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It takes a special kind of person to become a mercenary, especially in a world like this. You need to be skilled, powerful, loyal, crazy. But not more skilled than the boss, more powerful than her right hand, too loyal to yourself and not so crazy that you're useless. This is the Golden Goose, a paramilitary/handyman company founded by a woman looking to take control back of her life. She did. And bit off way more than any of us could chew. Regardless, recruit, you walk along us now.
We aren't the brightest. We aren't the strongest. We aren't the cheapest. But we are the best.
I am very VERY proud and excited to finally present to you all a mod I've been wanting to make for over half a decade at this point, but never thought I would get skilled enough to make. This is a mod based on a tabletop RPG campaign I've been running with my friends for a very long time. This mod won't go too far into the setting or background; its designed to be vague and generic for the sake of trying out different builds and character ideas, and as a way to try out some story and world writing. Its filled with in-jokes, references (each country is named after a major city in each Final Fantasy, lots of characters are named after Touhou and YuGiOh cards, etc) and what have you. But it's ultimately not important, because its all about the characters! Which leads us to this mod!
--- Gameplay ---
Please note, this OP will not go into great detail. The mod is pretty straight forward in actually playing, but there is a lot of details going into what's going on. Please make sure to at least skim the readme!
- General Concepts -
Kill monsters to get EXP. Get EXP to Level Up. Level Up to get stronger.
Each character has a Main Weapon and a Secondary Weapon. You do not find additional weapons. Instead, you find Enchanted versions of your main weapon on weapon spawns. Enchantments are random, but better weapon spawns yield better Enchantments. You will need to drop your current Main Weapon to pick up a new one
You cannot get rid of your Secondary Weapon, and you cannot find Enchanted versions of it
Each character has a Combat Maneuver (Alt-Fire), and two Abilities (Reload/Zoom). Maneuvers scale directly with your Level, while Abilities scale with Rank
Ranged weapons are all hitscans, and have unlimited ammo
Melee weapons do flat damage, while ranged weapons do d8s of damage
You can Critical Hit
Jumping is overridden, so you will always be able to jump regardless of map settings. Use this to your advantage
There are a lot of options for logging various game events, like damage dealt, EXP dropped and even things like enemies reviving. Check out the options!
- Potions and Items -
Instead of powerups, you find potions. Potions give you temporary buffs, and are absolutely vital to your long term success and survival.
User 1 brings up the Potion Rack. From there, Main Fire drinks the potion, Alt-Fire drinks the Mythic version. Reload cycles your selected potion forward, and Zoom cycles it backwards.
Low chance to find Mythic potions with much more potent effects
Cannot drink a potion that's already in effect, but different potions stack additively
Max carry limit of any potion is 9
Backpacks are replaced with locked chests. Chests contain a random high level weapon, a massive slew of potions and a large amount of EXP. Keys for chests can be randomly dropped by enemies. Alternatively, you could try to bash it open, but you have a high chance of just destroying what's inside by doing that. Chests are largely immune to damage besides you directly hitting them with a melee weapon, so monsters can't accidentally open them and you have to be very deliberate in your attempts.
Megaspheres are replaced with a suit of Magic Armor and a lock box. The lock box contains 1 of each potions, with the usual chance of those being Mythic. Unlike the chest, the lock box isn't locked, so just open that bad boy up.
Spoiler: Potion List
Cure Wounds: Heals 25 HP (Heals 50% of Max HP)
Endure Elements: Protects from environmental hazards for 5 minutes (additionally provides 50% resistance to Fire/Ice/Electricity/Magic)
Invisibility: Blurs and increases Dodge by 15% for 2 minutes (increases Dodge by 25% for 5 minutes)
Haste: Increases movement speed by 25% and increases Attack by 2 for 2 minutes (increases Dodge by 20%)
Regeneration: Heals 1 HP per second for 5 minutes (Heals 3 HP per second for 10 minutes, and persists through map transitions)
Protection: Increases Guard by 33% for 2 minutes (Increases Guard by 50% for 2 minutes)
Heroism: Doubles attack speed, double damage and increases Guard and Dodge by 20% for 1 minute (Lasts 2 minutes)
- Enchantments -
Weapons have an Enchantment Grade that determine how effective the various Enchantments are, as well as adding bonus Magic damage based on the Grade. Enchantments are split into 3 types, and a weapon cannot have more than one Enchantment of a type at once.
Element - Adds bonus elemental damage
Utility - Adds some kind of passive effect
Critical - Augments Critical Hits in some way
Spoiler: Enchantment List
- Elemental -
Fire: Adds Fire damage
Ice: Adds wildly random Ice damage
Electric: Adds set Electricity damage
Holy: Adds high Holy damage
Profane: Adds very high Unholy damage
- Utility -
Dodging: Adds 25% Dodge
Guarding: Adds 25% Guard
Crushing: Adds bonus damage based on STR
Agile: Adds bonus damage based on SKL
Bolstered: Adds bonus damage based on END
Masterful: Adds bonus damage based on character's Focus Stat, with better scaling
- Critical -
Keen: Doubles Critical chance
Deadly: Increases Critical multiplier by 1.0x
Dreadful: Increases Critical multiplier by 0.5x. On a successful Critical Hit, pushes enemies back in a burst and causes Fear for a few seconds
Vorpal: Critical Hits instantly kill
--- Character Roster ---
A quick rundown of the stats before we jump into the characters
Spoiler: Stats
HPD: Hit Point Dice. The max roll of HP gain on Level Up
STR: Strength. Increases melee damage
SKL: Skill. Increases ranged damage. High values increase Dodge.
END: Endurance. Increases HP gain. High values increase Guard.
Dodge: Percent chance to dodge an attack, reducing damage to 0
Guard: Percent reduction to damage taken.
BAS: Base Attack Speed. Base speed of attacks, before applying Attack
Attack: Attack speed
Ability Rank: See Readme for Rank details.
Now, finally, the characters whose boots you'll be stepping into. Or geta...or clawed toes...
Spoiler: The Geese
- Kei, Tengu Swordmaster -
HP: 75
HPD: d8
STR: 10 (Fine)
SKL: 20 (Good)
END: 10 (Poor)
BAS: 8
Focus Stat: SKL
Maneuver: Feint - Stuns the target briefly. Target takes additional damage while stunned. Can fail based on target HP.
Re. Ability: Dragon Trance - Increases STR multiplier to damage
Zo. Ability: Crane Trance - Lowers Attack, but increases Dodge and makes Feint more effective.
Trances lasts 60 seconds. Afterwards, Kei is fatigued for 20 seconds, lowering his move speed and Attack. Only one Trance can be active at a time.
- Maal'Taal, Lizardfolk Magus -
HP: 100
HPD: d8
STR: 20 (Fine)
SKL: 10 (Fine)
END: 15 (Fine)
BAS: 9
Focus Stat: STR
Maneuver: Magic Missile - Fires a weak Magic projectile with strong homing
Re. Ability: Magus Arcana - Randomly generates Enchantments on The Black Blade
Zo. Ability: Spell Combat - Make an empowered strike with The Black Blade, then quickly follows up with a touch spell based on the Element Enchantment
Main Weapon: The Black Blade (30 DMG, 5% x2 Crit, Melee)
Secondary Weapon: N/A
SPECIAL: Cannot drop The Black Blade, and does not find new weapons. Instead, The Black Blade's Enchantment Grade goes up as Maal'Taal's Level increases, and is capped at 10
- Derzan, Human Armor Master -
HP: 125
HPD: d10
STR: 15 (Fine)
SKL: 5 (Poor)
END: 20 (Good)
BAS: 6
Focus Stat: END
Maneuver: Block - Blocks attacks from the front with his shield. Guard can be broken, stunning Derzan for 2 seconds. While stunned, Derzan cannot attack and moves slower
Re. Ability: Armor Training - Passive. Increases the effectiveness of worn armor
Zo. Ability: Vital Strike - A slow, steady strike that deals multiplied weapon damage
Main Weapon: Morning Star (15 DMG, 5% x2 Crit, Melee)
Secondary Weapon: Heavy Crossbow (8 DMG, 5% x2 Crit, Ranged)
--- TODO ---
Feats
More characters
Not placeholder weapon graphics
My ongoing battle with balance
Last edited by Brohnesorge on Sun Oct 08, 2023 7:52 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Alright, so it's already that time, time for an Update! This update is mostly minor tweaks, but its got one big thing...a new alternate Graphic HUD! Check it out in the options.
I tried the previous version released and it's pretty fun! I look forward to trying out later versions of this fun mod!
One thing that feels weird is having so many weapons laying about to pick up, which is not a big deal; you have many chances to find the one you want most and keep it, but I recommend an addition of a weapon drop point putting down something with more variety to help out a little, like maybe a temporary weapon powerup that either works on the spot or can be picked up.
The magic user feels a little weak for someone who uses magic, even if he levels up a bit, his magic missile is fine for taking down enemies far away or trapped, but up close he has a real hard time against fast melee based monsters, if not impossible with certain map designs that have a flood of Pinky demons come after you with little room to maneuver like the third map of Going Down, which can only afford to set many Pinkies out at you because of the use of the Chainsaw.
I'm not keen on the magic user getting op, but I have an idea to recommend that he could have rare and limited scrolls to pick up to give him a little extra firepower in one form or another.
Funny you say that, Maal was actually nerfed from development because he WAS super overpowered!
He's not capable of doing this anymore, but he still has the highest damage output of the three. It just requires getting used to Spell Combat's (his Zoom Ability) timing. But he's weak for a magic user mostly cause he's a Magus, which are hybrid warrior/mages, so he's not going to be as powerful as a dedicated caster, nor as skilled in melee as a dedicated warrior, hence him having the lowest BAS and being unable to do followup swings.
On the subject of scrolls, I was originally going to have that be another equipment item for everyone, like Potions or the character sheet, but ended up deciding against it. I may reconsider, now that you mention it. Certain maps are going to be more trouble than their worth, regardless of character choice, and I'll be frank, I don't plan on doing anything about that.
I'll put a pin on that weapon thing. A temporary powerup actually does sound like a solid idea.
EDIT: I forgot to remove a debug message on Derzan's Vital Strike. I'm not gonna post a hotfix for it, because it doesn't actually effect anything, but that's what that number that pops up is, before anyone reports it.
This is pretty solid, especially for an early version. Personally, there's a couple things I would adjust, though. Kei could use a little more range on his katana. He has to get VERY close to hit things, and to me, it would just make his gameplay feel a little better if he didn't have to practically get in hugging range with enemies to fight them.
The other thing I'd think about if I were you, is an experience multiplier option, to increase or decrease the experience the player earns. You could dial it up for shorter maps, or lower for longer maps, to give a playthrough a more evened-out leveling curve.
All in all, I don't really have much in the way of notes at this point in time. I look forward to keeping my eyes on this project.
YO! An EXP multiplier slider is a great idea! It would also help with mods that give bloated EXP, like LEGION and Colorful Hell! Gonna add that as soon as I get home tonight.
As for ranges, right now they're just vanilla most cause I just didn't think to change them, and I didn't want to lean into "Medieval Battle Sim" territory. But I can defo increase them a bit, it doesn't make sense that Kei is using a 4' long katana or that Maal's Black Blade is a bastard sword, but both have the same reach as a punch.
I have been playing this quite a bit, it's tons of fun, though I look forward to more content, it's quite fun at this point.
A small-ish problem is that some enemies don't spawn because you can't alert them with the characters usually, at least the two melee-centered ones are not able to alert enemies, including the ones in the storage cells where they would move normally to the teleport lines when triggered. It's weird, and somehow not as bad as one may think if they like less enemies then normal...
But it's also less xp for the player for that level XD.
Also, I have a suggestion of letting the player draw in xp shards from a short distance. I've seen it done before and it would be good for those sniper nests set close or right next to the normally walkable areas that are too high to jump to, so a player can reap what they are owed.
I don't think making that long range would be good though for snipers set far away, wanted, but it might be a little op.
The magnet effect could be set up with a simple animation that takes a second to unload so the player is vulnerable when drawing in the gems, so they are forced to be careful to use it only when enemies are cleared or otherwise far off.
A focus to do a short range EXP vacuum was actually intended for an initial release feature, but I opted to return to it later and get the mod out there. And I have been trying to do research into how to do it, so that is coming in either Update 2 or Update 3 at the latest.
Enemies not waking up was something that I have been keeping my eye on. As of right now, I'm perfectly fine with it preventing some ambushes because being largely trapped to melee (with very VERY slow ranged) you need every break you can get, but if it ends up breaking maps, as in preventing progress, not "ruining" the intended experience (don't play with mods if that's your concern), I'll need to do something about it.
