I'm introducing character skills in the next version. I'd like to hear thoughts on this, if you like to share it.
The skills are: stealthiness, sight distance, action speed and movement speed.
Each character will start with different base skills, and each character will also have different minimum and maximum skill points per skill.
After having done some research on the real-life abilities of the character species, I've concluded that some species are simply better at these skills than other species. So it's not balanced. Maybe that could be fine too in this game. The red panda and bunny are roughly equal. The hyena is a better character. And the cat has some of the best skills.
To compensate for the "better characters", I would let the player start out with the red panda and bunny. Then by increasing their individual thief ranks, the player can unlock new skins and "better" characters.
Each character would retain their individual gold and upgraded skills. So by selecting a new character, the players starts at the skill levels of that character. But the player will be able to upgrade the skills of the new character to higher levels than the previous one. Each character will keep their own upgraded skills. Also, the player retains their level progress in-game, so the player can continue the game with a new character and only having to build up the skills again.
I will give the guards the same skills as the characters. So guards can also become more alert, see further, act quicker and move faster. These skills will depend on the character skills, so that the level difficulty is always balanced towards the character.
The level size will depend on the thief rank of the character. So with higher thief ranks, the player unlocks larger levels. And larger levels can have new environments.
Each character will have their own thief rank. The thief rank increases with each successful objective, including the bonus objectives. It will also be easier to increase lower thief ranks than higher thief ranks. So for unlocking new skins and characters faster, it is better to switch between characters. All this is to promote and reward playing with the different characters.
Maybe I should also add a bit of a story in the game. Maybe a murder mystery with a traitor within the guild. Unless I get a better idea ^^
So what do you think? Could this idea work well for the game, to make it more fun to play with various characters, level them up and unlock new things for a more rewarding sense of progression throughout the game?