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Game Loop & Encounter Structure
The game is structured around missions containing escalating encounter blocks.
Current direction:
- A mission is a larger act or arc.
- A mission may contain multiple encounter blocks.
- All missions have encounters in multiples of 5.
- A mission may have multiple bosses.
- A mission may have multiple safe rooms.
Examples:
- Small mission: 5 encounters, with the 5th encounter being a boss.
- Large mission: 10, 15, 20, or more encounters.
Every block of 5 encounters follows this pattern:
- Encounter 1
- Encounter 2
- Encounter 3
- Encounter 4
- Safe Room
- Boss Encounter / Encounter 5
- Safe Room after boss if the mission continues and this boss is not the final boss.
Rule:
- There is a safe room before each boss.
- There is a safe room after each boss.
- Except when that boss is the final boss of the mission.
- Encounter 1
- Encounter 2
- Encounter 3
- Encounter 4
- Safe Room
- Boss / Encounter 5
- Return to Hub
- Encounter 1
- Encounter 2
- Encounter 3
- Encounter 4
- Safe Room
- Boss / Encounter 5
- Safe Room
- Encounter 6
- Encounter 7
- Encounter 8
- Encounter 9
- Safe Room
- Boss / Encounter 10
- Return to Hub
Confirmed flow:
- Encounter ends.
- Battle Summary Screen appears.
- If next node is a safe room, transition to Safe Room.
- If mission is complete, transition to Hub.
- If party died, transition to Hub with checkpoint restoration.
See:
The safe room is a UI menu overlay with a camping-style background or similar presentation.
It is not currently planned as a fully explorable 3D hub.
Confirmed safe room services:
- View party status.
- Spend generic skill points.
- Purchase abilities.
- Equip and compare gear.
- Access stash.
- Consumables-only shop.
Current direction:
- Safe room shop sells consumables only.
- Full gear purchasing is reserved for the Hub.
Current direction:
- The hub is a separate meta-area between missions.
- The hub can do everything the safe room can do.
- The hub has more options than safe rooms.
Confirmed or likely hub services:
- Full shop.
- Crafting.
- Purchasing gear.
- Magic find upgrades.
- Mission selection.
- Mission launch.
- Party management.
Open questions:
- Does the hub fully heal the party?
- Does the hub have a stash?
- Is crafting hub-only?
- Can the player leave a mission voluntarily and preserve checkpoint progress?
Current direction:
- The safe room fully restores HP.
- The safe room fully restores MP/stamina or equivalent combat resources.
- The safe room removes negative status conditions.
- The safe room does not automatically restock consumables.
Confirmed direction:
- There is no direct clickable Retry button on the death screen.
- When the party is defeated, the player returns to the Hub.
- The mission remains available in the Hub mission UI.
- The mission resumes from the last safe room checkpoint.
- If the party wipes before the first safe room, the mission resumes from the pre-mission start state.
- Consumables reset to the state they were in at the last safe room checkpoint, or before mission start if no safe room was reached.
Confirmed direction:
- If the player manually chooses to return to the hub, the mission resets completely.
Open questions:
- Should voluntary abandon preserve any resources?
- Should voluntary abandon be confirmed with a warning dialog?
- Should voluntary abandon be disabled during boss fights?
The following systems are intended to be procedurally generated:
- Encounter enemy composition.
- Enemy stat scaling.
- Enemy skill selection.
- Enemy modifiers/affixes.
- Loot drops.
- Item rarity.
- Item affixes.
- Shop inventory.
- Possibly crafting materials.
The following systems are not currently planned for full procedural generation:
- 3D dungeon layout.
- Overworld map.
- Fully procedural character models.
- Fully procedural enemy models.
Enemy visuals are expected to come from hand-made model pools, while enemy stats, skills, and affixes are procedurally assembled.
Related pages: