Blogs - Thr111

This is going to sound more like a story then a design doc, because well thats what it kind of is. I'm sure everyone is fairly familiar with Pokemon anyway.
This version is set in the past, around 1550 AD, somewhere in Japan. Pokemon are treated very much like wild animals and are used as such. However Pokemon are not the driving force of the world your in, you are a person who has interest in training the pocket monsters where the rest of the world just sees them as wildlife. However recently the Samurai who are at constant war with their neighboring clans have begun using Pokemon as tools of war, slaughtering each other and each others Pokemon in an attempt to control larger and larger swatches of territory. The wild Pokemon have not taken kindly to this, and have begun attacking travelers and their Pokemon, fighting to the DEATH, rather then knocking each other unconscious. With multiple enemies often jumping on a single opponent or more Pokemon joining the battle midway. The wild Pokemon don't seem to mind as they have hunted each other since time immemorial. Trainer battles are still to knock out
The game includes most of the decent looking Pokemon from the first three generations with limited legendary's. Also adjustment to some Pokemon's types and how the evolve. Example, Slowpoke no longer evolves through leveling, it has a 1/50 chance of evolving into Slowbro when being attacked with a physical attack from Shellder. So as a Pokemon that is an evolution of 2 different pokemon, each level its stats would increase by both Slowbros regular stats and Shellders stats, while learning both move sets.
The player no longer has the option to buy Pokeballs (in most cases) the player can still collect acorns and bring them to nearby blacksmiths, as well as buy blueprints of pokeballs so these blacksmiths know what their making. There are no more Pokemon centers, players can pay a fee and rest at an inn or eat at a restuarant. The players can collect herbs and recipies for doctors to make medicines from. Players no longer earn money from defeating trainers, however they can earn money and xp from side quests and buy selling unwanted pokemon to butchers or collectors. There is no pokedex, however as a study of pokemon you do draw them by hand with a note of their habbits and abilities. You only draw a pokemon after battling it 10 times, you draw write information about it if you own it every time you spend the night at an inn. For TM's and HM's, they are no longer taught through discs, the player now needs to leave their pokemon with a trainer who will teach it to the pokemon over a period of time, based on how many steps the player takes
To combat this more dangerous world the player gets a more direct interaction in battles. Things that include nets that prevent enemies from running and dodging, poison kunai that both damages and has a chance to poison enemies. Mystical scrolls, which for 1 turn transform a special attack into a different type of special attack (ie, thunder to fire, water to ice, ect). Brief ideas to show you how the world is far more savage from what it is now. Finally, armour or weapons on Pokemon. Just as Pokemon can hold 1 item now, they will be able to wear 1 piece of armour or 1 assault piece (ie steel claws) in battle. If the Pokemon is wearing an assault piece, they (usually) gain a temporary attack associated with that assault piece is.
For the Dojo (Gym) leaders, they will all have 6 Pokemon however the rules of battling them will more closely follow the anime, each player only gets to use a set number of Pokemon. Also when facing them, they have second throw advantage where the player still uses the Pokemon that is first in their lineup, the Dojo leader gets to choose from any of their 6. No trainer items, Pokemon armour or assault pieces will be allowed during Dojo matches.

So I think now that I have given you the basic world idea, I can tell you about the actual adventure.

You start with your elder sister, older twin and yourself standing before your father. Your father explains that the Shogun is arranging a Pokemon tournament for the entertainment of the Emperor, and only the greatest of Pokemon will be allowed before them to demonstrate their skills. To ensure this, the Shogun has entrusted 8 powerful trainers to test a Pokemon power, to see if they are worthy or not. Your father is a famous Pokemon breeder and insists that one of his children carry on his name sake and show them how justified your family reputation is. He would go himself had he not been crippled in service to his Daimyo. As his three eldest children, he places this quest upon your heads.
He gives you the option of 3 Pokemon, fire, water and grass. Each is randomized from the first three generations so that the fire could be charmander, cyndiquil or torchic, the same goes for the other 2 types.
Your eldest sister refuses, staying her place is here with him. Your elder twin chooses the Pokemon next, his choice is based on the Pokemon's final evolution stats. You may then choose from the remaining two Pokemon. After you have chosen you challenge your brother to a battle, he refuses on the grounds that you each just received your Pokemon and you need time to grow along side it. You hear a voice off screen telling you that she'll battle you. With that your younger sister rushes onto the screen, grabs the remaining Pokemon and starts a battle with you.
After winning the battle, your father seeing the passion in your younger sisters battle allows her to keep the Pokemon and go on the adventure as well, even though she is only 10 years old. Your father gives each of you 3 Pokeballs and looks for your brother, but he has left during the battle. Your father tells you you will both need to work hard to live up to the standard he has always set. Your younger sister bosts that shes going to be better then both of you and runs off.

On your fathers farm there are a few rare free range Pokemon walking about and a few servants. Going south you enter the town, where you meet another very energetic youth who has also heard of Shoguns tournament and asked his poor fisherman parents to get him some Pokemon. He realizes that you have Pokemon and the battle begins, he has 4 magikarps. Easy victory, he decides to try and catch more Pokemon to make his parents proud.

At this point your wondering, why do I need 3 rivals, well to keep you on your toes.

So the player leaves the city and begins exploring the path. To the east there are steep cliffs and the ocean, north east a sandy cove were the player cant progress do to heavy rocks that need to be moved. North mountain range, north west they can find a cave with a man in skins named Ishihara, who offers them a potion recipe if they promise not to tell where they found him. West is dense forest, south is more cliff face and ocean and south west is the entrance to the forest. At the entrance to the forest you meet a lumberjack who battles you, he has an interesting mix of Pokemon, including 2 low level ghosts. If you win he will allow you to sleep in his house to recover. In the woods there are a few bug catchers with decent Pokemon, mostly scary bugs. The player will also find a woman looking for her two lost children, if the player looks hard enough they will find a cave with 2 unmarked graves of the children. Also in the forest there is a pond with a 1 time encounter, based on your starting Pokemon. If you have fire you will find Psyduck, water Exeggcute and grass, Venonat. If the player goes north they will find a farm, west they will find a bridge with a trainer demanding payment to cross. You don't have enough money so you have to battle him. While crossing the bridge you encounter your brother, your brother says you must have become quite skilled by now and challenges you. After you defeat him he promises to redouble his efforts and leaves. If you follow him you reach the first town with a Dojo, the Water Dojo along the cliffs. The Dojo Leader has a starmie, vaporeon, gyarados, relicanth, poliwrath and a wailmer all in their mid twenties and with a few nasty TM surprises thrown in.

In the farm
Rice is growing, and a few carpenters are building a bridge across a ravine. A farm hand is selling baby Pokemon, including, ponyta, miltank, tauros, mareep, meowth and growlith. The first 4, the player will be able to find no were else in the world. There is also a lazy farm hand who will ask you to help him with chores, starting with clearing murkrows from the fields, then killing a bunch of ratatas in the sellers and a raticate. After you have done everything for him he refuses to pay you unless you defeat him in a Pokemon battle. Once the player has collected 5 badges from around the outer path the bridge will be complete and the player will be able to walk over the mountain tops to the 6th Dojo location.

Any ideas and feedback would be greatly appreciated.

This idea came from a combination of fun games that were smushed together, and worked. It is literally a combination of several games and the moments of them which I found fun.
You and your best friend are riding around in Warthog (Halo) that the player on the gun, gets to choose what gun they have, be it Rocket, Concussion or good ol' Chain gun. The player driving the vehicle gets to choose what kind of forward facing guns they want, from the same choices listed above. At this point, your friend and a bunch of other randoms have loaded into an arena and are ready to kill each other, its not quite Halo and its not quite Twisted Metal. The thing is, this is not a game about killing the opponents its a more like surviving the Heat of a GTA wild rampage.
We can't start you off in the city, all those deliciously destructible buildings and tiny Mii like AI people just begging for you to fill with lead. The team who kills and destroys the most gets the most points. How dangerous the AI is and how likely they are to spawn, say a Deputy vs a Tank depends on the total destruction of all the players. Destroying buildings sounds fun, until there all gone. So when a buildings gone we need to spawn something bigger and better and slowly our suburb is transformed into a city. Of course every time building spawns we get more little people running randomly for their lives.
To prevent this kind of game from going on forever, lets give each player a certain number of lives, lets say 10. It does feel cheap when someone widdles your health away from a distance but never comes to fight you so we will give the vehicle rechargeable health. Now this game is not about killing as many individuals Human controlled players as possible and we all know that the gunner in the Warthog is vulnerable. We don't want them to be lonely your team will share the same total amount of health. Each team can switch the position of the gunner and the driver upon death.
Because all the human controlled teams will look identical lets give the team with the highest score, a wav point, we will also give any player with a low amount of health a wav point. Of course any player that comes into view, everyone will be able to see their current health and lives. Why all these things? Well the more information a player has the better a strategy they can make for themselves, as well as better quick decisions.

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.

Let me just start by saying I know Squirrel Simulators do exist, I just had the idea before I knew any of them existed. Nothing agains those games, but a solo squirrel doesn't make sense in my mind. You always seem to see them in a scurry, rarely by themselves. You also see them being agile, playful and of course being massive PRICKS to each other, dogs and homeowners. Thats were the idea of PvPvE came from for me. Game sessions were players are competing with each other for a common goal while fighting AI who have a seperate yet conflicting goal to the players.

An example of this, lets take Halo. Your team and your opponents team are each trying to steal each others flags. Lots of mayhem, destruction and nail bitingly close calls as each team fights for dominance of Blood Gulch. Each player has 2 main goals, protect their flag, steal their opponents flag, fairly standard. Suddenly and with no warning several Covenant Phantoms crest the canyon walls and drop of a Wraith, several Ghosts, Elites, Sniper Jackals and maybe even a pair of Hunters. The Covenant doesn't much care about flags, they care about killing the players, as much and as indescriminatley as possible. So now we have PvP and PvE all going on at once, players short term goals and how they can achieve them have changed, but their long term goals have remained the same.

So why not design a game exactly like I described above? Well the idea is based around squirrels being jerks, and they don't need guns, wars or alien armies to have a good conflict. Well if were not killing each other, how do we win? Easy, the winner of a game session isn't the one killed the most enemies or the one who captured the flag, true to the theme its who acted the most like a squirrel.

First lets take the average squirrel, give it more agility, make it run faster and jump higher. Why you ask, easy, because the abilities and life of a squirrel are like the dreams of a parkour enthusiast so why not enhance that dream. Now to set up a point system that will reflect how we want the players to play the game. Lets see we already know the winner is going to be the person who acts the most like a squirrel so what are squirrels known to do;
- Finding and eat nuts
- Stealing food from other squirrels
- Stealing food from unaware people
- Scattering garbage
- Throwing acorns
- Burying nuts
- Digging up yards
- Scattering garbage
- Making nests in insolation
- Sweet tricks and jumps
- Teasing dogs
- Having sex
- Throwing birds eggs out of nests
- Taking over bird feeders
- Marking and defending territory
- Yelling at othe squirrels

So there are lots of ways for players to earn points, but doing the same things over and over are boring. So we introduce point multipliers, something to help scale a players score by having them perform a wider array of actions, rather then say having them dig up yards for the entire session. This also puts players into direct competition with one another for the same goals. While the game is primarily non violent, you still need to be able to interact with your opponents in some way. Throwing nuts could temporarily stun other squirrels, slowing them, making them drop any food items they were carrying and having them fall off a tree branch. So players can't kill other players, only be dicks to them, the environment is whats designed to kill players. While teasing dogs may be fun, being caught by the dog is not. The same way stealing food from park goers may make a happy squirrel, a plump squirrel may catch the eyes of a mischievious kid and his BB gun. Nesting birds don't like sharing the trees with you, pigeons don't like sharing the kind old ladies breadcrumbs, lady squirrels don't want to have anything to do with you. Of course lets not forget the nimals who ordinarily eat squirrels; Hawks, Owls, Cats, Raccoons and Foxes.

Now to make the competition a little less skill based and a little more random. Just as there are different kinds of squirrels, so to should we have playable squirrels. They can all do the same things, just some are a little more specialized. Of course to prevent players from always picking their favorite we will have to make it randomized at spawn. A few different types off the top of my head;

Grey Squirrel
No special, higher stats

Red Squirrel
Faster at anything destructive, average stats

Black Squirrel
Faster at eating and digging, average stats

Fat Squirrel
Food cannot be dropped or stolen, lowest stats in the game

Flying Squirrel
Can glide, average stats

Albino Squirrel
Constantly earns points by staying alive, higher chance to avoid predatory attention, highest stats in the game

Fox Squirrel
Bites and Throwing nuts stun longer, average stats

Albert's Squirrel
Higher chance of avoiding predatory attention, average stats

So get out there and piss everyone else off as you try and be the very best squirrel you can be!

I hope some of these ideas are helpful and that maybe they inspire you, I appreciate all feedback.

EDIT**
On a more serious note, I don't really believe this concept would really work in a mass shooter session. While each side may be striving to kill each other, introducing a common threat would temporarily unit the players until the threat was minimized. Possible regular intervals of spawning enemies or removing vehicles and more powerful weapon spawns when enemies were active. Sure there will be those players that ignore the AI threat and attempt to achieve the objective during the chaos. Players who will watch and wait to see the results of battles before moving in to pick off the injured victors.

It would be a nice mode or feature to switch on, just so the repetitive PvP doesn't get to repetitive, or have the enemy spawn closer to the winning team to give the losers a higher chance of fair play.

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.

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.

I'm sure were all well aware that in the old fashion RPG's there are a few classes to choose from; Fighter, Mage, Cleric each with their own strengths and weaknesses and as time went on more and more classes were created. This idea works great in a story, but multiplayer can be frustrating. This idea came to be after playing way too much Dota 2, too often people would not play their class correctly. DPS would try to become tanks, supports would steal kills, tanks would play as supports because no one else was. Sure its a game, and not everyone knows how to play, but that can ruin things for others, which is incredibly frustrating when your stuck in a slowly losing game for nearly an hour. So instead of locking people into classes they may not know how to play, why not have a fluid leveling system where people can become the classes that the team needs?

This concept is for a fairly narrow genre of games, basically Lane Defense or Horde mode. Something where the character can start from level 1 each time, level up in game and then start over all again from the beginning. Or maybe start with a dozen or so attribute points and discuss with the team what each person will become.

So for this example lets use some of those classic archetypes; Fighter, Archer, Mage and Cleric. First imagine a circle, with a Fighter 'tree' growing out of the North, Archer to the East, Mage to the South and Cleric to the West. Everyone starts out with 1 level worth of points, lets say 3. Each point you put into a tree grows it taller, increase 2 stats that are useful to the class. The higher you grow each tree the more powerful active and passive abilities for that class that can be unlocked and improved. Of course here's where the interesting things come into play, as each tree grows the branches intersect and give you the potential to unlock new abilities that would benefit both classes. High levels in Fighter and Archer, they intersect how about Ranger abilities? Mage and Archer, how about Rouge like attributes? Fighter and Cleric, that sounds a awful lot like a paladin to be.

Its intentionally designed like this to give the player so many more options. To make each match more unexpected and to let you change your own build if the person who is supposed to fill a roll, simply cant. They can max out one class, have one dominate class and supportive classes, two equally important classes, or a jack of all trades and master of none. Sure there will be favored builds that players like, the important thing is that you can change it on the fly. Each tree is growing away from each other, so while a Fighter / Mage may be powerful it wouldn't have any conjoined branches and their abilities may not mesh as well. Since ideally the conjoined abilities are more powerful then the independent class abilities, an unconfined build may suffer more in the late game.

It may look like we have just offered unlimited creative freedom for our players, but we've actually still helped craft them based on their own wants of dps, tank, healer, escapist, glass cannon, hunter, support. Whatever we want them to be.

On top of this leveling system, we should have items, weapons, trinkets anything that allows the player to further customize their character.

I hope some of these ideas are helpful and that maybe they inspire you, I appreciate all feedback.

I love writing game docs, and design ideas. While I realise 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.

Re-writing the ideas of Accuracy and Agility;
While I think that Accuracy and Agility are great, they can be so much then simply hit/miss then they are now. The higher the accuracy the greater chance of increased damage, the higher the agility the greater chance of reducing the damage. The reason I would suggest something like this is because across different games there is usually a separate stat or ability that increases the chance of a crit per attack. While there is usually nothing to reduce the incoming damage (armour aside) that does not involve dodging the attack and nullifying all damage that would be dealt.

Example of Agility and Accuracy in Action
Agility +20 over Accuracy = 0 Damage
Agility +10 over Accuracy = 50% Damage
Agility +5 over Accuracy = 75% Damage
Agility = Accuracy = 100% Damage
Accuracy +5 over Agility = 125% Damage
Accuracy +10 over Agility = 150% Damage
Accuracy +20 over Agility = 2x Damage
This is just the basic concept of how it could work, in practice the numbers would have to be refined.

Having the ability to crit and dodge with every character that does not require additional abilities is a huge game changer. This also makes Accuracy and Agility viable stats, so players can no longer easily dump points into a few stats and sweep the game.

To make it less predictable (no guaranteed crit every attack) there should be a slight variation applied to it. With every consecutive crit and dodge, the chances of performing another would be diminished. So while someone would definitely have an advantage it would never truly be a 1 sided fight.

Struggling is the greatest Experience
In Pokemon it is possible to create a pocket monster with a perfect and maxed out stat that can only be acquired by both randomly encountering something with a high stat to begin with, and then having it fight opponents that have an advantage over it. Its a wonderful mechanic that is often overlooked, as so many people are more interested in the rock-paper-scissor aspect to fully utilize this method of perfecting their pokemon. But the idea remains, fighting something your naturally weak against will make you stronger.
But we are not pokemon and we have multiple stats that need to be perfected. We will see what are lacking in and that's what we will try to overcome the most. By creating conditions that can be met during each battle and then averaging how many battles were fought to gain a level while those conditions were being met, we will create a unique character with different stats for every play through.
Of course the player may learn what the conditions are and attempt to meet them with every battle, giving them a harder experience then just winning. It also creates a kind of competition between characters you would be using, as not everyone would be able to receive every stat bonus with every level earned.

As an example we will use several stats that are commonly seen across games in one for or another, as well as a few that I like to implement.
HP - How much health you have
MP - How much mana you have
Strength - How much damage your normal attacks deal
Intelligence - How much damage your items deal
Wisdom - How much you can heal with an item and magic
Mgk Attack - How much magic damage you deal
Mgk Defense - How much magic damage is reduced when dealt to you
Speed - Who attacks first
Accuracy - How often you hit / how sever the hit is
Agility - How often you dodge / dodge success rate

Lets say that for simplicity's sake a character would gain +1 to each of these stats when leveling up. If a condition is met they gain an additional +1 to that stat. Now to make it more interesting on the player we need to set up some interesting parameters for the player to gain the bonuses they so desperately crave.

Some examples of these could be;
If a character has 30% or less health for 75% of their fights, they gain +1 to HP
If a character has 30% or less mana for 75% of their fights, they gain +1 to MP
If a character kills over 40% of the enemies they encounter with a regular attack they gain +1 Strength
If a character kills over 40% of the enemies they encounter with an item they gain +1 Intelligence
If they recover 250% worth of their HP they gain +1 Wisdom
If a character kills over 40% of the enemies they encounter with a magic attack they gain +1 Mgk Attack
If they suffer 150% worth of their HP from magic they gain +1 Mgk Defense
If an enemy attacks them before they can attack 30% of the time they gain +1 Speed
If you miss 10% or more of your attacks you gain +1 Accuracy
If you are hit more then 90% of the time you gain +1 Agility

As you can see some of these can be controlled by the player, while others are entirely based on the enemy AI and how they act. Similarly some of these go together while attempting to gain all of them at the same time would be suicidal. If a player has the ability to put additional points into their characters stats, this can be used to help balance a character, ensuring some neglected stats would not drop below a point were they could be considered useless.

Short Term Gain vs Long Term Planning
So, once again id like to call on pokemon generation I for a great example of the beginnings of great AI but with limited capabilities. So most pokemon have a simple idea of fighting, attack the opponent with whatever attack you have that has an advantage over the opponent. This is great for simple short battles, but not so great for longer drawn out fights. That's why I'm fighting Brock with a lvl 8 Pidgey and a lvl 12 Charmander, and I know I'm going to win every time (potions used will vary). Lowering their accuracy and then attacking their low Spc. Defense with an attack that can generate guaranteed dmg per turn, I set up a long term victory plan.
The question becomes, why should every battle be based on the idea that the enemy is just going to hit you as hard as they can in the hopes you collapse before they do. I'm not saying this is bad for short simple encounters, but you most likely don't want every encounter to be over in 3 attacks. Long battles or dungeons, the lesser enemies can afflict you with status ailments, setting you up for the fall from the final encounter. It makes more sense, it actually gives a purpose to all the items you find, actually using them and learning from them instead of bartering them for a quick buck.
One problem with this, is it may feel cheap. People being cheated out of their victories by enemies using underhand tactics. Tactics they would want to use themselves to make them feel smart and tactical. You'll need to give your player other abilities and tactics to stay one step ahead and give them the empowerment they seek.

I hope some of these ideas are helpful and that maybe they inspire you, I appreciate all feedback.