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[pat]

Yeah the artist did a fantastic job! I couldn’t ask for anything better to be honest.

In terms of in-game art, it’s not a priority to play around with an alternative tileset just yet although the game is very easy to mod if someone wanted to do it - it’s simply a matter of replacing the image files. In relation to Steam, the game will always be for free and I just use that as a distribution service at my own cost so I’m not focussed on being a commercial success at all. It would be amazing if someone did produce an all new tile set and it could even be something that I look at paying for in the future.

[Retropunch]

Yeah the artist did a fantastic job! I couldn’t ask for anything better to be honest.

I’m terms of in-game art, it’s not a priority to play around with an alternative tileset just yet although the game is very easy to mod if someone wanted to do it - it’s simply a matter of replacing the image files. In relation to Steam, the game will always be for free and I just use that as a distribution service at my own cost so I’m not focussed on being a commercial success at all. It would be amazing if someone did produce an all new tile set and it could even be something that I look at paying for in the future.

If it's easily moddable then I don't think you need to worry! Maybe either make a guide or you could even put an 'import file' thing in an option menu so it's easy for even the least technically capable. I'm sure with how great it's shaping up that you'll have loads of people wanting to create tilesets soon!

[pat]

Some pretty significant changes took place this week:

Made reach weapons work. This was something which didn't really occur to me as being a core part of the game but it's something that a few players have gone looking for almost immediately so it needed to get done.

They work via the ranged combat menus by pressing 'f' or 'F' with a limited range. You can select a target within range manually or just use 'F' to auto-target within range. It works alongside thrown weapons as well so that if you're at range, those commands will throw at the target and if you're closer then they will default to a ranged melee attack.

Reworked entire encounter and monster generation system. Single monsters are still generated depending on dungeon level and CR of the individual monster.

Mob generation was reworked from scratch with new classes for Encounters and Monsters within that encounter so that special types can be defined and mobs can be specified easily with combinations of monsters along with spell users and ranged fighters. It should prove to be easily extensible in terms of special features and new mobs.

Full change list (apart from the above):

* Updated menu options for ranged/reach attacks.

* Updated display to show when wielding a reach weapon.

* Redid the following mobs in the new system: bandits with captain; mix of low level undead; kobolds with mages, shamans and slingers; orcs with mages, shamans and chuckers.

* Created new mob types: lizardfolk with a large number of weak lizards; single ogre with goblin followers; solo ogre mage.

* Turned off seperate factions being generated for different mobs of monsters to experiment with no in-fighting.

* Added extra customisation of monster types in mobs. Now individual stats can be specified along with character level so that casting levels can be simulated. Applied upgraded stats to all spellcasters already implemented.

* Fixed bug where doors could appear on the outer boundary which let the player walk out of bounds.

* Doubled food ration spawn rate.

* Fixed issue where fighter's second wind ability took a turn when it should be a bonus action.

* Added two different starting kits for fighters. If strength is higher or equal to dexterity, you start with one of longsword, battleaxe and spear and ring mail. If dexterity is higher, you start with one of scimitar, shortsword or whip and leather armour.

[Robsoie]

downloaded todat from itch.io and gave a try, I got a +2 crossbow and some bolts at some point, i ran into a room in which at a distance there was a monster, i pressed f then moved the aiming cursor but i let the direction key pressed for too long and the cursor moved past the target and into the wall (and probably beyond it) , leading to this crash :

Code: [Select]

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "theredprison.py", line 10078, in <module>
  File "theredprison.py", line 9483, in main_menu
  File "theredprison.py", line 9412, in play_game
  File "theredprison.py", line 4676, in handle_keys
  File "theredprison.py", line 5433, in player_ranged_attack
  File "theredprison.py", line 5317, in target_monster
  File "theredprison.py", line 5204, in target_tile
  File "theredprison.py", line 2346, in blocks_sight
IndexError: list index out of range


[pat]

Thanks for letting me know, I'll look into it right away and fix it. Sounds like a fairly niche situation which I hadn't anticipated but it's good to iron out any weird bugs like that.

[pat]

It was a problem to do with the graphical display of ranged targetting where I show the projectile path and things like. It was really obvious once I took a look at it. I'll upload new versions with that fix to Steam and Itch right away.

[pat]

I've decided to widen the scope of the game a bit and expand beyond the original four races plus subraces and things got a bit out of control!

Now there's six new races to play: half-elf, half-orc, tiefling, aasimar, kobold and bugbear. This opens up some interesting new character builds:

* Kobold rogue - high natural dexterity makes a natural fit for a rogue, but the pack tactics trait synergises really effectively with sneak attack. When you and an ally are both next to a target, you get advantage on your attack from the pack tactics trait and the bonus damage from sneak attacks which becomes very effective.

* Bugbear fighter/rogue - the key feature of the bugbear class is natural reach on all weapons and bonus reach using weapons already with that trait. What it means is that you can be a great weapon fighter and use a polearm to hit monsters 3 squares away. Or you can be a rogue with a finesse weapon and sneak attack from 2 squares away. Both builds become excellent support fighters because you can always attack over the heads of your allies who can take the brunt of the damage for you.

* Half-orc fighter - this build makes for a really powerful and direct fighter. The savage attack trait means that when you roll a critical hit, you roll an extra die of damage so you hit extra hard, particularly when combined with the fighter's improved chances at critical hits at higher levels. The relentless endurance trait gives you an extra buffer before being knocked out. Knowing that you can drop to 0 HP once and automatically be given 1 HP to keep fighting means that you're extra resilient in the front of a party.

* Aasimar are still under development, but they are already useful support characters no matter what class you choose. The healing hands trait gives you a once per rest ability to heal damage up to your character level. It might not seem like much, but it can revive an unconscious ally during combat which can make all the difference.

* Tieflings are also still under development, but a race with darkvision, fire resistance (still a work in progress but will be really helpful to survive enemy spells) and high charisma is a versatile choice for any class.

[catacombs]

.

[pat]

I'm not much of a Codex user because I don't think there's as much of a roguelike fan base there when compared to other places but I post there occasionally because of the D&D aspect. Having said that, people seem pretty positive about it over there.

In terms of recent development, I've been working away but not releasing as often as I have in the past. The reason for that is because I've been working on two big new features:

1. Druids are almost complete in their basic form. They've got a few spells already and the framework has all been done. The most complex issue, and most interesting to be honest, has been the wild shape ability. I actually finished it in a broad sense tonight and I think I've just got one more issue to do with the sidebar display to tidy up before I'm willing to release that.

2. Dynamic quest generation has also been taking up my time and its far from finished. In fact, it's the kind of feature that will probably never be finished but it's well underway. Currently I'm in the process of finalising stage 1 which will be two randomly generated npcs who hate each other and offer the player a reward to kill the other. You can take sides or decide to kill both or even complete the quest and then try and recruit the remaining npc to your party.

I'm hoping I can get a stable build out this week with those  features and more.

[catacombs]

.

[pat]

After a few weeks delay, a new version is finally up for download. The delay was because I embarked on a bit of a complicated arc of development and the build was too unstable in various ways to release because of these big additions to the codebase.

I've been spending the last couple of weeks playtesting and ironing out bugs and hopefully (!!!) the version that I've released is as bug-free as I can hope for an playable!

Here is a rundown of the big changes:

* Druids - new character class has been added. The big feature of this class is the level 2 ability to use wildshape! There is also a powerful selection of spells available from both the cleric and wizard lists and there'll be more custom spells coming over the next few months.

* Dynamic quests - I've begun the work on making dynamic quests which appear randomly in the dungeon and assign you different and often competing goals. The first step of this rollout is on some dungeon levels, there is a chance that two rival NPC groups will spawn. They are often very, very tough although their makeup is random. Both will task you with killing the other. It is planned that you'll get a big reward for doing so, but that hasn't been implemented yet. It's a bit experimental still although it seems to be working well apart from a hard-to-reproduce weird behaviour where the quest dialogue doesn't work randomly. I'm looking into it though.

* Map generation - with the addition of quests came the need to rework the map generator to set out special areas where these quests would spawn. I also took the opportunity to add special entry and exit vaults for levels so that stairs would spawn in more logical places rather than just randomly in some narrow corridor. So the dungeon generation should seem a fair bit different and more complex with a lot more variety hopefully.

Full change list:

* Fixed bug where casting bless caused a crash due to an error in the stats display code.

* Changed the way that druids get spells so they are now like clerics and instantly know all spells at a level they can cast.

* Updated stats display to properly display the damage type being used when in wild shape.

* Started work on dynamic quest system. Implemented quest object and start of work on generating quest givers and target throughout maps.

* Changed AI to not attack neutrals automatically.

* Made it so that neutrals don't provoke opportunity attacks.

* Built upon dynamic quest system. Added new long message function so that there are popup dialogue boxes to convey the quest instructions. Added quests object into saving and loading games. Ensured that quest objects are removed from general pool of actors when loading and saving and tracked through the quest system instead. Ironed out bugs with finishing kill quests.

* Made it so that quests and their goals spawn on the same floor to prevent what would be an excessive amount of backtracking. Dummy quest currently has two NPCs asking for the death of the other.

* Enlarged map size to accomodate quests on the same map but with targets at opposite ends.

* Added proper_noun flag to deal with oddities arising from wild shape and the name display.

* Added check for player to have blindsight to deal with scenario where player wild shapes into a bat.

* Added checks to make sure that wild shaped creatures can't pick up or drop items as well as not being able to cast, fire or open and close doors.

* Changed autoexplore algorithm to deal with wild shapes being unable to open doors.

* Fixed bug where followers weren't switching loyalty to new wild shape object (and back again) after transformation.

* Implemented preserving intelligence, wisdom and charisma and XP gains across form changes.

* Fixed display issues with wild shape, now it hides the player's true name, race and role and just displays the monster shape with no gaps in spacing.

* Changed map generation to make the complete map 4x3 vaults which is probably a better size and helps with generating times.

* Added new UI option to confirm whether player is sure they want to do an action. Linked this to attacking neutrals.

* Added make_hostile function which recursively works through monster list to check to see what other allied monsters need to be made hostile when player attacks.

* Created basic MagicMonster and RangedMonster AI's to use for non-companion creatures because that hadn't been implemented yet.

* Created new vault type for quests designed so that a tough NPC and followers can spawn there.

* Tidied up quests by removing references to different levels so that all quests occur within a single level.

* Changed sidebar display colours so that allies are green, quests are purple, neutrals are white and hostile are red.

* Added mobs of allies for quest NPC's. Made it so that allies of NPC's can't be convinced to follow player.

* Reworked dungeon generation algorithm so the game distinguishes between normal, stair and quest vaults and implemented all three with basic options.

* Reduced number of quest NPC allies to 1-3 rather than 2-5. It was too cluttered.

* Added a bunch of new stair and quest vaults.

* Added two new dialogue options for each stage of each quest.

* Added more complexity to the way in which names are printed to take into account whether there are proper nouns as names or not and whether a 'the' should be used or not.

* Reworked all messages to take advantage of new naming system.

* Reworked spell messages so that they aren't shown when a caster is out of sight of the player.

* Simplified AI when it comes to healing and reviving because it seems a bit buggy.

* Reduced ally chat by about half because it was happening too much.

* Hopefully fixed a bug causing hangs to do with quest NPC's AI.

* Fixed bug where crash would occur when more than 26 items picked up.

* Hopefully fixed bug where sometimes quest NPC's wouldn't talk.

* Made sure that arrow keys worked as input across the board rather than just some of the time.

* Updated display to show max HP for enemies and neutrals but not current HP.

[Rince Wind]

Made it to lvl 4 (and in the dungeon), but basically died because I had no food left. Only found a single ration.

[pat]

You've got to be really careful with food - it's deliberately a scarce and incredibly valuable resource. For those that haven't played the game, there is no automatic healing over time nor is there a food clock. The alterative system is that the player and allies get fully restored in terms of health and abilities after a long rest, and resting consumes food.

I tried to create a real tension for the player needing to conserve food versus needing the healing effect of a rest. You really need to fall back on abilities such as second wind for fighters and healing for clerics and druids. Allies with the ability to heal like acolytes and priests are invaluable but they'll only heal you once you're at about quarter health.

Try holding out on resting and trying to stretch the food further. It's designed to encourage you to make the tough choice of continuing to explore and fight while in a weakened state. I'm not saying that the drop rates for food rations have been finalised for good, but just thought I'd explain the design philosophy and why it's so important in this game.

Thanks heaps for giving it a go!

[Rince Wind]

Yeah, I only realized food is needed for rests when I ran out. I had an acolyte (my starting priest died somewhere along the way) but when me and the 2 guards fell he was behind an obstacle and died soon after us. I was out of 2nd wind and action surge.
Do my npcs use spellslots?
Do you plan to add the subclasses like battlemaster for fighters, hunter for rangers and so on? I guess that would be a long term goal after adding the base classes.

[pat]

Yeah NPC's do use spell slots which is why I only have them heal when an ally is down to quarter health in an effort to conserve them. Wizards are a bit more variable with when they'll use their non-cantrip spells but they'll generally try and conserve them.

Those class archetypes are potentially on the horizon but not a short-term goal. I thought the basic rules would be simple to implement but that couldn't be further from the truth in reality!