Grid Battles

So… grid battles are a thing that’s possibly (probably?!) happening and I can’t tell you all how excited I am for that. :D

As much as I’ve been in love with my complex enemy AI setups, there’s always been a lingering question in my mind about how much the player will notice. Sure, I know as the developer that a Sylph Mage is capable of doing A, B, C, X, Y, Z, L, M, N, and more, but AI design is to a certain extent supposed to feel “invisible.” Faulty AI is easily noticed and criticized, and justifiably so, but well-developed AI is supposed to feel intuitive and logical. With that in mind, I’ve wondered whether Dreamblazers battles would feel unique enough.

Grid battles will definitely make them feel unique enough, though! From everything I can recall, I’ve never, ever played an RPG that uses a grid and does some of the things that I intend to do. And what do I intend to do? Well… you know, there’s a certain US holiday coming up that might give me some time to write about that, so I’ll save it for then. ;) It’s way more than worthy of its own post. :P

New Pixel Art

Some Elven Archers ready to rock at 100% and 300% size! According to hair colors, they come in genki girl orange, fantasy purple, and traditional brown! :D

I had said earlier that most sprite variations will have identical stats, but after thinking it over since then, there’s no reason for me to hold back considering that the way Unity works makes it just about as easy to give each sprite variation stat changes as to not do so. And so, as you can see, from left to right they’re faster to slower—but each one has her own advantages over the others too!

Even though the stat changes might only be a swing of 5-15%, these girls get fashion bonuses for extra multipliers to make them more significant! Bonuses like…

• Field-Ready Shorts: for combining shorts with an athletic nature
• Fighting Spirit: for combining warrior attire with respectively an energetic, brave, or independent nature
• Love of Gloves: for combining gloves with respectively a playful, brave, and independent nature
• Love of Shoes: for combining shoes with respectively a playful, brave, and independent nature
• Romantic Rogue: for combining warrior attire with a jaunty nature (Purple only!)
• Sandal Fan: for combining sandals with a playful nature (Orange only!)
• Sword Dancer: for combining warrior attire with a graceful nature (Brown only!)

Yeeeeeah… have I mentioned the fashion system is kinda comprehensive? :P On some days I actually ask myself if all the required calculations for it will prove to be too much for hardware weaker than mine.

Anyway, up to this point we haven’t seen any enemy sprites from the common species: elves, norians, the falician, sylphs, and so on. While you can be sure these Elven Archers will put up quite a fight since they’re gifted with full intelligence, control of magic, tool use, and more, it’s worth asking why they’re enemies at all.

In this time of global peace on Peremene, it would be very unusual to encounter a wandering fighter, especially one who has any serious battle training and isn’t an Imperial soldier—so why are there three whole variations of nameless Elven Archers?

Hmm.

That’s quite a mystery, isn’t it? ;)