New Character for Monster Ran- .... er, Penumbra Crystallis!

 While chatting on Discord about monster capturing games (Digimon, Monster Rancher, Pokemon), inspiration randomly struck. I at first joked that I should add a monster training mini-game to Penumbra Crystallis and market it as a major feature to suck in the Pokemon fanatics, but then the joke evolved into something that I seriously want to do. Penumbra Crystallis players will be able to...

RAISE AND TRAIN A SLIME.

After acquiring the ship about 7-8 hours into the game, players will be able to visit an island where a slime rancher resides. This slime rancher will give the player the ability to raise and train a pet slime that will be able to join and fight with party.

The slime will start off at level 1 and will be extremely fragile and weak, but raising its level and feeding it snacks at the slime ranch will allow players to raise its stats and teach it new abilities. When the slime reaches certain level thresholds, it will even be able to transform into stronger versions of itself that are elemental based. This will also grant it new abilities and ultimately decide what kind of learnable abilities, resistances, and traits it will acquire going forward.

Slimes will level up like all other characters, but levels will not increase any stats other than hit points. Instead, the level of your slime will just determine how much you are able to raise its stats by (ie. at level 1, stats may not be able to exceed 10-15, while that may be 15-20 at level 2 and so on).

After acquiring a slime, the slime rancher will gift the player with a basket to store the slime's food in. Slime food (what the food is going to be, I'm going to keep a secret for now, but it should be weirdly cute) will appear EVERYWHERE in the world after acquiring the slime and the food basket. All the player needs to do is find food in the wild (or in castles/towns) and interact with it. The player will then acquire +1 slime food, which will be determined via variable (so that the number can go as high as you desire, no limit on carry capacity), and this food can then be used at the slime ranch to improve the slime's stats and traits.

Going to start working on this today because I'm genuinely excited about the idea. I'll probably share screenshots of how this is going throughout the week!

ALSO.... the radio silence with the game's development since November (maybe end of October?) was due to me being unhappy with how a plot point was unfolding in the game, and I was having severe writer's block when trying to write something new to replace the plot point. I honestly wasn't pulling a George R. R. Martin and just "not working on it". I'm starting to piece something together, so I will probably start making some solid progress again soon.

Vahn's Journal

 Just a minor update.

I will be adding an item to the game called Vahn's Journal that he will start the game with. A prompt will pop up during the intro to notify the player that they carry it.

Players can access Vahn's Journal from their key items menu at any time to read where they are in the story and what their current objective is.

Auction Hall Test

 The Auction Hall, located in the Grandiose Amphitheatre, is where players can go to bid on a variety of items! Just got this up and running, and so far only a few restoratives can be won, but it's a good start.

"Arrow" and "Mimicry" Commands

Kassandra is a bit different from other characters in Penumbra Crystallis so far. Vahn, Hans, Vera, and Oalston all have single unique commands, Kassandra has two - Arrow and Mimicry.

The Arrow Command

Arrow abilities are learned via leveling up and allow Kassandra to do more interesting things with her arrows such as dip them in potions to allow them to heal or reverse engineer remedies to imbue her arrow shots with status conditions. Arrow abilities mostly consume items in order to use them (predominantly twigs - a special item that Kassandra will need for several arrow abilities and can be purchased from item shops). Here are a few Arrow abilities that Kassandra will start with:

Aim: Allows Kassandra to attack twice per turn for a few rounds. Requires her to focus, consuming 25% of her maximum MP to use.

Magic Arrow: Consumes one mana to inflict magic-based physical damage to one target.

Splintershot: Consumes five twigs to fire numerous weak shots at randomly selected targets.

Stun Arrow: Consumes one twig to stun a target for a single turn.

Triage Arrow: Consumes one potion to heal for an amount roughly on par with potions (100 HP), but could be a little more or a little less. Is also capable of inflicting critical heals.

The Mimicry Command

As previously stated, Kassandra is the replacement for Ami from Blackmoon Prophecy, so she's the resident "blue mage" of sorts even though that term is not used in the game. Kassandra's official class is huntress. 

Mimicry abilities are learned in a very simple manner. The party can find monster statues littered throughout the world, and if Kassandra is in the party, she will be able to learn a new mimicry ability by studying the statue and what is written on it. Easy peasy!

While mimicry abilities will become extremely diverse as the game progresses, here are the three basic abilities that Kassandra starts with:

Chopodile: Copies the "All Chop attack that chopodiles use. Attacks all enemies, inflicting non-elemental damage.

Shelldon: Copies the "Gooey Graze" attack that shelldons use. Low non-elemental damage and poisons the enemy.

Skeleton: Copies the "Roll the Bone" attack that skeletons use. Throws a bone at one target for non-elemental damage.

That's about all for the Arrow and Mimicry commands. Kassandra starts with some pretty basic stuff, but she'll be able to learn to do lots of neat things as the player progresses through the game!

New Music for Beast Master

 Bert Cole comes through again!

Bert takes suggestions on Patreon for new compositions to write. I suggested something that might fit a Triple Triad-esque card game, and he seemed really interested in the idea. A few days later, he shared a mini-game track on his Patreon which is what you hear in the video above. 

Ancient Temples (aka Breath of the Wild's Shrines)

 I mentioned this on Discord 2-3 days ago, but wanted to do more of an actual write-up on it so that people know that this feature exists and what to expect.

Approximately 7-8 hours into Penumbra Crystallis, the player acquires a ship known as the Pegasus. The Pegasus immediately allows the player to sail anywhere in the world they desire. This includes visiting some areas of the world map that the player has not yet visited - which is still well over 75% of the total map!

To make sailing around the world more interesting than just looking for docks to park your ship at, I've decided to add ancient temples to the world map that, at this point of the game, require the ship to reach. These ancient temples exist either on islands in the ocean or along parts of kingdom coastlines previously inaccessible to players due to mountains or rivers being in the way.

So, what are these so called ancient temples? I'll let this NPC explain them a bit before I continue.

If this sounds familiar, that's because it is! I was heavily inspired by Breath of the Wild, and the ancient temples are pretty much just the shrines in that game. I expect to have about 30 shrines scattered across the world map, and most of them should only take 3-4 minutes to complete. Some of them will just have players solving a simple puzzle of some sort while others will prevent the player will a challenge in the form of a battle. Temples with puzzles will also have battles, but usually only if the player messes the puzzle up or runs into some sort of moving obstacle that initiates scripted fights. There will be zero random encounters in all temples with the exception of probably one (where random battles will be the central theme).

Solving a puzzle or overcoming the final challenge in each temple rewards the player with a treasure chest often containing an item that is either one of a kind, or is very rare to find elsewhere in the game.

So, for when this game is finally finished and in the hands of you folks, expect to find of places to go and things to do when you acquire the Pegasus!

Vehicle #2: The Ship

 Sometime today, I expect to have reached a point in Penumbra Crystallis where the player will have full control of their second vehicle after the rapapa - the ship!

My intention with the ship is to give the player the freedom to sail around the entire world map as soon as they receive it, but it can only be docked at ports/wharves on the world map. This will immediately allow the player to go to all sorts of locations (many that I obviously haven't even made yet), though there will be some restrictions in place from the get-go to prevent players from going to important story locations that they shouldn't be able to enter immediately. 

Exploration with the ship should be fun since players will still have a sense of discovery that other vehicles such as airships strip away. I also intend on making some islands that the player can sail to which will contain small optional dungeons with miscellaneous treasure and unique items at the end. Think of the shrines in Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but without the puzzle solving. Just neat little locations with a few battles and nice treasure. The challenge will be finding them all, and determining if/when you are the right level to enter them!

Anyway, more on all of that later today when I complete the scene where the ship is acquired through gameplay.

Grandiose Amphitheater Preview

Originally just called the "Arena", the Grandiose Amphitheater is now where players will go to engage in the regular arena battles, play Beast Master card games and tournaments, and take part in auctions! The auctions will feel very familiar to returning Blackmoon Prophecy players (or players of Final Fantasy VI).

Here's the overview of the Grandiose Amphitheater so far. I still have two more rooms to do (administration office, where the player goes for part of the main story, and the auction hall).

Beast Master - Beginner Tournament

The easiest Beast Master tournament in the arena. I had a lot of fun putting this one together! And, again, a reminder that the Triple Triad theme is just a placeholder.

 

Beast Master Card Game

 And here we go, the card game is now functional and named Beast Master!

Challenge Mode & The Arena

First off, before I get into things, progress is going pretty well and additional testing should be starting in the next day or two on post-demo content.

Anyway, on to the point of this update. I just want to touch on two things I felt like talking about. 

1. The Arena
I've posted about the arena before. Basically, you send one character into the arena for a 1v1 fight against a series of five increasingly difficult battles. You acquire points based on how well you do, and you can exchange these points for items and zil. Originally, this was all that the Arena was going to be, but now it has become just one wing of the Arena called the Battle Wing! 

The Arena possesses a second wing called the Tournament Wing where you'll be able to play cards. Now, I mentioned my plans for the card game a while back and it was intended to be a straight Triple Triad game with no additional rules (plus, same, etc.), but this has also changed. The card game will still be played on a 3x3 grid, but it will be merging the rules of both Triple Triad and Tetra Master! 

Instead of having four different numbers indicating how strong a card is in each direction, all cards only have one number, which will be displayed on the card as their level. Cards will go up to level 5 in strength. Now, this card level, this indicates how strong a card attacks in all direction. I know what your reaction is to that. "But UPRC, won't the card game suck if the numbers only go up to 5?"

The thing is, these cards are going to have... arrows! All cards can have up to four arrows, one per side. If you have a card that has an arrow pointing left, and you place it beside a card that does not have any arrow on its right side, you automatically flip it. No arrow means that card cannot attack or defend at all on that side. So, there's a bit of Tetra Master in there as well. 

Since I am on vacation, I'm going to try and get some form of the card game up and running at last, so fingers crossed that happens.

2. Challenge Mode
This is something that will be a thing much, much, muuuuuch later on. After defeating the final boss and watching the credits, you will receive a prompt asking if you want to return to the world map and activate Challenge Mode. 

What is Challenge Mode? Basically, it brings back most of the game's bosses back from the dead and makes all of them extremely high level bosses that will test the player's ability to the limit. The final boss will also be amped up in Challenge Mode, but will be gated off until the rest of the bosses have been defeated. Bosses will appear in the areas where they originally inhabited and will hopefully give some great treasure as well. We'll see!

Anyway, that's all for now.

Run, Forrest, Run!

 As mentioned in the last update, Salar Volcano spawns fire elementals from lava holes that hunt you down!

The lava elementals are currently set to spawn and chase you for four seconds before despawning. Ten seconds later, a new one spawns. The cycle is endless! Endless, I say!

Salar Volcano Preview

 First off, a screenshot! I've mapped more than this, but it's still new for the dev blog.

Salar Volcano is the second crystal dungeon in Penumbra Crystallis, the first being the Water Shrine. Salar Volcano primarily features cave/lava tiles, but it does transition back and forth to shrine tiles similar to those used in the Water Shrine.

Hazards include glowing lava pits that spawn lava elementals. These elementals will chase down the player for a few seconds before dissipating. There will also be magic fire traps on the floor that, when triggered, will burn all party members for 25-30 damage. Once you activate a trap floor tile, that particular trap tile cannot be triggered again and can be walked over freely.

Monsters are, for the most part, fire-based. This means that Oalston's ice magic and the Chione summon will be very powerful here!

More on Salar Volcano later.

Arena Demonstration

Working on the arena! Here's how it works...
1. Pay 500 zil for your party leader to enter on their own.
2. Party leader engages in a series of five battles that are based on their level. The further they progress, the more arena tokens they receive.
3. Exchange your acquired arena tokens for zil or items!

The party leader will be fully healed in between each fight, which is something that was not incorporated at the time of this recording.

Find Treasures! Get Rewards!

Time for something new! A handy NPC is being added to Penumbra Crystallis named Key Coleman, but he'll just got by Key after his initial introduction. His name is a huge reference to someone in particular, but I will let players figure that one out!

So, what is the purpose of Key? Well, he is going to analyze your treasure hunter rank whenever you talk to him. If he likes what he sees, he'll reward you with a special item. Basically, the more chests you open and items you find hidden away in barrels and pots, the more receptive Key will be towards you and will grant you better items. Think of his presence as a sort of treasure hunting mini game. Open X chests to receive an item from Key. Go back out into the world, open X chests (or find X number of items in general), return to Key, get another reward!

Have fun, treasure hunters!

Rare Monster Encounter

I decided to add rare encounters to the world map. These rare encounters are usually a highly powered up version of a local monster type. In this case, the "hellhare" is a much stronger version of the "cottontail" enemy. Note that, when testing this encounter, I was overleveled and that is why it wasn't too hard. However, if you fight this thing with just Vahn and Hans near the start, you'll be in for a rough time.

Rare encounters have their own battle theme, so players will know when they've run into one. I also toyed with the idea of making them leveled encounters so that they would always match the level of the party, but I decided against this when I realized most players would probably decide to run from rare encounters until towards the end of the game to get more XP and better loot from them. 

Synthesist Shop Example

 As promised, here's the previously mentioned synthesist shop in action. Bring two items and 100 zil to create an entirely new item that cannot be purchased from regular shops!

Synthesis Shops

Inspired by Final Fantasy IX, and sort of an improved successor to Blackmoon Prophecy's blacksmiths who upgrade equipment, Penumbra Crystallis will feature synthesis shops. I'll call them something different so that they don't step on Final Fantasy IX's toes, but it will function mostly the same.

These shops will start appearing once the player reaches Trei, which is the fourth town you can go to and is the first one that you can't walk to uninterrupted when you acquire access to the world map (Valla, Branch Village, and Meksicburg can be travelled to the moment you're done with the introductory events in Valla). All you will need to do is present two items in your inventory to the smith running the shop, and they will combine the items into something new for a small fee.

I'll give the first example right away. Trei is a town built over a lake, so they have a water theme going on (but so does most of Branch given the presence of the Water Crystal). The synthesis shop in Trei will allow you to present two early game pieces of armor, the Cloth Shirt and Cotton Robe, to create a new piece of armor called the Tortoise Shell. Equipping it will grant you slightly more defense than the armor you can buy in shops, provide an additional point of speed and spirit, and it will also increase water elemental resistance of the character wearing it by 25%.

As I have left A LOT of blank spaces in the game's database to add new items, these synthesis shops will be able to create armor, helmets, shields, weapons, and even accessories such as rings and trinkets in some cases. 

It will be a good idea to always visit the synthesis shops before you sell old gear to see if the stuff you bought 1-2 towns back can be used to create something new. In some cases, like in Final Fantasy IX, you'll even be able to purchase the required items in the very town you're in.

The first synthesis shop will be added later today, at which point I'll share a picture or two on Discord. 

Playable Piano

 So, I was working on the pub in Meksicburg and having fun spriting beer bottles and a piano, and then a thought hit me. Why not let the player play the piano if they want to!? BEHOLD:

This was accomplished by ripping some piano sounds off of a virtual piano online and using Yanfly's Button Common Events script for MV.

Summon Demonstration

 The first summon, while not obtainable in the game just yet (but almost!), has been added to the database. I decided to throw a little demonstration video together.

How Summons Work:

• Equip as a Codex item. Every character can then summon from their own special menu command (so for Vahn, it's in SwordSkill with the rest of his skills).
• Receive stat bonuses on level up. The one pictured above grants +1 spirit on level up when equipped. These are not game changers, merely small bonuses if you want to focus on improving characters in specific areas. 
• Can use once per battle and costs 50% MP. That cost might go down depending on how strong they end up being.