Designing Class: Basics

Breeze Grigas, Director and Head Designer

In one of our recent dev blogs, I talked about how the name A.E.G.I.S. came to be. It was a representation of the five different robot Classes in the game: Assault, Evasive, Guard, Intel, and Support. Today I’m going to talk about those five Classes and what they do.

Basically…

Single-Class robots, also known as Basic or Level 1 Units, rely on other robots to be effective in combat. There are numerous functions and aesthetic features that set each Class fundamentally apart from the others. Let’s have a look at the five building blocks of our game:

Armed Acrobatic Assault

Assault Class are the poster-children for A.E.G.I.S., they are humanoid fighting machines that tend to be painted bright red and fight with guns, blades and hammers. They can go far, take hits, supply energy to the rest of the team and are all-around useful in a lot of situations. They were designed to be the robots that any player can look at and immediately go “I get it.”, which is important because they are the most visually relatable Class.

However, they can only attack enemies by going the distance and closing gaps, and can generally only target one enemy at a time.

Evading Erasure

Evasive Class are the other directly offensive type of robot, gaining superior weapons and movement capabilities compared to the A-Class, in exchange for low durability and energy production. They are high-investment, high-reward. One of their most powerful aspects is that their attacks tend to hit multiple foes, and they can easily transverse over or around terrain and other units while evading enemy attacks.

Visually, they are blue, mask-clad drones with wings and turbines and are always depicted as being able to fly or levitate.

The Greatest Guardians

Guard Class robots were made to be defensive and retaliatory. They have large heads, large weapons and are mammalian or avian in body shape and move by hopping or scuttling around.  Their attacks are very energy efficient and they can absorb a lot of incoming damage as well. Their attacks tend to be missiles, cannons and rifles that have high range and some G units also have area of effect attacks. They also have access to powerful rams and hooks that push other robots around the board, opening up new strategies.

Guard Class provide the team with the lowest amounts of energy and are very slow on the battlefield in exchange for their tanky prowess.

Intelligent Infiltrators

Intel Class robots are the most technical of five. They sport average energy, movement and durability, but have access to a wide array of weapons and abilities that center around disrupting enemy strategies. They use electrical attacks to decrease enemy speed and evasion and can also drain away their energy. These powers are very rarely found in other Classes. Aesthetically they come in odd shapes in shades of purple, sporting multiple legs and/or antennae and move swiftly via tiny rollers in their feet. I-Class is the only other Class besides E than can dodge enemy attacks.

Despite sporting many strategic options, I-Class bots sport the least offensive prowess of the five classes.

Supporting Saviors

Lastly, the Support Class. These robots are walking energy generators with a powerful array of weapons and abilities geared towards keeping the rest of the squad moving. They are very fragile and very slow, but in turn have some of the most effective long-range weapons, including lasers, rocket volleys and rail guns that can hit targets all the way across the battlefield.  S-Class bots also sport powers that can repair their allies and boost accuracy, movement and attacking power. They provide the most energy for the squad and tend to use less than what they produce.

Opposites and Overlap

As you can see, each Class has its own special features and things they do well, and things they can’t do at all. Maintaining this list of do’s and don’ts is very important for the future of A.E.G.I.S. and makes sure players know and remember the strategies of using certain Classes over others. That said, no one type of attack or ability is limited to one Class. I’ll be talking about this cross-Class compatibility in my next blog post.