During this week we mainly worked on armor dynamics and gear. So for this development diary I plan to write mainly about how armor and defense work in the current iteration of the game.
Sorry if you expected some more graphics, but it cannot be all fun and games right? Anyway I think you will find today's development diary very interesting.
Specifically we will talk about:
Melee Dynamics
Armor Coverage
Armor Value
Block Points (Shields/Blocking gear)
Block Amount (Shields/Blocking gear)
Melee Dynamics
It is said that an image says more than a thousand words, so in the following illustration I would like to show the dynamics of melee combat:
As you can see, melee combat has quite a lot of stages. But every stage is simple at its conception and we think together they work very well to provide a lot of alternatives to game play and gearing.
Please let me know what you think about the system and if it is of your liking ;)
Continue the read for details on Armor and Blocking. I will cover hit and dodge mechanics in another development diary.
Armor Coverage
I think this is an interesting concept we introduced in Rogue Empire.
The intuitive idea behind it, is that the more armor pieces you are using the more covered your body is by it. This also depends on the type and quality of the gear. For example, some types of plate armor, in order to allow for mobility, may have less coverage than a leather piece. Currently the max amount of coverage is capped at 85%.
In game, armor coverage works in the following way:
Lets assume your character has a total of 60% armor coverage.
If an enemy's successfully lands a blow on your character, there will be a 60% chance the blow hits your armor, or if put in another way a 40% chance it passes through it.
If the blow hits your armor, your character absorbs damage depending on another important armor stat: Armor Value.
So why this armor coverage?
The main objective behind this system is to give burst damage oriented play styles a fighting chance against heavily armored targets. Lets say you play a dual dagger wielding assassin, this system guaranties that a percentage of your blows will always pass through the targets armor.
Another plus is that this dual system lets us create new interesting abilities for the playable characters.
Lastly it gives some interesting choice: Do I want this piece of armor that covers more of my character(reduce damage spikes) or do I want this other piece that increases a lot my absorption(more damage spikes, but a net damage absorption increase).
Armor Value
Now, armor value is a stat that one would usually expect from armor in a game: The more a piece of gear has, the more damage it absorbs (that is if your armor covered the blow).
Naturally a piece of leather armor will have far less armor value than a plate armor piece.
Block Points
You will generally find block points in Shields... duh. Block points represent how likely it is to block with a Shield. For example, a small round shield would block far less often than a tower shield. This value is used in conjunction with the character's strength to give a block chance.
The block chance then defines if a successful hit is blocked by the shield. If successfully blocked, the total blow's damage is reduced taking into consideration the shield's block amount. After the damage is reduced any subsequent damage gets the armor rules applied.
Block Amount
This is the initial(abilities for example might change this) amount of damage a shield may reduce if a successful block is achieved. For example:
You have a shield with a Block amount of 5.
A successful blow hits your character for a base damage of 8.
Luckily the blow gets blocked, so 5 damage is reduced from it.
This 3 points of damage will hit the character, subject to armor rules.
Hope you like this development diary!
Till next Friday!