- Admin
- #1
Too tired to code/script, so I figure Iâll babble a bitâ¦
This is mostly me babbling about things that may never happen, but recent minor MSC coding breakthroughs (thank MiB) have made some long-term dreams seem more feasible⦠We may yet manage to consolidate those view models, and switch to a system where we have one set of arms with all the animations and an attachment to stick weapons into its hands. (BTW â I highly recommend trying for such a system in Source, not simply because it saves resources, but because it makes it models more dynamic.)
If we manage that, and some other things this new code bit should make possible, we maybe able to have⦠(Dare I say it?) Races: ie. Dwarves and Elves.
Since itâs an actual possibility, and Iâm getting too tired to script proper at the moment, I thought Iâd take this opportunity to babble about how Iâd apply that, and see if I can generate a thread of conversation/burning hatred on the subject:
My basic concept for races is, rather than just characterâs with different stats, is to have characters that level entirely differently from humans, thus, one would hope, change the gaming experience more dramatically. Dwarves and Elves have a different mind-set than humans, experience things differently, and thus, gain experience differently. So ye get the idea, Iâll make what a potential future manual entry may look like:
- DWARVES -
The Dwarves of Urdual are the ultimate generalists. While Humans gain skill in the type of weapon they practice in, Dwarves gain an equal amount in all skills, regardless of what weapon they use. Dwarves draw upon the raw energy of the earth for their power, both magical, and physical, and thus achieve an equal balance in all abilities by simply improving their ability to draw upon that link, a skill that can only be honed through test of battle.
Weapon Restrictions: Dwarves cannot use Daggers (they simply lack the reach to use them effectively). Likewise, they cannot use bows (They lack the height to draw them effectively). They can, however, use Crossbows of all sorts, and are the only race capable of effectively wielding Dwarven crossbows and armor.
Magic Restrictions: Dwarves can only use earthen magic â a magic unique to their race. Dwarves cannot use scrolls nor tomes. They gain access to new spells automatically as their natural spell casting ability improves. These spells include:
- I. Pebble Blast (1 pebble per level of SC, scattergun hit-scan type effect)
- III. Stone Skin (5% dmg resist per level of SC, max 80% for self, 40% for other)
- V. Boulder (Summons and throws a bouncing boulder, damage increases with SC)
- VIII. Atune (Draw healing energy from the earth)
- X. Iron Skin (100hp dmg absorbed per level of SC until destroyed +cool down time)
- XII. Rock Storm (+1 boulder per 4 levels of SC beyond XIII)
- XV. Summon Earth Elemental
- XX. Volcano (variant)
(These spells, more or less, already exist, I could stick in more.)
Experience: By default, any experience a dwarf gets is divided evenly between Blunt Arms, Axes, Swordsmanship, Martial Arts, Archery, and Spellcasting. Regardless of the weapon used in battle.
A Dwarven player info sheet, in actuality, has only two skill stats: Physical and Magical.
Titles:
Dwarven Warrior
â Generalist Title
Dwarven Mason
â Dwarves opting for this title specialize in earthen magic over weapon skills. Instead of the standard even spread, 25% of their experience goes to weapon skills, and 75% to increasing SC.
Dwarven Berserker
â Dwarves opting for this title specialize in weapon skills over magic. Instead of the standard even spread, 25% of their experience goes to SC, and 75% to weapon skills.
----------------
- ELVES -
While Dwarves are the ultimate generalists, the Elves of Felewyn are the ultimate specialists. Elves soul-bond with particular weapons and spells. So while Humans gain experience for an entire category of weapons, Elves gain experience for specific individual weapons or spells, but gain skill in these abilities more quickly through their intimate knowledge of them. Elves are frail, but agile, and are not slowed when attacking.
Weapon Restrictions: Elves cannot use blunt arms nor axes. Their physique is too elegant to allow them to use such heavy arms effectively.
Magic Restrictions: Elves cannot gain experience from scrolls, only from memorized tomes. However, elves are more attuned to magic than the other races spawned by the triad, and thus have no chance of spell failure and can move at full speed while casting spells. Further, they have a single spellcasting skill they rely on for all spells. Elves cannot use standard summoning magic, but instead may gain a magical companion, or âfamiliarâ, they can summon that levels along with them.
Experience: Elves gain 1hp/10mana per level, per level, of the weapon/spell they train with. This means, for instance, an elf gains 2hp upon completing shortsword level 2, 10hp upon completing shortsword level 10, etc. Similarly, an elf would gain 10 mana for completing firedart level 1, 100 mana for firedart level 10. They can train with as many as 8 weapons and 8 spells at any given time. An elf only gains experience while using bonded weapons and memorized spells (unbonded weapons are wielded at half the elfâs lowest skill). An elf can abandon a weapon or spell bond for a new one, but that means he must bond the new item, and the process effectively starts over at level one. However, he retains the health, mana, and spellcasting skill he gained from experience with the previous weapon or spell.
An Elven player info sheet has two skill stats: The skill with the currently equipped weapon, and spellcasting. (Maybe add a console command to list skills with all bonded weapons and spells.)
Titles:
Elves have access to most human titles that do not have requisites for weapons they cannot wield. Some examples may include:
Thaumaturge
- Decreases attack damage in favor of improved magical mana pool and magical damage.
Fire Thaumaturge
- Gains advantages with these spells and weapon types plus circle of fire ability. Sacrifices the ability to use weapons/spells of the opposing element.
Ice Thaumaturge
- Gains advantages with these spells and weapon types plus circle of ice ability. Sacrifices the ability to use weapons/spells of the opposing element.
Healer
- Decreases attack speed in favor of improved healing abilities, healing circle ability, increased mana pool and magical damage.
Blade
- Sacrifices all magical ability in exchange for double attack speed
(There may also be hidden Torkaloth titles, and the like)
----------------
I should explain that Titles will be acquired from certain NPCs, usually in exchange for gold, items, quest, and/or completing a duel (this may actually happen in DEC2007a, and deserves a thread of its own - but I r t3h tired). You can change titles as often as you like, but it gets more costly to do so as your level increases.
Suffice to say, the tricky bit (aside from the code and models) will be balancing it out so that these types of characters, which level so radically differently, still level at about the same rate as their human counter-parts. This may simply be a matter of adjusting incoming experience, and some of the numbers above. (There's also, of course, some glaring flaws in the elf concept that'll need to be worked out.)
IâM NOT SAYING THIS IS GONNA HAPPEN, mind you. Aside from the titles thing I noted, this is not a DEC2007a preview or anything. Just me babbling, and working out future ideas, really.
This is mostly me babbling about things that may never happen, but recent minor MSC coding breakthroughs (thank MiB) have made some long-term dreams seem more feasible⦠We may yet manage to consolidate those view models, and switch to a system where we have one set of arms with all the animations and an attachment to stick weapons into its hands. (BTW â I highly recommend trying for such a system in Source, not simply because it saves resources, but because it makes it models more dynamic.)
If we manage that, and some other things this new code bit should make possible, we maybe able to have⦠(Dare I say it?) Races: ie. Dwarves and Elves.
Since itâs an actual possibility, and Iâm getting too tired to script proper at the moment, I thought Iâd take this opportunity to babble about how Iâd apply that, and see if I can generate a thread of conversation/burning hatred on the subject:
My basic concept for races is, rather than just characterâs with different stats, is to have characters that level entirely differently from humans, thus, one would hope, change the gaming experience more dramatically. Dwarves and Elves have a different mind-set than humans, experience things differently, and thus, gain experience differently. So ye get the idea, Iâll make what a potential future manual entry may look like:
- DWARVES -
The Dwarves of Urdual are the ultimate generalists. While Humans gain skill in the type of weapon they practice in, Dwarves gain an equal amount in all skills, regardless of what weapon they use. Dwarves draw upon the raw energy of the earth for their power, both magical, and physical, and thus achieve an equal balance in all abilities by simply improving their ability to draw upon that link, a skill that can only be honed through test of battle.
Weapon Restrictions: Dwarves cannot use Daggers (they simply lack the reach to use them effectively). Likewise, they cannot use bows (They lack the height to draw them effectively). They can, however, use Crossbows of all sorts, and are the only race capable of effectively wielding Dwarven crossbows and armor.
Magic Restrictions: Dwarves can only use earthen magic â a magic unique to their race. Dwarves cannot use scrolls nor tomes. They gain access to new spells automatically as their natural spell casting ability improves. These spells include:
- I. Pebble Blast (1 pebble per level of SC, scattergun hit-scan type effect)
- III. Stone Skin (5% dmg resist per level of SC, max 80% for self, 40% for other)
- V. Boulder (Summons and throws a bouncing boulder, damage increases with SC)
- VIII. Atune (Draw healing energy from the earth)
- X. Iron Skin (100hp dmg absorbed per level of SC until destroyed +cool down time)
- XII. Rock Storm (+1 boulder per 4 levels of SC beyond XIII)
- XV. Summon Earth Elemental
- XX. Volcano (variant)
(These spells, more or less, already exist, I could stick in more.)
Experience: By default, any experience a dwarf gets is divided evenly between Blunt Arms, Axes, Swordsmanship, Martial Arts, Archery, and Spellcasting. Regardless of the weapon used in battle.
A Dwarven player info sheet, in actuality, has only two skill stats: Physical and Magical.
Titles:
Dwarven Warrior
â Generalist Title
Dwarven Mason
â Dwarves opting for this title specialize in earthen magic over weapon skills. Instead of the standard even spread, 25% of their experience goes to weapon skills, and 75% to increasing SC.
Dwarven Berserker
â Dwarves opting for this title specialize in weapon skills over magic. Instead of the standard even spread, 25% of their experience goes to SC, and 75% to weapon skills.
----------------
- ELVES -
While Dwarves are the ultimate generalists, the Elves of Felewyn are the ultimate specialists. Elves soul-bond with particular weapons and spells. So while Humans gain experience for an entire category of weapons, Elves gain experience for specific individual weapons or spells, but gain skill in these abilities more quickly through their intimate knowledge of them. Elves are frail, but agile, and are not slowed when attacking.
Weapon Restrictions: Elves cannot use blunt arms nor axes. Their physique is too elegant to allow them to use such heavy arms effectively.
Magic Restrictions: Elves cannot gain experience from scrolls, only from memorized tomes. However, elves are more attuned to magic than the other races spawned by the triad, and thus have no chance of spell failure and can move at full speed while casting spells. Further, they have a single spellcasting skill they rely on for all spells. Elves cannot use standard summoning magic, but instead may gain a magical companion, or âfamiliarâ, they can summon that levels along with them.
Experience: Elves gain 1hp/10mana per level, per level, of the weapon/spell they train with. This means, for instance, an elf gains 2hp upon completing shortsword level 2, 10hp upon completing shortsword level 10, etc. Similarly, an elf would gain 10 mana for completing firedart level 1, 100 mana for firedart level 10. They can train with as many as 8 weapons and 8 spells at any given time. An elf only gains experience while using bonded weapons and memorized spells (unbonded weapons are wielded at half the elfâs lowest skill). An elf can abandon a weapon or spell bond for a new one, but that means he must bond the new item, and the process effectively starts over at level one. However, he retains the health, mana, and spellcasting skill he gained from experience with the previous weapon or spell.
An Elven player info sheet has two skill stats: The skill with the currently equipped weapon, and spellcasting. (Maybe add a console command to list skills with all bonded weapons and spells.)
Titles:
Elves have access to most human titles that do not have requisites for weapons they cannot wield. Some examples may include:
Thaumaturge
- Decreases attack damage in favor of improved magical mana pool and magical damage.
Fire Thaumaturge
- Gains advantages with these spells and weapon types plus circle of fire ability. Sacrifices the ability to use weapons/spells of the opposing element.
Ice Thaumaturge
- Gains advantages with these spells and weapon types plus circle of ice ability. Sacrifices the ability to use weapons/spells of the opposing element.
Healer
- Decreases attack speed in favor of improved healing abilities, healing circle ability, increased mana pool and magical damage.
Blade
- Sacrifices all magical ability in exchange for double attack speed
(There may also be hidden Torkaloth titles, and the like)
----------------
I should explain that Titles will be acquired from certain NPCs, usually in exchange for gold, items, quest, and/or completing a duel (this may actually happen in DEC2007a, and deserves a thread of its own - but I r t3h tired). You can change titles as often as you like, but it gets more costly to do so as your level increases.
Suffice to say, the tricky bit (aside from the code and models) will be balancing it out so that these types of characters, which level so radically differently, still level at about the same rate as their human counter-parts. This may simply be a matter of adjusting incoming experience, and some of the numbers above. (There's also, of course, some glaring flaws in the elf concept that'll need to be worked out.)
IâM NOT SAYING THIS IS GONNA HAPPEN, mind you. Aside from the titles thing I noted, this is not a DEC2007a preview or anything. Just me babbling, and working out future ideas, really.
). Once winter break starts I'll have a lot of free time and I would like to help with this where I can.
