The knight leads the party, alone but closely followed by the paladin, ready to reinforce the front line. The two are ready to take the bulk of the wrath of incoming oponents ahead. But sometimes they can be overrrun. Sometimes, a third party member needs to step up to divert some of the enemy’s blows and give the priest time to intervene. Other times, things get so bad that they will need to step away from melee altogether.

 

The rogue is patient, but his time has come. Lost to the enemy’s eye, in the shadows, he steps in, bluesteel dagger drawn for a lethal assassination. It is so much more effective than his blowpipe that it is worth the risk of exposure. That blow to the vigilante’s jugular will turn the tide of battle. Then he can choose to fall out of sight again, then strike once more with vicious effectiveness. If the battle has truly turned to his party’s advantage, he may also choose to remain in sight and fight… fair.

 

Hordes of enemies are massed behind the melee, dealing damage with crudely fabricated but nonetheless efficient arrows. The party leader orders his companions to press forward, overtaking a few of the shooters, forcing them to drop their bows. Now the rogue is within distance and eagerly takes part in the hacking…

 

 

Underworld Gold has new combat rules that involve distance management, adding both realism and tactical depth. In previous versions only monsters were marked in or out of melee (a + indicated that they were in). Now the same goes for characters. This opened the door to a few extra tactical options.

- Any character can rush to the front.

- Characters in melee can choose to step back.

- Those behind the lines can choose to step in.

- Characters in melee can attempt to shove enemies out of melee.

- Party leader can order the party to press forward. This only uses up the leader’s turn and causes both monsters and characters to enter melee.

- Party leader can order the party to fall back. This only uses up the leader’s turn and causes both monsters and characters to leave melee.

 

They each have their advantages and drawbacks. A character that leaves melee avoids exposure from blades, but increases it for those left in. He can no longer use his melee weapon but can now use his ranged weapon (only available out of melee, except for archers). That can be a downside however because bows, crossbows and slings are typically less effective than swords and hammers. Previously, all characters were considered in melee, exposed to the monsters that were as well. Also, these actions use up a battle round for the character.

 

The first three can affect the order. If there are four characters in melee and the second leaves the pack, he finds himself leaving that second slot and taking the fourth. The third and fourth move up a notch and there are only three left in melee. If a character rushes to the front, all the others fall back a notch, but none leave the melee even if that character comes from behind the lines.

 

Enemies also have the option to join (this isn’t new) or leave (but this is) melee. Shooters and casters using the leave melee option, as well as melee fighters being able to join the meatgrinder, will make some battles more difficult and engaging. This affects their order as well. One consequence is that they are almost never left with no other choice but to wait. Previously monsters could only enter melee if the monster just ahead of them was already in. Now any of them can, anytime.

 

Diagrams

 

Note: These aren’t in the game, just here for illustrative purposes.

 

 

The above illustrates a combat situation similar to the one in the screenshot, only with a few more bandits.

The Knight, Paladin, Archer and Rogue are in melee . If the party formation was a little less neat one could imagine the rogue being just out of the melee but in this situation all four are marked with a +. The Grounded buccaneer and the first bandit are also in melee. The following four are not.

Now let’s see the options again in this context:

 

- Any character can rush to the front. Anyone but the knight will have this option. If the Rogue chose to do this the diagram would become something like:

 

 

 

Some shuffling occurs for the sake of keeping the three rows but it isn’t entirely necessary. I could also have kept the paladin close to the bandit and messed up the three rows but those are convenient for picturing and it doesn’t hurt.

- Characters in melee can choose to step back. If the knight steps out of melee at this stage there are only three left:

 

- Those behind the lines can choose to step in. Three may not be enough so the Sorcerer decides to step in front of the Knight (bad idea in most cases, unless looking for the Paladin’s (P)rotection perhaps):

- Characters in melee can attempt to shove enemies out of melee.  A good way to isolate someone, or take some pressure off the front line. There are still 4 characters in melee (and 1 mob)..

- Party leader can order the party to press forward. This only uses up the leader’s turn and causes both monsters and characters to enter melee.

- Party leader can order the party to fall back. This only uses up the leader’s turn and causes both monsters and characters to leave melee.

 

This makes combat a little less orderly. Monsters and characters alike can get all mixed up. It also opens the door to new spells and special attacks…  Ultimately it makes combat more difficult, as monsters will have more opportunities to inflict damage. But the increased difficulty is compensated by new skills for the knight, rogue and archer, as well as a more favorable loot system. I may actually need to increase difficulty a bit more. More on those on the next post!

 

Also a lot of testing is in order to make sure the monster AI uses the new options coherently, and that I haven’t broken anything.

 

Any thoughts on this? Is the tradeoff between simplicity and tactical depth good or bad in your opinion? Discuss!

 

 

 

First things first: A great and happy new year to everyone! Ignore the harbingers of doom and believe in 2012 being the best year ever, premisce to many more great years to come!

 

It’s been nearly 2 months since my video update, so this post is quite overdue.

 

Sadly there aren’t any great breakthroughs to announce. Image assets are being completed slowly due to events in the Philippines (location of the art studio I’m working with on this project). Washi, a ruptured dam in the Manila area and the end-of-year festivities have slowed them down. On my end the family situation I mentionned about a year ago came to a tragic end in November. I moved back home and am slowly settling in again, and will be working pretty much full time on Underworld and the sequel over the next few months.  Then, decisions will have to be made.

 

Nevertherless, the prolonged development time has given me the opportunity to nicely enhance Underworld. Three new maps, 10 new monsters, many moar lewts, a double special attack for some mobs (greatly adding to the technical challenge of many encounters), new special attacks for others, much better end of game balance, new features enhancing gameplay (like setting game speed, (P)rotect replaces (B)lock…).

 

The images that have been done look pretty sweet! Phantoms, wraiths (both new mobs) and a few others have transparency effects that I personally can’t stop gawking over and some of the still cutscenes are absolutely awesome

 

 

.

.

.

Also you might have noticed that the first monster in line is illustrated as before, but in a reproduction of the encounter’s environment.

.

To summarize I must confess that my early 2012 release goal will not be met. I’d rather not set a date that may not be met either at this point, but it shouldn’t be long. The bright side of things is that Underworld Gold will be all the better for it.

 

Underworld Gold is still work in progress, but the last remaining images, mostly the full screen storyline illustrations, are coming in at a good pace. The following video shows a couple, and hints at a few more changes. There are still a few glitches that need fixing, but nothing of much consequence.

 

 

I’m looking at an early 2012 release at the moment, which should allow for some more polish, new levels and “puzzles” (a term I use loosely to define any kind of obstacle that requires some thought to get accross).

 

.

Typhoon season has passed in the Philippines! The good news is that work has resumed and new assets are pouring in daily. A line artist and several colorists have teamed up so the project is moving along quickly, while maintaining good visual consistency. The bad news is that one of the artists was injured during a storm. I know little of the details but it looks like things were really bad there for a while.

.

All monsters and characters are done. It’s been really exciting to discover the new faces (well, for those that actually have faces). There are a total of 97 monster images!

.

.

.

.

Character illustrations are a new addition to Underworld. Each combination of class, race and gender have a little icon that adds a little spice to the status and character creation screens. Those are all done as well!

.

.

And that’s not all! Underworld will have a wider variety of environments and decorum. A new higher rez sky, animated torches, doors that look old…

.

.

.

 

There is still quite a bit to do with the still full screen illustrations. Also work has started for the sequel and significant progress has been made (GUI, some outdoor environment tiles, castle walls…). This delays the Underworld Gold release somewhat but I’m hoping to reassure those that have been waiting for something really new for a while that Underworld will NOT be a one-time thing. But that is still a story for later

 

Everyone knows a project is bound to face contingencies, setbacks, delays…

 

From the indie one-man studio (now with outside help) to the large construction company, something(s) are bound to get in the way of anyone’s objectives.

 

Underworld and sequel are currently affected by… Typhoons! Not one, but several have hit the people I’m working with in Manilla (Philippines), the worst of which is happening right now. So I’m glad I didn’t set a release date, but remain confident the remaining assets will be delivered as soon as can possibly be, given the circumstances. The most important being that they stay safe until good work conditions return.