Dev Log -8: Force and Fire

2012-07-08

I think I fixed all the existing game mechanics that needed fixing for the demo:

Fixed the stealth calculations; most notably, it's not possible any more to slip under other characters' very noses no matter how high your stealth is (if you're standing right in front of the NPC, he WILL detect you); I've also restricted how quickly you can be detected at different ranges so you'll always have time to react and move away if you are near the edge of the sight range; All in all, it works much better now
Made the unarmed attack damage scale with level and strength; that is in addition to scaling with skill level; since you can't swap out your arms for a shiny new pair (maybe in a sequel), this should make up for gear progression that you get with other types of weapons
Fixed the flickering lights affecting hit chance in turn based combat - it doesn't matter now if you fire while the light is on or off, the mean lightning value will be used
Allowed swapping out equipment during combat but only weapons and utility items (not armor and other clothing pieces); unequipping an item is free; equipping costs 50 AP (whole turn); Used to be very tricky if you ran out of ammo with both weapons and couldn't swap to your unarmed attack

Ok, boring stuff over. Here's some new stuff I added:

Explosive barrels - self-explanatory; shoot the barrel and get a free fireball pyrokinesis
Setting people on fire - with the right feat, your pyrokinesis will have a chance to set the targets on fire; besides dealing damage over time it will also make the living targets run around in panic

Three new psi abilities
- Frighten (Thought Control) - makes your target run away from you unless it passes a resolve check
- Force Emission (Psychokinesis) - toggled; while active, your unarmed attacks do additional damage and have a short range, but each attack costs 5 psi
- Force Field (Psychokinesis) - A very useful ability. Creates an impenetrable force field that lasts 10 seconds / 2 turns. You can use it to split up your enemy forces, isolate yourself until you can heal, cut off escape routes or thwart your pursuers, etc. It actually might be a bit too good in its current form, so I might nerf the base version a bit and require the player to pick up a feat to improve it.

Next on the agenda are more items and after that more feats. Getting close to completing phase one of the demo preparation.