[Concept] Historically, this hasn't worked, but let's try again.

[diage]

ALRIGHT.. so I admit me and soren have been.. distracted... But, we've gone back to work a bit and the first order of business has been to get our sprawling plugin under a bit of control and to create a nice API. In doing so, we are creating a fancier set of "instructions" for skills and changing how they are coded. This gave us a lot of options for how we might implement skills and caused us to go back and improve them once more. In doing so, we improved the energy dynamics and that is what I want to discuss.

SO.. in "short", I am going to discuss an improvement to energy dynamics.

(All of this is up to discussion with the lore team, this is just my proposal) Here is the background: In the world, there exists an energy. It is as common to the inhabitants as observing light is to us. The possess a physical capability to perceive this energy and more importantly, each race perceives it differently. Much like different species on earth see light differently, these races interact with this mysterious energy differently. They all tap into it to use their skills.

Originally, the point of the energy was to distinguish to some degree the races from each other while not making it so that you couldn't mix and match skills from other races. Other options put you to having to play with multiple different resource pools if you wanted to jump into other trees, this was frankly unacceptable to me. So instead, I decided for one resource which was used differently for each.

Now time for the improvement: Our new concept looks to adding passive abilities attached to the use of this energy, Essentially, if you act in a way which limits your ability to cast, you will gain some characteristics that will make your race feel more unique.

Before I talk about the improvements to cause this to happen, first I will say how each race interacted with their skills the first time.

HAELLERA: Before - They had a moderate size energy pool and had no regeneration. They used an extra skill which after some time would give them energy. The point is that fish are heavily focused on preparation. They have the potential to have the greatest effective energy pool, but requires active interaction.

THYRUUN: Before - The thyruun are about consistency. Their mechanics were focused on a small pool with a very aggressive energy regeneration. They were limited to the number of skills cast able at a single time for the ability to cast more skills over a longer period of time. They were considered more sustained than many other races.

BRECAR: Before - The brecar are far more 'reserved' in their energy usage. They are full of extremely deep reservoirs but had a very small recharge. They had potentially to burst, but at a great cost. They also had the ability to sustain, but in the end they would suffer some attrition if they didn't manage their energy.

Uh... Humans....: Before - The humans are in touch with energy through physical connections. As their energy reserves run empty, they can still continue to cast but at a cost to their own well being. That is, if they cast at 0 energy, it instead comes form their hp. They would have a moderate size pool with a moderate regeneration.

NOW.. for the improvements!

HAELLERA: After - Now, they haellera gain a regeneration buff when their skill is not on CD. So, if they choose not to use their energy skill, they will be harder to kill and have a strong regeneration. However, as soon as their energy demands catch up with them, they lose that benefit.

THYRUUN: After - The thyruun receive a speed boost, mild, when their energy is sitting at full. So, casting a skill removes this from them. The idea being that you can kite to a safe location, then cast, and continue to kite once your energy comes back.

BRECAR: After - The brecar have discrete locations that upon hitting reduce their regeneration even further but increase their hardiness. So say at 75% you might see their regeneration slow a little bit but they will become tankier. The idea is that if a brecar wishes to focus more on sustained output, they would try to keep their energy above 75%. If they really want to get into the fray, they could expend a large amount of energy and become tankier, but now casting skills is riskier since you have a significantly reduced regeneration.

The last guys.. (HUMANS): After - The humans are more straight forward, they see an increase in damage output as their hp gets lower.

So, let's see what this means in practice. Take a player who has a selection of elf skills but may or may not be an elf.

If he IS an elf, then he would play in a style where he might kite to a safe location, cast, and then continue to kite.

If he is a human, he might sit and accept damage so that his damage might be increased and he could burst down an enemy.

If he is a dwarf, then he could either sit back and deal sustained damage, or burst and then get into the fray and start doing physical damage.

If he is a fish, he may cast and kite while mitigating damage he takes with a passive health regeneration.

So, i apologize if it interferes with any concepts, but I think this is a great way of working everything in and it allows each race to have a truly unique game mechanic despite having the exact same skill set as someone you might be against.

(Oh, and if you're wondering what didn't work historically, it was posting ideas on here. People jump to too many conclusions. PLEASE.. if you have averse reactions, talk to ME about it prior to jumping the gun and then call poison control.)

[Nyrhi]

Works for me.

[CandleD]

The mechanics sound great. Once I see what the actual skills are we can work out the whole 'what the energy is' thing.

[diage]

By the way, we've decided to remove "types" from energies. It allows for a more consistent story and allows for a lower complexity.