View attachment 3039545
Finished this month's update for Legacy of Hestia a few days ago, and I've been doing the battle system for DxD.
As the screenshot suggests, I am just putting the UI in place, and using some placeholders for things I am unsure about, although some things are final (such as two of the action icons on the top left).
For now, the battle system has no code (aside from being able to display a grid which will be useful later), since the first combat won't happen for a while, it's not a big priority, so I am just getting some of the most time consuming things done since I already have the pseudocode for the battle system, and all the mechanics I'd like it to have.
It may look kind of messy, so I'll do my best to explain what you are looking at: On top left you have all the actions your currently selected unit can perform, only an action per turn can be performed. For instance, Issei in a turn can decide to move and use his boosted gear to double his power, but won't be able to attack. Most actions will consume MP, so all units will be able to perform a normal attack instead of an action.
Most "normal attacks" are fairly weak, but some units can make use of those as well... For instance, Akeno can use her normal attack to aim at any enemy in the board, and while the damage will be weaker than her action-spells, her sadism trait will boost her damage everytime she hits an enemy, sort like a very weak boosted gear.
The boost (or other passive effects that affect the character) will be displayed next to the HP/MP, those little squares.
I'm still unsure about their placement, or how many slots there should be, but in the actual game that space will be empty.
I might decide to display them horizontally instead, and increase the size of HP/MP so to fill that space completely.
The log on the top right will display all your actions, similarly to the battle log used in Legacy of Hestia.
You will be able to hide it, but there won't be much purpose in doing so... The black part of the screen will have a background which changes depending on where the combat is taking place. The first one will take place in an abandoned structure, so the black space will display a broken floor or something. Again, pretty similar to the combat backgrounds I currently use in Legacy of Hestia.
Finally, there is the actual stage where the combat takes place.
Units will be placed the same way as you'd place the pieces in a chessboard, and while the actual combat system will follow some of the rules of chess, being able to play chess is not required at all.
The combat is turn based like a classic RPG, but there are some elements of strategy in it, which will require you to learn about your units' strength and weaknesses.
I mentioned how Akeno's unique trait could be used to boost her power while saving up on her MP, but chess pieces also play an important part, and Issei as a pawn can promote in any of them, and use them accordingly.
As a pawn, he can move only 1 square; However, if he'd promote to knight, he can cover a lot more ground, it depends if you want to rush and attack your enemy right away, or take your time to boost yourself. You can even decide to attack from a long range (once you unlock the actions to do so), but magic attacks will always be more powerful when you are a Queen, and the promotion to that chess piece can occur only if you manage to reach the other side of the board.
The game will not feature any auto combat system, but an in-game way to auto-win them through the use of collectionable points, so as long as you are not too wasteful, the game can play as mostly a pure VN. There'll be cheats for Patrons as well ofc.
However, skipping combats won't always be a good idea after Issei gets the action to Dress Break, as that will unlock unique CGs (Aside from destroying female opponents' defence).
