SignalUpdate

Signal, Week 6 – The Inventory

So I’ve already talked a bit about weapons in Iravelon, but I figured I’d say a few short words about items in general.

Items, really?  Isn’t that pretty basic, just swords and axes and staves, armor, potions and such?

Well sure, there are those elements – weapons, armor, healing items, etc.  But some of the specifics go a bit further. 

Firstly, each character has their own type of weaponry – Ian uses polearms, Lou uses axes, Zuzu uses twin swords or daggers, and Andrea uses staves.  Pretty normal overall, and the setup follows their basic classes – Fighter, Barbarian, Rogue, Mage – but that’s about the simplest way to boil it down.  Each character also has a few other options for weapons that you’ll have to see for yourself.  Also, as far as combat goes, the magic isn’t all limited to Andrea – the others have magic too, though their magic plays into their own character/style.

However, as I mentioned before, the weapons do have special effects.  I’m also working on a way to somehow trade stats on weapons.  So if you like the unleash that one weapon has, it might be nice to have some way (later in the game) to apply the strength of a weapon with better stats to another weapon – or, essentially trade the unleash ability to a higher-level weapon.  It’s a work in progress right now, and wouldn’t apply to all weapons (story-related weapons, etc). 

Next, we have armor.  Armor differs per character, but I didn’t put too much in terms of limitations on what characters could equip.  Once again, the armor mirrors their classes, but there is some flexibility there.

Obviously we have healing items and items to clear up status effects, etc.  Some of these will be your standard fare – potions, antidotes, etc.  Some will be potentially one-off food items, or multi-use large scale healing implements.  You’ll find mundane things like fruit, meats, breads – items that would be present in a world like this.  Some will be more helpful than others at various stages of the game (and at different ranges of character level). 

There will be a few items that pop up related to quests – some of these you might not even realize are quest-related, you’ll just hold on to them until their use comes up or not.  These include items that serve as keys, trade items, and other types of objects that may influence NPCs or environments in one way or another.  Keep in mind too – some items can be used in multiple ways, some that might not be apparent until much later!  I’ll go ahead and give you two examples:

  • Early on, in a fairly obvious location, you can find some notes on a new form of magic.  You’ll be able to meet a character down the line that can use these pages to give one of your characters a new ability.  However, it might be worth it to hold onto those pages for a while rather than giving them away so early…
  • In one town you might meet a man who is fond of jokes.  He might appreciate it if someone were to find themselves in possession of an old joke book…

Finally, there are items with other functions that actually change the way the game is played in one way or another.  I won’t go into any real detail on most of these yet, but next week I’ll discuss the ‘ETHER’ mechanic.  It’s a concept that might seem familiar depending on your gaming experience – it’s nothing revolutionary, but I think it’s a fun (optional) mechanic that not only reflects your progression in the game, but also gives extra opportunities for exploration of the lore of the world of Iravelon.

Those are the basics of items in Iravelon.  Obviously this is the surface level overview though – hopefully the details really expand on the gameplay and the worldbuilding as the game is played.

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