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What is your dream weapon upgrade system for a game?

Started by September 29, 2013 11:08 PM
15 comments, last by Orymus3 11 years, 3 months ago

It can be anywhere from weapon leveling up in battle with you to gathering materials to upgrade weapons or ...something more unique!

What is your dream weapon upgrading system or your favorite weapon upgrading system in an already existing game?

It depends. In many combat games any kind of weapon upgrade would be wrong, because standard weapons are the best possible ones and anything else would be less fun (e.g. an hypothetical guided missile upgrade in Space Invaders), or because any improvement is an unfair or excessive advantage over non-upgraded opponents (e.g. an hypothetical ROF or damage boost in a pistol only FPS deathmatch).

If you want advice, why don't you explain what sort of game you want to upgrade weapons in?

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Personally, I'd like a crafting system for hack n' slash RPG's where you can build your weapon, and perhaps craft permanent or temporary upgrades to it. Apply poison to the blade or craft a magical hilt. Something like, but better than, what Guildwars had going. As for modern through sci-fi games, technology could be upgraded through modular parts to your base equipment. Add in various ammunition types, and you can really get some emergent combinations. I understand that "leveling" is an easy way to design progression, but (again, personally) it's more realistic and satisfying to actively build your way to awesomeness rather than just grind up to it.

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I personally liked the Materia system from Final Fantasy VII.

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Materia_%28Final_Fantasy_VII%29

I'd like a blended system. Three types of performance modifiers would work together.

1: Manufacturing Quality: Combination of skill checks, material values and design quality decide what the "base item" is.

2: Polishing: Sharpen a sword's blade, smooth a gun's feed ramp, oil some leather gloves, whatever. Use a blend of skill checks and resources to improve, perhaps temporarily, an existing item. Can be combined with a deterioration system to introduce maintenance tasks.

3: Addons: A sight for a rifle, a vibration dampener on a bow, belt loops on your pants, whatever you can add to existing items to either improve performance or add functionality.

It depends. In many combat games any kind of weapon upgrade would be wrong, because standard weapons are the best possible ones and anything else would be less fun (e.g. an hypothetical guided missile upgrade in Space Invaders), or because any improvement is an unfair or excessive advantage over non-upgraded opponents (e.g. an hypothetical ROF or damage boost in a pistol only FPS deathmatch).

If you want advice, why don't you explain what sort of game you want to upgrade weapons in?

Not looking for advice. I'm just asking the question above.

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I personally liked the Materia system from Final Fantasy VII.

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Materia_%28Final_Fantasy_VII%29

I loved the Materia system!

Materia has a lot to do with character customization, too. In that system, the equipment is a big part of the character's capabilities, like in Diablo or WoW, so filling sockets with the right gem/rune/trinket is about a lot more than the piece of kit--it's central to the character development process.

That always bugged me somewhat. I don't mind if a piece of gear grants some bonus to capabilities, like goggles that let you see in the dark or hover boots or invisibility capes, but micromanaging materia and leveling them up and swapping them around so that my armor grants me the ability to steal money from enemies feels too meta-gamey and abstract for me. A more intelligible relationship between action and performance helps me to stay immersed.

see my upvotes.

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I want to see tons of options that do different stuff and have different costs to add/maintain and I want to see a ton of cool combinations of upgrades having special effects.

I want some things to be part of the crafting and some to be changeable addons and such.

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