



So I took my time today, did some brainstorming with the ideas I had initially and added some math and thoughts to it. So let me explain the core gameplay and dungeons according to it.





I'll slice this post into 4 topics:

Individual heroes Army Dungeons Groups





Individual heroes

Let's start with the heroes and how you work with them.





The most important stat of a hero is his DPS (Damage Per Second). This value is calculated from 2 base attributes: strength and attack speed. I won't get into detail here, but it's kinda straightforward.

Another stat is called Lifepoints (LP) which is based on the condition attribute.





That's all, a hero has life and DPS. The base attributes never change and are unique for every hero. The outcome scales with the hero level. So even the first weak hero you hire could still be valuable in middle to endgame, if his level is high enough.





Once you hire your first hero he will attack the monsters in The Abyss with his DPS.

But monsters on the other hand also do have these stats. So they attack your hero back, but a lot slower and in most cases they are kinda weak. Every defeated monster gives the hero experience btw.





What happens when a hero reaches 0 LP? He won't die, but he has to rest. A resting hero is not able to attack and needs to wait until his LP are full again. Higher level means higher resting time.





Army

An army is quite simple all your heroes together. You have an army DPS meter which is visible on the field. Every hero you hire is attacking with his DPS, but it's collected in a pool which is your overall DPS. With this sum you actually attack the monsters of The Abyss. The damage which the monster does is shared to all heroes equally. So weak heroes are going to die quite fast if you are deep into The Abyss. If a hero is resting his DPS will not count anymore.





But don't worry to much, every monster beaten heals the hero for a fixed amount.





The EXP of the monster is also shared between all heroes, so you are capable of power leveling weak new heroes, but you have to be careful.





Dungeons

A Dungeon will be unlocked after a certain zone and sometimes with other conditions.

After it is unlocked you can command a hero to explore it. He will advance automatically and tries to clear it by himself.





There is more than one dungeon and each dungeon has something in common:

Dungeons do have zones just like The Abyss, but you don't need to kill 10 monsters to advance. Only one monster is enough to reach the next zone.

The smallest dungeon has 10 zones, but it can scale up to a freaking high number.

Every dungeon has a level, this level determines how powerful the monsters are and how good the loot will be.

After you beat half of the dungeon a mini boss will appear, he is obviously stronger and has more life, but also gives bonus EXP after defeating.

As you might have guessed, the last zone is being protected by the end boss. If you defeat it you will get a great amount of EXP, gold and loot.

At rare times zones can be filled with treasures instead of monsters.





As you can see they are very familar to The Abyss but on a smaller scale. But there are other differences, too. In The Abyss the damage is calculated live and several times a second, in dungeons it is round based combat.





So take this example:

A hero has 50 LP and does 10 DPS, the monster has 20 LP and does 4 DPS.





Round 1:

- Hero attacks monster with 10 DPS => Monster has 10/20 LP left.

- Monster attacks hero with 4 DPS => Hero has 46/50 LP left.





Round 2:

- Hero attacks monster with 10 DPS => Monster has 0/20 LP left. - Monster is dead and hero has 46/50 LP left.





The hero will now obtain EXP and moves to the next zone with his current LP left. Each zone conquered heals him for 1% of his maximum LP but at least 1 LP if it's a very low number.





If the hero dies inside a dungeon he will be kicked out and needs to rest. The time is doubled compared to The Abyss. But everything obtained inside will be kept. Be aware that a hero which is currently inside a dungeon won't count towards your army DPS. So be carefull not to have all heroes sent away.





Groups

A group is formed by 2 - 5 heroes and can be created in a building which you have to unlock. A group does not have a significant impact on your progression inside The Abyss but dungeons.





Once you have unlocked the group feature you can send not just single heroes to dungeons and quests, but a full group of heroes. This allows faster dungeon progression and stategies you can define. Heroes do unlock skills while leveling and some skills might be very usefull in group play.









Quite the post today, but I thought it would be better to explain this. Once I have the system in a version where I can demonstrate this, I will do it.

I recently presented my game concept at reddit and asked for feedback. There were a few points which I noticed weren't absolutely clear or could need a better description. One of this is the definition of the dungeons/quests and how you actually use your units.