idea injection #2

While traveling through Selethra you may encounter one of the many debilitating effects that can be inflicted apoun you.

Status alignments

Action freeze: Cannot perform melee abilities.

Silence: Cannot use magi spells.

Slow: Movement speed is reduced.

Disarmed: Weapon is unusable for an amount of time.

Fractured armor: Physical defenses are reduced based on your armor.

Sleep: Asleep and cannot attack damage will break the sleep effect.

Frightened: Run in terror from your target cannot cast spells or use melee abilities while running in terror.

Attack down: Your attack power is reduced for an amount of time.

Magi power down: Your magi power is reduced for an amount of time.

Stunned: Cannot move, attack, or use spells.

Dazed:  Cannot move, attack, or cast spells damage will break the daze effect.

Petrified: Cannot move, attack, or cast spells, but defenses are increased greatly a set amount of damage will break this effect.

Attribute down: An attribute is reduced for an amount of time.

Air born: Thrown into the air cannot attack, move, or cast spells and take increased damage fall damage is applied based on how far you fall when this effect wears off.

Speed down: Attack speed is reduced for an amount of time.

Tongue tied: Magi cast times are increased for an amount of time.

Itching: You are very un-comfortable and may have to stop and scratch yourself from time to time, this effect interrupts attacks, spells, or abilities if it activates.

Diseased: You are inflicted with a disease causing a status alignment or damage over time.

Poisoned: You are poisoned and are inflicted with a damage over time effect.

Cursed: You have a curse on you causing a damage over time effect, or status alignment.

Sealed: A magi school has been sealed and cannot be used; other schools outside the sealed school can still be cast.

Shattered: all of your attributes have been switched.

Frozen: Frozen solid and cannot attack, move, or cast spells damage will break this effect and some abilities or spells have increased damage against frozen targets.

Vampire: Your attacks will heal you by 10% of damage done but healing spells will cause harm to you.

Drained: Attack speed is reduced, spell cast times are increased, movement speed is reduced, HP is reduced, and ME is reduced.

Resistance down: Magi defenses are reduced

idea injection #1

 This is the first idea injection this will be the mechanics behind basic movement through out the game world. These are movement ideas for general purposes some realms will have different modes that you can move in, but I won't be posting those quite yet.

Basic movement

Walk: move in any direction at slower speeds, lowers the chance that a foe will attack you very slightly.

Run: move in any direction at higher speeds.

Swim: Move underwater at a reduced speed, oxygen decreases the longer you stay underwater.

Jump: jump up 1 foot into the air, allows you to move over smaller obstacles and avoid certain attacks.

Advanced movement

Double jump: allows a second jump after a normal jump is executed allows you to move over larger obstacles and access different areas. A special item is needed to perform the double jump.

Climb: climb up ladders and hoist yourself over certain obstacles. A special item is needed to allow you to climb up hill and mountain sides.

Grapple hook: Toss your grappling hook onto a secure area and swing across large gaps accessing different areas of a map. The grappling hook must be obtained before this action can be used.

Mount: Ride on the back of your mount increasing your movement speed based on the mounts quality. Special mounts and the item needed will allow you to perform the double jump, grapple hook, and climb movement actions while on a mount.

Sneak: Greatly reduce your movement speed but decrease the chance a foe will see or hear you.

Hide: hide within a pile of bushes, or various other items to make yourself usable to foes; you must stand still while hiding moving will break the effect there must be a usable object you can hide in.

Some movement is built for general use while others are more meant for accessing areas that you may not have been able to access before. Some of them are traditional MMO game standards while others are a little more unique. Sneak is a little vague, it is not a stealth more than a movement mode that will lower the range in which a foe will attack you. Together hide and sneak will help less experienced players avoid un-wanted combat and hide will allow for an ambush attack (a battle mechanic that I will post in a later injection.).

Selethra

 "Be damned if you think the earthen realm is the most outer layer! No matter how far you travel into the deep or outer realms there is another realm beyond it. What world do we live in where there is no stability, I'll tell you Selethra! Every realm is just a door way to the next. I will find an answer someday, but for now Caleb you will watch the kingdom."
                Jonathan Rampheart's final words before he gave the crown to his son and left his kingdom.

 Selethra a planet full of mystery, the many races that call it home search for answers that make up the planet and it's many realms. Even the most eldest of races have no knowledge of what caused the planet to shatter and form what the natives call the realms. The only hint to what happened is an ancient glyph that only reads "purple mist, purple sky, it fell from the heavens..." the rest of the glyph has seemingly been destroyed. Scientists and philosophers around Selethra have came up with many theories to what this could have meant. Some speculate that it is a warning while others think it may be an incantation for a spell that caused the shattering, but one thing they all point to is that what happened was on a catastrophic level. Despite the lack of knowledge for their planets mysterious mutation the races strive to live in peace.

 The earthen realm is thought to be the most outer realm on Selethra it is the most stable realm and has signs of the earliest habitation being the race known as the Felardre. The earthen realm has vast forests that extend for hundreds of miles, rivers that flow over grand waterfalls, and oceans that seemingly go on for ever. As adventurers and merchants cross through the forests the magnificent trees sparkle with dew and baby leaflings can be seen hanging from the branches blending into the tree. To the east of the Kelarish mountains lies the Jin'Thala forest where the pixies call home. Pixies are the smallest race on Selethra and are magically advanced. A key feature is that male pixies have two horns on their heads and females have antenna. Though they are native to the elemental plane the pixies where forced to the earthen realm due to a war that broke out.

 West to the pixies home Jin'Thala lies the Kelarish mountains. A vast mountain range with great canyons and mountain tops that touch the heavens. Here is where the race known as the durashire live or more commonly known as the durahan. The durahan live a tribal life style and have no want to harm the other races. They live peaceful lives and help the people of Selethra, but to travelers who have not meet them are alarmed by their appearance. From a distance they look like floating armor but if you look closer you can see a mist like skin that acts as their limbs. When not armored there faces resemble a tribal mask with glowing eyes. If you travel north through the caverns of the Kelarish mountains and over the vast Gishalt plains you can catch a glimpse of the sun setting on a grand kingdom.....

Me as a designer

 I have given you a in site of how this dream came to be now let me give you a more in depth idea of me as a game designer. By the way I talk and you can tell I'm more fit for the game designer role than the others. I have decent programming skills and my math is sub par, my main strength is my imagination. My teachers have often told me that I have had some of the most creative designs they have seen, but when it came down to programming I wasn't an A+ student. By book definition most people see this as being the funnest role, but most forget it is the most demanding role. Game designers have the most work load out of all the roles in a development team and always answer to the lead designer.

 The lead designer name is also misleading, the lead designer trades creativity for authority. They are tasked with the sole purpose of keeping the game on track and making sure the design does not walk to far from the games core ideas. This is a role that veteran game designers take on after they have been developing games for many many years. So as far as my MMORPG goes I am a game designer for it, but also currently many other roles since I do not have a company or team, and working on it by myself. Though that was a little off track I wanted to give you a reason why I refer to myself as a designer and not a lead designer.

 By book definition I am a player-centric game designer. Player-centric game design is a philosophy of design in which the designer envisions a representative player of a game the designer wants to create. The designer then undertakes two key obligations to that player

• The duty to entertain
• The duty to empathize

 In a nut shell I put myself in the players shoes and judge the game by what the player would find fun not myself. I do find the concept of my MMORPG very fun but would be pointless if I didn't share the ideas for it with other players. Why create a game for yourself? I take pride in my studies and love what I learn. That is why I will often make mention of me being very observant to other players responses to game patches and ideas rather than my own view of them. I also love to come up with game play ideas and game world concepts. (haha you might go crazy after I bring that up for the millionth time.)

 I love it so much I often find myself writing down ideas or drawing small concept sketches on my notes while I sit threw lectures. But don't take it as me telling ya not to keep up with you studies! Haha I work hard on my school work don't get me wrong but the ideas flow so much if I don't get them down I lose all of my focus and drift off to a day dreaming state. Now I can rattle on and on about me personally, that's not the goal of this blog I hope as I share my ideas with you my design style will show and speak for itself.

 For the course of the blog I am going to keep it more informal but will have frequent sections called idea injections where I will post pretty much ideas for the game that are either brewing or have been written down. These little info chunks will be meant for pure feedback and not really have a lot of text following them. I agree with the feedback I have gotten as to where the blog needs to be more formal, but the key goal is to get ideas out to you and get your thoughts on them.

 Well with all of the info about me posted lets get to know more about the world of Selethra! Not in this post but the next post I am going to start painting a picture of the massive game world to you. As you learn more about the game world the more I can show you game play mechanics and ideas with less fuzziness to how they will appear. So sit back and get ready because we are going full throttle into the game world from here on out. 

The dreams manifestation

 Working day and night I soon found myself working harder and harder to come up with more creative ideas. In order to keep ideas fresh I would never force them out, because it was more of a side project there where no dead lines and I could work at my own pace. Though the dream that used to occur all most every night had stopped there was a burning fire inside of me to keep going. Now as I played Final fantasy 11 and world of warcraft I found myself paying more attention to players reactions to new ideas and patches more than I payed attention to the game itself. Sadly my time was done with Final fantasy 11 I found myself sitting in towns bored and just wanting a new scene. But what Final fantasy 11 taught me was and still is not forgotten.

 About this time I was thinking why a MMORPG? Why did I have this drive to create one of the hardest styles of games? Every night I would stare at my screen wondering what could I do that would surpass World of warcraft and Final fantasy 11, what is special about this planet named Selethra that a random dream named? Yes I have developed classes that each have their own unique style, but that was only one piece to the puzzle. On one hand I have about 6 classes so far being created and on the other a empty world that only had a name. My mind was riddled this questions I could not answer. Still the motivation was not clear why a MMORPG I asked myself this so many times that my brain could explode. Then as the game went on a small break I was sitting in class listening to class mates talk about MMORPGs and their ideas where just world of warcraft with small differences. "You hit the max level and grind dungeons." "Raid bosses that blow up chunks of the arena." as I listened a answer finally hit me. Fun, I want to make a MMORPG that was fun, a game where people would come home and smile as they logged in. A game where you never got left out of the loop if you where not the most skilled player. A game that did not sacrifice enjoyable cut scenes and deep storyline quests for game play that only revolved around dungeons. I don't have money on the mind I just want to make a game that is fun and brings smiles to players faces.

 And this is where I stand, some 4 years and the tiny document that was just a fun idea is now a folder with over 14 class ideas, story lines, combat ideas, race ideas, and the key design goal "Fun". The list goes on and on and grows even as I type this. A dream that was once a unclear motive manifested into a game concept that I feel has the potential to become one of the great MMORPGs of it's time. Selethra a world created within a dream and a dream that someday will not be something that comes while I sleep.

Dreaming of a dream

 As you all know from my first post I am a college student working on a degree in game design. But that's as far as I have ever went. I have given you little info on why I want to make video games in general and ultimately a MMORPG.

 Well it started a long time ago back when I was able to pick up a controller I always found myself fascinated with video games. I would play them for long periods of times, but I would catch myself really looking too deep into them. I was more than a young boy who wanted to play them I would sit up at night and ask my parents and brother how they where made always being answered with a shrug. Once I was able to play on the family computer I would find myself drawing board games and little critters and send them to toy companies. Now as you may know they where sent back (gimme a break I was 10 and had no idea how they came to be.). As I grew older I found free platforms of game creations my main focus was the RPG maker. I would spend months on a game then get excited when I watched my friends play them. The more I created on RPG maker the more I felt trapped by the limited creativeness it allowed. This was just the starting step of my journey.

 I was around 18 years old when something smacked me, I can recall it like it was yesterday. I was playing final fantasy 11 walking around on my warrior in the dunes and I saw a summoner call out ifrit. I thought to myself wouldn't it be cool if that taru could combine himself with ifrit and take on his characteristics? I wrote this down and thought nothing of it. The idea stayed in a word document for about 2 months. At this time I was starting to play world of warcraft and was having a good time. I was amazed by the druid class and it's shape shifting abilities. But ultimately I found my self thinking of other shape shifts it could perform. Finally the word document was opened again and was soon filled with over 75 abilities and spells. I got on Final fantasy 11 and started pitching my ideas to friends as was excited to see that this class sounded fun to a lot of my friends. Spirit fuser was born and I found my self opening up a side project next to my other game scripts I have written.

 I hit a hard point in my life and found my self jobless and getting no where. I would fall asleep dreaming of this world but in this dream that would return night after night I could never touch it. I would see a group of people in a conference room talking about this nameless game. Eventually I got my self together and found a college that offered a degree in game design I was filled with excitement. As I learned more I found this side project filling up more and more with ideas and even crappy concept doodles I would make in classes that bored me. Once again the dream returned and I found my self in that same room with the same people, then out of no where one of the people muttered the word Selethra. I woke up and wrote down this word as best as I could spell it. What was to become of this word and what did it trigger?

Combat system direction part 2 "Magic"

 This part of the combat system will be about magic in Selethra which I spell as magi(I know what this word means it was meant to be pronounced mag-E sooo I'm still working on how to spell it out). Magi is split into server schools each specializing in a style of spell some examples are the decay school focuses on damage over time spells and enfeeblement spells. The annihilation school focuses on raw damage spells and pretty much works with the name it destroys things. The illusion school focuses more on spells that confuse the foe or take your attention away from the caster kind of a trickster style of magi. There are more schools than that, but I will bring them up in later posts to save time. I chose schools for silencing spells to be used more strategically so instead of an over all you can't cast spells debuff you will lock the player out of a school of magi. So with out delay lets dig into magi or magic(darn me for being lazy and not figuring out how to word its name!)

1: Elemental combat
   There are 9 elements of magi in Selethra; Fire, Water, Air, Cold, Earth, Poison, Thunder, Dark, and Holy. Each have a strong point and a weakness and damage characteristics. Also there are 4 advanced elements if magi; Magma, Steam, Storm, Mud. These spells have a much bigger use and can be focused on hitting foes that have multiple weaknesses in elements, but only a few classes can use these elements of spells one in particular that was the first I came up with(cliffhanger!). All the elements exist to add strategy to the game where some cold spells have the ability to freeze foes or chill them lowering attack speed and a mud spells can create a pool of mud on the ground to catch foes and hold them in place(class spell hint shhh!).

 So what do the elements serve other than having battle characteristics? Most MMORPG's use a foes weak element to decrees a foes chance to resist a magical attack. Like offline RPGs hitting a foe with it's weak element will increase the damage of the spell, since I plan on melee users getting the ability to hit a foe multiple times as they level up I feel magi casters should have a way of increasing their damage as well other than the spell just getting more powerful.(fun with math sentence) Mathematically to keep class balance in check after a foe gets hit with it's weak element over and over it will grow a resistance to keep casters from getting cornered into using one spell and out damaging melee fighters with ease, I have tinkered with a few algorithms and the rate roughly hits 10% resistance gain per spell per caster, so one caster can't build up the foes resistance quickly lowering the damage of other casters(the resistance boost will also wear off over time). The advanced elements can utilize this damage bonus even more since the elemental properties are double sided, but to keep balance if you use a magma spell(fire/earth) and the foe is strong to earth you will lose a good amount of damage on the spell. There are a lot of elements to consider that will make for some trial and error when finding a foes weak point, and the flexibility of elements makes it so casters who can't hit a weakness or not specialized in the element can still do good damage. So if something is strong to fire, air, and water but you only have say earth spells or abilities you won't lose damage and will be able to fight effectively.

2: Trigger effect weapons for spells!
   Weapons such as staffs and wands will have trigger effects on them for casters, see my previous post on trigger effects if your not sure what they are. Trigger effects will be presented in the manner of a energy burst that can be used as a delayed "bomb" style of effect. So after a spell is cast you have 1-2 seconds after the spell hits to trigger the weapon to deal more damage of the element the trigger effect describes. For healers trigger effects will be presented as a magi energy(the mana or MP of the game) restore effect or may cause the spell to give you a stat boost or healing over time effect. Damage over time spells will work more closely to healing spells, but only be trigger able once per application if the spell and you can chose what tick of damage it will go off of, the same will go for healing over time spells as well.

3: Multi-Fold spells?
 This was a fun idea I came up with while working on the second caster of the game, the ability to cast spells that hit multiple times(if your not familiar with Final fantasy 11 lingo fold stands for multiple meaning a 2 fold ability or spell hits 2 times.) These spells will have multiple chances to do damage after they are casted but also means one or two of the hits can be resisted adding up to the spells total damage. This in my eyes will be a cool way to utilize elements the foe may resist more than others while the spell keeps decent damage and serve as some cool eye candy animation wise.

4: Non-elemental magi
  When you think of non-elemental magic(magic that doesn't have a particular element attached to it) I'm sure bahamut's big old Lazar beam attack comes to mind. Even though because it would be a horrible idea steal to use bahamut there will be no dragons with Lazar beams, but there will be big spells and abilities that are non-elemental. Pretty much spells of this type damage will be based on a total of all magi resistances and pack a punch, sadly will have bigger cool downs. This was needed because a few classes have abilities that strike at a foes magi resistances rather than physical defense. So on top of some spells being non-elemental there has to be a mechanic that can convert your resistances mathematically to a total defence rate for these abilities and spells to work.

5: Healing spells
  Finally we get into healing spells the role some love and a lot hate. A RPG would not be complete with out spells that replenish hit points and give stat bonuses. In general healing spells are strait forward coming in two types direct healing and healing over time spells. I want to make healing a funner task than just standing still and casting spells and this is a part of the game that is work in progress for now as it stands there is just the basic healing style. What makes this hard is while playing MMORPGs melee, tanks, and damage dealing casters will speak out in groups about whats not fun about their role, on the other hand healers are usually quiet(I must play on servers with quiet healers). So if you are a healer and have some ideas on what would make healing funner make sure to comment or PM me.

Closing thoughts on magic
 Magic is a huge part of almost all video games and defiantly needs to be fun to work with and use. The big chain of elements that appear in Selethra will allow for many spell and ability combinations while keeping it fresh. I'm not trying to bash WoW but I hate playing as a caster and only utilizing one element of magic when so much more can be used to add variety to the classes. So variety is what i want in my game and with variety comes more rotations to utilize then the same old spell over and over again. As I mentioned in the last paragraph while I play video games and MMORPGs I am listening closely to what players like and dislike(while dieing to a boss mechanic for not paying attention to the battle XD) and I want to bring tons of fun to my game and for being one guy it's a tough task. The next post will be about elements of combat and finally a overview of my entire vision for the combat system. Thanks for reading!