design_notes.md

Ainneve Game Design

A game made using simple systems which show off Evennia's many features - especially the available contribs - while still being fun to play. (Emphasis on fun).

(This is an initial sketch of what's been suggested so far, with some gaps noted via questions you can answer.)

Setting and World

• "Magic Dungeon for Sale"
  • Light-hearted fantasy theme.
  • Bonus points for puns.
• The main hub of the game is a stereotypical sword & sorcery town. POI in town include:
  • IMPLEMENTATION NOTE - Use the XYZGrid contrib
  • What notable NPCs should be at these locations or wandering the town?
  • A bar/pub/tavern - What eating/drinking mechanics should be implemented to support this?
    • A smithy
      • Is this a shop? A crafting station? Both?
      • Smithies often act as a repair hub. Do armor/weapons have durability and take damage with use?
    • An arena
      • PvP, PvE, or both?
    • A shop. "Ye Olde Magick Shoppe"
• A procedurally generated dungeon, which resets whenever it empties.
  • IMPLEMENTATION NOTE - Use the wilderness contrib
  • Global dungeon or instanced for parties?
  • Source of gear, treasure, or both?
• The Overworld
  • What do you do here?

Characters

• Six planned classes (names pending), with major/minor stat focuses:
  • "Warrior": Strength/Cunning
    • special ability: combat specialist?
  • "Paladin": Strength/Will
    • special ability: defense and support?
  • "Rogue": Cunning/Strength
    • special ability: stealth?
  • "Bard": Cunning/Will
    • special ability: ?
  • "Shaman": Will/Strength
    • special ability: ?
  • "Wizard": Will/Cunning
    • special ability: spells?
  • Classes can be swapped at will at a trainer NPC
• Progression
  • Gear vs Attribute progression?
    • Gear progression is when you improve your character by getting better gear
    • Attribute progression is when you improve your character by increasing character stat numbers
    • Both can and often are gated by character level
• Skills?
  • IMPLEMENTATION NOTE - If included, use the Traits contrib

Mechanics

• Three-stat system, with three "resource" pools

  • IMPLEMENTATION NOTE - Use the Traits contrib
  • Stats: Strength, Cunning, Will
  • Resources: Health, Mana, Stamina
  • Player Set Information: Aggression, Block Position, Parry Position

• NOT turn-based combat

  • Notes from friar are at the end of the section. All values subject to future tweaking for game balance/fun-ness
  • Dice rolls are standardized as 2d6+stat
    • IMPLEMENTATION NOTE - Make this a single point-of-access method which passes in the stat.
  • Agression:
    • Defensive (x1/2), Normal (x1), or Aggressive (x1.5)
    • Increases damage dealt, delay, and stamina costs by Aggression factor
    • Changing Aggression will incur an attack delay.
  • Weapon stats
    • Min and Max Weapon Range (melee/short/medium/long), Polearms could have Min: melee, Max: Short
    • Physical Damage Range (1 for Unarmed, 1-3 pt for a dagger, 2-4 for a longsword, 3-8 for a battleaxe/polearm)
    • Stun Damage Duration (An amount of delay to add to the Target's action delay)
    • Base Stamina Cost to attack with it (Fist: 2 points, Daggers: 2 point, longsword: 4pts, Battleaxe: 6pts, Polearms/Bow: 8 pts)
    • Base Delay Duration (polearms take longer to recover after an attack than daggers, for example)
    • Optional extra delay to reload (bows/crossbows, for example)
    • It can be thrown effectively: Boolean
  • Armor stats
    • Heavier armor adds a dodge penalty to your defenses (-1 dodge for light armor, -2 medium, -3 heavy)
    • Heavier armor adds an Extra Stamina cost to all actions (1 stamina for light, 2 for medium, 3 for heavy)
    • Acts as Damage reduction when hit (ex: Light is 2 points of Physical reduction, Medium is 4 points, Heavy is 6 points)
    • Heavier armor adds to the delay modifier of all of the wearers actions (Light is 1.1, Medium is 1.2, Heavy is 1.3)
    • Exotic armors may affect the other non-physical types of damage
  • Target zones
    • Combatants can set their defense and attack zones as an XY coordinate, left/center/right, low/mid/high
      • Changing attack zone is a free action
      • Changing defense zone incurs an attack delay
    • Attacks landing on your defended zone procs a defense auto-action, which if successful gives a counter-attack bonus.
      • Should there be any effect for landing "near" a defended zone? e.g. if you have left/mid and someone aims for left/high
    • Attacks landing outside the defense zones successfully land on armor in the strike zone
  • Combat movement
    • While in combat, you can "advance" or "retreat" to/from an opponent to change your active range
    • Advancing and retreating incur movement delays
      • Ahould this be separate from the attack delay, or should moving prevent attacks/attacking prevent movement?
      • Movement and Attacking are separate delays, but Movement and Casting spells should probably be mutually exclusive
  • Overall Attack Algorithm:
    • Check to see if the attacker is still counting down a previous attack delay
      • if so, send an error message about it and early exit.
    • If this is a Throw attack, check the Throwable flag on the Attackers Weapon
      • if not throwable, set the Base Physical Damage Range to 1-2 and the Base Stamina Cost to 4.
    • Check to see if the attacker has enough Stamina for the attack, based on weapon/spell, modified for their aggression and armor.
      • if not early exit with an error message
    • Check to see if the target is within the attackers weapon range (both melee or ranged attacks)
      • If not early exit with an error message
    • Set the Attackers delay to the Weapon's delay time modified for Armor/Aggression
    • Subtract the Weapon/Armor/Aggression modified Stamina cost from the Attacker
    • Check to see if the target is using a shield and their Block zone matches the Attacker's target zone
      • if so, set Blocked
    • Check if target is wielding something that can parry, and if their Parry zone matches the Attacker's target zone.
      • if so, set Parried
    • If Blocked or Parried
      • Subtract a small amount of Stamina from the target for the Block/Parry
      • Check to see if the range to the target is melee and the attackers weapon Minimum allows melee
        • Add extra time to the attackers delay for being melee Blocked/Parried
        • if Parried, Set the target's Parry Bonus to +2 against this attacker
      • early exit
    • if melee, Roll Attackers (2d6+Strength+Agression+Bonuses) versus (2d6 + Targets Cunning + Buffs - Target's Armor Dodge penalty)
    • if ranged, Roll Attackers (2d6+Cunning+Aggression+Bonuses) versus (5 + Target's size modifier + Buffs +2/+4 for medium/long range)
    • if spell, Roll Attackers (2d6+Will+Aggression+Bonuses) versus (4 + Target's Will + Buffs)
    • if melee or ranged and this roll exceeds the target number:
      • generate a damage value from the Attackers weapon's base damage range
      • Add Attackers Strength for Melee/Thrown attacks, Cunning for Ranged weapon attacks
      • multiply the result by the Attackers Agression factor (round up)
      • Subtract off the Target's armor, if any, and apply the remainder to the Targets Health
        • if the target dies, perform corpse operations.
    • if spell, and this roll exceeds the target number:
      • call that spell's custom code.

• Crafting weapons/armor/potions as a counter-option to buying them.

  • IMPLEMENTATION NOTE - Use the crafting contrib

• Containers

  • If we want them, they need to be implemented, including custom get/put/drop commands.
  • EvAdventure is built with the concept of a backpack but does not yet implement containers

• Inventory management

  • Do characters have a carrying limit in terms of objects or size?
    • EvAdventure comes with a built-in carrying capacity
  • If there are containers, do they allow you to carry more?