I’m going to put up two posts this week because I have a lot to talk about—suffice it to say that as late as last night I was very prepared (and yet very unprepared) for a real downer of a post today, but things pulled through for me.

But let’s not spend any energy on that today. :P For now let’s look at lovely, lovely pixel art from Liz.

From left to right, these are an Impini, Impedi, and Impega! They’re mischievous forest-dwelling creatures that are mostly harmless to travelers, but can still be troublesome when they attack in swarms—and I do mean swarms. Even compared to kobolds, imps have a huge number advantage on their side, but they need it since they’re not at the same intelligence level or strength level of kobolds.

By the way, imps might be a great introduction to the grid system I discussed last week depending on how things work out! (Right now we’re having a certain level of trouble getting together funding for that, but if we do get there…) Imps flooding their side of the battlefield will eat up a lot of space, which makes them nice targets for big explosive attacks to take out a bunch in one shot. :D

Even if the grid system doesn’t work in the way I’m thinking (or turns out to be not as fun as I imagine), though, imps will still be a demonstration of how characters fight differently—it’s literally written into the story. You see, while fighting against these creatures, a certain character comments that even though she’s individually much stronger than other soldiers who were dispatched with her, her techniques aren’t suited for battling large groups, making her the wrong choice for the Empire to send on that particular mission in hindsight.

I’ll say no more about her since her entire species hasn’t gone through the character design process yet. ;) But like the Empire, you’ll have to make your own decisions and prepare for multiple possible scenarios without knowing what you might encounter, so which characters will your team feature? Perhaps using only characters who are strong in one-on-one duels or only characters who are strong against groups isn’t the best idea!

Anyway, gonna have to call it a post there—I’m heading out to Hawaii on Thursday and, as always, going through all sorts of last-minute rush shenanigans right before the trip. I’ll be away on the 14th, though I do still intend to put up a post if I have anything to share (like more finished pixel art, for example), and I return on the 21st, so that day’s post will be delayed until at least the 22nd.