BEHIND THE SCENES - Enemy and Level Design Adjustments
GTTOD Patch Notes — October 26, 2024
Aggregated from Steam, cross-tracked with Battle.net coverage on GamePatchNote.
This is unrelated, I just figured you'd like it plus it makes for a great thumbnail.
HEY THERE!
So, I wanted to update you guys on some plans and progress for Wrath Of The World - mainly showcasing some of the things that I personally think need some SERIOUS work, and kinda giving you my ideas on how I can fix them. OBVIOUSLY we talked about this guy:
-and my plans for enemies, but to give you a better look behind the scenes, I just wanna share directly with you what my documents say needs done.
Harsh, I know, believe me - but true. There's plenty of angles to address this from, and I'm trying to hit them all. Enemies are these omnipotent and endlessly driven forces of NATURE, when really they need to be more...stupid, like the rest of us. Stupid with a personality, rather. So the plans for fixing enemies up and boosting our combat beyond where it currently lies is as follows:
- Reduce how many enemies the player is fighting to around a dozen or so instead of fucking 1000000
- Give enemies unique goals, interactions, and abilities
- Further separate enemies with better sound design and effects
- Give enemies detection radius, chase behaviors, and other more sandbox-y systems
- Make enemies telegraph their attacks more with better sound and visual cues
The Drudge, for example, now throws grenades and telegraphs it with unique audio and visual cues. The Drake now gathers troops with unique animations, creating a squad of lower rank enemies that will follow them as they wander the map. Other enemies stick to guarding zones, like their Beacons or other points of interest like Bunkers. Speaking of...
Yeah, again, harsh - but it HAS to be. I have to see this final update with as much truth as possible. It's clear I've demonstrated I can make cool things, I just need to focus in on the proper direction and craft things in ways that benefit THIS game, not based on what games I'm inspired by. GTTOD has become far too complex to be able to rely on such cheap solutions now. From here on out, GTTOD's problems have got to be solved with some legitimate out of the box thinking. Nothing can be taken at face value, and there's no other place in GTTOD that exemplifies this more than in its current level design.
Want an example?
This GIF. I have remade this GIF in every single version of GTTOD, and it's because I believe it captures something really cool about GTTOD's gameplay. It's nothing insane or anything like that, but when I see the most recent iteration of this gameplay sequence, I'm always like "Yeah okay that's GTTOD - cool guns, fast movement, lots of enemies" and I'm MOSTLY right in that regard. However, what this GIF DOESN'T show you is this:
It doesn't show you what has accidentally become a HUGE part of the game that SHOULDN'T have been as big as it is. Bunkers.
Bunkers are great, don't get me wrong. It feels good to get keys around the map or from cars or from crafting, it feels good to use keys to open bunkers, it feels good to get new Curses and Blessings and Guns and Equipment or Melee or WHATEVER. All of that is GOOD, it is great, and very little needs to change with it...it's just too much and too little at the same time, and that is FRUSTRATING.
What does that mean? You are cracking open like fuckin' FOUR or FIVE bunkers a level and sometimes STILL not getting what you want. You're walking into bunkers expecting to get something and everything is TOO expensive. And in order to OPEN all these bunkers, you're scouring this EMPTY ass level looking for DICK ASS keys and fighting enemies that can spawn in every 5 picoseconds, gather up with their 30 other compadres, and perfectly track you through 3000 square feet of rock and metal. Make it make sense.
No, that first GIF. That's GTTOD. That's what needs to be more present.
So, here's what's gonna happen:
- HUGE reduction in Bunker count per level, going from 4-6 to 1-3 MAX, and really mostly just 1
- HUGE reduction in cars in the level, some being replaced with ruined variations.
- HUGE increase in the amount of loot in each bunker
- A tiered bunker spawning system so that bunkers spawn closer to the END of the level than the start
- Bunker types you encounter along the run shift and adjust, prioritizing weapons and equipment over curses and blessings early in a run, but curses and blessings over guns and equipment later in the run
AND THAT'S JUST BUNKERS
I haven't even discussed what's going on with the levels:
- More movement mechanics like Monkey Bars, balance poles, and other interesting things are getting added to levels
- Entire segments of levels are going to be switched out at random to keep things fresh and interesting
- WAY more objectives are being added to levels, including things that reward the player with guaranteed Jade Vines for better progression
So yeah, things are changing, and all of these changes are being driven by the community on the Discord. It really does feel like this final update is just me going "Okay, here's something that could use some work; what are our options" and then voting on it in the Discord. I really really do think that if you're passionate about this game and are wanting this final update to be what you want it to be, then...
IT'S NOW OR NEVER FELLAS JOIN THE DISCORD
Once again, thank you for your patience, and I'll be back soon to inform you of changes to progression, side objectives, story, and most interestingly of all - Beacons. I know that's a weird one to pull out of the pile, but trust me, you'll like what I've got cooking.