Well, that’s a lot to have to get used to.
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The way I see it, there are pros and cons to adding a world map.
Pros
- It will add an element of adventuring to the game, which tends to go very well hand in hand with the strong RPG feel it already has.
- If made that way, it could make selecting levels to play easier as you’re not searching through a single list that will, undoubtedly, become fairly long before the final release of the game.
- It provides an opportunity to indulge in world building, which can be quite fun for the developer and the player that loves story elements.
- It provides an opportunity for a “Hub” level to be introduced, where you can manage your party and equipment before heading out, maybe even an entire town eventually, with its own NPCs and side-quests.
Cons
- It will, as you stated, make level design and development take a bit longer, leading to a slight increase in time before version releases.
- It will add a level of complexity to the progression of the game, though not a particularly nasty one.
- It’ll start simple enough, but eventually it can lead to burn out when you eventually have to put more focus on level design over the actual game itself.
I’ll be perfectly frank, you may be better off leaving the game as is for simplicity’s sake. The game works and functions nearly perfectly without a world map. Instead, if you’re looking for story elements, maybe invest in short text-adventure like blurbs between levels or “areas” to provide a feeling of progression. I’d rather have the game as it is now than have you burn out later on because you were forcing yourself to slog through level and map designs.
That said, if you’re dedicated and driven, you could try and take on the task of a world map. Handled wisely it can be a great addition… but is not a project that should be done alone.
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“i’ve been thinking of possibly adding in a world map, with the levels laid out for you to see”
but on a serious note, it does seem interesting, and it could let you do some stuff like branching paths, bonus levels being secret zones, and maybe even warp zones. of course it’s entirely up to you if you want to go through the extra effort of doing all that
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I’m ambivalent on the world map. I think it looks nice, but I don’t really care if it is added or not.
Removing icons for character stats is fine, since said icons are never really ‘matched’ to another mechanic (unlike attack types and flavors).
I like being able to see all of my characters’ stats at a glance in the upgrade screen, so that I can easily see who needs more points at that time. That said, if removing levels and showing actual value is what it takes to get the Speed stat to actually do what it says, then I’m all for it.
One question I would have about a world map would be navigation. As it is now, having to spam the up button to go to earlier levels is a little tedious, but I feel like a world map could either make it better or make it worse. If you have to click on each node to move back up the chain then it would be worse, but if we just click a button to go forward or backward an entire level set then it would be better.
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It has been proposed, yes.
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Yeah there probably should be. I always hate adding confirm dialogs lol
I think I’d like to add a hard mode or something like that at some point
I’ll probably just make the world map scrollable/zoomable and then you can just select whatever level you want. Decoupling the levels from their order will make it easier to navigate
I don’t think extraction needs a confirm, considering how easy it is to get another extraction if you accidentally use it on the wrong character.
Reset, on the other hand, can all but brick the game if you do it wrong, so I definitely agree with a confim dialog on that.
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Unless this was already the idea, I think a way to cut down on the work that would have to be put in for the map art and icons and perhaps maybe even help keep the map from getting to excessively long in the future would be to have icons for entire dungeons, and when you click on the dungeon it brings up the list of missions that dungeon has. For Example:
Perhaps there is a location named Grape Grove (or Grape Underground, or something). If you were to click on the icon that resembles this location, instead of taking you straight to a single mission, instead a list of missions will pop up on the right of the screen (or wherever you feel), with the first mission being accessible while the other missions are locked until the previous missions are beaten.
This will allow you to spend less time extending out the map with so many extra icons, and if there are to be a large variety of missions in the future, it will help keep the map from either getting too large or too cluttered with a variety of icons. This will also allow you to make the icons more “personalized” to truly define the location they’re supposed to represent without having to worry about doing the same for too many more or worry about the icon for more mundane levels. This might also leave the map more open for dungeons to branch out to other dungeons, creating perhaps more player choice as to which set of missions to tackle next. This also hopefully would result in lower risk of burnout and planning that Svenn mentioned would be a risk, as well as maybe the time (unless it is equally as time consuming to code this every time).
Either way, I love the idea of the map as it adds a more visual component to the levels that I feel the game might have been missing. It would also make such a long list of missions a heck of a lot nicer to look at, too. Whatever your choice is cool, seeing how capable you seem to be at developing appealing UI, I’m sure you’ll even make just a long line of boxes look cool if that’s what you go with. Good luck and keep up the good work!
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just reading this makes me think :
this will become a giant game when its version 1.0.0
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This is a pretty good idea!
It will probably end up pretty sizable
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Here’s the changes from the feedback! The level list and part select panels were pretty well received, but there were some issues with the level up interface.
The stats now have icons, as well as text including their level and their derived stats. The cost of level up has been moved to one location, as opposed to being duplicated four times. The reset button has an appearance unique from the extract button. I also added a confirm dialog for resetting!
Here’s what I’m thinking about:
- Are the new stat icons clear?
- Is there too much text crammed together on the level up screen?
- Is the reset button clear enough from the extract button?
Please let me know what you think!
ALSO! All patrons can vote on the world map here:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/world-map-poll-39114313
14 Likes
So, I’ve done some testing, and I can’t help but wonder if the way undigested fullness is treated at the end of a level is causing problems.
I ran both the Witch and the Illusionist through CfH, both with a high metabolism, and only used the Bard to reset weight and buff damage after all fullness was digested. One would expect that, due to having an extra damage type that is found in CfH, that the Illusionist would have more weight at the end (since max fullness from a single enemy is the sum of all health types matching the attacker, assuming enough damage is dealt to one-shot all of those damage types with that character), and that the Witch would have less. However, the opposite was true. The Witch had more weight at the end, despite being short a damage type.
The only difference I could find between the two runs was that the Witch had less fullness leftover at the end of mission screen. More specifically, the Witch had all of her fullness removed during the end of mission screen, before the time bonus multiplier was applied. The Illusionist, on the other hand, still had a fair bit of fullness left undigested when the multiplier was applied.
From what I can tell, extra fullness at the end of a mission is handled by greatly accelerating the time scale before slowing it back to normal and then applying the bonus. This can be seen in the fact that the character’s cooldown is also accelerated at this time. However, this seems to be a set period of time, which the Illusionist regularly exceeds due to her tendency to wipe the final screen in one attack, leading to having several thousand fullness at the end-of-mission screen.
My proposed solution would be one of two things:
- At the end of the mission, stop the timescale entirely and have the code read the fullness number and add it to weight, bypassing metabolism entirely, or
- Make the accelerated timescale continue, and time multipliers not apply, until all fullness is digested, at which point the timescale retuns to normal and the multiplier is applied.
If there is another reason this might be happening, I am open to being told why, but as far as I can see, the Illusionist should be getting more weight out of CfH that the Witch, assuming both are one-shotting all enemies.
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Also:
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It’s actually not because of the whole problem with the end of level fullness. I did my own testing with CfH and the only reason Witch gets more than Illusionist is because of her affinity for sweets.
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AFAIK affinity just doubles damage on those enemies, but I can test for that.
EDIT: Tested with the Witch, and then with the Illusionist + Syrup. Same results as before.
So I’m pretty sure the flavor isn’t the problem.
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For now I just going to fix the leftover fullness for the Ilusionist, and see if issues continue to persist.
Also the poll is overwhelmingly in favor of adding the world map
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I’ve been experiencing this glitch as well, and it seems to happen when illusionist has a very low capacity stat
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on the topic of the capacity stat, i believe that when you have a high metabolism the capacity serves less of a purpose, you k.o. when you eat past your maximum capacity, but if you have high metabolism your k.o. status will clear very easily which leaves the capacity stat in an underwhelming state, if you can, is it possible to find a way to make capacity useful?
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hey i had an idea for potential new characters
druid
made as a supportive class to provide support while the bard is struggling, can also fight back
catagorey: supportive (like the preist and bard)
vampire
made to use the new weight drain mechanic in a beneficail way. say the team is gaining too much weight then the vampire could directly take the weight off (a possible formula: S= strength, R= result and W= weight)
formula for vampire
W-R=(S*10)
thank you for your time
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The way I see it, capacity and metabolism largely serve the same purpose. The decision point is whether you want to see the characters stuffed or fat more
I like these! Centaurs and vampires are pretty cool. Character designs can be submitted by Legendary Tier Patrons on the patreon
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