Just a small update this time, enjoy! Extract into your main Templars of Kayne directory to enjoy your new seasonal skins.
Merry Christmas,
Phillammon!
Thursday, 19 December 2013
Wednesday, 20 November 2013
Templars of Kayne v0.1.3 Alpha!
Apologies for the radio silence, folks, but rest assured that the project completed excellently! One last page of paperwork left to go, but it's not going to be a problem. Let me take a moment to say thanks to all you guys for supporting and helping Hook&Crook Games throughout this project.
But don't think that means I'm gonna stop working on the Project, just cause it's been handed in, oh no. So, with out any further ado: Here it is, the one you've all been waiting for, the Templars of Kayne v0.1.3 Alpha!
Download it here!
Just extract it into a directory of your choice, then run the enclosed .bat files to start the server or client! For those of you wishing to host a server, you'll need to open communications on port 31337- this may require port forwarding. Other than that, it's exactly the same as hosting any other game's server. For anyone wishing to play on another person's server, open up config using "Client Options.bat", put in your friend's IP address, then run the "Start Client.bat". There isn't currently an objective to play for, but people have been having a lot of fun so far just with going for kills on each other!
Controls:
Templar Selection: Left and Right arrow keys to change Templar, Enter to lock in choice.
In Game: Left Mouse Button to run towards cursor, Right Mouse Button to go away. Q, W, E and R trigger abilities.
Known Bugs:
-Rebecca does not have an ultimate ability. Trust me when I say this doesn't make her any weaker.
-Some tooltips are slightly inaccurate, but nothing noticable
-If a character is dashing when they are struck by the knock component of Bastion's Boulderdash, they may unexpectedly fly halfway around the planet. (I refuse to patch this, due to the hilarity that inevitably ensues)
-Passives do not have tooltips. The correct passives for all Templars are listed at the bottom of this post.
-Animations are not triggering. Or implemented, for that matter.
-Persephone is able to escape the planet's gravitational field if she tries hard enough. Again, not patching it, but not saying how to do it either. Figure it out for yourself.
- If you "miss" a targeted ability, it will go on cooldown without having any effect. Be very careful with how you aim them
If you spot any other bugs, or have any other comments in general, please feel free to leave a comment below or drop us a line at hookandcrookgames@gmail.com
Have fun!
Passives:
Bastion: Rock Solid- Bastion's body is impervious to a great many things, unless weakened. If Bastion is not damaged for a large period of time, he is immune to the damage from the next ability to hit him.
Cordelia: Coup de Grass- Cordelia finishes off wounded foes, dealing increased damage to enemies who are Stunned, Snared, Slowed or Silenced.
Darryn: Safety Second- When Darryn is in the area of effect of one of his own abilities, he deals increased damage with all of his abilities for a few seconds.
Elijah: Carnivore- Elijah feeds off his foes, healing himself for 25% of the damage he deals.
Nathaniel: Last Laugh- Nathaniel won't let anything end the show. Nathaniel can control Exactly What I Aimed For and Trickshot even after death, and while dead, all of Nathaniel's abilities deal tripled damage.
Omoide: Seal the Curse- Omoide seals her foes. When a foe with a Seal set is struck by one of Omoide's abilities, the Seal triggers. The Seal remains set for a few seconds. This time resets if they are struck by another Seal.
Oscar: Conversation- Oscar fights in short bursts. When Oscar deals damage to an enemy or parries an ability with agile riposte, he gains Conversation for a few seconds. During Conversation, all of Oscar's cooldowns are reduced.
Persephone: Two Bodies, One Spirit- Persephone lives her life in two halves. Persephone has a stationary cloudclone of herself, Kore, on the battlefield at all times, who is immune to all abilities, displacement, all damage, and all statuses.
Rebecca: Below the Belt- Rebecca aims for pressure points and nasty blows. When Rebecca deals damage, the damaged enemy is slowed for a brief time.
But don't think that means I'm gonna stop working on the Project, just cause it's been handed in, oh no. So, with out any further ado: Here it is, the one you've all been waiting for, the Templars of Kayne v0.1.3 Alpha!
Download it here!
Just extract it into a directory of your choice, then run the enclosed .bat files to start the server or client! For those of you wishing to host a server, you'll need to open communications on port 31337- this may require port forwarding. Other than that, it's exactly the same as hosting any other game's server. For anyone wishing to play on another person's server, open up config using "Client Options.bat", put in your friend's IP address, then run the "Start Client.bat". There isn't currently an objective to play for, but people have been having a lot of fun so far just with going for kills on each other!
Controls:
Templar Selection: Left and Right arrow keys to change Templar, Enter to lock in choice.
In Game: Left Mouse Button to run towards cursor, Right Mouse Button to go away. Q, W, E and R trigger abilities.
Known Bugs:
-Rebecca does not have an ultimate ability. Trust me when I say this doesn't make her any weaker.
-Some tooltips are slightly inaccurate, but nothing noticable
-If a character is dashing when they are struck by the knock component of Bastion's Boulderdash, they may unexpectedly fly halfway around the planet. (I refuse to patch this, due to the hilarity that inevitably ensues)
-Passives do not have tooltips. The correct passives for all Templars are listed at the bottom of this post.
-Animations are not triggering. Or implemented, for that matter.
-Persephone is able to escape the planet's gravitational field if she tries hard enough. Again, not patching it, but not saying how to do it either. Figure it out for yourself.
- If you "miss" a targeted ability, it will go on cooldown without having any effect. Be very careful with how you aim them
If you spot any other bugs, or have any other comments in general, please feel free to leave a comment below or drop us a line at hookandcrookgames@gmail.com
Have fun!
Passives:
Bastion: Rock Solid- Bastion's body is impervious to a great many things, unless weakened. If Bastion is not damaged for a large period of time, he is immune to the damage from the next ability to hit him.
Cordelia: Coup de Grass- Cordelia finishes off wounded foes, dealing increased damage to enemies who are Stunned, Snared, Slowed or Silenced.
Darryn: Safety Second- When Darryn is in the area of effect of one of his own abilities, he deals increased damage with all of his abilities for a few seconds.
Elijah: Carnivore- Elijah feeds off his foes, healing himself for 25% of the damage he deals.
Nathaniel: Last Laugh- Nathaniel won't let anything end the show. Nathaniel can control Exactly What I Aimed For and Trickshot even after death, and while dead, all of Nathaniel's abilities deal tripled damage.
Omoide: Seal the Curse- Omoide seals her foes. When a foe with a Seal set is struck by one of Omoide's abilities, the Seal triggers. The Seal remains set for a few seconds. This time resets if they are struck by another Seal.
Oscar: Conversation- Oscar fights in short bursts. When Oscar deals damage to an enemy or parries an ability with agile riposte, he gains Conversation for a few seconds. During Conversation, all of Oscar's cooldowns are reduced.
Persephone: Two Bodies, One Spirit- Persephone lives her life in two halves. Persephone has a stationary cloudclone of herself, Kore, on the battlefield at all times, who is immune to all abilities, displacement, all damage, and all statuses.
Rebecca: Below the Belt- Rebecca aims for pressure points and nasty blows. When Rebecca deals damage, the damaged enemy is slowed for a brief time.
Friday, 27 September 2013
Aaaaaand HOLD IT!
Templars of Kayne is now in feature freeze.
This is not technically the case. Technically, this is beyond feature freeze and is outright code freeze. In short, no more development until I unfreeze it. This will likely be *after* the deadline for the Extended Project, so I have some time to complete the required paperwork. Once that's done and handed in, there will be a short delay of a couple of weeks, and then, with any luck, there will be an initial public release.
So, wish me luck, folks!
Signing off,
Phillammon
This is not technically the case. Technically, this is beyond feature freeze and is outright code freeze. In short, no more development until I unfreeze it. This will likely be *after* the deadline for the Extended Project, so I have some time to complete the required paperwork. Once that's done and handed in, there will be a short delay of a couple of weeks, and then, with any luck, there will be an initial public release.
So, wish me luck, folks!
Signing off,
Phillammon
Friday, 20 September 2013
An update of sorts
In an effort to keep this blog remotely up to date, here we go:
-Asset Creation has remained difficult. There is now a system in place for animations to be handled, however there's no actual animations to put in there yet. I intend to film myself to put together some animation references at some point in the near future.
-Similarly, I'm still waiting on my composer for BGM- there is placeholder music in place, but it's not mine, and there would be copyright issues with attempting to release it in its current form
-Sound effects and voice acting are on hold until I have animations and BGM in place, as they take higher priority
-The arena system has been implemented.
-I feel like this bears repeating. The entire engine underlying the game has been successfully rewritten, and as such the arena system has been implemented
-Six Templars have been retooled for the arena system and implemented. These are Bastion, Cordelia and Elijah, along with three newcomers you haven't met yet, those being Ingenia Magnus, Jedediah Opum, and Tyr Cyrikold. More on them later.
-75 Templars total have had their kits revamped and prepared for the arena system, and are ready to roll out pending testing.
-People have been recruited for Preliminary Testing. Once everything has been finalized, it's ready to go pretty much instantly.
-Work has continued on completeing the paperwork for the Extended Project (Y'know, the thing that this was originally in aid of?). So far, most of the work has been focused on explaining why I have no secondary sources- something I explained in detail earlier.
-Time could have been handled significantly better on this one, I admit. As college has restarted and a significant number of deadlines have started hitting simultaneously, The deadline for this project is drawing closer and time available for the project is dwindling.
So that's what's going on at this end!
-Asset Creation has remained difficult. There is now a system in place for animations to be handled, however there's no actual animations to put in there yet. I intend to film myself to put together some animation references at some point in the near future.
-Similarly, I'm still waiting on my composer for BGM- there is placeholder music in place, but it's not mine, and there would be copyright issues with attempting to release it in its current form
-Sound effects and voice acting are on hold until I have animations and BGM in place, as they take higher priority
-The arena system has been implemented.
-I feel like this bears repeating. The entire engine underlying the game has been successfully rewritten, and as such the arena system has been implemented
-Six Templars have been retooled for the arena system and implemented. These are Bastion, Cordelia and Elijah, along with three newcomers you haven't met yet, those being Ingenia Magnus, Jedediah Opum, and Tyr Cyrikold. More on them later.
-75 Templars total have had their kits revamped and prepared for the arena system, and are ready to roll out pending testing.
-People have been recruited for Preliminary Testing. Once everything has been finalized, it's ready to go pretty much instantly.
-Work has continued on completeing the paperwork for the Extended Project (Y'know, the thing that this was originally in aid of?). So far, most of the work has been focused on explaining why I have no secondary sources- something I explained in detail earlier.
-Time could have been handled significantly better on this one, I admit. As college has restarted and a significant number of deadlines have started hitting simultaneously, The deadline for this project is drawing closer and time available for the project is dwindling.
So that's what's going on at this end!
Thursday, 4 July 2013
Nothing is happening
So, nothing is obviously happening at the moment, and I thought I'd show you guys why. Essentially, there are enormous problems emerging simultaneously in every department. To whit:
Coding:
The entire engine needs reworking to support arenas.
Polygon collision is hard.
The event stack is breaking due to me trying to change things around to reduce dependence on resource intensive modules.
Asset Creation:
Art is hard.
Sound is hard.
Animation is really really hard.
Design:
Bastion's Boulderdash needs to be reworked to work with arenas.
Rebecca's *EVERYTHING* needs to be reworked to work with arenas.
The 58 Templars designed so far all need arenas.
A bunch of those need at least one ability reworked too.
So, that's why not much is happening on this blog, but rest assured that things will pick up soon enough!
Coding:
The entire engine needs reworking to support arenas.
Polygon collision is hard.
The event stack is breaking due to me trying to change things around to reduce dependence on resource intensive modules.
Asset Creation:
Art is hard.
Sound is hard.
Animation is really really hard.
Design:
Bastion's Boulderdash needs to be reworked to work with arenas.
Rebecca's *EVERYTHING* needs to be reworked to work with arenas.
The 58 Templars designed so far all need arenas.
A bunch of those need at least one ability reworked too.
So, that's why not much is happening on this blog, but rest assured that things will pick up soon enough!
Wednesday, 26 June 2013
Let's talk about circles
Elijah, the Bloodied Butcher, looked out upon the arena. He was hungry. Far too hungry. And he needed something- no, someone- to eat. And fast.
There. Her. Cordelia Strange, standing a fair way off. A tad green for his liking, but a bit of salad never hurt anyone, eh?
He started towards her, cleaver in hand. Building up into a sprint, he charged down at her. Noticing him, she reacted in kind, running away from him at the same pace, flinging thorns at him as she ran.
He paid them no heed, at first. But slowly, surely, as they ran, he realized what the thorns were doing to him. Realizing too late, he turned to run but found himself rooted to the spot. Looking down, he saw that this was literally the case. Thick vines knotted around his legs, rendering him immobile.
Behind him, the Grovemother smiled. Her children would eat well tonight.
So there's a problem that's been turning up in testing. It seems pretty obvious when you think about it, but I'd somehow managed to miss it throughout development. Essentially, any fight between a ranged Templar and a melee Templar in the current system will be won by the ranged Templar. Why? Because the melee Templar will die before they get in range, while they're trying to chase down the ranger. Obviously enough, this poses a problem.
So there's several ways we could deal with this, but all of them have their downsides. I'm going to spoiler slightly in describing these, but think of it as a teaser for what is to come.
Oscar DuBain, the Adroit Duelist, looked out upon his adversary. Persephone stood opposite him, trying to judge when he'd make a move. A tense silence descended over the battlefield.
Oscar flinched forwards. A mere feint, but enough to goad his foe into action. With a rush of air, Kore formed behind him as Persephone held her distance. Just the chance he'd needed. In a deft movement, Oscar lunged forwards, closing the distance between them in mere moments, skewering Persephone on his rapier.
The Mage staggered backwards, breathing ragged. A hole in your lung tends to do that to you. In a last ditch attempt, she raised her hands, muttering an arcane chant. But he'd anticipated her. Turning, he raised his rapier, blocking and deflecting the orb of energy Kore had flung towards him, then lunged forwards once more, raising his blade for a vicious diagonal strike. As he'd anticipated, Kore had faded, leaving a surprised Persephone where she had stood moments before.
His blade descended.
The Storm Maiden fell.
The first method: Instant movement. By giving melee Templars a means of quickly closing the gap between them, the melee Templar evens the odds slightly. Unfortunately, this doesn't help poor Elijah, who's not quick or magical enough to dash or blink, and it poses other issues, like making Beatsticks less relevant, due to forcing everybody to be more mobile, taking away their unique point, and making it harder to play pure cannons due to it being impossible to kite people.
Pain. Pain is good. Pain means that you're still alive. Raul was able to take some consolation in this as he staggered to his feet, debris from the last blast settling around him. And of course, the Mad Bomber himself, Darryn King, laughing from the other side of the newly formed crater. Yeah, that's right, keep laughing while you still can.
Raul started to run forwards. Gathering his thoughts, he focused in on his hands. Darryn continued gloating, oblivious to the danger barreling towards him. Swiftly, Raul threw out his hand, snapping his fist open. Out of it blossomed a crackling wave of ice, surging out towards the Demolitionist. To Raul's relief, it struck the Bomber, entombing him in the ensorcelled frost.
Magically conjured materials aren't generally that tough, and don't generally last too long, but Raul didn't need it to. He just needed to get one good hit in. Closing the rest of the distance, Raul jumped up, pick raised overhead, and brought it down into the frozen Templar.
Darryn shattered messily across the ground.
The second method: Crowd control. If melee characters are given a way to stop ranged Templars running from the fight, such as a ranged stun or snare, they'll be able to catch up without needing to jump massive distances. Unfortunately, this still doesn't help Elijah, who hasn't any means of stunning or snaring people outside of melee range which fits flavour, and if they're already in melee range, that makes the crowd control moot point. So it's back to the drawing board.
Elijah, the Bloodied Butcher, looked out upon the arena. He was hungry. Far too hungry. And he needed something- no, someone- to eat. And fast.
There. Her. Cordelia Strange, standing a fair way off. A tad green for his liking, but a bit of salad never hurt anyone, eh?
He started towards her, cleaver in hand. Building up into a sprint, he charged down at her. Noticing him, she reacted in kind, running away from him at the same pace, flinging thorns at him as she ran.
The chase continued a short distance, thorns slowly wearing away at Elijah, when Cordelia stopped abruptly.
In front of her stood the arena walls.
The Grovemother turned to face her would-be predator, deadly blooms blossoming over her body. She wasn't going to go down without a fight.
The third method: Terrain. I know that people have been asking for this since the project began, but I never realized how vital it is. From giving people vantage points to shoot from, to creating choke points for strategic combat, to giving areas to ambush from, if need be, terrain solves a lot of the problems postulated above on its own. The issue is, it's hard to add that sort of terrain to a featureless ball. Hence, a change of direction is needed, once again.
Say goodbye to the planetoid, say hello to the Arena system. It's still in development, but here's the concept. Each Templar, in addition to their four unique abilities, bring a unique arena into the fray. In general, they'll be laid out in a fashion similar to one of the following, with their own unique thematic artwork.
...=======... ............. ......+...... .............
............. .....===..... ......+...... .............
===...+...=== ..=...+...=.. ....=====.... ......+......
......+...... ..=...+...=.. ....=====.... ......+......
============= ============= ============= =============
For Fighters For Bruisers For Novas For Cannons
With = being platforms, . being air, and + being a pylon, which, just as before, are the winning conditions for the game, but function slightly differently to their previous iteration. Rather than capturing all the pylons in an arbitrary order, the arenas for each Templar in a team are put into a line, horizontally, and the pylons must be captured moving forward. To explain better, here's a diagram, starring a Red Team consisting of Cordelia, Elijah and Darryn, and a Blue Team consisting of Bastion, Rebecca, and Persephone. When play begins, the map looks like this:
|...=======...|...=======...|...=======...|.............|...=======...|...=======...|...=======...|
|.The..Forest.|The..Abbatoir|TheLaboratory|.............|The..Statuary|.The.Barroom.|..The.Storm..|
|===...R...===|===...R...===|===...R...===|......+......|===...B...===|===...B...===|===...B...===|
|......+......|......+......|......+......|......+......|......+......|......+......|......+......|
|=============|=============|=============|=============|=============|=============|=============|
There. Her. Cordelia Strange, standing a fair way off. A tad green for his liking, but a bit of salad never hurt anyone, eh?
He started towards her, cleaver in hand. Building up into a sprint, he charged down at her. Noticing him, she reacted in kind, running away from him at the same pace, flinging thorns at him as she ran.
He paid them no heed, at first. But slowly, surely, as they ran, he realized what the thorns were doing to him. Realizing too late, he turned to run but found himself rooted to the spot. Looking down, he saw that this was literally the case. Thick vines knotted around his legs, rendering him immobile.
Behind him, the Grovemother smiled. Her children would eat well tonight.
So there's a problem that's been turning up in testing. It seems pretty obvious when you think about it, but I'd somehow managed to miss it throughout development. Essentially, any fight between a ranged Templar and a melee Templar in the current system will be won by the ranged Templar. Why? Because the melee Templar will die before they get in range, while they're trying to chase down the ranger. Obviously enough, this poses a problem.
So there's several ways we could deal with this, but all of them have their downsides. I'm going to spoiler slightly in describing these, but think of it as a teaser for what is to come.
Oscar DuBain, the Adroit Duelist, looked out upon his adversary. Persephone stood opposite him, trying to judge when he'd make a move. A tense silence descended over the battlefield.
Oscar flinched forwards. A mere feint, but enough to goad his foe into action. With a rush of air, Kore formed behind him as Persephone held her distance. Just the chance he'd needed. In a deft movement, Oscar lunged forwards, closing the distance between them in mere moments, skewering Persephone on his rapier.
The Mage staggered backwards, breathing ragged. A hole in your lung tends to do that to you. In a last ditch attempt, she raised her hands, muttering an arcane chant. But he'd anticipated her. Turning, he raised his rapier, blocking and deflecting the orb of energy Kore had flung towards him, then lunged forwards once more, raising his blade for a vicious diagonal strike. As he'd anticipated, Kore had faded, leaving a surprised Persephone where she had stood moments before.
His blade descended.
The Storm Maiden fell.
The first method: Instant movement. By giving melee Templars a means of quickly closing the gap between them, the melee Templar evens the odds slightly. Unfortunately, this doesn't help poor Elijah, who's not quick or magical enough to dash or blink, and it poses other issues, like making Beatsticks less relevant, due to forcing everybody to be more mobile, taking away their unique point, and making it harder to play pure cannons due to it being impossible to kite people.
Pain. Pain is good. Pain means that you're still alive. Raul was able to take some consolation in this as he staggered to his feet, debris from the last blast settling around him. And of course, the Mad Bomber himself, Darryn King, laughing from the other side of the newly formed crater. Yeah, that's right, keep laughing while you still can.
Raul started to run forwards. Gathering his thoughts, he focused in on his hands. Darryn continued gloating, oblivious to the danger barreling towards him. Swiftly, Raul threw out his hand, snapping his fist open. Out of it blossomed a crackling wave of ice, surging out towards the Demolitionist. To Raul's relief, it struck the Bomber, entombing him in the ensorcelled frost.
Magically conjured materials aren't generally that tough, and don't generally last too long, but Raul didn't need it to. He just needed to get one good hit in. Closing the rest of the distance, Raul jumped up, pick raised overhead, and brought it down into the frozen Templar.
Darryn shattered messily across the ground.
The second method: Crowd control. If melee characters are given a way to stop ranged Templars running from the fight, such as a ranged stun or snare, they'll be able to catch up without needing to jump massive distances. Unfortunately, this still doesn't help Elijah, who hasn't any means of stunning or snaring people outside of melee range which fits flavour, and if they're already in melee range, that makes the crowd control moot point. So it's back to the drawing board.
Elijah, the Bloodied Butcher, looked out upon the arena. He was hungry. Far too hungry. And he needed something- no, someone- to eat. And fast.
There. Her. Cordelia Strange, standing a fair way off. A tad green for his liking, but a bit of salad never hurt anyone, eh?
He started towards her, cleaver in hand. Building up into a sprint, he charged down at her. Noticing him, she reacted in kind, running away from him at the same pace, flinging thorns at him as she ran.
The chase continued a short distance, thorns slowly wearing away at Elijah, when Cordelia stopped abruptly.
In front of her stood the arena walls.
The Grovemother turned to face her would-be predator, deadly blooms blossoming over her body. She wasn't going to go down without a fight.
The third method: Terrain. I know that people have been asking for this since the project began, but I never realized how vital it is. From giving people vantage points to shoot from, to creating choke points for strategic combat, to giving areas to ambush from, if need be, terrain solves a lot of the problems postulated above on its own. The issue is, it's hard to add that sort of terrain to a featureless ball. Hence, a change of direction is needed, once again.
Say goodbye to the planetoid, say hello to the Arena system. It's still in development, but here's the concept. Each Templar, in addition to their four unique abilities, bring a unique arena into the fray. In general, they'll be laid out in a fashion similar to one of the following, with their own unique thematic artwork.
...=======... ............. ......+...... .............
............. .....===..... ......+...... .............
===...+...=== ..=...+...=.. ....=====.... ......+......
......+...... ..=...+...=.. ....=====.... ......+......
============= ============= ============= =============
For Fighters For Bruisers For Novas For Cannons
With = being platforms, . being air, and + being a pylon, which, just as before, are the winning conditions for the game, but function slightly differently to their previous iteration. Rather than capturing all the pylons in an arbitrary order, the arenas for each Templar in a team are put into a line, horizontally, and the pylons must be captured moving forward. To explain better, here's a diagram, starring a Red Team consisting of Cordelia, Elijah and Darryn, and a Blue Team consisting of Bastion, Rebecca, and Persephone. When play begins, the map looks like this:
|...=======...|...=======...|...=======...|.............|...=======...|...=======...|...=======...|
|.The..Forest.|The..Abbatoir|TheLaboratory|.............|The..Statuary|.The.Barroom.|..The.Storm..|
|===...R...===|===...R...===|===...R...===|......+......|===...B...===|===...B...===|===...B...===|
|......+......|......+......|......+......|......+......|......+......|......+......|......+......|
|=============|=============|=============|=============|=============|=============|=============|
While playing, you may only exit an arena if the pylon in it, or in the room you are moving to, is your team's colour. This effectively means that the only arena that both teams can enter is the central, unnamed arena. A messy initial fight occurs, after which, let's say, Team Blue has the upper hand, and successfully captures the pylon in that arena.
|...=======...|...=======...|...=======...|.............|...=======...|...=======...|...=======...|
|.The..Forest.|The..Abbatoir|TheLaboratory|.............|The..Statuary|.The.Barroom.|..The.Storm..|
|===...R...===|===...R...===|===...R...===|......B......|===...B...===|===...B...===|===...B...===|
|......+......|......+......|......+......|......+......|......+......|......+......|......+......|
|=============|=============|=============|=============|=============|=============|=============|
|.The..Forest.|The..Abbatoir|TheLaboratory|.............|The..Statuary|.The.Barroom.|..The.Storm..|
|===...R...===|===...R...===|===...R...===|......B......|===...B...===|===...B...===|===...B...===|
|......+......|......+......|......+......|......+......|......+......|......+......|......+......|
|=============|=============|=============|=============|=============|=============|=============|
At this point, the members of team Red start respawning in Cordelia's arena, The Forest. At the same time, team Blue start pushing into Darryn's arena, the Laboratory. Both teams can now enter both the Laboratory and the central arena, leading to more fights and a clear attack and defense mechanic- Blue is trying to capture the pylon in the Laboratory, whereas Red is trying to take the central pylon, so they can push into the Statuary, Bastion's arena. Let's say that Blue continues winning, and takes the Laboratory. The progression is fairly obvious:
|...=======...|...=======...|...=======...|.............|...=======...|...=======...|...=======...|
|.The..Forest.|The..Abbatoir|TheLaboratory|.............|The..Statuary|.The.Barroom.|..The.Storm..|
|===...R...===|===...R...===|===...B...===|......B......|===...B...===|===...B...===|===...B...===|
|......+......|......+......|......+......|......+......|......+......|......+......|......+......|
|=============|=============|=============|=============|=============|=============|=============|
|.The..Forest.|The..Abbatoir|TheLaboratory|.............|The..Statuary|.The.Barroom.|..The.Storm..|
|===...R...===|===...R...===|===...B...===|......B......|===...B...===|===...B...===|===...B...===|
|......+......|......+......|......+......|......+......|......+......|......+......|......+......|
|=============|=============|=============|=============|=============|=============|=============|
|...=======...|...=======...|...=======...|.............|...=======...|...=======...|...=======...|
|.The..Forest.|The..Abbatoir|TheLaboratory|.............|The..Statuary|.The.Barroom.|..The.Storm..|
|===...R...===|===...B...===|===...B...===|......B......|===...B...===|===...B...===|===...B...===|
|......+......|......+......|......+......|......+......|......+......|......+......|......+......|
|=============|=============|=============|=============|=============|=============|=============|
|.The..Forest.|The..Abbatoir|TheLaboratory|.............|The..Statuary|.The.Barroom.|..The.Storm..|
|===...R...===|===...B...===|===...B...===|......B......|===...B...===|===...B...===|===...B...===|
|......+......|......+......|......+......|......+......|......+......|......+......|......+......|
|=============|=============|=============|=============|=============|=============|=============|
By now, two interesting things are happening. First, since team Red are respawning in The Forest, which is an arena fighting is happening in, they can be back in the fight almost immediately after dying. However, team Blue, respawning in The Storm, 5 arenas away, have to run a long way before they can rejoin the battle if they die. This acts as a natural balancing mechanic. Of course, this doesn't stop our hypothetical team Blue, who capture The Forest's pylon, and win the game! Go them!
Got it?
Time for some fun stuff, then.
Each arena has a unique passive effect on it or on people inside it. Nothing massive, mostly, and they affect everyone in them reasonably equally. However, as I've demonstrated above, not everybody wants the same things. For example, let's take the Forest, Cordelia's arena. In the Forest, every time a Templar uses an ability, they have a tiny amount of health restored. Obviously enough, on people with enormous cooldowns, such as Bastion and Persephone, over in team Blue, this is not beneficial. However, on people who fire off abilities like there's no tomorrow, such as, say, Cordelia herself, it is a much more tangible benefit. All arenas have been designed in such a way to make their passive effects very beneficial to their respective Templars- it's up to the players to find synergy to make it beneficial to their entire team.
So, that's the arena system, and that's an ENORMOUS wall of text.
Class is over. Any questions?
Friday, 31 May 2013
Character Design: Rebecca Peake! (Or, Less a punchline, more a line of punches)
"So what happens if I agree?"
"Well, Miss Peake," said the venerable man, sitting back in his chair, "If you should agree to our proposition, it will have transpired that when this awful young man came at you with a knife, there was-"
"Wait, he didn't have a-"
"I would strongly advise you not to challenge the course of events, for your own sake." continued the older Templar, a hint of annoyance entering his voice. Rebecca took the hint.
"As I was saying, " he went on, irritation slowly leaving his voice, "it transpired that there were no witnesses to your self-defence, and it's your word against his over what happened. You will opt for trial by jury, things won't look good for you, but then, just before judgement is made..."
He paused, leaning forward over the table towards Rebecca, hands arched together, "He will stage a miraculous recovery from his wounds, make a written statement from the infirmary confessing his attempted murder, he will opt for trial by combat, and he shall be killed in prison two days before his trial. No-one will question his death."
A silence descended over the room.
"And what if I say no?"
"Then it will turn out the bar was full of witnesses to your assault on the man, that he died from his wounds on the way to the infirmary, and there is no question as to your guilt. Your trial will be a mere formality in the face of overwhelming evidence, your... contraptions, " he said, gesturing vaguely towards the brass gauntlets that Rebecca had been forced to surrender at the start of the meeting "...will be taken to our resident Techmaturgist for analysis, and you shall be sentenced to death for your crimes"
A silence descended upon the room once again.
"The choice is yours.", he said, leaning back again.
Another pause. Rebecca's stare remained level, scrutinizing the Head Templar's face. His expression remained stony, betraying nothing to her.
"...I accept."
"Congratulations. Welcome to the Templars, Rebecca Peake"
Rebecca Peake, the Barroom Brawler, is a Beatstick with focus on single target lockdown and multitarget crowd control. Her kit is based around either taking on and blocking a single opponent from taking any actions, or striking the whole enemy team at once at the cost of dealing less damage.
Passive: Below the Belt- Rebecca aims for pressure points and nasty blows. When Rebecca deals damage, the target is slowed for a brief time.
This has a use for both parts of Rebecca's kit. When she's against a single opponent, slowing her enemy stops them getting away from her as easily. Against multiple, it stops them chasing her as easily. Win win!
IMPORTANT NOTE: GO READ HER R NOW, OR NOTHING WILL MAKE SENSE.
Q: Right Hook/ Running Toss- Rebecca punches the foe in front of her, dealing significant damage. With Unstoppable Force active, the next enemy Rebecca hits takes significant damage and is knocked into the air.
Right Hook is Rebecca's main single target ability. It deals a fair amount of damage pretty quickly, so no real downsides apart from needing to stay in close quarters to use it.
Running Toss is similarly just a light "help your allies" tool. If you're coming up to an enemy who's trying to run from one of your teammates, hitting this could help your friend catch up, but it's not much.
W: Forceful Blow/ Explosive Punch- Rebecca punches with incredible force, dealing moderate damage in a short wide cone and knocking back struck enemies. With Unstoppable Force active, the next enemy Rebecca hits takes significant damage, and all enemies in a small radius around Rebecca take significant damage, including the struck target
Forceful Blow is a major part of what makes Rebecca a pain in single combat. By knocking foes away, she stops them aiming their abilities as easily and in general puts them in places that they don't want to be. In combination with Dynamic Entry (see below), this doesn't even stop her being in range either.
Explosive Punch is what will be dealing most of Rebecca's damage while Unstoppable Force is up. It deals a fair amount of single target damage, but deals much better overall damage when used on a cluster of enemies, so it's pretty obvious how to use this.
E: Dynamic Entry/ Outta the Way!- Rebecca closes down a foe, dashing to them and dealing significant damage. With Unstoppable Force active, the next enemy Rebecca hits takes moderate damage and is knocked behind Rebecca.
Dynamic Entry is a handy tool for making sure nothing can get away from you ever. Essentially, hit this if there's a foe escaping, dash to them and apply your passive, and they can't do a thing about you. On the other hand, you could use it on a foe you already caught, after knocking them away with Forceful Blow, in order to do bursts of damage between Right Hooks.
Outta the Way is sort of the opposite of Running Toss, in that it's used to disrupt people from chasing your allies more than catch them. That said, it's pretty much exactly what it says on the tin. Not much complexity to it.
R: Unstoppable Force- Rebecca hurtles forward at massive speed, dealing significant damage to enemies she passes. With Unstoppable Force active, the next enemy Rebecca hits takes moderate damage, and Unstoppable Force ends.
Read it. Right, now read it again. This is important. I'll wait.
Done? Good. So, this turns Rebecca from a single target powerhouse to a multitarget threat. While it may look good as an escape on paper, it really isn't for a number of reasons- One, it only stops when you run into a foe, which may just make matters worse, and two, it's interrupted by snares, slows, knockups, any of that lot. Beyond that, this works how you think it does- run through a crowd of enemies, use your other abilities to disrupt them, turn off Unstoppable Force when you get to a flimsy foe, then punch them to death. Simple enough, right?
Watch this space, by the way. Relatively big announcement coming soon!
EDIT: For character development reasons and not being one dimensional reasons, Rebecca's backstory has been changed. Enjoy!
"Well, Miss Peake," said the venerable man, sitting back in his chair, "If you should agree to our proposition, it will have transpired that when this awful young man came at you with a knife, there was-"
"Wait, he didn't have a-"
"I would strongly advise you not to challenge the course of events, for your own sake." continued the older Templar, a hint of annoyance entering his voice. Rebecca took the hint.
"As I was saying, " he went on, irritation slowly leaving his voice, "it transpired that there were no witnesses to your self-defence, and it's your word against his over what happened. You will opt for trial by jury, things won't look good for you, but then, just before judgement is made..."
He paused, leaning forward over the table towards Rebecca, hands arched together, "He will stage a miraculous recovery from his wounds, make a written statement from the infirmary confessing his attempted murder, he will opt for trial by combat, and he shall be killed in prison two days before his trial. No-one will question his death."
A silence descended over the room.
"And what if I say no?"
"Then it will turn out the bar was full of witnesses to your assault on the man, that he died from his wounds on the way to the infirmary, and there is no question as to your guilt. Your trial will be a mere formality in the face of overwhelming evidence, your... contraptions, " he said, gesturing vaguely towards the brass gauntlets that Rebecca had been forced to surrender at the start of the meeting "...will be taken to our resident Techmaturgist for analysis, and you shall be sentenced to death for your crimes"
A silence descended upon the room once again.
"The choice is yours.", he said, leaning back again.
Another pause. Rebecca's stare remained level, scrutinizing the Head Templar's face. His expression remained stony, betraying nothing to her.
"...I accept."
"Congratulations. Welcome to the Templars, Rebecca Peake"
Rebecca Peake, the Barroom Brawler, is a Beatstick with focus on single target lockdown and multitarget crowd control. Her kit is based around either taking on and blocking a single opponent from taking any actions, or striking the whole enemy team at once at the cost of dealing less damage.
Passive: Below the Belt- Rebecca aims for pressure points and nasty blows. When Rebecca deals damage, the target is slowed for a brief time.
This has a use for both parts of Rebecca's kit. When she's against a single opponent, slowing her enemy stops them getting away from her as easily. Against multiple, it stops them chasing her as easily. Win win!
IMPORTANT NOTE: GO READ HER R NOW, OR NOTHING WILL MAKE SENSE.
Q: Right Hook/ Running Toss- Rebecca punches the foe in front of her, dealing significant damage. With Unstoppable Force active, the next enemy Rebecca hits takes significant damage and is knocked into the air.
Right Hook is Rebecca's main single target ability. It deals a fair amount of damage pretty quickly, so no real downsides apart from needing to stay in close quarters to use it.
Running Toss is similarly just a light "help your allies" tool. If you're coming up to an enemy who's trying to run from one of your teammates, hitting this could help your friend catch up, but it's not much.
W: Forceful Blow/ Explosive Punch- Rebecca punches with incredible force, dealing moderate damage in a short wide cone and knocking back struck enemies. With Unstoppable Force active, the next enemy Rebecca hits takes significant damage, and all enemies in a small radius around Rebecca take significant damage, including the struck target
Forceful Blow is a major part of what makes Rebecca a pain in single combat. By knocking foes away, she stops them aiming their abilities as easily and in general puts them in places that they don't want to be. In combination with Dynamic Entry (see below), this doesn't even stop her being in range either.
Explosive Punch is what will be dealing most of Rebecca's damage while Unstoppable Force is up. It deals a fair amount of single target damage, but deals much better overall damage when used on a cluster of enemies, so it's pretty obvious how to use this.
E: Dynamic Entry/ Outta the Way!- Rebecca closes down a foe, dashing to them and dealing significant damage. With Unstoppable Force active, the next enemy Rebecca hits takes moderate damage and is knocked behind Rebecca.
Dynamic Entry is a handy tool for making sure nothing can get away from you ever. Essentially, hit this if there's a foe escaping, dash to them and apply your passive, and they can't do a thing about you. On the other hand, you could use it on a foe you already caught, after knocking them away with Forceful Blow, in order to do bursts of damage between Right Hooks.
Outta the Way is sort of the opposite of Running Toss, in that it's used to disrupt people from chasing your allies more than catch them. That said, it's pretty much exactly what it says on the tin. Not much complexity to it.
R: Unstoppable Force- Rebecca hurtles forward at massive speed, dealing significant damage to enemies she passes. With Unstoppable Force active, the next enemy Rebecca hits takes moderate damage, and Unstoppable Force ends.
Read it. Right, now read it again. This is important. I'll wait.
Done? Good. So, this turns Rebecca from a single target powerhouse to a multitarget threat. While it may look good as an escape on paper, it really isn't for a number of reasons- One, it only stops when you run into a foe, which may just make matters worse, and two, it's interrupted by snares, slows, knockups, any of that lot. Beyond that, this works how you think it does- run through a crowd of enemies, use your other abilities to disrupt them, turn off Unstoppable Force when you get to a flimsy foe, then punch them to death. Simple enough, right?
 |
| I'm not going to bother saying it. |
Watch this space, by the way. Relatively big announcement coming soon!
EDIT: For character development reasons and not being one dimensional reasons, Rebecca's backstory has been changed. Enjoy!
Monday, 13 May 2013
Character Design: Persephone Argent! (or, A v ^ A v ^)
Persephone's parents originally thought that they'd had twins. Even so, they had to admit that it was a little strange that only one of them was crying at any given time. Or for that matter, that only one of them was moving at all at any given time. All the same, they didn't realize what was going on with their darling Persephone and Kore until they- or rather, she- learned to talk. Even parents as oblivious as hers could hardly ignore the way that each sentence jumped erratically between their daughters without missing a beat.
As she grew, she learned to control her power. How to shift seamlessly between herself and Kore. How to dissipate and gather her to and from wisps of cloud and mist. Vital skills, all in all. Skills that the Templars recognized. Nurtured. Weaponized.
Be warned. Lightning shall strike the same place twice.
Persephone Argent, the Maid of Storms, is a Nova/Assassin with focus on clone manipulation. Her kit is based around dealing high burst damage to multiple targets, or even higher burst damage to a single target, through herself and her clone.
Passive: Two Bodies, One Spirit- Persephone lives her life in two halves. Persephone has a stationary cloudclone of herself on the battlefield at all times, which is immune to all abilities, displacement, all damage, and all statuses.
This is the core (pun unintended) of Persephone's skillset, but of itself it isn't that exciting, so I'll go into more detail about why it's fun in the other ability descriptions.
Q: Stormsurge- Persephone and Kore launch a burst of energy towards the cursor, dealing moderate damage apiece.
This is on a VERY long cooldown for a Q ability, so Persephone has very little sustained damage. However, she can use this for a lot of burst. There are two ways to try and use this- first, to try and strike the same foe twice, as an Assassin, or to strike two different foes, the Nova way. Either way, clone position and targetting is very important.
W: Stormburst- Persephone and Kore overflow with power, dealing moderate damage in a small radius around them.
Again, there are two ways to use this. Either position your clone to hit as many people as possible with the burst, or position yourself so a single target gets hit by both bursts. The distinction between Assassin and Nova is there once again. Additionally, this can be usefully used to stop people camping your clone, which can be one of Persephone's weaknesses- by hitting Stormburst before Gemini Shifting, she can clear out anyone who planned to catch her off guard.
E: Cumulogenesis- Persephone spawns a new clone at target location, destroying her old clone.
This has obvious applications with the other abilities, but two that are probably less obvious without looking at them in game. These were originally bugs, but I decided to leave them in because they just seemed to work. First, as it was dubbed by the testers, "Landmining", wherein Kore is placed under the ground, making her invisible, but still able to use Stormburst, giving undetectable damage- it's also possible to Gemini Shift to her, which places you on the equivalent point at ground level. The second, "Thunderclouding", places Kore as far above the ground as possible, making Stormburst next to useless, but greatly increasing the effective range of Stormsurge, and allowing you to use it effectively even when nowhere near her. These both seemed consistent with the storyline (given that Kore is essentially a cloud, it makes sense that she can float, after all), so I left them in as a bonus.
R: Gemini Shift- Persephone switches to her other body, swapping position with Kore after a short delay, dealing light damage to herself in the process.
I'm going to assume you can see the implications of this ability. It can be used for chasing, for positioning, for repositioning Kore without waiting for Cumulogenesis to cooldown, to run away from fights while waiting for cooldowns, all that sort of thing. One thing of note is that this is on the lowest cooldown of any of Persephone's abilities, meaning that any Persephone players will have to learn to use this properly to be in with a chance of doing well.
Guess what's coming soon! That's right, it's gameplay videos and screenshots!
Any thoughts? Any questions?
As she grew, she learned to control her power. How to shift seamlessly between herself and Kore. How to dissipate and gather her to and from wisps of cloud and mist. Vital skills, all in all. Skills that the Templars recognized. Nurtured. Weaponized.
Be warned. Lightning shall strike the same place twice.
Persephone Argent, the Maid of Storms, is a Nova/Assassin with focus on clone manipulation. Her kit is based around dealing high burst damage to multiple targets, or even higher burst damage to a single target, through herself and her clone.
Passive: Two Bodies, One Spirit- Persephone lives her life in two halves. Persephone has a stationary cloudclone of herself on the battlefield at all times, which is immune to all abilities, displacement, all damage, and all statuses.
This is the core (pun unintended) of Persephone's skillset, but of itself it isn't that exciting, so I'll go into more detail about why it's fun in the other ability descriptions.
Q: Stormsurge- Persephone and Kore launch a burst of energy towards the cursor, dealing moderate damage apiece.
This is on a VERY long cooldown for a Q ability, so Persephone has very little sustained damage. However, she can use this for a lot of burst. There are two ways to try and use this- first, to try and strike the same foe twice, as an Assassin, or to strike two different foes, the Nova way. Either way, clone position and targetting is very important.
W: Stormburst- Persephone and Kore overflow with power, dealing moderate damage in a small radius around them.
Again, there are two ways to use this. Either position your clone to hit as many people as possible with the burst, or position yourself so a single target gets hit by both bursts. The distinction between Assassin and Nova is there once again. Additionally, this can be usefully used to stop people camping your clone, which can be one of Persephone's weaknesses- by hitting Stormburst before Gemini Shifting, she can clear out anyone who planned to catch her off guard.
E: Cumulogenesis- Persephone spawns a new clone at target location, destroying her old clone.
This has obvious applications with the other abilities, but two that are probably less obvious without looking at them in game. These were originally bugs, but I decided to leave them in because they just seemed to work. First, as it was dubbed by the testers, "Landmining", wherein Kore is placed under the ground, making her invisible, but still able to use Stormburst, giving undetectable damage- it's also possible to Gemini Shift to her, which places you on the equivalent point at ground level. The second, "Thunderclouding", places Kore as far above the ground as possible, making Stormburst next to useless, but greatly increasing the effective range of Stormsurge, and allowing you to use it effectively even when nowhere near her. These both seemed consistent with the storyline (given that Kore is essentially a cloud, it makes sense that she can float, after all), so I left them in as a bonus.
R: Gemini Shift- Persephone switches to her other body, swapping position with Kore after a short delay, dealing light damage to herself in the process.
I'm going to assume you can see the implications of this ability. It can be used for chasing, for positioning, for repositioning Kore without waiting for Cumulogenesis to cooldown, to run away from fights while waiting for cooldowns, all that sort of thing. One thing of note is that this is on the lowest cooldown of any of Persephone's abilities, meaning that any Persephone players will have to learn to use this properly to be in with a chance of doing well.
 |
| Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No clue, but it's definitely not an artist. |
Guess what's coming soon! That's right, it's gameplay videos and screenshots!
Any thoughts? Any questions?
Friday, 10 May 2013
Character Design: Elijah! (or, Fava Beans and Chianti at the ready!)
Elijah was hungry.
Elijah was usually hungry, but this time it was worse than most. Most of the time, when Elijah was hungry, he'd go out and get something to eat. But this time he couldn't. As it turns out, trying to turn a passing Templar, disguised for a stakeout, into a snack, is frowned upon. The corpse didn't even stick around long enough for him to take a bite either, and several other Templars had jumped on him moments later. He still managed to take three of them down before they tied him up, too. But he didn't get to eat them, either. As a direct result...
Elijah was still hungry.
It's these clone summon things that make it no fun. The body isn't real, just a construct. The real Templar is in a summoning circle, somewhere underground. Sure, they feel the pain, but they don't die, and the construct just dissolves when it "dies". Still, Elijah finds some contentment in the fact that he caused the Templars some pain.
On the other hand... Elijah was hungry.
Elijah, the Bloodied Butcher, is a Bruiser with focus on augmented attacks and battle regeneration. His kit is built around closing down on an enemy and hitting them with his cleaver, empowering his attacks with his other abilities as he goes.
Passive: Carnivore- Elijah feeds of his foes, healing himself for 25% of the damage he deals.
This one's for sustain, mostly. It's what allows him to go toe to toe with tougher opponents in prolonged fights, and it's a reward for sticking at a fight to the end, rather than disengaging.
Q: Cleave- Elijah swings his cleaver, dealing moderate damage to a foe in melee range.
This is Elijah's main damaging ability. If he gets up close, he can deal devastating damage with Cleave, but the cooldown is longer than most Q abilities, so he has to stay in there for a while.
W: Bleed for Me- Elijah prepares a jagged strike, causing his next Cleave to apply bleeding to the target, dealing significant damage over 3 seconds.
Bleed For Me is not intended as a direct source of damage, but rather something to hold him over between Cleaves against foes who might be able to get away- basically, there are some foes who really need to have constant damage on them (trust me on this), so this is pretty handy.
E: Go for the Throat- Elijah prepares a lightning-fast strike, making him dash a short distance forward the next time he uses Cleave.
For a melee Templar as slow as Elijah, either a really nice piece of crowd control or a gap closer is needed to stop him being utterly irrelevant against ranged enemies. As a gap closer, this one seems to be fairly well balanced- while it gives him a dash, it costs him a Cleave, so he has to wait for the cooldown again before he can hit someone, once he's dashed.
R: Slaughter- Elijah slashes for the kill, dealing moderate damage plus a proportion of the target's missing health to a foe in melee range.
Now this is beautiful, even if I do say so myself. In a similar vein (hah!) to Cordelia's Chomp, Slaughter is intended to be used as an execute which doubles as sustain, however, it has bonus functionality as a tool for healing- due to his passive, he could hit a tank on about half health, not kill them, but still heal himself for a noticable amount, which may well save his life in a prolonged fight. On the other hand, it can also be used as an instant kill against weakened foes. All in all, relatively versatile, for a direct damage move.
Gameplay videos! Gameplay screenshots! All of this and more, coming at some point in the future!
Any thoughts? Any questions?
Elijah was usually hungry, but this time it was worse than most. Most of the time, when Elijah was hungry, he'd go out and get something to eat. But this time he couldn't. As it turns out, trying to turn a passing Templar, disguised for a stakeout, into a snack, is frowned upon. The corpse didn't even stick around long enough for him to take a bite either, and several other Templars had jumped on him moments later. He still managed to take three of them down before they tied him up, too. But he didn't get to eat them, either. As a direct result...
Elijah was still hungry.
It's these clone summon things that make it no fun. The body isn't real, just a construct. The real Templar is in a summoning circle, somewhere underground. Sure, they feel the pain, but they don't die, and the construct just dissolves when it "dies". Still, Elijah finds some contentment in the fact that he caused the Templars some pain.
On the other hand... Elijah was hungry.
Elijah, the Bloodied Butcher, is a Bruiser with focus on augmented attacks and battle regeneration. His kit is built around closing down on an enemy and hitting them with his cleaver, empowering his attacks with his other abilities as he goes.
Passive: Carnivore- Elijah feeds of his foes, healing himself for 25% of the damage he deals.
This one's for sustain, mostly. It's what allows him to go toe to toe with tougher opponents in prolonged fights, and it's a reward for sticking at a fight to the end, rather than disengaging.
Q: Cleave- Elijah swings his cleaver, dealing moderate damage to a foe in melee range.
This is Elijah's main damaging ability. If he gets up close, he can deal devastating damage with Cleave, but the cooldown is longer than most Q abilities, so he has to stay in there for a while.
W: Bleed for Me- Elijah prepares a jagged strike, causing his next Cleave to apply bleeding to the target, dealing significant damage over 3 seconds.
Bleed For Me is not intended as a direct source of damage, but rather something to hold him over between Cleaves against foes who might be able to get away- basically, there are some foes who really need to have constant damage on them (trust me on this), so this is pretty handy.
E: Go for the Throat- Elijah prepares a lightning-fast strike, making him dash a short distance forward the next time he uses Cleave.
For a melee Templar as slow as Elijah, either a really nice piece of crowd control or a gap closer is needed to stop him being utterly irrelevant against ranged enemies. As a gap closer, this one seems to be fairly well balanced- while it gives him a dash, it costs him a Cleave, so he has to wait for the cooldown again before he can hit someone, once he's dashed.
R: Slaughter- Elijah slashes for the kill, dealing moderate damage plus a proportion of the target's missing health to a foe in melee range.
Now this is beautiful, even if I do say so myself. In a similar vein (hah!) to Cordelia's Chomp, Slaughter is intended to be used as an execute which doubles as sustain, however, it has bonus functionality as a tool for healing- due to his passive, he could hit a tank on about half health, not kill them, but still heal himself for a noticable amount, which may well save his life in a prolonged fight. On the other hand, it can also be used as an instant kill against weakened foes. All in all, relatively versatile, for a direct damage move.
 |
| Ceci n'est pas un artist. |
Any thoughts? Any questions?
Wednesday, 8 May 2013
Character Design: Cordelia Strange! (Or, Weed Killer Goes Both Ways)
No-one knows what Cordelia really is. Not even Cordelia herself.
All she knows is that she has to care for her children. Her children love her. She loves her children. She protects her children. Her children protect her.
It doesn't take much work to make more of her children, but it takes care, effort, time, love, to nurture them to their full potential. A single seed, a hole in the ground, and they begin to grow. And they do grow so fast.
She teaches them, as they grow. Teaches them how to think. How to learn. How to speak to each other. How to find food. How to hunt it.
They need to learn to get along with their siblings. Not to starve the younger ones of light. Not to choke the elder ones' roots.
Humans need to learn to get along with their siblings too. Whatever they brought... it hurt them. It hurt her children. Before her eyes, they lit up, a brilliant, flickering yellow, spreading to each brother and sister it touched.
She tried to save them. All of them.
She couldn't save them.
They took her in when they heard her trying to comfort her children. She could talk. She was a living being, not an unintelligent monster. They couldn't just burn her like the rest.
It took years for her to stop wishing that they had.
She grew a new grove, in time. But the nightmares, the screams of her children... they didn't go away.
Cordelia Strange, the Plant Queen is a Cannon with focus on rapid shooting and self healing in battle. Her kit is built around firing as many thorns as she can, as fast as she can, and kiting enemies away from melee range. (For those of us who aren't aware, Kiting refers to keeping an enemy chasing you while also keeping it at a range where it cannot attack you.)
Passive: Coup de Grass- Cordelia knows how nature finishes off the weak. Cordelia deals increased damage with all of her abilities against foes who are snared, silenced or slowed.
I'm gonna be honest- this is probably going to need a little tweaking. It's intended to give her better synergy with crowd control centric supports, such as Twig, the Migh... *ahem*, you saw nothing. In any case, it holds little synergy (though some) with the rest of her kit or her feel, so it probably needs some more work, but it should be good for purpose as it is- support synergy is always worth thinking about, as well as internal synergy.
Q: Thornspitter- Cordelia flings a gravity-affected thorn, dealing significant damage to the first foe it hits. If the thorn strikes an enemy, the cooldown of Thornspitter and Sweet Blooms are reduced by 0.5 seconds.
As Cordelia's signature ability, this is where all of her damage is coming from. The way this works means that it fires at roughly double rate when hitting an enemy. Not much damage, but fires very, very fast- exactly the Cannon's Modus Operandi, in other words.
W: Sweet Blooms- Cordelia's flowers bloom, invigorating her. For the next four seconds, Cordelia heals herself for a slight amount of health every time she uses Thornspitter.
Sweet Blooms isn't healing for much at a time, but just like the damage stacks up, so does the healing. Due to the way Thornspitter works, this effectively heals twice as much when used in battle than out of it, and since it gets a reduced cooldown from thorn hits, it's essentially at it's best when used for battle healing- a bit of added durability, rather than means of regenerating.
E: Coiling Vines- Cordelia flings vines out in front of her, dealing slight damage to the foe they strike and snaring them for 0.5 seconds.
This might at first look like it has good synergy with Coup de Grass, but unfortunately, you can only fit one boosted damage thorn into that time, and were the snare any longer it would make Cordelia too powerful. Believe me, there's been rigorous testing here. Coiling vines is intended as a tool to try and keep melee enemies- so Bruisers and the like- out of range, so Cordelia can continue kiting them with thorns. Not good for holding them down, but great for a quick interrupt.
R: Chomp- Chomper lunges out and tries to swallow a foe in melee range. If the targetted foe is below a quarter of their maximum health, they are instantly killed, Cordelia is healed moderate health, and the cooldown on Chomp is reduced sharply.
This one's an interesting one. If a foe is in melee range of Cordelia, something's already gone horribly wrong- since this is where she's weakest, she needs an emergency tool to get away with the fight. Being able to Chomp them for some quick health is a useful tool, and forces foes to engage with a good amount of health remaining. Additionally, it gives Cordelia some power against Tanks- if she's able to whittle off the first three quarters, the last quarter is gone instantly, making things much easier for her!
Gameplay videos and screenshots coming really quite soon probably maybe possibly.
Thoughts? Questions? I'm here to listen!
All she knows is that she has to care for her children. Her children love her. She loves her children. She protects her children. Her children protect her.
It doesn't take much work to make more of her children, but it takes care, effort, time, love, to nurture them to their full potential. A single seed, a hole in the ground, and they begin to grow. And they do grow so fast.
She teaches them, as they grow. Teaches them how to think. How to learn. How to speak to each other. How to find food. How to hunt it.
They need to learn to get along with their siblings. Not to starve the younger ones of light. Not to choke the elder ones' roots.
Humans need to learn to get along with their siblings too. Whatever they brought... it hurt them. It hurt her children. Before her eyes, they lit up, a brilliant, flickering yellow, spreading to each brother and sister it touched.
She tried to save them. All of them.
She couldn't save them.
They took her in when they heard her trying to comfort her children. She could talk. She was a living being, not an unintelligent monster. They couldn't just burn her like the rest.
It took years for her to stop wishing that they had.
She grew a new grove, in time. But the nightmares, the screams of her children... they didn't go away.
Cordelia Strange, the Plant Queen is a Cannon with focus on rapid shooting and self healing in battle. Her kit is built around firing as many thorns as she can, as fast as she can, and kiting enemies away from melee range. (For those of us who aren't aware, Kiting refers to keeping an enemy chasing you while also keeping it at a range where it cannot attack you.)
Passive: Coup de Grass- Cordelia knows how nature finishes off the weak. Cordelia deals increased damage with all of her abilities against foes who are snared, silenced or slowed.
I'm gonna be honest- this is probably going to need a little tweaking. It's intended to give her better synergy with crowd control centric supports, such as Twig, the Migh... *ahem*, you saw nothing. In any case, it holds little synergy (though some) with the rest of her kit or her feel, so it probably needs some more work, but it should be good for purpose as it is- support synergy is always worth thinking about, as well as internal synergy.
Q: Thornspitter- Cordelia flings a gravity-affected thorn, dealing significant damage to the first foe it hits. If the thorn strikes an enemy, the cooldown of Thornspitter and Sweet Blooms are reduced by 0.5 seconds.
As Cordelia's signature ability, this is where all of her damage is coming from. The way this works means that it fires at roughly double rate when hitting an enemy. Not much damage, but fires very, very fast- exactly the Cannon's Modus Operandi, in other words.
W: Sweet Blooms- Cordelia's flowers bloom, invigorating her. For the next four seconds, Cordelia heals herself for a slight amount of health every time she uses Thornspitter.
Sweet Blooms isn't healing for much at a time, but just like the damage stacks up, so does the healing. Due to the way Thornspitter works, this effectively heals twice as much when used in battle than out of it, and since it gets a reduced cooldown from thorn hits, it's essentially at it's best when used for battle healing- a bit of added durability, rather than means of regenerating.
E: Coiling Vines- Cordelia flings vines out in front of her, dealing slight damage to the foe they strike and snaring them for 0.5 seconds.
This might at first look like it has good synergy with Coup de Grass, but unfortunately, you can only fit one boosted damage thorn into that time, and were the snare any longer it would make Cordelia too powerful. Believe me, there's been rigorous testing here. Coiling vines is intended as a tool to try and keep melee enemies- so Bruisers and the like- out of range, so Cordelia can continue kiting them with thorns. Not good for holding them down, but great for a quick interrupt.
R: Chomp- Chomper lunges out and tries to swallow a foe in melee range. If the targetted foe is below a quarter of their maximum health, they are instantly killed, Cordelia is healed moderate health, and the cooldown on Chomp is reduced sharply.
This one's an interesting one. If a foe is in melee range of Cordelia, something's already gone horribly wrong- since this is where she's weakest, she needs an emergency tool to get away with the fight. Being able to Chomp them for some quick health is a useful tool, and forces foes to engage with a good amount of health remaining. Additionally, it gives Cordelia some power against Tanks- if she's able to whittle off the first three quarters, the last quarter is gone instantly, making things much easier for her!
 |
| Usual disclaimer applies, people! |
Gameplay videos and screenshots coming really quite soon probably maybe possibly.
Thoughts? Questions? I'm here to listen!
Monday, 6 May 2013
Character Design: Bastion! (or, You Can't Stop The Rockman)
Pygmalia found herself running, in tears, across the high gardens, searching through bleary eyes for the statue that she knew would be there.
A visit from the Enlightener is not one that you forget in a hurry. Her power, as it is, is to speak the truth. Not the truth that you want to know, but the truth that you need to know. Whatever it may be.
Pygmalia, the sculptor, was not a Templar. She wasn't cut out for the job. Her combat skills were non-existent, and she didn't have any magic potential to speak of. However, she did work with the Templars- after all, they're the ones who need the lavish carvings, the beautiful sculptures, the masterwork statues- so she spent a fair amount of time around them. In fact, that was how she'd met her fiancée, Peter Bastion.
Pygmalia stopped before the statue. It was here. The Enlightener's words echoed through her mind.
Bastion was a strong man. A leader. Handsome, intelligent, charismatic, strong as an ox. Five years ago, they met. One year ago, to the very day, they'd become pledged to be married. Six months ago, he'd lead a group out to the Törska Mountains, in search of the homeland of a new race of savages who had been spotted near Kayne's walls. Three months ago, the party was due to return. Today, they were due to be married.
Instead, Pygmalia had received a visit from the Enlightener.
She'd said only four words.
"He's not coming back."
Pygmalia fell to her knees, hugging the legs of the statue of Peter. Her magnum opus.
Who can imagine how she felt when he knelt to embrace her too.
Bastion, the Stone Soldier, is a Tank with focus on damage mitigation and area of effect crowd control. His kit is built around getting into the middle of a group of enemies and holding them down for long enough for his allies to kill them.
Passive: Rock Solid- If Bastion hasn't taken damage in the last 3 seconds, the next attack to hit him deals no damage.
Rock Solid is Bastion's means of catching and holding the enemy's attention, as well as his means of dealing with Assassins and Novas. By mitigating only the first attack to hit him, he can utterly invalidate Assassin and Nova burst, but it's ineffective against Cannons, Fighters, Bruisers and Beatsticks, forcing him to single out high priority targets to avoid getting shredded anyway.
Q: Rock Hammer- Bastion strikes an enemy in front of him with his hammer, dealing significant damage to them.
Rock Hammer is basically a basic attack. It doesn't do much damage, it's on too long a cooldown to use as a decent source of damage. All it's really there for is to give him something to do between crowd control bursts.
W: Epicenter- Bastion smashes the ground with his hammer, dealing light damage to nearby enemies and slowing them for two seconds.
Epicenter is Bastion's primary crowd control ability. By getting into the middle of a group of enemies and hitting this, he stops them running if his team is winning, or stops them chasing if his team is losing. Win win situation!
E: Stone Slam- Bastion bashes his body into a foe, dealing moderate damage and snaring them for a second.
Stone Slam is Bastion's main "singling out" ability. By Slamming a squishy foe, he's making them an easy target for the rest of his team, and dealing a some damage while he's at it.
R: Boulderdash- Bastion curls himself up and rolls to the target location, dealing significant damage to and knocking foes he strikes on his way past into the air. When he arrives, he smashes the ground, dealing moderate damage to, slowing, and knocking into the air nearby enemies.
Boulderdash is Bastion's primary positioning tool. Essentially, he should be using this to get into the middle of a group of enemies so he can hit them with the rest of his abilities easily, and to exploit the crowd control on the arrival effect. More specifically, he should be aiming to use this to get slightly behind a group of enemies, partially so he hits foes with both the pass through and the arrival damage, and partially so he's closer to the people at the back, who are likely to be the weaker members of the team.
Gameplay videos and screenshots will, once again, be put here once they're produced.
Any thoughts? Any questions?
A visit from the Enlightener is not one that you forget in a hurry. Her power, as it is, is to speak the truth. Not the truth that you want to know, but the truth that you need to know. Whatever it may be.
Pygmalia, the sculptor, was not a Templar. She wasn't cut out for the job. Her combat skills were non-existent, and she didn't have any magic potential to speak of. However, she did work with the Templars- after all, they're the ones who need the lavish carvings, the beautiful sculptures, the masterwork statues- so she spent a fair amount of time around them. In fact, that was how she'd met her fiancée, Peter Bastion.
Pygmalia stopped before the statue. It was here. The Enlightener's words echoed through her mind.
Bastion was a strong man. A leader. Handsome, intelligent, charismatic, strong as an ox. Five years ago, they met. One year ago, to the very day, they'd become pledged to be married. Six months ago, he'd lead a group out to the Törska Mountains, in search of the homeland of a new race of savages who had been spotted near Kayne's walls. Three months ago, the party was due to return. Today, they were due to be married.
Instead, Pygmalia had received a visit from the Enlightener.
She'd said only four words.
"He's not coming back."
Pygmalia fell to her knees, hugging the legs of the statue of Peter. Her magnum opus.
Who can imagine how she felt when he knelt to embrace her too.
Bastion, the Stone Soldier, is a Tank with focus on damage mitigation and area of effect crowd control. His kit is built around getting into the middle of a group of enemies and holding them down for long enough for his allies to kill them.
Passive: Rock Solid- If Bastion hasn't taken damage in the last 3 seconds, the next attack to hit him deals no damage.
Rock Solid is Bastion's means of catching and holding the enemy's attention, as well as his means of dealing with Assassins and Novas. By mitigating only the first attack to hit him, he can utterly invalidate Assassin and Nova burst, but it's ineffective against Cannons, Fighters, Bruisers and Beatsticks, forcing him to single out high priority targets to avoid getting shredded anyway.
Q: Rock Hammer- Bastion strikes an enemy in front of him with his hammer, dealing significant damage to them.
Rock Hammer is basically a basic attack. It doesn't do much damage, it's on too long a cooldown to use as a decent source of damage. All it's really there for is to give him something to do between crowd control bursts.
W: Epicenter- Bastion smashes the ground with his hammer, dealing light damage to nearby enemies and slowing them for two seconds.
Epicenter is Bastion's primary crowd control ability. By getting into the middle of a group of enemies and hitting this, he stops them running if his team is winning, or stops them chasing if his team is losing. Win win situation!
E: Stone Slam- Bastion bashes his body into a foe, dealing moderate damage and snaring them for a second.
Stone Slam is Bastion's main "singling out" ability. By Slamming a squishy foe, he's making them an easy target for the rest of his team, and dealing a some damage while he's at it.
R: Boulderdash- Bastion curls himself up and rolls to the target location, dealing significant damage to and knocking foes he strikes on his way past into the air. When he arrives, he smashes the ground, dealing moderate damage to, slowing, and knocking into the air nearby enemies.
Boulderdash is Bastion's primary positioning tool. Essentially, he should be using this to get into the middle of a group of enemies so he can hit them with the rest of his abilities easily, and to exploit the crowd control on the arrival effect. More specifically, he should be aiming to use this to get slightly behind a group of enemies, partially so he hits foes with both the pass through and the arrival damage, and partially so he's closer to the people at the back, who are likely to be the weaker members of the team.
 |
| Still not an artist, I'm afraid. |
Gameplay videos and screenshots will, once again, be put here once they're produced.
Any thoughts? Any questions?
Sunday, 5 May 2013
Character Design: Darryn King! (or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomber)
Verity stepped up to the hatch with the newest concoction. One part charcoal, two parts sulphur, and two parts whatever it was that she'd managed to synthesize. Theoretically, it should be highly volatile, but given how successful the last few attempts had been, she wasn't holding her breath about it.
She opened the hatch, passing stoppered vial through to her brother. "You ready?", she called through, closing it again.
"As I'll ever be," came Darryn's voice, muffled by the reinforced door.
"On three!"
Here goes nothing.
"One!"
Verity stepped back from the hatch, sparing a glance across to the empty powder pouches on the table where she'd been working.
"Two!"
...Wait a second. She thought she'd only put in half an ounce of sulfur. Why was the pouch empty?
"Three!"
There was silence for a second, then suddenly, with a mighty roar, the door was blown open by a lateral pillar of flame, obliterating the steel barring across it. Yelping, Verity jumped back from the blast, barely avoiding being burned to a crisp by the inferno. Then, just as quickly as it had come, it died away, leaving a smouldering door hanging off its hinges, and a charred path through the laboratory where the flames had erupted through the room. Coughing from the smoke, Verity slowly rose to her feet.
"D-Darryn?"
"Whatever that was," said the badly burned figure standing in the smoking remains of the testing bay, "It was awesome! Got any more?"
Darryn King, the Wily Bomber, is a Nova with focus on self-damaging explosive attacks. His kit is built around dealing massive damage to himself and those around him as a high risk, high reward combination.
Passive: Safety Second. When Darryn inflicts damage to himself, all of his abilities used in the next two seconds deal double damage.
Darryn's passive is what holds his kit together. His damage output is fairly mediocre to begin with, but when he's getting right up close and personal to his opponents, he will consistently be doing double damage, in return for the increased damage he's doing to himself.
Q: Cross Slash. Darryn swings his sword, dealing significant damage to a foe in melee range
Darryn should use this ability for his primary damage when in melee range. While it doesn't do much damage, it's the only one of his abilities that won't damage himself, meaning that he won't hurt himself more than he hurts the opponent when using this at close ranges, unlike his other abilities.
W: Heavy Grenade. Darryn throws a heavy grenade which explodes when it lands or hits an enemy. The explosion deals moderate damage to enemies caught in the blast.
This ability is Darryn's main source of damage. It has the longest range of any of his abilities, allowing him to use it from a distance, it deals area of effect damage, meaning multiple enemies at once can be struck with it, and with the double damage from Safety Second, it deals a lot of amount of damage, too.
E: Reckless Barrage. Darryn throws four small bombs in random directions around him. Each explode on hitting an enemy or hitting the ground, dealing light damage in a tiny radius.
Darryn's main use for this ability is not to deal damage to enemies, but instead to deal damage to himself. The small bombs deal little enough damage that they're able to be used to proc Safety Second relatively safely, without too much risk of killing himself with the self-damage.
R: Ground Zero. Darryn throws The Big One straight upwards. When it lands, it explodes, dealing heavy damage to everyone in a wide radius.
This one is all or nothing. Ground Zero can be used in one of three ways. One, to deal massive damage to a wide radius, but most likely kill Darryn in the process, two, to force enemies to run away from an area, or three, to clean up the aftermath of a big fight and finish off anyone who might be trying to escape. The delay between throwing and the explosion makes this hard to land, but when it does land, it hits HARD.
Gameplay Footage/Screenshots coming as soon as I can generate them.
So! That's the first character, any thoughts? Any questions?
She opened the hatch, passing stoppered vial through to her brother. "You ready?", she called through, closing it again.
"As I'll ever be," came Darryn's voice, muffled by the reinforced door.
"On three!"
Here goes nothing.
"One!"
Verity stepped back from the hatch, sparing a glance across to the empty powder pouches on the table where she'd been working.
"Two!"
...Wait a second. She thought she'd only put in half an ounce of sulfur. Why was the pouch empty?
"Three!"
There was silence for a second, then suddenly, with a mighty roar, the door was blown open by a lateral pillar of flame, obliterating the steel barring across it. Yelping, Verity jumped back from the blast, barely avoiding being burned to a crisp by the inferno. Then, just as quickly as it had come, it died away, leaving a smouldering door hanging off its hinges, and a charred path through the laboratory where the flames had erupted through the room. Coughing from the smoke, Verity slowly rose to her feet.
"D-Darryn?"
"Whatever that was," said the badly burned figure standing in the smoking remains of the testing bay, "It was awesome! Got any more?"
Darryn King, the Wily Bomber, is a Nova with focus on self-damaging explosive attacks. His kit is built around dealing massive damage to himself and those around him as a high risk, high reward combination.
Passive: Safety Second. When Darryn inflicts damage to himself, all of his abilities used in the next two seconds deal double damage.
Darryn's passive is what holds his kit together. His damage output is fairly mediocre to begin with, but when he's getting right up close and personal to his opponents, he will consistently be doing double damage, in return for the increased damage he's doing to himself.
Q: Cross Slash. Darryn swings his sword, dealing significant damage to a foe in melee range
Darryn should use this ability for his primary damage when in melee range. While it doesn't do much damage, it's the only one of his abilities that won't damage himself, meaning that he won't hurt himself more than he hurts the opponent when using this at close ranges, unlike his other abilities.
W: Heavy Grenade. Darryn throws a heavy grenade which explodes when it lands or hits an enemy. The explosion deals moderate damage to enemies caught in the blast.
This ability is Darryn's main source of damage. It has the longest range of any of his abilities, allowing him to use it from a distance, it deals area of effect damage, meaning multiple enemies at once can be struck with it, and with the double damage from Safety Second, it deals a lot of amount of damage, too.
E: Reckless Barrage. Darryn throws four small bombs in random directions around him. Each explode on hitting an enemy or hitting the ground, dealing light damage in a tiny radius.
Darryn's main use for this ability is not to deal damage to enemies, but instead to deal damage to himself. The small bombs deal little enough damage that they're able to be used to proc Safety Second relatively safely, without too much risk of killing himself with the self-damage.
R: Ground Zero. Darryn throws The Big One straight upwards. When it lands, it explodes, dealing heavy damage to everyone in a wide radius.
This one is all or nothing. Ground Zero can be used in one of three ways. One, to deal massive damage to a wide radius, but most likely kill Darryn in the process, two, to force enemies to run away from an area, or three, to clean up the aftermath of a big fight and finish off anyone who might be trying to escape. The delay between throwing and the explosion makes this hard to land, but when it does land, it hits HARD.
 |
| I am not an artist. This may be obvious. |
Gameplay Footage/Screenshots coming as soon as I can generate them.
So! That's the first character, any thoughts? Any questions?
Character Design: A quick overview!
So, before I launch into a set of individual character designs, I'm going to quickly go over what I'm trying for overall. Essentially, my top priority is that each character will be fun to play as, fun to play with them on your team, and fun to play against. These are fairly difficult to get in balance, and I honestly doubt I'll manage them all for every character, but that's life. They're in order of priority, there- essentially, if a Templar is not fun to play, nobody plays them, and the time spent developing them was essentially wasted. So I'm trying to avoid that.
So, that's the overview, stay tuned for the specifics!
More specifically to the game, I want to make sure that every character brings something unique to a team, while still fulfilling a wider role- to this end, each character will have a focus, and a role. Focus will be something that is unique to them, that you essentially don't get with anybody else- as a couple of throwaway examples, invisibility, or ranged explosive attacks- you get the idea. The wider role will be the purpose they serve in the team. In the interests of making classification of roles easier, I've decided to put down what I have planned rolewise here.
- Assassin- Assassin types deal incredible amounts of damage to a single target very quickly, but have to wait a long time in between attacks, and die very easily.
- Nova- Nova types are similarly squishy and similarly have long cooldowns, but deal slightly less damage to a greater number of people, either through multitarget attacks, or through area of effect attacks.
- Cannon- Cannon types (full name Glass Cannon) are also relatively easy to kill, but they deal significant amounts of damage very quickly. They deal less damage than Novas and Assassins, but they have much, MUCH quicker cooldowns, so they can deal damage rapidly to several targets as needed.
- Fighter- Fighter types are similar to Cannons, but with two major differences: One, Fighters deal slightly less damage, and two, Fighters have a means of escaping death if they get caught by the enemy team- be it a dash, a blink, a speed boost, anything like that.
- Bruiser- Bruiser types are fairly middle of the road. They're tougher than Fighters but weaker than Tanks, they're less damaging than Novas but more than Cannons, they cool down quicker than Assassins, but slower than Cannons. Essentially, they're the bread and butter of the game. Nothing in particular that they're good at, but relatively few weaknesses.
- Beatstick- Beatstick types are similar to Bruisers, but different in a couple of respects. They're slightly weaker, and deal slightly less damage, but they make up for it by being much more mobile than Bruisers- essentially, they're the sort of people who engage fights, who chase down people trying to flee, and generally annoy the enemy team.
- Tank- Tank types do not die. Ever. They generally deal very little damage, but make up for it by being virtually indestructible, applying lots of disables and crowd control to enemies, and being able to save their allies from harm.
- Support- Support types are not very strong of themselves. They are fairly tough, but they have essentially no- or sometimes, literally no- damage, but make up for it by making their allies significantly stronger, by buffing allies, debuffing enemies, healing allies, and other such useful skills.
- Assistant- Assistant types are similar to Support types, but trading some utility for the ability to deal some damage on their own- they're able to both assist their allies and deal some damage of their own at the same time, but aren't the best at either.
So, that's the overview, stay tuned for the specifics!
Thursday, 2 May 2013
Coding, interviews, and character design
First on the agenda:
Significantly more work has been done on the code. It is now up to a server/client system, meaning that it is now possible to play with multiple people. You can obtain it here, however, it's still not much to look at. However, it isn't all that's been done. I've been doing some secret stuff that I will be releasing shortly, but I'll be touching on that later.
Next up, I got to have a talk with someone in the games industry regarding the project, my code, where I should go with this, etcetera. It was enlightening. I'm not going into much more detail (I have my reasons, I swear), but suffice it to say that the project is definitely heading along the right lines!
Finally! As some of you may recall, early on in the concept stages, I had a minor rant about player freedom, amongst other things. You may even recall that at the time I said that I'd probably go with option B- lots of unique, individually characters with individual roles and abilities. You may have also noticed me mentioning that the Templars of Kayne concept has its roots in MOBAs, which have lots of unique, individual characters with individual roles and abilities. You probably realize from those last two sentences had something in common. If you're thinking that the secret stuff that I mentioned earlier involves lots of unique, individual characters with individual roles and abilities, you'd be entirely right. As I've been starting to code the characters, I've decided I'm going to try and keep this updated with character designs, reasoning for the designs, backstory tidbits, design philosophy, all that sort of stuff. So here's hoping!
EDIT:
I now realize I should have given more explanation on how to make the game snapshot work. Extract the folders, go into server/dist and run server.exe, go into client/dist and run client.exe, et voila! (You may also like to look at config.txt while you're there)
Significantly more work has been done on the code. It is now up to a server/client system, meaning that it is now possible to play with multiple people. You can obtain it here, however, it's still not much to look at. However, it isn't all that's been done. I've been doing some secret stuff that I will be releasing shortly, but I'll be touching on that later.
Next up, I got to have a talk with someone in the games industry regarding the project, my code, where I should go with this, etcetera. It was enlightening. I'm not going into much more detail (I have my reasons, I swear), but suffice it to say that the project is definitely heading along the right lines!
Finally! As some of you may recall, early on in the concept stages, I had a minor rant about player freedom, amongst other things. You may even recall that at the time I said that I'd probably go with option B- lots of unique, individually characters with individual roles and abilities. You may have also noticed me mentioning that the Templars of Kayne concept has its roots in MOBAs, which have lots of unique, individual characters with individual roles and abilities. You probably realize from those last two sentences had something in common. If you're thinking that the secret stuff that I mentioned earlier involves lots of unique, individual characters with individual roles and abilities, you'd be entirely right. As I've been starting to code the characters, I've decided I'm going to try and keep this updated with character designs, reasoning for the designs, backstory tidbits, design philosophy, all that sort of stuff. So here's hoping!
EDIT:
I now realize I should have given more explanation on how to make the game snapshot work. Extract the folders, go into server/dist and run server.exe, go into client/dist and run client.exe, et voila! (You may also like to look at config.txt while you're there)
Sunday, 21 April 2013
Checking in once more, with a present!
Lots new to report, and no time to report it in. However, I have got something to show you. It's not much, but the architecture and infrastructure is there. Move your mouse and use q, w, e and r to get a response in the print window, use a and d to walk around.
Enjoy!
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| Ignore the floatyness of the sprites, that's the placeholder art being awful, nothing to do with the code. |
 |
| Look carefully at the translucent blue parts. And how you can actually see Elijah (the guy with the cleaver) through them. Is it not spiffy? |
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| Note the correctly applied sprite transparency, and the sprite rotation (it's harder than it looks, okay?) |
Enjoy!
Monday, 8 April 2013
Let's Rationalize!
(Or, as a perfectly functional alternative title to this post, "I'm halfway through the design document and I've done a little coding, this'd BETTER be the right option")
Just a short post, I'm afraid, but it should outline the main reasons I'm doing Templars of Kayne over anything else.
1) Artificer and Adventurer are very very expensive to attempt.
So, I looked into the sort of server costs that I'd have to be looking at for Artificer and Adventurer.
Wow.
So, the numbers I ended up turning up were not small. They were, in fact, quite ludicrously big. As in, 6 figures a year quite big.
Factor in that there isn't necessarily an income stream backing that up of any description, and that there would be significant costs in producing assets for an RPG, let alone 2 RPGs, and you can see that there is essentially no way it can end up in the black. Which is sort of an ironic reason to abandon a concept based on economics and supply and demand, come to think.
2) No-one would try Contact Sport.
Contact Sport was unfortunately turned up by the questionnaire as something that nobody would play. Twenty minutes into the Future is not a popular setting amongst players, and it's heavily used enough in the gaming industry in general that essentially nobody would give it a try, regardless of how polished and beautiful the gameplay is. So, gameplay (maybe) good, setting bad.
So yes. Rationale has been made.
Actual documentation and progress reports to come VERY soon, now that something can actually get underway, but to wet your appetite, have a confusing dev screenshot!
WHAT CAN IT MEAN?
Stay tuned to find out!
Just a short post, I'm afraid, but it should outline the main reasons I'm doing Templars of Kayne over anything else.
1) Artificer and Adventurer are very very expensive to attempt.
So, I looked into the sort of server costs that I'd have to be looking at for Artificer and Adventurer.
Wow.
So, the numbers I ended up turning up were not small. They were, in fact, quite ludicrously big. As in, 6 figures a year quite big.
Factor in that there isn't necessarily an income stream backing that up of any description, and that there would be significant costs in producing assets for an RPG, let alone 2 RPGs, and you can see that there is essentially no way it can end up in the black. Which is sort of an ironic reason to abandon a concept based on economics and supply and demand, come to think.
2) No-one would try Contact Sport.
Contact Sport was unfortunately turned up by the questionnaire as something that nobody would play. Twenty minutes into the Future is not a popular setting amongst players, and it's heavily used enough in the gaming industry in general that essentially nobody would give it a try, regardless of how polished and beautiful the gameplay is. So, gameplay (maybe) good, setting bad.
So yes. Rationale has been made.
Actual documentation and progress reports to come VERY soon, now that something can actually get underway, but to wet your appetite, have a confusing dev screenshot!
Stay tuned to find out!
Friday, 22 March 2013
Concept: Templars of Kayne
Fair warning before I start this: After some analysis, I have already made the decision to go with this concept over Contact Sport, Adventurer, or Artificer (or the hazy spacepunk RTS concept that unfortunately never took off. You shall be missed, "Grande Machines"). The reasoning for this should be obvious from the pros and cons when listed, but even if not I'll be posting my thought processes at a later date. Without any further ado:
Templars of Kayne
High Fantasy Strategic Shooter
Templars of Kayne is a moba-esque two dimensional shooter with strategic elements (I'm well aware that the last bit means virtually nothing, but oh well). Plaers choose from a selection of characters, with a variety of unique abilities and roles, and are placed onto a planetoid arena, with 5 capture pillars spaced around it. Players are separated into two equal teams, and start off at a capture pillar. Your team wins if they are able to capture all of the pillars on the arena. Pretty simple. The hard part is actually doing it.
More specifically!
The breakdown of the genres is as follows:
The MOBA-esque part comes in the selection of characters. In Multiplayer Online Battle Arena games, such as Defense of the Ancients, League of Legends, or Heroes of Newerth players select from a large roster of characters, each with their own characterisation and unique abilities, and use this character throughout a given match. The way this differs from the middle of the freedom scale as I described in a previous post is the scale of the roster- at the time of writing, there are 97 Heroes in DotA, and 111 Champions in League of Legends. For (I hope) obvious reasons, I will be starting off with a roster of around 30- enough to leave a decent choice and spread of roles, but not so many as to make the process of design and balancing impossibly complex. Additionally, forcing players to use the same Templar throughout the match means that teams can be picked strategically, rather than reactionary countering, as is an issue in some games.
The Two Dimensional part is me beating a dying horse, and making the arena a circular, gravitationally centred planetoid. You may recognize this idea if you've read *any* of my previous posts. I'm unwilling to scrap it right now, partially because of the fact that I'm really stubborn, but mostly because people seem to react well to the idea, and it in general sounds like a fun mechanic. The reason I'm not going even further is because three dimensions would be considerably beyond my technical capabilities, which would be an issue.
The shooter part is because I honestly can't think of a better way to describe it. It's a shooter only in the loosest sense of the word, due to the high fantasy setting- guns are not a concept that exist, and beyond the odd crossbow or conjurer, most of the combat is up close and personal. However, there isn't really a name for that genre, as far as I can tell, so shooter it remains for now.
From a technical standpoint, there would be several stages to playing the game. Stage 1, a lobby client is loaded up, and the player is matched up with nine other players (or something), and split into the two teams. At this point, they would be given open communications between themselves, likely through some variety of built-in text or voice relay, through which they are able to discuss Templar choices, strategy, and the like. Through this client, they'd be able to select a Templar and indicate that they are ready to start. When all players are ready to start, a second client is launched for the game itself, connecting all players to a gameserver and starting it off. At that point, the players are given free reign to kill each other and capture pillars to their heart's content, until one team wins, at which point all players are booted back out to the lobby client to play again if they so wish.
For the reasons indicated earlier with regards to multiplayer games and playing with friends, there should be some means of allowing players to choose who to play with- meaning that a third layer of client may be necessary.
Gameplay itself consists of running around with your team, fighting with and against the aforementioned unique characters, and capturing pillars. In order to capture a pillar, players would need to stand by it, uninterrupted, for several seconds- meaning that they can only feasibly do so if no enemies are nearby. If players are killed, they come back a little while later at one of their team's pillars.
I said it was simple, didn't I?
Pros:
Scores in the most highly rated slots in the survey.
Easy to pick up, hopefully.
Simple to code the actual game part.
Cons:
Multiple layers of client could be difficult to code.
Balancing and creation of assets would be an uphill struggle.
Server costs may be high (but not as high as the other concepts)
So, there we have it. Thought processes and further details coming soon!
Templars of Kayne
High Fantasy Strategic Shooter
Templars of Kayne is a moba-esque two dimensional shooter with strategic elements (I'm well aware that the last bit means virtually nothing, but oh well). Plaers choose from a selection of characters, with a variety of unique abilities and roles, and are placed onto a planetoid arena, with 5 capture pillars spaced around it. Players are separated into two equal teams, and start off at a capture pillar. Your team wins if they are able to capture all of the pillars on the arena. Pretty simple. The hard part is actually doing it.
More specifically!
The breakdown of the genres is as follows:
The MOBA-esque part comes in the selection of characters. In Multiplayer Online Battle Arena games, such as Defense of the Ancients, League of Legends, or Heroes of Newerth players select from a large roster of characters, each with their own characterisation and unique abilities, and use this character throughout a given match. The way this differs from the middle of the freedom scale as I described in a previous post is the scale of the roster- at the time of writing, there are 97 Heroes in DotA, and 111 Champions in League of Legends. For (I hope) obvious reasons, I will be starting off with a roster of around 30- enough to leave a decent choice and spread of roles, but not so many as to make the process of design and balancing impossibly complex. Additionally, forcing players to use the same Templar throughout the match means that teams can be picked strategically, rather than reactionary countering, as is an issue in some games.
The Two Dimensional part is me beating a dying horse, and making the arena a circular, gravitationally centred planetoid. You may recognize this idea if you've read *any* of my previous posts. I'm unwilling to scrap it right now, partially because of the fact that I'm really stubborn, but mostly because people seem to react well to the idea, and it in general sounds like a fun mechanic. The reason I'm not going even further is because three dimensions would be considerably beyond my technical capabilities, which would be an issue.
The shooter part is because I honestly can't think of a better way to describe it. It's a shooter only in the loosest sense of the word, due to the high fantasy setting- guns are not a concept that exist, and beyond the odd crossbow or conjurer, most of the combat is up close and personal. However, there isn't really a name for that genre, as far as I can tell, so shooter it remains for now.
From a technical standpoint, there would be several stages to playing the game. Stage 1, a lobby client is loaded up, and the player is matched up with nine other players (or something), and split into the two teams. At this point, they would be given open communications between themselves, likely through some variety of built-in text or voice relay, through which they are able to discuss Templar choices, strategy, and the like. Through this client, they'd be able to select a Templar and indicate that they are ready to start. When all players are ready to start, a second client is launched for the game itself, connecting all players to a gameserver and starting it off. At that point, the players are given free reign to kill each other and capture pillars to their heart's content, until one team wins, at which point all players are booted back out to the lobby client to play again if they so wish.
For the reasons indicated earlier with regards to multiplayer games and playing with friends, there should be some means of allowing players to choose who to play with- meaning that a third layer of client may be necessary.
Gameplay itself consists of running around with your team, fighting with and against the aforementioned unique characters, and capturing pillars. In order to capture a pillar, players would need to stand by it, uninterrupted, for several seconds- meaning that they can only feasibly do so if no enemies are nearby. If players are killed, they come back a little while later at one of their team's pillars.
I said it was simple, didn't I?
Pros:
Scores in the most highly rated slots in the survey.
Easy to pick up, hopefully.
Simple to code the actual game part.
Cons:
Multiple layers of client could be difficult to code.
Balancing and creation of assets would be an uphill struggle.
Server costs may be high (but not as high as the other concepts)
So, there we have it. Thought processes and further details coming soon!
Friday, 15 March 2013
Research Log, Part 2: The Researchening!
So! Just come back from FRC, time to talk about what I've been doing in the other track of this project, so to speak. As I've probably made clear already, I'm tackling this from two sides, while entwining the two as and when I'm able to- these sides being the business side, and the creation side. I've talked a lot about the creation side, but the business side is starting to be a major focus of research for me, so it's time to talk about it some more!
I've been looking into how you go about selling a product, or more accurately how you design a product in order that it is saleable, and how to make those sales. The first thing I've learned, succinctly, is that traditional research isn't going to help.
Less succinctly: The internet makes things weird. Traditional wisdom on buisness is that you have to consider the 4 Ps when setting a product for sale- these being Price, Place, Product, and Promotion. The internet messes with all of these royally.
Place is the most obvious one. Traditionally, you need to consider where you are selling the product from- how people are going to find your shop, whether people will wander past, things like that- but I don't have a shop. I have a website, at most. By definition, people are unlikely to wander past- any journeys here are going to be deliberate- but on the other hand, it lends convenience.
Then there's Promotion. Promotion would have to be almost entirely net based as well- which, granted, is less alien an idea than it could be, but is still the sort of thing there exists very little in any literature I've been able to find. However, there is still hope- I've been looking into services such as Project Wonderful and Google Adwords, which are designed specifically for internet-based promotion.
Product is another one that's an issue. Traditionally, this is the consideration of who your competitors are, and what the Unique Selling Point of your product is. Unfortunately, there happen to be a heck of a lot of people on the internet who make games too. So this tells me my product is going to have to *really* stand out from the crowd in order to be even noticed.
Finally, there's Price. Simply put, if there's no production costs, any money is profit. And even there, I'm starting to wonder whether I really want to charge money for it, or use the free to play model- something proving a popular concept with many modern games. But again, this leads to other issues, such as server costs and maintainance, etc.
So, long story short, I've got to figure this out for myself. Short story long? Anything by Dostoyevsky. (I regret nothing!)
So, that's the state of affairs at the moment. Phillammon out!
I've been looking into how you go about selling a product, or more accurately how you design a product in order that it is saleable, and how to make those sales. The first thing I've learned, succinctly, is that traditional research isn't going to help.
Less succinctly: The internet makes things weird. Traditional wisdom on buisness is that you have to consider the 4 Ps when setting a product for sale- these being Price, Place, Product, and Promotion. The internet messes with all of these royally.
Place is the most obvious one. Traditionally, you need to consider where you are selling the product from- how people are going to find your shop, whether people will wander past, things like that- but I don't have a shop. I have a website, at most. By definition, people are unlikely to wander past- any journeys here are going to be deliberate- but on the other hand, it lends convenience.
Then there's Promotion. Promotion would have to be almost entirely net based as well- which, granted, is less alien an idea than it could be, but is still the sort of thing there exists very little in any literature I've been able to find. However, there is still hope- I've been looking into services such as Project Wonderful and Google Adwords, which are designed specifically for internet-based promotion.
Product is another one that's an issue. Traditionally, this is the consideration of who your competitors are, and what the Unique Selling Point of your product is. Unfortunately, there happen to be a heck of a lot of people on the internet who make games too. So this tells me my product is going to have to *really* stand out from the crowd in order to be even noticed.
Finally, there's Price. Simply put, if there's no production costs, any money is profit. And even there, I'm starting to wonder whether I really want to charge money for it, or use the free to play model- something proving a popular concept with many modern games. But again, this leads to other issues, such as server costs and maintainance, etc.
So, long story short, I've got to figure this out for myself. Short story long? Anything by Dostoyevsky. (I regret nothing!)
So, that's the state of affairs at the moment. Phillammon out!
Sunday, 3 March 2013
Concept: Adventurer and Artificer!
It wasn't the weekend I was aiming for, but here it is! Much more to report in my next post, I just haven't been getting around to committing things here. So here goes:
Adventurer
Standard Hack-and-Slash RPG
Adventurer is a standard hack-and-slash style RPG. Players choose from 1 of 4 classes (Warrior, Mage, Slinger or Monk), and adventure through a series of areas with a range of monsters in them, to obtain large amounts of money as a reward. As they progress, they level up, with each level become progressively harder to obtain. Each time a player levels up, their stats increase- said stats can also be increased through equipment. This is all fairly standard stuff. The unique section of this RPG is that there is no way for adventurers to directly obtain equipment, and no way to directly obtain money beyond the completion of adventures- that is to say, beating up monsters doesn't miraculously generate money and equipment. This is to make sure players have to interact with shops.
More specifically!
In Adventurer, players will go in a fairly sequential order through a set of locations, completing an arbitrary quest within each one for an amount of money. Along the way, they will battle monsters, solve puzzles, the usual. Combat is handled in a turn based basis, but using staggered turns- in other words, a character with a "Speed" of 1 would have a third as many turns as a character with a "Speed" of 3. This gives players a certain degree of customization- they could maximize any stat in particular they want, or build in a more balanced fashion, and still come out just as well either way. For obvious reasons, this would require careful competitive balancing.
The statistics in the game would likely be Strength, Magic, Agility and Speed. Strength would be the primary focus of the Warrior class- it's used for determining how hard you smash things with your stick, and determining how much you can be hit with a stick before you fall down. Magic is the primary statistic of the Mage class, used for throwing spells around, and finding how hard the spells hit, and how many spells you can use. Agility is much the same, but for ranged weapons, with the added bonus of determining how good at dodging you are, and is favoured by the Slinger class, and Speed determines turn order, how fast you hit, and is the focus of the Monk class. Each class would gain bonuses to these stats as they defeat monsters, with most of the bonuses going into the primary stat for their class.
The economy of the game would be the unique selling point, hopefully. None of the shops in the game would be NPC controlled, but instead would be controlled by players of Artificer (see below). Players are able to sell what they find on their adventures (for example, bits of monster, or collected plants, or mined rocks, etc, etc, etc) to these shops, and buy essential equipment, potions, yadda yadda yadda, from said shops. Money would enter the economy via the money obtained at the end of missions, and money can be sunk out of the economy later on in the process, in Artificer. This means the two ends of the in-game economy- the resource collection and the resource refinement and resale- are in symbiosis, linking the two games together.
Pros:
-It's a High-Fantasy RPG, and RPGs and High Fantasy came out on top in the survey
-Replay value inasmuch as there are 4 paths to try and "complete" the game through
Cons:
-Very generic, as far as concepts go.
-Server costs would be astronomical.
-Reliant on not one, but TWO games being both feasible and successful
And while I'm here, let's go two for one in a single post:
Artificer
Resource Management Strategy/Puzzle
In Artificer, players control a small shop in a fantasy universe. Where in the outside world, Warriors, Mages, Slingers and Monks go about their business valiantly saving the world, you stay inside keeping them ready to go! The players manage their shop through (most likely) a mobile or web interface, setting the prices at which they're willing to buy ingredients and reagents from adventurers, choosing what to create from said ingredients and reagents, and choosing what price to sell the finished products at.
More Specifically:
Artificer is a fairly standard "Dungeon Shop"-esque game, but with more of an involvement aspect to it. Rather than arbitrarily having NPCs coming up and buying stuff from your shop, as is the case in most Dungeon Shop games, it would be directly linked to the shops in Adventurer- or in other words, players of Adventurer would use Artificer players as item shops. This creates a virtual economy between the two games, and creates two ways to approach the 'verse- either from the resource management side here, or the RPG side in Adventurer.
Players beginning a game of Artificer would be given a small amount of money and a shop in the first locale. From this shop, they would be able to buy items from and sell items to Adventurers in the first locale- hereinafter "newbies". While still Newbie Artificers, they would only be able to obtain reagents and ingredients that can be found in the first locale, meaning they can only craft gear, potions, etc from what can be found in the starting zone, and thus, the gear they produce is quite poor, and can't sell for much. This would encourage players to move to later locales- however, instead of completing quests, like the Adventurers, Artificers wanting to move up a locale would have to buy a new shop, for a large one time cost, and a further incremental "rent" to be payed out at regular intervals afterwards.
The Artificer interface would consist of three major areas- Buying, Crafting and Selling. In the buying interface, Artificers would set what items they are looking for, and at what price they are willing to buy them. Adventurer players are able to see these prices, and sell their items in this manner. On the crafting screen, Artificers select what they would like to create, setting a job list of what to do. Creating objects takes a significant amount of real world time, which players can mitigate by, for example, hiring more workers, or buying better crafting equipment (more useful money sinks). An example of how this would work: An Artificer has in inventory 3 rusty greatspoons, 3 whetstones, a potion of unspeakably awful acid, and a potion of unspeakably vile poison. They would be able to set up in their crafting screen to have the three rusty spoons sharpened in parallel (assuming they have 3 workers available), then pour the potions on two of the swords. This would take a set amount of time for each task- say, an hour to sharpen each greatspoon, and 10 minutes to potion-ize them, but an hour and ten minutes later, the Artificer would have 3 new Greatspoons to sell to a passing Warrior!
In order to keep the economy stable, money could be put into and taken out of the economy through the quest rewards in Adventurer, grants being given to shops in Artificer, and, obviously enough, the various money sinks- Shop Costs, Rent, New Gear, Hiring Workers- as described so far.
Pros:
-It's a High-Fantasy Strategy, and Strategy games and High Fantasy came out on top in the survey
-"Play Every Day" value in being able to set up crafting tasks on finding out what's being bought/sold
-Artificial Economy lets people learn business and economics, at a very basic level, as they play
Cons:
-Possibly not fun. And this would be a biggie.
-Server costs would be astronomical.
-Reliant on not one, but TWO games being both feasible and successful
Adventurer
Standard Hack-and-Slash RPG
Adventurer is a standard hack-and-slash style RPG. Players choose from 1 of 4 classes (Warrior, Mage, Slinger or Monk), and adventure through a series of areas with a range of monsters in them, to obtain large amounts of money as a reward. As they progress, they level up, with each level become progressively harder to obtain. Each time a player levels up, their stats increase- said stats can also be increased through equipment. This is all fairly standard stuff. The unique section of this RPG is that there is no way for adventurers to directly obtain equipment, and no way to directly obtain money beyond the completion of adventures- that is to say, beating up monsters doesn't miraculously generate money and equipment. This is to make sure players have to interact with shops.
More specifically!
In Adventurer, players will go in a fairly sequential order through a set of locations, completing an arbitrary quest within each one for an amount of money. Along the way, they will battle monsters, solve puzzles, the usual. Combat is handled in a turn based basis, but using staggered turns- in other words, a character with a "Speed" of 1 would have a third as many turns as a character with a "Speed" of 3. This gives players a certain degree of customization- they could maximize any stat in particular they want, or build in a more balanced fashion, and still come out just as well either way. For obvious reasons, this would require careful competitive balancing.
The statistics in the game would likely be Strength, Magic, Agility and Speed. Strength would be the primary focus of the Warrior class- it's used for determining how hard you smash things with your stick, and determining how much you can be hit with a stick before you fall down. Magic is the primary statistic of the Mage class, used for throwing spells around, and finding how hard the spells hit, and how many spells you can use. Agility is much the same, but for ranged weapons, with the added bonus of determining how good at dodging you are, and is favoured by the Slinger class, and Speed determines turn order, how fast you hit, and is the focus of the Monk class. Each class would gain bonuses to these stats as they defeat monsters, with most of the bonuses going into the primary stat for their class.
The economy of the game would be the unique selling point, hopefully. None of the shops in the game would be NPC controlled, but instead would be controlled by players of Artificer (see below). Players are able to sell what they find on their adventures (for example, bits of monster, or collected plants, or mined rocks, etc, etc, etc) to these shops, and buy essential equipment, potions, yadda yadda yadda, from said shops. Money would enter the economy via the money obtained at the end of missions, and money can be sunk out of the economy later on in the process, in Artificer. This means the two ends of the in-game economy- the resource collection and the resource refinement and resale- are in symbiosis, linking the two games together.
Pros:
-It's a High-Fantasy RPG, and RPGs and High Fantasy came out on top in the survey
-Replay value inasmuch as there are 4 paths to try and "complete" the game through
Cons:
-Very generic, as far as concepts go.
-Server costs would be astronomical.
-Reliant on not one, but TWO games being both feasible and successful
And while I'm here, let's go two for one in a single post:
Artificer
Resource Management Strategy/Puzzle
In Artificer, players control a small shop in a fantasy universe. Where in the outside world, Warriors, Mages, Slingers and Monks go about their business valiantly saving the world, you stay inside keeping them ready to go! The players manage their shop through (most likely) a mobile or web interface, setting the prices at which they're willing to buy ingredients and reagents from adventurers, choosing what to create from said ingredients and reagents, and choosing what price to sell the finished products at.
More Specifically:
Artificer is a fairly standard "Dungeon Shop"-esque game, but with more of an involvement aspect to it. Rather than arbitrarily having NPCs coming up and buying stuff from your shop, as is the case in most Dungeon Shop games, it would be directly linked to the shops in Adventurer- or in other words, players of Adventurer would use Artificer players as item shops. This creates a virtual economy between the two games, and creates two ways to approach the 'verse- either from the resource management side here, or the RPG side in Adventurer.
Players beginning a game of Artificer would be given a small amount of money and a shop in the first locale. From this shop, they would be able to buy items from and sell items to Adventurers in the first locale- hereinafter "newbies". While still Newbie Artificers, they would only be able to obtain reagents and ingredients that can be found in the first locale, meaning they can only craft gear, potions, etc from what can be found in the starting zone, and thus, the gear they produce is quite poor, and can't sell for much. This would encourage players to move to later locales- however, instead of completing quests, like the Adventurers, Artificers wanting to move up a locale would have to buy a new shop, for a large one time cost, and a further incremental "rent" to be payed out at regular intervals afterwards.
The Artificer interface would consist of three major areas- Buying, Crafting and Selling. In the buying interface, Artificers would set what items they are looking for, and at what price they are willing to buy them. Adventurer players are able to see these prices, and sell their items in this manner. On the crafting screen, Artificers select what they would like to create, setting a job list of what to do. Creating objects takes a significant amount of real world time, which players can mitigate by, for example, hiring more workers, or buying better crafting equipment (more useful money sinks). An example of how this would work: An Artificer has in inventory 3 rusty greatspoons, 3 whetstones, a potion of unspeakably awful acid, and a potion of unspeakably vile poison. They would be able to set up in their crafting screen to have the three rusty spoons sharpened in parallel (assuming they have 3 workers available), then pour the potions on two of the swords. This would take a set amount of time for each task- say, an hour to sharpen each greatspoon, and 10 minutes to potion-ize them, but an hour and ten minutes later, the Artificer would have 3 new Greatspoons to sell to a passing Warrior!
In order to keep the economy stable, money could be put into and taken out of the economy through the quest rewards in Adventurer, grants being given to shops in Artificer, and, obviously enough, the various money sinks- Shop Costs, Rent, New Gear, Hiring Workers- as described so far.
Pros:
-It's a High-Fantasy Strategy, and Strategy games and High Fantasy came out on top in the survey
-"Play Every Day" value in being able to set up crafting tasks on finding out what's being bought/sold
-Artificial Economy lets people learn business and economics, at a very basic level, as they play
Cons:
-Possibly not fun. And this would be a biggie.
-Server costs would be astronomical.
-Reliant on not one, but TWO games being both feasible and successful
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