Character traits and quirks
Finally! I have started implementing mechanics that will make the game closer to Darkest Dungeon vibe; these are, of course, character traits.
Side note: XCOM did introduce traits in the War of The Chosen expansion as well, so this feature is obiously not exclusive to Darkest Dungeon.
Traits will come in two flavours: passive and active. Passive traits are granting some static bonuses/penalties. For instance, the "Hungry" trait reduces hit probability:
(note that trait icons are missing)
Active traits can activate themselves if certain conditions are met. Characters with "Cowardly" trait have a chance to panic when enemies appear.
It turned out that implementing the panic mechanism was quite a challenge! Panicked character runs in a random direction and then hunkers down. And this happens automatically, meaning that the player cannot control this. What is more, during the panic move, a character might trigger a reaction fire or reveal another enemy pod. All of this made me to redesign the core gameplay/animations loop - but it was worth it.
One might ask how a character acquires their traits? Well, that's a very good question! Some of them will be assigned randomly during character creation; other will appear after some in-game actions or decisions; for example "Hungry" trait will be applied if, obviously, the character will not get their food rations. But that's another story for another time.
For now grab some gifs:
What's next?
There's still much to do in the traits system. I am planning to add positive traits as well, granting some bonuses for the character (e.g. allowing them to perform an extra action).
I also have some new ideas on how to change the hit points display for characters, but I have to try them out first to see whether it looks good.
Thanks for reading!
As usual, if you'd like to receive more frequent updates about the development and a heads-up about release of the demo, follow me on Twitter at @bryquTheDev.
Also, do help me out reaching a bigger audience by telling about "This is The End" anyone who you think could be interested in this.
Also - I am having a holiday break next week, so the next blog entry will only appear in two weeks.
