Please note, the numbers specified here will probably change just with testing and whatnot!
Let's get started with the basics. Stats will look a little different, here's a quick rundown:
Health
The creature's health. When this reaches 0, the creature is unable to battle.
Strength
The creature's physical attack power. Determines how much damage is done with physical attacks.
Endurance
The creature's physical defense power. Determines how much damage is taken from physical attacks.
Intelligence
The creature's magical attack power. Determines how much damage is done with magical attacks.
Willpower
The creature's magical defense power. Determines how much damage is taken from magical attacks.
Agility
The creature's speed. Determines initiative order and critical hit rate.
So... that looks a little different from what we currently have, right (goodbye Fame, you won't be missed)? Which yeah... means you're going to have to redo your stats. I'm super sorry about that! However, to make it easier, we're also changing how stats increase on level up. Area bonuses are gone. For every level up, you gain +1 per stat. Every 10 levels, you get 5 extra points to distribute as you see fit.
We're also splitting Offense between two types, INT and STR and Defence between WILL and END. Precision and Speed have been combined into Agility.
Also we're simplifying base stats as well! So all members of the same species will have the same base stats and primary element! So Ara Tali, Branta Tali, Common Tali etc all have the same base stats and have the Air Element as their primary element. Then in the case of the Branta Tali, they'll recieve Water as their secondary Element (note, the use of primary and secondary are purely for the sake of explaining the difference!).
You will be locked into this element, however we will be introducing rp-based and item based ways of changing these. For example, one idea we had was if your pet has spent 20 posts in Nodia Sea, for example, it'll be able to change it's element to Water type.
Next up, Battle Abilities. We're doing away with everything. I'm sorry. Instead, pets will start off with two ability slots! These will also be determined by the pet species. In most cases, you'll get one Primary Attack (previously used to be the basic attack) and one Supporting Attack, though in some pet species, this may vary. We actually... don't have a stance on AP yet though.
With a large variety of fighters in different shapes and forms, attacks & other abilities now describe function without consideration towards element. It's up to the user to decide flavour text. Element can be chosen by fighter, but must correspond with an element the user currently has.
eg. this is an attack with an immobilizing attribute, when used by an Electric Type, it will gain that typing. If used by a Earth/Ice type, the pet can pick between the two and it could take the form of strangling vines or freezing ice if the user so wished.
You'll unlock extra slots at different levels and initially they'll be empty. You'll have to find (tentatively named) tomes. Tomes, at lower rarities, will be element locked and can be used to bypass the above elemental restriction. Tomes are not consumed upon use, rather they're designed to be added and removed to pets at will. So long as you own the tome and have an open slot on the pet, you can send a pet into battle with that ability. Of course, in multi-battles, you will need duplicates if you want both pets to have the same ability. We're also introducing an item tentatively named 'scrolls' they are, albeit more common than tomes, they're a once off use item only and scale with your pets level.
We're also in discussion of a way of making upgrade paths and permanently changing your 'starter abilities', making them stronger/appropriate for higher levels or giving them extra features but at the moment we've got nothing solid. It'll probably be a roleplay based method though?
So yeah! That's it! I understand it's a bit of a change and you'll have to reset all of your pets and I am sorry about that! But Battle Traits are not mandatory and we're even considering having a Barracks style area for people to list all the necessary fighting information for their pets. I will say, you will be able to use past roleplays to change elements if you require. The idea is to allow you to develop your pets and their characters! It'll let us start using elements more in events as well and start opening up opportunities for group fights and 'Raid Bosses' as well. c:
With that all said, if you have any questions/concerns, please go ahead and ask! I'll do my best to address them all, though as I have mentioned before, it is still fairly deep in progress.
