Game Mechanics Parts 4

Game Mechanics Part 4

Well, on the heels of last week’s massive update we have this, yet once again, slightly less massive update.  I honestly forgot I was going to be covering classes in this one (lmao) so we have another large topic to cover.

Getting to this as early as possible to prevent any delays to the post.  So let’s jump right into the biggun straight off.

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A Class for Every Situation

The stinger title for this section is only half-joking.  Legend of Emilar will feature a vast class system, I know people use buzz words like that all the time about game systems or content.  This time it is actually true.

In all, there will be around 120 classes in the game. 120, that’s a pretty big number and there are reasons for it.  First, let’s go into how classes work.

Within the game, classes will be referred to as Echelons.  Mainly I wanted to get away from using washed out terms like “class”, “job”, and similar phrases used since dirt was invented.  Funnily, it turns out there are not many terms you can substitute in that sound reasonable; who thought to call them classes and jobs were definitely on to something.

As is traditional with RPG Maker, the characters themselves do not have levels or stats; these are tied to the class they are at the time.  This also means any stat increase items, stat growth items, upgrade items, or the like apply to the class they are at the time so use these types of items with that in mind.

The maximum level in Legend of Emilar is 125.  This is so that classes can be scaled up effectively, skills can be more evenly distributed across levels, and it gives us a nice limit that is still divisible by 25.  This allows for Grand classes to get the appropriate power boost they require; think of them as two classes in one so they cover levels 75-125 ostensibly.

Unlocking Classes

To unlock new classes, all you need to do, in most cases, is level up your existing class(es).  The class tree is focused on class levels, with levels being your character’s skill within that class.  Once they reach a certain level of command over a class, the next class in the tree becomes available.

This is true for all of the class types though the others have other specific requirements to unlock them.  We will go over those in each class type section below.

Class Types

Classes are divided into three major categories and one subcategory.  First are Standard Classes, I may refer to them as Tier 1 classes occasionally.  These are your usual stuff like mages, thieves, clerics, and the like; your traditional classes and class trees.

Each Standard class tree is comprised of three classes.  All you need to do is level up to unlock the next class.  Each class has a specific level requirement of the classes prior to them to be unlocked.  Generally, these requirements are universal and apply to all of the Standard class trees.  I will be using 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Class to refer to the levels of the Standard tree classes below.  So if you see “1st Class” that means the first class of a Standard tree.

• 1st Class – Novice Lv 20
• 2nd Class – Novice Lv 30, 1st Class Lv 15
• 3rd Class – Novice Lv 50, 1st Class Lv 35, 2nd Class Lv 25

All characters start out as Novices in terms of background; characters do not actually start as Novices where you obtain them. They will have the appropriate levels in the classes needed for their current class.  These level requirements are VERY subject to change once balance testing starts.

The lower the class is in the tree, the less exp it takes to level them; ergo Novices are the easiest class to level up.  That said leveling will be reduced within the prologue of the game so it will be hard to get higher than the 1st class of a Standard tree until Chapter 1.  This is a pacing and balance decision.

Next up are Compound Classes.  These classes are a combination of two Standard class trees.  Each Compound Class tree is actually two class trees as well.  This is to facilitate the way that skills and magic will work within the Compound Class system, so let’s talk about that next.

Compound Classes

Compound classes are not just an arbitrarily stronger class version that you work up to.  There are tangible properties that are applied to these classes based on the two Standard class trees that make up the Compound class.  Each Compound tree has two variations, one for each of the Standard class trees that make up the Compound class.

The variation determines the focus of the class.  As an example, let’s say we have a character that knows classes from the Mage and Cleric Standard class trees.  The player reaches the point in the game where Compound classes are unlocked.  They now have access to two Compound class trees:

The Occultist and the Sorcerer trees.  Both class trees are built from abilities of both the Cleric and Mage trees, but which of the Standard class abilities are focused on depends on which Standard class is the primary class for the Compound class.

Probably confusing, I know, so let’s continue our example.  These two Compound classes are comprised of Standard classes that know both support and attack magic.  The focus for the Occultist class tree, though, is on the support magic side so while this class will be able to learn some attack magic, the amount that it can learn will be limited.

Conversely, the Sorcerer class tree is focused on attack magic, but the classes in the tree can learn some support magic as well, but a more limited set of skills.

Each combination of Standard class trees will have a Compound class pairing like this and there are further differences to discuss other than just the combining of skills from the Standard trees.  Class traits are also combined to form unique game mechanics.

Let’s look at another example.  The Lancer and Thief Standard trees.  The Compound class trees for these are the Vagabond tree and the Stalwart tree.  Let’s look at the Vagabond tree first.

The classes in the Vagabond tree are thief centric.  This means they use the same equipment as the Thief Standard class, have the same skill focus, and stats.  They, however, also get some skills that allow them to do short-range jump attacks.  These skills allow for higher level damage than a Thief would normally get and allow for armor penetration and status effects that normally a Thief would not be able to cause.

The Stalwart classes, on the other hand, are Lancer centric.  They get the same equipment, stats, and skill focus as the Lancer tree classes do.  They inherit an increase in agility from the Thief class and get some specific skills such as the ability to blind and poison targets, a few Jump abilities that have no delay after use, and several of their skills, including some of the jump abilities, allow them to steal and snatch from their targets.

Each Compound class pairing is different, some will get stat alterations, others will get special game mechanics based around the two classes.  Some will get access to new types of equipment; others may get little benefit but have one thing that gives them a massive advantage over the Standard class.

Unlocking Compound Classes

To unlock a compound class, you will need to level up multiple classes within two Standard Trees and the ability to unlock them must be available (about mid-way through the game).  The classes required are based on the classes in the trees that make up the Compound class you are unlocking.  The first class in a Compound class tree only requires the 1st and 2nd Standard class tree classes and Novice.  The second class in the tree requires all three Standard tree classes.

To continue using the Sorcerer/Occultist trees example, the unlock requirements for each are based on the primary Standard class for the tree.  So the level requirements breakdown like this:

• Sorcerer Tree:
  • Magus:
    • Novice Lv 80
    • Mage Lv 60
    • Wizard Lv 40
    • Cleric Lv 30
    • Priest Lv 20
  • Sorcerer:
    • Novice Lv 90
    • Mage Lv 75
    • Wizard Lv 60
    • Warlock Lv 30
    • Cleric Lv 40
    • Priest Lv 30
    • High Priest Lv 15
    • Magus Lv 20
• Occultist Tree:
  • Apostate:
    • Novice Lv 80
    • Cleric Lv 60
    • Priest Lv 40
    • Mage Lv 30
    • Wizard Lv 20
  • Occultis
    • Novice Lv 90
    • Cleric Lv 75
    • Priest Lv 60
    • High Priest Lv 30
    • Mage Lv 40
    • Wizard Lv 30
    • Warlock Lv 15
    • Apostate Lv 20

Note that, again, these level requirements are not set in stone and are likely to change.  There will also be a litany of items you can use to reduce the grinding in the game as far as you want, even so far as to require no grinding for levels at all (which will require grinding for gold, but the grind is not as steep and there are also items to help reduced that as well).

So, Compound classes done; let’s move on to Grand Classes.

Grand Classes

A Grand Class is like a Compound class, only it requires three Standard classes instead of two.  Unlike the Compound classes, however, Grand classes do not necessarily retain the unique qualities of the trees that make them up and each combination of three Standard class trees only makes one Grand class.

Grand classes are end game specific.  They are designed to be extremely powerful and to help you stand a chance against most of the super bosses in the game.  Note that there are super bosses you can beat without a single Grand class unlocked, even some of the harder ones will be cheeseable (there may or may not be some achievements centered around beating certain super bosses without any Grand classes).

Each Grand class is incredibly difficult to unlock just because you essentially have to almost max out the levels for all of the required classes and then there is a quest chain to unlock that class.  The benefit is that once a Grand class is unlocked, any character that meets the level requirements can use it.  In addition, each Grand class gets its own set of unique mechanics.  Some of these are game-level mechanics, some are just high level buffs or powerful skills.

In terms of strength, even just one Grand class will make the final bosses of the game fairly tame.

Let’s go over four examples of what Grand classes will look like starting with an obvious first choice, the Paladin.

Paladin Grand Class

The Paladin Grand class is comprised of the Warrior, Fighter, and Cleric Standard trees.  To unlock this class, and any Grand class, you will have to be over level 100 in every class from these trees.  The exact break down is like so:

• Novice – Lv 125
• 1st Class – Lv 120
• 2nd Class – Lv 110
• 3rd Class – Lv 100

This is required for all three Standard Trees; yes, we are covering the Tier 2 Standard classes next.  That’s a lot of leveling, but here is what you get for the time it takes you (or doesn’t if you bypass grinding) to unlock it.

Paladins get Light based damage for all their attacks.  If those attacks have other elements, Light is added on or combined with other Light enhancements.  When attacking Undead, Demon, Devil, or Aberration type enemies, their damage is increased by 25%.  They take 15% less damage from Shadow element-based attacks.

Paladins also get some support magic such as healing and revival and their general skill load out is heavily Light based which means they will deal even more damage to the enemy types mentioned above in addition to their normal attack skills.

Paladins have access to swords, maces, battleaxes, long swords, and magic weapons.  They have access to the heaviest armor, magic armor, and Blessed Accessories.  Blessed Accessories are a special type of equipment that only Paladins have access to.  These bestow powerful auto abilities and unlock even more damage potential against the enemy types mentioned above and protection from Shadow element damage.

Soulbinder Grand Class

The Soulbinder class is an amalgamation of the Thief, Mage, and Lancer Standard classes.  The unlock requirements are the same as for the Paladin.

Here is what they do; they are heavily inspired by a particular mechanic in Skyrim.  The Soulbinder is able to consume the souls of weakened enemies.  The amount of damage needed to be able to steal a soul is dependent on the class of enemy.  Normal enemies, you just need 35% of their HP left.  For bosses (yes, even bosses), you’ll need to get them down to 15% and successfully cast a specific status effect on them that has a 35% success rate.

Even super boss souls can be captured, though you will need to whittle them down to 5% HP and use a skill to apply a status effect that only succeeds 8% of the time.

Each class of soul captured is tracked and makes your character more powerful.  The type of soul also matters in terms of what is affected too.  Here is the chart:

• Standard Souls (Non-Human): 10 souls adds + 0.0025% to the base value of Def/Agl
• Standard Souls (Human): 10 souls adds + 0.0045% to the base value of Str/Mg Atk
• Variant Souls (special enemy class): 5 souls adds +0.0050% to the base value of Mg Def
• Mini-boss Souls: 2 soul adds + 0.0045% to the base value for Max HP
• Boss Souls: 1 soul adds + 0.008% to the base value of Str/Def/Luk and + 0.006% to Max HP/MP
• Super Boss Souls: 1 soul adds + 2.5% to base Max HP/MP and +0.6% to all other stats (including extended and special) except Luk, hit, and evasion rates

Souls will be required to use some of the stronger abilities this class will have; generally nothing Mini-Boss level or higher will be required, just normal souls.  There may also be some mechanics to use souls to apply buffs to your party members in battle.

Certain types of souls will also empower the special types of weapons this class will have access to called Soul-Bound Weapons.  I don’t have more information on these at this time as I am still in the process of designing the system.

Souldbinders have access to the following weapon types: Swords, Daggers, Bows, Staves, Lances, Claws, and the aforementioned Soul-Bound weapons.  They have access to medium level armor and lower and all the normal accessories.

Overlord Grand Class

The next of the classes we will talk about here is the Overlord class; loosely inspired by the anime of the same name.  I am picking these Grand classes based on the mechanics they employ to give you an idea of just how different these will be from normal classes and the benefits taking the time to unlock them will bring.  The Overlord gets some of the most interesting stuff out of the Grand classes.

The Overlord class is comprised of the Mage, Fighter, and Wizard trees.

It is kind of a counter-part to the Paladin, so it is heavily Shadow and anti-holy type enemy based.  Its attacks are given a 15% increase in Shadow damage and it takes 10% less Light damage.  Many of its abilities are primarily Shadow element and it does 15% more damage to Holy, Angel, Demi-God, and Ethereal type enemies.

For every Angel-type enemy the character with this class kills (even before the class is unlocked), certain skills will have a buff applied to them at a rate of 0.035% per kill.  The stats for this class will also be increased by 0.0015% for each kill of a Holy and Angel type enemy, 0.0020% for each Demi-God type enemy killed, and 0.0045% for each Ethereal type enemy killed (only after the class is unlocked).  These only apply to the base stats (Max HP/MP, Atk, Def, Mg Atk, Mg Def, Agl) except Luk.

This class will have a unique buff and debuff skill.  The buff skill is called Power of the Overlord, it can only be used on the character with the Overlord class.  When cast, it grants the character using the class a buff to their Max HP/MP, Atk, Mg Atk, and Def based on the number of characters you have recruited.  For each character you will get +0.025% to the above stats.  It will last between 5 and 8 turns and cost half of your MP.  There will be a 10 turn cooldown applied and it will also cause Prostration to cooldown.

The debuff can be applied to any enemy, even bosses and most super bosses.  It is called Prostration.  When successfully applied, it causes the following effects:

For every party member the target gets -0.09% Max HP/Max HP and -0.05% Atk/Mg Atk/Def/Mg Def.

If you have over 20 party members recruited, it will also drain 0.25% of the target’s HP every turn it is applied.  It will last between 4 and 7 turns and cost 25% of your MP.  Once it is done, a 15 turn cooldown is applied and it will cause Power of the Overlord to cooldown as well for the same number of turns.

This class has two ultimate skills.  The first is tied only to a level requirement.  The second unlocks when you have recruited 20 party members.  When used it will hit all enemies 5 times for high damage.  It is a Shadow element spell.  It will be able to blind and poison any targets it cannot kill w/ a high rate of success, even enemies normally resistant to these status effects, and will also recover some HP/MP for the whole party.

The Overlord class can use staves, rods, books, daggers, and magic swords.  It can wear all mage-usable armor and accessories.

Einherjar Grand Class

The final Grand class we will talk about is the Einherjar class.  This is a combination of the Lancer, Warrior, and Cleric Standard Classes.

The Einherjar are a war party under the command of Odin who will right in the end times during Ragnarok in Norse mythology.  This class is heavily inspired by Viking mythology and RPG tropes.

The Einherjar focuses on high damage at the cost of defense.  You’re going to hit hard and be hit hard.  Most of the skills for this class will be physical based though you will have access to a very limited number of Cleric spells for minor healing and status recovery.

For each party member that has been downed, this class receives an automatic buff.  The buff name is called Hyper Rage and it is a level based status effect.  We will talk more about leveled status effects in the future.

Hyper Rage has three levels, one for each member downed.  If an ally is revived, the status level is not immediately removed, but a status effect timer is started and the level is removed after two turns.  For each level of Hyper Rage, the following happens:

• Level 1: +75% to Attack and +35% to Defense
• Level 2: Additional +75% to Attack and +15% to Defense
• Level 3: Additional +150% to Attack and -200% to Defense.  You enter an enraged state and Items and Magic are disabled; you will only be able to use Martial (read as physical) Skills.  At this level you also lose your ability to escape from a battle.

For each level of Hyper Rage you will also get the following:

+0.05% Max HP per class level per Hyper Rage level.  So if you have a level 50 Einherjar class, you are at Hyper Rage level 2, and your Max HP is 4800, under these conditions your Max HP will be 24,000. 

At each level, certain skills are made available to you.  The Ultimate skills are only available at Hyper Rage Level 2 and 3.

This class will also have some other unique abilities.  There will be a “Consume Fly Agaric” ability.  This will induce a weaker version of Hyper Rage that will boost your Attack and Max HP by 0.0025% per class level and remove control of the character.  This effect will last for 8 to 12 turns and if any characters are knocked out, it prevents Hyper Rage from being applied.  You will not be able to cure the status.

Once the Trance status has been removed, your Max HP is reduced by 25% for the rest of the battle and you will be poisoned with a very dangerous poison status effect that will require a high level healing spell or specific recovery item to remove.  It will do 5% of your Max HP in damage per action and will be able to kill your character.

The other unique ability will be a cover mechanic where, for 10 turns, the character will take 80% of the damage done to team members.  It will also boost defense by 35% and includes a weak regen effect (+0.8%  of your current HP healed per turn).

There you have it, hopefully this gives you an idea of what to expect from Grand classes and the unique benefits they might give.  I am trying to make them pretty cool because they can take so long to unlock if you do not bypass grinding.

For right now, I don’t have plans for custom class sprites for the classes.  If the game does well, that might be a consideration for one of the free DLC/expansions (more on that at a later date).

Tier 2 Standard Classes

So, we have one last class related topic to discuss; the tier 2 Standard classes.  These classes are essentially the “master class” for each Standard tree.  They each have specific requirements to unlock them aside from class levels.  The class levels, like with all other classes, are generic to each class:

• Novice – Lv 100
• 1st Class – Lv 80
• 2nd Class – Lv 65
• 3rd Class – Lv 30

Each character will have to undergo training to unlock these classes if they qualify for them.  This is a cost in the form of gold and in-game time except for the main character.  For everyone else, they will be removed from your party for 2 real-world hours after which you will need to return to the training facility in Shig to pick them up.  For the MC, it just costs gold.

We will talk more about this during the character mechanics discussion at some point, but each character has a limited number of classes they can use.  Only the MC can change to every class.  As such, each character has a limited number of Compound, Grand, and Tier 2 classes they can use.  Each character can also unlock a unique version of a specific Tier 2 Standard class.

The Tier 2 classes possess very powerful skills that are representative of the kind of skills that class has throughout the Tier 1 classes.  Most are going to be very strong but have high cooldowns, these classes will also get a selection of the abilities from the lower classes.

These classes are meant to be somewhere in-between Compound and Grand classes in strength and will open up near the end of the middle section of the game.

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Poison-type Statuses Done Correctly

So, one of my long standing nit picks with RPG games has been how poison works.  Normally, when you are poisoned you take damage at the end of either your turn or the end of the battle turn.  I don’t like this for three reasons:

1. That isn’t how poison actually works

2. Due to how poison actually works, you take less damage than you should under certain conditions

3. They can do too much damage to high HP enemies and characters

So, how do I think poison mechanics should work?  First we need to look at how poison actually spreads in the real world.  In real life, poison does damage by spreading through the blood stream.  Things that cause your heart rate to go up will spread poison and toxins faster.

Applying that back to RPGs, poison should damage you after each action.  Not at the end of your turn, certainly not at the end of the battle turn.  One problem; RPG Maker can’t really do that.

Enter YanFly’s State Buff Core plugin.  With this, you can alter when you do the damage.  Good. Smashing.  Excellent.  One problem.  Statuses still tick down at the end of the battle turn.

Why is this a problem?  Status turn numbers, for status that do damage, should be the number of turns the status does damage to your afflicted character; not the number of turns.  Another problem, RPG Maker and YanFly’s plugin don’t do anything about that.

Enter my After-Action Status Effect plugin.  This allows me to identify status effects that should have their turn counters ticked down after an action and allow that functionality to be put into place.

To address point 3 of why I hate traditional poison and poison-like mechanics, usually the damage is calculated based on the current or max hp.  This leads to high HP bosses getting wrecked by poison.  So to fix this I have implemented custom coding through the State Buff Core plugin to calculate a reasonable amount of damage.  In fact, most of my damage-based status effects use custom coding, but we will get into that later.

So now effects that should do damage based on your character’s movement like Poison and Bleeding, do damage after each action and the status effect length ticks down after each action.  It also adds a new layer of complexity to battle by taking something that should be a massive bonus, multi-actions, and turns it into a potential liability; something I love to do with stuff, I am very Newtonian that way (third law).

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Make it as Hard as You Want

Difficulty systems are not new to RPG games, but you do not see them too often in RPG Maker games and when you do they normally amount to “attribute value go up”.

Well, we’ll have some of that too but there is a lot more to it as well.  First and foremost, the difficulty system will have 8 options and 2 special modes.  That’s a lot, yeah?  There are the difficulty options; note I don’t have the actual change in values configured yet so I will mention those on a later blog once I have:

• Story Mode - (basically no challenge at all, play this if you just want the story and to make the game a lot shorter).
• Very Easy – Same as Story but the bosses are a bit harder, super bosses are more hard.
• Easy – An arbitrary and made-up number like 10% less difficult that Normal
• Normal – Intended difficulty.  Most regular battles will be easy enough, variants will give you some trouble, bosses can be challenging, super bosses will be challenging without Grand classes.  All these statements also depend on your level; they assume you are at the level required to win the fights.
• Hard – Harder than normal.  Most normal fights will be the same as Normal, variants might be a bit tougher.  Bosses and Super bosses will be harder to deal with.
• Brutal – Harder than Hard. Most fights will give you a challenge and bosses/super bosses will become very hard.
• Nightmare – Harder than Brutal.  Every fight has the potential to be a struggle with bosses and super bosses being extremely difficult.
• Murda (requested by Leif Ian Anderson) – Hardest difficulty.  Every fight will tax your abilities and bosses and super bosses will turn into Souls-level encounters.

Special Modes:

Mode 1 – No Items

This mode disables the use of all items in battle and prevents you from healing HP with items outside of battle.  You will be able to use MP recovery items outside of battle and spells for healing, though MP recovery items become more expensive and are removed from most chests.

Mode 2 – Boss Rush mode

Still figuring out how this will work but essentially you will fight every boss you have encountered in the game.  I will need some way to track these encounters that exists outside of save files so that it is tracked across all your playthroughs.  This includes super bosses.

More to come as I flesh out the system.

So, more details now.  Each difficulty will change various parameters.  The obvious stuff is that it will increase or decrease hp and mp values.  It will also alter damage both incoming and outgoing.  These changes will apply to both players and enemies.

“So where is the ‘other’ stuff at?” you might be asking, it starts right now.

In addition to the normal stuff you expect these kinds of systems to do, the difficulty system in LoE will also alter your stat growth for each class (still don’t know if this will be per-class or a blanket change for all classes), alter the exp curve, modify enemy levels and the enemy spawn counter, increase costs for some things like class unlocks (gold, not levels as those are already modified by the exp curve change).

It will also alter enemy attack patterns, we will talk more about that soon.  For now, know that every enemy will have a custom attack pattern implemented through YanFly’s BattleAICore plugin and that the difficulty system will alter these.  These alterations might be as simple as changing the rate some skills are used or as drastic as adding in new abilities that enemies can utilize.

The difficulty system will also impact some other systems in the game like the Anima System (next week) and the World Activities system (fishing, farming, mining, etc) which we will also talk about at some point in the future.

That’s it for this week.  Next week we will talk about the Anima System, Weapon Skills, and the Day/Night System.