Transformers: Open World will be an expansive multiplayer third person open world RPG that aims to immerse you in the universe of the Transformers movies.
This thread is focused on the development of the mod and the discussion of the work in progress builds.
_________
THIS MOD HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO COPYRIGHT ISSUES
Hai everyone,
so, its been a while since the last update and theres a reason for why I have been so quiet over the last few weeks.
Unfortunately, I regret to inform you all that the mod has been cancelled due to copyright issues
I really didnt see this coming, but I guess one cannot always get lucky. There was no specific complaint filed from Hasbro (atleast not to my knowledge), instead, Blizzard decided to remove the mod from the Arcade as a preemptive measure and adviced me to seek an official permission from Hasbro, which I did. However, unfortunately, Hasbro politely declined the request and as such this mod project unfortunately wont come to fruition.
Future of the project
However, fear not. As stated in the opening post, the impressive engine behind this mod was NOT made specifically for "Transformers: Open World".
The massive third-person open world RPG mod for Starcraft 2 will still happen!
Currently, Im evaluating in what other direction I can push this project, now that it is is clear that I cannot make this a Transformers mod.
Thanks again to all the people who were interested and looked forward to this mod! In any case, you can look forward to the future of this project!
Since before the release of "Psionic Warfare: Total Destruction" I have been working on creating an RPG experience in Starcraft 2 unlike anything the Arcade has seen before. Transformers: Open World is a big step on that path. More on that later.
While the game is currently truly just in Pre-Alpha, what I want to achieve with "Transformers: Open World" is a visually stunning, atmospheric RPG experience with mechanically advanced gameplay, a huge open world aswell as a pretty large amout of content. Getting the atmosphere of the Transformers movies right is important to me.
The mod will have you choose from one of several playable Autobots (Decepticons may get added later) and allow you to traverse a huge open world - both in robot mode and in vehicle mode. The game is called "Transformers", so of course getting the transformations right is one of the key aspects of it.
While in vehicle mode, you can also perform a variety of actions, like shooting, boosting, aswell as an arcady "gear boost" system that allows you to go even faster and adds alittlebit of skill to the driving. Its important that the vehicle mode too feels like its a complete thing.
Combat
You will be fighting a large variety of different Decepticons, each with a fully programmed enemy combat AI, aswell as indepth third person combat mechanics making for a deep and responsive action-oriented third person combat system that really hasnt been done before in SC2.
You can make use of basic melee attacks, ranged shooting, dodging, power attacks aswell as make clever use of transforming.
The enemies can dodge your attacks, shoot and interupt your own, do special attacks and you really have to pay attention to what you are up against.
Of course you will also be fighting the most iconic Decepticons as bosses.
The combat system is 50% character stats and 50% player skill. It is based around dodging, stunning, countering enemy attacks and awareness of your enemy. Technically, you are capable of taking on even the strongest bosses at level 1 - if you´re good enough.
NPCs and Quests
The world will offer quests for you to complete, aswell as a large amout of NPCs that you can talk to. A straightforward character progression system, consisting of ranking up, increasing your stats and gaining perks will allow you to upgrade your Transformer both in robot and vehicle mode. All of this will make for a pretty lengthy RPG experience.
While there wont be a storyline per se, there will be plenty of little stories in the world itself. You will talk to interesting NPCs, read about interesting things and overall get to know the world you live in.
The World
But it will be more than just combat. While the current build of the game offers relatively little in terms of gameplay, basically just beating the crap out of enemies (as seen in the video above), my aim with the finished project however is a much less combat heavy experience. While combat will be a large part of it, a huge goal with this mod for me is nailing the atmosphere of living in a huge open world as a Transformer - a world that is at your mercy. Traversing a large open world, finding interesting locations and just chilling out should be one of the major appeals of this mod.
I want players to slow down and take in the atmosphere. And there will be plenty of mechanics and little details to ensure this.
What the finished mod will offer:
Several playable Autobots (Decepticons may get added later)
A deep transformation system
A huge atmospheric open world (about 5 times bigger than the playable area in the current build)
Advanced third person mechanics and combat
A character progression system (ranks, stats and perks)
Intelligent enemy AI
Relatively large enemy variety
Bosses
NPCs and dialogs
Quests
Advanced visual fidelity (Huge amouts of custom models and animations)
Limited PvP
While this may seem like alot (it is), alot more of it is actually already done than the current Pre-Alpha build may lead you to believe. Again, more on that later.
Play the Pre-Alpha
UPDATE: For now, the Pre-Alpha version is currently unavailable on the Arcade. Please be patient for future updates!
Simply search for "Transformers" on the Arcade. The mod is called "TRANSFORMERS Open World PRE-ALPHA".
WARNING: You need to have shaders atleast on MEDIUM to properly play this! Otherwise, extreme graphical bugs like the streets not appearing will happen!
The current Pre-Alpha version features Optimus Prime as a playable character, Transformations, a large city placeholder world, a programmed enemy combat AI, several types of Decepticons to fight and all the main third person mechanics for combat and movement are in place. You can also increase the stats of your character by gaining energon from killed Decepticons.
While the mod currently doesnt look all that bad, it currently still lacks the level of direction and polish both in terms of visual and sound that my mods are known for and which defined "Psionic Warfare: Total Destruction". But dont worry, all that stuff will come later on. Once again I will try to push what is visually possible with Starcraft 2. The final game will look much much better than what it currently does.
You are welcome to offer feedback in this thread, but keep in mind at every step that this is the truest form of a Pre-Alpha. There is still alot to come.
I will continue to post updates in this thread. Thanks for reading and feedback is appreciated!
Errrrrr wait, i tryed long time ago to release a zelda game and blizzard didnt like that for copyrights... (got deleted few times + e-mailed to stop publising it)
Did you think about that? Cause it look really cool.
Errrrrr dude, i tryed long time ago to release a zelda game and blizzard didnt like that for copyrights... (got deleted few times + e-mailed to stop publising it)
Did you think about that? Cause it look really cool.
I doubt very much this will be a problem. There are plenty of maps on the Arcade, even very high calibre ones, that are based on preexiting IPs, like Star Trek, Star Wars and Halo and none of these maps faced problems. That egodbout´s Zelda thing got shut down most likely was because his map was basically a direct recreation of an already existing game (using the exact same assets from that game, no less).
This is not the case with Transformers: Open World, not even remotely, so I doubt very much it will face any issues. Especially because Zelda is actually a game franchise, while Transformers is not.
If anything, Blizzard has proven that it is very relaxed and uncaring when it comes to policing the Arcade, especially when it comes to copyright. And that is good. Not sure where the paranoia comes from.
I gave it a quick try. It looks nice and plays ok, it's passable for a tech demo I guess.
Still, so far only the camera engine impresses me. And the custom UI, but everyone can do that who's a better artist than me :P. However, I've seen both of these things in Psionic Warfare already.
What I'd like to see are more advanced gameplay features. How about jumping/climbing on cliffs? Dodging? Switching from walking (ground) to flying/hovering mode? etc. or anything that spices up the combat in any way, other than a simple melee and ranged attack?
If you have any new features up your sleeve, show them NOW! Because as it stands, only the Transformers bit stands out, but not the engine itself.
I gave it a quick try. It looks nice and plays ok, it's passable for a tech demo I guess.
Still, so far only the camera engine impresses me. And the custom UI, but everyone can do that who's a better artist than me :P. However, I've seen both of these things in Psionic Warfare already.
What I'd like to see are more advanced gameplay features. How about jumping/climbing on cliffs? Dodging? Switching from walking (ground) to flying/hovering mode? etc. or anything that spices up the combat in any way, other than a simple melee and ranged attack?
If you have any new features up your sleeve, show them NOW! Because as it stands, only the Transformers bit stands out, but not the engine itself.
Cynicalguy has spoken.
Uhm... there is dodging in the game. Infact its a super important part of the combat system and if you dont use it you wont get far. Not to mention Transformations which also can be very usefull in certain combat situations. And stunning/countering. And there are also power attacks which are also important.
Did you even bother to read the gameplay documentations? Or any of the ingame "How to Play" pages?
From the way you sound, you haven´t even scratched the surface of the combat mechanics. It is far more intricate than "a simple melee and ranged attack".
I suggest you watch the last part of the gameplay video. There you can see what the current combat system looks like when fighting an enemy you actually have to try against (3:29 onward).
Uhm... there is dodging in the game. Infact its a super important part of the combat system and if you dont use it you wont get far. Not to mention Transformations which also can be very usefull in certain combat situations. And stunning/countering. And there are also power attacks which are also important.
I suggest you watch the last part of the gameplay video. There you can see what the current combat system looks like when fighting an enemy you actually have to try against (3:29 onward).
I think for the most part Blizzard probably won't come after you as long as you aren't using assets from other properties. I'm pretty sure the Star Wars and Halo mods that got taken down had ripped models in them. At most they'll probably make you change the name to "Transforming Robots" or something.
Plays really smooth. Graphics look great for a StarCraft 3rd person game. Not a ton of stuff to do but like you said it's an alpha. I'm excited to see what comes of this. Keep it up man.
Currently trying to convert the mod from the HOTS depedency over to the LOTV depedency, mainly because I want some of the effects, however, Im encountering some pretty grave issues with that. Anyone got experience with moving a map over to LOTV?
Anyways, if its too much of a hassle or the risk isnt worth it, I might just say fuck it and export/import the assets that I want from LOTV directly into my map. That works great with effects because the file sizes for those are pretty small, not sure if its viable for LOTV environment models though.
Plays really smooth. Graphics look great for a StarCraft 3rd person game. Not a ton of stuff to do but like you said it's an alpha. I'm excited to see what comes of this. Keep it up man.
Glad you like it. If you think the graphics look good now, just wait until I put a decent amout of effort into the visuals :P. Currently I think it looks pretty rough (for my standards) and the mod will look much much better later on. But yeah, for SC2 standards, it looks pretty good at the moment.
On a side note, its a pre-alpha, not an alpha. Theres a pretty significant difference.
And yeah Im very happy with how smooth it plays. The combat system really seems to resonate with people, Ive seen people play the mod for like 3 hours straight just because they enjoy the farming so much.
Hey you got a Rilly cool map I loved it when I played I am makeing a new doomed earth map and was wondering if I could use you're building models for cities on my map.
Hey you got a Rilly cool map I loved it when I played I am makeing a new doomed earth map and was wondering if I could use you're building models for cities on my map.
Sorry, but for the sake of the integrity of my mods, I usually dont release the assets that appear in them.
If you want all the files i think you will need the singleplayer dependences
Yeah, I am aware of that, unfortunately adding the LOTV dependency creates some issues with the WASD movement. Ive encountered this issue before and the fix was to make a clean map with the dependency that you want and then to copy over all the necessary files from one map component file to the other, essentially transfering everything you have done into a clean HOTS map (in this case LOTV). However, I forgot which files I am allowed to copy over and which I am not, so I have to figure that out again.
So Ive just decided to say "fuck it", I dont really need the LOTV dependencies and I really dont want to do hours of troubleshooting at the moment just to get it working. So, next stop:
The basic perk system is done!
Just two actual perks done at the moment, though.
I think this is a good moment to state that all of the UI is very much a placeholder atm. The final UI will look much better and immersive.
The plan at the moment is to have 20 perks, aswell as 10 special perks. To unlock regular perks, you need to spend Allspark Shards which you get by ranking up. Currently Im thinking to have about 15 ranks/levels, so you never will be able to unlock all perks in 1 playthrough. A single rank up will take about an average of an hour (thats the plan atleast), so we are looking at atleast 15 hours of playtime just to get to max rank with one character.
Specials perks you will unlock by doing special things in the world, defeating bosses among them. They cannot be unlocked by using shards. I think this is a good substitute for the lack of "loot" (I think loot is boring) and it will give more incentive to properly explore the world.
I have some really cool ideas for different perks, some of which will make transforming a more important part of the combat experience (as seen above) and as such add more and more depth to the combat system as you progress your character.
Im not 100% sure yet wether or not to have perks locked behind stats requirements (like having a perk require 10 points in "melee"). Currently, the plan is to have all 20 perks available from the beginning, but maybe it is a good idea to lock 2 perks per stat (so 6 perks in total) behind stat-requirements to make character building more interesting? What do you think?
the UI is okay. When i was about to make one for diablo-style control i spent enormous amount of time polishing without actualy moving forward. I don't think you should improve it. The descision is up to you though.
Maybe better to spend time on adding content.
Regarding the locking perks. In open rpg you can actualy unlock all of them. If the perk gameplay idea is too powerful in compersion to others you can scale it down by lowering the chance to proc, etc. Having a vast variety of choices is what makes rpg experience most enjoyable. With a good balancing should be ok.
Some random perk ideas crossed my mind (might be complete trash in your opinion):
- enemy attacks won't cause your hero staggering unless he has energy (mana), each enemy hit drain X energy.
- chance to redirect enemy's attack
- successful dodging gives a momentum for a counter strike, deals +% damage to the enemy which attack got avoided.
- if the damage taken during last (2-3) seconds > (50)% of your total hp gives +% to a total speed factor OR reset cooldowns
the UI is okay. When i was about to make one for diablo-style control i spent enormous amount of time polishing without actualy moving forward. I don't think you should improve it. The descision is up to you though.
Maybe better to spend time on adding content.
Nah, I want the presentation to be superb. However, the polishing of those aspects wont happen until all the core mechanics are in place.
Regarding the locking perks. In open rpg you can actualy unlock all of them. If the perk gameplay idea is too powerful in compersion to others you can scale it down by lowering the chance to proc, etc. Having a vast variety of choices is what makes rpg experience most enjoyable. With a good balancing should be ok.
Well, stopping the players at 15 perks instead of beeing able to unlock all 20 with a single character is that it actually makes selecting perks a more involved decision and an actual choice. If you can unlock all 20 by the end of it anyways, the choice of perks will boil down to "what do I want now and what can wait till later" and then at the end all characters will have the exact same perk setup.
If you can "only" unlock 15 perks per playthrough, that means you have to make some decisions of what perks to get and which you dont.
As for your perk ideas, I think they are abit too convoluted and number based for what im going for. Though I think the idea of dodging maybe giving you some sort of additional bonus is interesting, I will think about that. Also, the idea that you get special attributes when your health is low might also be interesting.
Well, stopping the players at 15 perks instead of beeing able to unlock all 20 with a single character is that it actually makes selecting perks a more involved decision and an actual choice.
well the perks you meant are some sort of passive abilities/bonuses right? If you have total pool of 20 you might just cap the maximum number of learnable perks per char (like 5-6). The actual rpg mechanic should be just mega epic to realy get use of 20 perks per char (something like D&D), or the character will be just overpowered. You can just make so player may level up passive once he pick it, or alternatively, learn new one.
I mean i saw some maps on battle net that gives this shitton of abilities to the hero which i as a player will never use. Usualy the maximum of spells for a simple mechanic is like 4-6 imo...
Anyway i'm making some blind guesses here it will be good to see your rpg combat system core mechanic to suggest something useful.
Transformers: Open World will be an expansive multiplayer third person open world RPG that aims to immerse you in the universe of the Transformers movies.
This thread is focused on the development of the mod and the discussion of the work in progress builds.
_________
THIS MOD HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO COPYRIGHT ISSUES
Hai everyone,
so, its been a while since the last update and theres a reason for why I have been so quiet over the last few weeks.
Unfortunately, I regret to inform you all that the mod has been cancelled due to copyright issues
I really didnt see this coming, but I guess one cannot always get lucky. There was no specific complaint filed from Hasbro (atleast not to my knowledge), instead, Blizzard decided to remove the mod from the Arcade as a preemptive measure and adviced me to seek an official permission from Hasbro, which I did. However, unfortunately, Hasbro politely declined the request and as such this mod project unfortunately wont come to fruition.
Future of the project
However, fear not. As stated in the opening post, the impressive engine behind this mod was NOT made specifically for "Transformers: Open World".
The massive third-person open world RPG mod for Starcraft 2 will still happen!
Currently, Im evaluating in what other direction I can push this project, now that it is is clear that I cannot make this a Transformers mod.
Thanks again to all the people who were interested and looked forward to this mod! In any case, you can look forward to the future of this project!
_________
MODDB: http://www.moddb.com/mods/transformers-open-world
PRE-ALPHA GAMEPLAY DEMONSTRATION:
Description
General
Since before the release of "Psionic Warfare: Total Destruction" I have been working on creating an RPG experience in Starcraft 2 unlike anything the Arcade has seen before. Transformers: Open World is a big step on that path. More on that later.
While the game is currently truly just in Pre-Alpha, what I want to achieve with "Transformers: Open World" is a visually stunning, atmospheric RPG experience with mechanically advanced gameplay, a huge open world aswell as a pretty large amout of content. Getting the atmosphere of the Transformers movies right is important to me.
The mod will have you choose from one of several playable Autobots (Decepticons may get added later) and allow you to traverse a huge open world - both in robot mode and in vehicle mode. The game is called "Transformers", so of course getting the transformations right is one of the key aspects of it.
While in vehicle mode, you can also perform a variety of actions, like shooting, boosting, aswell as an arcady "gear boost" system that allows you to go even faster and adds alittlebit of skill to the driving. Its important that the vehicle mode too feels like its a complete thing.
Combat
You will be fighting a large variety of different Decepticons, each with a fully programmed enemy combat AI, aswell as indepth third person combat mechanics making for a deep and responsive action-oriented third person combat system that really hasnt been done before in SC2.
You can make use of basic melee attacks, ranged shooting, dodging, power attacks aswell as make clever use of transforming.
The enemies can dodge your attacks, shoot and interupt your own, do special attacks and you really have to pay attention to what you are up against.
Of course you will also be fighting the most iconic Decepticons as bosses.
The combat system is 50% character stats and 50% player skill. It is based around dodging, stunning, countering enemy attacks and awareness of your enemy. Technically, you are capable of taking on even the strongest bosses at level 1 - if you´re good enough.
NPCs and Quests
The world will offer quests for you to complete, aswell as a large amout of NPCs that you can talk to. A straightforward character progression system, consisting of ranking up, increasing your stats and gaining perks will allow you to upgrade your Transformer both in robot and vehicle mode. All of this will make for a pretty lengthy RPG experience.
While there wont be a storyline per se, there will be plenty of little stories in the world itself. You will talk to interesting NPCs, read about interesting things and overall get to know the world you live in.
The World
But it will be more than just combat. While the current build of the game offers relatively little in terms of gameplay, basically just beating the crap out of enemies (as seen in the video above), my aim with the finished project however is a much less combat heavy experience. While combat will be a large part of it, a huge goal with this mod for me is nailing the atmosphere of living in a huge open world as a Transformer - a world that is at your mercy. Traversing a large open world, finding interesting locations and just chilling out should be one of the major appeals of this mod.
I want players to slow down and take in the atmosphere. And there will be plenty of mechanics and little details to ensure this.
What the finished mod will offer:
While this may seem like alot (it is), alot more of it is actually already done than the current Pre-Alpha build may lead you to believe. Again, more on that later.
Play the Pre-Alpha
UPDATE: For now, the Pre-Alpha version is currently unavailable on the Arcade. Please be patient for future updates!
Simply search for "Transformers" on the Arcade. The mod is called "TRANSFORMERS Open World PRE-ALPHA".
WARNING: You need to have shaders atleast on MEDIUM to properly play this! Otherwise, extreme graphical bugs like the streets not appearing will happen!
The current Pre-Alpha version features Optimus Prime as a playable character, Transformations, a large city placeholder world, a programmed enemy combat AI, several types of Decepticons to fight and all the main third person mechanics for combat and movement are in place. You can also increase the stats of your character by gaining energon from killed Decepticons.
While the mod currently doesnt look all that bad, it currently still lacks the level of direction and polish both in terms of visual and sound that my mods are known for and which defined "Psionic Warfare: Total Destruction". But dont worry, all that stuff will come later on. Once again I will try to push what is visually possible with Starcraft 2. The final game will look much much better than what it currently does.
You are welcome to offer feedback in this thread, but keep in mind at every step that this is the truest form of a Pre-Alpha. There is still alot to come.
I will continue to post updates in this thread. Thanks for reading and feedback is appreciated!
Feel free to ask any questions you might have!
Errrrrr wait, i tryed long time ago to release a zelda game and blizzard didnt like that for copyrights... (got deleted few times + e-mailed to stop publising it)
Did you think about that? Cause it look really cool.
I am really afraid you will get foken copyrekt m9
I doubt very much this will be a problem. There are plenty of maps on the Arcade, even very high calibre ones, that are based on preexiting IPs, like Star Trek, Star Wars and Halo and none of these maps faced problems. That egodbout´s Zelda thing got shut down most likely was because his map was basically a direct recreation of an already existing game (using the exact same assets from that game, no less).
This is not the case with Transformers: Open World, not even remotely, so I doubt very much it will face any issues. Especially because Zelda is actually a game franchise, while Transformers is not.
If anything, Blizzard has proven that it is very relaxed and uncaring when it comes to policing the Arcade, especially when it comes to copyright. And that is good. Not sure where the paranoia comes from.
Idk , i think you should try e-mail blizzard in first, they normaly respond (with a huge delay but they did)
I gave it a quick try. It looks nice and plays ok, it's passable for a tech demo I guess.
Still, so far only the camera engine impresses me. And the custom UI, but everyone can do that who's a better artist than me :P. However, I've seen both of these things in Psionic Warfare already.
What I'd like to see are more advanced gameplay features. How about jumping/climbing on cliffs? Dodging? Switching from walking (ground) to flying/hovering mode? etc. or anything that spices up the combat in any way, other than a simple melee and ranged attack?
If you have any new features up your sleeve, show them NOW! Because as it stands, only the Transformers bit stands out, but not the engine itself.
Cynicalguy has spoken.
Uhm... there is dodging in the game. Infact its a super important part of the combat system and if you dont use it you wont get far. Not to mention Transformations which also can be very usefull in certain combat situations. And stunning/countering. And there are also power attacks which are also important.
Did you even bother to read the gameplay documentations? Or any of the ingame "How to Play" pages?
From the way you sound, you haven´t even scratched the surface of the combat mechanics. It is far more intricate than "a simple melee and ranged attack".
I suggest you watch the last part of the gameplay video. There you can see what the current combat system looks like when fighting an enemy you actually have to try against (3:29 onward).
Nah that would be counter-productive. As long as you dont bother Blizzard with it, they wont bother you.
crainy...you are a god!! looking forward to watching this progress.
i think we need a custom rpg initiative page.
Yeah ok, it has dodging. My bad.
Wow this looks great man.
I think for the most part Blizzard probably won't come after you as long as you aren't using assets from other properties. I'm pretty sure the Star Wars and Halo mods that got taken down had ripped models in them. At most they'll probably make you change the name to "Transforming Robots" or something.
Plays really smooth. Graphics look great for a StarCraft 3rd person game. Not a ton of stuff to do but like you said it's an alpha. I'm excited to see what comes of this. Keep it up man.
MODDB page is up: http://www.moddb.com/mods/transformers-open-world
Currently trying to convert the mod from the HOTS depedency over to the LOTV depedency, mainly because I want some of the effects, however, Im encountering some pretty grave issues with that. Anyone got experience with moving a map over to LOTV?
Anyways, if its too much of a hassle or the risk isnt worth it, I might just say fuck it and export/import the assets that I want from LOTV directly into my map. That works great with effects because the file sizes for those are pretty small, not sure if its viable for LOTV environment models though.
Glad you like it. If you think the graphics look good now, just wait until I put a decent amout of effort into the visuals :P. Currently I think it looks pretty rough (for my standards) and the mod will look much much better later on. But yeah, for SC2 standards, it looks pretty good at the moment.
On a side note, its a pre-alpha, not an alpha. Theres a pretty significant difference.
And yeah Im very happy with how smooth it plays. The combat system really seems to resonate with people, Ive seen people play the mod for like 3 hours straight just because they enjoy the farming so much.
single player or multi?
The game will be multiplayer, as stated in the OP.
If you are asking if its the multi or singleplayer depedency, I just want the one that has all the files, including the campaign files.
Hey you got a Rilly cool map I loved it when I played I am makeing a new doomed earth map and was wondering if I could use you're building models for cities on my map.
If you want all the files i think you will need the singleplayer dependences
Sorry, but for the sake of the integrity of my mods, I usually dont release the assets that appear in them.
Yeah, I am aware of that, unfortunately adding the LOTV dependency creates some issues with the WASD movement. Ive encountered this issue before and the fix was to make a clean map with the dependency that you want and then to copy over all the necessary files from one map component file to the other, essentially transfering everything you have done into a clean HOTS map (in this case LOTV). However, I forgot which files I am allowed to copy over and which I am not, so I have to figure that out again.
So Ive just decided to say "fuck it", I dont really need the LOTV dependencies and I really dont want to do hours of troubleshooting at the moment just to get it working. So, next stop:
The basic perk system is done!
Just two actual perks done at the moment, though.
I think this is a good moment to state that all of the UI is very much a placeholder atm. The final UI will look much better and immersive.
The plan at the moment is to have 20 perks, aswell as 10 special perks. To unlock regular perks, you need to spend Allspark Shards which you get by ranking up. Currently Im thinking to have about 15 ranks/levels, so you never will be able to unlock all perks in 1 playthrough. A single rank up will take about an average of an hour (thats the plan atleast), so we are looking at atleast 15 hours of playtime just to get to max rank with one character.
Specials perks you will unlock by doing special things in the world, defeating bosses among them. They cannot be unlocked by using shards. I think this is a good substitute for the lack of "loot" (I think loot is boring) and it will give more incentive to properly explore the world.
I have some really cool ideas for different perks, some of which will make transforming a more important part of the combat experience (as seen above) and as such add more and more depth to the combat system as you progress your character.
Im not 100% sure yet wether or not to have perks locked behind stats requirements (like having a perk require 10 points in "melee"). Currently, the plan is to have all 20 perks available from the beginning, but maybe it is a good idea to lock 2 perks per stat (so 6 perks in total) behind stat-requirements to make character building more interesting? What do you think?
the UI is okay. When i was about to make one for diablo-style control i spent enormous amount of time polishing without actualy moving forward. I don't think you should improve it. The descision is up to you though.
Maybe better to spend time on adding content.
Regarding the locking perks. In open rpg you can actualy unlock all of them. If the perk gameplay idea is too powerful in compersion to others you can scale it down by lowering the chance to proc, etc. Having a vast variety of choices is what makes rpg experience most enjoyable. With a good balancing should be ok.
Some random perk ideas crossed my mind (might be complete trash in your opinion):
- enemy attacks won't cause your hero staggering unless he has energy (mana), each enemy hit drain X energy.
- chance to redirect enemy's attack
- successful dodging gives a momentum for a counter strike, deals +% damage to the enemy which attack got avoided.
- if the damage taken during last (2-3) seconds > (50)% of your total hp gives +% to a total speed factor OR reset cooldowns
Nah, I want the presentation to be superb. However, the polishing of those aspects wont happen until all the core mechanics are in place.
Well, stopping the players at 15 perks instead of beeing able to unlock all 20 with a single character is that it actually makes selecting perks a more involved decision and an actual choice. If you can unlock all 20 by the end of it anyways, the choice of perks will boil down to "what do I want now and what can wait till later" and then at the end all characters will have the exact same perk setup.
If you can "only" unlock 15 perks per playthrough, that means you have to make some decisions of what perks to get and which you dont.
As for your perk ideas, I think they are abit too convoluted and number based for what im going for. Though I think the idea of dodging maybe giving you some sort of additional bonus is interesting, I will think about that. Also, the idea that you get special attributes when your health is low might also be interesting.
well the perks you meant are some sort of passive abilities/bonuses right? If you have total pool of 20 you might just cap the maximum number of learnable perks per char (like 5-6). The actual rpg mechanic should be just mega epic to realy get use of 20 perks per char (something like D&D), or the character will be just overpowered. You can just make so player may level up passive once he pick it, or alternatively, learn new one.
I mean i saw some maps on battle net that gives this shitton of abilities to the hero which i as a player will never use. Usualy the maximum of spells for a simple mechanic is like 4-6 imo...
Anyway i'm making some blind guesses here it will be good to see your rpg combat system core mechanic to suggest something useful.