Castle Paradox

[gagekilmer]

So Power of Shinobis estimated finish date is January 1st 2014, the release date is December 1st 2014. we have quite a few ideas that I feel like I could implement well but want opinions on first.
1. before battle you can go into a menu in the main menu called "focus" each character can be given a specific stat focus, attack defense or balanced. basically I would create three characters with the same sprite and set their max stats to have the same values but for different stats. and use a plotscript to make those three always be the same level. so if the attack focus ones stats are atk-100 def-50 then the defensive ones stats will be atk-50 def-100 and the balanced on would be atk75 def-75. which would allow players to change thier style of gameplay given the type of enemies in the area and their HP and CH values
2. Adrenaline Rush. basically when you get below a certain point of health you can use an attack called adrenaline rush. several attacks would be chained together to raise stats like attack defense and speed, enemies would do less damage, and you would do more. however to stop if from being overpowered the last attack would cast a medium strength poison on yourself and as such your health would drain. therefore with advanced stats you would have to finish a fight quickly to end it before you died.
3. using almost a full crafting ability system. you can find materials to make whatever you need or want, but it is easier to just buy it, forcing people to choose between convenience and practicality when choosing their equipment.
4. bards throughout the land who open a menu when spoken to with a list of songs that they can play, each menu item will run a different plotscript, always the set ambient music plotscript, but to different song.


and a few others that I will mention another time, any ideas or criticisms or comments?
thanks everybody

[Greenwado]

I personally don't have any thoughts either way on the first few, but that idea with the bards and the changing music sounds like a really cool idea. I hope you don't mind if I steal it for my game...
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[Bob the Hamster]

A thought about the focus system:

I think you will find the scripting much easier if you just have one copy of each hero, and script the changes to their stats. That will be way less work than synchronizing the three copies of each hero.

The plans sound good! :)

[gagekilmer]

so how would I do that with plotscripting, could you write me an example script, We'll probably do that if we can make it work

[Rya.Reisender]

1. I think you first should ask yourself what would be the reason for the player to change their focus. It's nothing you can do mid-combat, so what if you notice your focus setup sucks for the battle? Then you'd need to shut down the game and reload. This can get annoying over time.
Also what benefit do players get from being defensive focussed? Wouldn't it be always better to go offensive, you can grind faster and defeat bosses faster, etc.
If you really wanna go that path I think the whole way a character plays needs to be different with each focus. Different skills and so on. It's quite hard to do with the default battle system (if you're using that), because there is nothing like "Taunt" that would make a tank type plausible.

If you want to add more dynamic to the battle I'd rather go for in-combat focus changing. And make focuses more complex, not ATK/DEF but for example magic defense vs. defense would add a lot more to tactic. Like you see that boss monster preparing a strong magical attack, you switch to the magic resist focus quickly, etc.
(this is just one of many examples, it can be anything really)

2. Wouldn't this just cause players to intentionally stay on low HP? If you use the skill, will your HP stay low? Is there some limit to how often you can use it? The idea itself it good. Probably should even get the character fully healed+poisoned when he uses it.
Also if you game is of the "Full HP at start of each combat" that would be kind of different. Then it's harder to actually get down to low HP without dieing.

Actually this can be very well combined with #1 if you make that in-battle focus changing. Then ATK/DEF also makes sense.
For example say a monster does 60% HP damage to your character by default. He needs to be below 20% to use adrenaline rush. Now he is hit once and goes down to 40% HP. He wouldn't survive a second strike. Now the change the focus to defensive which causes you to only lose 30% HP per hit. So the next hit makes you go to 10% HP and you can use Adrenaline Rush. Which fully heals you and increases your power.

How about that?

3. It's an idea and can be done. I'm more the "crafting should be optional" type of guy, though. If anything I'd probably simply solve this via a blacksmith shop. There are items you can buy at the normal store, which only require gold but a lot of it and there is also a blacksmith store who sells other items but requires you to bring materials as well as a little bit of gold.
But anyway, if you want crafting just go for it. Nobody will hate you for it.

4. It's also an idea and can be done. Actually quite nice. To add to it, you could make the songs affect gameplay too. Like only on certain songs there will be certain monsters around and stuff like that. A bit like weather in other games, just with music.
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[Bob the Hamster]

Hmmm... Well, maybe something like this. I haven't tested this in a game, but it is a place to start: