In Development - Skills and Combat
Following up on the Roadmap I posted last week, I wanted to give an update with some more details about new skills system and combat update.
The skills system will be expanded from 9 unique skills to 21 unique skills, with many of these having improved versions, for a total of 54. Below is the work in progress for the new skills UI.
(click to see full size)
In this first shot, the player has unlocked all of the skills. Each skill requires 1 skill point and any tiered skill will also need the previous skill to be unlocked first. Note in the actual implementation, you may not be able to get 54 skill points and unlock everything. More likely it'll be around 30-35 or so. The Trainer building will continue to allow you to respect your points.
Skill tiers are unlocked based on the number of houses in your town. I may change this to include buildings, but I think houses is super clear whereas buildings would mean only certain structures, since things like walls and decor structures wouldn't count. I really like the idea of unlocking tiers being tied to your town while actually getting skills is mostly tied to adventuring, although you do get skill points for building structures too.
(click to see full size)
In the above shot, the player has unlocked tiers 1 and 2 and has purchased a few skills while others are unlocked, but not purchased yet.
Gaining skill points will work as it does now, with points being awarded for completing quests, destroying monster camps, helping NPCs, and building structures.
The planned skills are:
(Skills with a * are active, others are passive.) (Skills that have multiple levels are marked with a +)
Attack Kick* - same as current
+Power Attack* - same as current, different for each weapon type
+Dash Attack* - same as current
+Power Recover - decreases the cooldown between being able to do a special attack
Shield Break* - destroy the shield of a monster, if monster has no shield, lowers its defense (more damage on subsequent attacks)
+Lightning* - special attack unlocked during the new quest, short range attack that does damage to all nearby enemies and has chance to knock them down
Confuse* - reduces how often a monster attacks and can interrupt mages from casting, also removes any buffs a monster has
+Killing Blow - chance to immediately give you back all stamina and reset the special attack cool down when you kill a monster, might also heal you slightly at tier III
Defense
+Block Stamina - reduces stamina use from blocking
+Roll Stamina - reduces stamina use from rolling
+Tough Skin - reduces damage taken form melee
+Spell Resist - reduces damage from magic
Shield Bash* - same as current, knock a monster down after blocking its attack, can also remove buffs
+Second Wind - chance to not die if reduced to 0 health, gives you 1/4 health instead, may also immediately give you back stamina and recharge your special attack timer
+Nimble - reduces how long you are knocked down
Block Stun - chance to stun a monster when you block their attack, if stunned the monster will take more damage from your next attack
Adventure
+Lumberjack - chance to get extra logs when chopping down a tree
+Stonecutter - chance to get extra stone when hitting rocks
+Run Speed - slight run speed increase
+Luck - chance to get extra resources from treasure chests and from resource gathering
+Riches - chance to get extra gold from treasure chests
+Inspiring - increases overall mood of town
With these updates to skills, combat will also get a refresher. Most notably for the character, stamina will become a slightly more important part of combat. The refresh timer for special attacks will increase a bit, but will also recharge faster the more you hit with your regular attack. I'm also going to be adding an effect on your character letting you know your special attack timer is recharged.
The New Lightning Attack
Monster AI will also get some updates. Some monsters will get shields that they can use to block your attack. If a monster goes into a block stance, it might remain blocking until you let up your attack or it may block and then immediately counter attack. The counter attack would be a special attack doing more damage and possibility having other effects. Monsters will not be able to block your special attacks, just as you cannot block many of their special attacks.
Mages will gain the ability to buff their friends. I was going to add the ability for them to heal as well but honestly I find that kind of annoying so will probably skip it. Buffs can be offensive or defensive and a monster with a buff will have some kind of display letting you know they have it.
Also, because there are seven active attacks, I'm going to be changing how you perform special attacks. This is in the late design phase, so it might change, and I will start working on it soon.
Kick, Shield Bash, and Dash Attack will all be on the F key.
These are context based, so a Dash Attack will occur if you have the skill and the monster is out of melee range. A Shield Bash will occur if you have the skill and just blocked an attack. And if you are in melee range and didn't block, your character will kick. Kick will be the first skill you unlock during the tutorial.
The other attacks (Power Attack, Confuse, Lightning, and Shield Break) are used with the R key.
Pressing R will bring up a radial menu displaying the attack skills you can use. While this menu is open, time is slowed way down giving you a chance to pick the attack skill. You will pick the attack using WASD or arrow keys, or the d-pad on controller. Once you get used to where each skill is in the menu you'll be able to quickly press R then W to perform the power attack for example. Below are a couple of quick mock-ups of this, one where the other UI remains and another that turns off the other UI when the special attack UI is up so it's easier to focus on it.
These images show the UI for a controller. Keyboard will display arrow keys and WASD.
(click to see full size)
(click to see full size)
If you don't have an attack skill unlocked it won't appear as an option.
I don't want you to have to remember seven different keys to perform the attacks and I think this interface will be way easier to use while also being equally friendly for keyboard and controller users. I'm going to play around with this as well as the position of the UI - and of course, once it's available to test I would love your feedback on it! I also might change the names of some of the skills.
The new content and the skill and combat updates are the two biggest items on my plate as we head towards a 1.0 launch. All of these updates will be placed on the test branch for you to check out along with the new content as I work on them.
Feedback and comments are always welcome!
-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
[email protected]
The skills system will be expanded from 9 unique skills to 21 unique skills, with many of these having improved versions, for a total of 54. Below is the work in progress for the new skills UI.

In this first shot, the player has unlocked all of the skills. Each skill requires 1 skill point and any tiered skill will also need the previous skill to be unlocked first. Note in the actual implementation, you may not be able to get 54 skill points and unlock everything. More likely it'll be around 30-35 or so. The Trainer building will continue to allow you to respect your points.
Skill tiers are unlocked based on the number of houses in your town. I may change this to include buildings, but I think houses is super clear whereas buildings would mean only certain structures, since things like walls and decor structures wouldn't count. I really like the idea of unlocking tiers being tied to your town while actually getting skills is mostly tied to adventuring, although you do get skill points for building structures too.

In the above shot, the player has unlocked tiers 1 and 2 and has purchased a few skills while others are unlocked, but not purchased yet.
Gaining skill points will work as it does now, with points being awarded for completing quests, destroying monster camps, helping NPCs, and building structures.
The planned skills are:
(Skills with a * are active, others are passive.) (Skills that have multiple levels are marked with a +)
Attack Kick* - same as current
+Power Attack* - same as current, different for each weapon type
+Dash Attack* - same as current
+Power Recover - decreases the cooldown between being able to do a special attack
Shield Break* - destroy the shield of a monster, if monster has no shield, lowers its defense (more damage on subsequent attacks)
+Lightning* - special attack unlocked during the new quest, short range attack that does damage to all nearby enemies and has chance to knock them down
Confuse* - reduces how often a monster attacks and can interrupt mages from casting, also removes any buffs a monster has
+Killing Blow - chance to immediately give you back all stamina and reset the special attack cool down when you kill a monster, might also heal you slightly at tier III
Defense
+Block Stamina - reduces stamina use from blocking
+Roll Stamina - reduces stamina use from rolling
+Tough Skin - reduces damage taken form melee
+Spell Resist - reduces damage from magic
Shield Bash* - same as current, knock a monster down after blocking its attack, can also remove buffs
+Second Wind - chance to not die if reduced to 0 health, gives you 1/4 health instead, may also immediately give you back stamina and recharge your special attack timer
+Nimble - reduces how long you are knocked down
Block Stun - chance to stun a monster when you block their attack, if stunned the monster will take more damage from your next attack
Adventure
+Lumberjack - chance to get extra logs when chopping down a tree
+Stonecutter - chance to get extra stone when hitting rocks
+Run Speed - slight run speed increase
+Luck - chance to get extra resources from treasure chests and from resource gathering
+Riches - chance to get extra gold from treasure chests
+Inspiring - increases overall mood of town
With these updates to skills, combat will also get a refresher. Most notably for the character, stamina will become a slightly more important part of combat. The refresh timer for special attacks will increase a bit, but will also recharge faster the more you hit with your regular attack. I'm also going to be adding an effect on your character letting you know your special attack timer is recharged.
The New Lightning Attack

Monster AI will also get some updates. Some monsters will get shields that they can use to block your attack. If a monster goes into a block stance, it might remain blocking until you let up your attack or it may block and then immediately counter attack. The counter attack would be a special attack doing more damage and possibility having other effects. Monsters will not be able to block your special attacks, just as you cannot block many of their special attacks.
Mages will gain the ability to buff their friends. I was going to add the ability for them to heal as well but honestly I find that kind of annoying so will probably skip it. Buffs can be offensive or defensive and a monster with a buff will have some kind of display letting you know they have it.
Also, because there are seven active attacks, I'm going to be changing how you perform special attacks. This is in the late design phase, so it might change, and I will start working on it soon.
Kick, Shield Bash, and Dash Attack will all be on the F key.
These are context based, so a Dash Attack will occur if you have the skill and the monster is out of melee range. A Shield Bash will occur if you have the skill and just blocked an attack. And if you are in melee range and didn't block, your character will kick. Kick will be the first skill you unlock during the tutorial.
The other attacks (Power Attack, Confuse, Lightning, and Shield Break) are used with the R key.
Pressing R will bring up a radial menu displaying the attack skills you can use. While this menu is open, time is slowed way down giving you a chance to pick the attack skill. You will pick the attack using WASD or arrow keys, or the d-pad on controller. Once you get used to where each skill is in the menu you'll be able to quickly press R then W to perform the power attack for example. Below are a couple of quick mock-ups of this, one where the other UI remains and another that turns off the other UI when the special attack UI is up so it's easier to focus on it.
These images show the UI for a controller. Keyboard will display arrow keys and WASD.


If you don't have an attack skill unlocked it won't appear as an option.
I don't want you to have to remember seven different keys to perform the attacks and I think this interface will be way easier to use while also being equally friendly for keyboard and controller users. I'm going to play around with this as well as the position of the UI - and of course, once it's available to test I would love your feedback on it! I also might change the names of some of the skills.
The new content and the skill and combat updates are the two biggest items on my plate as we head towards a 1.0 launch. All of these updates will be placed on the test branch for you to check out along with the new content as I work on them.
Feedback and comments are always welcome!
-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
[email protected]
- My Twitter: https://twitter.com/SuperSixStudios
- Discord Channel: discord.gg/soedesco