quote: Original post by vincoof
It''s an interesting situation, but the thing is that she''ll always have her ability to get magic from lemmings.
Unless she can seal her power somewhere, the rest of the world will always fear for a return of the "evil" elvish in the future.
You can bet that the credibility of the inhabitants will suffer if you skip this point.
"Urgh, elvish are monsters, they tried to kill us all in the past ! What ? Oh, look at her... she''s so cute ^^ Just let them live freely, they can be our friends !"
Well, of course it won''t be shown exactly like that in the story. But it will be like that in some way.

Uhh...he he...you arn''t giving me enough credit...I''ll put it this way Ariel could very well become a mytar if played correctly...something that hasn''t really been done much in games

quote:
This is a very good idea, but it has almost never been used in games for many reasons.
Firstly, this is not very intuitive to cast spells using combinations. Players have to learn spells, which is a bit frustrating at the beginning. And it''s also frustrating to miss a spell just because you tried to do it too fast (wil happen often in a real-time game).
Secondly, you can not have a lot of different runes (especially if you plan on using a gamepad excusively), and then the combinations are very limited, unless... you find another solution
There are a few other artefacts (like cancelling the spells, or casting an unkown spell combination, ...) but I don''t think you have to bother much of the two above.

time would slow down to 1/4 normal speed when the player casts a spell...this should be sufficent time to do what has to be done (altho I may slow it down even more)...I just don''t want somebody to cast a 33rd level spell without haveing to worry about getting slashed in the process...selecting the runes would be simple...press up/down would allow you to cycle through the choices (would sorta look like a slot machine...you can see when the next rune is if you press up/down before you do so)...pressing right (once a rune is in place) allows you to select the next rune...pressing left clears the current one and allows you to reselect the previous one...when you are selecting runes the game will tell you what the current combination will cast (tell you what the spell is)...

The story is very tightly integrated to the gameplay (which is why it''s hard to post about gameplay without explaining some of the story)...

Just a suggestion, instead of using the runes system you could just have the game pause and open a menu to select spells, kind of like the system used in Secret of Mana on the SNES. Just a thought.

quote: Original post by Airhead Zoom
Hmm maybe a useless little comment but...
There is some strange 2-player game for UNIX called Spellcast.

The rules for which were actually written by the guy who co-invented MUDs (and who therefore pioneered online gaming).

Here.



Edited by - Kylotan on January 14, 2002 6:25:53 PM

MSW: I really like your idea, very non-traditional Here are a few questions/ideas/insane ramblings for you:

1. If killing a "lemming" gives you a one time benefit (magic points) at the cost of permanent character degradation, then the spells available to your character should be substantially more powerful than solutions available through other means. I bring this up because most games try to balance melee and spell casting "classes" (for example, a level one spell and a melee attack performed by a level one character tend to balance out in terms of damage/time/resources). This could work well if you placed "lemmings" at key locations in the story, thus forcing the player to make the choice between an easier victory at the cost of permanent damage or a tougher battle that is more beneficial to the character in the long term.

2. If the main character is an 18 year old slave girl, why would she start killing "lemmings" in the first place? Surely, they won''t attack the player, as that would be rather annoying (since killing them is an important decision). If she''s never seen another of her kind, how does she know that they give her magic? Wouldn''t those enslaving her seek to hide this knowledge? Is it some biological elvin urge to kill these things? Are elves evil, or did their society just get too greedy? There''s lots of good stuff to explore here.

I think that most characters that value morality would be very much opposed to taking the life of some poor creature for personal gain. I see two possible solutions for this.

The first is that the player is directly responsible for the morality of their character (similar to Black & White, I suppose). A player who wants an evil character would have no qualms with killing the "lemmings" and driving their character towards evil/insanity/whatever. Of course, this is intrinsically opposed to having a concrete story line (i.e. Final Fantasy type RPGs).

The second idea I had was that instead of killing the "lemmings", perhaps the character would merely absorb their life-force. You could work this into the story by saying the magic that flows through these creatures, binding them to the physical plane, causes them great anguish. Transferring this power to the player would allow the "lemmings" to move on to the afterlife.

Imagine, if you will, a small creature, it''s body an amalgamation of misshapen limbs, wrapped tightly in a sickly gray skin mottled with un-healable wounds. As you approach, the creature seems torn between keeping its large, milky eyes focused on you and shielding them from the blinding light of your torch. Even this simple task proves nearly impossible as it spasms violently, the energy it once wielded working to destroy both mind and flesh alike. After several moments of timid indecision, perhaps fighting its instinct to run (or realizing the futility therein), the creature speaks, its words alternating between incoherent babbling and softly pleading... "Help me".

Now you have a pretty cool moral dilemma, do you help these creatures at the cost of your own damnation? Do they deserve what''s happening to them because of their previous actions? I like it.

Maybe you could even incorporate both ideas, thus giving the player a non violent means to counter act the Katsinue''s processing the creatures into magic paste (or whatever it is they do...). Perhaps convincing the "lemmings" to give you their power results in non-permanent damage?

3. The name Ariel makes me think of a certain Disney cartoon .

4. Everyone seems to be trying to find a way to incorporate "bullet time" into an RPG. I think it should be possible to find a more intriguing magic system, especially considering your source material. Then again, it''s your game, and if you already have it worked out, go for it!

Now that I''ve successfully bored Oluseyi to tears (j/k), my work here is done


Game: The Adventure (tm).
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Thanks for the replies folks

Much of what you guys have written about is already "in the game"...slowly deteriorateing character who use magic...magic being very powerful, etc..

I call them lemmings because I don''t really have a name for them yet (even after all these years the game has no title either)...these are small, mishapen, ugly, and smelly creatures...they don''t talk only make grunt like noises...they are immortal except at the hands of another...they don''t eat/drink/sleep or do much of anything...they are also child like and curious of thier surroundings yet quite timid...they cannot use the magic that flows through them as they are mearly the vessal by which it is transfered...they are also pretty stupid...and wonder around aimlessly...

the ''ultimate'' spell is a ''magic abolishment'' one that returns the world to a normal "no lemmings or magic" state

The game idea was inspired by real life...specificly how people fell trapped in inner city ghettos with little hope of escapeing thier unfortunate situation...in this way lemmings are like drugs...The game is ment to set-up a situation where the player is given every reason to take the easy yet wrong path out of thier situation...sort of asking the player to play the game in a truer roleplaying manner by asking "what should you do, if in her shoes?"

That''s all well and good, but you still need some kind of reason for the creatures'' apparent possesion of this power.

Were they imbued with the power by an ancient people who needed a lifeform to contain their stored magick?

This next suggestion is decidedly morbid... You''ve mentioned that using the power is damaging. Perhaps each and every creature used to be an Elvish. Elvish might be immortal so the earliest Elvish got their power elsewhere, but as it destroyed them and turned them into "lemmings" (kind of like Gollum I suppose), their descendents learned they could steal the power by killing the sad remains of their ancestors.
The good side to this is there is hope! Our brave heroine can find the secret to rid the world of magick once and for all, which may even turn all the "lemmings" back into Elvish.

Trevize

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"people living their lives for you on tv
they say they''re better than you and ... you agree" - Jewel

I like the idea with the lemmings, except I don''t like the idea of only a one time benefit, especially for the prive you are paying to get that benefit. How about this:

lemmings killed---MP recieved---magic casting level---HP lost per recharge
-------1-------------20---------------1-----------------1%
-------2-------------40---------------2-----------------2%
-------3-------------60---------------3-----------------3%
and on till...
------99------------1980-------------99----------------99%

So instead of losing hit points per day, you use your magic until your mana runs to 0, at which point it recycles back up to full, but at the cost of the HP loss. This way it is even more of a moral dilema, because you could use all your power several times a day and accelerate your degredation, or you could refrain from using the magic at all and extend your life. Also to keep someone from never turning into a lemming, you could add a drain factor to the mana, like you lose 1 mana every 12 hours, so the degredation will eventually happen, no matter what.

I just feel that I would never use magic if it was limited to a one time use of the received power. If it could recharge at some rate, or be used then require rest to regain, I would be more likley to consider it. But if I played your game and knew it was a one time shot, I would probably never use it.

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Make it work.
Make it fast.

"Commmmpuuuuterrrr.." --Scotty Star Trek IV:The Voyage Home