Terra Randoma News

Hi everyone,

In this dev-blog, we will talk about the Battlefields.

You will enter and crawl many procedurally generated dungeons in Terra Randoma but do you rest once you step on the overworld? The answer is: No! You will also need to fight through various battlefields.

In a previous article about incidents, we briefly explained that you go to a battlefield screen if you encounter a hostile incident on the overworld and your skill checks to avoid fight fail. The battlefields in Terra Randoma are all procedurally generated with 15x15 grids providing an intense battle experience.



The obstacles are randomly placed so the battlefield will be different every time you play. There may be river tiles on the forest and a bridge to cross it that makes battles all the more interesting. The river is passable by certain monsters but not you (until you have certain points in your wilderness survival skill).

There may be other obstacles like a fallen trunk or a cacoon of a giant spider. You are able to chop trees if they somehow block your way. There will be cracks on the mountain battlefields, and you will be able to break rocks, as you can chop trees, and occasionally find precious metals or gems inside them.

There is one exit tile on each battlefield. Like we explained before in the article about combat system, your character in Terra Randoma has a sprint ability and you may actually use this ability to escape from the battlefield through the exit tile. This exit tile is always behind the enemy so it is tricky to escape without getting a damage.



There are also special battlefields you come across as an investigation incident, where you choose whether or not to investigate a Broken Cart, an Abandoned Camp, or a Witch’s Hut.

You may perhaps choose to investigate some Castle Ruins. Here you can see the remnants of a once-wealthy household, and then broken pillars and walls here and there. This place holds great riches. There may be alchemy tables, weapon racks, barrels or simply coins laying all around. But always with an enemy party defending the place.

The Ancient Shrine of the Forgotten God is another curious incident you may discover with a special battlefield. Here you find an altar with an engraved stone you cannot read. You see a random drawing of a Forgotten God on the floor tiles. Forgotten may be, it still lures worshippers who may have offered coins or items on the altar, which you can happily loot. There may be pools here which you can heal your self when you drink or encounter some nasty suprise. Beware though, it also lures creatures of the forest who do not want you there. These shrines will play a special part in accomplishing one of the meta goals.

We will add many more spots like these above by the time the game hits Early Access, and the year following that date.

Hi everyone,
In this dev-blog, we will talk about Character Backgrounds and Starsigns.

Your character has three attributes: Strength, Dexterity and Intelligence. He has a talent stone which he can use to unleash special powers. He can further buy or find these stones for different powers like whirlwind attack or power strike. He also has twelve skills categorized with respect to attributes:



At this point, let us emphasize that you have complete freedom to choose how to customize your character. You will gain 1 attribute and 1 skill point each time you level up and you are free to distribute them the way you see fit. You can also buy skill points from the adventurer's guild. This allows you to develop very unique characters.

At the beginning of the game, you start by choosing a background and a star sign to your character. These first choices not only give certain boost to your attributes and skills, but also define your starting gold, equipment, items and talent stones.



Right now, we have six different backgrounds and twelve star signs. We will introduce at least four more backgrounds before the game hits Early Access. So you will have 120 different characters you can choose to start with.

To give you some clear idea, let’s put here the details of one character we can make:

EXILED PRINCE Some start life with fortune but at some point, things took a downturn for this man. He is wealthy and articulate, and relies on his rather basic combat education from his days of court.

He starts with: 3 health potions, meat, silver ring, silk vest and silk boots and 750 coins.

His attributes:

• Strength - 5
  
• Dexterity - 7
  
• Intelligence - 9
  

His starting skills:

• Melee Combat - 1
  
• Ranged Combat - 1
  
• Defense Mastery - 2
  
• Critical Focus - 2
  
• Speechcraft - 3
  

And then we choose a star sign. Let’s say we choose The Queen. This gives him further +2 Speechcraft points.

This character now has 5 Speechcraft points which gives him superb advantage in haggle. So he will be offered better prices at the shops. He will also be able to more easily convince NPCs to pay him more for the quests or bandits to extort him less.

On the other hand, he has poor skills in combat, and his strength is also low. So it would be wise to use the speechcraft skill to buy some good equipment and strength potions and, in general, to avoid fight as much as you possibly can.

Now it’s up to you to decide whether this man continues his journey the way he knows how to live: talk his way out of situations, run and hide when he cannot. Or you may decide that his Speechcraft needs no further upgrading, and his endeavors are teaching him to be tough. So then you have your own unique character who is well versed but also knows how to fight.

And next time you play, you can be a whole new character in a whole new island.

It’s up to you, really, what to make out of Terra Randoma.

Hi everyone,

In this dev-blog, we will talk about the overworld incidents in Terra Randoma.

After some dungeon crawling and fighting with monsters till your last health potion, you step out to overworld and wilderness adventure begins.

Terra Randoma is a world full of curiosities! Wheel of fortune is turned with every step you take on the overworld. It may bring you a bandit ambush or an abandoned cart, perhaps you get to meet a traveling merchant or some curious personality.

The overworld has four types of tiles at this stage: plain tiles, forest tiles, mountain tiles, and the water tiles. And there is a different danger level for each: The tiles around the settlements are “safe”, meaning the chances of dangerous encounter are very small. The plain tiles are more dangerous as you move away from the settlements but are always safer than the forest and the mountain tiles. Nothing happens on water tiles yet, but we will add pirates and sea monsters soon and will make sure to keep you updated on that! It is also safer at day time than night time.



So what happens when you encounter an enemy? The answer to that was “fight” until recently. We then added skill check options. So now, for example if you encounter a bandit, you can choose between several options like intimidate, haggle, or pickpocket meaning, if your thievery skill checks, you can pay the extortion he demands with his own coins!

If your skill check fails, or if you decide to engage in a fight anyway, you will emerge in a battlefield facing the enemies you came across to. These battlefields are all procedurally generated. Like we explained before in the article about combat system, your character in Terra Randoma has a sprint ability and you may actually use that to escape from the battlefield through the exit tile which is always behind the enemies.

Enemy encounters may happen while you camp as well, but let’s leave camping to another dev-blog.



As mentioned above, not all encounters include enemies. You may be lucky enough to meet one of the traveling merchants happy to sell items at more favorable prices than the shops. There may be a princess whose caravan is stuck in the mud. It may be a trap or not. Or you may come across an NPC suffering under a fallen trunk and choose to help -or steal his belongings.

There are also mysterious locations like some old castle ruins or a “shrine of the forgotten god” which you may explore and loot (and find some secret artifacts for one of the meta game goals).



Re-playability is one of the most important features we aim at. We are trying to ensure that the players experience a full sense of adventure and can discover new things each time they play, so doing our best to add as many incidents (with different solutions and outcomes) as we possibly can, so that “the story that emerges as you play” is different each time you play. This article covers only a few incidents. There are and will be many more.

Hi everyone,

In this dev-blog, we will talk about the settlements in Terra Randoma. Terra Randoma started as a dungeon crawler roguelike game, but soon we felt the need to situate those dungeons in a procedurally generated overworld. One of the major components of the overworld are the settlements. At the earlier stages, we thought the settlements would be just safe havens for the adventurer to rest, shop and take on new quests. But as big lover of strategy games, we decided to spice things up, and gave each settlement a prosperity level to start with. And then added events and crisis that effect their prosperity level positively or negatively.



There are currently seven settlements in Terra Randoma (though we are thinking to offer an option to play in a bigger map with more settlements in the future) and the starting map randomly ranks them as rich, medium, poor and very poor. The rich settlements have the biggest market, so there is more variety and quantity of everything you can buy: food, potions, equipment and armor. Accessories can only be found at the rich settlements.

There is also an Adventurer's Guild, which we will talk about in a separate dev-blog. We will add an Alchemy Tower and maybe some more special buildings along the way.

Your actions effect the prosperity level of cities. They grow as you trade with them and accomplish missions given by their citizens and lords. By doing good, you earn reputation. If you fail a mission, or get caught doing thievery, you lose reputation. Your reputation level effects the prices you are offered to buy or sell at the shops. If your reputation level drops below zero, you will be rejected entry to the settlement, and you will have to use some special skills to get passed the guards or bribe them.

In each settlement, there is a tavern, where you can eat or rest at rather affordable prices. This is also where you take on the new quests. The settlements are home of the Lords as well, who will give you special quests that relate more closely to the wellbeing of the settlements.



Let’s have a look at the current events and crisis that randomly happen to the cities and how they may impact your gameplay:

Alchemy Contest: Potions abundant and cheaper. You can stock potions for your future endeavors or sell to the nearby cities which may need it.

Royal Marriage: You can eat and rest free at the tavern which is kind of a big deal at the early stages.

Rich Harvest: Food abundant and cheaper. You can stock food for your future endeavors or sell to the nearby cities which may need it.

Famine: No food sold at the market. You can still eat at the tavern. Shops will pay you good price if you bring food to sell, and your reputation will increase.

Epidemic: No potions sold at the market. Other items are expensive since no trader comes to town. You can still rest at the tavern. Shops will pay you good price if you bring cure disease potions to sell. Epidemic status will disappear sooner thanks to you and your reputation will increase.

Safe Roads: All items abundant and cheaper.

Insecure Roads: Items limited and expensive.

We will add more events and crisis like Vermin Infestation or Riots to the game soon. Also there will be certain escort missions that will trigger events once you accomplish them. We will announce further development here once we are done!

Hi everyone,
In this dev-blog, we will talk about Terra Randoma’s consumables, valuables and books.

Potions:
There are many potions you will need to use in Terra Randoma for various situations; including healing your wounds, curing confusion, poison or disease. Potions that boost certain attributes, like strength or speed, are also available. However you will not only be using them for your own character, you can also use them to help the settlements when they face crisis. If you bring a number of cure disease potions to a settlement with epidemic you will gain reputation and help the settlement as well. You can also buy them cheap when there is an alchemy festival and sell them across the island for profit. Potions can be bought from the shops, adventurer’s guild or traveling alchemists. They can also be collected from alchemy tables, chests or barrels you may find along the way.



Food:
Your character in Terra Randoma gets hungry. Each step on the over-world plain tiles takes 1 hour (and twice as much on the forest and mountain tiles), so hunger will be an issue when planning your route. You also need to pay attention at hunger during combat because he gets hungry faster when his stamina level falls below the half. So when you start a journey to a far place or a quest to a dungeon, you need to make sure you have room for food in your backpack.
You can buy food at the settlements and the adventurer’s guild. You may also come across farmers or hunters along the way willing to sell food at more affordable prices. Rich settlements have more variety and quantity than smaller settlements, the guild and the independent merchants.
You can also forage fruits and vegetables in the forests or do hunting. Both options will mean that you encounter hostile beasts in order to be able to earn your food.
Finally, you can find food from sacks or barrels you come across throughout the game.



Valuables:
Valuables are treasures include items like mirrors, figurines, or a telescope made of copper, bronze, silver, gold or porcelain. Gems and jewelry are also available. There are also “materials” that usually drop from enemies like spider silk, bucket of slime, or a rat skull.

Books:
Terra Randoma is somewhat an intellectually thriving island in which many people love reading. Even the most unexpected creature, like a ratman slinger, may be carrying a philosophical book in his sack. There are endless possibilities to book names. They give you experience if you care to read, or decent money if you decide to sell.