Level Components

Levels in Inspire are discrete scenario areas. My initial idea was to have them themed, individual style levels, but in order to cut time and money I’ve decided to make them more abstract and reuse elements. Aiming too high is a common mistake that a lot of newbie game developers make, it’s much better to make something and get it out there, and do it again, and again, and improve each time. Even though I’ve made a few games before, I have released few, and am realizing that although I’m aiming relatively simple with Inspire, there’s still a lot of ideas I love that will have to wait for my next game.

So the levels will be made up from common elements and components. Next week I will be modeling them, and the first set of levels, but for now I am going briefly describe some of them. I’ll put up images of level components as I model them.

• Player Spawn – players spawn at this safe spot.
• Demon Spawn – demons spawn into the level at these portals.
• Hotspots – these are capturable respawn points which players or demons can capture.
• Forge – players and demons can forge or upgrade arms and armor at these.
• Buildspot – static spots where players or demons can build towers or other buildings.
• Tome – players or demons can learn new feats at these, for a price.
• Teleporter – teleports players or demons to the target destination.
• Cauldron – if a player hops in it, the player gets shot high into the air.
• Pipes – these vertical pips traverse through terrain to lower levels.
• Tiles – these make up the majority of the level, they are 3D blocks.
• Ramp – like a tile, but a ramp.
• Floating lamps – these provide additional light to some levels.
• Pot Plant – they look nice.
• Wall – buildable and destructible, they block things off.
• Gate – like a wall, but allows passage to allies.
• Crate – every game needs crates.
• Stairs – like a ramp but with steps.
• Heroic Statue – provides a nice buff to allies.

So thats most of the elements I plan to use. Next I’ll be designing the first set of levels (4)  based on them, and then modeling begins.

Feats

Following on from my post on Weapons and Armor, here’s the release feats. Again, quality over quantity. I’d rather see how people utilize a few abilities rather than having 2 dozen of which they use a few regardless. Initially there will be 6 passive feats and 6 active feats. A character can equip 2 passive feats and 3 active feats at a time.

Passive Feats (6)

• Toughness (+2 Vitality)
• Agile (+2 Dexterity)
• Hulk (+2 Strength)
• Armour Proficiency (+1 to all armour stats)
• Improved Critical (+1 impact)
• Athletic (+10% runspeed, +jump)

Active Feats (6)

• Falcon Strike (1s attack)
• Maul (2s attack)
• Heal (2s health repair)
• Replenish (2s stamina repair)
• Evasion (100% dodge for 5s)
• Fireball (3s fireball!!)

Weapons and Armor

With my testing deadline rapidly approaching, I’m locking in more release features. I don’t exactly have a standard production schedule. My development process is very agile and often changes. I’ve learnt that this isn’t always a good thing, I’m learning to focus my design and development a lot better. While there is heaps of ideas floating around, the episodic release nature of Inspire means I can lock in a few now, and flesh out the rest for later episodes. It’s a production style I am liking more and more, one that definitely should be considered by indies.

So, Weapons and Armor. At release, Templar Skies will feature 3 sets of armor, 2 shields and 6 weapons. These are all the ‘greater’ items. There will be a few more basic and mundane items to flesh out the world, but the greater items are the ones the players will be after and be the standard. Now, this might not sound like a lot, but this isn’t really an MMO or an RPG anymore. It’s more of an arena game like Unreal Tournament with persistant elements. Each item will have a unique feat that goes along with it being equipped. It’s a case of quality over quantity. Rather than have 50 swords, each one with slightly bigger numbers than the last, Inspire has a small range of items, each one having a different gameplay effect.

The problem with loot based games like World of Warcraft is power disparity. Level 70 warriors all have the same abilities, and the main difference is through gear. Higher instances grant better gear, to tackle the next tier of instances. A blue equipped warrior will be vastly underpowered compared to a purple equipped warrior in PvP, and a blue Pick-Up-Group versus a Tier3+ group will get steamrolled. (Yes I know teamwork comes into is, this is focusing on pure mathematical disparity)

What I am trying to do with Inspire is level the field more. The range of stats is tighter, there are no real levels or experience points, every character has the same number of feats (there are better versions of feats for those who earn them) and feats and weapons are facilitators by different effects, not by bigger numbers. Here is the ideas for release weapons and armor, with values still to be tweaked. Each item has a special feat that can only be used when the weapon is equipped.

Weapons (8)

• Skyforged Defender – Shield
• Aegis of Hope – Shield
• Raptor – Sword
• Fatality – Sword
• Judgement – Hammer
• Stormwarden – Hammer
• Maim – Axe
• Scorpion – Axe

Armour (3) – all armour is heavy plate – this is a war!

• War
• Legion
• Vindicator

See if you can match these feats with the above weapons.

Weapons Feats (8)

• Defender (100% block for 5s)
• Symbol of Hope (+2 Strength, +10% health repair)
• Raptor Strike (300% damage)
• Fatal Blow (use 100% stamina for 2 points damage for 1 point stamina)
• Damnation (Slow debuff, drain stamina)
• Lightning Strike (offensive lightning strike)
• Maim (Bleed DOT)
• Scorpion (Stun)

Armour Feats (3)

• Warcry (AoE buff – +10% damage)
• Sundering Strike (armor debuff)
• Vindicated (AoE heal)

A Note on Dual Wielding

This is how weapon wielding will be handled in Inspire. Keebles are a strong, burly race, and frown on wielding 2 weapons. Warriors usually charge into battle wielding massive weapons in 2 hands, scything monsters into little monster bits. When more defense is required, they strap on a shield and swing their weapon with one hand.

Ok, so dual wielding isn’t going to be in the game initially. This is because it doesn’t work in the current combat implementation, I actually think dual wielding is badass. I hope to add it in a later episode, probably with a backstory of elite Keeble warriors who turn their back on Keeble pride to practice exotic combat techniques.

This current system works very elegantly with the overall equipping system. Currently the only difference between holding a weapon with 1 hand or 2 is, 2 hands provides a 150% strength bonus, while 1 hand only gets 100% strength modifier.

Action!

If you’ve been following, you’ll know that Inspire has had some business and architectural changes. There have been some design changes to match also. Given the existing architecture and technology of the game so far, the change to a distributed system doesn’t mean all that much to the code structure. As far as design goes, the main change is what will happen inside the zones.

Previously, the zones were simply themed playing areas. Now, they are scenarios, with gamplay modes and objectives. There is still the same design for monsters, players, resources and nodes that there used to be, now the zones have a tighter purpose and design. For instance, one of the gameplay modes is Survival. In this mode, players have to survive the waves of monsters for 15 minutes. Each zone is a complete game, with results and ranking based on what happens.

Combat has been given a redesign also. Combat uses combo points, with different tiers of abilities. Higher tier abilities require more points to activate. With short cooldowns, combat plays more like a fighting game than an MMORPG.

Revised Lore

With the redesign of Inspire, the lore and backstory have been revised and fleshed out a bit. Enjoy:

In the peaceful lands of the Evergreen, lived the Keebles. The Keebles were a valiant, noble people, who tried to espouse the values of their God, Ion. Ion was a wise, merciful God, and the Keebles flourished under his guidance. These times have come to be known as The Ages Before.

Before what, I hear you ask? Before The Scorching blackened the Evergreen. Demons strode the lands, turning lush vegetation into scorched earth wherever they trod.

Keebles were elite warriors with long lifespans, and war ensued for centuries. The effects of The Scorching gradually reduced the Evergreen, and the Keeble strongholds, until Kor the Survivor stood with the remenants of the Keebles on the last patch of green left. Just as it seemed all was lost, Ion sent his celestial servants, the Phoenix, who carried the last of the Keebles to safety in the Realm of Air.

The Age of Refuge began. The Keebles flourished in their new environment and rebuilt their culture. Life was good again, and Kor became a grumpy old, old Keeble. Then the Demons arrived…

Game Features!

Announcing exciting features for Inspire!

• 8 Zones.
• 6 Resources.
• Customize weapons and armor with a forged rune system.
• Persistent characters and character progression.
• Real time action combat.
• Defend against invading monsters, and strike back at their overlords.
• Collect a variety of resources to forge and upgrade powerful weapons with.
• Brave hostile environments to find rare item blueprints, combat techniques and item forges.
• Build defense towers to stop the demonic hordes.
• Capture strategic locations in the zone.
• Resource, Item and Feat qualities ranging from standard to fabled.

Game Modes

• Fortress
• Escort
• Survival
• Lemming Run
• Nightmare
• Last Man Standing
• Domination
• Raid

Control Systems

The control scheme for Inspire has been around since the beginning of the project, and just now was implemented properly when I ran into a problem. Initially it was designed to take advantage of gamepad style control combined with traditional MMO controls. Forward movement was by holding down right mouse button, with mouse movement providing direction. This is similar to a thumbstick control. WASDQE keys could also be used for traditional movement, and number keys for the action bar. Then I did some non-expert user testing on this piece of architecture:

It’s only ~4m wide, and quite easy to fall off. While this is partially a test of skill, it is also frustrating to inexperienced and experienced players. So I am adding an alternative control scheme: buttons which move the player forward constrained to the x and y axis. Left moves the player left, right moves right, up moves away, down moves towards. This should move the player parallel to the geometry they do not want to fall off, but still allow freedom with the mouse aiming.

Lobby

A particular part of Inspire has been bugging me for some time now. The game will be zone based, with each zone being a discrete ‘playground’, and players can move between zones by world map. Some zones will be free to play, others may have to be purchased. The problem? What happens to load balancing for the ‘town’ zone? What happens if the game becomes really popular and gets swamped? What about playability for crowded zones?

While load balancing, code optimization and more hardware could be thrown at the problem, I have a design solution that fits the game style.

When players log into the game, they don’t go into a particular zone. Instead they arrive in a lobby, where they can create avatars, chat and find groups, view other players and choose a zone to play in. This should allow players to socialize and alleviate some server / network load. Now to implement it.

Yeah, it’s kinda like Diablo 2’s lobby.

EDIT: Basic form implemented – server can be run as a dedicated lobby process without anything else going on, and client has a custom gui which connects to the server lobby process. As a very rough measurement, Task Manager reports lobby (one user) running at 10, 000k memory, dedicated server with no zones loaded at 23, 000k, and client with no zones loaded at 60, 000k. Which is promising for further development.

Gameplay Blurb

From my first GarageGames post, as per the contest rules. Putting the gameplay blurb here as a bit more of an explanation of it.

The core gameplay consists of combat, collection and crafting. Basic combat plays out like Tower Defense, with streams of monsters capturing nodes on the map. Fighting is based on standard MMO hotkey abilities, ala WoW. Various collectible items are scattered across the zone, and monsters also drop them, for anyone to pick up. There will be a number of ladders to compete on, and badges to collect. Weapons, Armour and Items are crafted from resources collected or dropped by monsters. The majority of the game items will come from crafting.