Today I’ve experimented with the Psionic Powers balancing. I raised one of my chars to level 25 (the highest currently attainable in the game) and checked how powerful the stats would be. This way once I know the maximum power of that power, I can simply scale down the effects level by level until level 1 (of course the power need still to be somehow effective even at lower level otherwise would be useless).
Psionic Powers in my game are the equivalent of the Spells in a classic fantasy RPG game. Since I wanted to keep the interface simple, I don’t have 50 “different” spells like in most games. Instead each Power has a value that represent the character knowledge of that specific power, going from 0 to 99 (even if at start of game each Power has a random value from 5-10).
Each Power also requires Psionic Points (which from now I’ll abbreviate into PP) to be used – sort of the Mana points in fantasy game. The difference though, is that rather than having “Heal Light Wounds” and then “Heal Medium Wounds”, “Heal Severe Wounds”, “Heal Critical Wounds”, in my game there is a different (more casual) approach: each Power has a basic “casting” value, but you can spend more Psionic Points to increase its effectiveness. The base effectiveness is influenced by the character level and the knowledge of that specific power.
A few examples with some non-definitive value:
Level 1 Psionic character wants to use the Harm Power. He can use it spending the base PP value of 5 and deal 5 damage.
Level 10 Psionic character wants to use the Harm Power. He can use it spending the base PP value of 5 and deal 25 damage (the bigger damage is because the character is higher level and has more knowledge of that specific Power).
Level 1 Psionic character wants to use the Harm Power. He can use it spending a PP value of 15 (base + 10 PP) and deal 5×3=15 damage.
So as you can see, a level 1 character can deal almost the same amount as the level 10 if he spends x 3 of PP. Of course, at level 1, if you use 15 PP you’re left with almost no PP, while at level 10 you still have a good reserve of them 🙂
I think this system will still allow a good flexivity, but without filling the character “grimoire” with 50 powers that basically does the same thing, just in different proportions!
Eh, since the registration on your forum is broken (the picture with the registration code is not shown) I’ll post my opinion on the Planet Stronghold alpha here:
It really is a cool game but I still think the first battles are a little bit too hard, but maybe it’s just me.
I also encountered some spelling mistakes and what not:
\Just out from the military academy an I’m already on my first assignment.\ – \Just out of the […]\
\They call it ‘Planet Stronghold because is probably […]\ – \[…] because it is probably […]\
\[…] Normally only the best soldiers make into this base.\ – \[…] Normally only the best soldiers make it into this base.\
Tom Shatz
\I’m sorry but hadn’t time […]\ – \I’m sorry but I hadn’t time […]\
\[…] to provide me some info.\ – \[…] to provide me with some info.\
Select char class:
\Use mouse to select the class\ – \Use the mouse to select class\
Psionic: \[…] though their excel […]\ – \[…] though they excel […]\
Guardian: \[…] can wear powerful armors. They received a basic Training in offensive Psionic Skills.\ – \[…] can wear powerful armour. They receive basic training in offensive psionic skills.\
Scout: \[…] how to Sneak and survive[…]\ – \[…] sneak […]\
\The icon on top lets […] You can also access it pressing the […]\ – \The icon on the top lets […] You can also access it by pressing the […]\
\The bottom icon access the load-save menu.\ – \The bottom icon accesses the load-save menu.\
\[…] It appears before battles only when you encounter a new enemy type.\ – \[…] It appears only before battles when you […]\
\[…] you can only use Attack and Defend option.[…]\ – \[…] you can only use the Attack and Defense options[…]\
\On top of screen […] to change current hero’s[…] the Skill Points […] On bottom of screen […] a portrait, that once clicked brings you […]\ – \On the top of the screen […] to change the hero’s current […] the skills points […] On the bottom of the screen […] a portrait, that, once clicked, brings you […]\
\In the game there are several kind of weapons […] damage min-max […] on certain type of enemies […] for example in this first battle […] easily damaged by energy weapon […] all the other kind of attacks\ – \In the game there are several kinds of weapons […] min-max damage […] on certain types of enemies […] in this first battle, for example,[…] easily damaged by energy weapons […] all the other kinds of attacks\
\[…] Defend […] and reducing the enemy damage[…]\ – […] defend […] and reducing the enemie’s damage […]\
\Lastly […] some type of enemies […] Tom Shatz is higher level than your […]\ – \Lastly […] some types of enemies […] Tom Shatz has a higher level than you […]\
I have changed the captcha code, now it should show in forums registration.
Thanks about the texts, I’m going to ask a proofreaded to check everything before I release the final game 🙂
About the difficulty yes, that is the standard difficulty, I’ll also add a difficulty setting choice in the first part of the game before the battles.