Devlog 2 - Enemies enchanted feature

Devlog 2 - Enchanted enemies

This time it’s about enchanted enemies. It’s a feature we have been working on for quite some time, and it’s in a decent enough shape to show off a bit of the work we’ve done.

Having enemies chasing you with a stick all the time is fun and all, but it’s pretty obvious that this old trick gets stale quickly. In the vein of Diablo II (and we REALLY like Diablo II), our happy little enemies can be blessed with certain attributes that make them a whole lot harder to deal with. A prime example is the classic lightning enchanted guy that shoots out high damage bolts every time he gets hit.

There will be visual representations in the form of colors so the player can have some clue about what he’s going to deal with. It isn’t much fun when you shoot an arrow barrage at a mob only to realize he was lightning enchanted and surprise! You’re dead.

Obviously as the game gets harder, one single enemy can have multiple enchantments at the same time. We’ve tried to make the visual effects indicating each one visible enough, and hopefully there won’t be any problem identifying potential danger.

We are running everything from a script that gets added to the mob, either before compilation or directly during gameplay. We can use the script to specify the nature of, and number of enchantments, or if we want to generate them randomly.

Stacked enemy enchants:

Example of earthen aura enchant setup:

Elements to me!

Fire Aura

An enemy enchanted with a fire aura emits a pulse that will burn everything in a certain radius. It does some damage, but it also burns items (or players) made of wood or flesh. Additionally this flame can propagate to nearby items and cause a lot of havoc.

As a player, the only way to get rid of this effect is either by letting it expire, dashing around to snuff the flames, or jumping into water.

Ice enchantment

After a period of 4 to 6 months of solitary confinement inside a freezer, enemies become enchanted with ice. If you get hit by one of these guys, they will freeze you and slow down your movement dramatically. When the enemy dies, it also emits a frost nova of vengeance that will knock off a good part of your health, and leave you encased in ice for a short time.

Electric enchantment

If you hated the lightning enchanted mobs in D2, you’ll hate them even more now. Every time you hit them, they will spawn a few lightning bolts that will erratically move around the battlefield.

The nearer you are to the mob, the more chances you have to get oneshot by a super dense ball of lightning goodness. This is probably the most universally hated and feared enemy skill in the history of gaming.

Poison enchantment

You can only expect filth from this one. Apart from the extra damage that every poisoned hit deals, every time one of these hits connects it will apply a poisoned debuff which effectively works as damage over time effect. At the time there’s no way to mitigate poison damage, so it’s something we’ll have to sort out before we commit to using this one.

Earthen aura

Not much to say on this one. Can you imagine The Thing? The amorphous and deformed one? No, not Carpenter’s one, the guy from the Fantastic Four!

Earthen enchanted enemies will hit like a truck and will be highly resistant to damage. In short, a brutish bullet sponge you can hate with all your heart.

Wind enchantment

Inspired by the late Benny Hill, these enemies zip around the battlefield at high speed, and they hit very fast too. If you listen carefully, you might even hear Benny Hill’s theme tune in the background. This is one of those enchantment that isn’t excessively threatening on its own, but coupled with another aura it becomes very hard to deal with.

Shadow aura

This one will create a shadow vortex near players that will explode after a few seconds. The damage will be radial, and it’s going to be one of the tougher ones especially in confined spaces. It also has a nice skull effect on top of the enemies that will laugh at your death.

Mana aura

Any enemy with this aura will periodically drain your skills cd's when near. Whenever you get punched in the face by an enemy with this attribute, it will drain a skill cd as well.

Another one of those auras that aren’t too big of a deal on their own, but can really cause problems when combined.

Nature aura

Ok, get ready to hate these guys until the end of time, because they are essentially mass healers. Every enemy in the effect radius of one of these guys will get periodically healed if not at full health, making big mob packs an absolute nightmare. One of these combined with earthen aura is basically a crash course in misery.