Hey investigators, Just a short work session today as it's the weekend. Chipped away at the large dialogue sequence mentioned in Update #41, as well as some other aspects of the story. Update: I also composed a list of NPC names which are, hopefully, silly* enough not to clash with the players'. Here's a little taster: HTML: Terrance Skidmore Nancy Fipps Ed 'Greasy Spoon' Manter Oscar Coddington Stocky Hudson Perla Carmel 'Thumbs' Tellerson And of course: Bodkins, Jenny-Rolls and Goosey. Today's progress: - (Major scene) Filled in some missing branches. Restructured the cutscenes slightly. - 5 short in-game books created (related to the main story, but not essential). - 3 new NPC encounters. - NPC names. - Some character and story development for the later parts of the game. Thanks for reading! * No offence intended to the Oscar Coddingtons of the world.
Jenny-Rolls and Skidmore. Heh. Would you mind sharing how abilities work? As in, so you start with some that are unique to each character, and then learn more along the way? Are they all character specific?
For now ability learning is kind of jury-rigged, as we haven't properly coded it yet. in short, each character has attunement scores, which dictate which types of abilities they're good with. Moose has a high Arms attunement, Guardian has high Nature, etc. When the system is finished, you'll spend Ability Points on 5 different elements, and the combination of attunement, attributes and ability point spending will unlock new abilities. So like, Craft attribute + Arcane attunement = Wizardly spells, fireballs etc. And Spirit + Priest = Support and Cleric-style magic. Character-wise: right now the only plan is for each character to have a special 'evasion' ability which negates damage. Some investigators will share them, so the spellcasters mostly have the lackluster 'Shuffle', whereas the Techy can perform a more impressive roll.
Huh. So does that mean that the Gentleman's impressive array of sword incisions against the bootlegger (in the trailer) is a finisher animation? The attunement system sounds pretty cool, but will you be able to view it and choose which ones to specialise in, or are they predetermined for each class? Oh yeah, and I know it would be difficult to implement (well, maybe not so much as difficult to implement as to properly balance) but do you guys have any plans on how the AI use abilities? Like, can they use them and do they use certain ones in certain situations?
It was a finisher! Since remaking his character though, we haven't added it to his new animations. We intended on remaking it as an ability (would stun them and attack multiple times), but we'll have to see. Time is tight and character-specific abilities have been shelved for a while. Attunement scores are pre-determined but there are ways to increase or decrease them. I believe the AI just uses any ability it has on its hotkey bar. We'll probably revisit this later on.
