RPG Progress and gizmos

[Shurikane]

Took the RPG out of the moth balls to take a look at it. Refined stuff and took out as many "grinder" aspects as I possibly could:

• The character no longer levels up by killing monsters. Instead, he is awarded with a levelup after a crucial quest or by defeating a boss, no matter his actual combat experience. Thus ends the incentive to "grind".
  
• The only XP left is the character's knowledge versus a particular monster. After he kills several of these monsters, he "learns their pattern" and becomes stronger against them.
  
• I did away with two stats: luck and "intimidation factor", both of which made gameplay much too volatile.
  
• Did away with notions of weight and bulk. I changed the item system into a much more PSO-esque form where the character has a fixed number of slots.
  
• Changed the loot formula: the character no longer collects monster-specific loot to sell it all back at shops - that's just grinderrific. Instead, each monster kill is added to his record and he instantly receives cash rewards whenever he returns to town without having to carry loot around.
  

I also shaved off some classes and tried to make them a bit more purposeful to really give them a niche to fill. I used to have 23 classes, now there are 17. I might even be able to shave it down further to 16 but I'm not sure of which classes to merge yet...

• Leaders are there to monitor the activity of their teammates, and are given the tools and skills to have a wide view of the battlefield. Teammates in proximity of leaders are instantly buffed. Sub-divided into a fighter, a mentalist and a "pure leader" sub-classes.
  
• Combatants Are point soldiers and close-range fighters whose objective is to deliver as much damage as possible in a short amount of time. They are not tanks, however. Sub-divided into 3 sub-classes, which are progressively advanced in terms of blade skills and restrictions - the most advanced one being a virtual samurai but able to use only basic pistols and very poorly at best.
  
• Rangers are the gun equivalent of combatants. They provide support fire, distract enemies, track from far away, and work at pestering and disabling monsters through various status effects. They're also the team's primary anti-air support. Sub-divided into light, medium and heavy weapons sub-classes.
  
• Buffers are tanks. They are not particularly great damage dealers, but they are the best at taking punishment. Sub-divided into a pure combat and a mentalist sub-classes.
  
• Aids buff and heal teammates. Sub-divided into an offensive and a defensive sub-classes.
  
• Psychics are wizards. Their magic takes time to charge up, but it delivers high damage to a wide area. Sub-divided into one close-range and one long-range sub-classes.
  
• Explorers are the equivalent of thieves in medieval RPGs: they are fast, agile, and work at distracting the enemy and luring it to a given place. Sub-divided into one gun-using and one blade-using sub-classes.
  

With this, I guess I'd end up with the gameplay style of The Elder Scrolls, the inventory system of PSO, and the awards system of Battlefield. o_O

[Buda]

sounds neet, keep us up to date

[Nogrick]

My only question is as far as equipment goes is if it is all going to be available at shops. I guess you mean as far as loot goes stuff like goblin noses won't drop but maybe more useful stuff, like goblin armor or other stuff.

[Shurikane]

Yes, that's what I intend. The only "non useful" loot I will leave as drops will be valuables like gems and other precious things you can exchange for a fair sum of money.

Otherwise, I have a branch of items that are dropped exclusively by monsters and may be useful to players to some degree. There are also items available in shops that monsters can drop as well - after all, nothing prevents a goblin from using the same sword as you.

The only thing left to do for the sake of gameplay balance is limit the drops. So no, the monster with a steel sword won't drop a steel sword everytime you kill him. Not realistic but I want to drive down the burden of carrying loot and make the inventory focus as much as possible on the character's equipment, items, and ammunition.


-----------------------------------------------------------


I'm hitting a wall on skills and magic.

The old system had skills and magic learning use the character's experience points as a guide to making skills level up. Basically, whenever the player gains XP, he also gets "learning points" by an equal amount, which are spent on learning skills and magic. This way, you can't transfer money between characters and make your newbie a walking god at level 1.

But now, XP is gone. What do I use to regulate the skills and magic development? Progressive time-based like in EVE Online? Learn-and-cool-down? Traditional XP system? I have no idea...

[Shurikane]

I'm posting again with a more structured overview of the character skills and magic.

First of all, magic, since it's the simplest to explain:

MAGIC!
All magical skill trees contain a set number of spells. I won't go over the details of that but just so it's known that one can't learn "Big-Ass Doomsday" as his first spell.

Now, the old system was this: everytime the magic user casts a spell, that is both useful and successful (i.e.: attack spell on an enemy, or healing spell on a wounded teammate, etc.) then he earns magic XP (MXP), amount of which is equal to the amount of mana spent performing the spell. In other words, leveling up magic skills is done through combat experience.

There's two problems: primo, it's grind. Secundo, it's remarkably easy to "stat pad". One person can get continuously hurt, his teammate heals him all the time, rinse and repeat. This isn't very interesting... I need to find a new way to make a character's magic "grow".


SKILLS!
Skills are elementary combat and aid moves that don't require mana. They can be performed infinitely, except that there is usually a cooldown time, or it's not as effective as magic. Skills are intended to broaden the character's combat palette by varying his moves.

• Some skills can be learned and accomplished by all characters.
  
• Some skills are race-specific.
  
• Some skills are class-specific.
  
• Finally, some skills are weapon-specific.

This is rather standard for an arrangement as far as we know. Now for the hard part: how exactly will the character master these skills. This also applies to magic.

First of all, the way to acquire the skill:

• Skillbook-based one-time: You buy a skill book and consume it to learn the skill. The skillbook is destroyed in the process and the character learns and masters the skill on his own.
  
• Skillbook-based leveled: PSO-esque form of the above where the skillbook is associated with a level. Upon consumption, the character learns that skill up to specifically that level.
  
• Trainer-based: You visit a training NPC who teaches you one or more levels of the skill.
  
• Self-based: Nothing is required to learn new skills. Skills open up on the tree as you learn the basic stuff and work your way up.

Next, how to limit the rate at which characters learn skills:

• Level-based: The character can only train a certain number of skills per level.
  
• Day-based: The character can only train a certain number of skills per day (be it game time or real time.)
  
• Time-based progressive: EVE-Style. Leveling up a skill takes a certain amount of time. Once that time has elapsed, the character has finished training that skill to the next level and must then manually choose the next skill to level up.
  
• Time-based total: Alternate version of the above. In this one, the character continually levels up the skill as time goes on, until he stops it manually or the skill reaches full mastery.
  
• Cooldown-based: Skills are leveled up instantly, but are then followed by a cooldown time before the character can level up another skill. Different skills generate different cooldown times.
  
• Reward-based: The character gains "skill credits" for completing quests, assignments etc. which he can then spend on his character growth.

Preferences?

[Gryph]

I sort of like the trainer-based method of learning skills and magic. You could have the player complete a short "training quest" each time, to learn their new skills.

I'd also say having the usable skills determined by level makes the most sense.

[Shurikane]

After a bit of thinking, I formed a tentative idea of breaking the sets of skills into tiers, in which skills of higher level are "unlocked" after beating a portion of the game. I'm not sure if I want to take that approach yet... In either case, I've pretty much crossed-out the idea of making it self-based - the player will have to learn his skills through some sort of medium.


In the meantime, I worked on and strengthened the types of magic. Before, I had many, many magic types but they were haphazardly placed. I toned the stuff down, made sure there was a bit of balance as much as possible and jotted notes down for later on.

Magic is divided into ten basic groups, plus an eleventh odd group called "Varied", because the different spells are of a particular group each. Furthermore, there is another layer of divisions in the following manner:

• Normal magic can be learned by all characters no matter the race or class.
  
• Circa magic consists of short to medium ranged spells that are primarily geared to affect a small, compact group of enemies, or support teammates. Some classes are forbidden from using Circa magic.
  
• Concentra magic spells almost always use the person's body or weapons as a medium to conduct the effects, which mostly deal with extra short-range attacks, blade or pistol upgrades, instant shields and armor, and other fighter-oriented techniques. Whoever doesn't fight toe to toe is at a disadvantage with this magic, or is forbidden from using it.
  
• Leo magic is the classic definition of D&D wizard spells: powerful techniques that affect a large number of enemies at once in a given area, after a substantial time required for the chanting and the moves made to accomplish said spells. Almost anyone who isn't a dedicated mage can't learn Leo magic, or may do so with reduced effectiveness.

FIRE

• Angel
  
• Pagan-Style Holy
  
• Concentra Fire
  
• Leo Fire

ICE

• Pagan-Style Unholy
  
• Circa Ice
  
• Concentra Ice
  
• Leo Ice

===============================
WIND

• Sound
  
• Speed
  
• Concentra Wind
  
• Leo Wind

EARTH (Though, in reality we deal more with rocks)

• Enhancement
  
• Strength
  
• Concentra Earth
  
• Leo Earth

===============================
FORCE

• Blunt
  
• Circa Gravity
  
• Circa Physics
  
• Concentra Weight

PSYCHO

• Detection
  
• Love
  
• Hate
  
• Concentra Insanity

===============================
BODY

• Blood
  
• Multiplicity
  
• Concentra Bio
  
• Leo Bio

ELECTRICITY

• Circa Electricity
  
• Leo Machine
  
• Concentra Electricity
  
• Concentra Machine

===============================
ASTRAL

• Soul
  
• Reli-Style Holy
  
• Reli-Style Unholy
  
• Circa Darkness

FAITH

• Circa Light
  
• Concentra Light
  
• Orthodox-Style Holy
  
• Orthodox-Style Unholy

===============================
VARIED

• Mind
  
• Circa Jewel
  
• Concentra Jewel

If I get enough inspiration, I might have enough material to make a Leo Jewel... That would be so boss!

[Therin]