In this blog, I've begun integrating a new map that will become incredibly important as it will serve as the basis for the storyline being integrated into the game.
In addition to that, I've begun development on a simple yet important overhaul to the game's genre and difficulties.
The game's current genre, RTS, is quite an interesting one to say the least. But players inexperienced in RTS games, and more importantly players inexperienced in Fragment's Moonrise as a whole, might be a little turned off with the difficulty curve the RTS mode presents. Introducing the Simplified game mode, which allows you to only have to control a single unit, with all camera controls adjusted to account for this. While in-game you'll freely be able to switch between both Simplified and RTS Mode, and play to your own preference. This mode will be available come the next update, which is still underway.
In addition to the Simplified Mode, new Difficulties will be added come the next update. I figured the game's base difficulty has quite a learning curve, and while I enjoy its current challenge, newer players might be a bit intimidated by this. As such, I've added a new difficulty option to account for this. In addition, I've added some new features that veteran players would enjoy, as they offer a greater challenge. Its worth mentioning that these difficulties too can be switched to in-game.
The difficulties include:
- Disciple (Easy): The easiest difficulty, where enemies deal half damage and have half HP. This should be the base difficulty for those struggling with the game currently.
- Apprentice (Normal): This is the game's standard difficulty.
- Follower (Hard): An increased challenge, this takes the normal difficulty and doubles the health and damage of all enemies.
- Master (Hardest): For those seeking a serious challenge, this takes the hard difficulty and kicks it up a notch. If any Player Unit is hit by an enemy's spell, that unit will be instantly killed. This essentially sets the game into a "don't get hit" mode. While this game mode does sound intimidating to start off with, its an important mode to tell all new players: in this game, as the developer, I'm committed to ensuring that all enemy attacks are dodge-able, and if you get hit, it's YOUR fault. (As a side note, I'm certainly thinking of playing this mode for an upcoming vlog, and showing how challenging it truly is!)
- Grandmaster (Custom): For those seeking interesting and unique challenges, the Grandmaster difficulty will be the home for that. This game mode is meant for essentially adding in custom features and gameplay alterations to increase the replayability. In its current state, you're only able to adjust Enemy HP and Damage modifiers. However, in the future, I would like to add support for various custom features to really tailor and create a unique challenge. Its worth mentioning that if you're a player struggling with even the Easy difficulty that you can technically use this game mode to make the game that much easier, should you so desire! (Alternatively, if you want to play the game on Master but with enemies featuring 1000% bonus health... you can as well).
With all that being said, that concludes the vlog!
In the next vlog, I intend on furthering the Storyline integration, beginning an overhaul to the Saving system, and hopefully getting to the new Random Maps feature I've been interested in developing! See you in the next one!