I've been pretty quiet lately; hammering away at the Story Update. During that time, some play testing has been done and I have received some feedback that I need to address. This means I'll be putting the Story Update on the back burner (sort of).
To start, the world will be changing in a very significant way. Currently, Neighborhood uses a "fake open world" style where the entire region loads and you roam around it completing tasks. The issue here is that it creates a lot of empty space in a game where it really doesn't feel warranted. It also presents a limit on environments and stage types that I don't like being constrained to. So what does this mean?
Neighborhood is being re-tooled to function in a more linear sense that also allows some mild exploration. Mild is the key here. Back tracking will not be an aspect of the game whatsoever. A central hub will still exist, but will be FAR more robust with more story development as well as more places to explore. You'll be able to go inside many of the houses and back yards for example. From a central hub, you will select an area you want to visit and you will be moved to that area. Levels are going to be shorter, but a bit more demanding. Additionally, I plan to make much larger more epic boss fights as well. Each level will have a smaller boss, but expect a super huge boss fight at the end of each world.
Besides the world re-design, I am building a progression system. I can't give any super specific details, but my overall philosophy is the progression systems will intertwine to allow you to create a very unique character build. Each upgrade will create some sort of drawback in one way or another which will make "grinding" useless. It also means you technically don't actually have to level up if you really don't want to. I definitely want to design it in a way that encourages the exploration however.
Here's a quick overview of my plan:
Character progression:
Character progression will be gradual and very slight overall. It is the least important of all progression, but still offers some bonus. For example: Roy at level 1 will do 20 damage on a light attack. Roy at level 30 (Max) will do 30 damage. Leveling can be done by exchanging Gummy at a set spot (probably Dojo). It will exponentially increase cost. One category (POW, SPD, or HP) can be increased by a set amount each time.
Weapon progression:
Weapon progression will allow players to heavily modify their weapons. Fundamentally this will limit players to altering the weapon balance. Increasing one stat will reduce another. Specific items can be exchanged to perform a specific abnormal balance change, but the balance will work like this:
+POW : -HP
+SPD : -POW
+HP : -SPD
An abnormal item can do something like adding to POW while reducing SPD instead. This will allow for more unique builds. All non-item modifications will cost Gummy to perform.
Skill progression
Skill progression will revolve mostly around overall player stats. Each base skill will have a few branching variations. In order to "unlock" certain branched skills, a minimum stat requirement will be in place. Example ahead:
Earthquake
Requires : 2 POW, 1 HP, 0 SPD
All about raw damage and is used to finish a combo. Good for players who want to do as much damage as possible.
Blast Quake
Requires : 1 POW, 1 HP, 3 SPD
A less damaging move that has a smaller damage radius, but it creates a staggering effect on all enemies much farther out. It is a great move to stop multiple enemies in their tracks momentarily to close distance on a chosen target.
Hyper Quake
Requires : 2 POW, 3 HP, 1 SPD
Hyper Quake is a more focused directional attack that is slower to start up, but includes super armor to help break through enemy offense. It is most useful for characters with high HP as its slow speed may end up in you getting hit more often.
Anyways, I'm working hard on this update. Expect it to come out fairly soon!