Hi folks,
In the previous journals we talked briefly about the character creation, the character sheet, the overall UI changes and the overworld map travel system.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1580800/view/3083253326003982515
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1580800/view/4756342589041848997
Today we'll be having a closer look into the Expertise system.
If you have played Erannorth Reborn, you may have (or have not) seen cards that require expertise. The only difference there (with other cards), was that if you didn't have the required expertise, then you simply couldn't use them.
For instance these Chests in Erannorth Reborn require Thievery to unlock/use.
But basically that's about as far as the interaction of expertises and cards go in the vanilla DLCs.
Moddable Expertise features in Erannorth Reborn
If you played with my Psychic class in the workshop you may have noticed that your Expertise in the various class fields (Psychokinesis, Telepathy and Esotericism) had an actual effect of cards though.
For example the Tutelary perk here boosts only 'Esotericism' Actions. They now restore 2 AP more and Heal 6 HP more. All other Actions are unaffected. But after getting many different Expertise related perks the bonuses you have become pretty hard to track. Which is one of the main reasons these type of perks never appeared in vanilla content.
Expertise features in Erannorth Chronicles
Since there isn't much actual content for Chronicles ready just yet. This is my Psychic mod running in the updated Erannorth Chronicles engine.
Drake has the Perk 'Dormant gifts' which boosts the Intense damage of his Psychokinesis cards by +1 every 2 Ranks of Psychokinesis.
Once Drake has 10 ranks that's a boost of a +5 in his Intense damage as long as the card is a Psychokinesis Action. He also have some additional benefits due to additional perks ie. Psychokinesis Actions AP cost is reduced by 2, their penetrate effect increases by +2 and their Chaotic effect by +2.
Of course he doesn't need to remember any of this, as they are all displayed directly to the cards.
For example (normally) Force Missile deals 2 Intense Damage, but because I have the 'Dormant Gifts' and 10 ranks in the Action's Expertise I get to deal with it 7 Intense Damage.
The difference with Erannorth Reborn is:
a) this Intense benefit apply only to 'Psychokinesis' cards. So if Drake find a Combat card, assuming he can use it, it won't be as good as his 'Psychokinesis' cards (which I think makes sense ;))
b) this benefit will keep increasing further as long as I keep increasing the relevant expertise.
c) the vast majority of cards (if not all) in Erannorth Chronicles will be tied to an Expertise. So even characters of the same class & race will hopefully vary a lot more, based on their expertise choices.
So as you can guess, Expertises will play a very prominent role on how you make your build, what cards your character can find and use, and how good/effective are these cards. And you will no longer be restricted by what you have unlocked through mastery, but by what your character is good at.
How do you unlock & increase Expertises in Erannorth Chronicles
The majority of your Expertises will come from your Organization, Species, Classification (Sub-species), Class, Specialization & Background. You may be able to learn some through perks, but otherwise your initial choice will give you your starting pool of Expertises.
You will then be able to spend LP during Character Creation or Level ups to boost an Expertise you have instead of an attribute. For example 'Drake' above can learn Occult, Illusions, Telepathy, Esotericism, Subterfuge, Research and Psychokinesis Actions.
That is if he chooses to invest points in them. As this comes at the expense of boosting your attributes.
Let's see a character creation example.
1) My Organization 'Canticum Noctem' simply gives me access to its skills. In this case Witchcraft & Seduction (0 bonus), which are just placeholders.
2) My Species and Classification gives me both access and bonus, in this case Herbalism +1 & Survival +1.
3) My class gives me both access and bonus. In this case to Witchcraft +1, Herbalism +1 & Rituals +1.
4) My background gives me both access & bonus. in this case to Witchcraft +1 & Herbalism +1.
5) So at the end of the day, I have access to Witchcraft, Seduction, Herbalism, Survival, Rituals.
Some of them come with perk bonuses (which yes, these will be also showing up in the Character Creation screen inside parenthesis eventually). And I can spend up to 1 LP per Expertise to increase it.
I'll just spend an LP to add +1 in Witchcraft.
6) The final breakdown after I get the relevant bonuses: Seduction +0, Witchcraft +3, Herbalism +3, Survival +1 & Rituals +1. It will be hard for this character to acquire a new Expertise ie. 'Combat' unless they get it through a perk or an event.
Increasing each expertise further can happen during Level up (at a cost of 1 LP) or by investing in perks that boost them etc. My +3 in Witchcraft & Herbalism is good enough to allow me use all the T1 actions and some of the T2 actions.
What I am up to these days
Currently I am adapting and updating the old cards and perks to the new system. Which as you can guess is a very slow and very tedious process.
I still haven't decided which expertises will be made available at launch, as for now I mostly care to tie all Actions to an Expertise and that will take some time. Same goes for Classes & Races. The overall progress of your archetypes (automatic or via perks) in most cases should also be benefiting certain expertises and give you a variety of different builds even within the same combination.
A simple example is the Mystic. Instead of giving you access to a Mystic card pool, you'd have access to Pyromancy, Hydromancy & Aeromancy cards. And instead of giving you penalty in Hydromancy & Aeromancy if you pursue Pyromancy perks, I can now just boost exclusively your Pyromancy actions. etc.
After I have the actual content in a good place, I'll be able to further improve the UI and accomodate your progression in more seamlessly fashion. And last but not least add some new things, which I'll be telling you or confirming in future journal posts...
Sounds a long way to go! Any guess-timate on when Chronicles will be ready?
My hope was for Chronicles to be ready around mid/late October 2021. But a more reasonable guess would be Q1/Q2 of 2022. So let's just say that I can't really give you a date just yet. ;)
I do hope that by the time our Modding Contest is finished in mid-June, the fellow modders who will win early access to Erannorth Chronicles will be able to play around with a couple updated archetypes. But no promises.
Wait, what early access you are talking about. Thought won't be any?
Yes. There won't be a steam early access.
For now it's exclusive early access for our contest #4 winners. Perhaps later on will have a closed beta, or a second contest. But we'll see.
This contest is still ongoing and you can read more about it and participate here:
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1055990/announcements/detail/4715810192399074406
These are the first (2) entries:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2489110854
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2493386434
There is still plenty of time for everyone to join. ;)
Anyway, that's all for today folks. See you next time!