User:Raine Valen/Design/Cross

= Characters =

Professions
Rigid professions have never been something that I've liked. Instead, we're going to go with a system in which a player can pick up to three attributes (out of ANY available attributes).

The character's first two attributes are their "Major" and "Minor" attributes and determine the character's skill set. The character's third attribute is an "Emphasis" attribute and modifies their skill set. Any attribute that can be used as a Major can also be used as a Minor, and vice-versa. Using an attribute as a Minor instead of a Major will reduce the skill selection from that attribute – for example, using Inspiration Magic as a Minor would not allow a character to equip Tease or Power Drain, but would still allow them to equip Auspicious Incantation and Channeling; using Water Magic (as a Minor, in this example, not an Emphasis) would yield Armor of Mist and Frozen Burst, but not Deep Freeze or Blurred Vision.
 * Since we're all familiar with Guild Wars, I'll use it as the basis for my examples. A character with Spear Mastery as a Major attribute and Fire Magic as an Emphasis would be able to use Blazing Spear; the same character with an Emphasis in Air Magic would have Spear of Lightning, instead; with Smiting Prayers, they'd have Holy Spear, etc.

Each Major and Minor will have a class to it, which will largely describe how the attribute performs: Offensive Majors and Minors revolve around dealing damage, Defensive around reducing damage, Supportive around supporting teammates, etc. Since Emphases don't actually determine what a character does but, rather, how they do it, they are not classified.

Skills
Each character gets four unique, usable skills that will reside on their skill bar. Each of these skills will be variable – that is, for example, a character with Flare may elect to charge it longer, for a longer activation and more energy, into Fireball; the same ele with Lightning Strike may charge it into Chain Lightning; Power Attack while running toward a target may end up in a Bull's Strike – based on what the character is already doing, how far away their opponent is, how long they "charge" the skill for, etc.

In addition to the skills on a character's skill bar, each character will also have a number of passive skills (i.e. "traits" or "perks") that give them additional abilities, such as moving faster or being able to enter locked doors.

Skills do not, however, scale – every character with the same skill will have that skill at the same power level; there is no "attribute speccing". There is, of course, "role speccing" – a character with two Offensive Majors, for example, will be able to deal more damage than a character with one Offensive Major and one Supportive Major.

While skills may vary widely, the goal is for them to have very similar power levels in their niche.

Characters should begin with all Skills and Attributes unlocked, I think.

Gear
Gear varies in penalties and benefits. A piece of armor may reduce more damage, but cause the character wearing it to move slower.

There are no rigid "gear classes", either – there is nothing to stop a "caster" from wearing heavy armor (save the drawbacks of wearing heavy armor, which will apply to anyone wearing heavy armor). In essence, ideal gear will be more about which benefits and which drawbacks are most important to the role that the player elects to put themself in, and this role will restrict the player, rather than some arbitrary system.
 * Take, for example, a hypothetical passive skill called Fire Attunement. Whenever the character with this skill takes Fire damage, that damage is converted into energy gain, instead; whenever this character uses a Fire Magic skill, they take a small amount of damage (Because, "dude, there is a ball of flame in my hand").  Wearing heavy armor, which reduces the amount of damage from fire, causes the character to gain less energy from their casts.  Additionally, it has an attached movement penalty.  So, sure, you can throw fireballs and wear heavy armor to take less damage.  Will you be as good at flinging flame as another identical character with lighter armor?  Probably not.

While benefits and drawbacks will vary, no piece of gear will be strictly better than another piece of gear. If there is a wand that gives +20% to Fire damage and does nothing else, there will not be another wand that gives +30% to Fire damage and does nothing else. Keep in mind that there may, in fact, be a wand that gives +30% to Fire damage – this wand will have a drawback to match.

Even though each piece of gear will be more-or-less equal, overall, the value of each piece to any specific character will be almost entirely determined by the player's desired role.

All types of gear will be easily available. Skins may not.

The Story of Jake, the Boy Who Blew Shit Up with Fire

 * Jake wants to blow shit up with fire.
 * Accordingly, he Majors in Offensive Fire Magic. Being new at the game, he's not sure what Emphasis or Minor to go for, so he Minors in Condition Removal and chooses an Emphasis in Large-Area Spells.
 * Jake equips Rodgort's, Savannah Heat, and Flame Burst from his Major and Cautery Signet from his Minor because they have the biggest numbers on them. Jake likes big numbers.
 * For gear, He equips weapons that increase fire damage by a low fixed amount with no drawback; for armor, he chooses something heavy and defensive.
 * He enjoys this setup for a short time.


 * After a brief while, Jake notices that he runs out of energy horribly fast.
 * He changes his minor to Passive Energy Management. Because his Major is Fire Magic, Fire Attunement becomes available to him in addition Ether Prodigy and Aura of Restoration.
 * Jake equips Fire Attunement over Cautery Signet and continues to blow shit up, and is now able to sustain his damage for longer periods of time.
 * Meanwhile, he finds a weapon that increases damage by a low percentile amount; he equips this, instead, because he benefits more from it due to his high-packet-damage skill selection.
 * Jake's doing better, but still not fantastic in the energy department. He's not getting back enough energy from Fire Attunement due to his heavy armor, so he changes his Minor to Active Energy management and equips Glowing Gaze, instead.
 * Glowing Gaze isn't the best at damage, but it fixes his energy problems pretty admirably.
 * Jake's doing pretty well, he thinks.


 * In playing, Jake comes another character who also blows shit up with fire, but Jake is awed by how fast she dispatches each of her targets.
 * Jake decides that he likes her style, so he attempts to imitate it. He changes his Emphasis to Single-Target Damage and equips Meteor, Flare, Immolate, and keeps Mind Blast.
 * He's now able to dispatch targets faster, but not as fast as his inspiration. Noticing his obvious derp, he swaps back to the wand with the fixed damage increase; because his individual packets are lower, but more frequent, this benefits him more.  He can now DPS like a champion.


 * After a while, Jake stops playing with himself and decides to party up.
 * Because Jake now has friends that heal and protect him, he feels comfortable in dropping the heavy armor for some lighter armor that allows him to move (and, therefore, get in targeting range) faster.
 * Because the melee part of Jake's team is so beastly, he also decides that swapping to a wand that increases his fire damage even further, but with the drawback of increasing cold damage that he takes, is a good idea – after all, all of the ice-oriented casters the party had come across tended to focus on fucking with the melee.  Jake likes his new wand.
 * Furthermore, because Jake's no longer inside of a heavily-armored shell, he's getting a lot more feedback from his spells; he changes back to Fire Attunement – not only does it now properly manage his energy, but he can spend more time using his big damage skills and less time casting Glowing Gaze.
 * Jake is a fucking turret, a rapid-fire monster of an artillery character. Everything his melee looks at explodes in a blazing barrage of fiery death.