Design vs. Capability

Nearing completion of the Myriad framework I naturally had to stop and review all of the current systems and see if I'm happy with how everything is. I don't think anyone would be surprised if I said I wasn't happy.

The truth is that I designed a tabletop system about a year before I started talking about 'The Myriad' that I was quite happy with. I went back and looked through the old files for it and realized I still like it more than what I currently have. The problem was knowing how to make the thing I designed rather than designing it. So, early on with The Myriad, I made a conscious decision to design something new from the ground up that I was actually capable of making. I went in a very different direction.

Naturally, as time went on working on this, my capability to work on it has drastically improved. There have been a mess of ideas that generally always started out as compromises or just following my capability as far as I could push the system in that direction. I think they call this learning? I'd never programmed anything before - so I definitely learned a lot. This is certainly why you should work on some small projects first before committing to a big one. However, I never even realized I was committing to a big one when I started goofing around with things as a hobby.

So, I wasn't happy when I looked over everything because I knew there were still several things which were compromises in design based on being incapable of doing what I knew I wanted. I designed numerous character creation / leveling processes and each one didn't feel right... because they weren't.

 I've been taking some time to what should really be done in the beginning of a project. Look at these things I thought were impossible and I could never do... and see if I can do them. I mean, I really did think they were actually impossible even with all that I've learned. I had a long conversation with Ashle a few days ago describing the difficult situation of exactly what I want to do and why it is completely impossible to do any of it - complete with detailed explanations of why they are totally impossible. I've been pretty stressed out about it lately. Since then, I've actually made a few of those things I declared impossible. Several of them have built up over time with the gradual growth of the system to just barely be in grasp -- one in particular which enables most of it really should be impossible, but I won't be complaining as long as my rubber-band contraption holds together. I really hope it does. Its not good when you can't explain why your code works.

I had to let a few things go, some things really are impossible. Or not feasible. But, this was the last chance to see how far the system can be pushed into the direction I want it to go (which is quite close to the old original design I avoided making due to not knowing how). 

I've lowered the scope of what is necessary for a 'release' and players to be able to make characters and start a campaign. I had anticipated making 7 classes (each with 3 signature abilities which drastically changed their playstyle) and a player could have access to 2 classes at once. Do the math, but that is a lot more choice than 5 players need. Now I plan to make one singular 'Novice' class that is polished as much as possible that all players will start with.  It still provides a lot of variance where no character should be the same and room to expand later into more specialized classes based on what the 'Novice' had selected.

A LOT has changed. Again. Basic stats like STR/DEX/INT are gone. Adrenaline is gone. It would be a lot to get into for this post (and I'd really just rather finish it first). Despite those massive changes, the reduced initial scope doesn't mean there is a significantly different amount of work to complete it all.  I should also be able to focus on it all a lot more very soon. Seriously, I really want to be able to move on and run a game already.

Here's a glimpse with some skill art done by me:

Abilities now have a bunch of linked modifications to that ability so they can be powered up and suited to your specific needs. The framework handles this with some of that new power described above, allowing any active ability (even the ones not made yet) to be easily modified by the system with one line of text. However, most modifications add +1 Cooldown time to the ability so you can't just stack all of your power in once place. Each choice also modifies your affinity with the cosmos, conveyed by the color of the icon. Your cosmic affinity replaces base Stats (str/dex) and helps introduce these concepts to players in a much more concise way.