WHAT ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT? (GAME DEVELOPMENT EDITION)

Posts

author=DarylSun
I'm thinking of a game where at certain points of the plot, you have to choose between two or more choices, and choosing one will increase your trust score with one of your party members and grant them new skills or equipment, while decreasing your score with the others AND potentially making them leave the party for a long time until you raise your trust scores again by other means. Not only that, the choices can open up new quests related to the appeased party member while locking out the others, and then these new quests can give you more choices. The challenge is that most of the quests are branching and will never overlap with each other. I'm planning to do this on RPG Maker VX Ace, but I've never seen a game that did this. That, or I haven't explored enough of this site. Oh, and if you're gonna suggest a game, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS BEAUTIFUL DON'T MAKE IT A HORROR OR SUSPENSE game.

Xenoblade Chronicles has a pretty wide variety of party member interactions through small events that increase affinity. You can also increase affinity through other means. It opens up Skill Links and better crafting chances between the characters.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Nakaishi Wars rambling ahead.

Enemy re-balancing is on the stack, but, I guess I'm not too confident about making hard games. I mean, I wanted Okiku to be a blast on the easy side, and I knew Konae was going to have a hugely imbalanced late-game. Myriad Cypher... is a bit weird with it's balancing (what stats/abilities enemies had was based on either missions done or the player's net worth, though those can be related). With this game, I should probably make player's lives, well, harder. Not really sure what that translates into though!
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
"Game overs are a failure of the game designer" - David Cage

Yeah yeah I know it's late. Don't care. I just heard it now.
I sure am glad I left a game I haven't touched in over a year in a state where

- Enemies die on one hit regardless of hp!
*

- Enemies continue to act when dead!
**

- Crashes when you win a fight!
***

- I have a script entirely labeled as 'eat shit vx' where all the comments progressively get angier at rpg maker!
****


* I had a debug script that I overlooked sitting in the middle of other scripts that was causing enemies to die when taking damage

** I had a script that was supposed to hijack the states of enemies and add some autostates for certain enemies. I aliased the wrong method (I aliased added_states instead of states) and it was causing all kinds of fun stuff with enemy states

*** Incomplete script that would give exp multipliers based on the number of enemies defeated, it just needed the algorithm typed in

**** I got real mad at VX's cursor memory after selling the last of an item because it's super dumb, state resistance probability being useless, horribly hard coded constant values, the battle system's inability to display dot damage, the scan system doesn't reveal the result of attacks via weapons, and fixing the bug in the break loop event command so it can actually break the proper loop instead of softlocking the majority of my loop events!
what's with all these really dumb games played by 1 real life people at a time?

this is 45century people.

10000 internet people playing an internet game at same time is much better.
makes me weak... so aroused...
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
VX Ace script question: What's the script equivalent of "If Actor 1 Has Learned Skill 26?"
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
author=unity
VX Ace script question: What's the script equivalent of "If Actor 1 Has Learned Skill 26?"


if $game_actors[1].skill_learn?($data_skills[26])
  #Do whatever code here
end
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
Oh, thanks a ton, Red! That's super helpful :DDDDD
Sometimes things that seem to be super easy turn out to be the hardest riddle of all times.... -.-
slash
APATHY IS FOR COWARDS
4158
Motivation, stream-of-conciousness, music, backgrounds, battle design, dialog, plot... blah! I'm a little overwhelmed ;__;

It's not that bad though! I definitely like the feel of Bossgame and I think it's got a lot of potential. It's just that the little details are adding up and bogging me down. I gotta keep remembering that it doesn't have to be perfect - it's not like Bossgame is gonna be my last game or anything..!



Anywho, for people who are interested or who played the playtest, I reworked a boss recently (although there's still some tweaks to be made!)

------------------------------------
Weapon Master Gilga

Phase 1: Swords
  • Rain of Swords: Cast every round. Deals AoE damage relative to Gilga’s CHAOS.
  • Sword Machine: Low HP enemy. Increases Gilga’s CHAOS every round (increasing the damage of Rain of Swords). Dealing X damage to the machine will knock it out of commission, but it will regenerate after 3 turns.
  • Enkidu: Medium HP enemy. Attacks with Cleave and Poisonous Chomp.
  • Cleave: Deals moderate damage to the tank, then minor damage to everyone.
  • Poisonous Chomp: Poisons a random target for three turns.

Phase 2: Rats
  • Starts when Gilga hits 80% HP
  • Gilga continues to cast Rain of Swords.
  • Sword Machine continues to make swords, and respawn every three turns.
  • Bomb Rats: One spawns every turn. Low HP. Blows up after two turns if not destroyed, dealing big AoE damage. When destroyed, deals small damage to the hero who landed the final blow.

Phase 3: Bombs
  • Starts when Gilga hits 25% HP
  • Gilga continues to cast Rain of Swords.
  • Sword Machine & Rats stop spawning, but any that were alive will remain alive.
  • Lock On: Gilga marks a target.
  • Bombs Away: Gilga fires on her marked target for huge damage, then casts Lock On.
------------------------------------

This fight is all about managing priorities and long-term vs. short-term progress.

Gilga herself will only cast Rain of Swords, which starts off dealing 1 damage to everyone. Each turn Sword Machine is alive, that damage will increase by 1-2.

Enkidu and the Bomb Rats are high priority targets because they have the potential to do a lot of AoE damage, but leaving the Sword Machine alive for too long means Gilga's Rain of Swords will become unmanageably strong. Occasionally, you may even want to let a Bomb Rat explode so you can kill the Sword Machine.

Once it gets to Phase 3, Rain of Swords & Bombs Away will start to overwhelm you, so it's best to just focus on offense! That said, you can prevent some deaths by healing up the Lock On target.

I think it'll be a fun fight, heh heh heh... I might have to move it to later in the game though, it's a bit hard~
I'm thinking of what kinds of battle mechanics I can utilize for a game with only two party members.
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
author=SgtMettool
I'm thinking of what kinds of battle mechanics I can utilize for a game with only two party members.

I made a thread for a game that I still haven't made (>.<;;) that was going to just have two party members for a long stretch. Dunno if anything in there would help, but maybe it'll give you some food for thought?

EDIT: slash, that sounds amazing! :D I love your approach to bosses (and am still totally pumped for that game :DDDDD )
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
i love the idea of a machine that just makes/enhances swords.

sgt, one of the big benefits is that AoE effects aren't as horribly imbalanced as they can be. there's a huge difference between, say, Protect and Protectga (the latter being AoE) in FF Record Keeper with its five-person parties.

i suggest some sort of theming with axes, or just give-and-take in general. Maybe the more defensive one character becomes, the more offensive (but liable to take big hurting hits) the other is. You can't have the best of both worlds, because they're sorta-opposites? I think that could be intriguing.

Like, let's say you have three axes: Offense-Defense, Speed-Weight, and Blade-Spell. As Leon uses more defensive actions, he gains more defense (which Myra loses, but she becomes more damaging). But then the enemy starts switching from single-target to triple-hits that target the duo randomly, so Leon starts being more offensive to balance out that axis. With it set in the middle, they both take a normal amount of damage (instead of Myra dealing/taking double damage).

You could have a wide variety of actions to equip, like a Parry being a "speedy defense" versus a phalanx stance being a "weighty defense." (They more weighty a character is, the fewer hits they get and the slower their actions are, but the more powerful their abilities tend to be.) Thousand Tiger Fang might be a "speedy offensive blade" move, making the user faster and more damaging both in general and with physical abilities. It'd be risky against an entirely physical enemy though, because your ally would be less blade-oriented and thus take more physical damage.
slash
APATHY IS FOR COWARDS
4158
author=unity
EDIT: slash, that sounds amazing! :D I love your approach to bosses (and am still totally pumped for that game :DDDDD )


Thanks :D :D :D I've said this before, but when I get frustrated or pessimistic about the game, this really helps to hear :)

author=Craze
i love the idea of a machine that just makes/enhances swords.


Sword machine is diligently crafting swords.

author=SgtMettool
I'm thinking of what kinds of battle mechanics I can utilize for a game with only two party members.


Ahhh, I love this kind of design challenge! I've thought about this one before, so I hope you don't mind me bouncing some ideas at you :)

  • Both party members share an HP/MP pool, so there's no randomness where one party gets bursted down, and you have to make decisions about how to spend your MP.
  • Both party members have independent HP pools, and the ability to "lead" or "tank". The tank will be the target of all single-target attacks. You must switch tanks between the two when one gets weak. Maybe some skills can only be used from the front!
  • One member can only use offensive skills, and one can only use support skills. The skills used by one affect the next skill used by the other! (Example: A sword slash that improves the healer's next heal, or a support skill that gives the next sword attack a poison effect.
@Slash: I like the idea of a shared resource between the two characters, and I'm thinking of doing something like the system seem in FF: Four Heroes of Light, where skills cost a set amount of AP, which regenerates at 1 per turn.

But I'm thinking of doing a spin on that, and have a shared pool for both characters. Where you start each turn with a set amount (Let's say 5) and both characters have skills that cost between 1 and 5 to use. You could plan a turn using combinations such as 2 and 3, 1 and 4, etc.
so how's RPG Maker MV working out for everyone? i just got it and wondering if ppl are liking it much, or if ppl think it sucks, either way i'd love to hear about it. XD
Gretgor
Having gotten my first 4/5, I must now work hard to obtain... my second 4/5.
3420
Wanting to solve some grad school bureaucracy before I start working on my game again. Is that a good idea?
Ratty524
The 524 is for 524 Stone Crabs
12986
author=TheGamingPaladin
so how's RPG Maker MV working out for everyone? i just got it and wondering if ppl are liking it much, or if ppl think it sucks, either way i'd love to hear about it. XD
Pros:
> Features like altering battle text, changing fonts and your game icon, and stuff that was kind of "hidden" in VXAce are much more intuitive to work with.

> Mapping is slightly better than Ace or VX in its ability to infinitely layer the tile B (good for easily creating overlaps between objects like trees without doing some eventing magic).

> The plugin system makes dumping custom scripts into your project easier and manageable. The engine even provides its own plugins to help give your game an alternate look in some areas (like the status screen).

> Built-in Mouse support, and the ability to port games onto the web makes it easier to get your games playable to an audience who doesn't own RPG maker.

> You can copy your assets directly into the folder and the engine will automatically update itself with those assets while it's running. Even better, deleting the default RTP is as simple as just going into your folder and deleting the files from your project, so no more hacking stuff to get rid of RTP! :D

> Higher resolution keeps up with the times, if that's a plus for you.

> Ability to switch between side-view and front view battles by default... but it comes with a caveat (see the cons).

> Better character generator, with actually good artwork and posing options for character graphics.


Cons:
> Lack of an importer in place of the real-time thing I mentioned. It matters in that things like setting alpha channels/background transparencies on graphics has to be done outside of the maker before copying it in, slowing down the workflow a bit.

> While mapping system took a step forward as I mentioned, it also took a step backwards by ruining shift-mapping. Instead of taking the centerpiece of an autotile, it takes the last autotile graphic you selected while mapping, making an already tedious process even more clunky. In case you aren't taking the cues well, this mapping system still isn't as good as XP.

> Testplaying has many instances of lag and delay, primarily noticeable when you are trying to access the menu screen, and apparently controller/joypad support disables itself for some reason. Probably the worst instances of delays happen with web-exports of games you make. It adds as much loading times to every map as a PS1 RPG.

> Speaking of exporting to web, be warned, it's already been proven that the engine doesn't encrypt any of your assets per map, so any entry-level hacker can gain a copy of your resources right as the game is running.

> The addition of side-view is nice, but if you used RM2003, prepare to be disappointed. All it does is call a separate folder for side-view battlers, add weapon animations and character battler animations... and nothing else. There is no real control over the actor battler animations like in rm2k3, and monster battlers are static. So yeah, even though it's advertised as a big feature, don't be fooled into thinking it's anything great.

> The animation editor was reworked into something that feels even worse to use than in previous engines, AND it seems to play a reduced framerate by comparison. Considering I don't even know anyone who thought the previous battle animation editors needed fixing, this is kind of a fail.

> The increased resolution comes with an increase in tile size, 48x48. It's not too big of a deal if you work with high-res stuff anyway, but even the default RTP looks kind of uglier when blown up like that.

> Ultimately, if not for the countless plugins people have already made that vastly improves the engine's limitations, this is pretty much VXAce.5. It's features would have been impressive if VX or Ace didn't exist, but they do. But yeah, I'll let you be the judge of it all from here.
author=Ratty524
author=TheGamingPaladin
so how's RPG Maker MV working out for everyone? i just got it and wondering if ppl are liking it much, or if ppl think it sucks, either way i'd love to hear about it. XD
Pros:
> Features like altering battle text, changing fonts and your game icon, and stuff that was kind of "hidden" in VXAce are much more intuitive to work with.

> Mapping is slightly better than Ace or VX in its ability to infinitely layer the tile B (good for easily creating overlaps between objects like trees without doing some eventing magic).

> The plugin system makes dumping custom scripts into your project easier and manageable. The engine even provides its own plugins to help give your game an alternate look in some areas (like the status screen).

> Built-in Mouse support, and the ability to port games onto the web makes it easier to get your games playable to an audience who doesn't own RPG maker.

> You can copy your assets directly into the folder and the engine will automatically update itself with those assets while it's running. Even better, deleting the default RTP is as simple as just going into your folder and deleting the files from your project, so no more hacking stuff to get rid of RTP! :D

> Higher resolution keeps up with the times, if that's a plus for you.

> Ability to switch between side-view and front view battles by default... but it comes with a caveat (see the cons).

> Better character generator, with actually good artwork and posing options for character graphics.


Cons:
> Lack of an importer in place of the real-time thing I mentioned. It matters in that things like setting alpha channels/background transparencies on graphics has to be done outside of the maker before copying it in, slowing down the workflow a bit.

> While mapping system took a step forward as I mentioned, it also took a step backwards by ruining shift-mapping. Instead of taking the centerpiece of an autotile, it takes the last autotile graphic you selected while mapping, making an already tedious process even more clunky. In case you aren't taking the cues well, this mapping system still isn't as good as XP.

> Testplaying has many instances of lag and delay, primarily noticeable when you are trying to access the menu screen, and apparently controller/joypad support disables itself for some reason. Probably the worst instances of delays happen with web-exports of games you make. It adds as much loading times to every map as a PS1 RPG.

> Speaking of exporting to web, be warned, it's already been proven that the engine doesn't encrypt any of your assets per map, so any entry-level hacker can gain a copy of your resources right as the game is running.

> The addition of side-view is nice, but if you used RM2003, prepare to be disappointed. All it does is call a separate folder for side-view battlers, add weapon animations and character battler animations... and nothing else. There is no real control over the actor battler animations like in rm2k3, and monster battlers are static. So yeah, even though it's advertised as a big feature, don't be fooled into thinking it's anything great.

> The animation editor was reworked into something that feels even worse to use than in previous engines, AND it seems to play a reduced framerate by comparison. Considering I don't even know anyone who thought the previous battle animation editors needed fixing, this is kind of a fail.

> The increased resolution comes with an increase in tile size, 48x48. It's not too big of a deal if you work with high-res stuff anyway, but even the default RTP looks kind of uglier when blown up like that.

> Ultimately, if not for the countless plugins people have already made that vastly improves the engine's limitations, this is pretty much VXAce.5. It's features would have been impressive if VX or Ace didn't exist, but they do. But yeah, I'll let you be the judge of it all from here.


thx for the input, it's my first OWNED RPG Maker Engine since having 1 & 2 on the Playstation back in the day, otherwise i've not owned an engine since, but since MV came out, i figured i'd jump into that and see what i can produce with it.

that being said, i'm sorry to hear about the Cons, but as active as the RMN community is, i'm sure that it wont be too long before MV exceeds the abilities of VX Ace. :)

btw are you a Delcatty or something? your avatar screams that particular Pokemon to me.