STOIC'S PROFILE

An episode of Retronauts literally just came out that discusses RPG battle systems. Specifically, JRPG battle systems which it seems this contest is focused on. It covers the early Dragon Quest games and goes up to modern RPGs. Might help get your creative juices flowing hearing more about the combat systems that are already out there.

http://www.retronauts.com/?p=846

You'll only earn points towards the triple tech that applies to your current party combination. So if your party was Rustek, Taraja and Stoic, then you would earn points towards their triple tech. In addition, the points would also apply to all the different double tech combinations: Rustek + Taraja, Rustek + Stoic and Taraja + Stoic. Lots of little meters increasing!

Unlike the skill upgrade system, I imagined the affinity system is all automated. You don't upgrade double/triple techs. You learn them by using a certain party combination. Since these combos cost AP from all involved, i.e. if Rustek, Taraja and Stoic use a triple tech that costs 3 AP then thats a total cost of 9 AP across them all, they are sometimes not as practical to use as single skills. But certain situations might call for them. In general, I wanted combos to open up options that might not be available to a party normally.

I think most players will want to learn as many double/triple techs as they can. Part of the fun of having different party members that can be switched in/out is you can experiment with party dynamics and see what best suits the situation. Each party member has a unique element and role so some will have more aptitude in certain areas.

I actually had an idea while writing this. What if there is a party affinity meter that also goes up. But it only goes up as long as you are increasing your meters. So if a certain combination of actors is maxed out on their double/triple techs then it won't go up. You'll have to try a different combination. This meter can have party stat rewards. A big theme of World Remade will be forming bond between your party members, and the more you interact with all of them the stronger you become. So from a thematic standpoint this mechanic works as well.

On vacation so I'll be missing out on the Raspberry. But I'll be sure to make up for it this upcoming week.

Also I'd appreciate a review of World Remade if anyone is interested. I'd be willing to do a review exchange.

I think you'd enjoy Europa Report. It's a found footage sci-fi with some horror elements. It focuses a lot on the science.

@NeverSilent I do plan on having one passive you can upgrade related to your class. Possibly upgrading active skills could also have passive benefits. Like having a basic attack upgrade your overall attack. Still need to think about this more.

@LockeZ Thanks for the insight about the potential pitfalls of this system. Each character has a unique element and skills are mostly divided between physical/magical, scope and buff/state changes. I was trying to avoid having skills that just hit harder but have a higher AP or time cost on the same character.

An alternative is to have the player upgrade different paths the actor can take. For example, Rustek is a paladin who relies heavily on holy attacks, defense and healing. The player could have the option to choose which path he takes. Upgrading holy attacks would increase Rustek's physical and magical attack and also unlock offensive skills. Defense would increase his defensive power and unlock buffs and attacks related to defense (like Shield Bash). Healing would increase his healing effectiveness and unlock more healing skills, etc..

This limits the option to basically just 3 paths instead of upgrading individual skills and passives. But it would lump everything nicely together and prevents skills from rendering others obsolete since they have different functions.