There's also infatuation, obsession and lust, none of which have to be mutually shared by the person their focused on. Showing off to impress someone seems more like a negative thing to me, since their more likely to be watching their love for their reaction, or be too cocky and misjudge the situation, getting in over their heads. Then there's the kind of people who turn into stammering shy idiots when their lover is in the vicinity. ;D

The berzerk idea does seem good though, and quite plausable. If they really love them, then brutally killing to protect them isn't that hard of a thing. As for turning on freinds, well that does happen when two friends fight over one lover, or when the infatuated individual is manipulated into thinking his friends or another person is getting in between him and his lover's affection.

Quote:

Original post by yapposai hmmm.. dating sim cross RPG...

Huh? Dude. I thought you're in Japan? [grin]

Beserk is definitely a cool idea. But I'm not sure it would fit into a 'lighthearted' RPG. I mean your guy's eyes glowing red, the sword flinging out from darkness, the enemy's blood spattering the pretty girl. Not exactly romantic drama.

Still, if you're shooting for intense chaotic drama, then it's perfect.

Quote:

Original post by Kest Beserk is definitely a cool idea. But I'm not sure it would fit into a 'lighthearted' RPG. I mean your guy's eyes glowing red, the sword flinging out from darkness, the enemy's blood spattering the pretty girl. Not exactly romantic drama.

Not sure if you're being a bit sarcastic there or not [grin].

I can explain what it was like in Baldur's Gate II. Although not exactly "love", the character Minsc needed a "witch" to protect, and picks Aerie. If Aerie's health drops below a certain level, Minsc goes into a berserk frenzy (which means he attacks pretty much everything out of the player's control). But Minsc tends to go berserk quite easily in that game...

There's a few other situations in that game where love influences the course of the story, who becomes an enemy and who stays a friend, who can be in your party at the same time as other characters, duels fought over a characters affection, lovers being kidnapped and other story elements etc., but none of those seems like a "status ailment" to me.

Quote:

Original post by Trapper Zoid Not sure if you're being a bit sarcastic there or not [grin].

Not sarcastic, just detailed. It's totally possible to have a beserk state for your characters without them actually losing their mind and completely destroying the enemies. But then it kind of just ends up as "the player loses control and does slightly more damage" state. You didn't watch Record of Lodoss wars? :)

Quote:

Original post by Kest Not sarcastic, just detailed. It's totally possible to have a beserk state for your characters without them actually losing their mind and completely destroying the enemies. But then it kind of just ends up as "the player loses control and does slightly more damage" state. You didn't watch Record of Lodoss wars? :)

No I haven't [smile]. When I imagine "going berserk" I think of foaming at the mouth, screaming a lot (in Celtic or Norse) and then randomly hitting things with a large axe.

But we should probably get back to discussing love as a status ailment [smile].

Another thing you could do, if two characters are in love, is to make them more effective if they are on the same team. Or you can take another cue from BG2 and make one lovebird refuse to join the team unless the other one is there as well.

Ogre Battle had a system where teams would become more effective the more they fought together. Magic-users would do combo attacks when they got used to each other, and melee units would team up against strong enemies automatically. If you took two soldiers that had achieved team moves but hadn't fought together in a unit before and teamed them up, it would take a while for them to get back to their full potential. So even if you got a great new NPC swordsman to join your team, there was a period of awkwardness before he was a really productive member or the unit.

If you impement a relationship system like this one and have love be a spoecific form of it, then it would be easy to use love, hate, or simple camaraderie to modify a character's performance. Ethnic background, native language, character class or amount of experience could all factor in to make this system apply to every character in the game, although I'm not sure just what you want to do with it.

That said, I always hated having to reconfigure my Ogre Battle units so the characters wouldn't all have conflicting astrological symbols and elemental affinities and alignments. It was like the worst puzzle element ever, and it was infuriating for me to have to revamp a whole battalion so I could get three characters together in the most effective combination.

Quote:

Original post by Iron Chef Carnage That said, I always hated having to reconfigure my Ogre Battle units so the characters wouldn't all have conflicting astrological symbols and elemental affinities and alignments. It was like the worst puzzle element ever, and it was infuriating for me to have to revamp a whole battalion so I could get three characters together in the most effective combination.

OOC was there anything that could have made this better, or was it the mere fact that your goal was fighting and this interfered with the fighting that ruined the element?

Quote:

Original post by Trapper Zoid No I haven't [smile]. When I imagine "going berserk" I think of foaming at the mouth, screaming a lot (in Celtic or Norse) and then randomly hitting things with a large axe.

Lodoss Wars had a beserker character. Basically, he just became temporarily evil when his lady was threatened. No remorse, no conscience. He was a very cool character, but if I remember correctly (which I probably don't), he died pretty early in the movie.

Anyway, my point was that this type of beserk scenario for love would be very cool. Especially if the character could do new moves that are only allowed during the beserk rage. Instead of "losing control and getting more strength", the effect would be more similar to turning into a werewolf. Still, it probably wouldn't fit too well with a lighthearted story.

Quote:

Original post by Kest Anyway, my point was that this type of beserk scenario for love would be very cool. Especially if the character could do new moves that are only allowed during the beserk rage. Instead of "losing control and getting more strength", the effect would be more similar to turning into a werewolf. Still, it probably wouldn't fit too well with a lighthearted story.

It would if the character was originally meek, but the rage turns him into a more typical "knight" type character. That's not a bad idea, really.