Was a teaser for the battle interface ever released?
No, we don't have any of the combat UI art finished. We're focusing on working through quests and lewds for the time being - combat is its own beast, and requires not just a UI, but icons for spells & abilities & items, as well as combat miniatures for enemies (and the party). There's no way to develop it concurrently with everything else... I mean we
could, but it would slow things to a crawl. And then it needs a crapload of testing to ensure it won't conflict with other systems.
I assume there will be some form of combat right?
Yeah, turn-based fights pitting your 6-(wo)man crew against enemies. There's actually a combat scene mockup in my sig here - I don't know if you can see it, maybe you have them turned off? It's the right picture (party vs. golem) - click on it to get a fullscreen image. That's basically what it's gonna look like -- combat minis atop hand-painted backgrounds, depending on which biome you're currently in -- but with a battle UI draped over everything.
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What about standard RPG mechanics like skills trees?
Planned. All of it. Casters get magical stuff, martial specialists get martial-themed perks, and weapons have their own combat maneuvers (ex: equipping a greatsword gives the character wielding it 'Cleave', which is an AoE attack). Our scripter designed everything to be really crunchy (he's a mega-nerd), we just have to get around to working on it... But that's always the rub, everything needs custom art, so there's a queue which dictates what gets worked on. Like I said, right now that's quest content, NPC portraits, and lewds for the prologue areas.