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All Planned Abilities
October 13, 2018
First up, let’s talk about the taking and giving of life
A problem I’ve noticed with the current mechanics is that you can feel a bit like a vampire.
Basically, because I’ve chosen abilities with mechanics in mind instead of story, I’ve inadvertently made a vampire instead of a druid. I still love the whole giving life thing but draining life out of things feels notably evil.
There are a couple of solutions to this that I’ve been considering:
Drain Life doesn’t affect animals
If I implement this, you can only drain plants. This’ll emphasize the nonviolence and still allow the killing of the undead.
Pros:
- Simple to implement
- Forces the player to be a pacifist
Cons:
- Removes ability to kill enemies
- You still feel a bit like a vampire
- Most of the levels would need to be plant-less to force life to be meaningful
Drain & Give Water
Draw the water from the environment, plants or even enemies.
Pros:
- Easy to limit the resource (puddles)
- Would make sense taking water from most things
Cons:
- Might feel more like a waterbender than a druid
- Taking water from a plant (or even animal) would still feel kind of evil
Scrap it
This is the most likely scenario. The main reason I decided to add this ability is to enhance the problem solving. This is supposed to be a puzzle / stealth game, so I need some abilities to augment those things. But, if it turns out that this mechanic sucks, I’ll replace it with more thematic abilities.
Historically speaking, a druid is a kind of priest from Celtic myth. They have a couple core beliefs: Pacifism and Reincarnation.
Most of the references to their magic involve their transformation into some sort of animal (partially or completely) or the transformation of an enemy into something. They were also known to hang out in forests and control the weather.
So what sorts of abilities could come out of these ancient inspirations?
All planned abilities & Upgrades
Main abilities
- Plant seeds
- Makes for awesome potential puzzles
- Could also add to stealth?
- Thematically perfect
- Full transform - Cat: Gain temporary camouflage
- Perfect addition to stealth
- Should potentially be limited by time?
- Thematically perfect (maybe find another animal?)
- Rain dance: Call down a rainstorm
- Could lower enemy visibility
- Presumably, would require some limited resource and/or a specific location
- Thematically perfect
- Polymorph: Transform an enemy into an inconspicuous animal
- Perfect for stealth sections
- Possibly long cast to not make OP
- Would act as a nonviolent takedown
- Perfect, thematically
- Plant transport: Touch a special plant or create a plant to act as a fast travel location
- Super important for utility
- Would open up the world for reuse or more exploration
These would act as upgrades and would be unlocked throughout the game
- Cat’s Claws: Enable wall jumps
- Owl’s Eyes: See where enemies are looking
- Fish’s Gills: Breathe underwater
- Chameleon’s Skin: Camouflage when not moving
- Lion’s Heart: Faster running or maybe longer sprinting times
- Raven’s Wings: Double jump
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