Skills and Skill Groups - Devlog #10
In a previous blog entry, I wrote about how to balance stats with skill groups, or how your stats map to groups of skills you can learn.
In this entry I will describe an overview of the initial set of skills in All Hail Temos.
Skill Groups are groups of skills that use specific stats, which can be seen in this chart, showing the stats that feed into the 5 orange colored skill groups.
Skill Groups: Combat, Influence, Craft, Experiment and Seduce.
Each skill group actually has 2 different skill sets, which comprise 2 aspects of that skill group, yielding 10 skill sets:
Next I will go over each of the skill groups, and what skills are in the skill sets. The skills themselves have techniques which can be leveled up to get different results. Techniques are what you bind to keys or buttons to invoke the skill, or some could be invoked from a menu if they are can be triggered that way.
The Combat skill group is governed by the Strength, Awareness and Agility stats and has 2 skill sets: Offense and Defense.
Offense deals with attacking skills, and defense deals with defensive skills. These skills are meant to change how the game is played. The skills are groups of techniques, which are what you have bound to keys or buttons to use to attack, defend or do other actions.
Some skills are passive, and so are always or situationally activated.
I will describe the techniques in a later blog entry, but as an example, 2-Handed weapons have a different set of techniques than 1-Handed weapons because your character will move differently and have different offensive capabilities and drawbacks with a 2H vs 1H.
This will allow different weapon types to feel very different, because by their initial technique design, they are not operating under the same premise. Each skill gets new questions and conclusions as to when they are good to use, and how you could use different techniques with them.
The Influence skill group is governed by the Social, Personality and Convincing stats, and has the 2 skill sets: Trade and Animal Training.
The Trading skill set is about doing trade deals, setting up trade routes, hiring employees, having contracts, etc. This is the economic simulation aspect of the game, and links with the narrative aspect, but is not written as a story. Instead these components are dynamic. Adventures will still come from these dynamic elements, but they are not written adventures.
The Animal Training skill set is about training and riding animals, getting them to fight for you, and fighting while riding them.
The Craft skill group is governed by the Accuracy, Wit and Endurance stats, and has the 2 skill sets: Craft and Field.
The Craft skill set is as it sounds, about crafting with different kinds of elements: smithing, cooking, sewing, making paper, constructing buildings, etc.
The Field skill set is about exploration, camping, farming and other nature related activities.
The Experiment skill group is governed by the Deduction, Flexibility and Precision stats, and has the 2 skill sets: Magic and Blessing.
The Magic skill set contains various types of magic that can be cast, actively or passively.
The Blessing skill set has to do with things that characters in Temos call “The Blessings of Temos” and have to do with your interactions with the sentient world of Temos, such as opening portals and rewinding time.
The Seduce skill group is governed by the Beauty, Grace and Charm stats, and has the 2 skill sets: Movement and Stealth.
The Movement skill set has to do with various types of moving, such as on different terrains, like land, cliffs, water, or being able to have different abilities, such as sliding, wall running or wall jumps. Or flying.
The Stealth skill set has to do with being quiet, being unseen, attacking unseen, etc.
How will this affect gameplay?
Skills are a collection of techniques, which I will cover later, and techniques are the actual things you use to do things in the game, such as jumping, swinging a sword, or how quickly you run or swim.
I have designed All Hail Temos to have a connection between all the different game elements to help with balancing, and also to help with distribution of the type of play a character will be able to perform.
Your character will be able to disable or enable different skills, or bind different techniques to your keys or buttons, and this will allow you to play differently. There should be enough techniques, that even if you want to try them all, there is a lot of different ways they can be set up, because they are also impacted by your characters stats in a very clear way. If it is a little complex…
There is a long chain between the different components of All Hail Temos, but I hope to make playing the game fairly simple in terms of interacting with the systems. The complexity in mapping everything together is done to provide reasoning for why things are as they are, and then a platform for how to tune them to make a really fun experience.
If you would like to know more or be notified when the demo and game are released, please Wishlist and Follow.
In this entry I will describe an overview of the initial set of skills in All Hail Temos.
Skill Groups
Skill Groups are groups of skills that use specific stats, which can be seen in this chart, showing the stats that feed into the 5 orange colored skill groups.
Skill Groups: Combat, Influence, Craft, Experiment and Seduce.
Each skill group actually has 2 different skill sets, which comprise 2 aspects of that skill group, yielding 10 skill sets:
Next I will go over each of the skill groups, and what skills are in the skill sets. The skills themselves have techniques which can be leveled up to get different results. Techniques are what you bind to keys or buttons to invoke the skill, or some could be invoked from a menu if they are can be triggered that way.
Combat
The Combat skill group is governed by the Strength, Awareness and Agility stats and has 2 skill sets: Offense and Defense.
Offense deals with attacking skills, and defense deals with defensive skills. These skills are meant to change how the game is played. The skills are groups of techniques, which are what you have bound to keys or buttons to use to attack, defend or do other actions.
Some skills are passive, and so are always or situationally activated.
I will describe the techniques in a later blog entry, but as an example, 2-Handed weapons have a different set of techniques than 1-Handed weapons because your character will move differently and have different offensive capabilities and drawbacks with a 2H vs 1H.
This will allow different weapon types to feel very different, because by their initial technique design, they are not operating under the same premise. Each skill gets new questions and conclusions as to when they are good to use, and how you could use different techniques with them.
Influence
The Influence skill group is governed by the Social, Personality and Convincing stats, and has the 2 skill sets: Trade and Animal Training.
The Trading skill set is about doing trade deals, setting up trade routes, hiring employees, having contracts, etc. This is the economic simulation aspect of the game, and links with the narrative aspect, but is not written as a story. Instead these components are dynamic. Adventures will still come from these dynamic elements, but they are not written adventures.
The Animal Training skill set is about training and riding animals, getting them to fight for you, and fighting while riding them.
Craft
The Craft skill group is governed by the Accuracy, Wit and Endurance stats, and has the 2 skill sets: Craft and Field.
The Craft skill set is as it sounds, about crafting with different kinds of elements: smithing, cooking, sewing, making paper, constructing buildings, etc.
The Field skill set is about exploration, camping, farming and other nature related activities.
Experiment
The Experiment skill group is governed by the Deduction, Flexibility and Precision stats, and has the 2 skill sets: Magic and Blessing.
The Magic skill set contains various types of magic that can be cast, actively or passively.
The Blessing skill set has to do with things that characters in Temos call “The Blessings of Temos” and have to do with your interactions with the sentient world of Temos, such as opening portals and rewinding time.
Seduce
The Seduce skill group is governed by the Beauty, Grace and Charm stats, and has the 2 skill sets: Movement and Stealth.
The Movement skill set has to do with various types of moving, such as on different terrains, like land, cliffs, water, or being able to have different abilities, such as sliding, wall running or wall jumps. Or flying.
The Stealth skill set has to do with being quiet, being unseen, attacking unseen, etc.
How will this affect gameplay?
Skills are a collection of techniques, which I will cover later, and techniques are the actual things you use to do things in the game, such as jumping, swinging a sword, or how quickly you run or swim.
I have designed All Hail Temos to have a connection between all the different game elements to help with balancing, and also to help with distribution of the type of play a character will be able to perform.
Your character will be able to disable or enable different skills, or bind different techniques to your keys or buttons, and this will allow you to play differently. There should be enough techniques, that even if you want to try them all, there is a lot of different ways they can be set up, because they are also impacted by your characters stats in a very clear way. If it is a little complex…
Conclusion
There is a long chain between the different components of All Hail Temos, but I hope to make playing the game fairly simple in terms of interacting with the systems. The complexity in mapping everything together is done to provide reasoning for why things are as they are, and then a platform for how to tune them to make a really fun experience.
If you would like to know more or be notified when the demo and game are released, please Wishlist and Follow.