Hey all,
So I'm currently taking a whack at creating some combat encounters for the game--starting primarily with Uveto--and I have some questions regarding the dos and don'ts of the process. Specifically:
1) (XPRaw = #) --- on the googledoc by Gedan, I see this referred to as a number, but the code of other monsters has the # portion as "normalXP," or "bossXP." My question is which do content-creator's use when designing a monster: specific numbers, or one of the latter two tags?
2) (customDodge) --- Can there be more than one kind of customDodge? Like, one for melee and one for ranged attacks? Same question for customBlock.
3a) (meleeWeapon) --- there isn't much--if any--say in related documents as to what this does, other than "outputting the name of your weapon," for PC characters. For monsters, is this supposed to be the same? Or is it used to determine both name and the specific item they're using as a weapon, since in the example in Gedan's doc a "Vanae Spear," is something you can pick up in-game?
3b) Dove-tailing off the above, how would it work if, say...I wanted a creature to randomly show up with different kinds of weapons? (One encounter it might have a spear, another encounter it might have a hammer, etc, etc.) And if those weapons prompted different fighting styles and abilities, can the game-engine/combat-engine as it stands right now handle that?
(For example: Creature A shows up using a Sword, and has the abilities "Slash, Guard, and Counter." as part of its first combat encounter. Next time, it shows up with a Spear and has the abilities: "Thrust, Stab, and Pincushion," but there's also a random chance it might show up using a sword again.)
3c) If meleeWeapon only names the weapons used by a Combat Encounter, then what determines how that weapon functions? Is it, like in using the "Vanae Spear," a question of creating a new item--and therefore the stats of that item--for the monster to use as part of its basic melee attacks, OR is it simply a question of noting something like: "Creature A's basic melee attacks do Shock Damage and have a 30% chance to stun," in your design doc, as I've seen in other submissions?
4) I know Gedan's guide says you--the creators of the game--generally just "copy statblocks," of other characters when making race/character profiles for new characters, but my question is this: is there a baseline we, as people writing submissions, can/should use? Something like: "The stat block of level 5 monsters should be based on THIS stat block of THIS monster already in-game," or: "Your level Z monster on Myrellion should NOT be as powerful or more powerful stat-wise than the Queen of the Depths, as it is the BOSS of that location," etc, etc.
Sorry if these seem like complicated things to ask! I just want to make my document as easy as possible to translate from writing to actual game-code, and I feel that--and this is said with all due respect--but writing combat encounters might go easier on everyone involved if some of the more mechanical things involved in the process were explained in further detail. The submission guide is amazing, don't get me wrong; but as an author that has little experience with the code of TiTs, parsing some of the mechanics involved has proven to be more guess-work than research.
So I'm currently taking a whack at creating some combat encounters for the game--starting primarily with Uveto--and I have some questions regarding the dos and don'ts of the process. Specifically:
1) (XPRaw = #) --- on the googledoc by Gedan, I see this referred to as a number, but the code of other monsters has the # portion as "normalXP," or "bossXP." My question is which do content-creator's use when designing a monster: specific numbers, or one of the latter two tags?
2) (customDodge) --- Can there be more than one kind of customDodge? Like, one for melee and one for ranged attacks? Same question for customBlock.
3a) (meleeWeapon) --- there isn't much--if any--say in related documents as to what this does, other than "outputting the name of your weapon," for PC characters. For monsters, is this supposed to be the same? Or is it used to determine both name and the specific item they're using as a weapon, since in the example in Gedan's doc a "Vanae Spear," is something you can pick up in-game?
3b) Dove-tailing off the above, how would it work if, say...I wanted a creature to randomly show up with different kinds of weapons? (One encounter it might have a spear, another encounter it might have a hammer, etc, etc.) And if those weapons prompted different fighting styles and abilities, can the game-engine/combat-engine as it stands right now handle that?
(For example: Creature A shows up using a Sword, and has the abilities "Slash, Guard, and Counter." as part of its first combat encounter. Next time, it shows up with a Spear and has the abilities: "Thrust, Stab, and Pincushion," but there's also a random chance it might show up using a sword again.)
3c) If meleeWeapon only names the weapons used by a Combat Encounter, then what determines how that weapon functions? Is it, like in using the "Vanae Spear," a question of creating a new item--and therefore the stats of that item--for the monster to use as part of its basic melee attacks, OR is it simply a question of noting something like: "Creature A's basic melee attacks do Shock Damage and have a 30% chance to stun," in your design doc, as I've seen in other submissions?
4) I know Gedan's guide says you--the creators of the game--generally just "copy statblocks," of other characters when making race/character profiles for new characters, but my question is this: is there a baseline we, as people writing submissions, can/should use? Something like: "The stat block of level 5 monsters should be based on THIS stat block of THIS monster already in-game," or: "Your level Z monster on Myrellion should NOT be as powerful or more powerful stat-wise than the Queen of the Depths, as it is the BOSS of that location," etc, etc.
Sorry if these seem like complicated things to ask! I just want to make my document as easy as possible to translate from writing to actual game-code, and I feel that--and this is said with all due respect--but writing combat encounters might go easier on everyone involved if some of the more mechanical things involved in the process were explained in further detail. The submission guide is amazing, don't get me wrong; but as an author that has little experience with the code of TiTs, parsing some of the mechanics involved has proven to be more guess-work than research.
