Hey, hey people. A new dev log will be arriving this week. But before that arrives, I'd like to give you a quick update on what's been cooking this past month.
[0.0.8-A] - Character Creator Tweaks
First and foremost, we have an update to Arkavite. The games UI has been overhauled to support keyboard and gamepad inputs. Please note, the game does not currently support button remapping. This will be added at some point in the future.
The next key change has to do with choice colouring. I have updated the choice visuals on highlight, select, and disable to make selected choices stand out more from those which have not been selected. A number of the game's UI animations have also been tweaked as a part of the controller/keyboard input update. This should make it easy to tell which buttons you are currently hovering over. Arkavite - Character Creator
Sandbox Development Progress
Next up, we have a lot of progress to report on sandbox development. As a quick disclaimer, please note the sandbox environment is not yet accessible in game as it is very much under development. In the coming dev log, I will be detailing what needs to be developed before it's ready for testing.
Anyhoo, without further ado, the sandbox. I have developed a prototype environment in which to test the core game mechanics. In order to make the map function as intended, I've developed systems to manage player movement, entity collision and sprite sorting. This should allow us to create maps with all sorts of configurations and varying elevation levels.
I've set up the core game clock, which not only manages the timing of events, but also the world's day and night cycle. Arkavite being a world of its own, has its very own calendar cycle. 426 days, 13 months. The first 12 of which having 35 days, leaving only 6 for the last month. But every 7 cycles there comes a leap, bringing the 13th month from 6 days to 7. In an attempt to not go too far off the deep end, I think I will be keeping the day length at a familiar 24 hours. Night Time I've set up our small test world to cycle through day and night, which should allow me to get a feel for how certain dynamics could shift at different times of the day. I've also built a little night light for the player which comes on as the sun sets, and interacts with the environment to cast shadows for added ambiance.
We now have a functional player HUD. It displays your hearts (HP) and your arka (MP). The UI animates between values when you lose or gain HP and MP. I've built in a fun initialization sequence for this bit of UI (see the videos below). I think it will be fun to see your progression each time you load up into the world. In addition to what's currently appearing on the player HUD, I will probably add status affect icons to convey various status affects. I don't think I'll be tacking on more than this, as I wouldn't want the HUD to become cluttered. The clock may work as an optional HUD element you can toggle on and off, but l'll leave that for another day.
I have developed an inventory and item framework. You can access your inventory, view your items, filter by item type, see how an item will influence a number of your core stats, and most importantly - use the item. Project Arkavite - Inventory (Note, the 8 blank slots are equipped clothes currently lacking inventory textures. In future, I may adjust the frame appearance of equips to denote their equipped status.) On the topic of stats, as you may have noticed, there are a number of bars above the item description window. From top to bottom, these bars are visual indicators for your following stats:
Hunger: This can be thought of as the fullness of your belly. Eating food fills you up and may in future grant a general wellness buff. I have yet to decide whether the player should be stopped from overeating, or if I should add a chance for puking and or exploding if you keep eating without remorse. I think the latter would be rather funny, and could potentially be weaponized if I were to add caustic blood or some other silly sim focused mechanics.
Hydration: Hydrobro has got you covered. Hydration is how hydrated you are. Staying hydrated will boost AP generation, and being dehydrated will tank it. Running out of hydration for a couple of days won't kill you immediately, but you will get a progressively worse and worse debuffs until you do kick the bucket.
Energy: The energy meter shows off the amount of kcal you're currently processing. You receive energy from food, and some potions. Energy is transformed into ap as foods are digested. If you run out of energy you won't die, but you will start converting fat into energy and that energy into AP, and if you run out of fat, you will die. On the other hand, if you have an over-abundance of energy, some of that will be converted into fat.
Lewd Points (LP): This is the fabled horni meter. The most important stat when it comes to performing lewd actions and telling just how lusty you're getting.
Action Points (AP): The points you need to take action! Running around, swinging a blade, passively restoring mp and hp. These all consume AP. As previously noted, AP can be restored by gaining energy, and in addition to this, by resting.
That's it for the core survival stats. As I don't want the player to have to constantly micromanage food and drink, I will be adding rations and waterskins which can be set to auto-consume. That way, this particular aspect of survival can be restrained until you run out of your main supplies, and are then put in the tough position of deciding what strange things you must dine on in order to survive.
Taking a step back, above the stats bars we have our equip slots and the actor preview window. The equip slots light up in the colour of the currently slotted equipment's grade. Hovering on a slot will bring up the currently slotted item. I will be adding onto this system by making it so that clicking on a slot will bring you to the slotted items' location in your inventory.
To Conclude... And to wrap up ongoing developments, I am currently working on a custom scripting framework for Arkavite, which will handle complex items, TFs, events, and console commands. This will interface well with the dialogue system and, in the long run, make the game a lot more moddable. My brain trembles as it's quite the undertaking, but I see it as worth it over hard-coding all the TFs, events and complex items, as there may be hundreds if not thousands down the line. If I build a good framework in the now, it will be a lot faster to work with and a lot more maintainable in the long run.
The upcoming dev log will touch on much of what I've discussed here, as well as my plans for the Sandbox going forward, and the other core features I will be developing. Thank you all so much for following and supporting the development of Project Arkavite! Be sure to let me know if you have any comments or questions~
ADDED: Controller & Keyboard support for all menu systems
FIXED: Character Creation - Issue where choices without stats would not display their requirements
CHANGED: Controls Page - Now displays Keyboard and Gamepad controls.
CHANGED: UI SFX - A number of UI SFX have been updated to make the composition feel more consistent.
CHANGED: UI Animation - Small changes here and there to some of the UI animations (highlighted & selected buttons etc.). This was done to accompany the new controller/keyboard support.
CHANGED: Character Creation - [Breeding Season] can now be taken with Futanari
CHANGED: Character Creation - Choice colouring for added clarity. It should now be easier to differentiate selected choices from choices which are not selected, and choices which are not selectable (because they are disabled).
Legs - Mechanical On Taking [Automotive Prosthesis]
Legs - Fur On taking [Kitsukana]
Added a bunch of additional hair colours, eye colours, & skin colours.
Choice "Auto-Gain" has now been added. When selecting a choice that causes you to gain an additional choice, the additional choice will be added to your list of selected choices automatically. Choices gained in this way will be listed as "FREE" on their cost display.
Choice "Requirements & Compatibility handling" has now been added. It will no longer be possible to select choices whose requirements you don't meet. If you stop meeting the requirements of a choice you previously selected, it will automatically be deselected.
Added "On Click" operations for the following choices:
Chaotically Kawaii
Seductively Skimpy
Birthday Suit
Manletus Maximus
Curse Of A Thousand Maidens
Added a "Run In Background" setting under gameplay. Enable this, if you wish for the game to keep running when you click off of the application.
Key Changes
Upgraded the Project Arkavite logo. Is it pretty?
Improved the "selected choice" highlighting across all sections, and changed the point display colours.
Updated the character description window to include footwear, bodysuits, neckwear, cloaks and arm wear in its descriptions.
Updated the Male & Female Dungeon Raider outfit sets.
The window which displays your list of selected choices has been updated. Choices in this list will display their cost. On selecting choices from this list, the system will now scroll directly to the location of the choice.
Optimizations here and there.
Key Fixes
Fixed the issue where some users would find themselves trapped upon entering the Settings Menu, after retuning from the Character Creator.
Fixed issues with some hairstyles not setting the player hair length
Dropdown choices will now highlight on selection of at least one of their elements
What's Next? This will probably be the last major Character Creation update for now, as all the core mechanics are now in place. Subsequent updates will focus on the addition of choices and choice art, while I move ahead with Sandbox development. A new devlog surmising the current state of affairs, as well as Sandbox development plans, will be arriving in the coming weeks.
Be sure to let me know your thoughts or if you have any comments or questions!
Character Creator The name input fields have been improved to make it more obvious they are intractable. Some users had reported they didn't realize you could edit the player name, so I have changed the input fields to display a caret on click. The input fields label will also re-colour on click for added clarity. A small issue in the character description window wherein the player's race would be displayed twice has now been fixed. This was caused by the player sex description not generating correctly.
Main Menu Buttons on the main menu have been updated to be more responsive. You no longer need to wait for the completion of a transition animation before the buttons become clickable. The settings menu has also seen some improvements. The menu should now more be responsive when closing (from the ESC menu & Main Menu). I've decreased animation timing so all around the transition should appear more fluid. I've also fixed the broken Target FPS setting. It is now possible to set your target FPS, and whatever value you select will be saved. If you played Project Arkavite v0.0.4-A or earlier, you may wish to now update this setting, as it is likely the game has defaulted to 60fps. The credits page has been updated.
Load Screen A minor issue with the load screen not blocking button presses during scene transition has now been fixed.
Ability to support your Creator by contributing – one-time or recurring.
Means to reaching out to the Creator directly via Instant Messenger.
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