Hey.
Figured it's time for an update over here.
Released the 11/9 build last week.
You can grab the builds from here:
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-sx_4eW-B5hWnhNZlRPclZLeUU&usp=drive_webThis was actually a pretty important build that added a rudimentary encounter management system to Demon, the main purpose of which is to largely eliminate the dreaded (and often overwhelming) "two encounters at once" issue. It is still expected/acceptable that a second group will sometimes join a fight already in progress, but players should find they almost never run into two groups that have pre-merged anymore (and even these rare occurrences should be weeded out, with a bit more polish.)
So what is this encounter management anyway? Basically, enemy groups are forced to spawn a certain distance from all other enemy groups already spawend, and when each enemy group is deciding how to "wander" the map, it prioritizes avoidance of other enemy groups (reflecting a certain distrust between the various groups roaming each floor.) The exception is when an enemy group is in combat... in-combat groups are ignored by the system, this allows for a 2nd group to wander up to a fight already in progress if it runs too long.
This also allowed me to trim the size of the levels greatly since a big factor in their original size was a hacky attempt to prevent this issue simply by giving demons more room to roam. The new levels are roughly 60-75% smaller than the old ones despite containing the same amount of content.
Here's a side by side of an example new map on the left, and an older map on the right.
Much smaller and neaer looking over on the left.
An unexpected but pleasant side-effect of encounter management is that the chances of running into enemies even in previously explored territory is much higher than before.
Since the 11/9 release, I've been working on the remaining capture polish I wanted to do before switching over to content. This has been aimed at two capture types in particular: "Defeat X enemies in Y turns" and "Protect the target for Y turns".
For "Defeat X enemies in Y turns", two important changes. Most of these types of demons can now follow you to other levels, eliminating the frustrating scenario of encountering them when there are no longer enough enemies present on the level to be able to meet the conditions. Also, when one of these capture attempts is in progress, the nearest enemy will be indicated on the map (both the full view and the mini map), moving the challenge away from "correctly guess where there are remaining enemies" to "properly balance the need to go fight the required enemies within the time limit with the need to rest and recover between those fgihts", which is where it belongs.
Here's a screenshot of the "nearest enemy" detection in effect on the full and mini maps both:
For "Protect target for Y turns", I've finally finished implementing the full mechanic... which involves spawning additional enemies specifically for the purpose of attacking the target. The new enemies can, depending on what's appropriate for the enemy type in question, spawn at the edge of LoS, or simply warp in somewhere in sight. This makes this capture type much more challenging and interesting, rather than just being an odd variant of the "wait X turns" capture type. Here's a screenshot of an Asrai being harassed by a large group of peasants:
Once I finish the capture polish discussed here, I'll finally be moving onto what I hope will be a major, lengthy content push. The Tower's been at 17 floors for way, way longer than I ever wanted. It's true that a lot of depth and important systems have been added/improved during this period... but, it's still long past time to expand the amount of content available.
We'll see how long I can plow away at it before the weight of bug reports/feature requests gets too heavy to ignore.
