Development – Page 2 – Crumbling Dave Software

10Apr

Dev. Report #11 – 2.26

by Dave Updates

I’ve been spending quite some time, updating my custom tools and editor extensions in order to keep them compatible with the changes I’ve made to some game mechanics and game logic managers that I’ve modified rather heavily for 2.26. Therefore I haven’t had very much to post about… well except mentioned editor updates but I can’t quite imagine that it would be very interesting for the common player.

But in any case, 2.26 is closing in, I’m currently bug and play testing the game thoroughly and fix old and new issues as I go. New game mechanics are up and running and old ones have been and are still beeing updated! I’ve also spent nearly two weeks doing pretty much nothing else than optimizing world collision data and code optimizations for the game mechanics that consume the most memory. For the world collision optimizations I will probably need another few days to have fully optimized all world chunks/tiles.

Another thing I’ve fiddled with for 2.26 is game balancing, primarily regarding the game difficulty setting. Without going into detail I can say that it’s more adapted to the length of the game than it was before, also the item generator now calculate item tiers determined by the level of the monster or loot that was opened/killed instead of the player level. The new way of calculating item tiers ensure that the player can’t go back to the first map where monsters are of level 1 – 6 and still loot items of high-rated tiers.
A minor set-back with this approach did appear though, as the level of monsters in one map may vary individually I noticed that there usually is three item tiers that may drop within the same map. This turned into a headache when looting consumables that stack as I soon discovered that my inventory was full with health vials of various item tiers.

In order to get around this obstacle I added a small text on each item icon that present the item tier in roman numerals. I chose roman numerals in hope that the number should not be confused with the item’s stack size.

Some new visual updates has been made aswell, as I spoke of earlier, the character splatmaps that are applied to monsters as they get killed to splash some blood on their bodies- available if “Enable Gore” setting is toggled on.

Also pay attention to the strong light sources in the images, as the bloom image effect is now generating anamorphic lens flares.

There are also alot of world events and boss encounters that I have planned to modify for v2.27, but I’ve actually already begun to change a few of them. Just to spill some examples, the Necromancing mission’s boss encounter as mentioned in my previous article, and also the Machinist boss encounter has been redone. And as I felt that the Machinist model and animations were of too crappy quality I went ahead and created a new Machinist boss. The Machinist now also have the ability to jump into vent shafts to regain some health.

-Achievments-

There’s currently 12 new achievments implemented, I still have a few to add before the release though. Do note that for 2.26 achievments may now hold alot more restrictions than earlier. Previous versions of the game forced each achievment to have 6 restrictions or less, while it currently may hold up to 20 restrictions. (Restrictions are achievment goals/stages/phases.)

As mentioned in earlier posts regarding the 2.26 release lots of new game content awaits. I still need a few weeks to get done with all planned optimizations and update/implemented to remaining content of this game version and to ensure that everything works properly (aswell as make sure that old character profiles remain compatible.) But I dare to say that 2.26 is not far from done!

Another note, regarding the UI is that the game now gives a more clear hint of a character level up as can be seen below.

I think that I spoke about the update log in an earlier post and the fact that I was about to start posting it on LBKR’s website with more or less live updates but I can’t recall ever telling anyone about it beeing done. In any case, I have begun to post the updates on the website on a weekly-ish basis so if you’re interested to check out the log with all updates and bug fixes this far go on and check LBKR Update Log. (2.26 current progress: 401 Updates/Changes, 127 Bug Fixes)

16Nov

LBKR, Dev Report #8

by Dave Updates

I’ve spent most of my dev-time the past week with work on maps for the upcoming (new) chapters of LBKR and some more planning on what the crap’s supposed to happen’ in said chapters.

As you can see on the screenshots there will be more outdoor-ish maps than what we’ve seen in the first five chapters, I’m planning on having the map layouts randomized for these aswell though, unlike the “void”-maps accessible through the “Curious Organ” consumable dropped by the Void Walker. However, I also plan on having the player descend a cave system that lead down to a hive built by the “Forsaken” monsters.

I modified the UI slightly, item tooltips are less transparent to prevent other UI windows to bleed through and hopefully make them easier to read.

And while speaking of tooltips, weapon tooltips now display the weapon’s Armor Penetration rating, some item icons have been updated (like the icon for the Crowbar, that earlier was just a weird-as-shit-orange-stick) and all ability tooltips have been completely rewritten. More clear info of the ability’s properties and bonuses are now printed, I’ve also begun adding different font colors to mark down “important” information in the tooltips.

A new item will be introduced in the next version of LBKR, called “Property Modifier”, it will only be possible to get by crafting it (or as a mission reward) and will modify an item of your choice’s properties randomly (Each property may either be decreased or improved, independent of eachother). I’m planning on adding another Modifier item that will improve an item of your choice’s properties however, this item will be more expensive to craft.

Furthermore a weapon’s Armor Penetration rating is now part of the procedural item generation, opposed to the earlier way it was handled, that each weapon had a pre-defined AP value. The AP value will be determined by weapon type, if it’s one or two handed and also the condition of the weapon. (Each equipable item has a condition-parameter during it’s generation, ranging from lvl1(Damaged) – lvl5(Excellent). The parameter will modify the item’s properties depending on set condition level.)

And that’s pretty much it for this week, I’ve also managed to fix a few bugs from previous version(s) but none as interesting or vital to bring up right now! 🙂

29Oct

Development Report #5

by Dave Updates

So, I usually post these dev reports on indie DB, but I’ve had some quite nasty connection issues toward their website the last few days and I gave up now, let’s hope that whatever’s going on has been sorted out until the next report! Anyways, I’ll try to give a quick summary of what’s happened since the last report (#5 on IndieDB).

Alot’s been going on with LBKR the last two weeks, mainly balancing and bug fixing but also some new content’s been added.

Buffs received when destroying a Marker will now pop-up as an UI Hint at the bottom-left of your screen that will describe the power-up. I’ve also added a new power-up called “Piercer” that temporarily improves your Armor Penetration rating.

Minibosses are now assigned a new material to be easier to identify in-game, they will shine in different colors depending on their hierarchical ranking, also Champion-ranked minibosses will now be deployed as a pack of 2 – 5 monsters. This is purely for balancing purposes as the Champions are alot weaker.

minis291002
While the Champion packs are all of the same monster type their attacks and buffs they receive will be generated per individual, ie. each monster in the pack will have different attacks.

Map information and Game Statistics ( the same as which can be seen when near a map Access Point ) are now present when opening the Game Menu (Esc)

The Achievments have been sorted into 4 categories, “Story”, “Combat”, “World” and “Exploration”, for easier readability (and tracking). Also as you can see in the screenshot there’s a fifth category called “Character”. The Character category doesn’t have any Achievments yet but will be filled soon.
Furthermore each category now display the progress of completion at the top of the Achievment Window.

The content of the “Common Stats Display” (Seen below your avatar in the Inventory Window.) have been changed, attack speed has been removed to give space for your “Critical Hit Damage” and “Armor Penetration” skill ratings. Also, all icons of said stats have been updated

toxicdeath
Monsters that are killed with toxic damage will now disintegrate.
Just to mention some more changes, there are 4 new missions, a new monster of the Forsaken faction, a new arena/world event, 3 new weapons and one new “wandering” NPC.

A large amount of bugs and glitches have been fixed along with many more gameplay and difficulty balancing aswell! Before the release of v2.25 I plan on tweaking a few sound effects, most of them only require normalization and/or minor equalizing

I’ve also begun planning for v2.26 and to mention some of the upcoming changes/features:

Improved AI behaviour: Currently the monsters of LBKR combat decisions are primarily based on attack power, it’s set up to be determined purely by balancing. Each attack has an attack penalty that is added to by a specified amount each time the attack is cast, the penalty varies depending on the attack power, so that more powerful attacks are cast less common while weaker attacks are cast more often.

I’ve felt that this has, many times, repeative and from time to time non-logical behaviour. This also prevents ranged monsters to hold melee attacks as they would usually be too far away from the player.

I’m going to implement more dynamic penalties that are continuously updated depending on current range to the player, health value, amount of allies nearby, etc. etc. Theoretically this should result in a more logical choice/behaviour for the AI, although I would still require to keep the power-penalty and make sure that it plays a key part in the decisions.

Doing some rough sketching on two new hidden maps (Forsaken Challenge maps, accessible through the Obscure Organ consumable.), also more World Tiles/Chunks for the Armory and Bridge maps will be added for better variation. Some new arenas should also be implemented.

Alot of achievments will be added, including achievments to fill the “Character” category, that will basicly be class-target achievments (primarily atleast…)

I’ve also thought about some new consumables, I suppose they could be compared to the Spell-scrolls that can be found in Diablo 1, for those of you who’ve played it. These items will be a compliment to your character’s special abilities and can be cast by the cost of some energy points. I have not yet decided if this should be crafted items only or be possible to find as monster/loot drops aswell– but I’m quite certain that I will have them added as I feel it is an interesting idea.

Need to plan this carefully though, currently I want the spell-scrolls-thingies to be more procedurally generated and/or randomized than the PC’s special abilities- nothing final is decided though so we’ll just have to wait and see how it turn out. Also I’m uncertain if I’ll have this done until the 2.26 release but I believe it could be possible!

16Oct

The Visitor arrives, in 2.25

by Dave Updates

Doing some work on implementing the next player class “Forsaken”, that will be possible to unlock by completing the mission challenge “The Visitor”.

Check out the IndieDB article over here to see some early in-game screenshots of the class!

//I also updated the External page, the GameJolt link seem to have pointed to the wrong url!