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Friday, April 28, 2017

Wind Carrier, Pre-Alpah 1.56; Demo 1.0.6

Hello all!

We've got a new build this week, located at:

https://cloudsofglassgames.itch.io/wind-carrier

As it always has been thus far. :p

I'm going to be trying a new format this week, because I need to find the format that works the most efficiently. So, this post will have the changes from last week for those that follow along every week here, and I will simply add the change logs for this week and last to the description on the itch.io page. We'll see how I like that.

I had a rather busy week with things not at all related to Wind Carrier, thus the changelog for this week is a bit sparse. Mostly UI related things. But, anyway, to the changelog!


Change log, 1.56

-Added a new type of random encounter, which I have titled Eir encounters. Eir encounters (Environmental Influence Random Encounters) deal with the Wind Carrier influencing the world around them in ways that are less about murder. By deciding, consciously or otherwise, the fate of these encounters, the Wind Carrier directs the regional civilizations, and the world as a whole.


-Updated some descriptions.


-Updated and added some widget art.


-Played around with the coloration of the menu buttons.


-Dealt with some spelling errors.


-Dealt with some UI usability issues.


Player Updates:


-Fixed the "I", it should properly open and close the inventory regardless of which menu you are in


-The inventory now also pauses the game, which is something that I had been neglecting to fix for far too long. :/


-Added a key binding to "Backspace" and "Escape", closes the menu



Item Updates:


-Pellervoisen Lahja, Manaladen Lily of the Valley, and Mushy have been changed from potion class items to crafting component class items. All remain usable as they were.


-Added Simple Draught item. Drinking this bitter brew restores 35% of the drinker's mana. Craftable.


-Added Distilled Gift. Usage increases the eater's maximum health by 7.5% permanently. Craftable.


-Added the Honeycomb crafting ingredient. Drops from beehives or rarely from some opponents.


Card Updates:


-Added the card Crack:

-Tier 1

-Earth Type

-Mana Cost 45

-Deals damage slowly over 2 seconds then bursts dealing a larger chunk of damage

-30 damage/second, 90 damage total

-Available from the merchant


Bug Fixes:


-Fixed a bug where cards wouldn't show up when the "All" category was clicked in the inventory


-Manaladen Lily of the Valley should heal mana properly now.


Coming Up:

This next coming week, I've got some UI updates planned. Mostly in the inventory to increase readability and add a couple more features. I've a handful of Eir encounters rattling around in my head as well, so those will likely get added as soon as I can properly flesh them out.

I went to my screenshot folder to post them here, but I found out that I didn't take a single screenshot this week. I think this is a first. :p

Anywho, until next time,

-Lucas Cady
Project Director

Friday, April 21, 2017

Wind Carrier, Pre-Alpha 1.55

Hello all!

A bit of bad news, a new build will not be uploaded this week. I packaged it up, both 64 and 32 bit, and got it all ready, but then I found that a recent change to the way the menu UI works in causing problems after packaging; in short, you can open then inventory but not close it. :/
I'm not entirely sure that I'll keep posting builds each week either, I may switch to a bi-weekly schedule. We'll see, I suppose.

Oh, and since I failed to mention anything about it last week, Simplygon is not currently accepting new applicants, it seems. So, I will keep my eye out for that whenever they decide to start allowing new members again.

Anywho, the changelog is below.



Change log, 1.55


-Subduing enemies that have become stunned now cause a minor increase of influence within the enemies home civilization and a minor decrease of influence within any non-home civilization.

-Increased the stability of the follower class

-Added clay deposits for collecting clay


Player Updates:


-Added a key binding to "Tab", resets the z rotation of the camera to be behind the character


Item Updates:


-Stone Scythe

-Renamed to Primitive Scythe, for consistency

-Primitive Throwing Ax, Primitive Dagger, Primitive Spear, and Primitive Scythe can now all be crafted out of base materials.


-Added Simple Poultice

-Heals 35% of player health

-Craftable


Card Updates:

-Fixed a bug where the Vulpine Ritualist follower could cast Fennoc Fire multiple times at once


Enemy Updates:


Preliminary note: All of the creature data got reset because of an engine bug, I tried to recreate all of the statistics to the best of my ability, but I am only human, so if you notice any huge discrepancies, that would be why. 

Preliminary note, post script: Oddly enough, the Hummingbird Sprite enemy was unaffected...

-Lowered the health percentage for enemies falling into the stunned state


Bug Fixes:


-Fixed a bug with the pause button, where if you attempted to pause more than once during a single gameplay session, it wouldn't pause the third or higher times.


-Fixed the tool-tip text on the third skill, Refreshing Cloud


-Fixed a bug within the Crafting Screen, where when clicking the category buttons (Weapons, Armor, etc.) the list wouldn't properly populate and would end up empty.


-Fixed a bug where potions were not healing as much as they should have.


-Fixed a bug where, sometimes if you moved away from a resource without gathering it, you would be able to gather it the next time that you pressed "E"


Coming Up:

I've been thinking about expanding the breadth of the game quite a bit lately. It seems to me that a lot of the systems that have been added or tweaked as of late are running smoothly (excluding that damn tumble) and that increasing the diversity of the world should be my goal for a while. 
I've more than enough concept art to add three dozen creatures and I've planned out nearly a hundred cards, I just need to model and implement. 
Of course, bug fixes and working on the UI will also be important to the coming builds, as will likely be the case until the project is finished. 

But, onto the screenshots!


The aforementioned clay deposits. Just another material node.

The updates to the Haljuhurtta mesh. I realized after my wife told me that I never did post a screenshot of it. 

The new thatch texture that one of our team members made a while ago and I just thought to take a shot of. (Credits Luffie)

Some new card art; The Vulpine Ritualist. I figured since the card was almost unavoidable, it should have some art. :p

That's all I have for this week. It wasn't the best week, but damn am I tired. :p

Until next time,

-Lucas Cady
Project Director

Friday, April 14, 2017

Wind Carrier Pre-Alpha 1.54; Demo 1.0.5

Hello all!

As always, the newest build can be found here:

https://cloudsofglassgames.itch.io/wind-carrier

Got a few exciting things this week, more than I expected, honestly. :p
But, without further ado, the changelog!

Change log, 1.54

-Doubled the mana crystal drop rate

-Added elemental damage! For now only enemies have elemental weaknesses/strengths. The elemental system that I have chosen is simply: fire, water, earth, air, spirit.

-Updated all the enemies with the new loot system. I was going to write out exactly what everything could drop, but then I thought, hey, that's half the fun of it.

-Increased the legibility of most of the widgets in the game

-Added extra information to the hand widget, in addition to the image and tier of the card, it now displays:

-mana cost after MCM

-elemental type

-card type (spell, summon, transform)

-Dealt with some map tears, including a particularly horrendous one just west of Ardor

-We have crafting!

-Currently, there is a single NPC within your civ (who may or many not get in the way :p) who is able to craft gear for you. The only craftable gear as of now are things made from Haljuhurtta parts. The plan is that each civ will be able to craft you different types of gear, thus making your destruction decisions a bit more difficult. Fret not, however, your own crafter, who will be unlocked before age 2, will be able to learn all the crafting recipes, for an upgrade cost, of course.


Player Updates:

-Increased the experience to level a bit


Item Updates:

-Added Aenahiv Eye, an accessory which lowers both the Mana Cost Multiplier and the Melee Damage Multiplier, making your spells more frequent, but you melee less effective. (Craftable)

-Hurtta Claw, Hurtta Barb, Hurtta Flight, and Hurtta Fur Vest are all now craftable!

Card Updates:

-Decreased the cost of card evolution

-Updated every card to cause different types of damage, physical being a damage type as well. And in the interest of legibility and space, I will sort them thusly:

Fire

-Fennoc Breath

-Fennoc Fire

-Fennoc Meteor

-Fennoc Gout

-Metal Mist

-Metal Pool


Water

-Bastion of Ice

-Crown of Ice

-Frozen Standard

-Ice Nova

-Poison Rain

-Wall of Ice


Earth


Air

-Hurriscale

-Myrskyn Purema

-Scale Storm

-Scale Tornado

-Thunder Egg

Spirit

-Cloak of Scales

-Scale Dance

Physical

-Crystalline Barrage

-Crystalline Stream

-Crystalline Wave

-Rockdancer's Drop

Note: It seems that there are no earth spells in the game as of yet. I need to remedy that. :p

Note 2: All summons type cards and healing type cards are spirit type, unless otherwise noted (Faithful hound, Healing Well, etc.)


Enemy Updates:


-Finally got the damn bots to stop chasing after a certain distance, I think. :p

-Added the aforementioned resists and weaknesses to all the creatures in the game, but I'm not telling.

-Brindlebark

-Increased lumber drops from 6-8 to 6-10 with a chance that two pouches will pawn

-Haljuhurtta

-Updated the mesh

-Now drops creature parts

-Leonen Ironhead

-Decreased minion spawn from 1 - 4 to 0 - 2

-Lizard Spearman

-The Spearman's leap now will fail if the player is a certain distance away from them, wasting the cast and cooldown.


Bug Fixes:


-Fixed a bug where the Brindlebark would drop a null card when being captured.


-Fixed a rare bug where, if timed exactly perfectly, the player character would be killed by the stunned particle effect. >.>


-Fixed a bug where the Faithless Hound was dropping the same items as the Vulpine Ritualist


-Fixed a bug where, if you discarded with an empty deck, the deck's count would go below zero


-Fixed a bug where the deck would sometimes create null cards.


-Fixed a bug where, when the deck became empty, it wouldn't properly update the values in the deck widget


Coming Up:

Next week I'll be trying to add more ways to influence the surrounding civs; I've a few ideas, hopefully something will pan out and work. :p

I know I say it every week, but I'm still gonna try to increase the map size, it's not really the highest priority, I know, but I feel like the map is growing too small.

Anywho, I've got a few screenshots and then I'm done!

A quick mesh I whipped up for the Aenahiv Eye. Too small to see normally, so in the mesh editor! Yes, I know the texture for the stone doesn't match up. :p

From my current perspective, the widget is kinda small, but if you enlarge the picture, you can see the card info. The top icon indicates card type, the second card element, and the number near the bottom is the mana cost, post MCM. Not exciting, but informative.

And that's about all I've got for this week. I should probably also look into generating patches for the builds instead of making you all download the whole thing when you want to try the newest one. I've found out that UE4 can generate them, but I have yet to look deeply into it. :/

Anywho, until next time,


-Lucas Cady
Project Director


Friday, April 7, 2017

Wind Carrier Pre-Alpha 1.53, demo 1.0.4

Hello all!

The newest build can be found here:

https://cloudsofglassgames.itch.io/wind-carrier

This week, we've got an overhaul to the way that card usage works along with some other minor things. I played with LOD's and the like as well.

Currently, the game is packaged as a development build as opposed to a shipment because for some awful reason, the packaged shipping build isn't working. I am almost certain that it has to do with the landscapes and their lack of sufficient LOD's however and this next week, I'm going to be looking into Simplygon so I can generate some of those and, hopefully, make the game run smoother and more quickly over all.

Oh! And the draw distance on the map for the actual segments of the map has been lowered for this build as well, again, hopefully by next week, it'll be back to normal.

But, the changelog!


Change log, 1.53


-Changed the way that enemies spawn

-Changed every static bot to a spawner

-Adjusted the LOD's, shadows, and texture resolutions for the various grasses

-Updated the drop system with simpler, smoother logic and the ability for enemies to drop several things at once. Currently only implemented in the Vulpine Ritualist.


Player Updates:

-Changed the main melee/magic control scheme. Now melee and magic are both controlled with the mouse and simply switched between by pressing shift. Only two cards are available at any one time to cast now, though cards 3-6 in your deck are now visible. Clicking and holding the mouse buttons will summon the AoE as holding the 1-4 keys did before and releasing the button will actually cast the card.

-The deck no longer auto-shuffles. It is shuffled by holding the left control key and pressing E (L.Cntrl + E.) While shuffling, the player can no longer attack or cast, but their armor is increased. The armor boost and the shuffle last 1.5 seconds. The deck can be shuffled no matter how many cards are in it. The deck can be shuffled both in melee mode and casting mode.

-Cards can be discarded without having to cast them by holding the left control key and clicking with the slot (L.Cntrl + left mouse or right mouse.) Cards can be discarded while in both melee mode and casting mode. The card is discarded when you release the mouse button, not as you click it.

-Decreased mana regen rate increase from level from 1 to .5 per level

-Added a widget to more visibly show that the deck is empty.

-Added a widget to inform that the deck is being shuffled.



Enemy Updates:

-Vulpine Shaman

-Increased the frequency with which they can cast Fennoc Breath

-Decreased the summoning time of minions from 1.5 to 1 sec

-Increased the max number of summons from 7 to 9

-Increased max health from 650 to 850

-Increased basic attack damage from 65 to 70

-Decreased basic attack time from 1 to .75 secs

-Increased Mana Crystal drop from 40-50 to 65-85

-Increased drop chance for Dragon Bone Armor from 12.5% to 20%


Bug Fixes:

-fixed a bug where, when using cards, the card one higher in the deck would be used, instead of the intended card

-fixed a bug where the ally indicator would not follow the ally


Coming Up:

As mentioned above, next week I'm going to be working with Simplygon to at least get the landscapes proper LOD's. Other than that I will probably work on getting the crafting system implemented as the new loot system will make that simpler as well. I'll likely get the loot system added to all the other creatures as well.
I'm not sure that I've mentioned it, but I was intending a crafting system akin to the Monster Hunter series, though much less grindy. I love a good grind, but that's not what this game is about, after all. Just a bit of an aside, something else to give you to do.
And for those that don't want to deal with that, the equipment will be available elsewhere, it will just either require large amounts of mana crystals or possibly influencing a civilization a certain way.

But, screen shots!

As I have circled, because I felt like it this time, that is the combo widget, changed to reflect that casting mode is currently active. Casting and Melee modes can be switched between at will by simply pressing shift.

The new hand widget, and a Ritualist follower, I guess. :p
The hand now shows the top two cards perfectly, but gives you an idea of what the underlying cards are. As you can see, there are now 6 visible cards as opposed to 4. My reasoning being that even though you cannot use them, you can plan ahead and think of your strategy ahead of time.

And the simple shuffling widget. It tells you it's shuffling, it's a bar that moves from the left to the right, it has an ellipsis. It's a grand ol' widget. :p

And that's all I got for now. I personally believe that the new combat works infinitely better than the older. It makes me feel like I really am in control of where I am tossing my cards as opposed to having to awkwardly fight with the camera and the number keys. But, that could just be me. :p

Anywho, until next time.

-Lucas Cady
Project Director




Sunday, April 2, 2017

Wind Carrier; Demo 1.0.3

Hello all.

I am tired and sweaty (well not really sweaty, but you can imagine that I am), but I managed to figure it out. It seems that I have been front-loading the game too much with stuff that it needs to do. I am well on my way to figuring this out and getting it to run more smoothly. But, I do have a stable build up and ready. The only things that are missing are the respawns and I had to turn the grass down a little. >.>

But, it can be found here:

https://cloudsofglassgames.itch.io/wind-carrier


IMPORTANT NOTE!
For this build, I managed to get it to compress enough that it is in only one piece. Please let me know if there are any problems with it.

Below, I am including the full changelog from 1.0.2 to 1.0.3. It is the same information that has been on here, but I am including it for simplicity's sake for those visiting from itch.io.



Change log, 1.0.3

-Worked on map tears and removed the awful 'hills' mesh

-Added a small particle to differentiate allies from enemies

-Added a randomly spawning merchant to the player's home, there is a 25% chance the first day without seeing him, a 33% chance the second, 50% chance the third, and 100% chance the fourth day. He carries random wares, which I reserve the right to change around at any given time. :p

-Added similar random merchant spawns to each major city: Ardor, Käykäl'niis, and Kerankohora.

-Updated the shop-keep's possible inventory

-reduced the size of the warning mark by about 10%

-fixed the issue of some floating trees :p

-added a warning icon for ice based attacks and abilities that do not do direct damage

-changed the screen congestion from health bars a bit by changing the size and color

-reduced the day speed by 90% because I just now realized that it was way so fast because I was testing something :/

-increased the visibility at night



Player Updates:

-Updated the spear heavy combo

-Updated the animations

-Delays increased from .35 to 1 and .35 to 1.2 respectively for combo levels 1 and 2

-Increased damage from 135% to 150% and 135% to 155% respectively

-Updated the throwing ax combo

-Added a level 1 heavy attack, a simple melee attack 100% damage

-Added a Statistics screen to the Character tab in the menu

-Leveling up increases Melee Damage Multiplier and Health Regen by .005

-Leveling up decreases Mana Cost Multiplier by .005

-Leveling up increases Mana Regen by 1

Note: Melee Damage Multiplier (MDM) and Mana Cost Multiplier (MCM). These stats have been in the game for a while now, and I figured I may want to shine some light on them. Most if not all were unaware of their existence, but they will likely play larger roles in game play decisions as time goes by. MDM multiplies all damage that you do with melee by itself. Its default value is 1, meaning it does nothing. :p But, with these leveling changes, by level 10 it will be 1.05, meaning all melee damage that your character does is increased by 5%. There is only one piece of equipment thusfar that increases it, the Marauder's Cross, but it will be something that you can stat for in the future.
Similarly, MCM decreases the mana costs of all spells you cast. It also begins its life at 1, but instead of increasing, it decreases; spells costing 95% what they originally did at level 10.
I will likely fiddle with the level gains for these a hundred times before I am satisfied


Item Updates:

-Desiccated Healing Sapling

-Increased the experience for consuming from 1 to 2

-Mushroom

-The mushrooms dropped by Vulpine Ritualists and others can now be picked up by simply touching them.


Card Updates:

-Vulpine Poisondrinker

-Increased basic attack time from 1 to 2 secs

-Increased basic attack damage from 15 to 25


Enemy Updates:

-Increased general AI stability

-Vulpine Ritualist

-Added an AoE before Fennoc Fire is cast

-Increased movement speed from 200 to 350

-Vulpine Trickster

-Increased the attack time for its basic attack from 1.5 to 3.5 secs

-Increased the damage from 30 to 60

-Increased the damage of their burning status effect from 3.5 per tick to 4 per tick

-Increased the delay after teleporting from .5 secs to 1.5 secs (what was I thinking?)

-fixed a bug where it would sometimes teleport above the player

-cleaned up the code a bit

-Faithless Hound

-Increased base damage from 25  to 40

-Fixed the, frankly, embarrassing bug that kept it from doing damage

-Fixed its attack animation

-Brindlebark

-Added a warning before the spawning of a new Sapling

-Healing Sapling

-Decreased the experience from 1 to 0

-Increased the mana drop from 1-1 to 2-3

-Added a particle effect as it does damage

-Increased delay between damage from tick to 3 seconds

-Increased damage from .15 damage to 3 damage or from 1.5 to 15

-Increased healing from .075 to 1.5 or from .75 to 7.5

-Added an AoE warning and warning sign before attack

-Increased the life from 10 secs to 15 secs

-Added a 10% chance that once killed they will drop the desiccated healing sapling

-Healing Sapling can now leach from allies as well


Note: Philosophy; I wanted to make the Brindlebark fight a bit more engaging as how it stood, it was either you lose because it just heals away everything or you just tank through it and are victorious. With the changes to the saplings themselves, there is now counter-play to be had, since avoiding the attack will avoid the damage and the regen for the Brindlebark.



-Vulpine Shaman

-Added a warning before minion summoning

-Increased summoning time from 1 to 2.5 secs

-Increased the range for which the shaman will cast thunder egg

-Increased delay for basic attack from 1.5 to 2 secs

-Increased damage from 40 to 65

-Increased the casting delay for both thunder egg and fennoc breath from 1 to 2 secs

-Increased the damage of its thunder egg from 40 to 70

-Crystalline Golem

-Increased basic attack time from 1.5 to 3.5 secs

-Increased base damage from 35 to 90

-Increased Crystalline Barrage cast time from 3.5 to 5 secs

-Increased Crystalline Barrage damage from 10 to 20 per shard, or 50 to 100 for the full attack

-Increased Health from 500 to 650

-Decreased armor from 25 to 20

-Increased mana drop from 20-35 to 40-75

-Increased experience gain from 8 to 12

-Leonen Ironhead

-Increased basic attack time from 1 to 2.5 secs

-Increased basic damage from 45 to 125

-Decreased casting time of Shimmering Bubble from 3 to 2

-Decreased damage of Shimmering Bubble from 25 to 0

-Increased casting time of both Metal Pool and Metal Mist from 0.0 to 1.75 secs

-Increased damage of Metal Mist from 3/tick to 5/tick or 112 to 187 at max

-Increased damage of Metal Pool from .6 to .7 on the first tick or from 12 to 14 on the last tick

-Added an entourage of IronPaws

-Lizard Spearman

-Increased basic attack time from 1 to 2 secs

-Increased basic attack damage from 15 to 35

-Decreased armor from 35 to 15

-Decreased health from 250 to 200

-Increased experience from 4 to 5

-Nameless Snake Enemy

-Increased basic attack time from 1 to 3 secs

-Increased basic attack damage from 50 to 75

-Increased casting time for Scale Storm from 1 to 2 secs

-Increased duration of Scale Storm from 10 to 15 secs

-Can now only cast Scale Storm once

A New Challenger Approaches!

-Leonen IronPaw

The Leonen IronPaw is a foot soldier to the Ironhead's sergeant, they bare their grafted iron upon one of their hands, slowing their movement to an almost crawl. They attack at the same beleaguered speed, allowing gravity to deal most of the damage that they do. They serve as more of a challenge than the Vulpine Ritualists, but much less than some of the stronger fighters. Almost all beasts trump them in ferocity and power.

A New Challenger Approaches!

-Lizard Treefeller

The Treefeller's primary function is, in fact, felling trees, but as sometimes happens, they are occasionally expected to fight. They fight with a combination of melee, using their woodsmen's axes, and thrown weapons. Through all their hard labor supplying wood to Käykäl'niis they have grown strong, providing a significantly higher challenge than the lowly Ritualist or IronPaw, rivaling the Vulpine Shaman or Leonen Ironhead in strength.



Bug Fixes:

-Fixed a bug where, sometimes, the description box for items from a merchant wouldn't properly populate with information

-Fixed a bug where, if a follower was summoned on uneven ground, their rotation would match that of the ground