AuthorTopic: Tactical RPG Grid Patterns  (Read 20237 times)

Offline Souly

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Re: Tactical RPG Grid Patterns

Reply #20 on: July 21, 2008, 05:16:22 pm
I don't know the first thing about coding anything.
That's why I'm approaching other people with these diagrams so they can understand what it is I'm going for.
I've got most of this RPG written down and typed out, I'm just trying to get a unique system.

Offline Helm

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Re: Tactical RPG Grid Patterns

Reply #21 on: July 21, 2008, 05:19:06 pm
A unique anything that isn't fun is not something worthwhile to make. If you're approaching coders with movement-attack grids for a tactical rpg then you also don't know much about game design. Again sorry if this sounds like an asshole thing to say, I really do not wish to offend you and I do wish you best of luck with the project. It may be worthwhile to consider the implications of what I am saying though.

Offline Souly

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Re: Tactical RPG Grid Patterns

Reply #22 on: July 21, 2008, 08:14:37 pm
I just spoke with my buddy who's going to school for game development and programming.
He says the first thing you must do when planning a game is thinking of it's core.
The biggest feature of this RPG is more or less the battle system.
So I don't really see how I'm failing by planning out the battle system and how it works in relation to the user.

I'm sure there are many other things I need to plan out.
Such as balancing and purpose of each class.
This is something I understand and will take into account with my update.
I have been doing a lot of research today and yesterday as well, so I have a few ideas.

Offline Helm

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Re: Tactical RPG Grid Patterns

Reply #23 on: July 21, 2008, 08:38:04 pm
Great but the start of a battle system is not what you're doing. How will battles happen? In what terrain?What is the technological level? What is the setting? With what characters? Do you need square grid? How about hexagonal? How about pixel-perfect? How about something else? Do you need classes or can you do variations with other ways? Does combat occur with dice-rolls? Does combat work differently from afrar and up-close? How does facing work? Can you flank an enemy? Are there HP or do you have some other system for counting damage (per body part or even just 1hp per unit)? Does terrain play a part on the tactics? Do holding lines? Can you force a terrain on the enemy? Can you run away from a battle?

All these things (and many more) need answering before you start thinking about the 'ranges of weapons'. They are inconsequential at this point. You don't know what game you're making yet.

Offline AlexHW

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Re: Tactical RPG Grid Patterns

Reply #24 on: July 21, 2008, 09:06:50 pm
in my opinion, you can start anywhere.. hell, whatever gives you inspiration/motivation should be all the justification you need for developing it however way you see fit.
and everything is a process.. you'll develop other areas of the game/game design in time.. you don't need it all this instant. nothing good comes from rushing things.. well thats usually the case. sometimes people must learn at their own pace.

Offline Souly

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Re: Tactical RPG Grid Patterns

Reply #25 on: July 21, 2008, 10:25:09 pm
I've changed a lot about this RPG this morning so be prepared for a few paragraphs.

The idea is an open world tactical game.
At the start the player much choose race, skin color, hair and eye color.
Some of these choices are permanent except for hair and hair color.
Players have to build their characters stats to appropriately match the needs of their class.
Vitality, Attack, Agility, Dexterity, Wisdom, Will

These stats will determine
Health - Vitality, Will
Energy - Wisdom, Will
Power – Attack, Dexterity
Spirit Dmg- Attack, Wisdom
Dodge - Agility
Defense - Will, Vitality
Hit rate - Dexterity, Attack
Cast/Reload speed - Wisdom, Agility

I still have to come up with a good way for calculation using these stats for what actually happens when a player hits or gets hit.
Haven't come up with that party yet which is a good core element to the game.

Each player has choose 2 of 5 basic skills, they can get the others down the road if they want.
Wait, Jump, Throw, Avoid, Counter
Players must then choose their starting class.
Classes will determine what weapons will have bonuses, and what skills you can learn.
They must then pick their weapon choice, they can pick any weapon really, your class is just going to be less effective with it.
Your attack grid is based on what weapons you have chosen.

The player moves around freely while in the open world to make traveling less of a pain.
The player can party up with other users and explore the open world finding monsters and defeating them for experience points.
There are three types of monsters.
Non-Aggressive (attack and the others might just run)
Passive-Aggressive (you hit one, you fight all)
Aggressive (they're coming for you)

If you engage a monster battle restrictions are put into place instantly.
This can be done either by attacking the monster, or just getting in it's range of view.
Monsters you have engaged can not be attacked by other players unless they are in your guild or party.
You have 30 seconds or so to make a move, if you fail to make your move in time your player will defend for that turn.
The monsters will make their move directly after the person who engaged them makes his move.

For example you engage 3 monsters.
All 3 of those monsters will move after you move.
Unless they are engaged by someone in your party else via attack in which case their turn will occur after that person moves.
If a monster feels threatened they may engage the person coming after them before they even get to attack it to take it off the other player.

Movement is no longer going to be GRID/board game format.
I realized terrain such as trees and bridges would be difficult for someone with diagonal only movement...
The player will move in any direction by 3 squares.
Now both moving AND attacking are going to be assigned Stamina.
Your average player will have like 10 stamina.
Attacking with a light weapon will take away 5 stamina where as a heavy weapon or a spell would take about 8.
Moving one square will take 2 stamina or so.
So 3 squares would take 6.
Allowing you to move and attack, or vise versa.

Does this clear up a lot for you about the game helm?
« Last Edit: July 21, 2008, 10:32:28 pm by Souly »

Offline Helm

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Re: Tactical RPG Grid Patterns

Reply #26 on: July 22, 2008, 12:22:13 am
It does, but

Quote
They must then pick their weapon choice, they can pick any weapon really, your class is just going to be less effective with it.

then why have the option? If it doesn't add to the design then it's just unnecessary clutter?

Offline Souly

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Re: Tactical RPG Grid Patterns

Reply #27 on: July 22, 2008, 12:25:28 am
Oh but it does add to the design, some classes just simply can't use a fire arm or a sword.
There will be restrictions to what weapons you can use, you're just given a choice between a few.

Offline huZba

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Re: Tactical RPG Grid Patterns

Reply #28 on: July 22, 2008, 09:12:35 am
Very simple question that needs a very short answer. What is your game about?
Like how Mario is about jumpan and everything else in the game is built to support it. Or like how Bioshock is about rapture and everything is there to support it and things that might hurt it are completely omitted.

You shouldn't be thinking about all these classes and hair color too much at an early stage. I'd suggest you think as simple as possible, how to make a basic battle fun to play(or whatever you want to emphasize). Have some design philosophy that you can carry around from the ground up. Also be dynamic about the design early on, it lets you stumble upon happy accidents. If you've designed 500 pages worth of classes, weapons, skills, towns, NPC:s and whatever, you might have to cut a big part out once you find out there's something not-fun in the fundamentals.

Offline ndchristie

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Re: Tactical RPG Grid Patterns

Reply #29 on: July 22, 2008, 11:42:33 am
I think it works both ways.

Partisan started as a job tree, or more like a "look" based around a job tree
(I also realize that in it's perpetual non-completion* (life is distracting) partisan might not be the best example, but it's what i know

then it was said, hey, let's make something with these guys about arena-scale battles with one side using magic and the other side technology (bit of a trite idea won't lie, but it's a foundation).

then the job tree needed to change completely, so it's a good thing we'd done nothing with it yet. instead of item, magic, ranged, and melee, we realized that we'd need different branches for each role.  if we'd already planned out archers (nixed for guns) and mages (nixed for offensive support, item being defensive support), we'd have had to throw out a lot of stuff, or said "hell we're going to stuff mages in here anyway!" and then we'd have trouble.

so yeah, you can start with more specific ideas, but they need to be vague and ready to change.  for me, i knew i wanted a game with a round job tree, and that to me was interesting, but then it got redrawn completely when we said let's do this.


* i have played a paper-and-pencil version against myself and a few of my friends which worked out pretty fun, just with the four basic classes.  We've also adapted a pretty classic structure which doesn't ensure fun, but it helps.  Also what i learned from this is to play as early as you possibly can so as to balance things.  my first test the riflemen rocked the field, which necessitated a change in mechanics (gunners now have to use a turn reloading, to limit their deathmaking ability).
A mistake is a mistake.
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