Player Progression
Leveling
As reported last week, the player will have a prime level, which is the total of all path levels. Path levels are composed of mana levels, so ultimately it’s the total of all mana levels acquired that determine prime level.
Leveling prime, path, and mana will provide bonuses specific to each, which for now can include:
- Free attribute points
- Attribute and other stat awards
- Ability level awards
- Ability level choices
- Path unlock awards
- Path unlock choices
- Perk awards
- Perk choices
Paths have a max level, which you can fill with any arrangement of mana levels. This means the mana you use to level a path is build-determining, since different kinds of mana will unlock different stats, abilities, perks, and paths.
For the upcoming demo, I want to do two primary path trees, a mage tree focusing on innate spells, and a shooter tree focusing on magitech ranged weapons.
Note that stats can be repeating via X per Y levels, or a singleton at X level.
Leveling Dialog
I updated the leveling dialog to implement the above system. It now has an attribute pane, where you can add or remove free points, and a choice pane, where you can make selections based on the results of whatever mana level you raised for a path.
Here's a screen of its current status (content is not canonical!):
Abilities
I’ve decided to change the leveling system for abilities, such that they'll gain their levels from the above process. That allows me to add more ability awards for leveling, since duplicates will now be valuable.
As abilities level, they’ll gain innate stat improvements. It’s possible I could work ability stat choices into the system, but I don’t think that will be needed for the demo.
Faction NPC Planning
For now, I’ve decided to build parallel path levels for NPCs, that improve on rails and don’t have choices. Adding leveling award decisions to NPCs could still happen in the future, and NPCs will likely get an algorithm to determine where they spend their available mana (based on a priority list).
Future Possibilities
Since I’m already tracking mana levels across all paths, I’m thinking that would be an interesting way to do more progression, such that you might get a stat boost like Fire Affinity for having fifty fire mana levels.
Again, I don’t think I’ll get this done for the demo, but I’d like to do it, and it should be straightforward. :)
I might even go so far as to grant awards for attribute milestones; the difficulty is that you might get attribute levels outside this process. I’d like to do it, but I still need to think on it.
Leveling at System Pylon
For now, I moved all leveling to the System Pylon, so you have to be in the base core to spend your mana on upgrades.