BRAINSTORMING NEW GAME!! POSSIBLY...

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If this is in the wrong section or whatever, I apologize as it's been a loooong time since I've made a topic. ^^;;

So, I've been thinking of how to make another game, this time JUST with my own OCs from the previous game. No fangame, no references to other games, just an actual, original game with just them. I've been working on a skilset for these characters (which I will share below in spoilers), but I've been having a hard time with a few other things.

I've been debating at which point in the story for this to take place. Now, you may say "It should be from the very beginning, no?", to which I answer, that WOULD be good...except the problem there is how the story works for my characters. The "first war" of which that game could take place in isn't exactly easy to write for (the main protag dies early on in that war, so it wouldn't even give much time to get attached to her, or really, any of the characters for that matter), and any "wars" after that wouldn't matter until the one where the main protag actually is the victor. The problem there is that she would be the only playable character in that game. Now, why is THAT a problem? Because she's a pacifist and doesn't like to fight (that...and her skillset by default has like...one offensive ability in it. The rest are all healing and support skills as you'll see below). Doesn't exactly work well with a RPG-styled game (sure, Undertale did this, but I don't want to copy that per say). If I were to do it AFTER the "war" where the main protag wins, then all of the OCs would be playable that I'd want...but then it'd be like a chunk of the story is missing, and you wouldn't know who any of them are and all that.

The next issue I'm having is coming up with a battle system. I'm thinking of reusing my old battle system from Touhou Fantasy, but refined (as in, the skill books won't be awful to use. You won't go into the menu EVERY TIME you want to use to try and learn a skill. Also, since there's a maximum of maybe 10 characters, won't be as bad as Touhou Fantasy, which had like 20-28 characters in it...). I WOULD like to make it similar to Genius of Sapphieros, where you can apply points towards skills to power them up, learn passives, or learn new abilities. In my case, I had the idea of making it so you can use these points to upgrade skills (for example, Hope's standard heal would either heal more HP, become AoE, cost less MP, give Regen to the party, etc.). However, I know that 2k3 isn't going to allow this without heavy modifications, and I don't know the other engines at all.

Which brings me to the next issue, the engine. As mentioned, I DON'T know any of the other engines at all, meaning I'd have to probably spend a decent amount of time learning them from scratch just to do anything I'd like. And this is assuming I can get them for free (which good luck with the much recent ones??). 2K3 I'm of course very familiar with, but I also know that it's got a lot of limitations on it...and without DynRPG, which I planned on using again, I couldn't do what I'd want at all.

Now, the skillsets! This does show who all would be playable (bar the optional characters), but eh! It's a draft so yeah...


Hope (Class: Cleric/Seer. Basically, the healer/buffer of the party. Only has one offensive move, and it's only really good against Dark/Undead enemies. Otherwise, it's weak. Hope is the main protagonist, and is the pacifist I was referring to, which makes making anything revolving around her hard without party members...):

*Sunrise: Inflicts Light/elemental damage to one target. Deals more damage to those with higher darkness values. Deals massive damage to undeads.

*Soothing Light: Restores HP to one ally.
*Lifeline: Restores HP to all allies in range.
*Life Aura: Gradually restores HP to all allies in range.
*Mana Spring: Restores MP to one ally.
*Revitalize: Revives one ally from KO/Death.
*Stalwart Remedy: Cures status debuffs on one ally.
*Therapy: Increases resistance/nullifies mind-altering effects (Confusion/Charm/Berserk/etc.).


*Barrier: Reduces physical damage taken.
*Forcefield: Reduces magic damage taken.
*Aegis: Reduces all damage taken.
*Mana Shield: Grants HP Barrier to one ally.
*Mana Wall: Grants HP Barrier to the party.
*Second Chance: Automatically revives KO'd ally upon death.


*Blackened Soul: Increases darkness within one target.
*Divine Soul: Increases light within one target.
**Lost Paradise: Cures all debuffs to the party (including Instant Death), restores HP/MP, and grants Reraise.
**Grand Dream: Gradually restores HP/MP to the party, reduces all damage taken by 50%, and buffs the party's stats by 100%.



Fate (Class: Elementalist/Oracle. Basically, your standard Black Mage, with ways to buff your party's elemental resists as well as debuff the enemies elemental resists. In addition, would have the Predict moveset, which is a random chance of...things. So I guess you can also call it the Gambler's Slots abilities?):

Elemancy/NulElemental/Imperilmental/Predict

*Mercurial Sphere: Inflicts Fire-elemental damage and reduces Fire-elemental resistance to one target.
*Nova Storm: Inflicts Fire-elemental damage to all targets.
*Groundburst: Inflicts Earth-elemental damage and reduces Earth-elemental resistance to one target.
*Earthshaker: Inflicts Earth-elemental damage to all enemies.
*Sonic Slicer: Inflicts Wind-elemental damage and reduces Wind-elemental resistance to one target.
*Furious Tempest: Inflicts Wind-elemental damage to all enemies.
*Bubble Curtain: Inflicts Water-elemental damage and reduces Water-elemental resistance to one enemy.
*Blue Sea: Inflicts Water-elemental damage to all targets.
**Elemental Wheel: Inflicts Fire/Earth/Wind/Water/Light/Dark-elemental damage and reduces Fire/Earth/Wind/Water/Light/Dark-elemental resistance to all enemies.
**Genesis Light: Reduces all elemental resists to all enemies by 50% and boost all elemental resists to the party by 50%.


*Searing Veil: Increase resistance/nullifies Fire-elemental damage.
*Gaiaveil: Increase resistance/nullifies Earth-elemental damage.
*Stormveil: Increase resistance/nullifies Wind-elemental damage.
*Hydroveil: Increases resistance/nullifies Water-elemental damage.
*Starlight Veil: Increases resistance/nullifies Light-elemental damage.
*Reaper Veil: Increase resistance/nullifies Dark-elemental damage.
*Rainbow Veil: Increases resistance/nullifies Fire/Earth/Wind/Water/Light/Dark-elemental damage.


*Divine Scrambler: Reduces Light-elemental resistance to one enemy.
*Chaos Scrambler: Reduces Dark-elemental resistance to one enemy.


*Mind Reader: See target's parameters, items, etc.
*Clairvoyance: 100% Evasion on next attack for Fate, % Evasion increase for other party members.
*Predict: Use random ability.

(On backburner/possibile list)


*Plutian Spikes: Inflicts Ice-elemental damage to one target.
*Arctic Wail: Inflicts Ice-elemental damage to all targets.
*Gravity Wheel: Inflicts Gravity-elemental damage to all targets.
*Cryoveil: Increase resistance/nullifies Ice-elemental damage.
*Magnetveil: Increase resistance/nullifies Lightning-elemental damage.
*Venom Veil: Increase resistance/nullifies Poison-elemental damage.
*Molecular Veil: Increase resistance/nullifies Gravity-elemental damage.



Chaos (Class: Berserker/Arcanist. Your pure physical DPS melee user, who has access to some non-elemental spells (might also have some elemental abilities too). Can act as a tank as well, but as a different role than Death, being a Provoke/Counter tank):

*Cosmic Emblem: Uses a flurry of punches to assault one enemy, dealing knockback to target. Can possibly seal abilities.
*Stargazer
*Antimatter
*Black Hole
*Delta Twilight
*Dragonfall



Gloom (Class: Puppetmaster/Illusionist. A ranged fighter that deals with emotions. Honestly, really hard to come up with ANYTHING for her, as she's the least developed of the OCs):

*Ectoplasm:
*Poltergeist:
*Apathy: Can force target to not take any actions.
*Grudge: Chosen target takes damage equal to damage user is inflicted with.
*Cowardice: Inflicts Terror to one target.
**Soul Sphere: Allows for continuous usage of abilities for the rest of the party at no costs.
**Soul Thread: Allows for usage of a "clone" of target, stats of clone varying on power of Soul Thread.



Pestilence (Class: Ark Knight/Dancer/Songstress. A physical unit that deals with negative statuses, but can use party-wide buffs/debuffs/etc. when equipped with an instrument instead of a spear):

*Blackbird:
*Feather Maelstrom:
*Raven's Caw:
*Seven Sins:
*Banescissor: Inflicts non-elemental physical damage and a status effect (Poison, Venom, Toxify, etc.)
*Heartbreak: Inflicts non-elemental physical damage and a status effect (Apathy, Confusion, etc.)
*Nightmare: Inflicts a status effect (Terror, stat debuffs, etc.).
*Irradiate: Inflicts a status effect (Burn, etc.).
*Pox Alleviate: Heals target based on types and numbers of buffs/debuffs on them. May or may not remove them.
*Pox Detonate: Inflicts damage on target based on types and number of debuffs on them. May or may not remove them.



Death (Class: Time Mage/Necromancer. A physical unit that acts as a Cover tank, soaking up the damage for the rest of the party. Has access to HP/MP% abilities, as well as Instant Death and revival (though not as powerful as Hope's).):

*Burial: Attacks with a powerful overhead slash to slam target into the ground.
*Cerberus: Attacks with three slices from the scythe.
*Purgatory: Attacks by surrounding target in darkness, then attacks with a powerful slice from the scythe.
*Genocide:
*Bloodbath:
*Braindead:
*Catastrophe:
*Cocytus:
*Tartarus:
*Gehenna:
*Grave:
*Fallen Angel:
*Unholy War: Attacks multiple times with scythe, ending with an upward slash.


*Astral Stream: Inflicts Dark/Void-elemental damage to all targets in front of user with a stream of darkness.
*Abyss Gate: Inflicts Dark/Void-elemental damage to one enemy.
*Lifeslicer: Halves a target's HP.
*Manaslicer: Damages/halves a target's MP.
*Manabreak: Inflicts damage to target based on target's MP.
*All or Nothing: Attempts to inflict Instant Death to one target.
*Timeflow: Slows down time to all enemies.
*Life Pulse: Revives one KO'd target.
*Soulbind: Revives one KO'd target. Stronger than Life Pulse.
*Soul Fortification: Increases resistance/nullifies Instant Death effects.
*Looming Guardian: Increases Defense parameters to one ally.
*Bloodthirst: Adds Drain HP/Absorb HP effect to ally's attacks.
*Last Resort: Grants buffs to user, but also inflicts Doom/Slow Death/etc.
**Apocalypse: Inflicts heavy damage to all enemies.
**Necropolis



Order (Class: Sage. Your main heavy magic nuker. Generally deals with Light/Dark magic, but can use other elements. Unlike Fate who primarily deals more with groups, Order is more about nuking single targets with her powerful magic. In addition, she has access to strong support skills, but they usually come with some stipulation or heavy cost as a side effect of using them or being used):

*Penance:
*Damnation:
*Starlight Sanctuary:
*Lost Gospel:
*Halo:
*Heavenly Axis:
*Retribution: Inflicts heavy Light/Holy-elemental damage to one target.
*Voidgate: Inflicts heavy Dark/Void-elemental damage to one target.
*Sabbath:
*Scourge:
*Rapture:
*Tetragrammaton:


*Angel Feathers:
*Cherub Feathers:
*Holy Spirit:
*Omniscience:
*Evangelion: Fully heals all HP and removes all buffs/debuffs from one ally, but reduces their MP to 0.
*Destroyer: Increases all parameters of one ally.
Zenith:
*Lifeshield: While defending, slowly regain HP.
*Manashield: While defending, slowly regain MP.
*Elementshield: While defending, reduces damage from all elemental attacks.
*Voidshield: While defending, nullifies all damage.
*Divine Shield:
**Salvation: Inflicts heavy Light/Mystic/Holy-elemental damage and nullifies all buffs to all enemies while removing all debuffs from party.


So, any opinions on this? Anything that you guys think can be done with what I have atm? Or anything you can throw in regards to ideas on skillsets or the like? I'd like to hear from any of you! ^^;
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
author=Xenomic
I've been debating at which point in the story for this to take place. Now, you may say "It should be from the very beginning, no?", to which I answer, that WOULD be good...except the problem there is how the story works for my characters. The "first war" of which that game could take place in isn't exactly easy to write for (the main protag dies early on in that war, so it wouldn't even give much time to get attached to her, or really, any of the characters for that matter), and any "wars" after that wouldn't matter until the one where the main protag actually is the victor. The problem there is that she would be the only playable character in that game. Now, why is THAT a problem? Because she's a pacifist and doesn't like to fight (that...and her skillset by default has like...one offensive ability in it. The rest are all healing and support skills as you'll see below). Doesn't exactly work well with a RPG-styled game (sure, Undertale did this, but I don't want to copy that per say). If I were to do it AFTER the "war" where the main protag wins, then all of the OCs would be playable that I'd want...but then it'd be like a chunk of the story is missing, and you wouldn't know who any of them are and all that.

Yeah, deciding when a story should actually take place is a hard choice, and having one like this, I personally think it'd be interesting to start the game after the war, but sprinkle in cutscenes every now and then to give players the backstory about the original protagonist, to keep them interested in piecing together what happened back then and how it relates to the present ^_^

So for example, have a chunk of gameplay and story in the present, and then after a dungeon or plot beat, cut to a flashback about the past. As long as these flashbacks don't last super long, they'll give the player enough incentive to look forward to seeing more of the past. You could even make them playable if you wanted, but given the issues you mentioned this isn't a requirement and they can work just fine as cutscenes as well.

author=Xenomic
Which brings me to the next issue, the engine. As mentioned, I DON'T know any of the other engines at all, meaning I'd have to probably spend a decent amount of time learning them from scratch just to do anything I'd like. And this is assuming I can get them for free (which good luck with the much recent ones??). 2K3 I'm of course very familiar with, but I also know that it's got a lot of limitations on it...and without DynRPG, which I planned on using again, I couldn't do what I'd want at all.

That's a toughie. I'd personally recommend VX Ace, but yeah, it's not free (tho they often have good sales on it making it sometimes pretty cheap) and you'd have to learn a good deal about making it work. While I didn't have a big problem with it, (I had used XP after 2000 and 2003), I still had to ask for help around here for stuff like damage formulas and some of the more obscure stuff.

But VX Ace would make implementing a lot of those moves you mentioned a lot easier (I didn't look at every single one of them but in general I think Ace can do most of them pretty easily, and some of the harder to do ones probably have scripts available for stuff like auto-life effects etc). The only real downsides to Ace is 1) it's screen resolution maxxing out at 640 x 480 even with Yanfly's core engine is kinda less than ideal these days (tho you can use fullscreen/double screen plugins to somewhat help with this) and VX Ace can lag if you make really big maps or maps with a ton of events.

If you really want that good old side view battle system like 2003 though, MV has that built in by default, but it's the most recent engine so it's the most expensive and it has an iffy reputation with some people swearing by it but a lot of people having issues with it. For example, here's one of many threads about its pros and cons.

Whichever engine you go with, it's really cool to see you moving on to OCs (not that there's anything wrong with fangames, I just personally find OCs more interesting XD) and best of luck with your new project!

EDIT: Lucky! Looks like they're having a spring sale on RPG Maker engines right now! You could get VX Ace for $13.99 if you wanted :DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
author=unity
Yeah, deciding when a story should actually take place is a hard choice, and having one like this, I personally think it'd be interesting to start the game after the war, but sprinkle in cutscenes every now and then to give players the backstory about the original protagonist, to keep them interested in piecing together what happened back then and how it relates to the present ^_^

So for example, have a chunk of gameplay and story in the present, and then after a dungeon or plot beat, cut to a flashback about the past. As long as these flashbacks don't last super long, they'll give the player enough incentive to look forward to seeing more of the past. You could even make them playable if you wanted, but given the issues you mentioned this isn't a requirement and they can work just fine as cutscenes as well.


Hmm. So just go to the one that has all 7 of them playable instead of just Hope? Or cut to the one where it's focused on her? I'm assuming you're referring to the one after Hope is the victor (since figuring out how to do a game with JUST Hope would be hard. I mean, I COULD do what I did with the previous game I suppose, where she had others help her and fight for her until she actually got the courage up to actually fight, but then I'd feel like I'm retrending old grounds by reusing the story of the previous game, just without pre-existing characters). Unless I did something more interesting that wasn't a RPG but more like a Zelda-styled game or something...but even then, since she's a pacifist, she isn't going to actively try to fight, and even if she did, she's the weakest of the 7. @_@;

author=unity
That's a toughie. I'd personally recommend VX Ace, but yeah, it's not free (tho they often have good sales on it making it sometimes pretty cheap) and you'd have to learn a good deal about making it work. While I didn't have a big problem with it, (I had used XP after 2000 and 2003), I still had to ask for help around here for stuff like damage formulas and some of the more obscure stuff.

But VX Ace would make implementing a lot of those moves you mentioned a lot easier (I didn't look at every single one of them but in general I think Ace can do most of them pretty easily, and some of the harder to do ones probably have scripts available for stuff like auto-life effects etc). The only real downsides to Ace is 1) it's screen resolution maxxing out at 640 x 480 even with Yanfly's core engine is kinda less than ideal these days (tho you can use fullscreen/double screen plugins to somewhat help with this) and VX Ace can lag if you make really big maps or maps with a ton of events.

If you really want that good old side view battle system like 2003 though, MV has that built in by default, but it's the most recent engine so it's the most expensive and it has an iffy reputation with some people swearing by it but a lot of people having issues with it. For example, here's one of many threads about its pros and cons.

Whichever engine you go with, it's really cool to see you moving on to OCs (not that there's anything wrong with fangames, I just personally find OCs more interesting XD) and best of luck with your new project!

EDIT: Lucky! Looks like they're having a spring sale on RPG Maker engines right now! You could get VX Ace for $13.99 if you wanted :DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD


Yeah, I'm just super used to 2k3 and its quirkiness (it's not like I HAVEN'T done some crazy stuff in that game with abilities, mind you). Isn't there also graphical problems between the engines too (i.e. can't really use 2k3 graphics and stuff for VX and the like?)? I remember that being a thing that kept me from moving to any other engine since I had a bunch of tilesets and the like already on hand. ^^;
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
It takes a small amount of effort to convert them to VX Ace format, but I know for a fact you don't have any 2K3 graphics to use anyway except for SNES rips, so the issue is irrelevant.
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
author=Xenomic
Hmm. So just go to the one that has all 7 of them playable instead of just Hope? Or cut to the one where it's focused on her? I'm assuming you're referring to the one after Hope is the victor (since figuring out how to do a game with JUST Hope would be hard. I mean, I COULD do what I did with the previous game I suppose, where she had others help her and fight for her until she actually got the courage up to actually fight, but then I'd feel like I'm retrending old grounds by reusing the story of the previous game, just without pre-existing characters). Unless I did something more interesting that wasn't a RPG but more like a Zelda-styled game or something...but even then, since she's a pacifist, she isn't going to actively try to fight, and even if she did, she's the weakest of the 7. @_@;

Yeah, I meant the part with all seven playable, and flashback to where it was just the pacifist. From what I've heard of your story, that sounds like the optimal version to me, as you can have a lot of fun with all the characters and their playstyles without missing the story of the pacifist and instead getting it in chunks as the game continues.

author=Xenomic
Yeah, I'm just super used to 2k3 and its quirkiness (it's not like I HAVEN'T done some crazy stuff in that game with abilities, mind you). Isn't there also graphical problems between the engines too (i.e. can't really use 2k3 graphics and stuff for VX and the like?)? I remember that being a thing that kept me from moving to any other engine since I had a bunch of tilesets and the like already on hand. ^^;

As LockeZ mentioned, you can convert 2k3 tilesets to VX Ace with a little work, and some of them have already been done. I'd have to go look, but I found some of them for a project that was gonna have a 2000/2k3 vibe before I basically... uh... abandoned it ^^;;;; I made (well, more like adapted) some of them myself and there are some wonderful remixed sorta versions by Joseph Seraph.
I suppose that is true. It all depends on how it's handled, I guess.

So I wonder how viable it would be to do GoS's Land system (i.e. using an elemental attack will increase the Land gauge more towards one side, making all elements on the other side of the scale weaker while the side that's going up makes those elements stronger. This works both ways too, making both enemy and player elemental attacks stronger/weaker)? Since I might still use 2k3 for this (I know, ugh, 2k3 why Xeno why!?), thinking about how to utilize this just to make a battles a bit more interesting elemental-wise, since elemental attacks right now are super boring (I'm honestly having trouble coming up with anything interesting for Fate that's not just...elemental damage. That's super boring IMO!). >_<


EDIT - Speaking of Fate, thinking of doing this with her Elemental shields.


*Searing Veil: Increase resistance/nullifies Fire-elemental damage and lowers resistance to Water-elemental damage.
*Gaiaveil: Increase resistance/nullifies Earth-elemental damage and lowers resistance to Wind-elemental damage.
*Stormveil: Increase resistance/nullifies Wind-elemental damag and lowers resistance to Earth-elemental damagee.
*Hydroveil: Increases resistance/nullifies Water-elemental damage and lowers resistance to Fire-elemental damage.
*Starlight Veil: Increases resistance/nullifies Light-elemental damage and lowers resistance to Dark-elemental damage.
*Reaper Veil: Increase resistance/nullifies Dark-elemental damage and lowers resistance to Light-elemental damage.

A little better/more interesting? It makes it a bit more riskier to use in some fights, and not super broken unless the enemy uses just that one element in particular. Honestly, it's REALLY REALLY hard to come up with anything interesting for elemental damage. >_<


So, at 7:50 is what I was referring to with Genius of Sappheiros's skill system, in which you can take the points you have and put it into anything, increasing powers, unlocking new abilities, etc., and you can also remove points from said skills to put into others (with needing a set amount to get new skills and whatnot sometimes). I'm not going to attempt this in 2K3, that's for sure, but wondering if this is more viable in MV if I were to use it? Also debating on if I want to condense skills for such a system. For example, Order was going to get Status Shields (i.e. Poison Shield), which if the unit takes damage (or Order, if it's only self-target), then it'll inflict that status to the enemy.

This would mean that I'm not reusing TF's old garbage skill system, but I don't know if refining that game's skill system would be more beneficial or not...
For the paragraph about a protagonist having no offense during the first war:
You could make a field medic where the early gameplay involves casting healing magic on wounded soldiers as they enter your medical tent, and occasionally using the one offensive ability on any riff raff who infiltrate. But as time marches on, your field medic should be inquiring nearby people like guards or wounded soldiers to teach more offensive skills, since it's becoming increasingly obvious that your safety will be in peril if you don't learn new offense.
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