FRIDAY DISCUSSIONS #04 - The Approach Of War

Hello everyone, This week has mostly been planning and testing how certain systems will work. Namely a new troop death system and damage infliction system. It's been hard work but I have things laid out in a way that should be able to be coded pretty soon.

The rest of the week was spent working on a new part of the battle system... The Approach!

It's still uncomplete, but the approach is a new part of the battle, now before a battle happens you have an approach screen, the moment which the armies clash. Here you get a dynamic image and text based on your troops morale, the weather, and how many of them there are. Then a random event based roughly on the weather, your general's skill and so on that decide how the armies clash.

Perhaps in the moment the armies clash your men are outwitted by the enemy into charging into a trap, or perhaps your 190 battlescore general pulls off an outstanding move and starts the battle off with a wave of enemy kills.

The Approach system is the first thing I've actually programmed for the combat update so far and as a result a lot of connected systems such as the weather system and the death system have needed to be planned or even slightly coded.



Currently for the approach system I have coded a concept for battle weather. The Weather will work in a number of different ways. Before a battle generals will have a chance to try for better weather but when being attacked it's up to the opposing side and you have no choice.

These are the following weather conditions included in the Approach system (each with 3 unique graphics)

* Sunny
* Sunset
* Cloudy
* Partly Cloudy
* Rainy
* Stormy
* Windy
* Foggy
* Snowy
* Night Rain
* Night Full Moon
* Night Half Moon
* Night Cloudy
* Night Snowy
* Night Stormy
* Night Windy
* Night Foggy

Each of these will work in different ways and will unlock specific battle events and possible introductions to battle.

Beyond simple aesthetic changes I would also like to have these weathers effect certain races, Ideally 'Sunset Elves' would do double damage if fighting in the Sunset. 'Lunar Dwarves' would be tougher under a full moon, 'Snow Trolls' would be more effective during snow, and so on!

I think this would add a whole new level of strategy and would also make the independent races more in tune with the world they live in and would give them their much needed racial weather and environment bonuses.

And because flexing dumb numbers is fun, with the 51 different weather graphics and 3 unique texts per weather type (153 different weather text and graphic combos), and the 20 different opponent meeting texts, 10 different troop graphics, 24 different morale based texts and 35 current random battle start events. There are currently 25 million possible introductory battle screens!

I know this is a small part of the combat system, just the moment the troops clash, but this should show just how much detail is planned to go into the whole combat update, it's going to be random and filled with content!

Thanks for reading!



Here's some of the WIP screens





















Here is a little breakdown of what is different on each screenshot