Devlog #6 - Elitism

Hello Talented Folks!

Development of 0.4.X is well on the way, and I want to start by giving you a quick overview of the new Enemy Elite Traits system and a few core gameplay changes that will be coming this update. Let's dive in.

Elite Traits

On top of the usual 'Enemy Health Increased' and 'Longer Days' style enemy bonusses that you're used to getting at the end of a day, there's now a new bonus that will give enemies a 5% increased chance of having a random Elite Trait. This can stack with itself, giving the enemies 10%, 15%, 20% chance and so on.

These traits are powerful modifiers any enemy can receive making them much tougher to deal with. We'll be adding more traits as development continues, but we're starting with 4 basic ones:

Speedy - This enemy has increased movement speed.

While you might think this trait is most likely to catch you out when obtained by the infamous Monches (our fastest moving enemy). I'm finding it's also deadly on slower enemies which I often found myself waiting quite a while to deal with before. Nothing is more terrifying than the speed pumpkin!

Gigantic - This enemy increased hit points, but reduced movement speed.

Another classic elite trait, I find gigantic is most deadly when paired with enemies that create other enemies such as the Skelebob. It's worth noting that, with the exception of flies, anything summoned by an elite enemy will have the same elite trait! Speaking of flies...

Infested - This enemy will summon flies when killed.

A particularly nasty trait if you're forced into close range combat, I often find myself struggling to deal with a Mega Blob turning into Lil Blobs and Flies... Followed by the Lil Blobs making more flies!

Blessed - This enemy has a shield that will block the first hit they take.

This trait will challenge any build that is reliant on slow, but high damage attacks. Even critical strikes will be blocked, so make sure you have a backup plan!

A quick final note - with the exception of Speedy, all enemies with an elite trait also have a chunk more hit points, making them a little harder to ignore.

New Rules

These elite traits will be paired with a few changes to the combat system that are designed to help the strengths of different enemies shine and create more interesting problems for you guys to solve!

Enemies summoned on death by another enemy can no longer take damage from the attack that killed the summoner.

This one has been a long time coming. Frequently at the moment, a Mega Blob will turn into two Lil Blobs and you won't even see them before they poof out of existence from your first attack. That's stopping in 0.4.X and it will should change the way some enemies feel to play against significantly. (Don't worry, I will likely be pairing it with some nerfs!)

Knockback will actually knock enemies back.

Another leftover from the quick and dirty prototype days. Knockback is currently more of stun that jiggles enemies around. A goal for this update it to make the knockback feel more physical and a more impactful part of the game. You can imagine how a large amount of knockback could greatly benefit the new melee Warrior class, and keep the tankier but slow enemies at bay for longer.

Final Note

And that just about does it for this week! Currently working hard on the Warrior class (more on that next week), and I'm quite pleased with how he's coming along! I will show one last thing though, our Wizard now has a hat, courtesy of Ryue!