Suggestion: Movement and Positioning Skills

thzfunnymzn

Green Slime
So, I couldn't sleep last night. Why? Because after posting in another thread here, I was seized with a "I must develop interesting ideas for an indie RPG." Hopefully, it works out in y'alls favor.


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The basic idea I'm suggesting are Movement / Positioning Techniques that can also take 10 levels (5 silver, 5 gold) of level ups.

Why? Because for an action RPG, and especially for a game that can overwhelm the player with what's happening on screen, the player's movement, positioning, herding of enemies, etc, is all almost as or just as important as their method of offense. Yet while Grindea is decently varied with its attacks (summon snowman, "get off me" hit everything around you, fireballs, meteors, plants, etc), it is significantly less varied with how the player can move around the screen (1H dash, Blink, and Haste are it), or with its method of defending against the stuff on screen (IIRC, Barrier is it, unless one actually uses shields). Also, the methods it gives simply aren't given as much attention (just support skills or some potions), despite the importance of positioning.

So the idea with the techniques I will suggest is that they'd form a backbone of various movement options & build paths. Which, of course, means these affect fundamental battle plans, so they'd require lots of playtesting and careful balance. :/ My justification is that I'm branching off into design space that Grindea currently gives & would seem to encourage, but doesn't use. >_>


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Movement / Positioning Techniques (5 of them, just like five 1H and 2H skills. Split between "offensive" options that directly increase player movement options, and "defensive" options more about restricting the foe's movement options).

Haste (reworked) - Offensive
A "summon" (sacrifices available MP while active) that increases movement speed & agility
while active. (If overpowered, then nerf to only increase movement speed). Movement speed means all
movement (normal, when charging, when shielding). Agility meaning attack speed, recovery time,
cast speed, etc. Ten levels, three charges, being tied to silver/gold system, careful choice of what is increased, and careful consideration of what other "haste" options the player hs should make this manageable.

Blink (expanded) - Offensive
Burst movement option. Actively use MP to instanteously move to another spot. Because it's
burst movement, the player should NOT get bogged down in picking a spot or in charging. One idea could be that Blink 1 simply blinks a certain distance in the direction the player is holding (no find selection); Silver could be auto invoked when the player Blinks repeatedly or tries to Blink in the middle of a Blink; and Gold could be dropping a "Blink spot" that they could then auto Blink too next time they invoke this skill. (This is just AN idea. I'm not saying this should be how its done, but rather, illustrating that whatever is done should INSURE that the player can burst move quickly, without getting bogged down in charging or picking a spot to blink to). Obviously great for dodging, quickly attacking from another angle, confusing the AI, etc. (All of which, others will have to comment on how good a job Blink currently does with that).

Wall (lol, shields) - Defensive
Simple & straightforward: create a magical wall, thus restricting enemy movement and/or controlling all the projectiles on screen. Care should be taken, lest some Meteor/Wall build just hole up in a corner, throw rocks, and win without ever worry about getting hurt. Still, with ten levels, three charges, and careful choice of WHAT exactly the Wall does, how it can be placed, etc, should also make this manageable.

Zone of Control - Defensive
Sacrifice movement speed (& agility?) in favor of doing nasty debuffs to enemies within a certain radius, as well as some minor attack & defense increase. Debuffs could include reduced movement & agility, status effects, taking constant damage, loss of abilities, altered AI, etc. Works best if the AI actually considers whether or how much time it wants to spend within the player's zone (obviously, different foes would consider it differently; shouldn't be useless on bosses either). The idea comes from Battle for Wesnoth's "Zone of Control" mechanic that all units have.

Earth - The Fun Option
Randomly changes the terrain (tiles, maybe topography) and weather (climate, time of day, season) in the area. Ideally, skill on the player's part should allow them to better capitalize on what they get then the foe is able to. Options for how this could be could be either from carefully designed options for terrain / weather; allowing the player to rapidly change weather; or letting the player see special immunities and/or bonuses to terrain / weather that the foe (in general) doesn't get. By far the most complicated skill here.


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So, there's a list of five movement / positional control options from someone who ain't no Arcade veteran (nor even playing Hard Mode). Y'all do with this as you please.
 

Faangzzz

Rabby
I like the idea of rehashing some of the utility skills in general. Not too sure how I feel about the utility buffs atm, and I'd prefer they didn't need to be recast every few seconds. Taking away however much ep it'd normally take to cast it as if it was a summon would be nice quality of life.
 

thzfunnymzn

Green Slime
Forgot to mention that Zone of Control would also be a "summon" that locks out total available MP in favor of keeping the Zone up consistently.

ZoC and Haste, if they're to designed as core movement options for a player, really are something said player wants to keep up consistently. Hence, the "QoL" of being a "summon".
 

Own

Moderator
I think the entire game is balanced around the set movement speed. Changing it in any way, aside from speeding up shield/charging movement speed, would be an unwelcome addition for me and probably throw a wrench in the balance of things.
 

thzfunnymzn

Green Slime
I think the entire game is balanced around the set movement speed. Changing it in any way, aside from speeding up shield/charging movement speed, would be an unwelcome addition for me and probably throw a wrench in the balance of things.

It would throw off the balance of things, no questions asked. From what little reading I've done of Grindea, however, I've gotten the feeling that balance still needs work anyways.

Also, this was motivated by another topic, where people complained that there wasn't a lot of "horizontal" upgrades in equipment. Since Grindea seems to rely more on its action & movement elements rather than damage formulas with lots of variables or lots of unique mechanics & statuses, I figured that action / movement "horizontal" upgrades would be what Grindea ought to look to, first and foremost.

I'll admit that I haven't played all the possible build variations nor Arcade mode, so I can't comment on if builds feel too similar enough to warrant stretching Grindea's build possibilities like this, nor do I have the knowledge and experience to pinpoint whether or not build imbalance comes specifically from lack of these kind of mechanics and diversity. However, Grindea has a Suggestions forum, and I figured making suggestions close to the heart of what Grindea is might provide more light, rather than fiddling around with the details of specific mechanics or of numbers. *shrug*
 
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