Howdy!
Last log I promised info on the Sparks (classes) system, but I'm hoping to finish up some UI related to that first. Instead, I'm going to give a bit more of a "design breakdown" here - how I'm implementing FFXIV-esque raid mechanics into a TRPG. First, heres a quick update on everything done since the last post:
The new boss has been ~60% implemented, and almost all "new" code for it has been written. Pending a major bugfix, the first phase is functionally done.
The map has been heavily updated, and is nearly in a final state codewise. Just need to implement a few extra details into node transitions, and link scenes together (so that a Dialogue scene can go directly into a Battle scene, for example).
Some major performance optimizations, implemented after I realized there were some critical problems with it. This is why I'm behind on a few other things, and I'm not confident its 100% done.
First-draft scripts for all dialogue scenes in the demo. Still missing some other dialogue - combat barks and map narration primarily - but its getting closer.
Dialogue art for another character, and the second-phase sprite for the new boss
Now, regarding design:
One of my main goals when starting this project was to make "good" tactics game bosses. I've played a decent few TRPG's now and the bosses were almost always the lowpoints of the game, usually underwhelming at best. As I was in the early stages, i was also playing through the previous FFXIV raid tier and absolutely loving it. The "coordinated dance" feel, the way your rotation mixes with the bosses movements, the static positions for different mechanics - I realized you could probably transpose it into a grid based format.
Around this same time, I was getting into the works of Project Moon. The way their bosses are designed, as puzzles to be solved rather than bags of purely HP, felt like it would fit very smoothly into that "dancelike" format. And thus, I began to finalize the design ideas for Fractal Odyssey bosses.
Along these lines, I've conceptualized every boss as two major components: the "puzzle" and the "dance".
The Puzzle is the first part of the fight, where the player is learning what the enemy actually does. More importantly, its where the player figures out how to counter the boss mechanics - how to take advantage of the openings the enemy gives.
The Dance only begins once the Puzzle has been solved, and it is the act of countering the mechanics itself. Dodging standard attacks, baiting the enemy into bad positions, figuring out how to keep as many units in range as possible - it is a constant series of smaller puzzles to solve each turn. This should grow in complexity as the fight continues, aiming to always end on a crescendo.
To give an example from the first phase of the new boss (note that this is all subject to change):
It inflicts a debuff called "Flame" onto one of your units. This causes it, several turns later, to attack all of the tiles in an X shape from that unit.
It inflicts a debuff called "Waltz" onto one of your units. This debuff is transferred to another unit when the debuff expires, only if that other unit is adjacent to the holder. After someone loses Waltz, they gain "Flame" (and keep regaining it). This creates an increasingly large area of denial, entirely based on your own positioning.
The boss will attack with small, delayed, AOE attacks regularly. This forces your units to constantly move, and prevents a single "solved" positioning from being found.
The boss will regularly move, and use line attacks of its own. This requires the player to either keep repositioning to safely hit it with their damage dealers, or rely on weaker (and safer!) ranged options.
From my personal (and obviously biased) playtesting, this sort of design has created a very fun battle loop during these fights. There's always several factors to consider at once, proactive defense tools to allow for mistakes, and the ticking clock of the games low-healing nature.
If you read this, and are interested in playtesting this prior to the demo release, feel free to join the Discord. I'll be putting out a playtester call, probably in a month or so.
To whoever reads this, thank you for your time! I hope you found this interesting.