A piece of concept art from my game, Tensai

Posted by melee-master on Oct. 23, 2011, 3:03 a.m.

That is Guiredaro, the flaming bear and in the Tensai universe, one of the 14 signs of the Zodiac. Zodiac signs come into play with the Zodiac move and give stat boosts/cuts. He's also one of the many creatures available for players to use in battle.

I haven't got around to asking the designer to write up a summary of Tensai (he's been busy), so here's a little bit from our design document that explains the two RPS systems used in our game.

"Tensai relies on two Rock Paper Scissors systems layered over one another. One of the systems governs the actual typing of the creatures themselves, while the other classifies the attacks they use in battle. These are the Elemental system and the Action system, respectively.

The Elemental System

The basic system, the Elemental System, follows this diagram (rock is the brown orb at the top):

Rock > Fire > Metal > Ice > Wood > Air > Water

Each element is effective against the three that follow it and weak against the three that precede it on the wheel. For example: fire melts metal and ice and burns wood, but is resisted by fire, quenched by water, and blown out by air.

Most creatures will be classified under one of the elements, although some will be non-elemental and have no defensive weaknesses (or bonuses, for that matter) based off their type.

Although there may be exceptions to the elemental rules in specific cases (to be explained later, under both Attacks and Passives) generally, an effective element will deal double damage, and a weak element will deal half damage.

The Action System

In order to prevent players from simply using creatures that are elementally typed to be advantageous against their opponent (or to create creature swap cycles where players continue to swap in different creatures until they are no longer susceptible to their opponent), Tensai also features a second RPS system that will allow susceptible elementals to potentially counter their opponent. This is the Action System, and will follow the following diagram (that I don't have right now):

Ranged > Magical > Aerial > Defensive > Melee

In this diagram, each item on the wheel is effective against the two that follow it and weak to the two that precede it, similar to the elemental system. However, those that are connected by the thicker red line are SPECIALLY effective. Every attack in a standard battle is classified under one of the five categories above. In the case that an Ice elemental was facing a Fire elemental, the Ice elemental would have to rely on prediction of the Fire-type's move in order to survive.

For example, in the above diagram, Aerial attacks are Specially Effective against Melee attacks. This means that, if a Melee attack were used by the Fire-type, while an Aerial attack were used by the Ice-type, the Fire-type would have its attack completely negated, while the Ice type did bonus damage (although this bonus would be mitigated by the elemental defenses of the Fire-type). However, if the Fire type properly predicted the Ice-type would use an Aerial attack, and instead countered by using a Ranged or Magical attack, the Fire type would deal bonus damage for both the Action chosen and for the Elemental bonus, dealing an extraordinary amount of damage and probably defeating the Ice type."

Comments

Alert Games 13 years ago

looks awesome. and hes a fire breather, doesnt need more teeth… maybe

Rez 13 years ago

@Sir Xemic: Why can't you just appreciate the art?

Toast 13 years ago

@Xemic Yeah, when I saw a fur-covered mammal spontaneously producing molten lava off its back, the most preposterous thing I observed was that it had two teeth. That's just ridiculous.

sirxemic 13 years ago

Quote:
@Sir Xemic: Why can't you just appreciate the art?
I never stated I didn't.

I said it that way because then my comment would be more noticeable…

Besides, I was giving constructive feedback. Why can't you appreciate people giving feedback? I am so tired of people who keep saying like "looks good" and don't give feedback. That only gives a good feeling but is not very useful. I rather be useful.

And to make myself clear: I do like the bear and I also think it's very good, but I saw room for improvements, hence I mentioned that room.

Rez 13 years ago

Quote:
I never stated I didn't.

You never stated you did either, I saw that you didn't and your comment had room for improvements, so I mentioned that room. I think constructive feedback is very useful and I'm not saying you have to state you like something before you mention it's draw backs, but I think it's bullshit to overstate that comment as "useful".

sirxemic 13 years ago

I would have liked that comment if that ricochet of my own comment actually made sense.

Rez 13 years ago

It wasn't supposed to, I was poking fun. Thanks for the constructive criticism though, I'll take it into consideration next time.

sirxemic 13 years ago

Your avatar has some strange effect on me in this conversation.

Rez 13 years ago

Rightly so, it's pretty weird (then again, 64D has seen stranger).

Taizen Chisou 13 years ago

I am looking forward to seeing where you take this system, it sounds really cool :>