Combat in Stepcraft - A First Look

Read all about the story and mechanics behind combat in Stepcraft.

The Story Behind Combat

Combat is a core part of the Stepcraft story. We are designing Stepcraft to have several regions, each with unique monsters and enemies that fit in the aesthetics and story of that region.

Each region will include three dungeons, each with a few enemies waiting for you. We want to make sure that every monster presents its unique challenges to the player. Initially we want to differentiate monsters by their stats primarly. We have ideas to add different types of damage that could fit nicely with the enemy, for example by having a toxic mushroom enemy do poison damage over time whenever it critically strikes.

For the Alpha release, we are focussing on the first region, the Elven region. This is where players who choose the Elven race will start their story. So far, we have marked the three dungeons on this piece of the map, and have filled the first of the three with enemies.

Quests and Combat

The quest lines that we are adding to the game will lead you to explore these dungeons. By exploring, you will gain unique items and artifacts that can only be found in these special areas. Sometimes these quests may require you to grind to get a rare drop from an enemy. Other times, quests may send you on missions to prepare for an enemy you are currently not yet ready for, by gathering resources and crafting items.

Choose Your Adventure

Stepcraft will allow players to choose a race and class for their characters. You choose your race when you create your character, later on you choose which class you want to specialize in. These choices will come with their own strenghts and weaknesses, both in combat and outside. For example, wizards can do more damage but also take more damage. Barbarians are more tanky but might be slower to get places. Your choices will influence how you play the game, and together with that influence your story.

How Combat Works

As with everything in Stepcraft, the primary input for combat is your steps. Every attack round against an enemy is powered by a set number of steps. At the end of each round, you'll both do some damage to the enemy, and take some damage yourself.

This is where items come in. These will influence the outcome of each round, allowing you to do more damage, be more resistant to what your enemies put out, or boost other stats like your max health or crit chance. Similarly, potions can give a temporary boost to some of your stats.

Surviving the Battle

To sustain many rounds of incoming damage, you can equip food that will heal you a little bit with every step you take. This of course slowly consumes the food, so for bigger enemies it's best to bring your lunch.

What happens when you hit 0 HP? We want this to be a setback, but not a disaster. The progress you made on the current enemy will be reset, and you'll have to gain back some hit points to start combat again. This means losing the steps you put into the current enemy, which can be especially punishing for the bigger bosses we are planning to add later in the game. Better come prepared!

Adding in some Luck

Inspired by D&D, we are adding some randomness into combat by giving each attack a chance to critically strike. If you find that luck is not on your side often enough, you can boost your chances with items and potions. Beware though, enemies can critically strike as well!

A Sneak Peek

We want to give a preview of what combat will look and feel like in Stepcraft. Below is a video of how combat currently looks in the game. The mechanics and visuals of the game might change from what is shown here, but hopefully it gives an idea of what we are aiming towards.

What We Have So Far

We are very actively working on combat right now. So far, we have implemented the mechanics behind attacks, taking into account items and potions. When you kill an enemy, you may receive some random drops, and a new enemy will spawn. Logic to manage your health and what happens when you reach 0 is in place as well. The first few enemies from the Elven quest line are already part of the game.

So what's still missing? We want to add more enemies, both for the other quest lines, and for later in the game. Quite a few items already exist, we want to extend this list and tweak the stats on each of them. Other than that, there's of course a lot of polishing, tweaking and testing to make sure everything works as expected and is fun.

We're excited for this first version to be implemented. If you have any thoughts or ideas on our approach, we would love for you to join our Discord and share them there. If you want to be among the first to try out the Alpha version, head to our Patreon!

Ready to turn your walks into adventures? Sign up for Stepcraft's Closed Alpha today and transform your daily movement into epic fantasy quests. Your character is waiting, and the world is ready to be explored.