A Few Screenshots and Thoughts about TOTDC 2 (Patreon)

It's been a while, but here I am with a "sneak peek" into TOTDC 2, I guess you could say. I probably discussed some of these details before, but it's been quite a while, so this will be a good reminder even for those that have been around since the early days.

First, here is the main menu. I am still unsure about where to place the title (currently, it's covering our crew a little too much, but on the other hand, it might not look good if it's so close to the bottom of the screen). Maybe I shouldn't use the old Patreon logo, but I don't like the new one. XD

This screenshot comes directly from the first mission of the game (which also works as a tutorial for some of the mechanics). There is a fair amount going on in the UI. Some of it should probably be obvious (like the two bars representing health and shields, or how many credits you have). The willpower counter is one of the new mechanics I plan to have for the game, and it's effectively going to work like a currency of sorts: in certain situations, you'll be able to spend it to get out of bad situations and you'll be able to replenish it by compromising at times or indulging in your fetishes (if you managed to gain any during your playthrough). The downside is that running out is bad (as you might be forced into bad situations when you run out) and having fetishes also means that resisting them will lower your willpower. Your character can be "tempted" by those same fetishes, basically, and put you at a disadvantage (For a classic, imagine loving big breasts and being offered an "alternative" payment by a busty lady, so now you can either gain willpower and lose out on money, or viceversa).

Another thing we see on the top left is Celeste's portrait, which is clickable to show her personal info:

This is where I placed all info on traits (they return from TOTDC 1, so you can pick 3 out of 5 of them to customize your character at the start). It will list fetishes as well when you "develop" them. This is also a place to check out how your Celeste looks (she will show any customizations you made, and clicking on her will show off what's under the clothes, too). I also have all the gear in one place, things Celeste is carrying but that won't be usable from the inventory.

If you look back to the second screenshot, you'll see buttons below Celeste's portrait. We'll talk about those in more detail another time, but they are for the Extranet (which is a mix of a glossary and the libraries in Caliross, mechanically), your personal files (some background info on Celeste and her crew, and maybe I'll expand with other stuff later), the questlog, the inventory and finally the debug tool (good old travel sphere). Those all have tooltips, but I am still trying to figure out some details (if I show the tooltips below, they are covered by the cursor, and if I show them above, they appear over the other UI elements, for example).

Always on the second screenshot, on the right, you can see the navigation menu. That's only there for "action" sequences, and it's effectively a throwback to how old RAGS games used to work plus some new mechanics. You can move from room to room (you get a tooltip when you hover the buttons, so you know where you are going), you can examine the room with the eye button (sometimes, examining multiple times can unveil new items or interactions) and you have a button to toggle the highlight for all interactive spots. The game will have some light point and click elements, so the button can be used to find everything in a room, if you are struggling. The buttons are still a placeholder (or rather, I can't figure out what kind of look I want the buttons to have, but perhaps I should try to make them look similar to the ones in the top-left).

Something I am struggling to improve visually are the maps. Those are going to be used for most "non-action" movement around the various hubs. Right now I just have text buttons overlayed on top of the background which is obviously functional, but a bit ugly. Using buildings that light up without text (or with tooltips) would be a painful way to navigate these maps blind the first few times (and would also need extra work to make the buildings match the location and to be separate from the rest of the background during creation, which is a pain if I want to add something later on), and using a dialogue choice feels a bit lame, so I am still thinking about how to approach this.

I think this is enough of a first look, but do let me know if you have questions (or even suggestions). I guess I should also introduce the characters next time, for everyone that never played Tales Of The Drunken Cowboy 1, but I wanted to talk a bit about mechanics and the UI first, since those are easier to capture in a screenshot.