Dev Blog #7 - Combat Continued

Devblog #7 – Combat Continued

Hello adventurers and welcome to our seventh Devblog!

The year is flying by and we’re continuing to work on the next big update for the Playtest that is currently available.

As always, we’d love any feedback you have on the playtest. And keep an eye out on Itch.io for the update – we’re just ironing out a few bugs and quality of life features (hooray, we now have a Main Menu, with art from the great Raden Saleh!).

This week, I’m going to continue talking about Combat – particularly the field of battle, the types of combat, and injuries.

Field of Battle

The field of battle (as with the rest of the game) is procedurally generated, so each encounter is different.

Each terrain type will also have a different field of battle, with different starting positions (and tactics) so that you have to make interesting decisions about where your party members start and who they target.

For example, the screenshot above shows a jungle battle, where your characters are dispersed and the enemies starting near your starting positions.

Ships, when undertaking a boarding action (or when you are being boarded) will also have their own fields of battle too!

Types of Combat

There are two main types of combat – combat encounters that your party was expecting or initiated, versus. ambushes.

An Ambush occurs when your party wasn’t expecting combat, for example if you went to rescue a traveller but were ambushed by pirates.

Ambushes are dangerous – they are often harder encounters, and you have limited options for the starting positions for your party members. Your party will also be scattered across the field of battle, making it easy to pick off each party member individually.

Injuries

Distant Isles is very much a traditional roguelike, and as such your party members can permanently die.

However, when a party member’s health reaches zero in combat, they won’t die straight away – they will incur an injury.

5 HP will be restored, and the party member will gain an injury. If that party member gains another injury (e.g. through combat or some other means), they will then permanently die.

Injuries can be healed (and you should aim to do so whenever possible to protect your valuable party members!)

Wrap Up

That’s it for this month! Big thanks if you’ve read this and are interested in Distant Isles. Hang in there, enjoy some games, and before you know it hopefully we’ll have Distant Isles in your hands.

Just a reminder to Wishlist and Follow on Steam if you want to see more, and to join our small Discord community!

Huzzah!

Elliot