Update 0.4.0

Well I promised a new update for Rise before the end of the year and I’m happy to say that that goal has been met as version 0.4.0 has now been released and is ready for testing. Given the amount of time between this version and the last version you’d probably expect there to be a larger number of changes and in this case, you would be correct. Perhaps the most immediate change you’ll notice is that of the UI. For one all the buttons used within the UI are now animated, a feature I brought over from my other game Stelestial Contact: Solar Storm and one which helps to add just a little bit of flare to the existing UI elements. Additionally a number of UI’s also had more immediate changes made to them, such as the equipment GUI gaining slots for tools, both the equipment GUI and inventory GUI gaining an all tab where a full list of your owned items can be seen and the message GUI at the bottom of the screen now making use of a queue system to directly prevent multiple messages from overlapping one another.

Other than the changes to the UI version 0.4.0 also brings with it a new main quest in the form of the “a path to survival” quest which sees you exploring the forest outside of the Human capital of Aderith. To go along with this new quest a new type of map object has been added, that being the harvestable map object. A harvestable map object can as the name suggests be harvested for an item. The object will then respawn after a number of in game days. Furthermore, a harvestable map object may or may not also make use of the new tool system whereby a specific tool needs to be equipped in the relevant tool slot for harvesting to become available.

To better utilise this new type of map object there is also a new map, the forest stream which as you may have guessed will provide a location to harvest a stream for fish and or harvest trees for wood logs. In a future update this new map will see more expansion in the form of more areas to harvest, a new type of enemy not found on the main forest map and a related quest to help better introduce the new area. Similar to the new quest added in this version which helps better introduce you to the forest map.

Beyond map harvestables and a new map 0.4.0 also brings with it the start of the character reputation system which as specified in the changelog will lead to additional dialogue options, areas, quests and gameplay options as your characters reputation increases. For now though this update just includes the base system for tracking and updating both yours and other characters current reputation levels. While future updates will look to tie into this system with additional content and unlocks.

Last but not least this update also included two new GUI’s beyond just the changes to the existing ones. The first of these is the sleep GUI where you are now able to specify how long you wish to sleep for by selecting the number of hours on the displayed time semicircle. With the second being the rank up GUI where you are able to select which attributes you want to put points into when your character levels up. Allowing you to increase your character's health or the amount of damage you deal in combat.

With all that said I think you should now have a good idea as to what to expect from this update and the kind of direction RIse is heading. Just as before Rise remains a side project for me and so I can’t promise when the next update will be but rest assured it will happen at some point. Hopefully with less of a gap this time around. Nevertheless that’s just about everything and so I’ll end this devlog here and hopefully return in a couple of months time with the next update, that being version 0.5.0.

As always if you have any questions or queries then don’t hesitate to ask and similarly if you have any feedback for existing systems. Or indeed if you have any ideas, features or changes you would like to see implemented then also don’t hesitate to let me know.

Now then for those of you who want a more detailed look at what’s changed in this version you can find a full list of the additions, updates and changes pertaining to this update below while a full list of changes from every other previous version can be found in the game:

• Added a sleep GUI where you can select how long you want to sleep for
• Added support for character reputation, a higher level of reputation will unlock new dialogue options, areas, quests and gameplay options
• Added support for tools as a new type of equipment
• Added support for animated buttons
• Added support for tool requirements to harvestable map objects
• Added a rank up GUI where you can see what benefits your new reputation rank gives you
• Added a button to the message container at the bottom of the screen allowing it to be collapsed
• Added a new quest, a path to survival which is given after completing the lay of the land quest and entering the forest
• Added a new item, the red berry which can be eaten to restore a small amount of hunger
• Added a new item, the green berry which can be eaten to remove a small amount of health
• Added a new item, the blue berry which can be eaten to restore a small amount of hunger and thirst
• Added a new item, stone which can be harvested from the boulder map object
• Added a new item, tench which can be fished from the river in the forest
• Added a new item, wood log which can be harvested from the evergreen tree map object
• Added a new tool, the stone pickaxe which can be used to harvest boulders and ore deposits
• Added a new tool, the copper pickaxe which can be used to harvest boulders and ore deposits
• Added a new tool, the tin pickaxe which can be used to harvest boulders and ore deposits
• Added a new tool, the iron pickaxe which can be used to harvest boulders and ore deposits
• Added a new tool, the wooden fishing rod which can be used at fishing spots to gather fish
• Added a new tool, the stone axe which can be used to harvest trees for wood
• Added a new map object type, the container which as the name suggests can contain items (chests, boxes, bags etc.)
• Added a new map object type, the harvestable which as the name suggests will give you an item when harvested (bush, tree, rock etc.)
• Added a new map object, the red berry bush which gives red berrys when harvested
• Added a new map object, the green berry bush which gives green berrys when harvested
• Added a new map object, the blue berry bush which gives blue berrys when harvested
• Added a new map object, the boulder which requires a pickaxe to be harvested
• Added a new map object, the stream fishing spot which requires a fishing rod to be harvested
• Added a new map object, the evergreen tree which requires a axe to be harvested
• Added a new map, the forest stream which can be accessed from the forest map
• Added a new status effect when you sleep for 6 hours or more, well rested which gives a 10% bonus to earned experience for the next 4 hours
• Added a new setting to the settings menu allowing you to change the transparency level of the message box
• Updated tile maps to support negative tile positions
• Updated the popup GUI's to better scale based on the current window size
• Updated the popup notification for completing objectives to display the objective name instead of the objective description
• Updated the character GUI's to all use the same style of subtitle text
• Updated the character GUI to include a bar for displaying the characters current reputation level
• Updated the character container to support using hotkeys to open the different popup GUI's
• Updated the inventory GUI to include an all tab which displays all items in the inventory
• Updated the equipment GUI to have individual slots for the different types of tools
• Updated the trade GUI to display item information when the mouse is placed over an item button
• Updated the map transition points to show if they are currently locked
• Updated the message container to automatically become visible again when a new message has been displayed
• Updated the message container to utilise a message queue system to better prevent printed messages from overlapping each other
• Updated the Forest map to include a section of road leading into the main part of the Human city of Aderith
• Updated the automatic player path finding to work for harvestable map objects which are located on a tile with collision
• Updated the save system to include the game version the save was made in and for this to be displayed in the save and load screen