Erdrick Mechanics set - Leveling up and MP systems
In this post I'm going to talk about 2 possible mechanics that could work for a dragon quest hero. It's not a moveset, but instead a mechanics set. Both Leveling up and having Mana points could work entirely seperately, but I decided to put them together here.
MP:
Mana points are used by magical spells, and maybe even some other attacks (like in order to turn them into more powerful skills.)
In order to avoid players being passive by regenerating mana automatically, regaining mp would happen on attacks that are landed. (Bonus: on level ups too)
Alternate: Fast automatic mp regeneration.
Level UP:
The hero character would gain exp in order to level up and gain boosts, at least on attacks as well as higher max mp. (speed and knockback possibly too?)
Smash has all kinds of matches (long and short), which means the mechanic has to be limited in some way in order to prevent a character from being overpowered on longer matches, and allow shorter matches to be balanced as well. This can be done by either a low level/strength cap, or resetting levels each stock, or losing 1 level when losing a stock along with a cap.
Gaining exp to level up would be on attacks landed, in addition to some other actions. so that even matches with short stock counts would allow to level up.
Stats
Lvl1(base):
example tilt-attack: 10% dmg
max mp: 10
lvl2: 12% dmg & 12 max mp.
lvl3: 14% dmg & 14 max mp.
(etc)
Magic
(example) Sizz using 2mp. Zap using 4 mp. etc
MP regen per hit: 2 or 3 mp depending on which attack. And no regen on magic attacks.
extra -> mana regained on level ups: 4-5 mp
EXP
exp needed to level up: 100 (lvl2) -> 150 (lvl3) -> 200 (lvl4) -> etc
(note: that's for if exp points get back to 0 on a level up. Else add 100)
Exp gained per attack or spell landed: 30 pts
on shield: 5 pts
on grab: 5 pts
on throw: 20 pts
on KO: 100 pts ?
on item pick-up: 5 pts ?
So, starting out, the hero would need about 4 normal hits for the first level up, but then that would increase by around 2 each time. (so getting to level 3 from lvl2 would take 5 or 6 clean hits). Other actions would give some exp too, but not as much as getting a clean hit or ko.
Everytime someone would get a normal hit, we could see either near it or near the hero's portrait how much exp and mp were gained, either with numbers or bars, or both.
It could feel like attacks in rpgs that give back some mp, as well as gaining something towards leveling up.
This is one way that the mechanics could work in smash, and there are a few ways to design it so that the character is balanced. I think my favorite is a combination of both a low enough level cap (anywhere between lvl 4 to 9), and losing a stock removing a level or 2. Resetting back to lvl 1 when losing a stock could be fine too if the character is designed with fast levelling in mind.
thanks for reading
