Lol I might keep this as a sort of easter egg. I'll think about it :D

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DedQlOqXUAAK7vg.jpg" style="max-width:100%">

I now have all the skills icons! 77 in total of which 40 brand new (but probably I'll add more as I develop the game for the enemy skills).

As you can see Tom Shatz is the last hope of humanity

(let's hope not lol)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dev8ZgwWsAA7Oec.jpg" style="max-width:100%"> https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dev8ZgtXUAA8246.jpg" style="max-width:100%">

today got some art for the crafting part. I'm not going to reuse Amber's system since it's way too complex for my needs (also the resulting items aren't compatible with this framework ).

In practice you'll be able to use resources you collect in the map to craft randomized items (weapons, armors). I think should be fun

Randomized =/= fun. Reload, reload, reload, reload, ok I'll take that one. Fun.



(Yeah, yeah, I'm being negative.)

I know, I think I will have some fixed values while crafting though. In practice each item has a "key" value: for weapon is damage, for armor is defense.

Then the randomization will affect other stats (magazine size, speed, etc).

But if you craft a 50 dmg item, will be 50 dmg item. This way should reduce the save-scumming. Or if you have a better idea, I'm all ears

How many items are you planning to allow us to craft?



What some games do, and you might consider, is when crafting is secondary, the crafted items have fixed stats. So you just have to go out and collect the materials for whichever items you want. But they're also not the best items (because they're guaranteed). Maybe they're 80% as good as the best items, so you're encouraged to do other content for the best stuff but have a fallback if you have had poor luck or need some immediate upgrades.

I don't know yet - I was planning to allow unlimited crafting as long as you had resources. Like:

for a weapon level 1 - 1 resource (of certain type)

and so on until level cap.

However, since now I know this framework very well, I could also not do crafting but use resources to make your existing items more powerful.

Or do both things if I really want to go nuts



I like your suggestion, even if (personally) I like when there's a bit of randomness involved. But depends on people's tastes I guess. On the other hand, since the looted items and the shop ones will be randomized like SOTW, I guess I could have fixed items for crafting, would probably make sense.

Personally, I'd probably limit the amount of items that can be crafted, so you have to choose who to craft for, and what items you'd like to specialize in, but those items have legendary stats.

Yes the main problem is that since the items have a level like SOTW, you could craft a level 10 legendary but that after you level up 3-4 times become obsolete (well not weak but not legendary anymore). This is a general problem with this kind of approach though (randomized items). The obvious solution would be to have those legendary weapons auto-level up as your character levels up, or as I mentioned before, the possibility to upgrade them still using resources.

As usual the best is to do some experiments and see how it works

I like your suggestion, even if (personally) I like when there's a bit of randomness involved. But depends on people's tastes I guess. On the other hand, since the looted items and the shop ones will be randomized like SOTW, I guess I could have fixed items for crafting, would probably make sense.

It kinda depends on the setup, hence my original question on how big the crafting component is intended to be.



The random item stats thing works when resources are plentiful and easy to get with some time investment. WoW's crafted items have random secondary stats, so if I don't like my roll, I can go farm more. Though if it's too random, this gets really annoying because after the fifth junk craft in a row, people tend to give up on the system and assume it won't be worth the time investment.



You could take the alternative approach and offer super fixed stat weapons. Then have the materials to upgrade them drop (guaranteed drop) on certain key missions throughout the game. That way you know "before x point the player won't have this weapon". Could even be tied into the character side missions.



But if resources are scarce (and there have been a finite number of possible combat missions in most WW games), I'm not sure the random idea works so well. Then you're essentially encouraged to save scum until you get the best result, at which point, might as well give the player the best result to begin with. The mixed approach I initially talked about allows you to craft good weapons, but not the best. And the random part is potentially getting a better weapon from missions and combat.



The difference is random stats on crafted gear feels like a penalty ("wow, I wasted all those mats for that crappy item") whereas a random upgrade often feels like a bonus.

The difference is random stats on crafted gear feels like a penalty ("wow, I wasted all those mats for that crappy item") whereas a random upgrade often feels like a bonus.

Indeed, since you have to do the fights anyway, so the items you get on the loot are like "bonus items".

The resources will work this way: during map exploration there will be some "resource nodes" which produce a certain kind of resource (food, water, energy, etc). Initially I wanted that to be just a goal for the colony survival, but then I also thought to make use of the resources to do some limited crafting.

Once you capture a node the resources keep producing each game turn/day. So in theory the resources is unlimited, but you don't have unlimited turns (after a certain X days the plot will advance).



Anyway I think will do as you suggested so the weapons produced will have fixed stats, maybe some randomized secondary ones, or depending what you mix in it. For example:

50 metal scraps + 25 toxic waste = 1 acid weapon with 50 dmg

50 metal scraps + 25 gharl stones = 1 energy weapon with 50 dmg

and so on, this way the randomness is very reduced, maybe just magazine size and reload but are secondary values and in any case are variations of a base value. For example sniper rifles have usually smaller magazine size than a SMG, so even randomizing those values you will never get a sniiper rifle with 50 bullets or a SMG with 5 bullets



Then also allow players to upgrade the weapons without spending all the resources again. For example the item above could be upgraded with only 5 metal scraps + 2 toxic waste and so on. I think this will be the best system

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/De_OLjmXUAA5UQn.jpg" style="max-width:100%">

just so that people playing only for the male characters know, in this game there's something for them as well as you can see from the image above

Oh, that's nice of you to put a lorem ipsum easter egg in a CG scene for your players.

Haha I forgot to change the placeholder texts! The other people were probably too distracted to notice

Battlechasers: Nightwar had crafting system where you can use less or greater than the required item. Having the suggested items and quanitity guarantees means there is 100% the item will be crafted. If you are short on ingredients or just plain cheap, you can attempt crafting with fewer/missing ingredients, but there is a chance that crafting will fail...and that fact the game autosaves makes it even more of a gamble. Valuable (but usually rare) ingredients contribute much more to the success percentage than common, low-value items. On the other hand, adding more ingredients than what is required will increase the chances of a better quality item. Every 100% (up to 300%) guarantees a higher-tiered item with better stat ranges than their common counterparts.

Yes I wouldn't want to use autosave though. It's a very bad practice, if you just have one save slot and that becomes corrupted... bad idea

Thing is I had already two skills related to crafting:

Crafting I -Increases chances of get higher quality crafted items by 2% (cumulative).

Research I - Reduces amount of resources needed for crafting by 1% (cumulative).

and of course levels up to 5 for each one. For Research is not a problem if I decide to go fixed item route, for the first one... well I guess I could always have a fixed base item and then increase stats depending on that crafting level.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DfEx77EW0AAgQJV.jpg" style="max-width:100%">

trying giant enemies but I already knew that was working from Cursed Lands

I am also trying to find another style for the damage preview. I know that is comic style and the game is sci-fi, so not sure if it's a good match or not?

Unfortunately, since this is the only use for the comic-style bubble thus far, it doesn't blend well with the rest of the text displays. How about a target reticle of sorts with the damage range, hit percentages, and and other information? For examples, 1st-person perspectives from Terminator and Robocop.



Radial menus (perhaps just for targetting enemies) would be nice, although I'm not sure if it would be more difficult to implement.

Yes radial menu are a pain

I guess I'll ask the artist to come up with a target GUI since I agree that this one doesn't blend well with the sci-fi theme.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DfVCbbyXcAAk9mf.jpg" style="max-width:100%">

the targeting / dmg preview GUI now looks more sci-fi. I have added some animations but I've been careful to not delay the resposivity (I made some tests and even if I could add some nice fading effects players will want to see the damage info immediately).