There’s been a ton of playtesting going on after the itemization pass which has slowed down the road map a bit while squashing bugs and adjusting stats along the way.
UI work:
Character creation screen implemented with over 40 sliders to adjust the looks of the character. More hairstyles being added. Currently can only choose between Elf and Human.
UI Size adjustments across the board, Empty Icons for Equipment added (shows a greyed out icon for each slot), slot borders and background changed, tooltip glitch fixed, and lots lots more little changes.
Class items:
Implemented class item system for Necro, Mindbender and Druid. They each have their own experience and currently 10 levels. The experience is gained in different ways for each class. The class items each have special stats specific to the class, such as Charm duration for Mindbender or extra spells not gained through leveling. Only a few items per class are finished but the plan is to have several during level progression 1-50 and a good 10+ per class for end game.
Druid Taming System:
Druid animal taming system has been implemented and tested taming the first baby animals.
Overview: There will be young versions of almost all animals in the game (work in progress creating all of them still) which will have a lower spawn chance than regular versions of the animal. You will have to cast the taming spell on the animal, and not allow it to die while being tamed. The baby animals have much lower stats than a normal version of them. You then have to gain a specific experience called Primal Bond in order to level the tier of the animal from cub/kit, to yearling, to adolescent, adult, elder. Each tier will decrease the stat debuff on the animal, bringing them up to normal levels of stats. You gain Primal Bond via kills, buffs, heals, food, and petting. You lose Primal Bond exp if the animal dies. Higher Primal Bond and animal tiers will receive more from group Druid buffs (Commands like Sickem!).
In addition, the animals will continue to level normally as well, gaining abilities and stats like all other characters.
While Necro skeleton animals have Circlets(head), Orbs(chest), and Neck. Druid animals will have 2 Earrings, Harness(chest), and Neck. Animals will not equip weapons at this time but automatically receive weapon damage based on level.
Work will continue on completion of the animal taming system as well as itemization for harnesses which have not yet begun.
Druid are planned to start in their own starting Elvish forest town, potentially with Ranger using the same systems (bow instead of spells though) if time allows. Work on the Elven starting town will be starting soon, followed by some newbie zones tying them back in to the current 5 zones of the Windlewoods.
Tons of other updates:
Lots and lots of other changes have been made too long to list in this blog.
A dozen Mindbender specific base questlines are in starting out with a Charm quest, then heading through the progression zones.
With more accurate play testing being possible since base itemization completion there has been ongoing balancing. Mindbender Dominate/Subjugate is currently undergoing further balancing and should be complete very soon.
Mindbender also have new icons for many spells.
Block has had sound implemented to override normal hit sounds, and a fairly poor block animation due to clipping which is a general problem with all of our weapons/offhands/shields clipping arms and body. We have a solution that hopefully will work out across the board.
