[WIP] Combat Evolved Mod

Modding
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Hey guys, now that stonehearth has reached its 1.0 version I have decided to bring back some of my previous work with a little changes.

I plan to adjust existing and add new combat classes to Stonehearth, I currently have planned out 6 new combat classes in total, with minor adjustments to the current existing classes.

The basics of my mod revolves around changing the current combat classes into a two base class setup.

The two “tier-one” classes would be:
Footman-relatively unchanged from the current implementation of Footman. Mainly focuses on moderate damage while utilizing ‘medium-armor’ and 2h weapons or one-handed+shield.

Scout-Scout would be a new class that takes things from the Ranger and a bit from the Footmand and makes it into one. Scouts would be utilizing a new variant of ‘light armor’ along with a dagger or a bow that would be entirely added for the mod.

My idea for tier two classes would be essentially two options for each class to upgrade into.
The footman would be able to upgrade into:
Knight-once again relatively unchanged from the current version of it in game. even promoting from Footmen still. They would be the first class that would be able to use Heavy Armor along with a sword+shield.

Soldier(name pending)- Would be an extension from the other option of weapon the Footman can use. Where it would focus primarily on two-handed weapons and more on the damage side. They would also continue to use “Medium Armor” that the footman uses.

The Scout would be able to upgrade into:
Archer-once again similar to stonehearth’s archer, although the Scout would also be able to hunt if you are playing NA. The archer would further the Scout’s knowledge of archery as it makes more sense for them to branch off of a scout and not a footman.

Rogue- The Rouge would much like the archer, further that Scout’s knowledge. Instead the Rogue would further their experience in using a dagger. The Rogue would be a ‘Light armor’ using class like the Scout/Archer but would be the first entirely close ranged light armored class.

I do plan on making another set of classes after each of these as “tier 3” classes. But I will wait until I implement my current setup.

Another question you are probably thinking “Well… if a scout can use a bow AND a dagger how can i specifically tell him which I want him using?”

This is either going to be another mod or an inclusion in this Mod, I made a mod on A22 that was more for my personal use but allowed you to specify “preferred” equipment you want your hearthlings to use. Essentially opening the doors for endless customization allowing you to dress your hearthlings up in pretty costumes. Since this has many uses outside of the Combat Evolved Mod I will probably release it as a second mod as to not REQUIRE people to use combat evolved if they wanna play with fashion.

If you have any questions or possible suggestions for the Tier 3 classes feel free to let me reply. I have a pretty good idea of what I want for them but I am always looking for better ideas.

Also @Olat and I are currently the only ones working on this mod, we could always use someone with experience in animating and/or 2d art to help with a few details. although any and all help is welcome! :slight_smile:

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sets up a tent to wait

…

notes “2d art to help with a few details” and wonders if it’s within her talents… :thinking:

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Mostly making the icons for the classes planned. I’m like… really bad at 2d art.

Voxel modeling is definitely something we could use help with, especially if we’re gonna make multiple weapons for these classes.

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Do you have any more plans on what the rogue should be able to do? I mean, if someone chooses to step into combat with light armor and dagger instead of medium armor and sword then I would assume it’s because the medium armor and sword gets in the way of other things they want to do (even if it’s not things they do in combat). Do they use poison? Can they do precision attacks that cripples the enemy? Can they use stealth?

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We’ve tossed around a couple ideas from stealth to pickpocketing where they’d have a chance on hit to gain coins while attacking humanoid enemies.

They will likely have the beginnings of poison abilities with both of it’s tier 3 job advancements furthering the concept of poison. Idk if you’ve seen my Assassin mod I worked on previously, but essentially the Rogue would be a less op version of it. Assassin is one of the tier 3 advancements currently in mind for the Rogue essentially taking some of the ideas from my old mod and improving upon it.

My goals overall are:

  • Give players more choices when it comes to defending their kingdom
  • Have each hearthling have a bigger impact rather than spam out 7 archers.
  • Make an enjoyable experience playing with the mod
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These would all be super amazing!!

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Do scouts have a special ability as well, such as faster movement speed or further range of sight?

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Giving a class more speed is often a difficult thing to balance… I typically find First Responder on Footmen especially get them killed more than anything. Since they run head first into the enemy before your cleric or knight can catch up.

I am currently working out the kinks in the Scout that would benefit using a bow or a dagger.

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Current design for what we intend to have in the mod.

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The Great Knight will be very similar to the Great Knight Mod I was working on a while back.

The Assassin will also be similar to the Assassin Mod I was working on a while back. As will the Berserker

Current Goals for each job:
Sniper-Improve upon the Archer’s damage without making them too “OP”. Adds features like occasional “Head Shots” that would essentially do 2x damage/

Marksman- The Marksman would trade off the speed of the bow with the power and utility of a crossbow. Possible attacks including “Pin Shot” to lock an enemy in place for a short period of time.

Assassin- The Assassin would fill a roll of maximum damage. With little defenses if your Assassin gets focused he’ll surely die. The trade-off? Poison, Back-stabs and Stealthy moves.

Trickster-The Trickster is my personal favorite and probably the biggest pain to create. The Trickster will essentially be a moderate damage, support class. Providing many status ailments on enemies with its ultimate move being Polymorph.

Paladin-The Paladin will be your maximum tank. With light heals to them self and allies they can tank mostly anything.

Great Knight-The Great Knight will trade off the tankiness that you’d get from a Paladin for big area damage. With each cleave from its Great Sword it’ll hit multiple foes.

Gladiator- The Gladiator will be a fast moving, hard hitting warrior who can take a few hits too. With its spear and shield in hand they are ready to take on anything.

Berserker-The Berserker is going to be a tough class to get ‘just right’. With little to defend itself other than the armor on its back the Berserker will go in a blind fury against its foes. Hitting harder as it fights and gaining back life slowly by satiating its bloodlust.

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I like this idea, but I do see one potential hang-up: given that each level in any job makes future levels harder to obtain, it’s going to take a really long time for some hearthlings (i.e. your typical high Body, medium-high Spirit, low Mind as a trade-off “ideal soldier” type) to reach tier 3 classes.

This may actually be a good thing rather than bad, since it allows more of a sense of progression/“legendary status.” It may also encourage players to use hearthlings with a more balanced stat-line in their armies, rather than min/maxing, since the higher Mind stat will mean faster level-ups and the reduced health from a lower Body stat wouldn’t matter as much for high-level classes.

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I mean, in my experience if you get hearth of glory or whatever it is that allows you to summon enemies. You can grind up a brand new soldier from footman to level 6 knight REAL fast.

I’ll probably make tier one lvl 3 req for tier two, and tier 2 lvl 5 req for tier three. As to not make you get totally 6 in 2 previous jobs to get to tier 3.

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So question, is this just a added class combat mod? Or will you guys be trying to implement any combat changes? I think I can speak for everyone when I say we need an Archer on top of a building fix where your archers can actually fire on top of your walls. Maybe something that recognizes that your archer is on a height increase than their target giving them extra range. Idk, just a suggestion :slight_smile:

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Well, I don’t want to get too ahead of myself but, I have many broad plans for what comes next.

I guess you could call “Combat Evolved” phase 1 of the 4 phase plan all centered around combat.

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I had someone ask me to make a Paladin in my mod, nice to see I may not have to. Once it’s working I could simply say within my mod to use your Paladin as the role in which I had planned. Excited to see how this turns out.

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There was once upon a time a Crusader Class Mod I don’t know if @Relyss ever finished it. But it functioned very close to how a Paladin would. Hope doesn’t seem like I’m ‘replacing’ her Crusader. :fearful:

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Actually if you followed the existing standard, they’d only need to get to level 2 in order to unlock the next job. And you’re right, with any of various “grinding”/level-boosting methods, it’s actually quite quick to get a rookie up to max level – with the Hearth of Cheer, I’ve had completely untrained footmen hit level 6 within a single fight thanks to the experience boost daily random buff + high-level enemies.

I’m thinking with regards to un-boosted progression though; I expect many players who like to play on hard mode would love this mod since it gives a lot more combat gameplay. However, with the extra soldiers required in hard mode and the consequent XP sharing, it could hurt the overall progression rate. Particularly in the early game, I imagine it might be frustrating to be stuck with 3-4 footmen because 1-2 knights/soldiers aren’t enough.

With that said, if ACE get the training dummy out into players’ hands fairly soon, the early-game won’t matter anymore since there will be an easy way to train soldiers. There’s also the Professor trait, and of course players could send specific soldiers to raid enemy camps in order to level them up (e.g. pick one hearthling to power-level to a Paladin and keep sending them in a party with maybe some clerics, while keeping everyone else back at town as a defence force.) So it may well not turn out to be a problem.

There is one other case, which I’d say is probably the opposite problem with the same result – if you get a hearthling into the second tier, but can’t make the equipment yet to promote them (I presume it’s a fairly high-level craft, in line with the late-game class), they might get “stuck” and level further in their tier 2 class than the player intends. This has its benefits (extra health, more useful skills while waiting to promote); it just means that once they do reach their goal class they’ll spend longer at the low levels and thus might not get access as quickly to the important skills that the player is relying on. Although this can easily be solved by making sure that the “class feature” skills unlock at the first level, and the later skills are merely enhancements/increases; rather than following the vanilla model of unlocking new skills at higher levels.

I’d say that if you keep the level requirement to 2 or 3, in line with the vanilla game, then it shouldn’t cause drama for players wanting to rush to the top-tier classes. If players want to keep their soldiers in each tier until max level for the extra HP, then that’s a choice and it comes with a consequence; if they want to rush to a higher tier then that comes with its own consequences and requirements (i.e. they need to be able to support high–level crafting in order to pull that off.)

Ultimately I think everything will work out fine and I’m over-thinking the whole progression question hahaha. I’m just chewing over some “food for thought” in the hope it helps you nail down the feel and balance you’re looking for :merry:

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Militia? Warrior? Guard?
Monk? (D&D style)
Ranger? (Babylon 5 style) (Fiiiine… Anla-shok )

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I do want the tier 3 to be an enhancement upon the tier 2. Possibly having some skills in tier 2 carry over to tier 3. Since tier 1 is you “testing the waters” deciding if you want Johnny Forester to use a dagger or a bow. Tier 2 is more locking down the playstyle for that hearthling. And tier 3 is adding another trait to the currently existing role that job fills.

I think maybe 3/6 of the job abilities will carry over into tier 3. Possibly even the level 6 ability. Thus giving your first few tier 3 guys that were stuck at tier 2 for a while some benefits. Where rushing a new guy to tier 3 without fully leveling tier 2 wouldn’t be as strong. The the weapons to unlock them would be very late game. Such as the marksman using the cross bow would need gears from the engineer, string from the Weaver and be crafted by the carpenter. But it’s better weapons would be crafted by the blacksmith swapping the wooden stocks out for metal. The trickster and paladin might require potions made by the herbalist along with another crafter actually crafting their weapon.

If you want to deal damage both gladiator and berserker fill that role, thus why you’d go down the soldier route. Gladiator provides more damage than the soldier but is still relatively safe. Berserker on the other hand is higher risk with high reward. If you want massive damage both assassin and trickster will get you that. How they impact the fight is just through different means. The assassin is pure damage where the trickster using utility allows you to kill enemies without taking too much damage in return.

Warrior was an idea but it sounds really basic. As does guard, and soldier. Monk doesn’t really fit the theme with the current class. And ranger sounds more for the ranged tree. :confused:

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This is another issue I hope to address. My goals overall are to raise the impact each military unit brings to the town. If I had to throw out numbers they’d be something like this:
Easy Mode takes 4-5 tier 3 hearthlings to beat the game if you’re smart about it.
Hard Mode takes about 8-9 hearthlings.
??? Mode takes about 13-14.

Since I personally hate trying to progress through the game but having to wait till my 34th hearthling to finally get that Potter because I’ve had to devote hearthlings to military irritates me. Ideally I’d like the player to have every crafter other than geomancer by the time they start the red kiln. The process of promoting your cleric to herbalist for a moment to make potions you need for some recipe to me feels wrong. You should want to keep an herbalist on hand.

If everything goes well I want the game to feel almost too easy with these new classes. That way our next mod for phase 2 is the perfect challenge for you combat junkies. :merry:

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grabs next list of suggestions

Guerrilla? Mercenary? Infantry? Champion? Hero? Warlord? Gladiator? Person-at-arms?

(Also, eh on the ranger comment, but that’s probably true for more typical players)