Steam News17 April 20251y ago

The Oaths Mechanic

Intro Hello! I'm Joe, and I'm the developer of Oaths Against the Darkness. I would just like to take a moment to explain one of the core concepts of the game, Oaths. I've got no idea how to write these, but here we go.

In this update3

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Full The Border Lord update

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What changed

0 fixes1 addition5 changes0 removals

Gameplay
Balance

addedFirst IterationMy first iteration of the idea was having rules that characters gain as they progress (as they take new oaths). If they stuck to these rules, they would gain an energy resource (Motivation) that could be used to execute powerful abilities. However if they disobeyed the oath, they would lose Motivation. After playing around with it, I realized that it could become too confusing and restricting for the player to have to worry about all these conditions for each character. So I decided to revamp it.

changedWhere Oaths Stand NowI decided to revamp Oaths, such that they simply become a pair of Buff and Debuff. This way, the player can easily see the kind of advantage it gives, and see the drawback as well. It's just a more fun implementation of the idea. As they level up, they gain Oaths, which are passives, every other level. In between, they will gain other abilities and specialisms - I haven't quite worked that out yet.

changedWhere Oaths Stand NowOath of Piety: Increased damage, with a chance for holy possession (AI forced control of the pawn).

changedWhere Oaths Stand NowOath of Simplicity: Increased general stats, but no ability to critical hit.

changedWhere Oaths Stand NowOath of Perfection: Massively increased critical chance, but damage self on a miss.

changedWhere Oaths Stand NowOath of the Bulwark: Reduced movement, but absorb part of the damage inflicted on adjacent allies.

The Border Lord changes

addedMy first iteration of the idea was having rules that characters gain as they progress (as they take new oaths). If they stuck to these rules, they would gain an energy resource (Motivation) that could be used to execute powerful abilities. However if they disobeyed the oath, they would lose Motivation. After playing around with it, I realized that it could become too confusing and restricting for the player to have to worry about all these conditions for each character. So I decided to revamp it.

changedI decided to revamp Oaths, such that they simply become a pair of Buff and Debuff. This way, the player can easily see the kind of advantage it gives, and see the drawback as well. It's just a more fun implementation of the idea. As they level up, they gain Oaths, which are passives, every other level. In between, they will gain other abilities and specialisms - I haven't quite worked that out yet.

changedOath of Piety: Increased damage, with a chance for holy possession (AI forced control of the pawn).

changedOath of Simplicity: Increased general stats, but no ability to critical hit.

changedOath of Perfection: Massively increased critical chance, but damage self on a miss.

Intro

Hello!

I'm Joe, and I'm the developer of Oaths Against the Darkness. I would just like to take a moment to explain one of the core concepts of the game, Oaths. I've got no idea how to write these, but here we go.

Originally, the game was going to center around the different motivations warriors can have: greed, glory, or honor. However, being one dude, I realized at a certain point that I needed to cut two of those out because I simply don't have the time, skill, and energy to make such a game at a level of quality I feel good about. So, I cut out greed and glory, and now there's only Honor.

So, honorable people tend to stick to some kind of code. That code can enable them to be courageous or strong, but there are always drawbacks involved - their code is their strength, but it can be their weakness as well. So, I wanted to make something that represents that concept.

First Iteration

My first iteration of the idea was having rules that characters gain as they progress (as they take new oaths). If they stuck to these rules, they would gain an energy resource (Motivation) that could be used to execute powerful abilities. However if they disobeyed the oath, they would lose Motivation. After playing around with it, I realized that it could become too confusing and restricting for the player to have to worry about all these conditions for each character. So I decided to revamp it.

Where Oaths Stand Now

I decided to revamp Oaths, such that they simply become a pair of Buff and Debuff. This way, the player can easily see the kind of advantage it gives, and see the drawback as well. It's just a more fun implementation of the idea. As they level up, they gain Oaths, which are passives, every other level. In between, they will gain other abilities and specialisms - I haven't quite worked that out yet.

Here's a list of Oaths I've experimented with so far (these will almost certainly change!)

Oath of PietyIncreased damage, with a chance for holy possession (AI forced control of the pawn).
Oath of SimplicityIncreased general stats, but no ability to critical hit.
Oath of Endurance: Only one attack can be made per turn, but reduce incoming dance by 1 and downgrade crits to normal hits.
Oath of PerfectionMassively increased critical chance, but damage self on a miss.
Oath of Courage: Free attacks per adjacent enemy, but cannot disengage from a living enemy.
Oath of the BulwarkReduced movement, but absorb part of the damage inflicted on adjacent allies.

That's it for now. If you read this - thanks.

Enjoy your day!

Source

Steam News / 17 April 2025

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