DevLog #4 – Combat system updates

Hi guys!

This week, i solely worked on the combat system or rather everything related to the expeditions (and I actually stayed with turn-based instead of realtime!) The combat actually seems fun now, even though replayed it dozens and dozens of times...

New Features:

• Combat Abilities
• Better pathfinding / Simulataneous movement of enemies
• Task system updates

Details:

•  2D grid system for pathfinding
  • Changed to A* for better performance
• Turn manager
  • All enemies first decide on their path and then start to move -> no waiting for dozens of enemies to move one after another!

    
    

    • (This took MOST of the time...)
• Combat abilites: including UI, animation, sound
  • Reload: Uses 1 magazine to reload ammo
  • Line Attack: attacks monsters in a single line (Cooldown 1 turn)
  • Shock Attack: stuns all enemies in a circular range for 1 turn (Cooldown 3 turns)
  • Single attack: High dmg attack on a single enemy
• 2 different enemy types with different dmg and movement range
• Basic armor system for enemies
• Tasks on expeditions
  • Tasks have skill requirements (Engineering, Physics, Biology, etc..) and a duration
  • When a character performs a task, it can lead to a
    • Failure: No progress
    • Success: -1 duration
    • Crit Success: -2 duration
    • Chances are based on character skills vs task requirement
• UI changes / updates
  • Select characters and robots by UI icons
  • Robot: show abilites / cooldowns / ammo / magazines
• Map updates
  • More details: rocks, plants, etc.

Design Decisions:

Decision #1 - Visit expeditions once vs multiple times

At first, I planned for the player to revisit an expedition, if it wasn't finished the first time, which leads to balancing HELL! Now, you have 1 chance -> higher stakes, easier balancing, better gameplay.

Whats next?

The next days, I want to focus on the base management. After that's finished (at a basic level), the gameloop is done and I can start a few alpha test with playtesters.

Conclusion:

Very happy with the combat system and the atmosphere that it's creating.

For some gifs and images, check out my Bluesky or Twitter accounts. Also, my steam page is online, so check it out!

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