Update alpha 0.8

After months of work alpha 0.8 is finally done!!! Or so I thought. This post will be highlighting all the changes that have been made so far, as well as some road mapping for the future. But first, I will be addressing the elephant in the room, the why I thought alpha 0.8 was done, but actually isn't as also the reason why I have hid the Win 64 version of Swords and Spells.

After wrapping up all of the new features that I will be addressing later, I created a build for Swords and Spells to be uploaded to itch. I ran the build on my PC and noticed something wasn't working, at first I didn't think too much of it, but this should have been a sign. I uploaded that build to itch, thinking it would work there, but no it didn't work as intended. So what is going on? From what I can tell the in game time isn't working as it should be. This works in unity, but not in the build. So in order to fix this, I need to add logging to several key parts, and start debugging through the logs the will be generated. This will take time, so currently I will pull the Win 64 version of Swords and Spells, and make it not available for download until this issue is fixed. 

Combat log

The first item to be added to Swords and Spells is a combat log. This will keep track of all damage done and taken by the characters, as well as experience gains. This was actually requested by several people who I talked to and while I was reluctant to add it, as I was afraid it would take a lot of time to implement this. It was however proved me wrong, so now it is possible to keep track of what is going on battle wise. This will not persist through save files so it will only keep track of combat during the current session.

Customization

Character customization has also been added. And unlike the combat log (which could be expected of course) this will persist through save files. It is now possible to not only select the gender of a character, but also the body type, hair type and the colours of the hair and the non-armour clothing. Also there is a preview visible for the characters that the player creates.

Day/night cycle

With this update the day and night now are actually part of the game, where it gets darker at night and brighter during the day. This will also affect shops and other service provided by the NPC's.

Death scene

This is something that was very much needed. There wasn't really a good way to deal with the party reaching a point where the hit points of each character is lower than what is required to be alive. So now the player has the option to either reload from save, respawn, or just go back to the main menu. This allows the player to either continue, or start over completely if the player wants to. However, cheating death does come with a price, so be sure to pay the ferry man if your party dies.

Hostilities

With NPC's there is also the possibility to end the life subscription of the NPC's by attacking them and killing them. Now there is a catch to this. If you attack a NPC and there are guards in town (which there will almost always be) then those guards will make sure your party will meet the ferry man rather sooner than later. This mechanism also allows for charming enemies later in the future.

NPC interactions

While most NPC's don't really have something to say at this moment in time, three NPC's have gotten their interactions added. It is now possible to talk to the inn keeper to get a room for the night, the trainer to help you level up or the temple to help you heal up if you can't sleep it off.

Path finding

After a considerable amount of thinking and trying stuff out, I have implemented automated path finding. This should allow the NPC's as well as the enemies to find the player quicker and better than before. At the moment it is still not entirely fool proof as it is possible to use the terrain to get NPC's and enemies stuck.

Respawning

After killing all the enemies there really isn't anything else to kill, except of the NPC's. To make sure that the player can continue have fun, enemies now respawn after 24 hours of being killed.

Resting

After a long day of helping the people around town and making sure all enemies are disposed of, you may need to take a rest. In Swords and Spells you can either use the inn, or sleep in the wild. It is also possible to just wait around for a while, until shop or services open.

The future

So for the future there will be more coming. I am currently working on the story, which is needed to create a quest line that can be followed. Magic is something that still needs to be implemented as there is currently nothing of the "Spells" part in Swords and Spells. The equipment and inventory aren't working at the moment, so it won't be possible to change gear and such. Ranged combat is also missing, but that might come sooner rather then later.

For both the magic and the ranged combat, I have asked Kibakitsuki (he is the one who has done most of the sprites) to make more sprites for ranged combat and magic. This will be worked on as soon as the sprites are in. Furthermore I have also started on localication. As of this writing most of the translation isn't done yet. This too will be something that I will be working on, but it will be in steps.

So with all of that going on, I also need to say that it is really hard to post an update every month, or two months. I will continue to work on Swords and Spells, and there is a lot still to be done, but I do feel that with every mechanic that is being added, I am getting closer and closer to a game.

Thank you for reading this and supporting me

~QTKittE