Spell system

[jasonpickering]

Hey guys. working on a very new very small Roguelike.

so it will have deterministic combat, and a focus on "spells". I haven't decided if I want to do spells as actual spells or do them as items, something similar to Zaga-33. in my design a Freeze spell, and a Freeze item, would both operate the same. its just the method in which the player uses them that I am trying to decide on. I am slowly moving towards and idea of the player setting up their character somehow before they enter the dungeon though and I want very short dungeons so it would be almost like setting out for an adventure like an actual hero, instead of "Hope I find a better sword" which always irked me story wise.

Spell idea:
All spells cost 1 mana. Player starts the game with 2 spells. Each floor they gain 1 mana. I could do something where the player chooses a hero to enter the dungeon with, and that hero will always have the same set of spells. or I could allow the player to choose from an assortment of spells. I could also recharge each spell like a floor after its been used, perhaps meaning players wont need to worry about Mana.

Item Idea:
Player can find treasure chests with items in them. Player has a limited inventory of 4-5 items though. Also the player would be given 2 items to start the game with, or I can give the player 4 options and they can pick two.

Artifacts
The other idea I have is the player can find "Artifacts". each item has a spell associated with it. I could also do something where a player can outfit their character before entering a dungeon. So maybe they give their Mage a Freeze rod, and a Heal belt, to go along with his fireball spell. This also means I could do Passive gear. so Maybe "Vampires Charm" might give them a 10% chance of gaining 1 HP when killing an enemy, but they have effectively locked one of their spell slots. which could give an interesting mix of building your character. it would be possible to create a full melee character, with 4 passive skills.

[Paul Jeffries]

Sounds interesting, and great art style as always.

I'm having trouble imagining how the spell idea would work - if each spell costs 1 mana and you get 1 mana back per floor, that would seem to effectively limit you to one spell per floor, which seems like it would push the player away from the interesting gameplay of using clever combinations of spells.

Of the three options there I think I like the sound of the 'artifact' system best, although I'm not sure I fully understand your ideas for the other two.

As a general point, it seems like deterministic combat mixed with a small limit on the number of spells/items/artifacts that can be carried would result in fairly repetitive gameplay where you'd be forced to use the same moves again and again and again.  To introduce more variety perhaps you could instead do something a bit like Chaos Reborn where you have a 'deck' of spells that you draw a random hand from that determines your current options.  Your initial character customisation would be selecting that starting deck.  Or, perhaps you have some kind of Dominion-style-deck-building-thing as you go through the game.

[jasonpickering]

its funny that you mentioned Chaos. I actually worked on that. I did have an idea a while ago I called Dungeoneer. Which had a very similar feel. The player choose a hero, an artifact, and a god. Each one added 4 cards to the players "Deck".

this sort of worked but had some problems. Mainly I had each spell cost mana which you got for killing enemies, and the deck was always reshuffled. but I think making each card an auto use, and not refilling the deck, could create a good challenge. It would work similar to what I currently have.

I did like the idea of locking off spells for passive traits though. so I wonder if I could use that to lock off deck slots maybe.

so what did you mean by the same moves again and again. I thought about doing different enemies also. like a ranged enemy, so do you think that would add enough variety?

[jasonpickering]

So maybe doing something similar to hoplite and nuclear throne of giving the player upgrades and they are given a set amount and must choose one. Then the player can get a set amount of upgrades that could be passive skills or active skills.

[jasonpickering]

So I originally wanted to do very small dungeons so I am still leaning towards the idea of a player building a character then going into the dungeon. So selecting the gear. As the player goes I can have them find potions and scrolls which could give them some spells to cast.

[jasonpickering]

new system is in and working. The player is given a deck of spells and only had access to two at a time. There are also treasure chests which will allow the player to find more spells, and potions on the ground that add heal spells. current spells are

- Scorch - blast fire around the character
- Heal - gain 3 life
- Warp - sends the player back to the starting square
- Freeze - freezes all enemies
- Smite - does 1 damage to all enemies
- Defense - Adds +1 Health to max health permanently.

So the next part is to figure out how to get the spells to the player. current ideas are:
- Player Chooses item before entering and those items have cards associated with them.
- Player is given a random assortment of cards and must choose a certain number.
- player is given sets of 3 cards and must choose cards from each set until they have 10.
- player starts with 4 spells, each new floor gives them 3 spells and they can choose two.

now I don't know how well this will all work, because its a really small amount of spells. I really only have 6 to choose from. I dont know if making more spells will make the game more exciting either.