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Castle Point System (Super long, image heavy)

 
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Cube
Dimensional Traveller




Joined: 02 Feb 2003
Posts: 294

PostPosted: Sun Nov 28, 2010 12:58 am    Post subject: Castle Point System (Super long, image heavy) Reply with quote

Since that old topic was bumped, I decided to write this all up. Why in Site Suggestions? Because I'm looking for suggestions and input with this post, but also because this post would DESTROY the main page if I posted this in Soap Box. And so...

The new CP has been in the works for a long time. Inbetween working and college, Inferior Minion and I have been working away at new features to add to the new site. It's been a while since we've talked about any of the new features, and since the battle system mechanics in particular were finally finished, I thought I'd share some of the info with everyone. While the user interface hasn't been built yet (We've only got a plain boring interface that's beyond ugly, for use with the alpha version), it still gets the job done, and I'm quite happy with how the system works overall. After I explain how the system works, I'll then give my ideas on the user interface that we're planning to make. Suggestions on either are welcome, especially the UI since it hasn't been built yet, and if people have questions, I'll do my best to answer them.

Again, please keep in mind that all pictures aren't reflective of the final version. Likewise, certain info may change as well.

The Castle Point System

The Castle Point System (CPS) is something that will be used in conjunction with many other features that will be added to Castle Paradox in the near future. It's been partially implemented into the website for quite a few years now, and you're able to see a Castle Level of sorts when you view a user profile. When the new site is released, everyone's Castle Points will be reset to 0 so everyone has a fair headstart. There's also the fact that the current "system" works nothing like the one planned for the new one, so there really is no point in keeping the old CPs and CLs.

The system is basically all about Castle Points, which each individual user will be able to build up over time. They're much like Experience Points in role playing games, but have a much broader use. Basically, the more Castle Points you have, the higher your Castle Level will become. Your Castle Level will be used for a variety of things, like unlocking new features and skins on the site. In this post of course, I'll be talking about the upcoming battle game that will be added to CP.

CPS: Trophies

Before we get into battles, I should explain how your stats and abilities are determined for battle. CPS Battles make use of a multi-class type system where your stats and abilities are determined by the "trophies" you equip. These trophies range from weapons like swords and staves, armors like cloaks and chainmail, to oddities like blankets, blueberries and icecream cones. Each trophy has it's own stats, abilities, and all fall under certain types. There are 5 types in total:

Weapon
Armor
Accessory
Misc
Item

(Note: Odd items that fit neither items or accessories would be misc)
You can equip 1 of any of the above item types at any time. Equipping a consumable item like a Med Kit will still allow you to use Med Kits in battle, and likewise, you can use consumable items you don't equip.

Stats like HP, MP, STR, elemental and physical resistances are enhanced (Or sometimes decreased) by equipping a trophy. However, unlike other role playing games you may have played, the stats on a trophy are directly effected by your current Castle Level. Take for example the Copper Rod trophy:

Code:
Copper Rod
HP:  9
MP:  3
STR: 2
VIT: 0
INT: 3
MND: 0

Augments (Spells/Abilities/Traits):
Blaze
Frost
Gust
MP+15


The stats on a trophy are multiplied by your Castle Level. So, if you are CL3, the total stats you'd gain from a Copper Rod are 27 HP, 9 MP, 6 STR, and 9 INT. Augments are not effected by Castle Level at all, including the MP+15 seen on the Copper Rod. Augments cannot be learned permanently, and equipping a different trophy will cause you to lose your current augments (But you'll likely gain new ones with the new trophy equipped). Magic user type trophies will give magic type stats and spells, and warrior type trophies will give warrior type stats and abilities.

There are no set job classes in CPS, so you are free to combine different types of trophies to create hybrid classes if you wish. Also, if a particular trophy gives a higher tier of a particular spell or ability, like Blaze II, you will gain all lower tier spells along with it (So you'd have both Blaze and Blaze II). Having two of the same augment do not stack as well; Equipping two trophies with Blaze will not give you two Blaze spells as it would be redundant. Likewise, if two trophies both have HP+5% and you equip them both, your HP will be increased by 5% ONCE, not twice.

CPS: Obtaining Trophies

Trophies will be obtained through a whole variety of ways. They include:

1) The Castle Shop
2) Defeating CPU enemies in CPS Battles
3) Achieving certain requirements by participating on CP.
4) Winning and participating in contests
5) Other means we've yet to think of but will likely add at some point (Suggestions?)

Buying trophies from the Castle Shop will require payment of Gems (A type of currency), or by spending your Castle Points or even Levels. Trophies will regularly drop from enemies you defeat from battles, although they are random. Other trophies may be rewarded by reaching certain post counts on the forums, or logging in a certain amount of times.

I would also like to reward trophies to people who participate in contests held by those within the community, like the Heart of the OHR contest. This requires the contest hosts to contact us and talk about the rewards (Won't be a painful process). The rewards for winners will always be powerful and 100% unique (For example, if I were to create rewards for the Heart of the OHR contest, I would make something like Gold, Silver and Bronze Heart trophies with special engraving descriptions that let people know where the trophy came from, and who won it, much like a real trophy).

Battles: Stats

The battle system is designed to be a bit of a mix between old and new, with emphasis on strategy. To any RPG player, there will be familiar with many things. Firstly, the following stats will be found within the battles, and their uses:

HP (Health Points)
MP (Magic Points)
STR (Strength. Increases Physical Damage)
VIT (Vitality. Decreases Physical Damage)
INT (Intelligence. Increases Magic Damage)
MND (Mind. Decreases Magic Damage, Increases Cure Potency)
BP (Battle Points. Determines turn order. However has the lowest takes their turn)

Everything should be straightforward, except for BP. Basically, all attacks, abilities, and spells have a BP cost attached to them. For example, Attack costs 6 BP, using a Med Kit costs 4 BP, and casting Haste costs 7 BP. And let's say we have the following scenario:



Since whoever has the lowest BP takes a turn, the current turn order is Cube, then Inferior Minion, then the Paradox Mite. So, if I decide to use Attack, my new BP would become 62 making the new turn order the following:



So it's Inferior Minion > Paradox Mite > Cube now. Keeping an eye on BP totals and costs is an extremely important element to strategy, as the stronger the ability, the higher the BP cost. Using a powerful ability will deal/cure a lot of damage, but it also leaves you defenceless and open to attack since you have to wait much longer for your next turn.

On the topic of BP, abilities like Slow and Haste will increase/decrease BP costs, and will become extremely valuable in a battle.

Battles: Attribute Chains and Combos

One major strategic element to battles are attributes and combos. This part of the battle system may seem rather complicated to a beginner, and most often a beginner will find themselves accidently making combos. However, if you manage to master and understand the mechanics behind it, you'll be able to double your power.

There are eight elements within the battle system; Fire, Ice, Wind, Earth, Lightning, Water, Light, and Dark. Among these eight elements, are two specific groups. The Light group, and the Dark group. They are:


Light:
Fire
Wind
Lightning
Light

Dark
Ice
Earth
Water
Dark

(Note: Each colored icon has a light or dark diamond behind it that helps indicate which group it belongs to)
The elements within these two specific groups can chain with each other to create combos. The nature of the combo itself will depend on the most recent spell or ability used. For example, a Cure spell will heal more. Or an offensive spell will damage more. Support and enfeebling type actions will increase or decrease stats. In the following example, you'll see that Haste and Poison have Fire and Water attributes respectively:



As you can see, the same attribute elements were added beneath my and Inferior Minion's BP totals. This indicates the current attribute chain on a particular fighter. For further example, I will now use Paralyze on the enemy, while Inferior Minion will follow up with an offensive spell that will chain with it:



With Paralyze being Lightning, and Blaze being Fire, and both being part of the Light group, they chain together to create a combo. A Lv1 combo is created when you chain 2 attributes of the same group together, Lv2 when you chain 3, and Lv3 when you chain all 4. The higher the chain level, the greater the effect, such as more damage, or enhancements.

However, maintaining a chain isn't all that easy, especially if your opponent catches on. Breaking a chain is a simple task, and is just a matter of using an action with an attribute that is either redundant in the current chain, or the attribute is incompatible with another element. The following are incompatible in a chain:

is incompatible with and
is incompatible with and
is incompatible with and
is incompatible with and
is incompatible with and
is incompatible with and
is incompatible with
is incompatible with

And so...



Since Dark is compatible with anything but Light, using a Blueberry on myself didn't break the current chain. However, when I used Repoi on Inferior Minion, it being Lightning based, it broke the current chain on him since Water is not compatible with Lightning. Likewise, when I use Crush (Earth attribute) on the Paradox Mite, it's chain is broken:



Of course, it died in the process, and the battle is won.

Battles: The Fun Stuff

Mechanics!
Some misc tidbits I'd like to give about the system. First of all, most attacks don't miss. Ever. Unless you're under the influence of the Blind status effect. If anyone has played my old OHR games, you'd see that I always used battle systems where you never miss your target. I just hate random stuff like that, because it can ruin how your strategy plays out. Damage is also not random. If your attack hits for 50 damage, it's gonna hit for 50 every single time. Changes to STR and VIT will change it of course, but no randomness.

Where is randomness? Trophy drops, process rates for missed attacks while under the influence of blind and paralyze, and multihit attack abilities (Like Dual Strike!). If you have enough water resistance, you can resist stuff like poison, or dark resistance for sleep (You need at least 200 resist for 100% resistance though~ (Yes, that's technically a lot)).

Status effects!
I've yet to make ALL the icons for status effects, but here's what I got so far! (Hover mouse over to see status effect name)


Other icons!
Because I can...


I suck at pixel art, so I tend to leave these kinda things for last...

The User Interface

So... The user interface that has yet to be finalized and made. What we have right now, like I mentioned, is ugly beyond sin which I hope to fix. The final version of the battle system will make use of Javascript (It currently doesn't! Bleh) with drop down menus. The following image will somewhat explain:

Clickity click

Basically, it's to simulate how old school RPGs would play, where you select Magic, and your list of magic shows up (Another drop down), which you then pick a target and then click use. The log will also likely be in a box of it's own that can be scrolled through. Overall, it's meant to be something that isn't overly complex. Overall, it should feel very fluid and fast. There really isn't much else to be said, other than other menus such as the Equip menu and whatnot will likely be based off the final product for the battle UI.

So, that's that. Probably. Knowing me, I likely forgot to mention something, so if anyone has suggestions of questions, please feel free to say something.
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Pepsi Ranger
Reality TV Host




Joined: 05 Feb 2003
Posts: 493
Location: South Florida

PostPosted: Sun Nov 28, 2010 10:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Cube wrote:
I would also like to reward trophies to people who participate in contests held by those within the community, like the Heart of the OHR contest. This requires the contest hosts to contact us and talk about the rewards (Won't be a painful process). The rewards for winners will always be powerful and 100% unique (For example, if I were to create rewards for the Heart of the OHR contest, I would make something like Gold, Silver and Bronze Heart trophies with special engraving descriptions that let people know where the trophy came from, and who won it, much like a real trophy).


I'm in favor of exactly this, so no need to discuss trophies for the Heart of the OHR contest. Maybe just stamp the year on the gold, silver, and bronze hearts to signify which year it was awarded since I'll likely host this again in 2012 or 2013.

I'd also be interested in the gold and silver winners getting a special heart-related attack or cure item (maybe an advanced regen, or the ability to cure without using MP, or something to that effect) Or, for a weapon, they could earn some kind of "old school mascot" stick, like the Monterey Penguin Rod, or the Caramawn Sword, or the Memoria Turtle Helmet, or whatever creative thing you can think of.

But yeah, I like this idea.
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Cube
Dimensional Traveller




Joined: 02 Feb 2003
Posts: 294

PostPosted: Mon Nov 29, 2010 12:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pepsi Ranger wrote:
I'd also be interested in the gold and silver winners getting a special heart-related attack or cure item (maybe an advanced regen, or the ability to cure without using MP, or something to that effect) Or, for a weapon, they could earn some kind of "old school mascot" stick, like the Monterey Penguin Rod, or the Caramawn Sword, or the Memoria Turtle Helmet, or whatever creative thing you can think of.


In regards to the types of abilities I'd like to see on contest trophies, I'd like to add abilities that have a unique twist to them. For example, there's a spell called Quench that adds MP regen to Regen effects, if Regen is on the same target Quench is cast on.

For a unique twist to the Heart trophies, I could make it so that the Regen spell you gain from them has the MP regen effect built in from the get go, making there be no need to use Quench. I want to avoid free spells, or overpowered abilities so that the strategy element is preserved in battles. So making a Regen+Quench spell would be ok, since it'd still require MP to cast and whatnot, and has a strategic use in that you don't have to waste a turn casting Quench after. Or in the sense of a cure spell, could add cure spells have have a random chance to increase a stat like STR. Anything is possible, really.

As far as mascot trophies go, I'd love to do that as well. But I'd only add them if I were able to contact the creator to get permission to make a direct reference to their character, and some of those old creators aren't around anymore. Other than stuff like that, I'm up for any type of random and ridiculous trophy (Besides obvious inappropriate types, of course).
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