Node generation was smoothly wrapped up this week. There might be performance issues at a later date or something, but I’m not too worried. With that out of the way this week looks to be about adding some new system stuff to handle desired node features. Since they involve delving into some code that I haven’t looked at for over a year, things could get gnarly. After that I get to build some sample objects and begin testing to see how the node system has turned out. After that the “map revision” stage will be drawing to a close with the addition of the trap system. I’m happy with how things are turning out (the generation system I discussed last week in particular), but my anticipation to see how this is going to come together is sky high.

Of course that means the battle revisions are the next big thing on the horizon. After how the zone generation system turned into a waste of 2-3 months of development time, I’m going to be a whole lot more careful about not rushing straight to implementation. If code hours need to be spent somewhere, there’s plenty of work to be done on things unrelated to the core game. Truth be told, I still don’t have a completely solid plan for the battle changes. I do have a text file with pages and pages of different ideas for it, but nothing that feels right yet. Sadly most of the ideas I have gravitate towards character build customization rather than the battles themselves.

But let’s be real for a second. I’m not building two different games and mashing them together here. The two modes have to work together to form one sensible whole. That means one mode might have to be simpler than it otherwise could be in order to give the other mode the room it needs to breathe. The chaotic way we’ve ended up building this game just happens to have landed on me building up more of the map mode than I have the battle mode.

The deeper I get into finalizing the design of the map stuff, the clearer it’s going to be as to what the battle mode needs to bring to the table. Despite already having built most of the map system, I still don’t know where I’m going with it exactly. I know the fundamentals: players get to choose something different to do based on where they are on the map. That unlocks a whole world of possibilities from the number of options it presents to players. Lots of movement order planning, flavor to exploration, resource contesting, and so on. But I still need to nail down the specifics of it all: are players contesting resources for how they get to build their battle character, or are they merely contesting resources that expand their battle options? Stuff like that. It’s going to be much easier to figure out what battles are as I begin to finalize it. Battles will then start to inform the map stuff. Having parts of the system available to experiment and test with will make finding the game much easier than pure theory, as crazy as it may sound to build major parts of a game while having no idea how they all connect.