May has been an interesting month for the development of Pale Coins.
As I've received great feedback lately about the current state of the game, and several ideas on how to improve the gameplay and items, I decided to add new mechanics, as well as change existing mechanics.
Improved Exploration
Exploration is key in Pale Coins, therefore you may want to search every corner of a map to find new gear, interesting stuff, and special enemies.
However, I had to realise that there was no reason to visit a map multiple times, which ended up making them boring.
[h2]Less map sizes[/h2]
Most map sizes were reduced, to remove unnecessarily long paths to certain destinations. As a side effect, searching for stuff in maps is more efficient and makes it more fun.
[h2]Sprinting[/h2]
Talking about more efficient and more fun: Sprinting is now a thing!
You are now able to move faster by sprinting around the map. It uses stamina, so be careful around enemies, as you may want to have some stamina left to dodge.
[h2]No Enemy Respawn[/h2]
Enemies stay dead per session. As you may visit maps more than once, it sometimes felt tedious to deal with the same enemies over and over again.
This is now changed, as you have to reload the game, to make enemies respawn.
[h2]Elite Enemies[/h2]
You will encounter new enemies which are way stronger than their common variation. These enemies will spawn after certain events in the main story, and will be placed randomly each session.
They also drop rare materials to use later in the game.
[h2]Random item pickups[/h2]
To make exploration more fun, I added new stuff to inspect and loot in the wasteland.
Corpses will spawn randomly per session, which drop gold and sometimes recovery items.
I think they are a great addition and want to add them to other areas as well in the future.
Items
I've been thinking a lot about items and how to improve them.
[h2]Item Modifications and stats[/h2]
I wanted to make items and their stats more meaningful. I felt like the items were boring, as there was almost no difference besides the damage or the defense.
A friend of mine suggested adding random modification to all items, based on their level. This has the side effect, that you may want to keep low level items with certain modifications, as they may give a buff to a build you are trying to make.
Also, I removed the resistances of common items, so you are more dependent on the item modifications.
[h2]Dodge / Block mechanics[/h2]
The overall speed of the gameplay increased by adding sprinting and having smaller maps. I want to add more speed and variation to the combat as well, so I figured to add default dodge mechanics.
I started with a short backstep on greatswords. This one has few iframes, but is sufficient to gain distance and eventually dodge an attack.
Following this, I want to add a block mechanic and shields, so that one-handed weapons are no longer inferior to two-handed weapons.
Academy
Progress was made in the academy region as well. All buildings are placed and a few NPCs have been added already.
One of my new favourite NPCs is working hard in the academy. He is a winemaker and has a lot of wine to taste.
UI Overhaul
I had some spare time and decided to update most of the UI elements. A new font was introduced as well, as the previous font was hard to read at times.
That's all for now.
Make sure to wishlist Pale Coins and support the development.
Thank you so much and have a great day,
Lukas
