NOT DONE YET
• Level • Experience • Maximum Health • Health • Maximum Mana • Mana • Attack • Defence • Intelligence • Resistance • Accuracy • Evasion • Luck
Combat Mechanics
Tortuga’s combat consists of a unique drop-in/drop-out multiplayer active time battle system, inspired by earlier Final Fantasy instalments. Battles that a player can participate in will be visible in the game world as “combat portals”. See the next section for more information.
The combat system will allow several people to fight side by side as a group. Each player will be able to choose their own actions, including attacking with their equipped weapons, using spells and items, or fleeing the battle, etc. To prevent a player from taking too many actions too fast, that player must wait for their ATB gauge to fill completely before acting, after which it resets to zero. The speed at which a character’s ATB gauge refills is affected by that character’s speed stat; each player needs 100 “ticks” in their ATB gauge to attack. They can select their specific attack from the menus while their meter is loading, but actions won’t be taken until the meter is full.
For a speed of 5, it would take 20 seconds to take an action, while for a speed of 50, only 2 seconds are taken, etc. These extreme time delays may seem strange, but I have a hunch that it may be necessary to allow players to search their menus. I’ll make tweaks further down the road.
TODO: Stats and equations
Since permadeath is such a massive aspect of the game, a player must have the ability to flee a battle at any time. Fleeing a battle causes a player to take a penalty such as losing money, experience points, or more. Leaving a battle, if there are still players fighting that battle, does not end the battle itself. Instead, when all monsters inside a combat portal have been defeated, the portal disappears and the remaining players are rewarded. However, if there are no players currently fighting a particular battle and the monsters were not defeated, the battle resets; the monsters regain their full health and are cured of any status ailments.
The complement of the ability to flee a battle is the ability to join a battle in progress. If there are players currently inside a combat portal, a player within sight of the portal will be able to distinguish this. In addition, that player can join the battle to assist the other players, or to possibly cause those players problems (like stealing the loot).