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Courage Club Improvements

August 31, 2023

Like many role-playing games (RPGs), combat is a major focus of Shroud of the Avatar. As an alternative to pitting one's skills against enemies in dangerous locations, Courage Club offers a relatively safe space for one to test their combat capabilities. For several years, players have been able to enter this "secret" location and fight five challengers, one at a time and each one tougher than the last. As time went on, players gained more skills and non-player character (NPC) enemies grew tougher. Keith added some long-overdue improvements to Courage Club with Release 117.

Entry Highlights

  • Scene creation (includes blockout, final worldbuilding, POI design, compass markers, ambient music, ambient FX, path grid implementation, storycraft, ambient lighting, interactable lighting, swimmable water, etc.)
  • Player spawning design (includes propping for spawn points and resurrection points)
  • Writing and narrative design (includes NPC keyword-and-response dialogue, NPC barks, readable book props, etc.)
  • Quest design (includes plotting, writing, markup-based scripting, NPCs, combat, puzzles, etc.)
  • NPC design (includes creation and placement of enemies, quest contacts, merchants, trainers, tutorial NPCs, and utility NPCs, as well as patrol paths, ambient emotes, and visual variations)
  • Combat design (includes triggered battles, wave battles, boss fights, and quest-related activities, and may include player abilities and NPC abilities)
  • Traps and hazards design (includes implementation of collapsing platforms, explosive objects, lava, poison gas, etc.)
  • Puzzle design (includes physical puzzles [e.g. move through a trapped corridor], mental puzzles [e.g. match 3 symbols], conversational puzzles [e.g. solve an NPC's riddle], Easter eggs, etc.)
  • Utilities design (includes creation and placement of scene exits, teleporters, doors, lights, crafting stations, elevators, etc.)
  • Propping (includes creation and placement of interactables, breakables, secret panels, readable books, player-placeable decorations, flora, rocks, etc.)
  • Rewards and collectables design (includes creation and placement of harvestable resource nodes, incidental gear and treasure, quest collectables, Easter eggs, etc.)
  • Player housing (includes Player-Owned Towns implementation, housing structures creation, housing lots maintenance)
  • Art (includes creation of NPC visual variations and inventory icons)
  • RMT store assistance (includes creation of player-placeable decorations and player housing structures, and related store imagery)

Listed below are some specific improvements made to this scene.

More enemies: The number of challengers was increased from five to eleven.

Bigger arena: The original boxy version of Courage Club was replaced with a larger, circular arena that included a separate "closet" for each enemy waiting to join the fight.

NPCs grouped into brackets: Challengers were organized into three brackets. The original challengers made up the first brackets, and the remaining eight were separated into brackets to and three. Brackets ended with a uniquely named "champion" with a custom appearance and dialogue.

Leaderboards: With a programmers help, success was now tracked in the game's leaderboards, supporting any bragging rights players cared to claim.

Daily quests: A daily turn-in quest was added to encourage players to return to Courage Club.

Improved rewards: Additional rewards were added, including decorative tokens and banners that players could place in their in-game homes, as well as additional "Courage" points (related to the game's "Virtue"/karma system) for players who prove they could go the distance.

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