Weekly Report (Dec. 18th)

Yep, it's that time of the week.

This week, I mostly worked with code, not so much in-game content, but apart from that I added a feature I never even considered adding before the idea struck me: a skip button. Wow, what a never before heard of feature! But in all seriousness, I'm super happy with this new dialogue system feature. It makes testing infinite times quicker. Anywho, here's the approximate list of changes:

- Introduced a few minor changes, such as hiding the question mark in the Outside Church location on beginning the back alley dialogue sequence (I doubt many even noticed, but yeah, it stayed visible the whole time), or only adding one entry to the backlog in case identical entries are added one after another (no more multiple Journal Updated entries in sequence);

- Oh, I also reimagined what needs to be done to scroll through dialogue nods: now, you only need to keep the mouse pointer on the background image/dialogue text box in case you use left or right mouse buttons - Space or mouse wheel no longer need that and can be used from anywhere;

- I went even further and removed the requirement to have the mouse pointer over the background image or dialogue text box - now, you simply have to not have the mouse pointer over a button or any object that invokes a tooltip to switch a dialogue nod;

- Revised and implemented the dialogue that happens when stepping inside the tile in front of the tavern - it’s very short, shorter than even the starting dialogue in the Void location, so it’s not much in terms of pure, unadulterated content;

- Added dialogue skipping. Boy oh boy was it painful. My stupid ass required pretty much two whole days to first add the base functionality (manual skipping through pressing either of the Ctrl keys) and then also the button with its own logic. The skipping for now has a predetermined delay between nods, but it’s more than possible to later add the option for the player to decided how quickly the nods need to scroll (in the Settings, for example) - from no delay at all (almost instantly) to whatever time you may want;

- I ran into a couple of problems that either existed in the previous build or originate from this week’s shenanigans: first, the dialogue mode got stuck if the player chose to skip combat and decided to switch to a dialogue branch via a button - this one was probably introduced this week, because I vaguely remember declaring another bool that controlled whether the player could scroll through nods, hence the dialogue mode did not react to player inputs (the new bool just stayed false); second is the latest quest objective being a complete copy of the ‘Look around’ objective - I remember writing it at some point in the past, so I may have accidentally deleted that one and replaced it with a renamed direct copy of the ‘Look around’ objective;

- Refactored and adjusted the code that manages the Level Up Window - it’s less of a mess right now, but still an abomination. I hope nothing broke as a result of my untimely intervention;

- Tinkered with formulas and added base values for the combat rates and carry weight - now I have an instrument to influence the rates outside changing a character’s stats - basically, I can now increase/decrease attack/defence/critical hit/dodge/spell efficiency/carry weight via perks/equipment/trainers/events, adding an extra value to that calculated based on the current stats;

- Performed refactoring of the code associated with character-related inventories and combat actions;

- Since I added new values for combat rates calculations, I needed to revise the save data to include them - took this opportunity to make the code cleaner for all types of characters (and as I was doing the clean-up, I found a way to update character panels, the ones with health, stamina, and perks, in a much sleeker way, yay!);

- Refactored the Level Up Window code (again, lmao) - the code now looks cleaner still, and I can now manage how many stat points are given to the protagonist on level up, and I can further add the logic to manipulate the amount of given points based on whatever requirement I'll come up with later;

- Wrote scripts to dynamically change the strings that appear when you step inside a tile or when you invoke a string via an action button - namely, these scripts are able to replace the originally assigned strings with other strings based on a quest’s stages completion. Basically, by default you are shown Set-A, but if you completed a quest stage, the backlog will then show Set-B, and then, after completing the next stage, it will show Set-C. I’m honestly not very pleased with how those scripts turned out. The whole tile system looks a bit too convoluted to my liking, but I struggle to come up with a more intuitive solution.

- I couldn’t write any normal strings for the Alderwick Streets location, so for now, there are placeholder strings I used to test the scripts described just above;

Next week, I'll fill in the string placeholders in the Alderwick Streets location and proceed to develop the Lonely Marigold interior locations, which will comprise of two floors. Hopefully, I'll have most of the ground floor content (mainly the dialogues) done by next week.

As always, will see y'all next week on Monday, unless some emergency happens, and seeing how it's almost New Year, emergencies are likely to happen one way or another.