Mini-devlog Update #9
This week saw the release of the closed alpha of the Fabled Lands cRPG and, oh, boy, what a week it was! On the morning of Saturday, one week after the release, once the dust had settled, I texted my best men: “You know you’ve had a release with this type of chart:”
He asked in return: “Why, what does it mean? New players? Downloads?”
“No,” I answered. “Code commits*.”
* git commit is a command that captures a snapshot of the project’s current changes in its state. The graphic shows the number of times I have ‘patched’ the game on a weekly basis over the last couple of months.
I had a wonderful release. With alpha testers playing their hearts out, having fun and finding bugs and issues along the way. Such a great community any indie dev could ask for. How can I forget to mention Guy from ‘How to be a Great GM’ who did a fantastic live playthrough on his channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxoaOseFr8Y&t=6598
[h2]Back to the topic at hand[/h2]
In the last development update, I talked about active skills. You obtain skill books and learn the spell within if you meet certain criteria. Well, another interesting item to obtain are the skill scrolls. They contain the knowledge of a skill that will apply a passive bonus during combat. Unlike active skills, the passive ones do not have requirements related to the character’s base abilities (or stats) and can be obtained by all professions at any point in the game if they have the money.
There are different types of bonuses. Most are conditional and depend on the environment, status effects, currently equipped and active weapon, etc. while others are independent of all of that and are constantly applied.
For example, the Hot Pursuit passive skill regains you some of the Action Points expended in combat. Early in the game, the amount of action points you have per round is 6 which limits you to few basic actions like most pen’n’paper RPGs do. Move and attack, disengage to avoid provoking opportunity attacks, use an item from your backpack, swap weapons or cast a spell. With the Hot Pursuit you can have an additional 2 action points each time you cast any of the skill’s signature active skills.
While the Brawler passive gives you a damage boost when in the vicinity of 3 or more enemies.
In my current example, my Mage has learned Archery, Brawler and Blizzard’s Bite. Naturally, as any self-respecting mage, I have bought a bow (or a sling) to shoot from a far and cast my spells before my enemies could even reach me. Archery helps to improve my critical hit chance. My AOE spell Ice Bolt hits multiple enemies and applies the Frostbite status effect which reduces their Action Points by 1 to keep my skin safe just a tad more. My passive Blizzard’s Bite increases the damage received by all targets with the Frostbite status effect. Finally, the Brawler boosts the damage output even more when I am surrounded.
Now, depending on the encounter this selection of skills might prove useful, especially in the cases where I am about to fight a boss and their minions, changing the strategy a bit to keep the minions alive and apply some damage until a devastating attack finishes the boss in one or two mighty blows.
Thus, the player can adjust his skill combination before a certain combat, especially later on when meeting more devastating enemies.
[h2]Final Words[/h2]
The combination of passive bonuses, active skills and equipped weapons are the core foundation that forms the type of builds in the game. However, they are not an isolated system within the combat encounter but a fluid part of the world. The players must keep a fragile balance of spending quest rewards on an ability that would help them learn a new skill versus on an ability that would improve their ability checks within the story, especially helpful in certain areas and bigger quests. On the other hand, rotating and experimenting with skill books and skill scrolls requires constantly generating more income, thus balancing out the end-game economy.
When advancing in the game beyond the boundaries and safety of the known realms every bit of an additional stat can prove the difference between life and an expended resurrection deal!
He asked in return: “Why, what does it mean? New players? Downloads?”
“No,” I answered. “Code commits*.”
* git commit is a command that captures a snapshot of the project’s current changes in its state. The graphic shows the number of times I have ‘patched’ the game on a weekly basis over the last couple of months.
I had a wonderful release. With alpha testers playing their hearts out, having fun and finding bugs and issues along the way. Such a great community any indie dev could ask for. How can I forget to mention Guy from ‘How to be a Great GM’ who did a fantastic live playthrough on his channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxoaOseFr8Y&t=6598
[h2]Back to the topic at hand[/h2]
In the last development update, I talked about active skills. You obtain skill books and learn the spell within if you meet certain criteria. Well, another interesting item to obtain are the skill scrolls. They contain the knowledge of a skill that will apply a passive bonus during combat. Unlike active skills, the passive ones do not have requirements related to the character’s base abilities (or stats) and can be obtained by all professions at any point in the game if they have the money.
There are different types of bonuses. Most are conditional and depend on the environment, status effects, currently equipped and active weapon, etc. while others are independent of all of that and are constantly applied.
For example, the Hot Pursuit passive skill regains you some of the Action Points expended in combat. Early in the game, the amount of action points you have per round is 6 which limits you to few basic actions like most pen’n’paper RPGs do. Move and attack, disengage to avoid provoking opportunity attacks, use an item from your backpack, swap weapons or cast a spell. With the Hot Pursuit you can have an additional 2 action points each time you cast any of the skill’s signature active skills.
While the Brawler passive gives you a damage boost when in the vicinity of 3 or more enemies.
In my current example, my Mage has learned Archery, Brawler and Blizzard’s Bite. Naturally, as any self-respecting mage, I have bought a bow (or a sling) to shoot from a far and cast my spells before my enemies could even reach me. Archery helps to improve my critical hit chance. My AOE spell Ice Bolt hits multiple enemies and applies the Frostbite status effect which reduces their Action Points by 1 to keep my skin safe just a tad more. My passive Blizzard’s Bite increases the damage received by all targets with the Frostbite status effect. Finally, the Brawler boosts the damage output even more when I am surrounded.
Now, depending on the encounter this selection of skills might prove useful, especially in the cases where I am about to fight a boss and their minions, changing the strategy a bit to keep the minions alive and apply some damage until a devastating attack finishes the boss in one or two mighty blows.
Thus, the player can adjust his skill combination before a certain combat, especially later on when meeting more devastating enemies.
[h2]Final Words[/h2]
The combination of passive bonuses, active skills and equipped weapons are the core foundation that forms the type of builds in the game. However, they are not an isolated system within the combat encounter but a fluid part of the world. The players must keep a fragile balance of spending quest rewards on an ability that would help them learn a new skill versus on an ability that would improve their ability checks within the story, especially helpful in certain areas and bigger quests. On the other hand, rotating and experimenting with skill books and skill scrolls requires constantly generating more income, thus balancing out the end-game economy.
When advancing in the game beyond the boundaries and safety of the known realms every bit of an additional stat can prove the difference between life and an expended resurrection deal!