https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CH2V731UsAIQa6l.png:large" style="max-width:100%">

et voilà! Now need "only" to code it in the game probably will have 1 socket each, except the chest/top part which could have 2. Or I could even put 2 sockets in pants/chest, and 1 in head/feet. It should be enough to make a powerful setup if someone manages to get all the powerful gems

I'm thinking if to do the same even for weapons now... I guess first will try with the armors and see how it goes!

I'm not sure if the resistance gems are all that useful, especially in that form. The primary attributes give bonuses applicable to all situations. To use a resistance gem, you'd have to give that up in the attempt to slightly reduce damage from a single element out of five possibilities, without often knowing if you'll even be attacked by that element. At +1/+2/+3 I think the other gems would be far more useful.

Yes that's true. I might do like I said before and add another stat, like: Ruby +1 Attack / +1 Fire resistance.

But that would tie some stats to some resistances

Or I could have each item have two slots, one for stats and another for resistances, and each gem would give a different bonus depending where you put it. Could increase the other gems to have even higher stats.

Like:



Amber Pebble

on stats socket = +1 attack

on resistance socket = +1 fire resistance



Ruby Pebble

on stats socket = +4 attack

on resistance socket = +4 fire resistance



so Ruby would be a sort of "upgrade" to Amber, and of course more valuable. I think that might be the best solution... will need of course to test and tweak so that players don't become too powerful (but would be enough to raise the cost of gems probably!)

You could also potentially combine some/all of the resistances into one gem. +1/+2/+3 resist all might be competitive with +Defense (would need yaysword's math to confirm, not actually sure how good the Defense gem is either).

Given the current flat reduction nature of resistances, you could possibly bring enemy mage nukes down to 1 damage by stacking the right one. I'm not sure that's a problem with the gems as much as with the resistance system itself though.

I can have some "supergem" that will boost several stats. As for the resistances, that's true but unless I equip an enemy with only one element damage type, the AI can decide if an attack would do less damage and use another instead of course sometimes it might be "forced" to use it, for example:like, AI targets Thalia with low fire resist, but Kira has protect on her and she also has +5 fire resistance. But this is fine since is part of gameplay strategy I think

There's also the question, will we be able to rip the gems out for free? If we can't, then it will not be entirely painless to swap to a prettier set. But if we can, we might just mess around optimizing stats and resistances for every single battle.

Yes there are no costs associated to adding/removing gems from sockets. That's my initial idea at least

Also initially I wanted the option to be available in specific locations, but then I thought to just allow it directly from the inventory. So you can do it anytime, even just before battles. It's not "realistic" but I think is much more fun this way!

For now I have this:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CH7G72mUAAAPrrf.jpg:large" style="max-width:100%">

I think there's enough gem variety! I'll finish this probably in the next few days

Gems now correctly stay in the items sockets

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CIArXiaUcAAyoPm.jpg:large" style="max-width:100%">

now I need to assign the bonuses based on the gems, and it's done! I could probably finish this today, took less than expected

I've split this from the dungeon since it's not related to that really! I finished the screen:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CILYvLOUcAAV3GC.jpg:large" style="max-width:100%">

I'm very happy about the result, it's already quite fun to experiment with the various combos. Right now as said before I have 1 socket for head/feet slots/items, and 2 for chest/legs.

However I don't have a stats/resistance slot, I am thinking to simply assign different gems to have resistances. Maybe they will be used only by Nightmare players to mitigate some enemies specific elemental damage.

I'm doing this because otherwise I don't think is good to have a socked FIXED only for resistances ? Or I could even add an extra socket to each slot, so it becomes 2-2 and 3-3 and reserve that other one to resistance only.

In general I don't want resistance to become too high because otherwise as yaysword said, could nullify some spells completely

Female characters + two leg sockets trolol (a bit like http://www.darklegacycomics.com/80)



Maybe you could just do away with resistances on gear/gems altogether. Defense already helps against spells. It's not like there's an extra layer of protection against physical damage.

Female characters + two leg sockets trolol (a bit like http://www.darklegacycomics.com/80)

lol at first I didn't understand what you meant... now I do

Maybe you could just do away with resistances on gear/gems altogether. Defense already helps against spells. It's not like there's an extra layer of protection against physical damage.

OK but I was doing it for more variety, otherwise the other gems would just provide even higher stats (Attack +5, Defense +6, etc) ?

Maybe you could have some unique gems (not three levels, but just one level - on par with the +3 level of other gems) that have certain effects. You can only have one of these gems equipped at a time (maybe once per character? or one of each? or only in the chest slot?).



Some ideas:

- Debuff durations on the character are reduced by 1.

- 1 SP/regen a turn.

- Character has +5 fame while wearing it.

- Melee attacks inflict Burning.

- Some effect similar to bramble coat (deal damage upon taking damage), though not quite as powerful as the skill itself.

Yes that is a good idea, though some parts of it would require some extra coding / design (like the limitations and so on). So I think for now I am going to make some powerful gems for the base stats, like having a bonus to all resistances and stuff like that. I don't want to go feature-creep like with SOTW again My plan for next days is to resume working on the catacomb, since have still 8 levels to code/design/write the storyboard.

After that, there are also all the robbery missions. So I want first to do the core part of the game and add more extra stuff later maybe (even this gem socketing thing wasn't planned, though I'm glad I did it because is quite fun to use).

I'm having a hard time putting into words why I don't like those resistance gems (too nerdy, too situational?), but I can say I like the idea of a universal resistance gem better. Also if you want more basic gem types there's health and mana.



Another thing to note is if we can raise attack but not accuracy (and I mean accuracy - not crit) through items that probably means that we'll always want to take accuracy over strength on level ups.

I have already done HP/SP gems too

You can raise Attack and Critical Hit because Critical Hit is the actual stat. Accuracy is the attribute linked to Critical Hit. But similarly the gem raise Attack, not Strength who is the attribute linked to Attack. If you notice, in the battle the value displayed on the portrait is indeed Critical Hit, not Accuracy.

It's the same final effect

No it's not, because raw damage is attack times accuracy, is it not?

All attributes =>stats. No "source" attribute is ever used to calculate damage or anything related to combat

You increase strength, to increase attack. Or accuracy to increase critical hit values. But only derived stats are used to damage calculations.

Raw damage is attack x critical hit. It's probably a bad name to use "Critical Hit", since is a bit confusing. In game I used Critical Strike when the player does double damage.

Anyway: I think it works very well. I tested in Nightmare, and there's a very tough battle in first level. You can move along and kill more enemies to gain level and unlock skills (initially you have just 1 skill) and come back later to try again, or plug several gems and beat it The gems stats bonus is good but (in general obviously) not enough to beat enemies without leveling to get access to more variety of skills.

(In my case I used a cheat mode to get some powerful gems early, but would be hard for the player!)

So I can say I'm quite happy so far. Now back to work, my aim is to finish the whole catacomb thing by mid-July!