Devlog No.056

Tired today. Sildiscia's animation is effectively done, just applying finishing touches. I may upload her after I wake up. I'm pretty happy with how she came out, though I did save a couple variants with one that had more of an upward facing booba and might use it on a later NPC with BE.

In other news, I've gotten the Shiver Bow's core behavior programmed. I have a very early preview that I'll link here. It still needs quite a few visual adjustments (like the explosion is just a placeholder and so is the lockon indicator). Also need to actually make Aria's bowdraw animations too. Those are in the works and I'll weave them in with the next NPC getting done too.

Here is a video of it in a very wip state:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1S8a-RT7OQ

I decided on making the bow auto-lock on as I said, and I also made it so that when you fire it, the arrows embed into a target and stack up. For now, the damage isn't well adjusted, but the enemies don't get staggered until the explosion occurs. The arrows prioritize creatures, then juggleables (barrels), and finally will targets destructibles. There might be a more elegant solution, but I ended up with this as I didn't want to add another button or button combo for target swapping. I'll, of course, observe it and test it, but until everyone gets it in their hands to play with, I won't know if it's actually comfortable to use.

Also, if it's not obvious, the sound design is... almost non-existent on it. The bowdraw and fire plays instantly because her animation isn't ready (which there will likely be a slight delay to firing when it's all done) and right now the spam of generic damage impacts overwhelms the embed sound. And of course none of the explosion sounds are right and proper. Lots to modify before it's actually done.

Once the visuals and sounds are updated, I'll work on the balance a bit, test it, etc. I do also plan on giving the Shiver Bow and 'infusion' upgrade. I'm not 100% on how I will do it yet, as always, but my plan right now is to make it so that when you cast a spell, it makes your next shot have an infusion based on the spell. For windforce, that will make it so that the target will inflate, for bubble shield it will cause the arrow to destroy any projectiles it comes near, for the star it will just increase the damage slightly (since you can practically spam the star), with the healing spell it will likely make the attack heal you based on the damage done. With phoenix dash, the explosion will cause flames to pour out unless there are issues with that. All of them should have some modifcation to them based on how many arrows you embed into a target.

Speaking of, I have it currently set so that arrows always generate an explosion for testing, but when done, it will be that explosions only occur at 3 or 4 and super explosions happen at 8. Right now, if you hit a target with 8, it will dump the container for the arrows and generate a delayed explosion. So even if you keep shooting arrows into a target, you don't lose any value from them.

In regards to how they function, due to how spammy they are, you will likely find yourself being retaliated against by filimuri frequently. Also I will be adjusting the spread projectile to cause more retaliation aggro too. The more spammy a weapon feels, the more aggro I feel it should generate. Charge cards being a slight exception right now because they do feel a bit weak. I'm going to look at them a bit closer to finishing the patch so I can compare all of the weapons together.

On less noteable details, I fixed up some small issues with filimuri origin points which means other issues may crop up from it. Basically I moved all of their origin points around a bit so that their origins are all centered properly. Now filimuri should behave just a bit better. I think I already said it, but I did the same with the golem. Maybe I didn't. I actually, stupidly, had an elipse hitbox on the golem and previously I fixed that.

Also right now golems 'push you up and away' and I will be changing that. Currently it's too easy to exploit that with phoenix dash and you can bounce off them up and then over them. I actually don't have a problem with you getting over golems with the right tools, but that isn't phoenix dash. Phoenix dash shouldn't be a 'bypass all enemies' spell, though I am fine with it being used to bypass most enemies/obstacles. Just not all of them. The jelly'valay also shouldn't be bypassable except where I added side passages. Of course I did design them in such a way that it shouldn't be an issue.

I've also made a little pump animation for Aria. For right now, it's just a cute little animation, but I am thinking that I may be able to use it for a mini-game involving an NPC which will reveal the map to you for an area (by being pumped up into the sky) or the NPC who adds indicators to a region to tell you how many secrets there are in that area left for you to discover. Shouldn't take much to put in, but I think it will add a lot for something that is otherwise a simple dialogue. I think I will make it a basic 'hold up, then press down' sort of thing. I doubt there will be a way to lose or anything, but hey, it should be fun! (Though now that I've gone and made this animation, I am just thinking about the additional boob sizes and how they will look overtop it. Maybe you should have to pump your power into the girl in order to inflate her. Could always use more uses for symbols right?)

I think that's all to discuss for now! Have a lovely day and take a quick look at the weapon demo video that I linked earlier. Sildiscia's BE should follow after I wake up.