Patreon Weekly #9 - August 2nd 2019
Added 2019-08-02 19:42:14 +0000 UTCHey Patrons!
I've got two updates today, one is more LibGDX progress, and the other is a new enemy coming in 0.7.5!
LibGDX:
Progress continues on converting Shattered to use the multiplatform LibGDX library. I now have all parts of the game except text rendering and keyboard input working through LibGDX. Last week I said I was planning on rolling LibGDX out in 0.7.5, but I now feel like it's possible to include it in a patch for 0.7.4 instead! I've just release 0.7.4b to beta on Google Play, and will be pushing it live in the next few days, assuming no major issues crop up. This means that almost all of the game will be running on LibGDX before 0.7.5 even hits!
I do want to apologize for the delay that this has caused to 0.7.5 though. I originally planned to convert the game to LibGDX in small portions, to spread the delay out over several updates. However, converting the game was going so well that I didn't want to stop, and so I did a majority of the work up-front instead. This will be better in the long-term though, as while this did push 0.7.5 back a bit, future updates won't be inhibited by doing bits and pieces of LibGDX work over time.
Now, how about some actual game content? Here's a new enemy coming in 0.7.5!
Sewer Slimes:
Predecessors to Goo, these gelatinous green blobs of sewer filth are less acidic, and more elastic. They will appear later in the sewers, with difficulty meant to roughly match sewer crabs. While they aren't nearly as tough as Goo itself, and can't inflict caustic ooze, their rubberiness gives then a different nasty property: they have significant innate damage resistance.
Slimes will have a cap to the amount of damage they can take from a single hit (physical or magical) which means that overwhelming offense won't do you too much good against them. Slimes are an enemy which rewards investment into armor instead, as being able to tough things out for a few rounds will be more helpful than dealing excess damage. Lucky adventurers might find a weapon stuck into a slime after killing it, though it probably won't be of a high tier.
Very lucky (or perhaps very unlucky) adventurers might encounter slimes which have been touched by the same dark magic as goo. These caustic slimes are a bit tougher and are capable of inflicting caustic ooze, but might give you a blob of goo for your trouble.
Please let me know what you think! I'm planning to do more enemy reveals every week this month!
Comments
Can't you argue that fetid rat is a lesser version of goo?
Zrp200
2019-08-08 08:49:25 +0000 UTCI feel like that's a pretty declarative statement to make when you haven't seen the enemy's sprite, description, or stats yet. You could also easily make a similar argument for the prison and dwarf city, but people love both of those bosses specifically because there's a thematic build-up to them.
Shattered Pixel
2019-08-05 20:52:55 +0000 UTCAnother point I forgot to mention was that having a lesser version of goo before the boss itself might 'spoil' it for new players, kind of a bummer making it to your first boss just to realize its the same thing you just slain before but buffer. I know that veterans that have played the game a million times would like the enemy type, but I suspect newer players will just think of it as a reskin.
James15350
2019-08-05 20:30:53 +0000 UTCI definitely don't intend for these enemies to be a slog to fight through. This is the sewers after all, so it's more about showing players tanky enemies than it is forcing them to have armor. Think of this as more like tipping the balance of weapons vs. armor in the sewers slightly, not trying to skew it really far in one direction by heavily punishing players unless they upgrade armor. This also means that they shouldn't be very complex to fight.
Shattered Pixel
2019-08-05 20:19:48 +0000 UTCTo be frank, the way I personally play sewers is like living off the land. I don't use scrolls of upgrade unless I physically have to. Thus, I'm worried that it'll make runs where armor doesn't really drop significantly more difficult. In addition, flies already kind of do this, punishing glass cannon builds with their massive HP and dividing properties. The concept is indeed highly interesting and the enemy does make sense, but I honestly don't think sewers really needs that level of complexity atm.
Zrp200
2019-08-05 20:15:16 +0000 UTCA lot of the enemies you're describing here fit into a more niche or specialist role. They're the sort of baddies that might show up in special rooms, not as regular enemies in a floor. I think it's best to keep regular enemies (which is what 0.7.5 is focusing on) somewhat general, but more or better specialists is something I'd like to consider in a future update (lots of special rooms are a bit bland atm).
Shattered Pixel
2019-08-05 19:22:54 +0000 UTCI don't really see slimes as being a complex enemy, especially when compared to crabs, which take a huge amount of control away from the player due to their high movespeed. Slimes are intended to be a more gentle introduction to the concept of tanky enemies, as rather than having a more elaborate 'damage counter' mechanic, they simply don't take more than X damage at one time.
Shattered Pixel
2019-08-05 19:19:59 +0000 UTCSlimes aren't meant specifically to counter weapon-heavy builds, as if they are running amok in the sewers, but rather they're there to fill in an enemy archetype which is currently missing from the sewers. Obviously any enemy at this stage of the game shouldn't be too specialized.
Shattered Pixel
2019-08-05 19:16:04 +0000 UTCEnemy spawn rates will be adjusted around this. Likely the number of tough enemies on floors 3/4 will go up slightly, but for the most part slimes will show up instead of crabs, not instead of gnolls or rats.
Shattered Pixel
2019-08-05 19:11:27 +0000 UTCI think more creative types of enemies could do well too, like maybe a parasite that latches onto you and the only way to get rid of it is to take a certain amount of damage, or an enemy that hides inside a potion bottle and its your job to find out which or else it develops into a full fledged monster, enemies that do extra damage to you when asleep, etc. I recognize that your ideas come from a point of necessity, you see certain builds or strategies being too successful so you come up with nerfs (or in this case) enemies to counter it, but I think good enemies force players to think about the game differently.
James15350
2019-08-05 18:07:47 +0000 UTCDon't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of enemy variety, but I just think sewers should be easy/simple, and it get more difficult/complex as players progress. Flies are fantastic because they teach players to funnel enemies and reveal health pots, hence why they work so well for sewers. I never thought that sewers needed a sponge.
James15350
2019-08-05 18:01:04 +0000 UTCI also don't think its necessary in sewers anyway, as players usually have unleveled (oftentimes) bad gear so the idea of a player already having high damage builds that early on is kinda odd.
James15350
2019-08-05 17:50:10 +0000 UTCWouldn't adding another enemy in sewers at the level of crabs just increase the difficulty of sewers? So players would be twice as likely as before to face tough enemies?
James15350
2019-08-05 17:48:38 +0000 UTCLibGDX will primarily help with getting the game working on multiple platforms, as I write code that targets LibGDX, and then LibGDX handles the platform-specific implementations. There are other features that LibGDX offers that might make developing new features easier, but to start with it's all about new platforms.
Shattered Pixel
2019-08-04 17:30:35 +0000 UTCDigging the sewer slimes as described. Nice to see a variant to crabs, and I love the idea that you can find weapons in them! As for conversion, I'm not familiar with dev frameworks, but I assume libGDX will make things easier or more organized for you? Cool either way. Thanks for the updates!
Max F
2019-08-04 05:16:58 +0000 UTCI'm not making any hard plans about mutants like I am for minimum enemy counts, but I would like to add more where there's clear opportunities for it.
Shattered Pixel
2019-08-04 02:59:18 +0000 UTCwill each chapter have two mutants, to match up with albino rats and caustic slimes?
Lassoloc
2019-08-03 05:03:33 +0000 UTC
