RMMV Blades of Twilight [Tactical RPG]

[alice_gristle]

@Frostorm, I like the idea of lightning magic being unpredictable. It'd be cool to have a mechanic where your magic can backfire and you shoot lightning bolts randomly across the field, while depleting all your MP... but then again, I think I'd hate it if the game punished me like that. Soo, without being able to play and see fo' myself, your ideas seem cool.

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.

Shrek. Anyway, I like yo evolutionary tree, 'cuz everything seems to be made up portions of "good" and "evil", like mixtures of holy and profane... and I like how yo humans are a mixture of, uhh, dwarves and elves. Even if I'm not a fan of traditional renditions of "races", yours seem reasonably cool. Is this gonna have story significance, or is just for flavour and lore?

 

[Frostorm]

Line of Sight mechanics working, yay! I'm also glad the trees are on TOP of the units, phew.

Note to self: I really need to redo/improve the layout of the status window (bottom left).

Re: racial significance...it's mostly lore, but will have some impact on the story since most of those races will make appearances throughout the game.

Edit: Still a bit torn whether I should use the light/detailed or dark/plain treetops:

 

[Pootscooter]

@Frostorm I think I like the dark treetops more...

 

[Frostorm]

Desmodor Empire
Structure: Oligarchy (Aristocracy)
Desmodor is a country ruled by Vampires. With strict divisions of class dictated by birth, members of the elite class, henceforth called “Nobles”, rule its people with an iron fist. To be a Noble is to be a Vampire, and vice versa. Desmodor is divided into several provinces, each ruled by its own “House”, which is a family of Vampires who can trace their lineage back to a common sire. The various Houses sometimes consider each other rivals and other times form secret alliances with one another, but are kept in check and held together by the Highlord. The Highlord is always the single most powerful, and usually oldest, Vampire currently alive and is usually an Original. This head of state position is mostly symbolic but is necessary to ensure stability between the various Houses.

Key Positions:

• Highlord – A figurehead position held by the single strongest/oldest Vampire within Desmodor. Their purpose is to ensure stability and unity between the various Houses. Thus, the Highlord doesn’t actually involve themselves in governing the country, except for being present for various international affairs.
• Lord – The leader of a House and typically the sire of the other members of the House, or in rare cases, the eldest direct offspring if the original sire is deceased. Most of the political power within the country resides with the Lords.
• Noble – These are the elite class of Desmodor’s society. They range from old to young, strong to weak, but are all Vampires or at least a Dhampir in rare cases. The House they are loyal to depends on which sire-line they were sired from.
• Commoner – The majority of the population (90%+) are commoners, but this does not necessarily mean they are poor, though they often are. In Desmodor, a commoner is simply someone of "low birth" (i.e., Human). They could be farmers, craftsmen, traders, etc… Their standards of living vary depending on which province they reside in. This largely depends on how benevolent the House that rules over them is.

 

[alice_gristle]

Commoner – The majority of the population (90%+) are commoners, but this does not necessarily mean they are poor, though they often are. In Desmodor, a commoner is simply someone of "low birth" (i.e., Human). They could be farmers, craftsmen, traders, etc… Their standards of living vary depending on which province they reside in. This largely depends on how benevolent the House that rules over them is.

Sounds cool! What do the commoners think about their lords, though? I mean, the vampires feed from this lot, right? Are they all living in terror, or is there like... I dunno... a sub-class of commoners who are offered up to the Nobles as food? Or is it like, "Ooh, it's such an honour to be food for the baron!" I mean, I guess it'd depend on what kinda experience it is to be, uhh... bitten.

 

[Frostorm]

Sounds cool! What do the commoners think about their lords, though? I mean, the vampires feed from this lot, right? Are they all living in terror, or is there like... I dunno... a sub-class of commoners who are offered up to the Nobles as food? Or is it like, "Ooh, it's such an honour to be food for the baron!" I mean, I guess it'd depend on what kinda experience it is to be, uhh... bitten.

It kind of depends on the province I guess. Here are a few examples:

Province A is ruled by a very sadistic Lord, so naturally, the commoners live in constant fear. Commoners are chosen at random to be sacrificed as food at regular intervals. The Nobles may harvest more or less people depending on simply their mood or if their constituents have been "misbehaving" lol. Those selected to be food are basically facing a death sentence since the Nobles here prefer to drain their victims dry (it's not good to waste food, after all lol). Therefore, the Nobles in this province basically see the commoners as nothing more than cattle.

Province B is ruled by a more benevolent Lord who calls for volunteers. The volunteers, in this case, are not killed, but simply fed upon to a certain extent. The logic behind this approach is that the blood of willing individuals tastes better than those who are in a state of fear/anxiety. This is because the Human body will release different hormones depending on their mental state. Generally speaking, a positive disposition correlates with better tasting blood. On one extreme would be a Human that's in love or infatuated vs the other end of the spectrum where a Human is in a state of peril, facing inevitable doom. So in this province, the commoners may actually consider it an honor to be selected. These volunteers may even be given preferential treatment, such as better food, shelter, and etc. So it's kind of like upper-middle-class vs lower-middle-class of the other commoners.

Province C might be ruled by a more "efficient" Lord. In this case, all the commoners are called together to offer a small portion of their blood. Perhaps they are gathered in the town square every now and then and told to spill some of their blood into a single shared container/cauldron/barrel. This is basically akin to "taxing" the people.

Province D could be ruled by a Lord who's House enjoys "the hunt". Therefore, no warning is given as to when they decide to harvest. Instead, the commoners live in perpetual fear as they are hunted down during the night at random.

 

[Frostorm]

Ok, so I'm assembling the monsters for a cave dungeon but I'm stumped on what to name this guy:

It's some sort of weird flying creature lol. Definitely not a Bat though cuz that's what this is:

Edit: 2 more re-skins for the Damp Caverns monsters!

Btw, is this an attractive art style in general?

 

[TheGentlemanLoser]

I think this thread is probably long enough to also qualify as a design document. Like, it's hard to imagine reading ALL of that text w/o being involved in some way in developing this game.

 

[Frostorm]

New command UI! I love this circular format, it saves a lot of screen real-estate and just looks more aesthetically pleasing overall:

I think this thread is probably long enough to also qualify as a design document. Like, it's hard to imagine reading ALL of that text w/o being involved in some way in developing this game.

Yea, I gotta redo the 1st post and reorganize everything. Possibly move it over to the Games In Development subforum as well.

 

[TheGentlemanLoser]

'sup with the bugs...bug monsters...monster bugs??? in the top right corner

 

[Frostorm]

'sup with the bugs...bug monsters...monster bugs??? in the top right corner

Oh, that's the turn order thingy. The one w/ the blank in the square is supposed to be the player's avatar, but since I'm using a template character right now, it's empty...for now. The current/active battler's avatar is shifted down a bit to denote whose turn it currently is. Most of the UI still needs more work, in general. I especially need to redo the status box in the bottom left. Thanks for having my back in that other thread btw, I really appreciate it. ^.^

Edit: Hmm, I'm guessing the confusion was because the Worm is barely visible on the map. It's standing next to the player unit but covered up by the circular command UI. Guess this just means I need to tweak things for more clarity, heh.

Here's what the colors mean:

Enemy unit


Friendly unit


Active unit

 

[Frostorm]

Phew, I think I've finally finished creating the entire skillset for the "Berserker" Skill Tree for my project! It consists of a total of 15 skills divided into 5 tiers. Each tier contains a Bonus Action, a Dmg Skill, and a Passive Ability. This set of skills is meant for a 2H wielding "warrior"-type character. It opts to sacrifice survivability in favor of offensive prowess. There is an emphasis on Critical Hits and Armor Penetration. This type of character works best by stacking Strength, which also increases your Crit Multiplier in addition to physical dmg. I'm looking for any thoughts and/or suggestions.

Format:
Tier #

• Bonus Action*
• Damage Skill
• Passive Ability

*Bonus Actions are skills you can use that don't consume a turn. They are usually more minor in effect, such as buffs or some kind of utility. Only 1 Bonus Action can be used per turn at most but is entirely optional, they simply cost some amount of resource.

Tier 1:

• High Stance: Increases Strength, Armor Penetration, & Physical Critical Hit chance by 10%. Active until another stance is used. Cost: 10FP CD: 0
• Crush: Deals (low) Weapon damage and reduces the target’s Constitution by (1/2 user's Strength) for 4 turns. Requires a Medium or Heavy weapon. Cost: 20FP CD: 0 Range: 1 AoE: 0
• First Blood: Attacking a target with 100% HP remaining grants an additional 20 Focus. (Passive)

Tier 2:

• Charge: Charge forward 3 spaces. Cost: 20FP CD: 2 Range: 3
• Heavy Strike: Deals (medium) Weapon damage with an additional 20% Armor Penetration. Requires a Medium or Heavy weapon. Cost: 30FP CD: 0 Range: 1 AoE: 0
• 2H Specialization: Increases Hit chance by 5% and Focus generation by 20% while wielding a single Medium or Heavy weapon. The Off Hand slot must be empty. (Passive)

Tier 3:

• Double Edge: Increases Physical Critical Hit chance by 1% per 1% of HP missing but causes 20% recoil damage. Lasts 2 turns. Cost 20FP CD: 4
• Crescent Strike: A wide swing that deals (medium) Weapon damage to all targets in a 180° arc. Requires a Medium or Heavy weapon. Cost: 40FP CD: 0 Range: 1 AoE: 1
• Trauma: Physical Critical Hits cause an additional 30% of the damage dealt over 3 turns and reduces the target’s Healing received by 30% for the duration. (Passive)

Tier 4:

• Focus Rage: Instantly generate 50 Focus at the cost of 15% HP. Cost: 15% HP CD: 6
• Revenge: Deals greater Weapon damage the closer the user is to death. Requires a Medium or Heavy weapon. Cost: 50FP CD: 0 Range: 1 AoE: 0
• Short Temper: Increases Strength by 30% for 1 turn after sustaining a Critical Hit and also generates 3 Focus upon sustaining any amount of direct damage. (Passive)

Tier 5:

• Rampage: Increases Physical Critical Hit chance by 100% but increases all damage taken by 50% for 3 turns. In addition, all Mana costs are doubled while enraged. Cost: 50FP CD: 6
• Obliterate: Deals (high) Weapon damage but causes 20% recoil damage. This attack ignores Armor. Cost: 60FP CD: 0 Range: 1 AoE: 0
• Berserker Power: Increases physical damage dealt by 1% per 1% HP missing. (Passive)

*Note: This is just 1 out of many skill trees available to the player. Up to 3 trees can be mix-'n-matched to create a plethora of playstyles.

 

[Finnuval]

Looks good to me.
Only thing in missing for a berserker Class is something like bloodlust where they Become stronger aslong as they keep killing... But that's totally personal preferente xD

 

[Frostorm]

Update:

• Changed "Trauma" to grant a DoT effect instead of an Armor Pen component.
• Increased Armor Penetration on "Heavy Strike" to 20%.

Looks good to me.
Only thing in missing for a berserker Class is something like bloodlust where they Become stronger aslong as they keep killing... But that's totally personal preferente xD

That sounds cool, I think I'll create a weapon or accessory w/ that effect!

 

[Milennin]

Kind of surprising they have no passive that increases their damage, the lower their HP is. Or a passive that grants an attack boost, every time they lose HP. It would synergize with the rest of their skills.

 

[Frostorm]

Kind of surprising they have no passive that increases their damage, the lower their HP is. Or a passive that grants an attack boost, every time they lose HP. It would synergize with the rest of their skills.

Revenge deals more damage the lower the user's HP is. It uses the following formula:
a.atk ** (1 + a.agi / 1000) * (1.2 - a.hp / a.mhp) * 2

Double Edge is a buff skill that used to increase dmg dealt per missing HP, but I was getting the vibe that flat dmg increases felt boring so it was changed to increased Crit chance. Do you think I should change it back?

Edit: Oh, I see what you mean by not having a Passive that does what you described. Perhaps I can rework Short Temper to do that.

 

[Frostorm]

@Milennin I thought about it...and decided to replace Berserker's Grip w/ Yanfly's Berserker Power. Might rename it Berserker's Strength or something, idk. Which name sounds better? Also open to suggestions.

Crescent Strike now hits all targets in a 180° arc instead of all adjacent targets.

Removed Armor Pen component from Double Edge and nerfed it a bit.

2H Specialization has a minor +Hit component now.

I'm just worried the Berserker tree is too OP now lol...
I suppose every tree will need to be just as strong to compensate.

I think I can safely say this tree is complete, stay tuned for the next Skill Tree!

Edit: Here's what it looks like in game:

 

[lianderson]

I loves em! Good job human!

Hmmmmmmmmmm.... HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.......

It is missing three things!

1: a skill that lets the berserker eat "plants", take off their "armor", and then dance and scream at the sky while everyone else looks at them in awkward terror. We needs this, because we demands the realism!

2: the passive ability to resist fear effects, because nothing is scarier than a large naked man covered in blood holding an axe and screaming at the top of their lungs. Realism!

3: and the ability to throw axes that turn into shotguns that shoot swords that explode into exploding axes that turn transform into exploding barbarians that also throw axes. We need this ability, because we demands the realism! (lasers that shoot negative game reviews will also suffice)

Good day human. Power to the gam mak!

 

[Frostorm]

Updated the OP since it was way out of date lol. I deleted most of the story stuff since it's being rewritten anyway. Gonna be working on my project pretty much every day now. Having a work-from-home job is great!

1: a skill that lets the berserker eat "plants", take off their "armor", and then dance and scream at the sky while everyone else looks at them in awkward terror. We needs this, because we demands the realism!

As someone who grows these "plants" for a living, I approve!

 

[Finnuval]

Love the new title screen