VantaPsy DEMO V3.3.13- V3.3.14 Update Log


VantaPsy DEMO V3.3.13- V3.3.14 Update Log

Overview

This is mainly a combat update. I overhauled the combat to be more fluid, and merged certain abilities. I basically looked at all the abilities and tried to streamline them. A few points below will give you an idea of what I mean. There's almost no story or dialogue updates.

Combat Updates

  • Physical skills now have tiers and broken into Slash; Pierce (aka Shot); Punch, with Jump; Snipe; Launch as advanced physical skills
  • Throw is now a part of Shot, and will be upgraded to Shot later in the game, serving as both
  • Changed Punch mechanic to use HP to rather than AP. It behaves similar to Physical attacks from the persona games, but a little differently to match my combat system
  • Punch also doesn't require inputs (This was becoming annoying. I actually don't like interactive mechanics in RPGs. I was originally inspired by Saban from FF6, but I realised that it'd be better if it was streamlined)
  • Q.Shot was changed to Shot, as well as Q.Slash to Slash, and then given higher tiers (Slashtra; Slashtriga)
  • As per above, Tier 2 of any ability (That can be Up-Casted) will now always be Multi-Target. Tier 3 reverts to Solo Target
  • Added Multi-Target attacks (This was already in the game, but as separate abilities. I basically streamlined it)
  • Shot was given the Pierce Elemental
  • Added Pierce Elemental. It's basically an extension of Projectile. I was using Projectile for various things, but it didn't have it's own Elemental to be scalable. So, I added Pierce and gave it to Shot and Snipe. There are Pierce attacks that aren't projectiles, but those aren't present in the Demo
  • Enemies also have Pierce attacks, and Pierce has been added to armour and weapons
  • Overhauled how Dual Stocking works (As well as some tweaks to Solo Stocking). This was originally to add Pierce to the table, but I decided to basically change most of the code. It won't seem different from the player's perspective though
  • You can now hover over the Stocked ability to check its description
  • There is now an Ability table for Limits, Dual Limits and Dual Stocks (This won't be helpful in the demo, as you don't have access to all the abilities and limits, nor Dual Stocking, but it will be helpful in the full version)
  • Overhauled certain Cards. I basically play tested them to make sure they're balanced. It's still a work in progress
  • Made losing Confidence when dying more lenient
  • General combat tweaks, like various calculations, and play testing to make sure everything works well in various contexts, as well as balance
  • Tweaked limits. This was done to match the balancing of certain Cards. It was also apparently broken in certain cases, so it was fixed
  • Tweaked Double Attack, aka "One More." I can't explain it, a lot of coding stuff. Probably won't be noticeable
  • What will be noticeable is that Double Attack can now unleash your stocked action, instead of dealing flat damage. This means that if you stock Electric, use Punch and trigger a Double Attack, the Electric action will trigger as your second attack. Use this wisely, as it can be broken in certain cases. But I'll let the player figure that out

Visual Updates

  • Overhauled Enemy Compendium. It now has sub-menus for the locations where the enemies can be found
  • Menu and UI tweaks
  • Various visual updates, like filters, details, etc.
  • Animation Tweaks, mostly combat stuff
  • Optimised some of the combat animations and effects. E.g. when killing an enemy, the effect used to get rid of them would apply to everything, which was very annoying. I got rid of it and altered the animation to look nicer. More stuff like this, but I can't remember all the specifics

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Working on/next updates

  • Visual updates to various areas (Priority)
  • Cutscenes for scenes that don’t have them
  • Animations for higher tier spells
  • Animations for various abilities
  • Enemy Sprites (Certain enemies are still placeholders)
  • Add clarity to the Party Menu, as well as the Cards Menu (low priority for now)

New:

  • Fix/Tweak Punch mechanic
  • Full picture illustrations for important events
  • More variations in dialogue options and outcomes

Questionable Mechanic to add - Debate and Investigation 

I want to add a debate mechanic that goes hand in hand with investigations. The plot does revolve around a mystery (The titular Soul Snatcher) so I want to gamify the player doing their own investigations and coming to conclusions on who the Soul Snatcher is. This would also lead to various endings. The problem with this is that I would need the entire game to be done to fully develop the world in such a way that the player can engage in a robust investigation. Until that happens, this is going on the backburner for now, and depending on how cramp the game gets (It's already quite packed with mechanics) I may or may not actually add this.

If you're wondering, think of the investigations like that of Disco Elysium. Something like that.

Files

VantaPsy DEMO v3.3.15 (Latest) 374 MB
Version 3.3.14 16 days ago

Get VantaPsy Soul Snatcher

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