Devlog #13 Skills, Titles, and General Progress

So, the next update is a lot of stuff. Instead of putting in a little bit of Lani's story and leave things unfinished, I've unilaterally decided to include ALL OF THE THINGS. So, there's about 400 lines of story dialogue (give or take a few hundred... I'm still writing it all). If this was a manga, it would be one of those pages where there's a lot of diagrams and arrows and stuff. Anyway, Lani's backstory is clarified, plus a lot of general purpose CG is added. Also, Lani wears a dress.

Progress as of this post date:
Scene 1 (Miri Intro): 6/6 (100% complete)
Scene 2 (Lani/Miri Convo): 9/10 renders
Scene 3 (Miri/Liam Convo): 7/7 (100% complete)
Scene 4 (Lani/Liam at home): 2/6 renders
Scene 5 (Lani/Liam in tent): 1/6 renders

I also need to go ahead and add in Lani's dress for general dialogue scenes... man, lots of stuff to do.

And on the actual Development side, I've finalized the skill system in the game. Skills will no longer reset at rebirth, and will instead remain permanent, just like the God statues or your titles. Essentially, the base skill category (sneak, defense, fire, water, light, etc) will level up with the usage of skill books and other various story-based interactions (studying, for example). Once a new skill level is granted, you will get either a new skill that will be available when appropriate (some skills, especially the 'Sneak'  skill tree grant additional scenes and locations as the skill level rises, while others are purely combat skills). Each category of skill can be leveled to 10, just like titles, and the final few skills available are intended to be vastly overpowered, but also do consume a lot of magic.

There are still some elements of the skill functions that may change in the future. Right now, there's no player choice as far as what skill you get next, so what skill you unlock at sneak level 5 is left up to God (me), instead of the player having a single Sneak Skill Point that they can spend on unlocking an additional level of Sneak instead of unlocking the Assassination skill. I actually do like the idea of having the skill points be permanent while the skills themselves are chosen at rebirth by the player based on the available points, which would allow for someone to prioritize a playstyle that better matches their goals in the game (using sneak again as an example, ignoring all of the combat related skills in the sneak tree would let someone sneak into the palace far sooner in the game, see the CG they want to see, then get murdered because they have no combat skills). This is not currently in the game. Either way, we'll see how things go; I've left things open to change in the future.

Also, additional levels of every title have been finalized. Now every single title in the game can be leveled up to maximum (in theory). Some of the titles have additional bonus effects when they reach max level (like the chicken title), while others are simply larger versions of the existing effects. Below is the title list for the strength-related Hercules title.

- Little Hercules: Rarely, a child is born with terrifying strength. You are not this child. But your strength grows 50% faster.
- Hercules: A soul blessed by the Goddess of War. Your strength grows 75% faster.
- Hercules II: A soul with the strong blessing of the Goddess of War. Your strength grows 100% faster.
- Hercules III: Your strength was a danger to your mother in the womb. Your strength grows 150% faster.
- Hercules IV: You're sort of like Bam-Bam from the Flintstones. Your strength grows 175% faster.
- Hercules V: The Gods look on with amusement as you lift heavy things. Your strength grows 200% faster.
- Blood of the Brave: A soul infused with the blood of Braves long silenced. Your strength grows 250% faster.
- Blood of the Brave II: Your ancestors were surely men of greatness, and their blood flows through you. Your strength grows 300% faster.
- Blood of the Brave III: A Brave is one destined to lead the world into a new era. You hold that destiny. Your strength grows 350% faster.
- Great Hero: A Hero to some, a Villain to others... but to all, he is 'Great'. Your strength grows 500% faster.

The 'Great' titles (Great Hero, Great Sage, etc), are a planned even trigger, as well, but that is still into the future. The fans of Isekai stuff may recognize some tropes. I've placed tongue firmly in cheek.

Also, all titles that are earned from getting a certain stat value before death have been changed to be a percentage increase (previously, some were just +5 endurance and the like). The Charity title that you get from the God Statues is now the title that gives additional stat point at birth, and the values have increased as well.

I think that's pretty much all for this post. I've been doing a LOT of writing. I mean... honestly, writing out all of the title and skill descriptions is really long process... I finally understand why catalogs are so boring, ya know? Making each new level of the titles different is a huge pain in the neck. Anyway, I expect that it will be at least another week before this behemoth of an update is ready, and I fear it may be two weeks. I'll try to get another post up when I have a better idea of the final timeline.

Cheers.