The MiniLog [0.14.2-A]: Midweek Madness

Hey hey~ Apologies for the delay. 

There were some menu routing issues present in the last build which had to be fixed. I’ve taken this opportunity to eliminate more bugs which were present and make some additional tweaks.

Let’s take a stroll through all that is new.

The Inventory

Here is the refreshed inventory. There have been a few additional tweaks since the recent update.

Between 0.14.0-A and 0.14.1-A I’ve enlarged and optimized character preview system. The inventory character preview is now larger and functions similar to the character creation preview in that it can be rotated with your mouse.

We also have the new radial stat bars and a fuel gauge. Top to bottom we have satiety (stomach capacity / hunger), hydration (how thirsty you are), LP (lust points – how lusty you are), AP (action points – a store of excess energy for performing actions and a measure of wakefulness) and energy (energy / stamina for performing actions actively – drains AP when depleted).

I created an animated material for the radial stat bars. My idea was to have a water caustic effect for the hydration and lust wheel (because wet), but it looked so good I just had to apply the effect to all of them. The satiety gauge (at the top) turned out beautifully. The effect is not as visible on the energy bar, but it gives the AP bar (bottom outer ring) a pretty nice shine.

In the case of AP and Energy, you'll notice I’ve decided to merge them into one with an outer AP ring and an inner energy ring. Having one inside the over helps express their relation to one another and makes the stat appear less complicated than it would otherwise seem.

I’ve been making some changes to how these survival stats should function in anticipation of stamina being implemented. Hydration and Energy are now given to the player instantly upon consuming an item, and any excess energy is converted to AP instantly. Previously items would have to be slowly digested over time before these stats became usable. This does in fact mean the bars were displaying "potential energy" and "potential hydration" rather than the true current values.

Considering we have HP and MP items which provide the player with instant feedback I felt this disparity would be confusing in play. Furthermore that level of realism is hard to convey and probably not all that fun. Now, the only durational consumption stat you have to worry about is satiety and that is the one which has more of a clear gameplay function. The plans haven’t changed there. The aim is that once you’ve reached your limit you’ll be restricted from consuming items. While you can stop and chow down mid fight, I think restricting the player from eating 10 plates of food 600 potions and 100 cheese will make you think carefully before they eating and prepare before getting into a fight. I may add some add some overconsumption mechanics at a later point in time (there are games like Noita which handle it in a pretty funny way which one could lift inspiration from).

I wanted to replace the bars with these radials because I feel it would help compactify the UI both in the inventory and out. Some of these bars do need to be seen outside of the inventory when in use. For instance, energy and AP will be utilized when sprinting and performing other actions which consume stamina. LP may be utilized when taking lusty attacks or under certain passive effects. These radial bars will look cleaner than a column of regular bars shunted to the side of the screen.

Then the case of Satiety, the fuel gauge representation is far more descriptive than what we had prior, and a good analogue for understanding "this stat represents the fuel for your character", so you should try to keep it topped up above the red line, lest you wish to starve.

To the right of the player we have the new slotted item display. It’s interesting and at least more functional than what we had before. Hovering over a slot will show what’s slotted inside it. It is challenging to represent all these slots. I have an alternate visualization I am toying with which I may try once we have slot icons for item descriptions. I’ll get back to you on this.

Apparel and weapons have been assigned basic stats which are visible in the inventory. This is represented by a number on the item frame. Equipment stats are super basic right now. Weapons do flat damage, and apparel mitigates damage based on the total equipped across your whole body. We can’t have damage stats without damage numbers! When hitting an enemy, you will see the amount of damage you are outputting above them. Funnily enough the weakest weapons now do more damage than the strongest enemies HP. Enemies will need both their attack and defences buffed, and to improve combat just a little bit more, I will be adding HP bars to enemies in the next update. Let me know whether you love or hate enemy HP bars and / or damage numbers. I can always make these optional.

To the right of the player, above the slots I’ve set up a little display for key inventory stats. These will represent, your mobility, carry weight and base protection (please note, only the base protection stat is functional at this time). These stats are influenced based on what you’re wearing and how much you’re carrying so it makes sense to have them here. The radials as well as these stats will soon receive tool tips which should help clarify what each one means and provide you with more granularity where relevant.

I think that just about covers everything new about the inventory. As of 0.14.2-A I’ve redesigned the side buttons to resemble those seen in the character creator and shifted around the interface to balance the left and right sides. The lack of symmetry irked me.

Left of the LP bar there is a new button. There have been a number of LP related changes going on in the background; Consuming lewd foods now grants LP, TF items have been added to dungeon chest, and lewd scenes triggered by consuming lewd foods will now reduce LP to 0 where it makes sense. The plan is to have this new button let you manage LP by triggering fap scenes in a similar vein to existing events. It is currently developing, and I’ll let you know when the first set of scenes are added~

Other Notable Changes

• I’ve added several more hairstyles. This marks the last of the regular main hairstyles I wanted to add. We will have some additional variants coming later, based on a couple of the old hairstyle variants which were popular. I am aiming to get some squidstyles into the next update if god wills it.

• Moellas have received a nerf as they were growing booba too quickly.

• Player skin shading in low light conditions (most prominent in the dungeon) has been updated. I rewrote parts of the Arkavite cel shader to improve consistency in skin shading and support more shadow levels.

• If you’ve played 0.14.0-A and had a rocky time you’ll be pleased to know all the weapon and inventory bugs have now been fixed.

• Adventurer apparel has been hidden around the sky island in chests, and knights armor now spawns in high level dungeon chests. Eventually I would like knights armor to be attainable on weapon stands and in dungeon shops, but this is just a quick change to make exploration slightly more enjoyable in the meantime.

• Last but not least – what has delayed this little log so much – I have refactored the menu routing system. Ever since I made it so [ESC] could back out from menus, we’ve been having problems, and as more sub-menus have been introduced, the problems have been ever mounting. I’ve gone through and rewritten how menus route and given top level menus and sub menus used throughout the system (e.g. Load Menu, System Menu) a distinct hierarchy. Now robust, and if any other issues arise they should be easy to fix.
  

Upcoming

The next build will arrive next week. Building on combat with HP bars, stamina, improved descriptions for equips (i.e. slot icons and stat comparisons) and the addition of tooltips for stats. The face texturing options which I spoke of last log should hopefully make it into that update as well. I am cleaning up some parts of the character creator and player texture system to make adding these customization easier. Finally, the other major priority is bring in some of the pending outfit sets.
There are a few other things I’m preparing on the side in the name of survival. Now skin shading has been updated the day night cycle will probably make a return and I don’t think it’ll be too long before we see some new rooms added to the sky island.
But that’s all for now! More to come. Until next time~