Class Auras: the Development

[Vendetta]

Class-wide Aura Development

Table of Contents:
I. Intro
II. Goals
III. Expected Time Line
IV. 9 Auras
V. Future Development

I. Intro
I was thinking about this today and I decided all classes needed some more depth. So, what better way to do that than a shiny aura below you?
I plan on making these abilities help the player substantially, but not so much that it will hurt the game play experience.

II. Goals for this Mod:

1. Implement Auras as necessity
2. Three Auras for each Class
3. Balance as much as possible
4. Advantages/Disadvantages for each will be circumstantial.
5. Manipulate Aura colors
6. Allow 1 aura at given time


I'm already learning this mod could take a while, and I'm fully ok with that.

The only issues I see ahead of myself are:

1. Not sure how to activate only 1 aura at a time. I'm sure I'll have to get some help an experienced modder.
2. Not sure how to render color changes on individual auras. At least I know it's doable .

III. Expected Time Line:

Spoiler: show

Day 1: Aura Explanations and Icons
Day 2: Aura Ranks (1-10) & Make borders Fit with Torchlight icon borders
Day 3: Implement Auras into Effect Editor
Day 4: Continued Effect Editor
Day 5: Place icons on all class skill trees, effectively
Day 6: Make Auras Visible in-Game on Players & Render colors
Day 7: Implement Auras as 1 Aura at a time. (through skill duration?)

- So I'm assuming, everything should be online and in mod showcase by November 20th, 21st at latest


IV. 9 Auras

Here are all 9 Auras I'm working on. I have used WoW icons as the base and I will edit the borders to all of them to fit better into Torchlight.
*Even though these are technically WoW icons. They are rare icons and hardly used.

Alchemist


Enlightenment - Provides Mana Regeneration and Resistance to all Elements

Glacial Presence - Gains increased armor and enemies take cold damage [will also freeze enemies if I can]

Propulsion - Provides increasing cast speed


Vanquisher


Vendetta - Attacks significantly degrade armor and provide increased movement speed

Sleight of Hand - Provides increased elemental damage and max mana

Thieves' Scope - Increases Cast Speed and range of attack


Destroyer


Titanic Tantrum - Increases Maximum Health and movement speed

Frenzy - Increases critical strike damage at the cost of health

Savagery - Increases maximum strength and provides pet with increased damage and movement

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V. Future Development

The names for these auras are not set in stone, although, it will be tough to give me better names.
As for the effects of the auras, feel free to give me some input on that. I'm more than willing to change some
(but only if you can tell me how that change would better affect the class in a positive way).

*I will continue updating this daily and tomorrow will upload new icon images and ranks for each spell.

[TormakSaber]

You might check how Destroyer Auras work in regards to 1 at a time, for your own auras.

[Azrael]

yeah the destroyer skill uses
STOP_SKILL to allow only one aura at a time

so say you use aura number 3
then it would STOP_SKILL aura 1 and 2

and the same for the others

[Vendetta]

Thankyou, azrael, helpful as always.

Then that only leads to my last question, can the skills be rendered different colors, currently?

[Azrael]

Thankyou, azrael, helpful as always.

Then that only leads to my last question, can the skills be rendered different colors, currently?

what aura are you using?
il take a look at it in the particle editor

i should be able to make each colored one a unit theme
that way it would be easy to work with

what colors would you want btw

[Phanjam]

can the skills be rendered different colors, currently?

Hi vendetta! I really like the thinking behind your enhanced auras idea, so I hope this is helpful for you...

Particle effects can be attached to characters by adding code to their .dat files which point to a .theme file
[THEMES]
<STRING>THEME:(Theme Name In Theme File)
[/THEMES]

The .theme file you point to defines the particle effect to be applied. You can use an existing .theme file which are (usually) stored in the media/unitthemes folder). Or you could also make your own.

Aside from the <STRING>NAME:, the .theme file will also:

* point (again) to the .particle layout file to use,
* select the bone in the unit's mesh that the particles will center around,
* set a few other variables I don't know much about yet

You can get the list of a character's bones from any of their .skeleton files. Just convert the .skeleton file to XML format and open it in notepad.

(Thanks to velari and Jarcho who helped me figure this stuff out)