Srevensia - Match Making Marauders Design Document Part C

Srevensia - Match Making Marauders Style C Design Document

1. Concept

Srevensia - Match Making Marauders Style C is a puzzle battle game. Players make matches of three to form shields which would be used for either attack or defense.

2. Goal

To reduce opponent’s HP from 25 to 0.

3. Modes

Most of this document uses 2D rank 9 mode with standard rules as template. Additional rulesets and alterations for other modes are detailed in additional game modes section.

4. Layout

Force: 0

Player HP: 25

Enemy HP: 25

Force: 0

·         Leftmost and rightmost column: Force meter – Keeping track of force accumulated.

·         Columns next to the force meter: HP meter – Keeping track of players’ HP.

·         Purple boxes: Spell field – Contains spell blocks for matching. Field coordinates are in format of letters and numbers where letters showing the row and numbers showing the column, e.g. E6.

·         Green boxes: Player’s shield field – Keeping track of the element and strength of player’s shield.

·         Gray boxes: Player’s blast timer – Keeping track of the player’s attack countdown time.

·         Blue boxes: Enemy’s shield field – Keeping track of the element and strength of enemy’s shield.

·         Brown boxes: Enemy’s blast timer – Keeping track of the enemy’s attack countdown time.

·         Orange boxes: Turn counter – keeping track of how much turns have passed.

·         Yellow boxes: Match counter – keeping track of how much moves that a player has left.

·         Pink boxes: Block replacement counter – Keeping track of how matched blocks are changed.

·         Black boxes: Axis counter – Keeping track of which axis the attacks and defenses go.

5. Gameplay mechanics

a. Matching

Matching is done by swapping spell box so that three spell blocks of the same element/color form a horizontal/vertical line. Players are given six turns to make matches as much as possible. If no matches are done, the turn ends immediately.

When a spell block is matched, they will form shields which are always directed towards the player. When that happens, the blast timer will display as A. After the turn ends, the enemy gets the turn and the matches done by the enemy is marked at the blast timer as D. After that, the shields collected by the player will turn into attacks towards the enemy. After the damage calculation is done, the remaining shields become attacks before the enemy starts making matches. After both players have attacked, the shield collection area will switch. After both players have attacked and defended on both axes, the process is repeated but with the enemy starts attacking first. The normal flow of the game is as follows:

Player 1 attack (X axis), player 2 defense (X axis), player 2 attack (X axis), player 1 defense (X axis), player 1 attack (Y axis), player 2 defense (Y axis), player 2 attack (Y axis), player 1 defense (Y axis), player 2 attack (X axis), player 1 defense (X axis), player 1 attack (X axis), player 2 defense (X axis), player 2 attack (X axis), player 1 defense (X axis), player 1 attack (Y axis), player 2 defense (Y axis), player 1 attack (X axis),…

Spell blocks always disappear after matched and replaced with new ones randomly.

b. Elements

The spell blocks in the spell field can be any of the nineteen elements of nineteen colors:

Color	Element		Star
	Fire		Wood
	Water		Ice
	Wind		Poison
	Earth		Sun
	Light		Moon
	Dark		Sound
	Neutral		Steam
	Metal		Crystal
	Thunder		Cosmo
	Dimension		Oracle

c. Match effects

Every element has their own match blast when attacking. The shields also have their own effects:

	Element	Attack effect	Shield effect
	Fire	Minimum damage is set at 1	Damage -1
	Water	Cover 1 block permanently	Restore 1 block to normal
	Wind	Ignore all enemy’s shield effects	Ignore all enemy’s attack effects
	Earth	Renders any shields collected/remaining turn into locked defense mode until the next defense turn. The effect is cancelled if hitting an earth shield.	Renders any shields remaining into attack, which shall be launched immediately at the enemy with no attack effects. The effect is cancelled if hit by an earth attack.
	Light	HP +1 if own HP is less than enemy	Gain 2 force points
	Dark	Prevent shield collection for attack until the relevant turn ends	Prevent shield collection for defense until the relevant turn ends
	Neutral	Opponent’s shield defense is halved.	Bounce attacks to a maximum of half of the amount of shield strength reduced. Damage still applies before the effect takes place.
	Metal	Half of attack is split away at 90 degrees towards the enemy, favoring areas with no shield defense. Effect only applies from the 9th turn onwards. Effect is cancelled when attacking metal shields.	Half of attack is split away at 90 degrees towards the player, favoring areas with shield defense. Effect only applies from the 9th turn onwards. Effect is cancelled when defending metal attacks.
	Thunder	Duplicate attacks to the player’s other shield field at quarter strength randomly with no elemental effects, forming shields of random element. Effect only applies from the 9th turn onwards.	Transfer remaining shield strength to adjacent shield field when hit. If shield is broken, adjacent shield field gains shield of enemy’s attack element with strength of half amount of attack getting through. Effect only applies from the 9th turn onwards.
	Star	Gain shield of the enemy’s element equal to half the difference between player’s attack and enemy’s shield strength when the attack does not break the shields.	Gain shield of enemy’s element equal to half the difference between player’s shield strength and enemy’s attack when the attack breaks the shields.
	Wood	Gain force points when matched if there are no force points. Attack use force points to break enemy’s shield at 1:1 rate when attacks cannot break it.	Gain force points when matched if there are no force points. Defense use force points to withstand enemy’s attack at 1:1 rate when defense cannot withstand it.
	Ice	A random shield turns into attack immediately before the enemy attacks during the next defense turn.	Reduce enemy’s attack power by half.
	Poison	Attacks that passed through barriers reduce enemy’s HP by 1 (non-stacking) for the next 3 turns. Otherwise, the barrier strengths are reduced by 3.	A random enemy’s barrier has durability reduced 3. If there are no barriers, the enemy’s HP is reduced by 1 (non-stacking) for 3 turns.
	Sun	Randomly changes element of a random block. Resulting match count as player’s.	Randomly changes element of a random block. Resulting match count as player’s.
	Moon	Shift the blocks aligned with matching block in the direction of attack. Out of bounds blocks warp. Effect is cancelled if hitting moon shields.	Shift the blocks aligned with shield in the opposite direction of attack. Out of bounds blocks warp. Effect is cancelled when defending moon attacks.
	Sound	Creates a filter permanently. Filter turns enemy attacks into defense pieces at half power. Player 1’s filters are dotted while player 2’s filters are dashed.	Change one of enemy’s filters to that of player. If there are no filters, a filter is placed at a block aligned with the strongest attack randomly.
	Steam	Rise a block. Rose blocks block any attack from getting through once.	Raise a random defense area at the player’s side after damage calculation. Rose defense area is invincible for one enemy attack.
	Crystal	Forms a mirror. Mirrors reflect attacks when hitting the surface. Reflected attacks back to the player have the damage and effect applied to the player.	Spins one mirror (90/number of dimension) degrees across blocks but cannot spin out of bounds.
	Cosmo	Creates a shifter. Shifters shift an attack to an adjacent area randomly without changing its direction, merging with another attack with the elemental effects overwritten if applicable. If merging takes place, the cosmo attack is halved. If no merging takes place, the attack retains full power.	Spin a shifter 90 degrees counterclockwise within the same block.
	Dimension	Forms a warp. Block swapping bypasses warps. Warped blocks cannot be swapped. Matches involving warped blocks gains double effect.	Warped block is swapped randomly, favoring match forming swaps. Match formed this way is always an attack with blocks’ values doubled and resets the chain match order.
	Oracle	Shield hit by attack has remaining shield strength halved (rounded down) and reversed after the turn ends. If shield is destroyed, effect is applied to the next shield formation. Effect is cancelled if hitting oracle shields.	Steals the strongest shield to defend. If player’s shield is stolen, both shields are destroyed. If enemy’s shield is stolen, player’s shield is destroyed while enemy’s shield is restored at full power. If there are no shields, shield strength is increased 25% (rounded down) before being destroyed.

All decimals are rounded down.

Attack effects always trigger first and defense effect only triggers just before the attacks hit the shields. However, wind and metal shield effects trigger before the attack effects trigger.

All blast and shield effects apply together only to the ones aligned with the attacks.

Locked shields are marked as lowercase letters.

Covered blocks are marked with blue line and do not contribute to shield strength. Water blocks cannot be covered.

Rose blocks are marked with sky blue diagonal line. Rose shields are marked with sky blue border shared with status bar. Steam blocks cannot be rose.

Reversed shields have the texts strikethrough, have negative values during calculation and have strength reduced when joining other shields. Poison shields cannot be reversed.

Mirrors are marked with dark gray diagonal line. Crystal blocks cannot have mirrors.

Filters are marked with light purple borders. Sound blocks cannot have filters.

Sound blocks cannot have filters.

Shifters are marked with dark tan diagonal line. Cosmo blocks and blocks adjacent to shield areas cannot have shifters.

Reversed shields have the texts strikethrough, have negative values during calculation and have strength reduced when joining other shields. Poison shields cannot be reversed.

Shields have their elements replaced when joined, determined by the element of the block farthest from the player.

Match effect that involves blocks affect blocks aligned with the shield. If the effect cannot be triggered normally, they will trigger randomly at other areas of the spell field.

Only one block effect can be applied to one block at any time. If any effect causes multiple block effects appear on the same block, the effects are reapplied until multiple block effects do not appear on the same block.

d. Calculations

Shield strength collected=number of spell blocks aligned with the shield

Attack Damage=Player’s shield strength-Enemy’s shield strength (minimum 0)

Actual Damage=Attack Damage+Damage effect Modifiers

Force Accumulated=Actual Damage

e. Spells

Before spells can be cast, players must pay 10 force, which shall be signified by the force gauge turning orange. Then, a match must be done or no spells will be cast. The matched blocks will not form shields. Only one spell can be cast per battle, which then be triggered at the start of next turn. The element of the match done determines what spell is cast:

	Element	Spell	Effect
	Fire	Inferno	Deal  7 damage to enemy
	Water	Rain	Cover blocks equal to the number of elements available for the remainder of the battle unless they are matched
	Wind	Breeze	Enemy's attack and shield effects are disabled once
	Earth	Earthquake	All player’s shields which survived enemy’s attacks are launched immediately after damage calculation when defending. All enemy’s shields are locked when attacking, which leads to the enemy unable to attack for one turn.
	Light	Luminate	Heal  7 points
	Dark	Shockwave	The player attacks directly after the turn ends when attacking with the enemy’s defense turn skipped. The enemy shields are destroyed when defending and the turn order is unaffacted.
	Neutral	Spike	Neutral effects are stacked upon player’s attacks or defenses once.
	Metal	Rotator	All player’s attacks are redirected to areas with less shield when attack cannot penetrate through the enemy’s shields when attacking. The reverse applies when defending. Both effects do not work on metal and wind element attacks and defenses.
	Thunder	Thunderstorm	All player’s attacks are duplicated to the other player territory at quarter strength (rounded down) randomly to form shields when attacking. All player’s remaining shields (in case of the shields are destroyed, the strength difference between enemy’s attacks and player’s shields) after enemy’s attack are transferred to shield field of other axis when defending.
	Star	Shine	When attacking, all attacks gain shield equal to difference between player’s attack and enemy’s shield strength when the attack does damage. When defending, all defenses gain shield equal to difference between player’s shield strength and enemy’s attack when the attack does damage.
	Wood	Supply	When attacking, all attacks consume force to break enemy’s shields. When defending, all defenses consume force to withstand enemy attacks. Force consumption applies after effects ended up to total of 20 points. If force point consumption exceeds 20, remaining force points are not reduced.
	Ice	Freeze	Ice effect is applied to all attacks or defenses once.
	Poison	Poisoning	Poison effect is applied to all attacks or defenses once.
	Sun	Shine	Board reset without force penalties.
	Moon	Blanket	All blocks move right 1 unit and up 1 unit. Matched blocks are unaffected. Blocks warp through matched blocks and matched blocks.
	Sound	Pulse	Convert 4 enemy filters to that of player’s. If there are less filters, new filters are made.
	Steam	Emission	Raise 4 random blocks and 2 random player’s defense areas.
	Crystal	Bling	Add 4 mirrors randomly
	Cosmo	Phase	Add 4 shifters randomly
	Dimension	Wormhole	Forms 4 warped blocks randomly
	Oracle	Yin Yang	Oracle effects are applied to all attacks or defenses once.

In case of multiple matches, the first match done shall be used as the element of the spell used.

g. Board resets

When there are no match is possible, all of the blocks in the spell field will be replaced with new ones and both player’s force gauge are reset to 0.

h1. Bonuses of matching more than 3 blocks

Matching more than three blocks of the same element grant additional value to the block used to form the match by the number of extra blocks matched. However, covered blocks do not count when determining the value.

If a simultaneous match occurs, the blocks are used to form matches gain value equal to (number of simultaneous matches – 1.

h2. Bonuses of matching more than 3 blocks (Variant)

Making a match of 3 blocks or more in a continuous block sequence gives at least a boost block regardless of its orientation, which is marked with P1 for the player and P2 for the enemy. The tier and effects from the boost blocks are as follows:

Number of continuous blocks in a match	Boost Block Tier	Boost to matches by player	Drain to matches by enemy
3	1	1	1
4	2	2	2
5	3	3	3
6	4	4	4
7	5	5	5
8	6	6	6

The direction of the blocks from the intersecting blocks determines the direction of boost or drain at enemy. All intersecting blocks will form boost blocks. A block which is between multiple intersecting blocks as part of the continuous blocks has the effect duplicated to all boost block nearest to it. By selecting it, the specific effects of the block can be viewed. Covered blocks do not contribute to number of continuous blocks, but do not prevent continuous block formation. Blocks used to cast spells cannot form boost blocks as well.

6. Options

The game mechanics are partly customizable through the below options:

-          Adjacent match: Any three or more blocks which are adjacent to any of themselves counted as a match

-          Diagonal recognition: Diagonal matches are allowed

-          Non-matching spells: Spells can be activated without needing to match. With this option, players select a spell before match starts and it become the only spell usable for the players for the remainder of the battle.

-          Board pre-match: Allows the spell field at reset having matches already

-          Force matchable blocks: The random number generator will attempt to form potential matches

-          Block chain matches: The random number generator will prevent additional matches from random blocks after existing ones

-          Single mode: The starting player always attacks and the defending player always defends unless being affected by effects. In this case, the player is granted only (starting HP/5) attacks (excluding the ones caused by effects) to finish the enemy. The enemy wins if the player fails to do so or the player has the HP drop to 0 before 5 attacks are done. Spells are disabled for this option.

-          Reverse mode: The starting player defends first and the enemy attack right after the attack turn ends.

-          Static mode: Turn order repeats every 8 turns instead of getting reversed. Option not available for 1D mode.

-          Bonus variant: Use the variant version of match more than 3 bonus instead of the default one.

-          Inward gravity: Instead of the blocks being replaced, the blocks are pulled towards the shield field and blocks filling the blanks.

-          Outward gravity: Instead of the blocks being replaced, the blocks are pulled away from the shield field and blocks filling the blanks.

-          Fixed gravity: Instead of the blocks being replaced, the blocks are moving in a fixed random direction determined at the start of the battle and blocks filling the blanks.

-          Extended game: Both players start with 50HP. Spells are available once between 50 to 26 HP and another between 1 to 25 HP. If player does not activate force when HP is between 26 to 50 HP, the spell is considered wasted even when HP is restored back into range.

-          Long game: Both players start with 100HP. Spells can be cast up to 4 times, but a cooldown period of 6 turns is imposed after a spell was cast before the next one can be cast.

7. Alterations for other game modes

a1. 1D mode

The shield fields at the left and right sides are enabled while the ones at top and bottom are disabled. As such, there is neither shield field switch per 4 turns nor turn order alternation per 8 turns. Expert mode cannot be used with this game mode.

a2. 2D quad play mode

The field is exactly the same, but the attack direction changes every turn. After determining who gets to play first, the second player is the player opposite to the first player, the third player to the left and the last to the right. When attacking, the player’s first turn attack is towards the enemy opposite to the player, the second turn towards the enemy left to the player and the third turn towards the enemy right to the player. The cycle then repeats for the subsequent turns.

a3/1. Tag team assault mode

Gameplay is similar to 2d quad play modes, but players play in a team with combined HP. Team players are aligned 90 degrees with each other and turn order becomes Team 1 player 1, Team 2 player 1, Team 1 player 2 and Team 2 player 2. Team mates do not attack each other and player’s attack alternates between the two enemies.

a3/2. Tag team defense mode

Gameplay is similar to 2d quad play modes, but players play in a team with combined HP. Team players are aligned opposite with each other and turn order becomes Team 1 player 1, Team 2 player 1, Team 1 player 2 and Team 2 player 2.

a3/3. Tag team break mode

Gameplay is similar to tag team defense mode, but the goal is to reduce own team’s HP to 0 before opponent does.

b1. Rank modes

Elements are fixed and the board length is equal to that of number of elements in play. The rank modes are as follows:

Element	Rank 1	Rank 2	Rank 3	Rank 4	Rank 5	Rank 6	Rank 7	Rank 8	Rank 9
	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist
	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist
	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist
	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist
		Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist
		Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist
	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist
			Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist
			Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist
				Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist
				Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist
					Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist
					Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist
						Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist
						Exist	Exist	Exist	Exist
							Exist	Exist	Exist
							Exist	Exist	Exist
								Exist	Exist
								Exist	Exist
									Exist
									Exist

b2. Standard modes

Elements are chosen randomly before battle starts and board length is equal to number of elements in play. The possible number of elements is as follows:

Name	Number of elements
Easy	5
Medium	6
Intermediate	7
Advanced	8
Expert	9
Ultimate	10

b3. Casual modes

Elements are chosen randomly, but the board length is 1 more than number of elements in play. The possible number of elements is as follows:

Name	Number of elements
First	4
Learner	5
Novice	6
Amateur	7
Semi-Pro	8
Professional	9

9. Thunder element behavior in 2D quad play mode

In 2D quad play mode, thunder element behaves differently than in 2D advanced mode. When the attacking direction is to the enemy opposite of the player, the duplicate attack will be directed to either left or right side randomly. The similar applies with other attack directions.

10. Spells exclusive to Non-matching spell option

Name	Effect
Free Swap	Allows a block to switch places with another one. Resulting matches have the matching block values tripled.
Power Up	Increase all player’s shield strength by 1.
Power Down	Decrease all enemy’s shield strength by 1.
Aligner	Align player’s shield to enemy’s shield based on enemy’s shield strength.
Disperser	Align enemy’s shield away from player’s shield field as much as possible, but the resulting damage is halved.
Burglary	Steals (number of elements/4) enemy shields right during conversion of matches to shields, prioritizing empty spaces. Any merged shields have the elements replaced.
Merger	Merge 2 yet to attack shields to 2 weakest attacking shields during the end of the next attacking turn.

11. Legal

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. With that, as long as attribution is given by linking back to the blog and crediting this document to Murazrai, there shall be no restrictions of using or adapting this document, including for commercial purposes.