V188: Mood, taste & new tokens!
Last week, very late on Friday, we shipped the update to version 187 – but had no time to post the proper release notes; this announcement covers both what changed then, and what changes with today's update to version 188.
And today's update brings some big changes: the mood mechanics is in, including all the mood traits; all resources and substances items received their "tastiness" values, which affects the mood of those who consuming them; Memory is now reflected with precise number of rings on the hands of the caster, spellcasting got its first animated effect, and there's a number of new sound effects.
Last but not least, nearly every alchemic substance had its effects revised, and the game received 4 new types of tokens as well as the first alchemic items that produce results immediately when used during encounters. Have fun exploring the new version!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[h2]MOOD MECHANIC IS IN![/h2]
The mood mechanic is in, replacing earlier constructs of "euphoria" and "stress" that we classified as "lasting effects".
How does the mood work?
With the tooltips reflecting the name of the current state of mood, and the resulting mood trait –
The description of how the specific mood trait works in all the different states of mood is shown as a tooltip in the character's profile –
While the range of each mood state is displayed as a tooltip over that state's icon, including the mood trait effect that kicks in:
This mechanics is a big thing for us, because it opens up a whole range of connections with cooked food (coming), personal traits (coming) and relationships (also coming!).
[h2]EVERY ITEM THAT CAN BE CONSUMED, RECEIVED A TASTINESS VALUE[/h2]
You might remember that characters complain about certain items having a good or a bad taste – and this is also reflected in the corresponding sound effects. Well, we gave the taste a mechanic of its own now!
You will see the values next to the values of toxicity of each item:
How does it work: whenever a character consumes something with the value of N, their mood changes by N. So drinking a bottle of Throatburner (tastiness: 15) will give you +15 on the mood scale, while eating a giggler egg (tastiness: -5) will result in -5 on the mood scale.
[h2]STRESS AND EUPHORIA AS LASTING EFFECTS ARE NOW REPLACED WITH MOOD CHANGES[/h2]
In all the cases where we used "stress" and "euphoria" as lasting effects (such as retreat, victory over a stronger opponent or conversion of fear tokens at the end of the encounter), we now use changes in character's mood. Here, for example, you can see that forced retreat now results in -5 to the mood of everyone who retreats –
[h2]CHARACTER'S MEMORY IS NOW REFLECTED IN THEIR HAND RINGS[/h2]
For a while now, we wanted to add this cool little feature: now, character's memory stat (which determines the spells that are accessible) is additionally reflected in the hand rings that the character wears. Here, you can see that one character has memory 4, matched by 4 rings, while another has 6 and therefore wears 2 extra rings.
[h2]ANIMATED SPELLCASTING[/h2]
Finally, we found some time to add a bit of "wow" to the process of spellcasting: now there's a ball of magic leaving the hands of the spellcaster, as the casting begins –
And a bolt of magic that hits the target before the tokens are dealt –
[h2]UPDATED SELECTION OF HEX[/h2]
We're getting ready to update the window that shows what's in a hex (you can call it up with right-mouse button), and the first step was getting rid of the annoying yellow sci-fi selection style :). Now, when you select a hex to look up its info, it's highlighted in blue, with a bit of animation around it –
[h2]NEW TOKENS AND CHANGES IN ALCHEMIC SUBSTANCES[/h2]
We're overhauled the whole range of alchemic substances. The main changes are as follows:
Some of these changes still require an update to the user interface, which we'll look at in version 189.
[h2]WHAT'S NEXT?[/h2]
Personal traits and cooking are up next, while we continue to fine-tune the interface. And then we're on to building a real campaign – with the map of the world, and a sequence of chapters. But first, some rest and sleep over the weekend =D.
Have fun, peoples!
And today's update brings some big changes: the mood mechanics is in, including all the mood traits; all resources and substances items received their "tastiness" values, which affects the mood of those who consuming them; Memory is now reflected with precise number of rings on the hands of the caster, spellcasting got its first animated effect, and there's a number of new sound effects.
Last but not least, nearly every alchemic substance had its effects revised, and the game received 4 new types of tokens as well as the first alchemic items that produce results immediately when used during encounters. Have fun exploring the new version!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[h2]MOOD MECHANIC IS IN![/h2]
The mood mechanic is in, replacing earlier constructs of "euphoria" and "stress" that we classified as "lasting effects".
How does the mood work?
- every character has their current mood, which is static
- certain events (retreat or consumption of substances) changes the mood
- the neutral mood is between -15 and 15, while the overall limits are set at -100 and 100
- each character has their own unique set of mood traits, positive and negative, which kick in in different mood states
- The current mood of each party member is reflected on their portraits, top-left corners –
With the tooltips reflecting the name of the current state of mood, and the resulting mood trait –
The description of how the specific mood trait works in all the different states of mood is shown as a tooltip in the character's profile –
While the range of each mood state is displayed as a tooltip over that state's icon, including the mood trait effect that kicks in:
This mechanics is a big thing for us, because it opens up a whole range of connections with cooked food (coming), personal traits (coming) and relationships (also coming!).
[h2]EVERY ITEM THAT CAN BE CONSUMED, RECEIVED A TASTINESS VALUE[/h2]
You might remember that characters complain about certain items having a good or a bad taste – and this is also reflected in the corresponding sound effects. Well, we gave the taste a mechanic of its own now!
You will see the values next to the values of toxicity of each item:
How does it work: whenever a character consumes something with the value of N, their mood changes by N. So drinking a bottle of Throatburner (tastiness: 15) will give you +15 on the mood scale, while eating a giggler egg (tastiness: -5) will result in -5 on the mood scale.
[h2]STRESS AND EUPHORIA AS LASTING EFFECTS ARE NOW REPLACED WITH MOOD CHANGES[/h2]
In all the cases where we used "stress" and "euphoria" as lasting effects (such as retreat, victory over a stronger opponent or conversion of fear tokens at the end of the encounter), we now use changes in character's mood. Here, for example, you can see that forced retreat now results in -5 to the mood of everyone who retreats –
[h2]CHARACTER'S MEMORY IS NOW REFLECTED IN THEIR HAND RINGS[/h2]
For a while now, we wanted to add this cool little feature: now, character's memory stat (which determines the spells that are accessible) is additionally reflected in the hand rings that the character wears. Here, you can see that one character has memory 4, matched by 4 rings, while another has 6 and therefore wears 2 extra rings.
[h2]ANIMATED SPELLCASTING[/h2]
Finally, we found some time to add a bit of "wow" to the process of spellcasting: now there's a ball of magic leaving the hands of the spellcaster, as the casting begins –
And a bolt of magic that hits the target before the tokens are dealt –
[h2]UPDATED SELECTION OF HEX[/h2]
We're getting ready to update the window that shows what's in a hex (you can call it up with right-mouse button), and the first step was getting rid of the annoying yellow sci-fi selection style :). Now, when you select a hex to look up its info, it's highlighted in blue, with a bit of animation around it –
[h2]NEW TOKENS AND CHANGES IN ALCHEMIC SUBSTANCES[/h2]
We're overhauled the whole range of alchemic substances. The main changes are as follows:
- there are no longer any substances that have different effects in encounter (e.g. starting a fire) and in travel mode (e.g. giving immunity from fire); we did not like the complications in user interface and discovery that resulted from this approach.
- we removed "immunity" as an effect, because it was connected to a timer (10 days, 15 days, etc.) and managing time in this sense – "I should attack spitters while I'm immune to their tokens" – wasn't really fun.
- in general, we removed the timer-based effects from all substances (such as "euphoria for X days").
there is now a new group of substances that provide protection during encounter, by issuing specific tokens – and there are new tokens: protection from frost, protection from fire, protection from fear and protection from blindness. We find this to be a better solution than timer-based immunity. - we changed the effects of items which created short-lasting environmental effects, and now allow certain alchemic substances to have the immediate effect; for example, when you use "Captive spitters", it will no longe create an environmental effect, but rather it now immediately deals damage to the opponents.
Some of these changes still require an update to the user interface, which we'll look at in version 189.
[h2]WHAT'S NEXT?[/h2]
Personal traits and cooking are up next, while we continue to fine-tune the interface. And then we're on to building a real campaign – with the map of the world, and a sequence of chapters. But first, some rest and sleep over the weekend =D.
Have fun, peoples!