CORDYNASTY'S PROFILE

I've wondered if it is possible to create a seamless in-battle equip system, such as equipping a new weapon while in combat. I can see one being made, but the in game programming would require a branch for each possible weapon in the game, in addition to further checking to see if the person has the weapon and can even wield it. Before I think of adding such a feature, I was wondering if there is any easier methods to implementing this before I decide to put it as a priority or not.

To tell you the truth, it's hard to narrow it down to make it easier to understand. I wrote that much because that describes my thought process, why I chose the mechanics that I did, and why I am questioning them.

But the gist of it is:

I want to do a skill-based system that gives a character more customization inside the boundaries of their "preset speciality." And I was wondering if my method of allowing a player to choose a certain number of "modes" will allow them further customization.

However, I am discussing the same thing on another forum, and an idea one gave was to create a series of branches that exists through all characters, and each branch is specialized: for example, all skills along a branch are attack-orientated skills or another branch has support skills, all branches being relative to the function of their specific class. The addition to this is that the player can choose any skill right at the start and level them up individually. This way, the player isn't wasting points just to acquire a skill that needs another skill as a pre-requisite.

I am currently in the pre-development stage of an rpg I am making and have been pondering over what type of skill system to use for the multiple characters the player will acquire through the first half of the game. Firstly, this game follows a traditional format of the story giving the player a number of characters (a total of ten in my game), and then allowing the player to make four-member parties from the characters that they have gathered thus far (which they can change at party changing stations). My initial design was just to have each character acquire skills as they level up much like your typical rpg. All they had to do is level up, and if they reach the required level, their character learns a skill that goes with their character's traits (warrior, healer, assassin, etc).

And then I was thinking some more into the process and figured that a lot of players, casual or hardcore, enjoy customizing their characters to certain extents. It's why you have the class system in the early FF games, the character customization system in Baldur's Gate, the Materia system in Final Fantasy 7, and the skill-based system in Fable. But there is a problem allowing players to customize their characters how you like: they end up making some characters the same or end up faulty doing something wrong in making the game either easier or harder depending on the choices they make. On the designer's side, that becomes hard to balance. But then I looked at another system: Seiken Densetsu 3, a Japanese rpg from the SNES days. In this game, all characters followed a set class format, yet they could choose in what areas to have their characters specialize in through going through 2 upgrades and choosing to go either a "Light" path or a "Dark" path. Technically, this corresponded to the player focusing more on defense or offense in terms of their class's skills, or going through a hybrid of the two to give versatility. In short, Light = defense/support skills and dark usually = power, offense, and lack of defense skills.

So I figured I could use that concept instead. I won't have to worry much about a player not having the right character setup to tackle the game's challenges in terms of battles while allowing the player some sort of freedom in determining how they want to create their characters. I don't mind players choosing "favorite" characters, as long as they realize that each character has their own unique feature. So if you don't have the character in the party or if you choose to not worry about them, you'll end up missing out on what they have to offer.

Anyway, the skill progression system: each player will have a hidden tech tree which has two paths: an offensive path and a defensive/support path. In battle, this corresponds to two skill commands. Let's use a character from my game.

We'll call him Richard, and Richard is a gun user who is very skilled at using these weapons, especially pistols, thus being the only one who can dual wield them. He has two skill commands: Gunplay and Support (will be given a more proper name later).

Gunplay skills deal with mostly using his pistols to do gun-based attacks, such as releasing a barrage of shots on an enemy for example to aiming to cripple an enemy by shooting them in the legs. As long as he has a pistol equipped (since there are three classes of guns in this game: handgun, medium-weight, and heavyweight), he can use most of the skills.

Support skills mainly deal with skills that help both Richard and the party, such as buffing his attack or doing other supportive/defensive skills appropriate to his "Gunslinger" class, which is mainly a mix between a Fighter and a Ranger.

Now, Richard will have these two skills outside of battle have a level, and they both start at Level 1. They can both go up to a max of Level 10. Here's where my idea comes in. When the player completes a battle, they gain a certain number of TP that depends on how difficult the enemies are at this part of the game, for ramping reasons. Using this TP, the player can choose to level up one of Richard's skill sets, as long as they have the required number of TP needed to level up. When the skillset is leveled up, the player is said to be "a little bit better." At certain levels of this skill, the player's skills in the set will get either a decrease or increase in their EP cost (the game's MP), and/or a increase in the skill's effect. When the skillset levels up, if the player's level fits the requirements for a skill or skills in the set that have been unlocked due to the skillset's new level, the player will instantly acquire the skills. Otherwise, the player must wait to acquire the skills currently provided by the skillset's level through reaching the required level for each one.

For example:

At Gunplay Level 2, the skill Bleeding Shot is available, which is an attack that causes the target to take on a "Bleeding" status. The required level for the character to be at to get this skill is Level 5. If Richard is currently level 5 or greater, he will instantly acquire this skill. Otherwise, he must wait to level up to Level 5 himself in order to get it.

There's a problem with this concept, however. A vigilant player will be able to eventually level up all skillsets to the max, no matter how much TP I ramp up. Therefore, I came up with an alternate TP acquirement system: have the player gain TP everytime they level up. This way, I can control how much TP a character can get in their entire lifetime from Level 1 to the max level, and it'll make the player decide if they want to go down one route, go down the other, or go down both equally to go for a hybrid. I may just have it where the player no longer acquires TP after a certain level, that way players don't feel obligated that they have to max the level of their character just to get all the TP they can. But on the other side, there will be players who will want to get the reward of more TP should they max their character. Otherwise, they lose more incentive to continue to level up. So if I do the TP till max level, I will at least have it to where the player will be able to maybe level up a skill up once or twice but only by that much upon maxing out the character.

So, what do you guys think about this system? Anything else I need to think about?

The next era, everyone is going to be using the internet. School will be on the internet, movies, footballs games, etc. I'm not talking about what we do now, I'm talking about the computer is going to become the next television, and TV is going to cease to exist. It's already a given that TV is less watched these days. People tend more to online, games, and movies. In general, the social lifestyle is going to warp in the coming decade more than it already has. Never before have people been able to talk to other people from the other side of the globe. Before, this was called "Pen pals." However, the downside of this is that views will clash, but arguments are to be expected in any social environment.

To tell you the truth, I don't like the online social sites. Mainly because I do not know what type of change it's going to bring socially other than speculation and guessing.

I also hate the RM 2k3 system. It complicates the ATB and doesn't add the simplicity of what the FF games accomplished. For one, that MP problem and not being able to display the names of the monsters for ALL of the options instead of one. I stick to RM 2K's system, though I would want the option of doing the "when it's your character's turn, they act immediately", rather than choosing all the actions the characters will do then have the round play out like it does in the 2K system. In addition, I love FFX's turnbased system so much that I may end up changing engines just so I can create that system.