flowcharts galore!

Starting from the last time I updated, I created a unity project and set about the very first steps of getting things to work: scene switching. I laid out the scenes I'd need for the activities I've spec'd out in the game, and I have a scene-switching script that can move me between them. That way I can at least start building one scene and get the game state manager working.

Then I lost interest for a while again, thinking that MEWS would never amount to anything.

But today, I just started reading the documents again and figured, “hey why not.” It's a hobby horse, not a work project. I can do what I want.

I also started trying to figure out how to link up data classes with gameplay classes, but I feel like I need to get more of the gameplay design done before this is solid. Terms have also changed since then.

Core Systems

I started today with working out what the basic components of the character system would be:

• Core stats
  • Size
  • Fitness
  • Wits
  • Intellect
  • Spirit
• calculated stats
  • Strength = Size + Fitness
  • Agility = Fitness + Wits
  • Magic = Intellect + Spirit
  • Awareness = Wits + Intellect
  • Toughness = Size + Spirit
• Defenses
  • Evasion
  • Block
  • Parry
  • Ward
• Pools
  • Health
  • Stamina
  • Mana
• Skill stats
  • Range
  • Range Type
  • Area Matrix
  • Elements
  • Accuracy
• Elemental Stats
  • Ki
  • Psy
  • Ink
  • Blood
  • Necro
  • Physical

Stat Application

The following elements will apply stat brackets/increases across the board, that will then trickle down into the calculated stats.

• Racial traits
• Class
• Sub Class
• Class Skills
• Learned Skills
• equipment
• titles

This flowchart documents the core combat loop. Experience drives level, level drives stats and skills, stats and skills drive attacks, stats drive defenses, and attacks collide with defenses in combat to generate experience.

This seems like it's pretty solid. I for a moment thought about splitting XP and SP, ala Final Fantasy Tactics, but decided against it so far. This keeps the total player capability in lockstep with level, which in turn makes the game more deterministic.

Stats

Core stats are green, calculated stats are in purple, resource pools are in orange, and defenses are in gray.

Here's an example I worked up in google sheets to play with numbers.

So far, the idea is that each class level will give you a set of bonuses ranked from 1 — 10. Those bonuses are applied each level linearly. I don't know if the linear level up math is going to feel right in the game balance, but I'll hopefully be able to easily adjust the gameplay math as I go.

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Joe Bush – https://arcandio.com/