Hey guys .... going to try and push out an updated playtest build tomorrow. It will have the new morale / courage rules as well as some GUI fixes and finally has a workaround for the crash bugs. The workaround seems to work as I haven't run into any today or yesterday.
Hey guys ... added the possibility of units to go berserk when they panic. Also added courage from nearby allies as well as much higher liklihood of panicking if under half and under quarter of max life. Everything is working really nicely. Huge improvement. Going to add a to hit penalty to units that go berserk. Also, I made each unit have its own chance of going berserk. Berserker and more feral creatures are much more likely than a human wizard, for example.
@Wavelight No worries, I won't bother with the text and just focus on gaming elements. By the way I wanted to make mention about the shop and items. I've been playing roulette with the shop cycling out parts until I roll cheaper items but with the same stat in the same slots. At the same time it puzzles me as to why there's such a price difference between some items of those with the same stats and how much more expensive something can be if it has a point or 2 more stat points. Just something I've been wondering about. At the moment I'm just waiting rot he new build since I'm crashing again and in bigger missions it's a turn off. I'm up to the Hydra boss at the moment.
@Dunan: I think every item has a base price, and then extra gets stacked on top of it for the modifiers. So if you are unlucky, you get, say, a level 90 book in awesome condition that clocks in at 50k base price. It gets +1 attack/round which adds another 5k to the price. The same +1 att/r on a "crappy quality book lvl 50" would cost you a lot less, because the base item only costs e.g. 10k. At the moment, I am not sure if item quality and level actually does anything, except raising the price. I do have the impression that higher quality & level items have a much higher chance to have bigger bonuses and more of them, too (like 3 bonuses instead of only 1) . Shop roulette: Would be nice to have a "Show me new stock" button in the Shop, to save on the "leave shop, quit to menu, reload, visit shop again" routine, which gets annoying pretty fast. Also, currently it takes 3 clicks to get into the shop (menu button. "visit shop", click away the hello message, then click "buy/sell" button) . Steps 2 & 3 are very much redundant and could be removed IMO.
So this brings to question, what's the point of an item level if there's no restriction other than raising the price in the shop from both a buying and selling perspective and that it's totally random when they're acquired?
Is this for both your units and the enemy? And why not the possibility of something like "resolve"' where the opposite happens, you fight harder with bonuses? Sometimes people fight harder near death.
The item level and Quality has a multiplier effect on both cost and item stats. So if you have a base item that gives +5 AP Regeneration, a level 5 Worn item might give +1 AP regeneration and a level 50 Epic item might give +25 AP regeneration, for example. It's not a perfect system since you can sometimes get a similar stat boost for less. However, that's life in a way ... a Rolex and a Casio will still both tell you the time just as well. The Rolex will just look cooler doing it.
The reason I have the extra clicks is just so I can add more functionality to the blacksmith such as Improving items and such. I also might add a couple of social sharing buttons on this screen that give you free gold for sharing on Twitter or something. A "Show new stock" button should be easy enough to implement. I'll put that on the list.
Hear hear! Social sharing... Barf! Thanks! Think you could make the shop welcome message not pop up after the first time you see it? That would already streamline it a bit.
Yep ... both player and enemy characters. The "resolve" is a bit like the Berserk option. Here's how the Morale system works currently: Units with enemy test in base contact test for morale at the start of each turn. Each unit has a base Courage / Discipline value (perhaps Resolve is a better word?). They first receive a bonus to this value based on all adjacent friendly units ... those friendly units give half of their courage value to that unit. Therefore, being surrounded by friends makes you a lot braver .. especially friend that are brave themselves. If you are below half your max life, your accumulated courage is cut in half. If you're below one quarter max life, your accumulated courage is cut in half again. Those that are on the brink of death generally have self preservation on their mind. Now each unit deducts from their accumulated courage an intimidation factor based on adjacent enemies. So being surrounded by enemies is bad for you and will cause you to panic. Each unit has an intimidation stat along with their courage stat that measures how scary they are to the enemy. The system then deducts total accumulated intimidation from total accumulated courage to arrive at your final courage. Then it compares this to a random number and if that random number is below the courage, the unit passes the test and if not ... it fails it. Now if you fail the test, there are currently two possibilities: 1) The unit panics and loses all AP. It will also receive some other penalty ... likely a negative to its attack % chance to hit. I might add an increase in % chance to dodge since it might be focussing its energy on defending itself rather than attacking. Not really sure here. 2) The unit fights harder and goes berserk. It gains an extra attack for that turn. I may also add a negative modifier on the hit chance of those attacks since it's lashing out in desperation and really not taking the time to strike properly. It also loses all AP. No AP is regenerated by the unit in any turn it fails morale. It is essentially not fighting intelligently this turn and not listening to orders. Instead, it's just reverting to a fight or flee instinctual response. I might add some more options or types of behaviour for when a unit panics. Also, I'm probably going to add things like a reduction in all player unit morale on the turn that new enemies appear on the map. The arrival of reinforcements is going to affect morale of the party members. Tell me what you guys think. I am loving it so far ... it adds a lot of tactical depth and it does away with some of the bugs and clunky / confusing aspects of the old pinning system.
Hey guys, I think I added everyone that asked for play testing. I may have missed someone since my inbox got flooded with requests yesterday. So if you don't get an invite, just wait a day or two and remind me. Will hopefully upload the next version today. Just want to tweak the morale system a bit more as well. Still no crashes on my end with the new version ... really hoped that workaround worked.
@wavelight Ah ok, no worries. Well I'll wait patiently for the next revision. With way I'm setting up my party at the moment, I'm basically using my archer loaded with +attack items to pick off mages and ranged units where I can. Also working on whittling down big Hp targets. Crit % is fairly decent so it's ripping through with raw damage at the moment. Not sure what'll happen when the morale system is in. Need to see it in practice.
Cool ... a big element of the morale system will really kick in when more AI units have abilities assigned to them. Right now, it's mostly a penalty for the player characters. However, enemy archers will soon have buffs that they can apply to themselves (Called Shot, Special Arrows, etc.), enemy wizards will have more spells and so forth. Then sneaking in one of your fighters into a mass of enemy archers or mages is going to pay off massively.
I'm actually planning to have the shop keeper say different stuff depending on which day / quest you're on. I figured it would be a nice way to add ambiance. Probably the first time you start a new quest, he'll say something meaningful and then every subsequent visit in that quest, it'll just say something generic or bland or just skip through it automatically.
Assassin teleport, lalalala... Nice addition, definitely adds flavor. "What, you back again? And all in one piece still? Well well, come take a look at the new batch fresh from the smithy, t'make sure you stay that way."
Yep .. though she's not the only one. The Skeleton Champion has a higher level ability that not only allows it to teleport but also heals himself. And he's ALSO got a really high intimidation value (as opposed to the assassin that doesn't ... since, she just looks like a skinny elf girl to most casual observers). A high-level Skeleton Champion is going to love the new morale system and seems to have already been built around its usage. Happy coincidence.
Tweaked the morale system to now modify morale of all units based on whether new units have entered the battle. So when some new units come into the battle, those units in play that belong to that faction get a morale bonus (25% to accumulated courage) and those that belong to an opposing faction get a morale penalty (-25% to accumulated courage). So the arrival of fresh friends or enemies while a battle is on-going could have a significant impact. Any other ideas on how to tweak the new morale system?
