Fanon:Characters (Extended Tale of Diep)

For the main Tale of Diep page, see Characters.

Mechanics involving Characters in The Extended Tale of Diep differ than that of The Tale of Diep in a number of ways. Revised idea by Diepmon.

Basic Mechanics

Firstly, instead of going to level 45, players can now max their Characters out at level 75, with the class upgrade system that exists in Diep.io also being overhauled. Leveling Characters is now slightly easier, but is still very slow to keep with the pace of the game. The new areas of The Realm introduced with the Extended Tale of Diep take levels 46-75 into account, allowing for expanded exploration while also squishing the old areas into new leveling boundaries (I'm releasing an updated version of the Realm Map soon.) Players are still the same size every 15 levels, with players within levels 1-15, 16-30, 31-45, 46-60, and 61-75 being the same size as others within the same range.

This is what would happen if level scaling WASN'T a thing.

Additionally, if players are over the level for a Realm Area's level range, they will be pushed down to the maximum level that area allows for, so as to make sure that maxed-out level 75 players can't singlehandedly steamroll a boss meant for level 16-30 players. However, size differences remain the same between player levels. Bosses in raid-style gamemodes (with groups of 4, 8, 16, 24, or higher), structures, or encounter-based bosses all have a set level cap that players above that level will be pushed down to. The later a boss's placement in the game is, the higher the level cap will be until the point where there is no level cap.

Upon death, players will no longer lose their character, but all inventory items (excluding currently worn gear) will be lost on death and can be collected via a tombstone at the last death location. Players will be reset to their previous tier of upgrade (so if they were level 75, they will be reset to 60, then 45, and so on.) Characters can be deleted to make room for others.

The following mechanics carried over from the Tale of Diep remain the same: five character slots, currencies, and Companions.

Design Changes

Players can now customize their weapons and appearance (they now have arms!) Due to the class system being greatly reduced in size from Diep.io's, it will now allow for custom weapon skins to be used that are exclusive to each class, while armor in certain slots will allow for customizable characters. There are "outfit slots" that contain the head, left arm, right arm, left hand, and right hand slots that will allow players to customize their character as they choose for looks without having to worry about gear stats. Some classes prioritize certain stats over others, so not all gear or weapons are as effective on some than they would be on others. Weapons can be put in the cosmetic slots to overlay the actual item with a different skin while keeping the same stats, so as long as they are the same type as the one the class requires.

Example of a character using the Hybrid class in the EToD. Note the handheld heavy cannon and the orbiting drone spawner.

Additionally, there are no more body-mounted weapons, which did look rather awkward. Secondary drones (drones that can't be controlled) now come from a dedicated orbital drone spawner that orbits around the player and is intangible (though, in certain cases, players can control the drones that come out of such a spawner,) while those that can be controlled are spawned from weapons held by the player (again, customizable in terms of looks and stats.)

Inventory and Accessory Slots

Players start out with 32 inventory slots in an 8x4 grid. Every 15 levels, they gain 8 more slots, for a total of 64 at max level. The inventory is opened with a keybind and is not visible by default. It contains the accessory slots to the left, showing the player's character surrounded with their currently equipped gear.

Items in the Extended Tale of Diep vary greatly in function, and it is imprudent to list them here when the concept isn't even fully fleshed out yet. What can be discussed, however, is gear and weapons.

There are ten "body" slots: head, left arm, right arm, left hand, right hand, belt, torso, belt, legs, and feet. However, only the first five are rendered on the player's character (and as such have appearance), due to the EToD's top-down perspective. In terms of accessories, there are two "hand" slots (heavy weapons like the Destroyer cannon in the above image take up both slots, place it in one and it takes up both), two "relic" slots, one "amulet" spot, one "charm" spot, and two "ring" slots. Only the items in the "hand" slots are rendered (these being the weapons which the player fights with and for abilities to be performed,) whereas all other items slots are simply stat-boosters or buff-granters.

Abilities, Damage, and Classes

Upgrade Changes

The Extended Tale of Diep introduces several integral components of MMOs to the field, these being special abilities, skill trees and passives, and perk paths. The skill tree, perk path, and special abilities are exclusive for use with the player's class, and do not interfere in any way with the Panzergram, which strictly affects the base character.

Players upgrade their class every 15 levels (up to level 45, at which they begin following their Discipline, see below on that,) but they choose one of eight specializations at level 15 that will determine the overall theme of their Character's gameplay going forward. Each Specialization has two Aspects, one of which is chosen at level 30. At level 45, they choose one of three Disciplines, of the tank (as in absorbing damage), damage, or healing roles. There are no more subsets after that.

It's a bit confusing, right? Here's how it works: Each class (the equivalent of tank upgrades in Diep.io) that players select every 15 levels to upgrade to is "attuned" to a certain subset or set of subsets. For example, the Lancer, a level 15 tank, is attuned to the "Swordfighter" Specialization, while a Paladin would be attuned to the "Swordfighter" Specialization, having upgraded from the Lancer, but also would have the "Guardian" Aspect, and the "Vigilance" discipline. In the middle, a Bastion would have the "Swordfighter" Specialization and the "Guardian" Aspect, but no Discipline because it is not yet level 45. There is only one class per final Discipline, Specialization, and Aspect; since there are eight Specializations, two Aspects per Specialization, and three Disciplines per Aspect, there are a total of 48 unique max classes.

Stats have been done away with. No longer are there the eight categories of upgrades - the EToD now uses an MMO-style stats system. The stats are as follows:

• Mastery: This is your basic stat. Increases all numerical non-percentage values that abilities use; i.e., healing and damage.
• Critical: Your chance to deal a critical hit, and the resulting critical multiplier. The default critical multiplier is 50%, this increases as you stack more Critical. By default, the critical chance is 10%. This is also increased by Critical.
• Accuracy: When you deal any sort of damage to an enemy, there's a chance that your shots might be registered as a miss, which is where Accuracy comes in. The higher your Accuracy, the less likely you are to miss. There will come a point where 100% of your attacks will hit. The default Accuracy percentage is 90% (but the stat itself is numerical), but to land all attacks on enemies, which have a 10% Accuracy modifier (meaning that in reality, only 80% of your attacks will hit), you must have a 110% Accuracy percentage to be 100% successful.
• Power: Provides a bonus to your outgoing damage and healing, on top of the base values provided by Mastery. This is more of a boost than anything.
• Alacrity: Makes channeled abilities (abilities that are performed over a certain duration) happen faster. There is a delay between ability use called a Global Cooldown (GCD), which by default, with 0 Alacrity, is 1.5 seconds. This delay can be decreased, but stacking too much Alacrity diminishes the overall effect of the stat (the same is true for all other stats.) Also decreases the cooldown of all abilities by a small percentage which also increases when stacked.
• Armor Rating: Basically, how much damage resistance you have. Of course, with a higher Armor Rating stat, the less damage you'll take. Be aware that there are armor restrictions with Specializations, although Adaptive Armor (explained on the Stats page) will automatically adjust to the highest level of protection your Specialization can wear.
• Endurance: How much health you have, calculated by a formula that takes into account the base health offered by your level and your Endurance stat. Like the other stats, stacking this too much won't see much of an increase relative to your level.
• Defense: This is a tank stat, used only by tank classes (or it should be, but knowing players, they'll do things they aren't supposed to and use gear with this stat on healer Characters.) It offers extra damage resistance beyond your Armor Rating, and often, percentages exceed 100% (bosses hit pretty hard.)
• Absorb: Another tank stat. Tanks have these things called "Shields" (not shield as in the protective item, but a shield generator) that activates based on Shield Chance (the next stat explained below.) Absorb determines how much additional damage your Shield, when it activates, will absorb, on top of your normal damage resistance from Defense and Armor Rating.
• Shield Chance: A tank stat that determines what the chance for your shield to activate is when you take damage, nothing more. The higher this stat, the higher the chance is that you'll take a fraction of the normal damage thanks to your shield.

Exact values and the scaling nature of these stats level will be covered in a separate Stats page.

A full list of Specializations and their subsets can be seen below, as well as the upgrade order of classes and which are tied to which skillset.

The functionality of Prophets and Cult Guards remain - although they are restricted to Arena gamemodes.

Damage Changes

Damage is now dealt in a number of ways:

• True Damage: This type of damage bypasses all forms of defense, with few exceptions. True damage is dealt by attacks that deal rigid percentage-based damage, and all debuffs.
• Elemental Damage: A ranged occurrence of damage that partially bypasses armor, with a 25% additive reduction (it will subtract 25% from the armor defense before making the damage calculation. The damage reduction will not be made negative, so if something has 30% armor, it will instead take damage from an Elemental attack like if it had 5% armor.) Usually dealt by magic-based attacks.
• Internal Damage: A melee occurrence of damage that partially bypasses armor, with a 25% additive reduction that works the same way as Elemental. Usually dealt by piercing attacks.
• Kinetic Damage: A ranged occurrence of damage that does not bypass armor. Usually dealt by physical projectile attacks and melee hits.
• Energy Damage: A melee occurrence of damage that does not bypass armor. Usually dealt by electric, suppression, or "energized" attacks. The difference from Elemental is that Energy tends to be melee, while Elemental tends to be ranged. However, there are exceptions.

Splitting damage into five categories allows for more flexibility with abilities and resistances. However, damage resistances on enemies are usually either tuned to Elemental and Internal, or Kinetic and Energy. If an entity has an Entity Classification of Conqueror or above, this applies to all types of damage barring True. In the event that an entity has a resistance to Internal and/or Elemental damage, it will still have the armor piercing effect (which is a resistance value calculated separately from base damage reduction.)

Base damage reduction, armor, and buff defensive values are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THINGS. They operate in the same vein of reducing how much damage an entity takes, but they are calculated separately from each other. For example, Septaur, who has armor in his design, does not actually have any armor-based resistance (0%). Instead, that damage reduction is factored into his base damage reduction. Only players have armor-based resistances.

There is only one type of healing, though. There isn't any need to make this system even more complicated than it is.

Class/Specialization Tree

The new Lancer branch, under the Sword fighter Specialization.

The new Battlecaster branch, under the Arcanite Specialization.

The new Machine Gun branch, under the Cannoneer Specialization.

The new Repeater branch, under the Gunner Specialization.

The new Pummeler branch, under the Warrior Specialization.

The new Chain Summoner branch, under the Swarm Striker Specialization.

The new Ballista branch, under the Bolter Specialization.

The new Rifle branch, under the Agent Specialization.

The first level is Specialization (level 15), the second level is Aspect (level 30), and the third level is Discipline (level 45). All tanks branch out from the Starter class, which has a one-handed weapon with one normal barrel (like Diep.io's Basic Tank, but EToD-ized.)

• Lancer: Sword fighter (Blade Melee)
  • Bastion: Guardian (Heavier Blade Melee)
    • Winged Hussar: Vigilance (Sustained-attack Melee Damage)
    • Paladin: Defender (Armor-based Melee Tank)
    • Buster: Focus (Heavy-weapon Melee Damage)
  • Akimblade: Sentinel (Two Melee Weapons)
    • Chainslayer: Combat (Pure-Offensive Melee Damage)
    • Serrator: Concentration (Piercing Melee Damage)
    • Switchblade: Warden (Longer Range/Sharpened Melee Damage)
• Battlecaster: Arcanite (Hybrid Ranged/Melee)
  • Technoviz: Sage (Melee Minion with Strong Magic)
    • Witch Doctor: Balance (Debuff-based Damage)
    • Archmage: Telekinetics (Energy-based Magic Damage)
    • Visage: Seer (Light-based Magic Healer)
  • Cavelier: Shadow (Close-Quarters Combat with Magic)
    • Vantamilier: Infiltration (Stealth Damage)
    • Dracolier: Kinetic Combat (Earth-based Tank)
    • Virulier: Serenity (Leecher Damage)
• Machinegun: Cannonneer (Ranged)
  • Chaingun: Vanguard (Ranged RoF)
    • Protector: Shield Specialist (Close-Quarters Ranged Hybrid Tank)
    • Paralyzer: Plasmatech (Fire-based Ranged Damage)
    • Sprayer: Tactics (Sustained Burst Ranged Damage)
  • Destroyer: Commando (Heavy Ranged)
    • Vulcan: Gunnery (Sustained Heavy Ranged Damage)
    • Annihilator: Assault Specialist (Heavy Explosive Ranged Damage)
    • Hybrid: Combat Medic (Multi-purpose Heavy Ranged Healer)
• Repeater: Gunner (Focused Ranged Damage)
  • Gatling: Autogunner (Focused Burst Ranged Damage)
    • Threepeater: Sharpshooter (Extreme Focus Burst Ranged Damage)
    • Skimmer: Saboteur (Artillery Area Denial Ranged Damage)
    • Tetrashot: Multimaster (Medium Spread Ranged Damage)
  • Shikari: Hunter (Stacked Focus Ranged Damage)
    • Predator: Honer (Superstacked Focus Ranged Damage)
    • Bomber: Sawbones (AoE Ranged Damage/Healer)
    • Scattergun: Scrapper (High Spread Ranged Damage)
• Pummeler: Warrior (Close-Quarters Melee)
  • Thrasher: Marauder (Close-Quarters Drone Melee)
    • Wrecker: Decimator (Multi-Drone Close-Quarters Damage)
    • Mauler: Eradicator (Higher Close-Quarters Damage)
    • Dasher: Ferocity (Gap Closer Close-Quarters Damage)
  • Smasher: Juggernaut (Heavier Cl(ose-Quarters Melee)
    • Megalith: Immortal (Deadly Close-Quarters Tank)
    • Basher: Avenger (Shielded Close-Quarters Damage)
    • Graviton: Berserker (Gravity Pull Close-Quarters Damage)
• Chain Summoner: Swarm Striker (Drone Ranged)
  • Vizier: Minionmaster (More Drones Ranged)
    • Overlord: Madness (Stronger Drones Ranged)
    • Necromancer: Corruption (Additional Drones Ranged)
    • Sw4rmst0rm: Tempest (Hive-swarm Drone Ranged)
  • Piledriver: Staffmaster (Staff Melee)
    • Axecalibur: Bulwark (Heavy Staff Tank)
    • Pikejector: Inception (Buff Staff Damage)
    • Pincushion: Synergy (Spike Staff Damage)
• Ballista: Bolter (Piercing Ranged)
  • Triplista: Ordnance (Additional Piercing Ranged)
    • Quintilista: Bodyguard (Piercing Healer)
    • Flamethrower: Innovator (Piercing AoE Damage)
    • Missilista: Arsenal (Homing Piercing Damage)
  • Griever: Gripper (Grappling Ranged)
    • Shredder: Sangotech (Debuff Grappling Damage)
    • Grappler: Protopoker (Multi-Grappling Damage)
    • Lurker: Shield Claw (Grappling Tank)
• Rifle: Agent (Long-Range)
  • Ranger: Sniper (Long-Range)
    • Falcon: Marksmanship (Ultra-Accurate Long-Range Damage)
    • Automner: Engineering (Multi-shot Long-Range Damage)
    • Stalker: Virulence (Extreme-Range Damage)
  • Trapper: Operative (Defensive Traps)
    • Minelayer: Concealment (Thorn Landmine Damage)
    • Constructor: Genesis (Turret Defensive Healer)
    • Claymore: Lethality (Debuff Traps Damage)

Trivia

• This page pretty much turned what EToD used to be on its head in terms of the base mechanics and turned it into something closer to most MMOs, while still retaining the art style and some mechanics of Diep.io.
• The functionality of Prophets can't be carried over into the new class system mainly because my head couldn't make any sense of how Cult conversion would work in the Realm. Thus, they remain restricted to Arena gamemodes.