The Grand Design Sphere I: Self

[p]I’m currently working on the spell casting in the World for Resource finding. There isn’t anything thrilling to announce about that, it’s just work to get it working.[/p][p]While we wait for that, I want to share the Core Loop completion and refinement work I’ve done so there is ample time to discuss it together. This is the culmination of all the forum posts, discord discussion, design docs, and years of experience: written as succinctly as I can in one place describing the whole game.[/p][p]I’ve never done this before.[/p][p]What is Archmage Rises? The three spheres of Self, Magecraft, and Realm answers it.[/p][p](Note: I’ve renamed Craft to Magecraft so people don’t think 1/3 of the game is crafting)[/p][p][/p][p]Today we dive into Self. Some of it will be familiar, some of it new. Remember, the core of gameloop design is managing resources, trade offs, and creating interesting choices.[/p][p][/p][p]The most basic level of being a human in a fantasy world. The smell and the sweat of actually being there. Taking basic care of yourself. This is the ‘life’ part of the life simulator I’m striving for.[/p][p][/p][p]Health measures your present condition, showing how alive or near death you are. If it hits zero, you are dead. End of life, end of game.[/p][h2]Sinks[/h2]

• [p]Combat, traps are the primary ways health is spent.[/p]
• [p]Minor ways are negative outcomes from Events or conversation choices[/p]

[h2]Rules[/h2]

• [p]Max HP is driven by Vitality stat: Each Vitality point is 5 HP[/p]
  • [p]Vitality can be influenced by many factors: status effects, physical training, rituals, enchantments, and artifacts such as Darion's Amulet (+20 Vitality).[/p]
• [p]Health is very serious. There aren’t health potions to pop or healing magic like you may see in other games. It is very LOTR: time, medicine, and healing skill are used to recover HP.[/p]
• [p]Damage taken when HP below a threshold risks injury (Push your Luck).[/p]
• [p]Injuries require Medical attention - can heal or become worse if untreated. They are a reason to return to town/tower and seek out medical attention. If an injury worsens, it adds to the roleplaying and uniqueness of a life. (Opportunity to Push your Luck, or play it safe)[/p]
• [p]Makes Town Healers valuable.[/p]

[h2]Actions[/h2][h3]Rest[/h3][p]Restores a small amount of health each day. I’ll cover the Rest action further under Fatigue[/p][h3]Healing[/h3][p]Cost: Time – variable based on how much health needed to recovery, or nature of the injury. Gold can be spent to accelerate it[/p][p]Requires: Bed, Medicine skill - ground as default bed. Can’t be done alone, requires someone else: a road companion (Relationship), or at Healer Hut (Gold), or room in Tower (worker with healing skill)[/p][p]Results: Big HP recovery, High chance of curing Injury[/p][p]A measurement of your energy level, stamina, how tired you are. Provides cost to balance choices.[/p][p]Current implementation: represented by Stamina stat in a big yellow globe. You make choices (casting spells, harvesting resources, etc.) and it spent stamina down to zero. For much of the game’s development spell casting in combat used Stamina, creating a vital link between what you do outside combat matters inside combat. This was severed when we moved to the Ara system in the last combat revision.[/p][p]New implementation: A level of Fatigue from Fresh → Fine → Weary → Tired → Exhausted.[/p][p]I want sleep to be a part of the player’s ‘life’ cycle, but not so realistic and onerous as needing to sleep every night, or as harsh as Stardew Valley. The fatigue system allows the player to choose when and how they sleep. You can’t go forever without sleep, but you have flexibility/choice on when it makes most sense.[/p][h2]Sinks[/h2]

• [p]Many actions now have a chance of increasing fatigue. Casting spells in world, any strenuous actions like running in combat, resource harvesting, or movement through terrain types like swamps or hills, and event choices[/p]

[h2]Rules[/h2]

• [p]Actions have a % chance of moving up the fatigue scale, not a set spend of one action[/p]
  • [p]Wellbeing affects this %, meaning if you are miserable you are more likely to get fatigued, and if you are feeling great you are less likely[/p]
• [p]Fatigue is a highly connected resource to many actions, I can’t list them all here. The individual actions identify if they potentially increase fatigue.[/p]
• [p]High fatigue (Tired, Exhausted) affects things (again, not an exhaustive list): starting Ara and Ara recovery in combat, ability to cast outside of combat, event options, relationship options, wellbeing, spell study and experiments.[/p]
• [p]We currently have the option to overexert – I don’t think I’ll need that anymore.[/p]
• [p]Makes Inns, Tower beds, valuable.[/p]

[h2]Actions[/h2][h3]Rest[/h3][p]Cost: Time, gold, food, drink[/p][p]Requires: Bed - ground is a default bed[/p][p]Results[/p]

• [p]Criteria: Bed provides X rest attempts to move up the fatigue system. Sleeping on the ground is one chance. Sleeping in a gorgeously decorated room in a feather bed might be 5 attempts. This isn’t the Sims, but the quality of bed is an important differentiator.[/p]
• [p]It is possible to have great or terrible night sleeps – modified by Wellbeing[/p]
• [p]Increase: X Fatigue levels, Health, Wellbeing[/p]
• [p]Health[/p]
  • [p]Always a small HP recovery[/p]
  • [p]Chance injury improves[/p]
  • [p]Chance injury worsens[/p]
• [p]Food & Drink Bonus[/p]
  • [p]I would like the player to have a reason to enjoy good food and drink as they live their life, but I don’t want to force it. So I decided to make it a bonus to resting – going to bed full and sated is a great way to sleep at the end of a day. I didn’t want to put food and drink into the Rest UI, I like all the Inn food and drink options being clear and separate. Hence food and drink provide a resting buff.[/p]
  • [p]Food or drink eaten in last 4hr increase Rest Result: one additional roll each, or a % improvement to rest rolls.[/p]

[p]Wellbeing measures your emotional and mental state, reflecting how happy, calm, or distressed your character feels. This isn’t Darkest Dungeon, yet wellbeing matters.[/p][p]It is a constantly decaying resource that drives behavior, decision-making, and narrative tone by rewarding care, comfort, and balance while punishing neglect and hardship.[/p][h2]Sinks[/h2]

• [p]Slow decay over time[/p]
• [p]Some choices will have a ‘misery’ aspect to them that affect wellbeing. Washing dishes or mucking stables at the inn may get you gold, but is miserable work.[/p]
• [p]Monsters: Skeletons are terrifying, so combat with them will lower wellbeing[/p]

[h2]Rules[/h2]

• [p]Having high wellbeing leads to bonuses in actions like casting, luck rolls, and conversation. Likewise there are penalties for low wellbeing[/p]
• [p]Every X days the player should do something ‘fun’. Play chess, go for a seaside stroll, alcohol.[/p]
• [p]Doing a fun action with a companion has the benefit of more wellbeing gain and relationship gain[/p]
• [p]Creates a need a variety of actions can fulfill, creating value in more of the nooks & crannies of the game[/p]

[h2]Actions[/h2][h3]Enjoyable Act[/h3][p]This is a template of many actions in game. The game is flexibly designed to accommodate many types of actions. An Event may provide an Enjoyable Act option if you meet certain criteria. Completing a quest is invigorating, as is making a donation to the poor, so you get a boost to wellbeing.[/p][p]Cost: Time, gold, item[/p][p]Requires: Nothing[/p][p]Results[/p]

• [p]Wellbeing goes up[/p]

[p] [/p][p]That’s it for this week, next week I’ll continue with the second sphere: Magecraft![/p]