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RPG Limit Break 2016 - RPG Speedrun Marathon for Charity!

Mario & Luigi repeatedly opening a portal to the hell dimension was very powerful

What are you thinking about right now?

hey

what's good

What are you working on now?

post=154278
Now I'm working on actually putting the game's formulas into the game so that I can start making enemies. This should be simple since stuff like damage is literally just "PWR - DEF."


As long as you never ever even think of quadratic accuracy again

Working on numbers, also despairing at code.

IT'S ALL ABOUT DEM MIND GAMES

post=152764
I enjoy difficult boss battles, because they should be the pinnacle of a game's design. I think there are lots of factors that go into that "I can do it" mentality, though. Sometimes it's more than just a difficulty curve or an HP dealing issue.

One thing that can do this very well is to incorporate "tiers" into a boss battle. Lots of games have different tricks with this. For example, fighting Death in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. He is broken up into two tiers; a form with his cloak on, and the form where he takes it off. Beating the first form gives a sense of satisfaction and rejoice (you can even LEVEL UP from the first form), but then all of a sudden the real battle starts, and you take on his second form. Another example is from the SNES game Treasure of the Rudras. As you gradually deal damage to the boss, they begin to tint into shades of red. A light shade of red means the boss is probably more than half dead, while a dark shade of red means the boss will die in literally two hits. Chrono Cross does something similar, a boss will begin to kneel when it's low on health. You can also do this tier thing with boss skills, a simple "Potion" skill or deadly attack can indicate you're close to victory. You could even be cheap and tack on a health bar, that also can help a lot.

This really helps with the mentality of the person playing since they now have a clue on how they're doing. They know they can beat the battle, they just have to switch their strategy up. Graphical indications are very helpful in a boss design.


On the other hand the "tiers" design can very easily go wrong. I remember plenty of fights where I've had to snooze through the first forms over and over when dying to a boss's final form which is where all the REAL fighting happened. I have quit a game due to this as well.

The goal of a game

post=150489
What I'm asking is, in an RPG, what do you consider to be the goal you're working towards? What is the measurement of progress? Is it your power, or the dungeons and bosses you've completed? Which of those two goals do you think of as being the means to perform the other one?


It depends.

It could be defeating Darkdeath Evilman and seeing the ending. It could be loading the clear save and defeating superboss Ultradeath Evilmaster. It could be pushing the limits of the system and finding the setup that defeats Darkdeath Evilman in one turn. It could be just screwing around and quitting before the final boss because Darkdeath Evilman is a terribly designed final boss that is 500 times harder than the rest of the game and the plot sucked anyway. It could be defeating Darkdeath Evilman with the lowest possible party level and using no items.

Distant Worlds

Hello Stockholm concert buddy

I actually really liked the interplay of the footage and the music. Some of the moments in there were genius.

The goal of a game

I desire entertainment. Here are several ways to provide entertainment for me.

- Tactically stimulating battles. The more on the wire the better.
- A customizable system that does not descend into overcomplicated micromanagement hell.
- Characters whose actions and destinies I care about.
- An engrossing game world with optional content and dialogue to explore.
- The game not forcing you into a single True Path. If I -want- to grind for whatever reason, let me. If I want to try an outlandish setup, let me. The option to grind does nothing to detract from the game's difficulty - I choose my own challenge level.

Full control and non-control

post=150383
I really, really, really hate things like Gambits. It just seemed very tedious to me to have yet another thing to set and adjust. I don't want to have to program AI when I'm PLAYING a game.

This is actually a product of the game design. In a normal RPG, gambits would be nothing more than a minor convenience you can safely ignore.

In FFXII, they were a NECESSITY because any battle worth noting would take 10+ (lightning fast) rounds, 100+ for really tough bosses. Who wants to input all those commands?

Full control and non-control

I can't respect forced non-control in RPGs unless it's an explicit character/move drawback or you send squads into the battlefield like in Ogre Battle or Soul Nomad. In which case it's fine, the units have their invidual AI and you have to form the squads keeping that in mind.

The AI/manual choice is interesting in some DQ games since only the AI can adapt to the current situation midturn, on manual mode you have already inputted the command. If there's no tactical element like this, just give me the controls and I won't have to writhe in agony as the AI uses instant death on an immune enemy for the nth time.

Edit: Gambits in XII were fine since...they are programmable AI, essentially, and you have perfect control over it. The characters will never surprise you with a ~~brilliant~~ idea of their own.

DOING IT! - WEEK ELEVEN - Equipables

Well, you don't have to know (and cannot possibly be expected to memorize during normal gameplay) literally everything of course. I suppose that's what strategy guides are for. But for a noncommercial game, you probably should have a technical readme for the people interested since no one's gonna write a book of tables or GameFAQs guide.

Let's try a simple example.

BAD -

FFT: Books do damage based on PA and MA. You find this out by visiting GameFAQs.

GOOD -

FFXII: Katanas do damage based on PA and MA. You find this by visiting the help board in the first city's inn and selecting "About Weapons". Precise formula is found on GameFAQs, but you know what makes your numbers go up going by ingame info, which is the relevant part.