Spawning Table Fun

Work on the spawning tables and new sanctums is going well! :D About 2/3rd the way done. Probably going slower than people might expect, but inserting around 20 new characters throughout the entire Tower is effectively a revamp of all the spawning tables in the entire game.

Fun note on the addition of 2 new sanctums: that will mean that a full clear of the Tower now has 1 more floor than before, so Demon will be a slightly longer game. :D

Some other fun quirks to shake out of the encounter table revamp so far:

  • Many sanctums / side-dungeons have more rare encounters than before. (This doesn’t mean you’re more likely to get rare encounters in a given area, it just means that when you do get one, it will be selected from a larger pool.)
  • Turdak’s Sanctum, which for some reason was on average *easier* than a typical Tower floor, has been brought back in line with the difficulty you should expect from a Sanctum. Gone are the days of running into packs of fodder demons. It also now has rare spawns, which were for some reason completely absent from its table!
  • Some truly nasty groups were able to be formed with some of the new demons. :) Nobody is going to like Mandrake groups… at least, not until they make their own perhaps. :D
Comments Off Posted in Demon

The Checklist

Keeping this here so folks can see the progress so far. I posted this list originally before the new year, and was editing it from time to time to show progress, but I don’t know if anyone actually noticed I was doing that. :P So I’ve reverted that one to how it was, and posted this one here with the progress on it instead.

As a reminder, once 1-6 are complete, I will release a test build while I finish up 7 (and so I can find out if there any must fix bugs with the new stuff to fix as part of 7, for that matter.)

1) <in progress> My versions of the character sprites. (Probably the biggest chunk left, but I’ve done some already at least.)
2) <done> Creating new modifiers, updating existing modifiers.
3) <done> Updating character creation (adding Matter options, resistances/weaknesses when appropriate)
4) <done> Capture mechanics for the new demons
5) <in progress> Placing all the new demons into encounter charts
6) Sanctums for the new uniques, when appropriate
7) Deciding which bugs on the bug list I want to address before release, and addressing them

Culler, Destroyer, Eliminator.

A new element means new modifiers. :D Matter’s Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 modifiers are Culler, Destroyer, and Eliminator, in reference to Matter’s various nasty ways (acid, disintegration, petrification, etc.) of getting rid of problems.

Culler1 Culler2 Destroyer1 Destroyer2 Eliminator1Eliminator2

Of course, there are some changes to other modifiers as well: many of the physical modifiers gained some new passives and attacks related to dealing out or removing Matter status effects, the Healing modifiers gained the access to the new Matter effect removal abilities, and many of the unique modifiers had some Matter-related abilities added as well, including Kamapua’a, Python, Anzu, Friar Rush, Headless, and others as well. :D

So Where Are We At, Anyway?

As previously mentioned in the last post, I just finished implementing the abilities for the Matter build.

Fair question you might be wondering: what all is left to do before I can release it (or at least, release the preview/test build)?

Here’s the major ticket items:

1)  My versions of the character sprites. (Probably the biggest chunk left, but I’ve done some already at least.)
2) Creating new modifiers, updating existing modifiers.
3) Updating character creation (adding Matter options, resistances/weaknesses when appropriate)
4) Capture mechanics for the new demons
5) Placing all the new demons into encounter charts
6) Sanctums for the new uniques, when appropriate
7) Deciding which bugs on the bug list I want to address before release, and addressing them

The good news is that *most* of these are relatively small tasks. 1 and 7 are probably the biggest ones left.

The better news is that I will be able to release a preview/test build once 1-6 are complete. 7 will be what I work on while people are playing that and sending feedback and bug reports. :D

Still going to have to avoid an ETA for now, but we’re closing in on the end. After the Matter build is out of the way, I’ll write up another post about how I’m going to approach things going forward in hopes of avoiding any more 5-6 month build cycles while at my current somewhat intense job.

Thank you for your patience everyone, I hope to reward it with something more than words and pictures soon. :D

An Odd Trio

A small preview to celebrate finishing the last ability implementations for the Matter build: three Matter build demons who are perhaps more notable for the new non-Matter element abilities they possess. (Hat tip to OneEyedJoe for correctly predicting the existence of one of these abilities. :P )

Choke

SympathyVeil

LungRot

Comments Off Posted in Demon

Hold On Tight

The last new status effect being added for the Matter build is “Held”.

Held shares similarities with both Chill and Poison: like Chill, it reduces accuracy, evasion, and movement speed. Like Poison, it can stack up to three times, with the effects getting more severe each stack:

Held1

Held2

Held3

Notably, as shown above, Held++ completely prevents movement of any kind (except of course, for abilities like Short Jaunt or items like Wind Card, which specifically call themselves out as not counting as movement.)

Additionally, there is another new mechanic used by many demons with Held abilities:

Yank

That’s right: “Pull” abilities now exist in Demon! Yank (and its stronger, longer ranged, later Tower cousin, Snatch) allow you to pull a target adjacent to you while also automatically inflicting Held. These abilities are commonly employed by slower moving, plant-like demons who otherwise might have trouble pursuing their enemies.

That’s How The Demon Crumbles

As bad as being turned to Stone is by default, it can get even worse, as a couple of Gandayah learn the hard way…

Shatter1

Shatter2

In addition to the horrifyingly high Power instant-death-to-Stone-targets causing Crumble and Shatter, there are also the disintegration beams, which deal double damage to Stone targets, and a few melee attacks that exploit the status effect as well.

(An astute observer will note the Gandayah did not seem to be weak to Shatter. :P Let’s just say that particular feature of Stone didn’t survive very long. :D Stone now only removes resistances/immunities if present, and doesn’t create any weaknesses. Also, (and this isn’t new) only some resistances/immunities are affected: Body, Mind, Light, and Dark are left unchanged.)

Small Update

Hey folks. :) Just wanted to drop a line on the current plan.

Just wrapped up a major deadline at work on Friday that unfortunately had taken up most of my energy for the past couple of weeks. However, I’m on holiday break from now until Jan 3rd and after a few days to relax, I will be switching over to a heavy chunk of Demon work. :)

I can’t promise it will be enough to completely finish the Matter build… but it will get us pretty close at the very least.

Thank you everyone for your patience with the slower development pace while I’m working full time. :) I think the wait will prove to be worth it. :D

Oh, and one last thing: I’ll announce the details on the forum at a future date, but I plan on doing a test run of this build before wider release. You won’t need to sign up or anything like that, I just will be posting the build links in the forum instead of in the usual spots so that I’m more likely to hit people aware of the fact it’s a test build and who are okay with the fact it may have bugs (even very nasty bugs, potentially, though I hope to catch most of those before even the test build, especially since I’m not taking great pains to limit distribution.)

Happy holidays!

Comments Off Posted in Demon