Category: Poorly-Written Posts

Pandemonium Prototype 5-2c Public Release, New Twitter, New Tumblr, Discord Chat!

SaltyJustice

ChristineLaugh

Yep, we’re starting our promotional tour today. And what better way to start it than with the public release of Prototype 5-2c. You can get it here or swing by the downloads page.

If this is your first time playing the game, the following resources are here to help you out:

Patreon – Support the game, get access to prototypes early, and see bonus concept art every Monday.

Forums Link – Go here if you need help with something, you will get a reply fairly quickly here.

Discord Link – Pandemonium now has a Discord! Chat with other players or ask questions. You can get direct assistance from the developers here.

Tumblr – Concept art gets posted here periodically, as well as a lot of miserable puns.

Twitter – Handled by editor MarioneTTe. We mostly post crossposts to this.

Support Email: Pandemonium AT Starlightstudios DOT org – The entire team has this support email and we’ll mail you back at our earliest convenience.

Bear in mind we also update this blog with development reports every Monday!

Content Guide

I wrote up a content guide for what’s available as of Prototype 5-2c. If you missed anything, this guide will at least tell you it exists – but finding it is up to you.

Changelog

Here’s the changelog from 5-2b to 5-2c. There are also most likely changes not recorded on this list.

  • Fixed the mysterious Caps Lock bug on the String Entry UI. (Thanks, Failbird105!)
  • Added the remaining standard ASCII characters (except ones not supported by the font) to the String Entry UI. (Suggested by Seris)
  • Bent Tools are now worth 6 reputation with the Steam Droids.
  • Fixed the %age indicators not showing up correctly in form descriptions. (Thanks, ZeroForever!)
  • Fixed Florentina’s skillbook for Defend not showing a description when checked in the skillbook menu. (Thanks, Seris!)
  • Fixed a section of the cliffs in Evermoon that didn’t correctly occlude the player. (Thanks, Seris!)
  • Realigned Mei’s Doctor Bag portraits. (Thanks, FoxGamer!)
  • Forest overlay should despawn correctly after a steamy scene with Adina.
  • Fixed Adina using the incorrect portrait during one scene with her. (Thanks, Seris!)
  • Mei’s eyes should remain whited during the adina hypnosis scene when running. (Thanks, FoxGamer!)
  • Fixed some miscellaneous layering issues in some other maps.
  • Added Z+X key command to the game’s starting control listing. (Suggested by Hidden)
  • Keyboard input when editing file notes should now work for the SDL releases.
  • Special floors on 30 and 40 of the Tellurium Mines should now activate without needing the debug console. (Thanks, TechnoMagus!)
  • Greatly reduced the density of enemy spawns in the Tellurium Mines. Floor 40 should be about as hard as Floor 20 was before.
  • The Shift key will play much nicer between on-screen input and keyboard presses.
  • Backspace key now refires when held down in the String Input UI.
  • Fixed map getting disabled after loading a save game in Chapter 1. (Thanks, FoxGamer!)
  • Fixed music volumes not being reset correctly when loading a saved game.
  • New Icon courtesy of Rune MFB!
  • Controls can now be rebound from the options menu.
  • Controls are now saved to the Saves/ folder and automatically reloaded when an AdventureMode game is loaded. (Suggested by – freakin’ everyone)
  • Florentina and Breanne will no longer mention forging, and will instead prompt Mei to buy a new sword instead. (Thanks, Seris!)
  • Mei will respond differently when asked to help the Alraunes if she hasn’t met Rochea yet. (Suggested by Seris)
  • Christine can now transform to the three incomplete forms. (Requested by Hidden)
  • Fixed a couple of spelling and grammatical mistakes. (Thanks, Seris!)
  • Fixed the green screen bug when losing the Serenity Crater event battle. (Thanks, Kasra247!)
  • There is now a save point at the chapter selection screen. (Suggested by ZeroForever)
  • Added combat ability icons to greatly improve the overall flow of ability selection in combat.
  • Added a mandatory vent-crawl to the start of the LRT facility to teach the player that it’s a possibility. (Suggested by Klaysee)
  • It should no longer be possible to “Relive” scenes in Chapter 5. (Thanks, Klaysee!)
  • Added an auto-hasten option so you don’t have to hold down the Z key to speed up dialogue. (Suggested by Kinuyasha)
  • Removed unnecessary turn order movement due to free actions.
  • Moved 55’s Algorithm changing abilities to the main ability list instead of a sublist.
  • Cleaned up all the text overruns in the combat ability descriptions. (Thanks, FoxGamer!)
  • Greatly toned down the overall damage of enemies in the Tellurium Mines.
  • Mei now correctly receives the Doctor Bag when skipping the introduction. (Thanks, Terafreak!)
  • Werecat TF woods now use the correct forest tiles.
  • Toned down the night overlay during the Werecat TF scene since the canopy overlay made it really hard to see. (Thanks, Terafreak!)
  • Fixed some text formatting during the zombee sequence. (Thanks, Terafreak!)
  • Loading the game during the SX-399/JX-101 sequence should now show the correct graphics for Christine.
  • Fixed the SX-399 bug where the finale sequence repeats after it should be concluded. (Thanks, TechnoMagus!)
  • Widened some of the horizontal doorways in the Cryogenics facility.
  • Updated display of Combat Inspector to the new GUI format.
  • State-switching abilities like Take Point and Line Formation will now directly cancel each other, rather than just applying counterbuffs.
  • 55’s Algorithm abilities now actually affect her statistics.
  • Changing 55’s Algorithms resets her Combat Routine cooldown. Stance Dancer!
  • Enemies who are passing their turns should no longer position incorrectly.
  • Fixed a bug where the target info box was rendering offscreen.
  • Target info boxes for multiple targets will now try to avoid rendering over one another.
  • Speaking characters in dialogue will increase in size slightly to draw attention to them. (Suggested by Stinkehund)
  • Controls will now save whenever the dialogue is closed normally or the defaults button is used, and controls change when the game is opened.
  • Added the Ability Inspector to the status screen, allowing you to check your abilities when not in combat.
  • Retreating from a fight that would land you at Sprocket City will now take you to the outskirts so the cutscenes don’t get all silly. (Thanks, Technomagus!)
  • If the direct damage is enough to KO an enemy, debuffs and other effects will not animate since they just waste time. (Suggested by Kinuyasha)
  • Added extra crossbar generation to the RLG. Levels should be more open and have more paths available.
  • Added extra redundancy to the RLG so tiles don’t get cut off when placing exits.
  • Fixed there somehow being no collisions in the Trap Dungeon entrance. (Thanks, jjgallowson5!)
  • Added Memory Cursor option in combat. The game will remember the position of your last ability selection and reset it when possible. (Suggested by Chickenwhite)
  • Ambient Light Boost option will now be saved to savefiles.
  • Fixed 55 not receiving XP for the extra Sprocket City activities.
  • Fixed the weird audio looping bug for the FMOD version.
  • Massively reduced the tile flickering problem, by about 99%. Should be very rare now, and therefore not noticeable.
  • When using layered music tracks (in the first dungeon of the game), the combat victory music will now zero the volume of these tracks off. (Suggested by Chickenwhite)
  • Fixed a bug where a section of dialogue with SX-399 wasn’t showing. (Thanks, aaaac!)
  • Fixed the Arcanist Advisor books in the Dimensional Trap formatting strangely.
  • Fixed one of the signs in Trannadar displaying nothing.
  • Edited the text of one of the signs in Evermoon forest. (Thanks, MarioneTTe!)
  • Fixed some of the kerning for capital letters in the Oxygen-27 font.

Known Bugs

These are the currently known problems in the game.

  • Lighting Shader may not run on older systems that do not support OpenGL 3.0. This includes OSX since Apple decided to not officially support later versions of OpenGL. I’m working on a fix.
  • There are a few non-critical text bugs in various spots that may or may not actually exist. I received bug reports but wasn’t able to reproduce the effects.
  • Level Generator does not display textures in the SDL version. It still correctly exports levels in the Tellurium Mines.
  • Catalyst counts for Chapter 5 are incorrect since the chapter is not complete and the code needed to split the chapters in this regard is not present.

 

 

 

Development Update: July 16th, 2018

SaltyJustice

Before the poll results, a quick update

Everyone is back to work as of this week. I’m still recovering from my back injury so I’m working at about half speed, everyone else is working as normal.

I’m about 80% done my trello list for Prototype 5-2c and v105c, which will contain bug fixes and a bunch of small feature upgrades. Let’s take a look at those shall we?

Combat Icons

CombatIcons.png

As part of a quality-of-life improvement, the hard-to-read text indicators have been replaced with these handy icons. The icons remain in fixed positions on the UI and are nice and clean to navigate. Urimas is currently finishing up the last of the icons for 55, and these will be in next week’s release.

Combat Inspector

CombatInspector.png

The Combat Inspector has been brought in line with the new UI and is more functional and easier to read. The layout is not finalized but it will do its job for now.

Ability Inspector

AbilityInspector.png

You’ll now be able to check your abilities on the status screen, getting a better idea of their properties with long-form descriptions. Very handy if you want to check what something does outside of combat to formulate a strategy.

Many, Many Bug Fixes and QoL Improvements

The full changelog will be posted next week along with the next version. For now, let me say that I took your reports to heart and did as much as I could within the scope of 5-2’s release. Some changes got pushed to 5-3 since they’ll take a little longer or require more scripting.

Poll Results

Let’s get to the good stuff. This week we had 23 respondents on the steering poll.

Result00.png

So Steam Droid’s transformation won with Latex Drone coming in second. I’m going to ask the public what they think we could do to improve Eldritch Dreamer and Golem on the forums, but I’m happy with this. Editor MarioneTTe is the one who wrote the Steam Droid transformation, so I’ll try to coerce him into writing more in the future.

Result01.png

Character development takes priority? How did this happen? But in all seriousness, 55’s dialogue topics will be my first priority, followed by the Text Adventure side content (I’ll explain myself at the end of the poll) and then the main story content. Sophie’s extra events will not make it into Prototype 5-2 (most likely) and nobody wants me to improve the minigames. So those are right out.

Result02

This is about what I had expected, considering the state of the minigames. I’m going to be cutting all three and worrying about proper game content now.

The original purpose of the minigames was to provide a way to generate as many work credits as the player could stomach. However, that’s obviously no longer necessary with the addition of the Tellurium Mines. As such they’re redundant right now and polishing them would take time away from Chapter 5’s scenario work.

If it does become a thing in the future, Space Invaders will be the one rescued from the trash heap. But don’t count on that.

Result03.png

So this presents a dilemma, because you want more stuff to do with Sophie but want me to prioritize fireside chats with 55 and story content. Well, the next section of the story content is going to feature Sophie, and I’m thinking of adding another area to Regulus City that you’ll be able to visit with her. It’s a tricky spot to be in but I think I can manage it.

Result04

The extra content is definitely a go. That’s a pretty solid majority that wants to see the characters from the original Chambers of Pandemonium go up against doll girls. And by that I mean become doll girls.

Exactly how much this will add to 5-3’s development schedule I cannot say. The fact that it’s an independent game mode does mean it doesn’t need to 1:1 match the art style of Adventure Mode, but it probably will since that’s just simpler to do. More on this mode as I develop it.

Wrap Up

I expect Prototype 5-2c will be released next week with all the bug fixes, and after that I will begin a promotional tour of the internet to tout this game everywhere I can. I would really love it if we got enough contributions to hire a musician and to let me work on the game full time.

If you’re not a supporter, you really should be. 1$ really does go a long way.

Argue about this post on the forums!

Support the game on Patreon!

 

Development Update: July 9th, 2018

SaltyJustice

We are back to work, baby!

Yes that’s right, after spending about 8 days recovering, I am now able to resume work on Pandemonium. And let me tell you how much it sucked not being able to do that.

For those of you worried about me, I’ve overhauled the ergonomics of my desk, including getting support cushions and literally propping the entire workstation up on bricks because it turns out it was about half a foot too low. So I was hunched over all the time and that’s just terrible for you back.

Programming and Art

Say hello to the latest addition to the team, Koops. Koops will be helping Chickenwhite with design work, speeding up the process by producing sketchwork.

Koops is a volunteer but a talented artist who works very well with Chickenwhite. To maintain the game’s visual cohesion, Chickenwhite will be drawing finalized versions of design sketches made by Koops.

KoopsDesign_LordUnit.jpg

Here we see a Lord Golem with a dress designed by Koops. We’re still working on it (I personally think it’s just a little too on the nose) but this should give you an idea of what’s going to happen in Prototype 5-3.

On the programming front, I’m about halfway through the backlog from Prototype 5-2. The current plan is to clean up the outstanding bugs, release 5-2c, and then promote the game on various websites to try to drum up some more interest.

5$ Patron Steering Poll

If you’re a 5$ patron, you should head over to the Patreon and vote in the poll! It’s a pretty short poll to decide what I’m going to be focusing on for the next prototype and which features I ought to cut. The poll closes next week and I’ll write a wrapup post detailing the results.

If you’ve got any bug reports or suggestions from the 5-2 release, be sure to get them to me on the forums so I can get them cleaned up for 5-2c. Otherwise, back to work.

Argue about this post on the forums!

Support Pandemonium on Patreon and get bonus stuff every week! Roughly! Usually!

Development Non-Update: July 3, 2018

SaltyJustice

So, this is sort of a non-update but it will allow me to make sure everyone is up to speed.

At 12:30am on Thursday of last week, one of the muscles in my lower back gave out and I collapsed. This is the third such incident in the past five or so years. For about 18 hours I was unable to even sit up and had to lie on the floor. After that I had enough strength to get into my bed and I’ve been slowly recovering ever since.

As I write this it’s Tuesday morning and I have my MacMini hooked up to the TV at the foot of my bed so I can type things without having to hold a sitting position. I can sit up for short periods but it’s uncomfortable. I can also walk very slowly (extending my left leg past about 30 degrees causes the damaged muscle to contract) for short periods. Using the washroom unassisted has, on multiple occasions, been a heroic act but I can do it reliably now.

Pandemonium is basically my favourite thing. I love making it. Fixing bugs is fun to me, writing the dialogue and scenes is a blast, and I love fleshing out the setting and characters. So being unable to even touch it for the past five days is more painful than my back problems. But I have not stopped trying.

I know from the previous times this has happened that my back will be improving slowly over the course of the next few days. Everything will probably be back to normal next week. Development will resume as normal and I’ll be trying to get a patch out to fix all the bugs that have been reported (thanks, everyone!).

So, if you’re new to this project, every week I normally post an update about the project status. That’s this. The project status is my back’s status.

I’m looking into purchasing an ergonomically designed chair to replace my current chair. The most likely cause of my back injury was the 12+ hour sessions I spent in the lead up to 5-2 working on Pandemonium in a chair that was placing strain on my back muscles. I’m not letting the injury stop me.

I want to make Pandemonium my full time job. I want it to be the full time jobs of the artists I work with. If you’re reading this, even if you’re not a patron, you’re helping make that possible. The response to v1.05 has been enormous. We got 50 new patrons in the past month alone. The pride of that accomplishment means I know we can pull this off and that my injury is a temporary setback on that road.

If you’re having problems with 1.05b, here’s a link to the discussion thread where I will try to answer any questions you have and provide workarounds for common problems until I can get a patch out. If you’ve stuck with me this far, the Patreon is going to have some bonus content out later today.

I had intended to have a Patron Steering Poll today but that’s postponed for obvious reasons. Should be out next week.

Thanks for sticking with me so far and here’s to the next release.

Prototype 5-2 Released to Patrons, Pandemonium v1.05 Released to the Public

SaltyJustice

Update: Patch v1.05b is now out. Get it here. Saves are compatible between the two versions.

That’s right, it’s out. Months of freakin’ work and multiple 12-hour days of coding madness, and Prototype 5-2 is now available for the patrons.

If you’re a Patron, just head over to the link I sent you. The password is unchanged. There is a sort-of changelog available on that page.

If you’re a member of the general public and want to give v1.05 a whirl, head to the Downloads page, or click right here.

What’s new in v1.05

So, the first and most obvious thing is that the GUI has been completely overhauled, and it’s still incomplete. I have a lot of changes I want to make, from alignment shifts to border changes to making it animate slightly when you press keys… but it’s largely in the game and workable.

Combat has new animations and flows much more smoothly with the new UI. The combat balance has also been changed a great deal. Chapter 1 is now probably really easy.

Several areas have been revamped and expanded. This includes the starting dungeon, the Quantir mansion, and sections of the Evermoon forest.

Gem socketing and Gem cutting are now in the game, replacing the upgrade system. There is a gemcutter NPC in the southeast corner of the map (read Nadia’s signs to help find her) who can upgrade your gems and sells some of the basic types. You can socket gems from the equipment menu.

Because the upgrade system is gone, there’s now a lot more equipment to be found in many areas. There are also 5 new pieces of Mei-only equipment you can get, one for each of Mei’s monster forms. Some are easier to find than others, but each one has a monster form you must acquire in order to find it.

Some of the dialogue has been changed. There is a sliiiight expansion to the Quantir mansion storyline (it’s not huge, don’t fret).

What about Chapter 5?

Chapter 5 is now about 60% complete by my estimate. With the GUI and the Mines out of the way, it will probably be a few more months before the whole shebang is completed in scripts. Anyone’s guess in terms of the art, those slacker artists.

Can I get Prototype 5-2 to play Chapter 5?

Yes you can! First, go to the Patreon and pledge there. I will be putting a post up shortly detailing how to get Prototype 5-2.

Or, if you have more patience than money (I do, so I know the feeling), you can wait until July 26th, 2018. At that point, Prototype 5-2 becomes available to the public.

Are there any known bugs?

Tons. Some of the larger known bugs are alignment problems in combat and with the GUI. The SDL versions of the game do not correctly read keys when you’re entering names for your save game (I’m working on a fix, don’t worry), and the FMOD version sometimes repeats sound effects for no reason.

Also, some cutscenes have text that runs slightly off the bottom of the dialogue box. That will be fixed… someday.

Where can I discuss this if I have problems, and report bugs?

We have a discussion thread on TFGamesSite. I check it fairly often when I’m working and try to answer non-spoiler questions as best I can.

You can also leave comments on the Patreon page and I’ll get back to you when I can.

Development Update: June 18th, 2018 – The Home Stretch

SaltyJustice

Prototype 5-2 is due out next week (not necessarily on Monday)

Unfortunately, Chicken will not be providing any of the nice-to-have arts. We have the minimum mandated art. Fortunately we have plenty here to whet your collective whistles.

On the programming front, I am just now wrapping up the vendor UI. I am going to attempt to get the gem socketing interface into the game before Prototype 5-2. I expect that will take a full day of work to develop and test. After that, I need to fix a couple bugs in the random level generator, and review the balance of Chapter 5 so far.

Chapter 1 has received a few map reworks, including a new NPC added. You’ll be able to meet a world-famous gemcutter in Evermoon forest. I’ve also completely reworked some maps as requested by people on the forums (thanks guys!) and we’ve improved the boulder and tree tiles. There is juuuust enough new content in Chapter 1 to warrant a replay for veteran players, but juuuust enough that skipping right to Chapter 5 will be viable.

The UI is looking great, and Patrons are going to get a preview this week. I’ve redone the entire thing, greatly improving the functionality. The save menu doesn’t look like crap anymore, and the string-entry UI also looks almost tolerable. The main menu of the game hasn’t been reworked yet, that will probably happen in Prototype 5-3.

News on the Linux Front

I have just built my new computer. It can run Doom on the highest settings with no FPS stutter, but more importantly I have enough hard drive space now to dual-boot Linux. However, I am not making that a priority for Prototype 5-2. It will probably be introduced in a patch later on, after 5-2 but before Prototype 5-3.

If you’re a Linux user, I will be requesting your help testing it. I’m going to be building it on Ubuntu as I’ve heard that’s the best for development across the Linux variants. If you’re a more experienced Linux developer I’d love to hear your thoughts on how I should go about this.

Until then, get psyched for Prototype 5-2 next week.

Argue about this post on the forums!

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Development Update: June 11, 2018

SaltyJustice

Text Adventure Mode is pushed back to Prototype 5-3

Yes, you read that right. I have decided to move the Text Adventure optional quest to Prototype 5-3. It will not be making an appearance in Prototype 5-2.

My reasoning for this goes thusly: I have about two weeks to finish everything for the prototype, maybe a few more days (I update on Mondays but I don’t have to release on them). I could rush this out, but I’d rather spent those two weeks polishing the game and improving it. It’s better to get all this polish and balance work done rather than release in a shoddy state but with more content.

For reference, this is due to A) the GUI and B) the increased length of the Tellurium Mines. Originally, the mines were just the randomly generated levels plus a small Steam Droid encampment where you could turn in quests and chat with NPCs. The Tellurium Mines is now a full-fledged side area, with a Steam Droid city, about a dozen cutscenes, a small dungeon, the random level generation, and new areas added around Regulus. It’s much better than before and really suits the story’s themes, but holy cow did the scope expand.

If I have spare time, I may try to squeeze the gemstone upgrade system into this prototype, but that depends on how long I spend on everything else. I have a few maps I need to finish and I have to write a few more scenes, as well as fix some bugs in the random level generator, but it’s mostly POLISH WORK.

If you are interested, please tell me what parts of Chapter 1 I should focus on.
I want to redo some of the older maps. Which maps did you think sucked the most? Those are the ones I’ll redo or expand.

Boring Update Stuff

As far as programming goes, see above. It’s mostly polish work from here on out. Because I changed how the program handles naming, I have to go back through Chapter 1 and fix various objects now showing up with improper names, such as (Thought: when reading the signs.

On the art front, everything I had mandated for Prototype 5-2 is in. Everything past this point is nice-to-haves. I’d really like to get Darkmatter and Steam Droid Christine images into this prototype if we have time. Chicken is on vacation until the 18th, meaning there’s juuuust enough time to get those out.

The new UI is artistically completed, and all I have to do is code it in.

On the spriting front, I am currently forcing Urimas to revamp some of the older tiles to make them look better. He just finished trees, and we’re doing boulders next.

NewTrees

Checklist

As you can see, we’re mostly done. Just gotta balance these things and revisit old code to address bugs.

  • Serenity Crater (Reviewing Balance)
  • Tellurium Mines (Mostly Done)
  • Golem Transformation images (Done)
  • Latex Drone Transformation images (Done)
  • Enemies for Serenity Crater (Done)
  • All running animations completes (Done)
  • New UI Overhaul (Done, Implementing)
  • Eldritch Dream Girl Transformation (Complete)
  • Work Credits System implemented and balanced (In Progress)
  • Next balance pass of Chapter 5 (In Progress)
  • Darkmatter Girl Transformation (Complete)
  • Steam Droid Transformation (Complete)

 

Argue about this post on the forums!

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Development Update: June 4th, 2018

SaltyJustice

Programming and Design Stuff

So, we’re most of the way through the Tellurium Mines. My goal is to have that wrapped up this week, along with Serenity Crater. As is so often the case, we’ve expanded the area a little bit to make it better. It now features a mini-dungeon and some other surprises that I’m not going to spoil, in addition to having a large NPC town and randomly generated dungeon. And all this for an optional area!

I’ve also settled on the equipment upgrade system we’re going to be using. I spelled it out here but, in brief: Equipment can be socketed with items (tentatively called gems) which provide stat increases. Gems can be upgraded with adamantite. You can swap gems out of your equipment. Some equipment has more slots than others.

This system will not make it into Prototype 5-2, but I should have it done for Prototype 5-3.

Art Stuff

Chicken just got me the last piece of art mandated for Prototype 5-2. Everything after this point is a nice-to-have but isn’t on my list of required pieces.

Hund also just finished the runic animations, which Patrons will get to see next week.

Urimas is getting me some more tiles. Because that’s what he does.

Rune is doing character design work for Chapter 2. Izuna the Kitsune is looking good!

The New UI

I’ve been promised that all the remaining UI parts will be given to me this week. I’ve coded most of the UI in as I’ve received it so far. Once it’s done, I’ll be putting up some screenshots for all to enjoy.

Please note that none of the UI is considered finalized at this point, I often edit little bits to make them look better or fit the text better. I’m considering creating an entirely new font for the headers, for example, so take all things with a grain of pepper.

Prototype 5-2 Checklist

My current target for 5-2 is the end of June. I want to spend some extra time testing and balancing the prototype, hence why I’m allocating a month for it instead of two weeks. I could very well rush it out in two weeks, but then it’ll suck. So, nope.

  • Serenity Crater (Reviewing Balance)
  • Tellurium Mines (Mostly Done)
  • Text Adventure Subquest
  • Golem Transformation images (Done)
  • Latex Drone Transformation images (Done)
  • Enemies for Serenity Crater (Done)
  • All running animations completes (Done)
  • New UI Overhaul (4/5ths done!)
  • Eldritch Dream Girl Transformation (Text only, Complete)
  • Work Credits System implemented and balanced
  • Next balance pass of Chapter 5 (In Progress)
  • Darkmatter Girl Transformation (Complete)
  • Electrosprite Transformation (Text only, no images)
  • Steam Droid Transformation (In Progress)

The Weapon Upgrade System: A Discussion

SaltyJustice

Right, so I’ve been thinking on this issue for a while now and I decided to compile my thoughts into a post so other people can ignore read them. Yes it’s about Pandemonium’s internal system dynamics, but I promise to keep it high level.

It also doubles as a Design with a Grain of Salt post.

The Weapon Upgrade System

To put it briefly, in Pandemonium, the player can upgrade their weapons and armor using Adamantite. Adamantite is found in the environment and can be purchased in some cases.

Upgrading a weapon gives it a suffix, such as Fencer’s Raiment (+1), and increases its statistics. Every piece of equipment has a different upgrade path.

ForgeExample.png
(The Forge UI hasn’t been overhauled yet, 100 bonus points for the first person to spot the obvious bug!)

What it does to the game

Being able to find items in the world that you can use to improve your existing inventory produces a few obvious effects.

  1. The player wants to seek out every treasure chest because more adamantite is always useful.
  2. Cash is always useful. You’ll never really have too much since every character needs to upgrade their equipment.
  3. There are fewer pieces of equipment to be found, and equipment is never discarded since no one weapon is really “better” than another when upgraded.

However, as I was developing this system I found a major downside to it that I had not considered. Highly upgraded equipment discourages the player from experimenting or specializing.

If I made a piece of equipment that has excellent fire resistance, but it’s found later in the game, no player would ever actually use it because by the time they found it, all their existing equipment is at +5. This piece of equipment gives fire resistance but unless the enemies in one area are exclusively dealing fire damage, the overall better stats of a +5 piece of equipment outweigh the increased resistance. The best case scenario would be a player upgrading the fire resistance item, using it for one area, and then putting it aside until they find another area where enemies deal fire damage which may not even exist in the game.

In games like Final Fantasy, your party is constantly finding new weapons and armor. There are even Optimize options on the equipment screen which instantly equip whatever has the best overall stats. This is something I wanted to avoid because it’s one of those situations where the player doesn’t get to make an interesting choice. If a piece of equipment has better stats, equip it. Duh. You don’t need to choose what to upgrade, you just need to choose to hit the Optimize button periodically.

Optimize.png
Final Fantasy 6, GBA Version. Mash that Optimize button!

So I want to encourage experimentation and interesting player choices at the same time. How the hell do I do that? Well, I need to make things more flexible.

Possible Solution A: Recycling

This one I’ve given some thought to. Essentially it allows the player to “Recycle” an item, decreasing it back down to its (+0) state and removing all bonuses, as well as refunding all adamantite and cash that went into it.

If you want to experiment, you can take your +5 gear and downgrade it all back to its base properties, then upgrade something else. If it doesn’t work out, downgrade that gear and get all your +5 back. You don’t even need to make a new save, because there’s no real loss to doing this.

A possible lemma to this solution is that perhaps we don’t refund 100% of the cost. Some games like to do this, but as far as I’m concerned that’s just there to make the player grind for longer. If I want to experiment but it will cost me 3000 Platina to do so because that’s how much I’ll lose for recycling, then that’s 3000 Platina I need to grind (or just make a new save file and reload). So while this is a possibility, I don’t view it as a good one.

Benefits: Allows experimentation and flexibility with the equipment. Internally, Pandemonium is set up for this, as the upgrade table can just be run in reverse.

Downsides: Adds complexity to the game. Recycling is a system I need to explain to the player, and some players may skip over it just because it’s extra complexity.

Possible Solution B: Per-Slot Upgrading

Another possibility is that each character could upgrade their equipment slots instead of upgrading the equipment in that slot. Yes, that sounds insane, but from a game-mechanics standpoint it’s perfectly valid.

What this would mean is that Florentina would upgrade her weapon slot to +1, and then any piece of equipment she puts there is a +1 regardless of what it is. Swap the Hunting Knife for the Butterfly Knife, and it instantly becomes a +1.

This has a different problem in that it makes equipment sharing more difficult. If a character is upgraded and not the equipment, then characters can’t swap equipment between them. Pandemonium only has a few pieces of universal equipment in Chapter 1, but it becomes more prevalent as the game goes on. All characters have unique weapons, but armor is divided into Light, Medium, and Heavy, while Accessories and Combat-Items are much more flexible. In Chapter 6 the player can build their own party composition, so swapping equipment around becomes much more important.

Naturally, the solution to that problem is Recycling character slot upgrades, which puts us right back to Solution A but in a more convoluted fashion.

Plus, this is really weird lore-wise. I can understand making a weapon better, but somehow dusting Mei’s wrists with adamantite makes her better with her sword? How? There’s already a mechanic which makes characters stronger, it’s called Level-ups!

Benefits: Allows experimentation within a character’s equipment range.

Downsides: Discourages experimentation between characters. Weird to explain from a lore-perspective and probably convoluted to tutorialize.

Possible Solution C: Remove the upgrade system

Easiest to implement mechanically, I just remove the upgrade system and go with the Final Fantasy system. Obviously falls victim to the sunk cost fallacy since I’ve already designed and built the system and scrapping it causes me to lose all that work. (Also, if you followed that link, I do not endorse Kahneman’s evolutionary psychology hypothesis for the fallacy’s origins. That’s just flat out bad science.)

Benefits: It’s really easy. I just remove all vendors capable of forging and remove or repurpose Adamantite. Players who have it in their save file can be compensated the next time they load it. Very simple to understand, doesn’t require tutorials.

Downsides: I’d have to add a lot more equipment items to replace Adamantite. Probably need to add an Optimize button to the equipment screen.

Possible Solution D: Go Full Ham on the upgrade system

Rather than allowing multiple pieces of equipment, the player only ever gets one piece (Ex: Mei’s Rusty Katana and Work Clothes) and doesn’t find new ones. Instead, all equipment changes are done via the upgrade system.

The upgrade system no longer needs to be done in shops and no longer costs money. Instead it may look something like this awful prototype image:

FullHam
The whole hog is a whole different flavour

In this system, you can add or remove upgrades at any time by inserting/removing Adamantite from the slots. I would have an indicator on each upgrade as to how much it costs of each Adamantite type. Each upgrade can be undone and will return all of the Adamantite used, and this can be done in the field (or possibly at save points) for free.

Once again, this system is complex as all get out, and would require some explanation for the player. I’d also have to change a great deal of how the equipment is handled internally, so there’d be a lot of coding involved.

It’d also be a pain in the neck to balance properly, but that’s a trial-and-error thing.

There is also no particular reason why I could not allow multiple pieces of equipment, but it would mean I would need to create upgrade charts for a lot of items. This would allow some items, like Fencer’s Raiment, to have a lot more offensive options in their upgrade chart than something like Light Leather Vest.

Benefits: Allows for a lot of interesting choices and allows experimentation and specialization in the field.

Downisdes: A lot of coding work on my end (probably. I’m very clever.) and very complex. Would likely require a detailed set of instructions available in the game for confused players. Would require a new UI with attendant control mapping charts.

A Plea

So, that’s the state of the system and how I see it. Now, if you’ve read this far, the congratulations because you’re literate or you skipped to the end and I admire your guts for admitting it. But also, you must have some thoughts on what I should do. Want to tell me what to do?

Go to this forum and hurl your ideas at my head. Whatever we wind up deciding on, it probably won’t make it into Prototype 5-2, but will probably make it into 5-3 or Chapter 5’s full release.

Oh, and here’s the obligatory link to my patreon. I’ve been told I need to post this at the end of every blog post because that improves engagement or something.

 

Development Update: May 28th, 2018

SaltyJustice

Linux Build Coming Soon!

I ordered all the parts for the computer I’m building, and I will have them in early June. I’m going to be dual-booting Linux and Windows on this machine, so hopefully Prototype 5-2 will have native Linux support. Hooray!

Programming Stuff

Most of the way through Tellurium Mines’ scenario. Rather than rush to complete it, I took some time to put the UI in more thoroughly.

And let me tell you, it’s worth it. The UI overhaul makes the game so much more enjoyable, if for no reason other than it’s much cleaner to look at.

CombatUIPreview.png

It’s still a work in progress, as not all of the text/images are aligned correctly and some parts are not finished yet. But it looks so much better oh my god.

Artistic Stuff

The needed character designs for Prototype 5-2 are complete, and Chicken is finishing up the Latex Drone sequence. Everything else is a nice-to-have.

Hund is now working on making some pretty runestone animations. They look great and I’ll probably wind up posting a sample when they’re ready.

Urimas, as always, is spriting. His next task is to get me sprites of the Steam Droid characters so I can finish the cutscenes therein.

And what’s that? Rune is back to work? Yes, Rune is doing some character design work for Chapter 2 and will be making promotional materials for the big release of 5-2. Much excite!

Checklist

  • Serenity Crater (Reviewing Balance)
  • Tellurium Mines (Mostly Done, unbalanced)
  • Text Adventure Subquest
  • Golem Transformation images (Done)
  • Latex Drone Transformation images (In progress)
  • Enemies for Serenity Crater (Done)
  • All running animations completes (Done)
  • New UI Overhaul (4/5ths done!)
  • Eldritch Dream Girl Transformation (Text only, Complete)
  • Work Credits System implemented and balanced
  • Next balance pass of Chapter 5 (In Progress)
  • Darkmatter Girl Transformation (Complete)
  • Electrosprite Transformation (Text only, no images)
  • Steam Droid Transformation (Text only, no images)