You might have thought this project dead: not quite!

I have been keeping this on the backburner since I last posted an update on this gameprofile (February 21st, it appears). I haven't really done much, to be honest, but today I sat down and did some brainstorming and refinement of my class ideas. I'll get to those...

But first some housekeeping!

I plan to finish this game this month year
While my April Fools status had me claiming that I'd finish a game a month for a year (which I could never do), I do want to start clearing out some of my game design ideas! It's been too long since I've released anything of merit...

Aether Pulse is not a big game. It was supposed to be a small game made for the Cook Off. While the scope is bigger than I initially envisioned, it's still pretty tiny, as far as RPGs go.

Moving this to the full version of RPG Maker VX Ace
Since the contest is well over, there is no advantage for me to keep on Lite. This is still my first VX Ace game and I won't be using the engine to its full potential, I will be using it to overcome Lite's limitations (fuck you 10 events per map!)

My Vision
I aim to make this game by myself with custom assets that I've developed myself... with the exception of sound effects. I have no fucking clue how to go about making those. But music, tilesets, enemies, charsets, artwork - yeah, I'm going to try my hand at that (even ifwhen it sucks!). A game like this has been a personal goal of mine.

Balancing and Numbers
Since this is a small personal project, there was a stats system I was going to try to see if it's viable. It is a variation/interpretation of some D&D rules. That means stats in the 8 to 18 range for classes, and a battle formula that accounts for that.

ATK will be the character's strength and weapon damage. To come up with relatable weapon damages, I would take a common D&D damage range (ie- 1 to 4, or 2 to 12) and work it through this formula:



I think this does a good job of capturing the D&D weapon's average damage as well as its dispersion/variation.

In practice, I am not sure if this damage formula will work out! But its something I want to try and test.

Classes
The wacky classes I've come up with were more chosen for wackiness quotient than for reasonable and workable gameplay, so it's been a challenge brainstorming, balancing, and complementing these classes with each other, while also meshing with the worldbuilding! Stupid me!

In my infinite wisdom I've selected the Facepuncher, Brave, Technoviking, Beekeeper, Guitaromancer, Gastromancer, Pokerface, Mad Hatter and Droid as my game's classes.

To keep it manageable, I decided to limit each class to 6 skills and to limit the number of levels to something like 10 or 12 and to keep stat growth rather small.

I am going to go through the classes one by one outlining what I've come up with, relating it to more familiar class archtypes, and going over the role I hope for it. I also have no real clue how this whole "TP" thing works in Ace.

In oldschool RPG terms, you had common archtypes like FIGHTER (fast damage dealer), SOLDIER (slow damage dealer with high defense), MAGE (squishy offensive magic caster), HEALER (healing magic caster) and ROGUE (very fast middling damage output but usually coupled with some unique skill or equipment). Oh yeah, and the HERO (kinda good at everything). I tried to balance these weirdo classes by tying them to one or two of these oldschool ones.

Keep in mind this is all early brainstorming...

For information, here are the elements and statuses
Elements
Physical
Energy
Fire
Ice
Lightning
Sonic
Poison (organics only)
Ion (robot only)
Healing (organics only)
Repairing (robots only)
Surprise - some people think there are 4 elements; they are wrong. They forget the element of SURPRISE

Statuses
Poisoned - Slip damage (human only)
Swarmed - Slip damage
Blind - Prevent physical attacks
Mute - Prevent magical attacks
Stunned - Prevent any actions
Confused - Attack allies
Counter - Counterattack
Berserk - Attack enemies with Attack boost
Maxpow - Attack boost
Maxbrite - Magic boost
Maxward - Defense and Magic Defense boost
Maxrun - Agility boost
Forcefield - Repel energy attacks
Hidden - Evade boost
Weak - Attack, Defense, Magic debuff
Cover - Cover other allies with low HP


Facepuncher

Category: FIGHTER
Role: Surge Damage
Weapon: FISTS (or maybe gloves?)
This guy is going to be my straight-up fighter, with some elemental affinity.

One Inch Punch - weaker attack, but with a speed boost
Haymaker - (PHYSICAL) stronger attack, but with chance to miss or random target
Fist Feast - (PHYSICAL) attack 4 random targets (weaker attack)
Dragon Uppercut - (FIRE) fire punch
Falcon Punch - (SONIC) sonic punch
The Shocker - electric punch
Dim Mak - (PHYSICAL) attack with a chance to stun
TP Special: Fists of Fury - (PHYSICAL) physical damage all

Brave

Category: MAGE/FIGHTER
Role: Generalist
Weapon (dual wield): Axes, Blaster Pistol
This guy I probably struggled with the most, because I didn't have a clear idea of what I wanted him to be, and the ideas I did have overlapped heavily with a lot of others. Then I played to the end of FF5 and realized I liked the Summoner class. So this guy became a summoner/fighter class that calls upon animal spirits!

Spirit Stallion - haste party
Crowfoot - stun enemies
Otter Romp - heal party
Screaming Eagle - (SONIC) sonic attack vs enemies
Wolverine Claw - attack x2
Brother Bear - defense buff party (ward)
TP Special: Aurora (revive and heal allies)

Technoviking

Category: REPAIRER/FIGHTER
Role: Repair/Surge Damage
Weapon: Axe, Blaster Rifle, Shield
There are droids in this game, remember, so Repairing is like healing, but for robots. This guy is also a viking so he goes "viking" (the verb) (ie- steal) and can enter a berserker rage. But he is also techno, so he repairs and reboots droids

Viking - steal
Berserker Rage - berserk gives ATK and AGL boost, but loose control
Repair Tech - heal droid
Reboot - revive droid
Ionic Wave - heavy damage vs droids (in KOTOR, Ion did heavy damage vs droids, but was ineffective vs humans)
Runic Buff - ATK buff
TP Special: Ragnarok (chance of instant death)

Beekeeper

Category: HEALER/FIGHTER
Role: Heal/Sustained Damage
Weapon: Dipstick, Sword, Shield
This is an old class idea I lifted directly from T&T (an old game idea of mine) and during the course of its development, we realized that the Beekeeper is essentially a Paladin - but with BEES.

Bee Swarm - attack all with chance for slip damage
Honey - heal ally
Hivemind - confusion skill
Hive Guard - counterattack mode
Beeswax Salve - status ailment heal
Royal Jelly - heal ally more
TP Special: Bee Dance (MP heal)

Guitaromancer

Category: MAGE
Role: Surge Damage/Crowd Control
Weapon: Guitars, Lyres, Lutes
Another class lifted from T&T. I am playing him as mostly a straight-up mage because I am uncreative. (Maybe once I get to his spin-off game I will really go hogwild with the gameplay systems!)

Light My Fire - fire
Ice Ice Baby - ice
Thunderstruck - lighting
Rock You Like A Hurricane - sonic
Toxic - poison
Auto-Tune - general stat boost (atk, magic, defense)
TP Special: Killer Riff (surprise damage all)

Gastromancer

Category: HEALER/SOLDIER
Role: Healing/Tanking
Weapon: Frying Pans
A variation on the Barkeep class from T&T, with a bit of alchemy thrown in. He is my least developed class at the moment, so bear with me. I intend to have him as the healer, but also have high defense and HP, but the skills I have for him aren't really jiving with that!

The Gastromancer will have two available specialties that you pick at the start: Gourmand (offense) and Gourmet (support). Both will have the Iron Chef skill (cover) and the Yerba Mate Tea (heal + status recovery), but the other four skills depend on the specialty chosen. Both specialties share the same

Tonic - heal ally
Ether - MP recover ally
Ailment Ale - status ailment heal
Witch's Brew - poison attack
Firepepper - fire attack
Energy Drink - stat boost

Iron Chef - cover allies with low HP
Yerba Mate - heal and status recovery

> Gourmand
Coq au Vin - target's critical rate up
Chillying Sea Bass - ice attack
Witch's Brew - poison attack
Shrimp Gumbo - mute

> Gourmet
Turtle Soup - target's mp cost reduced
Cherries Jubilee - attack and magic boost
Horiatiki Salata - agility boost
Soylent Green - regen HP

TP Special: Elixir (HP/MP recovery)

Pokerface

Category: ROGUE
Role: Support
Weapon: Blaster Pistol, Knife
Kind of my ninja/samurai class. Also underdeveloped at the moment.

Check - scan enemy
Raise - revive ally
Fold - hide from enemies/evade rate boost
Ante Up - Gil Toss like skill
Wild Card - random effect!
???/All In/Royal Flush - I don't know what to do with the 6th skill
Big Blind - blind enemies
TP Special: Liar's Dice (random damage based on number of "dice" earned in the round)

Mad Hatter

Category: HERO
Role: Depends!
Weapon: I don't know yet!
The idea behind this guy is that he can wear hats! And hats convey different abilities! And you can change hats!

> Tuque - ice skills
Ice
Iceall
Icemore
TP Special: Freeze - stun enemies

> Sombrero - fire skills
Fire
Fireall
Firemore
TP Special: Ignite - haste allies

> Zucchetto - healing skills
Heal
Healus
Healmore
TP Special: Prayer - MP heal

> Mitre - lightning skills
Lit
Litall
Litmore
TP Special: Thunderclap - mute enemies

> Beanie - ion/repair skills
Ion
Ionall
Repair Tech
TP Special: Flash - blind enemies

> Cowboy - physical skills
Quick Draw - fast attack but lower damage
Six-Shooter - attack x6 but weaker
Bushwack - heavy attack but slower
TP Special: Stampede - damage all

> Fedora - general elemental skills (weak)
Ice
Fire
Lit
Ion
Heal
TP Special: Antipode - all elements attack

> Top Hat - general elemental skills (strong)
Icemore
Firemore
Litmore
Ionmore
Healmore
TP Special: Dapper Strike - surprise attack

> Ass Hat - status effects
Poison
Stun
Confuse
Weaken
TP Special: Lucky Strike - critical attack

> Capotain - support/revive
Life
Reboot
Silence - mute
Ward - defense boost
TP Special: Pilgrimage - counterattack for party


Droid

Category: SOLDIER
Role: Depends!
Weapon: Blaster Pistol, Blaster Rifle
Initially, I was going to have two different droids - a utility droid (think R2-D2) and a combat droid (think HK-47) but instead I came up with the idea of mid-way through the classes growth, you could permanently apply a programming module: Medbot, Techbot, Warbot or Tankbot. Unlike the Mad Hatter, though, you can't switch out.

Diagnostics - self-repair
System Shock - lightning attack
Reboot - revive other robots
TP Special: Plasma - ion attack

> Medbot
Triage - heal all allies (humans)
Acute Care - heal ally a lot (humans)
Revive - revive to full health (human)
TP Special: Viral Injection - strong poison attack

> Techbot
Repair Tech - repair ally (droids)
Forcefield - reflect energy attacks
Barrier - status resistance + recovery
TP Special: Reset - reboot/repair to full health

> Warbot
Rapid Fire - attack x3 (ENERGY)
Flamethrower - fire skill enemies (FIRE)
System Shock 2 - stronger lighting attack (LIGHTNING)
TP Special: CRUSH! KILL! DESTROY! - heavy attack

> Tankbot
Tank - cover (like Cecil in FF4)
Synthweave - defense boost
Magneto - taunt enemies
TP Special: Refactor - repair and status heal self



So there you have it! My ideas so far. Please weigh in. Also, skills are definitely subject to change (and you can also see where they might not be well thought out!).

Remember, in this game you get 4 party members, and they can be of ANY class (even two of the same class).

UPDATE (Apr 9):
I further refined the skills for some of the classes, and added info on the elements and statuses.