RMMV Blades of Twilight [Tactical RPG]

[Frostorm]

Update: I've been working on the character builds for the possible party members. There will be 2 new deuteragonists (which I haven't named yet), but their builds (along w/ Alanis & Gnarg's) will be like so:

Alanis (Sanguri Elf): Hematurgy/Cryomancy/Hydromancy

• all-purpose caster (Hematurgy grants excellent Mana management and caster utility)
• can double as both DPS & Healer
• Cryomancy synergizes w/ Hydromancy
  • e.g. "Damp" targets would instantly freeze
  • decent CC (crowd control) in the form of slows/snares
  • emphasis on HoT (water spells)

??? (Lythari Elf): Lycanthropy/Archery/Aeromancy

• ranged DPS with emphasis on mobility/speed
• Aeromancy compliments Archery and offers great positional control (Gust/Cyclone/etc...)
• unleash several hits per attack by combining the following:
  • Rapid Fire (Tier5 Archery) - grants an extra attack for 2 turns
  • Windfury* (Tier4 Aeromancy) - 33% chance per attack to hit again, lasts 3 turns (but duration extends by 1 turn every time it procs) *placeholder name (will change it eventually)*

Gurona (Bloodfang Orc): Hematurgy/Dueling/Necromancy

• dark edgy rogue/assassin/vampire character lol (inspired by" Gorona" ofc)
• Necromancy further supplements Hematurgy's lifestealing + lots 'o DoTs
• lifestealing + duel wielding = HAX
• Dueling tree is not just offensive, it's actually balanced between both offense/defense
  • emphasis on Counters to both mitigate and deal extra dmg while getting more lifesteal opportunities

Gnarg (Moonclaw Orc): Lycanthropy/Protection/Berserking

• melee extraordinaire (Lycanthropy offers many benefits for physical units)
• almost no magical capacity, but he don't need it
• can eventually get "Berserker Grip" passive (Tier5 Berserking)
  • allows 2H weapons to be used w/ just the MainHand, allowing a 1H weapon to be used in the OffHand! (e.g. 2H Axe + Shield? take advantage of Berserking & Protection trees)

The player only gets to pick 2 out of these 4 as party members, due to a party size of 3. Which 2 would you pick? Also open to name suggestions!

These party members will be limited to 3 trees, but their points can be spent in any configuration within those 3 trees. The protagonist gets access to all 14 trees though. I basically created these builds as sort of like examples to help players create interesting builds. There are even stronger builds/combos...
*cough* Protection/Hieromancy/Necromancy *cough* <-the Twilight Guardian aka the "unkillable" build lol

Edit: Hmm, the "unkillable build" actually suffers from resource starvation due to lacking either Hematurgy (for MP stuff) or Lycanthropy (for FP stuff), but this build is indeed very very hard to kill.

I've also revised combat so it flows a lot faster now. Since each Tier of each Tree contains 3 skills (1 utility, 1 active, & 1 passive) what ended happening was the utility skill (usually a buff) would take an entire turn to use, and then you could only atk the next turn. Now all utility skills (the ones on the left column) are now BONUS actions, meaning you can buff yourself and attack in the same turn (and move as well). All skill costs still must be paid though, so it feels fair. The stronger utilities have cooldowns as well.

 

[Boonty]

Amazing work that you show there !

 

[Celestrium]

@Frostorm Waiting on the demo!!! Maybe one map battle teaser or something?

 

[Frostorm]

@Frostorm Waiting on the demo!!! Maybe one map battle teaser or something?

My release date goal for the tech demo will be Nov 30th! It would just be 1st dungeon + starting town though. A good chunk of skills/spells would also be nonfunctional (so much work to do!) lol.

 

[Celestrium]

My release date goal for the tech demo will be Nov 30th! It would just be 1st dungeon + starting town though. A good chunk of skills/spells would also be nonfunctional (so much work to do!) lol.

I will be playing on November 30th then!

 

[Frostorm]

I will be playing on November 30th then!

Yikes lol, the pressure! What elements/disciplines do you fancy? I'll try to polish those as best I can.

Edit: Another 2 characters I want to reveal...they're not party members though, but can be playable in select parts of the game (at least that's the plan).

(Yup that's my avatar! lol)
Serac (Human Lycan): Berserking/Cryomancy/Hydromancy

• Serac is basically a "Spellsword" (hybrid) character
  • extremely versatile and balanced
• freezing target's cause them to take increased physical dmg (if passives are learned)
• pretty hard to kill due to the defensive utility of Cryomancy and healing from Hydromancy
  • also has a "cheat death" passive: Cryogenics (tier5) - leaves user w/ 1HP (and freezes user for 1 turn) if hit by an attack that would otherwise kill the user (CD: 5 turns).
• uses a 2H sword + tome (Berserker's Grip)
  • this means he uses both Strength & Intellect

*I might present this character at the intro of the game so players can get a taste of a really powerful character, perhaps in a flashback or something. Of course, none of that is implemented yet. He's older (27) than the protagonist and party as well and will be portrayed to be more powerful accordingly.

Caelus (Human Vampire): Dueling/Hieromancy*/Keraunomancy*/Pyromancy*

• Caelus uses 4 trees instead of 3! *However...
  • Hieromancy, Keraunomancy & Pyromancy only go up to tier 4 as a result
• Another "Spellsword" that Serac meets along his travels. They quickly became good friends and rivals to one another. (age 28)
• He is a "Duelist", meaning he uses a single 1H weapon while leaving the OffHand slot empty (basically wielding a 1H weapon w/ 2 hands).
  • uses a Katana, a type of blade from a far-off place not known in these lands...
  • his dmg output will be insane and he is very fast!

 

[Frostorm]

Sorry, the demo's gonna be a few days out, hopefully before the weekend...

I decided to redo all my armor/weapon stats and materials tiering. It is no longer linear and makes more sense lore-wise, while not being detrimental to gameplay. Here's what stats of a 1H Axe of various materials looks like:

• Rusty: +4 Str
• Tin: +6 Str
• Copper: +10 Str
• Bronze: +14 Str, +2 Int
• Iron: +16 Str
• Steel: +24 Str
• Mithril: +24 Str, +8 Int
• Orichalcum: +32 Str
• Adamantium: +40 Str
• *Elementium: +45 Str, +5 Int

*May or may not include Elementium (end game material).

 

[Frostorm]

OMFG YES! At last, I've finally got Dual Wielding working correctly! MainHand and OffHand attacks now deal different amounts of damage depending on what is equipped in each hand (similar to @ramza's DW plugin). Many thanks to him and his plugins, else this would not be possible. I had to go through so many various methods/approaches to get this working, most of which led to errors.

MainHand attacks will subtract the stats of the OffHand weapon when calculating the dmg, and OffHand attacks will similarly subtract bonuses from the MainHand. This allows for a more in-depth DW system.

I've also spent quite some time fine-tuning the formulas for all the spells/skills/attacks. Now I just gotta finish the 1st dungeon, and I can call that a big milestone. ^.^

(Ignore the fact that the icon for "Mining Pick" is incorrect lol)

 

[Pootscooter]

Lol, it's about time you uploaded a video! Can't wait to see more!

 

[Frostorm]

Here is the finalized Skill Tree for Pyromancy. But 1st, there are 2 states that need explaining:
Burning - A 3 turn DoT that deals Fire dmg. Inflicts Burnt if duration reaches 0 turns.
Burnt - Target becomes immune to Burning, lasts 1 turn.

The format will be like so:
Rank #:

• Bonus Action - These skills can be used before a Main Action w/o consuming a turn.
• Main Action - Only a single Main Action can be used per turn.
• Passive Ability - The effects of these skills are always active.

Rank 1:

• Inner Fire - Increases an ally's/user's Strength & Willpower by the caster's Intellect÷2 for 4 turns.
• Ignite - Deals minor Fire dmg and inflicts Burningon the target for 3 turns.
  • Burning lasts 4 turns if Combustion is learned.
• Hyperthermia - Reduces Strength & Willpower of Burning targets by the caster's Intellect÷2.

Rank 2:

• Emberstep - User leaves flaming tiles in their wake as they move. CD: 2
• Fireball - Deals moderate Firedmg.
  • Extends the duration of Burning by 1 turn if Combustion is learned.
• Cauterization - Reduces healing received by Burning & Burnt targets by 25% & 50% respectively.

Rank 3:

• Immolation - Shrouds the user in flames, dealing Firedmg to any adjacent unit for 4 turns. CD: 4
  • The user also becomes immune to Fire dmg...or should I make it heal when hit by Fire dmg?
• Incinerate - Deals modest Fire dmg. If the target is Burning, instantly deal the total dmg remaining on the DoT. Removes Burning and inflicts Burnt.
  • Damage dealt stacks w/ Fire Power.
• Combustion - Increases the duration of Burning by 1 turn.

Rank 4:

• Overheat - Target suffers a heat stroke, skipping their turn losing -50 Focus (TP). CD: 4
• Rain of Fire - Deals moderate Firedmg in a 3-tile radius AoE and sets affected tiles on fire.
  • Extends the duration of Burning by 1 turn if Combustion is learned.
• Fire Power - Increases Fire dmg taken by Burning targets by 5% per turn remaining on Burning.

Rank 5:

• Fire Elemental - Summons a Fire Elemental onto the field for 4 turns. CD: 8
• Inferno - Expend all remaining Mana to deal immense Firedmg in a 3-tile AoE around the caster.
  • Damage dealt scales w/ amount of Mana used.
• Flammable - Burning targets will spread Burning onto adjacent units.

 

[Frostorm]

I was thinking...how would the idea of a "wise old Dwarf" sound? I wanted a mentor character, represented by the spirit of the MacGuffin Blade found early in the game. Originally I had this role to be Human or something (still in ethereal form tho), but maybe a Dwarf is more fitting? He could be a legendary Bladesmith, and near the end of his life reached the apex of his craft, fusing his soul into the blade the protag finds. Of course, by the time the protag stumbles across him, centuries have passed and the blade is now in a decrepit state.

 

[Finnuval]

I was thinking...how would the idea of a "wise old Dwarf" sound? I wanted a mentor character, represented by the spirit of the MacGuffin Blade found early in the game. Originally I had this role to be Human or something (still in ethereal form tho), but maybe a Dwarf is more fitting? He could be a legendary Bladesmith, and near the end of his life reached the apex of his craft, fusing his soul into the blade the protag finds. Of course, by the time the protag stumbles across him, centuries have passed and the blade is now in a decrepit state.

I would expect him to be rather grumpy tho

 

[KuunValo]

Your game sounds really interesting, i am still learning mapping, how to make events. It is amazing what you can possible do with rpg maker. Your game and what you have planned gived me lot of inspiration to look some more customization as i slowly learn. I definatelly want to try your game when it releases

 

[LTB-Dude]

Man, you are so cool. Totally admire your diligence.
Hope to play your game soon and support you.
You're my hero. Keep up the great work man!

 

[huoixn]

There are many new changes in your project and you are looking forward to it.

 

[Copywright]

Pretty cool alpha demo.

I wonder if you could draw an arrow within the blue squares to show the sprites movement path across graph nodes?

Otherwise, looks good. I'm big on switching to sideview battles once the attack action is initiated but maybe i love fire emblem too much

 

[Frostorm]

I'm thinking of reworking the Lightning school to make its playstyle more chaotic, spikey, and mana intensive. It's meant to be one of the highest damage elements of magic (along w/ Fire). So I thought of the following mechanics:

• Charged (Passive) - Increases Critical Hit chance w/ Lightning spells by 1% per 1% of MP remaining.
  • This means a Lightning spell is guaranteed to Crit when the user has a full Mana pool.
• Superconductor (Passive) - Scoring a Critical Hit w/ Lightning spells will regenerate 10% of the damage dealt as Mana.
  • Just a little something to synergize w/ the above passive and to slightly offset the high MP Costs of Lightning spells in general.
• Overload (Passive) - Offensive Lightning spells have a 20% chance to duplicate the spell at 50% power at no additional cost.
  • This should mathematically increase overall DPS by 10%.
• Lightning Reflexes (Bonus Action) - A buff that increases Intellect & Speed by X for 4 turns.
  • X = user's Intellect * 0.5
  • *Intellect in my game not only increases magical damage dealt but also increases MP Costs of spells. However, the dmg gained will always outweigh the increased MP Cost, so the overall value of the spell goes up. (Willpower is the stat you want instead for more Mana)
• The "Paralysis" effect that Lightning spells cause will be like in Pokemon. Basically, a state that lasts 3 (or maybe 4) turns and each turn has a 33% chance to Paralyze (stun) the target, so they skip that turn.
  • I chose this style of Paralysis cuz I wanted to emphasize the chaotic nature of Lightning.

Thoughts?...

 

[ShadowDragon]

idk what the current state is, but it looks nice, hard to tell to redo or not without
testing it really.

but if you see fit or is better, do it you know the game better than we do =)

 

[Frostorm]

idk what the current state is, but it looks nice, hard to tell to redo or not without
testing it really.

Ah, it was pretty "plain Jane" before (I hadn't developed the Lightning tree as much). I want to avoid different elements just being reskinned versions of each other, ya know? That would be quite boring lol. I want to make every element feel unique in some way. (I'm in the process of redoing many skills/spells/effects)...

 

[Frostorm]

Evolutionary Tree of the Races of Ur:


Angels and Demons are 100% Divine beings, which makes the Nephilim also Divine beings. This just means they're immortal and have access to magic. As you can see, Elves are directly descended from the Nephilim and thus consider themselves the "purest" of the mortal races as a result. Over many generations, they lost their immortality but retained their ability to wield magic, hence the distinction between Nephilim & Elves.

Troggs and Ogres are mortal beings that don't have access to magic, but interbreeding w/ the Nephilim resulted in Dwarves & Orcs respectively. Hence, Dwarves and Orcs can wield magic but are also mortal.

"Mongrel" is what Humans call Elf/Orc hybrids. They have different names depending on the culture (i.e. Uruk'Edhel is their proper name for the race).

I'll have to go back and edit the world lore to fit this new tree...

Edit: I have no idea why a Nephilim would want to hook up w/ a Trogg or Ogre... But hey, to each their own, right? Maybe some of them got bored at some point in their immortal lives lol.