Okay, so I've more or less got the profession system down. As of now there are 10 ranks for each profession, and with each rank you'll be able to purchase more skills from skill vendors. Each skill vendor will be unique and sell profession specific skills. For example, one vendor might only sell Blacksmith and Soldier skills to Evil aligned players. Another vendor might just sell Musician skills to Nature aligned players. It'll allow for vast variability and customization as to call the shop you define which skills the vendor is selling and how much he's selling each skill for. One vendor might sell a skill for 100 gold, while another vendor could sell it for 75 gold, depending on any number of variables, alignment, items, quests completed, etc. Anyway, here's a couple screens of the Skill Vendor menus.
As it stands now I may or may not implement actual levels for the player. Instead I think I might increase stats based on profession ranks and allow for better skills to be bought at higher ranks instead of automatically getting them at higher levels. There will be a heavy quest system in which I can include "Manipulation Points" so players can increase their manipulation skills.
Right now, there will be a character creation process at the beginning of the game where players will choose their initial profession, elemental affinity, character appearance, name, and which faction to begin at, and will go through a series of quests that will explain all the aspects of the game, a tutorial if you will, each starting location being a little different with pros and cons. After the initial quests though the player will be able to traverse freely through the world and a) follow a primary storyline quest, either aiding the fight against the Darkness, or aiding the Darkness in capturing the other colors; b) follow one of the 3 factions storylines in "conquering" the world; c) a multitude of professional/background story/other side quests.
Oh, and I'm working on a custom menu that will change a LOT based off of a lot of aspects of the game I still have not decided on (i.e. levels, stats, manipulation points, quests, etc.).
Anyway, here's the menu so far.
As you can see, right now I have the "Play" window, the Player info window, the alignment window and the profession window more or less done. Like i said before though, this is really just a framework for what's to come.
Alright, moving along to the manipulations.
I plan on giving the player ONE elemental skill to begin with (but eventually the player will have more, probably more than 3, less than 10)
The skill to begin with will be a direct damage skill essentially. The player will be able to morph the skill how he/she wants to, however, using "Manipulation Points" to increase aspects of the skills.
Some general aspects will include...
-Mana Cost
-Damage
-Range
-Cooldown
and each element will have specific aspects that can be increased, for instance fire manipulation might include
-AoE
-Burning State
while air manipulation might include
-projectile speed
-Knockback
Some feedback in regards to aspects of the manipulation skills that can be raised would be nice. Right now here's a list of things I'm looking at being able to manipulate.
-Damage
-Range
-Speed
-AoE
-States
-Mana Cost
-Skill Types (homing, line damage, etc)
-Sp damage
-HP absorb
-HP gain
-SP gain
-Cooldown
I'm also thinking that one of the skills you'll be able to manipulate will be a summon skill that the player defines completely as well, after starting with basic stats. Things that could be included in the manipulations for summons could be
-HP/Mana/General Stats
-Skills
-Movement speed
-Attacks
-Duration
-Max # of summons
-Status effects
-Immunities
-Mana Cost
Alright, well, theres a bit of an update for my gamification of ~DB~
Oh one more things, a bit on Alignment. The player's actions through the game will alter his alignments. For example, a player that runs around stealing things from everything and everyone in sight will probably veer to the Evil side. A player who avoids disrupting nature and takes on quests that help out the environment (i.e. going into the forest and killing the goblins who are trying to level the trees to make room for their new headquarters), will be Nature aligned. This will affect what skills you have access to and each alignment will probably have specific manipulation benefits. Someone aligned evilly might be able to drain HP from its opponents.
Okay, well, I think that's plenty of info to incite some discussion. Have at it, ask questions, critique me, do what you will. ^_^