Hello everyone!

I hope everyone is doing well and had a great holiday(s)!

Because of the holidays, I was able to get more work and more bug fixes done on Breath of Fire Awakening. I spent about 10 hours a day, on my days off, working on the project. While most of it was data entry or back-end stuff, it was upgrades/fixes that drastically needed to be done.  Once the bugs were squashed and new systems were working, I started giving them a facelift to match the new choices. I wish I had more to show, but as I said most of the things fixed were back-end things like balancing, bug fixes, system updates, the strategy guide, etc.

The first thing I did was update the title screen and starting menus of the game to look better for the new options available for players at pre-game setup. With the new difficulty system and balance changes, the new menu allows you to choose between 4 difficulties and a different mode. The difficulties don’t just make monsters stronger because of high numbers, but instead changes their tactics, abilities, and varies their groups up. I’m still working on the remaining menus but should have a similar look/feel as you set up your game. Some of the choices you will have will be selecting UI sounds from BOF 2, 3, and 4, better auto-saving and encounter options. The Light and Dragon System is currently being reworked from 4.1.

With the new Loot System overhaul, crafting stations are now added to the game and menus updated. Going to a forge brings up the Crafting Station menu and selecting a category brings you into the crafting menu. In 4.1b you collected gems, Crests, Runewords, etc. randomly from monster drops and/or chests. Very RNG and made the game more grindy as getting specific socketed items you wanted was difficult.  In the new system, monsters now drop “Unprocessed Materials.” You can also select the 5^th option on any treasure chest to get more “Unprocessed Materials,” as well as harvest them in the world by exploration. “Unprocessed Materials” are gem fragments, raw meat, raw fish, etc. You will use a Tool Kit that will automatically break down every ‘Unprocessed Material’ in your inventory into a “Processed Material”, then going to the Crafting Station you can choose which gem, food, Crest, Runeword, etc. you want to craft.  It should be a fast 3-step process: Acquire “Unprocessed Materials,” Use Tool Kit to instantly “Process Materials”, Craft the item you want.” The idea is the game making you grind less but give you more customization for each character.

I have been going back over my models in blender and touching them up. In example: Fireplaces now have a chimney on their top instead of a smooth/flat surface. Most of the changes aren’t drastic but should make the game more visually appealing. I’m currently working on the bushes/cliffs/trees for Gateshead to make the mountainside look better. I am not happy with how blocky and empty it feels.

I’ve been playing around with Isometric view and am really loving the way it looks as I keep getting feedback about Isometric. During stress tests it runs better than a more traditional view. I still plan on allowing both views but will add some additional features to make playing in Isometric easier.  Also, I tried a plugin to make 8 directional movements of 4 directional sprites and it was a bust (they were really bad). I lack the skill to do so, so unfortunately the Isometric view can look off with the movement. If anyone would like to offer their artistic ability to make the diagonal sprites, it would be a good addition but not necessary.

There are also some areas where the isometric view conflicts with the way I designed the map. I.E: The arena. I might use forced views in certain areas for storytelling effects as trying to accommodate each perspective doesn’t always work. I posted different viewpoints with different camera angles (analog sticks), and comparisons.

It feels like I have been working non-stop and don’t have a lot to show for it. I’m still working on the project and strategy guide hand-in-hand as I go. These last few weeks has been nothing but bug fixes, tweaks, back-end modifications, and updates ; however, there are still so many things I need to fix and update before releasing the demo for 5.0.

I appreciate you all and all your support!

~Knightmarish Gamess

Pictures on reddit if interested: https://www.reddit.com/r/breathoffire/comments/1hrd32p/breath_of_fire_awakening_...