Students begin the school year with an information session and discussion on how this new format will be expected to run, once they feel comfortable they will have the opportunity to select one of the four ship classes which they will play for the duration of the year. Each class has it's own unique abilities which can be unlocked through leveling.
Experience and Leveling;
Just as in a typical MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) or role playing game, students will receive a set number of experience points (more commonly referred to as XP) for each task or piece of work they complete. The more bonus work they complete the more XP they will receive. Along with the amount of work, the quality of work will improve the amount of XP a student receives, so even if they may ultimately fail on a quiz or worksheet, they will still receive some XP, directly proportional to the score they received.
Once students have reached a predetermined amount of XP, they will 'level up', each level up up will unlock a Skill Point (SP), SP can be traded in to unlock abilities on the Skill Tree, which can be found on each ship classes page. Tier One skills cost 1 SP, and all must be unlocked before students can proceed to Tier Two, where each skill costs 2 SP to unlock, once all Tier 2 skills are unlocked, students can unlock the final ability, in Tier Three, for 3 SP. Students must follow the arrows in each Tier and cannot just pick any skill in the Tier they are in unless they have unlocked the previous ability.
These abilities have various effects which can be used by spending Ability Points (AP), everyone starts with 300 AP, which can be increased as the game proceeds. Each day a set amount of AP is returned to the player (Unknown how much at this stage).
Ship Classes and their Bonuses;
All four of the Ship Classes start with the same Hit Points (HP) and Ability Points (AP), 300, however this changes when players reach their first level and only have one choice in the skill they choice, which further seperates their ships.
This further seperates the classes because each starts with slightly different bonus stats.
Cargo: This is the number of Cargo slots the ship contains in its base form. On some successful missions, Cargo/Passengers or Contraband/Fugitives (Illegal Cargo or Passengers) may be obtained, the Cargo value denotes how much Cargo the players ship can hold at a given time. This can be upgraded with cards that can be bought through teaching staff, or even obtained by chance on some missions.
Berths: This is the number of Crew the ship can hold in its base form. Crew can be obtained through purchasing them from Teaching Staff, or obtained by chance from some missions.
There are several Crew types which can add bonuses to your completed missions, or even make some missions easier to complete, while mostly used to complete Bonus Missions, they may be required for Main missions, so ensure you keep a good crew on your ship!
Bonus Skills: Throughout Stellar Voyage their are five skills that can be found and used, Stealth, Mechanical, Engine Boost, Damage and Speed. Each of these skills are required to start some missions, and while each ship starts with their own unique abilities, you can improve your standing in all five of these skills by hiring crew members who had to your bonus. Initially, each skill will be quite low, but as you progress to harder missions you may require higher values of each of these just to begin, or in some cases, see available missions!
Losing and Gaining HP and AP:
Losing Hit Points can currently occur in two ways, the first and main way players will lose HP is by behavior concerns within the class. These will be listed and valued by the students when we begin the school year. The second method will occur during missions, while this won't be common to begin with, I am planning to expand on the idea as the year progresses.
Experience and Leveling;
Just as in a typical MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) or role playing game, students will receive a set number of experience points (more commonly referred to as XP) for each task or piece of work they complete. The more bonus work they complete the more XP they will receive. Along with the amount of work, the quality of work will improve the amount of XP a student receives, so even if they may ultimately fail on a quiz or worksheet, they will still receive some XP, directly proportional to the score they received.
Once students have reached a predetermined amount of XP, they will 'level up', each level up up will unlock a Skill Point (SP), SP can be traded in to unlock abilities on the Skill Tree, which can be found on each ship classes page. Tier One skills cost 1 SP, and all must be unlocked before students can proceed to Tier Two, where each skill costs 2 SP to unlock, once all Tier 2 skills are unlocked, students can unlock the final ability, in Tier Three, for 3 SP. Students must follow the arrows in each Tier and cannot just pick any skill in the Tier they are in unless they have unlocked the previous ability.
These abilities have various effects which can be used by spending Ability Points (AP), everyone starts with 300 AP, which can be increased as the game proceeds. Each day a set amount of AP is returned to the player (Unknown how much at this stage).
Ship Classes and their Bonuses;
All four of the Ship Classes start with the same Hit Points (HP) and Ability Points (AP), 300, however this changes when players reach their first level and only have one choice in the skill they choice, which further seperates their ships.
This further seperates the classes because each starts with slightly different bonus stats.
Cargo: This is the number of Cargo slots the ship contains in its base form. On some successful missions, Cargo/Passengers or Contraband/Fugitives (Illegal Cargo or Passengers) may be obtained, the Cargo value denotes how much Cargo the players ship can hold at a given time. This can be upgraded with cards that can be bought through teaching staff, or even obtained by chance on some missions.
Berths: This is the number of Crew the ship can hold in its base form. Crew can be obtained through purchasing them from Teaching Staff, or obtained by chance from some missions.
There are several Crew types which can add bonuses to your completed missions, or even make some missions easier to complete, while mostly used to complete Bonus Missions, they may be required for Main missions, so ensure you keep a good crew on your ship!
- Pilot: The Pilot is essential if you want to travel among the planets in the Unknown Sector. Not only do they allow you to leave the Planet you find yourself on, a good pilot can increase the number of bonus missions you can undertake in a week. Great Pilots can also improve the speed of the ship as well as decrease the amount of a fuel needed to travel throughout the Unknown Sector.
- Mercenary: Mercenaries are needed to help improve you firepower on the ground... The more Mercenaries you have, that like you, the more hands you have to assist in picking up cargo and carting it back to your ship for transport. Mercenaries can improve your ships overall stealth and or damage abilities.
- Mechanics: Mechanics can be useful at improving your ship in nearly every way! A good mechanic will help improve the speed of your ship, will know every inch of your ship and know how to repair it with their maintenance skill, or even improve the damage output of you weapons. While most Mechanics specialize in one of these areas, some Mechanics in the Sector have been known to be more then competent at all three.
Bonus Skills: Throughout Stellar Voyage their are five skills that can be found and used, Stealth, Mechanical, Engine Boost, Damage and Speed. Each of these skills are required to start some missions, and while each ship starts with their own unique abilities, you can improve your standing in all five of these skills by hiring crew members who had to your bonus. Initially, each skill will be quite low, but as you progress to harder missions you may require higher values of each of these just to begin, or in some cases, see available missions!
- Stealth: Typically stealth is used for Salvage , Bounty Hunts and Smuggling missions.
- Mechanical: The Mechanical skill is generally used to improve the amount of repair you can undertake on a daily basis, however it can also be useful when out scavenging or on a Rescue Mission.
- Engine Boost: By providing greater boosts to your engine allows you to travel farther within the Unknown Sector by using less fuel, which can become costly.
- Damage: Damage is used for missions involving Bounty Hunts, and in some cases may be needed for a Smuggling Mission.
- Speed: The Faster you go, the more likely you are to be able to begin Smuggling, Transport and Rescue Missions.
Losing and Gaining HP and AP:
Losing Hit Points can currently occur in two ways, the first and main way players will lose HP is by behavior concerns within the class. These will be listed and valued by the students when we begin the school year. The second method will occur during missions, while this won't be common to begin with, I am planning to expand on the idea as the year progresses.