Dusk Tactics 2021 Updates – September 22nd 2021

These features were added during the first half of 2021.

New Features

• Free Battles (repeatable battles) can be set to scale to the player’s average unit level as well as randomize names.
• Terrain modifiers finally properly factored into attacks. For affected attacks/abilities, this will alter accuracy and power. The amount altered can be viewed in the Tile UI on screen.
• A Job Tree has been created and while it’s still a work in progress, it will be used for the alpha demo and possibly the actual game.
• There will be three (3) starter Jobs, the Soldier, the Scout, and the Scribe. Each of these can be raised to it’s max rank of 3 via JP and will have unique Abilities and Passives that can only be learned through these Jobs.
• Five (5) tiers of Jobs are currently planned with two (2) tiers currently implemented. These tier comprise eleven (11) Jobs currently, all of which will appear in the demo.
• In the Unit Manager UI Job Wheel, a Job will show up if it’s requirements have been met, at which point it can be purchased with CP a type of currency earned from any JP the unit earns on a 1:1 ratio.
• The turn counter has been tweaked a bit to allow for the newer (speed – weight) calculation. Weight being an amount based on total equipment worn, which essentially slows the unit down a bit. This value is clamped between 20 and 199 so that a unit will always have a turn.
• The entire UI now has tooltips on both stat headers and stat values. The stat header tooltips describe what the stat means while the value will go into detail on what modifiers are present. For example ‘Speed’ will explain the speed stat while the value (lets say 30) will have a breakdown of 27+3 * 1.0 MOD. Here we get an extra +3 speed from equipment.
• Item Editor software has been completed which makes it MUCH easier to create items.
• Unit’s have a special stat called Alignment that is made up of their Ethics & Morals. These have minor influences on base stat growth and may limit certain Job choices further down the line. The current alignment now shows up on the Status UI.
• While weapons can have an attack element, Armor and Shields can have a resistance element. This value will be directly added to the unit’s current elemental resistances and could potentially render units immune or extra vulnerable to a specific element.
• Advanced tooltips have been created for Abilities which allow the player to see almost all info about an Ability at any point. Passives also have similar tooltips.
• Artificial Intelligence has been added using a Utility AI system. This system takes various criteria and assigns them values. These values are entered into a formula and depending on a unit’s intended behavior, the best (or worst) option is chosen from all possible choices.
• The Utility AI now supports multi-targeted AoE attacks and will correctly calculate friendly fire, trying to avoid it if possible.
• Projectiles that will be deflected by terrain are now more visible and easily detectible for the player. The AI also takes this into account.
• Status Effects may be removed when damage is inflicted depending on the status effect rules.
• Control based Status Effects have been integrated. Effects such as Berserk, or Charm, that take away control from the player will properly target units according to the status effect. The AI is also notified via controllers so the AI will see charmed units as enemies and such.
• The Scenario Editor is now much more powerful. It allows each unit to have an individual setup of equipment, abilities, passives, and behavior and can create the scenarios needed for the game itself. It may be included as extra ‘content creation’ software for possible mods and custom campaigns.
• The Scenario Editor now allows units to have status effects set before battle. This includes having certain characters be immune to status effects, or always having a certain status effect.
• UI has been developed for Scenarios to show Victory/Defeat conditions. There can be multiple of each and they may have and/if/or relations.
• There are currently several different types of scenarios. Aside from the basic ‘kill all enemies’ victory condition, there exists ones such as ‘Survive x turns’, ‘Reach a certain location’, ‘Protect a certain unit’, ‘Defeat the leader’. The demo will include multiple different types of scenarios, including ones with multiple victory conditions.
• Scene Name and Location now show up at the start of a scenario.
• The Combat Log window has been overhauled and is much cleaner. It contains multiple methods of display (from less info to more info) and can be hidden or shown via a button press.
• The Battle Menu will now detail why a certain ability cannot be used, whether it’s lack of MP or some other requirement not being met by graying out different parts.
• A cleaner menu has been added to the bottom right hand corner of the battle screen. This will be used to show Settings, Battle Log, and more.
• The AI will NOT target units who are Hidden. Hidden is a status effect that renders a unit mostly invisible on screen and the unit will stay this way until it acts.
• A listener has been created for status effects to create Triggers. These will include things such as “When HP is Critical, cast Regen on unit’.
• The World Map UI will now show the current Act, Chapter, and Scene in the upper left corner.
• Unit portraits will come with eight (8) different emotions which can be triggered during cutscenes.
• A Dialog Editor has been created to preview dialog without playing the entire scene. It can also change text animation, speed and more.
• The World Map has been enlarged to 200% to create more distance between nodes.
• World Map paths now use Bezier splines to create curved paths between nodes. These nodes will be creates in real time (i.e. you’ll see them animated) when appropriate.
• Victory Condition Types have been added: Kill All, Kill Specific, Turn Limit Expires, Unit Reaches Goal, Survive X Turns.
• Failure Condition Types have been added: All Allies Killed, Specific Ally Killed, Any Ally Killed, Enemy Reaches Location, Turn Limit Expires.
• Transitions between scenarios, scenes and the world map have been smoothed and made easier. Nodes can be unlocked and scenes can be played if needed upon completion of a scene.
• Scenes can now be skipped!
• The Pause Screen has been overhauled. It now shows the battle location, victory/failure conditions and a special menu.
• When the Start Banner is shown, Victory / Failure conditions and location will also be shown.
• Major cleanup of World Map UI, created a new system of advanced information being shown when a node is selected. This includes current ruling houses, founding date, etc.
• In Windowed Mode, manual/automatic pauses are implemented for when the window loses focus.
• If a scenario has ‘reach a specific tile’ as a requirement, the tile in question will be highlighted yellow.
• The World Map Screen now has a proper notification system. This will queue up notifications for everything from units joining your army, to items purchased. They will appear in the top right and go away over time.
• The Scenario Editor now has a Trigger Editor which will allow for special events and scenes to occur mid-battle. For example, a trigger can be set to spawn reinforcements after a certain # of turns. It can also interact with the dialog system.
• Ranged Abilities that are weapon-based (Weapon Arts) will have their range based on the weapon that the unit is currently wielding.
• Destructibles (objects on the map that can be destroyed) now show up properly when selected. They also have special physical and magickal armor making them much more difficult to damage than normal units. Destructibles also have elemental strengths and weaknesses based on their material.
• A random offset has been added for all animations so that units do not move ‘in sync’.
• If an attack or ability kills a unit, buffs or debuffs will not be shown being added or removed. For example if a unit is hit with a Poison Jab but the damage from the Jab is enough to kill it, it will not get (and then lose) the poison status.
• Passives have been expanded and now include positional damage and item range benefits. More advanced stat bonus passives are available now that may lower one stat and raise another.
• Infamy has been added. Infamy is used as a value that depicts how likely enemy units are to target a unit. The higher the value, the more likely they will be targeted. Infamy shows up on the Unit UI bottom right corner.
• The Attack UI will now let you know if an attack you are about to make can be countered by using a ‘Counter’ icon.
• Job Ranks increase depending on how advanced a Job is. For Starter Jobs, the max rank is 3, but for more advanced Jobs the rank can be as high as 12. Each rank will require more JP to reach.
• When an  enemy unit is killed, it may leave behind a ‘Collectible’. These are bonus rewards that may include Guilders (currency), items, and even stat crystals.
• Stat Crystals are a possible drop from killed enemies. They come in a variety of colors corresponding to a specific base stat. Units will drop crystals based on their three highest stats. The unit who picks the crystal up will obtain a permanent stat increase (0.2-0.4 pts) to the stat of choice.
•  Repeatable Battles, or Training  Matches may have multiple ‘loadouts’. Basically the same map but with different unit groupings. Possibly special rare unit groups may appear.
• Materials have been added. A Crafting System is in the works for a later date, but for now materials can drop.  There are different categories and different types within categories. There is also a ‘Trash’ category which the player can sell for guilders.
• On the World Map, paths between nodes will appear or disappear in an animated fashion depending on the current scenario.
• Weather and Time Systems have been implemented. Currently weather is static and can be one of several types, each having it’s own elemental, accuracy, damage buffs/debuffs. Time, however, is dynamic and will move forward in increments after every turn (on non-story maps). Time also moves forward when moving on the world map.
• There are four (4) different ‘segments’ in a day. Dawn, Noon, Dusk, Night. Each one has different ambient lighting and if a transition occurs during battle, the player will see the change occur.
• Each of the time segments has different minor buffs/debuffs to things like accuracy and elemental affinity. There are also passives that give units bigger benefits during daytime.
• Noon and Night are longer than Dawn and Dusk currently.
• Moving parallax clouds have been added and will be generated based on how ‘cloudy’ it currently is.
• Recruit abilities have been added. These allow you to possibly recruit enemy units from battles. There are a lot of variables at play (HP %) and success rate will decrease with each failed attempt.
• A unit’s ‘bag’ is now visible in the Status UI during battle. It will show any items the unit currently has access to.
• The post battle ‘Spoils of War’ screen is now complete. It will list all gains by all units and will add bonus XP/JP if needed in an animated fashion.
• Attacks can now have more than 1 ‘hit’. This allows for combos and can break up abilities into multi-hit attacks.
• The battle camera now has a smarter zoom that centers action. If a zoom isn’t viable, there will be none and the camera will simply center on the action. Attacks on destructibles will never zoom in, but they will center.
• Many new visible status effects have been added. These alter unit colors or even the entire sprite. For example Petrify will turn the unit into a solid rock statue of itself.
• A ranged version of the Counter passive has been added. When equipped a unit will need to have a ranged weapon, and if a retaliatory attack is possible, one will be launched after the initial attack.
• Job Requirements will now show up on the Job Wheel.
• If a unit is slowed, or hasted, their idle animation will also be slowed or hasted. The actual speed will be determined AFTER the unit is checked for all speed related buffs and debuffs. So if a unit has negative and positive speed buffs/debuffs, whichever is larger will be what is visually represented.

Whew, that’s 6 months of development right there…more to come!!