September 21st, 2020: Progress Report
Hey everyone, Rem here with this week's Progress Report after realizing that it's 1AM and that September is almost over.
So for the past two weeks, I've been working on that secret new gameplay addition I've talked about in my last Progress Report, as well as fixing bugs and touching stuff here and there. Since the new upcoming gameplay change in v7 is a secret, I'm about to talk about some of the other changes I've been doing.
The first major change I think for most people is that the formula for the experience required for each stat level up is changed to not just be a linear increase, but instead also be based on the stat's level and also Karryn's Warden Level. In short, it's going to take a lot more experience to get a stat level up. Early on it shouldn't matter much but later on, for example while in Prison Level 3, it should take 2~4x the amount of experience it used to take. Even 4x the amount might still be low since it is currently way too easy to get a stat level up. But well, I don't want to overshoot it and make it take insanely long just to get a level up since that's not fun, but I don't think leveling up super fast and hitting the level cap is fun either since you don't get a sense of accomplishment from getting stronger.
And also, I changed the enemy level scaling to be more gradual throughout the prison floor. So for example, the enemies on the first room or two in a new floor would basically be just as strong as the last few rooms from the previous floor. Also overall, enemy levels have decreased. This is because in an ideal final product, I don't want the player to have to feel like they got to level up to the level cap to be able to handle the fights.
The second "major" (for some) change is that Cautious Stance is no longer available from the start. You have to buy the Edict for it before Karryn learns it. The reasoning for this change is too long for me to write here and is probably best saved for a Dev Log type post if anyone is interested. But basically Karryn doesn't start with it learn, and it costs Energy to use, and it's effects are much stronger than before so it's like a weak Defensive Stance alternative for Agility builds.
The third major change I did is there is now a report at the start of each day telling Karryn stuff like: how much Order changed overnight, how much money got made, if a Prison Level started rioting or how long it's been rioting, if a Prison Level has been in Anarchy for way too long and therefore causing Order problems, and if Karryn is about to lose some side job reputation from not working there for too long. Just a simple, but hopefully good quality of life addition.
This Progress Report is already pretty long so I'll leave here for today, take care everyone!