Hello, my name is Oskar Lidh Frykmark, also known as Perkulatorn, and I’m the lead designer on Tamarrion. Today we’re going to have another look at where we are in our production cycle and what has been implemented since the last development diary

Progress

Since last time, we’ve worked a lot with the spell system, as well as a complete overhaul of the implemented boss.

We’ve completed one spell, which I’ll get into later in this post, and implemented in into the game and started working on another (which is basically just lacking graphics and balancing right now).

On top of that, we’ve received a lot of feedback regarding the boss combats per se, so we’ve overhauled and taken a new approach when it comes to how we balance the boss. I’m not going to go too deep into this topic, but basically, this means that the mechanics are more geared towards all types of combat, and does not favor one type of attack (melee vs magic).

We’ve also overhauled the way we calculate ability damage in tandem with equipment, it’s a little bit technical, but I’ll touch on this topic as well.

So, with that said, let’s take a look at the new spell(s)!

Charge and Teleportation

“Charge of Revenna” – Spelltype: Physical Straight-Line Skill Shot Cast time/Windup: Instant Damage: 200% Physical Power/ 0% Magical Power Description: Charges straight forward, damaging any/all enemies in its path. CoR does not collide with enemies, but rather goes through them.

We’ve added a charge. This one’s a bit different from the other Spells. As I’ve mentioned before the spells are being designed around the idea that there’s more than one mechanic tied into the spell. CoR (Charge of Revenna) is being looked at as 1) A way to quickly burst a bunch of enemies, and 2) A way to get away from danger if a dash just won’t suffice.

We liked the Teleportation mechanic from the first build we had. But, it wasn’t up to date with the way we want to design our new spells. So we decided to recreate it completely and this is the result:

“Natures Teleportation” – Spelltype: Magic Cast on Ground Cast time/Windup: Instant Duration: Until used. (See Desc.) Damage: N/A Description: The player may create a Natures Teleportation at the feet of the player. If there are two NT up at once, the player may stand in the field for a three consecutive seconds, which will teleport the player to the other field. The player may have a maximum of two NT bases created at a time. If a new NT is cast, it refreshes the oldest NT base. If the teleportation is triggered, both NT bases are removed. If an enemy stands in the NT base for three seconds, it will be teleported to the other NT base, and the NT bases will be removed.

This is a tricky mechanic. Basically, it allows the player to create a maximum of two “fields” that are connected to one and another. If the player steps into the field and stand there for three seconds (subject to change obviously), the player is teleported to the other field. If the player casts a third field, the oldest field is removed.

It also allows the player to teleport enemies away from themselves, with the added danger of having to stall the enemy at one place for X amounts of seconds.

Boss Overhaul

Since most of you don’t know how the boss works, I’ll mostly talk about how we’re designing the boss in general.

Basically, the boss was too easy to kite (attack from a distance without being in danger), and did not reward melee combat, which is the main staple of the game. So, we decided to rethink some of the mechanics, which punishes kiting to a certain extent, and give the player more of a chance to get up and personal with the boss by, for example, adding stuns to the boss after certain attacks.

This, after a lot of internal discussion, also show-cased the need for melee attacks to be stronger in general, which were solved by altering the way we calculate damage from gear to spells and attacks.

Physical/Spell Power and you

Physical power

Physical power is a flat number that defines damage with physical melee attacks and physical skills.

Spell power

Spell power is a flat number that defines damage with magic ranged attacks, spell-like skills and healing skills.

Item power bonuses

Some items have bonuses to physical power and/or spell power.

Example: Magus Blade, +20 physical power, +100 spell power.

Skill damage calculations

Skills deal damage, heal or effects become more powerful using a percentages of total bonuses to physical power and spell power from items. Note: Regular melee attacks has a base bonus of 100% Physical Power.

1st example:

Charge skill

Damage: 200% physical power, 0% spell power.

2nd example:

Sacred ground skill

Damage: 20% physical power, 20% spell power.

Healing: 0% physical power, 15% spell power.

That’s it for this time

Hope this installment of the development diary has been interesting, and I’ll see you all soon again!

//Oskar “Perkulatorn” Lidh Frykmark, Lead Designer