AuthorTopic: Fantasy Miniatures  (Read 24695 times)

Offline eishiya

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1266
  • Karma: +2/-0
    • http://pixeljoint.com/p/28889.htm
    • View Profile
    • Website

Re: Fantasy Miniatures

Reply #70 on: March 19, 2017, 05:47:02 pm
IRL miniatures can be turned to face many ways. You have a grid-based combat system, so you could do what most tactics games do and have sprites for each direction.
If you really want to have just one sprite, then don't do facing at all. Even games that use additional indicators for facing direction have separate sprites, because anything else looks lazy.

I like the green overlay for movement, but not the green boot (reads like a green heart) for the selected tile It's hard to see and it doesn't feel like a tile selection to me. Why not stick with the classics, and have a highlight around that tile's edges or corners instead?
Also, it looks like the mockup has some wonkiness with the overlay, some tiles are half-selected.

What are the green things near the exit?

Offline Zizka

  • 0011
  • **
  • Posts: 501
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • Keep on smilin'
    • View Profile

Re: Fantasy Miniatures

Reply #71 on: March 20, 2017, 11:03:10 pm
Quote
Also, it looks like the mockup has some wonkiness with the overlay, some tiles are half-selected.

I know, this was just to show the programmer what I wanted. In-game all the tiles will be properly covered.

I've settled for a "ghost" token to determine the movement location (semi-transparency):


Animation of goblin being hit:


New Orc:


Dialogue system (when PC say stuff):


Introduction read by a voice actor and written by me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqgwKtKe7XU&feature=youtu.be

Actual text being read:
-The 100 Masks-
Up high in RavenTree lived the Count Dragomir, future heir of the surrounding county. From a young age, he wasn’t renowned for his skills at hunting or his prowess at war; it was his fairness which made him the talk of the town. Men quietly envied him while women whispered his name with fancy.
Inexperienced with the very nature of failure, he grew up slightly arrogant if not entirely brash and became ever blinder to his own shortcomings. No women could resist him and no men ever dared surpass him in anything, humility being a safer bet.
Until the last day of autumn of his 35th birthday. He felt restless and he craved the furtive glances women used to give him on the streets which were fewer and fewer as the years went by. On that day, he approached the blacksmith’s daughter with all the wit and charm he could muster. She gave him a polite if awkward smile and looking away, whispered her heart belonged to another.
Wounded pride is known to turn man vicious, and Dragomir was quick to give in to his darker side. A duel with the lover was set the very same day. The blacksmith’s daughter’s champion, a veteran of the Witches Wars, wielded the blade like no other and tried his best to merely disarm the enraged ruler. Alas, accidents happen and in the fury of battle the count was cut deeply down the brow all the way to the chin.
It wasn’t the pain Dragomir cared for although he was in agony, it was his precious features he worried about, peering through the blood at his own reflection in a river, hopeful the pain would subside and his face would remain flawless as it used to be.
Daily praises painfully turned to feeble reassurances as days went by and his disfigurement became obvious to all and eventually even to him. Envious stares turned to glances of barely concealed disgust pushed Dragomir to eventually retire to his mansion, alone with the sole company of his own shadow and rapidly fading happier memories.

Two years after the incident, the very day of the blackmisth’s daughter wedding with her champion, the groom was nowhere to be found. Searches, however thorough, turned up to be futile and were short lived as more disappearances started to plague the RavenTree. The Count’s men did little to investigate as the fairest of the village, both men and women, seemed to disappear overnight.
RavenTree has since become ghostly as those who haven’t fled remain hidden behind locked doors and barely notice as four adventurers arrive in the town determined to solve the mysterious disappearances. 

Offline eishiya

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1266
  • Karma: +2/-0
    • http://pixeljoint.com/p/28889.htm
    • View Profile
    • Website

Re: Fantasy Miniatures

Reply #72 on: March 20, 2017, 11:50:18 pm
The dialogue text is hard to read. You have a gigantic text box with text that the player isn't likely to want to read more than once, why not reuse that for your combat+dialogue log? Have the map intro text be a part of that log, and let players scroll through it.

Offline Zizka

  • 0011
  • **
  • Posts: 501
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • Keep on smilin'
    • View Profile

Re: Fantasy Miniatures

Reply #73 on: March 21, 2017, 10:03:30 pm
Having the text appear above the tokens makes it easier to understand who is saying what, especially for secondary comments. I think I’ll make the text in the descriptions bigger however.

So I’ve been thinking about the combat system some more.

I want to have a system which is simple but not to the point where there’s no strategy involved. I want to keep the numbers low as well without keeping the players in a situation where they’re constantly on the verge of death. And yet, I want tension to be there in battle and each wound to matter as opposed to certain injuries being insignificant like certain rpgs.

Since I’m using D6 I need to make sure to make the most out of it. One way to do this, is add more die in play. I don’t want this to get out of hand like in Shadowrun however.

Every die roll should count and lead to as few “empty” results as possible.
I also want battle sequences to be limited. An example of battle sequences:
1. Roll to hit
2. roll for defense
3. roll for damage
This is what I want to keep as limited as possible.

Another question which comes to mind is: how does equipment come into play? How does it affect battle?

Regarding Equipment:
I want restrict certain equipment to certain classes. For example, certain weapons will only be accessible to certain characters.

This being said, how do you make equipment matter than just for damage? If the only difference between a dagger and a sword is damage, equipment becomes secondary to the point where it could almost be removed entirely. I find that having every weapon have its own unique characteristics would make equipment management a lot more interesting.

The next question is: should I have a martial skill for each character which is influenced by the equipment they are using or simply limit the equipment to each character with predetermined characteristics?

Using only equipment simplifies and streamlines the game, which I like. It makes gaining a level less interesting however as the game would then be equipment focused as opposed to being focused on character.

So how do you make sure both are character and equipment are important? Limiting gear to certain classes does help to further focus on characters.

Stats:
So I already have health and energy as stats. I want to keep stats to a bare minimum. The more stats you have, the more stats need to come into play. Adding each attribute needs to be thoroughly considered. Only what is essential needs to be added into the game.

Here’s what I’m aiming for at the moment:

A skill which represents each character’s prowess in close combat. This would determine how likely they are going to hit and damage opponents. I’m thinking I’d stick to “combat” for this skill or change the nomenclature if you guys can think of something else.

Each combat represents a die being rolled in battle. This would mean the soldier would roll 3 die, the dwarf and the rogue 2 and the wizard 1. If I could, I’d have the dwarf better in combat than the rogue but he already has the highest health so I don’t want him to be overpowered.

Now the next question is: do I need a ranged attribute? I don’t picture every character being able to use ranged attacks. Should I have the wizard use the range attribute when trying to hit from long distance spells or should I have a single stat for magic which manages everything related to spells?

I think a ranger attribute could be interesting. The dwarf could use gunpowder firearms which the rogue would specialize in ranger weaponry like bows and crossbows. Perhaps the soldier could have access to a little bit of both (firearms and bows) without having access to the best of each category.

But then comes the wizard. It’d need to matter for the wizard to have a range attribute so perhaps certain spells could rely on that range attribute.

I think one last stat could be something which encompasses everything “mental”: willpower, intelligence, wit, wisdom, etc… That one stat you use when resisting spells and the like. I’m thinking of a light bulb but might be too close to the bolt used for energy.

So 5 attributes in total: health, energy, combat, ranged, psyche.

Combat:
I’m thinking of the following for combat in order to keep the number of sequences low and things simple.
1. Close combat requires both characters involved to roll their combat stats.
Ex: The soldier (3) attacks a goblin (2). Soldier rolls:
4,3,5 while the goblin rolls 2,3. They keep the highest score in their rolls: 5 for the soldier and 3 for the goblin.
2. We determine the difference between the loser/winner score: 5-3=2.
3. That score determines the amount of damage based on the weapon being used which has a damage stat.

Say the soldier has a broad sword with a Damage of 1 and the goblin has a dagger with a Damage of ½. In this case, the soldier would cause 2 damage because he overpowered the goblin by two. If the goblin had overpowered the soldier by 2, 1 damage would have been caused.

This doesn’t factor in armor yet.

I don’t like the idea of armor being everlasting. I think it should reduce damage as opposed to negate it entirely.

Let’s say the soldier has a breastplate with a defense of 3. I’m thinking the first time the soldier is wounded, the damage is reduced by 3 but its defense goes to down to 2.5. The time after, it would be 2, 1.5 etc… until the breastplate is completely ruined.

I know this is more about art but I like to post my thoughts here so I can hear about game design as well.

Thank you for reading!

EDIT: And a new take on the character sheet:


EDIT2: Rogue portrait:


Wizard (having a harder time with this one):


Second version:


Soldier:








« Last Edit: March 22, 2017, 03:44:04 pm by Zizka »

Offline Zizka

  • 0011
  • **
  • Posts: 501
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • Keep on smilin'
    • View Profile

Re: Fantasy Miniatures

Reply #74 on: March 24, 2017, 11:27:52 am
First draft for ability card:


Top row: classes allowed to use ability (Dwarf, Rogue, Soldier, Mage)
Hourglass: charging time (how many rounds to activate)
Bolt: Energy cost
Icon in the middle, icon representing the skill (single sword).
Bottom: card description

Comments please.

Offline eishiya

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1266
  • Karma: +2/-0
    • http://pixeljoint.com/p/28889.htm
    • View Profile
    • Website

Re: Fantasy Miniatures

Reply #75 on: March 24, 2017, 12:32:13 pm
Are there really only going to be four classes? One of the fun things about games like Warhammer and FFT is the variety of units they have, and the synergy between those units. I can't speak for anyone else, but I wouldn't play a game like this if I knew it had only four classes.
Although, if you're not going to have a lot of classes, you can probably distinguish between them using smaller icons than you currently have, since the icons have fewer other icons to be distinguished from. Your current icons seem unnecessarily large. Also, the classes seem to be "Smith, Orc, Warrior/Swordsman, ??? (Mystic? Cultist?)", only the Warrior clearly corresponds to the existing classes.


I'd put more space between the class icons and the costs (charging time and energy cost), currently they read as a single set of icons rather than as separate information. Maybe even put them on the bottom, below the description, then you could make the art bigger and less boring. If you're going to do "cards", then commit to the card aesthetic - those things usually have pretty big art, and the icons aren't all clustered together.
Also, if you're representing energy with a set of icons, then I recommend using sets of icons on the cards too, rather than digits, for consistency. If you were doing digits or bars, then digits would be appropriate.

Will the player have a hand of cards to look through? In that case, you may want to consider how you'll present information when all the cards are smooshed together and aren't visible in full. For that, the title and costs at the top might be best, and the classes can be at the bottom or side.

Offline Zizka

  • 0011
  • **
  • Posts: 501
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • Keep on smilin'
    • View Profile

Re: Fantasy Miniatures

Reply #76 on: March 24, 2017, 12:41:52 pm
Classes will branch out as they earn levels. In other words, rogue will have the choice of going towards ranger/asassin (with their own builds and strenghts/weaknesses), soldier towards samurai/gladiator, Wizard towards necromancer/elementalist and dwarf towards artificer/rune master. So the basic classes will then provide more opportunities.

Read and acknowledged about the rest.

Offline Zizka

  • 0011
  • **
  • Posts: 501
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • Keep on smilin'
    • View Profile

Re: Fantasy Miniatures

Reply #77 on: March 24, 2017, 09:26:37 pm
Here's another take. I think the icons are pretty readable. A warhammer for the dwarf, thief mask for thief, sword for soldier and staff for wizard.

Offline eishiya

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1266
  • Karma: +2/-0
    • http://pixeljoint.com/p/28889.htm
    • View Profile
    • Website

Re: Fantasy Miniatures

Reply #78 on: March 25, 2017, 01:13:32 am
The hammer doesn't read to me because the dwarf has a battleaxe in the sprite rather than a hammer.
The thief mask might read better without the band on the sides. They look too much like elf/orc ears, at least to me.
The new wizard icon is pretty effective! I'd consider making the staff lighter/thicker and the magic around it darker, so that it's even clearer. Currently, the magic is as solid-looking as the staff, so at first glance it can read like a drawn bow.

The new skill art's more interesting, but is there a reason for all the empty space around it?

jun

  • Guest

Re: Fantasy Miniatures

Reply #79 on: March 25, 2017, 11:58:00 am
I haven't read the entire post, so apologies in advance.
Any reason for using such washed out values? If I were you, I'd look into darkening the darks more.