Minor warning: I haven't played a real RPG since...2006, maybe? RUSH and Spellsword are two that I can instantly remember hearing of, but as I've never played them, please excuse me if it seems I'm taking ideas from them. My SCI RPG experience has largely been back before EUDs became popular, and I don't particularly remember any good ones.
Intro
The basic premise isn't too complicated--make an RPG that uses EUDs to determine how you kill your enemies, and that determines your "class", and effectively, your entire game. By its very nature this would largely make the game single-player, but for the various spells, I wanted at least 3 computer slots. A "allied" (aka "town"), "neutral", and "enemy" faction would bump that up to 6, and my final computer slot would be taken up by miscellaneous effects and what-have-yous. In addition to the progressively harder enemies, the previous spawns would gain increasing HP with each player level increase. This dynamic HP system would decrease the incentive for remaining in a low-level area grinding HP.
Players gain experience from each kill, regardless of how it is achieved. They sometimes unlock new spell upgrades when they level, in addition to better gear (weapons/armor upgrades)
Map Layout
The generic "upgrades at top (top area), actual map (aka overworld) below" look is distasteful, but because this RPG was intended to take hours to complete, either I had to make locations insanely inaccurate, risk mobile grids interfering with air units, or abandon any hope of having spells that single-player maps can easily utilize. So, the player's unit in the "overworld" main area would be controlled by WASD or UDLR movement. When the unit approached an enemy, I planned on including, but never triggered in, an "aggro" system. The "enemy" would be a generic unit, slower than the player's marker, but only just so. If the enemy unit touched the player's marker, they would be sent to a designated battlefield area within the top area. The units would then be placed at random places in the battlefield (but never close enough to actually hit each other...yet). The battlefield system then allows for a 20x13 area, with vision centered. Rather than having to detect the window offset over the entire map for targeted spells, I could simply detect (or, if I was brave, calculate) the window offset and add to the mouse DC for target spells. Once the battle was over, players would lose vision of their unit, then the vision in the overworld would be regained, and WASD/UDLR movement would be resumed.
Towns and cities would be marked by buildings, and would be entered in much the same way as a battlefield instance. Encampments would automatically switch the player to their hero unit and swap vision. The movement style wouldn't be key-based, because I wanted encampments to have the same feel as cities and towns, movement-wise. Of course, once the player exited the encampment, the style would return to being a marker, rather than a player. Cities would follow two templates, randomized at each new visit (City A might be template 1 one game, and 2 another, but will always be the same template for one game) adding and removing buildings as necessary for different templates. Towns would have 3 templates randomized similarly. Cities would have different house locations, and some important buildings may exist in one but not another. Most towns would consist of little more than a few "houses" and an Inn. All cities would have a building or person to "give" the bodies of your slain enemies in exchange for ore, but towns would have only a 25% chance of having a Bank. Banks, which only exist in cities, would give 100% ore, while all towns would have a trader, butcher, or similar that takes a 10% cut.
Classes
The RPG's emphasis is obviously on your play style. As such, there are three "classes", depending on how you kill your enemies. EUDs would detect kills, and increase the player's The kill score would then be translated into ore for money upon returning to a designated place in town, and another DC would then be increased by 1 for kills. Classes would be determined when you decide to level to a class, and a warning that it may be impossible (debated on including a feature to swap classes, but never did) to change classes once you upgrade your class. In the first City (you start in the woods outside a town), there would exist three NPCs (the only ones in the map that had three lines at the last edit), one for each class, and by talking to all three of them you unlock the ability to talk to the mayor and upgrade to a class. They would subtly tell you what you would become, without saying "Oh, you look like a ___". Talking to all three would hopefully clue a player in as to what his class would be, because one would say more than the rest.
The classes themselves have three tiers (not including your starting class). You start at Tier 0, with no class, and have some of everything. If you tend to kill mostly with spells, you'll obviously become a Mage of sorts. If you have a good mix, you'll walk the road of vengeance as a Scout. And if you use mostly physical attacks, you'll become a Warrior. Each class has its strengths and weaknesses; Mages cast powerful spells, but tend to be rather weak, Scouts are a middle-of-the-road class that have huge potential but take skill to play, and Warriors have massive strength, but little to no spell ability. Mages would largely be spell-upgrade and defense-upgrade intensive, Scouts could go either way but must be careful how they spend their points, and Warriors should be mostly attack and defense oriented upgrades. Upgrading to the next tier makes you lose 5% more of the potential xp you could be getting, but you gain increased stats, so it's up to you when you sacrifice some of that experience to get the goods. Increasing tiers will also give you access to new abilities, and your new hero would have the same armor and weapon type as your previous level. Old skill upgrades might be kept, though that would be doubtful.
Extra Goodies
I've thought about, but didn't ever decide on a few things, which are listed below. Note that these may be even more senseless than what's above, so...read at your own risk. This list was compiled when I couldn't sleep one night, and is the only thing I have left other than what I remember of the map. It's exactly what I wrote down, minus some scratching out that I can't decipher.
- The quests are meant to be hard. With some of them, they
areshould be time-based, and if the player is unable to complete them...what happens? No reward for sure... maybe town loses faith, eventually turn against him? Interesting route, but likely dead-end. Done before, most likely, and would be a pain on top of everything else. Individual prestige for each locality...ick. - The classes--midgame, what if you don't like your class, but don't want to "drop out" of the game for that? Maybe two more classes are needed...a mage that wants a little more scoutiness at the cost of some spell strength? A warrior that's tired of getting shot by ranged enemies? (possible spell) No reason for someone to lose the game (fuck, I just did) because they got a bad upgrade and the boss is all physical. Or a final, secret (SEN-only?), final tier, where the person could pick the spells they want from everything?
- When upgrading tiers, allow/disallow keeping old spells? Old spells are more familiar, better than a more powerful spell? Choice seems best..though skills will be modular--Q is initiator/channeled, W is...maybe passive? defense? AOE? E for defense/healing, and R is class-unique: m=spell power or powerful spell, w=damage, s=?? both?
*later I decided for some reason to draw arrows showing I wanted to swap W and E. E felt more natural as an AOE than a defense spell, for whatever reason. Still never could decide on a generic R ability for Scout. - NEED on-screen display. cooldown, hero health %, current missions and status. Will be a pain, but worth it.
- Randomize town's bank upon re-entry every...20 minutes? 10? # of kills? Towns are small, cite falling population because of (nearby enemy) as cause.
- Maybe make mages suffer damage (increase natural HP) for each spell, as a kinda "flowback"? Cast a fireball, get a cold area around mage...probably won't go over well with the remaining mindless Bnetters.
- Mages should be protoss aldaris/tassadar/HT, something with little to no attack... warriors should be zlings...ultras...some close range, high damage. Scouts should be ghost...useful against small, but weak against large.
Or...more intimate with nature means useful against[scribbles
] IF other two classes are in, make them available at the same time as tier 2 classes--upgrade to a class, then an intermediate...5 classes at T1 is too much. Name: scout/warrior=ranger...maybe marine? sounds fine. Mage/scout=rogue? warlock? save warlock for mage T2.
And that's all I've got. Lemme know what you think, SEN. All I ask is that you give me credit for the theory if you use something above in a map.
Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jun 18 2011, 8:07 pm by poison_us.
They sure feel more like in-depth battles that way but too many battles and you might lose that time-limited quest? freeze the timer maybe? Once again that's just me.
