monele wrote:I just hope the game doesn't force you to micromanage stuff too much (I like the option but not being forced).
There is a hard to achieve balance: we are trying to keep several RPGish features, but at the same time we are trying to keep them simple enough. As a summary:
Character identity in combat: Each different character have different abilities to use during combat, to make playing with each feel different enough. But we have avoided large lists of abilities with complex effect, reducing the count to just a standard attack and two special abilities for each character. In addition, the different characters have different stats, and rely differently on them, but we have kept the stats and combat rules as simple as possible (without sacrificing balance). For example, a Rogue won't last too long if the enemies pick on her, but you can expect she to unleash insane ammounts of damage really quick (high skill and power stats but poor endurance and hitpoints); on the other hand, a Warrior will normally be really though, holding his ground against almost any attack, but won't do too much to take down the enemies (amazing endurance and hitpoint scores, but low skill and speed, mostly due to the burden of carrying heavy plate armor).
Gear: After many simplifications, there are only six slots in which equip gear: head, chest, main hand, off hand, legs, and foot (originally there were going to be more than 20 slots, including wirst, waist, neck, ankles, fingers (rings), and so on). In addition, each piece of equipment is restricted to a single class, and its bonuses are focused to enhance the most relevant stats for such class. For example, Rogue equipment will have huge skill bonuses, while Warrior equipment will grant lots of hitpoints. Finally, the "choices" of equipment have been reduced to four items per class and per slot, and the choice between two different items will always be quite obvious: which one of these would you equip?:
Dagger of Misschief: +1 power, +10% skill;
Dagger of Subtlety: +3 power, +30% skill;
Dagger of Assassination: +6 power, +60% skill or
Dagger of Merciless Slaughter: +10 power, +100% skill?
The scaling for all gear items goes in a similar way. Actually, the main point of gear is to provide a "character development" feel without having to introduce complex rules about experience points and levels.
Potions: Basically, they are entirely optional: most combats can be handled without using potions. But if you mess things to much during an encounter, potions will give you a chance to save the field without having to load the game.
In addition, I already mentioned that combats will be made entirely optional by using an insta-kill cheat. This will make all the gearing, stats, and potion stuff completely irrelevant to the outcome of the game (there is a combat where the cheat will not work, but if it takes place you'll get the "game over" anyway
)
So, in general terms, I think micro-control is possible, up to the point that a creative player might find quite abusive combos to easily deal with the toughest creatures; but it's not at all forced.
monele wrote:That's one incredibly detailed UI
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Aashtarsrain wrote:My god ! Your menus and UIs are fantastic ! The stats/gear page looks impressive too !
Thanks for the positive feedback ^^. Anyway, I think once you get the basic points, it's all a matter of time and patience (except for the
unhovered nightmare, but that's another story). I believe the results are worth the effort: the say+menu based interface I had been using for testing while writting the actual game content was simply horrific; and completely unplayable on some cases.
Then I want you to know that all this stuff is mostly an experiment for what I'm planning to do on my next project (already anounced on my signature). As a starter, I'll mention that many RPGish elements that have been kept out of Fall of Jayshn will be part of the WoB series, such as experience and leveling, character customization, fully-fledged dungeons, crafting skills, improved combat and emotional AI, and so on... anyway, I won't start with that until I get FoJ finnished.
)
Now that I'm back, let's go with the pending previews: 
