What I've been working on mostly is the combat system; design and implementation work. I read through this excellent FAQ of the battle mechanics in Final Fantasy Tactics, the game I'd say mine takes most inspiration from
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps/197339-final-fantasy-tactics/faqs/3876?fbclid=IwAR2jYhTtqAhAdBIFfK3-nccw9Z8oHhj8lmc04UvkDtZb5MMApn-LD2dNWx4It got me thinking about the design decisions I had decided upon and why they might be fun/not fun.
So this post is gonna be super mechanics and jargon heavy. I don't really expect many people to read it. I'm mostly writing it to have a record of how all the mechanics function. If anyone wants to go through it and give me feedback though, that would be super awesome too! Also, here's an updated Acolyte animation.
Something I will write which I got from that FFT guide is a 'clock tick', which means when the game decreases every unit's RT (recovery time) by 1.
My original idea of players being able to freely move and attack, fluidly accruing RT (example turn: move 1 space, execute attack, move 2 spaces, execute second attack, etc.) was granting way too much play complexity to the act of just moving your character! FFT units incur recovery time from moving (not exactly, but its a similar enough system), but it doesn't matter how far they move and the RT is not super significant. This struck me as being for less cumbersome and easy to understand for players. I'm not really designing my game with the end goal of simplicity, but I see why it is desirable. So I changed how my game's turns work quite a lot for the sake of less mind-boggling strategic complexity. But first, these are the stats I've settled on
StatsMHP - max hit points
MTP - max Technique points. Like mp, but for any kind of skill magic or physical
STR - strength, influences physical skill effectiveness
MAG - magic, influences magical skill effectiveness
CST - constitution, influences the max RT units can incur in a turn, accuracy with physical skills
CCT - concentration, influences TP regeneration, accuracy and evasion with magical skills
SPD - speed, influences the RT cost of actions, physical and magic evasion
Weapons stats
WPW - weapon power, factors into skills performed with weapon
WGH - weight, factors into RT cost and accuracy of skills performed with weapon
weapons also have stat requirements to equip and can have elements applied to them
Also, each weapon has a default weapon attack skill which will be a unit's default attack when they are equipping it.
Armor stats
HPU - HP up, a hit point boost
PDF - physical defense, factors into physical damage taken
MDF - magic defense, same for magic damage
Have class rank requirements (more on that later) and elemental resistances
Accessories provide a host of different effects as well as various stat boosts
Character ProgressionEach unit will have a class. In the demo I'm working on now, I've designed the Bandit and Acolyte classes.
Each class will have a set of ranks, each with 10 upgrades which you spend EXP (experience points) to buy.
Once a unit buys a certain number of a rank's upgrades, upgrades from the next rank will unlock.
Class upgrades include stat boosts and executable skills. An example progression would be if a class has 5 stat boost upgrades and 5 skills, you need to buy 3 of each to be able to reach rank 2.
Class TurnThe thing I'm most excited about is the combat system. Each class's turns will function differently. They will have different menus and different mechanics governing how you can spend your turns. I'll go through the Bandit and Acolyte here.
Bandit
The recovery time incurred by a Bandit's DWA(default weapon attack) determines the RT cost of every action they can take.
Example:
This Bandit's DWA takes 6RT and their stats indicate a maximum of 19RT. That means the bandit can execute 3 actions. The movement cost of 1 tile is 2RT, so a move action will let them move up to 3 spaces, always costing 6RT. So in this bandit's turn, they can move 3 spaces then use Slash then Grapple, or move up to 9 spaces, or use 3 Slash in a row, etc.
Acolyte
An acolyte gets 1 move and 1 other action on each of their turns. They are planned out at the same time and executed at the same time. First, you select a spell or other skill to execute which incurs a certain amount of RT, and then you can move a number of spaces calculated from your remaining maximum RT.
Example:
This Acolyte's has maximum 17RT. They have a spell 'Embers' of range 3, 10TP cost, and 9RT cost. When the player selects Embers to cast, the player than is presented all the targetable tiles within a range of 7 (Embers range of 3 + a movement range of 4). If the player desires, they can press tab and see the moveable tiles in range 4. Selecting one of these tiles will effect the range of the spell though. Once the player plans out where they want to move to and the tile they want to target, they move to that tile and begin casting Embers.
MagicThe way magic works, spells don't technically cost RT, they just freeze the caster unit for that number of clock ticks. For embers, the unit is frozen in a 'casting' state for 9 clock ticks, at the end of which they cast the spell and their RT will begin decreasing as normal. This means if a spell is canceled at some point, the unit will than leave the casting state and the total RT cost of the spell isn't really paid. This differs from FFT in that the caster still has their next turn delayed the same amount no matter when a spell is canceled.
In addition to all this, there are so many more details to figure out and its all a work in progress. I've implemented a considerable number of these concepts in the code, but I haven't done much UI and I haven't coded the new turn structures. So there's a lot left to do before I can get the first demo uploaded. Itch.io is the normal place people usually post that stuff, right?
Community
