hey, if you're buying the alpha of a game I assume you might be interested in seeing how the design evolves, and your input is extremely helpful here.
Thanks as always, for your patience.
Note on Level 3 Buildings Such as Advanced Smithy
Any level 3 upgraded buildings most likely DO NOT have enough mechanics implemented to make it worth upgrading to at this point. For the Advanced Smithy, for example, there are a few items but the full range has not been implemented. I apparently did implement iron smelting and mining, but I do not have all of the iron recipes implemented nor the special iron Journeyman Smith recipes for the Warrior. Those are coming up fairly soon, but I don't have an exact idea of when yet. You may wish to avoid messing with level 3 buildings until all the aspects are implemented. I'd like to get it all done at once, but it's time consuming and I sometimes add a partial feature with the intention of finishing it, but then I get distracted by bugfixing. Not a great system, I know. I'll try to avoid that as much as I can in the future.
Bugfixes
Crafting Fixes
-Hide Armor now recognizes hides in inventory and is craftable in crafting ledger
-Advanced smithy now no longer disables previous smithy crafting recipes when built
Save Fixes
-Mines now load correctly when loading saved games
Battle Fixes
-Sling now using stones as default ammo
-Status effect rolls can now no longer cause the game to softlock
Developer Notes
Status Effects
In the past (and right now), all status effects in combat such as piercing, bleeding, would or would not take effect based on a roll. Just because your sword had (Bleed 2) did not mean that you always inflicted bleed with each hit. The same even went for piercing weapons or poisoned weapons.
In retrospect, I believe that this has a negative impact on strategy. FreeHolder battles are designed to be short and intense, and not drawn out, and if you take a weapon with bleed, I want it to be effective every time you land a hit, not just sometimes. Otherwise the inherent unpredictability nullifies some of the strategic value. I think you see what I mean. That piercing weapon should pierce every time it hits, as hitting in itself is hard enough.
Therefore, in the next update, all of the status effects that had to be rolled for will now simply work on hitting. Bleed will add to a bleed counter EVERY time you hit, and the amount of bleed counter will determine how quickly life is lost. You hit more, they bleed more, and they lose life faster. Dazing will lower initiative more and more as you pile it on, and even start costing reaction attacks. Whereas piercing weapons will ALWAYS negate some armor, rending weapons will ALWAYS negate some parry and shield, and the parry stat will ALWAYS add to your parry rolls, although the mechanics for those rolls themselves will change since I think parrying is too easy and unrealistic right now. I tire of bandits parrying axe hits with their daggers. Preposterous. I'll be adding a weight system for weapons to address that. I want battle, unlike the regular game mechanics, to be fairly transparent so you can strategize properly and really feel as if your tactics are having an observable effect on your success in battle. So expect a thorough explanation, and also a battle tutorial in the not terribly distant future.
So rather than reworking status rolls, I'm removing the rolling mechanics in favor of static cumulative effects that build up over time. It adds strategic predictability, something desperately needed in the intentionally difficult combat. That's why I decided not to redo the status rolls, because they're going to be completely obsolete after another update.
Cheers!