Dev Log — October 2024

Hi everyone!

Last month I released an update for the game and between fixing updates I've moved on to fixing the new website and creating a better launcher for the front page and later itch.io!

You can find the test version of the website at https://test.battlemageserotica.com and most of the game systems have already been moved to the new domain, safe for the client and user login. The game client for the test server is already using the new domain, though, but since the launcher isn't ready, players are unable to properly log into the game there, but they can log in using the old test domain and they will be taken to the new domain when they enter the game.

I realize website design isn't the most sexy thing to talk about, but I just wanted to say that I'm pleased with the new look for the website and the new launcher will also improve the login experience for new and existing players. For instance, ReCaptcha will no longer be used for the many first login attempts as the server applies its own more efficient system for blocking fraudulent registrations and login attempts without bothering as much.

The account settings view has also been made more intuitive and I've added a new feature for deactivating your account. It can seem silly to spend time working on a feature for people who don't wish to play the game anymore, but it's even more silly having to help them manually. Disheartening, really. I try to spend as much time as possible with the community and it feels awful when I have to spend some of that time helping out the people who don't want to play with us anymore for whatever reason. So I'm happy to have an automated (and very thoroughly tested and secure) means for players to deactivate their account that I can refer to in the future!

Dynamic Avatars

The primary thing I'll be working on this coming month is dynamic avatars. I have yet to implement character selection and creation in the launcher, and I'd like for it to support dynamic avatars so you can see your characters' appearances from the character selection, and while creating your character. I also have yet to create the new view for your collection/discoveries, which I would also like to have support for item appearances, so you can preview items you have discovered on your characters!

This is also an ideal testing ground for the implementation of dynamic avatars, where I can more easily test out different aspects of the implementation without also having to deal with the complexity of running it inside the game at the same time, and I can use my own collection for testing item appearances before they go in the game.

Hopefully this time next month I'll have much more to show with a working prototype of the dynamic avatars!

Support Buff

Lately, I've been revisiting some old games for inspiration, including World of Warcraft, which inspired me in a way I hadn't imagined. I realize players have been wanting to heal and support other players for a while, and one of the things I had forgotten about the classic WoW experience was how priests, mages, and other classes with access to buffs would just casually buff a stranger that crossed their path, and people would appreciate it! It's really quite refreshing how much kindness can be spread through the click of a few buttons. I think a lot of people want to help other people out, but it's not exactly every day an opportunity presents itself, but that's exactly what these buffs are; an opportunity to brighten someone's day, and possibly your own, knowing you made someone's day just a little easier.

I wanted this so bad for Battle Mages and I was stunned that I had to revisit an old game to realize the appeal of what my players have been asking for, for a long time! Now, in Battle Mages we don't exactly have classes in the traditional sense, and the whole thing becomes dull if everyone has access to the same buffs, so I've been devising a different way to do it and I'm quite happy with what I came up with! It may have been because I watched a lot of the Olympic Games when it was running recently, but I noticed a lot of supportive butt-slapping going around on both male and female teams, and that made me think of theming the buff around an encouraging slap on the butt! Moreover, since every nature gets a bonus to particular challenges in PvE, I thought it'd be great to make five variants of the buff, one for each nature, that gives the one receiving the slap a temporary bonus to the challenges the slapper has a nature bonus to!

I love the idea of players slapping one another as they go on their merry way for a small bonus during their next PvE run and I hope you do to!

It also ties perfectly into the sex overhaul I'm working on for the game, where players can do sexual activities mid-battle, like slapping a butt or fondling someone's breasts if their desire level for such activities is high enough.

Alchemy

One of the things you'll also notice on the new website is a short introduction to alchemy in the game. I know I've talked about this a little bit on Discord, but I've never really talked that much about it in my dev logs because I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do, until now!

Alchemy, like any other skill, will have three levels, with beginner and expert being available to every student and master only being available for characters with a particular fortune card. At beginner, you will be able to make simple potions: potions that only require 1 ingredient. For instance, you'll be able to brew a shrinking potion from the mushroom that allows you to shrink. The big difference here is that with the right vessel, you will be able to use a shrink potion on other players during combat!

A big part of the planned PvE overhaul is also that your character will get covered in all kinds of unseemly fluids from numerous sexual activities or monster encounters, and you can use alchemy to clean yourself up while storing away the fluid for use in a potion.

At expert level, you will be able to make complex potions: potions that require at least two ingredients. These are the potions that allow you to give specific traits to your own or someone else's character, like forcing someone to grow a cat tail or cat ears without having to use a spell that might change their character in some other way first.

For the people who are familiar with my design for Artistry and tinker items, you can probably already tell there's some overlap. In both systems, you combine items to discover new recipes instead of discovering them in the world, and you will have to test them on yourself or someone else to figure out what their effects are for the first time. Both systems also give you improvised weapons for use against opponents without having to rely on spells for magical effects, and while electronics have a chance to backfire when you use them, complex potions (two ingredients and beyond) have a chance to explode when you brew them, which can cause the potion to backfire but potentially also more unpredictable effects! For those who don't enjoy the risk of backfiring, mastery in Artistry will prevent electronics from backfiring while mastery in Alchemy will prevent potions from exploding.

I like how these two skills have similar systems while lending themselves to different fantasies, and because their inner workings are similar as well, I can borrow a lot of my implementation from electronics for alchemy, which brings us much closer to having both skills ready for the game!

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I hope you enjoyed this month's dev log and the recent update to the game! I plan on streaming again soon, and I believe I've fixed the recording glitches, which I am dying to test out, maybe this weekend!

Thank you so much for your support and I'll keep you updated on my progress on dynamic avatar in Discord! ❤️

Cheers,

Tinon