2/26 Update of 0.7.7 status
Well, like I'd been saying for weeks while putting out patch after patch of mostly bug fixes and minor changes, once that phase was over (for now), I was going to hit it hard with some of the things that have been nagging me. It was time to start turning the corner with a lot of the game's systems, and really start doing some WORK.
I have lifted the hood and pretty much taken the engine out. I'm carefully thinking about directions as far as the game's mechanics and systems, and even backed myself out of a few corners I had previously painted myself into (even if by design) early on in development. One of those things, for instance, was attachable items in the avatar - sure I could do it - sub out a staff for a mace when you swing .. yeah, I could do it - and some might have wondered why I didn't do it sooner. It's just because it was pointless to do a hacky implementation of it. I needed to get in there and reassess the way the systems worked, I had to add new attributes to skills which would allow me to not only specify valid "equipment groups", but also specify which animations to play based on which group is active (i.e. 1h vs 2h weapons). This is all coming from a place where there wasn't even a concept of weapons. I also need to still add the rest of the conversion, which includes modifiers on cooldown and damage (and probably other things) on each valid equipment group per skill. The first thing that comes to mind is oh that's for melee 1h and 2h, which is true.. but it could be for other things to.. for instance, think of a set of staves, for instance, that cast faster but do less damage with the ability to switch on the fly so you could switch back and forth based on the situational.
-The camera work has been big, it feels like ions ago I did it, but it was actually only a few days ago :) I think people will really enjoy this, it's a much more.. how should I say it.. familiar feel.. I've streamlined all camera views, changed the rotational positioning of it.. a lot of a good things here.. I believe players will feel right at home.
There's also a whole host of other things; I fear some things have slide off the Live Patch notes, but a lot of stuff isn't finished yet, so that list is going to get a lot longer right near the end. I haven't even touched upon skills, but there's probably going to be at least 5 new ones, and that's if I don't get a chance to add any new spells. (I would like to do leeches among other things)
Well these changes have snowballed all over the place, to say the least. We're making amazing progress, but it's A LOT of changes. Pretty much no system has gone untouched, and as much change as you will be able to see, there's probably twice as much that you won't -- but it's all for the greater good of the game in the future. So far, I'm already prouder of this patch than the last 20 put together.
So what's the ETA? I originally would have liked tomorrow, but that's just (probably) not going to happen. Anytime after tomorrow and before mid next week. It will depend greatly on how smoothly a lot of the implementation goes in the next day or two.
Cheers!
