Changelog 03/26/2022

The week turned out to be less productive than it was a last week, but a few interesting things were implemented. Let's talk about everything in order.

New Font

The previous ttf font that was set to use had restrictions on the number of available special characters. To solve this problem, a new monospace font was chosen - Source Code Pro Regular. I liked the outline of the characters and it looks more compact in the text.

Pickaxe - in development

It seemed interesting to add a new item - Pickaxe. For the overall gameplay will give the player an alternative way to solve the map puzzles, greatly shorten the path.

But the most interesting thing in my opinion is the new devils that will use a pickaxe when moving around the location and attacking the player.

What is ready on the pickaxe now?

The pickaxe itself and the logic associated with its work is ready.

Also, the devils have already learned how to use the equipped pickaxe on themselves.

Why is the pickaxe still in development?

Because now the pickaxe is unlimited. You can dig at least the entire map.

Therefore, it remains only to add a limit on the number of uses of the pickaxe. There are already first steps in this regard and I will talk about them below.

Traps - reworked

In the process of testing the previous version of the traps, the following problems were identified.

1. They were reusable. Once the player fell into the trap, then fell again, then again, and so on.
2. They remained invisible even after use.
3. If there were several traps on the terrain, then they all worked the same way, the game did not understand which particular trap worked right now.
4. While the player is in a trap and is trying to get out of it, the monsters around are standing and waiting for him to get out and then they will attack. Roughly speaking, being trapped all the time counted as a player's turn.

What has been done to solve the problems?

1. Added the condition that the trap can be both disposable and reusable. Depending on the type of trap, the desired value is assigned.
2. Now, when a trap hits, its char changes, the name is turned on when hovering over with the mouse, and the name is assigned depending on the reusability / one-time use. For a one-time use, such as a broken bear trap.
3. When a trap is triggered (the player is standing on it) - a unique parameter is assigned to the trap, thus the game is now able to distinguish which of the adjacent traps was used.
4. Made a function that counts the number of idle moves of the player, while giving permission to the monster's turn. And now, having fallen into a trap and trying to get out of it, the player loses moves, but the monster does not, and he spends them on attacking and moving around the map. It was this function that later became the foundation for the limits, which are discussed below.

Limits - in development

As already mentioned above, for some items there is a problem with the limit on the number of uses.

Began to resolve the issue with a restriction on the use of sling. In the last report, I already showed the first ranged weapon and it works perfectly, only one problem, it, like the pickaxe, is unlimited.

Players ranged weapon limits - done

What is missing from the added sling? 

That's right, information about the number of available charges. At first, I added a system for counting hits on a monster from afar. Then limited it depending on the maximum amount available for a sling. Added a HUD that displays the number of charges. Made a restriction so that it could not go below 0. Added a condition that if the value is 0, then a ranged attack is impossible. And that's it, now the sling works as it should.

In addition, added items that will help restore the number of charges. In our case, these are stones. Made an items that charges the sling with 1, 3 or 6 stones.

What else needs to be done within the limits?

Add a usage limit for the pickaxe and for stealth mode. Going forward, limits will help with limits for short-term effects, such as poisoning.

That's all for the new functionality, but I would like to talk about the interesting ideas related to the gameplay of the game.

Ideas about classes

There are no classes in the game and I don't want to introduce them. But I have come to the conclusion that based on the implemented features, I can identify three playstyles that can be recommended to the player as options for class similarity.

I see them like this:

Warrior - melee combat + use of a shield.

Ranger - long-range combat + placement of traps and obstacles.

Stealth - invisibility + darts (with sleep or with poison)

Nobody prevents the player from combining the available options, you can be a ranger with invisibility. Or a warrior with traps, but I think those three classes look more all-sufficient in terms of gameplay.

What remains to be done to make voiced classes playable?

• For the warrior there was a shield. I see him like this - when you press the button - the player completely blocks the damage, but the strength of the shield suffers and it breaks if more damage is dealt than it can withstand.
• For the ranger, add the ability to set traps. And add more types of traps. There are no ideas for barriers yet.
• For stealth - it remains to add darts, perhaps the easiest than for other classes.

Therefore, in the plans for the coming weeks, to implement the missing parts for the game classes.