Castle Paradox

[MKnightDH]

This topic is about a couple of ideas involving monsters. Of course, both may easily eat up memory fast if implemented, but I'm just throwing in my two cents.

1) Monster levels, like in Seiken Densetsu 3. This allows monster recycling while retaining the challenge of the monster in question, though some may want to avoid this. Still, it would be nice to see those wimpy monsters you saw at the beginning of the game fight you again in the later dungeons and put up a sufficient fight, probably with more skills. It's not difficult to have fixed global growths: I believe Hide 'n' Seek Battle Monster Tactics (an obscure Japan-only game you may know as "Monster Tactics" for the Game Boy Color) uses such a method to handle its 125 varieties.

2) Monsters as allies. This one I like seeing. I think it's rather nice to have monsters beat up baddies for your cause, and even better when you're still doing enough of the dirty work yourself. Plus I find it a bit amusing when the main bad guy gets "ultimate power" only to be beaten badly one-on-one by the equivalent of a measly Goomba or Slime. But again, this may eat up memory, at least to prevent any recruiting of monsters that would become broken on your side.

Addendum past posting: I also like to see monster allies as a way to increase variety in parties like it kind of does in Paper Mario (actually, there, the monster partners are particular characters, but Paper Mario is part of the inspiration of my bringing this up), instead of using the standard fighter-fighter-healer-mage combo (or whatever it is), so it may be best for party customization. Moogle1 did point something out in one of his articles: having many characters available should be handled with care.


So any comments?

[Newbie_Power]

You'll have to keep in mind that Castle Paradox is more strictly OHRRPGCE oriented, while this topic seems like it's asking general game programming questions.

1) I'm pretty sure this is possible in the OHR. There's a plotscripting command that allows you to alter the stats of enemies. The only problem is that these stat changes aren't stored in save games, so you'll have to re-use the command every time you load a save file.

2) Memory or file storage shouldn't be a concern, just the OHR's limitations. Right now the best way to do what you're looking for is to treat enemies you ally as the same as the main hero in function. You can probably use tag changes to perform the capturing of an enemy, then use plotscripting to add that enemy to your party in hero form (again, you'll have to make the enemy hero from scratch, with its own stat growth and graphics).

There are many a lot more plotscripting savvy than I am.
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TheGiz> Am I the only one who likes to imagine that Elijah Wood's character in Back to the Future 2, the kid at the Wild Gunman machine in the Cafe 80's, is some future descendant of the AVGN?

[Moogle1]

These are both very possible and interesting ideas, too. I can't help but be reminded of Pokemon, though.
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Slime Salad :: Independent Game Design

[msw188]

How finely grained do you want your monster levelling to be? The first thing I thought of was having, say, five different entries for every monster, corresponding to higher levers. So you could have Slime as one enemy, and then have another enemy also called Slime, but with increased stats, and so on. This would make the plotscripting much easier, but would be a pain if you want very gradual monster development.

On the other hand, if you decide to use stat-altering scripts instead, there are some things to consider. How often to monsters increase in level? Do you go by time played, or hero levels, or planned events? How do you keep track of the fact that a Blue Slime met in the Dark World should be at level 54, but a Gorgon of Doom met there should only be at about level 5 or so?

EDIT: I didn't mean to hit submit just then.

I'm not saying that any of this is impossible, or even particularly difficult scripting-wise, I'm just saying that it will require some thought on the overall system before deciding what the best way to script it is.
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My first completed OHR game, Tales of the New World:
http://castleparadox.com/gamelist-display.php?game=161

This website link is for my funk/rock band, Euphonic Brew:
www.euphonicbrew.com

[AcenMasterX]

[Moogle1]

When will you people realize that I didn't say anything to the contrary, and that what little was said was said over a year ago?
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Slime Salad :: Independent Game Design

[AcenMasterX]

Point. Sorry.

It's just that Pokemon is a sore spot for me. I think it's bringing the genre down, just because of its explosive popularity.

I apologize, I spoke out of turn.
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It is my firmest belief, from all my research and observations, that the human race is a race of idiots.

-AcenMasterX

[jabbercat]

I have to disagree. The reason pokemon is overshadowing everything else is because it's doing it right. The games are in general, very good. That's not to say that other games in the genre aren't, because they are, I've played quite a few. If a game is good, it will get acclaim, regardless of what else is on the market.
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Moogle no longer owes prizes.

[Joe Man]

although, Pokemon is probably the only game in the genre which has been continuously successful and is certainly the most successful in its genre, and this is certainly due largely to its inherent popularity.
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"Everyone has 200,000 bad drawings in them, the sooner you get them out the better."
~Charles Martin Jones

Last edited by Joe Man on Fri Dec 13, 1957 1:21 am; edited 2,892 time in total

[Mystic]

[Newbie_Power]

Pokemon got acclaim because of marketing and the anime.

Pokemon is still popular because they are excellent games.
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TheGiz> Am I the only one who likes to imagine that Elijah Wood's character in Back to the Future 2, the kid at the Wild Gunman machine in the Cafe 80's, is some future descendant of the AVGN?

[Moogle1]

[Ronin Catholic]