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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.
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The Unofficial Squaresoft MUD is a free online game based on the worlds and combat systems of your favorite Squaresoft games. UOSSMUD includes job trees from FFT and FF5, advanced classes from multiple other Square games, and worlds based extremely accurately upon Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, and Final Fantasies 5, 6, and 7. Travel through the original worlds and experience events that mirror those of the original games in an online, multiplayer format.
If a large, highly customized MUD, now over 10 years old and still being expanded, with a job system and worlds based on some of the most popular console RPGs seems interesting to you, feel free to log on and check it out. Visit uossmud.sandwich.net for information about logging on.
If a large, highly customized MUD, now over 10 years old and still being expanded, with a job system and worlds based on some of the most popular console RPGs seems interesting to you, feel free to log on and check it out. Visit uossmud.sandwich.net for information about logging on.
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DOING IT! - WEEK ELEVEN - Equipables
In an RPG or strategy game, all you need to do to win is know what the optimal strategy is. If you tell the player what the optimal strategy is in all cases, then they can never lose, unless the optimal strategy still has a random chance of causing them to lose. Which is generally considered bullshit.
When I say information-hiding, I don't mean not telling them basic info like the fact that a certain weapon inflicts poison. That can get really annoying, although I know there are a lot of people who enjoy playing games like Nethack that tell you absolutely nothing and the entire game is about discovery. But for most of us, if you hide too much information, then the player can't form any intelligent strategy at all. The things most commonly hidden are things like damage formulas, exact success rates, enemy defenses, and the tactics that enemies use.
As an on-topic example, a hat's description doesn't really need to indicate that it will reduce enemy damage from (300-400)^(enemy attack power/87) to (300-400)^(enemy attack power/91), except for enemies with armor piercing abilities, who will ignore the hat, or that have been buffed with Bravery status, whose final damage will be raised by an addition 1.1 exponent. It's enough to simply say that it increases defense power by 4, and leave the player to wonder what that number 4 really represents in the damage formula.
When I say information-hiding, I don't mean not telling them basic info like the fact that a certain weapon inflicts poison. That can get really annoying, although I know there are a lot of people who enjoy playing games like Nethack that tell you absolutely nothing and the entire game is about discovery. But for most of us, if you hide too much information, then the player can't form any intelligent strategy at all. The things most commonly hidden are things like damage formulas, exact success rates, enemy defenses, and the tactics that enemies use.
As an on-topic example, a hat's description doesn't really need to indicate that it will reduce enemy damage from (300-400)^(enemy attack power/87) to (300-400)^(enemy attack power/91), except for enemies with armor piercing abilities, who will ignore the hat, or that have been buffed with Bravery status, whose final damage will be raised by an addition 1.1 exponent. It's enough to simply say that it increases defense power by 4, and leave the player to wonder what that number 4 really represents in the damage formula.
DOING IT! - WEEK ELEVEN - Equipables
If working with XP or VX, you can simply show all of this info as comparisons to the player's current equipment, the same way it compares attack and defense power to the player's current equipment by default. Granted, it takes up a little more space in the shop screen, but you didn't need the font to be that big anyway.
With that in mind, why would you ever list the weapon's main stat in its description? You can see them when buying or equipping the item, even in the default uncustomized screens. Even in RM2K3 you can at least see a comparison, though it's only an up or down arrow instead of numbers.
There's something to be said for players having to figure things out, too. For a strategic game like an RPG, figuring it out is the entirety of the challenge. So if you tell the player absolutely everything, then your game has no challenge and it's basically impossible to lose. Just don't take the information-hiding too far, or you'll end up with Nethack. There's a balance somewhere in the middle.
With that in mind, why would you ever list the weapon's main stat in its description? You can see them when buying or equipping the item, even in the default uncustomized screens. Even in RM2K3 you can at least see a comparison, though it's only an up or down arrow instead of numbers.
There's something to be said for players having to figure things out, too. For a strategic game like an RPG, figuring it out is the entirety of the challenge. So if you tell the player absolutely everything, then your game has no challenge and it's basically impossible to lose. Just don't take the information-hiding too far, or you'll end up with Nethack. There's a balance somewhere in the middle.
Multiple love interests in a serious rpg... Does it work?
post=148800post=148781That makes it seem as if you're implying that all RPGs are like "action movies." Why can't RPGs be like "movies" and "action RPGs" just so happen to make up a large majority of them? I don't think it's impossible to see a romance RPG, or a mystery RPG, or a thriller RPG.
Romances in RPGs are usually about as well-done as romances in action movies. Adding complexity is not necessary when no one is paying attention anyway. As long as the hero gets the girl at the end, it's all good. Adding complexity causes the focus of the game to change, making people pay more attention to the love story, and therefore shifting the story into a different genre. For this reason, if you're making a game that's not about romance, it can often be a bad idea to spend much time and effort on it. Keep it simple.
Of course, there's an entire genre of games that deals exclusively with multiple romances - dating sims. They tend to be dreadfully un-fun, but they can also work well as a sidequest in a normal RPG, like Dragon Age: Origins.
However, personally, I didn't like how this was implemented in Dragon Age. The fact that I was only manipulating the romance in order to get bonus stats made it feel less real. Also the fact that you could actually have sex seemed totally retarded, like the otherwise very serious and mature game was suddenly marketed to 14 year old boys. It was insulting.
I've never seen an RPG that was a romantic comedy or an interpersonal drama. They pretty much tend to all be action plots. If you know of an RPG where the story is entirely about interpersonal relationships and has no fighting or espionage or villains, let me know.
Memorizing Party Formation Order? (Rm2k3)
You can't, not directly. If you want to check the party members, you have to use conditional branches to see who's on the team, and assign the variables accordingly.
I have a common event "Identify Team Members". It's a mess, and only works at all because the team members are always in a specific order - any time Cole and Dak are both in the party, Cole comes first.
Assuming your game doesn't work that way, you are going to have to set the variables whenever the team members are changed. Whatever method you use to change the team members obviously knows what order they're in, so you have to do it there.
I have a common event "Identify Team Members". It's a mess, and only works at all because the team members are always in a specific order - any time Cole and Dak are both in the party, Cole comes first.
Assuming your game doesn't work that way, you are going to have to set the variables whenever the team members are changed. Whatever method you use to change the team members obviously knows what order they're in, so you have to do it there.
Making a game download
Go to Manage Games and click on your game
Click the Downloads button
Add a download
Where it asks you to, add the file, either by submitting the file from your computer, or entering the address of a Megaupload page that you already submitted it to
Hit the Submit button
I don't know what else to tell you. If you cannot figure it out on your own, especially after that description, you need a new hobby besides software design.
Click the Downloads button
Add a download
Where it asks you to, add the file, either by submitting the file from your computer, or entering the address of a Megaupload page that you already submitted it to
Hit the Submit button
I don't know what else to tell you. If you cannot figure it out on your own, especially after that description, you need a new hobby besides software design.
Multiple love interests in a serious rpg... Does it work?
Romances in RPGs are usually about as well-done as romances in action movies. Adding complexity is not necessary when no one is paying attention anyway. As long as the hero gets the girl at the end, it's all good. Adding complexity causes the focus of the game to change, making people pay more attention to the love story, and therefore shifting the story into a different genre. For this reason, if you're making a game that's not about romance, it can often be a bad idea to spend much time and effort on it. Keep it simple.
Of course, there's an entire genre of games that deals exclusively with multiple romances - dating sims. They tend to be dreadfully un-fun, but they can also work well as a sidequest in a normal RPG, like Dragon Age: Origins.
However, personally, I didn't like how this was implemented in Dragon Age. The fact that I was only manipulating the romance in order to get bonus stats made it feel less real. Also the fact that you could actually have sex seemed totally retarded, like the otherwise very serious and mature game was suddenly marketed to 14 year old boys. It was insulting.
Of course, there's an entire genre of games that deals exclusively with multiple romances - dating sims. They tend to be dreadfully un-fun, but they can also work well as a sidequest in a normal RPG, like Dragon Age: Origins.
However, personally, I didn't like how this was implemented in Dragon Age. The fact that I was only manipulating the romance in order to get bonus stats made it feel less real. Also the fact that you could actually have sex seemed totally retarded, like the otherwise very serious and mature game was suddenly marketed to 14 year old boys. It was insulting.
Balancing The Money
If the player can afford to buy everything, then money has no value.
You should always make it so that the player has to make real choices. If they can get practically everything that's important as soon as it becomes available, and their only limit is the number of healing items they can buy once they already have everything important, it feels like the game is on rails. This is not fun or challenging or exciting - it's boring, and if you're going to do it, you might as well just make everything but healing items free. Because that's really what you're doing already.
If done right, money has the ability to add more customization to your game, and give players a sense of importance to their decisions. If done poorly, it just feels like you get free upgrades at every town.
This is only tangentially related, but: if you are in the 95% of people who think that grinding is un-fun, you should probably not use a money-drop formula that strongly encourages it. That might seem like common sense, but it's amazing how many people don't consider how things like that interrelate.
You should always make it so that the player has to make real choices. If they can get practically everything that's important as soon as it becomes available, and their only limit is the number of healing items they can buy once they already have everything important, it feels like the game is on rails. This is not fun or challenging or exciting - it's boring, and if you're going to do it, you might as well just make everything but healing items free. Because that's really what you're doing already.
If done right, money has the ability to add more customization to your game, and give players a sense of importance to their decisions. If done poorly, it just feels like you get free upgrades at every town.
This is only tangentially related, but: if you are in the 95% of people who think that grinding is un-fun, you should probably not use a money-drop formula that strongly encourages it. That might seem like common sense, but it's amazing how many people don't consider how things like that interrelate.
How do you design a good tower?
DOING IT! ~ WEEK TEN
I start out with only a basic idea of what kind of area I want, and then start mapping. After I'm done making the area, I will go back through and decide, "This room is boring, it needs more spice." "This puzzle seems harder than ones later in the dungeon, I'll swap it with another." "This map is completely awful, I need to redo it."
I guess you could call this the same thing as planning it out ahead - except that I plan it out by actually creating a rough draft of the map in RPG Maker.
It seems silly to me to just plan it in your head, or on paper, when you have such an excellent mapping tool to draw all the things you are thinking of.
Hmm, 10 words isn't much, but I'll try. In fact, I'll make it into a haiku also!
Roof of the prison,
Nowhere left for getaway,
Suicide BANZAI!!!
I guess you could call this the same thing as planning it out ahead - except that I plan it out by actually creating a rough draft of the map in RPG Maker.
It seems silly to me to just plan it in your head, or on paper, when you have such an excellent mapping tool to draw all the things you are thinking of.
Hmm, 10 words isn't much, but I'll try. In fact, I'll make it into a haiku also!
Roof of the prison,
Nowhere left for getaway,
Suicide BANZAI!!!
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