Development Log #072

Anatomy of the Battlefield Map – February 21st 2023

There’s much more to maps than meets the eyes and they are are more than just tiles.

Props allow objects that exceed the basic tile width/height, they can be destructible or not.
Decor adds additional terrain to any tile, in this case: grass.

The newly added feature, decor, adds a lot more detail to the map. For example grass will burn away if fire touches the tile, changing the terrain.

In this post I’ll break down the basic tile and how props and decor can modify how a unit navigates it.

Let us take a dirt tile as a base as seen above. This has fixed terrain properties as well as elemental affinities that are defined, in this case, as ‘dirt’.

Below we see the dirt tile with grass ‘decor’. It’s more than just a fancy detail, it alters the base terrain property, possibly changing it’s elemental affinity.

The train tracks, the skull, the tools on the ground are all decor and can usually be removed in some way or another. These are usually props. Props go on tiles, but they can also go on tiles that have decor, depending on the decor type. That’s a lot of variety and it’s more than just superficial!

Also, not all props are destructible, but the ones that are have their own set of elemental affinities when damaging them. For example the crate is actually weak to Pyra Elemental attacks. As complex as this all may seem, it’s mostly intuitive but will also have references in-game. It’s also already incorporated into the engine (AKA it’s done!).

Just a note, all of the above is still subject to change. The actual damage mod/accuracy mod are a bit different.

Note: Remember, some of the images and gameplay depicted here may be outdated and does not represent the current state of the game!