Hi everyone! In this dev update we’ll look into character progression and skill trees.
Vampire Syndicate is a relatively traditional RPG, with character levels that are gained from earning experience. The most common way of earning exp will be from combat, depending on the enemies you defeat and how difficult they are. Other ways to earn exp include completing quests, certain dialogue options, and maybe even mechanics like downloading magic kungfu directly into your brain (TBD), etc.
Upon gaining a new level you will receive skill points for that character (for now it's 3, the exact number will be subject to balancing). You can spend skill points on whatever you like inside your skill trees.
All characters will have at least three personal skill trees. The first will allow you to upgrade basic stats such as max HP, your movement pool, action points, initiative, etc. This will make the character stronger in combat, and the effects will be very noticeable as you stack them on.
Many of these upgrades are designed so that early investments cost less skill points than later ones, hopefully encouraging build experimentation. Speaking of which, a respec option will be available, although I’m unsure when it will be ready.
The second skill tree is for the attributes, which are some of the most important stats in the game. These are the primary scaling stats for weapon damage and abilities, including the effectiveness of status effects and their turn durations. They are also the stats used for attribute checks and dice rolls in dialogue.
Attributes have hard caps in the skill tree, representing the limit where training and conditioning can get you. You can surpass these limits by becoming a vampire or augmenting yourself with technology. Another way depends on your class, which also allows the upgrading of specific attributes.
Class skill trees offer new abilities that relate to the role of the class. They tend to be very powerful, such as the Tactician class being able to restore all item uses for themselves. Players will be able to take more than one class. I’m currently undecided on what the max for this is, or whether companions can multiclass. One of the many things I’ll listen to player feedback on.
That’s it for now, I’ll be working on an update that covers inventory and equipment/loot next!
Also here's a little test gif of a mag-dump ability in action. I'll probably have a more... balanced version in the game at some point.
