Parley Hatch
2abfe4abd1
Working title 'tgame' is provisional. Top-level samples/ and docs/samples/ are gitignored; visual/art pipeline lives outside this repo.
2.9 KiB
2.9 KiB
Roster
The minions you hire are persistent named characters, not fungible workers. This is one of the most important design choices — it's where the game gets its heart.
Identity
- Named characters with portraits, traits, backstory blurbs.
- Roster cap of ~10–30 (raises with Guild Rank).
- Killable / loseable in the worst case (see expeditions).
- You grow attached. That's the point.
Classes (working set)
- Gatherer — herbalist, miner, hunter, fisher subspecialties; biome-specific yield.
- Soldier — escorts gatherers into hostile zones; defends the guild hall in raid events.
- Engineer — operates workshops; subspecialties: smith, alchemist, weaver, jeweler, etc. Each unlocks/upgrades a station type.
- Merchant — boosts sale prices, unlocks distant markets, runs caravans.
- Scholar / Cartographer — generates recipe hints, scouts new zones, deciphers relics.
- Beastmaster — tames creatures from expeditions for unique materials and companion bonuses.
Subspecialties unlock at level milestones. Classes are fixed at hire; subspecs branch later.
Traits
Rolled at hire. Modify outcomes across systems. Examples:
- Greedy (better loot rolls, occasional pocketing)
- Brave (resists fear/morale events, lower retreat chance)
- Lucky (chance to upgrade craft quality band when assisting)
- Devout (better at enchanting, immune to corruption)
- Ill-tempered (rivalry chance, refuses to team with certain trait combos)
- Drunk (random; may sleep through an event, may roll a critical, narratively rich)
Trait pool gets richer as you go. Some traits are gained or lost via expedition events.
Paper-doll portraits
Layered sprite composition (no runtime AI):
- Base character art in a fixed pose/perspective.
- Gear pieces (helmets, chestpieces, weapons, cloaks, accessories) are transparent overlay sprites in the same pose.
- Engine composes them at runtime:
base + helmet + chest + weapon + .... - Hire-time variety from layered face/hair/skin/costume sprites combined combinatorically — small library, lots of unique-looking applicants.
Trade-off: characters live in a fixed pose. Standard 2D RPG constraint, fine.
Relationships (Nemesis-style texture)
Emerge from shared expeditions:
- Bonds — combat/teamwork bonuses for paired minions.
- Rivalries — extra negative event chance when forced together.
- Mentorships — XP transfer; senior minions train juniors.
- Grudges — refuse to team after a betrayal event.
Open question: how mechanically deep should this go? Could be flavor only, or could become a real meta-game.
Hiring
- Daily refreshed applicant pool at the Guild Hall.
- Pool quality scales with Guild Rank reputation.
- Each applicant: portrait + name + class + traits + one-line backstory (all from authored pools, combinatorial).
- Hiring costs gold; firing costs a bit of reputation; resignations happen if morale tanks.