You know how everyone says last stretch of game development takes a LOT of time. Well, that’s very true. But we are making it count! Here is what we have been up to lately.
Most importantly, we made some improvements to the Save system so the game became more accessible for a more varied audience. This was a crucial matter, because Terra Randoma is not only a classical roguelike game, but also has strategy game elements. The overworld is not simply a place you travel from dungeon to dungeon but it is a dynamic place where cities prosper or decline and your actions have weight on their destiny. So allowing only a Permadeath Save wouldn’t work.
Our save system allows you to save anywhere you like, on the overworld or at the dungeon. At the beginning of the game you choose one of the three options:
Way of the Iron Man: This is permadeath mode where you get the classical roguelike experience. When you die, your save is deleted and you lose everything.
Way of the Adventurer: If you die, you wake up at the overworld but you lose coins, reputation and maybe some random item.
Way of the Explorer: This is more like classical RPGs. If you die, you can start from your last Save without any expense.
Another important development was the introduction of Rain. It’s all nice and green on Terra Randoma, and there had to be a reason for all that green, right? Rain comes with some mechanisms attached to it. It slows down travel speed on the overworld, and makes recovery at camps less effective due to lack of campfire. It also reduces effectiveness of the ranged weapons and disables any fire effects your weapons or talent stones have.
Speaking of talent stones, we added Invisibility Talent Stone which we decided the Thief may need. It is great fun to come out of nowhere and take the enemy for a surprise hit.
We added a short introduction at the beginning of the game with a few quick tips. Also placed indicators at the entrance of battlefields or dungeons that show difficulty level, to give players a clearer picture. We will now add a short introduction at the entrance of each dungeon about what to expect when you get in.
The quest log now updates when you finish a dungeon and reminds you to go back to the original town to collect your rewards.
We introduced a Map Key to explain all the icons that you may see when you travel on the overworld or look at the map. These include the icons of the Events and Crisis that happen in or to towns. You may read our earlier dev-blog on Settlements for more details on this.
With these last checks and a further week of in-house testing, we should be ready for our first closed Beta soon. (hopefully)
Do Rats Dream of Unlocking Doors?
Hi everyone,
Hope you are all well and safe. We are working on the last bits and pieces of the game before Early Access release later this summer.
The most important development is the introduction of locked chests and of course lock picking. Lock picking happens through a thievery skill check. You lose a precious lockpick with every failed attempt, so some might consider it is wise to gain thievery skill. But don't worry if you do not fancy building a thief character, you can always choose to bash the chests too, keeping in mind the risk of breaking what is inside.
You can buy lock picks from the Adventurer’s Guild, find them in bookcases, barrels, chests, or loot them from slain enemies.
We added wandering monsters to the dungeons. If you finish all the monsters of the explored dungeon and you walk around to regenerate stamina, there is a chance that a wandering monster may spawn and come after you.
Another important thing we changed is enemy behaviour with doors. Now some enemies like rats and snakes can't open doors. Before that, every enemy could open the doors and it was not logical that a bat could open a door and follow you. This was something that we meant to change eventually but lost in the mazes of game development. We are happy that it finally came through because it enables interesting tactics, like making a slime follow you into a room, sprint to the door and close it, trapping the slime inside.
We finished working on the UI for the skills and now doing lots of testing to see that all perks work as they are supposed to.
We also concluded work on the dungeon we mentioned last time, where you come to save the princess of a town. Her father will assign you this mission if you manage to reach 75 reputation points in a certain town. Amazing riches wait for you there in the last room where the princess is held captive, provided that you manage to make your way through the unfriendly stone golems throwing head size stones at you.
Golems, Bats and Skeletons (and some developments in user interface)
Hi everyone,
In the last dev-blog, we had announced that we were almost done with Tier 3 enemies. Well, we added more and reached a total number 58. The latest additions include the following:
Skeleton Knights: They usually come out at nights and may have a fire sword.
Deeproot Golems: They are slow but they wield a big wooden hammer which may stun you.
Daggertooth Bats: They have drain life ability and they move fast which make them hard to deal with.
We are currently working on the UI for the skills. We had the Skills table ready but now we added invisible buttons to each skill so that details come up when you hover over them. Here players will be able to see not only what each skill does but also the perks they bring when you reach 5, 10, 15 and 20 skill points.
We have done lots of testing and balancing. Especially how much gold you can earn from selling items or what is the fair price of a talent stone and such. We will add another dungeon marked on the journal now, where you will be assigned to a quest that every self respecting hero must accomplish at least once in his career: save the princess of a procedurally generated town. In this dungeon, you will meet rock throwing stone golems and unwelcoming minotaurs.
New Monsters, Stealth Ability and Your Journal
Hi everyone,
As is the case around the globe right now, last few weeks brought some drastic changes in our lives which in turn affected work hours, but the new order is getting established and we are back to dev-blogs with some news to share.
Most importantly, we are almost done with Tier 3 enemies bringing us to a total number of 46 so far (and counting). Add to that the enemy modifiers and you will see a considerable amount of diversity. The latest additions are the following: Bandit Crossbowman, Shadow Hyena, and Tornclaw Golem.
Some enemies now have Stealth ability, including Vipers and Shadow Hyenas. They are harder to hit when on Stealth Mode. However if you succeed to hit, they become visible again and cannot go back to stealth.
We also completed the planned phase of Talent Stones, adding Frost Arrow, Fire Arrow, Stunning Arrow, Stunning Strike and Lava Strike.
We enabled status effects for Ranged Weapons: For example, you can now find an ice bow with a fancy name like Wooden Shortbow of Arctic Punishment. If you are curious about status effects, please see our previous blogs about weapons and item generation.
Finally, the Journal has taken its (hopefully) final form. Here you can see your accomplishments and plan ahead accordingly or simply be proud.
Stay safe until next time!
The Adventurer’s Guide to Equipment and Speed
Hi everyone,
Spring has arrived and we are now very close to Early Access. Geared up for it, we made some major updates over the last two weeks.
Firstly, the skills have changed and we have three different skills for each armor class: Heavy Armor, Medium Armor and Light Armor.
As our followers may already know, using as well as carrying heavier equipment consumes more stamina and increases hunger faster. But if you distribute your skill points to, for example Heavy Armor, actually wearing a rusty chest-plate will tire you less than putting it in your backpack. Not to mention the extra defense points you will get.
At this point we need to tell more about speed and how it works. Let's say your speed is %100. This means you take one action per turn, which you use to move or attack. If your speed is %200, you take two actions per turn. The higher your speed, the more freequently you will get a free action. So if it is %150, then you will have a free action after your second turn. If it is %110, then you get a free action every ten turns and so on.
Speed changes depending on the load you carry, equipment you wear, your dexterity and a new skill called swiftness. So now thief will have all the reasons in the world to wear light armor and wield a small blade, for he will be able to hit the enemies twice, say, every 5 turns.
And to really show how much speed matters, we introduced the first member of the Golem faction: The Wood Golem. This creature moves slow. It may team up with Mushroom Men and ambush you, or may be dormant in form of a tree, only to wake up if you happen to chop that tree. Sometimes you do need to chop down trees for they may block your way in certain battlefields.
That’s not all the news though. We also enabled all the status effects (fire, ice, stun etc) for ranged weapons. So playing the hunter character became all the more interesting. Next task is to to finish the Talent Stones that affect range attacks.
Another thing we added is, now you can avoid certain creature encounters by using your wilderness survival skill. If you can pass the skill check, you will get your xp and carry on your way.
A Rusty War Hammer and Crimson Slimes
Hi everyone,
Last two weeks passed with some major upgrade in the character sheet and skills. We added two-handed weapons to the game and a skill for them. Two-Handed Weapons Skill governs your combat when you use a War Hammer or a Great Sword. They consume a lot of stamina but deliver much more damage.
We also realized that Athletics Skill is too strong compared to other skills, so took some of the advantages it brings and gave it to a new skill named Bravery. Bravery Skill increases your Health and Mind Resistance. So you will have easier time dealing with the petrifying attacks of the gorgons. New Athletics Skill increases your Stamina alone, as well as affects your load capacity.
Finally, we introduced the Meditation Skill, which increases your Stamina regeneration rate, decreases your food consumption rate, and enhances all your resistances: Elements, Mind and Nature. So you can eat less food and generate more stamina and resist all kinds of difficulties the game throws at you.
Of course, the New Skills required a lot of balancing and fine tuning so we spent most of the last two weeks playing the game and doing that.
We added a New Crisis that affect the towns: Civil Unrest. In the latest dev-blog, we told that we had a new NPC in town: the Town Guard. Civil Unrest gives bigger role to this guy, well, his Captain actually. He too will stop you from entering the town but, just like his lieutenant, you can intimidate, bribe, sneak pass or even steal from him. If you manage to get in, you will find that goods at the shops are more expensive during Civil Unrest.
We added more Tier 3 monsters. The Ratman Striker uses a crossbow. The Bandit Marauder uses an Iron Mace that may stun you. The Overgrown Slime is a much stronger version of the Green Slime. The Crimson Slime on the other hand is not only bad news for your equipment but also its attacks may bleed the hero.
Overworld Map, Town Guards and Other Developments
Hi everyone,
More development done as we are getting closer to Early Access!
One of the major update is regarding the map. You can now zoom in and drag our procedurally generated overworld map. We also added an indicator on the map showing your reputation level at each town. They are located right above the indicator showing the town’s prosperity level. This was very important, as you may want to plan your journey based on this information: which town would you like to help prosper and which town welcomes you the most?
There is a new NPC in town: the Guard! If your reputation is below zero, he will stop you from entering the town. You can bribe, sneak, intimidate, or even pickpocket the guard. Yes, actually steal from a guard who stopped you because you are a (rather unsuccessful) thief. What could possibly go wrong? This guard will come up more often once we implement the Civil Unrest town crisis.
We finished working on the Gorgon Dungeon inside out, and decorated it in a moisty, dark and slithering fashion.
We added a new Tier 3 enemy: Rat-Man Claw Master. Its claw hits hard and can inflict disease.
We now have an End Game screen. This is still work in progress but essentially it shows you turning into one of those dead adventurers you come across to all around Terra Randoma. Hey, it’s a roguelike, no one said it is going to be easy (except it can be, because we have difficulty levels too!) The screen shows who slayed you, where you met your end and which reputation level you managed to reach.
Petrifying Arrows, Freezing Stones and Other Noteworthy Developments
Hi everyone,
We reached an important milestone that completes the questing system: you can now abandon your quests at Terra Randoma. Once you take on a quest, it is put on your quest log, and marked on your map. It may take you to a single battlefield or a dungeon. You will need to save someone or retrieve an item and go back to the settlement to report to the NPC to complete your mission.
You can now abandon a quest by simply clicking on that option at the bottom of your quest screen before attempting to accomplish it. Maybe you planned a route and one quest ruins the possibility of a perfect circle of a questing spree, or feels like too much a hassle. If you are already in the dungeon or the battlefield, you have to run to the exit to abandon the quest.
However, there is a price. Each time you abandon a quest, you lose 10 points of hard-earned reputation points at the originating town, and 2 points each in rest of the towns. Reputation is very important in Terra Randoma, it not only enables you get better prices at the shops but also is required if you want to take on quests from town Lords, find riches that only they can tell you about, and complete one of the Meta goals.
We also added new enemies that will establish Gorgon Faction: Snakeman Warriors with their poison dipping spears and Gorgon Rangers with their petrifying bows and throwing daggers. We are getting their dungeon done, the interiors are almost ready.
We added a few types of Long Swords. Like in most RPGs, Long Swords give more damage than Short Swords but are heavier therefore consume more stamina.
We added a Freezing Blade Talent Stone, which freezes the enemy and gives ice damage over time. As we mentioned before, Talent Stones are simply yet beautifully carved stones that enable you to perform some special moves during combat. They consume Stamina and need to cool down a few turns before they can be used again. Some characters already have one talent stone at the beginning of the game, depending on your choice of background. Freezing Blade Talent Stone will be found at the Highlander’s starting backpack. Otherwise, talent stones can be bought from the adventurer’s guild.
The Adventurer’s Guide to Throwing a Banquet and Poisonous Animals
Hi everyone,
The most important development of this week was to add an alternative option to increase your reputation level in settlements: You can now throw a banquet at the local tavern! Making the local folk happy will help you get better prices at the shops and bring you closer to meeting the town’s lord who has special quests for you. A banquet will take 1 hour, and cost you some valuable coins but it is worth it! It is however not an available option if the town is going through a crisis like epidemic or famine. You can help the cities overcome these crisis by bringing potions.
We added new potions including Potion of Elemental Resistance that protects you from fire and ice, Potion of Mind Resistance that protects you from confusion (and later on petrification, once we add it), and Potion of Heroism that boosts all your stats.
We enabled that you can haggle and pickpocket traveling merchants whom you can meet on the overworld as a positive encounter. As mentioned in our earlier blogs, they sell food or potions at affordable prices but have less variety and quantity than shops. Haggling depends on your Speechcraft skill while pickpocket depends on your Thievery skill. If your attempt to pickpocket fails, your reputation will decrease in all towns across the island.
Last but not least, as a wilderness enemy we added a boar with a poisonous tusk which is also fast and gets berserk modifier more than average. This boar can have “diseased” modifier as well. So it can poison and infect disease at the same time which is quite a deadly situation. Luckily there is a potion of nature resistance for the cautious adventurer who wants to avoid potential problems.
A Spiked Fungus, Bandit Marksmen and a Shipwreck Survivor
Hi everyone and Happy New Year!
This week we continued development on all fronts!
We added knives to the game. They are light, consume little stamina to use. Most of them have a critical hit chance base modifier. Some exotic versions have poison or drain base modifier. Perfect weapon for a light-footed character like a thief.
We continued producing third tier enemies. One of them is Spiked Fungus which confuses like regular mushroom men but gives more damage with his spike throwing. Also enhanced bandit team with four more notorious guys who hide new skills on their sleeves like freezing or poisoning you.
You can now adjust difficulty level at Terra Randoma from “Choose Your Character” screen. For now, there are five difficulty levels: Easy, Normal, Hard, Expert and Impossible. These levels mostly make the enemies tougher. But there is another thing that affects the difficulty which is your starting background and starsign.
If you choose Retired Gladiator as a background and The Bear as a starsign it will be a rather easier game for you. Because Retired Gladiator comes with nice Copper Mace, a Heavy Strike talent stone, some coins and potions. He is a melee fighter with a decent armor. The Bear starsign further enhances his melee fighting. On the other hand, if you choose the Shipwreck Survivor, he has nothing in his backpack apart from a Wooden Club. He is bare foot and has nothing but his survival instinct.
Finally, we completed an unfinished work from before: Reputation & Prosperity level indicators in the settlements. As we explained before in our previous article about towns, your actions affect the prosperity level of cities and your reputation in each one of them. Prosperity level is further affected by events and crisis. These systems worked but you could only see some numbers about them when you are on the city interface. Now we put coin icons for prosperity and stars for your reputation. It is a small improvement but improves quality of life.
