Now that the game is in a playable state I'm actually adding new stuff which is much more fun.  First up is the morale system.

In Depths of Peril and Kivi's Underworld, a few of the monsters do have morale, well mostly a lack of, but it's pretty static. The static method does make the monsters more unique.  For example the Scree uses hit and run tactics because their morale is pretty low, but in this game I want a mechanic that is more consistent and can interact with the world more.

With the new system, all of the monsters have a base morale that can go up or down based on things they do, things their enemy does, what is around them, and even external events. So back to the Scree. With the new system, they still are pretty much cowards and use hit and run tactics.  However, when they are in a large enough pack, they are much braver and go on the full attack and forget about the hit and run stuff. Now if a Chaos Lord comes over and roars, it will scare the crap out of most monsters and all of the Scree are going to run away even with their large group. Even bigger things like Orcs might run from a Chaos Lord. Even a Chaos Lord will run away if you can manage to put enough fear into them some how (although I doubt it).

I haven't added it yet, but there are likely to be some item modifiers and maybe even some skills that impact the monsters' morale.

What do you think? Any cool ideas to use and abuse the new morale stuff?

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Well the initial design pass is done. This doesn't really mean what it does in a normal studio. This basically means the direction for the prototype is done. I try to design a reasonable amount up front and then explore what works and what doesn't. I take out or fix what doesn't work and expand on what does. So the final project may or may not look like the initial design. For those that want to have their ideas heard still, don't worry there is still plenty of time.

I have now split the code base and all of the initial assets are setup. Right now it basically is Kivi. The final game will resemble DoP more than Kivi, but the Kivi assets match the codebase more at the moment so it's a better starting point. I have already cleaned up some of code. The nice part about splitting the code base is I can't screw up things like save games and directory locations. Well I can, but it won't effect anyone else but me.

I'm hoping that I can really quickly have the game running with the structure I have in mind: random world, some starting random quests, dynamic quests after this, and when all of the quests are solved you have "won" that world/town. It will be interesting to have the basic game running so quickly. It's going to feel like spending all of my time on polish which will be nice. Fundamentally it won't all be polish since something like a new monster isn't polish.

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In our next game I would like monsters to work together a bit more than in previous games. I don't really want this to get very complicated though.  My goal is that monster X works in some interesting way and monster Y works in a different but still interesting way, but if you mix the two you get something different. Some quick examples: the mage type monster that buffs other nearby monsters or in DoP when you attack a female imp the male imps kind of go berserk and attack in full force (no more hit and run).

What are your ideas?

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In the dungeon crawl, I want to have more interaction with objects in the world.  Depths of Peril has traps, doors, chests, torches, and probably a few other things.  Kivi's Underworld added more types of traps, levers/buttons, and barrels. All of these things will probably be in the dungeon crawl, but I want more things. 

It's my goal for there to be lots of things for the player to interact with on purpose, some things that can happen on accident if you aren't careful, things that change your strategy, some things that you have to choose which is the best action, and even some things the monsters can interact with.  I'll give an example of each of these to show what I mean.

Doors, levers, and chests are conscience choices by the player to interact with (usually).

The player might blow up a barrel on accident if his cast fireball explodes too close to it.

The player might notice the barrel with explosive substances right between a group of monsters and instead of hitting the monsters with the fireball he might blow up the barrel and hurt all of the monsters.

I'm planning on some doors being locked, but the player will have some choices, don't bother with the door, find a key, or bash down the door and make a lot of noise.

Maybe some monsters will know how to use fountains or doors.

Anyway, these are just examples to get your thoughts going, I have a much longer list of things I'm already planning and probably more interesting than my few examples.  What kind of interactive objects would you like to see in an action RPG that's primarily underground?

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