How do you imagine a typical co-op match would be like? For example:

•What determines the turn order?
•Do card effects like Loop affect only the player who played the card or both players on the team?
•How will you balance the amount of enemies to compensate for having two players?
•How are you going to adjust the enemy AI so it doesn't focus on one player and completely wreck them?
•Boss battles need tweaking too, would they get new multi-hit attacks? New defensive moves?

Those are all good things to think about I honestly had not gotten that far.

For turn order I suppose I could add an initiative attribute and a couple of relics and cards to increase initiative. Alternatively characters could just have a base initiative and no way to alter it Probably Slient with the most then Defect and finally Ironclad. Another possiblity is having shared energy and have both players turns at the same time. I rather like that idea as it makes you work together with your partner even more.

I would say cards that buff players in the base game would work the same and only target themselves but playing with another person opens the oppurtunity to create party buff cards or cards to support the other player. Some cards may be changed to allow the targeting of the other player. It would have to be tested as there are bound to be some pretty broken combos if all power or skill cards that buffed were allowed to be played this way.

As for the AI I think I would start by simply increasing their number and see how that works out. It could be a problem if, as you proposed, they decided to focus one person and simply kill them. It might be necessary to give characters better defensive cards for that reason or put a limit on number of units attacking a single player scaling by the act, floor, or some other attribute. For example you could make ironclad have some tank cards like taunts and have the silent have dodge cards or CC.

Bosses would need to be completly reworked some attacks could be made aoe. The slime for example would split at a much higher percentage and have more health. Also possibly split one extra time.

I think for obtaining relics I would have a roll or pass option and not simply duplicate the relics. Gold would be split I'm not sure wether I would increase gold gained or not or allow a way of transfering gold between the two.

But for now this is all speculative and obviously subject to change. I was simply going to start with trying to make the game have a local Co-Op mode without changes just to start and then start tweaking things. As I said I'm new to modding I do know a bit of Java but the structure of modding files is new to me so i'll need to learn more about that before anything else can happen.

Originally posted by Pistol Shrimp:

Those are all good things to think about I honestly had not gotten that far.

For turn order I suppose I could add an initiative attribute and a couple of relics and cards to increase initiative. Alternatively characters could just have a base initiative and no way to alter it Probably Slient with the most then Defect and finally Ironclad. Another possiblity is having shared energy and have both players turns at the same time. I rather like that idea as it makes you work together with your partner even more.

I would say cards that buff players in the base game would work the same and only target themselves but playing with another person opens the oppurtunity to create party buff cards or cards to support the other player. Some cards may be changed to allow the targeting of the other player. It would have to be tested as there are bound to be some pretty broken combos if all power or skill cards that buffed were allowed to be played this way.

As for the AI I think I would start by simply increasing their number and see how that works out. It could be a problem if, as you proposed, they decided to focus one person and simply kill them. It might be necessary to give characters better defensive cards for that reason or put a limit on number of units attacking a single player scaling by the act, floor, or some other attribute. For example you could make ironclad have some tank cards like taunts and have the silent have dodge cards or CC.

Bosses would need to be completly reworked some attacks could be made aoe. The slime for example would split at a much higher percentage and have more health. Also possibly split one extra time.

I think for obtaining relics I would have a roll or pass option and not simply duplicate the relics. Gold would be split I'm not sure wether I would increase gold gained or not or allow a way of transfering gold between the two.

But for now this is all speculative and obviously subject to change. I was simply going to start with trying to make the game have a local Co-Op mode without changes just to start and then start tweaking things. As I said I'm new to modding I do know a bit of Java but the structure of modding files is new to me so i'll need to learn more about that before anything else can happen.

for some advice on how to do this, look up how magic the gathering handles co-op games, with the two headed giant mode. it's not very fun, you will be taking turns , essentnially.
games liek this dont lend themse;evs well to more thana single person.

If turn-taking is a problem, some kind of combo/synergy system could emphasize teamwork instead of basically playing two single player runs together. Certain cards could be played simultaneously, certain cards could be powered up if used after your partner uses something else, etc.

Huge project though

This sounds like a good idea. You should be able to play cards on your teammate to help them. However, your teammate should not be able to be under the effect of a power that you cannot get on that character otherwise. For example, "Biased Cognition" should not be playable on your Ironclad teammate, it wouldn't even have any effect on him. But other cards like "Bandage Up" or "Reinforced Body" should be playable on teammates. About targetting, both of you should have a little symbol showing exactly who will be the target of an attack. That symbol will show up whenever an enemy intends to use a debuff or attack. No symbol should be present if the enemy is blocking, or intends to effect you both.

Maybe you're both linked to eachother on different paths. You both take one of 3 pre-determined paths to go down, and 1 will not be occupied. You take a couple of turns to fight monsters, visit shops, go to Rest Sites, and get to the 1st boss. But instead of fighting the boss, you fight your opponent. The victor will gain a point, and you will progress to the next act. The loser of the fight will get a special "Consultation Prize" relic, which will give them 10 extra HP the next time you fight. If you ever fall in battle before you fight eachother, you instantly skip the act, and your opponent gains a point. If you reach the boss before your opponent, you can spectate your opponent. During battle, you will both be able to view eachother's relics and decks. You cannot view their Draw Pile, or Discard Pile, however. The first to get 2 points, will win the PVP session. Oh, by the way, if your turn isn't the first, you immediately gain 15 block.

I think a good Competitive way would be to simply have them on the same Map. You can see what rooms they're currently in and what path they've been taking. You can't choose the same rooms, and it's basically a race to the boss. First to kill the boss is simply the only one to be able to get the Boss Relics. It'd be a race.

I think i way turn order could be done while still working with some modded characters is picking who goes first at the start of each battle. For example if you picked player 2 to go first then then the turn order would be P 2 > P 1 > Enemies > P 2

Originally posted by The Bored Boar:

I think a good Competitive way would be to simply have them on the same Map. You can see what rooms they're currently in and what path they've been taking. You can't choose the same rooms, and it's basically a race to the boss. First to kill the boss is simply the only one to be able to get the Boss Relics. It'd be a race.

Goodness gracious, I don't even remember this post... but uh, I still think it would be a good idea to have a mode where both players fight each other, but the race sounds cool too. Maybe it could be its own mode?