Devlog #170 - A combat grid that hugs the ground

Before the update itself, a quick hello, since this is the first devlog I'm posting on Steam. I'm the solo developer behind Call of Saregnar, an old-school single-player RPG, and every so often I write up whatever corner of the game I've been buried in. These logs have been running on Patreon for a while, which is why this one's numbered 170 rather than 1. From here they'll go up on Steam too, so the page doesn't sit quiet between the bigger announcements. Right, on to the actual work.

The old combat grid was a flat rectangle laid over the scene. It worked, but it always looked like it was floating on top of the world instead of sitting in it. I've replaced it with a hexagonal grid built around a radius, and every cell now drapes over the real terrain and roads beneath it.

Where a slope is too steep to fight on, the cell marks itself unwalkable, and characters sit on the surface properly instead of hovering above it. The grid also knows what's between you and the action, so it fades behind a wall or a boulder while still drawing cleanly over grass and open ground.

It doesn't look like much written down, but you feel it the moment a character moves across uneven ground. A battlefield that knows the shape of the land under it is what the rest of combat is built on.

You'll find this log and the earlier ones over on Patreon. If the game's your kind of thing, a wishlist helps most, and a follow means these updates land in your Steam feed.

Rhu