If you are wondering why I haven't updated in a while it is because I was in Japan for 2 weeks. I'm back now and I have resumed work on my game.

Update:

Did some work on implementing the monster generation. It works rather nicely now. I'll have to modify it slightly at some point in the future to generate different enemies depending on what dungeon level you are on but other than that it is pretty much finished.

Pic: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26996118@N06/2725287649/sizes/o/
(Note: That there aren't that many enemies generated around your starting position normally, I cranked up the amount of enemies generated for the picture).

In the picture you might notice a new enemy I created - the decrepit psychic. It is the first "special enemy." By that I mean it has a special ability.

Decrepit Psychic: Once men and women of super human powers they now wander around in the dungeon raving about nothing. Their once dignified appearance has been reduced to that of a mad(wo)man shambling about in dirty and torn rags that offer no protection in combat or against the elements. Something or someone has drained them of their powers leaving them only with the ability to launch a weak telekinetic attack from up to two squares away. Strangely enough, despite their madness, they only attack adventures in the dungeon and not the dungeon's other inhabitants. Perhaps they are not as mad as they appear or perhaps they are being controlled by something much more sinister than them.

Ability: Unlike most unarmed enemies they can attack from up to 2 spaces away instead of 1.


Okay so their ability really isn't all that impressive but they are a first dungeon level enemy so I didn't want to start giving the enemies stronger abilities yet.

Edit:

An interesting bug just occurred during testing. The decrepit psychic can attack through walls, so long as you are within range. I think I am going to leave it in the game as it fits with the psychic's "character" and can produce some interesting situations.

Also I am working on implementing hp and mp regeneration based on stats. I'll have to fiddle around with it to get it balanced but currently you get str/10 hp per turn and int/5 mp per turn. The hp regen feels like it is too high right now(despite most characters only starting with str in the teens). I suppose I could decrease the regen to something like str/20 which would mean that characters wouldn't have any regen until they lvled up a bit. Or I could turn hp into a double/float so it can handle decimals and start hp regen off at a fractional number. I'm not quite sure yet.

Also I think I'm going to start working on the leveling up - which means deciding on start progression for each class, abilities learned, also I'll have to start on the talent point system since that is tied in with leveling up.

Edit 2:

Last update for the day(most likely): I implemented a very bare bones version of the level up system. I decided on an exp progression that so far I am happy with (current level ^2)* 10. So to at 10 exp you get to level 2, 40 gets you level 3, 1k gets you lvl 11, 25k gets you lvl 51. If I do modify the exp chart it will probably be to increase the amount of exp needed to gain level ups.

Currently the system merely increases the player's numerical level and informs the player that he/she has leveled up. No actual stat increases or ability learning occurs yet as I'll have to decide on a stat progression for each class. I'll probably start on that tomorrow (at least for the fighter class which is the class I'm using to test everything while the game is in development). I'll also probably design a handful of abilities for the fighter(for the first 10 or 20 levels at least). Possibly I will start to work on the talent system.

For the fighter's talent system I'm thinking about something along the lines of:
1 "tree" will increase offensive physical combat(by increasing crit chance, str, etc.)
1 "tree" will increase defenses(dodge chance, agility, etc.)
The last tree will be used if you want to turn your fighter into more of an ability user by increasing the effectiveness of abilities learned and granting a few that can't be learned by normally leveling up.

The way I am currently envisioning it is that it will usually be most beneficial to invest your points into one tree but nothing will stop you from spreading it out between them all. ( I don't think I am going to implement a level cap of any kind so I suppose if you play your character long enough you might eventually gain enough talent points to master all three trees.

And of course each class will have 3 completely different trees, which might not neccessarily affect the same three "fields" (offensive, defensive, and abilities) as the fighter's trees do.