Endless RPG 2

Kezarus

Endless Game Maker
Hi! I'm developing the second version of Endless RPG that sold about 1k units in 1.5y. It's basically an open random generated living world RPG with turn-based where you can create any kind of party of heroes you want. All Skills and Items are balanced and there is no better strategy or unique/obligatory item. Think Battle Brothers light with magic and you are close.

On this new version we will have:
  • A More Living World
  • New Rules
  • Bigger Map
  • Monsters and Beasts
  • Dungeons
  • Actual Quests and Dialogue

LIVING WORLD
All worlds will be randomly generated. I'm using a noise generator from @RujiK from this post (thanks again! ๐Ÿ˜„).
There will be:
  • Towns
    • Where the player can get quests, buy items, skills and other characters;
    • They will grow with time, create other towns nearby, go to war with neighbors and could be destroyed;
  • Evil Centers that will spawn from time to time and create war parties and destroy whatever is nearby;
  • Dungeons and Interest Points where the characters could have small adventures;
  • Snow System that will cover and recede in the map depending on the month;
  • Day Night system with speed up and down;
  • Rain system;
  • Player Parties and Worlds are dissociated, so the player can create a new world and play with an old party and vice versa.
All art is still placeholder, I'm thinking about getting the art from this guy. But here are some screenshots:





NEW RULES
We like simple fast rules here. So 3 Attributes (Power, Speed, Mind) that goes from 0 to 5 (like D&D bonuses), Skills that are game changers, not just plain bonuses. we have 117 already balanced (but not tested). You can train your characters in towns. One mechanic that we put here is removing the ToHit and Dodge mechanic and created a "Guard" mechanic that is basically a health bar and the player would know how much damage he will do, not just luck tests. We are keeping weapons groups and categories like these.

BIGGER MAP
First game have a 100x100 map but now we have a 300x300 map that is 9 times bigger. We are still testing a map of 500x500, but that is insanelly huge about 250 Towns could fit there and 750 Dungeons. We are settling for 300x300. =]

MONSTERS AND BEASTS
We got a huge asset pack with lots of sprites. Most are for heroes but there will be animals and monsters too. I'm looking forward on animating these on the new GM Sequences System. =]

DUNGEONS
These will be generated by nodes and @RefresherTowel is giving me some stellar ideas on how to make it.

QUESTS AND DIALOGUES
In the later Endless RPG we didn't made a very in depth Quest System, but now we are focused on making something that is meaningful and interesting.


And that's it! It's a awful lot of work to be made. I'm making the world now and about to tackle map movement and pathfinding(algo is ready though). The combat system doesn't have 1 line of code yet, but all actual system is well written and ready. My brother (economist/game designer/QA) is testing it BY HAND until I make the system. Dungeons have only ideas and Quests will be a can of worms I'm sure. I think that all this project will need about 2 to 4 years to complete. Wish me luck! ๐Ÿ˜…๐Ÿ˜
 

FoxyOfJungle

Kazan Games
This procedurally generated map is very interesting!, reminds me of Minecraft. Will it take that long? 2 years is so long ๐Ÿค”
But what you already have is getting really good, I just think the game is a bit "too square", is there any way to make it a little "rounder", even if this is the style of the game, I think it would be more cool it more round/natural (for example, rivers). ๐Ÿ™‚
Anyway, good luck! I will be following the project whenever I have time. No Demo yet, right?
 

Kezarus

Endless Game Maker
This procedurally generated map is very interesting!, reminds me of Minecraft. Will it take that long? 2 years is so long ๐Ÿค”
But what you already have is getting really good, I just think the game is a bit "too square", is there any way to make it a little "rounder", even if this is the style of the game, I think it would be more cool it more round/natural (for example, rivers). ๐Ÿ™‚
Anyway, good luck! I will be following the project whenever I have time. No Demo yet, right?
Thanks, mate! So my brother talk a LOT about these rivers being blocky, but I'm using tiles so I'm not sure on how could I make them less so. ๐Ÿ˜… I'm also using a code that make bitmaking sprites inside of GM without me needing to do all possible tiles. It's like a border on tiles. If you have any idea on how could I tackle this I will really appreciate it! =D

About time, Endless RPG took 2 years to make from start to finish and we are aiming higher now. Aaaaand I already work from 8h to 17h on my regular job... so yeap. ๐Ÿ˜…

And still no demo, it will take a huge amout just to get an alpha. We just begun development. The world is barelly finished, but the first is on Steam. Tell me if you (or any of you) want a key for it. =]

Thanks @RichHopefulComposer and @FoxyOfJungle! =D
 

FoxyOfJungle

Kazan Games
Thanks, mate! So my brother talk a LOT about these rivers being blocky, but I'm using tiles so I'm not sure on how could I make them less so. ๐Ÿ˜… I'm also using a code that make bitmaking sprites inside of GM without me needing to do all possible tiles. It's like a border on tiles. If you have any idea on how could I tackle this I will really appreciate it! =D
You could perhaps use paths, create the paths procedurally and then draw primitives from the points, I have a very old project in which I draw a texture on the paths, if you want I can send it privately. I think this would be the easiest way.


About time, Endless RPG took 2 years to make from start to finish and we are aiming higher now. Aaaaand I already work from 8h to 17h on my regular job... so yeap. ๐Ÿ˜…
Wow, a long time! I think I spend between 6 to 14 hours a day doing my projects (with breaks).


And still no demo, it will take a huge amout just to get an alpha. We just begun development. The world is barelly finished, but the first is on Steam. Tell me if you (or any of you) want a key for it. =]
Oh, cool! Ok, good luck!
 

RujiK

Member
Looks really cool! I'd love to see some procedural towns and the day/night cycle.

The cynic in me must warn you of two obvious things.
1. The game sounds REALLY ambitious and may be too much for a small team. (I'm sure you've already thought about scope, but don't be afraid to cut back.)
2. BIGGER does not (always) equal BETTER! I see your trying to increase your map size from 100x100 to 300x300 to 500x500, but be wary of the "a mile wide but an inch deep" that happens to some giant worlds.

I speak from experience about the bigger maps. I wasted over a year trying to make a giant procedural map interesting: (I made it giant, but it was not interesting)
So this is a slightly sensitive topic for me and I don't want you to waste as much time as I did. Good luck on your game though!
 

Kezarus

Endless Game Maker
Yey, thanks @RujiK. \o/ I really liked that algorithm of yours! Fast, elegant and easy to modify and understand. Sorry for spamming your name so much about it, I just want to give credit. ๐Ÿ˜

I already made most of that scope on Endless RPG "1". The new things will be the use of GM2, Monsters, Dungeons and Quest Lines. I'm re-writting most of the code from Endless 1 and not just converting, but I got a huge experience from it and it's waaaaaay easier to do that this time. =] And EVEN then... 2 years seems to be little time. XD

About huge maps, yeah! I even did a rant thread about this. I was pushing a LOT to make it work on 500x500... but then I calculate "well 1 minute just to go from 1 Town to the next, 250 Towns = 250 minutes just to see them all... ๐Ÿ˜... welp! Scrap that!" XD

So this is a slightly sensitive topic for me and I don't want you to waste as much time as I did. Good luck on your game though!
Thanks a lot for sharing. I too worry about this. There is no point in random gen if all places looks the same. My growing algo for Towns and Evil Centers are already up and running and Towns ARE way different already (each structure and town race sells specific items/skills). We are planning a ruler mindset for each Town too to give specific quests.

Thanks and I would love to talk more about random gen.
 

Evanski

Raccoon Lord
Forum Staff
Moderator
let me know if theres any code stuff you need help with! Looks very cool.
 
Last edited:

Bearman_18

Fruit Stand Deadbeat
Damn, this sounds pretty sick! I still have the demo of the first one lying around on my PC, now wish I had played it more. XD But I've been getting into a lot of western RPGs lately, so I'm excited to see where this leads.
I love that list of new features. Especially the idea of the "Evil Centers."
 

BenRK

Member
I'm a bit grumpy that someone is working on a game I've been designing in my own time, but at the same time excited to see where it goes. Dang it, stop being inspired by making a Dwarf Fortress adventure mode that is fun to play! That was supposed to be my thing! :p
 

Yal

๐Ÿง *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
but be wary of the "a mile wide but an inch deep" that happens to some giant worlds.
I concur with this... I personally prefer the term "1000 bowls of oatmeal" over "a mile wide but an inch deep" to really get the point across, because some people really like shallow exploration (kinda like how the young'uns of today think "putting onions on the salmon" is a positive expression) but nobody likes oatmeal. If you generate samey experiences every time, nobody cares about them being technically different.



All Skills and Items are balanced and there is no better strategy or unique/obligatory item.
This sounds like a balancing nightmare and also a bad design idea (players like upgrades, and you want more complex systems - e.g. systems involving resource management - to be more powerful than easier systems so that the effort involved in learning them feels worth it)

Some things I'd recommend working in, if possible:
  • Design things as systemic as possible (like in an immersive sim like Deus Ex or Dishonored) so you can come up with fun unplanned interactions. For instance, if everything made from wood as a "flammable" parameter, throwing fire spells around willy-nilly can set the whole dungeon you're in on fire... intentionally or unintentionally. If all metal objects conduct electricity, you can short-circuits prison bars to hit a guard that's asleep leaning towards them, and so on. If enemies are difficult but predictable, the player can be encouraged to mess around with these systems pretty easily (if there's no clear dominant strategy that trivializes everything, at least)
  • Gear durability (with a limited system to repair damaged/broken gear) so that it's worth carrying backup gear and consumables like bombs even when you've got really good gear, and it's worth using cheap copper swords and stuff to reduce repair expenses for things that need more rare materials. Basically it makes looting new stuff worthwhile through the entire game, and finding a rare thing early on won't permanently ruin the balance.
    • If this also applies to enemies, it can be used to the player's advantage! Throwing jars of acid that damages gear can make tough enemies easier, but the drawback is that you won't be getting any good loot of their corpses.
  • Gear stripped off enemy corpses (and pillaged from ruins) will have reduced durability or be completely broken, while stuff bought from a blacksmith will be at full durability - this gives players an incentive to visit towns and save up money.
    • If the player helps a town thrive the blacksmiths and other merchants will level up, offering higher-quality gear.
    • Pickpocketing enemies gets you their stuff without damaging it, so thieves get more profitable.
  • Random affixes (which usually reduce one stat but boosts another, or add a special effect like elemental damage/resistance) can make items feel more unique. Affixes also come in tiers, and items obtained from a higher-tier source (e.g. stolen from a mayor's private stash) have a better chance to have higher-tier affixes, even if the item itself is very mundane.
  • Giving civilizations / religions / towns their own specialty items that you won't find anywhere else helps giving them their own identity, and also helps prevent the oatmeals issue. It could be functionally identical gear with different flavor text, or an attunement towards one of the gameplay-based archetypes (for instance, towns affiliated with the paladin order has more defensive swordfighters, towns affiliated with the alchemy guild has more potion sellers, and so on).
    • This also should apply to crops (though it makes more sense to have them differ based on climate foremost and civilization second)


Final note... the graphics look very RPG-Maker-y. If you're actually using the RTPs as a placeholder, keep in mind that they're licensed for use with RPGM only.
 

Kezarus

Endless Game Maker
Hey @Yal! Thanks for dropping by!

I read happly your message as most of things we already plan as you said! =D

This sounds like a balancing nightmare and also a bad design idea (players like upgrades, and you want more complex systems - e.g. systems involving resource management - to be more powerful than easier systems so that the effort involved in learning them feels worth it)
Yes, it's a nightmare for my brother to test. And he is doing so by hand. XD
The idea of no better weapon or skill is that, for example, swords are the best on every occasion. That's not good for us. As we made them, swords are good for defense, but have a hard time against armor. And maces excels against armor, but againsts unnarmored foes an axe is better. Got it? ^_~ There are a lot of mechanics like that, this is but one example.


Design things as systemic as possible (like in an immersive sim like Deus Ex or Dishonored) so you can come up with fun unplanned interactions. For instance, if everything made from wood as a "flammable" parameter, throwing fire spells around willy-nilly can set the whole dungeon you're in on fire... intentionally or unintentionally. If all metal objects conduct electricity, you can short-circuits prison bars to hit a guard that's asleep leaning towards them, and so on. If enemies are difficult but predictable, the player can be encouraged to mess around with these systems pretty easily (if there's no clear dominant strategy that trivializes everything, at least)
Yey! Fireballs already destruct terrain and Lightining completely bypass armor. There is a lot a shenanigans like that. Have a peek on the last game list of skills. The new game have the same ideas, but the rules have changed.


Gear durability (with a limited system to repair damaged/broken gear) so that it's worth carrying backup gear and consumables like bombs even when you've got really good gear, and it's worth using cheap copper swords and stuff to reduce repair expenses for things that need more rare materials. Basically it makes looting new stuff worthwhile through the entire game, and finding a rare thing early on won't permanently ruin the balance.
  • If this also applies to enemies, it can be used to the player's advantage! Throwing jars of acid that damages gear can make tough enemies easier, but the drawback is that you won't be getting any good loot of their corpses.
We ditched the durability mechanic in favor on simplicity, we got a lot of questions about rules on the first game, very basic stuff, so we are trying to get it as easier as possible. But we have some consumables now! =D


  • If the player helps a town thrive the blacksmiths and other merchants will level up, offering higher-quality gear.
Yes! The more a player stick to a Town and help them, the best items/prices they get. Price is for Reputation, and item variability is because of how many Smiths are on Town (from 0 to 3). This is also bound to the Town population.


Random affixes (which usually reduce one stat but boosts another, or add a special effect like elemental damage/resistance) can make items feel more unique. Affixes also come in tiers, and items obtained from a higher-tier source (e.g. stolen from a mayor's private stash) have a better chance to have higher-tier affixes, even if the item itself is very mundane.
We just finished to define Sockets the other day. So a player will be able to put a jewel in a weapon/armor and add a mechanic to it.


Giving civilizations / religions / towns their own specialty items that you won't find anywhere else helps giving them their own identity, and also helps prevent the oatmeals issue. It could be functionally identical gear with different flavor text, or an attunement towards one of the gameplay-based archetypes (for instance, towns affiliated with the paladin order has more defensive swordfighters, towns affiliated with the alchemy guild has more potion sellers, and so on).
  • This also should apply to crops (though it makes more sense to have them differ based on climate foremost and civilization second)
Another yes! \o/ Dwarves have Tier 3 Weapons and Heavy Armor made from Adamant, Sylvans offer Tier 3 Weapons of Mithril and Yew and Light Armors, and so on. Crops and other resources depends on terrain and what buildings the Town have. A Port gives fish, Farms Grain, etc.


Final note... the graphics look very RPG-Maker-y. If you're actually using the RTPs as a placeholder, keep in mind that they're licensed for use with RPGM only.
Hmmm, that could gives me trouble if I made a video with them, isn't it? I will have to change them eventually. Thanks for the heads up!


I'm very happy that our ideas about it align, except for durability. Thanks for commenting! =D
 

Kezarus

Endless Game Maker
Oy, @Gaijin, try the 1st version if you like: Endless RPG. It's 20% discount right now.

But if anyone in the forum wants a Steam key just ask me and I happily obliged. =]

I admit it's not pretty, but it's fun. There are players that spent +90h with it. =D
 

Kezarus

Endless Game Maker
IDK if you saw on my status updates, but the Living World part of the game is done.

Last things that I added was:

War parties, that go and destroy parts of a Town. It is possible that the entire Town is destroyed.

Merchants, they origin in a Town and trade with others. That increase the reputation between them.

Bandits and Animals that are generated on the map. Bandits roam the map, attack Merchants and Flee from everything else. Animals patrol a point of origin and attack everything that is different from them.

Now I'm currently gathering the courage to make the Turn-Based Combat from scratch. ๐Ÿ˜…๐Ÿ˜


edit: btw, the graphics are crap. I plan to hire someone to make the sprites as soon as I finish the Combat.
 
Last edited:

Kezarus

Endless Game Maker
Welp today just some very basic stuff. Creating the Combat map with random gen. Gonna need some floor sprites.

Grassland:



Forest:


Close-up:


And desert:
 

Yal

๐Ÿง *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
To make things feel more alive, I'd recommend having patches of "alternate terrain" (perhaps with a blob-autotile set for each type?) with frequency and size parameters based on terrain type. Forests might have patches of moss or occasionally small puddles you can walk over, grasslands have footpaths where the vegetation has been worn down and patches of tall grass, and deserts has... uhh, more sand?

If you look at a high-bit game like CrossCode you'll see that there's almost no large contiguous regions using the same tile, especially not rectangular. Having this chaotic mix of different graphics helps hide that you're reusing a handful of tiles everywhere and conveys the organic shapes expected in nature... and it just so happens that computers are pretty good at fair randomness.
xc_sandstudy.PNG
 

Kezarus

Endless Game Maker
After 1 week rest, just made the diagrams for the attacks. Well... this is going to take a while to code...


ATTACK SEQUENCE - AREA _ BUFF.png

ATTACK COMMAND.png
 
D

Deleted member 16767

Guest
Very ambitious! I'm guessing that you are making this alone. Welcome to the Raid Boss Team. Kezarus the Wild Caveman in floor 2, Mikix the Light of the Shadow, floor 1.
 

Kezarus

Endless Game Maker
Yep, making that alone with only with the support of this marvelous community for some doubts. =]

And it's the 2nd one! The first was not jinxed by the name. XD
 
S

Sam (Deleted User)

Guest
This game is going on the showcase whether YoYo likes it or not because if they dont do it I know they live in Dundee! You guys better watch out, ima shank joo!
 

Kezarus

Endless Game Maker
Thanks @Samuel Venable. They already made a post of Endless RPG 1 today. That made me really happy. =D Gonna do my best to earn a post on their showcase too. =]

@Joe Ellis, thanks, mate! I'm using Spine and it REALLY eases a lot of work. I did a pretty exausting test to see how everything connects between Spine and GM. It's pretty neat. =]

If you guys see anything that is not that good in the animations, please let me know. I'm just a programmer that ocasionally wears the "artist hat" to make games. ๐Ÿ˜…
 

Kezarus

Endless Game Maker
Phew, it's been a while since I post something here. So heeeeeere it is!!! XD

I'm launching the Endless RPG 2 Combat Beta. All combat is available, you can create the party you want, equip it however you want, evolve the characters, there are all 300 Skills there. It just doesn't have a tutorial. ๐Ÿ˜… Just unzip it into a directory and play.

I look forward to your impressions after playing. =]

Moved to Itch.io:
 
Last edited:
Nice. I had a go and it's looking pretty good! Lots of weapons and armour to pick from and everything worked smoothly without any bugs that I could find. I took on some spiders with a 3 person team (tank, mage and rogue) and ended up only just losing the battle (mainly because it took me two turns to figure out how to attack, hahaha).

Personally, I think there needs to be a way to attack a unit just from clicking (instead of having to click the attack button and then click the unit). If there is already, I couldn't figure it out, lol, but I think something like a simple right click on an enemy should pathfind to within range and automatically attack if there's enough action points. If you want a confirmation (which pressing the button is I guess), then clicking once to show the path and then clicking again to execute it might work.

It'd also be cool if standing on tiles could yield some sort of environmental bonus, such as standing in a bush increasing the miss chance of the enemy, or increases your chance for a sneak attack or something like that. Could have a few different types of tiles that give the player some options as to how they want to be positioned for the fight. Water tiles could increase mana regen, mud tiles could have a chance of losing a turn if you have to walk over them (stuck in the mud), etc, things like that.

But yeah, the game's looking quite polished for a battle test. Monastery is doing some heavy work, hahaha.
 

Kezarus

Endless Game Maker
Hi @RefresherTowel! Yeah, Monastery is helping me A LOT on the menus and buttons. LoL. Making a GUI is not an ordeal anymore. Still not fun, but soooo much easier... XD

Ow, have you right clicked any character mid battle? @FoxyOfJungle made the design and I like it a lot. Check it out:
1674733686611.png

About the clicking to attack, I'm opting for a Battle Brothers style here. IDK if you had the chance to level up your guys and get some Skills. A character can have many options to attack (each one is a button), so I couldn't quite do it automatically. But we have hotkeys! =]

Also, what did you think about the line of sight mechanic? I think it can be improved visually, but IDK how. And the throw (we made that unlimited to be more fun)? Is the reach/first strike mechanic confusing? All that WILL be on a tutorial stage of the game, btw.

About the terrain... hmmm. You gave me something to think about. It mostly breaks the line of sight and consumes more to walk over, but we do not have other default mechanics. The Hide Skill makes you untargetable if you stand on fog, bushes or in the dark. Fireball destroys plants and trees. But nothing more besides that. Gonna write that down to our Backlog to think more about it. Our main issue is the lack of sprites to use.

Thank you so much for helping us to test our game. It means a lot to me. =]


Cheers!
 

Kezarus

Endless Game Maker
I made a piece of lore text for my game and I would like to share it with you guys. =]

THE COLOR OF MAGIC

Violet. Thatโ€™s the color or magic. Or purple. Maybe fuchsia. But why is that? And why exactly is that important? Well, the manifestation of magic through an specific color not only tells its color, but also its energetic state. Let me explain.

The light that you see have an specific and measureable amount of energy. And how convenient that, through special gestures, words and mind paths, the magic, on itโ€™s raw form, manifests itself as one of the most energetic states of the visible light.

At this crude state, itโ€™s just energy, a lot of it, but it is impossible to achieve something with this pure substance at this state. To make something out of it we need to downgrade its energy state. And that changes its color.

Following the schools of magic by color, from the most energetic to the least, we have Blue, Green, White, Red and Black. That distance from the color violet not only implies on how much power one needs to exerts to bend the raw energy, but it also tells on what that level of energy can resonates and dissonates.

To alter the minds of sentient beings, the light of the environment and the very fabric of magic itself, one needs to dive in the Blue school of magic. The blue frequency enables the disruption of magic through dispel and conterspell. And itโ€™s funny that it can also taps on what its targets see... or they think they can see... or think. The ones that study it are known as scholars and they dwellve on libraries, surrounded by arcane texts and scrolls in the hopes of understand the hidden and abstract concepts of magic.

The nature and the conection to the very world we live in, with plants animals and the weather itself, is the specialty of the Green spells. Their practicioners share a deep link to the very soul of the land, and thatโ€™s why itโ€™s halfway on the light frequency. Itโ€™s said that to be a true master of the Green Magic, a druid as they call themselves, not only needs to know every magic gesture and word, but they also need to share their souls with mother nature herself.

Restore and protect the physical body is the realm of knowledge of the energy that resonates with the color yellow. Yes, they like to call themselves โ€œWhiteโ€, maybe thinking that they are so high and mighty to be above all others, including the pure color of magic, violet, but I digress. Not only the White spells can cure and ward others, their point of resonance, but it also wrecks havoc with Black Magic, where it dissonates heavly. Empathy and benevolency helps its students to create the mind paths to cast white spells and booster the choir of priests and paladins. A law abiding nature is entirely optional.

Itโ€™s often a source of amusement on how some kind of people like to destroy and blow stuff up. No wonder that, at the bottom of the visible spectrum, we find the Red Magic. But, make no mistake, as this destructive school of magic dumps all the energy required to move it from violet to red into spectacular effects of mayhem. They have the power of fire, ice and electricity at their fingertips that are the most powerful physical effects of all other shcools. Like warriors need to swing their weapons to make them better fighters, battle mages improves as they use their magic... and blow stuff up.

Itโ€™s said that the essential is invisible to the eyes, but no one says how caustic and toxic it can be. Particularly when itโ€™s about Black Magic. The exertion of that school is so intense that the color of magic is all but gone, leaving a void on its wake. Some scholars say that the color is still there, just beyond the red, but our eyes canโ€™t see it. Dealing with the death and the undead require its users to corrupt the magic at this level. Necromancers and death knights have a kind of perversion that is particular to them, as not everyone are capable of twisting magic as they do. But, then again, not everyone are willing to stare into the eyes of death.

Through the violet untamed energy all magic are possible. And, despite every specific school of Magic having a distinct color and have their singular masters, not one being can be a master of Violet Magic as it is wild and free at its core.
 

Yal

๐Ÿง *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
IMO these symbols could do with some work, there's some weird overlap that makes it unclear what they represent.
1691432684697.png

Top to bottom, left to right:
  • Book: probably means intelligence, fine.
  • Shield that is getting filled up: uhhhhhhh? Defense? Defense refill rate, whatever that means?
  • Boots: movement, fine.
  • Boots with wings: hmm... jumping? Though jumping probably would've been more readable with an up arrow or something....?
  • Wing: wait a second we already covered jumping???
  • Bodybuilder pose: Strength, probably. But isn't this usually listed first in most games...? Is this some unimportant auxiliary stat for carrying capacity?
  • Leaning forwards pose: speed? But we already covered the movement icon, is that related to something else?
  • Head with a gloria: we covered intelligence with the book, is this actually intelligence? Or faith maybe, since glorias are generally used to represent divine beings. Or perception, with the circle representing the sensory experience??
It's not as bad as the original Demon's Souls port insisting on using croissants to represent every stat, but I hesitate to say I understand what any of these stats mean.
 

Kezarus

Endless Game Maker
Heeey, thanks @Yal! Yeah, icon figure out is quite the challenge, even more so when I rely on 3rd party repo for that.

Top to bottom, Left to Right:
  • Book: the char's level
  • Shield: the Guard recovery, how fast the "defense" replenishes
  • Boot: move
  • Winged feet: dash consumes the regular action
  • Wings: initiative
  • Bodybuilder: Vigor, physical save
  • Leaner: Reflex, the "dexterity" save
  • Head: Will, the mental save
I see how this can be complicated. I'm accepting suggestions. =]

In any case, all those icons will have a tooltip anyways.

Cheers!
 

Yal

๐Ÿง *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
Suggestions, huh? My main complaint kinda boiled down to "don't have multiple icons that convey the same message" but it turns out some things were related so it's been a bit moot-ified.

What I'd do would probably be...
  • Since guard recovery is "shield refilling" this icon works perfectly and doesn't need changing
  • Move the level status to the EXP bar, there's more room on the left side + the "big number first, small number later" approach makes more sense (EXP is the fractional part of your level, conceptually speaking)
    1691517622064.png
    This frees up one slot in the 2x4 grid, not sure what you'd do there but perhaps give more emphasis to the most important stat?
  • For the saves, I feel like the "save" aspect is missing in the icons, so having a combined icon (one radical representing saving, one representing the physical attribute involved) would get that across better. I'm thinking something like either of these:
    1691518046561.png
    This would be pretty simple to do, you'd just shrink either icon from the stock library and use the other as an adornment.
    (there's probably a better icon to represent successfully avoiding a negative effect, floppy disks just feel like an unmistakeable icon for "save" in my world lol)
  • For initiative I probably would use a hourglass or clock icon instead, so there's no chance of mixing up all the representations of speed
  • Move Guard Recovery to the right column since the saves are all "defensive stats", swapping out Initiative which can go with Move and Dash as the "speed stats"
    • Alternatively... It's unclear how Dash works mechanically but you could probably remove it from this stat block entirely (especially if it's a one-off thing and/or it's based on your regular movement, like how in XCOM dashing will let you move twice as far as normal) so you can remove one line and space the icons out more
 

Kezarus

Endless Game Maker
Thanks for the comments @Yal! =]

Sooo, that same-y screen also appears on combat, where you do not have the same elements as the party screen. ๐Ÿ˜…
The Char's Level was exactly where you pointed, but it was duplicated with the screen below and I had to remove it from somewhere without messing with the layout. So I opted to remove it from the XP Bar.
1691582779773.png

About the saves icons IDK if you are being serious or not. LoL. I tried to search for a D&D icon for the saves (resistances), but I culdn't find any. They just write down the name and call it a day. I wouldn't do that. ๐Ÿ˜…

For Initiative I liked the idea! I went straight through the icon's site and got a "wait a minute" moment. Check out the icon for "skip turn" on combat. Ow... damn...
1691583271863.png

Icons are a kind of and art in of itself. Damn... Don't even get me started on the icons for 50+ Status and 300+ Skills... ๐Ÿ˜…
 
Top