Alpha 1.0.3 brings new NPC character models and animations, a new player ability, new spell interrupt system, and NPC spellcasting.
NPC Spells
I’ve added a framework for spells to be incorporated into NPC attack rotations. For now, only the Skeleton Mage will attempt to cast spells, and the only spell in their arsenal is the Fireball. NPCs will also be assigned a class, which along with level, will eventually help determine the spell rotation available to both enemy and friendly units. Currently, NPCs will have a chance to cast offensive spells every 8 seconds.
Kick Ability
The Kick ability was added to the ability menu and comes with a new attack animation. Kick is a melee normal damage attack that requires a single target within 1.5m. The player must also be facing the target to successfully execute a Kick. This ability costs 0 mana and has a 10 second cooldown. Just like normal combat damage, Kick’s damage can be mitigated by armor, dodged, or the Kick can miss. The base damage of this ability is 5, and a Kick dealing 1 or more damage will interrupt spellcasting.
Spell Interrupt
Previously, any successful attack on the player would interrupt casting. This is no longer the case, and both players and NPCs can withstand normal attacks and continue casting. A successful normal attack against a caster will have a 25% chance to interrupt spellcasting if the caster and damage dealer are the same level. For every level the caster is above the damage dealer, there will be 4% less chance to interrupt casting with normal attacks. Likewise, for every level the damage dealer is above the caster, there will be a 4% increased chance to interrupt spells with normals attacks. The intelligence of the caster also factors into this chance, as every 1 point of Intelligence will add 0.1% chance to continue casting through normal damage. Certain other types of damage and effects, like stuns, sleep, kick, and shield bash, will always interrupt a spellcast.
Art and Animation
The Skeleton Mage has been added to the pool of possible enemy characters that spawn each round. The skeleton is a new character model with new animations. This enemy is a BattleMage which wields a sword and can cast fireballs at a single target.
UI Updates
An active effects panel has been to added for the player, friendly characters, and enemy units. This will contain icons for active effects like buffs and debuffs, and these icons will appear under the respective player/NPC portrait. When an effect ends, the icon will disappear.
Sound
Gameplay sound effects have all been converted to 3d spatial sound with a logarithmic rolloff starting at 1 meter. This is especially noticeable in the new NPC spells and gives the player some valuable, directional awareness.
Bug/Fix
- Changed the floating text color for healing effects to green
- Fixed a UI issue with the character equipment panel preventing usage of the primary and secondary slots
- Fixed a UI issue where the spell and item icons were being scaled below the size of the slot
- Modified UI layering so toggled elements will appear in front of static UI elements
- Smoothed out animation transitions between autoattacks and instant spells
- Player can no longer autoattack while casting spells
- Death will now trigger an interrupt of any spells being casted
- Heals and spell damage on dead targets will now be ignored
- Spells will now properly collide and explode on dead targets
- Fixed a bug that froze player animations after casting on a dead target
- Fixed a kinematic character object issue with corpses projecting physics forces