Hi everyone, time for this month's devlog:
Right at the beginning, there was a rework of the Skill Tree: In addition to a new look, each main branch now has a Golden Perk at its end. These new perks can be upgraded indefinitely, meaning there is no limit to how strong your hero can be. Just keep in mind that each upgrade increases the cost of the perk, so Fame becomes even more valuable. Maybe it's time to increase those Tower multipliers.
The new Skill Tree also deals with traits from perks in a different way, these perks are not tied to any branch, you are free to choose the trait you want, whenever you want. As always, there's a catch: For each positive trait purchased with Fame, the value of the others positive traits increases. The same happens with negative traits.
Events have also been added. Unlike HC1, events do not advance time by one hour, this way you'll have better control of your day. No more losing that last alchemy lab/boss fight at the end of the day for a random event that popped out of nowhere. Also, events are not tied to a specific area. You can find any event at any area, at least for now. In the future I'll be adding events that are only for a specific area, triggers after a certain day, or even rare events that only happen at a specific time of day. What matters now is that the basic mechanic is already in place.
Now I need to talk about something that really caught my attention during this month's development: Time management
I've noticed last month that I've been spending a lot more time working on the project, perhaps even more then when HC1 and HC2 were being updated simultaneously. This probably happens for two reasons:
First, I really, really like working on HC2. Sometimes I spend hours thinking about how to introduce new stuff, designing enemies, solving problems and thinking about the best way to stick it all together.
Second, as the game grows, more time is required to think about how to implement new additions, adjust them to what's already in the game, and squash bugs.
The lack of organization that originate from this can be a problem, as essentially I've lost track of how long it takes to create an enemy, an equipment, a new area in the current complexity of HC2. This month I had intentions of adding everything that is currently in the live version, plus two new enemies, I also had to solve the stuff related to the web version. As you can already imagine, there is no chance of me being able to do all of this, given the day we are already in.
I don't like that. When a new month starts, I need to know what stage the project is and where it will be at the end of it. This is really important for me, I need to organize my work hours, my short and long term goals, and above all, maintain transparency with everyone you. I would hate to promise something and not be able to deliver.
To fix this, there won't be any new mechanics implemented in v0.70, instead, I will be adding a little bit of everything: New area, boss, common enemy, bad ending, event, equipment, trait, dreams, side-jobs, achievements, etc. I need to see how long it takes for each one of these additions to be added, from the most complex to the simplest one. This way I can prepare my schedule for the next few months with a lot more confidence.
And don't worry web players, as I promised, online version will be back the same way as it was before. Which is far from ideal, but it'll will have to do until I sort this stuff out.
That said, I might still be able to fit a new enemy by the end of the month in the live version, so those of you who don't intend to keep the $10 tier next month, be sure to check out the page on the 31st, so you can squeeze the last drop out of your subscription.
That will be it for this Dev log. v0.65 will be released on November 4th. Feel free to ask any questions you might have, both regarding this month development and the changes that will be made in November.
See you all soon !