game updates and improvements
The first thing I'd like to share is the creation of a playable mobile version. The horizontal orientation provides a very good gaming experience and is inferior to the PC version, except for the forced movement system and ability use on touchpads. The interface for selecting upgrades and forging items is probably still not the best, but all the information is present and accessible to players.
A local play option was added, without connecting to servers. This was a challenge for me and my programming skills, as initially all the game logic and its engine were tightly integrated with websocket networking. I had to separate the game from the transport component and implement interfaces when creating a lobby instance. Essentially, the game now doesn't know whether it's running locally or on a server; it simply executes the game loop and sends data externally, saves data locally, or writes to a database.
Regarding the game itself, stats like might,will, and so on were removed. These were assigned by the player at the start of the game and could be increased throughout the game. The original idea was for each stat to provide unique bonuses for each class. And honestly, it was difficult to come up with something unique and in such quantity. There were six stats and three classes. Stats provided two or three bonuses, so about 36 improvements had to be created. This ultimately led to stats transitively increasing other stats, which the player could improve directly, without leveling up their stats. The advantage was that it was difficult to remember what a single stat did for a specific character. One way or another, the decision was made to temporarily (probably) remove stats and consider a more interesting system. Currently, I'm thinking about the concept of mastery: by performing certain actions (blocking, attacking, etc.), the player earns points, which are then spent on unique improvements related to that gameplay.
Regarding balance, the number of mobs has been reduced in the late game, and the chance to obtain Grace decreases over time. Therefore, talents and weapon upgrades that increase Grace drop rates make more sense. New enemies have been added in the late game to more effectively kill players. Many skills have been added for improvement, and all upgrades that were tied to a specific stat have been removed, and are now tied to Power, as a universal indicator of a character's strength.
