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A little witch looking to test some of her ideas and philosophies of game design. With luck, she might be able to gain some insight.
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A pleasure to meet you.
@Jim: I think it's called the Rune of Punishment, at least in the US localization. Personally, I'm more of a fan of the Bright Shield and Black Sword runes from S2. I'd love to see what the rune of Beginnings would be like as well...
[VX Ace] Changing character/actor heights
So it natively supports variable sized sprites, but I need a script for pixel movement and 8-directional inputs... got it. Thanks. Do I add things one sprite at a time, or via sprite sheets? I know I can't input animated sprites, as that's actually just several sprites flowing together in a chain...
As far as the scripts are concerned, where would I go to look for them? Are there databases for publicly made scripts, kind of like how there's those for mods in popular games?
As far as the scripts are concerned, where would I go to look for them? Are there databases for publicly made scripts, kind of like how there's those for mods in popular games?
[VX Ace] Changing character/actor heights
So VXA seems to be stuck in the Pre-FF6 era, having each character on screen taking up a single tile worth of space. I've got a couple of issues with this.
1: I wish to be able to use sprites with different proportions - in particular, the setup I'm looking at uses 32x16 sprites:
2: As you can see, they're also facing more than four directions. I don't like being locked to a grid, and giving the player much more freedom of movement (as would be expected of a game with modern design principles) is something that I'd like to be able to implement.
As for those sprites themselves, though I didn't make them, I did commission their design. The sprites themselves were adapted from that by Atrius of the GSHC. The first column is the casting animation, the second is the idle animation. Obviously, these would be cut into sprite sheets in the final product, but they were posted here to give a visual example of the kind of sprites I'm wanting to use.
1: I wish to be able to use sprites with different proportions - in particular, the setup I'm looking at uses 32x16 sprites:
2: As you can see, they're also facing more than four directions. I don't like being locked to a grid, and giving the player much more freedom of movement (as would be expected of a game with modern design principles) is something that I'd like to be able to implement.
As for those sprites themselves, though I didn't make them, I did commission their design. The sprites themselves were adapted from that by Atrius of the GSHC. The first column is the casting animation, the second is the idle animation. Obviously, these would be cut into sprite sheets in the final product, but they were posted here to give a visual example of the kind of sprites I'm wanting to use.
Statistical Targets?
Aye, that would be quite necessary. Right now I can get much of the functionality, but it's the fact that I use two types of crit styles, as well as the large amount of elemental stats that it doesn't support natively that'll hold me back.
Then there's the class system. From what I can tell, VXA does not natively support changing classes, and ties stats to classes instead of characters. That... might be among the toughest things I've gotta do, as each character should have access to a minimum of 31 classes, each unique to them. Classes with this system don't determine stat growths, but rather stat multipliers, so I'll need to figure that out too....
Then there's the class system. From what I can tell, VXA does not natively support changing classes, and ties stats to classes instead of characters. That... might be among the toughest things I've gotta do, as each character should have access to a minimum of 31 classes, each unique to them. Classes with this system don't determine stat growths, but rather stat multipliers, so I'll need to figure that out too....
How to add fun to grinding?
That's why I'm saying the best way to do grinding is to hide it - to disguise it as questing or filling out a bestiary. That way, you get the same effect as grinding, but the player has a good solid goal in mind.
Of course, something that most certainly needs to be considered is also pacing. If you've got a point in your game that forces the character to grind, what your problem really is isn't that your game's grinding is boring, but that its pacing is flawed and needs to be fixed.
Of course, something that most certainly needs to be considered is also pacing. If you've got a point in your game that forces the character to grind, what your problem really is isn't that your game's grinding is boring, but that its pacing is flawed and needs to be fixed.
Critical Damage Formula?
Ah, that's what he was talking about. Sorry, didn't realize I had typoed that. I thought Locke was talking about the defense piercing aspect of the formula. Thanks for clarifying it.
Thanks for catching it, though I'm sure you knew what I meant to type, especially since a more accurate incarnation of the basic part of the formula was posted in my vary next post. I'd love to hear your impressions on the intentions, as well as a little bit of teaching as to how I might implement it.
Thanks for catching it, though I'm sure you knew what I meant to type, especially since a more accurate incarnation of the basic part of the formula was posted in my vary next post. I'd love to hear your impressions on the intentions, as well as a little bit of teaching as to how I might implement it.
How to add fun to grinding?
Well, the trick I'd argue is to make the act of grinding itself enjoyable to preform. Games like Disgaea are freaking built around grinding, so you can take that path of allowing the player to get to ridiculous levels of awesome... and expecting them to do so, perhaps even having fun with them along the way in terms of story and encounters.
Another method is what the older golden sun games used - it's fun to grind in them because the battles are all about spectacle. This part's a bit more difficult. You need to have a powerful impact on the player - flashy visuals, powerful sound effects, etc. Just being pretty doesn't cut it - ask Dark Dawn, the third entry into that series. Boring as hell, and not satisfying at all.
But arguably the best way to make grinding fun is to hide it. As Dyhalto pointed out, sidequests are a great way to do this, as are optional dungeons to explore and things like filling out bestiaries. By adding objectives for the player to reach, you disguise the act of grinding as the act of questing and exploring, and who doesn't love that?
Another method is what the older golden sun games used - it's fun to grind in them because the battles are all about spectacle. This part's a bit more difficult. You need to have a powerful impact on the player - flashy visuals, powerful sound effects, etc. Just being pretty doesn't cut it - ask Dark Dawn, the third entry into that series. Boring as hell, and not satisfying at all.
But arguably the best way to make grinding fun is to hide it. As Dyhalto pointed out, sidequests are a great way to do this, as are optional dungeons to explore and things like filling out bestiaries. By adding objectives for the player to reach, you disguise the act of grinding as the act of questing and exploring, and who doesn't love that?
Is RNG good or bad?
I also like the concept of multiple tiers of dropped item, if done well. Let's say a monster has a chance of dropping one of the following:
1/ 4: Medical Herb
1/ 8: Healing Salve
1/16: Rat Pelt
1/32: Fork Trident
So he can drop a weak healing item, a decent healing item, a low grade crafting component and a rare crafting component. He'll only drop one, though. The way I see it, it should check for the rarest item slot first, then work its way up. If all four checks fail, you win nothing! If any of them succeed, you get the item that it succeeded on and nothing else from that foe. So you can get the Fork Trident or the Medical Herb in this situation, but not both unless there's multiples of that foe you took down.
Keep in mind this is just an example, and this kind of thing can actually be done quite horribly. See: White Knight Chronicles.
1/ 4: Medical Herb
1/ 8: Healing Salve
1/16: Rat Pelt
1/32: Fork Trident
So he can drop a weak healing item, a decent healing item, a low grade crafting component and a rare crafting component. He'll only drop one, though. The way I see it, it should check for the rarest item slot first, then work its way up. If all four checks fail, you win nothing! If any of them succeed, you get the item that it succeeded on and nothing else from that foe. So you can get the Fork Trident or the Medical Herb in this situation, but not both unless there's multiples of that foe you took down.
Keep in mind this is just an example, and this kind of thing can actually be done quite horribly. See: White Knight Chronicles.
A pleasure to meet you.
@Addit: My profession is entertainer, my spells make games. I'm a witch everyone will like. ^-^
@Jim: Hey, that's where I got it. From what I hear you can do quite a bit with it, so I plan to take advantage of that and learn what I need to do and how to do it.
@Jim: Hey, that's where I got it. From what I hear you can do quite a bit with it, so I plan to take advantage of that and learn what I need to do and how to do it.
Critical Damage Formula?
I'll be using RPG Maker VX Ace, per suggestion.
@Higher Defense: Actually, yes. Yes it is. The whole idea behind what a critical hit is is that you're striking a weak spot - a chink or weakness in the armor. As such, on heavily armored foes, a critical hit is much more devastating than on a squishy foe.
The idea here is a threefold setup:
With CV as a value based on the attackers level:
Ignore an amount of the target's defense by CV%
Multiply damage by an additional CV%
Deal an additional CV% for good measure.
If I wrote it down wrong... it's because I've always written it in prose, rather than formulaic. Sorry about that.
@Battle System: My battle system will indeed be a custom one and is actually heavily influenced by the Golden Sun series. I seek to have it be a sort of strong evolution of that system. However, past that core system, that's where things change much more drastically, particularly in terms of how the game is balanced. Things are done much less by whim and much more formulaic in terms of balance. Summons are just flat out changed to act as actual legit summons rather than glorified spells. Weapons... are heavily changed so that weapon choice is more than just "higher attack power" - each weapon type serves a purpose and has its pros and cons.
Base, Non-critical formula is this:
Offensive stats can be:
Attack
Casting
Agility
Defensive stats can be:
Defense
Warding
Power and Resistance are specific to the element of the attack being used (and as some weapons deal elemental damage, it is necessary to add this). If the attack/ability is non-elemental, this check is ignored.
EVal is a value that depends on the skill being used. These values are:
400 for Physical damage
300 for whatever I decide to use as a djinn analogue
200 for raw Psionic damage
Critical Damage is based on two things - Level, and Critical Might. Critical Might determines what percentage of the Attacker's level is used in the formula (and thus, determines the Critical Value), and is based on the currently equipped weapon (so some weapons will do more than others).
For testing, I want to use a 33% value for Critical Might before I start playing around with it more, to see what range of values seem balanced and for what levels. I don't expect this formula to be the final one I work with, just the one I start with.
If you were wondering, the crit formula for GS was:
Where base damage is the equation I posted at the beginning of this post. Yeah, for some reason, it uses the Target's Level to determine damage, not the attacker's level... I never understood that, so I'm gonna just use a much different philosophy. The way I see it, an inexperienced fighter won't see much influence from a critical, while a master of combat can exploit it for all they're worth. Thus, the formula I provided that heavily scales with level. The question is, does it scale too much or too late, or...? Well, that's what testing is for.
@Higher Defense: Actually, yes. Yes it is. The whole idea behind what a critical hit is is that you're striking a weak spot - a chink or weakness in the armor. As such, on heavily armored foes, a critical hit is much more devastating than on a squishy foe.
The idea here is a threefold setup:
With CV as a value based on the attackers level:
Ignore an amount of the target's defense by CV%
Multiply damage by an additional CV%
Deal an additional CV% for good measure.
If I wrote it down wrong... it's because I've always written it in prose, rather than formulaic. Sorry about that.
@Battle System: My battle system will indeed be a custom one and is actually heavily influenced by the Golden Sun series. I seek to have it be a sort of strong evolution of that system. However, past that core system, that's where things change much more drastically, particularly in terms of how the game is balanced. Things are done much less by whim and much more formulaic in terms of balance. Summons are just flat out changed to act as actual legit summons rather than glorified spells. Weapons... are heavily changed so that weapon choice is more than just "higher attack power" - each weapon type serves a purpose and has its pros and cons.
Base, Non-critical formula is this:
((Attacker Offense - Target Defense) / 2 ) * (1 + (Power - Resistance) / EVal))
Offensive stats can be:
Attack
Casting
Agility
Defensive stats can be:
Defense
Warding
Power and Resistance are specific to the element of the attack being used (and as some weapons deal elemental damage, it is necessary to add this). If the attack/ability is non-elemental, this check is ignored.
EVal is a value that depends on the skill being used. These values are:
400 for Physical damage
300 for whatever I decide to use as a djinn analogue
200 for raw Psionic damage
Critical Damage is based on two things - Level, and Critical Might. Critical Might determines what percentage of the Attacker's level is used in the formula (and thus, determines the Critical Value), and is based on the currently equipped weapon (so some weapons will do more than others).
For testing, I want to use a 33% value for Critical Might before I start playing around with it more, to see what range of values seem balanced and for what levels. I don't expect this formula to be the final one I work with, just the one I start with.
If you were wondering, the crit formula for GS was:
final damage = ((base damage * 1.25) + (target's level / 5) + 6)
Where base damage is the equation I posted at the beginning of this post. Yeah, for some reason, it uses the Target's Level to determine damage, not the attacker's level... I never understood that, so I'm gonna just use a much different philosophy. The way I see it, an inexperienced fighter won't see much influence from a critical, while a master of combat can exploit it for all they're worth. Thus, the formula I provided that heavily scales with level. The question is, does it scale too much or too late, or...? Well, that's what testing is for.
Games - Tester
Games - Other
