Version 0.0.1, vertical slice

The first playable version of Wilderness Alchemist is now done, version 0.0.1. The initial version is a so called vertical slice, it has the most crucial mechanics in place, but not that much content.

After spending a lot of time with the potion brewing mechanic and the processing equipment, I started to think that I want to get this played by other people as soon as possible, so that I can get a better feeling of how to tweak and balance the mechanics. This also gave me some motivation to fix some of the bugs that I had found. I tried to fix all the bugs that I encountered, but there will definitely be some bugs still.

The list of features as of now:

•  The potion brewing mechanic. You can brew two ingredients into a potion in the cauldron in player's house. The mechanic now works as following:
  • each ingredient contains a list of effects, each having a potency.
  • if both ingredients in a potion have at least one effect in common a potion brewing succeeds, otherwise it fails.
    • This is the main effect. The main effects potency is the average of the potencies of the ingredients
  • if the ingredients contain any effects that are opposites of each other, their potencies are subtracted from each other
    • For example: If ingredient A has the effect "Haste" with potency of 1, and the ingredient B has effect "Slow" with potency 0.5, the resulting potion will have the effect Haste with potency of 0.5
  • if the ingredients contain any effects that are not complete opposites, but are considered as harmful side effects compared to the main effect, they are added as side effects
    • For example, if the main effect is "Strength", but the ingredients also contain the effects "Poison" and "Nausea", they are considered side effects. The side effects decrease the value of the potion and might cause it not to be accepted for quests.
• The book. The book contains a bit of information about the mechanics and it automatically gathers information about the ingredients the player has used. This includes the potions the ingredient has been used for, and what kind of other products the raw ingredient has been processed into.
• There are some NPCs you can talk with.
• Two of the NPCs have "quests". They require you to brew them a specific kind of potion. Note that the strength potion quest's reward is not yet implemented, the rock in the forest  is not moved. This is coming in the next update.
• A shop that sells some ingredients and the processing equipment.
• The first versions of processing equipment. These can be used for processing ingredients so that they are better suited for different kind's of potions. These are sold in the shop for one coin each so that they can be tried and tested. In future these won't all be available at the start of the game, and the effects are to be balanced and tweaked.
  • Grinder: This grinds dry ingredients into a powder. Powder adds a small boost on potency and allows for further processing.
  • Press: Presses a wet ingredient into juice. Similar to grinder but the liquid ingredients have different sort of further processing.
  • Dryer: Dries a wet ingredient so that it can be ground.
  • Boiler: Softens a dry ingredient so that it can be pressed.
  • Separator: Refines certain effects in powders. Requires two of the same ingredient to work.
  • Fermenter: Refines certain effects in powders and liquids. Requires two of the same ingredient to work.
  • Decanter: Creates a solvent out of an ingredient if the ingredient contains certain effects. These solvents can be used in the dissolver.
  • Dissolver: Mixes an ingredient and a solvent and depending on the solvent, refines some effects in the ingredient.
  • Mixer: Mixes two ingredients together. Strengthens the effects they have in common and weakens opposite effects.
  • Distiller: Strengthens the strongest effects of liquids and weakens others.
  • Burner: Balances the effects of powders.
  • Reducer: Takes a large amount of ingredient and strengthens their weakest effect
  • Purifier: Completely removes the weakest effects.
• Two areas, the main hub area with the player's house and a town, and a forest area for gathering ingredients. These are to be expanded in near future. In addition there are three enterable buildings, the player's house, a shop and a tavern. I plan to expand the forest area in the next update.
• A chest for storage. This is in player's house near the bed.
• Saving and loading. Everything meaningful such as inventories, quest states and item spawner states should be saved.