sRPG v0.6alpha

Jobclasses! Active abilities! Upgraded monsters! More complex combat! Everything completely customizable!
If any of those strike your fancy, read on to find out what sRPG is all about.

What does it do?

Basically it gives players multiple ways to earn experience points, which they can then spend on learning a variety of jobs, each with distinct capabilities. Monsters and animals can also be given abilities, to make them more challenging, or just more interesting. In the same vein the monster hp are tweaked, so that not every monster has the same amount of hp and deals the same amount of damage. To top it off, the combat is completely overhauled and features a few advanced mechanics such as parrying or backstabbing, as well as rebalanced tool damages.

I am intrigued and would like to learn more about...

...Jobs

Job Change
Each player can hold one job at a time. A player may change his job at any time (with a few small restrictions), and does not lose progress in any other jobs he has held before, when he later switches back he can resume right where he left off.
Benefits of Jobs
Many jobs have traits that come with the job. For example if you are an Archer, you may deal less damage with swords, but have a higher chance to score critical hits with bows. Some of those traits may get more powerful once you level up, mostly those that are beneficial. At certain levels the job may unlock additional skills, which work roughly the same way as traits. Additionally you can unlock active abilities, which are used by spending charges. Those in turn are acquired by hitting stuff or mining blocks.
Leveling Jobs
Once you have accumulated enough xp to reach the maximum level of a job it is considered mastered. This unlocks its full potential by giving you the ability to combine it with others. Mastering multiple jobs and advancing on the job tree is the key to becoming more powerful and versatile.

...the Job Tree

Starting out
All available jobs are situated in a job tree. The player starts at the very bottom as an Adventurer, which is the base job that does not actually do anything by itself. It does however give you access to several starting jobs, which you can start leveling right away, and it might also have other uses later on once you have mastered a sizable chunk of the tree..
Advanced jobs
Every job apart from the starting jobs has requirements that must be met before it becomes available. In general this means that you have to reach a certain level in one or more other jobs. For example by leveling the Archer, you will eventually unlock the Sniper. If you get the required levels in both the Knight and the Rogue jobs, you will unlock the Ninja.
Inheritance
Since starting over with new jobs again and again might seem a bit like going in circles, jobs that are further along the job tree also partially retain the bonuses of the jobs that were required to unlock them. This way you don't always start completely from zero when switching to a new job.

...Monsters

Variety
In normal SMP every monster has 10 hearts and deals 1 heart damage (apart from everyone's big green friend of course). As this is not very interesting, monsters were tweaked to have different amounts of health, and deal different amounts of damage.
Monster Jobs
The job system also extends to monsters, with two big differences from player jobs. Monsters cannot change jobs, and they also don't use xp, only ever leveling up by spawning deeper underground. So if you meet the same puny skeletons you've been whacking all day deep below the surface, they might prove to be considerably more challenging.

...Combat

New Mechanics
To spice up the combat, there are many additions to the core mechanics, including critical hits, evading and parrying attacks, as well as situational modifiers like backstabbing and attacks from higher ground.
Job Bonuses
Jobs also influence combat a lot, for example by providing a damage bonus or a chance to evade attacks. Keep in mind though that many of the traits and skills are limited by with, or against, which weapons you can use them. A Knight may be able to parry, but only with a sword, and perhaps with increased efficiency if his enemy also wields a sword. A Monk on the other hand may be able to nullify attacks from an opponent wielding any weapon as long as he himself is unarmed. Additionally some combat skills or abilities may have other side effects as well, like...

...Timed Effects

Buffs
A variety of sources may give a player a beneficial effect that lasts a certain time. He might get a higher than normal critical hit chance, he might get an armor bonus, or he might even get short-term invincibility.
Debuffs
Players can also be afflicted with a wide variety of detrimental effects. Poison, curses, vulnerabilities against damage, weaknesses resulting in less damage dealt, certain death after a set time if it is not dispelled, and many more just waiting to ruin your day.

...other Effects that abilities and skills may have

Manipulation of the environment
From temporary bridges to pitfalls to improvised walls to earthquakes, as long as it is possible by changing blocks around permanently or temporary, it can be done. There is also always the option of burning your enemies to a crisp with a well timed lightning bolt.
Transformation and Manipulation of Items
Blocks and items may be transformed into others, for instance the Archer may be able to quickly carve some improvised arrows out of simple wood if he is in a pinch. A particularly sneaky rogue on the other hand might be able to disarm his opponent by making him drop is weapon, and then steal his stuff. A magic-wielder could shatter someones armor, or transform his sword into a stick.
Teleportation and Movement
Escape from combat, or teleport behind your enemy to backstab him, traverse small or great distances, create portals and waypoints for other players. Knock back enemies, dash backwards to escape close combat, jump great heights and distances.
Summoning Monsters
Note that protection from said monsters may or may not be included in your summoning contract.
Conditional Effects
Some skills may only trigger if its raining, or if you are standing on grass, or if you are wearing a pumpkin at midnight.

...Customization

Localization
Every single piece of text the plugin uses can be localized easily to either translate the plugin, or rename anything to fit personal taste. This includes the names of all jobs, skills and abilities, as well as all terminology the plugin uses to refer to parts of the rpg mechanics, like xp, job, skill or level. This of course also includes all messages the plugin sends to any player when a skill is used, the job is changed, an attack is parried, or anything else really. If multiple localizations are provided by the server admin, the players may even switch between locales with a simple command
Configuration
Admins can completely configure the difficulty settings, including the damage each tool deals, monster statistics like hp/damage and what skills/abilities they have, base chances for critical hits/miss/parry and critical hit multipliers, at which depths monsters get stronger and by how much, and so forth. If players want more longevity out of the plugin, admins can also tweak the xp settings, specifically the xp values of each block and each monster when mined or killed respectively, how many xp are needed per joblevel in each job, what the maximum level of each job is, or how the xp curve is shaped
Extension
Jobs can be completely customized. That includes changing the layout of the jobtree, as well as the modification of all existing jobs (including removal), and even creation of new jobs. The same goes for skills and abilities, everything is defined in a simple (enough) .yml, and can be easily changed to fit a servers specific needs. If you want to have an ability that consumes one gold bar from your hand to summon a zombie that eats the opponents helm and proceeds to knock him straight out of his boots, sending him flying 50 yards through the air, go for it :)

...Compatibility

support for MySQL and SQLite
Permissions for almost everything
Multiworld support (not very sophisticated for now, you can disable the plugin for certain worlds)
Spoutcraft support with custom GUI elements

Downloads

Source@github

unstable build (compatible with RB1185)

note that the unstable build is automatically built whenever i start my testserver, and therefore may change rapidly and will have bugs. Not for use in a public live environment. As the word 'unstable' should kind of give away.

0.6 Preview build is out now, and just awaiting approval, or get it from the forums

More information

Detailed information about the preview build