02-12-2017, 08:17 PM
So I've been playing a game lately. A grid based SRPG about summoner battles. And I felt SL2 could potentially benefit from taking notes. It's actually pretty well designed, except for the fact that the entire game is moe (which I am not into.) Still, I checked it out for the SRPG summoner battles and was decently impressed; the strategy is actually pretty deep. This game is called Moekuri, and is available on Steam.
Here are the basic rules of Moekuri:
- You can collect 151 (not even joking, there are 151 playable summons) summons but need to form them into a team of 6.
- You can have 5 summons out at once, and some summons count as more than one.
- You can only summon once per turn.
- Summoning is not immediate, but delayed based on the power of the summon. Some weaker ones may be instant, but some really strong ones could potentially take over 20 turns before appearing. This means everything is viable in it's own way; do you Zerg Rush, or do you bunker down for the long game?
- Summons are considered "dead" when their SP hits 0, and can use even an expensive skill on just a few points of SP, at the cost of dying for it. They can be dismissed to regen a bit of SP per turn, but cost the full time/ cost to be resummoned.
- Summons do not have an upkeep cost, but rather, varying initial costs to call in the first place. This is further balanced around summoning time and raw power; some strong yet delayed summons don't always cost a lot, and some above average summons that come out immediately can cost a lot, to compensate. For example, Zipacna, a powerful, 11 turn summon costs 7 SP, while Chronos, a teleporting and constantly reviving little shit with an instant summon costs 14 SP (which is a massive strain on the summoner who starts with 16 and regens 4 per turn, if Chronos keeps getting resummoned)
- The equivalent of "Installing" can only be done by Haruka, the Channeler. She will channel the first summon per battle that she's beside on the turn it appears. This grants her benefits similar to installing in SL2.
- The equivalent of "Sync Mind" can only be done by Touka, the Possessor. She removes herself from battle to directly merge with the summon and use it's stats and skills directly. She cannot summon on her own, but simply goes through her list, one summon at a time, possessing the next one when the first one dies.
So what do I feel could apply to SL2?
- Youkai are already unbalanced, with some being objectively more useful than others, and the delayed summon system could potentially be used to great effect. For example, imagine if the dragons got some really nice buffs, but took 5-6 turns to arrive on the battlefield. On the flip side, some of the generally less useful ones, like Jack o' Lantern, could remain an instant summon.
- We'd definitely see far more actual summoning if the upkeep costs were replaced with a higher cost for the initial summon, instead. If the Youkai themselves hit 0, they're gone, and Energy Transfer takes resources (Momentum and FP) away from the summoner itself.
- With each Youkai being a bigger deal, they can be given a wider variety of skills, ranging from Weak but cheap, to Expensive yet powerful.
- Adding a delay to installing would make it more of a calculated risk and less of a reflex (Like seeing wings of fire in PVE and installing firefox.)
- While I don't think such a drastic change to Sync Mind as in Moekuri is needed, I could definitely see Sync Mind being a 3M skill to tap into a youkai's power for your own, until released. This way, the summoner doesn't just get 12 youkai's worth of skills at once. Either that, or they're added to your skill pool and cost slots to equip.
Anyways, this is just a preliminary "thoughts?" post. I can go more in depth as to what changes I think make the most sense for each individual youkai, if needed.
Here are the basic rules of Moekuri:
- You can collect 151 (not even joking, there are 151 playable summons) summons but need to form them into a team of 6.
- You can have 5 summons out at once, and some summons count as more than one.
- You can only summon once per turn.
- Summoning is not immediate, but delayed based on the power of the summon. Some weaker ones may be instant, but some really strong ones could potentially take over 20 turns before appearing. This means everything is viable in it's own way; do you Zerg Rush, or do you bunker down for the long game?
- Summons are considered "dead" when their SP hits 0, and can use even an expensive skill on just a few points of SP, at the cost of dying for it. They can be dismissed to regen a bit of SP per turn, but cost the full time/ cost to be resummoned.
- Summons do not have an upkeep cost, but rather, varying initial costs to call in the first place. This is further balanced around summoning time and raw power; some strong yet delayed summons don't always cost a lot, and some above average summons that come out immediately can cost a lot, to compensate. For example, Zipacna, a powerful, 11 turn summon costs 7 SP, while Chronos, a teleporting and constantly reviving little shit with an instant summon costs 14 SP (which is a massive strain on the summoner who starts with 16 and regens 4 per turn, if Chronos keeps getting resummoned)
- The equivalent of "Installing" can only be done by Haruka, the Channeler. She will channel the first summon per battle that she's beside on the turn it appears. This grants her benefits similar to installing in SL2.
- The equivalent of "Sync Mind" can only be done by Touka, the Possessor. She removes herself from battle to directly merge with the summon and use it's stats and skills directly. She cannot summon on her own, but simply goes through her list, one summon at a time, possessing the next one when the first one dies.
So what do I feel could apply to SL2?
- Youkai are already unbalanced, with some being objectively more useful than others, and the delayed summon system could potentially be used to great effect. For example, imagine if the dragons got some really nice buffs, but took 5-6 turns to arrive on the battlefield. On the flip side, some of the generally less useful ones, like Jack o' Lantern, could remain an instant summon.
- We'd definitely see far more actual summoning if the upkeep costs were replaced with a higher cost for the initial summon, instead. If the Youkai themselves hit 0, they're gone, and Energy Transfer takes resources (Momentum and FP) away from the summoner itself.
- With each Youkai being a bigger deal, they can be given a wider variety of skills, ranging from Weak but cheap, to Expensive yet powerful.
- Adding a delay to installing would make it more of a calculated risk and less of a reflex (Like seeing wings of fire in PVE and installing firefox.)
- While I don't think such a drastic change to Sync Mind as in Moekuri is needed, I could definitely see Sync Mind being a 3M skill to tap into a youkai's power for your own, until released. This way, the summoner doesn't just get 12 youkai's worth of skills at once. Either that, or they're added to your skill pool and cost slots to equip.
Anyways, this is just a preliminary "thoughts?" post. I can go more in depth as to what changes I think make the most sense for each individual youkai, if needed.
*loud burp*
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