14/11/22 - StyxQuest v1.3 - Expanding and Correcting
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Parallax mapping continues to prove to be extremely useful! The northern section of the Sanguine Shores is complete and better than ever. One thing I neglected to consider in the original overworld was the final area (an office building). "Lemon," I asked myself, "if this is an office building on an island, how exactly do people commute to it? Surely they wouldn't all go through a service tunnel?"
So in the newest iteration, I added a drawbridge that's permanently up due to the actions of the player. Like the Southern map, the pathing still needs to be tested properly and requires more enemies.
Northern Sanguine Shores (Right-click to view full size)
Top - The original Northern Sanguine Shores.
Bottom - The new version of the Northern Sanguine Shores.
Speaking of the service tunnel, this update serves to correct an issue that has plagued the game since the very beginning: the perspective of the tunnel. The doorway in the overworld faces downward...
...meaning that instead of going right towards the final area, the player is actually going left. On top of that, the tunnel was originally designed with the original and clunky map-building method that I have been using for every map until now. Which does not build any suspense and feels more like a casual stroll.
Thankfully, the new iteration corrects that!
(Right-click to view full size)
Additionally, graffiti was added to give the area more of a neglected personality. That and the abundance of missing floor tiles.
For now, I need to concentrate on polishing the newly-remade maps, and not just with the pathing. They need more enemies.
And on the topic of enemies, combat needs to be re-done. When fighting typical enemies AND bosses, the player can simply mash the 'Attack' button and occasionally heal themselves to win. Additional skills are irrelevant in the grand scheme of things; so, more focus needs to go into making fights challenging yet fair. One possible solution would be to give each enemy resistances and weaknesses to different Sins: it's simple to do, but how does a player go about knowing which enemy is weak to which Sin? By adding a 'Scan' skill to allow them to size up the opponent.
List of things to work on:
- Double-check Sanguine Shores South and North mapping
- Add more enemies to Sanguine Shores maps
- Implement Tunnel map with mapping
- Experiment with Scan skill