Skills

Forum for the Loren Amazon Princess spin-off games
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Anima_
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Skills

Post by Anima_ »

Honestly it's a bit intimidating to write about the new skill system so early. It's in some ways quite the departure from the old system, though I think it captures it's spirit quite well. But getting feedback at an early point is too important to dither. So here it is:

Every character has an assortment of skills like in Loren. Unlike Loren learning new skills is automatic. The pace is still open but you can expect to have more skills in the beginning. Instead of learning skills you get boosts. These modify the skill on the fly in battle. If selected they can increase strength, duration, range, area, speed or introducing side effects. Unlike Loren where some skills required certain conditions like stagger to be met you can now use all skills freely. But to use a boost you need to meet it's condition. These range from the classical stagger and status effects, to SotW like equipment requirements and entirely new conditions like position or character state. Some boosts simply require you to spend a Boost Point (BP).
In addition the number of boosts you can use at the same time is limited by the skills boost limit. Every skills boost limit starts at 1 and can be increased, though the maximum boost limit is also caped by the chapter. A skills boost limit can be temporarily increased with BP, though it's not yet sure if it will be a linear or quadratic cost increase.
Some boosts are more powerful and have multiple conditions that must be fulfilled. These advanced boosts count for two or even three boosts when it comes to the limit and can only be learned if the skills boost limit is high enough.

You will probably learn a new boost on every level up. However I'm still completely undecided how the skills boost limit, BP and attributes are raised. We will definitely have an auto level up that will take care of learning boosts for our more VN minded players. Though my goal for the easy difficulty is that it can be done without using boosts at all.

Not mentioning SP at all is not an accident, since we removed SP completely. It's role is taken over by BP. So you can use your skills as often as you like with no cool down or waiting for a pool to refresh. Health and BP will be completely refreshed after every battle like in Loren (with the customary exceptions).

My hope with this system is that it will take the fun part of the condition requirements from Loren without the frustrating part of having completely useless skills. With the new system we will probably have fewer skills than Loren and SotW had, since the skills will be more work individually and a lot of differences between skills can be expressed better with boosts. Especially when it comes to damage skills.
Well this is of course only the system how skills are learned and selected. But I wanted to give you a first glance on the type of changes we'll make for the new system.
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Exizel
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Re: Skills

Post by Exizel »

So at each level up we will be able to chose a boost for a skill,

that boost isn't automatic but must be activate in battle but that boost will be use only if you met its condition in battle,in other word if you active a boost but do not meet its condition it's useless and waste boost "slot".

you have a limit of how many boost you can activate on a skill and you must use BP to gain more boost "slot"

and a skill can take several boost "slots".

BP are use for skill, condition an slot gain

In other word it's a system that make use a lot of BP to destroy the enemy but can works again you if you do not choose wisely because you can end up using BP for nothing and not have egnouh for the skill or you can ignore all that and use the BP like SP.

Does using a skill boost cost turn or is it free?
Can you desactivate a boost to use its slot for another boost in the middle of the battle or do you need to wait the next battle
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Anima_
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Re: Skills

Post by Anima_ »

Not quite. Boosts are selected after you choose which skill to use. (Of course we'll memorise your choices.) You won't be able to select boosts until their conditions are met.
We already have a GUI prototype for that. You'll be able to select the boosts when the skill prediction is shown, so you can see the results of your changes directly. So choosing the boosts is part of the skill selection process not a separate action.
Hopefully that clarifies the confusion.
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jack1974
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Re: Skills

Post by jack1974 »

Seems a bit complex but I assure you that having played the prototype, is quite interesting :)
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Exizel
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Re: Skills

Post by Exizel »

So I suppose the boost that use BP has condition cost BP you each time you use it
ok I got a good idea of the system now; I must say I like it and I can't wait to try it :)
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Anima_
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Re: Skills

Post by Anima_ »

jack1974 wrote:Seems a bit complex but I assure you that having played the prototype, is quite interesting :)
It's actually much easier to show then to explain. So I don't think there will be a problem in the game itself.
Exizel wrote:So I suppose the boost that use BP has condition cost BP you each time you use it
ok I got a good idea of the system now; I must say I like it and I can't wait to try it :)
Yes if the boost requires BP, it will consume BP each time.
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gamesempie
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Re: Skills

Post by gamesempie »

I'm looking forward to trying your new system out myself. It sounds like an interesting idea and seems like a very appropriate idea for getting around the "Hero to Zero" conundrum all sequels face. I do have a few concerns about the freedom of choice players will have with this immediate access to all skills set-up. You said that we would be given access to all our skills at the beginning but that there would be fewer skills. How is this going to effect players ability to choose their own play style? Will different boosts for a single skill benefit how that skill can be used in different styles or will we end up using only one or two skills for a character that are compatible with our style and boosting it to the max?
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Re: Skills

Post by Anima_ »

Actually while I wanted to make all skills available at the start Jack pointed out that it might make things to complicated for beginners. So we will introduce the skills gradually. But you will still get them pretty early.
When it comes to your concern I honestly don't know yet. That will depend a lot on the skills we make. Generally I want to place less emphasis on build and more on decisions during the actual battles.Though I don't see how the new system would allow for less expression then Loren did.
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Re: Skills

Post by SweetLove »

Will there still be no reset/redistribution option for Loren 2? The whole boost system sounds worrisome in that a build mistake could possibly be even worse due to the added layer of complexity going on, making it harder to fully understand the impact of one's choices.
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Re: Skills

Post by Anima_ »

I don't really share your worry there but we'll definitely have a reset option this time. Not sure how it will be designed but it will be there.
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