Theorycraft - A twist on regular gameplay

I got the idea this Saturday, when I was sitting around bored at my sister's.

Levels are a type of gauge used to summarize the overall strength of your hero. Well... That's probably always going to be true. Of course, levels always go up. Rarely, some games make levels go down.

But I got this idea- what if it was interchangeable? My idea isn't entirely fleshed out, which is kind of why I want to discuss this. Maybe I could use it. I said maybe, so I make no guarantees.

Now, the type of style of map this concept can be used in would generally be PvP maps: Arenas or an AoS. I don't think it should matter.

In general, your hero goes about gaining experience by defeating enemies. In this way, you can gain levels, get higher stats, and learn abilities. There's a slight catch to using your abilities, though. Yeah, they do cost some mana, but they also cost levels. In this sense, levels truly are a guage to the strength of your hero, but as you use your abilities, it leaves your hero "exhausted", I guess.

The level cap is going to be a simple 16 (I will explain), but you stop gaining attributes past level 10. It probably doesn't make much sense, and there's a way to abuse it: The hero that can get levels fastest is superior to the rest. Well... sort of. The extra levels are only there to boost the amount of things you can do while engaged in battle.

However, even that has a catch. No matter what you do, you're hero will gradually lose experience. The higher leveled your hero is, the more experience you lose every second or so. This will eventually delevel your hero. Essentially, there's really no level 16, it simply allows you to hold a level 15.

Basically, the higher leveled your hero is:

• The higher your general stats are: Strength, Agility, and Intelligence.
• The more stronger abilities you can use.
• The more experience and gold you give if you die.
• The longer your revival time will be.
• The faster you lose experience overtime.

Concerning mana: Abilities will cost levels, and mana serves another purpose. I was thinking that mana is more of an indicator of stamina. It is a mix of the Guts/Fury from Star Ocean 3: Til the End of Time and Odin Sphere's Power Gauge. Basically, any action your hero takes uses mana- or Stamina. Running, using items, abilities, attacking, whatever you can think of. For this reason, there is no auto-attacking (if that's even possible).

If your Stamina hits zero, your hero needs some time to breathe, inhibiting your hero from using any items or abilities. You can't attack, and your Movement Speed is reduced by half. You're stamina will stay at zero for about five seconds, so should this befall you when fighting another hero, you'll most likely die (Just like Odin Sphere! I'm not joking, either.) After those five seconds though, you're Stamina hits 100% instantly.

If your Stamina is maxed out, any ability that causes damage to you will be COMPLETELY negated. As a result of blocking the attack, you'll have the option of equipping a reaction ability, or a passive that will activate every time your hero performs a successful block. This passive ability can do anything from harming surrounding enemy units to inflicting debuffs on them and even healing yourself. However, if you're physically attacked while your stamina is 100%, you'll take double the damage from the attack, and your stamina will instantly be reduced to 50%. (Almost like Star Ocean!)

Recovering Stamina is easy. Just stand still. It'll zoom back up to 100% after a few seconds. If you're hit while trying to recover Stamina, the amount you gain will drastically decrease, but gradually still go up. Because of this game mechanic, a lot of abilities will have multiple hits.

Now comes the problem of what stats do.

Strength

• Increases HP by 10
• Increases Physical Damage by 1

Agility and Intelligence are swapped, because Agility cannot manipulate mana.
Intelligence

• Increases Spell Damage according to the spell
• Increases the potency of most consumables according to the item.

Agility

• Increases Stamina by 3.
• Increases Stamina recovery while resting by [X]. This will need a lot of testing before I can get a true number on it. Stamina recovery will be very quick, as an agile hero will recover it much quicker than a bulky or mage hero can. However, because recovering Stamina is conditional, the Stamina regeneration that Intelligence (now Agility) gives us is useless.

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Well... That's kind of it for now. I have to prepare for tomorrow. Please tell me your thoughts and/or comments. Things you don't like, things that could be better, etc.

This sounds really cool!
If it means anything... I want you to go through with it!
It sounds very fun and involved.


Just to comment - If you're open to ideas, I suggest changing the I'd make it resume back to normal, but then again, I have no idea how long it would take to "recharge" your stamina.

I like it a lot, too. Have a problem with this paragraph, tho:


So, if he is hit with his Stamina max, the damage is doubled and negated at the same time?

I like the idea that a maxed-Stamina Hero will "block" attacks, but I think this should use Stamina then, right?

I just remembered something. There's no way to differentiate between damage caused by spells and damaged caused by a regular attack. However, there is a way to differentiate between spell damage and hero damage.

@Limb Smasher: I was thinking about that as well, but then you'd have to sit there to gain your stamina while you're getting hurt. Plus, while you're getting hit, the stamina gained while standing still (or getting hurt) is significantly slowed down, which pits more against you. If it was like that, you'd end up dying no matter what, even if your Stamina isn't actually at zero. I don't know though; this is all theory, after all.

@Monstah: If your hero is hit by a physical attack while your Stamina is maxed out, then you take double the damage and your Stamina is instantly reduced to 50%. Now, if you were to get hit by a spell that causes damage while having maxed out Stamina, then you wouldn't take any damage at all. In addition to that, your hero's passive ability would activate.

About your second comment: That's kind of true. Blocking an attack would cost Stamina, but that only allows you to take one hit? I was thinking: You'll stand still after blocking a spell, then you'd want to attack through the little amount of time you have before their Stamina maxes out, you can take your chance and use a spell on them. Of course, if you miss or are too late, then they can do the same...

Clusterfuck of ideas.

Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

This sounds very interesting. Keeping my eye on this one

-Av3n

Bad thing. KISS.

Okay, got it, but... why? Does he lose his breath or something?

Captain Griffen, I don't know what you're referring to. Mind telling me?

@Monstah: It doesn't make much sense in reality, but it's done to make keeping all of you Stamina more risky. If it wasn't this way, there'd really be no point in using your abilities. You might as well just attack, which puts all of the Mage heroes at a disadvantage.

By the way... What should Intelligence (now Agility) do? I can't apply it to anything. It could be a requirement for item usage?

Lol at the fact that someone reported this post as "rude."

Regarding Intelligence (now Agility)... You could change it to be "spell power" or something like that. It could affect spell critical chance? Or perhaps affects the damage of your spells? You know, since Strength affects your physical damage.

I don't like the idea of it being a requirement for item usage because the only way to increase it would be to A) level up, or B) buy an item. Seems stupid to buy an item to use another item, and your hero+level combination will always dictate which items you can use.

I tryed to, but couldnt find the button...

Sounds cool, there is an option in gameplay constants to make max level heroes drain xp, is that where you got the idea from?

It would have to be a really fast pased and simple AoS imo, costant killing would be needed to maintain level, so there wouldnt be too much time for deciding which of the 200 items to buy.

I would go with 4 tomes, 4 pots, and maybe 12 items at max.

KISS, find a good idea and stick to it, at the exclusion of all else.

I did find it a bit offensive, but it made me laugh so hard. And I don't think this IS a clusterfuck of ideas, it can just be put in more simple terms. Experience for mana, mana for stamina. Experience fades, so you have to work out to keep it up. I don't know where the idea came from, but I find it amusing.

Every decent modder on this website has had these ideas in one way or another.

decent modders?




a jest


its not the novelty of the ideas, its the unification and adaptation of them