I NEED THE GENERAL OPINION HERE..

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After juggling tons of ideas around in my head so much I couldn't sleep I think I need the general opinion :)

Is this a big mistake? Class Orbs that are equiped to give character's abilities (Ie. Nature Orb turns makes
Character a Druid class, giving him/her Earth, Water and Poison magic) but also have the Orb change the character's stats. (Ie. Nature Orb - Minus STR, Minus DEF, Equal AGL, Plus WIS)

I was just comtemplating wether this would mean it would limit the player to only choosing out of a small spectrim of classes for each character, for example, a character with a Sword would be better suited to be a Warrior Orb, and a Character with a Staff being better suited to a Nature Orb for example.

I'm confusing myself here but what I'm trying to say is it better to have these restrictions to avoid the typical 'MAGE DEATH PARTY' or should I just let it be for the sake of customization?

If you have any idea what I'm talking about... Thank you lol
This...doesn't sound too bad. It's almost like the materia system of FFVII, but with a unique...no, wait, it's the materia system of FFVII.
You could maybe set up 'phases' for some enemies, for example: for 5 turns, enemy is immune to magic, 5 turns enemy is immune to physical, tactics like that might encourage someone to diversify their orbs and gives the player greater freedom then just restricting the player to certain orbs.
@MKID232

Read carefully. I was simply asking for the general opinion of wether Orbs that give magic (They have been used in many RPGS, not just FF7) are a better alternative than Class Orbs. I was simply trying to see wether the player could prefer customization over character restrictions in abilities (ie. A character that always uses a Staff is better suited because of the WIS bonus to a Mage Class Orb, or a Sword weilding character is better suited to a Warrior Class, because of his high damage) or if It would be better if I scrapped classes for the sake of party customization.
Oh, duh. My bad. I actually think the idea is pretty good. It gives the game a unique flair that would be excellent if executed properly.
The big challange will be balance no matter which way I want to go with it. I just feel sick of the idea of a player having all their party members Mages and grinding the whole game because all the characterd are suited to being which ever class they please.

I guess character specifics are the only way to avoid it :P
Since magic orbs have been done before, and class orbs haven't (though I guess the class system in general has) I would try to make class orbs work. I like the idea a lot and think it's much more interesting than the standard magic orbs.

One simple solution to the MDP (mage death party :P) would be to only allow one orb to be in use at a time. So 1 mage, 1 warrior, 1 priest, and 1 druid.

Another solution might be that since each character would have stats already a little skewed towards certain classes (the strong sword guy does better as a warrior than as a mage) a full party of mages might not work so well because the musclier guys would run out of MP quicker and not hit as hard with their spells.

Also, you could allow the orbs to dictate the type of equipment allowed to be used at any time. Warrior Orb grants the ability to equip swords, axes, spears, shields, and heavy armor, for example.
Hmm the idea of being able to equip one orb at a time would get rid of any MDP traps.

I kind of moving away from the idea of the Orbs allowing character's to equip different weapons, as I want each character to have something definitive about them - but different equipment such as Wizard Hats and Theif Bandana's etc. sounds sweet as. Though the equipment itself would properly have negative effects aswell so the players so as the game progresses and you have the need to equip better Class suited items the game will challange the player to properly utilize the classes to order to strategicaly beat the game.
If you want charas to use a specific type of weapon, why not give them access to specialized weapons for different classes, or special tiers of weapons for the different classes? This way if someone wants the chara that uses swords to do magic he won't be completely useless.
This is both interesting and complicated.
Something else you could consider, though this is a little out there and a little odd I guess, but each class could have an 'aura' associated with it that would not stack. So the mage would provide an aura, and if you have 4 mages, well then you're missing out on 3 auras you could potentially have. Some examples might be:

Mage - Aura of Magic - grants everyone additional max MP or slight MP regen during battles.
Priest- Aura of Life- same as mage but HP.
Warrior - Aura of Courage - grants additional damage (so all classes can use) or maybe just 1 stat like STR
Druid - Aura of the Wild - grants slight elemental resistance bonuses.

This is pretty rough, but it's just an idea I came up with when trying to figure out a way to encourage a player to NOT use several of the same class without completely forbidding it.

Also this seems like it'd be complicated to do maybe >.< But I'll leave this post just as a brainstorm.
You should make it where we wouldn't have to buy them, but got them at certain intervals. Just a quick tip that isn't so hard to do.
post=152203
You should make it where we wouldn't have to buy them, but got them at certain intervals. Just a quick tip that isn't so hard to do.


Quest rewards / hidden item chests sound like a better option in my opinion, rather than just getting them handed to you.
That works, too. Just don't like having to buy them.
The decision you're pondering is a big one. Here's a similar discussion that was over a year ago (wow, already): http://rpgmaker.net/forums/topics/4075/

FF6 and FF7 most notably enact what you're talking about; customization while still having character-specific mechanics. It's a balance, FF6 is more unique character-wise, but the archetypes are more strongly cemented (Cyan, for example, would benefit most from magicite that increase attack attributes because of his sword skills). Furthermore, in FF6, "customization" really only applied to which characters you want to be nukers, which could be anyone and/or everyone. FF7, on the other hand, offered lots more customization, but far less unique attributes. You could make any character your healer, your nuker, or your powerhouse melee combatant, but the only things that made characters unique were their limit breaks (which very loosely suggest archetypes, most characters deal damage whereas Aerith heals the party), the weapons they could equip (which if I'm not mistaken came in a variety that could allow the character to have a physical or magic role), and their default stat tables (which I'm not even sure exist, for one, and don't mean as much when really getting into materia builds).

Think of it this way: whatever attribute you wish to grant to your characters, that has a plausible effect on combat mechanics, is one thing less you're able to accomplish in customizing that character. With a little imagination, though, you can come up with character perks that still leave them open to full or high-level customization. For example, making certain characters strong against certain enemy types, which could have an effect on physical damage, magical damage, damage taken from those enemies, or the success rate of status effects. It's a lot more work, though.
I think deadramone had a pretty good point. If the optimum party in your game is a cast of magic nukers, there isn't enough variety in what the player is coming up against. Make some enemies immune to (or healed by) magic. Make some enemies with absurdly high physical defense. Make some enemies toss out wicked status effect skills, so the one class (or handful of classes) that knows the silence ability actually has a reason to come into play. I think that's the key to making this work.

Alternatively, if you're just shooting for a work-around while maintaining a customization aspect, you could have a different set of orbs for each character.
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
post=152174
I was simply asking for the general opinion of wether Orbs that give magic (They have been used in many RPGS, not just FF7) are a better alternative than Class Orbs.

Y nots both?
Goods for the advice. I knew asking for help on this forum was a good idea :P
slash
APATHY IS FOR COWARDS
4158
What if you made each orb affect each character a little differently?

For example, a Mage-Orb turns a Mage character into a super-mage, or a Warrior into a Warrior-Mage, or a Priest into a Priest-Mage.
You could even go so far as to name each class a little differently for each character. A Warrior w/ a Mage orb would become a Battlemage, but a Priest with the same orb would become a Diviner, or something.
So while it would be possible for people to min/max by only equipping orbs to the character that is already that class, they could also mix and match for a more varied party.
This would probably be more work depending on the system you're using and how many characters you have, but it could be done by determining base statistics and skills by both the class and the character itself.

And I just realized that my idea is getting very similar to Golden Sun, heh. Damn, I thought I was being creative.
One main thing I'm trying to keep in mind is that I want nuking at an all time minimim in my RPG.
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