Here's what we've accomplished during the month of April.
Prototype Build v0.2
This is an updated prototype build that we're sending to a potential investor that reached out to us. Here's the link: World's Bane Prototype
Updated Interior Maps
The following have been added to the interior map:
- Added dwelling and inn decor
- Introduced structure templates that we randomly draw from when we need to place a structure on the map
- Introduced town layout templates where we have template for the town center and there are points around it where we can attach other structures like dwellings, inns and warehouses. This is an early version that we intend to improve on by next month
- Removed the wall around towns and allow them to not look too aligned/squarish
- Added elf and wolf spritesheets
- Added sleeping animations
- Added more thought bubbles
- Updated Ore asset
- Added Gloomhollow tileset
Crime System
- For the initial version of our Crime System, we've introduced four crimes: Assault, Theft, Murder and Attempted Murder
- Crimes only matter within a faction, meaning that a character that committed a crime will be branded as a criminal by his faction alone. Other characters from different factions wouldn't care.
- If there is a witness to a crime, it will flee and report it to the authorities (unless he is a soldier or a faction leader, in which case the character will automatically be branded as a criminal). Once a character has been branded as a criminal within his faction, soldiers will eventually apprehend him and imprison him in the warehouse. The faction leader may then render judgment. He may be executed, exiled or pardoned.
- The player may add Kleptomania to a character (using the Corrupt action) which will then make that character likely to steal from others to replenish his Happiness Meter.
- A character may assault, curse or poison their enemies.
- The player may store any criminal event as an Intel and share it to a relevant character. Unless there is a positive relationship between them, it will work as if the character that received the intel witnessed the crime event.
Corrupt Action
- We intended to add Lycanthropy and Vampirism this month but ended up replacing Vampirism with Kleptomania for now
- When the player turns a character into a Lycanthrope, that character has a chance of transforming into a wolf each time he sleeps. He forgets all his relationships and acts as if it is a wild wolf, which will be hostile to all other non-wolf characters. The wolf may also eventually transform back into his true form each time it sleeps.
- There are still some issues with this that will be addressed in the future. For now, characters will not know that the wolf and the character is the same even if they witness the transformation, and we haven't handled yet what happens if his faction ended up imprisoning him as a wolf and then he transforms while imprisoned in the warehouse.
- When the player turns a character into a Kleptomaniac, the character may now attempt to steal items in order to replenish his Happiness meter.
Abduct Action
- The player can now use the Instigator's Abduct action on Skeletons to instruct them to abduct characters from Cardell or Denrio
- When the Skeleton drops the character, the player may store this as an intel and share to another relevant character to see how they respond
Rile Up Action
- The player can now use the Instigator's Rile Up action on Wolves to make them visit another location and run amok there
- Riled up wolves will enter berserk mode for a short duration. During this mode, the wolf will be hostile to all targets and will sometimes randomly destroy nearby objects
Location Job Queue
- We've revamped the way characters act for their faction by introducing a Job Queue system that logs new jobs needed by the faction. Available characters will then look at this queue to perform things that they can do.
- The different jobs available are:
- Obtain Supply (performed by Civilians, they will mine ore or chop wood and deposit the excess Supply to the warehouse for use by other members of the faction)
- Remove Cursed, Sick, Injured or Unconscious Status from a faction member (anyone in the faction may perform this as long as they have an action capable of removing the undesired status)
- Restrain (performed by Soldiers, Adventurers and Civilians, this will restrain an unconscious hostile character and bring him to the warehouse as a prisoner)
- Apprehend (performed by Soldiers, this will knock out a criminal, restrain him and then bring him to the warehouse as a prisoner)
- Judgment (performed by the Faction Leader, this will either Execute, Exile or Pardon a prisoner)
- Feed (performed by Civilians and Soldiers, this will feed hungry prisoners)
- Patrol (performed by Soldiers, they will roam around the town and engage any hostile characters they encounter)
- Explore (performed by Adventurers, they will visit a random dungeon and explore that location to obtain new items that he will then deposit to the warehouse)
- More jobs will be added later
- This will also be further improved so that the characters are much more reactive to the events in their immediate surrounding
Updated Pathfinding System
- We revamped our pathfinding so that characters do not walk in four directions only and do not occupy tiles anymore. Characters now also follow and update their pathfinding when targeting another moving character.
- We've also revised how characters engage in hostile encounters. Non-combatants will now flee properly, while combatants may engage any hostile they see in range. This is only a placeholder combat and will be replaced later on.
- Added Patrol, Explore, Stroll, Flee and Berserk movement modes
- We've also changed movement speed of characters depending on their race, status and current action.
Revised UI
- A bunch of improvements have been done to the UI
- We've also added new UI for Corrupt, Share Intel, Rile Up and Abduct actions
Share Intel implementations
- Relevant characters may now react to the following intel:
- Crime Events such as Assault, Poison, Theft and Curse
- When an abduction occurs, and the abducted has been deposited somewhere, the player may store this deposit event and inform relevant characters. Their reaction will also vary depending on whether they are combatant or non-combatant.
- This is a time consuming work as each intel has a variety of different possible reactions depending on the event itself and the recipient's relationship with the actor, the target. More will slowly be added in the coming months.
Music
- Added Main Menu, Loading and Main Game music to the game
May Plans
- finish the gameplay trailer
We have several interesting ideas in mind to introduce next month but not sure yet which ones to prioritize. The list below are just our current ideas that are up for discussion.
- new corrupt actions such as Vampirism, Alcoholic, Violent and Unfaithful
- provoke action
- love, affairs and unfaithfulness
- monster lairs
- necromancy
- memories, rumors and knowledge transfers
- item usage
- new minion actions for objects in the world
- implement procedural world generation in the demo
- first phase of portal management system