[Twine] [Patreon] Empire of Corruption

Sitribella

Well-Known Member
Jan 22, 2020
72
33
Excellent point; I'll tweak lust in the next update to have it generate faster, and see if that smooths things. (It'll likely continue to be tweaked -- while it simply acts as a gatekeeper at the moment, late in this chapter/early in the next one it's going to become a useful resource with actual reasons for it to be a factor. Certain secret abilities are soon to be uncovered...)
 
  • Like
Reactions: colodellcmh

colodellcmh

New Member
Jul 12, 2020
2
0
28
Love the game and the tone of it. Quick question- can I use a saved game to disk from a previous version with the current release? Wasn't sure if there was a dependency between a save game and a specific version. It seems like when I try to load a saved game, any new features aren't available. Thanks!!
 

Sitribella

Well-Known Member
Jan 22, 2020
72
33
Thank you! No, due to the game being in Twine, it saves data in your browser cache; you should be able to grab the newest version(s), open it up, load your existing save and play from there, without having to do anything extra on your end. (Your saves will only disappear if you clear your cache. I wish I had a way around that, but it's a limitation in Twine.) I have an update handler to make sure saves remain viable; basically, if you open a new build, the first thing you should see upon loading is a message at the bottom of the screen to the effect of "Your character has been updated for (version number) compatibility."
 

Diarmait

Well-Known Member
Nov 3, 2015
52
15
36
I just "save to file" and load that file in the new version and it works. I don't have my browser set to clear cache, yet twine doesn't show any older version saves in a new version without doing this. Could be me using Firefox though.
 
  • Like
Reactions: colodellcmh

colodellcmh

New Member
Jul 12, 2020
2
0
28
I just "save to file" and load that file in the new version and it works. I don't have my browser set to clear cache, yet twine doesn't show any older version saves in a new version without doing this. Could be me using Firefox though.

Ok makes sense . Thank you!
 

gloomboom

New Member
Jul 14, 2020
2
0
49
Nice job with the game so far, I've really enjoyed it. In particular, Keltra's dominant route has been fantastic so far. I have two complaints from version 4.4:
1. There's no real transformation content on loss as far as I can find.
2. Manual transformation through potions doesn't work, or at least MtF sex changes don't. Keltra stills refers to your 0" cock and calls you a man in her oral scene.
 

Sitribella

Well-Known Member
Jan 22, 2020
72
33
Oh, geez, that is absolutely a bug -- fortunately, I think I may know where the issue is. I'll see if I can get it tracked down and fixed in time for this week's update. (I'm getting ready to add more transformation options in the next month or so, so now's the perfect time to get that all patched up!)
 

Aravel

New Member
Jul 16, 2020
4
0
30
First, great job on the game, I've certainly been enjoying it.
Second, I think training limited use skills is bugged, as it seems to reduce your money by 1 gold (even bringing you to negative numbers) but doesn't update what the game displays until something else changes it (like buying something or completing a hunting guild job). In case it matters, I had it happen when training Withering Curse with a rogue scholar in version 0.4.4.

Edit: Forgot to ask, what does the Dominator Spores status effect do?
Edit2: Also forgot to mention surrendering to an opponent doesn't restore your balance, so if you surrenter after having used some balance your next adventure starts with lower balance. Happened while looking for reagents outside the city.
Edit3: Looks like I'm a bit of an airhead, well, after changing the name of the Black Rose, the link to go from salt street to the courtyard of the Black Rose still displays it's old name and takes you to the "pre-renovation" Black Rose, so the description is the one from before you take ownership of it and there is no link to go inside it.
 
Last edited:

Sitribella

Well-Known Member
Jan 22, 2020
72
33
First, great job on the game, I've certainly been enjoying it.
Second, I think training limited use skills is bugged, as it seems to reduce your money by 1 gold (even bringing you to negative numbers) but doesn't update what the game displays until something else changes it (like buying something or completing a hunting guild job). In case it matters, I had it happen when training Withering Curse with a rogue scholar in version 0.4.4.

Edit: Forgot to ask, what does the Dominator Spores status effect do?
Edit2: Also forgot to mention surrendering to an opponent doesn't restore your balance, so if you surrenter after having used some balance your next adventure starts with lower balance. Happened while looking for reagents outside the city.
Edit3: Looks like I'm a bit of an airhead, well, after changing the name of the Black Rose, the link to go from salt street to the courtyard of the Black Rose still displays it's old name and takes you to the "pre-renovation" Black Rose, so the description is the one from before you take ownership of it and there is no link to go inside it.

Thank you! I've got fixes for all of these going in with the next update. (The training one was especially dumb on my part -- I removed the gold cost for training on 'em a while ago, and managed to completely miss the entry for Withering Curse in the middle of all the others while rewriting the code. Bugs. Bugs find a way.)

Right now, dominator spores only have one effect -- they distract you in the boss fight against the dominator plant and make it more difficult if you're under the influence. That said, consider it foreshadowing for an upcoming story arc, which will make the spores considerably more hazardous (that wasn't the ONLY dominator plant, and the dryads are going to need help...)
 

Sitribella

Well-Known Member
Jan 22, 2020
72
33
I haven't been able to buy any weapons since starting and I'm in chapter 2, am I missing something?

Talk to Cesca at the blacksmith shop (on Salt Street) and she'll give you a quest to gather some scrap metal for her; after that, she'll fix up something really nice for you.
 

Sitribella

Well-Known Member
Jan 22, 2020
72
33
An update and an announcement! Update first: 0.4.5 is out for everyone, and you can grab it at:

Mega: https://mega.nz/file/rvBFTQyD#-WKlIJiY-Kk7LKQOClTjSQuhUNgJ8-O4DxILz7kl-3s

Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/file/d/18_N24jNC4_0cngly5y88aNtCLzDTBiqW/view?usp=sharing

-- Three new random, repeatable brothel events have been written (so there's six total, five repeatable, with more to come). Two of the new events have optional sex scenes.

-- Brothels have a new stat, Militia Relations. This will be important later...

-- As part of setting up for more slice-of-life scenes with the cast (and your girls' personal questlines), four post-recruitment scenes have been moved from the girls' dialogue menus (which were getting cluttered) to their bedrooms at the brothel. They've also been made one-time events (being infinitely repeatable was a bug, fixed in this update), so if you've already seen them, the option won't appear. (If you're at maximum relationship level with Seni, Juniper, Valoris and Trixie, you've seen everything.)

On to the development plans! So, Empire of Corruption has been in steady development since last year, and we've come a long way. The downside is that the further we go, the more clear it becomes that Twine just isn't the right tool for the job; it's a fine engine, but not as suited to an ambitious game like EoC as others might be. I've essentially realized that I'm putting in more and more hours of development time than ever before to produce less than I might otherwise, just because it takes so long to wrestle Twine into doing what I want. And some of the things I'd like to add to the game are simply out of reach.

To that end, I've been investigating alternatives for the past couple of weeks, and believe I've landed on GameMaker Studio 2; my goal ATM is to work up a basic prototype to share with you, to get your feedback. In the meantime, work on the current Twine version will NOT be halted. Also, if we do change engines, nothing about the setting, the characters or the writing will change -- everything that currently exists will be ported directly over, possibly with new material and expansions added. The idea is to deliver the current story experience, plus:

-- A much better and friendlier user interface.

-- More fun and engaging RPG and management mechanics.

-- The ability to play on more platforms (like via a webpage or, potentially, an actually playable phone version)

I'll keep you updated as work proceeds. Right now I'm running through tutorials like a crazy person and taking copious notes. More to come!

Finally, version 0.4.9 has been released today for $5+ Patreon backers, rooting out a passel of nasty glitches. Here's the changelog:

-- Bugfix: transformations that remove your cock could leave you with an invisible, 0" member. This has been fixed (and retroactively, so the next time you load an affected character, the invisible cock should be gone. These are the weirdest patch notes.)

-- Bugfix: Seni was offering her brothel-management tutorial too soon, and a couple of interactions could bump the player to chapter four ahead of schedule. These have been fixed, and extra error-trapping added.

-- Bugfix: training the Withering Curse technique no longer deducts gold, only skill points.

-- Bugfix: being defeated in combat now restores your balance fully, so that you aren't going into the next adventure at a disadvantage.

-- Bugfix: once chapter four begins, you can no longer reach the old, pre-acquisition Black Rose via the route on Salt Street.

-- Balancing: basic lust generation has been doubled.
 

derpfen

New Member
Oct 6, 2019
1
0
26
So I just started playing, and I noticed that during the bounty hunting clue sections, if you go into any of the menus, it rerolls what challenges you have to choose from.

Edit: Actually, it goes for all encounters.
 
Last edited:

Sitribella

Well-Known Member
Jan 22, 2020
72
33
Yep, trying to fix that is one of the issues driving me away from Twine; it's semi-fixable but a trainwreck of rewrites thanks to how Twine parses passage transitions. It'll probably stay as-is, and the twine version will mostly get content/story additions for the next few updates that'll be portable over to the new engine.
 

v3hemenc3

Member
Aug 29, 2017
21
2
32
Anyone know what happened to this project? is the creator still working on the game with the new engine? I'm asking because there has been no new patreon entry since June, and their messages are patreon only so I can't check.
 

Sitribella

Well-Known Member
Jan 22, 2020
72
33
Hey there! My mistake, the updates that went up on Friday were supposed to be publicly-viewable and I apparently clicked the patrons-only button instead. I've edited them so that they're viewable now. Long story short, yes, the game is 100% in development, it was slowed by a death in my family and a much-needed engine change. You can get the details over at https://www.patreon.com/posts/development-40460446 and see a preview of the new travel system at https://www.patreon.com/posts/40460889
 

Sitribella

Well-Known Member
Jan 22, 2020
72
33
Time for a fresh development update. Over at https://www.patreon.com/posts/40839606 you can see a preview of the new character sheet. I'll copy the rest of the post here, to save you a click:

Development continues, and currently I'm elbows-deep in the work of laying down the game's core mechanics, getting a rock-solid foundation in place, and doing a surprising amount of design work. While the Twine version of Empire of Corruption worked and was certainly playable, it didn't really nail the fun factor or scratch that RPG itch as well as I wanted it to. So, I'm taking the opportunity to rethink, refine and upgrade a lot of the game's systems.

Character customization will go deeper (that's what she said). Each of your professional skills (per the screenshot) breaks into three specializations used for different purposes. For example, Erotic Arts is divided into Seduction, Sexual Stamina, and Willpower (for resisting lust-based attacks). Clicking each skill icon will open up a tree, where you can spend experience on added bonuses and new abilities (hopefully I'll have one of those finished in time to show you for next week's update).

BTW, the three entries below the squiggle are optional skill trees -- they actually won't appear on your sheet until/unless you do the special quests to unlock them. The whole skill system is being thought out with an eye toward long-term expansion.

Questing is getting a complete overhaul. One core change is that an adventure doesn't automatically end if you're defeated; instead, your stamina is gradually depleted, and you can choose to keep going forward or retreat and try again after you heal up. A practical purpose of this is that a lot of people want to see the sex-on-defeat scenes, and it's not much fun to have to restart a quest or reload just to do that. Sex scenes in general are getting a big upgrade: while one-time-only scenes will remain as-is, any repeatable lewd scenes will get added content and lots of random variations for extra flavor.

Another reason for the stamina system is due to a new kind of adventure, expeditions. An expedition is purely a hunt for XP and fat loot, unrelated to the storyline, and it lasts as long as you dare: difficulty and rewards increase after every few encounters, making it lucrative to hold out as long as you can, but if your stamina runs out you'll forfeit all the treasure you didn't escape with.

I'm eyeing a lot of the original opening chapter to see where I can add more to do, and generally enrich the game in terms of content and lore. The sewers, which were a "go there twice for quests and then ignore them forever" location, are getting expanded. For example, in the original, you can randomly encounter a "rival ratter" enemy. Now she actually has lore, and "she" is a "they": the Rats' Nest is a guild of hunters who have a monopoly on vermin extermination in Harrowgate. They're limber, leather-clad and vicious, and they don't like competition. (That's you. You're the competition.)

And with that, I'm getting back to work on the first release candidate. Next week, hopefully I can give you a look at the revised combat system. The challenge is large, but bit by bit, it's getting done.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sandeklaus

Styg

New Member
Aug 27, 2020
3
0
47
Brazil
I've been lurking in these forums for years, since I started having tons of fun with TiTS (and later COC2 and several other games I found mentioned here), but I finally created an account just to express how much I loved playing this game thus far even in the "drab" version without images and such (and even though I HATE rolling a d20 for stuff, the randomic portion of the skill rolls is so much greater than the skill values that it makes skills feel a lot less important, but I understand a lot of people like that, and at least we can save and load anywhere to deal with bad luck streaks). Looking forward to the next versions.
 

Sitribella

Well-Known Member
Jan 22, 2020
72
33
Thank you so very much, that means a lot to me! Balancing for randomness is tricky; what I'm trying to do for the rebuild is to make defeat less of a sting (via the new stamina system) and provide players with more tools to choose the level of difficulty/randomness they want. It's a tricky balancing act but I'm pretty sure we'll get there.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Styg

S0m3m0n

New Member
Aug 27, 2020
4
0
29
Hey, this game is great! It's a lot of fun, and the plot itself is really interesting, but I just wanted to ask a few questions. Could you let me know where to find mercenaries for Trixie's recruitment quest and Sheltie? I managed to gather the 10 silver and the Emberfire, but haven't been able to find them since, and Sheltie says she'll meet me at the Black Rose, but I've been to the courtyard many times and she doesn't show up, is there a trigger or a length of time I need to wait? Oh, also, the conversation prompt for the Salt Reavers doesn't disappear, so I assume the quest doesn't get triggered (if it even is a quest at all, haha). Anyway, this is a really fun game, and I can't wait to be able to play the next update. Looking forward to the transition to a new engine!

BTW, I'm playing the current public version 0.4.5
 
Last edited:

Sitribella

Well-Known Member
Jan 22, 2020
72
33
So glad you're enjoying it! Once you start Trixie's recruitment quest, check Cabaret Moonlight -- there should be some very annoyed mercs watching the dancers (and Trixie is why they're annoyed). Regarding Sheltie meeting you at the Rose, let me check that out; IIRC I squashed a couple of trigger bugs there in the last update or thereabouts.
 

Sandeklaus

Member
Aug 21, 2018
20
43
32
Okay, so, my critiques after coming back to this:
  1. The money system is overcomplicated. 25 coppers = 1 silver, 25 silvers = 1 gold is unnecessary. What do you get out of it? What does the player get out of it? Just make up a single fantasy currency and use that, there's no reason to have a conversion rate. I'm pretty sure this must be the root of the technical difficulties I keep running into; sometimes coppers add up to silvers, sometimes they just stack and stack. Sometimes I have a dozen silver, the game will say I can't afford anything, I'll go to sleep and wake up with -300 copper.
  2. Am I still paying J for the inn room after I get the Black Rose? I kept assuming that was the reason my money was going down, as mentioned above, but that doesn't seem right - too much money lost, at the wrong time, with no prompt or notification. I'd consider fabricating some reason for us to have free board with her, considering I've never had actual dialogue about paying for the room.
  3. Farming in combat requires a click to start combat, however many clicks it takes to win combat, a click to acknowledge the enemy's defeat, a click to acknowledge the loot, and a click to start the next combat. It may seem a small thing, but I'd recommend fusing the "victory" and "loot" screens. It just saves a click, and there's hardly any text on most of those screens to begin with.
  4. This is a sex game, and I am here to have sex. Despite this, lots of scenes - particularly victory scenes - require a minimum Lust. Lust rises very slowly, and resets to 0 when you fuck something. What is the purpose to the minimum Lust requirement? I keep wanting to get dicked by demon ladies, but I am literally not allowed to do that unless I've sat around blue-balling for upwards of a day.
  5. Combat and skill checks use a D&D-style system of rolling a D20 with modifiers, then (if it's an attack) rolling a random amount of damage. Unfortunately, D&D is a terrible model for these sorts of games because of how ridiculously swingy it is. I will use Withering Hex on an enemy and roll 4 damage. Then I'll do it again and roll 44 damage. What? My upgraded magic weapon, which invalidates any other weapon I've bought, can deal between 1-14 damage each time I hit. That's a huge range! That's enough to end a fight in one hit or have it drag on for a dozen turns, using the same attack, with every attack hitting - which is by no means a guarantee since I can roll anywhere between a 1-20 for my hit roll. I bought a few points in Offense and Defense and I genuinely don't know if they made a difference, because the dice rolls vary so massively.
  6. The leveling system in this game is too obtuse. It is never explained what any of the skills do. I assume they help with skill checks - for which they have a very minor effect, since the skill rolls are so swingy that a +1 here or there won't make a difference, and there is such a variety of skill checks (Rogue and Streetwise are different things?) that there's no way to guarantee you'll get any use out of them. I still don't know what Butchery or Sorcery do, and I've yet to fail an Alchemy check even without any points in it. Does Offense help you hit stuff? I assume so, but I saved up 1000xp and bought a point in it to no noticeable effect.
  7. Having to buy my "usable" skills as per-sleep consumables is pretty daft, especially when they include the only reliable source of damage in the game - past a certain point I ended up just ignoring skills and plunging every skill point into Withering Hex so I could spam it through 2-3 adventures, sleep, rinse, repeat. I had 20x Withering Hex uses by the time I stopped. Please consider a more traditional leveling system.
  8. Why is Hunger a mechanic, here? This is barely a criticism, its presence just confuses me.
 

Sitribella

Well-Known Member
Jan 22, 2020
72
33
I agree 100%. A ton of these issues really derive from the first version being...well, the first version, and I had a lot of ideas that looked really good in my head but didn't translate to actually fun mechanics -- the multiple currencies (which are being simplified to a single one in the new version) and the hunger mechanic (which is gone entirely) as a case in point. It was a valuable lesson for me in what doesn't work as much as what does; the new version is essentially the core story and characters ported over into an entirely new game (which will hopefully be much more enjoyable).
 
  • Like
Reactions: Styg

S0m3m0n

New Member
Aug 27, 2020
4
0
29
So glad you're enjoying it! Once you start Trixie's recruitment quest, check Cabaret Moonlight -- there should be some very annoyed mercs watching the dancers (and Trixie is why they're annoyed). Regarding Sheltie meeting you at the Rose, let me check that out; IIRC I squashed a couple of trigger bugs there in the last update or thereabouts.

Hey! Yeah, I managed to find them the first time, but after they ask you to get Emberfire and 10 silver, will they appear again at Cabaret Moonlight?

By the way, I know you made Valoris' notebook step by step, but could you add more hints to the others as well? I more or less am able to stumble through some of the quests, but the ones that require me to have certain things turn me around so easily, haha.
 

Sitribella

Well-Known Member
Jan 22, 2020
72
33
They'll be there; one thing to remember is that you'll have to actually make the Emberfire yourself using the alchemy table (this has come up a lot, where people just buy the recipe but forget to make the potion). And totally, that's something I'm looking at regarding the notebook hints. I'm currently noodling over the idea of making a toggle switch in the options menu that will let players choose between two versions of the notebook: one with vague hints, for people who want to hunt for the next step of a quest, and one with more explicit spoilers for folks who don't. I don't think it would be TOO much extra work on my part, and that way everybody gets the level of challenge they want.
 

S0m3m0n

New Member
Aug 27, 2020
4
0
29
They'll be there; one thing to remember is that you'll have to actually make the Emberfire yourself using the alchemy table (this has come up a lot, where people just buy the recipe but forget to make the potion). And totally, that's something I'm looking at regarding the notebook hints. I'm currently noodling over the idea of making a toggle switch in the options menu that will let players choose between two versions of the notebook: one with vague hints, for people who want to hunt for the next step of a quest, and one with more explicit spoilers for folks who don't. I don't think it would be TOO much extra work on my part, and that way everybody gets the level of challenge they want.

Honestly, all of the things you've been planning has sounded amazing, and I can't wait to be able to enjoy them within the game. Thanks especially for answering my questions! I'll definitely try finding the mercenaries again.
 

Sitribella

Well-Known Member
Jan 22, 2020
72
33
This week's progress update is ready. You can see a (not super impressive) screenshot at https://www.patreon.com/posts/41118903. And the update is:

Made some strides forward this week, though not exactly where and how I expected. First up, character creation is DONE. You can now create a character from start to finish, in a way that largely mirrors the old Twine version but with snazzy buttons and GUI: you still get the same range of appearance choices (and I've done a bit of tinkering on the back-end with how the game stores your physical data. Most notably -- once you learn how -- you'll be able to have TWO different sets of genitalia at the same time where the original version limited you to either having male or female assets.)

(These are the update notes that make life worth living.)

One thing I knew I needed to square away before the first launch was saving and loading. I was aware that Gamemaker Studio 2 came with a save/load solution bundled in, so I figured that'd be a total breeze. Oh, sweet summer child. See, it does exist. It's also kinda...not good? The native method takes a "snapshot" of the game's running state, and other devs advised me that it can quickly bloat out of all control, especially with a complex RPG that's juggling a ton of values and variables. Also, it's limited to a single save slot (not okay) and is only compatible with the exact game version the save was made in or it breaks (meaning you'd have to start over every single time I pushed out an update, DEFINITELY not okay.)

So, I had to code my own save/load system, from scratch.

Like with anything in coding, there are a half-dozen ways to accomplish any particular task (or more, usually more) so I rolled my sleeves up and dove in. What I ended up with is a very fast, very lightweight save system, fully working and tested. Saves are tiny (around 2kb at the moment), you get multiple slots, and most importantly, the system lets me keep your character updated so you can keep playing them across multiple versions and even major game updates.

I decided to leave the save files unencrypted, so that any would-be tinkerers can mess with their character stats with ease. Just don't blame me if something breaks, you dirty, dirty cheater. And report to Keltra for punishment.

So, that's this week's progress: character creation and saving and loading are all in, working and ready to roll. This coming week I should be making headway on the newbie experience/initial tutorial, and hopefully break ground on combat.
 

Sitribella

Well-Known Member
Jan 22, 2020
72
33
This week's development update is live, with a screenshot at https://www.patreon.com/posts/41382478.

(Pictured: a look at the new wardrobe system. I used my super-elite photo manipulation mastery to remove a spoiler, a little surprise I'm saving for the next update.)

More strides in laying the game foundations down this week. Inventory is sorted, as is the game's time-keeping system and calendar. Time has been simplified for the better; the original Twine version kept track of events to the minute, which...didn't really accomplish anything interesting, and made for a regular raft of bugs to squash. (Do bugs ride rafts? Work with me here.)

The new version breaks each day down into four time segments (morning, noonday, dusk and night); time advances by one segment every time you do something significant (like go on an adventure or concoct an alchemical potion). The new system will (I think) make it easier to have an investment in the actual flow of time in the game, help with the management aspects of play, and will let me add some cool stuff (like opportunities and events that only take place at certain times of day.)

The big addition of the week is getting the entire wardrobe system in and tested. You have weapons, (spoiler redacted), and eight clothing slots to customize your character's style. Weapons, I'll touch more on when we get into the new combat system. Clothes present an interesting design challenge; especially since this is a lewd game, letting you present your character at their sexiest best is important. It was a massive pain to add new outfits to the Twine version of the game (because I coded the clothing and shopping systems like a kitten wearing mittens), so I went with the intent of making it as easy as possible for me to add tons of clothes to this new incarnation with minimal time investment. Mission accomplished, on that end.

I also wanted to make clothes interesting from a game-mechanics perspective. One thing I wanted to absolutely avoid was giving arbitrary levels to clothes, like increasingly thicker armor; I never want a case where you end up saying "Well, I really like this piece of clothing, but this one has twenty more AC so I guess I have to wear it."

What I ended up doing was giving every piece of clothing a pair of "set" slots. And if you're thinking of sets from games like Diablo -- exactly right. Wear a number of outfit pieces from a given set, and your character gets a small (nice, but not game-changing) bonus to appropriate skills. Because every outfit piece can belong to two different sets, you can mix and match for interesting combinations.

(This also opens the way for some fun set ideas. Like during testing, I implemented Trixie's chainmail-bikini outfit, which belongs to the "Armored Courtesan" set and provides a bonus to seduction and defense. I see no reason why chainmail bikinis shouldn't be a perfectly valid form of armor.)

Now I'm moving on to the last hurdle before combat and adventuring: the weapon skill trees. More to come next week!
 

Sitribella

Well-Known Member
Jan 22, 2020
72
33
New development update for a new week, and a screenshot over at https://www.patreon.com/posts/41633092.

(Pictured: There's a Relic skill called "Shower of Light" and you have no idea how badly I wanted to call it "Golden Shower," please praise me for my restraint)


This week I coded the full skill trees for all core five weapon types. Nothing has gotten a bigger re-think and redesign, with this overhaul, than combat; namely, because the old combat system wasn't very good, and the engine change allows me to do things and offer tactical challenges that would have been impossible with Twine.

(I shouldn't say "impossible," I mean, people have built working computers inside of Minecraft. Instead, I'll say that it was the wrong tool for the job.)

Though balancing will obviously be required, my intention is to have each weapon type be a side-grade: each equally viable, but with a different feel. For instance, edged weapons are heavy on bleeds and damage-over-time effects. Blunt weapons are more about inflicting stuns, protecting yourself by keeping your enemy off-balance. Heavy weapons are for gamblers; they feature big attacks that can really hurt a foe -- at the cost of hindering or damaging yourself in the process. Evocation weapons focus on elemental damage (which can be a boon or a bane, depending on who you're fighting and whether you've discovered their weaknesses), and Relic weapons offer heals and shields to help you tough out a prolonged fight.

Each tree offers optional, unlockable attacks that can be added to your loadout, along with a set of gradual upgrades you can purchase with earned XP. Some upgrades offer bonuses that take effect regardless of the weapon used. For instance, an upgrade on the Blunt tree increases the effectiveness of any stun attack. So if you were playing an alchemy-bomb-hurling sorcerer, you could pump that up and benefit from it even if you never use a blunt weapon. The goal is to encourage many play-styles and builds and make them as viable as possible.

Right now I'm working on the newbie tutorial (which is completely different, longer, and will center around the re-designed sewers), and prepping a little added surprise that I hope to unveil later this week. More soon!
 
  • Like
Reactions: S0m3m0n