ALTERNATE FORMS OF MANA

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Hey everyone I was wondering if you had any good ideas for alternate systems to replace the use of Mana in games. I know there are various scripts out there that allow more flexability in skill costs but I am talking about more than just HP or TP I am talking about complete other systems. For example one that I am currently using in my game Human/Spirt gauge. The gauge starts you out at 50% Human and 50% spirit and as you use more physical skills the gague moves you more twards human and as you use more magical moves you move more twards Spirit and if at any point you are at 100% for either side you auto die. I was just wondering if any of you had any ideas on systems of the like because i think it would be great to see more people using systems that are not just simply cost based.
There are quite a few options available already, the most obvious one being the cooldown system. :D
Hp cost, things like that, moreover why do skills have to have a cost? They could be free, yet situational. Mana wouldn't be a factor in deciding what spell to use, tactics would be the sole factor. To tell the truth Mana is interesting for dungeon crawling because it forces you to manage your resources, but if that's not the point (as it isn't in a cooldown system) why to have a cost in skills at all?
Think about it! :D

((bad writing))

LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
Ammo could be a good option in a modern or futuristic game. I've seen games where each skill has its own ammo, limiting the number of times you can use a specific skill without affecting any other skills. I've also seen games (and personally used a system) where a character has more than one gun, and each gun has multiple skills. The player then has to choose between certain skills - using one skill effectively locks two or three others until you reload.

If every skill uses the same type of ammo, ammo is basically just MP with a different name...

Depending on how much resource conservation you want the player to be dealing with, the ammo could be reloaded by using a clip from your inventory, or just by using a free "Reload" command.

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I've also seen lots of games where some attacks cost a resource while others replenish that same resource. Often these attacks are of two different categories - for example, maybe attack skills replenish energy while healing skills cost energy, so that the character's healing is limited by his or her offense. This would be a good idea in a game where you only have one character and want the character to have healing skills but not be able to turtle. The player would need to save up the heals to be used situationally - something they wouldn't be as likely to do in a cooldown system.

Alternately you could use this kind of resource generation in a simpler way, just having weak attacks that restore energy and stronger attacks that cost energy. This ends up very similar to having MP that automatically regenerates each round, but with some added complexity - since different skills can regenerate different amounts of energy. Like cooldowns, this is probably a good option for when you want a character to always have skills to use.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
It sounds like somebody might have been dabbling in Arcanum - Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura. I know that game has a meter that keeps track of how much affinity a character has for "tech" verses "magick". One's race has an initial effect (i.e. Half-orcs are more attuned to tech and Elves are more attuned to magick), but I think the meter can still go either way, depening on how players interact with the game.

The thing I don't quite get is the part about being 100% "tech" or "magick" causing an auto-death. I'm slightly interested to hear why you think an auto-death at those points should happen.



Uh, more on-topic, I don't necessarily think cool-downs are a bad idea. Or the idea of using stamina/mana/health/whatever. However, are they they only options that can be considered for cost? I don't know, but, the one ability that I can think of off-hand that wouldn't require stamina, or a cool-down, is Gil Toss, which has a cost of the player's on-hand money.
Thanks for your responses and to Marrend I personally have never played or even heard of the game you metioned it is an idea I came up with while working on my own game, and as for the auto death that is mostly specific to the game I am working on. The main and currently only playable character is a sort of bridge between spirits and humans and would fail his mission if he got to be only one or the other.

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Another idea I was working on would be similar to LockeZ's ammo system except required you to have a clip item in your inventory that would be displayed as "Clip(15 shots)" and every use of the skill would reduce the number of shots left by a set amount and when the clip was empty you would have to refill it out side of battle but you could increase the number of times you could use a skill by buying more empty clips to fill with ammo.
Some systems:
1. Magic points per magic level (old FF games).
2. Magic points per element (Wizardry 8 uses this).
3. A dynamic system where you gain points by doing actions and then can use them to do stronger actions (Alter A.I.L.A. Genesis).
4. Magic points per weapon type (have invented this for some of my games).
5. Magic points per category (SaGaFrontier).
6. That human vs spirit system you mentioned, I developed a similar one a few years ago for another game developer. The idea was that there is a 0 to 10 gauge and 0 was physical and 10 was magical and you start at 5 and there are two skill categories, physical and magical. And normally you needed to have a higher number to be able to use stronger magical skills and a lower numer to use stronger physical skills. But it was very dependent on the skill. Some magic skill might be like "Can only be used on 6 and higher, if used gauge will decrease by 3, if you used when at 8, double damage", like this. Additionally to that the gauge also determined your defenses. If you were at 0 you physical def was multiplied with 100% and you mdef was multiplied with 0% (so it's always 0) and then for each more point it moved 10% of the def. And you only could equip a certain amount of skills, so you had to think of tricky combinations that yielded the best damage output.
7. Super combo system - okay it has quite some varieties but the idea is that skills generally don't cost any points and you combine skills and do super combos. Xenogears for example uses such a system. I also once designed a system like "Paper/Rock/Scissor" where after originally winning you kept attacking until you lost (that means 66% chance to continue - but it wasn't fully random as each monster had its individual behavior pattern and if you figured that out you could do really long chains).
8. Input based system - you need to press buttons in a correct way to do stronger attacks, this could be ATB or a rhythm or a "press the key exactly when the attack connects".
9. Minigame based system - you actually play a minigame when you attack which determines how well the attack goes or the whole battle is a minigame itself.
10. Card based system - all your possible actions are cards that you draw and use from your hand (e.g. Baten Kaitos).
SunflowerGames
The most beautiful user on RMN!
13323

Yanfly has scripts where you can spend HP, gold, and items to activate skills.

You can also go star ocean (or as I did in one of my games) and make it so that if your MP reaches 0 you are ko.

I also think there's a script out there that gauges how the battle is going. ie. is the battle going in your favor (receive benefits.) Perhaps with a script like this you could make it so that certain skills can only be activated if you are doing well in battle or (not so well...)

You can make mtg game!!! Mana is Forest, Island, Swamp, Mountain, and Plains.
ie. every turn you randomly receive random colour points where you can use or store for activating skills.


Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
SunflowerGames
The most beautiful user on RMN!
13323
author=Marrend
Arcomage, yo.

I raise your game with Culdcept Saga!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culdcept_Saga

CashmereCat
Self-proclaimed Puzzle Snob
11638
Or you could go the route of Magicka and use combinations of collected orbs to create spells. I think that's how it works, except the orbs are infinite. But that idea springs to mind that RPG that Itaju is making where you have to put puzzle pieces together or something to create attacks. That's just what I gathered from the screenshots anyway.
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