A few months ago, I started trying to think about different element "webs" of what works good against what and such for an rpg map that never got off paper, at least yet. Basically I was having different combinations of elements, and trying to define what would be weak or strong against what. I can post a txt on what I had so far, though some is debatable as always.
But the main point of me posting is to share and get ideas on how to implement these attributes into enemy units vs your spells, or whatever else you can think of, maybe summons, whatever. And by all means, use / play with my structure if you wish, as it may not get used otherwise.
So I'll give you what I'm working with right now. (renewed interest for no good reason, but it might be good for this rpg year contest.) Unfortunately, I lost some work I did on this a couple years ago. This current model with units is very much in its infancy, so I haven't made it apply to the "complex" or "straight" paths yet, complex being unequal weaknesses (with compensations), straight being only 1 for 1 but less realistic. If anything's not clear and you want to know, just ask.
[An excerpt:]
Elements:
[assumed map properties]
4 comp players: 2 nonaggro, 2 aggro, diff ups/techs and diff hp% shield%. (maybe diff shield armor, but that's limiting)
[stats to work with]
Types: small/medium/large, damage type, mostly-shield/mix/hp-only, [flying].
Advantages: damage rate:high/med/low, attack size:high/med/low, hp:high/med/low, armor:v.high/med/low, s.armor(? it applies to whole player), [splash].
Extra possibilities: #units:high/med/low.
3 straight:
Fire>Plant>Water>(Fire)
5 straight:
plant<fire<water<elec<ground<<<(plant)
5 complex: [haven't worked with much yet. UPDATE: With he spreadsheet done (see attached), I hope to find attributes that fit properly.]
earth/water>FIRE>plant (-1) concussion(-1), low hp(-1), splash(+1), very high attack(+2)
fire>PLANT>earth/water (+1) shield or small,
plant>EARTH>fire/lightning (+1)
earth>LIGHTNING>water (0)
plant/lightning>WATER>fire (-1)
Units For Elements: [haven't worked with much yet]
FIRE - firebat, siege(+earth)
PLANT - dragoon
EARTH - lurker
LIGHTNING - wraith
WATER - archon (use null terrain for walk on water effect?)
By the way, I've even researched a bit on elec, and found that if water's pure, it doesn't conduct well at all, and that earth frankly conducts pretty well. Just kinda funny considering things like pokemon and such. I don't really like the whole "opposites are always weak to each other" thing either, as some clearly aren't that way, and it makes for some lack of strategy and complexity. I'd say we can throw the water thing out the window, but the earth thing is weird enough to be annoying. Never thought pokemon had it very straight (played red/blue only) =P.
DISCLAIMER: Yeah it's fantasy, but it's based on real world properties, so there's room for some realism. Less realism means players complain when things don't go "as expected." More realism means you can use your head and figure things out on your own, which is cool.
here's some more info that's less likely to be used in sc due to complexity or being somewhat fail:
Collapsable Box
And here's a picture of some photoshopping of the 8-element structure I came up with, tho it's still pretty complex even visually. At the bottom, I show one long line from Wind back to Wind, each possible path without loops. The xls attachment is a FINISHED spreadsheet, see top of post and latest posts. [updated explanations inside xls, all major work done, made prettier, split a.rate methods shown now (see posts). 0 entries left to fill out of 363 ie. 100% done.]
*Okay, please look at the finished spreadsheet for detailed information on weaknesses you may take advantage of in SC, including pairs of defenses vs pairs of offenses! This took a lot of thought and effort, so give it a look and ask questions.
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Post has been edited 6 time(s), last time on Jan 26 2009, 9:29 am by StrikerX22.
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