ZURPG 2.0 Revamp

Here it is! And yes, it's on Google Docs for now because it's easier to edit there and whatnot. Anyhow, discuss away, and feel free to question literally anything in there. Once things are finalized, then I'll create an on-site version. I'm not expecting that to happen for at least a week or so, or longer. Depends on how much things are debated, so please, post your opinions. The more input we get now, the less problems we'll have to deal with later.


See the 2.0 Rules here!
Check out the test formatting of various things here!

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A note: I'm recognizing there's going to be a difference of opinions in here. Not every suggestion or complaint will pass into the final version. However, they all serve as input, telling us what looks good and what may need another look or two at. We're not aiming to please everyone, because that's impossible. That said, don't take any rejected ideas as personal.

> Was told there'd be a Soft Reset on characters.

> Reads about a Hard Reset.

... Nope. I understand it is necessary, but being one of the few people that had invested so much time into their characters, only to have pretty much everything to be taken away is a big slap in the face.

With that said, I don't know if I'd be able to come back to playing the game knowing all the things I'd lose.

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Other than that, the draft looks quite solid.

At the time I said Soft Reset, the progression system was that you'd purely gain options, so there was no issue. Then Lunaria pointed out that players still want to grow stronger, so I made an edit that tier levels would still exist, but the way to acquire higher tiers was to spend moar Rupees, since you still acquire them. If there's a Soft Reset, the players with lotsa Rupees and already have a full profile would be able to jump straight to mid-to-late game level, and we'd have to draw a line to separate the players so that the ones without the higher level gear only get partied with each other, and the ones with the higher level gear only get partied with each other, cause we don't want players feeling useless by comparison to other players.


However, on the flip side of things, if this is going to happen anyways down the road, then I can go ahead and draw that line now and actually allow the Soft Reset. I dunno where that line is, and I wouldn't know until I actually have the revamp done and test things out. It'd also cause development to take a little longer cause we'd have to go ahead and make that second tier of enemies, which in theory, wouldn't take too long, so that's not much of an issue.


There is one problem though: what do we do with Artifacts? They're meant to be really OP and genuinely how we progress into the lategame. A lot of existing characters have Artifacts, and those with multiple would essentially turn into end-game bosses and already be capable of taking on literally every threat in the game by themselves, save for the final bosses of the game itself. So that said, I've got a few options here:

• Straight up remove the Artifacts from everyone's profiles and have them all show up later. Not preferable though...
  
• Convert all Artifacts in everyone's profiles into standard items that everyone can acquire. We'd have to create a new set of Artifacts from scratch, but that's not too bad.
  

I'm open to other suggestions regarding Artifacts. If we can solve that one issue, then a Soft Reset is doable afterall.

Orithan pointed this out - if I'm the only one that's going on hiatus to work on this and people can still run quests, what's the point if there's going to be a hard reset and thereby erasing all progress? Good point, and we're definitely going with a soft reset afterall. People still lose Level progression, but everyone's stuff and Rupees stays where it is, except obviously rebalanced (and the Spells are still getting complete rewrites).


Regarding Artifacts, I looked at this from a theoretical balance perspective. Option 2, as listed above:

• Convert all Artifacts in everyone's profiles into standard items that everyone can acquire. We'd have to create a new set of Artifacts from scratch, but that's not too bad.
  

This actually would translate smoothly. How I was going to handle the translation of our existing tiering shenanigans over to the new tier system was this:

• Stuff that had no Level requirements or required Level 10 --> translates to Tier 1 (early game)
  
• Stuff that required Level 20 or Level 30 --> translates to Tier 2 (mid game)
  
• Stuff that required Level 40 or Level 50 --> translates to Tier 3 (late game)
  

As a result, since no one got past around Level 30 to Level 35, everything in everyone's profiles would translate to either Tier 1 or Tier 2.

So what about Artifacts? Well, the current balance of Artifacts is that they're intended to be up to a tier stronger than their listed tier. That said, if everyone else translates to either Tier 1 or Tier 2, that means all our current Artifacts would translate to Tier 2 or Tier 3.

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I'm sure some of you might be wondering, "okay, so why can't Artifacts translate to Artifacts in the new system? What makes them so OP as heck that we definitely cannot translate them over as Artifacts?" Well, we currently have a set of WIP Artifacts called Deity Artifacts, and those were intended to surpass the Level 50 tier and essentially be the end-game. Everything involved = we almost stop caring about balance and go for "everything explodes". So, the new Artifacts will pretty much all be at that level of OP. Also, the new set of Artifacts will include a lot more Zelda-based items, ie Pegasus Boots, Great Fairy Sword, Master Sword, Magnetic Gloves, etc.


This is what a Claymore might look like, going from Tier 1 to Tier 3:

• REQUIREMENTS: Two-Handed
  
• DESCRIPTION: A large sword capable of doing serious damage. Can Slash or Stab a target.
  • Slash:
    • /me swings their Claymore at [Target] with a Slash attack! ($[diceroll + 8]d10), +0 Damage
      
    • Roll your Courage +8 dice vs. targets' Courage dice
      • Damage: +0
        
  • Stab:
    • Roll your Courage dice vs. targets' Courage dice
      • /me swings their Claymore at [Target] with a Stab attack! ($[diceroll]d10), +8 Damage | IF FAIL, target can counterattack you.
        
      • Damage: +8
        
      • IF FAIL: Target automatically gets to Counterattack you.
        

• REQUIREMENTS: Two-Handed
  
• DESCRIPTION: A large sword capable of doing super serious damage. Can Slash or Stab a target.
  • Slash:
    • /me swings their Super Claymore at [Target] with a Slash attack! ($[diceroll + 16]d10), +0 Damage
      
    • Roll your Courage +16 dice vs. targets' Courage dice
      • Damage: +0
        
  • Stab:
    • Roll your Courage dice vs. targets' Courage dice
      • /me swings their Super Claymore at [Target] with a Stab attack! ($[diceroll]d10), +16 Damage | IF FAIL, target can counterattack you.
        
      • Damage: +16
        
      • IF FAIL: Target automatically gets to Counterattack you.
        

• REQUIREMENTS: Two-Handed
  
• DESCRIPTION: A large sword capable of doing super special awesome serious damage. Can Slash or Stab a target.
  • Slash:
    • /me swings their Super Special Awesome Claymore at [Target] with a Slash attack! ($[diceroll + 24]d10), +0 Damage
      
    • Roll your Courage +24 dice vs. targets' Courage dice
      • Damage: +0
        
  • Stab:
    • Roll your Courage dice vs. targets' Courage dice
      • /me swings their Super Special Awesome Claymore at [Target] with a Stab attack! ($[diceroll]d10), +24 Damage | IF FAIL, target can counterattack you.
        
      • Damage: +24
        
      • IF FAIL: Target automatically gets to Counterattack you.
        

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THIS is what an Artifact Tier Claymore would look like:

Great Fairy Sword

• INFORMATION: This is an Artifact.
  
• REQUIREMENTS: Two-Handed
  
• DESCRIPTION: A super special super duper awesome mega awesome sword empowered by fairy power, yay! Can Slash or Stab a target.
  • Slash:
    • /me swings their Great Fairy Sword at [Target] with a Slash attack! ($[diceroll + 24]d10), +0 Damage | If it hits, revive an ally with Hearts equal to the Damage dealt.
      
    • Roll your Courage +24 dice vs. targets' Courage dice
      • Damage: +0
        
      • EFFECT: If it hits, revive an ally with Hearts equal to the Damage dealt.
        
  • Stab:
    • Roll your Courage dice vs. targets' Courage dice
      • /me swings their Great Fairy Sword at [Target] with a Stab attack! ($[diceroll]d10), +24 Damage | If it hits, revive an ally with Hearts & Magic equal to the Damage dealt. | IF FAIL, target can counterattack you.
        
      • Damage: +24
        
      • EFFECT: If it hits, revive an ally with Hearts & Magic equal to the Damage dealt.
        
      • IF FAIL: Target automatically gets to Counterattack you.
        

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That kind of effect right there is something that'd be on something like a 10 Magic Cost attack with nowhere near that damage. THAT is how OP these Artifacts will be, and they genuinely should not be acquirable until you get to the late game.


EDIT: 2.0 Rules 'Existing Characters' page updated as a result.

Various changes made over the last few days:

• Artifacts are split into three tiers, one for each level tier.
  • Tier 1 - Artifacts
    
  • Tier 2 - Mythical Artifacts
    
  • Tier 3 - Legendary Artifacts
    
  • At Tier 3, there'll also be Ultimate Spells.
    
• Heart & Magic Containers are being converted into Stat Containers at an exchange rate of 3 Heart & Magic Containers for 1 Stat Container, rounded up.
  • Additionally, Stat Containers will be guaranteed to drop in every quest after a boss is defeated. Depending on the length of the quest, it'll be anywhere between 1 and 3.
    
• Due to constant mechanics questions and issues, Barriers that simply "soak up # damage" for a player will be removed and replaced with "Target gains # Hearts".
  
• Changed the Artifact Hoarding rule to be DM-based instead of auto-delegation system. There should be a minimum of 1 Artifact per quest, and if there's a weak link in the party, it should be tailored towards that player; otherwise, it's up for grabs.
  

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Potential changes, and some of this stuff is outta my control actually:

• An alteration of the stats block or possibly a second one to handle bonuses.
  • Not literally all of them, but the easy stuff, like Initiative, Damage, Armor, Attack & Defense Dice, and Attack & Defense Successes.
    
• Changing the colors of the Affinities to match the Medallions from Ocarina of Time, as well as the Six Guardians.
  • Namely, this would mean Fire shifts to red, and Spirit (replacing Arcane) shifts to orange.
    
  • Nature affinity is still called Nature affinity, cause calling it Forest affinity would be... stupid.
    
• Tier balance!
  • Rather than goin' for static increases per tier, it'll be a gradual adjustment. Nothing too big, cause adding the bonuses up of each tier will do that instead. So let's take a Sword's Slash attack:
    • Tier 0: Roll your Courage +5 dice vs. targets' Courage dice
      
    • Tier 1: Roll your Courage +10 dice vs. targets' Courage dice
      
    • Tier 2: Roll your Courage +16 dice vs. targets' Courage dice
      
    • Tier 3: Roll your Courage +23 dice vs. targets' Courage dice
      
• Items
  • Anyone a little bugged at the lack of actual Zelda-based items from the games? Expect a lot more to show up, especially as Artifacts.
    

Still gonna give this draft another week before I start the major overhaul work.

New stats block format:

Power: 0 (+0)
Courage: 0 (+0)
Wisdom: 0 (+0)
Hearts: 1/1 (+0)
Magic: 0/0 (+0)

Initiative: 1d10
Damage: +0
Armor: +0
Attack Dice: +0
Defense Dice: +0

Stat Points: 0
Stat Points Used: 0
Stat Containers: 0
Rupees: 0

Not actually with the tabs though.

How the code for the stats block could look:
[stats power=0 (+0) courage=0 (+0) wisdom=0 (+0) hearts=1/1 (+0) magic=0/0 (+0) init=1d10 damage=+0 armor=+0 attack=+0 defense=+0 sp=0/0 sc=0 rupees=0]


Probably want some color formatting for the bonuses column as well.

The followin' bonuses are getting the nukebat:

• Attack Successes (redundancy w/ Attack Dice)
  
• Defense Successes (redundancy w/ Defense Dice)
  
• Bonus Damage
  • Currently, we've got Damage Modifier (which is the individual Damage bonus listed on every attack), Bonus Damage (increases all of your Damage), and Damage (aka, once an attack hits, the Difference in Successes). To avoid some redundancy confusion, by not having Bonus Damage, that should help things out a lot.
    
  • Also, there was a major balancing issue. Increasing all of your Damage included increasing set damages and Neutral Damages, ie Bombs.... including the group hit, meaning stack Charge a few times, throw a bomb to hit all enemies, hit with a bomb that's supposed to be dealing 5 damage except it's dealing 20 damage, and gg almost every single battle you're in.
    

Also, said Bonuses were barely getting used if at all, so I doubt them gettin' the nukebat will actually be noticed save for a few cases. However, in regards to "barely used at all", expect a lot more stuff to give Attack Dice bonuses... and a lot more stuff to kill said bonuses, ie the new Water spells.


Some other potential stuffs:

• Due to the assumption that every attack in the game, unless it's got a multiplier or set damage (which has to be stated anyways), deals damage based on "difference in successes", players will no longer have to state '+0 damage', because it's assumed based on the core rules.
  
• Rather than having a separate line in an attack that lists "Bonus Successes: +5", we could have it listed in the attack line itself.
  • Currently: [dice type-a=Courage amount-a=+7 type-b=Courage] resulted in Roll your Courage +7 dice vs. targets' Courage dice
    • Bonus Successes: +5
      
  • New: [dice type-a=Courage dice=+7 successes=+5 type-b=Courage] results in "Roll your Courage with +7 Dice & +5 Successes vs. targets' Courage dice"
    
  • This would also fit well due to a new upgrade to Navi that lets you add successes directly to the roll itself, by doing $13d10+5.
    

Courtesies of more input via directly commenting on the design doc itself (yay!), I'm gonna hold on finalizing this sucker till next weekend. That said, if anyone else wants commenting access to ze doc, lemme know by tossin' me yer email and I'll shoot ya direct commentin' access.

List of big changes made over last few days:

• Leveling is gone completely, you now start with 50 Stat Points, 10 Passive Skill Points, and 1 Blessing.
  • You can find Heart & Magic Containers by exploring secrets and treasures. FYI, this will be handled by "Everyone gets # Containers", not everyone trying to hoard 'em.
    • Your existing Heart & Magic Containers are being replaced by Rupees. Gonna rough estimate 100 Rupees each, not sure yet.
      
  • Every time you defeat a Boss, you get one to several Stat Points. FYI, this'll also be handled by "Everyone gets # Stat Points".
    
• Blessings:
  • Can be used to acquire an Affinity or an increase to one of your Stats.
    
  • By default, you start with 1 Blessing. You can acquire up to two more, though this must be done by freeing a Shrine, meaning you'll get the other two over the course of multiple quests.
    • Any characters that were Level 20 or higher will get 2 Blessings by default, being able to acquire one more down-the-road.
      
• There are no longer Item Tiers, though we're keeping Artifact Tiers.
  • Rupees are used for acquiring more options, and playing the game more will yield more Artifacts dropping, eventually leading to higher tier stuff, plus there's still the slow trickle of Stat Points + Heart & Magic Containers. We don't need literally everything in existence tiered and scaling, or else we're right back to where we started.
    
• Added a section on Enemies & Bosses.
  

Annnnd that's that! Thank you all for your input. The document hath been finalized; there's a handful of things we're still debating/working on, but said stuff is something that, if changed later, won't affect any work done for the revamp. Anyhow, I'm tossin' a rough estimate out there, but I'm 95% positive I can get the revamp done in 3 months, possibly even less. The primary bulk of work is redoing the spells, adding new artifacts, and actually having a bloody enemy database to pull from for quests this time. If anyone wishes to help, I'll toss up a thread later this week stating everything I could use help on.