Time and Space
March 11, 2015
or "An Update A Long Time A-Coming"
I've decided recently to figure out why I haven't been working on this, and I figured it was because I started focusing on the bigger picture, and instead of making progress, I started getting wrapped around the axle a bit… so I re-evaluated my next steps using a new set of conditions: least amount of effort for the greatest impact.
I put together a bunch of mini-levels and playtesting them helped me rekindle that flame of discovery, and thus I now have several new updates to write about.
New Levels
As previously mentioned, the game now has mini-levels (I intend for these levels to be a couple orders of magnitude larger, but these placeholders might end up in the game for a while still).
You can find yourself in mountainous woods, or suburban streets or a shed out in the countryside, or in an orchard, and… well, all in all roughly twenty different stages to discover.
The stages now stay cleared of zombies if your group survives combat.
Healing!
I've got the characters healing over time now. Currently it takes about a week for them to heal from 0 to 100%. This duration is definitely going to be tweaked. With them healing, I think it's possible for me to travel practically forever (it's also possible I could lose my entire group in a series of catastrophic failures, but I think that's what makes it fun).
They heal as time passes, and currently, time only moves forward either during combat, or as you travel across the world.
Updated Info Window
You can click on the characters to get a bit more info out of them. Currently, it shows how their health is and what weapon they're wielding.
Updated AI
I fixed how the humans choose their targets, and they're now prioritizing standing zombies over downed zombies. It's fun to watch a character particularly blessed with dexterity knock back zombie after zombie until they're all down. A clean up phase at the end of combat emerges where they take out each incapacitated zombie.
I also fixed their skills: they'll level up the base skills and that progress is now actually shared between skillchains with the same base skill.
Before I forget: Happy New Year!