BattleCorp™: Combatant Creator

[Behemoth542]

Hello, thank you in advance for reading this and welcome to the interest check of an idea I wanted to work with. I'll detail the different mechanics that form the core to this game. But first the plot:

Plot

BattleCorp™ wants YOU!

To become one of their famed heroes!

Tired of your common, boring office job?
Perhaps your sad marriage left you unsatisfied?
Looking for something more exciting than cleaning the dog's excrement?
Then pay attention, good (wo)man, because this offer will change your ENTIRE life!

BattleCorp™ is currently recruiting fellow citizens of all ages, genders, colors and sizes to form part of their special force and finally achieve your dreams! Are you missing an arm? We'll give you a new one! Perhaps you're unsatisfied with your weight and height? BattleCorp™ has a team of professional trainers and surgeons ready to give you the body you desire! Maybe you feel a bit too old? Not a problem for BattleCorp™! We will make you feel like you're in the peak of your youth in the snap of a finger!

So come over to our offices located at ******, or call us to ******, and become the living embodiment of strength and hope RIGHT NOW!!!

Will you miss this UNIQUE chance to become a LEGEND?

So, yeah. You'll join BattleCorp™ in hopes of... I don't know, depends on you. What's really important is what happens when you join it. You'll be paired with your future teammates to train in order to become a great [insert RPG class here]. And by training I mean fighting (and defeating) an apparently endless number of minions, provided by BattleCorp's™ head summoner Voice-Box-in-the-corner-of-the-room, one by one.

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The character sheet be something like this:

Sheet

Name: (Name of the character. Add epithets between parentheses after the name, if you have any)
Gender: (Gender)
Skills: (You'll start with only one skill. You ask if you can have X skill, I tell you yes/no and, if needed, the numerical value (for example, Damage Per Turn stat, or a heal) Each skills can only be used once every fight, unless stated otherwise)
Traits: (You start with no traits, but you can later get some. They're what could be called passive skills.
Stats: (There are only three stats: Attack, Defense and Health. When making the sheet, you'll have to distribute some points on these stats)
Level: (You start at Level 1. The formatting if this would be something like this: Lvl: 1 EXP: 0/50. Later I'll provide with a rough table of levels and experience required for each level)
Last modification: (Any time you make a modification, you add it here, along with the date.

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Mechanics

• I'll spawn an enemy for the players to fight, and give it an action every two days or so.
• The actions are divided in turns, which last between each enemy post.
• Every player may act once per turn, unless otherwise stated by an active buff, trait or battle conditions.
• The default attack is simply stating that you attack. It will deal (playerAttack - enemyDefense) damage. Damage cannot be negative unless a trait or something similar allows that to happen.
• You are not limited by simply attacking. Creativity when acting is encouraged (For example, you throw a stone you picked from the ground instead of simply attacking) as it may have additional effects. However, try to keep it somewhat simple and consistent. Be aware that those additional effects may not be always benefical.
• When you win a fight, you get EXP, which allows you to level up. This gives you some stat points and a skill point, which can be spent on a skill or a trait.
• When an enemy dies, I'll give you some time to settle down (A turn, most times) and spend your stat and skill points. After that time, I'll spawn another enemy. This will go on for a while.

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Alright, this is, basically, how the game will be. If you have any ideas or suggestions, ask away.

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ScrewUp Tally: 4:

Tally Count

• Misspelled something. (x2)
• Posted it in the wrong subforum.
• Forgot to add a link.

[rush99999]

Heyo!

[SimplyJohn]

Sounds interesting, count me in.

Name: Beatrice 'Bumblebee' McLeod
Stats: 4/2/20
Level: 1
Skills: Speed Boost - Energy Cost: 60

^{Once per battle Bumblebee uses her jump jets to dodge an incoming attack, preventing all damage it would've caused.}

Traits: None
Gender: Female
Vehicle of Choice: Archangel-D Luminos
Last modification: None

[rush99999]

@SimplyJohn

Vehicle of choice? I didn't see that in the CS template.

[SimplyJohn]

Just something I added in to give an idea of the style of combat Bumblebee likes to use. :)

It's deliberately 'vehicle of choice' since it wouldn't necessarily be the vehicle she gets to pilot, but it would be the one she'd go for if it was available as an option for her.

[Behemoth542]

Maybe later you can get to summon it as a skill, getting a boost on stats and skills.
Also, lack of posts is due to two days without internet. Router problems.

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So, during that hiatus, I came up with other mechanics I'm going to add shortly:

• Health increases its value by 5 per stat point.
• Everyone starts with 7 stat points to distribute among skills. Each level up grants 4 StP (I'm going to us StP for stat points and SkP for skill points, from now on)
• At the start of the game, everyone will have a basic stat value of 15/0/0
• Experience gain mechanics:
  
  • By damage dealt: 100% ratio at the moment. Dealt means any damage kind of damage that affects the enemy's HP. Damage blocked by the enemy yields no XP
  • By damage prevented: 50% ratio at the moment. Prevented means any kind of damage nullified by defense, traits, evasion, etc.
  • By damage received: 25% ratio at the moment. Damage received is any damage that affects your own HP
• To use skills, an Energy system will be implemented. Everyone will have a default 100 Energy and 10 Energy/turn regeneration. Active skills will cost a certain amount of Energy, which can overlap with the regeneration. Both the maximum Energy and its regeneration can be modified by traits, but not by StP

Any questions, or suggestions?

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ScrewUp Tally: 1

• Forgot to add the Energy Mechanic

[BCTheEntity]

Name: Metar Saraimu
Gender: Male
Skills:
Taunt: Met taunts all enemies on the field in some way or another, inciting them to attack him with a damaging move next turn to the exclusion of any other target. However, knowing that they are going to target him and so coordinating his blocks accordingly, he gains a 25% boost to his defense stat. Energy Cost: 25
Traits: N/A
Stats: 15 (0)/0/7
Level: Lvl: 1 EXP: 0/50.
Last modification: -Switched starting build from slight attack and mostly defense to pure defense (2 --> 0, 5 --> 7)
-Increased cost of Taunt slightly (20 --> 25)
-Character sheet created 24/05/2014

[SimplyJohn]

@Behemoth542 Any questions, or suggestions?

Are you okay with Bumblebee's Speed Boost skill being used? If skills are energy-based, how much energy do you think such an ability such require per use, and would you allow it to be used multiple times in a single fight if there's enough energy available for it?

Is 'Gender' actually required on the Character Sheet? Will it come into play as part of the game at any point? Would we need to include race, nationality, place of birth or any other biographical details as well?

Would it be better to list the information on the Character Sheet in the order: Name, Stats, Level, Skills, Traits, Gender, Last Mod Made as this would prioritise the information which would be needed most frequently during battles?

[rush99999]

Name: Meat Mallet
Gender: Male
Skills:

• Rage: Meat Mallet gains 1 attack point per every enemy on the battle field at the cost of 1 defense point per enemy. (Energy cost: 20)

Traits: None
Stats: 7/0/15
Level: 1
Last modification: None

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Any questions, or suggestions?

@Behemoth542

I suggest you answer my questions three:

What is you name?

What is your quest?

What is the air speed velocity of an unladen swallow?

[SimplyJohn]

I suggest you answer my questions three:

What is you name?

What is your quest?

What is the air speed velocity of an unladen swallow?

@rush99999

Bob... err, no Joe... wait a sec... AAARGHH!!!

*suddenly thrown into a bottomless chasm by some irresistible force*

@rush99999 Pain induced rage: Meat Mallet gains 1% attack speed for every 1% of his missing health. (Passive skill)

Isn't your ability going to become less and less effective as your character levels up? If it's based on a percentage of their health and their health gets bigger all the time I mean.

[Genni]

Do you have room for a support role medic?

Name: Madison 'Nightingale' Johannson
Stats: 2/4/20
Level: 1
Skills: Field Repairs - Energy Cost: 25

^{Instead of attacking Nightingale may instead restore health for either herself or an ally equal to her Attack rating.}

Traits: None
Gender: Female
Vehicle of Choice: Teppô Artillery Support Vehicle
Last modification: None

I'd plan on adding other support skills when upgrading, such as 'Resupply: Cost X. Transfer X energy from your own supplies to an ally' and 'C&C: Cost 100, Don't attack this turn. Coordinate team attacks to give all allies targeting the same enemy an Attack bonus equal to your own Attack rating'.

[rush99999]

Isn't your ability going to become less and less effective as your character levels up? If it's based on a percentage of their health and their health gets bigger all the time I mean.

@SimplyJohn

Fair point. I'll edit that.

[SimplyJohn]

Do you have room for a support role medic?

I'd plan on adding other support skills when upgrading, such as 'Resupply: Cost X. Transfer X energy from your own supplies to an ally' and 'C&C: Cost 100, Don't attack this turn. Coordinate team attacks to give all allies targeting the same enemy an Attack bonus equal to your own Attack rating'.

@Genni

I'd never say no to a good medic by my side. :)

I like the idea of 'Resupply' too, but I'm not sure about 'C&C'. The way I read it we'll mostly be facing off against a single target¹ and that might make your ability a little too powerful if we get a large enough force to play with, even with its excessive energy cost. If your favorite vehicle is a Teppô you might want to go with something like 'Sniper Artillery: Cost 50. Automatically score a critical hit against your target for double damage' or something similar instead.

_{1 - @Behemoth542 "I'll spawn an enemy for the players to fight, and give it an action every two days or so."}

@rush99999 Fair point. I'll edit that.

Sounds a lot better now. :D

[BCTheEntity]

@Genni We do need a healer. I'm not gonna lie, though, I wouldn't base healing off of the worse of the two non-health stats. Ideally, I'd recommend basing it either off of her defense, which is larger than her attack, or ideally off of a percentage value, e.g. 25% of the target's health, so that it scales more effectively over time.

[Genni]

@BCTheEntity I wouldn't want to make the repairs too powerful, otherwise there'd never be any risk during the battles as long as I was still alive.

With a defence score of 7 you'd only be taking damage if we're facing an opponent with an Attack rating of 8 or higher and so would only need my 2 healing once every two rounds. On the other hand, Meat Mallet would be dead by the second round, having taken the full 8 strength hits each time.

As for scaling, by making the repairs based off of my Attack rating it gives me incentive to upgrade my Attack when I level up, rather than piling everything into Defence and making myself invulnerable to anything short of a Planetkiller.

If your favorite vehicle is a Teppô you might want to go with something like 'Sniper Artillery: Cost 50. Automatically score a critical hit against your target for double damage' or something similar instead.

@SimplyJohn

I wouldn't be looking to gain the 'C&C' ability until at least the second skill upgrade opportunity and so I should have time to see how the gameplay works a little before working out appropriate rules to make it work.

The 'Sniper Artillery' idea would've been my third choice, but I'd rather get the support role covered first before beefing up my attack abilities. Play to your strengths and all that. :)

[SimplyJohn]

@Genni On the other hand, Meat Mallet would be dead by the second round, having taken the full 8 strength hits each time.

Having said that, he'd also be hitting for 7 (8 when his 'Pain Induced Rage' kicked in) so unless we're facing an horrifically overpowered opponent he'd probably be able to take the target down at the same time, or at least bloodied it up for the rest of us.

At the same time, if Metar activated his power in the first round Meat would be covered for the second, giving you a chance to repair him before facing another attack.

[BCTheEntity]

@BCTheEntity I wouldn't want to make the repairs too powerful, otherwise there'd never be any risk during the battles as long as I was still alive.

With a defence score of 7 you'd only be taking damage if we're facing an opponent with an Attack rating of 8 or higher and so would only need my 2 healing once every two rounds. On the other hand, Meat Mallet would be dead by the second round, having taken the full 8 strength hits each time.

As for scaling, by making the repairs based off of my Attack rating it gives me incentive to upgrade my Attack when I level up, rather than piling everything into Defence and making myself invulnerable to anything short of a Planetkiller.

@Genni

1. thatsthepoint.gif
2. Yes. I'm a tank, and he's a DP... S.... er. DPSer. Yeah.
3. I have my ways of dealing with that, dunchu worry. But seriously, I would recommend basing healing off of a percentage rather than a strictly-defined value like your own stats. You really do not want your abilities to scale poorly in a game like this, and a heal of only 2 health isn't a brilliant starting point, especially considering that a heal of even 25% of a target's maximum health would restore at least twice your attack value as a minimum (assuming 3.75 is rounded up to 4).

[SimplyJohn]

There seems to be a lot of powergaming going on here...

And yes, I did just find the Smilies menu.

Experience gain mechanics:

• By damage dealt: 100% ratio at the moment. Dealt means any damage kind of damage that affects the enemy's HP. Damage blocked by the enemy yields no XP

@Behemoth542

Would damage healed be classed as damage dealt for XP gain purposes? The effect would be against HP, but not enemy HP.

If not then Nightingale will struggle to gain levels.

[SimplyJohn]

To use skills, an Energy system will be implemented. Everyone will have a default 100 Energy and 10 Energy/turn regeneration. Active skills will cost a certain amount of Energy, which can overlap with the regeneration. Both the maximum Energy and its regeneration can be modified by traits, but not by StP

@Behemoth542

Would the 'once per battle' rule still apply if the Energy system is going to be used for skills as well?

When you say "which can overlap with the regeneration" does that mean Energy regenerates at the beginning of each turn, and so could be used in the same turn, or at the end of the turn and so would be available for use on the turn after? This isn't really important right now, but if anyone had a skill which could trigger in response to enemy actions then knowing when the Energy would be available would become significant.

[Genni]

Would damage healed be classed as damage dealt for XP gain purposes?

@SimplyJohn

That's a good point. Under the current system Meat and Metar will be filtching all the XP by causing high damage and pulling in attacks.

After the first few battles the rest of us will be falling behind with no way to improve our own performance to match them, without changing our characters now to do exactly the same thing, which would be a bit pointless.