Characters: stats, races, classes and abilities
How a character is built: fourteen stats to spend points on, a race for the body, a class for the abilities, and how an ability turns all of it into a hit.
The characters page lists what is in the game. This post explains how the pieces fit together: the stats you spend points on, what a race changes, what a class gives you, and how an ability turns all of it into a hit.
Stats
Every level from 2 to 100 gives you five points to spend, 495 over a character's life. They go into fourteen stats, and every one of them already does something in a fight. A point always costs one point, however much you already have, so a specialised build is a real option rather than a trap.
Contested stats compare you with whoever you are facing. Precision against Dodge decides whether a shot lands; Suppression against Disengage decides whether an enemy standing next to you can walk away. Only the ratio between the two sides counts, so an even match plays the same at level 1 and at level 100. Both sides also grow a little on their own every level, so nobody falls behind just by levelling.
Masteries make abilities hit harder: Melee, Ranged and Void for damage, Radiance for healing. An ability draws on exactly one of them. A void bolt crosses the arena, but it scales with Void, not Ranged: what makes it hurt is being a Voidwalker, not being a good shot. Area is added on top for an ability that hits more than one cell.
The rest are worth what they say: Vitality for health, Crit Chance and Crit Damage, Initiative for turn order, and Salvage, which raises the chance that crafting materials drop and nothing else.
Defence comes from gear. Resistances to the four damage types, Armor, and your action, movement and range points are not on the points sheet at all. Your build is offence and positioning, your equipment is defence, and putting on a corrosion-resistant vest before a fight is a choice you can undo. Spent points cannot be taken back yet; a way to reset them, at a cost, is planned.
Races
A race is a body. It changes what happens to you, and otherwise it is cosmetic. Each race has two strengths and one weakness, and all three come from the same fact about that body.
No race may touch a mastery, or your action, movement or range points. Those are what make a class strong, so a race that granted one would have a right class and make every other pairing a mistake. A race's bonus to a contested stat or to health is a percentage of what you already have, so it keeps its weight as you grow; the others are flat amounts, in the same units a spent point buys.
The Chromed are the first race in the game: augmented past the point of going back. Their targeting servos give +10% Precision and +10% Crit Damage, and the same servos are heavy and never quiet: −10% Dodge. More races are designed the same way, and will arrive as development continues.
Classes
A class determines the abilities you play with. Each one is built on a mastery and, usually, a damage type. Right now four are in the game, one for each mastery:
- Breaker: melee and kinetic. Stands where the line has to hold, with Cleave and Shield Bash.
- Longshot: ranged and kinetic. Holds the far end of the fight with Snap Shot, Aimed Shot and Airburst.
- Voidwalker: void. Throws a pinch of nothing with Void Bolt, and opens the seam to the other side with Rift Tear.
- Lumen: radiance. Keeps everyone else standing with Mend, and carries a Snap Shot for when nobody needs healing.
Today a class is mostly its list of abilities. Each one is meant to get a signature mechanic that no other class can copy. The current plans: the Breaker locks enemies in place around it, the Longshot banks action points for a reaction shot at the first enemy to step into view, the Voidwalker anchors rifts it can swap places with or pull enemies through, and the Lumen plants light on the ground that heals and shields whoever stands in it. More classes are designed as well.
Abilities
An ability is where all of this meets. Each one has a cost in action points, a reach in cells, and a share of your weapon's damage. Snap Shot costs 2 AP for 100% of the weapon's damage; Aimed Shot costs 4 for 180%, and reaches further than the weapon itself.
Precision against Dodge gives the chance to hit: 90% in an even match, never below 5% or above 95%, and lower when the target is behind cover. Some abilities set their own base chance, and a heal never misses. The damage then goes through the mastery, a critical roll, the target's resistance to the damage type, and last its Armor, a flat amount taken off every hit. That order gives the two defences different jobs: Armor is strong against many small hits and weak against one big one, and resistance is the reverse. Corrosive damage ignores Armor entirely.
Airburst is the first ability that hits an area: a five-cell cross up to 8 cells away, at 70% of the weapon's damage. That is low on purpose, because Area boosts it for every extra cell. It also does not ask who is standing there, so it hits your own side too.
Mend is the only heal. It cannot miss, it reaches 3 cells, and it scales with Radiance.
Every number here is a first pass and will move as the game is tested.