Ralph's Myth - Chapter 2 Progress Update May 30th

Hello everyone! Today's post will go over some of the new upcoming features to Ralph's Myth when Chapter 2 is released. And as promised, I'll talk a little bit about Molly's new friend, another mage who specialized in a distinct type of magic.

Upcoming Features

Enemy encounters

Random encounters. "Ugh, random encounters." is something I hear a lot from players. Random encounters in RM projects are awful in their design due to the standard formula that is used. So, while I'm not removing random encounters, I am here to let you know I have made the formula for random encounters better so you don't have to worry about fighting an enemy as often. Alongside that, I've introduced an encounter indicator bar which will appear in areas in which monsters can appear. This lets you know how close you are to your next encounter.

Look at that lovely little bar at the bottom right. Again, it only shows up in areas where monsters can spawn. I definitely don't want to burden the player with more screen elements, so perhaps in the future I will give the player the option of having a more simplistic, out of the way indicator instead of what there is right now.

Movement and Camera

A few changes have been made to how fast the player moves and how the camera interacts with the player. By default, you should now run at a slower speed than before. While noticeable, it shouldn't be too impactful to your experience of running everywhere. It shouldn't be a slog to traverse Terran after all, but it also shouldn't be where you can zoom across the world in the blink of an eye. Okay, that's hyperbole. You're not that fast by default, but, you know...

Also! The camera will now scroll and follow the player in their movements. This gives the game a much more refined feeling, in my opinion. However, if you don't like it as a player, you will have the option to disable it so you don't have to feel the disorientation of the camera not being as fast as you.

Molly's New Friend

Drel the Void Mage

Enter Drel, the mage of the void. A prodigy hailing from the kingdom of Byltos, Drel is an expert in a dangerous kind of magic and one that has had little study. It's very hard to learn and those that know it are few and far between. Drel serves under the mastery of another mage, where he is given the capability to learn more about void magic and make connections with important members of the Mages' Guild. Molly meets Drel trying to cross the bridge from Fredenia, attempting to head north into the Gray Kingdom. Having been denied passage, Molly offers her help, only for Drel to callously accept it. A bit closed off, Drel can come across as rude and a bit full of themself. How these two will ever get along is anyone's guess. That said, they both need to head north, so why not work together, right?

Aside from knowing how to use void magic, Drel also uses illusion magic to protect themself and distract others. They learned illusion magic long before they learned void magic, but took a quick interest in void due to the connection that they felt. For getting up close and personal with enemies, Drel uses daggers. However, Drel would sooner cast a spell than get close with a weapon. Once Drel is in your party, the spells they have to offer are quite the selection.

Where are we headed?

Both Molly and Drel can't be seen making their way to the north, so they are in search of a boat that they were told is in a secret spot somewhere in the forest. To get to that secret spot, they have to go through the cave in Molly's town. It's dark, damp, spooky and scary, but Molly is brave and Drel isn't afraid of anything ever (at least that's they tell themself). Who knows what's inside the cave? No one has been in it for a long time and the only person that has access to it only comes there to relax from time to time. Maybe there's a bunch of spooky ghosts...

That's all for now. No update fixes or anything this week, just a progress update and new features coming soon. I'll have some more to talk about next week as well, so stay tuned for that!