Isometric Battle Tactics RPG Devlog 2- Enemy AI and Status Effects!

CHANGE IN PARTY MEMBER MOVEMENT

I decided to limit party member’s movement to non diagonal moves, as it creates more interesting movement patterns as shown below (as opposed to a large square of movement around the player).

No diagonal moves allowed!

I’ve also implemented height limited movement, where party members and enemies can’t move up or down more than 1 height for each square they move. This limits the potential movement in areas where the terrain isn’t even and requires more strategic planning on the player’s part.

Moving between different heights

ENEMY AI

There are now 2 enemy behaviours- ranged preference and melee preference. For ranged preference, the enemy will only use a melee attack if they are already in the ranged position, and otherwise seek out ranged attacks and to be as far from the party member they’re attacking as possible. 

Ranged preference enemy

For melee preference enemies, they will seek out ranged attacks only if they are already in position for it or out of range for a melee attack, and otherwise will target the nearest party member for a melee attack.

Melee preference enemy

SOUND AND VISUAL EFFECTS

I’ve added some placeholder sound effects to the attacks and deaths so they have a bit more impact for now and it’s easy to implement the proper sound effects later. 

I’ve also added visual effects to KO’s and deaths- a party member will be KO’d and kneel on the battle field until they can be revived by a fellow party member.

Party member KO

 An enemy will fade out once killed, so they won’t be in the way of the rest of the battle!

Enemy Death

STATUS EFFECTS

I’ve added status effects that can be applied to party members, including some damage dealing effects as well as others.

The damage dealing effects are burn, poison and freeze- the first two are simple damage dealers and will be affected depending on resistances, whileas for freeze it will also keep the party member still and prevent action while active.

Burn/Poison/Freeze Status effects

There’s also a stone status effect, which keeps the party member still and prevents action but doesn’t cause damage.

Stone Status effect

There’s also haste and slow status effects, which respectively increase and decrease the amount of movement squares available to the player. 

Haste and slow

Next month I will be working to improve the UI as well as adding a new enemy and a party member!