Neverquest

[XXon 31]

I built many spawn engines and they all failed to give satisfaction until now. This is just a small example of what could be done. My scripting is quite bad and it needs polishing up, but it works. There is much to say, but just play it.

Neverquest

I want to see how it does as multiplayer before going any farther. Please. tell me what you think. I would like to set this up as a community build, if there is any interest. I am trying to work on enemies first, but I want a class based group dungeon crawler with healers and wizards, etc. I think this engine could do that. I have been thinking about a beast master who chain spawns tigers at you...For now this is the bare bones version, so that you can see what I am chasing.

[XXon 31]

Multiplayer works fine, thanks robbie. You play as a warrior class and you missing a few abilities, but your hammer has a nice proc to make up for it. Combat is half skill based, half dice roll. Difficulty is based on armor and weapon. Dodge actually dodges. Necro will dot you, Shaman and Healer interact with the other NPC, buffing armor and healing them when in range.  When you attack them, they call for nearby help, so you must body pull them back to a safe distance. Respawns and wandering healers will ruin your day. I want wounded enemies to try to run for help or healing, but haven't worked that out yet.

My son is a WoW tank, so he was my tester. As it is, you run way too fast,  you can flee at will. You swing really fast and it stun locks the NPC until it dies. You stutter step into the shoulder of the NPC and it cannot target you. Dodge away, charge up the attack, stun the NPC and repeat. Jump attack spam. Lots of problems to overcome. Lots of ways to run the table and win without ever getting hit every single time. So, this is what I ended up with:

Player: On Attack. Swing your weapon, you get a movement delay. You can parry or jump, but movement is blocked for a random time between 1.495 and 2.52 seconds. Dodge has the same time, but on a different timer.

NPC: On Damage. Delay to player melee attack between 1.55 and 2.375 seconds.

Those millisecond decimal places are real in the sense that they are consequential. A very slight change will affect your odds of victory greatly. The numbers are not real in the sense that they are not accurate to that degree, it is that the numbers affect the odds. We want to mostly win, but not always. A good roll can break through the fastest attack, the worst one allows the NPC to land a jump attack. I think there is still room for skill, as well. When you lose, you generally feel like there was something you might have done better.

If the combat was less stilted feeling due to less movement freeze it would be nicer, the problem is that stutter step. Still, old Everquest was incredibly stilted, so it kinda fits and you can almost feel the dice roll deciding your fate while you try to squirm your way out of it, which is really great.

Edited May 5, 2022 by XXon
clarity

[XXon 31]

Spent all day on balancing. Each enemy feels a bit different. Next item is faster player movement out of combat.

_________Weapon Damage __Armor____Hitpoints

Player            35-45                     36             100

Necro            30-40                      24            140 DoTs and daggers

Warrior          35-40                      28            150  nasty air attack 

Healer            30-35                     18            160  self heals, hard to kill

Shaman         31-36                     21            180   buff (purple spiral) adds armor for 15 seconds

 

Edited May 6, 2022 by XXon

[XXon 31]

Enemies now run when wounded. This leads to wishing for your enemy to die. Next comes the fear. If he lives, he may bring back help. This is how the legendary train of death begins.

So far, all I have is the running part, but already it forces you to plan that big final death blow before it gets healed.

Also, multiplayer is really broken because you just slay everything. I will fix that...

[XXon 31]

Entirely new map with a nice castle. Injured enemies now run away to get healed and get help. Haven't done the multiplayer fix yet, but I'm thinking of jacking up resistance. That keeps it simple with less enemies and encourages players to group up on one enemy. I don't know anything about casting or resources, which will be needed for other party members. Need more than just a warrior with a hammer...

Try the new version, it is much better. Neverquest. Try the multiplayer, it's too easy, but it's still fun.

Thinking about enemies that root you or summon you. Enemies that drop a GRENADE at your feet. Ground effect spells like poison gas, lava... you have a limited time to run out of the circle on the ground or take damage, or cause tigers to spawn, etc. That's more World of Warcraft style than Everquest, but I'm no purist. I very much like the idea of being charmed and forced to attack your own party or just marched deep into the cave full of enemies and released. Charming NPC's as an enchanter, using them to fight. A bard that sings battle songs and healing songs...

Thanks, Moimoi01. Good fun, nice chat.

Edited May 10, 2022 by XXon

[XXon 31]

The castle NPC's have less aggro now, so they won't pull from upstairs as much. I actually managed to loot the chest at the top and win, so that's a first, but I died a lot. Added another spawn point to help with the dying. Mostly, I adjusted the size of various bubbles.

The standard game already uses bubbles, like the aggro bubble in AI, you get close, you get attacked. I added another bubble to the  warrior. If you edit the game and make the bubble visible, you will see it moving around with the NPC. Every time you hit the warrior, his bubble activates. If another NPC is in the bubble when it is activated, that NPC's AI detection and aggression both go from 11 to 17. If a wandering NPC comes within 17 units of you, it attacks. Normally, it would only attack at 11 units away, but the warrior "called for help" and nearby help came. If the warrior is badly hurt, he will run. If the warriors health is 11-20% he will delay 1.5-2.3 seconds and then trot (Move To Target) to his spawn point. If the warrior is 10% health or less, he will simply Flee On Sight (AI aggro setting). Flee on sight has strange pathing and often walks before beginning to run, so no delay, he just begins "the deathmarch" right away.

Walking or trotting, the warriors AI is set to Flee on Sight until it resets, when it reaches the spawn point. Any NPC which enters the bubble when the warrior is set to Flee on Sight has a 33% chance of setting it AI to maximum detection and aggression, hunting down the nearest player. Meanwhile, the warrior, if he has been fully healed, returns to fight you again. If he remains hurt he stays at spawn where it it safe, but his friends may still go nuts.

The healer has another very large bubble that fully heals any NPC that enters it and makes a nice particle effect. I tried to make it heal over time, but I couldn't make it work, so it's just one big heal. The Shaman has a huge buff bubble. The buff triples the chest armor for 15 seconds. It makes the purple spiral effect and it usually wears off halfway through a fight, if you pull away from the shaman. You will see your weapon damage increase once the buff drops. The Necro DoT spell has a similar bubble and a particle effect to so you can see it, that's the Necro bubble, but the Aggro bubble is smaller, so he will cast on you and not attack, unless you close the distance.

The first area worked well with the bubble size, but the castle NPC bubbles were too big, causing problems and making huge fights and death. So. Have fun storming the castle!

Yeah. the castle is still too hard (one side is easier). Plus, the player is boring with just a hammer and no skills. Player needs a root spell and a shield, like a circle of bamboo that appears around the player, like a trap and a shield in one, depending on which side the enemy is on, then it disappears bit by bit over 10 seconds. Magic whirling daggers encircling you would be pretty cool looking... and a choice of weapons instead of just a boring hammer. No point in making cool stuff to kill if it's boring.

Edited May 12, 2022 by XXon

[XXon 31]

New spell: Shield Wall, pretty much as described above. It is a grounded area effect spell and that is the future of RPG, that and directional melee. Let's say you cast a spell, it takes three seconds to cast. The spell casts on the ground, not on the enemy. If the enemy moves while you are casting, too bad for you, especially if you spent all your resources. Same with melee frontal attacks, it covers an area and hits what is in it. This is as opposed to locking on a target and auto attacking one target, which has fallen out of favor. Enemy attacks on you work the same way, you must run before the ball of lava hits in the circle or brace for impact depending on class. Ylands works really well for these types of attacks.

Shiled Wall just runs on a cool down timer, I haven't figured out the resources thing yet, but I would like to build a rage bar with the warrior to power skills. It's just a cool down really, but choosing which spell to spend resources on, leaving you unable to do others, that's great, that moment of choice is what it's all about.

Edited May 13, 2022 by XXon