Brain Droppings : "If i made a game"

[Bells]

So, bear with me here for a second or two. I always liked games and the idea to actually create them. Ever since i first saw a PC (way back in 91-92) one of the first things i ever wanted to do with it was to make games.

Same as now as it was back then, i'm still the bottom of the barrel in game design, an "Idea Guy". That being... someone who can't code to save it's own life, but has all these "great ideas" for games.

I've tried to learn more than a few times, but always stopped midway since there wasn't ever anything more for me to do with it than to have it as a hobby. It's hard as all hell to find reliable people to work with, game design is massively underdeveloped here, and it takes a ton of work... so it simply didn't pay off as a Hobby nor as a possible career choice.

...Probably why i play around with video and image editing today anyways.

So, from time to time i have these "chunks" of ideas for games and absolutely no way to turn it into something positive... that's where you guys come it.

I get to waste your time, dump my ideas, clear my head, and make way for other stuff (like get back on writing ASAP).

So, i had this concept for a SRPG... that i'm putting in spoiler tags because it's quite big and you may not want to read it all.


HUGE GAME IDEA HERE
Basics

This is the sort of game that would only work right in a 3D environment. However, i do believe that SD or Cel Shaded visuals should be used for all assets for a more stylized look. Also because the focus should be more in quality and less in eye candy.

The starting Playing field is Isometric, but with a free positioning 3D camera, with Zoom in and Out. the "Stage" can be just a MAP floating in a Basic 3D Skybox (AKA: FFT or Disgaea)

All maps feature destructible structures and map features. The overall geometry of the map shouldn't change much and Destructable structures shouldn't be overly complex. Focusing mostly on walls, barriers, Towers, Pilars, Cliffsides, Buildings, Bridges and the such. Affecting mostly Barriers in the field and Higher grounds in the map.

Destructible structures have their own HP and Defense rating and can be damaged by direct and indirect damage.

All movement is taken in Radial paths instead of 3d Grids to better fit with the 3D enviroment (example:Phantom Brave) . Attacks range and area are also measured and showed in Radial shapes (Example: Parasite Eve Magic system)

Terrain will affect movement range.

Battle System is Turn Based. Turn order is measured By Character speed. leader and Team Moral act as variables. Same as Weight.

Combat action can happen in 3 stances: Ground, Midair, Airborne. The stance of the attacker is defined by his first action in his turn and compared to that of the target defining Bonus and Penalties (Such as: Ground > Midair > Airborne > Ground ).

All characters have AP ( Action Points ) that are used for all actions. Ap is defined by Class, Race, Level, Special items and affected by Special Status and Weight

Characters

Character races define special racial traits and visual appearance.

All classes should be selectable by all races (except special Classes that are Story bound)

Each character will be able to equip 3 Classes within itself at any given time, in the following system:

First class: Main character class. Changes attributes, defines main skill, gains Class Xp, Evolve.

Second Class: Gives access to previously learned skills of that class, has no further bonuses.

Third Class: Gives status bonus and affects Level Up parameters (May change as the class itself evolves and gets stronger)

Each class should have around 10 levels.

Class skills are separated in 3 groups

1 - General Skills: These skills will belong to the character, regardless of his current class, and may be equiped or unequipped.

2- Class Skills: Unique abilities and powers that can only be used with that class equiped

3- Unique skills: Special skills that can only be used when this class is the character's current first class.

Characters visuals are not changed by their Equipment and are defined By Race and Class of the current character. However, the player may assign different Pallete colors for each unit or his whole Army.

Weapons are not Displayed in character hands, but must be displayed during battle animations. Each type of weapon should get about 4 unique visual styles to represent one of the following Equipment Groups: Normal, Magical, Holy, Darkness. Items may also change their color pallete Hue to represent Elemental Alignment (Blue = Ice , Red = Fire etc... )

Each character should be able to Equip 2 Weapons (or 1 Weapon and 1 Shield or 1 2 handed weapon.) 3 Defensive items (not of the same type) and 4 Accesories / usable items.

The player's army should be composed of Generals, and each General should have 3 Units under his commands. Generals should give certain bonuses to their units, and should also be allowed to perform combo attacks with his own units.

Moral should affect Damage, Accuracy, Dodge, Resistance and Speed by a margin of 5% per point up to +10 or -10

Moral is gained (+1) each time an enemy unit is defeat by any member of a team (general or selected solider). Also gained with each counter or critical hit. Also gained If a enemy general is disabled (+2) or killed (+5)

Moral is lost (+1) With ever 20% of max HP lost, Character defeat, critical hit taken or if the General is disabled (-3) or Killed (-7)

Character may learn new skills with JP gained in battle with each attack. Character may also raise the level of any skill he already has improving it.


Battle System

In their turn characters will select all their Actions using AP. From movement to each attack. Not necessary to use all AP in one Turn. Character will recover 70% of max AP at the start of a turn unless an effect changes it.

Actions will happen in the order defined by the character in real time once all actions are selected. (Example : Walk -> Jump -> Slash -> Fireball ->Jump Back )

Movement Types: Characters may Walk/Run (Normal cost), Dash (more damage, less accuracy, normal cost), Jump (higher cost), Bounce (ricochet from a solid Map structure into any direction within movement range. Higher cost per bounce, Max bounce per skill level), Take Off (Higher Cost, normal movement in midair with no terrain penalties, but less dodge). Movement types are either Race acquired skills or class acquired Skills.

Combos can be triggered within units that have acquired Moral 10. All characters AP will be added and divided By 2. Played will then have access to all characters and all their movements at the same time. All characters in that unit will have their turn immediately regardless of speed and then will be consider as their turns had already been used.

Combos can only be triggered within a certain range of the General unit (determined by Level and also Number of enemies defeated / times killed ) of a team and any characters of that team that already took their turn won't get another.

With each turn characters get their XP and JP, special condition may apply as bonus such as Airtime, Juggling enemies in the air, Scenario parts destroyed, Counters and Etc.

Every battle should have "Achievements" and special conditions that trigger bonus rewards at the end (Example: "No unit defeated" "Don't use items" "Win under 20 turns"). But each individual enemy unit will have it's own option Award Trigger ( Example: "Use only magic" or "Don't hit with fire" )

Special Mode and Difficulty

Difficulty should be changeable at any time between battles. In the easiest difficulty Enemies should become 30% weaker. In the hardest difficulty XP and JP gained should be slowed by 40% and enemies should be 1/5 stronger.

Once beaten, New challenges should be unlocked. Super Hard mode should Keep XP and JP gain normal but all enemies should be x2 stronger. In Insane mode all enemies should be x4 times stronger and XP and JP gain should be halted by 50%.

"Battle Theater" mode should also be unlocked. In this mode, after every unit the player move, the enemy will also move one. Regardless of Speed. However, only after all moves have been decided the whole action should be displayed at once in real time. Thus changing the Dynamic of the strategy. Battle Theater should be selectable as a "New Game+" Option and compatible with all difficulty settings.

Multiplayer and DLC

4 Player multiplayer matches should be possible. With Ranking Matches as a option and a Leaderboard.

Players should form teams or play free for all the the hosts hould be able to customize every option within the game.

Players can bring from 2 to 4 Teams to multiplayer match, Issuing a rough number of about 8 to 64 Units in the map at once.

Turns for each unit have a 60 seconds countdown.

Players can be voted out (with no Ranking penalties) and there should be Voice chat avaliable.

New maps should be made avaliable via DLC.

CHALLENGE MAPS should also be made avaliable for the player in Offline mode are basically the player can train his units or test them out in various maps against various enemies in a customizable form.

So, this is it. And i'm glad i put it out of my mind. I would actually like very much if i could get feedback from you guys, some criticism evem. Just'cause... y'know.

And also, your own ideas of games you would actually want to make

[Magus]

Sound pretty good, I'd play it. My only recommendation is that if all a character's actions are based around so much AP they have per round you might as well just have it go back to 100% at the beginning of each turn. If movement and basic attack aren't affected by it, though, then in some ways the 70% recharge is too high.

Have you ever played Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter? That game's battle system was great and I think you might get ideas from it. Every action used AP (renewed at the beginning of each turn), it had circular movement patterns instead of squares, etc. I'd love to see something done like it on a larger tactical scale with numerous units instead of just the three (very different) ones in that particular game.

Also, how would you handle the 3D environment as far as range weapons are concerned? Would it just be line of sight with guns or would you go for some kind of cool physics calculation that takes into account angle and trajectory of bows or something? I'm not sure how FFT calculated it but it seemed like you could basically hit any target with a bow, which was pretty unrealistic. Sure you could arc an arrow over a wall in real life but if the target is right next to the wall they're probably not going to be hit unless the arc is really high, an arrow shot nearly straight up, which isn't very realistic. Also I think that chance to hit should be separately calculated from damage--in most eastern RPGs if you hit the enemy you cause nearly the same amount of damage each time, whereas in western RPGs things like "glancing blows" can come into play where you may hit the enemy but it was a flesh wound that only causes a fraction of the max amount of damage. Sometimes this can be seen as "cheating", though, instead of an attempt at realism on the game's part. A balance between the two is needed.

[Bells]

Sound pretty good, I'd play it. My only recommendation is that if all a character's actions are based around so much AP they have per round you might as well just have it go back to 100% at the beginning of each turn. If movement and basic attack aren't affected by it, though, then in some ways the 70% recharge is too high.

It's really something open to consideration. In a system like this a character would end it's turn only when he runs out of AP. Which essentially means that you could have one character fighting multiple targets. The problem is that this could lead to imbalance, as you could easily just have a couple of High level tanks clearing a level, thus, killing the challenge.

If you don't recharge your Full AP at the end of the turn, this makes you thing more strategically, so you can make sure to have enough when you really need it. As a game like this, is normal to have the bad guys outnumber your team.

Also, how would you handle the 3D environment as far as range weapons are concerned?

I always thought that Parasite Eve and Vagrant Story had the right idea. It's really a shame that Squeenix never invested more heavily in such system. Think of the combo system of Xenogears, with a little more depth, and the system from Vagrant Story and Parasite eve in TBSRPG form. It's not far from that.

With having a somewhat simplistic map system and opting for more stylized, lighter graphics, you could put more effort in a Physics system that would aid in the destructable scenario structure, so i think that would also be best used for Weapon Physics, specially Spells and Ranged Weapons.

I also recall "Hoshigami" the game that was supposed to be the spiritual sucessor to FFT, it bombed hard, partially due to the fact that if you knew your level and the target's level you could say with 100% certainty the damage your attack would cause and how much XP you would get.

So for damage, it's better to explore a more Variable system, but not too much that can get out of control. More like a "FIne Tunning" options in racing cars. They are there, you know they can change how the car handle wildly, but you also know you should temper with them only so much to get the better balance

[Yumil]

The gameplay sounds like it could be fun.

Any who, just as long as the design is flexible it would make it good enough for a start. As the game got developed it would go through changes for fun and balance. I very much doubt it would be the same at the end.

Anywho, if you ever decide to go anywhere with it, make a simple prototype to test if the overall concept can be fun. That way you get an idea before really jumping in. If it isn't fun, its a learning experience. Prototypes are very good things to do.