Blacksmith Legends News

Hello fellow blacksmiths,

I'm excited to announce you, that Blacksmith Legends: Prologue development is getting finished and enters testing/polishing phase!

What has been done this week:

1. Saving System - game is now being saved properly with all assets from the building feature! (big thanks to Vanlal Hriata, without you, this feature wouldn't be possible!). It doesn't cost any performance and everything is smooth and neat.

2. Quest Rewards - now updated with new building content. Regarding new content, can't forget to mention new fan made banner textures! (shoutout to MehFruits and NordicForge for being amazing!)

Flags will be implemented next week.
For anyone else interested in making some stuff for the building feature, feel free to contact me on my discord channel at the bottom of this note! :)

3. Tavern animated icon redesign - (top left corner) now pops in and out between 7pm - 7am. This means, you can't enter tavern during the day. However, if you stay in the scene all the time, it doesn't 'kick' you out of course.


4. Building object tooltips - hovering over and clicking on placed items can reveal what are they actually adding. (there's no tooltip for just cosmetic stuff)


5. Million bug fixes

What's going to happen in upcoming weeks?

1. Balance, polish, balance, debug - playing the game over and over and trying to make it as clean as possible. However I'm sure, there'll be a lot of stuff that I miss, so it will take few weeks to get it in proper shape.

2. Market Saturation - part of balance, but it's a new logic. Crafting/selling e.g. Horseshoes only will cause it to be sold for less and less amount over time.

3. Reputation logic - before I've got a tip to implement a system, where gaining certain reputation can alter workshop appearance. As I love the idea, I'll create building parts, that will be granted upon reputational rewards and stuff.

4. Achievements - connected to Steam, not in demo, but Prologue will have them. At least few ones.

5. Smelter Room Upgrades - still WIP, but getting there. Smelter now will be available when you get a quest to expand and build Smeltery. Only in Prologue as it's quite at later stage.

6. Building feature logic - well, as I don't want it to become Sims or other similar games, you will not be punished by having fully walled off buildings. It doesn't make much sense here, since I don't want to implement bedrooms and kitchen etc., there are better games for that. And, blacksmiths/smelters in medieval era were pretty much outdoor professions. So it's a compromise.

Any feedback is welcome!

Feel free to stop by @Discord - https://discord.gg/CnhggUB

Regards,

Machal

Dear glorious crafters,

As I haven't shared anything last week, I took a time of 2 weeks to really push the progress and come up with some news.
It is the 4th week of me implementing the Building feature, I've gone far and with the help of my coder friend Vanlal Hriata, we were able to create stuff that I wouldn't dream of.

1. What was achieved over 2 weeks?

a). Build zones - I was able to determine a build zone. Green means you can build, red is locked, in this case until player reaches lvl. 5. As you unlock the area, you can just expand your building there.


b). Walls inside the room - walls are now being culled whenever there is something behind them, thanks to the fixed camera angle, so you can divide rooms. At the moment, it's only for cosmetic reasons.


c). New Items - wooden floor, braziers, brick walls and many other are coming! More wall tapestry and outside fence + statues! (Would you love to see real country flags in the game? Leave me answer in the comments!) Also, the morning light was reworked and is now more noticeable.

d). Reworked UI - as I've had feedback that the UI is overwhelming, it was really time for me to roll up my sleeves and get this done. Hopefully, you're happy with the results.
UI was scaled down by about half from the original, leaving more space for everything and I'm really loving it.

The crafting UI is now bound to the middle screen, so you have it on your eyes and it opens up a lot of space!

Quests and Mines are now on both sides and you're no longer obliged to go to World Map just to click few times on resources.
With this being said, World Map is now purely for Wars and Looting Dungeons! Thus accessible after you reach Tavern.

Quests have now feature, that allows you to re-read it fully again, if you have it still active. That means, you can check for rewards and anything else you might have missed!


e). Less Rush - added one additional quest for the beginning and with leaving World Map after unlocking Tavern, the beginners phase of the game leave more room to breathe for new players.

f). New Quest Rewards - building upgrades and new items for expansion are now solely obtained through quests. Therefore, you will progress step by step. Now, will be available in Prologue only, as there is quest for that. There is no content for Smelter in Demo, so it's really pointless to have it there.

2. So what more has to be done?

a.) Saving of the built progress - At the moment, it doesn't save the objects in the scene.


Also, the build system is using 'sockets' for deploying other items and attachments/upgrades. These have states 'red/blue/ that enables or disables other things from being placed there. All of these things have to be saved along with the data, otherwise it will cause issues.
A quick example of the overview for above shown room and how many 'sockets' has to be handled.


b.) Content for the quest rewards - upgrades for Blacksmith are ready. Smelter upgrades are in the works, wall tapestry, marble tiles for walls and floor, more fancy wood and stone products, outdoor and indoor decorations.

c). More advanced logic - at the moment, there's no penalty for not having fully walled room, or door or windows. I'll try to implement some penalties or positive buffs depending on, how player takes care of his room

So, after all, I can say, that things are getting wrapped up, and I'll be preparing it for testing. Don't want to fail a promise, so let's see what next week will bring and I'll keep you updated!

Let me know your thoughts and feedback!

Regards,

Machal

Hello my fellow blacksmiths,

my challenge to finish the building feature continues. 3 weeks in and I'm bringing some results that will expand the game's sandbox/simulation genre.

First I wanted to only make few objects movable inside the premade room, but with a big help from my coder friend Vanlal Hriata, I can now present you whole modifiable workshops!

The biggest issue was the culling of the bottom and right walls which will not be necessary due to the camera's angle and perspective. I was really struggling and already thinking about using more bird's eye perspective and keep all walls intact.

Luckily all went well and I've found few solutions and was able to implement some basic items to re-create similarly looking room as was my default one.


This feature will completely change the start of the game and player will have certain amount of gold to build his own workshop.
Earning gold now will open more possibilities for upgrades, that are cosmetic, but also necessary for progress!

Expansion and modifying will definitely be possible. Little bit clunky at the moment, but hopefully will fine tune all the details!


All textures will receive Normal and Roughness maps, so they'll have more detail and light reflection will be more realistic.



Rooms will not contain invisible roof, so the shadows will be much better, and windows/doors will let the light through, so player can enjoy it. Will have to figure out the bottom walls culling though, to cast real size shadows!



Now of course, can add more details, such as shadows from the torch lights, which will logically increase performance. So more testing will be necessary and we'll see, how it all goes.

Long time vision:
- adding a lot of object types to fulfill sandbox desires
- BUILDABLE MAPS! yeah, you'll move from the basic village to bigger maps, so building potential will rise
- Mods

What to NOT expect:
- character moving from object to object or on the map, doors, windows and outside objects will be purely cosmetic or functional as static ones
- Sims...it's a game about blacksmithing!
- Farmville...again, only blacksmithing, smelting and alchemy will be thou professions! For now! :)

Fore more detailed approach and community involvement, feel free to join my discord channel https://discord.gg/CnhggUB.



Cheers!

Machal

Dear blacksmiths,

just a info heads up on what I'm actually working on really hard these days. According to some gameplay feedbacks and youtuber reviews, there was a request if there would be some building feature available or at least possible.

So after some tests and help from one enthusiastic coder, this feature will be added in the Prologue and will completely add new depth into the game.

1. Upgrades for rooms

I'll start with giving freedom to Blacksmith Room upgrades, next we'll be the Smelter ones. When they are finished, there will be Outdoor items, like fences, signs and statues, that player will be able to use and customize his screen.

This is the simulation genre part in the works.

2. Arena feature for Early Access




After Prologue, there will come Early Access, where I'll introduce Arena feature. Action combat from Third person look, where you will be able to play as a Gladiator. You will equip him with the items that you craft as Blacksmith, put your banner on him and it will be representation of your craftsmanship in this tough sport.

7 types of weapons, 3 types of armor including animations and some basic presets.

Quality of items will determine your outcome in battle, therefore impress other merchants and lords participating in the arena and will decide if they will cooperate with your business or not.

Stay tunes for more news! I'll be able to bring more updates on the Building system soon.

Currently I'm planning to let player build the whole workshop from scratch, though it requires more tests and coding.

If you haven't done so, please feel free to join me on my Discord channel, where we can discuss anything https://discord.gg/Cy9Rmd2.



Regards,

Machal

Bug fixes:

- Shopping Fever quest (2nd from Rupert) Decline option is now removed, because that quest is crucial for Mining tutorial
- Spacebar can now be used for Pausing/Un-pausing the game
- Fresh Start quest should now put only 1 demand and 1 Horeshoe in the inventory and is now re-designed to Craft and Sell 5 items instead
- Bartender menu can now be accessed repeatedly after cancelling Smelter hiring menu
- re-ordering resources by the mouse click now properly orders full amount when it contains multiple batches of deliveries
- removing recipe from Slot 1 caused the game speed to be reset to weird values during runtime

Improvements

- Crafting/Character UI has been scaled down by about 20% to open up some screen space
- Auto Sell now sells items repeatedly, even when the item was not sold successfully in running game