This stuff is all in the early stages, so it may or may not ever get finished. Also sorry for the really long post.
I might of talked to some of you about my idea for a server Well I've started working on sprites for skills, of which I have weapon skills and elemental spells worked out. Someday I'll actually start work on a tileset, and I'll probably use Gonstruct. I will not be paying for a server until I get a good chunk of the stuff done that I can offline.
For those of you not in the know, Arca will be a PVP based action RPG server in which you kill others to level. There will be a central hub where you can set up or join existing rooms to duke it out with your fellow Graal players. There will be different settings, locations, and modes for people to mess around with and a couple of open rooms where you can go and PK to your hearts content. I hope to add some PVE content as well with a central starting area (possibly a tavern?) in which you can party up with others and go questing.
The overworld GMAP itself will be limited to the city and the surrounding area, as a full blown overworld never really gets used and eats up a lot of development time.
Now to the good parts:Class and Skill system.
I've always liked the idea of customization for a character, with a large number of options and tactics to choose from to go into one's arsenal. So it got me thinking how that could be achieved. Each character will get several "slots" with which to place "skill sets." There's a slot for whatever weapon you happen to have equipped and then the other slots are for putting elemental magic sets and "class sets." Class sets are comprised of 30 different classes who each focus on something different. For example the Knight set has a collection of defensive moves for use with a shield, the Samurai's attacks cause a variety of status effects, and the Geomancer's attack skill changes based on the terrain it's on and can enhance elemental attacks. While in town you can freely swap these out as well as alter your stats, so if you feel like a change, all it takes is some clicking and you can completely rework your character to suit your tastes. There will however be a limit to the number of skills you can place on your hotbar, to encourage some planning.
Skills will be click to aim, there will be very few (if any) auto hit skills. Each skill/spell has a level, currently limited to 1 and 2. After you gain the initial skill you may upgrade it to a level 2 version in some fashion I haven't decided on yet. Sometimes this increases it's effect, other times it unlocks a completely secondary spell that you "charge" past the cast time by continuing to hold down the mouse button. For example the fire skill "Flame Thrower" allows you to throw out a line of fire to burn foes, the charged version of this skill is "Fire Wall" in which you use your Flame Thrower to burn a line of fire in front of yourself discouraging enemies from walking through that area.
As a bonus, here's an animation test for the first skill I'm working on called "Cross Cut"
So, ideas? Comments? Suggestions?
Also, if you'd like to help I'd gladly take what you can offer.