They are going to update it, there will be no sonny 3, but there will be a new Sinjid. The game will just be called ‘sinjid’
So, I was thinking about what to do with the next Sinjid… The SotW engine was outdated, and SotW had really pushed it to the limit, making a new game with the same engine would just mean (on the gameplay level) a bigger world to explore, new item skins, and different numbers during a fight.
It doesn’t seem like a good idea to sink time into making the same game, with just different maps and items. So I emailed my old friend Erik asking him about Flash multi player programming, and he said he’d love to work with me on the game, and his friend too (who can program pro Flash multi user applications). So now we have a new team with the capability to develop a Flash MMORPG. But we would have to start the project from scratch to make it efficient and compatible. No problem, let’s make some blue prints.
Now we’re still at the planning stage (the plan must be perfect, because once a system as complicated as this is being built, making changes during the creation process will be very hard), so I’d like to share some of the design notes here and toss around ideas with the most important people to this project: the players.
Now the focus of this game will be group-play. Character customization and stat building and all that… it’s so easy to integrate into a Flash game that it’s not even special anymore. Anyone and their dog can make a good single player RPG Flash these days where you ‘build’ your character. (See: Adventure Quest, Dragon Fable, MARDEK).
When I made Sinjid, there wasn’t really anything similar (AQ was out but was horrible at that time), we were moving forward with Flash. But now that everyone else is moving forward too, I want to move upwards. So the focus of this project is to balance it around multi-play, and especially PvP.
DESIGN NOTES!
Classes
So far, the game will have 5 classes (maybe not on release, but class balance is designed with all 5 classes in mind. It is near impossible to introduce new classes and balance them when the design is already set in concrete).
The classes are:
Dreadnought: Typical ‘warrior’ class. Depends on brute strength and damage to down his enemies. Will typically have higher HP than all the other classes.
Phantom: ‘Ninja’ class… This is what Sinjid would be. Also a melee centered class, more fragile, but faster than the Dreadnought. His poisons, equipment and techniques are the basis of his strength. He can offer light healing support once in a while, with his bandages and herbs.
Enigma: Caster class: uses Shadow spells. The Enigma is the master of light, time, and space. His attacks are well controlled and deadly, but not always direct and sudden. He also has support healing abilities.
Templar (Name may change): Hybrid melee/caster. A reactionary class, his strength comes from the manipulation of battle. The Templar is tough, and has arrays of group support spells and heals, as well as powerful burst damage spells.
Phaser: Caster class: has 3 forms. Ice, Fire, and normal. Shifting forms allow him to use different spells. His fire spells are deadly. His ice spells give him more control of the fight, and in normal form, he has utility spells that can recharge his energy, power up allies, or lock down his enemies.
Combat Interface:
I wanted to make a UI for the combat elegant and simple, yet giving the player smooth control of the fight. In a 3v3 fight you would have 6 enemies. To make a move you first select your target. Targets are classified as either “Self”, “Friendly”, or “Hostile.” once you click him, a circle of 8 buttons will form around the target, will the abilities that you can use on that specific target. It will make targeting, and choosing a move much easier in big fights, and also saves space on the screen.
Your combat panel can only have 8 abilities on it. Each class will have about 15-16 moves in their spell pool, but you can only ‘equip’ 8 spells. This is so there is some strategy to your combat style: To have strength in one thing will mean you have to be weak in something else. If you can be strong in everything, then PvP would die pretty quickly.
The concept of the Mana pool has been scrapped. Instead, there is a ‘focus’ pool, and it is percentage based. The point of this is to reduce the reliance on stats as much as possible. Fights should not be primarily determined by level, or items, or luck: I want it to be based more around a rock, scissors, paper element and control of the class.
The solo-play, and the co-operative vs computer aspect will still be based on gear though, it makes sense like that, and better items will make big differences in PvE.
More to come later. Add suggestions, and ideas.. This is the only time where anything is possible!
-Krin
