). You have a lot of valid points and I will endevour to answer them sequentially so that I can either add them or alter the doc. quote: Original post by Arjan
I''ve only played Console RPGs (FF7 and such) so reading your doc changed the way I think of a lot of aspects of RPGs. Especially the reïncarnation stuff was completely new for me. Here are some notes...
Thanx... I happen to be very fond of the reincarnation bit, as it was entirely from my own thoughts
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Putting the mystery back in magic:
Your say that magic is being abused, which is true for most RPGs'', also most Console RPGs. Click on some magic, bang, 1000hp damage to enemies...it''s just to easy. I like the way it''s done in Final Fantasy Tactics. Casting spells and summoning monsters takes time in this game, as do certain other actions (like charging and the jump-skill of Lancers). What happens when you summon a monster: enemies will try to kill the one summoning the monster, so you really have to be sure you can avoid most of the attacks. Also, you can lock a spell to a unit or a panel. Units can move away, so if an enemies gets to close to your allies, your spell can damage your allies. But if you lock the spell to a panel, it''s possible you won''t hit any enemies. This means that strategy is VERY important.
Sounds good, I think this could be added to the doc. One other thing that I don''t think I put in there was the co-operation in spells. I have seen many books have a number of mages who help each other to weave spells. I think that this could be done for some spells, and you could sustain spells for as long as your magical Karma held. Just some hints as to what will be going into the doc. I really like the idea of placing spells on specific items, it would make for some original uses.
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I like the idea of casting spells with symbols, but there are other ways to do it. In an old computer game (Feud or something, released in mid-eighties) you can use spells, but in order to use them, you have to mix various herbs. This way, the player can find new spells, but also has to be carefull using the spells, because there''s only a limited amount of herbs.
I was thinking of using a combination of all different kinds of magic and having them all together. The herbs method I have seen for creating potions, but spells would really make it interesting... Maybe have a volatile mixture explode in the characters hands
. It also reminds me of the Horadric Cube in Diablo II... ah, the gems, the gems (we have a LOT of perfect ones, because we kept finding a LOT of chipped ones... get the picture? ).quote:
The only thing I really hate of magic is Magic Points. They are used to limit spell casting during battles, but usually battles don''t take much time so you can use as much magic as you want. I like the way it''s done in FF8 (the idea), but it''s way to easy to get magic, and in the end you don''t even want to use it, because it''s easier to kill enemies by using limit breaks. In a MP-less magic system, spells need to have charge up times or you need items (like herbs in previous example) to cast a spell, so that battles require more strategy.
I would prefer to base my magic on "Concentration" and "flow" where flow is the ability to channel magic. For me (in this specific example on magic) magic can come from the earth and from everything around you (people played Magic: The Gathering? - not the PC game, but the original card game?) and you can channel this through your body. The type of place you are in determins what mana you can use (and how) and you can channel [so much] through you... This means that if you have a higher level, you can channel it more efficiently and you take less time to do it. Concentration is based on taking up a bandwidth of it for casting, if you get hit while casting then a "hit" bandwidth gets taken up, if they overlap then you cannot continue the cast. It is a fairly simple method and I think it could work really well
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A new combat system: "Come back or I''ll bite your legs off!"
This idea is at least 10 years old. I saw it first in SD-Snatcher (which is a CRPG by Konami, influenced by "The Invasion of the Bodysnatchers" and it shares a lot of the plot of "Snatcher".) In the battles in this game, you can target the weapons, legs, armour, antennas and such, which requires a bit of strategy to defeat enemies. I would definately like to see such a battle system in other games, because it''s a completely different way of fighting and it''s cool offcourse
I am glad to see that it has been used before (It has in MechWarrior games as well) but I haven''t really seen its use in many RPG''s... It would be a unique system as well and would benefit you for choosing different angles of attack. If you got behind the creature then you get a hit, but you don''t stand still because s/he would turn around and hit you as well. You need to keep moving and attacking... It makes fighting more interesting
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Eating/Sleeping:
The only RPG I''ve played where you need to sleep is Seiken Densetsu 3. In this game you need to sleep, because some events only occur at night, and some only at day time. Your doc says you lose energy when you don''t eat or sleep, but I''d say that you become less efficient when you''re hungry or sleepy. This basically means that you can''t even hurt goblins after 2 days without sleep
Yeah, the energy I refered to was actually more of a level of competance. (hehe... my friend made it 40 hours straight due to a big warhammer battle that he was required to paint a reasonable part of an army for. All up: 8000pts. 4 tables. 1500 + 1500 + 1000 + 4000
and he was one of the 2 orc commanders against the 6 imperial commanders... a lot of fun to watch). Anyway... you basically become less competant as you get tired and lose energy. I would use eating in games if they were closer to realtime (ie, after about 3hrs from breakfast is lunch ) but otherwise I see it as a hassle. The player could probably get away with eating the creatures s/he kills if that desperate for food right? quote:
Combating PKing:
Personally I like maxing out my characters stats, but it seems you don''t like it. One way to prevent Power Maxing is to let enemies level up as well, so you won''t have easy battles. Another way is to introduce something like Karma. Like, you can only enter a church or something when you have low Karma. Or you can just eliminate random encounters. Then the designers know what kind of power players have so they can create enemies which are challenging. Or you get less exp/gold when you level up. All these alternatives can be used, but they have to fit the game.
I definitely don''t like PKing and I don''t like Powermaxing (probably fairly blatently obvious in the doc
) but I do like your idea of good and bad Karma (comes into the re-incarnation scheme as well ). Maybe if it seems as if two players are going to bump into each other where there is going to be a possible encounter that is likely to entail PKing (because it is easy to keep track of things like that ) then you just spawn a hoard of baddies inbetween the two (we are taking a drastic countermeasure when the two are a reasonable distance appart) and make it unlikely for at least one of them to survive it. This will force a retreat and stop the encounter. I wouldn''t actually use this, because I could just use re-incarnation to punish PKers! quote:
Well, that''s all I could come up with.
Thanx... It is a lot more than some people have come up with so far... any comments like yours are always appreciated. I can''t make it better without comments on HOW (note to stupid [f]lamers
). I will see what I can add -Chris Bennett ("Insanity" of Dwarfsoft)
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