Hi,
since i really liked Firefall for its original Resource gathering, Crafting and Hero customization gameplay i have high hopes for Ember, here is my input about how i would approach the core gameplay mechanics.
First i want to talk about Resources, i think 4 or maybe 5 different ones should be enough, the interesting part is their rarity. For my design i chose 7 different raritys ranging from common to transcendent, here is how it could be structured:
Each rarity has 100 subsets ranging from 1 - 100, you can check them out by clicking the according number.
That way you basically have 700 shades of rarity for each type of Resource. The following picture shows how rare each resource could be, how much they improve the items base stats and how much additional "customize points" you get during the crafting process, i will explain crafting later.
Next i combined the idea of different battleframe classes and the gear constraints (Mass, Power, CPU). Now you only have one single Character whose role depends on what items you equip, each item has a Tier ranging from T0 to T5. For your 3 main Items (Primary Weapon/Damage, Plating/Defense, JumpJets/Movement) you can spend six Tier points, so you have to decide on which area you want your Hero to shine, here are some example setups:
The max Tier for your secondary weapon is linked to your primary weapons Tier. Higher Tier equipment should have a more advanced/bulky look. Of course you should be able to predefine Equipment sets to change your Loadout/playstyle anytime you want. This is how a T1 Plating could differ to a T4 one:
Besides finding your unique playstyle through Item Tiers, you should be able to customize your gear a lot during the crafting process. So when you craft an item, you get a certain amount of "customize points" to boost the items attributes in a way you like. The amount of customize points depends on the selected Tier, rarity and the resource batches you slotted in.
The customize options should be scaled in a way that maxing one attribute always requires all your available points, doing so having 1000 points available of course has a greater effect then maxing the same stat with only 500 points available.
The following pic shows the crafting of a T.H.M.P.R.. While the Tier and rarity set the Difficulty, Capacity and HP you can customize the type of monsters the THMPR attracts.
Maybe he could also have a Weapon Arm Module slot where you can put in a crafted THMPR weapon to make him help you fight the monsters, it could be some kind of freezing device, electro shocker, flamethrower or just a shield to improve his durability.
Some more key things: your Gear should not break, it breaks the love towards your equipment, there are thousands of ways to create a fun resource sink (thought out research system, resource shop for cosmetics ...). The basic resources should be the only crafting ingredients, adding more stuff like red5 did just blurs out the fun of finding and hunting the rare resources. No marketplace please!! its a long-term-fun destroyer. The UI design should be very minimal and solely focused on the beauty of the resources and the diverse items.
Ok any thoughts on this ?
For completion here are some more light designs i tried:
Matthias
since i really liked Firefall for its original Resource gathering, Crafting and Hero customization gameplay i have high hopes for Ember, here is my input about how i would approach the core gameplay mechanics.
First i want to talk about Resources, i think 4 or maybe 5 different ones should be enough, the interesting part is their rarity. For my design i chose 7 different raritys ranging from common to transcendent, here is how it could be structured:
Each rarity has 100 subsets ranging from 1 - 100, you can check them out by clicking the according number.
That way you basically have 700 shades of rarity for each type of Resource. The following picture shows how rare each resource could be, how much they improve the items base stats and how much additional "customize points" you get during the crafting process, i will explain crafting later.
Next i combined the idea of different battleframe classes and the gear constraints (Mass, Power, CPU). Now you only have one single Character whose role depends on what items you equip, each item has a Tier ranging from T0 to T5. For your 3 main Items (Primary Weapon/Damage, Plating/Defense, JumpJets/Movement) you can spend six Tier points, so you have to decide on which area you want your Hero to shine, here are some example setups:
The max Tier for your secondary weapon is linked to your primary weapons Tier. Higher Tier equipment should have a more advanced/bulky look. Of course you should be able to predefine Equipment sets to change your Loadout/playstyle anytime you want. This is how a T1 Plating could differ to a T4 one:
Besides finding your unique playstyle through Item Tiers, you should be able to customize your gear a lot during the crafting process. So when you craft an item, you get a certain amount of "customize points" to boost the items attributes in a way you like. The amount of customize points depends on the selected Tier, rarity and the resource batches you slotted in.
The customize options should be scaled in a way that maxing one attribute always requires all your available points, doing so having 1000 points available of course has a greater effect then maxing the same stat with only 500 points available.
The following pic shows the crafting of a T.H.M.P.R.. While the Tier and rarity set the Difficulty, Capacity and HP you can customize the type of monsters the THMPR attracts.
Maybe he could also have a Weapon Arm Module slot where you can put in a crafted THMPR weapon to make him help you fight the monsters, it could be some kind of freezing device, electro shocker, flamethrower or just a shield to improve his durability.
Some more key things: your Gear should not break, it breaks the love towards your equipment, there are thousands of ways to create a fun resource sink (thought out research system, resource shop for cosmetics ...). The basic resources should be the only crafting ingredients, adding more stuff like red5 did just blurs out the fun of finding and hunting the rare resources. No marketplace please!! its a long-term-fun destroyer. The UI design should be very minimal and solely focused on the beauty of the resources and the diverse items.
Ok any thoughts on this ?
For completion here are some more light designs i tried:
Matthias
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