Thorvalla Kickstarter Campaign Update #2, $27,600 and Counting
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Even though the player begins with a single character, you will be able to adjust many elements. Additional party members are recruited as the game progresses, but more on that later.
Character stats will be quite detailed. Perhaps not the kind of super-micro-management we had in Realms of Arkania, but still detailed enough to allow for plenty of customized play.
The player can chose from eight classes.
'¢ Warrior
'¢ Scout
'¢ Shadow Dancer - a Thief-like class
'¢ Monk - a tank with some basic magic abilities
'¢ Druid - a tank mage with focus on magic based in nature
'¢ Wizard/Witch
'¢ Sorcerer
'¢ Demonizer - a spell caster class that draw its powers from demons of all shapes and forms
Characters will also have the following, fairly standard set of attributes. I am not sure I am entirely happy with these yet, so I may tweak these a little as we go along.
'¢ Brawn/Strength
'¢ Dexterity
'¢ Agility
'¢ Wisdom
'¢ Soul
'¢ Charisma
Combat skills are calculated from these attributes and cover Attack, Damage, Defense and Armor. Note, that Armor is not an armor class rating but an actual point value. I've always found that much more intuitive and easier to read while playing games.
In addition, there will be calculated general magic skills, of course, such as Magic Attack and Magic Defense. On top of those come the elemental magic armors against Fire, Water, Ice, and so on, which are item, spell or effect driven during actual gameplay.
Then, to deepen characters, there will be the traits and skills. Look for things such as various weapon skills for Swords, Axes, Two-handed weapons, staffs, projectile weapons, etc. Unarmed fighting skills will also be included, particularly for the Monk class, which you will find have tremendous bonuses here because I like Martial Arts. :-)
Other, more general traits will include things such as Charming, Taunting, Temptation - which is important because there will be succubi in the game -, Dragon Taming, Lock-Picking, Stealth, Tracking, Languages, Cultures, Herbal Knowledge, Poison and pure Luck, to name a few. As we design the story and quests, etc. we will make sure to create proper challenges and plot branches that make the most of each of these attributes so that you will feel that they truly have purpose.
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When we leave the map and enter towns, dungeons or other locations of interest, the game will switch to a top-down view. My preference currently is an isometric view that will give you a good overview of your surroundings and offer us the ability to make it look really cool. The environments will be interactive, so you can click on things to activate them. The same goes for monsters and NPCs that will wander these areas, naturally.
We will have demo screens for this shortly to give you a good idea what this top-down view will look like in the actual game, but I am sure all of you have played an isometric game at one point in their life. The screens will also give you a good impression of the level of quality and the look we are aiming for.
For us currently, one point of discussion is whether we should make it isometric, which is the way Planescape: Torment looks, or whether we should go for a different view in which the elements farther away from the viewer are scaled down to create a proper perspective, while still keeping monsters etc. as 2D sprites. The third option is to create it as a 3D world entirely, in which case it would look more like, say Diablo 3 or Star Craft 2. Needless to say, though, Thorvalla will play entirely differently than Diablo.
