Preview of the new outfit you will get once you get promoted in the german faction.

Small update.

I’m working on the new dungeon and I decided to make a system that will randomly stitch dungeons from predetermined rooms. It is quite similiar to how the endgame dungeon works, but much more complex. This new system will use roughly 120 different maps and will allow a single dungeon to have up to 16 of them. This means there will be a lot of variety.

To make things easier in the future, I re-use all those rooms for other types of dungeons, but change their looks by swaping tilesets and events. Here is a small example.

Both rooms have identical layout, but the looks are different and the type and amount of events is also different. This means I can use the same map multiple times and all I have to do is change the variable that tells me what type of dungeon you are currently in.

This entire system needs more testing and the maps them selves need to be finished, but if this works, I will be able to make new smaller dungeons more quickly and easily without them looking entirely same.

Just a small update.

The random dungeons are close to being finished. There are a few other things that I would like to add too, but I think you went long enough without any updates, so I decided to release the next version early.

If everything goes right, I will release the next test version sometimes next week. You will get new cutscene, new rank for the germans and new outfit. New training area and VR skill distribution. You will also get a simple, heavily unfinished random dungeon system. Here is what you can expect from the dungeon system.

• Dungeons have 6-16 rooms
• There is about 60% chance each room has a treasure chest
• Chests use the same luck system the kobold dungeon uses
• Each dungeon has random room selected as start and as the end
• To leave the dungeon, you have to interact with the objective and return to your starting point
• Random encounters are used for combat (Temporary)
• All rooms are very simple and look almost the same (Temporary)
• You can only enter the dungeon alone (Temporary)

Once this update gets released, I will collect any feedback presented and do alterations. I will also be working on individual rooms and making them more presentable.

To make the luck loot system more interesting, all items you can pick are hidden at the start. Once you pick an item, it will stay revealed for the rest of your entire playthrough. Each dungeon has separate item list.

This should make treasure a little more exciting and give it back a degree of randomness while keeping player control over rewards mostly intact.

Just here to tell you that I’m still alive and I’m still working on the game. This update will take quite a bit of time simply because of the random dungeon.

I will be adding minimap to make navigation in them easier. Loot table will get expanded, more enemies will get added and I’d like to add several new weapons. All other things I want to add are at the end of the previous changelog.

On to of that, I will be adding new companion, which will act like other children in the game (His stats will increase over time)

There is still quite a bit of work I have to do left before I can release the next update. Making more than 120 (relatively small and relatively simple) maps takes quite a bit of time.

To help me keep my sanity, I decided to work on some other things in the mean time. Mainly the kid companions.

I think all of you are familiar with the way they work. They start as the weakest companions in the game and the end up being the strongest, if you play long enough. What I want to do is to give the player some way to influence the way the gain stats and how they develop.

There are technicaly three things that can shape your companions. First is physical stats, second is equipment, third is skills and fourth is out of combat use (workout with George is a good example).

I have second, third and fourth options figured out. As you progress the game, you will get quests that will let you change your companions equipment and “class” (Billy and the shotgun quest is quite similiar to what I want to do). I will also give the player some options in that regard. For example, Helena will ask you for a large blood stone. You will be able to give her only one. Her skills will improve depending on the stone you give her, so you can make her better at healing or better at dealing spell damage. George might ask you to find him new weapon. You can choose between low damage weapon with a lot of ammunition, or high damage weapon with less ammunition. You get the idea. Fourth option will get influenced by your and their age, their skills and things you did together.

It’s the first option that I’m not fully decided on and I would like some input from you.

Idea 1 First idea I have is to make stat for kids percentage based. For example, George will gain 20 stat points each week. 8 HP, 4 SP, 3 STR, 3 AGI, 2 DEX, 0 INT. That means his stat growth is 40% HP, 20% SP, 15% STR, 15% AGI and 10% DEX.

I will add a new screen that will let you change this percentage depending on your friendship level. On level 0, you will be able to change the stat distribution by 10%. Increasing your friendship level will inscrease this percentage and increase the total number of stat points your companion gets each week. So at level 0, George gains 20 points and you can change their distribution by 10%. At level 20, he gets 30 points and you can change his distribution by 30%, at level 100, he will get 60 points and you will be able to change his stats in any way you want.

In game, this will be explained by kids spending more time with you the more they like you and slowly change their daily routine to reflect that.

The upside of this system is its simplicity and unitrusive nature. You won’t have to micromanage your companion stat gains all the time like you do with your main character with wellness points. You simply set up desired percentage and forget about the system until you increase your friendship level. The downside is your control over companion stats being limited at the start.

Idea 2 Basicaly the exact copy of the wellness system for your main character. Each kid will get certain amount of points each week and you will be able to distribute them any way you want. Friendship level and age will increase the total number of stat points. Different characters will have different stat prices. For example, increasing INT for Helena will cost 1 point. Increasing INT for George will cost 5.

This system doesn’t need explaining. It is simple and effective. It has some disadvantages though. First I can think of is the players time. Distributing stats each week for 2 (soon 3) other kids will take some time. The game takes roughly 60 weeks to finish right now. If you spend one minute each week distributing stats, that will increase your playtime by one hour where you just move numbers around. The advantage is absolute control for stat distribution and I would get some creative options to allow the player to change the stat point price with quests or events.

Idea 3 Stat tree / perk system. This combines parts of the above ideas. Every few friendship levels, you will get a popup at the end of the week to pick one out of several options. For example, George gains each week. 8 HP, 4 SP, 3 STR, 3 AGI, 2 DEX, 0 INT. You gain friendship level 10 with George. At the end of the week, you get to pick one these options: +2 weekly HP, +1 weekly STR, +1 weekly INT and -1 STR. At level 15, you will get to choose from: +4 weekly SP and HP, +3 STR and -1 DEX, +1 AGI and DEX.

This system takes less time to from the player, since it triggers only at certain friendship levels. You have less control over stats, since you have to pick from certain options that are predetermined. This is an upside and downside. You get less control but it makes characters stand out more since their stat growth is steered in certain direction to cetrain degree.

Idea 4 Combination of parts of all the above ideas (And a personal favorite of mine). Once you reach certain friendship level, you will get a popup that will let you increase growth of stats in the same way you do now with wellness. For example, You gain friendship level 10 with George. You get 8 points. You can instease HP for 2, SP for 1, STR for 1, DEX for 2, AGI for 2 and INT for 3. Let’s say you pick 2 HP, 2 STR and and 1 DEX. His stats will now increase by this amount every week. Once you reach relationship level 20, you get 8 more points. You pick 4 SP, 1 HP and 1 AGI. From that point on, he will gain 3 HP, 4 SP, 2 STR, 1 DEX and 1 AGI every.

I like this, because I think it has the best qualities of all the other options with fewer downsides. It gives you a lot of control over your friends stats, but it doesn’t require you to play with the stat menu every week. It gives each character some individuality because stat prices will differ for each character.

This is quite a wall of text, so I will end it here. What do you think? Which option do you like the most? Do you have a different ideas? Let me know.