FromTheVoid Devlog #4

Here we have the official prototype/Base build of FromTheVoid! Over the past month I have poured countless hours into this project and have made something I am very proud of and excited to continue working on! I have a big vision for this game and cant wait to show you all what Im cooking. For now, let me show you what I've been working on.

To start, There is now a round counter! Every time you end your turn, and the enemies complete their turn, the counter goes up. This is useful for keeping track of the upcoming Status Effects and how many rounds each one will last! More on status effects later.

Now for the updated movement system. Units no longer just walk straight to where you tell them to. An AI system has been introduced to allow for obstacle avoidance. This will be useful for many things but especially more so in the future.  Because the movement distance is based on AP, you can only move as far as your AP will allow you. Using  the new AI system, I was able to calculate the amount of AP at any point where you moved the marker so when you go beyond your AP reserve, the marker turns red indicating you can not move any further.

The Unit stat bar has been updated. Not only does it show all the relevant stats of the unit including its name, current health, current action points, and the amount of AP it will recover every round, but now it also shows the status effects applied to that unit! In the above gifs and screenshot, you can see a little "AP+" in this light grey section of the stat bar. That is the recover action in effect. It will provide a boost to the AP Recovery rate for 2 rounds on the unit that performed the action.

Next I created a main menu complete with a "void" made of a Particle system that I messed around with until I created a pulsating purple ball. I haven't used particle systems much but creating this void orb was definitely a bigger challenge than I anticipated, although I am happy with what I was able to create. Definitely will be updating this and creating new voids closer to what I had envisioned later when I have more knowledge and time.

After going into the missions tab, you are greeted by a  scrollable box with the missions inside. The missions are stored in ScriptableObjects, which I created on the fly to hold the information like what units you are taking with you, and whether the level was completed or not. For now, this button is created by me and will be changed out for a system that will populate this screen with all the Levels I have ready.

Selecting the Tutorial level, or any level, will bring up the Unit screen where you will decide what units you will bring with you. You are given four, two snipers, and two assault units. When you click them, they are added to a list in the level object and a checkmark appears on each. Once you have selected four units, the "Start Battle" button becomes interactable and you are on your way to learning how to play!

A few pages that explain how to play the game have been added as well! I know, a tutorial in the tutorial level, who could have seen this coming. For now it's very basic but readable and it gets the point across.  As this is a training ground, you are in a simulation, so real units wont be harmed while learning how to play!

When you are done the tutorial, your turn starts! On the left are your objectives. For now this one is coded in but I will be making these ScriptableObjects as well so that I can easily create more for other levels. You can also move the camera now! Using WASD moves you left and right, and holding middle mouse button and moving the mouse around allows for rotation. This way you can easily see where your units are, as well as your enemy's. 

This was probably the most frustrating part of this whole journey. Trying to get the enemy units to properly make decisions for themselves was frustrating and made me rework many of the already implemented actions and moves in the game. I believe this was very rewarding though as not only did I get a better product, but I know for next time what I should be looking out for so I dont make the same mistakes.

Last but not least; arguably the most important part to be added. Enemy turns! That's right, your enemy not takes their turn when you finish yours. They pick a unit within their range and move towards it. If they have enough AP after moving, they will attack, otherwise they will wait until they have enough. If your units are out of range of the enemy, they will stay idle until you are seen.

Of course, if all your units die, you lose and will need to either restart or go back to the main menu. However, if you defeat all 4 enemies, you win and can go back to the main menu to manage your units, or you will be able to when I add it. 

Thank you for reading and I hope to show you a finished game sometime in the future!