CATC roguelite mode first version

Download HERE.

Phew this month has been really busy. Felt almost like a game jam lol. But the core gameplay loop of the new CATC is now working and the first version is available for play-testing.

Decided against posting patch notes as too much has changed. Instead, I will provide a short overview/tutorial on how new CATC works.

First thing you will notice after pressing the New Run button is that I use this screen for character selection instead of the previous one. It's not ideal, but gets the job done. Note that because the new CATC is a roguelite game, the 3 characters you have available for randomized after each run. 

If you want, you can configure those random characters in the Dresser and H-Lab on the base screen.

After you select a character, you will come across this screen. This is the "Exploration" screen. You can click on the connected rooms to go there. On the very far right, there is a boss which is your target. After defeating the boss, you'll go to the next floor.

You can click on the Loadout button give an overview of the character. If you found any items during your adventure, you can equip/unequip them as you wish in the first Inventory tab.

You will encounter enemies in certain rooms. You will have to defeat their leader (marked by a crown) to continue.

One change is that cards now have an Action Point cost, shown on the top left of each card, and you only have a certain amount of Action Points available each turn.

At the start of each Turn except the first, your maximum AP goes up by 1 to a max of 10, and your useable AP is refilled to the maximum. 

Playing cards will use up AP and allows you to select target for the card as before.

One thing you will note is that movement is gone all together. I thought about this part for some time and I felt that removing movement portion of the game will speed up the turns considerably (turns probably takes only as half as long) and since I decided to move away from positioning CATC as a tactical puzzle game, I felt that this is a positive change.

In addition to cards that your selected character can play, every unit also gets a Turn Action. This is accessed by clicking on the unit to bring up this drop down window.

For example, you can select the Caress option to cause the character to increase lust as its Turn Action rather than inflicting physical damage. You will also see the unit bar changes its icon from sword to hearts to indicate which Turn Action the unit is going to use.

(Swapped to a different run because I remembered this post will go public and showing Caresses may get me in trouble)

The Turn Action is executed when the player presses the End Turn button. Note that the targeting for Turn Actions is random rather than in player's control.

After the player's turn, then the enemy units executes their Turn Actions.

Then the enemies may change to a different Turn Action for their next turn. This is to give the player an opportunity to react to whatever the enemy team is doing.

If you want more information on what the enemies are doing rather than only relying on the unit bar, you can click on the enemy units and then click on "Examine."

After each combat, or other rooms, you will find rewards. These will make your character stronger.

If your character acquires enough experience, a new Level Up button will appearance and you can use it to level up.

Credits are for purchasing item or upgrades from shop rooms (not currently implemented) and Essences are for permanent upgrades to your roster that will make future runs easier. (Upgrades not implemented, but Essences earned during each run are saved.)

Oh and one more thing, Dresser is unlocked at 30 total Essences earned and H-Lab unlocked at 50 total Essences earned.

That's the gist of the new roguelite mode.

Still some significant features left to do, namely:

• Permanent roster upgrades in base to empower future runs by spending Essences 
• A shop room to spent Credits for items and upgrades
• Per run Events/Quests 
• Encountering previous run characters
• A Decided-what-to-do-with-enemy-leader window after each battle, with options such as recruiting them to your party for the run
• Personality shift/corruption elements 
• Few more floor types, to about 4-5 in total. (atm there is the goblin floor and EO floor)

Those are the features you can expect for CATC. I am very much in the lets get CATC done mood and that will be my main focus for the remainder of this year. I felt like CATC has took long enough and I want to finish it and move on to the real-time-games in Versus/Brawler/HRT2.