I've been conceptualizing a game for some time now, i have a story in mind, world scope and scenery ideas, 4 classes fairly well thought out and i want to add a 5th. The 5th class i had in mind from the start was one which manipulated plants with energy to both attack and defend. Originally i had thought that the energy they used would cause the plants to either spring up from nothing or manipulate existing ones to a set purpose with varying appearances. Compared to the ideas for the other 4 classes, what I've thought up for the Nature wielding class feels weak and uninspired.
Combat system will be based on a, hopefully, real time attack and defend system where players will have little life and need to use abilities to shield themselves while at the same time searching for opportunities to attack. Resources will be energy based, the player and his enemies have a finite pool that regenerates slowly.
I'm looking for ideas to make the Nature's style of play Feel immersive and would welcome ideas from any angle!
If you wanted to take a little bit of an idea from League of Legends, there is a champion in the game named Zyra. One of the things she does it put down a un-sprouted sapling. She can have a set number of them out at any time. Now when she uses a skill in the area of the sapling it causes it to bloom into a specific type of plant depending on the the skill used. So you could say the resource of the class is how many "seeds" the character has saved up. They can on the fly put down different seeds in order to setup how their rotations for damage or what not would work. They would then cast their spells and it would affect the seeds they had planted, by making them into either status effecting plants, damage dealers, or even healing aides. There is actually a class in RIFT that has a nature based system in it, where you buff yourself and your groups with a "buff" that causes a percentage of damage you deal to heal yourself and those around you. Maybe you could try something that runs along those lines.
One of the things she does it put down a un-sprouted sapling. She can have a set number of them out at any time. Now when she uses a skill in the area of the sapling it causes it to bloom into a specific type of plant depending on the the skill used. So you could say the resource of the class is how many "seeds" the character has saved up. They can on the fly put down different seeds in order to setup how their rotations for damage or what not would work. They would then cast their spells and it would affect the seeds they had planted, by making them into either status effecting plants, damage dealers, or even healing aides.
Hmm, having to grow your weapons/defense from zero, i like it! That it sounds more balanced than being able to grow from any plant and then it wouldn't require a system for having players target plants, foliage is fodder and the class works on ammo and energy. I could have traps mimic surrounding plants to blend in and wouldn't need to have to many unique models for the weapon/defense abilities.
That is why the ammo system would be cool. In defense of any possible PvP implications, I would not have the plants blend in. By doing so you would give that player a massive advantage. I would make them stand out, but once the seeds are hatched, they become in essence pets. They have their own life bars and what not. With say a total of maybe 5 out at a time, and each one has a duration, you could allow people to cycle through different plants depending on the situation.
Sounds like fun. I take it from your initial post that this will be a semi MMO style game, or is it going to be a normal single RPG with multiple class archetypes you can select from at character creation?
Im not actually sold on it being MMO or not, I would really love to have a very deep combat system that supports pvp and the scale of the world would certainly support a full size MMO community. I really want the games center piece to be a compelling story but at the same time im throwing all my ideas about what might make a really fun game at the story to flesh out the world. The initial idea came from a story i had in mind that lent itself very well to being turned into a game but that story Far better fits a single player rpg experience than it does the mmo one.
If it were mmo it would have 5 class types each with its own faction and a large NPC population, the story involves a fairly large conflict between multiple nations/factions. I would really like it to have a detailed character creation system involving multiple different species to select. Some of the possible features i've come up with wouldn't work in an MMO, which i would much prefer to keep them as they would be unique even among the many Rpgs out there.
I hadn't ever played Dark Souls, had to look up a review on youtube. Yeah something like that, less of a demon vibe though and combat would look quite different with the 5 classes, more of an Avatar the last Airbender feel. (the cartoon not the movie)