Hello all, it's Cassel, developer of <Ratopia>. July has been a month where many people's happiness levels have dropped due to the hot and humid weather. It's times like these when we need to strengthen our mental fortitude! So, in this development diary, I would like to introduce the new enhancement system in <Ratopia>, the reforging system.
Equipment Reforging
Equipment reforging is a system designed to enhance the influence of the player character, the leader. While the leader's skill system introduced in the previous development diary focuses on enhancing the leader's city management capabilities, equipment reforging is more focused on enhancing the leader's combat capabilities.
<Ratopia> already has a system where the leader can craft and equip gear to increase combat power. However, to craft gear, the city needs to grow until the Royal Forge can be built. After crafting the gear, there were no further mechanisms for the leader to grow, leading to stagnation. Initially, when planning the gear system, the idea was to create forges and equipment available for the early, mid, and late game to solve this stagnation period. However, developing numerous new pieces of equipment required a lot of time, causing the gear system in <Ratopia> to remain stagnant for a long time.
In this situation, with the addition of powerful enemies like the lizard invasion forces, soldiers from city-states, and the Pharaoh weasels in the general update, it became very difficult to progress through late-game battles with a stagnated leader. Players had very few options to act for combat other than strengthening the soldier citizens, which was disappointing for those who enjoyed using the leader in battles. There was a need for a mechanism to quickly enhance the leader's presence for late-game combat.
It takes forever…
First, I reviewed the initial plan of adding advanced equipment. This approach required planning, researching, and developing a lot of additional equipment, making it a difficult choice. It wasn't just about creating graphic resources; we also had to consider what materials to use, how to differentiate the equipment, the difficulty level of mini-games, and so on. Additionally, there is currently a tendency for only a few pieces of equipment to be used among the various available ones, leading to concerns that most of the additional equipment might not be used and would just be bypassed.
Adding advanced equipment in a short time was practically challenging and its utility was hard to predict. Therefore, we decided to add a reforging system that could enhance the existing equipment instead. This system could provide higher stats to the leader, aligning with our additional intentions, and allowed us to recycle existing resources, thus shortening development time. It seemed like a suitable solution for the current situation.
While it seemed easy to add a system to increase the attack or defense of equipment through reforging, it felt a bit disappointing to make the reforging feature merely increase the numerical values of existing equipment. We wanted players to experience different combat dynamics with advanced equipment as the game progressed. However, simply increasing the values of existing equipment would make combat slightly faster, but the experience would remain similar to the current one.
This approach felt too predictable and lacked the excitement that should come with equipment reforging. Therefore, we aimed to add new fun elements through the reforging system, allowing for diversity by granting the leader's equipment abilities from other soldiers, equipment, and structures. The idea of using a bow that shoots flaming arrows or delivering area attacks with a preferred weapon was exciting even in thought.
You guys are quite agile, aren't you?
The modified reforging system allowed for the quick development of applying existing attributes to equipment, but problems also quickly emerged. While we wanted to combine poison or stun attributes with area attack attributes for weapons, we found a disappointing issue: the area attack attribute was developed only to inflict damage, making it incompatible with other attributes. Additionally, the electric damage attribute from electric traps became problematic as it caused the leader to shock themselves with each attack.
Superconductor weapon?!
Other issues included the prolonged poison duration from past applications, making it too easy to defeat bosses, and certain fast-attacking weapons becoming overwhelmingly powerful due to their attributes. Many balance issues were discovered as a result.
Few pokes were enough for pork.
To resolve these system and balance issues, we undertook several modifications. Among them, some attributes like area attack remained challenging to fix. The best solution seemed to be creating different types and values of effects that could be applied to each weapon. Instead of redeveloping all attributes to be perfectly compatible, it was more practical to set incompatible attributes not to apply together and to develop new compatible attributes instead.
This approach required the tedious task of specifying which attributes each weapon could have. However, it also allowed the creation and addition of new attributes suitable for each weapon. For example, we developed and added an attack speed increase attribute for slow weapons like greatswords, and we could add attributes like critical hit or combo attack damage for some weapons.
I just wanted to increase the attack speed until my PC shouts, "Please stop!", but well..
Equipment reforging can be done by selecting a weapon you possess at the forge and providing the necessary resources. The reforging effect is applied randomly from a variety of effects designated for each piece of equipment. This was because it was difficult to develop a function that allows players to choose and be guided through the effects for each piece of equipment. While the random application of effects may not hold much significance since saving and loading are possible, it still offers the small joy of getting the desired effect and the chance to experience various effects.
However, I was somewhat worried that players might feel displeased if they did not get the desired effect due to the random application method. To address this concern, we simplified the required resources for reforging and made it possible to reforge quickly within one second. This structure made it inappropriate to include a mini-game since it would take up too much of the player's time. The effect selection itself felt like a mini-game, so the absence of an actual mini-game did not create much dissonance. If there is a need to revise the selection method in the future, it might be a good idea to include a mini-game, taking more time to do so.
Flame on! Not yet? Flame on! Flame on!
Initially, equipment reforging was only possible through the Hell Forge located in the volcanic biome. The Hell Forge was planned as one of the many objects to be placed in the yet-to-be-completed volcanic biome and was intended to serve as a valuable reward for players who explore the volcanic biome in the later stages of the game. This was also to limit the use of reforging with powerful enhancement effects in the early game.
Look like a piece of ... Crab...!
However, there were some concerns about only being able to reforge upon reaching the volcanic biome. Since <Ratopia> is not a game that makes exploration and pioneering particularly convenient, I worried that players would be stressed out trying to find the Hell Forge. Given the difficulty of finding it, I was concerned that most users wouldn't experience the new feature even after it was added. Statistically, only 10% of the total users had reached the dungeon entry.
These issues were not unique to the Hell Forge alone. To make exploration easier, natural ladders were placed throughout the biomes, and events were introduced to reveal dungeon locations at certain stages to increase their utilization. However, I was concerned that revealing locations through events might diminish the fun of discovery and the need for exploration. I also wondered how to address this when more objects are added in the future.
For now, the content itself remains inconvenient to access, so I had no choice but to guide players to the location through events. In the future, it would be nice to improve the effects of the dog shrine to reveal not only enemy habitats but also special objects like dungeons. Another idea was to add structures that allow players to locate special objects, providing a solution to this issue.
Yeah this guys now fits with the name.
And upon further reflection, there was no need to push the equipment reforging system to the later stages of the game. The essence of what we wanted to position in the late game was the player's growth, not the reforging system itself. Unlike dungeons, the reforging system could be experienced by many users even in the early game if the growth rates were adjusted.
So, we made it possible to reforge at the Royal Forge with a slight increase in stats. This allowed players to lightly experience the reforging system at the Royal Forge while looking forward to the second-stage reforging. In the Hell Forge, the second-stage reforging was designed to enable significant growth. We also added achievements related to reforging this time, so I hope many people will make use of it.
In this way, we have completed the reforging system through trial and error. I believe it is content with even more potential as more equipment and abilities are added. Certainly, by enabling the leader character's influence to grow gradually through equipment reforging, the immersion and fun in the leader character have increased.
In addition to the reforging system introduced, we have also improved many requested features and addressed inconvenience issues raised by users. Starting this month, we plan to focus more on enhancing convenience and increasing the overall polish of the game. We look forward to your feedback!
Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2244130/Ratopia/
Discord: https://discord.gg/rprfSp6ct2
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CasselGames/
X(Twitter): https://twitter.com/CasselGames
Hello all, it's Cassel, developer of <Ratopia>. July has been a month where many people's happiness levels have dropped due to the hot and humid weather. It's times like these when we need to strengthen our mental fortitude! So, in this development diary, I would like to introduce the new enhancement system in <Ratopia>, the reforging system.
Equipment Reforging
Equipment reforging is a system designed to enhance the influence of the player character, the leader. While the leader's skill system introduced in the previous development diary focuses on enhancing the leader's city management capabilities, equipment reforging is more focused on enhancing the leader's combat capabilities.
<Ratopia> already has a system where the leader can craft and equip gear to increase combat power. However, to craft gear, the city needs to grow until the Royal Forge can be built. After crafting the gear, there were no further mechanisms for the leader to grow, leading to stagnation. Initially, when planning the gear system, the idea was to create forges and equipment available for the early, mid, and late game to solve this stagnation period. However, developing numerous new pieces of equipment required a lot of time, causing the gear system in <Ratopia> to remain stagnant for a long time.
In this situation, with the addition of powerful enemies like the lizard invasion forces, soldiers from city-states, and the Pharaoh weasels in the general update, it became very difficult to progress through late-game battles with a stagnated leader. Players had very few options to act for combat other than strengthening the soldier citizens, which was disappointing for those who enjoyed using the leader in battles. There was a need for a mechanism to quickly enhance the leader's presence for late-game combat.
It takes forever…
First, I reviewed the initial plan of adding advanced equipment. This approach required planning, researching, and developing a lot of additional equipment, making it a difficult choice. It wasn't just about creating graphic resources; we also had to consider what materials to use, how to differentiate the equipment, the difficulty level of mini-games, and so on. Additionally, there is currently a tendency for only a few pieces of equipment to be used among the various available ones, leading to concerns that most of the additional equipment might not be used and would just be bypassed.
Adding advanced equipment in a short time was practically challenging and its utility was hard to predict. Therefore, we decided to add a reforging system that could enhance the existing equipment instead. This system could provide higher stats to the leader, aligning with our additional intentions, and allowed us to recycle existing resources, thus shortening development time. It seemed like a suitable solution for the current situation.
While it seemed easy to add a system to increase the attack or defense of equipment through reforging, it felt a bit disappointing to make the reforging feature merely increase the numerical values of existing equipment. We wanted players to experience different combat dynamics with advanced equipment as the game progressed. However, simply increasing the values of existing equipment would make combat slightly faster, but the experience would remain similar to the current one.
This approach felt too predictable and lacked the excitement that should come with equipment reforging. Therefore, we aimed to add new fun elements through the reforging system, allowing for diversity by granting the leader's equipment abilities from other soldiers, equipment, and structures. The idea of using a bow that shoots flaming arrows or delivering area attacks with a preferred weapon was exciting even in thought.
You guys are quite agile, aren't you?
The modified reforging system allowed for the quick development of applying existing attributes to equipment, but problems also quickly emerged. While we wanted to combine poison or stun attributes with area attack attributes for weapons, we found a disappointing issue: the area attack attribute was developed only to inflict damage, making it incompatible with other attributes. Additionally, the electric damage attribute from electric traps became problematic as it caused the leader to shock themselves with each attack.
Superconductor weapon?!
Other issues included the prolonged poison duration from past applications, making it too easy to defeat bosses, and certain fast-attacking weapons becoming overwhelmingly powerful due to their attributes. Many balance issues were discovered as a result.
Few pokes were enough for pork.
To resolve these system and balance issues, we undertook several modifications. Among them, some attributes like area attack remained challenging to fix. The best solution seemed to be creating different types and values of effects that could be applied to each weapon. Instead of redeveloping all attributes to be perfectly compatible, it was more practical to set incompatible attributes not to apply together and to develop new compatible attributes instead.
This approach required the tedious task of specifying which attributes each weapon could have. However, it also allowed the creation and addition of new attributes suitable for each weapon. For example, we developed and added an attack speed increase attribute for slow weapons like greatswords, and we could add attributes like critical hit or combo attack damage for some weapons.
I just wanted to increase the attack speed until my PC shouts, "Please stop!", but well..
Equipment reforging can be done by selecting a weapon you possess at the forge and providing the necessary resources. The reforging effect is applied randomly from a variety of effects designated for each piece of equipment. This was because it was difficult to develop a function that allows players to choose and be guided through the effects for each piece of equipment. While the random application of effects may not hold much significance since saving and loading are possible, it still offers the small joy of getting the desired effect and the chance to experience various effects.
However, I was somewhat worried that players might feel displeased if they did not get the desired effect due to the random application method. To address this concern, we simplified the required resources for reforging and made it possible to reforge quickly within one second. This structure made it inappropriate to include a mini-game since it would take up too much of the player's time. The effect selection itself felt like a mini-game, so the absence of an actual mini-game did not create much dissonance. If there is a need to revise the selection method in the future, it might be a good idea to include a mini-game, taking more time to do so.
Flame on! Not yet? Flame on! Flame on!
Initially, equipment reforging was only possible through the Hell Forge located in the volcanic biome. The Hell Forge was planned as one of the many objects to be placed in the yet-to-be-completed volcanic biome and was intended to serve as a valuable reward for players who explore the volcanic biome in the later stages of the game. This was also to limit the use of reforging with powerful enhancement effects in the early game.
Look like a piece of ... Crab...!
However, there were some concerns about only being able to reforge upon reaching the volcanic biome. Since <Ratopia> is not a game that makes exploration and pioneering particularly convenient, I worried that players would be stressed out trying to find the Hell Forge. Given the difficulty of finding it, I was concerned that most users wouldn't experience the new feature even after it was added. Statistically, only 10% of the total users had reached the dungeon entry.
These issues were not unique to the Hell Forge alone. To make exploration easier, natural ladders were placed throughout the biomes, and events were introduced to reveal dungeon locations at certain stages to increase their utilization. However, I was concerned that revealing locations through events might diminish the fun of discovery and the need for exploration. I also wondered how to address this when more objects are added in the future.
For now, the content itself remains inconvenient to access, so I had no choice but to guide players to the location through events. In the future, it would be nice to improve the effects of the dog shrine to reveal not only enemy habitats but also special objects like dungeons. Another idea was to add structures that allow players to locate special objects, providing a solution to this issue.
Yeah this guys now fits with the name.
And upon further reflection, there was no need to push the equipment reforging system to the later stages of the game. The essence of what we wanted to position in the late game was the player's growth, not the reforging system itself. Unlike dungeons, the reforging system could be experienced by many users even in the early game if the growth rates were adjusted.
So, we made it possible to reforge at the Royal Forge with a slight increase in stats. This allowed players to lightly experience the reforging system at the Royal Forge while looking forward to the second-stage reforging. In the Hell Forge, the second-stage reforging was designed to enable significant growth. We also added achievements related to reforging this time, so I hope many people will make use of it.
In this way, we have completed the reforging system through trial and error. I believe it is content with even more potential as more equipment and abilities are added. Certainly, by enabling the leader character's influence to grow gradually through equipment reforging, the immersion and fun in the leader character have increased.
In addition to the reforging system introduced, we have also improved many requested features and addressed inconvenience issues raised by users. Starting this month, we plan to focus more on enhancing convenience and increasing the overall polish of the game. We look forward to your feedback!
Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2244130/Ratopia/
Discord: https://discord.gg/rprfSp6ct2
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CasselGames/
X(Twitter): https://twitter.com/CasselGames