Keisi

Devlog #18: Redesigns: Perks System (Phase 2)

Added 2025-09-09 08:00:09 +0000 UTC

Good morning! New week, new Devlog!

Phase 2: What's Coming in Development

Before we start, a reminder of what you can expect in the next few weeks during Phase 2:

Stats/Perks panel
Stats/Perks system
Commissions system
Inventory panel
Journal panel
Titles system
Panty Collection panel
Achievements re-check

NOTE: I'll also be working on a few more things that aren't on the list. They are just small details that we'll talk about later.

Also, you can always check the W.I.P to see what I'm working on.

The Profession System Redesign

With that said... What's new? A new profession system.

As I said before, I was working on changing the stats (Strength, Intelligence...) to an experience system. Well, that part is now done.

This means the new Perks panel is 99% finished:

Even though it looks simple or empty now, that's because this is a first version and the max level is 15. At first, I considered making the cap 25, but I decided against it because I thought it was too much. This new system includes passives that have been fully checked and updated.

Also! Something I already explained on Friday, but I think it's worth mentioning again: there are important changes to the names of some professions. Specifically, the Locksmith will now be called "Spinner". The Sorcerer will now be called "Naturalist".

Of these two changes, the most important is for the Naturalist because its role is almost completely different. It's now more focused on everything related to nature instead of just elements. This change happened because the Sorcerer was made for a late-game part of the old project that never came (the dungeons system). And even though the Alchemy shop came in the mid-game, the profession wasn't really useful for the rest of the game, especially in the early-game. That's over now, as its passives have also been fully updated because of this redesign.

Profession Outfit

And since we're talking about the Naturalist, how about I show you the profession outfit? You've already seen it above, but I'll show it to you anyway:

Cool, right? Yeah, I know... it's the old "Specialization" outfit. Am I reusing content to save work? Yes, but also no. This means that the outfits that were for Specialization in the old project now belong to the new profession system. In the future, when you specialize in your profession, there will be new Specialization outfits.

Also, I don't know if you noticed the small detail, but... yes, Lisapi wears the profession outfit when you visit her. This is one of the benefits of the passive you unlock at profession level 15 (once unlocked, you can turn this on/off).

And that's it for the visuals, as the last few days have been all about code and more code...

Technical Work and Next Steps

Everything sounds great until you have to check point by point how this change (stats > experience) affects everything... The intro got the worst part. Luckily, it wasn't as tedious as I first thought it would be, but it still took some work.

This applies not only to the intro but also to the rest of the code. Trying to make everything use the old specialization code was a mess. In the end, I ended up deleting all the old code and writing new code almost from scratch.

In addition, the perks system, even though it's just three passives, that's three passives for four professions. So it was quite an adventure to add all of them.

It sounds like a lot of internal changes... does anything break? Well... Nah, the part where every single thing breaks is already fixed. Now I need to try each passive, profession by profession. That's why I'm going to take an extra day or two to test all of this. If I leave it for the Alpha, even if I write everything down, it won't be the same because I will have forgotten a lot of the things I changed in the code.

After I finish testing, I will make the final changes to the Perks interface and then start working on the new Stats interface. Luckily, everything will happen inside that interface. Even though I will add new variables, it won't be something I need to check carefully two times; once will be enough.