Yep ... she's currently got a long dagger. I could just leave the dagger in her hand. It would just look a little odd when she's shooting her bow because she'll be drawing the bow string back with a dagger in the hand. I guess that could be done in real life. That's why I was thinking of attaching the dagger on her wrist as some kind of wolverine-style hand blade. Got the new graphics of the Samurai done today. Going to go with replacing his bow attacks with a magical energy from his sword. What kind of projectile should his sword emit ... perhaps wind like a mini tornado or perhaps I could give him an ice theme? Have the Samurai shoot out ice bolts and perhaps give him some ice-themed abilities (freezing enemies, etc.). Kind of like a Samurai version of Sub Zero from Mortal Kombat?
the wristblade is also a good idea for the ranger, better if she is going to have it on at all times. for the samurai, virtually anything goes: from ice, fire, wind, to debuffing ray attacks that harm the fighting spirit of the enemy (minus stats, mana etc) So look at the other characters, see what you have less off, and add it to the samurai ranged attack. The only thing that doesn't go is poison / tricky stuff that go with the assassin.
Cool ... I think I'll go with frost as the main theme for the Samurai. The Storm Seer already has wind, the Pyromancer has fire, the Stone Priest has earth so ice effects are really the only unclaimed element. So in the end, he'll be like a melee-oriented mage ... a bit like the Elf Paladin but with an actual missile attack, less armour and with the ability to freeze his enemies.
Just throwing out an idea for the Ranger Blade. When I Played DnD, I had a long dagger in a mechanical "scabbard" strapped to my forearm. It would "snap" out into my hand when needed, almost like the Hidden Blade from Assassin's Creed, except it would not stay attached to the wrist scabbard. Maybe something like that would work? Or, maybe a scabbard built into the arm guard that the ranger wears. The hilt of the sword would be at the hand, with the sword running up the arm. After firing the bow, the ranger could draw and be ready to fight and still hold the bow with the other hand. Just a thought. Glenn
Somewhat similar ... I'd say my game is a bit darker and characters are slightly less cartoony. I'm going to actually lighten my game up a bit so in the end, they'll probably look even more similar.
Thanks for the ideas. I'll see what I can do. In the end, I'd like to avoid adding new code at the moment because it's risky to do so at this stage. I made what I thought was a trivial change and it ended up breaking all kinds of things when I got to testing and cost me several weeks of time to find and fix the issue. I may just go with attaching the blade at her wrist or having her hold it in her off hand while using the bow with the other hand.
Okay gents and gals, Here are some more WIP shots to check out. Here's that level I made earlier but now fully populated. This is the first encounter of quest 5 of Chapter 1 ... something not in the current playtest build. It is a 3 way battle between goblins (in the center), undead and Ratmen (coming in from the top). Mega Battle by raj_dhillon, on Flickr This level is the first to have 4 factions fighting simultaneously ... 3 AI factions all at each other's throats and the players faction that is thrown into the chaos. It also introduces two new units ... the Massive River Trolls, which are huge brutes with a long range and the ability to regenerate lots of health each turn, and the Veteran Ratkin warriors (black furred warriors with blue steel weapons / shields). Also, as promised, here is a close up of the new Samurai. He's gotten some realy cool blue / purple armour as well as a fancy new hat. Samurai Promo by raj_dhillon, on Flickr
I certainly understand that. Just giving my 2 cents. Well, the game looks awesome! Looking forward to getting it!
Thanks ... I really do appreciate your feedback and input. Several really great changes to this game have come from this forum. Quick progress report. I have completed 3 more levels of quest 5 of chapter 1. So only one more level and I think the core quests of chapter 1 will be done. I think I'm going to then focus on characters, voices, sounds and general refinements and get it out for release. I don't think I'll add any more levels but instead go with more levels in chapter 2 and 3 as free updates. The game will then launch with a story mode that will initially 25 levels. Here is a screenshot of the level I just finished. It's a really tough one as players have to navigate a zig zag chamber while under fire from a lot of ratmen gunners and shanans. big battle 2 by raj_dhillon, on Flickr
well, i don't know how it actually is ingame, maybe some beta tester can say, but from these screenshots it looks like the different lighting and colors helped A LOT. now i can clearly see the characters from the background on the last picture! Congratulations Wavelight! oh and spiffy new samurai look
Thanks ... yes, these are with the lighter colour settings. Those settings are just in my development environment. I have to go back and apply them to the earlier levels so this won't be in the playtest release. Will probably work on the Samurai next. Other changes that I'm planning to (hopefully) get to this week include: 1 - Changing the Centaur into a Cleric character. I realized that I don't enough wizards focused on buffing / helping friends so I'm going to make the Centaur a wizard with magic emphasizing nature / light and healing. I'll also give him a couple of centaur-style melee attacks but he'll be primarily a wizard. He will be losing his archer abilities. 2 - Make the Dwarf Stone Priest have a few more aiding / buffing spells than destruction spells. He's starting to feel a bit too much like the Pyromancer so want to distinguish him a bit. 3 - Start work on the Chronomancer.
Here's an early picture of the Chronomancer model that I'll be using. Chronomancer test by raj_dhillon, on Flickr The head of the staff will have some cool spirally, multicoloured special effect on it. Time doesn't really have a colour so I'll probably have his magical missile be some kind of multi-coloured blast.
Can i ask the huge favor to give the chronomancer white-blond hair and have his weapon be a sword through which he casts spells? The spiral staff is great too actually
No, don't change the centaur, change another character. Archery is perfect for the centaur and he's pretty unique already. Change someone else.
I suppose I could make the Centaur the archer / fighter hybrid character instead. I can see him with two curved blades on each wrist and then the bow as well. I already have 2 other archer characters ... it'll be tough to come up with some unique archery abilities. The Golem could also be a buffing character but with earth magic. The Storm Seer could also probably trade in one of her damaging wind spells for a protective buffing spell. Perhaps the best bet is to spread a few more buffing spells to several characters rather than have one dedicated healer / buffing character.
