This week I will share the concepts and design of the combat system present in Fighters of Legend, as well as a peek into the story of the Saiyan race as presented in the game.

As far as art for the game is concerned, I feel I am making a good progress. The main icon-states have been finished and the bonus ones (such as stumbling back from a hard hit, fatigued, dazed, etc...) are all that's really left. If you weren't aware I had released a few snapshots of my punches landing on an opposing mob a few days ago [here] and I believe I just may be the first designer to actually have the punches connect with their target if they land.

Anyway there isn't much graphical about this update, so if you're not into the actual workings of the game here would be a good place to stop reading, if not I'll delve into the combat system's workings below:

Combat in FoL
(I.) Currencies

• As you know from my previous posts, the whole of the combat system revolves around cooldowns, KI and power spheres.
  I am still working out the min and max required for the system to work properly, but they are the basis of the system. Two types of power spheres are available, Chi Spheres and Fury Spheres.
  
  Chi Spheres: "Chi spheres will serve as a currency for the use of the majority of actions present in Fighters of Legend, whether it's throwing a strong jab or simply powering up your KI, a sphere is consumed. Once consumed it goes into a cooldown state for X amount of ticks before it becomes available again. If no chi sphere or fury sphere (see below) is available, then the action will be rejected".
  When a chi sphere is consumed the user's KI is raised (except for situations where KI is consumed).
  
  Fury Spheres: "When present, a fury sphere acts as an extra chi sphere with a possible bonus. If an action is held down and charged for X amount of ticks, a secondary action will be present along with the usual one, consuming the fury sphere until activated again.
  I.E: Holding down a 'power up' button could lead to an extra explosion of energy, repelling attacks within level range and possibly projecting surrounding attacker(s) a short distance.
  After a fury sphere is consumed it will go on a 30 second base cooldown period, before it can be activated again. These spheres are only activated in combat (or by another action) when certain situations occur such as: 25% chance on miss or you are critically hit."
  
  KI: "This has a base value of 0-100 (increased by certain mastery), initially KI is at 0, but through the consumption of power spheres, is raised progressively. This is the common currency for most KI attacks, as well as the consumption of a power sphere. Other abilities, mainly buffs, will rely on KI alone. Bigger abilities will generally cost more KI.".
  
  HP: "I'm fairly certain everyone knows what this one does."
  

(II.) Attributes

• Strength(STR): "Every 2 STR increases damage done per second (DPS) by 1 point."
  
  Speed(SPD): "Every X amount of speed reduces global cooldown by 1/10th of a second for auto-actions and 1/20th of a second for other actions. This also may increase the 'level of speed' calculated for your player. There are 20 levels of speed that are defined by comparing SPD to a mob's level. Every level of speed increases vanishing by 1, and increases movement in Swift Stance by 1%. This also increases dodge rating by 1 point for every X amount of SPD.".
  
  Body: "This stat handles your over-all damage resistance(DR), The basic amount of DR received from body is compared to the current level of the mob. Generally every point in body increases DR by %5 divided by your current level.
  So at level 10, if your body is at 100, your DR is at 50%. Past 50% the required body doubles, and DR caps out at 80%. This also increases block rating by 1 point for every X amount of body.".
  
  Stamina(STA): "Each point in STA increases max HP by 10, and HP regen out of battle by 2 every 15 seconds".
  
  Mind: "Increases KI bonus damage by +2 points for every point in Mind and may increase KI gain from each Chi sphere consumed".
  
  Focus: "Each point increases hit chance by 10% divided by level, and increases critical chance by 3% divided by level".
  
  Level: There are initially 60 levels upon game release (which I will consider unfinished), but at the end of the story I have written the levels should cap out around 100, getting progressively harder to raise each time. The key factor in raising level is BP (Battle Prowess) which is raised through finishing quests and winning battles with Non PC mobs.
  
  Powerlevel: This will be present, but not a key factor of actual combat. It'll be more of an individual rating than a benefit.
  

(III.) How it works...

• Referring to the snapshot posted above, you will notice the 4 stances at the bottom left of the screen, and the 10 faded boxes on the right of the arrow. These will be the primary location for all of your actions in combat.
  
  (A) Stances: "There are 4 types of stances: Offensive, Balanced, Defensive and Swift. Initially players start with only the Balanced stance, then acquire the others through the game's progression."
  
  
  • Balanced Stance: "This is a basic rounded combat stance, you are as prone to landing an attack as you are to receiving one. Both auto-attack and auto-defend are present here".
    
    
  • Offensive Stance: "This is the secondary stance you learn. In this stance you sacrifice defense for an all out offense. You also lose the ability to auto-defend in this stance"
    
    
  • Defensive Stance: "This is the third stance you learn. In this stance you sacrifice offense for a turtle-like defense. You also lose the ability to auto-attack in this stance"
    
    
  • Swift Stance: "This is the last stance you learn. Mainly for travel, you lose all abilities to auto-attack and auto-defend, but you move up to 2/3 faster as you normally would on land."
  
  
  
• (B) The actions on the right however are customizable from your skills tab . The system uses drag-and-drop to place and organize your action bar, but skills may also be accessed by clicking on them in said tab (C).
  
  Some items may be used during combat, and can be dragged and set into the on-hand portion of your interface. These are activated by clicking on them (whether they're drinks to replenish a stat or some sort of gizmo). Only one item may be used every 10 seconds.
  
  
• Styles: "Each race has their own individual style upon creation, and they keep that style throughout the game. Although very similar to each other, these initial styles have some racial variants noticed through certain skills and mastery options. Aside from this initial style a player may learn both a primary and a secondary style, which are changeable by way of Zenni from these trainers.
  
  The player's primary style will give him/her access to the entire level range of skills and mastery options provided, the secondary style however, will only allow the player to progress half-way through.
  
  At the end players will wind up with their basic style and skills, their chosen primary and their chosen secondary. Some styles will only be available to certain alignments (Good vs Evil), but both alignments will generally have the same options available. Other styles will not be available until the player achieves the requirements necessary. In all I hope to wind up with at least 8 different primary and secondary styles, which should provide a handful of variations to gameplay, without any of them being better than the others in an unfair sense."
  
  
• Mastery: "Similar to how other games design 'Talents', this will be another way of allowing players to customize their characters with various options left open to them. Every 2 levels a player will achieve 1 mastery point, which can be placed in one of three trees (Race tree, Primary Style tree, Secondary Style tree) unsheathing bonus abilities and attributes."
  
  
• PvP and Rewards: "Player Vs Player will be present in certain situations, and can be activated by the players themselves after level 20. Grappling is one form of PvP that does not result in a possible death, and has no rewards other than a possible medal. There are two types of PvP: Good vs. Evil and Free for All.
  
  Good vs. Evil: "This is your average form of PvP, where you are allowed to attack only those of the opposing alignment if they are flagged for pvp. Killing an opposing player in level range of you will result in 1-5 Reputation points. There is no penalty for killing lower levels since PvP will be completely optional in most situations."
  
  Free for All: "Although there will be opposing Alignments, players may still group with members of those opposing them (since I won't have thousands of people per server) in order to pursue multiplayer objectives. While in a group you are not permitted to attack your allys, but you then become flagged as Free for All, meaning anyone of any alignment may attack your group, and you may still only initiate combat with the opposing faction yourself, but may join in once your allys are assaulted. (Lower reputation points will be rewarded)" - Groups cannot be larger than 3 players in FoL.
  
  Reputation Points: "These serve as a currency for PvP rewards, such as gear, items and titles."
  
  Death Handling: Tired of running snakeway every 10 minutes? "When a player is finished their spirit is removed and located to the nearest anchor point. At this point you have the choice of either running back to your body and regaining consciousness (facing a few minutes of reduced stats), or you have the option of the Afterlife. The Afterlife will serve as alternative leveling zones for level 25-40 and 50-60(later 70), and will only become available after the completion of a long quest line that becomes available at level 20. When in the afterlife you are able to join the living world once again by choice at any given time. Death is not strict, because I do not feel it would make a good game."
  

(IV.) Other Definitions

• Global Cooldown: "The amount of time (in seconds) between attacks. The base value of this is 3 seconds for auto-actions and 1.5 seconds for skills."
  
  
• Auto-Attack: "After the global cooldown, if the target is in range the mob will attack for 20-40% of their total DPS x Global Cooldown. This does not consume any power spheres and the success rate is based on hit rating."
  
  
• Auto-Defend: "After the global cooldown, the player will attempt to block/deflect the next incoming auto-attack. The success rate of this is based on dodge and block rating."
  

And that covers the basis of the combat system in FoL. Any questions may be asked here or better organized in my [BYOND Forum] and if I feel I missed anything I will post more information either in an edit or a comment.

Note: I know that technically Chi and KI are the same thing, but I named them separately to avoid possible confusion.

[!]Now, if you're not sick of reading my garble, I'll like to speculate a little on the story that revolves around the Saiyan race and their existence in FoL below.

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THE SAIYAN RACE:

The background for the Saiyans is one possible result I could come up with for their continued existence, without having every player being some sort of inbred link to Goku or Vegeta's offspring.

• "Prior to the destruction of the planet Vegeta at the hand of Freeza, a handful of Saiyans were on a secret mission for King Vegeta to find a distant location to call their new home, in preparation for the worst. After learning of their planet's fate, and a long journey to find any survivors without crossing paths with the tyrant, they continued their mission in hopes of rebuilding their race.
  
  Shortly after they inhabited a small desert planet as a recon base, and with some help from the technology provided a few renegade Arcosians they managed to slowly rebuild their race. Many centuries later, during a scout mission to find a planet similar to the planet Plant, they are attacked above the uncharted storm planet of Hebrawn by a sinister looking military ship and are forced into a crash landing... This is where the story begins."
  
  <3 Ken