I actually wasn''t thinking of a superhero, I was thinking more in line with Luc from Suikoden III. He''s effectively immortal, so he tries to kill himself by blowing up a continent with his True Rune (source of his immortality and general badassedness). In the end, if the character still wants to kill himself, the player must balance whether it''s worth it to kill everyone in a city with a nuclear weapon to put himself at peace. I was thinking a way where he is totally invulnerable - he cannot die, even when tranquilized, for example. This would cause some serious problems if he, say, wanted to have friends over for dinner. If one brings a knife within eight inches of him, it could spontaneously snap in half. Etcetera.

I like the thinking here but perhaps it needs toning down a little. Just having everything automatically repelled kinda takes a lot of potential out of it. Maybe the protagonist could be super resilient but still able to take a knock. So the player will never die yet they can be knocked to the floor and so on. This way there is at least some challenge to navigating through the situation.

On top of this you could develop the idea of the psychic powers as a weapon. Think of it like the force push and pull in Jedi Knight II (great fun when bound to your mouse wheel). You can push and pull enemies and scenery etc. You can even use it to fling yourself into the air like a rocket jump.

I just get the feeling that things would become too tiresome if your character just strolls through adversity. Allowing him to be knocked down adds a little more pressure, especiially with a time limit or vip to protect.

Indirect things could still affect him. A ceiling going down around him might just fall around him, but he still has to pick his way through everything. If a grenade went off near him, even if the shrapnel didn't touch him (and it'd probably hit his VIP), the concussion would likely still floor him. That'd definitely add some tension.

Having bullets and such warp around him instead of just stop would be interesting as well. If you tried to bodily shield your VIP, if he or she moved (or you were shot at laterally) the bullet might just be put into a path where it would hit the VIP, which would cause MUCH suffering and wailing and gnashing of teeth.

[edited by - Edward Ropple on February 18, 2003 7:05:11 PM]

u ever read blade of the immortal??? it goes something like that... the only difference is that he has to kill 1000 evil man inoder for his curse of immortality to end..

What would be the fun in playing the game if the main character is invincible? It would be pretty boring if you just had to protect somebody...It wouldn''t be a great game at all. However a movie or something would be spectacular...

______________________________
"I was thinking of using WeightWatchers, but I decided I was out of their league."

it kinda reminds me of "Fortune" from "Metal Gear Solid 2" for PS2. they did some pretty neat stuff with her. its exactly like your saying except that hers came from something besides psychic powers (forgot what it was ... havent played it in a while).

What would Jesus do ... for a klondike bar?

I have been messing with kind of the opposite idea for awhile.
Take a futuristic setting, say your on a space station, robots outnumbering humans at least 2 to 1. Suddenly they all go nuts and take over the station. Except for a few that you find (that were ignored because they are older models, but you don''t know that yet). So basically you can''t do shit against your enemies and compared to any of them you are extremely fragile and helpless. What you must do instead is find older robots who you can get to help you find other survivors and escape from the station. The first scene might have you in a kitchen when the attack begins and when a mean labor drone busts through the door you are suddenly saved by the chef-bot! Who would then become the first of your allies.

Again, the player charecter himself would be very fragile but to get the robots to help you escape you will have to follow them giving them orders, so keeping yourself safe would be a big part of the gameplay. The main goal wouldn''t be to save the day and rescue everyone on the station, but just to find a way off it alive!

thats a funny image, a chef bot with a huge cleaver... i gots to see this

I''ve cited this book before, but it fits again. The Misenchanted Sword was one of the first actual books I read when I was a kid. The main character was immortal, but not invincible, and his enchantment came from his sword. He couldn''t die unless the sword killed him, and it would fight autonomously to protect him, but after it had killed about 100 (give or take) people, it would turn on him, kill him, and then bind itself to the next poor bastard who came along. So while he had the sword, he was an invincible fighter, but if it wasn''t actually in his hand it didn''t do him any good at all. Also, after he killed someone with it, he had to sheath and re-draw it or else it was just a chunk of steel. The army gave him all these super-dangerous assassination missions, making him kill the toughest enemy generals and wizards.

The point is that he was immortal, but he could still be hurt. He got stabbed a few times, and beaten pretty hard, and he didn''t heal quickly or anything, so he''d spend months in bed recovering from a would that should have killed him, quietly wishing that it had. That''s a pretty cool angle.

Also, the Highlander movies were cool for this. You don''t actually die unless you''re decapitated, and you heal quickly, but getting shot or stabbed takes you out of the action for a few seconds while your wounds close.

T-1000 is yet another example of that sort of thing. Not actually dying, but being slowed down.

There was a Gameboy game, called Wario''s something-or-other, and you never actually got hurt, but enemies'' attacks changed you, making progress momentarily impossible. You''d have to set yourself on fire to get past a particular area, and the enemies would all try to extinguish you, so you''d have to go back and try again. Or you''d be flying toward the higher entrance to a castle, and they''d knock your wings off and make you go in at the ground level and fight your way up. Again, no death, but inconvenience and added challenge.

I''m sure there are other examples, but I''ve probably exceeded the length that anyon''es going to read.

Ultima 7 u were pretty much immortal
as in ultima underworld with the silver seed

You would just ''respawn'' at a healers or whatnot



and for me these are games that have yet to be surpassed.