In this entry: Character creation, bug fixes, Devtober, competitive multiplayer, and me getting sick, which explains why I didn't publish an entry last week.



[h2]Devtober 4[/h2]

Started the day by fixing a few more bugs, then watched videos for my Devtober challenge.

One of the bugs that I fixed was here since I have added the interior system - and it was implemented last October, pretty crazy!

Now that the bug amount has been reduced to acceptable levels, I have started working on the small improvements - going to do XP, gathering, and loot reworks.

The loot rework is done:



Seems pretty good - every container contains something useful, but it's also not too rewarding.

[h2]Devtober 6[/h2]

Today I have been tweaking XP and gathering.

Previously XP was balanced through class XP modifiers.
For example: Warrior XP = 20 raw Warrior XP * Warrior class XP modifier of 0.5

The modifiers and XP were all over the place, so I've set all modifiers to 1.

I also increased the XP rate for combat classes - because NPCs no longer respawn, it's easy to run out of NPCs to train combat on, so fights must give more XP.

For gathering, I was changing numbers a lot. I wanted to make the gathering more consistent - for example, it wasn't uncommon to get 1 iron ore from large iron rock and that just sucks.

I also didn't like that gathering was creating a lot of redundant game messages, didn't like how junk items were distributed, etc.

After a day of work, things work better now. A few more improvements and I'll be able to start working on character creation, which is the next big task on my list.

[h2]Devtober 7[/h2]

Began today's hunt for tutorials by trying to find a visual effects tutorial for pixel art. Soon I have realized that finding something that would work for Light of the Locked World's graphics and animation styles would be very difficult.

I tried to create an animation style that works with the graphics style - very stiff, blocky, no blur, etc. basically a 'bad animation' style. I suppose it's possible to make it less... that... by adding more frames, but the game will take about a year to finish if I'm lucky, so I should minimize the time costs as much as possible.

After failing to find an applicable VFX tutorial for LOTLW, I decided to learn a few things about coding and that was that.

No visible progress for the Devtober again, oof.

Back to actual game development - today I have:

- Slightly improved Sphere, basic Mage attack ability graphics.
- Improved production devices: Now they convert all resources instantly in 3 seconds.
- Fixed bug: It would say that the player is stealing when they weren't mechanically.
- Made combat music more stable - now it doesn't keep fading out.
- Made final improvements to gathering.

After that, I began working on character creation!



This is just a concept, nowhere near it yet.

Besides the usual features like buttons to rename, randomize, and graphically customize the character there are options that impact gameplay.

1)
Talents

Assign talent points to customize class experience rates.

For example, if 5 talent points are invested in Gatherer class, the player character will gain +100% Gatherer experience from all sources:

- 0 talent points: 0% XP
- 1 talent point: 100% XP
- 2 talent points: 125% XP
- 3 talent points: 150% XP
- 4 talent points: 175% XP
- 5 talent points: 200% XP

The talent system should help balance the game by letting players invest points into classes that are difficult to gain XP in and let players lock classes - this should create unique challenges.

2)
Main class

The player is able to choose their character's favorite class. That class will get various small benefits.

E.g.: The player will only be able to equip a unique Mage class weapon if their character main class is Mage.

[h2]Devtober 8[/h2]

Today I did some work on character creation UI - nothing to show still - and did new area testing.
Found a bunch of bugs so I'll be fixing them tomorrow.

If I'll be able to - I think I'm going to be sick, so might be skipping a few days.

[h2]Devtober 9[/h2]

Yup, I've caught a cold.
Today I fixed a few bugs and found a ton of new ones thanks to a long playtesting session.

Wanted to do something doing before getting down with the sickness.

[h2]Devtober 10[/h2]

(Oh, ah, ah, ah, ah)

[h2]Devtober 11[/h2]

Recovering. Watched my friends play LOTLW, was really awesome.

[h2]Devtober 12[/h2]

Just going to keep another day to continue recovering. Going to be hard, really want to get back into development =]

Finally uploaded competitive multiplayer footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMgIxF0dH6Q It has a lot of problems, but it does work - which I guess is really *sick* considering that this is functioning splitscreen PVP.

[h2]Devtober 13[/h2]

Made game run 0.3 milliseconds faster! That's it. Still not feeling strong enough to work longer than an hour.

[h2]Devtober 14[/h2]

Finally a full-ish workday! I was making a character creator.

It already can be used to change the appearance so it will be finished soon. The hardest part will be creating a text input system for a custom name, but I'll manage.



It's not much yet, but I am very excited about building this - the game will be a full RPG when I'm done =]

Anyway, today's Devtober video was about AI.

It got me thinking about AI in LOTLW:

1)

I could probably spawn random rogue/demon groups who would sometimes attack towns. Town guards could patrol outside the town as well. The "Good AI have goals". If I could pull it off, which really isn't that hard thanks to all those AI systems I have already implemented, it would create some interesting moments.

2)

When it will be possible to use consumables in battle, NPCs should bark something like "I need healing" before using a healing consumable so the player could react to that. "Good AI barks".

I'm also thinking about letting NPCs level up and showing a game message whenever that happens. E.g.: "Guard captain Aden has become a level 25 Warrior."

Another idea is to show kill messages that are common in multiplayer shooter games - e.g.: "Player A > weapon icon > Player B" - so the player would know that NPCs are fighting somewhere in the area.

This would make the game's world feel much more alive.

[h2]Devtober 15[/h2]



Getting there!

[h2]Devtober 16[/h2]



Today I was implementing character naming.

The reason why I'm not done with it is that I wasted a lot of time working on a virtual keyboard for text input.



Renaming UI mock-up.

The 50 of square buttons - virtual keyboard - would have been used for letters A-Z, numbers 0-9, and a few symbols.

But yeah, decided to not go for it because this only solves a minor inconvenience for PC players using a controller - with the current solution they will have to type their character name using a keyboard for like half a minute.

Not worth my time.

[h2]Devtober 17[/h2]



It's done visually.

I still need to:

- Implement the "Random name" button.
- Implement the "Random talents" button.
- Add tooltips for talent buttons.
- Improve the name generator.
- Make creator UI open when starting the game.

This will happen in the next entry.

To end this entry on something exciting - I have postponed/canceled Spellscarred Desert and that means the updated demo will be released soon - next week or the week after that.

I hope that is as exciting to you as it is to me =]

Thanks for reading and until next time!