To secure and speed up the release pace, and minimize the occurrence of delays, you can support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/winterfallgame
Hello there and welcome to this blog.
We stayed silent development-wise for the past two mondays as we were basically entrenched in the unsexy technicals of resurrecting an inventory system for Winterfall. As you understand by now however, Winterfall is a systemic game, that is a game driven by the interaction of systems. And so, those systems communicate with one another, and scale to various dimensions: best example of the virtual personality system, which is pretty much the same for a Character or for an entire Environment. So the Inventory system was no exception and needed integration with various other systems, not just the Character.
As you know, in Winterfall, you play your single Character during specific game experiences, and then you switch back to managing your Outpost in other game experiences, building and maintaining its Facilities. Your Characters (plural) live their life at the Outpost and you can switch between them in your next adventure.
Inventory
So right there, that's an example of how Inventory works: per Character, for the Outpost, for Outpost Facilities and so on. So that's what we've been busy with.
Inventory is also the crossroads that connect most systems in an RPG, since items can be carried, moved around, dropped or destroyed or traded, but also have values and functions and uses. Consumables, equippables, tradeables, upgradeables, etc etc.
Primarily, we've been taking care of:
General Inventory Handling rules
Drag & drop to move items around, equip/unequip, etc
Extend or shrink Inventory spac
Player Inventory/Outpost Inventory toggles
Player Inventory in Player Mode, Outpost Inventory in Outpost Mode
Outpost Inventory
Item Categories for Outpost Contents: NPCs & Objects
Facility Inventory & Functions
Item Categories for Outpost Facilities Contents: Special Furnishings, Items & Operator NPC slot
Item Categories
All Character Equippable Slots: Head, Shoulders, Chest, Arms, Waist, Legs, Feet
Wearables slots (clothes) & Accessory slots (armor, tools, utilities)
Item Rarity/Quality & assorted UI Colours
Common, Uncommon, Rare, Treasure, Artifact
Item Tooltip Basics & Behaviour
Window showing item information on MouseOver
Core Consumables & Consumables Rules
Conditions/Needs-relieving triggers for Survival gameplay: food, drink, healing relaxant,
Power values, increasing the effects of recovery items
Various Fixes
This opens up various systems that were previously locked behind the lack of a functional inventory system, which we will be able to take care of in the weeks to come, to wrap up the Wilderness gameplay's core gameplay loop.
Next up is taking care of Loot Inventory: whether that is treasure chests or the bodies of fallen foes. A list of small fixes and tweaks also awaits our care, as well as creating an additional number of items for testing purposes.
Short term, we will also be using the Inventory system as an interface for the building/placement system, which will first be used for Camping (allowing you to place your camp facilities) and then for Outpost Facility & Housing Customization.
Once we get there, we won't be looking too bad regarding our greater Wilderness Gameplay list, and that's when we'll be able to focus back on gameplay improvements of various sorts, and then begin typing up the bigger systems (Lifepath, chiefly) to the minute gameplay.
There is still a lot to do. There's also work going on, as ever, to get the game properly supported in the medium and long term, so that its completion, delivery and quality can be properly ensured. Many of you have been waiting a very long time for this thing to come out and it's been very disappointing to be met with setback after setback on the road to completion and delivery, but ultimately this is all for the greater good, for you as players, for us as developers, and for the game itself.
For me personally (Fab, the creator), this is going to be another Christmas working on this to keep making up for lost time and make sure everything is tight when it comes to design and mechanics. As ever, my commitment to Winterfall remains 100%, despite all the difficulties, disappointments and sacrifices. More than ever, Winterfall is my foremost focus and there is no negotiating that until it comes out and we're all happy.
So once more, thank you for your patience and continued interest.
To secure and speed up the release pace, and minimize the occurrence of delays, you can support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/winterfallgame
Hello there and welcome to this blog.
Work on the Outpost-building system has continued throughout the week. While we won't meet the initial objective of having it all wrapped up this month, it's still pretty satisfying to see all those systems come together. They kind of make up one of the two lungs of the game, without which the overall experience lacks structure and direction. So we're looking forward to seeing it all stand on its feet. Here's what we've been up to:
Completed the logic for placing Facilities & Extension in relation to one another
Added a radial menu to handle Facility/Outpost placement and dismantling
Finished and improved mechanics for Resource Expenditure when it comes to building Facilities
Implemented toggle for Outpost RTS Camera and Player Camera
Added Outpost Secondary Stats:
Readiness: Enables raid & defense type events
Resourcefulness: Enables adventure & research type events
Goodwill: Enables diplomatic & spiritual events
Labour: Enables construction & harvest events
Fixed Resource Expenditure & Resource Expenditure Logic for Facility/Extension Placement
Added Progress Bar to Facility/Extension Construction
Implemented Labour Hours for Facility/Extension Construction
Implemented Logic for Labour stoppage if missing resources
Implemented Logic for Labour cancellation if missing resources for 3+ days
Added Radial Menu to Facilities Extension, containing:
Operator Toggle: Activate or deactivate Facility NPC's work schedule
Facility with Operator has more services but higher daily Upkeep
Facility/Extension's Special Event button: activates Facility's Special Event, at Resource Cost
Facility/Extension's Inventory button: accesses Facility's special upgrade slots & item production
Dismantle button: Destroys Facility
Implemented new Inventory Framework
This is most of what we've been up to when it comes to dev work this past couple weeks. It required a bit of planning, fixing & design adjustments but it's getting there. Those are the mechanics by which the gameplay gains organic purpose, as you'll want to see your Outpost grow and thrive in the face of adversity, and you'll venture out in the Wild to ensure that, whether you're reaching out for Resources, collecting characters, gathering intel about locations to plan Expeditions, etc.
There is a lot coming up with this system, it's really the game's hub. The idea is to make it experienceable in a direct way (seamless play between Outpost and Wilderness) as well as in an asynchronous manner (play isolated game modes and see your winnings shipped to your Outpost), so that you can choose how involved you get: if you just want to have a quick half-hour play session, maybe you shouldn't need to go through all the steps of loading up Outpost Mode, checking out on the news there, setting up an Expedition and so on. Instead, you could just load up some gameplay straight from the main menu, do your thing, and later on when you have more time and load up Outpost, receive there the resources you unlocked previously.
Just the same, if you just want to chill and watch your characters live their life without any particular gameplay obligations, then you can load up Outpost Mode, let it run, and only intervene minimally. At the end of the day, it's all yours, so while the overall experience should build up in the same way for everyone, the moment to moment should be yours to determine according to your desires and expectations.
There's much more planned for this, including Social/Multiplayer components, but let's not get into this just yet, better to talk about things when they're well on the way to being functional already.
Upcoming High Priority items:
Fully finishing Facility Inventory & Functions
Implementing Expeditions Logic & Interface
NPC Jobs & Traits Fundamentals
Misc Fixes & Edits
To secure and speed up the release pace, and minimize the occurrence of delays, you can support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/winterfallgame
Hello there and welcome to this blog.
We've been hard at work on the Outpost-building system described in previous blog entries. Typically, those are the slow progress updates because they require a lot of groundwork to be laid out before anything really comes through. So from a list of many items, you will spend a lot of time on the first two items or so, before you can do anything to really begin. Anyways, let's get into what we've been up to for the past few weeks.
Outpost Crisis Mechanics
In our previous update, we were dealing with the Crisis mechanics: if Outpost resources dropped too low, a Crisis Event might pop up. We successfully completed that logic according to our plans. We have a Crisis Check, a Type of Crisis determinant, a Crisis Gravity parameter and some basic Crisis Events.
Crisis Check occurs at Resources Thresholds
4 Categories of Crisis: Security, Management,/Economy, Cultural, Logistical/Industrial
Basic Crisis Gameplay Goals
Security: Defend Outpost from Bots for time duration
Management/Economy: Recover Missing Item
Cultural: Complete a Number of Interactions within time
Logistical/Industrial: Carry # of objects to a central location before they're all destroyed
Crisis Gravity Level influences difficulty for the above events:
Security: More or less bots attacking Outpost
Management/Economy: More or less obstacles on the way to Item
Culture: More interactions to complete within allotted time
Logistics/Industry: Less amount of time between each object's destruction
Crisis Gravity can be lessened based on what Facilities the Outpost contains
Crisis Messages inform you of the current Crisis's goal
Raiding or getting raided is par for the course for Wilderlands Outposts
The next step for this was to add the NPC contributions to Crisis: for example having guard NPCs in your Outpost would obviously play a part in whether or not there would be a Security Crisis in the first place. However, in order to get there, it was necessary to address first the mechanics by which you may get NPCs in your Outpost. And that is:
Outpost Building Mechanics
Your Outpost is a general "zone" containing a central Hall, customizable, as well as a number of slots for various facilities. From the Outpost, you will plan your expeditions, watch your characters live their life, and intervene in that life as you customize and improve the Outpost. This is a part where RPG meets RTS meets Life Sim.
The Facilities present in the Hall give you options as to what you can do from your Outpost and what is likely to happen in it, as well as what type of NPC is likely to come visit. It's a very intricate system so for now, let's focus on the Outpost Building Hall and keep the broader presentation for another time, when we can all shoot it on video again.
Outpost Halls contain 4 types of slots: Facility, Extension, Common and Fixed
Facilities are what you will build to add functionality to your Hall (Lodgings, Kitchen, Workshop, etc)
Extensions add specialty features to Facilities. Example:
A Foundry or Woodworks added to the workshop to enable metal-working or wood-working
A Pantry gets added to the Kitchen, adding quality of life and better craftable foods
Common is the public Mess Hall, living space in which Characters will eat, chat, and drink, sometimes sleep
Fixed are the tiles whose functionality is predetermined based on the Hall Model. You can only upgrade them
Basic Hall Layout. Different Halls may offer different basic layouts.
The rules for Facility-building are what we have been working on more recently and are as follows:
Click on a Hall Tile to select the Facility you want to build
Facilities cost Resources, initially and then daily
Facilities employs Labour, nameless little NPCs that wander by your Hall looking for work
Facility Construction begins at 6:30am each day and ends for the day at 6:30pm
A progress bar is added above the Facility tile being built on
It is possible to increase Labour assigned to a Facility's Construction
If Resource shortage, Construction is paused. If the shortage gets too long, Construction gets aborted
Facility Construction goes on day after day until the Facility is completed
When a Facility is completed, a portion of the Labour involved in it will claim its pay and leave your Outpost
Various Facility-based options enable you increase your Outpost's Labour Retention
Facilities will require Operators to run autonomously, add to the Outpost and produce for it
Certain Facilities will unlock Events, that you can then trigger, at the cost of Resources
Certain Facilities will add to Outpost Stats for various effects upon the Outpost's life
As mentioned initially, Facilities will play a role in Crisis Events
Those are the things we have been setting up this past couple of weeks. We should finish them entirely this week and, by the end of this month, wrap up the Outpost development systems completely. Outposts are very, very central to gameplay so it's a big hub of features. Once that is done, we will move to the Camping mechanics. The features list we provided in Update 13 is a MVP list, that is a list of features for Minimum Viable Product.
Given the nature of Winterfall, a MVP for us is already far, far bigger than a regular MVP for, say, an action game or a platformer. It's only made even bigger by the fact that Winterfall is a systemic game, that is a game where all kinds of systems run constantly to generate gameplay opportunities. In that type of setup, you can't have a proper picture of the experience until enough systems are actually functional.