Howdy,

With the weapons, shields, armour, and helms all done last time, it was time to start handling their crafting.

The previous concept of "materials" was implemented in such a way that they were treated as variants of existing items - so for instance an iron sword shared the same icon, graphics &c - and was simply a copper sword with a set of bonuses pertaining to the material in question.

With materials now given their due importance, it was only right that they be given a prominent place in the crafting system.

And that's what it looks like now. Not all workbenches are broken down by material - but the ones which are make clear segregation between the level of item you're going to get.

Eventually some of the tabs will be locked - but that's something for another time, and is part of the buildings rework which I'll get into after I finish all of combat.

Other than that, all the items I added are now fully craftable. If you can get the materials for them.

Which leads to that mysterious material needed for the battleaxe in the above image. That material is a rare material which can only be found by defeating bosses in the crypt. Around half the weapons for each material will require it to make them - and these are the weapons which are improvements of the other. To give an example, an axe is always going to be better than a sword (provided their quality and material are the same), but the axe requires you to have defeated a boss and is therefore harder to make.

With that done, I took a quick break to look at the tutorials. Previously tutorials appeared in a tiny corner and there were quite a few short ones. However, upon recollection - the game really doesn't need that many tutorials. Most concepts are introduced gradually with the quests anyway (and the quests have help text too), so I distilled all the tutorials into 3 messages.

Which now appear prominently and contextually.

They'll at least get you going.

So, that's it for this week. Next week instead of the planned enemy balancing, I think I'll do the special attack rework.

Til then