by Mor'Ladim » Mon Jun 01, 2020 6:10 pm
It's been a while, hasn't it? You know when I said the next update wouldn't take much longer to finish? Yeah...So that was a lie. Some things kept popping up during development, and now we may have to delay the release by a bit so we can refactor a few mechanics under the hood to make further development much more seamless than it is now.
Not only is there going to be a refactor of some systems, we are going to overhaul features. We feel that this will improve the mod in the long run while also reducing overlap or removing features that only really added bloat to the mod. Here is what we have planned:
-First off, Sub-Weapons will no longer be a thing. They really didn't add anything to the game and weren't all that different from primary weapons. It would make more sense if the combat was mainly melee oriented, but that is not the case here. They will not be entirely removed, as some will be spread to primary weapons, such as the Mag Shuriken and Energy Claws, and others will be used in another system. Naturally, some Equipment items will need to change as a select few affected Sub-Weapons.
-Abilities will be removed as well. This means Flash Guard and Quick Kick. The plans for them are not yet set in stone, but I may be able to incorporate the Quick Kick into a weapon, and the Flash Guard into another system. This also means that future playable characters will not have their own unique abilities as was originally planned. Melee weapons will also have their two unique abilities removed, but fear not, as they will be integrated into the weapons themselves, so they will not be totally lost. This also means that developing melee weapons will be less of a problem, as I will no longer need to think of 3 different effects for each level of the weapons as well two unique abilities for each.
-Bullet-Eye Mode will see some slight changes as well. It is now a burst attack that fires automatically as soon as it is used, and can no longer be cancelled during fire. However, building up energy for it is much faster, so it can be activated far more often than before. On the other hand, since it is now a quick burst attack, this means there will no longer be unique music playing when it is activated. Those tracks have been moved over to the general map music pool.
-Ammo usage, reloading, and durability are now baseline to the mod and are no longer options. I know this may upset a few players, but it was throwing some balance off, and preventing some features or mechanics from being included. As an example, the Spitfire's L3, which increases fire rate as the weapon is used would reset the fire rate bonus if a manual reload was done. As you can see, this would never happen with infinite ammo or no reloading on, causing game breaking play. A lot of new mechanics will open up due to this change, so hopefully it will make up for the loss of the options.
-Elements on weapons actually have a use now, instead of just being for flavor. Fire damage will leave a lasting damage over time effect on enemies hit by a fire-based weapon. Ice will slow down enemy movements and eventually freeze them. Lightning will damage a nearby enemy when the primary target has been hit. Poison will no longer cause damage to enemies over time - it will now reduce their damage dealt for a duration.
-There are also finally player sprites for Valnos, and quite a number of new weapons and monsters coming, with artwork by HyperUltra64 (Of Treasure Tech fame), so those will be unique and exciting to see in action!
I probably forgot something, so if that is the case, I will return to update this post, but I think that covers some of the more major changes and additions. Hopefully this isn't too extreme for players, as I know this may change some play styles up a bit. As I said, this may delay the update's release a bit, but not as much as before as there will be less mechanics to implement overall. We can even delay some planned features to speed up development time further. In the end, we hope to get the next version out as soon as possible, so please bear with us - and as always, thank you for playing!