Week 2/3 – Tamarrion – God Powers!
|
Hi again! I’m back to talk a bit about the progress of our new game, Tamarrion. I missed last weeks progress update, so I’ll try to be a bit more thorough this week! These last two weeks has been all about creating a functioning prototype where we, the development team, is able to test out features and functionality. Examples of this would be the characters abilities/spells and the bosses abilities. We’ve been focusing on making sure that all base functionality is implemented before starting out with the actual design of the boss fight. The reasoning behind this is that we’d like to find a general way of making sure that each boss created within the game is easily modifiable; i.e. all bosses follow the same base structure. This will, hopefully, help immensely when we’re ready to start pushing content. Focus of the Week So, what have I been focusing on this week? Besides working with the programmers to make sure that the feature list is being built from the designs documents that I’ve been working on (There’s about 10 different Design Documents now, totaling about 40-45 pages), I’ve been focusing mostly on improving on the main aspect of the game: The combat. What I decided to do was to completely overhaul the Combo Point system, because in the end this is what defines and what sets the combat apart from any old Hack’n’Slash. I started out by looking at how different games solves their combat. Most importantly, how our main inspirations solved it (Dark Souls, Diablo and Torchlight). After mixing around with different types of rotational-based combat systems, and creating several Build-Spend Rotations I came to the conclusion that it wasn’t what the project was looking for. First off, we’ve got to make sure that the combat fits the aesthetics (both MDA wise as well as the graphical aesthetics). Tamarrion is a Paladin, a proponent of her gods. This was not reflected anywhere in the game before; it was a afterthought rather than a main component of the game. This is how the God/Avatar Power system came to be. God Powers (or, Gods – how do they work?) The God powers were born out of the idea that in the world of Tamarrion, there’s several Gods. And the Paladins worship these gods fanatically. This gives them the ability to summon the powers of the respective gods. We’ve already got a working system that separates spells into types (Holy, Melee, Magic, Support and Defense). These could also correspond to each God. This is where I decided to build a new system that allowed for customization and freedom within the combat of Tamarrion. So, how does it work?
Early Concept of the new Combo Point and God Power System Defining Orb The defining orb is the orb that will define which God power will be granted at the end of the combo counter. Each spell has their own identifier, this means that each spell is from a different spell tree. By casting a spell in the beginning of a empty Combo Point Counter, that spell will then define the defining orb (That’s a mouthful). Bonus Orbs Bonus Orbs are the orbs that fills the vacant spots are the defining orb. Bonus Orbs does not give you a God Power, but they do give the player bonuses based on the spell-type they are connected with.
This gives the player a chance to tailor-suit their rotations.
The table of content is taken from the Design Document and shows early work done on the numbers put into the bonus system. God Powers Tamarrion is a paladin. Meaning; the she’s heavily involved with the five gods. Aesthetically, this makes more sense then having a gather->spend system. Hence, the new God Power system allows the player to customize their own rotations.
The God Power is defined by the first spell cast with an empty Combo Bar. The god Powers comes with their own abilities for X amount of seconds. Each God Power synergies differently with different Bonuses.
God Powers are still very much a work in progress. The Table below shows how the balancing of the God Powers will work. Also note that the “Ability” field is empty. We’re still working on balancing spells->bonuses->god powers so that each God Power fills a required slot. Think of it as any other spell in the game, except that the cast is dependable upon which Combination of spells the player choose.
The bonuses and God Powers calculation works as follows EXAMPLE: Where: GP = Good Power BO = Bonus Orb M = Melee H = Holy M = Magic
(GP (M)) + (BO (M) + BO(M) + BO(M) + BO (H)) = God Power = Magic (No Bonuses except God Abilities) Meele bonus + Melee Bonus = 2% + 2% + 2% = 6% Holy Bonus = 10 hps
= The player gains the god ability whilst also gaining 10 hps and 6% attack speed. So, that’s about it for this week. I could speak forever about our new systems and the progress of the actual game. I’ll try to talk a bit more about the actual Boss next week. Take care! |
