This week, I worked on a single feature: quick equipment switching. This feature allows held equipment (melee weapons, ranged weapons, ammo, and light sources) to be switched without going into inventory. There are many situations in which held equipment needs to be changed. A common scenario is hitting an object that is vulnerable to a particular damage type or effect. For example, a mace, which does bludgeoning damage, will be more effective on a cracked wall than a sword, which does slashing damage.
Quick equipment switching is also used to determine the weapon against an enemy or object. For targets at a distance, the selected ranged weapon will be used. For targets in melee range, the selected melee weapon will be used. This enables the player to use different weapons for melee and ranged targets without having to manually switch weapons. It’s convenient for classes like the ranger that primarily use a ranged weapon but switch to a melee weapon when enemies close in to conserve arrows. Players can also choose to not equip anything in a particular quick switch slot, which is useful if the player wants to use only a single weapon regardless of the target’s distance (if the ranged weapon slot isn’t set, the player will move toward a target until the target is in melee range and then attack).
This feature is 50% complete. I plan to finish the remaining half next week. I still need to make some UI/UX tweaks and incorporate the selected items into the save/load system. I also want the cursor to indicate the weapon that will be used when hovering over a cell.
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