To Start
First, the basics, which will let us actually see what’s going on at all in the new art style.- Travel map - we have the world map, but sites need hundreds of sprites to match up with the ASCII that shows individual streets etc. We’ll be iterating on this until launch.
- Main interface layout - similar to Fortress Mode, there are tile-based actions, information menus, and other actions like travel. There’s also a day-night cycle and we’ll have a minimap this time around.
- Procedural portraits - we need to implement Carolyn’s great portraits for the humans/elves/dwarves/goblins/kobolds, and also get animal people displayed. Every animal person!
Once we have this framework, we’ll just start doing the actions and menus one at a time. Full keyboard and full mouse support for all play styles. Actions are challenging because they can be initiated by clicking the play area, through buttons and hot keys, or by accessing a full list. There must be several ways to perform the same action based on context, play style, and input method. Can you guess what the buttons below do?
Major Features
These are the biggest-risk items, each of which hopefully isn’t more than a few weeks, but it’s hard to say since they each have multiple sub-systems and open design questions to be solved between code and art.- Inventory - equipping items and containers are the trickiest parts here. You can wear multiple shirts and nest containers as deep as you like, and the new interface will have to handle this with both keyboard and mouse support.
- Combat (striking and wrestling) - wrestling will be a bit of a doozy, as there’s a lot of physical/anatomical complexity that we’re not sure how best to communicate
- Conversations - this includes supporting the current Adventure Mode system of interleaving speech and actions, and having three or more participants in conversations
- Character generator - you can make a whole party in Adventure Mode and the character creation options are complex. We have to update this system.
More!
These are individually much less complicated and risky than the above, but still have lots of little fiddly bits to keep us busy.- Status screens - wounds, skills, needs etc. There is a lot of information about every character, similar to the dwarf sheets in Fortress Mode.
- Journal screen (quests and knowledge) - we may integrate this with Legends Mode because they are very similar.
- Crafting and other powers - Adventure Mode is highly moddable and we need to support vast menus of magical powers and other abilities. Pet any animal!
- Various small menus/actions (“widgets”) - stealth, movement, tracking, odors, party controls, combat options, etc.
- Audio integration - the audio designers are working in parallel with us and we’ll be adding a whole new soundscape for Adventure Mode
