Gods of Azure isn't about playing a generic type of god that plays the same every time. There are several types, capable of wielding a core set of common powers, and expanded abilities based on their domain. Not all of these gods are equal, some will be stronger, some will be weaker. I'm actually thinking of having everyone start in a pre-god state, with only the core set, until a civilization that can worship them appears. This serves both as a bit of a tutorial, and as a means to allow for the existence of really powerful abilities that can't be abused early on.
Then comes the choice of god type, depending on what "classes" have been unlocked. Exactly how they are unlocked is still debatable. I think it should be based on achieving an in-game objective. A specific one. For example, you'd need to contact an outer-dimension to get access to the Eldritch God, or lose a game to become a Dead God.
Current ideas for types of god include:
- Creator God - has no destruction powers, but can materialize things out of thin air (similar to the good miracles in Black and White)
- God of Destruction - can not create things out of thin air, but can permanently eliminate things from the game (otherwise, things can be reused as resources by you or others)
- Changing God - can't destroy or create, can only change things (think terraformer, unlocked land altering abilities)
- Elemental force - full control only over the element it represents (wind, fire, lightning, earth, water... boron?)
- Eldritch God - nightmare manifestations, tentacles
- Sun God - mix of creation and destruction, really into human sacrifices, regular worship doesn't cut it
- Death God - horrible at keeping people alive, great with the undead and plagues
- War God - basically only competent at war related things
- Dead God - not to be confused with Death God, very limited abilities, not even all the core ones, can be reborn with the right conditions
- Titan - not really a god, a lumbering giant with great power that is physically present on the map
Unlike Black and White and other god games, when you begin you are alone in an empty world... well, there may be other gods around, if you're not in solo play. There is no live on the planet, just resources that aren't really useful to you. An exception is if you're one of the elemental forces. Your powers are diminished outside of your realm, regardless of faith in that aspect. For example. A frost god can't really do well in a desert, a fire god isn't suited for making an aquatic civilization... though I wouldn't say it's impossible, just sub-sub optimal. Resources are important to the people you will create. But before you start making people, you need to make life and set the groundwork for a civilization. To do that, you have access to a few basic abilities that are limited mostly by your power reserve. Without these abilities, you can't really interact with the world, you're an ethereal jumble roaming around. Unless you're the Titan, but more on that some other time. To use an ability, you have to sacrifice a bit of your power. At the start, power replenishes very slowly, since there's no one to worship you. Abilities have a basic cost associated with them in their default form, but most can also be used in underpowered/overpowered forms.
What does that mean?
- Overpowered- spend more power, amplifies the effect proportional to the extra effort.
- Underpowered - spend less and get a weaker effect.
Now, why would you want to cast an underpowered ability? Because you don't have enough power for the full version, or don't need its full effect. I'll indicate abilities that can be used in underpowered and overpowered versions with the tag [U/O].
Examples:
- Overpowered Fireball - BEHOLD THE SUN AS IT CRASHES UPON THE LAND AND CLEANSES THE WORLD OF HEATHENS
- Underpowered Fireball - small stationary ball of flame that hangs around for a bit. Useful to impress the peasants or usable as a source of power/weapon by them
So, core abilities. Currently they are:
- Divine Spark - one shot, creates life (random animal/plant things start popping up)
- Uplift - choose one of the creatures around to gain self awareness, opozabile thumbs, curiosity and the need to worship anything they see. Uplift can be used multiple times, maybe to pit civilizations against each-other, or in case you screw up and accidentally drop a mountain on one of them
- Raise land [U/O] - create a small hill, in overpowered mode it can make a large one. No mountains, that's an Earth God ability
- Lower land [U/O] - make a depression, useful for making lakes, tunneling rivers, making defensive trenches maybe
- Inspire [U/O] - give your little runts an idea of where to go next, depending on how much power you spent, it will affect more or fewer of them
- Influence [U/O] - same concept as above, but more covert, and is concentrated on smaller numbers. Think individuals, rather than groups.
- Incarnate [U/O] - when they can't get it right, be born into the world and lead them directly. Your power is diminished in this state, a bit, and if you can't convince them you are who you say you are...well... Easter was just around the corner, so you get the idea. The more power you spend, the more powerful the incarnation is. Think Emperor of Mankind, rather than Buddha. When underpowered... well, you do always see a lot of people claiming Jesus showed up on a piece of toast.
- Pantheon - at some point you will get tired of doing minute things, like making sure your people, in their early stages, don't accidentally set themselves on fire. So then you can form a Pantheon of lesser gods that share a small part of your power. More on the Pantheon at a later date.
- Force [U/O] - exert physical force in the world. Slap peasant upside the head in underpowered mode, for fun. Flatten a bit of a city in overpowered mode. I'm hoping the game will be 3D, to allow stuff like playing bowling, but currently the game is being developed with 2D in mind, since it's easier. Expanding to 3D wouldn't be difficult, since most of the 3D stuff would involve just faffing about with a physics engine.
- Pick-up - Still not entirely sure how to implement this in a way that will always fit. I want the player to be able to pick up people and chuck them into an active volcano, for fun, but you're supposed to be ethereal most of the time.
- Shield - protect an area from other godly powers and the occasional natural disaster.
These are powers that all gods have, even the Titan would have most of them, though I guess stuff like inspire/influence would be out of the question, since you're already there and kinda hard to miss. Incarnate would be replaced by Offspring, which would be kinda the same thing as Pantheon. The Titan is meant to be more of a special case character, so he'll need special care.
That is the basic idea of the gods in Gods of Azure. I'll be dealing with each type of god and each power sperate in their own posts down the line. The next one will be dedicated to the people and then to phases of the game.
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