I might start a multiplayer RPG soon, and was curious what everyone's thoughts are on some of the popular battle systems.

do you prefer real-time battles, in the map field, a la classic SC combat?
what about enemy spawning vs. placement? spawning on heroes?
do you like JRPG collide-to-start battles? how about turn-based or semi-turn-based?

I'm erring on the side of real-time battles, I want to keep things moving for the three players, but I'm curious what everyone considers the pros and cons of each.

I think pre-placed units is lazy design. I prefer dynamically spawned units with junk yard dog script. You can spawn them either on heroes at, say, night time, or spawn them across the wilderness during the day time. You don't have to go either/or, you can do both.

Turn based or real time both have their pros and cons - depends on your preference and what designs you have for your map, I suppose. Check out Death Knights 3, it has a kind of half turn based half real time approach which I found cool.

Also check out RUSH if you want to see what a Dark Swarm battle system looks like, using VHP mechanics.

Any new RPG map in development is music to my ears. Can't wait to see what you come up with.

As for your questions:

• While I think turn-based combat is cool from a trigger/design standpoint, ultimately I find real-time combat to be more fun. It just has a better flow without constantly being teleported to a battle area, if that's what you had in mind when you said turn-based.
  
• Static enemy placement is pretty old-school, but I think it has its advantages. It's easier to balance a map when you can place all of the enemies precisely. That being said, pulling off dynamic enemy spawns is really cool and feels more modern.
  
• As I said in my first bullet point, I do like the novelty of JRPG collide-to-start battles in an SC map, but it does grow tiresome after a while. Battles in the field keep the pace brisk.
  

If you want some real-time feedback in a chat environment as well as an easy way to find testers for your in-development maps, consider checking out the Brood War UMS discord server at the link below.

https://discord.gg/A9rUqxb

This RPG had the most innovative battle system I've seen. Worth taking a look.
http://sc.nibbits.com/maps/project/64/azalas-90kb-rpg

Something I always add into my RPG's ( I am adding it into my new heroes defense map ) Is shared XP. Its something that isn't utilized a lot in starcraft but is actually pretty easy to implement.

I had a pretty sick experimental turn based rpg system using a dropship system.

I don't have it anymore since I got a new computer, but if anyone one this site has it (e.g. lil-inferno or DarkenedFantasies I think), I'm fine with them uploading it as an attachment to this forum if they want.

this does indeed look really cool. reminds me of Ogre Battle.



yeah, I'm doing this currently in my defense map. things that promote teamwork are always good to me.

Are you being serious? All you do is just fight in a small box with all your units at once. How's that innovative?

I showed you some of my systems theskinsurf didn't I?

indeed, the active turn-based one and the fully turn-based one.

Moogle, now there's a name I remember from way back when.

Did you make that Final Fantasy III map years ago? The one with the world map and battles being triggered by touching enemies, complete with FF jingles and sound effects?

holy shet, WAS that you, mog? I remember that map!

also, does anyone remember that unfinished map that had that one ff6-style section where you move units to intercept the guards in battle before they reach a certain point?

No, that was someone else. I was known as Evil_Moogle. Then Moogle later on or Moogle(U).

just played the FF3 map again. fun game.

That might screw with your day/night cycle idea, but I made a concept map back in the days where you'd have burrowed units under you representing your HP, whenever they died, HP was subtracted from you. The burrowed units were centered to you when they ended off the location being centered on your hero, which didn't cause much unit slowing.

Allows the player to buy zerg armor and benefit form it throughout the game, even if their fighting unit changes.

Just throwing that idea out there.

I think I played this!

It depends on what kind of RPG you're going for.

A turn-based RPG works well for 3 friends that know each other and are willing to work out the kinks of a turn-based/trigger-based system in an RPG.

But if you want to appeal to the mass audience, then you will be hard-pressed to find people willing to stay for a turn-based system.

You've played the RPG I'm working on atm, and everything in that map is geared towards pleasing the mass audience. From pre-placed units, to mass waves of enemy spawns, to awkward pacing and difficulty spikes, to not having any active abilities, only passives... So, the decisions you make should come down to what audience you want to appeal to, and ultimately what kind of RPG you want to make yourself.

I would suggest to keep it a real time battle. You can use fancier stuff like Direct Damage Systems. Constructing a turn-based system will take a lot of effort, and will still feel clunky.

I showed theskinsurf this, but here is a concept map for a turn based system.

Attachments:

I made a few really cool turn based battle systems back in the day... Sadly they got lost when SEN's DB crashed years back.

I was a fan of the 1 on 1 turn based battle system I made and am surprised I never saw it remade. You basically had 1 1v1 area per player, loading units into one shuttle equipped items, another used skills and attacks. Had little graphics appear for different weapons etc etc.