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[In development] A turn based RPG modification of Don't Starve


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Whoa another update already?
 
I've been on a roll :grin:
 
This week, ladies and gents, I've been working on integrating the turn based combat system with the traditional Don't Starve experience. I also have a new enemy, some effects and abilities to show off as well :-) Here's a peek at how it's shaping up so far!
 
 
The way encounters will work is something like this: random encounters can happen on occasion while exploring away from your base. A guaranteed encounter will occur however if you encounter hostile mobs roaming around and you aggro them (or you whack a spider nest or hive and hostile insects come pouring out). Certain combats will also pop during scripted story events (boss fights, ambushes and so on).
 
The eagle eyed-viewer would have noticed two things. One, the game clock is stopped while the combat is in effect. This should prevent a lengthy combat sequence chewing up large parts of the day and catching the player out when returning home at dusk (too much of a 'gotcha!' moment I feel). Two, the health meter is gone! I'm thinking that the player characters will be invulnerable outside of combat. The only way to lose the game will to have all party members taken out of action during a combat. After a combat your health is restored to full. So whats the point of keeping hunger and sanity? Well, your sanity will determine the likelihood of bumping into shadow monsters, and how powerful these shadow creatures will be. Sanity will also be required to cast magic spells. Hunger, on the other hand, ties to your basic combat stats. The hungrier you are, the lower your strength and health in combat will be. So both sanity and hunger will need to be kept up! When you are freezing in the winter, or overheating in summer, characters will suffer from the 'lethargic' condition during combat. This condition will dramatically slow how quickly their action gauge fills. If they are so cold / hot that you would typically be taking damage, instead if a combat pops then the monsters will get a free strike at the party members at the very start of the combat. Other one off damage from things like spiny plants or fire damage could be just modeled as a minor loss of hunger and/or sanity.
 
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Hey everyone,
 
Just another update on my progress. I'll upload a video when I have some time and I'm sure the latest bugs I introduced have been ironed out 
 
New video is up!
 
 
Now that the basic mechanics have been coded in, I've been expanding on the content. This required yet another overhaul to make the character and abilities code more modular and to cut down on reused code :razz: I've added many new abilities and status effects, and am starting to add in more monsters to face.
 
Weapon items are also now supported. Characters will start without a weapon by default, and their basic ability is always a punch with no special abilities. Equipping a character with a weapon replaces this punch ability with a weapon specific ability; torches have a chance to inflict burning, spears reduce the enemies attack power and so on.
 
Battle progression is also being coded. Battles now consist of several waves of enemies with a victory or defeat splash screen popping up at the end.

I've also been playing some Final Fantasy 5 lately, and it's been giving me inspiration. I'm thinking of implementing the FF5 job system to the game, but with my own twist on it. For those who don't know: the FF5 job system basically allows to change your characters' classes at will. You could assign a fighter job to a character get them to tank one battle but then switch them to a magic user or healer class for the next. It's a very flexible system that allows for a lot of variety. There'll be more on how it would work in another update, but for now what do you guys think of the idea of a job system?
 
Some jobs ideas I have:
- Apothecary (heals, removes harmful status and prevents damage)
- Alchemist (buffs friends and debuffs enemies with SCIENCE)
- Pugilist (melee based damage dealer)
- Warlock (spell based damage dealer)
- Bounty hunter (controls battle tempo by trapping enemies)
- Chronicler (buffs friends and debuffs enemies with words and song)
- Inquistor (hybrid spell based damage dealer and healer)
- Shadowblade (a stealthy melee damage dealer)
- Shaman (hybrid debuffer and healer)
 
Let me know what you think and feel free to suggest additional jobs. Something a bit Victorian or steampunk would be awesome.
 
 
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Previous update:
 
G'day folks,
 
Another update on my progress! There's been quite a few things added since last week. I have extra abilities in the game, including healing abilities and AoEs, special effects that play when casting spells, and an action camera to highlight important events.
 
This week we also have Wilson joining the battle. He has the ability to draft mysterious potions which heal a friend and grant them a random buff. He also can brew up the powerful Universal Solvent to remove buffs from enemies. Additionally, Wolfgang gains a set of powerful buffs to strengthen himself and his friends, while Willow was given another way to burn everything to the ground.
 
You can check out these new goodies in the video here!


There's also been a lot more behind the scene coding, including an improved AI system for the monsters.
 
What do you guys think of the new changes? Let me know. Make sure to post your ideas as well, I'm happy to take them into consideration. If you can help me decide on a proper name for this mod, that would be grand. I thought maybe 'Don't Starve Tactics'  for the cliche value, but the abbreviation DST is already taken :razz:


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Previous update:
 
There's been some progress this week folks! I've got UI v1.0 up and running, with artwork courtesy of the lovely @Vivalavie :-)
 
This UI includes a proper menu for selecting abilities, health and attack gauges for the battling characters, floating damage indicators, status effect messages and status effect icons with duration timers. You can see this new UI in action here:
 
 
I'm pretty happy about the UI at the moment, but I'll probably take at least once more pass at it before the first release.
 
I've also been doing a lot of behind the scenes, making the code cleaner. I've also implemented some more new status effects (i.e. buffs and debuffs). The status effects that I have up and running include:
 
Buffs
- Increased attack speed
- Increased attack damage
- Increased armour
- Shield (absorbs the next 20% of the target's max health in damage)
 
Debuffs
- Decreased attack speed
- Decreased attack damage
- Decreased armour
- Stunned (skips next activation)
- Terrified (skips next activation and all buffs are removed from the target)
- Burning (take 5% damage at the start of each turn. This debuff can be applied more than once)
- Poisoned (take 3% damage at the start of each turn. This damage is multiplied by the number of turns the debuff has remaining on the target. Applying this effect multiple times increases the duration of this effect)
 
The next task I plan to tackle is the design and implementation for the abilities for the characters. I'm planning to have all the original DS characters as being playable (RoG will come later).
 
The design philosophy as it stands thus far: Each character can unlock up to three unique, activatable abilities and one unique passive ability. These abilities can be powered up with ability points earned in battle (I don't plan on implementing a level based system currently)
 
The first ability is a basic attack that typically has a chance to apply a minor status effect (e.g. burning or poison). This basic attack can be used every turn.
 
The second is an intermediate level ability which usually has a 3-4 turn cool down. This could be an attack or support ability (healing abilities, burst damage and so on). This is the bread and butter ability for the character.
 
The third ability is a powerful attack or support ability. These will usually have a 5-7 turn cool down, but could could turn a battle in your favour. Includes things like AoE abilities with high damage, powerful buffs, resurrecting party members.
 
The passive ability should be unique in what it offers. Hopefully these will mix up things up a bit, by making changes to certain mechanics or play styles. For example, I currently plan that Wendy has the passive ability which causes all healing effects to deal damage instead. While this will stop you from healing, your opponents cannot heal either. In fact, you could use this to turn a healer into a powerful damage dealer (as healing ignores armour), or perhaps even damage a friend to trigger another ability.
 
Here's list of the characters, and the abilities I have planned (subject to change of course). Abilities in green I heavily favour, yellow I'm indecisive, and red I have no clue :razz:
 
Wilson
Basic: Deals damage and has a chance to reduce the targets attack power
Intermediate: Heals a single target and gives them a random beneficial effect
Ultimate: Increases the duration of beneficial effects on friendlies, and increases the duration of harmful effects on enemies.
Passive: Increases the rate which ability points are earned
 
Willow
Basic: Deals damage and has a small chance of giving them terrified
Intermediate: Deals high damage to a single target and gives them the 'burning' status
Ultimate: Deals high damage to all enemies. This damage is increased if they are are burning
Passive: Increases Willow's attack speed depending on the number of enemies who are burning
 
Wolfgang
Basic: Deals damage and reduces the target's armour
Intermediate: Deals damage and stuns the target
Ultimate: Increases the armour and attack power of all party members
Passive: The amount of damage taken by party members is reduced when they are at / under 30% health
 
Wickerbottom
Basic: Deals damage and have a chance to reduce the targets attack speed
Intermediate: Reads 'Sleepytime Stories' to all enemies. They are slowed, and have a chance of falling asleep
Ultimate: Reads from 'The End is Nigh' resulting in lightning striking all enemies
Passive: ?
 
Woodie
Basic: Deals damage and critical hits increase Woodie's attack speed
Intermediate: Heal a single target
Ultimate: Turn into the Werebeaver
Passive: When Woodie is healed, the amount healed is instead distributed evenly among all party members (i.e. if there are four party members, each member heals 25% of the total amount healed)
 
Werebeaver
Basic: Deals damage and heals 30% of the damage deal
Intermediate: ?
Ultimate: Turns into Woodie
Passive: The werebeaver's attack power is increased proportional to the amount of health lost.
 
WX
Basic: Deals damage, has a chance of giving the target burning
Intermediate: ?
Ultimate: Gives each party member the shield effect 
Passive: ?
 
Wendy
Basic: Deals damage, has a chance to steal beneficial effect from the target
Intermediate: Haunts a target with Abigail, reducing their attack speed, attack power and armor (half the usual amount)
Ultimate: Revive a friendly character who has been taken out of action
Passive: All healing effects now deal damage instead.
 
Wes
Basic: Mimics an enemy, gaining all their abilities for the combat
Intermediate: None
Ultimate: None
Passive: Wes is the first to activate in each combat
 
Waxwell
Basic: ?
Intermediate: ?
Ultimate: ?
Passive: ?
 

There we have it. If you have suggestions for some characterful abilities, feel free to suggest them :-)

I also have ideas for an item system, that would allow you to equip weapons, amour, amulets etc to give increased stats and special abilities (for example equipping a torch would grant a good chance of inflicting burning when performing a basic attack), but I'll discuss that later (probably much later....) as there is a lot of things in the meantime to work on.

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It's Worms in DS, right? Please tell me it is.

 

With all seriousness, it's looking quite awesome. Does it freeze the clock while you're fighting?

 

Thanks :D

 

Currently it stops the clock when it's a character's turn, but I might experiment with the active time system that many of the Final Fantasy games have as I quite like it.

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I've been working hard, and am happy to reveal the new UI :) You can see the new UI action in the updated original post, along with my thoughts on the design of the abilities of the characters. If you any have suggestions, feel free to post them, I'd love to read them :)

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Yaaayyyy! :excitement:

 

And this RPG has reasonable damage types and debuffs as well! That is really rare in my opinion.

 

'bout the abilities...

Wilson: Random, Science, yes!

 

Wickerbottom: It'd be cool if she'd summon either lightning (hitting any character), tentacles (third faction enemy?) or putting opponents to sleep/stunning them.
Regarding the passive ability, how about a chance to turn recieved debuffs into other (de-)buffs?

 

Werebeaver: terrific debuff, maybe AoE? You'd expect a man turning into squirrel-hulk being terrifying.

 

WX: A passive one could be lots of buffs for recieving electric (or force/energy, depending on which you'd prefer to implement) damage

 

Waxwell: basic: Deal damage with a chance of regaining action time

ultimate: summons a shadow puppet, which has low health but high damage and attacks automatically (limit amount somehow?)

passive: some damage types/debuffs are shared for the team.

 

Wes: Ditto!

 

Video is private btw. :)

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I can't believe you (more or less) implemented Alkahest. This mod is rapidly getting better than HotD, before release!

 

Regarding the name, how about TBRPGMOD (turn-based role-play-game mod)? No, not quite? Okay...

 

Catchy name ;) And wouldn't say this mod is better than the HotD mod, as the two mods are offering two very different experiences ;)

 

Unfortunately updates on my mod are likely to slow down considerably with the rapid approach of Christmas and New Years. So many things to do before years end and not much time to do them all!

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Hey everyone,
 
Just another update on my progress. I'll upload a video when I have some time and I'm sure the latest bugs I introduced have been ironed out :-)
 
Now that the basic mechanics have been coded in, I've been expanding on the content. This required yet another overhaul to make the character and abilities code more modular and to cut down on reused code :razz: I've added many new abilities and status effects, and am starting to add in more monsters to face.
 
Weapon items are also now supported. Characters will start without a weapon by default, and their basic ability is always a punch with no special attributes. Equipping a character with a weapon replaces this punch ability with a weapon specific ability; torches have a chance to inflict burning, spears reduce the enemies attack power and so on.
 
Battle progression is also being coded. Battles now consist of several waves of enemies with a victory or defeat splash screen popping up at the end.

I've also been playing some Final Fantasy 5 lately, and it's been giving me inspiration. I'm thinking of implementing the FF5 job system to the game, but with my own twist on it. For those who don't know: the FF5 job system basically allows to change your characters' classes at will. You could assign a fighter job to a character get them to tank one battle but then switch them to a magic user or healer class for the next. It's a very flexible system that allows for a lot of variety. There'll be more on how it would work in another update, but for now what do you guys think of the idea of a job system?
 
Some jobs ideas I have:
- Apothecary (heals, removes harmful status and prevents damage)
- Alchemist (buffs friends and debuffs enemies with SCIENCE)
- Pugilist (melee based damage dealer)
- Warlock (spell based damage dealer)
- Bounty hunter (controls battle tempo by trapping enemies)
- Chronicler (buffs friends and debuffs enemies with words and song)
- Inquistor (hybrid spell based damage dealer and healer)
- Shadowblade (a stealthy melee damage dealer)
- Shaman (hybrid debuffer and healer)
 
Let me know what you think and feel free to suggest additional jobs. Something a bit Victorian or steampunk would be awesome.
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awwww :/

I came back to the forums itching to write a mod like this, inspired by my current obsession with Divinity: Original Sin (and, to a lesser extent, Wasteland 2). Too bad I'm too late. Good luck, though! (:

 

I don't think you're not too late at all! There's a large variety of turn based RPGs which are very different to one another. A DS mod inspired by Divinity Original Sin will likely play very differently to one inspired by Final Fantasy :) We'll have different ideas and implement things in different ways.

 

If you're itching to write a turn based RPG mod (and I know that itch) then go for it!

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I don't think you're not too late at all! There's a large variety of turn based RPGs which are very different to one another. A DS mod inspired by Divinity Original Sin will likely play very differently to one inspired by Final Fantasy :-) We'll have different ideas and implement things in different ways.

 

If you're itching to write a turn based RPG mod (and I know that itch) then go for it!

I'm assuming yours isn't Action Point based, then?

But anyway, I'll only work on this idea after U&A has been ported to DST.

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I'm assuming yours isn't Action Point based, then?

 

 

Nope. I'm considering using the active time system though (i.e. attack gauges that constantly fill). Also, it's also not a 'tactical' RPG, so the position of the characters will be static during battles. For more details you can always check to videos in the original post.

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