The Return

So I was let out yesterday, get home find an old friend in my bed it's 9am so I'm like don't you have somewhere to be? Needless to say they were startled and kicked me in the face breaking my nose eventually leading me back to the hospital where the same doctor had quite a laugh about me just not being able to stay away. So my friend explains to me how they thought I was dead etc and fills me in on everything regardless of the parts I already remembered. All that having been said and done I'm home again for now and will likely be leaving for a short while at the end of the month and periodically throughout this month on quite the quest. In my time away I did work on various parts of various games though apparently everything is still a work in progress which makes me wonder when I'll just sack up and cut the line saying here it's done enjoy.

Moving to something you may find interesting is a complex leveling system that I fear may be too complicated though vaguely simplistic in nature. I'd had the idea since FFX but never had a reason to use it till now only to be ticked when the "chrystarium" or w/e came out in FFXIII though I suppose it's substantially different from either one I may have some difficulty properly explaining it to people.

The basic concept is similar, you have paths and nodes, you must buy paths to buy nodes, each node has a level as does each path. You may only increase the level of a node up to the additive total of all directly connected paths. Each path my only be as high a level as the path prior to it. The cap is based on the central node which is required to buy anything to begin with, its level cap is determined by how much you've bought around it and how high it's leveled. There are 8 categories or specialties with a multitude of subclasses and hybrid classes available with their own levels. Once a level of a class has been unlocked it becomes the central node to a higher tier. each tier is multiplicatively more expensive than the before it. However nodes in higher tiers are substantially more powerful. A character is not restricted to a class and bonuses given by nodes apply to the character as a whole so any "abilities" if you'd call them that, more like perks or skill increases, are available no matter what your setup is. everything is contained within 5 circles which are also multiplicative in nature, the 5th circle is 5x more expensive than the base cost. Items that are in the 5th circle early on are substantially more powerful than the ones in the first circle and the further out you go the more powerful they get. Anything you purchase in a category class or circle reduces the cost of all other things in that category class or circle. Items purchased in a given circle expand that circle and all subsequent circles accordingly and investments in a category pull all circles slightly in that direction eventually shaping the circle to more like a triangle or similar. Each category moves to make slight changes so it makes logical sense that a stealth category might make use of some nodes out of a scout category which is nearby, you see how this might work. This also explains why it is more expensive to move into a category opposite your current investments. Backing up slightly the number of paths and their levels reduce the cost of an individual node directly connected to them, both for a first purchase and all subsequent levels. Eventually an upgrade of a similar type further out will likely be cheaper and that is why there is more than one hp node for example. Advanced descriptions and breakdowns of their cost and relation are shown in a popup box but a basic description is always available. Each purchase of a given node and its level offer "bonuses" to all other nodes of the same type generally in the form of an extra boost of whatever that node is responsible for, back to hp it may be an extra 10hp per node level and another 15 for each node or similar.

Classes and the central node are locked by requirements. You have to purchase every path and node around them and have a minimum level before you can purchase them or upgrade them. You may only purchase nodes and paths as far out as the 5th circle extends at a given time. The circles as previously stated though bearing reiteration also work on all levels and tiers so you can't bypass this by trying to buy a node in a class outside the 5th circle just because you can't buy out any further in the base level / class. Some classes may require a minimum investment in a given category or categories in some cases. The basic idea is that you're guiding a mutation of your body, you build and infrastructure for the mutation to build on and so it learns to more easily understand a mutation of a given type or that is similar to what it already knows or has formed. It may seem like a novel idea or it may seem too intricate and complex, or any number of other things but I thought it out and mocked it up now all I have to do is refine it and figure out exact methods and equations because the free form structure and nature of it is going to require a complex instruction set with no final level cap in theory a dedicated player could eventually withstand being thrown into the sun, though that isn't a part of the game the idea being that I won't restrict a player that wants to become a god as long as they put in the time. Right now I'm working out how to show the circles. The idea is that each circle has a given length and must go to at least around all inner circles and is being pulled in a given direction as determined by the category, so deforming the circle mathematically is to put it simply, and while not necessarily hard it is time consuming trying to get it right so that no circle ever expands beyond another circle while incremented equally some circles are almost evenly overlapping, I'm considering expanding outer circles further or adding a strict minimum distance addition to the circles but that's for the following days.

I hope you enjoyed reading I know it was long, feel free to tell me what you think.