Hello Elondrians, it’s time for the weekly devlog #11.
This week was fruitful, and I accomplished more than usual.
Firstly, I spent most of the week listening to hundreds, if not thousands, of sound effect tracks to find better sound effects and ambient sounds. I replaced almost half of the existing sound effects with professionally recorded ones. Now, every action, including Foraging, Mining, Woodcutting, Fishing, and Herb gathering, has its unique sound for both successful and failed attempts.
I also added ambient sounds to foresty areas.
In addition to that, I managed to fix a huge optimization problem with animal AI. Normally, animals would check their surroundings every frame, causing a performance load. However, this wouldn’t make much difference since they are not that fast. So, I optimized it to have them check their surroundings every 3 seconds.
I removed the new item announcement from sliding messages, opting for floating texts over the character. Anything inventory-related is now a floating text, while situational events like hunger, sadness, happiness, tiredness, or earned money from shops, and party information are displayed as sliding popup messages. So instead of “Successful,” it now announces the item as “Log x1”.
I completed the Fishing implementation, introducing a new item, the “Fishing Pole,” which is required for fishing. The fishing action’s modifier stat is Dexterity.
I also finished the Herb gathering mechanic, adding 35 new herbs scattered throughout the world. Different tile types, such as Plain, Forest, Pond, and Mountains, now have various types of herbs. Herb gathering’s modifier stats are Dexterity and Intelligence.
I changed the coloration of item types, making Legendary items orange, while Epic ones are purple (they were yellow previously).
Lastly, I added the first legendary weapon of the game, Cosmirius’s sword Edge of Mercy. Cosmirius is one of the founders of “Young Bloods” organization. I’ll share the lore soon.