Dev blog: The Adventurer's Guide to Attributes & Skills
Hi everyone,
Your character in Terra Randoma has three attributes: Strength, Dexterity and Intelligence. He also has twelve skills categorized with respect to the attributes. Attributes affect the governed skill and enable your characer to use that skill more efficiently.
Your starting background and star sign gives you some points on certain skills but then you have complete freedom to choose how to customize your character. You will gain 1 attribute and 1 skill point each time you level up and you are free to distribute them the way you see fit. You can also buy skill points from the adventurer's guild. This allows you to develop very unique characters. Skills can be developed till 20. They will have some bonus benefits at milestones 5, 10, 15 and 20. For example if your athletics is 5, your sprint ability will develop and you will be able to sprint for more turns.
Now let’s look at these skills in detail though they may be kind of self explanatory.
Melee Combat: Governs melee combat, gives boost to attack and damage.
Athletics: Determines your health and stamina points and how much load you can carry. It also helps in dealing with some overworld incidents. Like when you need to help a travelling lady whose wagon's wheel is stuck in mud.
Intimidation: Gives you the ability to intimidate enemies, and encourage them to avoid fight with you altogether or fear easily during combat.
Mining: This skill is yet work in progress but the idea is that you can mine big rocks at Terra Randoma to find precious metals and stones.
Ranged Combat: Defines the range of your bow, and also your shooting accuracy.
Defense Mastery: Defense in Terra Randoma does not require that you be strong, this skill ensures you use your shield well or can evade attacks easily.
Critical Focus: Increases your chance of a critical shot, both for melee and for ranged attack.
Thievery: This skill is also work in progress. For now, it allows you to pick pocket certain NPCs and enemies you meet at incidents on the overworld or avoid certain dangerous situations by sneak passing them. We will add lock-picking to the game and ensure that some chests can only be opened using this skill.
Speechcraft: A very important skill if you want to boost your finances. Shop keepers tend to like you more and offer you better prices. You can also require better payment for quests and avoid certain combat encounters with talking.
Search: Increases the chances of finding more and better items and equipment at various containers you will see at Terra Randoma, like chests, barrels and weapon racks.
Alchemy: Another skill yet to develop, it currently increases the benefits of potion consumption and makes easier to find potions in witch's cauldron or alchemy tables. At the later stages of the development, we will add crafting and this skill will be more beneficial.
Survival: Increases your chance of survival in the wild. You find tracks of the animals for hunting more easily, and you travel faster through the forest tiles, which normally reduces your speed. Also you will find safer places to camp and be able to forage more food.
Dev blog: The Adventurer's Guide to Talent Stones
Hi everyone,
Talent stones are rune carved stones which gives the owner the ability to perform some special moves during combat. They are mysterious artifacts and nobody knows who forged them or how to make new ones. But they are used by heroes for centuries.
Characters already have one talent stone at the beginning of the game, depending on your choice of background. So the Retired Gladiator has “Heavy Strike”, Hunter has “Eagle Eye”, Swashbuckler has “Whirlwind Attack”. Otherwise, talent stones can be bought from the adventurer’s guild or rarely be found on dead adventurers.
To use a talent stone, you equip it on the action bar. Once you use it, it cools down for 7 turns. Each stone consumes a certain amount of stamina. So you need to be strategic about it. When your stamina is lesser than 5 points you are fatigued and your movement is slowed.
Talent stones come in three levels, and you need to have certain attribute points before you can use them. For example stones about ranged attack need dexterity points, etc. Every character can buy every talent stone and use it. There are no class restrictions and so your bow expert hunter can be good at melee fighting too.
Dev blog: Adventurer's Guide to Shopping
Hi everyone,
In this dev-blog, we will talk about shopping in Terra Randoma.
There is one shop in each settlement in Terra Randoma where you can gear up and get ready for adventure. The shop keepers’ looks and names are randomly generated. The availability of items vary with respect to the settlement status.
There are currently seven settlements in Terra Randoma (though we are thinking to offer an option to play in a bigger map with more settlements in the future) and the starting map randomly ranks them as rich, moderate, poor and very poor. The rich settlements have the biggest market, so there is more variety and quantity of everything you can buy: food, potions, equipment and armor. Accessories can only be found at the rich settlements.
In an earlier article, we talked about events and crisis that randomly happen to the settlements and how they may impact your gameplay. These directly affect the availability and price of items in the market too. For example, in a poor town, you can normally find only a few potions. But if there is an Alchemy Festival being held at that town, all of shop slots will be filled, and the potions will be sold at half price. Or, if the roads are insecure, then availability of items reduces to 25% and they become 50% more expensive. You can make a small fortune by keeping track of the events and crisis, trying to buy items where they are cheap and abundant and sell them where they are needed the most.
Another factor that affects the prices of items is your Speechcraft Skill. You can improve this skill as you level up (or you can buy skill points from the Adventurer's Guild).
The prices also depend on your reputation level. As your reputation level rises at a certain settlement, the shops will be happier to give you better prices.
You don’t need to rely on the shops entirely to get supplies. There are traveling merchants you can come across on the roads. They usually specialize in selling one type of item, for example Traveling Farmer sells only food, while Traveling Alchemist sells only potions. There is also a hunter who sells meat and arrows. They all offer a small quantity but at 25% cheaper than shops. They will conveniently buy anything from you.
Your speechcraft affects the prices of these vendors. You can also pickpocket travelling merchants. But if you fail, you will lose reputation in all towns since they will effectively spread the news all over the island.
We will add an Alchemist's Tower which you can sell materials coming from monsters for better prices (like spider silk, snake tongue).
There is a shop at the Adventurer’s Guild too. It sells food, potions, arrows and Talent Stones, which can only be found here. What are Talent Stones? Well, we will talk about them in a separate dev-blog.
Dev blog: People of Terra Randoma
Hi everyone,
In this dev-blog, we will talk about the NPCs in Terra Randoma.
You will meet NPCs all over the island. There is a shop keeper and a tavern keeper in each settlement. There is also a tavern patron, a regular at the tavern, happy to give you a quest. This person changes everyday. She or he may need you to escort her to ensure a safe journey to another settlement, or to rescue someone close to her, or to retrieve an object stolen from her. Helping an NPC also increases the prosperity level of the settlement. So by helping one, you help all. Also your reputation increases and the shops offer you goods at cheaper price. With enough reputation you may meet the lord of the settlement who has special quests for you.
NPCs can be rich or poor. You can pickpocket them. If you succeed, then fine, you get away with it. If you fail, however, your reputation decreases. If you do this repeatedly, you may be banned from entering the settlement altogether.
You also can come across to NPCs on the overworld. They can be traveling merchants, selling you food or potions at more affordable prices than shops, but offering less variety. We will also add hunters, bards and noble people who you can interact with. You may also sometimes bump into someone who is in need of help. A boar is attacking a traveller or an old man suffering under a fallen trunk. You can overcome some of these incidents with a skill check or fight your way out through a battlefield.
The NPCs are procedurally generated. Their hair, clothes, names and occupations are all allocated randomly. This is a work in progress. We will enrich them with more traits. There is an adjective for every NPC like angry, fearful or humble. This helps generate amusing stories. Say you meet a greedy tailor asking you to retrieve a family heirloom which is golden scissors or you can meet a weeping housewife whose husband is kidnapped by a ratman chief.
As mentioned above there is a lord in each settlement who you can meet if you have enough reputation. He may give you a hint about where to find a fragment of an ancient tablet which actually is a map of... well that is a subject for another dev-blog :)
Dev blog: Adventurer's Guide to Camping
Hi everyone,
In this dev-blog, we will talk about camping, foraging and hunting.
In earlier articles, we mentioned that hunger is an important aspect of gameplay. “Resting” of course is another aspect that all RPG players are all well accustomed to. And since Terra Randoma overworld is full of dangers, you cannot always count on getting to the nearest settlement before you drain. So we introduced Camping.
When you are on the overworld, you can camp on any tile, except water tiles. At the top of the screen, you can see the danger level of each tile shown with exclamation marks. The plain tiles are less dangerous than forest tiles, which are less dangerous than mountain tiles. There is a day and night cycle, and it is safer at day time than night time. Note that if you have invested points in your survival skill camping will be less dangerous.
So when you click that “Camp” button, you see a percentage showing you the chances of enemies launching an attack while you sleep. Good news is you will be all recovered nevertheless. If you can endure that attack without losing all the precious health and stamina points you managed to recover, then you are fine. Otherwise, you try again until you are sheltered in a warm tavern.
But camping isn’t all about resting. You may simply camp for the purpose of finding food. Food is not cheap, nor very abundant in the dungeons. Each step on the over-world plain tiles takes 1 hour (and twice as much on the forest and mountain tiles), so hunger will be an issue when planning your route. You also need to pay attention at hunger during combat because your character gets hungry faster when his stamina level falls below the half.
You can forage fruits and vegetables in the forests or hunt to find meat. Both options may mean that you encounter all sorts of hostile beasts in order to be able to earn your food.
You may also encounter hunting opportunity as a random incident. Sometimes, when you travel, you will accidentally come across tracks of a boar, or a deer, and use your Survival Skill to follow it. If you manage to get close to the animal, you will attack. Boars are hostile by nature, and they will defend themselves. They are fast and strong, and tend to travel in packs, so can be nasty enemies. Deers however will try to escape from you through the exit tile. Trying to hunt a deer is a fast paced mini game, which we hope you will find very enjoyable. It is kind of a procedural puzzle which you have to solve with in a few turns.
Also like all enemies these animals can have prefixes on their name and are modified accordingly. Every now and then, you may meet a “Berserk Deer” who proves its kind is not always about running off or an “Elite Boar” which is harder to hunt but drops more food.
Dev blog: The Adventurer’s Guide to Battlefields
Hi everyone,
In this dev-blog, we will talk about the Battlefields.
You will enter and crawl many procedurally generated dungeons in Terra Randoma but do you rest once you step on the overworld? The answer is: No! You will also need to fight through various battlefields.
In a previous article about incidents, we briefly explained that you go to a battlefield screen if you encounter a hostile incident on the overworld and your skill checks to avoid fight fail. The battlefields in Terra Randoma are all procedurally generated with 15x15 grids providing an intense battle experience.
The obstacles are randomly placed so the battlefield will be different every time you play. There may be river tiles on the forest and a bridge to cross it that makes battles all the more interesting. The river is passable by certain monsters but not you (until you have certain points in your wilderness survival skill).
There may be other obstacles like a fallen trunk or a cacoon of a giant spider. You are able to chop trees if they somehow block your way. There will be cracks on the mountain battlefields, and you will be able to break rocks, as you can chop trees, and occasionally find precious metals or gems inside them.
There is one exit tile on each battlefield. Like we explained before in the article about combat system, your character in Terra Randoma has a sprint ability and you may actually use this ability to escape from the battlefield through the exit tile. This exit tile is always behind the enemy so it is tricky to escape without getting a damage.
There are also special battlefields you come across as an investigation incident, where you choose whether or not to investigate a Broken Cart, an Abandoned Camp, or a Witch’s Hut.
You may perhaps choose to investigate some Castle Ruins. Here you can see the remnants of a once-wealthy household, and then broken pillars and walls here and there. This place holds great riches. There may be alchemy tables, weapon racks, barrels or simply coins laying all around. But always with an enemy party defending the place.
The Ancient Shrine of the Forgotten God is another curious incident you may discover with a special battlefield. Here you find an altar with an engraved stone you cannot read. You see a random drawing of a Forgotten God on the floor tiles. Forgotten may be, it still lures worshippers who may have offered coins or items on the altar, which you can happily loot. There may be pools here which you can heal your self when you drink or encounter some nasty suprise. Beware though, it also lures creatures of the forest who do not want you there. These shrines will play a special part in accomplishing one of the meta goals.
We will add many more spots like these above by the time the game hits Early Access, and the year following that date.
Overworld Incidents
Hi everyone,
In this dev-blog, we will talk about the overworld incidents in Terra Randoma.
After some dungeon crawling and fighting with monsters till your last health potion, you step out to overworld and wilderness adventure begins.
Terra Randoma is a world full of curiosities! Wheel of fortune is turned with every step you take on the overworld. It may bring you a bandit ambush or an abandoned cart, perhaps you get to meet a traveling merchant or some curious personality.
The overworld has four types of tiles at this stage: plain tiles, forest tiles, mountain tiles, and the water tiles. And there is a different danger level for each: The tiles around the settlements are “safe”, meaning the chances of dangerous encounter are very small. The plain tiles are more dangerous as you move away from the settlements but are always safer than the forest and the mountain tiles. Nothing happens on water tiles yet, but we will add pirates and sea monsters soon and will make sure to keep you updated on that! It is also safer at day time than night time.
So what happens when you encounter an enemy? The answer to that was “fight” until recently. We then added skill check options. So now, for example if you encounter a bandit, you can choose between several options like intimidate, haggle, or pickpocket meaning, if your thievery skill checks, you can pay the extortion he demands with his own coins!
If your skill check fails, or if you decide to engage in a fight anyway, you will emerge in a battlefield facing the enemies you came across to. These battlefields are all procedurally generated. Like we explained before in the article about combat system, your character in Terra Randoma has a sprint ability and you may actually use that to escape from the battlefield through the exit tile which is always behind the enemies.
Enemy encounters may happen while you camp as well, but let’s leave camping to another dev-blog.
As mentioned above, not all encounters include enemies. You may be lucky enough to meet one of the traveling merchants happy to sell items at more favorable prices than the shops. There may be a princess whose caravan is stuck in the mud. It may be a trap or not. Or you may come across an NPC suffering under a fallen trunk and choose to help -or steal his belongings.
There are also mysterious locations like some old castle ruins or a “shrine of the forgotten god” which you may explore and loot (and find some secret artifacts for one of the meta game goals).
Re-playability is one of the most important features we aim at. We are trying to ensure that the players experience a full sense of adventure and can discover new things each time they play, so doing our best to add as many incidents (with different solutions and outcomes) as we possibly can, so that “the story that emerges as you play” is different each time you play. This article covers only a few incidents. There are and will be many more.
Settlements
Hi everyone,
In this dev-blog, we will talk about the settlements in Terra Randoma. Terra Randoma started as a dungeon crawler roguelike game, but soon we felt the need to situate those dungeons in a procedurally generated overworld. One of the major components of the overworld are the settlements. At the earlier stages, we thought the settlements would be just safe havens for the adventurer to rest, shop and take on new quests. But as big lover of strategy games, we decided to spice things up, and gave each settlement a prosperity level to start with. And then added events and crisis that effect their prosperity level positively or negatively.
There are currently seven settlements in Terra Randoma (though we are thinking to offer an option to play in a bigger map with more settlements in the future) and the starting map randomly ranks them as rich, medium, poor and very poor. The rich settlements have the biggest market, so there is more variety and quantity of everything you can buy: food, potions, equipment and armor. Accessories can only be found at the rich settlements.
There is also an Adventurer's Guild, which we will talk about in a separate dev-blog. We will add an Alchemy Tower and maybe some more special buildings along the way.
Your actions effect the prosperity level of cities. They grow as you trade with them and accomplish missions given by their citizens and lords. By doing good, you earn reputation. If you fail a mission, or get caught doing thievery, you lose reputation. Your reputation level effects the prices you are offered to buy or sell at the shops. If your reputation level drops below zero, you will be rejected entry to the settlement, and you will have to use some special skills to get passed the guards or bribe them.
In each settlement, there is a tavern, where you can eat or rest at rather affordable prices. This is also where you take on the new quests. The settlements are home of the Lords as well, who will give you special quests that relate more closely to the wellbeing of the settlements.
Let’s have a look at the current events and crisis that randomly happen to the cities and how they may impact your gameplay:
Alchemy Contest: Potions abundant and cheaper. You can stock potions for your future endeavors or sell to the nearby cities which may need it.
Royal Marriage: You can eat and rest free at the tavern which is kind of a big deal at the early stages.
Rich Harvest: Food abundant and cheaper. You can stock food for your future endeavors or sell to the nearby cities which may need it.
Famine: No food sold at the market. You can still eat at the tavern. Shops will pay you good price if you bring food to sell, and your reputation will increase.
Epidemic: No potions sold at the market. Other items are expensive since no trader comes to town. You can still rest at the tavern. Shops will pay you good price if you bring cure disease potions to sell. Epidemic status will disappear sooner thanks to you and your reputation will increase.
Safe Roads: All items abundant and cheaper.
Insecure Roads: Items limited and expensive.
We will add more events and crisis like Vermin Infestation or Riots to the game soon. Also there will be certain escort missions that will trigger events once you accomplish them. We will announce further development here once we are done!
Consumables, Valuables, Books...
Hi everyone, In this dev-blog, we will talk about Terra Randoma’s consumables, valuables and books.
Potions: There are many potions you will need to use in Terra Randoma for various situations; including healing your wounds, curing confusion, poison or disease. Potions that boost certain attributes, like strength or speed, are also available. However you will not only be using them for your own character, you can also use them to help the settlements when they face crisis. If you bring a number of cure disease potions to a settlement with epidemic you will gain reputation and help the settlement as well. You can also buy them cheap when there is an alchemy festival and sell them across the island for profit. Potions can be bought from the shops, adventurer’s guild or traveling alchemists. They can also be collected from alchemy tables, chests or barrels you may find along the way.
Food: Your character in Terra Randoma gets hungry. Each step on the over-world plain tiles takes 1 hour (and twice as much on the forest and mountain tiles), so hunger will be an issue when planning your route. You also need to pay attention at hunger during combat because he gets hungry faster when his stamina level falls below the half. So when you start a journey to a far place or a quest to a dungeon, you need to make sure you have room for food in your backpack.
You can buy food at the settlements and the adventurer’s guild. You may also come across farmers or hunters along the way willing to sell food at more affordable prices. Rich settlements have more variety and quantity than smaller settlements, the guild and the independent merchants.
You can also forage fruits and vegetables in the forests or do hunting. Both options will mean that you encounter hostile beasts in order to be able to earn your food.
Finally, you can find food from sacks or barrels you come across throughout the game.
Valuables: Valuables are treasures include items like mirrors, figurines, or a telescope made of copper, bronze, silver, gold or porcelain. Gems and jewelry are also available. There are also “materials” that usually drop from enemies like spider silk, bucket of slime, or a rat skull.
Books: Terra Randoma is somewhat an intellectually thriving island in which many people love reading. Even the most unexpected creature, like a ratman slinger, may be carrying a philosophical book in his sack. There are endless possibilities to book names. They give you experience if you care to read, or decent money if you decide to sell.
Equipment and Armor
Hi everyone,
In this dev-blog, we will talk about Terra Randoma’s equipment and armor system.
There is countless equipment and armor in Terra Randoma, thanks to the item generator using prefixes and suffixes and a wide range of materials they can be made of: wood, copper, iron, steel or aquatril and linen, silk, spidersilk or sharkskin.
Different items have different weight too. Using heavy equipment consumes your stamina before you know it, unless your athletics skill level is high. Heavy equipment will also consume more stamina when using your sprint ability.
Your starting equipment depends on the choice of character background you make at the beginning of the game. So if you start as a retired gladiator, you will have a kind of decent melee weapon to start with, a rusty mace, but your range weapon will be most basic, a wooden shortbow.
Terra Randoma has a super user-friendly inventory interface in old school RPG style. This will help you manage your equipment and armor very efficiently. When you open your backpack, you can see not only what's inside your backpack and yourself with the equipment and armor you are wearing, but also your character statistics. So you know exactly what happens when you wear or take off an equipment. It takes only seconds to optimize, tidy up and get going.
