I've spent altogether too many hours in the last month working on different gameplay mechanics in my XP project, but it's not for nothing.
I'm hoping to actually announce the game and explain the whole concept in a few months, but since I've gone so long without posting news in my studio, here's a little tease about a few custom elements of the battle system.
Everything below has already been implemented unless noted otherwise:
***Turns***
Instead of giving orders to your entire party at once, then watching the action play out, your characters take action as soon as you give them a command.
Every turn, all battlers receive "Turn Points" based on their Agility; the character with the most Turn Points gets to move next and then loses a large number of Turn Points. Some skills can affect the flow of battle by changing a battler's Agility or even by directly changing their Turn Points. Using speed to beat an opponent is a very legitimate strategy.
Each time a character or enemy acts, that's considered a "turn", meaning that you can take immediate action to push an enemy back in the turn order, and also allowing health degen/regen to occur smoothly over time.
***Stats***
I didn't like the arcane battle formulas that came with the game, so I made some major simplifications to the math and got rid of as many "hidden stats" on skills as possible. Each stat does one or two things and the way they affect the battle calculations are simple and clear.
Skill Multipliers: A measure of a skill's power. For Martial/Weapons skills, base damage is the attacker's Strength times the skill's Multiplier. For Elemental/Arcane skills, base damage is the attacker's Intelligence times the skill's Multiplier.
STR: For each point, increases the damage on normal attacks by one point, and increases the damage on Martial/Weapon skills by the skill's multiplier.
ATK: For each point, increases the damage on normal attacks and Weapon skills by one point.
INT: For each point, increases the damage on Elemental/Astral skills by the skill's Multiplier.
AGI: At the beginning of each turn, a battler receives Turn Points equal to their Agility. Also affects your chances to Escape a battle, like in the default battle system.
DEX: Affects your Critical Hit chance for all attacks and skills. With the same Dexterity, there's about a 15% chance to Critical, increasing your damage (and a 6% chance to Supercritical, massively increasing it), before the Defense reductions are applied. If you've got twice the DEX of your target, those odds are doubled.
PDEF: For each point, decreases the damage taken from Martial/Weapon skills by one point.
MDEF: For each point, decreases the damage taken from Elemental skills by one point.
(Astral skills' damage cannot be reduced by natural defenses as they affect the target without an intervening medium.)
***Skills and Classes***
At the heart of the battle system are dozens of unique skills you'll use to take down your equally varied foes. In most RPG's, you have to worry about saving your MP for the boss, and resort to hitting "attack" over and over. My battle system includes MP, but you can also cast using Adrenaline, which builds up throughout the course of every battle - so you can unleash your power and creativity at will.
Each character has one or two specialties, such as Alchemy, Energy, Nature, or Time. These forces are versatile, and each class will eventually have dozens of possible skills which are different enough that none should ever become obsolete. The main character has access to most skills in the game, so you can become a master in any specialty you choose, or even dabble in multiple classes.
I know, lots of promises at work here. To whet your appetite, here are a couple of skills I've already implemented:
Heat - This specialty includes both fire and freezing, and can be used to protect or destroy. Most of its skills are Elemental.
Ring of Fire: Surrounds an ally with a ring of flame, dealing heavy damage to any enemy who uses a physical attack on that ally.
Diamond Dust: (2.4 multiplier) Freezes moisture into shards of ice, dealing heavy ice damage to one enemy. May freeze that enemy solid for a short time, which causes them to gain no Turn Points and become vulnerable to physical attacks.
Hex on Fire: (0.5+ multiplier) Does Fire damage to one enemy and causes them to burn for a short time (-3 health per turn); can only be used on enemies suffering from a hex (negative status). Multiplier increases dramatically for each hex on that enemy.
Time - This powerful but difficult specialty controls the flow of time and can indirectly bend space as well. Most of its skills are Astral.
Chrono Blast: (2.4 multiplier) Does heavy damage to one enemy, plus deals the same amount of Time damage to that enemy's stash of Turn Points.
Quickening: Unchains the flow of time, making health regen/degen occur three times as quickly, and allowing spells which normally require time to charge to be unleashed immediately.
Equinox: (1.5 multiplier) Does damage to all enemies; guaranteed Critical Hit if the user is affected by both a charm (positive status) and a hex (negative status).
Alchemy - This specialty is all about creating and transforming items and creatures. Its skills vary between Astral, Elemental, and Weapon.
Caustic Potion: Creates a "Caustic Potion" item which can be used by any character to deal heavy acid damage to one enemy. Creating a potion using Mana will allow it to stick around for several game-hours until you use it. Creating the potion using Adrenaline will make it last only until the end of the battle.
Soma: This expensive skill creates a "Soma" item which can be used by any character to gain health, adrenaline, and Turn Points for several turns. Like the Caustic Potion, it lasts longer before disappearing if created using Mana.
Transmute: (1.1 multiplier) Does light Alchemy damage to one enemy; if this spell defeats an enemy, you receive an item depending on the type of enemy defeated. Plant-based enemies might be turned into fibers, spices, or linens; water-based enemies might be turned into potions or gels. Humans and faeries are immune to this spell.
I'm hoping to actually announce the game and explain the whole concept in a few months, but since I've gone so long without posting news in my studio, here's a little tease about a few custom elements of the battle system.
Everything below has already been implemented unless noted otherwise:
***Turns***
Instead of giving orders to your entire party at once, then watching the action play out, your characters take action as soon as you give them a command.
Every turn, all battlers receive "Turn Points" based on their Agility; the character with the most Turn Points gets to move next and then loses a large number of Turn Points. Some skills can affect the flow of battle by changing a battler's Agility or even by directly changing their Turn Points. Using speed to beat an opponent is a very legitimate strategy.
Each time a character or enemy acts, that's considered a "turn", meaning that you can take immediate action to push an enemy back in the turn order, and also allowing health degen/regen to occur smoothly over time.
***Stats***
I didn't like the arcane battle formulas that came with the game, so I made some major simplifications to the math and got rid of as many "hidden stats" on skills as possible. Each stat does one or two things and the way they affect the battle calculations are simple and clear.
Skill Multipliers: A measure of a skill's power. For Martial/Weapons skills, base damage is the attacker's Strength times the skill's Multiplier. For Elemental/Arcane skills, base damage is the attacker's Intelligence times the skill's Multiplier.
STR: For each point, increases the damage on normal attacks by one point, and increases the damage on Martial/Weapon skills by the skill's multiplier.
ATK: For each point, increases the damage on normal attacks and Weapon skills by one point.
INT: For each point, increases the damage on Elemental/Astral skills by the skill's Multiplier.
AGI: At the beginning of each turn, a battler receives Turn Points equal to their Agility. Also affects your chances to Escape a battle, like in the default battle system.
DEX: Affects your Critical Hit chance for all attacks and skills. With the same Dexterity, there's about a 15% chance to Critical, increasing your damage (and a 6% chance to Supercritical, massively increasing it), before the Defense reductions are applied. If you've got twice the DEX of your target, those odds are doubled.
PDEF: For each point, decreases the damage taken from Martial/Weapon skills by one point.
MDEF: For each point, decreases the damage taken from Elemental skills by one point.
(Astral skills' damage cannot be reduced by natural defenses as they affect the target without an intervening medium.)
***Skills and Classes***
At the heart of the battle system are dozens of unique skills you'll use to take down your equally varied foes. In most RPG's, you have to worry about saving your MP for the boss, and resort to hitting "attack" over and over. My battle system includes MP, but you can also cast using Adrenaline, which builds up throughout the course of every battle - so you can unleash your power and creativity at will.
Each character has one or two specialties, such as Alchemy, Energy, Nature, or Time. These forces are versatile, and each class will eventually have dozens of possible skills which are different enough that none should ever become obsolete. The main character has access to most skills in the game, so you can become a master in any specialty you choose, or even dabble in multiple classes.
I know, lots of promises at work here. To whet your appetite, here are a couple of skills I've already implemented:
Heat - This specialty includes both fire and freezing, and can be used to protect or destroy. Most of its skills are Elemental.
Ring of Fire: Surrounds an ally with a ring of flame, dealing heavy damage to any enemy who uses a physical attack on that ally.
Diamond Dust: (2.4 multiplier) Freezes moisture into shards of ice, dealing heavy ice damage to one enemy. May freeze that enemy solid for a short time, which causes them to gain no Turn Points and become vulnerable to physical attacks.
Hex on Fire: (0.5+ multiplier) Does Fire damage to one enemy and causes them to burn for a short time (-3 health per turn); can only be used on enemies suffering from a hex (negative status). Multiplier increases dramatically for each hex on that enemy.
Time - This powerful but difficult specialty controls the flow of time and can indirectly bend space as well. Most of its skills are Astral.
Chrono Blast: (2.4 multiplier) Does heavy damage to one enemy, plus deals the same amount of Time damage to that enemy's stash of Turn Points.
Quickening: Unchains the flow of time, making health regen/degen occur three times as quickly, and allowing spells which normally require time to charge to be unleashed immediately.
Equinox: (1.5 multiplier) Does damage to all enemies; guaranteed Critical Hit if the user is affected by both a charm (positive status) and a hex (negative status).
Alchemy - This specialty is all about creating and transforming items and creatures. Its skills vary between Astral, Elemental, and Weapon.
Caustic Potion: Creates a "Caustic Potion" item which can be used by any character to deal heavy acid damage to one enemy. Creating a potion using Mana will allow it to stick around for several game-hours until you use it. Creating the potion using Adrenaline will make it last only until the end of the battle.
Soma: This expensive skill creates a "Soma" item which can be used by any character to gain health, adrenaline, and Turn Points for several turns. Like the Caustic Potion, it lasts longer before disappearing if created using Mana.
Transmute: (1.1 multiplier) Does light Alchemy damage to one enemy; if this spell defeats an enemy, you receive an item depending on the type of enemy defeated. Plant-based enemies might be turned into fibers, spices, or linens; water-based enemies might be turned into potions or gels. Humans and faeries are immune to this spell.
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