WHAT ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT? (GAME DEVELOPMENT EDITION)

Posts

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APATHY IS FOR COWARDS
4158
Is there any particular reason for separating them besides theming? It seems potentially confusing.
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's pretty common to seperate effects into categories for the purposes of resisting and/or healing those effects. I'd recommend making all the effects of the same type be written in the same color text, so players can easily identify which type is which. Names aren't really important, you could call them red and blue effects, or body and soul effects, or ailment effects and elemental effects.
author=Liberty
For the 100th time; No one cares as long as you don't sell the game! Now, go GamMak and be quiet! >.>/

Allright, then. Screw trying to do things "right"! ...Welp! There goes the last of my New Year's resolutions. xD

author=Mr_Detective
I want to have an item that only cures ailments like poison, blind, and stun. And another that only cures elemental ailments as frozen, burning, and paralysis. How should I name these two items ? Is it wise to separate them like that ? :D

Yeah. You can also make items that cure each status individually, or an item that cures all of them, or items that cures only a few. (Like an item that regulates the body temperature, so it only heals Frozen and Burning.) As long as you balance things right, so each item has its relevance through the game and they're not completely useless by the end of it; this can add a nice layer of strategy... And as for the names. As long as they make some sort of sense within the context of your game, any name should be fine, really.
Nice compounding of what I was saying, but really, I've seen/talked with some of the Dejica peeps and I really don't think they mind as long as people aren't shouting it for the world (where-in they'd have to reprimand), sharing/selling it as their own work (which is pretty illegal anyway) or just selling it in a game if you don't have the license (which is again, illegal).

Just using it for a game that's not going to be sold is fine by them, as long as the maker you're using it in is legal... and Lite is, so...

Don't worry, I promise not to tell~ /me hugs



I like to make items that heal more than one item. At one point all my games had two state heal items - a Body or Mind heal which basically either healed afflictions of the body (poison, blind, something like paralysis, etc) or of the mind (confusion, forget, sleep and the like).

Of course, because you'd be using only those two to cover a range of states, I always made sure you got enough of them and that they were cheap enough to buy more of. Hell, in some versions I gave them multiple uses too.

The main thing is to balance the amounts of items and gold you get so that if you run into an enemy that poisons you all the time, you have enough items or gold to counter-act it. It really hurts players when you inflict a status and make it so that they only get two status healers and less gold than it takes to buy more.

So keep that in mind as well as making sure the items are relevant. One trick is to let enemies that deal status ailments (or at least ones in the same area as those ones) drop items that heal them. Another is something that's become popular of late: dropping states after a battle has been won.
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APATHY IS FOR COWARDS
4158
As it turns out, coding tile-based movement is a lot easier than coding freeform movement
I am actually seriously considering tackling some items in my list of ideas (as seen in my april fools status http://rpgmaker.net/users/kentona/statuses/830/ )
Roden
who could forget dear ratboy
3857
RPG Maker VX Ace can only set variables as "X or Above"

What.

This is going to be impossibly hard to adapt to.
Some of you may have been there in my IRC conversation on whether I should merge my physical and magic stats. If so, you may remember me saying that having two attacking stats was unfair for my fourth character, who was a paladin-style character and as such had both physical and magical attacks. Now, if characters' stat spreads were set in stone, this wouldn't be a problem, I'd just give him a stat spread that accounted for that. However, I'm aiming to have heavy customization of stats, and so having to hybridize while everyone else gets to have one of the attacking stats as a dump stat would not be fair for him. And I hate the very concept of dump stats that are so by design instead of the player's choice.

Then, as the conversation went on, I realized there was interesting design in having a hybrid attacking character, as long as his skills were balanced around it. Hybrids are overall less powerful than specialists, but they make up for it in versatility, by being able to hit the lowest defensive stat. I could also implement some sort of diminishing returns in attack power, so a character with half the attack of another would still deal more than half the damage of the second. And considering that I am going to giva nearly all of his attacks secondary effects, there would still be a reason to use his spells if you went full physical and vice-versa.

Now I realized that My paladin dude is not the one hurt the most by the stat division. Meet my second character, an archer specialized in conditions. He is the only character in the game that can inflict all three damaging status effects. So you'd want to invest a bit in condition damage for him. Then, he has his bow, so his attacks will deal physical damage. That is, except for his most powerful attack. It's pretty much a more extreme version of Pokémon's Venoshock. It's pitiful normally but if the target is poisoned it deals tons of damage. And it's his only spell so far. I just can't make sense of it as a physical attack, especially when deliversd from a distance. It is his most powerful attack, and I have seen games with builds focusing on only one skill of the character in question, but still, I don't like that to make a build based on this attack, it has to be to the detriment of everything else. I could fill the gap with extra spells, but it feels like I'm treating the symptom and not the disease, and having spell just for the sake of having spells makes for a skillset without identity.

From what you've read so far, you might have noticed something more general related to this problem. The game has three attack stats. Condition damage is not a percentage value of total HP, nor is it determined solely by the skill used. It has a damage stat of its own, much like the sword swings. And right now, I'm thinking that maybe three attack stats is a bit overboard, and since having conditions be treated as an extra attack vector is part of the game's core design, I'm not giving up on the condition damage stat. So if I want to reduce that number to two, my only option is to merge the physical and magical attack stats.

Excluding HP and SP, my stats right now are defined as follows:
Strength: Determines physical attack damage.
Endurance: Determines physical damage reduction.
Magic: Determines magical attack damage.
Spirit: Determines magical damage reduction, and heal potency. (I didn't want to tie heals to magic attack power as is tradition, as that makes it so the best healers have to also be powerful casters as well, eliminating the possibility of a physical attacking healer. Magic defense seemed like the most logical choice to shift heals to.)
Agility: Determines turn order.
Skill: Determines critical chance, and condition damage.

It's easy to notice that two of the stats determine two things instead of just one like the other four. Spirit I'm not too worried about, as if I end up not merging the stats, physical attacks will likely end up more powerful than magic on average, so it kinda evens out. Skill, however, has some potential to become the game's One Stat to Rule Them All, especially if I go through with my intention of having certain builds make the character inflict a condition on crit.

If I do end up merging the stats, I end up with the perfect ammount of attributes to stats. I have one stat for attack damage, one for condition damage, one for heals, one for attack damage reduction, one for turn order, and one for crit rate. That's pretty neat.

So yeah, this dilemma is still with me, and I'll have to solve it before I start implementing the combat mechanics. Any feedback would be gratly appreciated. Even of I end up disagreeing with you, understanding different ideas never hurt anybody.
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
Three attack stats isn't overboard; I've been helping to balance a game with a lot of character customization and four attack stats.
Strength - Physical damage
Intellect - Magic damage
Tech - Hit chance and crit chance of physical skills; chance of inflicting extra debuffs and piercing enemy resistance for magic skills
(also, most ways of increasing tech also increase agility, which affects turn order)
Willpower - Healing, chance of resisting magic damage, chance of inflicting ailments, poison damage

The character has the ability to build his character with a focus any of these stats, and the first three will do roughly equal damage. Willpower characters do far less damage, being primarily healers,.

Willpower characters can inflict poison on any enemy, including bosses, which has a 100% chance when used by a character with more willpower than the enemy (aka any character specialized in willpower), but the damage of poison is based on willpower). But since most non-boss battles are too short for poison to be worthwhile, they can also support the rest of the party in normal battles and minibosses with powerful status skills, like area sleep, which makes the next damage skill to the target do 50% more damage (in addition to stopping enemy action, of course), and hits normal enemies about 60% of the time and minibosses about 25% of the time when used by a willpower character.

Tech characters are also pretty tricky, since tech doesn't really do damage, it just increases damage done by the other stats. And it increases physical damage twice as much as it increases magical damage, so any character specialized in tech is going to have medium strength and low intellect. Getting enough tech to reach 100% hitrate is generally "ideal" for most strength-based characters, since getting more tech beyond that amount only provides crit and not hit, and is therefore less effective. But! There are many skills and passive effects you can gain that have bonus effects when you crit, and those skills and effects build off of each-other, multiplicatively. For example, you can get a skill that has a lower than usual hit rate but does extra damage - with enough tech points, this'll have a 100% hitrate. Or you can get a single target skill that does splash damage to all other enemies if it crits. Or one that has a higher crit chance if the character using it goes first. Then you can equip passive effects like "crits do 50% extra damage" or "crits drain HP equal to one fourth of the damage done" or "crits against poisoned enemies increase the limit break gauge of all party members by 15 points". So when you crit, you are really happy about it - and your crit chance can be boosted as high as 40-50%. But this is made up for by doing far less damage when you fail to crit than "normal" strength-based characters (who aren't without their own tricks, either).

You can also get away with a build with less tech points than usual, by using skills that deal less damage or have no crit chance, but have an increased hit chance. However, this isn't really a full build, it's mostly just to accomodate strength-based characters who are struggling to find equipment and soul upgrades and have less tech than they're supposed to. Or to hit enemies that buff their evade.

Overall, the damage at any point in the game for strength, intellect and tech characters is extremely similar. The small differences in damage are made up for by the bonus utility effects, of which strength has the fewest and tech has the most. But none of them have anywhere near as many bonus effects as willpower, which is primarily a defensive build, and thus does pretty terrible damage.
That is a pretty awesome post. I see now that three attack stats is definitely not overboard, and I even got some sweet ideas out of it.

Still, while I seem to have only glanced over it in the first post, I think my main problem here is actually the dump stats by design instead of choice. Your game seems to be one that's mostly classless, with little restrictions, and as so, which attack stats you use as dump stats is a choice. I have a game concept in my brain's archives that works that way, but this game is not like that. Character builds are customizable, but with exclusive possibilities. More specifically, Character 1 is a dedicated physical attacker and Character 3 is a dedicated spellcaster, each without attacks of the other type. Magic and Strength, respectively, are dump stats by design to them. They have no reason to invest in them.

Now, there are tow solutions to this problem. Solution 1 is to give Strength something that benefits spellcasters and Magic something that helps physical attackers. Though I'm afraid that if I go that way, the bonuses will actually end up being minor and I end up not fixing anything. The other solution is, as I was saying before, mergng the stats.
benos
My mind is full of fuck.
624
I'm always getting that BGS bug.
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
Third option is to just roll with it - you can use the strength and magic stats to make pieces of equipment be more effective for one character than the other. Like, if a bracelet provides fire resistance and +20 strength, you can put it on the mage in a pinch, and on the paladin without losing too much, but it's best on the warrior.
It still means that for two characters, there is no reason whatsoever for investing in one stat on level up, so that option is really not appealing to me. I could go with that first option. I could have it so, for example, the magic stat also determines crit damage. But then I'm also planning on spells being able to crit so I can make use of the "proc stuff on crit" mechanic with spells, and having general damage and crit damage determined by the same stat doesn't seem like agood idea to me.
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
Ah, they can choose stats on level up. Hmm. Perhaps intellect affects magic defense and strength affects physical defense. Or maybe MP and HP. Or elemental resist and block rate.

Dragon Age 2 has a system sort of like yours - there are three attack stats (str/int/dex) and three classes (warrior/mage/rogue), and each attack stat affects damage for one class. But even though characters have a single set class, they can choose stats on level up. So the stats have secondary effects. Specifically: Strength affects knockdown/ailment resistance, dexterity affects crit chance, and intellect affects magic defense and duration of ailments cast on you. Additionally, most pieces of equipment have stat requirements, and there are a few pieces of rogue gear I want my warrior to wear and a few pieces of warrior gear I want my mage to wear and so forth, which is the only real reason I ever take any stat but my main one (but I wouldn't make a game where offstats only affect equipment requirements, because then the in-between points are useless).
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
I need motivation to work on my game. It's been months since I got anything substantial done. Someone motivate me.

It's not like I don't want to work on it! I just don't want to work on graphics, and I have to have graphics before I can make dungeons, and I have to have dungeons before I can make battles and cut scenes, which are the parts I really want to make. So instead I keep giving screenshot advice and helping other people with their gameplay and cruising the forums, which causes my game design gland to secrete the hormones that make me feel good, but doesn't actually result in any gam mak. IT'S A PROBLEM
I want to make a game that's a mischief rpg called "Sorarinthis' Mischief Makers Brigade!" that's light hearted and funny. You would gain experience for solving puzzles, pranking the community, doing flash mobs, and street art. You wouldn't have to worry about getting caught-- you'd have to worry about getting pranked back! You would be able to choose your party members or kick them at anytime. I'd love to set it up where just about everything is clickable, but the conditions would vary on what you can do or how you interact with the environment and objects. Items can be bought legally or... Stolen, if you insist on a crime streak. The head of the brigade would condone that, however. I'm not sure what the rival group would be or what they would be called.
(I'm also thinking that PentagonBuddy's avvie creeps me out really bad. I like some creepy things... This one isn't agreeing with me.)
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APATHY IS FOR COWARDS
4158
author=LockeZ
I need motivation to work on my game. It's been months since I got anything substantial done. Someone motivate me.

If you haven't, make a checklist full of small steps and substeps and try and cross at least one thing off a day. Itemizing your workload turns it from an ambiguous mass of shit you don't want to do into a tangible and manageable thing. Plus, nothing feels as good as crossing stuff off a list.

Alternatively, get someone to sprite for you, cut dungeons from the game and only make battles! I know battles are your thing anyway and you might as well just try on focus on doing your thing really really well, right? I'm all for learning new skills, but if you really don't care for art, there's no point in trying to force yourself to get good at it.

Double alternatively, just start with something easier/more fun to get your juices flowing again and then use that adrenaline to power through the slog of whatever it is you hate (spriting, etc.).

Do people use the IRC all that much? Rambling about your game's design to other people can really help solidify thoughts and whatnot and sometimes that helps boost motivation too, for me.
author=LockeZ
I need motivation to work on my game. It's been months since I got anything substantial done. Someone motivate me.

It's not like I don't want to work on it! I just don't want to work on graphics, and I have to have graphics before I can make dungeons, and I have to have dungeons before I can make battles and cut scenes, which are the parts I really want to make. So instead I keep giving screenshot advice and helping other people with their gameplay and cruising the forums, which causes my game design gland to secrete the hormones that make me feel good, but doesn't actually result in any gam mak. IT'S A PROBLEM


Here's my system. It may help, it may not.

I get a scratch paper, and write down all the stuff I have to do. The tedious pain in the butt stuff. I also write anything as a result of other work I'm in the middle of, and the position (for example, "Add Turn Based system, Forest 5" means I'm up to that point making turn-based events). Now the stuff that's a pain, I highlight and underline to remind myself that at some point I have to finish it (if I don't, the game has stuff I have to hunt down later, and that's an even bigger pain).

In the mean time, work on the stuff you want, because the memo is noted down. The towns, you write the town outline like so...

Town Name: Euthanasia
Map Type: Forest Town
Tileset: blue_3a
Other Details: 5 houses, 15 people, Sidequest (Fetch My Dog)

(Etcetera. I usually don't have this much detail, because I tend to improvise. I actually just write down the name. But yea, if something's a pain, make the parts you like and make the maps around it)

When everything on the page is done, make a new one.
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
Did you really name a town Euthenasia

I don't know if that's horrible or fantastic
Hesufo
I am pretty interested in hooking up sometime. Screw me.
1199
I collaborated in a Chain Game back in early March to motivate me, and now I'm participating in the Game Making Drive at RMWeb, along with Release Something Weekend!

Anyway, last night I came up with the greatest plot for the love story within my game. I think it'll help alleviate the issues that stem from it having a naive 18-year-old guy as a protagonist who meets the lead female in a chance encounter.