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Blog 170: Trainers
Hi all, and welcome to another blog series!
In today's blog series, I will be talking about another new system that we are introducing to Claire's Quest in our bid to continually improve the game's UI, overlay, and general gameplay mechanics.
This is one of the big additions that took some time to perfect and couldn't make it into the initial releases of 0.18 - the trainer system.
Currently, from 0.18.1 to 0.18.3, a placeholder is available with limited trainer options. However, as of the next patch, we should be ready to add in our new and improved trainer system, tailored to Claire's Quest!
The trainer system essentially allows for in-game, non-cheating raising of attributes, during which Claire pays a fee to a special NPC type called a "trainer" to raise a specific attribute. There will be four prospective trainers in total once the system is integrated.
When speaking to a trainer, accessing the "training option" (shown below) will bring up the trainer screen.
The trainer screen will then show up:
Each trainer has a hard limit on how far they can improve Claire's attributes. Currently, the limit is set to 20 across the board for all trainers. As the game progresses, we will add in 'advanced' trainers who can raise attributes higher.
The lower Claire's attribute that is to be trained, the lower the cost. For example, at 3 Defiance, to raise to 4, the cost is 100 silvers.
However, at 16 Defiance, to raise to 17, the cost jumps up to 800 silvers (shown below).
As such, players may wish to train their skills when they are low, but opt for in-game storyline boosts once their attributes get too high. Of course, players who buy and operate businesses will likely be flush enough in the future to use money to raise their attributes instead of journeying about. The overarching idea, as always, is that each player can customise Claire, her path, and her approaches, as they see fit. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to Claire's Quest.
The trainers, story and character-wise, are all suitable NPCs who would realistically be able to teach Claire the skills, if not physical then at least psychological, correlating to each attribute's features. For example, a skilled mercenary officer (Gallis) is the Defiance trainer, and would ostensibly be able to teach Claire basic self-defense, mental conditioning from martial arts training, and so on.
Gallis is available as a trainer after passing the trial to join the Mercenaries.
The Seduction trainer, Madame Mox, is a retired courtesan and veteran brothel administrator, and well-equipped to teach Claire how to entice and charm her way through any obstacle. She is available as a trainer after passing the brothel initiation.
To probably nobody's surprise, resident Ranger handygirl and mischief maker, Roxanne, is the starting Depravity trainer. She is available after the "For Pride's Sake" Ranger quest progresses to a certain point. Given her... hobbies... she is undoubtedly the go-to girl for Depravity.
Over here in the Library of Valos, where piles of tottering knowledge and equally-tottering scholars gather, a little tutoring corner exists to teach those who can afford their tuition fees. Once Claire stumbles upon this spot, she can be taught here without any further ado.
All four attribute trainers will make their entrance into the next patch of the 0.18 version of Claire's Quest, which is currently still in patron/early access as of this post, but hopefully we're near to a public release once we clear out the majority of glitches and bugs and get in all the systems and scenes as we progress with the patching!
This system and its corresponding imagery were the joint effort of Berd and Nikki, so big round of applause for those two for pulling through and making this all come together!
Anyhow, that's all for now, stay tuned for more news in the future!