Like most people, I have an idea for a game. I have a particular concept I want to create with a particular set of mechanics I want to implement.
What I need help with is the underlaying player statistics, how they effect what the player can do, and how I can enable a player endless expansion down a particular path that improves only a small sub-set of those statistics.
The entire game will be turn based. The concept is to explore and learn about the world you're in. Books, scripts, notes-on-napkins will lead you to secrets and dungeons. There are no quests to do this for you. You have to read, study and venture forth.
The base stats will decide how effective you are in combat as well as other areas of exploration and general existence in the world.
It could be important to mention that combat in my system isn't realtime or even in the control of the player. The player decides to enter a dangerous area of the map and the computer decides if they get into combat. The computer also rolls some dice and applies modifiers based stats, and finally decides who is the winner. You may die, you may be able to flee. I haven't decided yet.
At this moment in time, I'm considering the following (classic) player stats:
- Strength
- Stamina
- Intelligence
- Wisdom
- Agility
- Intuition
I'm considering the following three class types:
- Combat
- Magic
- Stealth
Class types have two base statistics behind them:
- Combat: Strength and Stamina
- Magic: Intelligence and Wisdom
- Stealth: Agility and Intuition
Somewhat obvious, I guess. Moving further into the mechanics, I had the following progression system in mind:
- Levels 1-50 are about learning the game and its mechanics
- Advancing to level 50 is fast and is also the cap
- After level 50, you gain Guild Wars 2 style "Mastery" points which allow you to enhance specialisations
- The end-game is about horizontal progression and mastering your class type, but more importantly, it's about lore and finding it
The idea behind Specialisations is you invest Mastery into them and they force your character down a particular path: combat, magic, or stealth. They also lock you out of the other paths, so you can't mix and match. You have to think about what it is you want to do and whether you can do it based on your understanding of the area you're going into.
The idea behind locking a player down a particular path (which can be unlocked and reassigned, but with research, effort and work) is I want to make it difficult for players to simply construct a "super character" that can take on everything and everyone. Think about how easy it is to become a super mage in Skyrim that can blow everything up... boring!
I want a world in which a very powerful mage is useless against certain monsters simply because of the magic resistance and shear strength that monster has: it forces the player to respec' and rethink before walking into any situation.
To summarise, my thoughts so far are:
- Base stats effect everything the player does
- Equipment can effect the base stats as well as potions and the other classic stuff
- Specialisations effect only two stats and lock out other specialisations
- Mastery points go on and on, but the "leveling" curve gets harder and harder quit quickly
- Mastery and leveling up a particular specialisation enables the player enter new parts of the world (which is massive, by the way) and continue exploring, but not without first researching what's there (and respeccing as a result)
Am I looking at a dead end here, or is this possible? I'm brand new to game development and really enjoy the mechanics behind games. Am I describing a classic setup here, perhaps? Or something close to one?
I would welcome and greatly appreciate all feedback. I'd even welcome a preexisting system I can copy/paste into my world and just use ;-)
Thanks again.
EDIT: Thanks for the great replies and questions. I think I'm getting this a bit backwards and will, instead, focus on my location and movment, then overlay combat when the time comes :-)