Ok, I''m developing RPG where all the combat is like from Tekken or Soul Calibur. The result of the combat is based on skill of the player rather than stats. All the stats are basically gone, but I might later on implement strenght, dex and other values that improve the speed and strenght of the movements. When the character advances levels more advanced and better moves become availeble. The character also has variety of non-combat attributes that they can use, but combat skills are basically gone.. Anyone else implementin anything similar?

Shenmue comes to mind...it featured a fighting game style combat system...but didn''t have any stats...as players practice and fight the various moves they performed would cause more damage...so there wasn''t anything like "leveling up" at all in the game...also Shenmue had the player faceing off against multiple opponets at the same time...

Shenmue is really a good example of what to do/ what not to do in an RPG...It added tons of little interactive details (read "more realisam") all within a seemingly persistant real time world...this is the sort of thing many developers seem to want to do...But I think all that added detail ultimately hurt the game more then helped it...it slowed the pace down, and added lots of frustration to the game...still it was really nice to play a RPG that didn''t take place in a midevil/fantasy basied world

Also check out the Dreamcast game Tech Romancer...it featured a fairly simple and basic fighting mechanic that could be easily scaled up and deepened to create a richer experience...

Arch@on,

It sounds like a slick idea. Actually, it reminds me of The Bouncer, the beat-em-up with a plot from Squaresoft. Fighting game combat engine, with a strong plot and cinematic play experience. The tricky part, as I see it, is keeping the combat engine complex enough for hardcore fight gamers, but simple enough for RPG fans who don''t like twitchy games. Conversely, the plot elements must be interspersed carefully so as to avoid too long a wait between fights. Basically it would be a balancing act between the two genres being spanned. Or you could implement it in such a unique way as to create a new genre for yourself...

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-SpittingTrashcan

You can''t have "civilization" without "civil".

I think it would be more for rpg players that hate power leveling and increasing stats. I was also wondering that this way multiplayer combat wouldn''t be about stats and who has spent the most time chasing squirrels, but actually knows how to fight. Right now there is 2 classes that I''m trying to balance out. I have made pretty cool 3d engine, and then I have move editor.

All characters have 2 basic moves and kics. Moving the mouse affects generally the move a lot. Like if you spin your mouse fast it adds more power into the strike, but therefore it makes it slower. The movement is mixed up with fps movement where W makes you move forward, A to left and D to right and S backwards.

Q makes the character to kick and E makes it to punch holding the left mouse button enables movement mode where the character is able to add power to basic move and do combos. So basically when you push it it starts recording the keycommands and then you can record what you want and when you release it performs the wanted strike. While this you can move around and change direction. Longer you press, more power you get. Right button jumps.

The battles are seamless to the evironment and I have been thinking that players 8 or 12 monsters can fight at time and that should be enough. I might change it to little bit less so that combat becomes more enjoyable.

I''m not sure what kind of netcode I''ll be able to write so MMORPG type of game is right now out of option and that''s why I''m trying to get real good plot.

Strenght, Dexterity, Agility, Endurance and Magic are going the basic attributes and when character reaches level it gets more and better hits available like tornado hit for group control for E button or Super slashing.

Right now different classes will be limited on their weapons only, but there will be big variety of those. Like Samurai can only use Light twohanded sword and Knight can only use onehanded weapon and shield. I won''t be implementing ranged spells/weapons for long time since I need to get the engine work properly since it requires a lot of zooming and stuff to get it look good.

Inventory comes from armor, weapon slot 1, weapon slot 2, helmet, bracers, gloves, leggins, boots and different classes will only be able to wear armory that they have strenght to.

Like Samurai which will be agility based character can''t wear the highest armors since they don''t have strenght for it and the heavies armors are completely out of question, because they just can''t fight with them on. Knight on the other hand is based on endurance and streght, therefore making him little slow, but he is able to block hits and smite the enemies. Note that knight can''t kick, he can hit or smite. Samurai can swing/thrust his sword and kick. Knights can''t jump a lot unlike samurais who can dodge doing backflips and stuff.

Like I said the development is in the beginning still. There won''t be party and the PCs can have 1 hireling/helper so in combats there can be 2 player chars and 8 monsters.

Weapons will be somewhat realistic, if it is fantasy, don''t know yet, probably since I can''t imagine space close combat. Maybe lightsabres and stuff.

Of course some magic will be added but nothing like in diablo, I HAEV +199% damage to ballista and 75% speed, THEREFORE IAM SUPERIOR AHW HAWHAW.

I mean my dream is to combine the best of RPGs and the best of beat em'' ups.

And hey since I''m one man team in mood of smartey man mr.battle cruiser, if you have desires to do some coding/desing with me please drop e-mail to opv99@yahoo.com, all you need is open mind and right attitude. Skills are just i++. I mean it can be like 4ever project who cares. I''m doing it for my own fun. The language most likely will be C++. I so wanted it to be Java, but right now it seems to be that it doesn''t have the power to cut it...

Anyhow tell me what you think, oki?

Now when I have time I will actually compile all my ideas for you guys.

Inventory system will be simple and somewhat realistic. Inventory screen is like a screen from X-Com Apocalypse.
Depending on class the character has different inventory but all characters have at least 2 shoulder pockets size of 2 units, belt, which can take arrow sized items or a dagger(I''m planning to do missions where character has to go unarmed and assasinate people in taverns with dagger) and 3 x 1 sized units for little things like healing powder(note the point of the game is not to drink gallons of red liquid that brings your hitpoints up nor sniff healing powder). Then 2 weapons slots, which basically have the biggest room of all. Then the character has a backpack, which is not too big. It only contains room that normal backpack contains. The point of the game is not haul funkloads of unsorted stuff around, but have just room for basic things, like for extra healing, but mostly for loot. Towns will have banks which have plenty of space to store your stuff that you can''t throw away. Let''s say that most stuff you can fit your backpack is armor and sword so basically about 9 units. Then there is one more space to place all the weapons. Any weapon in the game will go into this slot which is behind the characters back and backpack. This is the place for sword or halberd or whatever the char fights with, because you can''t enter the towns with your weapons drawn.

Money that the character collects goes to his/her purse and it won''t be in inventory. Aslo the belt contains a slot for keys.

Note that without any armor the character always wears a cloak.

You can''t get into tavern''s even with your sword on your back. If you go to tavern you must have all your items in a bank or other storage room and you can have only money with you. And a dagger hidden so that the guards won''t see.


I already told about the combat attributes, which were Strenght, Dexterity, Agility, Endurance and Magic. Note that those attributes won''t have that much effect on power of the hits. and the character can increase one of them per each level. The player has 30 point to spend in the beginning to create whatever character he wants. The minium value is 4, but some characters might have higher min values, because they are stronger built or more agile. The game contains one non-combat attribute, intelligence, which is required for talking and noticing things. It basically makes the character smarter in every sense. I''m also thinking about making it have little factor that makes the character to find the weak point so that players won''t completely retain from using it.

So basically what I planned is that characters who are 10 levels apart from each other can equally match one another since the attributes won''t have that much affect. All the weapons in the game are normal and magic weapons are very rare. Even if someone finds "Teh 13373st magical +2 sword evar", it has slight increase to the power of the moves. Characters hit if they touch the other character and there won''t be to hit rating or anything like that. Armors help to take off damage and sometimes completely block damage if the hit is not powerful enough or is badly aimed..

The money system is going to be pretty usual. With couple of exceptions. You can buy stuff pretty cheaply in the beginning, but better stuff costs more and more. For example it is easy to buy things untill you hit the line of decent. After decent stuff really starts to cost a lot. After fisrt "decent" weapon the next weapon costs at least 4 times more than the decent weapon and so on. Thiss will keep the value of the money. (I hate when the value of the money is gone)

I will post more when I have more time.

[Offtopic]

quote: Original post by SpittingTrashcan
...The Bouncer, the beat-em-up with a plot from Squaresoft.

All that The Bouncer brought to my mind was Final Fight with a touch of Final Fantasy - a sort of clash & mash of the "Finals."
[/Offtopic]

Arch@on, go for it. I despise squirrel-chasing, tree-punching, aimless-wandering RPGs (which means I don''t play any *ducks ensuing battle*). And I despise twitch games (which I used to play enthusiastically when I was 15); I''m the quintessential casual gamer. My kinds of games are The Sims, Minesweeper and Solitaire, so you''ll have people like me interested in your game if you pull it off well.

quote: by archaon - Ok, I''m developing RPG where all the combat is like from Tekken or Soul Calibur. The result of the combat is based on skill of the player rather than stats.

quote: by oluseyi- I despise twitch games (which I used to play enthusiastically when I was 15); I''m the quintessential casual gamer. My kinds of games are The Sims, Minesweeper and Solitaire, so you''ll have people like me interested in your game...

umm...which side of your contradiction are you on here oluseyi? He''s making a twitchy rpg, which you despise, yet you will be interested in if made, but you wouldnt play it.

quote: Original post by GalaxyQuest
umm...which side of your contradiction are you on here oluseyi? He''s making a twitchy rpg, which you despise, yet you will be interested in if made, but you wouldnt play it.

He said it''d be slower-paced than those press-fests.

I''m encouraging him in principle; if he can''t pull it off, well, no cigar.