Chime

**Chime** is a **deliberate combat** video game in the *Svea* series, currently in development.

## Key gameplay notes

* Definite
	1. Action warm-up
		+ All actions have a **warm-up** period that telegraphs which action is being taken.
		+ This is true for all units in the game, including the player.
	2. Stamina management
		+ All actions are limited by the player's current stamina.
		+ When no actions (aside from walking) are being taken, stamina begins to rapidly regenerate after a moment.
	3. Hitstun
	4. No i-frames outside of dodging
	5. Death drops
	6. Fixed enemy placement
		+ All enemies are placed deliberately. Each time the player rewinds at a candle, slain enemies respawn to their predetermined placements.
* Pending
	1. Animation priority
		+ All actions must be fully played out, in most cases or at least near-completion, before another action can be inputted. The player cannot interrupt their own actions with another, and they cannot "cancel" actions into another.
		+ Example: The player cannot prematurely end their sword strike with a dodge. If the player attacks, they put themselves in a vulnerable position where they cannot avoid damage.
	2. Shortcuts
	3. Interconnected, self-looping world layout

## Death drop

* Upon death, the player is rewound to the previously used candle, whereas all of their unspent mites/coins are bound to the place of their death.
* Consequently, using a candle respawns all slain enemies.
* The player can pick up any death-dropped currency on the spot they died.
* Each rewind halves all death-dropped currencies.

## Lore

* An unholy secret in the heart of the castle has brought upon a cycle of rebirth for uncountable years.
* The more a person is reborn, the further their sanity is stripped away, retaining only their **purpose**.

## Progression

* The game starts in the Gardens.
* From here, the player has a few paths to choose from. Progressing further will unlock more shortcuts back to the gardens, as well as new paths forward.
* As a first goal, the player has to find and defeat 1 of 3 starting bosses. Each one of these bosses will unlock their own path forward to the next mandatory boss. The player can fight any and all of these bosses, which each will unlock their own path to the mandatory boss, as well as various shortcuts, but what is important is that the player reaches the first boss; and to do so, they will pass at least one of these.
* The Gardens is located either in the middle of the Castle Outskirts, or at the very bottom.

* The Castle Proper has a deliberate **distribution** system with chutes that go up and down within the castle on chains. This allows quick travel between some areas.
	+ The player does not have access to this system until achieving an upgrade.
	+ They are however able to use it to transport items.

* There are also several large **aqueducts** that go in and out of the Castle Proper – that can only be accessed from a high enough vantage point.
	+ The player is eventually able to open shortcuts to climb up to each aqueduct.

### External links

* Distribution Center – AM2R (Inspiration)

## Weapons

* Prior to the game's start, the player chooses their **starting weapon**.
	+ This is done by choosing your **ancestor**; allowing the player to test that weapon in a unique sequence where they play as their ancestor against some enemies.
* All other weapons can be found later, by exploring.

### Controls

#### 1

* Shortened attacks are done with R1 and R2.
* Extended attacks are done with L1 and L2.
* Pressing L1/L2 when the weapon is currently shortened performs a transformation attack, causing the weapon to be extended.
	+ Tapping L2 lightly when the weapon is in its shortened form transforms the weapon without an attack.
* Pressing R1/R2 when the weapon is currently extended performs a transformation attack that causes the weapon to be shortened.
	+ Tapping R2 lightly when the weapon is in its extended form transforms the weapon without an attack.

#### 2

* Tapping R2 deals a **light** attack, holding R2 a bit before release deals a **might** attack.
* Tapping R1 deals a **light transformation** attack, holding R1 before release deals a **light transformation** attack.
* Due to the weapon switching between **shortened** and **extended** states, attacks noted above come in 2 forms each.
* L2 is used for **snipe**, whereas when held it allows the player to shift its properties.
* L1 is used to **heal**.

## Topple

* Light attacks (R1) have high breakage but low maintenance.
* Might attacks (R2) have low breakage but high maintenance.
* Might attacks are required to topple an enemy when possible.
	+ The higher the charge of the might attacks, the earlier topple is possible.

## Snipe

* The player has a **snipe** meter that fills in the same manner the Support/Sabotage bars do, divided into segments.
* Once a segment has been filled, it can be consumed to fire a very long-range, aimed projectile. The player can do this no other way.

## Stats

* Ability restriction is not tied to a stat.

## Mechanics

### Rally

* Damage receives is represented as "Rally HP".
* While actual current HP is decreased immediately by damage, Rally HP remains for a short duration.
* Rally HP represents the amount of HP is recoverable, done by dealing damage to the enemy.
* Damage dealt decreases remaining Rally HP, but also restores it to the player.
* Compared to *Bloodborne*, Rally HP is not dependent on the last hit only (making multi-hit attacks too strong)
* It also isn't set for a duration and then immediately emptied.
* Instead, while there is a grace period where Rally HP doesn't decrease, it decreases over time with a fixed speed, rather than immediately.
	+ Taking massive damage also gives the player a massive Rally HP pool that takes a longer time to fully deplete.

### Stability

* Stability is a stat that affects the **interruptibility** of units.
* If the **instability** stat of an attack exceeds the **stability** stat of the target, the target is **interrupted**.

* By default, player characters have **100** stability.
* Stability is increased during attacks; this is known as **heavy armor** or **super armor** in other games.
	+ Slower weapons in general give higher stability.
	+ Two-handed/special attacks in general give higher stability.

* The attacks of bosses and large/dangerous enemies, tend to have very high instability, almost always interrupting the player.

## Equipment

* Different weapons only when the moveset / core flow is different.
	+ E.g. dagger instead of sword due to shorter range, etc.
* "Chests" instead contain weapon skins, along with an upgrade bonus to that weapon.

### Weaponry

* Two-handed attacks are done with L1 and L2.
	+ Two-handing itself is not a mode that appears however.

### Sorcery

* Dealing damage using MP has the enemy drop incremental MP upon death.
	+ No MP recovery in the form of items exist.

* Projectile sorcery has ramping damage; starting very low and requiring near-full charge to get any real form of damage.

 Charged
 Charged

## Items

* to activate.
* to switch between. Can be held to switch to first.
* Equipped Item is shown on the player, held in their left hand.
* All Item equips has limited usage, that may be increased.

 Firearm
 Throwing Knife

## Support

* to activate.
* to switch between. Can be held to switch to first.
* Support equips has their own limited usage, that also may be increased.

 Cold Paper
 Vamp
 Remedy
 Spook

### Pending

 Deprotect Paper
 Debrave Paper
 Defaith Paper

## Heal

* to activate.
* to switch restorative effect (rare occasion).
	+ The default Heal effect cannot be removed, and will always take up the 1st slot.
* Applies a heal-over-time for the entirety of the user's health.
* While the activation is fairly quick, any damage received while the effect is active cancels it.
* Healing is limited by a resource, that can be increased upon exploration.
* The resource is immediately consumed upon activation, regardless of any health actually being healed.
* The heal-over-time rate is constant, regardless of maximum health.

## Battle Flow

* While self-Heal is precise and effective, enemies have fast and relentless attacks.
* The difficulty comes from being able to maintain the heal over time, without losing resource, as one will if damage is taken when the heal-over-time effect is active.
* The player has two options:
	1. Evade until health is restored.
	2. Stun and stagger the enemy, preventing them from dealing damage until health is restored.
* Revenge Recovery has a long window of opportunity, and can be utilized to aid with the speed of recovery.
	+ Do note that this "wastes" some self-Heal resource, as Revenge Recovery overrides some of the healing.