Idea for customizing the reaper frame into classes.

BingoBob

New Member
Jul 27, 2016
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#1
When I stopped playing Fire Fall. I thought I'd try my hand at making my own game to try and re-kindle the love I had for the game. At the moment all I have is a board game prototype. I'm relieved to see this project because making a game is a pain. and I'd gladly give up if Ember is going to continue carrying the torch. However I did come up with an interesting Mechanic that I think might work well with customizing the Omniframe.

in short it's kinda like mixing the Materia from Final Fantasy VII with the Skill sets of City of Heroes.

While mining or as loot drops from enemies. you would find Power Cores. these power cores are used to power everything. very similar to crystite, how ever the power will be infused with different elements. Fire, Ice, Electric, Earth, Wind, Healing, and so on. You can then equip these power cores into Vehicles, Battle frames, weapons, or buildings to unlock additional abilities.

I've divided these abilities into three different types. Damage, Support, and Controller.
Damage type obviously does damage in various ways and types.
Support type, provides healing and positive buffs for your allies, and de-buffs to your enemies.
Controller type summons entities like turrets or walls or traps. and basically manipulates the environment around you.

Example:
Lets say you equip an Ice power core into your frame. if you specialize in Support you will have optional abilities like freeze/stun your enemy target. Or slow attack speed of enemies around you. Or grant an ally Ice armor.
If you are Controller focused then you will have the ability to create a large Wall off Ice to block the enemy or make an Ice prison that traps the enemy.
If you are Damage based perhaps you can then role a large snow ball at the enemy or shoot an ice cycle at them.

OK some of those are cheesy but you get the point.

Because I have a strong D&D background I went the way of Wisdom, Intelligence, and Charisma points during character creation to determine which type of abilities you can use.
Intelligence = Damage
Wisdom = Controller
Charisma = Support

the more points you put toward one attribute the stronger that ability becomes. so lets say you have 1 Intelligence point, 2 Wisdom points, and 4 Charisma points. You will see all of the available support abilities the Ice core has to offer. including maybe some ultimate ability. you will only see a couple average Controller abilities, then maybe 1 weak damage ability.

I think it is best to keep the ability slots to a minimum. 4 seems to be a great number. (if you've read any articles about the paradox of choice) Then you simply select 4 abilities from the list that your power cores give you. (can slot more than 1 power core)

I know that the last bit might take away from your initial vision because it puts more emphasis on the character and less on customizing the frame. but don't throw the whole idea out just because the one part doesn't jive.

.... also (jeez this guy isn't done yet?!) I think that "mana pools" are the way to go over cooldown timers. Its always bothered me that Iron man can just keep going and never run out of juice. Maybe each core you have equipped is its own pool of energy and once its out you need to go refill it at a power station...

If your read this whole thing give yourself a cookie! ... if it made any sense, give me a cookie!
 
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BingoBob

New Member
Jul 27, 2016
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7
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#2
Here is the list of Cores I have come up with.

Concealment Core
Flight Core
Blizzard core
Tempest core
Venom core
Psyonic core
hydro core
Divine core
Decay core
Life Core
Detection Core
Gravity Core
Teleport Core
Spirit Core
Earth Core
Inferno Core
Fear Core
Sonic Core
Petrifying Core
Shock Core
EMP Core
Dream Core
Plant Core
Polymorph Core
Life leach Core
Fury Core (is also the name of my game)
Speed Core
Trap Core
Titan Core
Guardian Core

There is also an ability list for each of these cores... but it gets really complicated.
 
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Luisedgm

Deepscanner
Jul 27, 2016
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#3
I think the player combat capacities could be entirely gear-based, no attributes or level progression, with modular and easily customizable battlesuit and weapons
 
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BingoBob

New Member
Jul 27, 2016
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#4
sorry I didn't mean to imply any vertical progression. you set your score at the beginning and that's it. so its more about getting the right combination of power cores for the situation and not improving your Attribute scores.

3 attributes, each with a base of 1. And only 4 points to spend. this just based on something I did to balance the classes. this is just the Idea. but mainly there is no way to get more point to spend on attributes. you set it and forget it.
 

Luisedgm

Deepscanner
Jul 27, 2016
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#5
I still see no need to lock players with initial stats before they experiment all playstyles and gear combinations
I do understand where you come from, i also love D&D, but i don't think attributes are necessary here, making the player powers based only on gear allows for great versatility as players would not need to re-spec, only change battlesuit in case they want to play another role
 
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BingoBob

New Member
Jul 27, 2016
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#6
I think your right. I'm trying to come up with a way to translate what I had set up to the vision of what Ember is.
so in the QA Mark said that the Core of the game is mining. every thing revolves around what he wants to release as the first playable instance. and the key word in there is 'Rare'. you keep mining to get the more rare stuff. Rare, is his key motivator.

How do you keep the word 'Rare' and eliminate the need to grind? I think the answer is variety. a cupcake ton of variety.
 
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TankHunter678

Well-Known Member
Jul 26, 2016
369
311
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#7
One highly customizable frame with a constraint system built around the various parts the omniframe is made up of.

Also no god damn mana bars. Why can Iron Man keep blasting away with his weapons? Because he properly allocates power output against the consumption. A player should not be forced to run back to base because their suit's battery is low. Maybe for ammo for specialized weapons, but not because their battery is low.
 

NitroMidgets

Tsi-Hu Hunter
Jul 27, 2016
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Dupont, WA
#8
Basic ammo, short term power boosters (not damage boosters) and specialized ammo could be removed from the frames and made part of the resource sink via the crafting/calldown system.

I don't have enough information to base the add ons by because I am sure cosmetics will come into play as well. There should be a visual indicator when up close as to what has been done to the frame. Larger turkey feathers on the jets if you are going for movement speed and so on.
 

Luisedgm

Deepscanner
Jul 27, 2016
103
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#10
One highly customizable frame with a constraint system built around the various parts the omniframe is made up of.

Also no god damn mana bars. Why can Iron Man keep blasting away with his weapons? Because he properly allocates power output against the consumption. A player should not be forced to run back to base because their suit's battery is low. Maybe for ammo for specialized weapons, but not because their battery is low.
Maybe if the battery is a resource sink
The omniframe could have a infinite energy reactor, but it only had enough energy for life support and movement, weaponry and abilities need big bursts of energy from other source
 

TankHunter678

Well-Known Member
Jul 26, 2016
369
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#11
Maybe if the battery is a resource sink
The omniframe could have a infinite energy reactor, but it only had enough energy for life support and movement, weaponry and abilities need big bursts of energy from other source
I am of the distinct opinion that the player should never be without the ability to defend themselves. If they have to keep running back to someplace to restock on things like basic ammo, or recharge a battery then that restricts the range of operations they can go on. Leading to more people competing for the same small space.

Enhancement cores that are used as short term power boosters sure, generic turret systems that run on timed battery life, deployable light sources, or even a seismic generator that exists just to attract mobs would be nice resource sinks.

Do not make it so that basic self defense is a resource sink.
 

Nubilus

Omni Ace
Base Commander
Jul 27, 2016
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Germany
#13
Also no god damn mana bars. Why can Iron Man keep blasting away with his weapons? Because he properly allocates power output against the consumption. A player should not be forced to run back to base because their suit's battery is low. Maybe for ammo for specialized weapons, but not because their battery is low.
Allocating power to systems would be a neat Feature. Elite: Dangerous had a system like that. It was split up into 3 categories:
Weapons, Engine and Systems (Shields). Allocating more power to another system would boost chosen system while sacrificing power from the other two.

Like if I Allocate most of my power to my weapon system, I am going to be slower and have less defense but can deal devastating blows. Or boosting my Shields to Tank a boss at cost of Dmg output. Also, you wanna move quick through terrain? Boost your servos.
 
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Jul 28, 2016
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#14
I think the player combat capacities could be entirely gear-based, no attributes or level progression, with modular and easily customizable battlesuit and weapons
Given that, due to the availability of dev resources, there will only be one frame at launch, I am of the opinion that for the early alpha you should pick your initial frame type (combat style) at character creation. This would lock in what type of equipment you can put on your frame's hardpoints.

As game design progresses and we get more art resources developed I do expect to see different physical frame types, with hardpoints that have the equipment they can accept hard coded in.

But I still expect to see a pilot certification for each frame type in some form or anther. You can't really have a horizontal, or really any sort, of progression if you give the player access to everything at once.
 

Luisedgm

Deepscanner
Jul 27, 2016
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#15
Why limit the player to one frame type if a new player don't even know which kind of playstyle he even wants?
Forcing players to stick to one playstyle per character only forces them to spam alt characters