Ability set character development

Moving onto the ability set characters I've realized i can't really fully establish how the characters abilities will look without knowing how the character itself looks. This is a major flaw in designing from this method, the abilities can only go so far, this is not to say that coming up with game play ideas first won't result in better ability sets but when designing visually it would appear at this stage this direction doesn't flow as well as the others.

As for which Ability set characters to take forward i have chosen to go with The Biomancer, The symbiote and Hades. I feel these characters visually rich sets of descriptors. Following my process i will create silhouettes to develop these characters.

Lodus Design

So here is Lodus, the armour encased beetle warrior alien...guy....with a sword. So yea, i think he turned out ok, better than the silhouette developments at least, i took my favourite parts from them and merged them with some ideas of how i originally saw him in my head. Silhouettes were probably not the best way to go about designing a character like this. I think they helped define his shapes and values but for his design i would have liked to do more sketch work. When finalized i'll be adding some carapace textures to him which will help illustrate what his armour is made of.

Lore characters development

Here are the development drawing for my lore character silhouettes, since resuming the work on this project i seemed to work on creating characters a little differently, i went back to the old way i was comfortable with and then when it came to working up these silhouettes again i forgot how i did it. 

The Targe silhouettes have been developed more sketchy as i forgot to use values to speed up the process.

Norah thumbnails are simpler and just use values, this method is quicker and i really need to get as much done as fast as possible . Looking at these i quite like 2 and 3, i think they have the most interesting aspects and values.

Lodus has proven to be a difficult character to create, i would have liked to do a lot more observational drawing of beetles and such and have worked on him more consistently, it was something i did for part of a project last year but flipping back and forth between projects has made it hard to retain a work process. These haven't been as good as i hoped by i do quite like 1 and 5.

Lore Drafts 2

I decided to take a little break from the design drawings as i was getting a little sluggish, i figured changing it up would help me get my work speed back up. 

So i decided to carry on working on my lore pages. The next step was to narrow them down from 5 to 3, i then took my chosen 3 lore pages, which are shown bellow, and refined and expanded upon them. Some of my character lore pages needed changing, some needed expanding as they were a little short compared to other pages.

I chose Endrea as when i had some friends look over my 5 first draft lore pages Endrea was one that stood out. The prospect of her gaining royal status in a new world was interesting, i also like that she isn't strictly human, an issue I've had with my design characters so far.

Lodus was an instant favourite of mine, i think as a character he could have some great visual aspects. I like Lodus' story too, i also have some ideas about his abilities which make him all the more appealing to me in the long run. This page is one of the ones that i needed to expand, i liked what was there but there was very little compared to the other character pages.

I chose Targe because of how fleshed out and grounded the lore is, i find him similar to one of my design character as well. I don't know if this character will be chosen over the design character.


EDIT*  unpublished post

Lore character Silhouettes

Here are the silhouettes for my chosen lore characters, Norah, Targe and Lodus. Norah and Targe sils have been posted before with some research so i tidied them up and posted them again all together. Targe likely wont be used as his lore has been turned into Serge's. 

From Norah's silhouettes i am liking 2 and 3, the other just don't stand out as much at the moment.

Targe was always an interesting character and his silhouettes where interesting, some were a little confusing but i liked where they where going. I think having Lore to draw from does really help the art process and when writing lore for the design characters i did kind of have to make up my own story rather than have the story come from the character. 

Lodus was one of my favourite lore characters, i loved the story and the imagery that came from it. The silhouettes where a little difficult  i was trying to use the beetles imagery i gathered to incorporate some visual aspects into them but most of the easily distinguishable parts were horns and appendage spikes. Putting spikes on everything is kind of bad practice when creating silhouettes.

Design Characters Ability Sets

 Here are the ability sets for my 3 design characters. I'm going to get up to this point with the Lore character designs before i start work on the storyboards, i know i'm going to struggle with them so i'm going to try and get other work out of the way first.

These will also be displayed properly like the first ability sets i created.

Merci Ability Set
Passive Helping hand	Every 5th auto attack Merci lands on an enemy champion causes Merci to fire 2 additional shots at the enemy.
Ability (1) Quadra Shot	This ability is a line skillshot that fires off 4 gunshots dealing physical damage to the first enemy hit.
Ability (2) Vision filter	This ability has 2 parts. The active allows Merci to reveal an area of the fog of war in target direction. When this ability is not on cooldown Merci reduces the armour of nearby enemies in front of her by 5%.
Ability (3) Searing Knife	This ability causes the player to throw a super heated blade in a target direction. If the blade connects with an enemy it deals light magic damage equal to a percentage of the enemies maximum health and applies a small damage over time debuff for a few seconds.
Ultimate Ability Quick Draw	This ability when activated causes Merci’s bionic arms to target the two closest enemies for 10 seconds. The arm deal auto attack damage.

Serge Ability Set
Passive	Landing hits on an enemy with Scrap Hail grants Serge passive armour for 4 seconds. Scaling with level.
Ability (1) Crushing Blow	Serge swings Scrap Hail and launches it in a line dealing physical damage to each enemy it passes through and deals damage on the return.
Ability (2) Re-breather	Activating this ability will remove any stat debuff currently afflicting Serge and reduce the duration of any stat debuff applied to him for the next 5 seconds. If this ability is not on cooldown, any enemy killed by a ability will grant Serge a small amount of health.
Ability (3)	Serge throws out Scrap Hail dealing damage in a small area and leaves  a small slowing area behind.
Ultimate Ability Scrap Hail	Activating this ability will cause Serge to swing Scrap Hail around his head dealing physical damage in a area around him. Reactivating this ability will cause Serge to slam Scrap Hail into the ground anywhere in a moderate distance around Serge. Hitting an enemy will knock them back, an enemy cannot be knocked back more than once but will still take damage from each hit.

Linn Ability Set
Passive	Hitting an enemy with an auto attack decreases their armour by a % each hit stacking 3 times. % scales with Player Level.
Ability (1) Blow Back	This ability causes Linn to dash a short distance landing a ferocious punch that knocks back the enemy. The punch can be charged up to deal extra damage and knocking the enemy back further. Charging the punch reduces Linns movement speed.
Ability (2) Thundering Blows	This ability causes Linn to land stunning punch onto an enemy and then following up with a flurry of blows at a short range in front of her dealing additional physical damage. Landing the additional blows increases Linns attack speed for 3 seconds.
Ability (3) Thrusting Kick	Linn dashes in a target direction landing a powerful kick dealing moderate physical damage and granting a small movement speed buff to Linn for 2 seconds if the kick lands on an enemy.
Ultimate Ability Full Contact	Linn raises her arms and punches the ground with all the strength shattering the ground around her dealing damage in the area and knocking up all enemies hit.

Design Character Lore

From my final design character i have chosen character 1, 2 and 5. I written up lore for each of them that i'm quite happy with. They may be refined a little and will then be put onto a display format.

Name: Merci

Race: Human Female

Home: Earth

Time: 2095

Dimension: Prime

Merci was a proud police officer in New York in 2087, she served tirelessly in cleaning up a depraved city. New York had never been the shining example of a city it was touted as being and it only got worse over the decades. Merci rose through the ranks of the police service but was always short of the greatness she knew she deserved.

One night on patrol with her partner Clarion they came across a suspicious warehouse, clearly inhabited when it shouldn't have been. Investigating it they found a congregation of gang leaders, these where some of the most feared people in New York, and the city was no stranger to dangerous gangs. Clarion called it in and before the meeting had ended the police from all around the city had converged on the location. As police moved on the warehouse it became clear this meeting wasn't just a meeting of gang leaders, it was a plot.

Bombs went off around the city, disorientated the police where fired upon by various gang members, caught by surprise Merci and the rest of the police force fought off as many gang members as they could as they fell back to help the city. This was the start of the New York war, a clash between the combined gangs of the city and the police force as the gangs attempted to eradicate everyone in their way. Their plot was to seize control of the city and turn it into the capital of crime syndicates led by Garek Vancil, a dangerous man who had united the gangs not through bribes, not through power or number but through respect, the most powerful tool.

This was a intercity war that raged for years, any help from the outside was usurped by Gareks gangs and connections in other cities. It was this war that brought out the greatness Merci had inside her, working alone after Clarion had gone missing, presumed dead at the hands of Garek. Merci found where Garek was living, a high city tower, unremarkable in its looks from the outside, but inside was a fortress. Merci Entered and brought down almost half of the guards before Garek was even aware of her, fueled and covered in weapons she charged upward.

Merci took down Garek single-handedly from inside his own tower. The city was hers to control if she wanted it but instead dismantled the gangs and ended the war that had ruined her city. Taking control of the new New York police force she organised the rebuilding of the city before being pulled to Purgatory by the Warden. Once there she adapted to the new world as she did to New York, proved herself and created a formidable police force of her own to help enforce order upon the various creatures of this new world.

For this character i adapted the lore from one of my lore page character called Targe, they were pretty similar so i figured there would be no point having characters so similar. I actually prefer it this way and it saves time.

Name: Serge

Race: Human male

Home: Earth

Time: 2349

Dimension: Alternate

Serge was like any average man, worked hard, had his passions and interests, it just so happened that living in a gigantic toxic scrap yard gave him useful interests. Serge created tools out of parts and sold them, the world as it was now was more like a graveyard. Wars, social collapse, economic collapse, he world was still there but there was no place for greed in hell.

One day his scrap yard community was lay siege upon by a large army of raiders, scavengers and mutants. Serge was not a weak man and armed his fellow people with what weapons and defensive tools so that he could to try and stave off the attack. He and the people were not fighters, but they were survivors. Serge and the scrap yard citizens fought crudely but fiercely, even so most were torn apart. The community was left with nothing once again. Serge lost his family but found his purpose.

Serge created a new protective mask, his previous breather was damaged in the fight, with this helmet granting him clean air to breath and clear vision he picked up the weapon that had served him so well in his fight. A long chain pulled loose with a large chunk of concrete on the end was his barbaric weapon of choice. Swinging this weapon he named “Scrap Hail” he tore through camps of raiders wiping out the psychos that had killed his family.

Once he was satisfied he returned to the scrap yard to help rebuild his community. Stories of Serge travelled the lands, his legend became known as “The Scrap Knight” a vengeful warrior swinging a huge flail to fell his enemies. People from all around sought out the scrap yard and the protection Serge offered.

Once the Warden pulled Serge to Purgatory, he didn’t change much, a peaceful man when not provoked and a savage warrior still swinging “Scrap Hail” into enemies’ faces when needed.

Name: Linn

Race: Human Female

Home: Earth

Time: 2023

Dimension: Prime

Linn was a professional kickboxing champion, she worked her way up from the amateur scene into the big leagues. Linn was always strong willed and didn’t like being told she couldn’t do something, her brother saying “you fight like a girl” when she was younger is what pushed her to start kickboxing. This wouldn’t phase most people but Linn was stubborn that way. Linn climbed to the top and was the longest reigning champion until she too was pulled to Purgatory by the Warden.

Linn came to the world frightened and confused, it took her time to assimilate to this new world and life on it. Eventually she found her place and learned how the planet and the Arena worked. When she was finally summoned to fight in the arena she took up the challenge, she wanted to be the champion here too. This however was a whole new challenge, she was a mere human kick boxer up against people with weapons, aliens with huge physiology and monsters with fearsome power.

During Linn’s very first arena match she came across a creature larger than herself, a brawler too it sneered at her almost mocking her. Linn did not back down and engaged the creature. Fighting the creature proved painful for Linn, her blows seemed to hurt her more than him. The two connected punches fist to fist, the creatures’ thunderous blow shattered her arm. She was pulled from the arena.

Linn was crippled, she couldn’t fight and she was no use to the Warden. She knew how this world worked, she knew she would be left to the slums as all of the weak are on this planet. Linn however was stubborn after all, she did not accept this, she travelled the planet looking for a way to fix her arm, she did not find it, what she did find though was an alien in a far city of the planet. This alien knew human anatomy, it may have been considered a doctor or a mechanic or some parts of both. This alien would give Linn a new arm, a stronger arm and in return she would pay him with some of her winnings for as long as one of them lived.

Linn gained her new bionic arm, a mixture of metals and mechanics covered by tough materials connected to her nervous system so she could feel. She was impressed and had her other arm removed in favour of this upgrade as well. Fitted with new powerful arms and a fighting suit to reinforce her body Linn proved her worth to the Warden and regained access to the Arena with new strength. She now enters each Arena fight hoping to come across the creature that crushed her arm so long ago.