Poison, Bleeding, Blindness... You Know, the Fun Stuff
In the latest round of changes...
Status effects!
You've beenpPoisoned!!! Mu hahahaha.
Yep, monsters can now poison our adventurer. Or, if you prefer, you can poison them. That immediately highlighted a small problem I had somehow managed to overlook.
Until now, the only real way to clear a bad condition was to make it to some kind of commit point: a camp, the Sanctuary, or somewhere else safe. Which meant I had all these curative items sitting in the game...
...and no useful way to actually use them.
So that's fixed now.
Use Item Is Finally a Thing
The inventory menu now includes a Use Item option. I also wanted to avoid turning that into another giant list to twist through, so curative items only appear when they're actually relevant.
If you're not poisoned, you don't need to scroll past antidotes.
If you're not bleeding, you don't need to dig through bandages.
But get yourself poisoned and...
Voila.
Like magic, the antidote appears.
It's a small thing, but on the cube, keeping those menus short matters.
All Kinds of Ways to Suffer
Poison isn't alone.
Bleeding is now in place too, which finally gives bandages something useful to do.
Blindness is another fun one.
Because I'm sure everyone has always wanted to wander through a dungeon unable to see anything around them.
That one's implemented and ready for you to stumble around in the dark for a while.
Burn and Freeze are working as well, and both can absolutely become a problem if you don't have a healing potion or elixir handy.
I know this because one of them killed my test character.
So... working as intended.
Stun and Curse
Stun works a little differently.
It's combat-only and can affect both the adventurer and monsters.
It also has a one-action reset, so you can't just keep something permanently stunned until it dies.
And, just as importantly, monsters can't do that to you either.
Then there's Curse.
Curses reduce your healing, reduce your damage, and make you clumsier, which also lowers your chances of successfully fleeing combat.
Basically, if you're cursed, everything gets just a little bit worse.
And Now... {Insert drumroll} Your Gear Falls Apart Too
On top of all that, equipment durability is finally active. Durability was planned from the beginning, but until now it didn't actually do anything. Now your gear degrades as you use it.
Which means all that scrap you've been picking up, or getting from dismantling old equipment, finally has a purpose:
Repairs.
Yeah.
Management.
I know.
But it was always part of the plan, and now it's finally connected to the rest of the game.
Short Rests and Campsites
Short rests are also in. They're limited per floor, but they give you a way to recover a little HP and mana when you don't have another source of healing available.
And if you're lucky enough to find a campsite, that's where things get a lot more useful. At camp, you can send your carried items back to the Sanctuary.
It also commits your current progress, stats, equipment, and other important data.
So if you die after that...
You actually get to keep your stuff.
How nice!
All of these systems are starting to work together now in a way that makes the dungeon feel a lot more dangerous, but also gives you more ways to prepare for that danger.
Poison. Bleeding. Blindness. Burning. Freezing. Stuns. Curses. Breaking gear.
Just another relaxing trip through the dungeon.