#92 Report n.15

This week I spent most of my time implementing the “background dialogue”. It works rather OK, but there are many small problems with the script that determines how close player is to certain NPC.

I decided to make the background dialogue work like this. NPCs will do their thing and if you come close enough to them, they will tell you something simple depending on your stats and other things. Things like “hi. How are you.” or “Thanks for helping me earlier.”. You will also be able to hear other people conversing if you get close.

This proximity script can also be used for enemies. They will just walk around and patrol certain area. If you get too close, they will start chasing you. If you run far enough, they will stop chasing you. Simple stuff like that.

This is how it looks right now. Talking NPC has speech bubble above their head and their mouths move. You can see their dialogue at the top of the screen. You can move freely while other NPCs are talking so you can stay and listen to them or just walk away and they will stop talking. Simple, but it should make the world feel much more alive.

The script itself works fine, but it has some strange limitations. I managed to work around them and the whole thing now works ok, but it still needs some minor tweaking.

#91 Report n.14

I have nothing interesting to report this week. I spent some tim fixing some severe bugs and I did some changes to the “background chat system”. I am still not 100% sure how to this thing. You might remember the old video that shown two NPCs talking to each other while the player could move around freely.

There were few problems with that. If player decided to do something I was not expecting, then he could miss some dialogue simply because it was placed dirrectly above the NPCs head. I tried placing the text in the upper part of the screen and it work, but I will have to do some more changes to the system to make it look better.

#90 Report n.13

This week I spent most of my time implementing and fixing features that were not entirely implemented.

First, I improved the “random” NPC placement. Now you can meet certain NPCs in the same zone, if they are friends. This makes the placement seem less random and more natural.

I also started implementing some simple quests that have basic consequences. There is an NPC guarding a bridge and charging money every time you cross it. He asks you to bring him some food. If you bring him something he doesn’t like, he will raise the price even more. If you bring him something he likes, he will let you cross for free for a few weeks. If you bring him something he ends up liking a lot, he will let you pass for free for the entire game.

These are the main things I was working on.

#89 Report n.12

This week I was focusing mainly on finishing the skill learning system. I can safely say that the system is like 95% finished. Only thing it needs are some cosmetic adjustments and actualy adding all the skills.

First lets talk about the way learning skills is going to work.

1. Get some money
2. Raise your stats high enough
3. Find NPC that is willing to teach you the skill you want
4. Learn the skill
5. Go rest, work or train
6. Now you can use your skill freely

The way skills work now is basicaly the same as before, but now you actualy have to find someone willing to teach you. Before, you just had to raise your stat to certain level and you would learn skills asociated to that stat automaticaly.

Ofcourse, there will be multiple ways to learn skills.

1. Find NPC, raise your stats and buy skill for money.
2. Find NPC, raise your relationship, finish quest and get some skills for free.
3. Find a book (very rare) and learn said skill.

Another thing I focused on was the improvement of the skill learning screen. Nothing major. I just changed the way coloring of the skill names worked. Up until now, skill you could not afford to buy were grey and skills you could afford were white (even if you lacked the stats for them or if you already knew them). This was simply unacceptable so I improved it a bit. Grey skills require more money or stats than you have, white skills can be learned and green skills aare already known to you.

And that is basicaly it for this week.