Design : RPG - Socoder

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Socoder -> Mini Challenges -> Design : RPG
Mon, 24 May 2010, 10:07
JL235	I've been playing FF 12 recently and something I don't like is that if I don't use a character for a while then I don't want to use him again, because he is way behind in terms of levels (admittedly he's not that far behind in the FF world). It got me thinking, why not apply a single level to the whole team? This would allow me to switch to my hearts content. A second level of customization can be built on top (i.e. equiping materia, junctioning, sphere grid, licenses) to allow further improvement of characters. What ideas do you have that would improve the genre? I'm mainly thinking about the typical console style RPGs, however feel free to bring up ideas for the Dungeons and Dragons style of games (but no MMORPGs, that'll be for a different design challenge!).
Mon, 24 May 2010, 10:23
HoboBen	I would think at today's level of hardware, you could use all 9 or 12 or how-many characters in the same battle. But to reduce the tediousness, perhaps you would only directly control one of them, the rest controlled by A.I. or the FF XII gambit system, which rather than applying to individuals could apply instead to each class, e.g. a set of archer, mage, healer, warrior gambits. I also found the FF XII gambit system far too simplistic. I know as a programmer I'm biased in that way, but I still think players would have coped. -=-=- blog \| work \| code \| more code
Mon, 24 May 2010, 10:33
shroom_monk	It was slightly annoying not being able to use all 6 characters at once in FF12. I ended up using two parties of 3, all on the same level, and just using the lowest levelled group (except for bosses). And I agree with Ben on the gambit system - it was a nice idea, and was useful in simple battles, but the lack of being able to use multiple conditions for an action (i.e. if statements) led to situations like your healer trying to use healing spells on a character with reflect, causing large wastes of MP. If I could check multiple conditions (i.e. low health & not-Reflect) this would be avoided. Of course, more complex and there's a risk of it playing the game for you, but that sort of thing was rather annoying. \|edit\| On the subject of improvements, how about levelling up your character in specific skill-areas, rather than just 1 general level? That character's class would then be that of their highest level-skill? I'd also like to see more specific stats, rather than just Luck, Stamina, etc, as it was never entirely obvious to me at first what each one actually affected. \|edit\| -=-=- A mushroom a day keeps the doctor away... Keep It Simple, Shroom!
Mon, 24 May 2010, 18:57
mindstorm8191	I had a dream the other day that I was playing a new RTS style game... the units and environment were all future tech (as were the enemies). What struck me as a handy new feature of the game was that all units would engage any hostiles within their firing range. So if a band of enemies approached your base, all you would have to do is direct your units towards their location, and let them fight the enemies off. I'll admit, I haven't played much of the Final Fantasy games except the first one, but the genre is usually tedius. Perhaps it would be more reasonable for players to give generic commands to players, such as attack, defend, hold position, etc instead of specifics. It may not provide as much control over your characters (which could be added in anyways) but you could also control more characters in your party that way. As you say, its not good when you have members in your group that are behind on levels. But, wouldn't it make more sense for everyone in a party to help in the fighting? Weaker characters could take 'cheap shots' whenever possible, while stronger characters would stand as defensive shields and destroy the strong enemies. -=-=- Vesuvius web game
Tue, 25 May 2010, 04:31
JL235	mindstorm8191 What struck me as a handy new feature of the game was that all units would engage any hostiles within their firing range. So if a band of enemies approached your base, all you would have to do is direct your units towards their location, and let them fight the enemies off. Most RTS games do this already. I also used this very tactic in StarCraft, but only really works when you have tonnes of units. Also note suggestions don't have to all be in reference to Final Fantasy. I was just using some of those games as examples. On the gambit system, I agree a more sophisticated version would be better, and I don't think it would be too difficult to have built. It could have been implemented by allowing the user to goto the shop and merge targets together, to make new custom ones (with a limit on how many can be merged).