Together in Battle Dev Log

[CraigStern]

Spent a bunch of time diving into the math used for character promotions and class changes:

-- fixed: the "change class" algorithm was reversing stat-based operations but not reversing the order of those operations, resulting in some deeply wonky results for classes whose stats are subjected to multiple operations of different kinds (i.e. golems).

-- fixed: the "change class" algorithm was naively applying multiply/divide operations to the character's current base stats rather than to their starting stats. The game now tracks each character's starting stats and uses those instead when altering stat values for class changes.

-- fixed: the "change class" algorithm was reversing and reapplying stat modifications between classes even when those operations were identical in each class, sometimes leading to incorrect stat changes due to rounding errors.

-- fixed: when generating the new skill progression for a character changing classes, the game wasn't culling duplicate masteries or duplicate counterattacks.

-- fixed: when generating the new skill progression for a character changing classes, the game didn't recognize already-known skills within a branch; it would either choose the existing skill, creating a duplicate, or else choose the other skill and thereby allow the character to gain both skills in the branch.

-- fixed: the game wasn't giving characters a counterattack skill upon gaining Counter Limit above 0 during promotion.

-- fixed: the game wasn't displaying a counterattack in the promotion screen for promotions in which the Counter Limit increased above 0.

[CraigStern]

I'm back after a short vacation seeing family for Thanksgiving!

-- fixed: Meridian never learned Wing Armor Mastery (necessary to equip her with Wing Armor).

-- fixed: Teresa Dayo was missing Light Armor Mastery.

-- fixed: the five guardians and Malcolm Eichan were missing their masteries.

-- fixed: Vitalia Spring's crew had outdated portrait info.

-- fixed: the palette mask for Edwin Gabbergast's portrait was improperly formatted.

-- fixed: Oliver Spenks's portrait data for his glasses was wrong.

[CraigStern]

-- added a tutorial about opening doors and using switches to Rescuing Meridian.

-- added that same tutorial to Coria Dogs - Ground Level, with an auto-skip if the player saw it already from Rescuing Meridian.

-- updated the Talk tutorial in the Caravan Battle.

-- automatic-type items are now automatically used when grabbing an item sack even when grabbing all of the items in the sack would exceed the character's available inventory space.

-- fixed: trying to push/pull an item sack onto a character's space would fail and damage the character in the process.

-- fixed: lists within class info were being edited destructively, producing deeply weird results when culling duplicate operations during a promotion.

-- fixed: the mastery requirement for Meridian's Art Materials was incorrectly formatted.

-- fixed: the map to the mines could be traded off of Emma.

-- fixed: the map to the mines could be sold at a shop.

-- fixed: the Shadowheart's up-facing Rest sprite was missing.

[CraigStern]

-- new difficulty level added: Observer. It's the same as Recruit difficulty, but Emma and Sabrina are given Plot Armor that gives them Dodge and Mental Res. +100.

-- fixed: the game was replacing unique barks for premade units with generated barks when promoting those units.

-- fixed: a character that reached 0 maximum health under the Max Health -1 death rules would remain on the roster as though still alive. The game now treats such a character as truly dead.

-- fixed: the formula for panning the camera to focus on a named character during dialogue was off by about half a tile on the y axis.

-- fixed Leon Hart's portrait data.

[CraigStern]

Received revised portrait assets from Georgi!

-- added the Sabrina Child portrait to the game.

-- updated portrait data for Emma Child, Madeleine Strongarm, Annel Stormhunter, and Doran Chamberlain.

[CraigStern]

Received Malcolm Eichan portrait assets from Georgi.

-- added the Malcolm Eichan portrait to the game w/ updated portrait data.

-- at the end of Clash at the Mines Entrance, the game now checks to make sure Sarn Kamina is still alive. If she isn't, the Merchant 5 cut scene is now skipped.

-- fixed a couple of scripting errors in Clash at the Mines Entrance that prevented the map from being successfully completed.

-- fixed: the howling wind loop from Clash at the Mines Entrance wasn't getting stopped in the Merchant 5 cut scene.

[CraigStern]

Gave a few rounds of feedback on new Telepath Tactics key art Georgi's creating.

-- laid groundwork for campaigns to sport their own attached descriptions.

-- fixed: tooltips for unit buttons within the Reserve Supplies screen would become "stuck" when flipping between multiple pages of units.

[CraigStern]

Gave more feedback on the new Telepath Tactics key art.

-- fixed: Oliver Spenks was being "recruited" using an outdated map condition no longer supported by the engine.

-- fixed: the engine was treating Move Bonus as a non-stackable status effect.

-- boosted the amount of Strength/Psy that Gasul get upon promoting to make them more effective in their choice of specialization.

[CraigStern]

-- updated the Throw Axe skill description to reflect the fact that it now has 100% accuracy.

-- added a Psy component to the damage done by the Crossbowman's Piercing Bolt skill.

-- fixed: Gunther Lathe had no weapon equipped in Adelbrae Battle.

-- fixed: the turn time limit on Adelbrae Battle was slightly too strict to allow plundering of the lowermost chests on the map.

[CraigStern]

Gave feedback to Ryan Richko on a new Promotion theme that plays when a character promotes.

-- the Throw Knife skill now possesses the same backstab and sidestab bonuses as Knife.

-- new item added to the Vengeance of Emma Strider Campaign: Duoterre Throwing Knives, available in Merchant 4 and Merchant 5.

-- Duoterre Knife can now be plundered in Battle with Tarion.

-- added facial expressions to the player's dialogue with Fera.

-- fixed: in the Vengeance of Emma Strider Campaign, assassins did not gain Brittleknife Mastery upon promotion; crossbowmen did not gain Steam Crossbow Mastery; spearmen did not gain Brittlespear Mastery; etc.

-- AI improvement: enemies will no longer use pure status effect buff skills (e.g. Fury) on allies unless there is an enemy within 2 turns' worth of move-and-attack range of the buff's target.

-- fixed: the AI would consider it useful to reduce a target's Counter Limit by 1 via Distracted status even if the target did not have the counterattack skill necessary to counterattack with in the first place (e.g. if their weapon broke).

-- fixed: if a character gained more than 1 item past their inventory limit in battle via the GiveItem script action, it would cause an error that could softlock the game. (The game now successfully shunts all such excess items to reserve supplies.)

[CraigStern]

-- added half a dozen new sprites to the game's emoji table: Clarity, Clouded, Regenerating, Aptitude, MoraleLow, and Door.

-- removed Mental Resistance from Coria Dog Thug's potential growths.

-- reduced the damage on Vengeance to reflect the fact that it now always deals damage, unlimited by damage taken.

-- reassigned the default skill animation for Assassins from Stab to Ability.

-- fixed: a couple of enemy types in the Vengeance of Emma Strider Campaign had their class misidentified as "thief" (which doesn't exist as a class) instead of "Assassin."

-- fixed: the Assassin's Ability animation was displaying the army palette incorrectly.

[CraigStern]

-- reduced the damage on Feedback to 90% of Psy as a balancing move.

-- added mastery descriptions to weapons that require special masteries in the Vengeance of Emma Strider campaign.

-- replaced Guard Stance with Sprint in Naila's skill progression, as Guard Stance effectively duplicates Awareness.

-- fixed: blowing up a bridge above a chasm with a non-flying character standing on it would drop the character into the chasm, but the character wouldn't suffer "falling into a bottomless chasm" damage and would continue to live (albeit as an invisible shadow).

-- fixed: game was inaccurately describing the effect of Move Bonus as +50% max move when it is only +40%.

-- fixed: Caffeine Pills did not affect Immobilized status in the Vengeance of Emma Strider campaign.

-- fixed: the Wrench skill button was incorrectly sized.

-- fixed: Archos, Pathos, and Tarion were missing Orb masteries.

-- fixed: Whispers and Blackguards had Whisper as a promotion option, resulting in the promotion screen popping up whenever a character of that class leveled up.

-- fixed a typo in one of Sarn Kamina's victory barks.

[CraigStern]

Received new key art for the game; integrated it into the title screen!

-- fixed: when mousing over units covered by fog of war, the game would show a mouseover tooltip, display a health bar, and position the cursor over them.

-- fixed: you could left-click enemy characters covered by fog of war to display their threat range.

-- fixed: you could right-click units covered by fog of war to open the character screen.

-- fixed: Cloch's portrait mask was unformatted, preventing army-color palette swapping.

-- fixed: the reserve supplies screen allowed the player to give additional items to characters with full inventories.

[CraigStern]

Broke off the devlog into a separate thread here until Telepath Tactics Liberated is complete.

[CraigStern]

Gave Ryan feedback on new music for Together in Battle.