Combat System 2.0 is Go (well, sorta)

In bullet point form, here’s the new stuff:

  • Monsters and PCs are now basically the same thing, just being controlled by different AI code.  This dramatically simplified moving things over to the new combat system.  NPCs (shopkeepers, quest-givers, etc) will eventually also be controlled by this same system, but aren’t yet;  right now, they’re still being treated as buildings.
  • Customisable attributes (“health”, “mana”, etc) are in place and working.  Right now, everything in the game gets the same set of attributes, but different types of character can have different maximums.  Editing facilities haven’t yet been implemented, apart from via manually editing a save file.
  • Customisable combat abilities (“Attack”, “Heal”, “Suck blood”, etc) are in place and working.  As above, editing facilities haven’t yet been implemented, apart from via manually editing a save file.

Stuff that’s not yet written:

  • Editing GUI for attributes/abilities.
  • AI for intelligently selecting abilities.

So right now, the combat system only works for a human player;  there’s no AI code written yet to trigger attacks.  This makes my test combats a little bit one-sided, since monsters will run up to me and then sit there, not actually attacking while I pummel them senseless.  But that situation won’t last too long;  the AI will come right after the editing GUI.

In other news, work is going to be a bit busy this coming week, so development on MT2 is likely to be a bit slow for the next little while.  Hopefully not for too long.  Crossing fingers!  :)