Equipment Finally Works and Still Kicking Myself
Cube Dev: Equipment Finally Works
Well... we finally got inventory equipping working in the game.
That took a lot longer than expected.
For a while, every time I equipped an item there was a pretty decent chance the app would just crash. Not exactly ideal for an inventory system.
I think we finally have that resolved now.
And while I was working through all of that, equipment itself became functional too.
Equipment Actually Matters Now
Up until this point, combat was still using some default values for things like armor and weapon attacks.
That was fine while I was building the rest of the combat system, but obviously it meant the equipment you were carrying wasn't actually doing much.
Now it does.
Your equipped gear actually feeds into your stats and combat, which means finding and equipping something better finally has a purpose.
It's a small sentence to write, but it's a pretty big step for the game.
Starter Gear Needs Some Work
Right now, every new adventurer starts with a default set of equipment.
That part is going to change.
I still have around 15 equipment slots available in the data, which gives me enough room to add some proper starter gear instead of risking a level 1 character beginning the game with something ridiculous like a rare robe.
Since the game is now classless, and I've dropped the save system down to a single adventurer per cube to free up some very valuable save space, I'm planning to use character creation to give players a basic starting direction.
The current idea is to choose between:
- Sword and Board
- Wand and Focus
- Dual Wield
That won't lock the player into a class or playstyle.
It just gives them a sensible set of starting equipment based on how they want to begin. From there, they can find new gear, choose abilities, and build the adventurer however they want.
Getting Out With Your Gear
There's also a bit of strategy involved in actually keeping what you find.
The only way to permanently save your equipment is to make it to a camp or reach the level exit.
If you've just found something great, that suddenly makes the decision to keep exploring a little more interesting.
Do you push farther and risk losing it?
Or do you get somewhere safe and lock in what you've found?
That's exactly the kind of decision I want the dungeon to create.
Then Comes the Dungeon Fluff
Once the equipment system is finished and properly tested, I can finally start filling the dungeon with more than monsters, treasure and things trying to kill you.
There are still plenty of systems waiting:
- NPCs
- Vendors
- Shrines
- Mini quests
- More dungeon interactions
And then there's monster movement.
I still haven't completely decided how I want to handle that.
Should monsters move every time the player moves?
Should they only move when the player camps?
Should different monsters behave differently?
I don't know yet.
That's another problem for another part of development.
What started as a little dungeon crawler for a cube has turned into a surprisingly complex little game.
And yes, I'm still kicking myself for deciding this was the project I should start with.