Castle Paradox

[Uncommon]

So, I've been thinking about something to give my battle system an extra "oomph" of originality, and Liam suggested the thing that might give it to me. I have been working on the "Eternal Language", a form of prayer that manifests as magic in my stories/game, thinking about a few notes on the grammar, etc. Well, originally, I was just going to have a textbox that displayed the chant for each spell when it is used (perhaps only the first time per battle, like in Final Fantasy Tactics), and I was telling Liam about a few things I was thinking about for it, when he gave me an brilliant idea:

Instead of having the magic in a way that you just pick your spells from a menu, like in most RPGs, you actually have to put an Eternal Language chant together.

Eternal Language spells have an interesting sentence structure, with three word-parts per spell, like this basic fire spell: "Drakhen mien fiero". The first part is element/spell type-specific; "drakhen" is the elemental activator for a fire-elemental spell. The second determines the target; "mien" is Black branch for single target. The third part is spell-specific; "fiero" is for Fire1.

Now, what Liam's idea involves is having a list of words for each part, and a spell being cast when a combination is found. A little like Eternal Darkness, with how you could arrange the runes to learn a spell, except that you have to put together your spells every time you want to cast.

Of course, every time you get a combination right, it would be logged in that particular character's journal, but you can't access the journal from battle, so you'll probably have to write them down, or something. I'm still thinking about how to limit you from using high-level spells at the beginning of the game, but nothing comes to mind at the moment... I'll probably still have MP, otherwise one could use Ultima (or whatever) anytime they wanted to without consequence as soon as they figured out the proper combination.

I also don't think you'll be able to mix up words from different branches, but you'll fail whenever you try to use an the wrong activator or a target type that the particular spell isn't compatible with.

So, if you understood anything I just said, please give me your thoughts on the matter. I have a few more ideas that I'll post when I sort them out and type them out, so just stick to this for now. I think this could work if I put enough work into it.

[Dark SKell Angel]

I for one think its a great idea. It could give a player the feeling that he is more in control...like immerse him more into the game. Its a great idea! I'm still working on by battle system, and since its part fighter-genre its gonna have litle parts like in your "Eternal" language casting style
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Yeah, I thought I was dead too.

Old skool RPGexcel member

[Sephyroth]

Well.. if it's going to be another language, maybe it'd be cooler if you made up your own symbols for each of these words, and had the player put the symbols together instead of the words.

[Iblis]

[Me]

Good idea, Uncy. If you can figure out how to script it (you're gonna need some serious NPC manipulation going on if it's in-battle), then GO FOR IT.
Now, in other news . . .
This system has already been used in a commercial game.
What?!!
Yes. In Squaresoft's Japan-only Rudora no Hihou (Treasure of the Rudras is the usual translation), in the menu, there was an option, "Inscribe," where the player could input a spell name and "inscribe" it, and the spell could be used in battle. It used single words (unlike Uncommon's syntax), but it was overall the same. However, it had the same disadvantage that was mentioned here - the ability to create the Ultimate Spell in the First Five Minutes Of The Game, thus allowing you to Kick Every Boss's Ass In Under Ten Seconds. The fact that one of the chracters you got in the beginning of the game had enough MP to cast the Ultimate Spell made the game a bit less challenging.
However, if you go through with this, only a few people will realize that your system has been used before, and they will be intelligent enough to realize that you didn't steal it.
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UP DOWN UP DOWN LEFT LEFT RIGHT RIGHT A B START

[TMC]

Sounds like a good idea. And I know how you can prevent the player from using the best spells at the beginning:

Have a stat something like 'Magic Skill', which is a measure of how talented a caster is. This stat raises with levelups, and maybe by equipping certain items. More powerful spells require higher MagSkl ratings to cast, or the spell will fail. You might also want to make this replace the Magic stat, in that the higher it is, the more damage spells do. (you can decide yourself whether you require an absolute value to cast a spell (eg. 10MagSkl points for Fire1), or having a a high stat makes it more likely that you'll pull off the spell (eg. if its 2 you have a 10% chance of getting Fire2 right, but at 15 points, its 95%, but only 20% for fire3, etc))
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"It is so great it is insanely great."

[Aethereal]

Sounds pretty nice, kind of like a combination of my other designed spell system (which I was also planning on implementing into my battle system, coincidence?) and the system Blazes made for that game with the magic stones (Rune something...).

As for limiting spells, why not have the player start off not knowing every word in the language? As the game advances, the player could take the opportunity to learn new words in the language in methods such as purchasing/studying books that will teach them the new words (in an example, and feel free to use said example). I would find it unlikely that the characters would begin knowing every single word in the language - do you know every single word in the English language? Try something like that out.
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[LeRoy_Leo]

Yea. I don't have much time and will add to this later, but each different magic word takes different amounts of MP, so pieceing the words together may mean useing some more sparingly, or something. Sorry if that was a runon sentence. I will return!
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Planning Project Blood Summons, an MMORPG which will incinerate all of the others with it's sheer brilliance...

---msw188 ---
"Seriously James, you keep rolling out the awesome like gingerbread men on a horror-movie assembly line. "

[Uncommon]

Okay, I'll just do individual replies, then my own additions.

Sephy: No. It would be too much like Eternal Darkness (which used combonations of runes) if I did. I'd prefer to do it with the words.

Me: I suppose it sounds like that, too, but the only game I've seen that did anything like this was Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem for Gamecube, except that you only had to arrange the runes to learn the spell, not every time you wanted to use it.

Aethereal: Yeah, I've been thinking about something like that. Full details below.

Leroy: That's an interesting idea. I probably wouldn't put an MP cost on the activator-words, but perhaps different target-words will have MP cost multipliers on them...


So, I'm thinking of limiting the spells by not giving the player all of them from the beginning. Activators and target-words will probably be gotten by finding them/being taught them, etc., while spell-words will be learned from leveling up your magic (magic levels (or ability levels, perhaps?) raise with AP).
I'll also have a special item called either Guidebook or Dictionary which explains each term you have.

[Flamer]

cool, i'll definately like to see such a system developed (especially for the OHR) good luck with the NPC manipulation process, i know you'll need more than what you're currently using.
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If we were a pack of dogs, IM would be a grand Hound, CN would be a very ficious little pitball, and Giz...well, it doesn't matter breed he is, he'd still be a bitch
(no offense to anyone that was mentioned)

[GMan1988]

Sounds like a great idea to me. Maybe you could have it so that if a character tries to cast a spell that is above their ability/spell level, they take damage (from inexperience with that spell).
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.hack//SIGN is freakin' awesome.

[Roach Lir]

Sounds good. A very original idea.
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Dark Legacy - 0.3%

[LeRoy_Leo]

Original indeed. This will be entertaining just to watch and see him make the system, and we will all learn. How lovbely.

I will keep my eye on this production for sure.

PS: I like the guidebook better than the dictionary, or even tome (yea, tome of magic words). At the start you should realize that mostly all of the pages are missing from it and you have to look for them or write your own from other peoples memories. The pages not missing are the first spells you are able to use. Yea, the book belonged to your father, or some close relative, and you make it a point to find all the missing pieces again. See, It's sort of different from the regular find the keys/shards/stuff deal that a lot of games do. Only seeing that the more missing pages you find, the more powerful you can become makes the search more involving.Tell me what you think of that, eh?
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Planning Project Blood Summons, an MMORPG which will incinerate all of the others with it's sheer brilliance...

---msw188 ---
"Seriously James, you keep rolling out the awesome like gingerbread men on a horror-movie assembly line. "

[Setu_Firestorm]

Pretty cool idea, Uncy! So you're doing your spells system similar to the .hack keyword system?

That's gonna make the game a heck of a lot more fun!
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[planethunter]

I have an idea for more inventive spells. In your 'typical' rpg, you have items that teach spells like spell books for example. It would be a nice feature if one could combine certain items to get even more powerful, tactical spells. Ok i'll just state an example to make my point clear, if the hero has the spells "fire blaze" and "medium-gust", then the combination would make something like "firestorm". I guess it wouldn't be hard to implement too, just one long script with lots of 'if' statements.
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~PH