Howdy, everyone!

I hope you've been having a great holiday season! It's hard to believe that 2021 is already coming to a close... It feels like just yesterday we released DFC v2.5.0, but that was all the way back in April!

In this final post for 2021, I'd like to share some news on the progress of DFC v2.7.0, shed some light on how DeltaEngine is doing, and talk about plans for 2022!

To start, let me give you some good news and bad news about DFC v2.7.0. The good news is that the update is now going to be even bigger than what I originally planned, so you'll be getting a lot of new stuff! The bad news is that the update will need more time.

DFC v2.7.0 is now anticipated to be a 2022 release.

I have no set release period in mind for v2.7.0. I'll be taking a break from development for a bit at the start of 2022, since I need to focus on university work and my other projects. I'll share in a future devlog when I'm more confident on a release date for v2.7.0.

Alright, with that out of the way, let's get started!

Improvements to DFC's Pacifist Route

For the longest time, one of the things I've been the least happy with about DFC is the game's pacifist route.

Ever since pacifism was introduced as a viable route for DFC, it's been a subject of much debate on how to improve it. I've tried various things, such as introducing PaciKiss to increase the speed of earning spares, but this was just a band-aid on top of a larger problem: Undertale's ACT system in an endless MMORPG just doesn't work... at least in its current form.

No matter what solution I might try to tack on, there's no getting around the fact that ACTing the way Undertale does it just doesn't really suit a game like DFC. Why bother choosing the same ACTs and reading the same text over and over, when you can just whack an enemy much faster and get tangible rewards from doing so (i.e. getting stronger)?

In UNDERTALE, pacifism was rewarded through its story, rather than statistics like in genocide. However, as of the current version of DFC, there is no story-related reason to be a pacifist, since the story content won't be in the game until v3.0.0. And even when story content is added, DFC is still intended to be an MMORPG that you can keep playing long-term, and games like these are built around the "grind". Unfortunately, grinding for pacifists is incredibly repetitive, and grants no real rewards like the neutral/genocide route does. Therefore, if nothing changes about pacifism, it is objectively the inferior route for the MMORPG portion of the game.

I'm not satisfied with leaving pacifism as it is. So, to improve the overall experience for pacifists while they wait for v3.0.0, the pacifist route will be getting a major overhaul in v2.7.0, starting with implementing a brand-new ACT system.

The main problem with pacifism in DFC is that Undertale's ACT mechanic was never designed to be done repeatedly like typical RPG grinding.

My original answer to this back in DF Classic Multiplayer was to simply make it so fighting was the only way to progress in the game. This was at a time when nobody knew how an Undertale MMORPG should work. Years later, I made it so pacifism was finally a viable route for progression in DFC, but this didn't solve the core issue of ACTing never being meant for long-term MMORPG gameplay.

To finally fix this in the present day, I started by boiling down the issue to three points:

• Fighting has clear progression: enemies have HP so you know exactly how much of the battle is left, and it gives the player tangible feedback as they watch the health bar drain. Acting does not have an equivalent form of feedback.

• Fighting has a reward loop: defeat more enemies to get stronger via levelling up, which feels good. Acting does not have an equivalent reward system.

• Fighting has more variety, thanks to weapon effects and stat increases. Acting is the same every single time, which makes it very repetitive.

In order to fix pacifism, I had to tackle each of these three issues. Here's what I did to do just that:

• Acting now has clear progression: coming in v2.7.0 is a new "mercy bar" mechanic, based on the new ACT system in Deltarune Chapter 2. Each enemy now has a "mercy bar" that starts at 0%. Performing ACTs that suit the enemy will increase the bar by a certain value. When the bar reaches 100%, the enemy will become spareable. This gives the player tangible feedback just like if they were watching a health bar go down.

• Acting now has a reward system: coming in v2.7.0 is a new "befriend" mechanic. Similar to the "recruit" mechanic from Deltarune Chapter 2, for each enemy you spare you get closer to "befriending" it. When you've "befriended" an enemy, they'll appear in the overworld as NPC(s) to populate the area, and you'll be able to talk to them. Turning the enemy into your friend will also make them easier to spare, by increasing how effective their ACTs are. Sparing enemies now has a tangible reward: you can populate the overworld with new NPCs, and enemies become easier to spare too!

• Acting now has more variety: coming in v2.7.0 is a new "emotion" system. Enemies can now spawn with a random emotion, which will change how you'll need to ACT with them. It'll also add a gameplay effect to the battle to add some variety, so it'll make a difference for all players too, not just pacifists. I'd like to go more in detail about this new mechanic in the next section.

Introducing DFC's New Emotion System

In general, I've always been interested in trying to find a way to expand on Undertale's ACT system. I feel that the ACT system still has a lot of potential to grow, and after Deltarune Chapter 2 released, I've been thinking about it more often.

For me, the main thing I'd like to change about the ACT system is the repetition: once you figure out the correct ACT(s) to spare the enemy, that's the one and only solution. You can just repeat the same solution each time you encounter that enemy, and it makes them feel less like individuals and more like carbon-copies of each other. I think one of the coolest aspects of Undertale is how the enemies feel like actual characters with their own personalities. However, because their ACTs work the same every time you encounter them, that feeling ends up getting lost.

Deltarune Chapter 2 definitely improved upon the ACT system with the inclusion of more minigames when ACTing. The minigames, such as throwing Kris at Werewire's wires, offer unique gameplay for each enemy that helps prevent the feeling of repetition. However, the issue of the same solution working each time and the enemies feeling like carbon-copies of each other still remains present.

So, I started thinking about ways to make the same type of enemy still feel unique from each other. For example, if I encounter a Froggit, I could then encounter another Froggit who behaves differently from the first one, making them feel like individuals.

Thinking of how to implement such a system, I thought about what could make enemies unique from each other without being overwhelming to add or confusing to play. At first I considered a "personality" system, where maybe all enemies had different variants like how Snowdrake has Chilldrake, but the whole appeal of the enemies was their unique personalities, so trying to give them different personalities seemed to defeat the point.

In the end, I came up with the idea of giving emotions to the enemies, since surely you'd need to interact with an enemy differently based on how the enemy was feeling, right?

This resulted in the new EMOTION SYSTEM, coming in v2.7.0! Here's how it works:

• When you encounter an enemy, it will have a random chance of spawning with an emotion applied to it. The possible emotional states are: "ANGRY", "SAD", "HAPPY", "AFRAID", and "DISGUSTED". If an enemy doesn't have an emotion applied, we'll just refer to that as being "neutral", and they'll behave normally.

• You'll be able to tell what emotion an enemy has by their facial expression, as well as a little icon next to their HP/mercy bars.

• Emotions don't change what ACTs an enemy has, but they change how effective they are. For example, an ACT that gives +50% when the enemy is happy might only give +10% when they're angry. The key is to choose the ACTs that best suit their emotion. You'll get clues from flavor text and their dialogue on what the enemy would be most responsive to.

• Not only do emotions affect ACTs, but they also have an affect on gameplay, which we'll call an "emotion effect". These make it so emotions aren't just something for pacifists to pay attention to, all players will want to be aware of the enemy's emotion.

• The "emotion effect" is different for each emotion:

  • "ANGRY" enemies will have increased ATK.

  • "SAD" enemies will have increased DEF.

  • "HAPPY" enemies will have longer attacks.

  • "AFRAID" enemies will make your invincibility frames shorter.

  • "DISGUSTED" enemies will slow down your movement.

• To combat these emotion effects, you'll want to make use of your SKILLS. I've often heard players say that SKILLS have been underutilized, so to answer this, these emotion effects are direct counterparts to certain SKILLS. It's recommended that you make use of them to overcome these emotion effects! Keep in mind that using a SKILL doesn't take up a turn, so use them as much you like!

So what do you think? I'm eager to see how you guys respond to this new system when the update releases! It's a bit experimental, so if necessary I'll make changes to the system in future patches based on your feedback. We'll see how it goes!

Notable Additions coming in DFC v2.7.0

In this section, I'll just briefly go over some other new additions coming in v2.7.0!

NEW FILE SELECT SYSTEM

This has been requested for a long time, and now that there are more differences between pacifist and genocide routes, it makes sense to give players the ability to have multiple saves.

However, there's a catch: it is technically not possible for players to have more than one save file on GMServer, which is the service that DFC uses for the multiplayer server. To get around this, I made it so there are duplicates of the most important stats, like LV, EXP, G, etc., and depending on which "save file" you choose, it'll load up the corresponding stat. This means that the majority of your progress is shared between "save files", such as your bestiary entries, pog collections, partners, PvP stats, Undernet unlocks, etc.

Basically, the only difference between "save files" is your primary stats like your LV and EXP. Everything else is shared between files, because otherwise everyone's player data on GMServer would increase by 3x their current size, which would be absolutely awful lol. The new "save files" in DFC are just to let you try out different routes, they do not serve to completely reset your progress. You'd need to do a "True Reset" to completely get rid of everything.

Anyway, I hope you get some good use out of the new "save files", and hopefully it makes it less of a hassle to experience everything the game has to offer!

NEW ACHIEVEMENTS SYSTEM

This has been requested for a while, too! The old "trophy" system is being replaced with proper in-game achievements! From the File Select menu, you can check out the new in-game achievements. If you're a completionist, the achievements are basically a checklist of all the stuff you need to do to officially "complete" DFC. There's even a "rank" based on how much of the game you've completed!

Here's a mockup of how the achievements menu might look (still a work-in-progress):

Don't worry if you liked having the trophies, they still exist, they've just been updated to match the new achievements!

NEW ABILITY TO FEED ITEMS TO PARTNERS

Currently, you can only increase the "Friendship Level" of your partners by using them in battles. Each battle you get into while you have a partner active will increase their Friendship Experience by 1 point. Admittedly, this makes levelling up your partners very, very slow.

So, to speed things up and to give items more use, it is now possible to feed items to partners! Each item you feed to a partner will increase its Friendship Experience by a certain amount, depending on how good the item is.

NEW "BLOCKING" SYSTEM FOR ENEMIES

Currently, enemies that have a higher LV than you can outright block your attacks from doing anything. I've thought about ways to improve this system so that you aren't completely forced to do the areas in order, and I've come up with a decent solution.

The blocking system will still work as it currently does, but from now on, "blocking" won't outright stop your attack. Instead, it'll just significantly decrease the amount of damage you do to the enemy. This means it is now more feasible to try and kill higher-level enemies much earlier if you so wish, as long as you have the skill and patience to last long enough!

NEW ASSETS FOR SCARLET FOREST

In the previous Progress Report, I showed off the new assets for the Field of Hopes and Dreams. Now, I'm able to show you the new assets for Scarlet Forest!

The new tiles were done by -ItsJustRandomMe-. I think it was quite clever to make the forest trees look more like the trees seen across the entire Dark World. To me it makes the world more cohesive that way.

With this, we've made more progress towards our goal of completely replacing the majority of assets taken from UT/DR. I think it's really important for fangames to have their own visual identity, so in the future for DFC we'll be tackling more of the indoor areas that still haven't been redone, like Home, New Home, Grillby's, Sans and Pap's house, etc.

Check out some of these new music tracks!

There's some new music tracks coming in DFC v2.7.0! To start off, here's the new PvP theme for Omori! Previously the game just used "Oyasumi" straight from the original game, but we now have a new custom-made theme titled "ENCORE", arranged by Perpetrator!

The other new music track coming in DFC v2.7.0 is for a brand-new subarea called "The Carnival", which also happens to be the name of the track. I'm sure you can imagine who might be lurking deep within this location...

Also, in case you didn't hear it in v2.6.0, here is the custom-made PvP theme for Madotsuki, arranged by Snowy!

What's going on with DELTAENGINE?

Next up, I'd like to talk about DeltaEngine. It's been well over a year since I revealed the engine, and I understand that a lot of you are eager to start using it for your own fangames.

As I'm sure you're aware, Deltarune received a continuation with the release of Chapter 2 back in September. It introduced a lot of new mechanics, which I've since been making progress on adding into the engine. However, as I'm sure you can imagine, this has increased how much longer the engine needs until it will be finished.

Anyway, I'd like to share with you what I've been doing with the engine since the last time I showed it off. First, here's the new file select menu:

You might notice that there's a language option at the bottom (English/Spanish). This is just a placeholder, but I do intend to try adding basic language support to the engine, giving you a foundation to add as many languages as you'd like.

Second, I've made progress with finishing up the menu systems, particularly the EQUIP menu! You can customize how much storage space there is for weapons and armors, and you can also add custom weapon/armor types.

Third, I've improved the battle transitions so that they're now practically 1:1 with Deltarune. I had to do it slightly different before because of how battles worked in DeltaEngine, but I've revamped a lot of the inner workings of the battle system since then, which I'd like to talk about in more detail later. There's also some new dialogue I added throughout the example game, to make it feel more like an actual game.

Fourth, I added more cutscenes throughout the example game, such as getting Susie to join your party. Adding stuff like this helps to give examples for how to do certain effects in the engine, such as auto-skipping to the next message (like when Ralsei is about to say "engine" but cuts himself off in this particular cutscene), or getting the party members to walk on their own into formation.

Fifth, I added treasure chests, which you can put items, weapons, and armors into. (Note: I wrote the dialogue on the sign earlier this year, before Christmas lol.)

Alright, now here's what you're probably most interested to see. Here's the new ACT system from Chapter 2!

And of course, the recruitment system is here too.

You can toggle if you want your game to use the new ACT system or not by toggling the "gamemode" variable in the controller object.

Anyway, earlier I mentioned that I'd like to talk more about how I've revamped the battle system. If you're not interested in my rambling technical jargon, then you can skip ahead, but if you're interested, then read on!

On top of the new additions from Chapter 2, I've also been revamping other aspects of DeltaEngine, with a particular focus being on the battle system. What's always kind of bothered me is that, in the actual Deltarune, the battles all take place in the overworld rather than a separate battle screen like in Undertale. In Undertale, the overworld used a 320x240 resolution, while the battles used a 640x480 resolution. This was fine because they took place on separate screens ("rooms"). However, while Deltarune also uses a 640x480 resolution for its battles, it does not make use of a separate battle screen. Instead, the battles take place right there in the overworld. This doesn't sound like a problem, but because the overworld is still meant to look like it has a 320x240 resolution, the compromise is that all of the Dark World's sprite assets needed to be doubled in size.

I didn't want to make DeltaEngine require assets be doubled in size for the Dark World, since I personally think it's inefficient and a hassle to work with, so originally I made it so the battle screen in DeltaEngine was in a separate room, like it was in Undertale. I tried to mask the room-changing with a slightly different battle transition. However, this meant that battles that take place in the overworld itself (like the King boss fight in Chapter 1) weren't actually possible in DeltaEngine, and would need to be faked by using a background sprite... which wasn't efficient either. So recently I've spent quite a bit of time figuring out how to get the battle system to work in the overworld without needing to double the size of the Dark World assets... and I figured it out!

What I've done is this: I didn't change anything about the overworld itself, the overworld is still at a 320x240 resolution (as it should be). What I did change is how the battle system draws itself. Essentially what's happening is that battles still function in a 640x480 space, but I use a combination of Draw GUI events and some other visual trickery to get everything to draw on the 320x240 viewport. This might sound simple, but it took tons of work to get it all to look right, since there's so many elements to the battle system. Getting the party members and enemies to draw correctly took the longest, since they're now being drawn in the 320x240 resolution rather than the 640x480 resolution, which required a lot of reworking. Here's a GIF to give you an idea of how it all works in the overworld:

It's still a work-in-progress, but I'm very happy that I was able to do something that not even the actual Deltarune does!

Anyway, I'm aiming to get DeltaEngine finished sometime next year. However, I am still unsure of an exact release period. I'd like to get it out as soon as possible for everyone, but I also think that we should release a game made with the engine alongside it, which would be DONTFORGET... in 2023. We'll see though, maybe I'll end up releasing a smaller game that shows off what the engine can do and release the engine along with it, instead of waiting for DF to get finished. No promises though... perhaps this small game idea is doomed to remain in perpetual darkness...

I'll let you all know when I'm ready to release DeltaEngine. In hindsight, I wish I hadn't announced it as a public engine as early as I had, but rest assured that it will be available for you all to use someday.

What's next for the DF Project in 2022?

2022 is going to be a big year for the DF project!

Starting off, the first thing we're going to do is get DFC v2.7.0 released within the next few months. My aim with this update is to polish up the game experience and provide enough new content to keep the game fresh for a while. We'll take as long as we need to finish DFC v3.0.0, which will be the next and final major update to DFC. I'd like to get DFC v3.0.0 done by the summer, but if it takes longer than that, then that's how it is.

It's wild to think that DF has never had a "complete" game since its first release back in 2016. I don't count DF Classic Multiplayer as a complete game, since it was always meant to be a demo of something better, and the only reason it was "finished" was because I just stopped working on it. It's been a bumpy road since DF Classic, but here we are, years later, now the closest we've ever been to having a finished DF game.

In 2022, no matter what, we're going to complete DFC. It will finally be a finished game, over two years after its first release (v2.0.0). Even if things don't turn out the way we planned and the singleplayer DONTFORGET game doesn't get finished, I'll still be happy that we got DFC finished. Not a lot of fangames out there can claim to be a fully completed game. The team and I are stupidly ambitious and want to make two completed games, but even just completing one of them will be a victory in my eyes.

Don't let that scare you though, I have no intent of not completing the singleplayer DONTFORGET game. It's what the project has been leading up to the whole time, after all. One way or another, we'll release that sucker, even if half of it is a game and the other half needs to be a book or something. The aim is for a full game, of course, I'm just saying! Somehow, it'll get done.

After we complete DFC with the release of v3.0.0 (and any subsequent patches), we'll be getting started on the singleplayer DF game, being made with DeltaEngine. I don't expect to be able to show you much of the singleplayer DF game in 2022, but we'll just see how things pan out!

To sum it up, we're gonna release DFC v2.7.0 and DFC v3.0.0 next year, and get started on the singleplayer DF game afterwards. I hope you'll stick with us for the journey!

Conclusion

That's pretty much it. I hope you all enjoyed the holidays and have a happy new year! Bring on 2022, what could possibly go wrong?! *nervous laughter*

Oh yeah, and as always, stay determined!