ForumsForum GamesInterest Check / Feedback - New Arena Style Forum Game

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HahiHa
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HahiHa
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Introduction

As you may know, there has been interest in doing an arena-style forum game in the past, and nivlac724 was the first to realize one (see here), but sadly he went inactive again at the end of the first round. So I worked on a new project, which will have its similarities and differences, but I need some feedback. So please, have a look at it, state your opinions, and hopefully we can get this up and running soon!

Tagging @Doombreed @Loop_Stratos @etg2002 as they also played in nivlac's game.

The prospective title of the forum game will be "The Armor Games: Battle Arena". It will be centered on the RPG Triad of Fighter, Mage and Thief, but allowing individual flexibility. Two players will fight against each other in an arena. Players can move around and attack the opponent if within reach. I don't want to limit the absolute size of the arena as this could be used to force mage and thief oriented characters into melee range, but I might limit maximum distance between opponents (e.g. range 5). Multiple duels can occur simultaneously. At first I will only do 1v1 duels; 2v2 and championships are possible ideas for the future.

Character Creation

There will be Attributes, Skills and Abilities. Attributes and skills are the same for everyone (their respective values will vary, though); abilities can be selected.

Attributes:

  • Health Points
  • Magicka Points (for spell-casting)
  • Fatigue Points (for melee and ranged attacks)

Attributes are the overall stats. MPs and FPs regenerate by a certain amount each turn. Health, magicka and fatigue are governed by their respective skill:

Skills:

  • Strength: Determines the base amount of HP, the melee damage dealt, and what armor type can be worn (light/medium/heavy).
  • Intelligence: Determines your MP regeneration, the intensity/damage of your spells, and how many spells you can select (1-3).
  • Agility: Determines your FP regeneration, your critical hit rate, and how many sidearms you can carry (1-3).

Each character has a base value of 5 for each skill and 20 skill points can be freely distributed. There are three tiers for each skill: Tier 1 at 10 points, Tier 2 at 15 points and Tier 3 at 20 points. Each tier will unlock new features as well as improve the governed attribute. I made an example of an empty and a filled-out character sheet at the end of this post to make this more clear.

Each turn, up to 2 actions can be made. Actions include: (1) Move one field; (2) use item(potion); (3) use ability. Using an ability immediately ends the turn. Moving a second field is possible, but requires AGI T2 and costs 15 FP

Abilities:
Abilities are the various actions that can be taken during a fight. Base abilities are the standard actions that can potentially be used by everyone. Passive abilities are small bonuses, while active abilities are, in a way, special moves (which typically cost more MP/FP or need certain specific requirements). Below, I propose a list of available abilities; I also propose that each player can only pick a certain amount, for example, 2 active and 1 passive abilities, for character creation.

Base abilities
- Attack. A regular attack, melee or ranged, which consumes FP. Ranged attacks require a ranged sidearm equipped and thus at least Tier 1 Agility unlocked.
- Cast Spell. This casts a spell and consumes MP. Requires a spell equipped and thus at least Tier 1 Intelligence unlocked.
- Strong Attack. Melee only, does more damage and consumes more FP. Doesn't affect sidearms.
- Concentrate. Use this turn to regenerate twice as many MP and FP and take only half damage next turn.

Active Abilities
- Holy Strike (deal melee damage at any range, always hits)
- Leap (walk one more field, take x1.2 dmg next attack)
- Rage (melee attack, twice as strong as regular attack)
- Wrath (5 spell bolts that do a little damage each)
- Blast Wave (regular magic attack with 50% chance of stunning the opponent for 1 turn)
- Targeted Attack (doubles chance of doing critical damage)
- Assassin (poisons opponent for 3 turns)
- Combo (6 consecutive attacks with dagger, each has 50% chance to hit)

- Turtle (block chance=50%, requires STR 10)
- Ward (take 50% dmg (melee/magic), requires INT 10)
- Ninja (evade=50%, requires AGI 10)

Passive Abilities
- Wall (increase chance to block with your shield)
- Witch Hunter (increases resistance to spells)
- Nimble (doubles chance to evade an attack)
- Tough Hide (increased armor rating)
- Protector (shield spell lasts 1 more turn)
- Healer (each casted spell heals 2HP)

Finally, we get to the equipment section, such as weapons, armor and spells.

Armor
There are five possible options: Unarmored, Mage Robes, Light Armor, Medium Armor, Heavy Armor. As mentioned before, light/medium/heavy armor is unlocked depending on the strength tier. Light armor has the lowest armor rating (% of physical damage absorbed) but offers a small bonus to FP regeneration. Heavy armor is the best protection, but comes with a small penalty in FP regeneration. Medium armor is, well, in the middle.

If you don't invest any point in strength, you are left with two options. Unarmored means you take full damage, but offers a larger bonus to FP regeneration. Mage Robes offer no physical protection, but a bonus to MP regeneration; you need tier 2 intelligence to use mage robes.

Shields are worn together with a one-handed weapon and replace the base evade chance with a substantially larger chance to fully block an attack. There are two shield types: Shield and Tower Shield. The Tower Shield is twice as likely to block an attack and is more effective against 2h weapons, but comes with a small penalty in FP regeneration. Blocking a strong attack reduces some of the defender's FP.

Weapons
Here again I propose five options: Sword, Axe, Mace, Polearm and Staff. The first three are the conventional melee weapons; they come in two variations, one-handed and two-handed (i.e. Greatsword, Battleaxe, War Hammer). One-handed weapons come with a shield (except if you carry sidearms), while two-handed weapons deal double damage. Axes deal slightly more damage than swords and use one more FP, maces deal slightly more damage than axes and use two more FP compared to a sword.

Polearms are always two-handed, deal 1.5 times the regular damage, but can reach opponents not only within melee range but also 1 field away.

The staff is the mage's best friend as far as weapons go. It deals a bit less damage than a sword, but offers its wielder increased spell damage (passive bonus). As with the robes it requires tier 2 intelligence to wield.

Base melee damage will be partly based on your strength level. Here is the formula I intend to use: Damage = 10 * (0.5 + STR/20). So it will range from min. 7.5 to max. 15.

Sidearms
Sidearms are unlocked with agility tiers. The dagger is the only melee sidearm, deals a bit more than half damage and can be wielded together with a one-handed weapon; in this case, both will contribute to damage. There are three ranged sidearms: Throwing Weapons (e.g. stars, darts), Crossbow, and Longbow. All ranged weapons require at least one free field between opponents (range 2 and higher). Throwing weapons and crossbows can be worn together with a one-handed weapon, but not used simultaneously. Instead, you can either use melee or ranged attacks. Longbows require both hands. You can switch configuration during a fight; you can move while switching or remain standing, in both cases it uses up a turn. Throwing weapons are the only weapons that can also be used while moving (ranged attack), but this comes with a penalty in accuracy. Longbows are best at long range (max damage at range 4 and more), the crossbow is best at intermediate range (max damage at range 3), and throwing weapons are best at short range (max damage at range 2). Since range is of the essence for an agility-based character, tier 3 agility allows to move 2 fields at once.

Spells
Spells work at any range and require MP to be cast, also at least tier 1 intelligence. This is my list of spells to be chosen from:
- Fire spell: deals regular magicka damage plus a small amount of additional burning damage
- Frost spell: deals regular magicka damage plus some additional damage to the opponent's FP
- Shock spell: deals regular magicka damage plus some additional damage to the opponent's MP
- Shield: casts a magical shield around the player, reducing physical and magical damage taken for 3 turns
- Summon Familiar: summons a familiar that deals melee damage to the opponent. Comes in three levels, depending on the player's intelligence tier (if cast away from opponent, will have to move within melee range first)
- Teleport: instantly teleports caster to range 3 (when in melee range)

Spell damage is equal to your intelligence level. For example, a base fire spell with 20 intelligence will deal 20 damage (plus burning damage).

Customization
You will be able to customize your character's equipment without influencing the stats; for example, if you choose the sword and shield, you can name them 'Saber' and 'Targe' for example as long as the type (here 'Sword' and 'Shield') are put in brackets next to the name. Same goes for armor and sidearms.

Races
You can choose a race you want to play as. Racial bonuses might be added; for now they are purely cosmetic.

Potions
Every duelist starts with 6 potions in the inventory: 2 Health potions, 2 Mana potions and 2 Recovery potions. A potion regenerates 20 points of health, magicka or fatigue, respectively.

Now, I think this is all there is to say so far. So please, have a look at it and tell me if you'd want to play this, and don't hold back on questions or feedback!

Examples

Empty character sheet:

Name
Race(?)

HP=100
MP=100 + 10/turn
FP=100 + 10/turn

STR: 5/20
INT: 5/20
AGI: 5/20

Armor: -
Weapon: -
Spells: -
Sidearms: -

Abilities:
- Attack (melee)
- Attack (ranged)
- Cast Spell
- Strong Attack
- Concentrate

Inventory:
- Health potion (2)
- Mana potion (2)
- Recovery potion (2)

Example of a finished sheet:

Sir Testalot
Human

HP=130
MP=100 + 12/turn
FP=100 + 10/turn

STR: 20/20
INT: 10/20
AGI: 5/20

Armor: Heavy
Weapon: Excalibur(Sword), Shield
Spells: Summon T1 Familiar
Sidearms: -

Abilities:
- Attack (melee)
- Cast Spell
- Strong Attack
- Concentrate
- Wall
- Holy Strike
- Rage

Inventory:
- Health potion (2)
- Mana potion (2)
- Recovery potion (2)

  • 36 Replies
etg2002
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etg2002
703 posts
Scribe

Doombreed brings up a good point. I recommend all attacks have a priority level, and whichever one has the most priority goes first. And who knows, we could figure out some kind of coding for spoiler tags so we can make them compacted so we don't know what happens. Is there such a feature? There should be.

HahiHa
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HahiHa
8,254 posts
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How about this: using an ability (attack, defense) takes a full turn and cannot be done while moving; however, when you move you can do a secondary action, like using an item (potion) or switching weapon configuration (when you have more than one sidearm). So far the latter would take a turn too; if I combine this with moving, it should already make things easier for thieves without penalizing fighters too much.

Introducing priorities might be a possibility, but it would require having a rank list for all attacks, and that sounds like too much work right now... also then we could ask ourselves 'what about initiative?'.
Hmmm.... initiative roll?....

Loop_Stratos
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Loop_Stratos
5,291 posts
Jester

I'm fine with using pots and switching weaps only with moving. Introducing priorities would be fine also.

HahiHa
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HahiHa
8,254 posts
Regent

Update 1.1

Updated blocking:

  • added Tower Shields (double the block chance, -1 to FP regen)
  • -5FP when blocking strong attack with any shield
  • -5FP when blocking 2h attacks with regular shield (cumulative with Strong Attack penalty)

Reduced effects of armor on FP regeneration

Modified Combo Ability and specified Strong Attacks in case of sidearm

Throwing Weapons can be used while moving, but with a penalty on hit success (target evade chance +20%)

Switching weapon configuration can now be done while moving (will still take a turn even if not moving)

Minor clarifications in the text

Added potions

  • HP / MP / FP potions
  • regenerate 20 points of the respective attribute
  • Everyone starts with 2 of each in inventory

Open issues

Races (cosmetic or not)

Ranged damage

Limit of actions per turn

Additional defensive abilities

-----
Oh, and I will have to abbreviate the OP, the last part of the example character sheet was cut off.

etg2002
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etg2002
703 posts
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Races, i believe should not be cosmetic, but have small boosts that augment certain things:
Elves: Have an affinity for bows, throwing weapons, and nature. (+5% Damage for ranged and nature based attacks, but -5% health)
Orcs: Berserkers, with a affinity for massive weapons. (2h weapons gain +10% damage, at the cost of +5% damage taken.)
Humans: The jack of all trades, no cons or pros.
(Going into my own races i think should be included now.)
Demons: Armored warriors, but are inept with magic. (-15% damage taken, +10% damage, BUT -40% effectiveness with spells and potions (they cannot make them very well, either.))
Elemental (Fire, Ice, Air, and Earth.): Have a special buff with each kind. (Fire: sets enemies on fire, 2 damage a turn. Ice: Has a SMALL chance to freeze (Stun) Air: Increased agility. Earth: -10% damage taken)

Welp. that is all i can think of. have fun!

Doombreed
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Doombreed
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I find all the updates nice, they will add variety to the game and balance it I believe So I will focus on the open issues:

Races (cosmetic or not)
I agree with Etg, the races can have a minor bonus and penalty to further help with each one's fighting style.

Elves of all kinds can have +5% for ranged attacks and -5% health indeed, that is a nice idea.
Humans and Orc suggestions for race bonuses and penalties are also ok.

However, I am going to suggest something different for the Demons because I've included the Undead as a separate race:

Demons could take -10% damage from magical attacks (to represent their otherworldly nature), but lose an extra FP for everything (to represent their energy in the material plane being drained). Alternatively, they could take -5% magical damage but lose an extra FP only when attacking or something, any combination of those that sounds balanced enough is fine

Undead on the other hand could have better FP regeneration (mass of bones don't get tired xD ) but less magical aptitude, they could take 5% more damage from magical attacks to represent their total lack of will (animated bones don't have the mind to protect themselves from magic, it could make them easy targets).

Limit of actions per turn

How about this: You limit the actions to 2 (ok just describing how XCOM's action system works ) per turn and end any player's turn once he attacks or uses an ability. So only moving cannot end the turn, if he attacks, his turn is over, if he uses another ability, his turn is over. If he moves and attacks then, same thing. That will allow moving and attacking (if we decided on that) but not 'hit & run'. Or the second action could be moving as well so if you move twice on a turn, you could end up 2 fields away. However, I would suggest this kind of 'dashing' is made to reduce FP to make sure to avoid running around without fighting.

Additional defensive abilities

I like that idea. Abilities that increase your defensive capabilities. Something like Entrench, which doubles your block chance for the next 2 turns possibly. will make sure to post of any other I can think of.

HahiHa
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HahiHa
8,254 posts
Regent

Two voices for racial traits and XCOM-like turn system... sounds reasonable. Alright, I'll put something together ^^

HahiHa
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HahiHa
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Regent

Note: the racial bonuses listed below are my proposition; I decided to go with small bonuses without compensation (except for angels and undead, since I figured a bonus to attribute regeneration of 1 (which represents 10%) is a bit more advantageous). If you don't like one of the races as they are now, please tell me so. More can always be added.

Update 1.2

Racial traits:
Humans: +5% block rate
Elves: +5% ranged damage
Orcs: +5% 2h damage
Demons: +5% magic resistance
Angels: +1 MP regen, +5% melee damage taken
Spirits: +5% evade rate
Elementals: +5% spell damage for element of corresponding type
Undead: +1 FP regen, +5% damage (melee and magic) taken

Updated turn system
Each turn, up to 2 actions can be made. Actions include: (1) Move one field; (2) use item(potion); (3) use ability. Using an ability immediately ends the turn. Moving a second field is possible, but requires AGI T2 and costs 15 FP.

Adapted Leap ability ("move one more field" instead of "walk two fields"; increased FP cost)
(I'm keeping the Leap ability for fighters who have neither a teleport spell nor the agility necessary to walk two fields; since it comes with a higher vulnerability to damage in the next turn, I think this should be balanced)

Added three defensive (active) abilities:

  • Turtle (block chance=50%, requires STR 10)
  • Ward (take 50% dmg (melee/magic), requires INT 10)
  • Ninja (evade=50%, requires AGI 10)


Open issues

Ranged damage

Maybe I should also increase the number of abilities one can pick? So far I set it at 1 passive and 2 active ones, maybe pick 3 actives instead? Or even 2 passives?

Doombreed
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Doombreed
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The racial bonuses sound fine, so do the abilities and the action system

As for the ranged damage, will have to look into it a bit further to provide feedback...

Maybe I should also increase the number of abilities one can pick? So far I set it at 1 passive and 2 active ones, maybe pick 3 actives instead? Or even 2 passives?

I'd say definitely more abilities, with a priority in more active ones. I suppose when you say 1 passive and 2 active that is "1 passive and 2 active ones aside from the basic", right? The passive number of abilities sounds fine. Right now there is a small pool of abilities to choose from. We should have some more I think to allow for more choices. I can come up with some ideas.

etg2002
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etg2002
703 posts
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OK, on ranged damage, i am gonna try to see what some of the more popular thrown weapons IRL are so we can have a list.

*FIVE MINUTES LATER*

OK, you can find lots of weird weapon on wikipedia. here are a few throwing weapons i found to make a list for us:
Shurikens
Throwing Knives
Chakrams
Kestros (Website for info on it Here.)
Kpinga (Info)
Dragon Beard Hook (Do your own research, for some reason i cannot get to the websites on it)

Those are the ones i can find. here are some ideas for them based on their attributes:
Shurikens: basic.
Knives: basic.
Chakrams: High base damage, but greatly effected by armor.
Kestros: Long range, armor peircing, low(er) base damage.
Kpinga: Low base damage, however, has one of the following effects: 1/4 chance to stun, 1/4 chance to bleed, 1/2 chance to do +2 damage.
Dragon beard hook: low damage, bleeds, bring target one field closer to you. if it is the first action, you are able to attack with a one handed weapon, but cannot move.

For the abilities, i think we should have 3 "Ability Slots" that can be swapped in between matches. these "Slots" can have either active or passive abilities, so you can have a buffed up character with no actives, or a burst down character with no passives.

HahiHa
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HahiHa
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OK, you can find lots of weird weapon on wikipedia. here are a few throwing weapons i found to make a list for us:
Shurikens
Throwing Knives
Chakrams
Kestros (Website for info on it Here.)
Kpinga (Info)
Dragon Beard Hook (Do your own research, for some reason i cannot get to the websites on it)

Those are nice propositions for throwing weapon types! However, I will not give them separate stats in this game. Sorry for your work, but if we start to give every weapon type separate stats, then we'd have to do the same for the umpteen different types of swords, axes, maces, polearms, bows, crossbows... and then what about armor, and shields? We'd end up with a list longer than the OP, and this is simply not realistic for such a forum game.

As I said at the beginning, you can choose your weapon type freely, as a cosmetic effect, as long as the category is given in brackets, like in this example:

'Sidearm: Chakram (Throwing Weapon)'

For the abilities, i think we should have 3 "Ability Slots" that can be swapped in between matches. these "Slots" can have either active or passive abilities, so you can have a buffed up character with no actives, or a burst down character with no passives.

You can change your whole character in between matches if you like And the 3 ability slots is basically what we have right now, except that they are fixed with 1 passive and 2 active. Getting rid of this fixed separation may be an interesting idea; nevertheless I think we should increase the number of slots to at least 4, if not 5. We'll come up with a few more abilities to make things interesting, too.

Now, as for ranged damage. Here is what I propose: ranged weapons have a base ranged damage. 5, 10 and 15 for throwing weapons, crossbows and longbows respectively. From there on I will treat it just like melee weapons except that it is dependent on AGI instead of STR:

Damage = (base ranged damage) * (0.5 + AGI/20)

I also propose to add -only for the longbow- 1% damage for each point in STR. This should make it interesting as it would make it a viable sidearm even for fighter characters who invest their remaining tier in agility.

mamibo
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mamibo
686 posts
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Hm, this whole project is getting somewhere. Somewhat inspired by elder scrolls, right? I'm not sure if I can contribute any ideas right now, but I'll be following your progress and I'll be sure to play it when it's finished.
{Long live His Majesty The King! XD}

etg2002
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etg2002
703 posts
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I agree with HahiHa on the longbows, however, with more abilities, i think this would be interesting:
taking inspiration from games like Overwatch, you could have abilities with intertwine with each other and your weapon. for instance, an ability that absorbs damage, to turn it into extra damage for your next attack! these kind of abilities would take up more "Slots" than others, making it fair. another one you could have is you send out some kind of thingy (Gonna call it "Drone" for now) that does different things with your other abilities. so, you could have 1 passive, one ability which sends out a drone, and another which makes said drone do an attack of some kind.

Loop_Stratos
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Loop_Stratos
5,291 posts
Jester

You can change your whole character in between matches if you like

didn't expect that...

Damage = (base ranged damage) * (0.5 + AGI/20)

Isn't the AGI bonus too small? I think strength is actually more beneficial in longbows.

I also propose to add -only for the longbow- 1% damage for each point in STR. This should make it interesting as it would make it a viable sidearm even for fighter characters who invest their remaining tier in agility.

I'm fine with that.

HahiHa
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HahiHa
8,254 posts
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Somewhat inspired by elder scrolls, right?

Definitely My first draft was completely Morrowind-based, I actually got rid of most of it now. Got too complicated...

I'm not sure if I can contribute any ideas right now, but I'll be following your progress and I'll be sure to play it when it's finished.

That's fine, we're almost done I think. Glad you're willing to give it a try! This means we already have enough people for two duels ^^

didn't expect that...

Before I forget, this means the Hall of Fame will count victories for each user, not character (obviously). But I think it is only fair that you can completely change between duels, to try out different combinations or fine-tune your preferred build.

Isn't the AGI bonus too small? I think strength is actually more beneficial in longbows.

I'm using the same formula for melee damage (melee dmg * (0.5 + STR/20) ). I consider it reasonable, since it means the base multiplier everyone has is *0.75, and you can get up to *1.5, which means +50% of the initial weapon damage. Same for ranged weapons. The strength bonus for longbows only goes up to an additional +20% maximum, for fighter characters, and less for thief characters.
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