A Break, more Combat Updates and...Art?

So, in the last couple of months I've taken a bit of time off to sort out various issues that prevented me from having quite enough free time to keep working on the project at the pace I had during the summer.

In the meantime, I took what time I had and decided to use it to go through other games similar to this project and sort of compare notes - see if there's anything I hadn't planned for or had forgotten to address. I did actually end up coming up with quite a lot of extra notes, but I don't want to quite post out here what they are yet until I'm ready to start working on them, which should happen after combat is mostly finished.

That time is mostly over now, thankfully, and I'll be getting back to work on this very soon. In fact, speaking of combat, I have a few extra updates to showcase since the last post I made.

First of all, I've completely overhauled the visuals. It now (hopefully) looks like a proper combat system, rather than a bare-bones tech demo.

There's now a combat log in the bottom right, which displays some basic information about all actions in battle, and the portrait windows should now be easier to read. In addition to cosmetic changes, I've also implemented several of the basic combat mechanics:

Characters can now use most forms of movement, including the basic move action, 5ft steps and the withdraw action. The blue set of tiles displayed is the character's basic movement range, while the yellow set of tiles are the squares they threaten.

Any unit walking within those yellow tiles will trigger an Attack of Opportunity, which has also been fully implemented. Units' threat ranges vary based on what weapons they currently have equipped.

As you can see from the screenshot, attacks have been implemented as well, both in the form of single attacks and full attacks. These all correctly handle two-handed weapons, dual wielding, double weapons and ranged weapons.

I've also implemented a basic targeting system. Each action that can be performed in battle has a particular type of targeting. The targeting system allows actions that target not only single tiles, but area effects in various shapes, such as circles, cones or lines of tiles. This will be more relevant once spells are implemented.

Combat can actually be finished now, so you could say this is the first time the game has an actual proper combat system. Experience is awarded based on the difficulty of each opponent defeated and split between the player's party. Additionally, enemies have their own inventories, and you automatically obtain everything they were carrying at the end of combat.

I've also added a few nice details to make the combat feel smother, such as a damage preview window whenever a player unit targets another unit with a hostile action. This way you have some idea of whether it's worth it to perform a given action before committing to it.

And that's all for now! Next up, I'll be implementing status effects so that actions like bull rushing and tripping are possible, in addition to the obvious applications, such as the ability to poison enemy units or buff allies.

I'm also looking into changing the game's art style into a more grainy, old school 2D western RPG type feel (think Ultima Online), provided I can get the support of an artist willing to put in the work.

I can't say anything for certain about that quite yet, and even if I do make the change, it won't happen for a while, but look forward to further news on that front in the future!