Hi everyone,
Just a quick update on this week’s progress:
- Droids now only have one “hand” (To simplify the controls, droids now only hold one item at a time in their hands)
- AI Improvements (Enemies now path around each other, and now have to turn 180 degrees in two steps rather than one)
- Lots of UI work (whole new UI redesign)
- Plugin windows added (Droid plugins will now appear on top of the screen)
- Character creation (Droids insert either blank or pre-generated personality chips)
- Shelves that hold randomly generated items
- Depth of field effects
What’s nextCharacter creationAt the start of the game, you will connect to the droids as they awaken in a closed storage room. On the shelf will be a selection of blank, and randomly pre-generated personality chips. Plugging one into a droid will either prompt you to fill in a name, and assign skill points, or, if using a pre-grenerated chip, will assign the randomly rolled character traits to that droid.
ShopsI’m hoping to add rather “roguelike” shops to the game, where shops occupy a special room and have a shopkeeper who keeps track of what you’re picking up - you can either honestly pay for these items, or attempt to steal/kill the shopkeeper for them.
Enemy designI’ve started putting some thought into new enemies that you might encounter. Some examples are “pit monster”-type creatures that have multiple tentacles that reach out of a hole and roam the corridors - forcing you to fight/sever them, and a “Boomer” type creature that explodes with corrosive gas on death.
PluginsDroids will be able to install plugins that will run a variety of UI programs in the top bar, such as maps, damage meters, pathing, hacking, etc. You will be able to turn these on and off as the need arises, but all plugins consume energy while they are running.
Skill assignmentSkill points will probably be assigned to a variety of “perks” that are all available at any given time, rather than being a tree.
I've also started a blog, here:
http://droidnaught.tumblr.com/