Sneak Peek # 10 - Around the World [DRH Alpha 0.3]

Hey there, Raiders! Dungeon: Raid Her - Alpha 0.3 is well on it's way for another HUGE step up from it's previous versions! Here are some of the new additions:

Reworked Storyline

Dungeon: Raid Her now features a more immersive plot, where you take the role of an officer tasked with liberating the "Northern Reach", a war-torn peninsula dominated by crime, monsters and violence!

As such, you must build a Camp with the help of your subordinates. Earn their respect, manage your recruits, visit neutral settlements, and of course, raid enemy dungeons across the Reach!

Player Camp & Recruits

After a short introductory quest with Raela, you can unlock the Player Camp. This is similar to the Dungeon Court in DKH!

Recruits can be brought to your side after being rescued in Dungeon Runs! If you finish a Dungeon while undefeated, the rescued survivor will ask you to join the camp.

In order to allow them to join, however, you need to build "Tents"! Tents are props that serve as housing to recruited characters. At this moment, they only serve to raise the number of maximum allowed recruits, but housing props will take on a bigger role in the future (being assigned to specific characters, have them follow routines and rest in their home).

Player Party

You can now ask friendly characters or camp recruits to join your party!

Party members will venture into Dungeons by your side, but characters not recruited into the Camp will be gone after the adventure ends!

World Map & Expeditions

The Expedition Map (WIP!) allows you to choose your next adventure from an interactive screen.

Locations scattered around the Northern Reach will include both enemy and neutral settlements! Only a handful of locations will be available at a time, refreshing when returning from adventures.

Enemy Settlements now have rarities and modifiers, increasing in frequency according to the current World Difficulty. These can change how entire levels are played, adding challenges or offering a great opportunity to earn more loot!

Neutral Settlements consist of shopkeepers and general services provided across the lands of the Northern Reach! These are persistent locations.

Visiting neutral settlements cost you Gems, and provide you with unique interactions with NPCs, questlines, resources and services.

Unique NPCs

There are many new NPCs scattered across the Northern Reach and it's locations! All of them have their introductory dialogues, personalities and services. Most of them will eventually get questlines that evolve into greater rewards or relationships.

Existing NPCs have been reworked and better integrated into the new systems.

Multiple Character Prop Animations

This is a huge one! Lewd scenes between two characters can now occur while using Props!

Animations Synced To All Body Types

Another HUGE step up that will also carry over to DKH!

ALL animations have been manually synced up for every body shape combination, by using an in-game tool (that will make it into release -- in case you want to adjust an animation to your liking or you're modding in new anims!).

Adjustments are saved to a file that correlates each body shape + anim combination, and this file will be shipped with pre-made adjustments for all anims.

What this means, essentially, is: different sized characters will no longer have mismatching animations!

Enchanting Rework & Item Levels

Introducing: Pearls!

Pearls are items used to add, copy, randomize or remove random Enchantments from equipment. They can be acquired during runs or bought from NPCs. They allow for more control, variety and fine tuning when building the perfect item!

To allow for scaling, variety and ever-improving gear: Enchantment values are now randomized and scaled to Item Level!

Equipment will always have their Item Level fixed to the World Difficulty they were acquired at, allowing for stronger and stronger builds!

And, of course! Runs can also be modified by using Pearls!

Voilà! -- we've just duplicated an effect for this entire level!

It's worth noting: Run modifiers base values also scale to current World Difficulty!

Item enchantment rarities are now also visible as this shiny, pulsating coating on their surface.

New Weapons & Reworked Movesets

To allow for more varied playstyles, new weapons have been added and movesets have been tweaked!

For instance, this is the new Rapier weapon, which deals little damage but allows for fast movement and in-and-out combat:

While for instance the War Axe deals heavy damage with slow attacks and dodge animations:

Reworked Core Loop & Dungeon Run Structure

Dungeon Runs have been reworked to be more predictable and allow for a smoother progression. Resource gain has been tweaked down, while inventory slots are now unlimited!

All Perks have been revisited, with A LOT of new additions that really change how the game is currently played! From bouncing and homing projectiles, to hit counter mechanics, to party member modifiers... Perks are now a literal game changer!

The vision is:

• Equipment and Enchantments should revolve around changing stats and values, creating a "base build". No longer do they have special behaviours except for Skills.

• Perks should be powerful, rule-bending effects with custom behaviours, that can synergize with your existing build in fun and unique ways. There's no problem if they end up breaking the game -- Perks are gone after the run ends, so let there be fun!

Modifiers such as lifesteal and extra resistance, that previously made enemies invincible, have been removed entirely.

Attacks no longer require "Energy" to be used. Energy is now tied to the resisting mechanics, as you lose energy every time you're downed. When reaching 0 energy, you have no strength left to resist...

"Mind" is now used to launch Special Skills (F).

Both Energy and Mind can be regenerated by dealing damage to enemies! Regeneration mechanics such as these, lifesteal or others will only work on undefeated enemies.

A LOT of fixes went into combat animations and overall feel.

The Dungeon Run gameplay loop now feels fair and more satisfying than ever!

Day/Night Cycles

The game now runs on a 24h clock that now dictates the visual environment in Camp scenes. In the future, however, more will come out of this system, such as unique, time-based events and character routines in camp!

And that's about it, for now! There's probably a lot more I've already added but can't even remember at this point -- a more detailed overview of new stuff will be coming soon with the release! I'm really enjoying working on this and I can't wait to have you all play it!

Right now, I'm finishing up with polishing and playtesting the Player Camp gameplay, enemy loadout variety in Dungeons, more Neutral settlements (like Taverns and Bordellos) and some AI behaviours. We should have DRH Alpha 0.3 being released around two to three weeks from now, hopefully! In any case, I promise it'll be worth the wait :)

Stay tuned, and see you all next time!