(from Eiji)
ok..I'm putting some info down on the totem system for the magick users.. as far as "opposing" elements, we'll take care of that later..but I think we could also have "complementary" elements as well (like Iron and Fire can merge into "Steel". As with the opposing elements, we'll deal with that later...)
(from dbacher)
I want to treat Magic, Melee and Ranged very much the same way. I believe if you have three completely separate systems, there is no way that the three systems can ever reach a balance. I believe, conversely, if you have only a single system that it is far more likely that you will tend to be balanced from the get go.
I very much want to have limiting factors of some variety -- if you look at Magic: the Gathering, some suits are strong against some other suits, but no suit is strong against everything. The limited number of cards, the need to have a certain number of lands in play, etc. all factor in to how it balances the different suits.
I am not saying we need "land cards" to play, but rather that it is important to have a similar "limiting factor." The "limiting factor" is central to a balanced game. Spell ammunition and reverse mana are a start, but they aren't the end by themselves. They are just part of the tool to get there.
fundamentally, the choice of which totems to take needs to be a personal preference. There can be times the choice impacts gameplay, but generally speaking I want to avoid Rift or WoW's "one build to rule them all" mentality, where there are certain builds that are so unquestionably better than others, that it's the only way you see people play.
types of spells: direct damage, DoT, damage shields, "cleanser" spells (if you get "corrupted" you could use this to "cure" the corruption, but it would take a long time to get rid of it all...if thats even possible)
* from dbacher
In addition to the listed items, fire is particularly useful for certain control scenarios. Fire could also be useful for disabling electronic equipment, such as base countermeasures. In addition to the fire totem, there would be fire based weaponry (flamers, etc.). As a result, those should play well with the abilities -- fire is also good for signalling.
types of spells: "cleanser", Shields (absorption),
* from dbacher
Water also has some interesting uses -- in addition to the obvious cleaning aspect, and putting out fires, water can have obvious effects on electronic devices. Water can also be used to control routes -- but more importantly, water generally scatters energy weapons and can reduce or impair visibility. It can also make terrain slick, and cause side effects as a result (while I do not want to have true snare spells, I'm perfectly OK with slick terrain that makes someone think twice before they go running).
types of spells:
* from dbacher
Obvious uses would be obstruction/route control, and fortification. Advantages in wooded terrain (camouflage, etc.) might fit naturally as well, and in traditional Anime style, you might envision robot ninjas leaping from canopy to canopy before stealthily dropping to take their attack. Potentially, this could fit well for sniper types -- and so you could go with mission intelligence sort of abilities.
* from Eiji
Nice ideas... in fact, since you mention ninja... reminds me of something called "Kawarami" (sp?), the ninja art of illusion. Put simply, you see a ninja take a knife to the chest, there's a "poof" of smoke and it turns out the "person" was really a log with a jacket around it.
with that, this totem should be an illusion totem.
types of spells: Absorption shields, Summon golem/drone, direct damage?, melee damage enhancers.
* from dbacher
In addition to the listed uses, I would see iron as being a good alternative tanking technique. After all, what says tank better than heavy metal? Also, clearly, control aspects could potentially be used as well.
-speed boosts, increase powerplant output/efficiency. (this should go one way or the other... neither should stack)
* from dbacher
Wind is useful for misdirection -- is the smoke coming from here, or is it coming from there. Wind is traditionally associated with speed boosts, and so it would be a good totem to center on scouting and mission intelligence. One could easily see flight bonuses, UAV/scouting drones, etc.
Likewise, iron might save you from a crowbar across the head, and water might save you from a PPC between the eyes -- but wind will make those missiles spiral off course.
(might consider putting Daemon summons in this totem...at least maybe the gray-faction ones...Black factions should require their own totems.)
* from dbacher
I would think we'd actually want three daemon totems -- one for each of the three factions -- but I've not thought it through and I only got four hours of sleep last night, so I might not be thinking properly. On the light side, they would be abilities that generally do things like reduce the grade of Daemon IO Nodes/spawners, reduce corruption, etc. Things that generally tip the balance towards the light.
Then, on the gray side, you'd have ones that subtlety change alliances, etc. Find a port with critters that are against you, and use an ability to swap it for one where the critters are for you, and so on.
And then on the dark side, you'd have direct summoning, but you'd also have some form of intentional corruption-spewing abilities -- think of the fire hose of corruption, you point it at some tiles and spray them and they become corrupted, you built the corruption, when lets more critters through the gate, and so on.
Again -- I've not thought that out fully, if you have the triad, I would think light > dark, dark > gray then gray > light -- but like I said, I've not really thought it through fully.
Look at most anime that deals with heavy combat and you will see the "trope" of the fighters needing to "power up" before letting their attack fly..
This is something I like to call a "wind-up"... and it is more prevalent in anime than most think... look at Saint Seiya, DBZ, or any magical girl show, and you see that the hero needs to power up..
now, most MMOs use a "reset timer" or "cool down" on most of the heavier nukes to keep them from being cast like a Gatling gun... the harder-hitting the nuke, the longer the reset timer...
but I think its more believable if we had the player "chain-cast" several smaller nukes to momentarily unlock a very large nuke...
with Saint Seiya, Seiya has to "map out" his guardian constellation with his hands before he can use the "meteor first"... in DBZ, Goku has to take some time to focus his power before he can use his "spirit bomb".. Lina Inverse of Slayers has to recite a poem before she can cast "Dragon Slave"...
....and with magical girls..(dont get me started..they are the QUEENS of wind-up moves)
exactly HOW we do this still needs to be mapped out..but lets run with the idea...
(I also think that combine attacks might be interesting too..but lets keep that on the back burner until we can work out the chain-cast method for a single player first before we try to use some kind of chain-casting for grouped team members..)
-Eiji
Im beginning to think that any portal "spells" should not check to any totem at all.. (or possibly to the "aethyr" totem)
they should also be one of the simplest to learn spell in the whole game.. so maybe it would only check to the combat computer skill rather than basic hacking.
-Eiji
We have decided that "Buff" type abilities should be passive. So we plan on using something like this:
Your deck has slots to accommodate Totem Cards (with only one totem being used in that slot).. an individual card has "x" number of slots for "Spells".. with each spell you put on the card taking up a certain number of slots.. Similar to Anarchy's NCU system. Since the buffs are passive, just having a totem card that has them causes them to be used if you have that card loaded into your deck slot. Things like attack or summoning spells are more "traditional", meaning they have to be actually cast.
One more note -- Since we are using the idea that some totems can "contradict".. it means that if you load both a Fire and Water totem card into your deck, the Water buffs cancel out the Fire ones... so with that, err on the side of caution.
Runes are essentially "alter codes"... and can affect what they are applied to until that item is consumed or destroyed..
For now, runes can only be applied to either ammo or blocks of armor.. but this may change.
one possibility is that you could apply a Wind Rune to the barrel of your 20mm rifle. The Rune would add a bit of speed to the rounds fired, and thus giving your range a "X" percent boost. (and possibly some added damage.. after all, its not the speed, its the sudden stop..neh?)
just thought of something.... perhaps we can have "stand alone" as well as "helper" runes... a stand-alone one is just that... it works independently from any totem. But a "helper" rune.. that could be used to streamline the combat interface a bit... like you could have a "casting" gun (kind of like what Gene Starwind had in "Outlaw Star")
-Eiji