countryballs are unlockable characters for your party (max of 5) which can be historical countries existing countries igos or regions each of which corresponds to a few set personalities that affects their primary combat styles plan on expanding the roster indefinitely

each countryball is a unique character meaning merging is not a thing, regions (like siberia for example) are also treated like unique characters

because the roster is so obscenely large the player is guided through regions by bernadette (based off bernadette soubirous) and titivillus (based off the christian demon who collects the errors from scribes) two pink and blue fays who act as the main two vessels driving the plot forward

you play in a campaign and across regions at the end you face a large boss an human emotion (lust, gluttony, embarrassment, etc.) fundamentals that steer politics and ideologies

1. countryballs fighting a rival can have unexpected side effects; rivalries include special events and can strain a party by including rng
2. magic fighting primarily exists out of a large pool of spells each countryball has a few unique spells specific to them unlockable spells are volatile more generic spells that can be weak or stronger
3. the countryballs capable of melee fighting have a set fist strength that scales with their level fist strength can be upped by an equipable item
4. smt-style negotiation tactics where you can employ various actions and based on the personality (and which countryball it is)
5. blocking scales with the country’s level, being too low level means blocking does nothing
6. defense
7. evasion is an unchanged 0% and can only be increased through stat effects, gimmicks, or other unupgradeable game changes
8. critical hits do 2x more damage and have a set base of 5% of happening
9. damage comes in various forms (physical, elementals)
10. weapon types; highly coveted and hard to come by, some will produce unique synergies

negotiation

base: after 1 failed negotiation a country cannot retry anymore negotiation can lead to three outcomes; money, gaining items, recruiting an enemy or additional exp

pleasing - woo a country into being recruited through showing knowledge of their history, culture or by dancing

sparing - must lower to 10% health, if you cannot reasonably do this without killing the enemy you can spare early

annoy - provoke an enemy to raise their attack stat but lower their block chance

lecture - provoke an enemy by lecturing them on a historical mistake will cause you to gain 2x money and exp even if you don’t spare

battles

battles grant exp and random item(s), money can only be gained by sparing an enemy reflection. during a battle you can flee, pass (skip a turn), use a consumable item or negotiate

reflection

some states have differing views of their past selves and will ‘reflect’ differently when interacting during battle

relationship states

Neutral (default)

Friendly - historical/present friends

Rival - enables rivalries

Successor/Predecessor - if you possess both a successor and predecessor in your collection you can make the predecessor train the successor which will culminate in the successor learning a spell of your choice from the predecessor’s pool. first you pick an eligible spell and then training is done through successor being in active battle with predecessor

national focus

user can choose a generic national focus for every country it has collected industrialization: 5% exp increase from battle

welfare state: -5% mana cost for spells

secret police: +5% annoy and +5% lecture success rate

research and development: +5% chance to learn rarer spells

infighting

infighting are isolated mini gameplay loops that are thematically themed around historical events, continuity, abstract concepts etc.

spell hierarchy

base personality spells & unique country spells - common - alright - great - amazing - scarily good

alignment religion and culture

political alignments are boiled down to left, right and non-aligned, every country is non-aligned with the exception of entities that either died extreme left/right (soviet union, fascist italy) or are existing countries whose political landscape is heavily associated with a particular ideology (prc, north korea)

ranch

idea: contemporary european countries + usa and canada gain debuff when active animal party member is an insect

baking, crafting and duplication

generally baking crafting and duplication is not a viable strategy on its own though upgrades and rare-to-come-by booklets that can boost passive generation exist hidden in passages in the map. a separate index for food specifically food index tracks every single food item you’ve baked similar to country index which tracks countries

personalities

each personality is weak to specific attacks (elemental/physical/other) also has a unique chance of how likely ‘annoy’ and ‘lecture’ on them works

1. administrator – predictable mixed damage; can designate a 'standard procedure' that reduces variance of ally damage by 10% (annoy: –%, lecture: –%)
2. pragmatist – yields higher amount of situational spells; can swap one prepared spell for another mid-battle once per fight (20% annoy, 45% lecture)
3. conqueror – high fist strength, low magic growth; upon KOing an enemy, gains a stack of 'Tribute' that increases money gained from sparing (60% annoy, 25% lecture)
4. strategist – good at combos; can mark an enemy for 'Encirclement', causing allies' next attack to deal bonus damage based on combo count (25% annoy, 50% lecture)
5. survivor – attack grows the lower the damage; once per battle can survive a lethal hit at 1 HP and gain a temporary damage buff (10% annoy, 35% lecture)
6. scholar – slower leveling but gains from leveling up are higher; can identify enemy weaknesses, increasing party crit chance by 5% for that enemy (5% annoy, 65% lecture)
7. warrior – melee only item-dependent; can 'requisition' an item from a defeated enemy, ignoring drop rates (45% annoy, 20% lecture)
8. duelist – gets buffs when facing 1 opponent, stacking debuff the more opponents there are; can challenge an enemy to single combat, forcing 1v1 for 2 turns (35% annoy, 30% lecture)
9. dualist – can switch between high defense or high offense; while in defense stance, reflects 10% physical damage; while offense, heals 5% of damage dealt (20% annoy, 40% lecture)
10. mystic – magic only no melee; can spend a turn meditating to recover 20% MP and gain immunity to silence for 2 turns (10% annoy, 55% lecture)
11. trickster – low raw damage wider array of status effects; can 'randomize' an enemy's status effects, turning buffs into debuffs (50% annoy, 30% lecture)
12. wildcard – randomly switches health and mana values each fight; can reroll the swap once per battle (40% annoy, 35% lecture)
13. diplomat – low natural damage provides buffs to whole party; can attempt to make enemies 'stand down', reducing their attack for 2 turns (5% annoy, 60% lecture)
14. merchant – good at bartering with enemies; can bribe an enemy to skip their next turn, cost scales with enemy level (15% annoy, 35% lecture)
15. nationalist – gets buffed when fighting against rival debuff when normal foes; can declare a non-rival enemy as a 'temporary rival' once per battle (55% annoy, 20% lecture)
16. industrialist – grows stronger the longer a fight goes on; can 'overclock' production, gaining a massive buff for 2 turns but taking 10% max HP damage after (30% annoy, 45% lecture)
17. dysfunctional – 40% of self damage but buffed stats; has a 10% chance to redirect the self-damage to a random enemy instead (70% annoy, 15% lecture)
18. martyr – low damage, high HP; can absorb 50% of damage dealt to an adjacent ally for one turn; if KO'd while protecting, revives with 20% HP once per battle (25% annoy, 40% lecture)
19. opportunist – deals bonus damage to enemies with status effects; can 'exploit opening' to instantly reset the cooldown of one ally's ability after landing a crit (30% annoy, 35% lecture)
20. zealot – damage increases as HP decreases; can enter 'fervor' state, doubling all damage for 1 turn but locking out healing on self for 3 turns (50% annoy, 25% lecture)
21. pacifist – deals 0 damage, but gains EXP from allies' KOs; can 'calm' an enemy, reducing its damage by 30% and making it unable to crit for 3 turns (5% annoy, 70% lecture)
22. gambler – all attacks have 50% chance to deal 200% damage or 50% damage; can 'double down' on next attack, making it guaranteed 300% damage but if it misses, loses next turn (60% annoy, 20% lecture)
23. vanguard – high defense, low speed; can 'brace' to take 75% less damage from the next hit and taunt all enemies for 1 turn (15% annoy, 30% lecture)
24. stalker – attacks from the flank deal +40% damage; can 'mark prey', causing the marked enemy to take 15% more damage from all sources until defeated (35% annoy, 40% lecture)
25. alchemist – turns excess MP into temporary HP each turn; can 'brew catalyst' to convert a debuff on an ally into a buff of equal strength (10% annoy, 55% lecture)
26. heretic – deals bonus damage to religious or lawful enemies; can 'denounce' an enemy, halving their healing and buff durations for 3 turns (45% annoy, 25% lecture)
27. hoarder – gains +1% damage per unique item in inventory (capped at 30%); can 'scavenge' to guarantee finding a common consumable after battle (20% annoy, 45% lecture)