Update 0.16

Hello Everyone!

Just a little over 4 weeks to go before the Web-Release and things are going pretty well. Slowly trying to get everything polished, all the loose ends sorted out, and generally just adding as much level generation and vault content as possible. The main focus this week was on getting all the non-caster classes 'complete'. I say 'complete' since, as with many things that will be going into the Web-Release this is really just a matter of 'complete' for now. I'm totally expecting to go back over most of this stuff (multiple times I'm sure) throughout early access. So really all I'm shooting for right now is 'good enough'.

I haven't gotten to test all of these changes as much as I'd like as I got kind of side tracked doing a bunch of level generation stuff so I'm not sure how this is all working out. 

BARBARIAN:

• Jump: costs 1 SP
  • I'm experimenting with the idea that all these movement abilities still use the SP system. The idea is that movement abilities should compliment and enhance a SP heavy build rather than reducing the necessity of SPs altogether.
• Jump 10,8CD => 20,15CD
• Blood Lust: Changed to be an activated ability on a 20,15T CD that consumes a blood puddle and gives a brief boost to melee damage.
  
  • The idea is that a melee character can cycle this into his melee routine to keep his damage output high.
  • From my limited testing this is a bit difficult to actually use so might need a more permissive targeting. Maybe you only need to be adjacent to blood?
  • Also has a small heal at Rank-II (similar to Blood-Portal)
• Berserk: changed to an activated ability that raises the players Melee-Damage and Life-Tap
  • At Rank-II the duration is reset on each kill so that an aggressive player can maintain Berserk.

RANGER:

• Sprint: 3,4 tiles orthogonal for 1SP w/ a 20,15T cool down
  • I wanted to give the Ranger something that keeps him clearly the most mobile character even with the addition of all the other mobility talents in the game.
• Testing out a version of Storm Shot that simply fires a single 3 arrow volley with a short cool-down.
  • Trying out the idea that the rangers core kit revolves around quickly cycling his 3 relatively low damage abilities.
  • IMO the lack of an 'oh shit' button is a reasonable 'hole' in the Rangers kit that could be filled with some cross-class talents.

WARRIOR:

• Recovery: resets cool-downs even at Rank-1
• Recovery: gives a lingering Regeneration effect at Rank-2
  • Just trying to make recovery a bit more interesting and useful of an ability.
• Shield Wall: changed to an activated ability that raises the players Block for 10T
  • At Rank-2 the player will Trample enemies on each melee attack allowing him to push enemies around.

DUELIST:

• Disengage has 1CD.
  • At Rank-2 killing blows will reset the cool-down as well as return the SP
• Lunge has 1CD.
  • Converted Lunge to a proper ability
  • At Rank-2 killing blows will reset the cool-down as well as return the SP
    
  • Lunge will find any valid path to the target
    • Previously would fail even if a possible path existed.
  • The hope is that these changes maintain the Duelists mobile playstyle while removing the 'stop time' mechanic where the Duelist can just dump all his SP into a single target.
• Dash Attack: has a flat 1SP cost and 20CD
  • Recovers 1SP per kill and so can be used to recover SPs if used against 2 or more low HP enemies.

ROGUE:

Looking over the talent list. Rogue seems to be basically 'good enough' for Web-Release.

STORM MAGE:

Removed Lightning Storm (for now). This was left in accidently and needs to be reworked next week when I finish up all the casting classes.

LEVEL GENERATION:

• Ended up getting a bit side tracked here when I went to rework the basic Cave-Generator that's used in Upper-Dungeon, Grove, Desert, Swamp, Ice and Core.
• Basically made the caves smaller and denser, in line with all the other new level generators.
• Cave-Generators are also using the more recent changes to Vault-Generation that better controls for the number of vaults, number of Glyph-Rooms and total amount of exp.
• Did a pretty massive overhaul of the Challenge-Vaults for these zones basically merging what was previously a whole bunch of different files. The end result is basically that we should see a much wider variety of vaults in these levels.
• Added a new generator to The-Swamp: The-Fungus-Grove
• Added a new generator to The-Dark-Temple: Study Hall
• Some major reworking of The-Dark-Temple challenge vaults
• Added a few more Zone-Line-Vaults to The-Upper-Dungeon

Generally speaking the Level-Generation is coming along pretty well. There's still a ton of work to do, lots of stuff to move forward from RFIII and lots of new stuff I'd like to get into the Web-Release. Overall though this is progressing at a pace that should let me hit Web-Release with a pretty respectable amount of content all in the new, smaller, tighter, style.

MISC:

• Reduced NPC counts slightly across the whole dungeon and particularly in the earlier levels.
  • Right from some of my earliest design notes the general trend of stronger, more sophisticated enemies is supposed to be balanced with a general reduction in total enemy counts and group sizes.
  • Will continue to fiddle with EXP amounts for leveling to keep the player progressing at roughly the same pace.
  • I'm expecting the game to get longer and more involved during EA and so at this early stage I'd rather the game be a bit to short rather than a bit to long.
• Dark-Elf-Priest: Haste 10CD => 5CD
• Dark-Elf-Priest: Smite 4CD => 3CD
• Arcane-Archer: no Arrow-Storm
• Arcane-Archer: Arcane-Arrow 5CD => 3CD
• Salamander Priest: Smite 4CD => 3CD
• Porecsa-The-High-Priestess: Smite 3CD => 2CD

So overall a pretty productive week. Definitely appreciate feedback on the class balance and any suggestions for minor tweaks and changes. I'm hoping this will generally be 'good enough' though and will only require some minor stat balancing for Web-Release. Next week the plan is to give the remaining 5 casting classes the same treatment and finalize their talent lists. Will also be continuing to push forward on Level-Gen.

 Thank you everyone for your continued support, feedback, suggestions and general enthusiasm. I'm pretty deep in the grinding phase of the project right now and you guys are definitely keeping me motivated for this final push.