I love writing game docs, and design ideas. While I realize that i will never be able to create or use every single idea I come up with, at least I can share them with everyone. Promoting the free trade of ideas and encouragement of innovation.
This is going to be a long one so hang in there.
I have always loved fighters, the fast, intense, face to face, hand to hand combat is very appealing. What I don't like is that you know everything your opponent is capable of (for games you are familiar with). This makes sense for top level Boxing or MMA fights were fighters study their opponents past fights to learn what they have to train for. For other games, were you just bumped into someone at a tournament, you should have no idea what there capable of. This idea was inspired a lot by Street Fighter, specifically Ryu and Akuma. If you think about it, Ryu can be considered a basic fighter, fairly well balanced stats and a decent array of special attacks. Akuma is more specialized, less HP and focusing more on all out assault rather then defense. So why not design a game based around customizing fighters were each encounter you are facing an unknown opponent where you can guess what they do based on their country of origin and build. SOmething that is based around reflexes and tactical planning rather then counting frames.
When I say custom Fighter, I mean custom. Nothing like Soul Caliber where you can wear different articles of clothing to alter your stats but your move set remains the same.
First we start with the templates, small, medium and large builds. The following is a very rough make up of stats, what they do and how they are interconnected, as well as basic stats for each template;
Small
Height 4'8-5'8
Health 1200-1600
Strength 40-80
Weight 80-180
Speed 5-10
Recovery 5-10
Stamina 400-450
Practice 25-75
Perception 25-75
Medium
Height 5'2-6'2
Health 1500-1900
Strength 60-100
Weight 160-260
Speed 0-5
Recovery 0-5
Stamina 300-350
Practice 25-75
Perception 25-75
Large
Height 6'-7'
Health 1700-2100
Strength 80-120
Weight 240-340
Speed -5-0
Recovery -5-0
Stamina 200-250
Practice 25-75
Perception 25-75
To prevent anyone from maxing out their basic stats, they are interconnected. So increasing one will decrease another. The player can have passive abilities to increase their stats, but for now here's what each one does;
Height
Height is not connected to any other stats, it only affects the characters size and reach.
Health
Health and Strength are connected, decreasing Health by 10 will increase Strength by 1 and vice versa. When the Player has 0 health they are knocked out.
Strength
Increase the damage of all your regular attacks damage equal to the amount of strength. Increase the knock back of all attacks equal to strength multiplied by 0.01. The player can throw opponents as long as the opponents weight is equal to or less then the players Strength multiplied by 4.
Weight
Weight and Speed are connected, decreasing Weight by 20 will increase Speed by 1 and vice versa. For every 3 weight the player has they gain an additional 1 health. Decrease knock back recieved by Weight multiplied by 0.001. You cannot be thrown if your Weight is higher than the opponent's Strength
Speed
For every 1 Speed, reduce the amount of frames for launching all your regular and special attacks. For every negative Speed, increase the frames of all your regular attacks.
Recovery
Recovery and Stamina are connected, decreasing Recovery by 1 will increase Stamina by 10 and vice versa. For every 1 Recovery, reduce the amount of frames for recovering from all your regular and special attacks. For every negative Recovery, increase the frames of all your regular attacks.
***For Speed and Recovery, imagine throwing a punch from a hands up position. The players Speed will affect the amount of time it takes for the players arm to go from in front of the player to the fully extended reach. The player's Recovery dictates how long it takes for the players arm to come back from the extended reach back to the hands up position and be able to attack again.
Stamina
If the player takes more damage in 5 seconds then their Stamina, they become stunned. For every 40 Stamina, increase Bar gain by 1 per attack. For every 40 Stamina reduce the cost of enhanced Specials by 1.
Practice
Practice and Perception are connected, decreasing Practice by 1 will Increase Perception by 1 and vice versa. Practice starts at 50, and all Special Attacks damages are written at 50%. Adjust the percent of damage dealt equal to Practice being greater or lesser than 50.
Example
A special attack does 100 damage at 50%, if Practice is 50, damage = 100, if Practice is 75, damage = 150, if Practice is 25, damage = 50.
Perception
Perception starts at 50, and all passive Special Abilities are written at 50%. Adjust the percentage of stats gained equal to Perception being greater or lesser then 50.
Example
A special ability gives 200 Stamina at 50%, if Perception is 50, b if Perception is 75, b if Perception is 25, b>
So now we have a good sense of what each stat does and what each template is designed to excel at. Of course if we made it a numbers game it wont be too fun. So we should introduce other customizable elements to the character before introducing Special Attacks and Passive Abilities. We can start with Special Type, and Alignment.
If we look at Street Fighter, characters that can shoot projectiles (with a few exceptions) generally shoot this vague spiritual energy. If they collide in midair and neither was enhanced, they cancel each other out. Why not add spice? To take a page from Naruto (Believe it!), we can apply their 5 different Chakra types for the Special Type. Giving each type a unique bonus, advantage and disadvantage. Letting each player tweak their character to their liking. Not to mention all Special Attacks that require an Special Type now come in 5 flavours instead of one.
Fire
Fire beats Wind, regular Fire and enhanced Wind will cancel each other out. All Fire Special Attacks cause minor damage over time.
Wind
Wind beats Lightning, regular Wind and enhanced Lightning will cancel each other out. All Wind Special Attacks cause additional knock back and have a chance to shield break.
Lightning
Lightning beats Earth, regular Lightning and enhanced Earth will cancel each other out. All Lightning projectiles travel at an additional 25% speed and reduce Speed and Recovery by an additional 2.
Earth
Earth beats Water, regular Earth and enhanced Water will cancel each other out. All Earth Special Attacks deal an additional 10% damage and have a chance to shield break.
Water
Water beats Fire, regular Water and enhanced Fire will cancel each other out. All Water Special Attacks cause temporary stat decrease.
Next, the Alignment. Fairly standard; Good, Evil and Neutral. We'll get to why this is important in a little bit.
Everyone has to come from somewhere, and everywhere has unique fighting styles. So lets section off the world in nice big chunks; North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Eastern Asia, West Asia and Australia. Yes, Risk is still a valid source of inspiration. In each Region we will have 3 fighting styles to choose from, any three for now its not super important. We will follow the classic 3 button fighters, and each Fighting style will have different attacks for each of the following;
Standing Stance
Standing Block
Standing Light Punch
Standing Med Punch
Standing Heavy Punch
Standing Light Kick
Standing Med Kick
Standing Heavy Kick
Standing Throw 1
Standing Throw 2
Crouching Stance
Crouching Block
Crouching Light Punch
Crouching Med Punch
Crouching Heavy Punch
Crouching Light Kick
Crouching Med Kick
Crouching Heavy Kick
Jumping Stance
Jumping Light Punch
Jumping Med Punch
Jumping Heavy Punch
Jumping Light Kick
Jumping Med Kick
Jumping Heavy Kick
Jumping Throw 1
Jumping Throw 2
So your character can now mix and match any of the three fighting styles for each of their attacks listed above. Of course to prevent the opponent from guessing what every move CAN be, we will allow the player to have access from each move sets from 2 of the Neighbouring regions. Of course we're not going to let them know it as well as someone who would be from there, so they lose 20% of the damage, Speed, Recovery and knockback of what the attack would regularly offer. We have all heard of studying abroad, but those people may be having too much fun to learn properly. Each attack will have its own damage, Speed and Recovery that the players stats will modify.
Next, lets talk about armour. Each character will be wearing clothes over various parts of the body, why not let that clothing do more then act as cosmetic? If the player wants, they can assign each article of clothing as light, medium or heavy armour. Armour will increase the weight of a character (but give no additional Health Bonus with the increased weight) and automatically reduce all incoming damage dealt to the area the body covers by a set number, regardless if the player is blocking or not. The trade off, any attacks or Special attacks that the player performs that require that region of the body, suffer a Speed and Recovery penalty. Suddenly everyone is looking for the sweet spot instead of just hammering away.
Finally we reach the Special Abilities section. Each character will have 10 slots for Special Attacks and Passive abilities. Ordinarily Special Attack will take 1 slot and each Passive ability will take one or more depending on the power of that ability. Instead of taking all abilities from one massive pool, let's section it off slightly. We will have ALL Specials, which anyone can learn, then we can have LIGHT, MEDIUM, HEAVY Specials, which are dependant on your weight class and GOOD, EVIL, NEUTRAL Specials depending on your alignment. Yes, each template and alignment will have their own specials designed to enhance the traits they will naturally have. They can learn from others, but not without penalties;
LIGHT Learning; LIGHT= Cost, MEDIUM=Cost + 1, HEAVY=Cost + 2
MEDIUM Learning; LIGHT=Cost + 1, MEDIUM=Cost, HEAVY=Cost + 1
HEAVY Learning; LIGHT=Cost + 2, MEDIUM=Cost + 1, HEAVY=Cost
GOOD Learning; GOOD=Cost, NEUTRAL=Cost + 1, EVIL=N/A
NEUTRAL Learning; GOOD=N/A, NEUTRAL=Cost, EVIL=N/A
EVIL Learning; GOOD=N/A, NEUTRAL=Cost + 1, EVIL= Cost
So each type of character can sample from different tastes. With only 10 slots available, spending 2 or 3 slots for an Special Attack or Passive Ability someone else could get for 1 slot seems very steep. Of course the option is available, depending on what kind of perfect fighter you want to build.
Lastly, Bars and Ultra Attacks. Characters having bars they slowly fill from successfully landing hits and blocking their opponent have been around for quite a long time, so let's incorporate it. Each character will be able to have 1-5 bars and 2 Ultra Attacks that require the use of their max amount of bars or less. So why would someone choose to only have 1 bar as opposed to 5? only being able to do an attack that deals, let's say 500 as opposed to 2500? You guessed it, the bars come with advantages and disadvantages.
1 Bar, choose 2 (including duplicates)
+ 1 Slot
+ 100 Health
+ 10 Strength
+ 20 Weight
+ 1 Speed
+ 1 Recovery
+ 50 Stamina
+ 10 Practice
+ 10 Perception
2 Bars, choose 1
+ 1 Slot
+ 100 Health
+ 10 Strength
+ 20 Weight
+ 1 Speed
+ 1 Recovery
+ 50 Stamina
+ 10 Practice
+ 10 Perception
3 Bars, no bonus or penalty
4 Bars, choose 1
- 1 Slot
- 100 Health
- 10 Strength
- 20 Weight
- 1 Speed
- 1 Recovery
- 50 Stamina
- 10 Practice
- 10 Perception
5 Bars, choose 2 (including duplicates)
- 1 Slot
- 100 Health
- 10 Strength
- 20 Weight
- 1 Speed
- 1 Recovery
- 50 Stamina
- 10 Practice
- 10 Perception
I think that covers just about everything, if I missed anything, or if anything is not clear please let me know. If you want, feel free to PM me custom characters you make up with made up Passive Abilities and Special Attacks, I'll share the best of them with my next blog.
I hope some of these ideas are helpful and that maybe they inspire you, I appreciate all feedback.
