Last week we asked for your ideas on improving Driftmoon combat. We've read them all, and we really appreciate all the different views you've brought out!
We've pretty much completed the work on the new monastery level, and the new alpha version is just waiting for the combat mode changes. While Driftmoon is much more about adventure than it is about combat, I still want to perfect it.
From early on in the game you should get to make choices that make a difference on whether you win or not. Interesting choices. Which enemy to kill first? Which skills should I use against this enemy, and which ones should I save for later? My health is running out, will I kill the enemy with this shot or run away? Should I use a bow against this enemy?
I have to meticulously tune the combat balance for your choices to matter. Interesting choices are very difficult to make, so I have to change a lot of things, like what the different enemy types do and how they behave. I'm not going to reinvent the whole combat mechanics we currently have, but it will need a lot of love. And of course I will have to add interesting situations in the levels, not just randomly drop different monsters around...
It's a huge amount of work for me, but I'm certain it will be worthwhile. So you can look forward to a whole new level with about 1-2 hours of gameplay, as well as carefully tuned fights in the previous levels!
A recent preview of Driftmoon got me again thinking about the combat system in Driftmoon. I thought I'd ask you, how would you improve the combat?
Some of you may remember I decided to change the way combat works right after the preview version a couple of years ago. In the preview, the combat worked like in Diablo. One click on an enemy gets you one strike.
And the current model is more strategic. One click starts a fight with an enemy, and you get to choose the kinds of attacks you want to use next.
So which one do you prefer? And if you prefer the current combat model, how would you improve it?
[Update] How about beefing up the combat with a magic system? Possibly the traditional spell book and mana kind?
Here's the first version of the Driftmoon World Map. Any suggestions?
I have started The Driftmoon Modding Wiki on Wikia. I haven't covered many topics on it yet, so please feel free to write what you know in it! And if there's something you don't know enough about, add it to the wishlist, and I or someone else will write about it.
I am preparing to release the game demo version in the coming months. But one thing still left undecided is whether people playing the demo version get to play all the mods?
If mods are allowed for the demo, then a modder will have a larger audience. But that's one incentive less to buy the full version, so it's a tough decision for me. And if any mods are allowed for the demo, then someone could easily make a mod that removes the demo limit - no need to buy the game at all. To remedy that, I've thought about something like preapproving mods that are allowed in the demo. If you're a modder, what do you think? Would you like a larger audience of all demo version players, or would you like your audience to be limited to full version owners?
Get our newsletter!