I've been trying to figure out a story for two years now. It's an isekai (don't click off yet!) that deals with what summoning really means, goes into hard wilderness survival and secrets of the past.
A huge linchpin is the magic ruleset. It heavily affects story and combat as well as the world itself.
The question is simple.
Which ruleset interests you most and which ruleset is easiest for you to understand?
- Turn based attacks and spells following the Xcom format: movement, actions, spells all cost an action point. Once you spend them all, you have to wait until everybody else spends them as well.
- Chained cooldown: Abilities and spells trigger one of your two cooldown slots. Large spells use all available slots. Time to unlock a slot is increased by proximity and number or other users.
- Short-circuit: A gauge fills up every time you move, attack or use spells. If you cap the gauge you can't do anything until it completely depletes. If you go over it by a lot it completely shorts and doesn't start to deplete until you take a hit or you forfeit.
The first ruleset was the original. While it gives me the horror combat I want, it goes all messy when I throw flying creatures and other things into the mix
The last one is the current system choice since it feels easier for the reader to understand and it pushes on the move strategies. It does lose the horror aspect I was trying to go for.
Yeah so that's been my life for two years. This was supposed to be my main project but "No Steel" happened and here I am...__emphasized text
