Legacy

First an update from last time, I managed to find a pretty simple solution to the problem with monsters reappearing, so that's one thing from the checklist to cross off. There are other battle-related issues I have to deal with, but it's good to have that particular wrinkle ironed out since it was kinda stressing me out.

But for today, I'm going to briefly outline how traveling and the passage of time works in this game. Originally, I had a much grander vision for this. I wanted every action the player took to impact how much time was left in a given day, kind of like Homework Salesman.

You've probably heard people say that part of the creative process is the need to "kill your darlings." In the case of Legacy, this has been very true. At some point, I realized that if I was ever actually going to see this game finished, things had to be simplified. So I adopted a much more basic system that isn't nearly as technically impressive but gets the job done. There is a single variable that coincides to the time of day that gets reset every morning when you wake up. Traveling within the city of Gallia does not cost you time, but once you leave the city it starts to increase the variable. Once it hits a certain number, a common event goes off. I've included a screenshot - the dialogue is subject to change.


After that, you're sent back to Gallia and you can drop your friend off at their house and wander around until you're ready to finish the day.

There are a few other quirks to the system. For example, days when you don't have classes will allow the variable to get a little higher before the common even triggers since you don't have to make the time for class. Also, you can reduce the amount of time used to travel between regions by using carriages. They appear on most of the outdoor maps (certainly all the ones that will be in the demo) and cost a small fee. If you imagine yourself using this often, you can drop some more money for a yearly pass and not have to pay for each individual ride. However, I would not recommend doing this in the demo as it's unlikely you'll use them enough to make the expenditure worth it.


I'm not totally sure what people will make of this. I can imagine scenarios where people find it too restrictive. I can also imagine people finding it not restrictive enough. A lot of it depends on how many sidequests will be available once the demo is out. I would like to make the free-roaming sections worthwhile but each quest means more work that could delay a release. Still too early to worry about that, I guess. Peace bros!