Hey guys, Monkeydlu here.
so this past week had some pretty decent and consistent work :)
I'll just jump right to it,
Things done since last update:
-completed battle system's cycle, in which battle ends properly and updates on the map properly.
-overhauled the code using skills learned from overhauling the hex grid battle map system, making it significantly shorter and better.
-dungeon map now handles reactivation of a room after initially opening it, so the boss room after the boss fight now will take you to the next floor when you click on it again, and other rooms will be able to implement this quite easily as well, such as rooms with shops, puzzles, etc.
-updated the character and monster classes to hold things better and prepare for modifiers here and there during battle.
-created the "Soul Color" system, where the soul properly display's a character's affinity using a combination of the colors of their soul. This is actually pretty cool, as some interesting colors showed up.
OK, soooo, we have a couple of classes pretty much fleshed out, won't reveal anything yet, but I felt like I should at least reveal a couple of formulas, or at least some info on the game mechanics wise.
Since this IS a rpg, characters are stat based!
So lets list out the stats!
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(RED)Strength: A modifier on how much physical damage you do, both with normal attacks and physical skills. You're attack damage is based off of your "attack" or power, of the weapon that character is currently equiped with, and then the damage you do is calculated in accordance to the relation between your STRENGTH, and the enemy's defense, so even if you have a crazy strong weapon, without enough strength, it might only do a percentage of it's damage, and vice versa, a really strong character can do several times the damage that a wooden stick really gives him.
(GREEN)Vitality: Another modifier that determines how much damage you take from all sources. When you take physical damage, that attack is first pitted against the defense value of your equipment, but how much damage you then take is again determined in ratio to the enemy's strength to your vitality. Magic damage is similar, where their damage is first pitted against your intelligence instead of armor.
(YELLOW)Agility: I guess they're all modifiers, but Agility determines two things. First, it determines your act rate, which is how long it takes before your character can perform an action again. This has diminishing returns, so at zero agility, it takes 10 seconds, at 10 agility, you average at 5 seconds, which is what most characters will be doing hopefully, but then capping out at 30 agility will only lower your act rate to about 2.3 seconds. Second, it determines your dodge rate. This has increasing returns.
(BLUE)Intelligence: This is pretty easy to figure out, but intelligence determines the strength of your magic attacks. It's used to calculate your attack, as well as the ratio of damage. It also determines your resistance against magic.
(PURPLE)Dexterity: This is the last color, and stat. Well off the bat, this affects your accuracy, but has diminishing returns. However, this stat is important for applying statuses and other effects, as well as any sort of skill that has a random proc. Dexterity will have increasing returns on status applications, but linear returns on procs of passive effects as well as multiple hit actives.
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Ok, so now that we have the stats out of the way, lets talk about character progression!
Because of the success of stat building progression, as well as my love for it since after all, I LOVE number crunching, progression of this game will also be stat based!
As such, there are no such things as "levels" in this game.
rather, every time you defeat an enemy, they will drop a certain number of "souls". Each soul has a color, and with these souls, you can strengthen your characters.
At the beginning of the game, each of your characters will have two pieces of equipment: a weapon, and an accessory. The weapon will provide your primary attack value, and the accessory will provide your primary defense value, with some exceptions of course. They can also contain some passive effects, such as abilities that proc, or applying statuses, or having certain properties etc etc.
So each of your equips will have 3 slots, and with this slots you can fill with the souls you collect!
Every time you imbue a soul to a character's equipment, they gain 2 stat points of that color! so a red soul means +2 strength. Of course the character's color will also move a little bit more in the red direction.
Now when you fill a piece of equipment's 3 slots, that piece of equipment will evolve, giving it different stats and effects based on the 3 color combination you used! A character's HP will also increase when ever this happens, of course based on how many green souls you used, as well as the class in question.
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So yeah, thats all, and now you know a little more about how my game is going to be like!
Hope you enjoyed it, some of these formulas are pretty traditional, but I feel like it's a very tightened and cleaned stat system compared to alot of things we have today.
Dodge has a very negative effect on players. It basically is the same thing as a defense stat, however, it acts randomly. Mathematically, in the long term, it reduces damage, outgoing and incoming by a % however because it is random, it can cause spikes of frustrations if you can't deal enough damage in one attack cycle to where your enemy survives your attack and can retaliate.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to add gameplay depth beyond stats, you need to have counterplay.
Hi Jim! Thanks for replying!
DeleteSo I do agree with your statement. My two favorite RPG series are Fire Emblem, and Etrian Odyssey, so I am taking alot of inspiration from both of these games.
While dodge in the long term just reduces damage on a random chance, it does provide a more interesting feel to any game in my opinion.
For example, fast units in Fire Emblem have high dodge rates, making them dodge tanks, but on the off chance you get a couple of unlucky hits, or you don't notice that they are in range of units with specific weaponry that have bonuses in accuracy against that unit, they end up in bad situations, so even though in the long term it's simply just a defensive stat, it is strategic in the sense that the game play is not about long term, but rather from moment to moment. This is the same actually in Etrian Odyssey, except dodge isn't very reliable through only the stat, but rather through passive skills. This is how I will implement dodging. Classes that are ment to be dodge tanks will be able to pick up skills that boost their dodge, while with only the base stat alone no class could possibly get it to a reliable state that it's worth the investment solely to dodge things.
I'm repeating what you said, but I'm doing so because I don't feel like it takes away from it's depth, and that it's honestly enjoyable. It's probably a niche of course.
Anyways, as far as counter play, like my two favorite genres, the game will mostly gain it's depth through it's party building and skill tree management. I just wanted to reveal how our states would be working :)
There are 15 different classes in the game, for a 3 member party. More info will be released soon, but I hope that you'll get back to me with how you feel then too!
Is stats the core element of this game?
DeleteI would say party building, skill tree building, and stats building is the core element of the game. You are presented with 3 characters for a party, with 15 classes, each class has a skill tree which you can on any given play through explore at most 40% of, and every character's stats is dependent on what you make it (with the exception of their base stats.)
DeleteHmmm. So how will depth be created? generally, skill trees and classes games end up tainted by design because they are too formulaic. That is, there is one most optimal path thus negating customization. How do you intend to combat this?
DeleteGood planning overall I guess. In most of these games, there are always arguable best paths, but even then there are still very many viable party set ups.
DeleteAlso, keep in mind this is a rogue like. The random chances of every run through also forces out the concreteness of one best set up.
I'm going to go back to Etrian Odyssey again for this one. Yes, there are a few builds that are obviously better than others, but theres enough "op" builds that just doesn't fit into that party of 5 that there is always at least a dozen or so very amazing party set ups. That, put into combination of optimal builds for different situations, keeps the game interesting and basically a number crunching puzzle.
This genre is not ment for everyone, I know. These kinds of games really appeals to a very small niche of gamers who love to figure out those optimal build paths, so unfortunately, it will not be the perfect formula.
Just my opinion of course.
ReplyDelete