The Wight King(WIP) - Chapter 6 added (12/01/2023)

Aye :fist:

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@bl00dragon Hope you’re ok, brother. Make sure to keep off that foot

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I was thinking about combat mechanics, and how building your character would affect it.

Similarly to personality, I’m not a fan of the percentile stats for fighting or using powers in games like this. So I’ve been thinking of doing something similar to what I’m doing for personalities.

There will be stats for physical and magical abilities, and you’ll be free to build into any of these. Each stat will have different uses, but they will not be limited to one single situation. If you build into power, it won’t be used exclusively to hit things very hard, power can be used to intimidate, to send a message, etc.

Associations of different stats would also let you do things you wouldn’t be able to with only one of them. A wight king that dabbles into magic and is really good with a weapon would integrate magic to their swordfighting seemlessly.

The way you build would be tested, will probably be similar to a “degree of success” system. The wight king isn’t likely to fail outright, but the results of their actions would be much greater for things they’re good at. While most challenges can be broken through with perseverance, it might be different when fighting an especially powerful opponent, like your favorite neighborhood paladin. Your enemies may adapt to your strengths, and work to counter you one way or another.

As of now, there are five physical "disciplines":
  • Power: Raw strength and physical prowess. Power focuses on overwhelming and overpowering problems.
  • Skill: Focus on excellence mostly in martial matters, but also in more mundane things. Mastering skills that will help in battle or otherwise. Precision, perfection, skill is about being better, faster, smarter.
  • Trickery: Deviousness, the ability to outsmart and trick your way out of trouble. Flanking, dirty fighting, dealing with problems subtly. In provides a form of awareness that others may not have, not only of the environments, but of people, of the circumstances of any situation. It’s all about coming out on top and taking advantage at any and all occasion.
  • Toughness: To be a person of commitment and sheer fucking will. Toughness is about standing in the face of impossible odds, and remain standing. Patience, stamina, willpower and durability. This is all about outlasting your problems, to carry the world on your shoulders without breaking a sweat.
  • Presence: Pure charisma, presence is force of personality, the aura and majesty of a great general or king. Your presence can inspire others to greatness, or cow them into submission. Your words will carry heavier weight, the shadow you cast upon the world will reach much farther than any others’. Presence is about having the psychological high ground.
And for magic:
  • Necromancy: The obvious one. The wight king has power over life and death. This includes manipulation of vital energy or souls, control of the undead, etc.
  • Destruction: The wight king is a bringer of ruin, they have access to balefire, the deathflame of the void. But also other forms of savage power, with enough power, the wight king could make all crumble and wither under their touch, or summon great calamities to ravage everything.
  • Domination: The power of absolute control. Domination allows the user to make any and all thing bend to their will, people, spirits, perhaps even more abstract things. It allows one to inspire fanatical devotion, or force the defiant to obey.
  • Empathy: Among other things, empaths are able to feel and manipulate emotions on a massive scale. They can reach out to touch the mind of others, they may give or take, change feelings or reinforce them. The supernatural senses of an empath gives them uncanny insight, sometimes extending even beyond the mind of people.

There might be a fifth magic discipline, but I’m not sure yet.

I’m not going to say anything definitive about how you’ll be able to build into them, but most likely, you’ll be able to fully max one, and have maybe another three at a high level. I’m taking the same approach as with personality, there is no “I win” button, or disciplines that let you deal with every problem the same way without fail. (What I mean is, presence isn’t Arcanum charisma, the last boss won’t get owned in a debate and decide to end it all)

Tell me what you think about that, I’d enjoy some feedback on whether or not this is interesting to you, and if you think there are problems in that approach or the disciplines themselves.

Though this probably won’t be integrated in the next chapter, but I’m thinking of integrating it in the one that comes after that. Since chapter 6 will be mostly focused on dialogue, while chapter 7 will make more extensive use of your abilities.

PS: Jeez this was long, formating it a little.

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Do what you want and release it in demo then you will get proper feedback i think. Tbh the current game doesnt give us an example or image on how those magic you explain going to works in the story or the game. Its still in the clouds even if you explain it. Anyway goodluck man.

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Sounds awesome to me.

Since the concept seems to be the Wight King as a magic knight type, are you planning on the two types of stats be completely separate or allow hybrid choices that check two stats?

Like for example, the Wight King encounters a free willed undead. If separate, then it might be a presence check to talk the undead into joining your ranks, or a necromancy check to subordinate the undead to your will.

Or there could be a presence plus necromancy check, because necromancy might make up for a lack of charisma, or vice versa here.

Likewise Empathy seems like it would make trickery easier, and Power and Destruction seem like they’d go together like peanut butter and chocolate.

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Is there a romance option to the game? And do you plan to upload the characters portraits from artbreeder?

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Quite an interesting system you’re implementing yet again apart from the personality stats. Apart from the questions stsword asked which were bothering me as well, I would like to know if it were possible to think about making two primary stats out of all physical/magical ones and two secondary ones.
That way the player won’t be forced to choose any one primary stat everytime to succeed in a critical situation. One other alternative primary stat might provide more wriggling room and taste than choosing to use brute power (for example) in every situation.

Ultimately, this sounds like that it might sometime in the future amalgamate to form a headache inducing code blunder. I’d advise you to weigh the pros and cons before going foreward with this. I’m not dissuading you, but making sure you’re ready to follow through with it. You have our support in either case. :beers:

There’s a character list in the main post. Imo most of em are RO’s for now.

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Yes, seen that i was looking for an official confirmation on who’s possible.

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I’m not really asking for detailed feedback here, just opinions.

You probably guessed from the way the MC fights, but they were something like a Berserker in their previous life. They discovered later that there was more to it, and developed their magic potential.

Physical and magical stats are separated by nature, but not by function. I want to try to make them interact with each other often. Choices in general won’t test only one stat, other stats can be involved to “save” a somewhat lacking other ability, or they can alter the result completely.

For example when fighting in melee, in general both power and skill will interact, but if you’re good at offensive magic, this might also give you an edge. Or being good in trickery or empathy might let you outplay the opponent.

If you chose to coerce them in the first place, maybe. But there would be other ways to get what you want. You could bargain with them, or convince them in other ways. You also have to keep in mind that using abilities can have unforeseen consequences. If you force the undead to obey you, that doesn’t mean they will stay loyal forever or at all, if they find an opportunity to get back at you or escape your control, they probably will.

“And then he jumps. Into the upper atmosphere.”

General Wight King, scourge of everything that didn’t build 50 vigor.

There are romance options yes. Dandelion, Helena, Erzebet, and a lot of the main cast are candidates.

Also the what now? I never used Artbreeder.

Well the goal isn’t to force people into using only one stat forever. I see your point though, maybe having more maxed stats would encourage people to vary their actions more, But I want everyone to have a different experience using different stats as well. So I don’t want to offset the balance too much.

In essence the code wouldn’t be that complicated. The difficult part would be to be methodical and keep in mind the variations in outcomes of different choices. It sounds daunting in theory, but it’s not that difficult to do in practice.

Sub-scenes can be used to automate some of the more tedious stuff.

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Artbreeder is a tool use to generate character portraits.

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I see you’re talking about the infamous #sub and #gosub. Aye, you’ve treaded the dangerous path. You can handle it then. Go forth and be victorious.

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where did you get the insperation for the story set? its sounds very familiar to me.

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There’s not one specific inspiration. I take inspiration from everything I see/play/read. I don’t know if you’re talking specifically about the story or the setting.

The story is original, I just make characters out of scratch and a plot that involves them and the MC, with an overarching story they all fit within. The setting is original as well, but if there are inspirations I could name, I guess Dark Souls, Berserk and a lot of other fantasy settings, mostly dark fantasy, but even then I’m still making my own thing, I want to make something unique.

Did that answer your question?

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MC vs the Templars, colourised.

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“Hey boss, are you hearing this? It sounds like it’s coming from the catacombs.”
“By the creator…”
“What?”
“Block the doors! It has a theme song!”

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haha, priceless! What kind of theme song though? Cher sang ‘Do you believe I’m getting up ? Cranky and dusty I’m about to kick the Saint Jeebus out of you!’ :grin:

Damn, now I have that song stuck in my head! Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! :birthday: :tada: :confetti_ball: :balloon: :gift:

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Talking about theme songs, when I think of Wight King, grimdark badassery comes to mind firstly.

Therefore, it’d be a sin if i didn’t mention this -

Imagine THIS PLAYING as MC rises from their eternal slumber.

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I dont know why but as soon as my MC gets up from the grave, in my head i hear Its A Kind Of Magic by Queen. :joy::joy:

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Hey there played the demo recently and loved it. Was wondering if you were still working on this? Love the idea for This a lot.

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Lol yes they are