gameplay, party members and classes

Classic VN/RPG, all romance combos, social talent system https://www.winterwolves.com/cursedlands.htm
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jack1974
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gameplay, party members and classes

Post by jack1974 »

With this game story being almost finished I'm starting to think about the gameplay part. I have already designed the classes of the various party members, though no doubt I'll tweak them, but the real new thing of this game is the main character. He/she is not the typical super powerful Mage/Warrior/Thief etc. He/she is just a common person who finds himself in a weird and powerful position unexpectedly :o

So, here are the various party members, each one has 5 skills (YES ONLY FIVE. I WANT THIS GAME TO BE OUT BEFORE THE NEXT 20 YEARS!!! :mrgreen: ). Of course I plan to have upgrades for each skill (like QoT) so each of those 5 skills could be upgraded, let's say up to 3 levels each.

AMAZON
Leena - Warrior
Very skilled warrior, Loren's trainer. Strong but also agile and very technical.
1) Focus Target - Mark an enemy as focus target: all subsequent attacks by this character on target will do more damage
2) Power Attack - hits single target for lot of damage
3) Wide Slash - hits all enemies
4) KnockDown - Deals normal damage and knocks the opponent down, inflicting slow condition
5) Rally - Increases Attack and Speed values of all allies

NOMADS

Larik- Barbarian
A powerful nomad barbarian. I think his skills should be about brute force/intimidation mostly.
1) Taunt - Increases all enemies' hate towards the caster by 50 points, so that they are more likely to target this character him/her
2) Protect - protect party member, taking damage instead of
3) Shield Bash - hits enemy dealing normal damage inflicting paralysis
4) Shield Wall - increases defense of all party members
5) Cleave - attacks all enemies

Nuala - Shaman
She is a good healer but also can deal good damage
1) Purify - Heals target by 20% of total HP and reduces all negative conditions by 1 turns
2) Ward - Ward three nearby targets against magic, adding +1 to all elemental resistances
3) Disease - deal low damage over time (DoT) to all targets
4) Stinging Swarm - deal high damage over time (DoT) to single target
5) Resurrect - resurrect fallen ally

ELVES
Kusho - Assassin
Should probably take long time to charge his attacks, but they should deal high damage.
1) Hide in Shadows - increases defense, when attacks does double damage
2) Rain of Arrows - deal AOE damage
3) Poison - deal damage over time (DoT) to single target, reduces his accuracy
4) Backstab - Hits single target dealing 75% base damage and reducing defense by 2 points
5) Critical Strike - Hits single target for 150% base damage and inflicts bleeding for up to 3 turns

Vaeril - Fallen Druid
Maybe buff/debuffs, and life steal/channel skills.
1) Lifetap - deals damage to single enemy and steals HP
2) Dark Empathy - loses HP to gain SP
3) Life Channel - loses HP, distributes to all allies
4) Bramble Coat - Surrounds target's body in a coat of brambles with a counter of 3. Those that strikes target with melee will suffer 3 damage
5) Magic Chains - Hits single target for 100% base attack and causes Chained condition for 3 turns. Chained effect paralyzes target and drains 1SP every turn.

DWARVES
Dasyra - Healer
Mostly healing buffing the party
1) Nature's Touch - heals all party members
2) Haste - raises speed of single ally
3) Dispel - reduces debuffs on target by 1
4) Magic Mirror - reflects back damage to attacker, even magic
5) Tree Of Life - completely heals ally, removing all conditions. If is KO, resurrect him

Galan - Berserker
Should excel in dealing damage to multiple enemies.
1) Rage - increases attack and speed, reduces defense
2) Rampage - attacks all allies with low accuracy but scares them
3) Wreak Havoc - Hits a single target, enemies on the sides take normal damage (AOE).
4) Adrenaline Rush - refill the SP by 50%, character's HP must be below 25%
5) Spinning Strike - hits all enemies by 75% base damage

NAGAS
Sylrissa - Blademaster
Uses skills+"combat stances" that influence her stats
1) Counterattack - for X turns character will automatically counterattack melee attacks
2) Finesse - Combat stance: reduces speed by 15% but increases attack by 50% for up to 7 turns.
3) Avoidance - Combat stance: reduces speed by 15% but increases defense by 50% for up to 7 turns.
4) Recover - Combat stance: reduces speed by 15% but recover 5 HP every turn for up to 7 turns.
5) Blade Dance - Dances around all enemies, hitting them. Starts with 250% base damage and on each hit the damage done is reduced by 20%.

Enok - Battlemage
Full offensive, except for 1 small heal skill.
1) Fire Blast - Hits a single target inflicting 125% base damage and causing Burning
2) Ice Shard - Hits single target for 100% of caster's base attack and causes Frozen condition
3) Earthquake - Hits single target with Earth damage for 100% of caster's base attack and causes Shattered condition
4) Magic Tornado - Hits single target for 100% of caster's base attack and causes Whirling condition
5) Regenerate - heals all allies by 25 HP/turn for up to 3 turns.

PIRATES
Jasper - Sharpshooter
A very skilled shooter (using a sort of flintlock pistol)
1) Dirty Tricks - As long as this skill is active, attack is increased by 100% but consumes 1 SP each turn. After 5 turns, or once character runs out of SP the skill is disabled.
2) Headshot - hits single target for very high damage, long delay
3) Take Aim - carefully takes aim at all targets: all subsequent attacks on them for up to 5 turns will do 100% more damage.
4) Barrage - hits all targets one after one, with 200% base damage, reduced by 25% after each shot
5) Weak spot - hits target's weak spot, reducing his attack by 5% on each hit

As for the player character, you can pick a race, and a profession (gender too but that doesn't matter for the RPG gameplay).

I was thinking to make the playing character a sort of "jack of all trades". A sort of hybrid class. During the character creation I will add two specific skills based on the race/profession.

In practice I was thinking for the race a passive skill:
Dwarf - on each level up you gain more Skill (Defense)
Elf - on each level up you gain more Accuracy (Critical Hit Chance)
Human - on each level up you gain more Power (Damage Done)
Half-Elf - on each level up you gain more Agility (Speed)

then for each profession, another passive skill:
Scholar - you can use magic scrolls items in battle
Debt Collector - you can use bomb items in battle
Bard - increase party HP regeneration (slowly)
Merchant - you get a permanent discount at the shops

and for the last 3 skills, they would be the same no matter which race/profession (I have yet to think about them though). If you have any suggestions, you're welcome :)

Since the player is the only party member who can also negotiate with enemy using talents, I wanted to emphasis this thing only he/she can do.

As said nothing is really definitive since I need yet to test everything. It's just a base idea. Also for this game I definitely won't be obsessed about "it's balanced?" question, but instead "is it fun?" :)
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Franka
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Re: gameplay, party members and classes

Post by Franka »

I understand when it comes to designing, but as for making sense, I'm not sure I understand why a half-elf would be focused on a completely different stat than both of their parents.
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jack1974
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Re: gameplay, party members and classes

Post by jack1974 »

Hehe I wouldn't know what else to do with that race :lol: I might change completely that passive skill though. I need to do my usual tons of tests first.
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SimonStardust
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Re: gameplay, party members and classes

Post by SimonStardust »

jack1974 wrote:As said nothing is really definitive since I need yet to test everything. It's just a base idea. Also for this game I definitely won't be obsessed about "it's balanced?" question, but instead "is it fun?" :)
jack1974 wrote:Debt Collector - you can use bomb items in battle
Now, that's what I'd consider fun, indeed. :lol:
Beware! Peerons ahead! xD
Astrala
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Re: gameplay, party members and classes

Post by Astrala »

I really like the idea of this game. The premise seems really cool, especially the detail about the main character just, sort-of, walking into the situation. In most of your games the MC has usually been trained for whatever they get into (like in PS and PS:CD), or is at least prepared (like in QoT and Loren). That possibly excludes Athea and Shea, but they were trained hunters and born in the harsh, unforgiving North.

As for the race ability thing, I'd give the Elves Agility, because of their tree-running skills, and the Half-elves Accuracy. I don't know why, but Agility + Power = Accuracy in my head, (or Speed + Damage = Critical) for some reason. That is, if the other "half" of the Half-evles is Human, anyway. (One should never assume :mrgreen: ).

As for suggestions for the MC's abilities, I think a skill that would convince an enemy to halt their attack on a chosen ally for a turn or two would be cool. You could call it Time-out or Trust or something. It would defiantly reflect the MC's ability to negotiate with the enemy, but it'd probably take a lot of SP to use or have a crazy-long delay or some other restriction, so it wasn't used too much.

Anyway, whatever you do, have fun, and don't go crazy working too hard. :mrgreen: All I really need is Enok to be happy. :lol: :lol: :lol:
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DarkWolf
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Re: gameplay, party members and classes

Post by DarkWolf »

Sounds very interesting, and I completely support a choice of having less, well thought skills rather then bunch of generic ones.

Also I heard you mentioning this before "Since the player is the only party member who can also negotiate with enemy using talents" and as I see you aren't making secret out of it I was wondering if it is ok to tell us a bit more about it?
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jack1974
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Re: gameplay, party members and classes

Post by jack1974 »

I have made a blog post about it, though will be live next month :)
In summary: at regular intervals you can talk with enemies and using "talents" you can unlock different effects. An enemy could flee the battle, could give you an item (nothing big, like healing potions) or be paralyzed, etc.
The cool thing is that those talents are made in a sort of "grid" or category so depending on the target's "alignment" they'll work more or less well. The categories are Dominant (Choleric), Rational (Melancholic), Social (Sanguine), Supportive (Phlegmatic).

For example: Bluff – Tell a lie. Works well against aggressive or dominant individuals, but may fail against more emotionally sensitive characters (supportive).

In regular fights there will be some generic events, but the boss fights will have mini-scenes where depending on what talents you have/use, the battle will take a different direction.
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jack1974
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Re: gameplay, party members and classes

Post by jack1974 »

Finished all the skills though as always I tweaked several ( and I'll do more tweaks when I start testing the battles myself). For example the bard mass-regen bonus was a bit too much, so the effect only applies to the protagonist :)
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