Shadows of Utgard (Teaser)

"What if I told you... that the afterlife was real? That there is a life beyond the one you're living... Worlds so distant... yet so intimately connected. Let me tell you a story. Of the day when these two worlds met. Your story. The year was 2032..."


Welcome to Arland. A swedish city, just like any other. But things here aren't quite as they seem. A city revelling in it's rich, viking history, making the quiet portside town a site of note for history buffs and nerds alike. Little do they know that history... is still relevant, even in the modern day. Echoes of the past haunt the city, in ways few could even begin to imagine.

Although the quiet port town has gotten quite a bit of attention lately. Citizens have lately reported sightings of ghosts and monsters. Most shrug off these claims as mere heresay, but the Rasmussen Foundation thinks otherwise. A company producing the most state of the art technology for both civilian and military use has taken great interest in these claims of the dead coming back to life.

And to make matters worse, people are going missing, only to be found days later, completely vacant, eyes drained of any signs of life, in a sort of trans-like state. Both doctors and scientists are befuddled as to what the cause is, nor have they found a cure to this disease. Rumors of vengeful spirits spread, and paranoia is at an alltime high. What is going on?

The clock is ticking... Can you find a solution before the city falls to this 'illness'? Before it is too late...

In Shadows of Utgard, a few changes are coming to the 'Sandbox', so to speak. While no new skills or such are added, or any new classes either, one big change is coming to your class abilities. Instead of your class ability being a one-use per thread/battle, etc, you'll be able to use it a bit more freedom. I wanted the Class Ability to play a more prevalent role in how you approach fights, and give each class its own identity beyond what their class ability does, and it don't want it to be this Last Resort option that it has been in the past.

Instead, it'll work similiar to how NPC assists work today. You'll basically accumulate Soul Energy as you fight, and it's in your best interest to gain as much of this energy as possible. The unit is counted in percent.

Soul Vessels and gaining energy

Each character starts out with one Soul Vessel which they can fill with energy. Every time you make an action in combat that doesn't involve guarding or otherwise passing your turn, you'll fill 5% of your Soul Vessel. By spending the contents of one whole Soul Vessel, you'll be able to activate your class ability without suffering any drawbacks it might've had. With one Soul Vessel used:
Persona Users don't lose access to the persona the fusion attack is tied to.

Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapons don't have to sit in cooldown after their Orgia Mode Runs out.

Rogues can access their overdose persona without risking withdrawal.

Forgotten can access their Last Life ability regardless of health.

Nyarlathotep Children's stats aren't lowered as a drawback.

Shadow Selves keep the strength of their skills the same.

Also, as you upgrade your class into the next level (or max out the only one you have access to), you'll gain access to more soul vessels (one per upgrade. So One soul vessel to initials, 2 for primes and 3 for ultimates). There are other ways of getting soul vessels as well, as some might be given out as rewards for completing certain quests or achieving something remarkable within the context of the story itself.


My goal with this change is to make your Class Ability something more involved with the way you approach fights, and not just something to use when your back is against the wall. You will of course be able to use Soul Energy for other things as well. It is another resource at your disposal, after all. But it is one which you have to work for. Naturally, since this makes class abilities easier to use, there might be changes made to the abilities themselves to compensate. But I won't go into that here.

How each class builds up their energy is explained in deeper detail below

So you might look at the slow regen rate of your class ability and really wonder "Will I really use this more than once per thread anyway?" and for you who are a rogue, forgotten experiment or ASSW, don't fret. Each class will have its own way of generating Energy on top of just acting, giving each class its own identity beyond just the class ability itself.

Philemon Aligned Classes (PU, ASSW, PWC)

As an awakened aligned with Philemon, the way you gain extra Energy is centered around the social links you make with people, and acting as a team player. And no, I'm not necessarily talking about just healing or reviving your allies. I'm talking about acts of heroism and kindness. Here's the List of actions which will give your Energy a bump.

• Taking a hit for an ally gives you a 5% bump to your current energy. (Sharing a social link of rank 2 or higher with this ally gives you an additional 5%)
  
• Using your turn to either remove an ailment from an ally or getting a downed friend back on their feet gives you a 10% bump. (Requires a Social Link of Rank 3 with the person you are trying to help. If your Social link is Rank 6 or higher, this gives you a 20% bump instead.)
  
• Using a Team Attack fills both of your soul vessels by 25%. (If your SL is at rank 8 or higher, you both recieve a flat 50% bump instead.)
  
• Taking a hit that would be fatal for a social linkee fills 50% of a soul vessel. (Requires a Rank 8 or higher social link to take effect. If your social link is maxed, you recieve twice the benefit. NOTE: You can only make use of this boon ONCE per fight. Needless to say, you only recieve the benefits if you actually survive the hit yourself.)
  

Nyarlathotep Aligned Classes (NC, NWC, Shadows and N-ASSWs)

In contrast to the classes aligned with Philemon, if you choose to side with Nyarlathotep, Energy gain is granted to you based on your combat performance.

• Knocking down an enemy fills your soul vessel. Minors give 5% Elites give you 10%, Majors give 20% and Bosses give 25%.
  
• Landing a killing blow fills your soul vessel. (Minors give 5%, Elites give 10%, Majors 20% and Bosses 40%)
  

Forgotten Expermients

Since the whole identity and playstyle of Forgotten is so deeply rooted to their health pool, I decided to tie their energy gain to their health as well, but in a different way. Since you, as a Forgotten, wants your health rather low, being rewarded for that playstyle is something I'd like to do. For each hit you take, 5% of your vessel is filled. So as you get closer and closer to self-activating it by taking hits from enemies, you're rewarded with one free activation of Last Life, provided you actually survive the turn. If you are knocked out, any gains to energy are void.

Rogues

As a Rogue, your way to gain extra energy comes in form of Stimulant Pills, a class specific consumable which you can use to gain more energy. You can access these pills from the Store. They can also be found as quest rewards or as random drops (Or if you are that desperate, you can steal them from other rogues). Taking a pill gives you a 25% bump to your Energy, along with some pvp benefits, like heightened senses and faster reaction speed. These benefits last for around 5 rounds. You can think of them as caffeine pills. But be cautioned. Overuse of these drugs isn't healthy for your body.

Enemy Ranks

In Shadows of Utgard, shadows now have a designated threat level, based on more than just their level.

Black dots on a map indicate a group of Minor shadows. These usually pose little threat to you and act only as a small speed bump on your way through a dungeon or raid.

Orange dots indicates the presence of an elite shadow. Its level is usually the same as a minor from the same dungeon, but its health pool will be bigger, and its suite of moves and weaknesses are harder to fight against.

Large Red dots are MAJORS, and takes ample preparation to take down, and usually patrol a raid or dungeon. You cannot ambush a major shadow. They usually lack weaknesses overall, and have high stats and a larger healthpool.

Bosses are indicated with a skull symbol. Orange skulls are mini-bosses, while red skulls are Dungeon bosses, and a black skull indicates a story or raid boss. These usually give the highest reward if defeated, and rest in the middle or end of a given instance (Dungeon, raid or otherwise).

And that's all I have to share for now. Hope that clears up things in regards to the class fantasy I want in this story. Thanks for reading!

So, to give you a glimpse of the cast, here are four of the 23 character roster that you'll be able to interact with during the story. Some are more significant to the overall narrative than others, but two of these will have a pretty major role to play in the dark world of Utgard.

Lina Magnusson is the only child of Karin Magnusson, and is currently the captain of the girl's soccer club at Arlands gymnasium. She's a fit and sporty girl, and is honestly pretty popular at school. Outside of her school life however, Lina is a troubled girl, working whenever she can to keep both her mother and herself under roof. This leads to very crazy work hours to manage on top of school, homework and friends. She has a great difficulty balancing all of this, and thus frustration and stress builds up. She hates the position she's found herself in, with the circumstances being out of her control, but at the same time, she wants to find help for her mother... but she's unsure of how to tackle her issues, and thus her teammates suffer, as she takes out everything on them when shit hits the fan.


Andrea is a student at Arlands Gymnasium, who also works part time at the school cafeteria as a baker. Worth noting is that she's the only child of Jan Brodin, the city's mayor, and thus recieves special treatment from the school staff... something which her peers aren't paticularly happy with. She is a diligent student however, often scoring high on her tests. Scores which her classmates suspect are coming from her relation to the mayor rather than her own work. This has put Andrea in a difficult situation, and she's not really the kind of person to really stand up for herself, lacking the self-confidence to dispel the suspicions on her own convincingly.


A classmate of Cecilia Enander, Johan Gadd is the resident shut-in of Class 2-E. He rarely interacts with any of his classmates, stays up way too late, and is often seen as abraisive and rude. From the outside looking in, it would seem that he doesn't appreciate company at all. Focusing more on his studies than anyone else, Johan's scores are some of the highest at the school. He spends most of his time in his room or at school, and rarely ever at other places. On occasion, his parents force him outside, just to get some sunshine on his otherwise very pale skin. He's quite thin too, not eating as much as he probably should. Difficult to get along with, but he does genuinely look out for those he does consider friends, even if it's in his own, rather misguided way.


The grizzled chief of Police, Hannes Lundborg is a funny man. He certainly doesn't carry the whole 'Chief of Police' mantle all that well at first glance, being a rather relaxed man who makes jokes and laughs often. When the situation demands it however, he does act as he should. He likes to keep a friendly attitude towards the people he meets on a day to day basis. He does struggle with his family life though, as his job consumes most of his time. He is fortunate however to have a very understanding wife, and both of his children... aren't really kids anymore. Still, he wishes to have a bit more time for his wife, and tries to make up for the vacancies to the best of his ability when able. An honest working man, he's generally pretty approachable by pretty much anyone.

You Vs. The Darkness

While you are getting more Powerful with the addition of Soul Vessels, the threat you face demands you to be strong. For you to grow with your foe, as to not be overwhelmed. In the past, you've been confined to Dungeon Dashes and Plot-specific events to grow in strength (or if you wanna go really far back, freeroaming preset dungeons), I wanted to give you a place to grow your character without the experience feeling samey. So I took a look at how Persona 3 and 5 handled it. Tartarus and Mementos were both good ways to gain in strength, as this constantly evolving dungeon which changed each time you went through it. While I'm not doing away with Static dungeons, you will have the option to enter an area within the story called the Deep. The Deep itself is this long, LONG dungeon which ramps up in difficulty the further in you delve. Enemies get stronger and so on. But you keep your progress, should you stop. At least... for a while. Eventually, if you don't go back within a certain time-frame (which you will be notified of as you leave), the darkness will fight back and claim it's once lost territory. And the fight against the Deep and whatever evils that lurks within will play a big role in the way you grow your skills. Some of the higher-end Rank-up requirements may even ask you to reach a paticular floor. Don't worry though. There are ways to keep the darkness permanently at bay.

Energy as a Resource

In addition to making you use your class ability without any drawbacks, Soul Energy can be used as a resource. At any time outside of battle, you may spend 25% of your energy to move 3 extra spaces forward, or take another action (like using an extra item or skill) before your turn ends. You can also use Energy as a resource for other things, like enhancing the effects of your Soul Skills. By using up a set amount of Soul Energy (depending on what you're looking to add on top of what the unboosted skill already does), you can add extra effects to the ability, which is noted on your sheet at persona creation. Each time you unlock a new soul skill, you'll repeat the process.

As the story moves on, you might even earn a pre-made soul skill from a Social Link, Storyline mission or as a Raid Reward, in which case, it will always cost energy in addition to HP/SP, and has no "default" and enhanced mode, but to compensate, these abilities offer something which you normally couldn't access.

And that's all for this week's update. Should only be one or so of these left before the voting actually begins, but we'll see. Have a good one!

Raids and Revives

So, you may have noticed me throwing around the word "Raid" a few times in this thread. Well, I might as well go into what that is within the context of Utgard and go over what separates Raids from dungeons.

A Raid is basically a dungeon on steroids. They come with multiple bosses with actual mechanics that don't devolve into them just becoming a target for your skills and let the RNG do the rest. Raids are typically at the center of a given part of the story, so naturally the enemies there are going to be much tougher. In ADDITION, raids have a set amount of Revives per floor. If you run out of revives, and get K/Oed, you may either pay a sum of VC to escape with your life intact, or risk it and be revived when the next floor is reached.

Upon completing a raid, you'll get a hefty chunk of Experience, and some good loot (not to mention money), but keep in mind that they ARE Timegated. Once the time limit for a raid has passed, it'll disappear and won't return again, often with some nasty reprecussions for the overall plot.


Sweeten the Deal with The Gambler's Deck

The Gambler's Deck is a special consumable which can be bought in Utgard. With it, you can add special modifiers within a given dungeon (or The Deep) to either make your journey easier or harder. Making it easier will reduce the reward you get for beating enemies and bosses, but will make progressing through the Deep to a checkpoint when enemies are higher level easier. Or you could use it to reap higher rewards if you're in not to progress but to grow stronger. Here's a peek of a few of the modifiers do.

Modifiers:

These are but a few of the modifiers you can add to your gambler's deck before using it. And that should be everything that Shadows of Utgard has to offer, in terms of mechanics anyway!