Kalia and the Goblins

Hello all! It's been a while since the last KatFS devlog, but I will assure you that development has been ongoing on chapter 3 of the demo! In fact, I wanted to share an important aspect of this new chapter here, the new foes that Kalia will be facing: goblins!

These creatures have made the underground ruins their hideout, establishing a settlement within the remnants of the ancient buried city. As such, they boast much higher intelligence than any of Kalia's previous foes, being able to use more diversified tactics and react to how the encounter is developing. Goblins will provide the player with their biggest challenge yet!

Currently the goblins have about 95% of their sprites done, which will be showcased here alongside a description for their planned behavior. Bear in mind that these are subject to change before the release of chapter 3.

The Rogue

The goblin rogue may seem similar to the "dagger skeleton" already present in chapters 1 and 2, but their behavior is quite different from their boney counterparts. Rather than just chasing Kalia and slashing at her, they will instead circle around her from a safe distance until they're ready to strike, only then approaching her, making their attack, and rolling away swiftly. These slippery goblins will also attempt to dodge Kalia's attacks if they can see them coming.

The Sniper

Goblin snipers are much more dangerous than their skeleton counterparts, equipped with a crossbow instead of a regular bow. They will stay away from Kalia, hiding behind cover until they're ready to strike. They can fire their shots from a greater range, with faster projectiles. Their main weaknesses are their complacency while tucked behind cover and their long aiming time, allowing the player to approach them and seek cover from their attacks respectively.

The Brute

Why use clever tactics when you could just slap on as much armor as possible and carry around a big sword? Goblin brutes go back to basics, slowly chasing Kalia and dueling her until only one remains... Well, if she wasn't being attacked by the rest of the goblin squad at least. Thanks to their heavy gear, these goblins are quite durable and fire-resistant, and hit hard. But as you might have guessed, their slowness is also their most exploitable aspect.

The Mage

A raiding party wouldn't be complete without a squishy wizard. These gobbos can come in different flavors of magic (indicated by their staff color, which is white in the default sprite), but a few things are certain about all of them: they will avoid direct combat, they will fling spells at Kalia, and they will be very squishy.

The  Cleric

The first goblin of the list to be classed as "non-combatant", these foes have no means of damaging Kalia directly. Instead, they will run around on the battlefield searching for any goblin friends in a dire spot, and heal them. Clerics can be defeated like any other enemy, but if you want to roleplay a nicer Kalia, you will have the option of leaving them be and focusing on the more direct threats instead - clerics and all other non-combatant foes will run away if all their combatant peers are defeated, winning you the fight.

The Firefighter

This enemy type is not planned to feature in chapter 3 of the demo, but that is subject to change. Regardless, it is planned to appear in the full game further down the line.

The goblin firefighter will be an enemy type that features later in the city chapters, after the goblins have picked up on Kalia's fire-wielding abilities and begin their attempts at countering it. It is a non-combatant foe, who will instead focus on dousing objects (and goblins) that are burning, extinguishing their fire and providing them with temporary resistance to burning. They are resistant to fire themselves, and able to extinguish themselves as well.

The Scout

This enemy type is not planned to appear in the demo in any form, but will appear in the full game. There's currently no concept for it yet.

Goblin scouts only do one thing: alert everyone else that a red demon girl is in town. They will be posted in strategic spots, and once they spot any danger, will run back to the squad to let them know someone's coming. Scouts are non-combatants and will run away once their one task is done.

This is all for now, hope you enjoyed learning more about these silly little guys. Goblins will feature in the third chapter of the KatFS pre-alpha demo, coming sometime later this year, so stay posted for more updates!