I think that many of the gameplay features in Feud are still relevant and groundbreaking today, so I don't want to change things up too much. I do however want to modernise and add a lot more depth to the game, which (apart from the spell system) was very thin of actual gameplay.
The qualities that I liked and want to keep are the:
- Advanced Spell System
- Towns with NPCs (but much more detailed)
- Progressive AI
- The initial PvE ultimating in a simulated PvP
I'm planning on the setting to be a fantasy medieval England, with a much more complex "item gathering" than in the original Feud. I'm also planning on the majority of the game to be randomly generated, enabling great replayability. The view for the player will be a 'map' type interface similar to the original Feud but with a greater, dynamic FOV. The player will have the option to pan and rotate the camera around the entire map, along with zoom the camera to gain more detail of the surrounding landscape.
When a battle is engaged, the camera will switch to a third-person perspective behind the character and the game turns into a hack-and-slash type game similar to Dynasty Warriors or Mount and Blade. The difference however is that all the meta game is still there from the strategy map, such as your level, stats, items equiped etc. This means that the actual battles are based on the skill of controlling your character, but also how well you are doing on the strategy map. In battles, the player and enemies use left mouse to attack with the left hand, and right mouse to attack with the right hand. This means that if the player has a sword in his left hand and a shield in his right hand, left mouse will swing the sword and right mouse will block. Blocking will negate 90% of damage, and a perfectly timed block will cause the opponent to be briefly stunned. 'Perfectly Timed' means blocking at the exact time your opponent contacts an attack. All weapons (except shields and other defensive items) can iniate a 'Block Breaker' by holding left or right mouse down to perform a charged attack. These attacks take slightly longer to perform than regular attacks (3x), but break an opponents block completely, stunning them and dealing 150% weapon damage. A charged attack can be interupted by causing non-DOT damage to the attacker, which also micro-stuns the attacker. Along with attacking and defending, players can use the abilities they have learned using Skill Orbs in battle. These are assigned to numbers 1-9 on the keyboard and can be reassigned before battle. Changing equipment in battle is never allowed, except through the use of an ability.
There will be a localised Fog of War however that will prevent the player from gaining intel on an area he isn't currently in.
The AI for the brother is going to be a lot more complex and unpredictable than the original Feud, with a multitude of different AI options that the player can choose from at the start of the game (including completely random ones). I want this to feel very much like the AI customisation in 'AI War', and make the brother feel as if it were really another player. I also want to include a multiplayer mode that will allow another player to play as Leanoric and compete against the player. It would be great if this was supported by a "drop in-drop out" system, where (if the player has enabled the option), one of their friends can join their current singleplayer game in progress at any time and take the role of Leanoric. This would work very much like Fable 3 or Demon Souls multiplayer. Players can also create a multiplayer lobby and stage a multiplayer game from the start. If a player leaves, they may reconnect to the game, but if they don't they will be taken over by a random AI profile.
The player would start at a random location in a randomly generated map (with certain perameters). Their objective then would be to kill roaming monsters to gain Gold, Loot and Experience. The gold can be spent later for various advantages, the (potential) loot can be equipped by the player for certain stat boots, and the experience is used to level up and gain "Skill Orbs", which can in turn be spent on a non-linear skill trees consisting of PvE and PvP (meaning also Player vs. Leanoric) abilities. You might think; "Whats the point in putting any points into PvE skills when the only objective is to kill Leanoric?". Well the player first needs to acquire the power to defeat Leanoric, and he does this by acheiving sucuess in PvE first. At the beginning of the game, the player and Leanoric do very minimal damage to each other. This is to stop the player dieing unexpectedly at the start before the game really initiates. However, it is possible to form a 'rush' build where the player only levels PvP skills and attempts to kill Leanoric early before he becomes too powerful. Similiarly, the AI may choose to adopt this tactic himself. The problem is, if the player goes this route and the rush doesn't sucueed, he will be underleveled and have poor equipment for the rest of the game. Likewise, if the player goes for only PvE skills, he will be a high level but have no real means of combating Leanoric. There is a good analogy in competitive Starcraft gameplay. In Starcraft you must continually build workers throughout the game, or you will fall economically behind the other player(s). If at any point you stop the production of workers and build only military units, this is known as an 'all-in', and is considered the be the victory or defeat of the game.
There will be computer owned towns that are randomly allocated across the game world during world generation, along with additional ones being founded as the game progresses if certain parameters are met (roaming settlers don't get killed by RND monsters for example). These towns will be allocated a level based on their strength and prosperity, much like other roaming NPCs are. The towns will have certain services available to the player in exchange for gold. These services include:
Merchant [Level x+] (where 'x' is a multiplier of a weapons power. e.g. the higher the towns level, the better quality of the item for sale)
>> Has one item for sale that gets refreshed every 5 minutes (even if not bought). Can also be bought by Leanoric, so the player has to be careful about leaving valuable items for sale. Once the item is bought, there wont be another item for sale until the refresh.
Information Broker [Level 5+]
>> Sells information to the player and Leanoric that could either contain the location of a rare weapon for sale in another town, the location of a rare roaming monster, the location of a hidden item, or the current location and recent activity of your brother. This information will be sold as an 'information packet', so the player or AI will not know what they are buying. The price will be a fixed amount of gold and not change based on the information sold. Information Brokers are essential for high level play because of their scouting use. To be able to effectively counter your brother's strategy, you have to know what items he is going for and where he currently is. This information is again available to the AI, so the player has to be careful to secure this information first. The information refreshes every 3 minutes and is bought under an exclusive contract, meaning the same information cannot be sold more than once. Like the Merchant, the information is replaced at the refresh time even if it hasn't been purchased.
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