User:Raine Valen/Design/Project Peach/Manual

= Getting Started =

1: Character Creation
Character picks their Allegiance, Race, Nation, Hometown, and Starting Disciplines.
 * Allegiances: Allegiances compete against each other.
 * Nation: Each Allegiance is made up of several Nations. Each Nation within an Allegiance offers a different mix of races and has a different discipline focus.  Not all disciplines or races are represented by every Allegiance.
 * Races: All characters are human, but, depending on their Race, they may have different ranges of facial features, skin tones, body builds, hair colors, and default disciplines. Further, some races are more adept (by default; this may change as a player masters new Disciplines) in certain disciplines than others.
 * Disciplines: A player may pick from any disciplines offered by their combination of race and nation. A player may master different disciplines as they progress in the game.  Disciplines determine what skills a character may use.
 * Hometown: A player may select any town in their Nation as a hometown.

= Actions = Actions describe just about everything a character can do.

1: The Contextual Action System
Available Actions depend on what a character is targeting. Targeting a foe allows the character to take offensive actions. Targeting an item on the ground allows the character to take an Action to pick it up. Targeting an NPC allows the character to interact with them. Being attacked allows the character to take the appropriate Counter Actions. All characters have a set of very basic actions for many targets, though these may not be fitting in every scenario. Additionally, for some targets, characters may have no available Actions. For example, a character that cannot operate a piece of machinery may not have any actions available when targeting that piece of machinery. Any action, including actions that are initially unavailable, can be upgraded to a corresponding Skill, provided that the character has an appropriate skill unlocked.

2: Skills
Skills are, generally speaking, upgrades to basic actions.

Skill Types
Skills fall into three categories: Active, Counter, and Passive. Active skills replace active contextual Actions, like attacking foes, opening doors, or healing allies. Counter skills replace contextual counter actions, like blocking incoming attacks. Passive skills do not replace any contextual actions, but instead provide am effect while they are equipped. Passive skills fall into three subcategories: Innate, which provide a continuously-active effect to the character, like natural health regeneration or faster movement; Enhancing, which increase the character's ability to perform certain other actions, like firing bigger lasers; and Enabling, which allow the character to do things that they are not able to do by default, like swimming.

Equipping Skills
At any time while not in combat, a player can replace any basic Action with an appropriate skill. Learning a new Skill automatically equips it over the corresponding basic Action, even while in combat. Similarly, an upgrade to a Skill will automatically be placed over its un-upgraded form.

Skill Costs
Each skill has an associated Energy cost and Breathe cost.

3. Character Mode
There are three different Modes that a character may be in: Normal, Burst, or Breathe. In Normal and Burst Modes, a character cycles between five States: Decide, Prepare, Act, Recover, and Wait. Characters are, by default, in Normal Mode. In this Mode, a character automatically Breathes at the end of every State cycle, until their skills' accumulated Breath cost has dwindled to nothing, at which point the character enters the Decide state again. Characters can move into Burst Mode from Normal Mode at any time by pressing the appropriate key (or mouse button, depending on bindings); this happens instantaneously. In Burst Mode, a character moves and Acts faster than they do in Normal Mode, but does NOT automatically Breathe, so skills' Breath cost accumulates (to a maximum of 30 seconds) and, as it accumulates, characters' Energy regeneration suffers proportionally (e.g. a character with 15 seconds of accumulated Breath time would have half the normal amount of Energy regeneration; a character with 30 seconds would have no Energy regeneration). Furthermore, while in Burst mode, a character accumulates one second of Breathe time each second. A character exits Burst mode three seconds after the corresponding key is released, then enters Normal Mode. Characters move into Breathe Mode whenever they are in Normal Mode in Decide State and have accumulated Breathe time. The change from Normal to Breathe takes half a second. While in Breathe mode, characters are considered to be in Cool State until all Breathe time has elapsed. When that has happened, characters move immediately into Normal Mode. Additionally, a character can exit Breathe Mode on demand by entering Burst Mode via the corresponding key. However, entering Burst Mode from Breathe Mode is not instantaneous and instead takes three seconds.