Devlog 26

hey guys.

I turned the dragon fight into a bunch of small fixes that all made the fights read better.nothing shiny, just the stuff that was quietly wrong.

stuff that was supposed to do stuff but didnt lol

the dragon fight had announcements. not the kind players see - the kind thatonly exist in code. the enrage thresholds (“The Dragon Remembers” at 60%,35%, 15%) and the hoard reveal were computed, and then… dropped. a soundplayed, a title was built, and nobody ever saw the title. the function wasliterally called announce and it announced nothing.

same story in the special attacks. the imports for title packets were sittingthere, imported and never used. so now the scripted set-pieces finally namethemselves:

• Burrow - “The Dragon Descends” before the ground starts shifting
• Seize - “The Dragon Takes You” right before it swoops to carry you aloft
• Rifts - “Reality Tears” as the gravity rifts start opening around you

i’m genuinely annoyed this was broken for as long as it was. the drama of thedragon fight was all there in the code - the escalation, the set-pieces, the named thresholds - and none of it reached the player. now it does.

the sentinel’s grab is escapable now

the crown sentinel’s grab-and-hurl from a few devlogs ago was a one-way trip.if it got its hands on you, you watched the animation and then got launched.no counterplay, which felt wrong for a fight that’s supposed to be about reading the boss.

so it got the same rule the warden and golem already had: deal enough damage mid-hold and it drops you early. 18 damage is the breaking point - enough that you can’t just tickle it, but enough that a player who’s actually fighting back gets out before the throw. it also shields against the worst feeling case, where the hold just deletes you with nothing to do about it.

and while I was in there: the goal list had two goals at priority 4, whichmeant the sentinel’s behavior was occasionally picking the wrong thing to doat the same weight. renumbered so the hierarchy actually means something.

next up

the dragon’s hoard, the sentinel’s other moves, and the stronghold is still missing its advancements - the burrow is found, but it doesn’t have a single achievement attached to finding it. that’s next.

the fights are starting to feel like they have a conversation with you now.the dragon tells you what it’s about to do, and you get to do something about it.

That is the top view of the crown sentinel btw, it looks pretty dope imo