Hey everyone! We hope you're enjoying the Steam Summer Festival and our demo! If you haven't yet, be sure to try it out before the event ends on June 22! And if you like what you see, don't forget to wishlist and follow us here on Steam :)
From now until release, we're going to periodically be posting devlogs that focus on a specific feature in the game, giving you more details about how it works. Today we'll be covering our 'Exploration Mode', which is the view you are taken to when you enter a mission/dungeon from the Overworld map. Each mission environment has its own exploration tileset, and you will see a different tiles depending on the mission you are doing, whether it's a sewer, castle, forest, swamp, or in the case of the demo, a cave.
Exploration
To navigate within a dungeon, you simply click on an adjacent tile to move your party. Moving will cost you Time, which can have consequences down the road (we'll get to that below). From your current position, you are able to see the existence of any adjacent tiles, but you are not able to discern whether or not they contain any events. Moving blindly can sometimes pose risks such as triggering a trap, or giving an enemy the chance to ambush you. These risks can be mitigated by spending additional time to Scout ahead to reveal any events that may exist.
Time & Modifiers
Nearly everything you do within a dungeon will cost you Time. This includes moving, scouting, interacting with events, and every round that passes during combat. There are a number of time thresholds depending on the size of the dungeon, and hitting one of these thresholds will trigger a Time Modifier. A Time Modifier is usually a negative effect, though sometimes something beneficial may occur. There are over 30 modifiers that can be applied, some examples include:
- Enemies calling in reinforcements, increasing the number of enemies in future combat encounters
- Increased chance of being ambushed by enemies who are now well aware of your presence
- Your party can become hungry and request that you camp. Ignoring these requests can put a strain on your relationship and trigger Loyalty loss
- Your party can become careless and misplace supplies, causing you to lose a few provisions (such as bandages and potions. Gear and other important items are exempt from this, so newly found armor will be safe!)
- Your party can gain a "second wind", restoring some of their ability stamina.
Time is an important strategic consideration, and spending too much time in a dungeon can make things increasingly difficult on you. Once you max out the time meter, your party will become disgruntled, weary and insistent on wrapping up the mission. You can still continue beyond this point, but eventually their Spirit and Loyalty to the company will begin to wane. With all of this to consider, it's important to be efficient on your missions and ensure you don't waste too much time backtracking, or becoming complacent in combat by letting too many rounds pass.
Camping
While Time Modifiers can make things more difficult on you, Camping is one way to combat their effects. You can choose to camp on any empty tile, though some locations will be safer than others. Like other actions, Camping costs time, but that time can be spent on various bonuses that can be applied to your party going forward. We don't want to get too far into the topic of camping right now as it's fairly involved and we think it warrants its own spotlight.
Exploration Events
On any given tile in a dungeon, there are a number of events that can potentially spawn on it. Interacting with most events will cost you time, though you will often have multiple choices of varying costs and risks. It is up to you to assess the situation and make the best strategic decision! Examples of events are:
- Combat: Obviously this will be the most common! If you scout an enemy location, you can spend time to set up on ambush on them
- Secrets: Secrets can be anything from hidden rooms with unique text scenarios, hidden caches of treasure, short puzzles or other findings that can lead to an entirely new mission to tackle at a later date. Without enough Perception however, you may not notice their existence.
- Lootables: Various sources of loot such as satchels, chests and corpses. These may sometimes be locked and require a Dexterity check in order to successfully open. Of course, you can brute force your way in with strength, but it may damage the contents. There are risks as well: disturbing the dead may not be the smartest idea, and that shiny chest may just be bait planted by some would-be ambushers hiding in the shadows.
- Traps & Hazards: These events can sometimes cause damage to the party, depending on which actions you choose and whether or not you scouted it ahead of time. Perception plays a role in this, and a high enough perception will give you notice and a chance to disarm the trap(with enough dexterity) at the cost of time.
- Other Scripted Events: There are a number of other scenarios that can occur that may not necessarily be tied to the current mission you are on. This can range from finding a traveling merchant, encountering an adventurer who offers to tag along, a bounty hunter coming after one of your members, or finding a lost child. It will be up to you to decide what to do, but your party will have their own opinions on what is right.
- Blocked and Locked Passages: Some paths between tiles can be locked by doors, or blocked for other reasons such as a cave-in or a magical barrier. In order to proceed you will need to spend time to deal with the issue.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svibuVyhCDY
That about covers everything regarding exploration, minus the specifics of camping which we'll discuss in a future update! There's still more polish that we'll be adding to exploration (such as artwork to go along with the various events) in an effort to make it as immersive as we can. Another thing we'd like to point out to those who have played the demo (or will soon), is that the demo's dungeon is fairly linear and short (since it was taken to PAX it needed to be <30 min). In the average dungeon, you can expect more events and alternative paths which will make scouting more of an important factor.
As always, if you haven't yet please take a moment to wishlist the game on Steam and join our official Discord server. You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook to keep up to date.
We'll see you next time!