Warscale 49 - 4 new staffs and a hat request
by Guimo · 10/10/2009 (12:32 am) · 1 comments
Hi all!
Only 5 days have passed since my last blog. Fortunately everything is coming along way faster than I thought so I was able to create 4 new items instead of two and I can verify the Wolf as the first official creature for Warscale.
What was planned
Malachite Sceptre of the Wolves
I was really afraid of implementing the Sceptre of the Wolves ({2} Summon a wolf) but on the end it only required a few stitches here and there and everythign worked fine. So I decided to play a little and add some other minor modifiers like the mallachite keyword (wikipedia mallachite) which adds 1d4 damage to the base 1d8 making this staff more interesting.
Now, you will see later that summoning a wolf only costs 1 mana but this staff requires 2 mana to summon one. Its just a matter of convenience... sometimes you dont get everythig you need on the hand and in those cases this staff can help you. And this staff 2-12 damage is not bad either.
War Staff of Dragon Skin
A war staff is the most powerful staff available dealing 3-12 damage by itself. But I decided to add an armor level 10 ability so this staff becomes a really nasty boy.
But what does a level 10 armor means? I was previously using the Warcraft approach which means armor reduces damage. Like a 10 armor applied on a formula which describes a curve, means a 25% damage reduction on each attack so an attack dealing 100 point of damage will be reduced to 75 and 8 damage is reduced to 6. This is fine by itself but on the end it only means the creature has more hit points.
I really wanted that in other ability for Warscale which is the HP maximum... like a Steel Plate of the Mamooth which gives you an additional 100 HP. But the armor being the same, I didn't want 2 ways of describing the same thing so, as usual, I applied the golden rule... KISS.
I decided the armor ability should be used to ignore damage. Like if I have armor 10 and I receive an attack with 100 damage I will get 90.
What!!! So previously it prevented 25 damage and now it only prevents 10!!!! It is worse!!!!
Not at all, its better. Not all creatures will deal 100 damage. Most low and medium level creatures will deal 1-6 or maybe 2-12 damage. Even a Dire bear which is the largest beast right now deals 2-24 damage. So while with the other rules, when you are dealt 8 damage the armor will reduce 2 points, with the new rules an armor 10 will cut all the 8 points!!! That is a 100% defense!!! So you can ignore that small creature wolf dealing 1d6 damage and the other dealing 2-12 will be luck to even deal you a scratch. Even the Dire bear with an average damage of 13 will have trouble against you.
I tested this baby by donning two of them and fighting the Dire Bear. I was dealing 4-24 damage on each attack and ignored 20 points of damage. I think I killed the Dire Bear and got like 6 points of damage in total.
Of course this power comes with a big price tag. This staf will cost about 24k gold pieces which is a high sum. So you will need to play a lot or buy the staff.
Wolf
The first confirmed creature. Level 1, 1 mana to summon. Fast but low HP. 1-6 damage (image has an error, I have fixed it in the game).
What wasnt planned
Staff of Energy
I think this is he most disturbing staff I have right now. This small staff deals just 1d6 on each attack but will provide you with one additional mana each turn which means you will be able to summon more creatures faster. This is not a bad thing at all but I'm afraid of it because I decided to mark this ability as a level 4 ability and I hope it holds. Of course everybody can get one of those as it is not that expensive (700 gold) so the game should be balanced after all.
Ornate Staff of Haste
This is another quite powerful staff. It provides you with a basic 1-10 damage but most important, you will be affected by a haste spell which means you will get +3 movement and +1 attack each turn. This means your movement gets doubled AND you can deal way more attacks. Think about combining a Staff of Bat Regeneration and one of this... hmmmmm. Decisions.
And of course all these staffs cry for a monster which destroys one random piece of equipment on each attack. I was thinking about this:
Platinum catterpillar (Creature - Vermin)
Medium, HP 10, Mv 3, Dmg 1-4, Armor 6.
The iron catterpillar is the larvae of the Platinum Butterfly. Eats steel blades in just the same way a caterpillar eats a blade of grass. Is attracted by metals and magic auras making magical equipment its favourite meal.
When the iron caterpillar attacks, destroy one equipment of the target creature.
The plan for this week
I dont know if I will be able to move forward at the same speed. We went to visit some friend to the hospital as they had their first child and it looks like my wife and son got something there. Together with the weather here in Sydney being as crazy as it can be (sun, cold, rain, all together at the same time, then heat and wind... nuts) they are on bed right now and I'm the master of my household (which basically means I have to clean, cook, laundry, etc).
Anyway I have managed to complete 15 items which was my target for the beta. Now I need to complete the 15 creatures and 15 artifacts. I already have 1 so I'm doing ok. I already have 11 more creatures deployed from the first tests so now I have to fix them to get them 100% ready. Some of them need some texture work before I get them 100% ready but I plan to get them completely working and verified this week and leave texturing for later.
After fixing these 11 creatures I will focus on the other 3 to complete the 15. I have the caterpillar and a lava golem in mind. Then I can focus on the artifacts.
Hat request
A wizard needs a hat. Unfortunately I dont have a good hat in my resources. Gandalf style would be great but that is not mandatory. If anybody would like to send me a good 3ds textured model I will create a new magic item and you will be able to set the hat abilities. Your name will appear near the hat in the equipment editor as the item creator.
Also, if anybody would like to propose new items to be included in the next equipment batch. Send your ideas to guimo at spritekin dot com. This time we will focus on hats, crowns, tiaras and the like.
Proposal
I would like to know if someone may be interested in porting Warscale to Torque3D. It would be a partnership and we would need to discuss shares. Only serious people. This is not a small project and you are expected to be comfortable with the engine. There is no pay except when the game is finished and provides income.
Interested people send me a mail to guimo at spritekin dot com. Please include completed titles so I can judge you devotion to any project.
Good luck with your projects!
Guimo
Only 5 days have passed since my last blog. Fortunately everything is coming along way faster than I thought so I was able to create 4 new items instead of two and I can verify the Wolf as the first official creature for Warscale.
What was planned
Malachite Sceptre of the Wolves
I was really afraid of implementing the Sceptre of the Wolves ({2} Summon a wolf) but on the end it only required a few stitches here and there and everythign worked fine. So I decided to play a little and add some other minor modifiers like the mallachite keyword (wikipedia mallachite) which adds 1d4 damage to the base 1d8 making this staff more interesting.
Now, you will see later that summoning a wolf only costs 1 mana but this staff requires 2 mana to summon one. Its just a matter of convenience... sometimes you dont get everythig you need on the hand and in those cases this staff can help you. And this staff 2-12 damage is not bad either.
War Staff of Dragon Skin
A war staff is the most powerful staff available dealing 3-12 damage by itself. But I decided to add an armor level 10 ability so this staff becomes a really nasty boy.
But what does a level 10 armor means? I was previously using the Warcraft approach which means armor reduces damage. Like a 10 armor applied on a formula which describes a curve, means a 25% damage reduction on each attack so an attack dealing 100 point of damage will be reduced to 75 and 8 damage is reduced to 6. This is fine by itself but on the end it only means the creature has more hit points.
I really wanted that in other ability for Warscale which is the HP maximum... like a Steel Plate of the Mamooth which gives you an additional 100 HP. But the armor being the same, I didn't want 2 ways of describing the same thing so, as usual, I applied the golden rule... KISS.
I decided the armor ability should be used to ignore damage. Like if I have armor 10 and I receive an attack with 100 damage I will get 90.
What!!! So previously it prevented 25 damage and now it only prevents 10!!!! It is worse!!!!
Not at all, its better. Not all creatures will deal 100 damage. Most low and medium level creatures will deal 1-6 or maybe 2-12 damage. Even a Dire bear which is the largest beast right now deals 2-24 damage. So while with the other rules, when you are dealt 8 damage the armor will reduce 2 points, with the new rules an armor 10 will cut all the 8 points!!! That is a 100% defense!!! So you can ignore that small creature wolf dealing 1d6 damage and the other dealing 2-12 will be luck to even deal you a scratch. Even the Dire bear with an average damage of 13 will have trouble against you.
I tested this baby by donning two of them and fighting the Dire Bear. I was dealing 4-24 damage on each attack and ignored 20 points of damage. I think I killed the Dire Bear and got like 6 points of damage in total.
Of course this power comes with a big price tag. This staf will cost about 24k gold pieces which is a high sum. So you will need to play a lot or buy the staff.
Wolf
The first confirmed creature. Level 1, 1 mana to summon. Fast but low HP. 1-6 damage (image has an error, I have fixed it in the game).What wasnt planned
Staff of Energy
I think this is he most disturbing staff I have right now. This small staff deals just 1d6 on each attack but will provide you with one additional mana each turn which means you will be able to summon more creatures faster. This is not a bad thing at all but I'm afraid of it because I decided to mark this ability as a level 4 ability and I hope it holds. Of course everybody can get one of those as it is not that expensive (700 gold) so the game should be balanced after all.Ornate Staff of Haste
This is another quite powerful staff. It provides you with a basic 1-10 damage but most important, you will be affected by a haste spell which means you will get +3 movement and +1 attack each turn. This means your movement gets doubled AND you can deal way more attacks. Think about combining a Staff of Bat Regeneration and one of this... hmmmmm. Decisions.
And of course all these staffs cry for a monster which destroys one random piece of equipment on each attack. I was thinking about this:
Platinum catterpillar (Creature - Vermin)
Medium, HP 10, Mv 3, Dmg 1-4, Armor 6.
The iron catterpillar is the larvae of the Platinum Butterfly. Eats steel blades in just the same way a caterpillar eats a blade of grass. Is attracted by metals and magic auras making magical equipment its favourite meal.
When the iron caterpillar attacks, destroy one equipment of the target creature.
The plan for this week
I dont know if I will be able to move forward at the same speed. We went to visit some friend to the hospital as they had their first child and it looks like my wife and son got something there. Together with the weather here in Sydney being as crazy as it can be (sun, cold, rain, all together at the same time, then heat and wind... nuts) they are on bed right now and I'm the master of my household (which basically means I have to clean, cook, laundry, etc).
Anyway I have managed to complete 15 items which was my target for the beta. Now I need to complete the 15 creatures and 15 artifacts. I already have 1 so I'm doing ok. I already have 11 more creatures deployed from the first tests so now I have to fix them to get them 100% ready. Some of them need some texture work before I get them 100% ready but I plan to get them completely working and verified this week and leave texturing for later.
After fixing these 11 creatures I will focus on the other 3 to complete the 15. I have the caterpillar and a lava golem in mind. Then I can focus on the artifacts.
Hat request
A wizard needs a hat. Unfortunately I dont have a good hat in my resources. Gandalf style would be great but that is not mandatory. If anybody would like to send me a good 3ds textured model I will create a new magic item and you will be able to set the hat abilities. Your name will appear near the hat in the equipment editor as the item creator.
Also, if anybody would like to propose new items to be included in the next equipment batch. Send your ideas to guimo at spritekin dot com. This time we will focus on hats, crowns, tiaras and the like.
Proposal
I would like to know if someone may be interested in porting Warscale to Torque3D. It would be a partnership and we would need to discuss shares. Only serious people. This is not a small project and you are expected to be comfortable with the engine. There is no pay except when the game is finished and provides income.
Interested people send me a mail to guimo at spritekin dot com. Please include completed titles so I can judge you devotion to any project.
Good luck with your projects!
Guimo
Associate Steve Acaster
[YorkshireRifles.com]