THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH RPING BUT WHAT THE FUCK EVER

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CHANGE LOG
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- May 27, 2013
~ Created, albeit with different intentions; the very small original can be seen at the bottom of the document.

- July 12, 2013
~ Added most of the new information, including “Basic Mechanics”, “Cost & Damage Mechanics”, “Party Layout”, and “Experience Distribution”.

- July 13, 2013
~ Edited experience sharing system for “Experience distribution”; changed TOD amount from 2x to 2.5x, changed type penalty to 0.5x; added a low HP bonus of 1.25x.
~ Added a section on type matching and what effects it has.

- July 24, 2013
~ Added a section on “Blessings”.

- August 1, 2013
~ Edited the Experience Points section to better balance EXP distribution; organized the list of penalties/bonuses.
~ Made minor edits to the Blessings section.

Basic Mechanics:

* Move mechanics
In Astitva, you have three main variants on attacks:
~ Basic attacks are performed with the Basic Attack button. By using this on its own, or by adding other directions to it, you will use various simple moves. These are your most basic tools, and have no cost like Supers or Specials.
~ Special attacks are performed with your two special buttons, Special 1 and Special 2. You can also use specials by adding directions to these buttons, or by combining them with a basic attack. Special attacks will have a small cost for use, with magic consuming SE and physical abilities consuming LE. When either runs out, your character will collapse from exhaustion, causing them to be KO’d.
~ Super attacks are performed by specific commands for each character. Every character has a level 1, 2, and 3 super. Supers are powerful and often important aspects of a character’s set of abilities. The level 1 is a multi-purpose ability, with your level 2 usually being a stronger, great-if-you-have-it option. Your level 3 is a character’s ultimate move, the absolute best they have to offer. With the exception of this final attack, all supers have a small penalty attached to them in terms of experience gained.
Each move has the following attributes:
~ Damage – How much damage the move does do.
~ Hitstun – How many frames a move locks you in hitstun. This won’t be shown in game, but it’s useful to note if you’re serious about combos.
~ Cost – Appears only for Specials & Supers. For the former, the cost will be measured in LE for physical attacks, while magic will be measured in SE. For supers, it will tell you what level super it is.
~ Effects – Extra move effects are noted here. This includes ailments, traits, and elements.
~ Gain – For Basic & Specials only. How much super is gained when an ability connects. Please note that you need 100 points for a third of a meter, which will let you use a Level 1 super; the maximum amount of meter available is 300.

* Cost & Damage Mechanics
When you get hit by an enemy attack or combo, the process is far more complex than simply taking a set amount of damage. Damage is divided into three varieties:
~ Yellow/Green Health – The amount of LE (HP, colored yellow) and SE (MP, colored green) you have remaining. When this is completely replaced with permanent or blue damage, the character is considered KO’d. Interesting enough, the last few pixels are the hardest ones to get rid of.
~ Permanent Damage – The empty part of your life or magic bar. This is damage you can’t recover, unless you sit on the sidelines and wait for it to heal.
~ Red damage – Half of the damage an attack or combo deals to you will be represented by red health. This is damage that can be healed without switching out, albeit quite slowly. This will occur a short amount of time after being hit, and will continue to do so as you avoid enemy attacks or attack them. Red health recovery will pause when blocking, and is permanently lost when you’re hit by another attack or, so the best way to avoid this is to be aggressive, in controlled bursts so that you don’t get hit.
~ Blue damage – Depending on the kind of Special move, you will need to use LE or SE to perform special moves. This takes shape in the form of blue damage, which will appear after your red health. Blue damage starts recovering very quickly, but will stack and eventually kill your character if you abuse special attacks.
All three varieties will recover when put on the sidelines, at varying speeds. Blue damage will recover almost instantly, and red health will be at a rate slightly faster than when on the field, but permanent damage will recover at a snail’s pace.
When a character takes damage, both blue and yellow health will go down, with yellow health decreasing first, and replacing it with a 50-50 blend of permanent and red health.

* Party Layout
A party consists of three characters. One of these characters will always be on point, and you can switch between them as needed.
Switching between characters is useful for various reasons. For one, when a character takes a large amount of damage, you will want to switch to someone healthier, since both LE and SE will recover when on the sidelines, no matter what the specifics are for the damage they took. You can also switch during a successful combo, allowing you to continue a combo with a different party member; this will allow you to share experience gained in a combo with multiple characters. Also, when a character is alive and on the sidelines, sometimes you can combine forces with them to perform a Dual special, which usually has very useful effects attached to them.
When a character is KO’d, you will automatically switch to the next person in your party. When all party members are KO’d, the game ends.

* Experience distribution
Experience Points (EXP) are gained when you perform combos, rather than when you actually kill enemies. EXP gained depends on the moves used, and while damage will be scaled, EXP won’t be. EXP gained is stored rather than being used immediately, and you can use to upgrade various aspects of your characters, which usually means their available attacks and their LE/SE totals. Each character has their own individual collection of EXP, but sharing experience points in the course of a battle is easy, so don’t be afraid to take advantage of it!
The EXP gained during a combo will be split between the characters involved – only using one character nets them all of the EXP gained, while switching will cause the experience to be split 50-50 between the characters involved. Using three characters will result in a 34-33-33 split for experience.
NOTE: The experience is split using the model Point-Assist-Anchor, with the most priority being given to the Point, then Assist, then Anchor. For reference, the Point character is whoever’s on screen, Assist being the character after them, and Anchor being the one after Assist.
i.e.
Character A gets 100 EXP. If this were where the combo ended, they would get all 100 EXP.
Character B is switched in, earning 80 EXP; the total is now 180, and if it were stopped here, the two would split it, so both characters get 90 EXP.
Character C throws on a super that earns 180 EXP. The total is now 360, and the EXP is split 123-119-118 (360x0.34=122.4, 360x0.33=118.8, 0.8+0.8+0.4=2.0, split evenly between Point and Assist).

You’ll also gain certain bonuses and penalties when certain events occur:
~ Use an element that’s effective against an enemy (i.e. using Fire on a Kodama, using Water on a Earth-aligned character) – 2x bonus; only applies to those specific move(s)
~ Use an element that an enemy resists (i.e. using Earth on a Golem, using Poison on a Poison-aligned character) – 0.5x penalty; only applies to those specific move(s)
~ Continue combo after enemy’s defeat – 0.25x penalty; only applies to hits after KO
~ Perform a Touch of Death combo (equal to or larger than 100% damage) – 3x bonus
~ Defeat enemy while on low HP (10% or less) – 1.25x bonus
~ MP KO – +50 points, penalties/bonuses still apply
~ Successfully Parry an attack – +50 points, penalties/bonuses apply
~ Successfully Power Guard an attack – +50 points, penalties/bonuses apply
~ Successfully connect with a Burst – +50 points, penalties/bonuses apply
~ Break a guard without using a Pierce ability – +50 points, penalties/bonuses apply
~ Counter hit – +50 points, penalties/bonuses apply
~ Party member KO’d – all EXP gained up to that point negated for that character
~ Party member revived – +250 points, penalties/bonuses apply; only if the revived character had any EXP before being KO’d

* Elemental Alignment
There are ten elements in Astitva. Every element has a counterpart, in terms of type matching:
Fire <-> Wind
Water <-> Earth
Electricity <-> Wood
Metal <-> Poison
Light <-> Dark

As an alignment, they act as a multiplier, or STAB (Same-Type Attack Bonus) of sorts, on these mechanics, which is explained below.
Buff and healing abilities will have a 1.3x boost to their effects when applied to a character that is aligned with the same element. A character that has an opposing element will receive a 0.7x penalty to the effect.
i.e. If a spell buffs PA by 50%, and is aligned with Fire, then it will increase the PA of a character aligned with fire by 65% (50% x 1.3 = 65%). However, it will increase the PA of a character aligned with Wind by 35% (50% x 0.7 = 35%).
This is reversed when dealing with debuff and status abilities. A 30% boost is applied when they are used on characters aligned with the opposing element, and a reduction will be applied to characters aligned with the same element.
i.e. A physical attack with a 30% chance of inflicting Infirmity, aligned with Poison, will have a 39% (30% x 1.3 = 39%) chance of inflicting the status on a character aligned with the Metal element. Characters aligned with Poison will instead have a 21% (30% x 0.7 = 21%) chance of receiving the status.
There is also a 1.2x boost and 0.8x penalty applied to attacks that deal damage aligned with an opposing or the same element, respectively (i.e. using an Electric attack on a Wood aligned character, or Light on a Light aligned character). This will combine with the weaknesses and resistances of a character; however, since these are set at 50% increase/decrease, this means that the number will become 60% and 40%, respectively (50% x 1.2 = 60, 50% x 0.8 = 40%).
Lastly, when an attack hits an enemy aligned with the opposing element, that move will be worth double (2x) experience points. However, if it hits an enemy of the same element, you’ll receive a half points (0.5x) penalty.

* Blessings
After certain points in either story, you will gain access to the Blessings mechanic. Blessings act as a way to customize the gameplay as you wish, or as a way to add difficulty to the game. Blessings can be obtained by pleasing the gods – this can be done through various ways, whether it be making a sacrifice to a god, carrying out one of their “jobs” for you, or in a couple of chances simply talking to the right person. Blessings can be applied by praying at a Shrine. You can only have two Blessings active at a time.

Some ideas for Blessings:
~ Kyanos’ Sacrament – Get an increase in damage when on low HP, proportionate to how much HP an enemy has left [maximum of 1.5x, minimum of 1.1x].
~ Lychnitis’ Dance – Allows the entire party to air dash by inputting a dash motion in the air, and increases movement speed for all characters.
~ Anthrakas’ Strength – Exaggerates the bonuses/penalties of an elemental alignment or strength/weakness [For damage dealt, it increases from 1.2x to 1.5x for strengths, and decreases from 0.8x to 0.5x for weaknesses. For added effects, it increases from 1.3x to 1.5x for corresponding elements, and decreases from 0.7x to 0.5x for opposing elements].
~ Spathi’s Protection – Allows any party member to survive one TOD combo, with the damage for the first combo that hits them being converted into Blue Health. Works only once per fight.
~ Margaritari’s Gift – Improves meter gain by 1.5x.
~ Atsali’s Determination – Doubles the amount of damage the Guard Meter can take.
~ Chrysos’ Light – Gives the party a Burst mechanic. Burst can be activated by pressing all three attack buttons together, and will allow you to knock an opponent out of almost anything they are doing. However, you are vulnerable for a time if you use this and fail to hit anything, and it will take about two minutes to be able to use it again.
~ Asimi’s Glow – Gives the party a Parry mechanic. To Parry, you must press a direction – left or right only – towards the opponent when being hit. This will cause you to counter the opponent and avoid damage entirely. However, missing a parry means, well, taking damage.
~ Zafeiri’s Fortitude – Gives the party a Power Guard mechanic. To Power Guard, you need to press the defend button as soon as you’re hit. Doing so will push the opponent away slightly, and your Guard Meter won’t deplete. Missing the timing will result in an ordinary guard if too early, or damage if too late.
~ Diamanti’s Luck – Increases the chance for rare drops and stolen items by 1.5x, but decreases the chance for common drops and stolen items by 0.7x.
~ Kokkinos’ Song – Causes unusual sounds to play for characters’ attacks. Also changes every character’s taunt, making it last longer, but increasing the meter gained to 100 points.
~ Smaragdi’s Medicine – Increases the effects of items by 1.25x.



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Gameplay ideas:


You play as one of the many residents of Astitva. Chosen by the gods themselves, you have been given the chance to change the future of the world, by aiding those who you deem worthy of being helped. Each character has a story they follow, a path which you will help complete. Whose stories you choose to complete will be entirely your choice, but your actions will determine the fate of the whole planet, regardless of who you decide to help.


Stats:

LE (Life Energy) – Equivalent to HP, a measure of a character’s Life Energy. Life Energy is a term used in the setting for vitality and/or stamina. Physical abilities cost LE to use. When your LE is reduced to 0, your character will die. The game ends when all party members are dead.
Beside your LE will be a percent, which indicates LE regeneration. You will heal this percent of your LE every turn.

SE (Spirit Energy) – Equivalent to MP, a measure of a character’s Spirit Energy. Spirit Energy is the unique power created by one’s soul, which starts the initial spark of life and keeps it going. Magical abilities cost SE to use. When your SE is reduced to 0, you will enter a state where you are weakened and unable to do much, waiting for your SE to be restored to 10% of its max.
Beside your SE will be a percent, which indicates SE regeneration. You will heal this percent of your SE every turn.

PA (Physical Attack) – A measurement of how physically powerful a character is. This stat is used to determine the power of physical abilities.

PD (Physical Defense) – A is a measurement of how tough a character is. This stat is used to determine the power of physical abilities.

SA (Special Attack) – A measurement of how powerful a character’s magic is. This stat is used to determine the power of magical abilities.

SD (Special Defense) – A measurement of how resilient your character is. This stat is used to determine the power of magical abilities.

SP (Speed) – A measurement of how fast a character is. The higher a character’s SP is, the earlier they get to attack in battle.

EV (Evasion) – A measurement of how well your character can react. This is a percentile that is combined with the accuracy of attacks, decreasing them by the percentage amount of EV.

IM (Immunity) – A measurement of your character’s immune system. This is a percentile that is combined with the chance for status changes, both good and bad, and decreases it by the percentage amount of IM.

AC (Actions) – How many actions a character may use a turn. Usually one, but this can be increased eventually. The overall maximum is 4.

Stat example:
LE – 100/100 (5%)
SE – 100/100 (5%)
PA – 5
PD – 5
SA – 5
SD – 5
SP – 5
EV – 0%
IM – 0%
AC – 1