Yearly Budget Report
You can read it here. It’s not very interesting!
Ophiucus Combat: What The Hell It Is
Ophiucus was originally entirely puzzles, but I thought it would lack length and replayability if it was just puzzles. So we’re doing an extremely simple combat system that is meant to play out quickly. None of these layouts are finalized, naturally.
Everything is done on one screen. You select your abilities from the character cards by clicking them, and if they aren’t available, they are greyed out. You then click the target to cycle between targets, and can mouse-over the target icon to see who is currently targeted.
The entire thing is meant to run fast. Your character’s default attack skill is automatically ready with a default target, so you can just click the Fight! button if that’s all you want to do. I even did a very clever Lua optimization to make the game run faster than RoP’s much more complicated scripting allows.
When the round starts, your party acts in order front-to-back. Mei, then Florentina, then Elowen. One your team acts, the enemies act, also in order of front-to-back. In addition, enemies will always attack Mei first, then Florentina, then Elowen. This means you only need to worry about healing the front character, and in case of splash damage, backline characters cannot be KO’d until the front character is downed. This way I can write a smaller number of scenarios because Elowen is always in the party and can always serve as the party lead. It cuts down on code permutations.
There is no accuracy or critical strikes. Attacks always hit for their listed damage. In the event of decimals, the game does a percentage roll to add the extra point of damage. Combat is thus predictable, there is very little RNG involved.
Abilities can be either a) always usable, b) have a cooldown, c) X number of uses per battle, or d) X number of uses per rest. Elowen’s more powerful spells have per-battle and per-rest limits, while her basic spells do less damage but cause a stacking damage buff for that magic type. There is some fairly basic strategy here, but the game is more about searching, solving puzzles, and finding items and boosts.
There is no equipment screen. The game instead just uses the best stats of whatever you find. If you find a sword for Mei that is +2 ATK and +1 DEF, and then another sword that is +1 ATK and +2 DEF, the game will mark you as having +2/+2.
You will also want to explore the manor and check every object because you will find Catalyst items. Catalysts are passive, permanent boosts to a character’s stats, such as giving Florentina a +0.20ATK bonus just for finding it.
Lastly, the game has a simplified level system. You gain XP for killing enemies, but each enemy has a level cap and will only give 1 XP past that level. You can, theoretically, grind to beat bosses, but the game is meant to be a puzzle game. Search around and find new spells and equipment to boost your characters up, and in some cases, you need to just avoid the boss by doing other things.
We’re going for realistic, detailed interiors with lots of stuff for you to look at and find clues and secrets in. I’m not sure just how much I want to make things have randomization to them, perhaps a game mode with no randomly-placed items for speedrunners.
As for how encounters are handled, the game uses random “blocker” encounters. When you rest, the game positions enemy groups in areas of the manor, and if you defeat that encounter, it’s cleared until you rest again. If you retreat from that encounter, you run back to the previous room, so encounters block your progress. Once you have “cleared” an area, you will get an item that lets you bypass encounters in that area so you can freely explore/backtrack. Oh, and if you want to grind for any reason, you can get a whistle item that will call enemies to you and start a battle.
So that’s what I’m busying myself with. I’m trying to get combat ready so I can get the scenario work in place. Lots of work still to go!
Fan Art! FAN ART!
by grimfxte
By LiliLava on Vgen
Okay this one requires explanation I swear. Talonzilla liked the doorgirls idea and made a doorgirl character. Her name was Doorothy. Okay now it makes a lot more sense, right? No, no it doesn’t.
DROWN THEM IN LINKS
Where to find us:
Our Patreon and Subscribestar are great places to support development! You can also get cool bonus stuff like concept art and early releases of Pandemonium!
If you want extra pictures of cats, you can follow us on Bluesky.
And there’s always Our Discord. You can shout at Salty *in person*.
We also have a Wiki! We’d appreciate it greatly if people keep it maintained for us. :3
Bottled Starlight Games:
Runes of Pandemonium, the big adventure TF RPG, always free on Steam and Itch.io.
Witch Hunter Izana, a battle-TF RPG. Available on Steam or Itch.io.
Witches of Ravenbrook, a battle-TF dungeon-crawler. The prototype is out now and free on Itch.io.
WoR Kickstarter page (260% funded! Thanks a lot!)
String Tyrant, a survival horror game, is on Steam and Itch.io.
Upcoming Prototype for Project Ophiucus! Link will be added when it’s out.
Other Bottled Starlight Stuff
Salty writes a book series, with audiobooks and illustrations, called Tales of Strings.
Instruments is out now on Itch.io.
Passed Hand is now on Itch.io!
Spiderweb Theory is now on Itch.io!
Urban Explorers is now on Itch.io!
Knights of Justice: Varsity Vixens is now on Itch.io!
Knights of Justice: Crush Depth is now on Itch.io!
Knights of Justice: Three Short Steps is now on Itch.io!
Knights of Justice: Knighttime is now on Itch.io!
Knights of Justice: Sticks and Straws is now on Itch.io!
Knights of Justice: Strings Are Attached is now on Itch.io!
Knights of Justice: Only Shadows for Comfort VN Prototype on Itch.io!
Guise of the Goddess is now on Itch.io!
Knights of Justice: Actirangers, Come Forth is now on Itch.io! It’s free!
Knights of Justice: Bound by Love and Grace is now on Itch.io!
Knights of Justice: Solace of Orange is now on Itch.io!
Knights of Justice: High Lord of Dust is now on Itch.io!
All of the ToS books can also be found on Wechange.me!
We have some ridiculous merch on Redbubble and Teepublic if you want to be the center of conversation (derogatory / celebratory).
AN ASIDE
Embarrassing.
Pandemonium Development 