The Attributes
Elemental Forums
These are suggested attributes for units, champions and creatures:
Strength = The strength of a unit determines how much damage the unit can do in addition to the type of weapon being used. This also determines if the unit can break free from physical bonds such as tangling vines or a giants grasp or a spiders web.
Size = Ideally the size should play the largest factor in determining the hitpoints for a unit. The most simple way to measure size would be judging the unit as if it were rolled into a ball since an 8_foot snake would still overall be smaller than a human where as an 8_foot troll would be larger than a human. Larger units are also easier to strike with ranged attacks.
Intelligence = Intelligence helps resisting many types of spells such as illusions since an intelligent individual would be able to identify flaws within the illusions convincing thier mind it's not real. This skill also helps mages cast their spells more effectively.
Wisdom = Wisdom determines how clever and focused a unit can become during tough decisions and moments of pressure. This skill is for resisting temptations such as seduction, anger, greed, sloth, etc., etc., This skill also helps priests cast their spells more effectively.
Dexterity = Dexterity determines the hand-eye-body coordination of a unit which assists for avoiding battlefield attacks such as trample, charge, swallow_whole, etc., . This skill is also used for avoiding traps.
Thickness = Thickness determines the physical density of a unit so the game can judge the actual amount of physical damage which occurs. The average naked human would have a rating of 5 while a naked iron golem would have a rating of 45. A solider having his mace successfully striking each of these units with the same amount of force would have very different results.... yes the iron golem would usually take zero damage, but 1 point should occassionally be possible.
Defence = Defence determines the amount of armor which has been added on a unit from what's being worn or from spells. This is based on what we've seen from the developer journals.
Attack = Attack is one variable used for determining if the unit successfully strikes during battle. This is based on what we've seen from the developer journals.
Precision = Precision is one variable used for determining ranged attacks. Specific spells, items and/or abilities can help this attribute based on the surroundings or the eyes themselves. For example a goblin would have night vision and not suffer penalties when in the dark.
Training Experience = Multiple types of training should be available such as ranged attack, piercing weapons, slashing weapons, crushing weapons, swimming, mountaineering, siege weapons, stealth, hunting, etc., etc., . While a unit trained for battle might be more skilled at preventing damage in combat this should not be directly related with hitpoints since a paralyzed trained unit would die just as quickly as a paralyzed untrained unit. Currently training plays an unbalanced role for providing a drastic increase with hitpoints allowing paralyzed trained units to have a significantly higher chance of surviving... which I hope is corrected.
Movement = Movement should contain two parts, the battlefield movement and map movement. This is only logical since some fantasy creatures such as most undead units or magical elemental summons do not need to stop and rest unlike animals and humans.
Resistances = There should be multiple types of resistances such as poison, fire, cold, lightning, and possibly others such as disease, piercing, crushing, slashing, etc., .
Terrain Boundaries = Default boundaries setting is Lava, Tar and Water.
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The reasons for these attributes is so units can have specific builds which allow them to be more realistic fantasy. For example if I wanted to create a fantasy creature such as the Gelatinous Cube it would need high piercing, cold and slashing resistance as well as poison immunity. This unit would move slow on the battlefield, but since it never sleeps it may travel almost as far a group of walking men on the world map. I would also provide the unit with very poor dexterity, precision and defence with a thickness of 3. However it would have a large size, large strength and a swallow whole type of attack. This creature lacks any reasoning and thus zero wisdom which means immunity to seduction and other temptations. It's intelligence would be equal to that of an amoeba and more vunerable to mind attack spells.
I would hope it's possible to create unique creatures such as this within Elemental... so hopefully this list helps.
