Howdy, everyone!

It's been a while since I last wrote a devlog. Sorry to keep you waiting for so long! On the bright side, since a good chunk of time has passed, I've got quite a lot to share with you!

The original plan for v2.6.0 was for it to be more of a quality-of-life update to prepare for v3.0.0, but over the past few months, it has grown into one of the most content-heavy updates in a while!

I'll divide this devlog into different sections for each major addition that I want to go over, and then a section for all the other stuff that's worth mentioning. After that, I'd like to talk about my plans for the rest of the year, so read until the end if you want to hear more about that!

Now, without further ado, let's get started!

Introducing: the DFC EDITOR!

First up, I'd like to introduce the DFC EDITOR, a brand new set of tools coming in v2.6.0 that will allow you to create and share your very own maps, create custom NPCs and props, create custom textboxes, take control of the view camera, and more!

I remember a few years ago that I was shown a skit video some players had made together in DF Classic. From what I recall, they recorded a video of themselves roleplaying as Papyrus, Sans, and Frisk getting up to japes in Snowdin. It reminded me a lot of how people made videos using games like Super Mario 64 and Garry's Mod, and at the time I thought about adding tools to DF Classic to make doing creative stuff with the game a lot easier, but I never did.

Now, DFC is a much larger game than DF Classic ever was, and it has a lot of potential for allowing players to get creative with it. If there was ever a good time to add those creative tools to the game, it would be now!

So, that's what I did! DFC v2.6.0 now has a new "EDITOR" menu when playing in Offline Mode, which looks like this:

Let's go over everything that's in here!

First up is the new Snapshot Mode. With this, you can take control of the camera, allowing you to view the room in its entirety and frame the perfect shot! This tool is available in both online and offline play, which makes it useful for taking group pictures with your friends, getting images for memes, and for making sprite comics!

Next up is the new Map Creator, the heftiest tool of them all. This is a fully-fledged room editor that allows you to create your own DFC rooms! You can use the included tilesheets or even import your own! You can even save maps as .dfmap files to revisit them or share them with others. The map editor has a lot of uses, such as creating custom environments for sprite comics, memes, videos, etc!

In the game folder you'll see a new folder called "Maps". This is where you should put all of the maps you make or maps you want to play, as this is where the game will read them from. To load maps to play, use the "Load Custom Map" option.

Next are the new spawnables! You can spawn in controllable NPCs and props to place around the room! You can choose to import custom sprites to create your own NPC or prop, or you can spawn an NPC that uses the sprites of your current vessel. Using these, you can create scenes with your favorite characters! Like the other tools, this is perfect for memes, videos, and sprite comics.

When you're done with the NPCs or props, you can either leave the room and they'll automatically disappear, or you can use the "Erase all NPCs/Props" option.

Next are Custom Textboxes! You can import a custom portrait sprite and create your own dialogue boxes. As you can probably guess by now, this is intended to be very useful for making memes and sprite comics!

There's also the ability to activate No-Clip, allowing you to pass through walls. Don't get any funny ideas, this won't allow you to get past locked doors lol, since exits become disabled when you activate it. No-Clip is intended for placing props exactly where you need them or just to explore a room in its entirety.

Lastly, there's an option to restart the room. This will reset the room to how it was when you first entered it, which is useful for quickly getting rid of custom props or disabling no-clip.

Again, let me reiterate that these tools are exclusive to Offline Mode! With the exception of Snapshot Mode, which is also available when playing online, none of these tools can be used outside of Offline Mode (for obvious reasons lol).

I can't wait to see what kind of stuff you guys will make with these tools! Feel free to share anything you make on the DF GameJolt Community, I'd love to see it!

Introducing: NEW ENEMIES!

One of the most frequent requests I get is to add more enemies to the game. At first I had no intention of adding any more, as I felt that our current amount was enough, but I began to feel that the CORE was a heavily under-utilized area, and that maybe I should do something with it.

The end result was the CORE getting expanded with new rooms, and three new enemies to encounter!

First up is Final Froggit!

Then we've got Whimsalot!

And finally, Astigmatism!

These enemies are now the toughest in the game, a position that was originally held by the Dark World enemies. The CORE now also has its own Gold Grind room, so once you're done with the Dark World, there's now somewhere else to go!

I hope you enjoy these new enemies!

Introducing: the PARTY SYSTEM!

Despite being an online-multiplayer game, most of DFC's gameplay doesn't actually require other people. Of course, there's stuff like PvP and Free-For-All to play with others, but generally you can play the game all by yourself and still experience most of it. This was a conscious design decision, as I wanted DFC to be the kind of game where you can make friends with other players and hang out together, but you can also go off on your own and still have fun. I wanted the game to accommodate both the social players and solo players.

However, this meant that you couldn't actually join other players to do one of the main activities of the game: battling enemies and earning rewards. You were either hanging out with others or out battling, you couldn't combine the two all that much.

But this is no longer the case! I'm pleased to announce DFC's new Party System! Using Undernet, you can now create a party by coming up with a party name and inviting up to 3 other players to join you while battling!

You might be wondering how this works. Basically, forming a party allows you to share the rewards you get from battling with your friends! You won't be doing battles together with your party members, since four players vs one enemy would be pretty broken lol. Instead, there'll be a live feed in the bottom left where you'll see when a party member has defeated an enemy, and it'll tell you what rewards you got from it! In short, it's DFC Co-op!

In the C Menu, you'll see the icons of your party members in the bottom right, like this:

Also, don't worry, pacifists! If you form a party with a genocider, you will not earn any of the EXP they get. Likewise, genociders will not earn any SPARES that pacifists get either, so you can join a party together without having to worry about ruining each others' routes!

Forming a party is pretty useful for getting EXP or SPARES much faster than if you were doing it by yourself. I hope you'll enjoy getting your friends together to play the game cooperatively!

Introducing: WEAPON/ARMOR EFFECTS!

If you've played neutral or genocide in UNDERTALE, then you probably remember that some weapons changed up the FIGHT option a bit. They might add more reticles to hit on the target screen, or make it so you have to spam the reticle in the center to deal damage. This helped to change up the gameplay a bit.

However, DFC's weapons didn't do this. They all functioned exactly the same, the only difference being the amount of damage they dealt. Admittedly, this isn't very engaging. After a while, it gets repetitive to hit the same reticle in the center over and over, with no variation.

Well, this is no longer the case, as DFC now has a new "Effects" system! In your Equip menu, you'll notice new text that lists what effect each weapon or armor has. Not every equipment has an effect, but most of them do!

There are three types of effects for weapons:

• Additional reticles to aim with (the number varies).

• A "rapidfire" reticle where you spam to deal damage.

• Increased or decreased reticle speed.

When you have additional reticles, you'll need to hit all of them in the center to deal maximum damage. You might notice that when you hit them in the center, they glow yellow. If you manage to hit all of the reticles in the center, then you'll deal additional bonus damage! This is very useful for defeating tougher enemies quicker.

When you have the "rapidfire" reticle, you'll have one reticle where you'll need to spam the confirm button to deal maximum damage. For each button press, a target icon will appear on the enemy. The faster you press the reticle repeatedly, the more damage you'll deal to them.

As for armor, the effects they grant vary:

• The "Cowboy Hat" will decrease your reticle speed, to help you aim your shots better.

• The "Tem Armor" will heal 1 HP every turn.

• The "Locket" will double your GOLD earnings.

• The "Epic Shades" will upgrade all of your old weapons to 99 ATK while wearing it, allowing you to make use of them in the post-game.

• The "Broken Locket" will double your EXP earnings, to help you reach LV 99 quicker if that's your goal.

I hope this will help spice up the gameplay a bit! Older weapons and armors now have their uses even after you've gotten stronger, so give them a try!

Introducing: REVAMPED FREE-FOR-ALL!

Believe it or not, but when I first started working on what would become DFC, FFA's original intent was to be the replacement for PvP! Thankfully I changed my mind in the end, and FFA (Free-For-All) became just an additional mode. Unfortunately, this meant that I didn't put that much focus on FFA, and as a result the mode has remained pretty empty these days due to lack of interest.

I didn't want to leave FFA to rot like that anymore, not without at least giving it another try, so I've decided to completely revamp it! FFA has now been reworked into a genuine top-down shooter minigame in DFC!

In the old FFA, you would shoot magic bullets at other players to force them into a quick attack segment, kind of like the lasers in Hotland or Undyne's spears in Undertale. However, this was pretty clunky and had awful pacing. What's the fun in shooting someone and then waiting around to see if you got them or not? Well, now I've completely removed the attack segment, and FFA is now a proper twin-stick shooter!

FFA has a new weapon upgrade system, which upgrades your weapon as you defeat more opponents! You start off with a weapon that can shoot one bullet per shot, but if you last long enough to earn the Tier-3 weapon, you can shoot up to three bullets per shot!

Like in the old FFA, there are also perks you can find in chests around the map. There are three perks you can obtain, although you can only have one equipped at a time:

• Faster reload times.

• Increased defense from bullets.

• Heal 2 HP when you defeat an opponent.

I've also replaced the old "Practice Mode" with a new mode called "Target Practice", as shown below. This basically allows you to play FFA on your own with AI-controlled bots! So even if there's no one else playing FFA, you can always play some Target Practice if you've got an itch for some shooting action.

I hope you'll give the new FFA a "shot" when v2.6.0 releases!

Introducing: TWO NEW VESSELS!

That's right, there are two new characters coming to DFC in v2.6.0! I know I've said before that I didn't have plans to add any more characters, but I figured a few more wouldn't hurt! ;)

I'm pleased to announce that Madotsuki from "Yume Nikki" and Omori from "OMORI" are coming to DFC!

Madotsuki comes with her iconic pose of pinching her cheek to wake up from her dreams like in the original game, and her local chat icons are all based on some of the "effects" from Yume Nikki, too!

As for Omori, it wouldn't be right for him to go anywhere without his friends, so he comes with three costumes: Aubrey, Kel, and Hero!

Also, their local chat icons use different-colored backgrounds based on the emotion they're showing, inspired by the emotions system from OMORI!

If you're curious about their PvP types, Madotsuki is a fighting type and Omori is a water type! We're also currently working on custom PvP battle themes for them, which you'll be able to hear when v2.6.0 releases!

I hope you look forward to playing as these new characters!

Other new additions coming to v2.6.0!

To wrap up the v2.6.0 news, here's some other stuff coming in the next update that's worth mentioning:

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1) VENDING MACHINES

In each area you'll now find a vending machine! By default these vending machines are locked, but after you've reached LV 20 or gotten 2000 spares, these vending machines will become useable. From them you can purchase new drinks that grant useful effects! There are four drinks available:

• "PaciKiss" - makes enemies immediately spareable for the next 30 minutes.

• "GLD BRU" - makes gold enemies more common for the next 30 minutes.

• "Crystal Bepis" - makes diamond enemies a bit more common for the next 30 minutes.

• "GamerBlood" - makes corruption battles a bit more common for the next 30 minutes.

You can only have one drink active at a time, but you can stock them up in your inventory like regular items. These should hopefully be quite useful for those who are seeking to 100% complete the game!

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2) NEW WARP SYSTEM

As you probably know, DFC's current warp system only has six warps available, one for each area. This can make travelling to specific locations a bit of a chore. Well, you'll be pleased to hear that this is no longer the case, as v2.6.0 introduces a new warp system, where every save point in the game can now be warped to!

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3) NEW HOTLAND GRAPHICS

Hotland has received new overworld tiles, kindly provided by Mrky!

We're also currently looking into getting new assets for the Dark World, but this might have to wait for a future update.

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4) NEW LOCAL CHAT UI

You might have noticed in some earlier screenshots that the local chat looked a bit different, and you'd be right! Local Chat has received a brand-new sleeker look, so that a third of your screen is no longer taken up by a large block of messages lol.

However, if you prefer the old look, there's a new option in the settings menu where you can toggle the appearance of local chat to suit your needs.

There's also a new "simple" look that removes player icons, so that local chat can take up as little space as possible if you'd prefer it that way.

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5) NEW "ONLINE" MENU

In previous versions of the game, one of the CELL menu buttons was labelled "GameJolt", and it would take you to the DF GameJolt Community. This button has now been replaced with a new button labelled "ONLINE", which brings up a menu with various useful options, such as viewing your bounties, viewing your PvP statistics, viewing and submitting to leaderboards, and so on.

Of course, this button would have no use in Offline Mode, so this button becomes the new "EDITOR" button to access the DFC EDITOR tools when playing offline.

You might also notice that there's a new "KILLS" leaderboard. I figured that having just a LOVE leaderboard for genociders was a bit lame, since the maximum LV you can get is 99, so its not like there's any competitive nature to it. But now with the KILLS leaderboard, we can see who truly is the most merciless of them all!

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6) UPGRADED BADGE SYSTEM

In v2.5.2, I added new "vanity badges" that would display next to player usernames. These badges used to automatically appear depending on what route you were doing, but now there's a new option in the settings menu to choose which badge you want to display!

The badges you can choose from are:

• The new "SOUL" badge, which displays a heart icon next to your username with the color of your SOUL.

  

• The "MERCY" badge, which is the star-shaped icon that shows how merciful you are.

  

• The "LOVE" badge, which is the knife-shaped icon that shows how merciless you are.

  

And of course, like before, the "MERCY" and "LOVE" badges change from bronze, gold, up to diamond depending on your spare count or LV.

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7) NEW BAN SCREEN

Previously, if you got banned from DFC, the game itself would not tell you why. You would have to find out that information yourself by asking an admin, which most people didn't do, so they just assumed that they were banned forever and got upset. This wasn't fun for anybody.

To solve this issue, v2.6.0 now has a new ban screen. If you try to login with a banned account, the game will now tell you the reason you were banned (if there was one written) and how long your ban lasts, giving you the exact date and time that you'll be unbanned.

Hopefully you won't ever have to see this screen, but it's there for those who unfortunately do.

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8) IMPROVED MOBILE KEYBOARD

Here it is, mobile players. You guys have been asking for a new keyboard for a while, and I've heard your requests. The new keyboard coming to the Android port in v2.6.0 has been redesigned with a cleaner layout, larger buttons, and all of its previous issues fixed. I hope it helps you enjoy the game on mobile devices a bit more!

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And that's all I want to share with you about v2.6.0 for now! There's some other stuff that I haven't shown yet, so be sure to check out v2.6.0 when it releases!

What's next for DF in 2021?

So, in terms of plans for the rest of the year, let's start with DFC v2.6.0's release date. While I had initially wanted to get this update out earlier in the summer break, it still needs a bit more time in the oven.

For now, I am aiming to release the update on September 15th, which is next month. This date has significance as it'll be Undertale's 6th anniversary! I thought it would be nice to get a new update out for the occassion.

Hopefully we're able to get it out in time for this date, but if there's a delay, I'll release another devlog on the 15th instead. Either way, I'll see you again on the 15th!

As for v3.0.0, you might recall that I had planned for DFC to be completed in its entirety by the end of this summer. I wanted to release v3.0.0 as soon as possible, so that we could begin on DF Story Mode before 2021 ended.

However, as I'm sure you can tell since v2.6.0 isn't out yet, this is no longer the case. I've decided to drop my plan of starting DF Story Mode this year, and instead I want to dedicate the rest of 2021 to finishing DFC.

My current aim is to have DFC v3.0.0 released by the end of the year, or maybe early-2022 if need be. During that time, I am also interested in releasing a v2.7.0, with a focus on upgrading the PvP system a bit with new attacks. I'm not sure when it will release, or if v2.7.0 might just end up merging with v3.0.0 anyway, but for now that's where we're at.

After DFC is completed, we will begin on DF Story Mode sometime in 2022. I'm very excited to begin working on it, I think it'll be a nice breath of fresh air after the team and I have focused on multiplayer for so long.

While I still don't have a particular release window in mind for DF Story Mode, I at least anticipate it to be finished sometime in 2023, although getting it done by the end of 2022 is not impossible either. We'll just have to see.

Conclusion

Well, there you have it! This has been quite a long devlog, but it was also a long wait between this one and the last, so I hope the wait has been worth it.

Thank you all so much for your patience and for continuing to support the game. I can't wait for you guys to get your hands on v2.6.0!

Anyway, thanks for reading, and as always, stay determined!