KickStarter Monomyth - A first person action RPG/dungeon crawler - now available on Early Access

[RatTower]

I'm currently working on level persistence (e.g. items that have been picked up are actually gone on reloading an area, etc).
I realized I could easily add dropping items from the inventory into the world, where they'd stay indefinitely.

But this only makes sense if there's some kind of inventory management system in place, so here's the question:

https://strawpoll.com/s27yrg4

Which kind of inventory system do you prefer?

 

[Wayward Son]

Dam fam. Looks like infinite is gonna win.

 

[PrettyDeadman]

Will be buying this then it comes out in early access.

 

[RatTower]

Only because the categories split the votes. If you counted all the votes for weights together they would far exceed the magical bag of holding folks.

Just testing the waters. Current implementation is the unlimited one, since it's the most basic, that can easily be extended into something more complex.
Also been thinking about something like Arx Fatalis without the item tetris (basically limited slots that get extended once you find a bigger backpack - which I always thought was very satisfying).

The unlimited system makes dropping items into the world kinda useless and I'm personally not a big fan of weight based systems.
Even though something like that is already in place. However it's only affected by the equipment you are wearing on your character, much like in Dark Souls (making jumps shorter and sprinting speed slower).

How does that make sense? Who knows...

 

[RatTower]

Got a lot of stuff done this weekend.

Essentially saving and loading is working nicely. The system is very similar to Dark Souls and/or System Shock:
If you quit the game, you restart again at the same position in the world with all your progress saved. Decisions stick. There's no reloading (i.e. as in Dark Souls)
If you die you restart at the last "save point" with all of your progress saved (i.e. as in Dark Souls & System Shock).

I think that's a good formula for a game that basically extends on what King's Field did (which just had regular save points).

I also implemented inventory controls to drop items into the world.
So now you can collect stuff and then just litter the ground with it if that's what you wanna do.

It's all kept in the save state, so no object is ever lost unless you literally throw it into a lava pit. Still gotta think about that a bit when it comes to important quest/puzzle objects.
I also limited the inventory space. For now its the same as described in my last post.
So you got a slot based inventory with like 14 slots in the beginning and you can extend that by finding better backpacks (which are not yet in the game, but once I did the models for those that takes about 10 minutes to code the way it's currently set up).

This week I gotta think a bit about containers (chests, drawers, bags, barrels etc).

I'm wondering whether I should add an extra container interface (so you look into a chest, but it just opens another inventory view, where you pull items from the container into your backpack - this is pretty much the standard system in most RPGs) or if I should add "real" containers (so you actually open a chest in the game world and it really contains the 3d modells of the loot). The latter system is pretty rare. I think Dark Messiah had something like that, but I'm not even sure.
Problem with that system is: You can't lock a halberd into a chest. Same is true for all other bigger objects. Which is realistic I guess, but perhaps not what people might want. Also storing items becomes way more messy if there are no slot based containers.

 

[Wayward Son]

You can't lock a halberd into a chest.

You can if you use really big chests.

 

[RatTower]

Yes the consequence of this system is basically having lots of different containers or finding a different place to store bigger objects like that. Like a weapon rack or an armoire. Or even a sealed off area like an armory.

Which has its charm I guess. The problem with storing items properly still remains though.

 

[Wayward Son]

TBH a couple of those are better than a dozen chests imo, as long as they are reasonably paced out so they don't become old.

 

[RatTower]

Got a lot of stuff done this weekend.
Finished a treasure chest. Gonna add two more, for smaller items.

Also added a stateful blueprint concept, which basically allows me to save blueprint states in an easy way (stuff like keeping opened doors open after reload).

I wanted to add some lockpicking mechanics, however I created a fountain the player can drink from first.
In the end I want players to be able to draw water from those, revealing whether it is clean (healing stamina and health or mana) or if it's dirty (giving the players debuffs or poisoning them).
Probably gonna do that today.

Hopefully I'll soon find the time to do a full update with screenshots and everything. Anyway here's a fountain sculpture that will sprinkle water in your face. Or breath fire. Not sure yet:

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

In the end I want players to be able to draw water from those, revealing whether it is clean (healing stamina and health or mana) or if it's dirty (giving the players debuffs or poisoning them).

King's Field 2 all the way!

 

[bataille]

This is good on so many levels, damn.

 

[RatTower]

Added those smaller treasure chests



Also made one for the more shady regions in the game. Anyway, this week I'll really add those lockpicking mechanics.

At the very least in the form of a simple dex check. Later possibly with more complex mechanics. We will see whether that makes it into the alpha.
Talking of which, I started designing the first area for that demo.

 

[RatTower]

Not dead by the way.
Currently working on that alpha level and mechanics.
Also started adding gamepad support, for the full King's Field experience.

Talking of King's Field, I saw what Underworld Ascendant did with their logo, and made this for fun:

Kinda like a subtle hint or tribute. No idea if it will make it into the final game. Either way, here's a WIP screenshot of that new area:

 

[Jack Dandy]

Love the logo!

 

[RatTower]

Some WIP screenshots of the area I'm currently working on (no detail pass yet)
Trying to make good use of some modular assets I made.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

Will you submit these assets to the marketplace?

 

[RatTower]

Wouldn't that kinda de-value the game itself?
Not sure. No plans for that currently at least.

Area is coming along nicely.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

Wouldn't that kinda de-value the game itself?

No.

 

[RatTower]

Can't have enough secret rooms.

 

[RatTower]

Been a little busy in the last two weeks, but here's some new equipment I made yesterday/today.

 

[Wayward Son]

Damn dude. That looks great dawg.

 

[RatTower]

Thanks!

Reworked the system for status effects (buff/debuffs)
At the moment there are roughly 40 of them. Among others there is freezing & burning:





Also worked on more assets.

Spoiler

Spoiler

Likely to be an easter egg in the same vein as the chicken quest in Arx Fatalis - i.e. more obscure and complex than the rest of the game

 

[SophosTheWise]

Goddamn that looks great. I hope we get to play around with an alpha version soon. This might just be my most anticipated RPG at the moment, along with Underworld Ascendant. I've even played the abomination that's called Castle Torgeath for my FPS dungeon fix.

Is there any roadmap and a definitive feature list?

 

[RatTower]

Hey, glad you're excited for it.

There is a rough roadmap for the alpha:

• improve movement (climbing, possibly swimming)
• some new idle animations
• two-hand weapons (we'll see if those actually make it in - I'd like to have bows)
• improve item combinations
• improve status effects
• improve enemy AI
• improve combat animations/combat
• finish the alpha level/zone

So most stuff is improvements. Some of these things are already done (status effects/item combinations). Other things I might completely tear down and build anew (enemy AI was pretty much a placeholder so far). Some are well on the way but not done (e.g. the level).

For features I definitely want the stuff in the original post. But I'm also experimenting with other stuff.
For example, I always said I don't want any crafting, cause I think (at least how most games do it) it's a huge waste of time. But the current item combination system (normally used for puzzles) would allow crafting in the vein of Arx Fatalis/Ultima/early UO. And those crafting systems are actually the only ones I ever liked. So currently I'm also experimenting with that.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

Any chance you can make a Turn based Blobber?