Castle Paradox

Andrusi · Joined: 06 Sep 2005 Posts: 9 Location: There...

I'm sorry if someone else has already come up with this.

One of the six billion things that can't be done in OHR is attacks that require multiple attackers, like the Dual and Triple Techs in Chrono Trigger. The following possible way of implementing this occurred to me this morning, though I have no idea whatsoever where this falls on the spectrum from "oh yeah, that'd be a trivial change to the code" to "are you kidding, man, we'd have to rewrite GAME from scratch".

Basically, add a setting to the attack data called "extra attackers needed" which can be set to 0, 1, 2, or 3. (This can fit in two bits. I don't know how much space is available in the attack data, since the wiki's link to .DT6 leads to an error, but I suspect there's this much to work with.) 0 means the attack works like what we already have. 1 means that in addition to the hero casting the spell, you need an additional hero in your party who knows the spell, has a full ready-meter (if you're in battle), and has enough MP to cast it (there might be a bitset to not require the MP, I dunno). 2 means you need two such heroes, or a total of three. And 3 means you need the whole party to be able to use it. Then, have GAME check for these when it shows your spell menus (if you can't cast the spell, it's grayed out as if you didn't have enough MP), and empty the ready-meters and decrease the MP of all the heroes involved instead of just the one. (Incidentally, I keep saying heroes, but I don't see why this wouldn't also work with enemies.)

Whose stats are used for the attack are determined by bitsets. If "Use Total Attack Power" is on, then GAME adds the attacking stats for all the heroes involved and uses the total as the attack power; otherwise, it uses the stats of whoever's turn it was when the attack was selected. The corresponding bitset for accuracy would be "Use Lowest Accuracy," I guess.

Again, I don't know how doable this is, but I wanted to get it out there.
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KainMinter · ***~*** Joined: 10 Jan 2004 Posts: 155 Location: Austin

Wow. Thats a very inovative idea. That would be a very interesting feature indeed. I know I'd make use of it for enemies. :D

msw188 · Joined: 02 Jul 2003 Posts: 1041

There are some potential problems here, I think. For instance, say you have an attack that requires two different heroes to use, but you have three heroes who know the attack, and all of their battle-meters are ready. What then? Ideally there ought to be a way for the player to choose who is using the attack, but that would, I imagine, be much more difficult.

Even without that problem, there is still a playability problem. How does a player know that the given attack needs x amount of people? How does the player know, if the attack is grey, whether that is because the other hero is not ready, or does not have enough MP, or whatever? I think that this idea would be awesome, but there are still some kinks that would need worked out before we even start looking at the code, I think.

Battleblaze · Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 5:28 pm Post subject:

what OHR NEEDS and I mean NEEDS is the option to give enemies a stepping picture and an attacking picture. Giving battle 80% more uberness.AND #2 is animated bacrounds.Even if its jst a flicker between 2.I'm serious when I say these are the only updates I'd actually care about.Windows OHR is very very nice.But better games are what i'm aiming for.
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LeRoy_Leo · Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 5:36 pm Post subject:

/me summons Shield of +10 defending

Battleblaze · Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 5:50 pm Post subject:

/me slaps I R PENIS sticky note on leroy's back.

I'd like to say I'm not shallow. I'd like to say block vs other colored block battles are awsome because they're perfectly balanced.I need somethin purdy or I'm not enjoying the game.I've played games and liked them because they're just fun to look at.

Well drawn still picture > Block fight^999
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Indy OHR! and National OHR Month Contest going on now!

"Aeth calls PHC an anti-semite; PHC blames anti-semitism"
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LeRoy_Leo · Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 5:55 pm Post subject:

I agree with you, man. But I'm saying there's a difference between better game play and better looking. Never said you were shallow.

/me tears the sticky off his back, turns it around, writes "get back on topic", and sticks it to the screen.
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Battleblaze · Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 7:02 pm Post subject:

Post it Notes arent double sided leroy

Um yeah team attacks would be the joint.But like MC said it would make problems, like with who to use the attack with, if the other hero has enough MP who if all the redy meters are full.But if implemented it'd wicked evil (in a good way).
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Indy OHR! and National OHR Month Contest going on now!

"Aeth calls PHC an anti-semite; PHC blames anti-semitism"
-squall

Mike Caron · Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 8:49 pm Post subject:

LeRoy_Leo · Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 10:57 pm Post subject:

Komera · Joined: 07 Feb 2003 Posts: 711

Andrusi · Joined: 06 Sep 2005 Posts: 9 Location: There...

Mike Caron · Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2006 6:54 pm Post subject:

Ah, planning vs. just getting it over with... the great debate...

I may have a look at the code some time, but I've said this before, and I'll say it again: The battle code is the messiest code on earth.
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Andrusi · Joined: 06 Sep 2005 Posts: 9 Location: There...

Hey, did anyone ever decipher enough of the code to figure out whether this was even potentially possible? I'm trying to decide whether there's any point in making a Bugzilla entry.
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Mike Caron · Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2006 1:57 pm Post subject:

AFAIK, no. Sure, make an entry on BugZilla. That way it's easier to dismiss it we can keep tabs on it easier.

Yes, it's possible. But, there's a 100% chance that it will not happen for the next version. There's an 78% chance that it won't happen for the next version. After that, the odds of it not happening drop rapidly, because we've ditched 16-bit dos forevar by then.
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I stand corrected. No rivers ran blood today. At least, none that were caused by us.

Final Fantasy Q
OHR Developer BLOG
Official OHRRPGCE Wiki and FAQ