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KaVir · 12-13-2006, 08:06 AM

We don't have a 'DESIGN' forum, but I think this is the closest match.

I'm hoping for some feedback from Dragon fans...

For the last few months I've been trying to design a dragon class, drawing upon suggestions and feedback from my players. The existing four classes more or less evolved over time (they originally had designs, but most of those ideas were dropped by the time the classes came in). However for dragons, I really want to get them fully functional before I introduce them into the game.

All classes in my mud are built around the idea of "flexibility" and "variety"; they each support many different builds. Thus simply having a 'dragon' wouldn't do the job - there need to be different types of dragon, and different ways to play the class.

The types of build I'm planning to support are:

* The typical dragon, in a variety of different colours.

* Other dragon-like creatures, such as oriental dragons, wyverns and hydra.

* Every conceivable type of lizardman/draconian (within reason).

* Powerful dragon-riders (a little bit like the Valheru from Feist's novels).

From a game design perspective, I've broken this down into three main mutually-exclusive routes that a dragon character can take:

1) Human Form: You despise and reject your dragon heritage, preferring to remain in human form. Your draconic blood makes you the ultimate dragon hunter, and you use your power to dominate and slay other dragons. You can summon a dragon to serve you as a mount (perhaps even collecting an egg and raising it yourself), and can craft the scales and bones of dead dragons into powerful weapons and armour. You also learn various types of draconic glyph, which you can use to mark your body (rather like tattoos) for various benefits.

2) Dragon Form: You are a mighty green dragon (although this colour will be changed to reflect your Dragon Descendant talent, if you have one, and later subclasses extend this to other variations such as Metallic or Crystal dragons). Although you cannot use weapons or armour, your claws, fangs and breath are more than sufficient, and you can draw power from magical items in your treasure hoard. When you become more powerful, you may choose an alternative dragon shape: hydra (3 headed), wyvern (only has 2 legs, but powerful wings and a venomous tail) or serpent (no limbs, but levitates like an oriental dragon and can cast spells).

3) Draconian Form: You prefer to combine the best of both forms, becoming a human/dragon hybrid. You have claws, fangs and wings, but can also use regular weapons and certain types of armour if you prefer. This form can unlock many different 'warps', each of which provides different customisations depending on where it's applied - eg you might change the colour and pattern of your scales, your horns to a ridge or frill, your mouth into a beak, the shape of your tail, etc. We're talking about 10-20 'warps', each of which can be applied to any or all of around 10 warpable locations, which would allow for a great deal of variation among draconians.

In terms of powers, I'm currently planning the following, divided by build catagory, with a brief explanation of what each does:

HUMAN

Human Form : Improved toughness and healing in human form.
Dragon Mount : You can summon a dragon to serve as a mount.
Draconic Glyphs : You can draw draconic glyphs of power on yourself.
Dragonbone Forging : You can forge weapons from dragonbone.
Dragonscale Crafting: You can craft armour from dragonscale.

DRACONIAN

Draconian Form : Improved toughness and natural weapons.
Draconian Breath : Enhances your breath attack.
Draconian Charge : Enhances your headbutt attack.
Draconian Jaws : Enhances your bite attack.
Chameleonic Gift : On-the-fly modifications to draconian form.
Salamanders Gift : Improved healing (shared with DRAGON).

DRAGON

Dragon Form : Improved toughness and natural weapons.
Hydra Shape : Your dragon form has a hydra shape.
Serpent Shape : Your dragon form has a a serpent shape.
Wyvern Shape : Your dragon form has a a wyvern shape.
Treasure Hoard : You gain bonuses from your hoard of eq.
Salamanders Gift : Improved healing (shared with DRACONIAN).

ALL BUILDS

Draconic Rage : Short-term rage buff.
Extended Rage : Extends and enhances the rage.
Lashing Tail : Stronger tail attack and special bonuses.
Lord of the Skies : Stronger wing attack and better flight.
Chill of the Tundra : Gives cold-oriented bonuses.
Eye of the Storm : Gives shock-oriented bonuses.
Fires of the Volcano: Gives heat-oriented bonuses.
Fumes of the Pit : Gives poison-oriented bonuses.
Winds of the Mind : Gives mental-oriented bonuses.

A newly classed dragon could train 3 powers up to rank 10, and have another 10 ranks divided as required. For example a red dragon might select Dragon Form, Draconian Rage and Fires of the Volcano as his 3 primaries, then have a smattering of points in some of the other powers such as Lashing Tail, Extended Rage, Lord of the Skies, etc.

As the dragon gets older, it would be able to train more powers (and raise them to a higher rank), but there will always be 3 primary powers which are kept at the maximum rank.

There are also a few talents related to dragons. These are boolean abilities (you either have them or you don't):

Dragon Rider : Gives bonuses when riding a dragon mount.
Dragon Blooded : Various bonuses to dragon/draconian form.
Dragon Hatchling : A pre-classing baby dragon form for newbies.
Black Dragon Descendant : Colours Dragon Form and gives poison bonuses.
Blue Dragon Descendant : Colours Dragon Form and gives shock bonuses.
Red Dragon Descendant : Colours Dragon Form and gives heat bonuses.
White Dragon Descendant : Colours Dragon Form and gives cold bonuses.

Note that the Dragon Descendant talents are mutually exclusive, and double the bonuses of the appropriate power (eg if you have Red Dragon Descendant, the bonuses of Fires of the Volcano are doubled). If you don't select any Dragon Descendant talent, you'll be a Green Dragon (or Emerald or Brass, if you've selected one the Crystal or Metallic Dragon subclasses).

I know there are a lot of people interested in dragons. If you're one of those people, I'd very much appreciate some feedback - in particular, would this allow you to create the sort of dragon you like? If not, what sort of dragon would you like to see in a mud, and what else would be needed to support your 'ideal' dragon? New shapes? Different colours? Hybrid variants?

Please note that dragons are NOT coded, this just a design draft. I'm simply trying to get some last-minute "outsider" feedback on the design before I go ahead and develop it, so that if I've overlooked any particularly cool builds I can incorporate them into the design now rather than hack them in at a later date.

12-13-2006, 08:06 AM	#1
KaVir Legend Join Date: Apr 2002 Name: Richard Home MUD: God Wars II Posts: 2,052	We don't have a 'DESIGN' forum, but I think this is the closest match. I'm hoping for some feedback from Dragon fans... For the last few months I've been trying to design a dragon class, drawing upon suggestions and feedback from my players. The existing four classes more or less evolved over time (they originally had designs, but most of those ideas were dropped by the time the classes came in). However for dragons, I really want to get them fully functional before I introduce them into the game. All classes in my mud are built around the idea of "flexibility" and "variety"; they each support many different builds. Thus simply having a 'dragon' wouldn't do the job - there need to be different types of dragon, and different ways to play the class. The types of build I'm planning to support are: * The typical dragon, in a variety of different colours. * Other dragon-like creatures, such as oriental dragons, wyverns and hydra. * Every conceivable type of lizardman/draconian (within reason). * Powerful dragon-riders (a little bit like the Valheru from Feist's novels). From a game design perspective, I've broken this down into three main mutually-exclusive routes that a dragon character can take: 1) Human Form: You despise and reject your dragon heritage, preferring to remain in human form. Your draconic blood makes you the ultimate dragon hunter, and you use your power to dominate and slay other dragons. You can summon a dragon to serve you as a mount (perhaps even collecting an egg and raising it yourself), and can craft the scales and bones of dead dragons into powerful weapons and armour. You also learn various types of draconic glyph, which you can use to mark your body (rather like tattoos) for various benefits. 2) Dragon Form: You are a mighty green dragon (although this colour will be changed to reflect your Dragon Descendant talent, if you have one, and later subclasses extend this to other variations such as Metallic or Crystal dragons). Although you cannot use weapons or armour, your claws, fangs and breath are more than sufficient, and you can draw power from magical items in your treasure hoard. When you become more powerful, you may choose an alternative dragon shape: hydra (3 headed), wyvern (only has 2 legs, but powerful wings and a venomous tail) or serpent (no limbs, but levitates like an oriental dragon and can cast spells). 3) Draconian Form: You prefer to combine the best of both forms, becoming a human/dragon hybrid. You have claws, fangs and wings, but can also use regular weapons and certain types of armour if you prefer. This form can unlock many different 'warps', each of which provides different customisations depending on where it's applied - eg you might change the colour and pattern of your scales, your horns to a ridge or frill, your mouth into a beak, the shape of your tail, etc. We're talking about 10-20 'warps', each of which can be applied to any or all of around 10 warpable locations, which would allow for a great deal of variation among draconians. In terms of powers, I'm currently planning the following, divided by build catagory, with a brief explanation of what each does: HUMAN Human Form : Improved toughness and healing in human form. Dragon Mount : You can summon a dragon to serve as a mount. Draconic Glyphs : You can draw draconic glyphs of power on yourself. Dragonbone Forging : You can forge weapons from dragonbone. Dragonscale Crafting: You can craft armour from dragonscale. DRACONIAN Draconian Form : Improved toughness and natural weapons. Draconian Breath : Enhances your breath attack. Draconian Charge : Enhances your headbutt attack. Draconian Jaws : Enhances your bite attack. Chameleonic Gift : On-the-fly modifications to draconian form. Salamanders Gift : Improved healing (shared with DRAGON). DRAGON Dragon Form : Improved toughness and natural weapons. Hydra Shape : Your dragon form has a hydra shape. Serpent Shape : Your dragon form has a a serpent shape. Wyvern Shape : Your dragon form has a a wyvern shape. Treasure Hoard : You gain bonuses from your hoard of eq. Salamanders Gift : Improved healing (shared with DRACONIAN). ALL BUILDS Draconic Rage : Short-term rage buff. Extended Rage : Extends and enhances the rage. Lashing Tail : Stronger tail attack and special bonuses. Lord of the Skies : Stronger wing attack and better flight. Chill of the Tundra : Gives cold-oriented bonuses. Eye of the Storm : Gives shock-oriented bonuses. Fires of the Volcano: Gives heat-oriented bonuses. Fumes of the Pit : Gives poison-oriented bonuses. Winds of the Mind : Gives mental-oriented bonuses. A newly classed dragon could train 3 powers up to rank 10, and have another 10 ranks divided as required. For example a red dragon might select Dragon Form, Draconian Rage and Fires of the Volcano as his 3 primaries, then have a smattering of points in some of the other powers such as Lashing Tail, Extended Rage, Lord of the Skies, etc. As the dragon gets older, it would be able to train more powers (and raise them to a higher rank), but there will always be 3 primary powers which are kept at the maximum rank. There are also a few talents related to dragons. These are boolean abilities (you either have them or you don't): Dragon Rider : Gives bonuses when riding a dragon mount. Dragon Blooded : Various bonuses to dragon/draconian form. Dragon Hatchling : A pre-classing baby dragon form for newbies. Black Dragon Descendant : Colours Dragon Form and gives poison bonuses. Blue Dragon Descendant : Colours Dragon Form and gives shock bonuses. Red Dragon Descendant : Colours Dragon Form and gives heat bonuses. White Dragon Descendant : Colours Dragon Form and gives cold bonuses. Note that the Dragon Descendant talents are mutually exclusive, and double the bonuses of the appropriate power (eg if you have Red Dragon Descendant, the bonuses of Fires of the Volcano are doubled). If you don't select any Dragon Descendant talent, you'll be a Green Dragon (or Emerald or Brass, if you've selected one the Crystal or Metallic Dragon subclasses). I know there are a lot of people interested in dragons. If you're one of those people, I'd very much appreciate some feedback - in particular, would this allow you to create the sort of dragon you like? If not, what sort of dragon would you like to see in a mud, and what else would be needed to support your 'ideal' dragon? New shapes? Different colours? Hybrid variants? Please note that dragons are NOT coded, this just a design draft. I'm simply trying to get some last-minute "outsider" feedback on the design before I go ahead and develop it, so that if I've overlooked any particularly cool builds I can incorporate them into the design now rather than hack them in at a later date.