Ranting since 2009

 Death Raiders is the new provisional name for the formerly called Treasure Hunters online roguelike project. Today, I’m bringing you one of my favorite aspects of the game: the character creation and development systems.

As I already stated on previous posts, the game is based on the yet to be released table-top RPG Argen Adapse, and it features a character customization system that takes many of the aspects of the original pen and paper version, although containing some differences that there’s no point on explaining yet. So, let’s dive directly into the mechanics themselves.

First of all, there are no classes. Classes killed my father and raped my mother. Fixed, immovable character classes are a poor modelization of reality. Of course, people have advantages and flaws, but also carry perks with them that make them different from other people. I always found stupid that a warrior couldn’t carry a quarterstaff or that a rogue made more damage than a properly trained soldier with the same short sword just because of the class. The worst part is that in the end, the roles are always the same, and the only way to be something close to “unique” is brought by the mere cosmetics.

Enough with the rant, as I think I already cleared my point of view on character classes =P

Most roguelikes, however, don’t feature proper classes, but characters start with some fixed attributes that may increase (or decrease) during the gameplay based on your actions. While this is a much more appealing way to do it, it still wouldn’t totally fit in our vision of the game, and, of course, wouldn’t fit at all in a pen and paper RPG unless simplified a lot. “So, Jon, what the fuck of a character system are you using?“. OK, OK, I’ll proceed to explain it.

The Stats

Initially you’re presented with a blank character; 7 main attributes, Strength, Accuracy, Agility, Toughness, Will, Leadership and Supernatural. These attributes are basically what limit what your character can and cannot do.

You get a free point on all of them, and 14 to distribute, capped at 5 per attribute. For once, this distribution will have a huge impact on your character, and it’s important to think before assigning the points. Why? Because the initial values will basically define the rate at which your character gains attribute points. Also, the initial values are the ones limiting the gear the adventurer can use. I’ll speak about the latter after explaining the first part.

Stats level up. To do so, they require a certain amount of experience points. The amount required varies for each attribute, depending on its initial value. The higher the initial attribute is, the faster it levels up. The formula is as follows:

XP_to_level_up = 10 – Initial_value

So, each time your character reaches 10xp on an attribute, he (or she) will level it up by one point. The higher the initial value, the easier it is to level the attribute, as, for example, with 5 initial points, only 5xp are needed to raise the attribute by one point, while it takes 9xp to level up an attribute with only 1 initial point. Observe that we’re always using the initial value, so, even if you level up the attributes, it will still take the same amount of xp to gain another attribute point.

These extra attribute points will, of course, add benefits to our character. For example, more strength points will allow us to do more damage, but won’t allow us to carry better weapons than those our initial value allowed. This makes the character creation a very important step towards the game itself.

Speaking of equipment requirements, most items have low requirements. For example, the Eridian War Armor requires 2 points of accuracy and 3 points of resistance. However, these are cumulative, and we’ll need at least 4 points of accuracy to equip also a Longsword (which requires, amongst other things, 2 points of accuracy).

The equipment won’t require better stats the better it is, so, a wooden Buckler will have the exact same restrictions a Magic ultra-steel Buckler + 8. Or almost the same, as we might bring some extra “bonuses” to the items that might make them, for example, lighter. This last part is still under discussion, however. Oh, and no +8 equipment either, that was just an illustrative example.

Right now, the character creator already gives your avatar the better combination of items he (or she) can carry. Or, at least, one that uses as many points as it’s possible. Players will be allowed to change it once in game, of course, and maybe during the creation itself.

Gaining XP

So, I’ve explained that XP will basically allow our character to progress by giving him extra attribute points. In fact, attribute levels would be a much more appropriate term. Anyway, how will players get XP? Usually the mob spanking is the basis; however, we’re trying to go one step further and reward overcoming challenges, in general. Killing a zombie isn’t a challenge per se, cleaning that dungeon room filled with them is.

Challenges will have different difficulty levels, the deeper players are into the dungeon, the harder they get, and the more experience (and rewards, in general) they give. A common challenge may be a random room with some zombies on it. Overcoming it may give 1 or 2 experience points. Of course, the more powerful the characters are, the less experience they get, as the challenge will also be considered easier.

Experience points are then assigned to every attribute. So, after winning 9 experience points, all your attribute levels will have increased at least one point, and one or two of them might actually be getting close to getting their second level.

The idea is to follow a somehow logarithmic approach to leveling up, where it’s easy to get to a certain soft cap, where experience starts to be harder to get, until it takes quite a lot of time to continue improving. However, there’s no hard cap at any point, and players will be able to level up for ever… until they die. Death is permanent, at least when it comes to players being allowed to directly control their characters. We were already thinking in funny things that could happen afterward, but that belongs to a totally different entry

Of course, all these points are still subject to change, but the game is being developed around them, with a very specific objective in mind.

More info about the game design and development soon!

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