Spellshore Tactics

[Greg]

Spellshore is a turn based strategy game with roleplaying elements. The premise is that you play the part of a powerful sorcerer who competes in magical duels. The gameplay is set on a hexagonal grid, with you and your opponent at opposite ends. The objective is to defeat your opponent by reducing their integrity (health) to 0, using your arsenal of arcane skills and your environment.

Basics
These are the things I've decided on about mechanics, and are unlikely to be revised.

1 | The Field
The game board (henceforth referred to as the field) is a hexagonal grid composed of tiles. Each tile will have a 'ground' terrain type and an 'air' terrain type, which affect how easy the tile is to move through, and the cover and damage it gives to units in it.
Each tile has space for one unit.

2 | Units
Units can be static or mobile, and have varying properties. Most units will be created and controlled by you or your opponent.

- 2.1 | Combat
Combat commences when one unit attempts to enter another unit's tile. A random number between 0 and the attacker's attack minus the defender's defense is dealt to the defender as integrity damage.
Attacking may have other effects depending on the unit's properties, for instance, fire orbs self-destruct in combat.
When a unit's integrity falls to 0 or below, it disbands (is destroyed).

3 | Spells
Spells can be cast on any turn, provided the conditions are met. Each spell is cast on a specific tile (though some may have effects which extend to other tiles).

- 3.1 | Prerequisites
Each spell has a set of conditions which must be met in order for it to be cast.

4 | Focus
Focus represents the mage's mental dexterity. Each turn each mage is allotted a quantity of focus, which they can 'spend' on claiming tiles and casting spells. Focus is reset at the start of each turn.

Speculative
This is stuff I'm just thinking about, mostly specifics of how to implement certain features and types to add to the system. If it proves too difficult I might do it differently, or not at all.

1 | Interface

1.1 | Detail Bar
This will show contextual information about aspects of the game. When the mouse is held over a tile, it will show information about that tile, split into it's terrain types and the unit (if any) on it. It will also have a graphical representation of all 3.

1.2 | Spell Wheel
This will have all the spells you can cast on a wheel structure that can be spun left and right with the mouse. Clicking on a spell will select it for casting, clicking on a tile that meets the conditions will cast it there. The spell wheel will also have a number of quickspell slots that allow spells to be selected without having to search the wheel.

2 | Terrains
Terrains have certain effects on the units placed on them, as well as affecting the outcomes of spells.

- 2.1 | Terrain Specials
Restrictive - Movement through this tile costs more than normal.
Cover - Units in this tile are harder to see and gain a defensive bonus.
Attrition - Units take damage when entering this tile and every turn they begin on it.
Mana bonus - Whoever controls this hex gains additional mana.

- 2.2 | Ground
Earth - soil and low-level plant life.
Rock - slabs and boulders of solid rock.
Water - depression filled with water. Restrictive.
Thicket - dense plant life. Cover.
Swamp - thick, swampy mud. Restrictive.
Lava - super-heated liquid rock. Attrition.
Crystal - magical crystals spear from underground leylines. Mana bonus.
Ice - thick layer of frozen water. Restrictive.
Sand - small pieces of grit and dirt.
Snow - many tiny crystals of frozen water. Restrictive.

- 2.3 | Air
Clear - ordinary, clear air. No effects.
Fog - dense fog and mist obscures everything. Cover.
Rain - water droplets rain from above. Restrictive.
Hurricane - high winds and debris. Attrition.
Sandstorm - clouds of dust and sand blast through the air. Cover, restrictive, attrition.
Blizzard - clouds of ice and hail blast through the air. Cover, restrictive, attrition.
Smog - clouds of soot and choking fumes fill the air. Cover, attrition.
Storm - localized electrical storm. Restrictive, attrition.
Firestorm - chunks of molten rock rain from choking clouds of dust and gas. High attrition.

3 | Units

- 3.1 | Properties
Every unit will have a set of properties that determine how it can be moved and how it interacts with other units.

Integrity - how much damage can be taken before unit disbands. Maximum value.
Attack - damage done to enemy when attacking.
Defense - ability to negate damage.
Mobility - movement points available per turn. Each terrain has a movement point value, and this is deducted from any unit moving through it.
Obstruction - a value representing the size and mobility of the object. 2 units cannot occupy the same tile, but units can move through tiles provided their obstruction + the tile unit's obstruction does not exceed 10. example: fireball (obs 2) can move past a tile containing a rock golem (obs 6) (2+6=8), but not through a tile containing a rock wall (obs 9) (2+9=11).
Drain - some units take focus to maintain. At the start of every turn this unit is active, the mage receives less focus than normal.
Specials - These are special properties which not all units have.
Levitating - unit is unaffected by ground movement costs and attrition.
Stalwart - unit is immune to attrition damage.
Amphibious - movement cost is reduced for swamp and water terrains and cover in increased.
Charging - charging units do more damage if moved before attacking.
Self-Destruct - unit destroys itself when attacking or defending.
Units may have other special effects.

- 3.2 | Types
Mage - The mage is your main unit and represents you. If it is defeated, you lose.
Orb - Orbs are concentrated balls of energy. Intermediate magical projectile, high mobility, low obstruction, levitating, self-destruct. Materials: Fire, Ice, Wind.
Wall - A raised wall of debris. Properties depend on material. Immobile, high obstruction. Materials: Rock, Earth, Sand, Snow, Wood, Ice.
Clump - Levitated debris. Simple magical projectile, recoil, high obstruction, levitating, charging. Properties depend on material. Materials: Rock, Earth, Sand, Snow, Wood, Ice.
Fae - A small unit that can attack and defend.
Golem - Golems are advanced magical units. Properties depend on material. Types: Earth Golem, Rock Golem, Water Golem, Wood Golem, Swamp Golem, Lava Golem, Crystal Golem, Ice Golem, Sand Golem, Snow Golem.

4 | Spells

Wind Orb
Creates a levitating ball of concentrated wind.
Prerequisites
Focus: 3
Drain: 2
Effects: 0
Summon - Wind Orb

Fire Orb
Creates a levitating ball of concentrated heat
Prerequisites
Focus: 3
Drain: 2
Effects: 0
Summon - Fire Orb

Ice Orb
Creates a levitating ball of concentrated cold
Prerequisites
Focus: 3
Drain: 2
Effects: 0
Summon - Ice Orb

Levitate
Raises unit to hover above the ground. If there is no unit in the tile, creates one from debris.
Prerequisites
Claim: 2
Drain: 2
Effects: 0
Earth: Summon - Dirt Clump
Rock: Summon - Rock Clump
Thicket: Summon - Wood Clump
Lava: Summon - Lava Clump
Crystal: Summon - Crystal Clump
Ice: Summon - Ice Clump
Sand: Summon - Sand Clump
Snow: Summon - Snow Clump
Unit: Unit +Levitating

Wall
Raises debris to form a thick defensive barrier.
Prerequisites
Claim: 1
Effects: 0
Earth: Summon - Dirt Wall
Rock: Summon - Rock Wall
Thicket: Summon - Wood Wall
Crystal: Summon - Crystal Wall
Ice: Summon - Ice Wall
Sand: Summon - Sand Wall
Snow: Summon - Snow Wall

Light Barrier
Focuses energy into a kinetic barrier which will reflect all projectile attacks.
Prerequisites
Claim: 4
Effects: 0
Summon - Light Barrier

Dark Barrier
Focuses void into a barrier of stillness.
Prerequisites
Claim: 6
Effects: 0
Summon - Dark Barrier

Scorch
Intense heat scorches the ground and evaporates water.
Prerequisites
Claim: 2
Effects: 1
Thicket: >Earth, smog.
Snow: >Earth, fog.
Ice: >Water, fog.
Water: >Fog. 50% >Swamp
Swamp: >Earth, fog.

Grow
Plant life spreads to adjoining tiles.
Prerequisites
Claim: 2
Terrain - Thicket
Effects: 1
Earth, Swamp: >Thicket
Water: >Swamp

Gust
Winds whipped up to dangerous speeds.
Prerequisites
Claim: 2
Effects: 1
Snow: >Blizzard
Sand: >Sandstorm
Lava: >Smog
Water: >Rain
Others: >Hurricane

Settle
A strong calm stills the air.
Prerequisites
Claim: 2
Effects: 1
Blizzard: >Clear
Sandstorm: >Clear
Smog: >Clear
Fog: >Clear
Hurricane: >Clear
Firestorm: >Clear

Tornado
Creates an aerial vortex of devastating power
Prerequisites
Claim: 7
Effects: 0
Summon - Tornado

Fissure
Splits the very earth itself.
Prerequisites
Claim: 9
Terrain: Earth, Thicket, Lava, Sand, Snow
Effects: 0
>Lava
Effects: 1
Damage to units

Explosion
A massive blastwave wrecks the area.
Prerequisites
Claim: 10
Effects: 0
High damage to units
Effects: 1
Damage to units

Distract
Enemy's attention is diverted away from an area.
Prerequisites
Claim: -1
Effects: 1
+1 Claim on every enemy tile in range

Concentrate
You focus your attention on an area.
Prerequisites
Claim: 3
Effects: 1
+1 Claim on every tile in range

| Controls
When you are in the unit phase, click on one of your units to select it. When a unit is selected, click a highlighted tile to move it there. If no tiles are highlighted, the unit cannot be moved. To attack, move your unit next to another, and when the tile of that unit is highlighted in red, click on it to attack. To enter unit phase, click the middle button in the bottom right corner.

To cast a spell, simply click on it's icon in the spell wheel, and then click a highlighed tile on the board. If no tiles are highlighted, then the requirements for the spell are not met by any tile. Check the spell description in the context panel to see what the requirements are.
Minimum claim: the minimum claim a tile must have for it to be cast there.
Focus cost: the focus that casting this spell will deplete
Mana: the mana this spell will deplete
Focus drain: the quantity of focus this spell will 'tie up' each turn it is active
Terrain: the terrains this spell can be cast on.

If no tile has a high enough claim, you can raise the claim by putting focus points into a tile. In claim phase, click a tile to add claim to it. The focus cost of the next claim point is shown in the context panel. To enter claim phase, click the top of the three buttons in the bottom right.

Once you've done everything you can in a turn, click the bottom button on the right to end your turn. Any units on dangerous terrain suffer attrition damage at this point. When your next turn begins, your mobiity and focus is refreshed.

[Nathan]

Arent you in the middle of doing mothership?!
Get back to work.

And Jorj was talking about something similar based on setting up a field of warriors and then AI doing the control of them when the battle starts, and maybe you do some stuff in real time too.
I wasnt sold.

[Greg]

well that sounds amazingly like about 50 billion other games where you place a bunch of turrets and watch them kill stuff and most of those are pretty popular right now, so maybe he's on to something.

also, i am back to work! (see thread). this was a passing concept to reinvigorate my creative activity. i don't think it would be much like jorj's game really, the setting-up stage isn't really a case of tactical positioning of limited resources, it's more about achieving a certain pattern within the time limit in a bejeweled-level sort of thing. but better. the second stage is the part that'd contain actual tactics, the idea is just that it'll be easier the better you did in stage 1 cos you'll have initial advantages like more resources.

*still stuck thinking about the first phase. don't think i'll be able to do it as anything but a square grid, i'd prefer to do it hex, but that could be really hard unless anyone here knows about hexagonal maths, like how to assign IDs to hexes and then work out which ones are in contact with which. basically it needs to be something that involves the placing of pieces to try and 'take over' the board, maybe something like othello or go, but not turn-based.

*made a 7x7 grid to experiment with to see what's possible. i was working on the principle of a game where you have to link each square to the origin. as you can see, i've made some progress, but i was trying to use a recursive function to make a connection tree, and it doesn't seem to be capable of regressing back to previous recursions once the branch is exhausted. if you make it branch in two, it only takes the first branch (it tests them in the order left/up/right/down and checks to see if it's already been tested in the recursion to prevent it getting stuck)

*i fix'd it cos i'm a genius! i knew var was there for something. seems you have to use var for it to store a variable relative to the function it's in rather than just overwriting it. now we're talking! already something resembling a game has emerged. now i just need to work out a set of engagement rules which are actually workable, then it's just a matter of programming the AI.

http://www.dissoluteproductions.com/Greg/P1.1.swf

[Nathan]

how do you play?

[Greg]

you uh... don't. not yet. basically i think it's going to be a case of tying to get as much of the board connected to your initial square as possible, but i need to fix some rules about where you can place pieces and perhaps about takeover of opponent's pieces. you can kinda play it now, if you assume the aim is to get as many blue circles as possible, but if you're playing against an agressive player (in this case yourself i guess cos i have no AI) then it's very easy for them to just cut you off. and also right now you can take opponent's squares by clicking on them.

any suggestions? i want a rule set that'll tend to give an ending board with concentrations of white and black near their origins, but with some fluctuation, something like this:

[ganjaman]

What about a 'Fire Emblem' style game, if anyones played them. Also, put in ninja monkeys...No....Robot Ninja Monkeys, 50 feet tall!

[Firekraker51]

It sounds interesting. I want to know how you're planning to make magic a more fun concept than we've seen in other games. What're you thinking, Harry Potter?

BTW, very graphically superior.

[Greg]

harry potter magic is about made-up latin and phallic imagery.
fire emblem i've never played, although i pwn in super smash bros with roy (and by pwn i mean manage to not always get instantly annihilated by nathan). kind of unrelated though.

i was thinking the magic itself would be as graphical, realtime and intense as possible, and there'd be a lot of tactical use of the landscape based on modifying the properties of objects, so say casting a heat spell on a tree would make it an on-fire tree, casting a shatter spell on it would make it splintered on-fire tree bits, and then casting a movement spell on it would make it a swarm of deadly projectile on-fire tree bits. sounds complicated but in theory it should be easy enough to do it with a bunch of hidden variables and extensive enough graphical representation.
below's an experiment i was doing into some effects, so far i only have water and it only runs smooth on low quality.

http://www.dissoluteproductions.com/Greg/effects.swf

as you can probably tell, this is like, pre-planning stage stuff. as nathan pointed out, i am actually making a game right now. i don't want to get too distracted cos i always complain to jorj when he does that. on the other hand though, i may never finish my current game and i don't want it to be my sole flash project, even if it means further diminishing my chances of completion.

[Firekraker51]

Looks cool so far. And you're right. You shouldn't have just one project. Sooner or later you're gonna get bored of it and maybe scrap it completely if you didn't have something else.

And for the record, anyone can pwn with Roy. It's Pwning with Pikachu that's the challenge.

[Greg]

roy and marth are so cool i'm amazed i'm like the only person i know that plays them, but pichu is the REAL MAN'S challenger. nothing says 'pwned' like getting your butt kicked by a tiny yellow mouse.

*oh yeah, updated graphics test. make water paths by dragging from the water, freeze or vaporise it with the buttons on the top.
also i was thinking in the actual game the 1st phase graphics might look more like

http://www.dissoluteproductions.com/Greg/concept1.swf

but better and not laggy. before that of course, i have to work out what the game will actually be.

[Firekraker51]

Ah yes, I forgot about pichu.

And your cold and heat doesn't look like it's doing anything to the actual water as of yet.

[Greg]

you mean the pond? yeah. it only affects the water-path objects. should be easy enough to test it with other things though, just a pain to program.

*right! the phase1 game is officially kinda playable. you place a cross on your turn, and the goal is to get the maximum number of squares connected to your 'home' as possible. you can't place a piece in an opponent's 'territory' unless it overlaps with yours.

http://www.dissoluteproductions.com/Greg/P1.2.swf

it's still fairly easy to cut off your opponent but not as easy as it was.

*messed about with it and made some new variables- now your zone of influence moves diagonally, but the links still only work across, it makes it a little harder to cut you off. i think this is actually pretty good as a working game, especially if you consider certain squares will have 'bonuses' giving a bit more tactical intrigue.

http://www.dissoluteproductions.com/Greg/P1.3.swf

*i find playing myself at this that usually the first player usually wins with a margin of 2-4 squares, with about 10-30% of the board mutually blocked. i think that's actually pretty close to what i was going for, considering that with resources involved players will probably play closer to home to consolidate rather than spend time blocking.

*ok, made a version with primitive AI and a 'charging' system (you can place a piece whenever your bar is full, rather than turn-based). the AI just spams crosses anywhere in it's area of control or unclaimed land. if it can't find anywhere to put a piece, the game is over and it surrenders, and you get all remaining free squares. owing to the AI's tremendous stupidity, you should be able to defeat it pretty much every time, but i can make it harder just by jacking up its charging speed.

http://www.dissoluteproductions.com/Greg/P1.4.swf

[Greg]

made a new hexagonal version! it was actually a lot easier than i thought.
in addition, i've also improved the tactical element by adding certain 'bonus' tiles. these are green, and are worth 3 points instead of the standard 1. i've also made some general improvements to the AI, graphics and game functioning.

so far my highscore is 30, but that's with the bonus pieces so a lot of it is luck. most of the time i get between 26 and 28

[Nathan]

wee, 27.
Im not quite sure I understand the oclour system or anything though.
Just seems you go forwards and try and block of the opponent.

[Greg]

you can't place pieces in your opponent's 'area' unless it's also in YOUR area, this stops people from hemming in the opponent too closely.