RMVXA Polaris: The Chronicle - Stats increasing and Battle system features

[S.Court]

This project logo was created by @Orb
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Hello. I have been working on the core structure of a project and I’d like some input about the game mechanics and battle system I have organized. I’m putting all those ideas in the demo but I’d like some feedback about what I have been creating. I’ll divide this post in two parts: Game Mechanics where I’ll show the stats increasing system and the battle system mechanics and the Characters, where I’ll talk about how they work in battle.

GAME MECHANICS

Spoiler: Nebula Alchemy

In this project, you don’t level up in the strict sense of the word. Here when you beat an enemy you’ll receive Alchemy Points (AP) to be expended in this system.

AP is showed in menu screen​

This system is based in the use of Nebula Cores, which are special items that grant the ability to increase stats. With this system, the player is able to increase 6 stats: HP, SP (Skill Points), Attack, Magic, Agility (Turn Order, with the added factor it also increases Physical Evasion) and Vitality. Most of those stats are self-explanatory, except for SP, which is simply put MP renamed, and Vitality, so I’ll explain the functions of this one:

• Vitality helps to decrease the chance to be affected by a negative state. Having a bigger Vitality stat will make it less likely for enemies to cripple your character with any negative state. In this game states will be common and will be able to change the course of battle so increasing this stat can be an important way to add counterplay for this strategy. This Vitality protection also works for attacks that fraction HP damage, and attacks that deal SP or TP damage as well.
• Vitality increases the effect of Regen effect. That includes the effect of HP regen state you can get, and the inherent SP regen each character has. It’s important to clarify this game doesn’t offer SP items, so this inherent SP regen is the only way to recover this stat. Vitality will also decrease the damage of HP leaking stats.
• Vitality helps to increase the Tension Points (TP) you win each time you’re hit with an enemy attack. It’ll also decrease the TP leak present during Nova Mode (see Battle System section for more information)

The Nebula Cores can either increase one single stat greatly (For example, Sterope is a core that can Increasy Vitality by 2 points) or cores can increase two stats at same time, but in a shorter amount than using a “pure” core (Pollux is a core that can increase Magic by 1 point and Attack by 1 point) That gives a total of 21 cores that are usable with this system, and here is where the main twist of this system comes.

The fact there are 21 cores doesn’t mean each character has access to each one of them. Each character has access to only a few of them, dictating which stats can be increased and how can they be increased. Each core can be used a certain amount of times and the system itself has only certain quantity of uses.

This characteristic is reflected in the menu showing which cores can and can’t be used by each character​

This system has another characteristic: the invested cores can also be removed and rearranged to modify the stats spread without any additional cost. (It’s important to clarify each time you spend AP to use a core, your HP will increase a little) That helps to experiment different stats builds and also helps the character to adapt to the needs each battle can offer.

Did you invest all your core’s uses and you want to experiment another build? No problem!​

That’s not where this system ends. Nebula Cores can be used as equipment pieces where they grant three things:

1. They act as regular equipment pieces which can increase certain stats, protecting against states or elements.
2. They grant a passive ability. For example, if you equip Pollux, you receive the ability to add Blind to the attacker if you evade its physical attacks.
3. They grant a one-time summon in battle. Their effect is quite varied, going from offensive damage, states control or support.

All this make Nebula Cores a crucial part for this game that comes from stats increasing and also allows to create diverse strategies by mixing all those factors. But there is still an extra feature which involves them: Depending of the predominant core the character is using, (s)he will receive a title change, which will add an extra bonus to complement the use of this build. I’ll go deeper with this theme in character section.

With this in mind, here is a list of the cores that will be available in the demo

Spoiler: Available cores

Even when most of the stats increasing system revolves around Nebula Cores, equipment also has an importan part in all this. Equipment is able to complement the builds you want to construct, to even increase the strengths of those builds or patching some of their weakness.

Spoiler: Battle System

Polaris: The Chronicle is a turn based RPG with emphasis on strategic value. Most of this strategic value depends on which stats build you create with your characters and how you mix their role in battle to deal with the challenges that the enemies offer. Talking about enemies, even random encounters offer a challenge. Not in the sense they have ludicrous stats or they can kill your party in one hit (that’s kind of an artificial difficulty and that’s not what I want)

Enemies are able to use stats and debuffs, and they’re able to combine their strength to put the player in bad situations. A proper use of resources and tools the player has access to, to create strategies can make a key difference in how much difficulty those encounters can offer.

With that statement of intents I’d like to show two of the main mechanics this game offers: Nova Mode and Ex-Turn

Nova Mode is a feature that can only be used when the character’s TP bar is fully charged. Once it’s used it’ll give access to a special skillset. Once the user activated Nova Mode, it’ll start to deplete the user’s TP, and when it arrives to 0, the Nova Mode and the access to this skillset is removed. To take the best advantage of Nova Mode, it’s necessary to invest in Vitality, which will make easier for the character to receive TP when the character is being damaged. And once Nova Mode is activated, a higher Vitality stat will reduce the TP leak, increasing the duration of this mode.

Ex-Turn is a feature that appears at the start of each battle, and will grant the characters (or enemies) the ability to cast two actions per turn. To access Ex-Turn, the player will have to invest in Agility. A higher Agility’s stat will make it more likely to receive Ex-Turn at the start of the battles. Be careful because that applies to enemies as well, so fast enemies will be able to attack twice per turn as well; some enemies are able to counter this strategy by removing it or casting dangerous attacks if some of the party members have Ex-Turn.

I’d like to make a clarification about something. As I said at the beginning of this section, this game is a turn based JRPG. Why choose this battle system instead of -for example- ATB or CTB? Well, for two reasons

1. Technical reasons: I tried to use some ATB scripts but they tended to not respect the intended attack patterns, they repeated it twice if they were slower than party members for example, and that created trouble because being able to read enemies’ pattern is actually important to define your strategy as well, and it created a conflict with strong attacks that needed to be limited on their use. So I had to choose between a more elaborated strategy factor or having a no-default battle system, and at the end of the day the first option prevailed.
2. Strategy reasons: When I got “stuck” in using default turn based system, I had to look for another way to make the player decide to invest in Agility with Nebula Alchemy, and that was where the idea of Ex-Turn appeared, which at the end of the day would create an arguably better impact in speed if we compare it with the effect of Agility in other battle systems. It also helps the player to think more carefully the battle actions without being too pressured with enemies attacking them because they haven’t been able to make a choice yet.

CHARACTERS

I’ll talk in this place about the two characters that will be in the demo, how they will work in battle and the different cores and titles they’ll have access to

Spoiler: Tayel Ramani

Tayel is a shaman who bases his battle style in using the power of spirits and mixing it with elements and physical attacks to add negative states to enemies while creating damage at same time. His magical based attacks are elemental and add states whose duration depends of his Agility, and his physical attack add debuff to stat, and depending of his speed, will have a stronger effect as well. Tayel also has access to a healing spell which works with Vitality instead of Magic and adds Regen, which adds some minor utility with buffs.

His Nova Mode is called Demonology and lets him summon demons with a great damage output, but those summon cost HP instead SP. That adds an extra function with Tayel as a glass cannon because his normal attacks only make a decent damage as its best, even with heavy Attack or Magic investment.

Here is a list of his skills for the demo of this project.

Spoiler: Tayel's skills

Phantom Ember: Creates a ghostly flame can add Burn, the turn duration of this state depends of user’s Agility at the moment of casting this attack. Fire Element.

Spirit’s Aid: Summons spiritual force to heal an ally and Adds Regen. The healing is based on user’s Vitality stat.

Arm Strike: The user strikes at opponent’s arms to try to Drop the target’s Attack by X%. This percent is based on user’s Agility state at the moment of casting this attack.

Acid Bubble: Creates a bubble of polluted water can add Poison, the turn duration of this state depends of user’s Agility at the moment of casting this attack. Water Element.

Leg Strike: The user strikes at opponent’s legs to try to Drop the target’s Agility by X%. This percent is based on user’s Agility state at the moment of casting this attack.

Malicious Thorn: The user summons thorns which add a curse to the target, adding them Heal Block, the turn duration of this state depends of user’s Agility at the moment of casting this attack. Flora Element.

Head strike: The user strikes at opponent’s head to try to Drop the target’s Magic by X%. This percent is based on user’s Agility state at the moment of casting this attack.

Tayel’s HP is a bit low and has a low base Vitality stat. his Attack and Magic stats are decent and his base Agility is quite high. Tayel’s base title is Shaman and has access to three cores: Pollux, Bellatrix and Vega

• Pollux (Atk +1/Mag +1): A Pollux base build will help to increase the damage of his physical and magical skills, with an overall good ability to put negative states to enemies. A Pollux based build will change his title to Sorcerer, which will increase his damage output by 10%.
• Bellatrix (Mag +1/Atk +1): A Bellatrix based build is designed to help him to abuse his Nova Mode. He’s able to put Regen in himself which helps to mitigate the HP cost of those skills. A Bellatrix based build will change his title to Warlock, which will slightly reduce the cost of Demonology’s summons.
• Vega (SP +2/Agi +1): A Vega based build will help Tayel to get Ex-Turn with more consistency, and will also help to extend the effect and duration of the states he’s able to apply. A Vega based build will change his title to Conjurer, which will let him add the state Curse (Reduces slightly target’s stats and will increase their vulnerability to negative states) which will help him to apply states easier to his enemies.

Spoiler: Alwyn Orinson

Alwyn is a knight whose battle style is based mostly around the use of his physical attacks. He has access to shields and heavy armor which will grant him good defensive stats and has access to magic swords, which have a 33% of chance to cast a magic spell, which will help him to abuse of enemies’ elemental weakness.

His Nova Mode is called Fencing which will let him select a Battle Stance will increase a stat and will change his Attack Command as well. In the demo of this project, he’ll have access to three Battle Stances:

• Durandal Stance: Attack will increase by 20% and his attack command will change to Durandal Slash, which will have a chance to Add Disarm (the affected won’t be able to use any Physical attack, including the Attack Command)
• Excalibur Stance: Magic stat will increase by 20% and his attack command will change to Excalibur Beam, which will have a chance to Add Silence (the affected target won’t be able to use any Magical attack)
• Flissa Stance: Flissa Stance will increase his Agility by 50% and the attack command will be replaced by Flissa Stab, which will hit X times, where X is the difference between Alwyn and his target’s Agility. Each hit will do 0,75 the damage of a regular attack and it’ll hit at least twice.

Here is a list of Alwyn's skills for the demo of this project

Spoiler: Alwyn's skills

Arc Strike: A sword strike hits all enemies, it does 0.75 times the damage of a regular attack.

Backstab: The user hits the enemy in the back, ignoring the target’s defense. It does 0.5 times the damage of a regular attack.

Valiant Strike: The user strikes the enemy with his sword. The lower the user’s HP, the higher the damage will be.

Shield Break: The user strikes the enemy with his sword to reduce their elemental resistance. The turn duration of this debuff will depend of user’s Magic at the moment of casting this attack.

White shield: The user will increase the resistance to element to one ally by X turns. This duration will depende of user’s Magic at the moment of casting this attack.

Alwyn’s HP is a bit high, his base Attack and Vitality are quite good but his Magic and Agility will be quite low. Alwyn’s base title is Knight and he’ll access to three cores: Sterope, Sirius and Zosma

• Sterope (Vit +2): A Sterope based build will help him to keep his Battle Stances for a LONG time, which is important because his Nova Mode acts more as a complement of his actual battle roles instead of creating a new battle role by itself (like Tayel) Regen will have a great effect on him and he has access to a great defensive gear, so he’ll be a good tank. A Sterope based build will change his title to Defender, in which he’ll be able to cover his allies from physical attacks if their HP is low. He’ll also have a chance to cover healthy allies, and this chance will depend of his Vitality stat.
• Sirius (HP +10/Atk +1): A Sirius based build will increase his HP a bit to take some extra hits and will increase his offensive damage. This is the build will take most advantage of his skillset, because most of those attacks are physical. A Sirius based build will change his title to Duelist, which will increase his counterattack rate, taking advantage of his extra survivability and consistent physical damage output.
• Zosma (HP +10/Mag +1): A Zosma based build will also let him take some extra hits, but it has a different approach. Instead, this build will let him take advantage of elemental swords to exploit elemental weaknesses. Alwyn also has access to Shield Break and White Shield, which creates interesting effects if paired with an ally is able to target elemental weaknesses, and if you notice it, he also has access to two great summons whose effect is increased with his Magic. Mixing that will turn him in a great support unit with some interesting, yet inconsistent damage output. A Zosma based build will change his title to Magic Knight, which will increase the chance of elemental swords to cast spells from 33% to 50%.

So here is it, this is the Stats increasing and Battle system I have thought for my project. I'd like some general feedback, but I'd like to emphatize in three things

1. Nebula Cores equip and battle effects in general, are they proper or maybe need some balancing? What would you change about them?
2. Class system: Do those effect help to complement the role the builds offer? I had this idea because I want to give an incentive to build specialization, does this idea help to accomplish this goal?
3. Alwyn's skills: I'll be honest, I have only 2 or 3 attacks for him (all of them are physical damage based skills), and I think it might needs more skills, specially to complement the support role Zosma builds offer. I have added two skills for Alwyn: Shield Break and White Shield, which at least in my opinion, it helps to add more utility to Zosma builds, without patching the weakness I want this build have. Do you think those ideas are good enough to justify the use of a Magic Knight build?

Please don't hesitate to give your opinion about those ideas!

Some extra content, I'll be updating this post

Spoiler: Videos

Nebula Alchemy, Title System and Core equipment system

 

[Stanley]

The development so far has been interestingly intriguing. The Nebula Cores system can work. Okay let's get to your concern

Nebula Cores equip and battle effects in general, are they proper or maybe need some balancing? What would you change about them?

I wouldn't know for sure for now since I haven't seen all the 21 cores. But I'd venture to say that this system of yours has potential. The ones I've seen so far that you show here, they are balanced. And the fact that each character does not have access to all of them will make the game funner. This is because limitations are more interesting than power because limitations make the plots and combats more interesting.

Class system: Do those effect help to complement the role the builds offer? I had this idea because I want to give an incentive to build specialization, does this idea help to accomplish this goal?

Yes they do. Customisability is fun. The more freedom you give the players to build and specialise, the more interesting the game will get.

Alwyn's skills: I'll be honest, I have only 2 or 3 attacks for him (all of them are physical damage based skills), and I think it might needs more skills, specially to complement the support role Zosma builds offer.

Defender doesn't usually require many defensive skills, however that's up to your future design. For Duelist and Magic Knight, they should have a huge repertoire of combative measures. However for the first demo, don't go hard on yourself, 2 or 3 attacks for now will do.

I have a one obvious question for you. I would like to know the story of the game, have you started working on it?

Looking forward for more updates!

All the best, good luck.

- Zack

 

[S.Court]

I wouldn't for sure for now since I haven't seen all the 21 cores. But I'd venture to say that this system of yours has potential. The ones I've seen so far that you show here, they are balanced. And the fact that each character does not have access to all of them will make the game funner. This is because limitations are more interesting than power because limitations make the plots and combats more interesting.

Well, those are the 6 cores will be in the demo and are my main concern for now, so it'll be alright for now

Also, you said the keyword of this system: limitations, specializing your character will make him really good in certain aspects, but that brings some cons. Heck, even creating a jack-of-all-trades could be considered a con as well because he'll be a master of none. This is my approaching with this system

Defender doesn't usually require many defensive skills, however that's up to your future design. For Duelist and Magic Knight, they should have a huge repertoire of combative measures. However for the first demo, don't go hard on yourself, 2 or 3 attacks for now will do.

At least in my head, the idea for Magic Knight Alwyn would be to make his damage output with attack command a bit inconsistent, putting damaging magical skills in his arsenal would kind of break this point I guess? I was thinking in add some support skills works well with Magic scaling, or maybe a healing move -at least for the demo, because Tayel healing spell is a bit weak at least you invest in Vitality, or patch it with equipment increases this stat if player is using Sorcerer or Conjurer builds-

I have a one obvious question for you. I would like to know the story of the game, have you started working on it?

Yes, I have been working on it for now but I'd like to define some important points before showing it here

Looking forward for more updates!

All the best, good luck.

- Zack

Thanks a lot!

 

[Stanley]

limitations, specializing your character will make him really good in certain aspects, but that brings some cons. Heck, even creating a jack-of-all-trades could be considered a con as well because he'll be a master of none. This is my approaching with this system

There's pros, there's cons, that is definite. However allow me to expand upon my opinion a lil further. Great limitations on magic systems will do many things, they will for example create struggle that will explain the chars' personality clearer. Story is not about the magic. It's about the people. Limitations in magic system will make characters work for their goals and if the magic system is limited it’ll make the developer and the character have to be more clever. So, this is more like pro-story video game presentation subjectives, but don't worry too much about your mechanics. Let the story impress with wonders, and your mechanic will follow suit.

putting damaging magical skills in his arsenal would kind of break this point I guess

Well you could make em more restrictive and "picky".

Yes, I have been working on it for now but I'd like to define some important points before showing it here

Okay.

Thanks a lot!

No problemo!

 

[S.Court]

A minor update: Implementation of Title (Class) system and general showcase of Nebula Alchemy

 

[S.Court]

Well, I have been working in my characters’ skillset, I’ll add them to main post as well

Spoiler: Tayel's skills

Phantom Ember: Creates a ghostly flame can add Burn, the turn duration of this state depends of user’s Agility at the moment of casting this attack. Fire Element.

Spirit’s Aid: Summons spiritual force to heal an ally and Adds Regen. The healing is based on user’s Vitality stat.

Arm Strike: The user strikes at opponent’s arms to try to Drop the target’s Attack by X%. This percent is based on user’s Agility state at the moment of casting this attack.

Acid Bubble: Creates a bubble of polluted water can add Poison, the turn duration of this state depends of user’s Agility at the moment of casting this attack. Water Element.

Leg Strike: The user strikes at opponent’s legs to try to Drop the target’s Agility by X%. This percent is based on user’s Agility state at the moment of casting this attack.

Malicious Thorn: The user summons thorns which add a curse to the target, adding them Heal Block, the turn duration of this state depends of user’s Agility at the moment of casting this attack. Flora Element.

Head strike: The user strikes at opponent’s head to try to Drop the target’s Magic by X%. This percent is based on user’s Agility state at the moment of casting this attack.

Spoiler: Alwyn's skills

Arc Strike: A sword strike hits all enemies, it does 0.75 times the damage of a regular attack.

Backstab: The user hits the enemy in the back, ignoring the target’s defense. It does 0.5 times the damage of a regular attack.

Valiant Strike: The user strikes the enemy with his sword. The lower the user’s HP, the higher the damage will be.

Shield Break: The user strikes the enemy with his sword to reduce their elemental resistance. The turn duration of this debuff will depend of user’s Magic at the moment of casting this attack.

White shield: The user will increase the resistance to element to one ally by X turns. This duration will depende of user’s Magic at the moment of casting this attack.