Hey everyone!
It's been a while since the last dev diary, but I will try to be more consistent from now on.
Current main menu design.
Skills
Skill system in Lootlands is a very tricky topic, and frankly, it's the system we've reworked the most since we started working on the game. Afterall, this is where most of the "Action" in an ARPG comes from. So how do we keep that action in an idle game? Well, it needs to adapt to the idle genre for sure, and the way to do it is not crystal clear.
Initially, we decided skills should be part of items. So if you wanted a "Fireball" skill, you'd need to drop a staff that casts it. This sounded fun in our heads but turned out to be really tedious and grindy. Not only would you need to drop items with the affixes you need, but you'd also need to make sure it has the skill you want. It also made it difficult to build deeper systems around these skills, so we scrapped this idea.
Next iteration was very similar to what PoE did in the first game; skills as socketable items. With this, skills would still spawn on items, but you could remove or swap them with others later in the game. This was a bit of an improvement, but again, it made it very hard to build other systems around them. As you probably know, PoE creates depth by allowing players to socket "support gems" into items that alter skills. But for an idle game that was a little overkill and still didn't allow us to build the automation features that we wanted for skills.
So we were a bit lost for a while as if we were not really sure what we wanted this game to be. Which made us think about that, and come up with 2 core principles our skill system:
Ease of use: We know that many people will play this game as just another idle game. And that is totally fine - it's in the game's title afterall. So our skill system needs to be very understandable, with some sort of progression always happening even if the player is not actively optimising their build...
Depth: ...aand we know that many other people will play this game as just another ARPG, since that is also in the game's title. So our skill system needs to have enough depth for the players that seek it. It should be fun to "engineer" a build and then let it play out.
Which brings us to the current version of the skill system. Currently, the player unlocks "Skill Slots" by simply leveling up. This determines how many skills can be equipped at a time, and it's one of the most core ways of progressing in Lootlands. A max level character can have 6 active skill slots at a time. This, however, doesn't represent how many actual skills can be regularly cast with a character, since it's still possible to gain new skills through legendary affixes. But that's a topic for another time.
After unlocking a skill slot, you will need a skill to assign there. Skills can be unlocked using skill points, which are again granted by leveling up. Even though Lootlands has a class system, it is a very flexible one. Meaning the game doesn't have class-specific skills. So any skill can be unlocked and assigned by any class. Therefore we categorise our skills by their type, such as "Melee attacks", "Ranged attacks", "Defensive spells", etc.
Skills that are active will slowly gain XP as they're used in battle. Leveling up skills will not only make them stronger, it will also unlock "Mutation Slots". These slots can then be used to roll mutations into. This is a very similar mechanic to the support gems of PoE, but with a tad less control; making you choose one mutation out of 3 options when rolled.
Automation
Lootlands also offers some basic automation features for skills. You can order target rarity priorities, set targeting modes for each rarity, and even create conditions for triggering the skill.
We are actively brainstorming ideas to make skill automation deeper, so please share what else you would like to see in this screen.
So, is this the perfect way to implement skills in an idle ARPG? Probably not, but I personally think that with endless posibilites to mix and match any skill, tons of mutation possibilites, and targeting and triggering rules, Lootlands is off to a very solid skill system tailored for an idle game. Our current priority is to have a small playtest as soon as possible, so we can test these ideas a bit more.
What do you think? Make sure to drop some feedback in the comments. I read all of them!
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