New this week

This week I added a death animation for the boss and updated its state machine. Along with this I added shop items for the items added 2 weeks ago and changed how the permanent upgrade shop functions.

New Animations

I added a death animation rather than a ragdoll because it seemed more fitting for the boss. Along with this some subtle particle effects were added (and a non-subtle one I might scrap).

State machine changes

The AI and state machine of the boss has been adjusted. I adjusted some of the transition priority so follow up attacks take priority. Originally the AI had a cheese where if you stood point blank directly behind the enemy, they would continuously attack in front of them forever. I had added a system where the boss slightly turns towards the player before a melee attack. This needs to be small enough that it doesn’t feel like the player gets 180’d on. I have also added a system that if the boss executes 4 consecutive melee attacks, they immediately go into their spin state. This is really only a problem in phase 1 as the additional move variety in phase 2 forces the chain to be broken.

Particle system changes

The particle charging system is contains the false orb and also disables itself when the projectile is fired. This dramatically cleans up all the scripts that require a false orb. I tried to put the projectile targeting and spawning on the projectile effect so I could spawn a single thing and pass it some variables. But due to the highly dynamic nature of targeting there was no good or simple way to do this.

Recycling rework

Formerly the recycling system allowed the player to scrap an item to instantly receive scrap (a critical item unlocking item). This system existed to force the player to increase the difficulty of a run (via less items) in order to increase cross-run progression.

However, with this system if the player desired scrap they could start a run, scrap every item they came across and not be penalised for losing (from a scrap perspective).

I have changed the scrap system so that all the scrap collected by the player is only paid out on a victory. This promotes a more feast or famine gameplay system. However, this may still be too punishing. So as a middle ground another permanent upgrade has been added which is Scrap Retention. The upgrade is incremental, with each upgrade allows for 1 additional scrap to be reclaimed upon death.

Shop changes

Now that the Vault Shop now has 2 separate upgrade which have pre-requisites I have added an additional system to prevent the purchasing of upgrades. Upgrades can be locked until their pre-requisite is purchased. This just makes sense and also will reduce the feeling of being overwhelmed by opening a large upgrade screen. Although this currently isn’t a problem it may evolve into one.

I plan on creating a similar system for the item shop, but instead item purchasing locked behind arbitrary challenges or goals.

What’s next?

Next is to create another basic enemy. Now that a boss has been added the rest of the game feels like it needs more variation. I already have a plan for an exploding pumpkin enemy (legally distinct from TF2’s pumpkin bombs)