Between unexpected issues at work and a lot of thinking and spreadsheeting rather than coding, it didn’t feel like I got much done this week. My brain is getting fried working out how various numbers will change over the course of a run – HP, damage, damage reduction, stat ratios between no/light/medium/heavy armor, net stats from different equipment combinations (this has especially been a headache; I’m tempted to have a single equipment slot for armor rather than body/head/hands/feet), early vs. late game ratios (to control difficulty), etc. It’s been challenging figuring out where to start because there are so many relationships between stats. My starting point is determining what should be the typical number of hits to kill the player according to their armor category and working backwards from these numbers to determine the stat values. It’s also been helpful to write out different combat scenarios like “how many hits should it take a bandit with a short sword to kill a player wearing light armor.” The model is coming together, but there are still many numbers to plug in. After the model is finished, I’ll create a simple simulator to efficiently test it, and do play testing.
Aside from all the fun with spreadsheets, I completed a couple of items on the 2022 goal list: finalizing the Select Class Screen and Passive Abilities.
- Updated Select Class Screen. Locked classes are now shown as a silhouette of the sprite, with a lock icon (I’d prefer a padlock but grabbed the closest thing I had, which was from the Oryx sprites). Class attributes are now shown in a grid view with the attribute names.
- Passive Abilities. Passive Abilities were previously 25% completed. They could be assigned to classes in the designer, but didn’t appear on the Abilities Panel, didn’t have sprites, and didn’t have any effect in the game. These items have now been implemented. Passive Abilities are currently only used to dictate the weapons and armor that a class can use. Passive Abilities that provide other types of benefits will be added in the future.
- Finalized the starting classes. Three classes will be unlocked when the game is installed: Knight, Ranger, and Wizard. Just this week I replaced the Rogue with the Ranger. I wanted the starting classes to be the most straightforward classes to play, representing the core combat styles of melee, ranged, and magic. Additionally, the Rogue’s abilities, and map features to use those abilities, won’t be ready by year-end.
- Common Ability Group. I decided that all classes should have the Run ability. I added a new ability group called “Common” to contain abilities that are available to all classes. I don’t have any other abilities in mind currently that fit into this category, but I expect there will be some in the future.
- Q4 plan. I set goals for the remaining weeks of the year. I don’t usually get this granular with planning, but it is necessary to keep me on track and reach my goal of a playable version by the end of 2022. I’ve set goals by month as well, which are:
- October: remaining functionality
- November: remaining content
- December. testing and polish
Next week, I must finish the initial progression/balancing model. I also plan to finalize the item, ability, and enemy list for the demo release. I’ll also review all of the systems and identify the major improvements/fixes that are needed for the demo release.