After finding out we needed new character designs to seperate ourselves from that other game, we decided to go in a whole new direction. Instead of armour clad battle mages, we are now moving towards Van Helsing style dragon hunters. The most notable difference here, besides the drastically different appearance, is that our characters will now use crossbows instead of magic staves. As such, this has brought about a slightly different mechanic.
In the old idea, the players got two different attacks; a magic beam and a magic missile, each fired using different buttons. Now, there will only be one button used for ranged attacks. Tapping it will cause the player character to fire a bolt quickly, and this attack may be used in quick succession for multiple hits. However, the player can also hold down the attack button to charge up the crossbow, unleashing a much more powerful shot at the cost of standing still while the attack charges. This maintains the same basic idea we had with the battlemages, but executes it slightly differently, in a much more crossbow friendly way.
But that’s not all. Another feature will be introduced to add an extra dynamic to the game: a sprint button. During discussions about animations, we where trying to decide whether the player should face where the direction they’re running in or the direction of their crosshair. This gave us an idea; the player will now be able to switch between two states. Normally, the player will face their crosshair and walk at a slowish speed. they will be able to aim their crosshair and fire whenever they wish, even on the move. However, if they hold the sprint button, their crosshair will vanish and they will be able to move much more quickly. However, they will also be unable to fire until they stop sprinting. There will be a slight pause when transitioning between aiming and sprinting in order to stop players from abusing the system.