Combat overhaul is going very well!
This week I have modernized veteran and implemented shielding ability. New veteran has six breakable segments - two small cannons in front and four side protrusions. Cannons fire missiles and soak damage, while protrusions are veteran's weak spot. Destroying protrusions is hard, but it's worth it, because every destroyed protrusion removes 10% armour from veteran. And that is needed, because veteran is very hard to destroy! Veteran is able to attack player from above, direction from which player has never been attacked before in Sector Six. It has lots of armour. Every 18 seconds it releases seeking crush ram, which deals massive damage. The only way to prevent being hit by crush ram is to use shielding ability. Right now there's only one shielding ability. If used, it creates shield around player's spaceship, that lasts 3 seconds If enemy projectile hits shield, it gets destroyed and player spaceship takes no damage from it. That's what needs to be done with crush ram! In future there will be more enemy abilities like crush ram, so shielding abilities will be very important. Anyway, I got good news for everyone waiting for new combat system! I am going to release new combat system preview soon! I am not sure yet when exactly, but probably next Sunday. The reason for this is that I want to see if players like the new combat. If not, I can quickly abandon this direction and try other ways to make combat more exciting. I don't want to waste months, since I am trying to finish game this year =] I also expect to get some feedback. So, until next echo!
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This week I have began to work on attributes!
Sector Six attributes aren't traditional RPG attributes, because what's the fun in making system that was made million times before? Current Sector Six version has two passive abilities. Attributes work like passive abilities, players have to spend technology points to upgrade them. Except that unlike normal passive abilities, attributes will not have level cap! Also, attributes will have two effects, primary and secondary. There will be four attributes and only one of them will be able to have active secondary effect. Attributes are tied to classes. Sector Six abilities are divided in four categories, four classes. Since Sector Six is not class locked RPG, spaceship class is defined by how much points are spent on each class abilities. If, for example, player has spent most points on nomad abilities, spaceship becomes nomad class spaceship and nomad class is considered dominant. Every class has one attribute. If class is not dominant, attribute will only grant you primary effect. Secondary effect is only given if class is dominant. Apocalypse class has aggression attribute. Effect: +x% damage. Dominant bonus: +x% to all unleash chances. Goliath class has resistance attribute. Effect: +x% reflect chance Dominant bonus: +x% to maximum armour Nomad class has mastery attribute. Effect: +x% to all unleash chances. Dominant bonus: +x% reflect chance. Carrier class has capacity attribute. Effect: +x% to maximum armour. Dominant bonus: +x% damage. x is attribute level. Hopefully this system will help to make game more complex and interesting! Another thing that I've done, is the implementation of ability unleashing and unleash chances on parts. That is the end of this week's echo, until next week! First echo about combat overhaul! It wasn't easy to start updating combat... I wasn't sure about control scheme, enemy armour pieces and other things. Decisions were hard to make and codes were hard to write. But I've spend many, many hours and everything worked out. I've broke my personal development length record! New control scheme is mouse free, like promised. Abilities are activated by pressing 0-9 and movement is controlled arrow keys. I don't know how it works for right handed people, but it works for me. Anyway, players will be able to customize controls, so I hope it won't be a problem. Dialogues and alloy container controls didn't change, it's still E and Q. I have replaced lasers with missiles. This is just because I decided that missiles look better than these small odd red flying stripes. I have reworked heavy, now he uses three abilities. First ability is normal attack, which launches large missile. Second ability releases two mines that makes avoiding aforementioned large missile harder. Third ability makes heavy move faster and reduces cooldowns of other abilities for few seconds. Also if you don't break heavy's side armour it will barrage your spaceship with missiles! That's pretty much all I did this week. Next week I am planning to add new player abilities, new enemies and maybe even ability unleashing/critical hit system. PS: How's version 0.3.5? Does save system work? After a week of work, new save system is almost complete! And that's basically it, I don't have anything else to show you guys! Hang in there, update is coming!
'Ello all!
This week I've began to work on new save system! New system already saves and loads player spaceship, inventory and abilities. When it will save and load everything, I'll be doing small improvements to the game:
I should be able to do this in like two-three weeks. Oh, and thanks Wasteland Dan for making this video: Until next week! My fight with s, expanding to-do list is almost over!
Perhaps this is the last echo before the release of Sector Six 0.3.0? Update repairing minions. Fix Almadi databases. Fix death on tutorial. Fix spaceship part tooltips. Fix map tooltips. Update enemy traits. Fix chase sequence on story mission I. Fix level up button. Fix inventory order. Fix drag and drop. Fix class titles. Make abilities removable from slots by pressing buttons. Some alloy container flaws doesn't work. Replace onslaught leader shred animation to quasar explosion animation. Update alloy containers. Fix saving. Add tooltips for buttons in settings menu. Make better game logo. Remove no longer needed sprites and other garbage. Fix fog. Recolor all lasers. Add hard mode. Updated boss AI. Test. Fix grammar. Rename elder armour to just armour for clarity. Remove armour bonus on level up. Add assembly node ability. Implement new music. Cap the part limit. Fix alloy container reward. Update mission interface. Prepare for release. Week is almost over, so let's take a look at the list from echo #14 and cross out things I've done: Update repairing minions. Fix Almadi databases. Fix death on tutorial. Fix spaceship part tooltips. Fix map tooltips. Add image of item above tooltip of that item. Update enemy traits. Fix chase sequence on story mission I. Fix level up button. Fix inventory order. Fix drag and drop. Fix class titles. Don't let escorted spaceship move if player spaceship is in front of it. Make abilities removable from slots by pressing buttons. Some alloy container flaws doesn't work. Replace onslaught leader shred animation to quasar explosion animation. Update alloy containers. Fix saving. Add tooltips for buttons in settings menu. Make better game logo. Remove no longer needed sprites and other garbage. Fix fog. Recolor all lasers. Add hard mode. Updated boss AI. Test. Half of the list is done! I still don't lose hope that I can release new version this month! By the way, by saying hard mode, I mean that players will be able to turn on hard mode in settings and it will make enemies have double damage and armour, plus they all will have traits, they all will spawn swarmlings when destroyed, snipe, repair, etc. There also will be some sort of reward for playing in hard mode, but I can't decide what yet. Maybe you guys have some ideas? This week I have... Updated tutorial! Now it's less confusing and has a boss fight! Changed boss AI to make boss fights more dramatic. Improved dialogue. Improved achievement interface. Added Aspil region background! Renamed region from Abandoned Line to Defense Line. Renamed cover minion to tank. Since tutorial is done, now I just need to... Update repairing minions. Fix Almadi databases. Fix death on tutorial. Fix spaceship part tooltips. Fix map tooltips. Add image of item above tooltip of that item. Update enemy traits. Fix chase sequence on story mission I. Fix level up button. Fix inventory order. Fix drag and drop. Fix class titles. Don't let escorted spaceship move if player spaceship is in front of it. Make abilities removable from slots by pressing buttons. Some alloy container flaws doesn't work. Replace onslaught leader shred animation to quasar explosion animation. Update alloy containers. Fix saving. Add tooltips for buttons in settings menu. Make better game logo. Remove no longer needed sprites and other garbage. Test. ...And I can release version 0.3.0! Well, almost. I will probably add more things to the list, also, I'll need few days to prepare for the big release! I'm out! This week I was working on new tutorial. I haven't finished updating it, because I was busy IRL and also because making tutorial is really hard! It is so because I need to lock all features except those I want player to do during tutorial. Also it must be fun, quick and explain almost everything, because I don't want player to be bothered by explanations after tutorial.
So, yeah, a lot of trouble. Another thing that gets in a way is my poor programming. Sector Six is more or less gigantic if tree and when I need to change something, I have to rewrite lots of code. Anyway, next week I'll probably finish tutorial. It means that there's nothing much left on my to-do list. And that means I might release version 0.3.0 this month! Yesterday I tried playing old Sector Six version. I was shocked when I realized how much game has improved during those months! Can't wait to let you guys play monster that is Sector Six 0.3.0! End of the echo! This week I have made the huge step towards making war in the Sector Six feel alive! Usually when you are told in games that there's war going on, it doesn't really happen. There might be few cutscenes, burning buildings and corpses, but I think it's not enough. So, I am trying to make war real in Sector Six! I have already made that missions change status of the region. For example, if player succeeds to complete mission in Negati region, it changes from besieged to secure. If player fails to complete mission, region will become occupied. This week I have added another extremely important feature! Main enemies of the game - the eight Machines, can now be seen on the Sector Six map, where you choose missions. Every ten missions completed/failed the Machines will move to other regions. Secured regions attacked by the Machines will be reduced besieged, besieged to occupied and occupied regions will be destroyed! That means that the conflict is no longer set just by the dialogues and cutscenes, it's actually happening and it changes gameplay! It's not that impressive yet, but I can improve it so much! For example, I can make that if the Machine enters secure region, special world siege mission appears. In future player will want to have as much secure regions as possible, because there will be shops, cities and other important facilities. Also, regions with different status will have different enemies and conditions, so status will really mean a lot. So, um, that's all for this week's echo, next week I'll probably work on tutorial or something! |
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