3 weeks
•
Personal Project
•
2022
Context :
As a player of the critically acclaimed MMORPG which is Final Fantasy XIV, the class system (called "Job"), used in the game always amazed me. Being able to swap to every job on the same character was something that I was seeking for a long time as a MMO enjoyer.
The jobs are divided in 3 roles : Tank, Healers and DPS.
These roles also have sub-categories. For example, DPS is divided by Melee, Ranged and Magical DPS.
As a player, I prefer to play as a DPS job, especially the melee ones.
I also love Game Design, even more when it's oriented around System Design.
Creating a whole new Job from scratch by analysing the similar Jobs felt like a great challenge to me, and a fun experience.
And while doing some researches on the Final Fantasy lore, I found a Job that hasn't been implemented in FFXIV yet, the Gambler.
SOFTWARES USED
OVERVIEW
The Gambler is a melee DPS job, the first one relying on mechanics about RNG elements. (Most ranged DPS jobs already have RNG elements, that's why I wanted to create a melee one).
They fight using a "Fortune Hammer", a hammer which has a slot machine merged on it.
They have 3 resources to manage while in combat.
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Abilities requiring Coins generate Slots.
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Using the Slot Machine gives a Jackpot stack.
Once 7 Jackpot stacks have been gathered, a random Jackpot ability is unlocked.
Coins are gained when ending a Base or AoE combo.
The Slot Machine Gauge starts empty and gets filled by drawing 3 Slots.
Once 3 Slots have been drawn, the "Slot Machine" ability turns into a particular Slot Machine ability depending on the number of similar slots drawn.
There are 3 different "symbols" that can be drawn.
Mog, Pampa and Vivi Slots
Everytime a Slot Machine ability is being used, the Jackpot gauge gains 1 stack.
When reaching 7 stacks, the Jackpot Gauge is filled and takes the same color as one of the six Jackpot ability randomly chosen.
CREATION PROCESS
First of all, before diving into creating spells, abilities, mechanisms or whatever, I wanted to analyze how the other melee DPS job worked, if there were similar numbers on the damaging abilities, how many type of abilities they had, etc.
That's why I made a spreasheet on Excel and gathered every single data I could on every ability for every melee DPS job.
After collecting all the data I was able to find, I decided to compare the potencies of the similar spells the job used.
(For example, most melee DPS jobs use a "Base Combo" that consists of using 3 basic abilities in a correct order).
By doing all these researches, I managed to understand how melee DPS jobs were made, they all followed a similar scheme, with some exceptions of course; but it was constant enough to imagine and create every single ability of the Gambler job.
I wanted to add some originality for the Gambler job, all of his damaging abilities would have a range of potencies, with a minimum and a maximum, instead of having a fix one. To balance it, I was careful to check the average between the minimum and maximum potencies.
Once I finished creating all the abilities, and took care that it would work properly without any inchoerent stuff, I decided to compare once again the melee DPS job similar abilities, but this time, with the Gambler data.
(The potencies used for the Gambler are the average results between the minimum and maximum potencies).
APPENDICES AND DOCUMENTATION
ALVES_Julien_Gambler_Job_Document.pdf