Castle Paradox

*Worthy* · **Critical Thinker** Joined: 11 Aug 2003 Posts: 186

After about 3 years of working with OHR I got tired of the same type of battles in every game I made. So with my new game I decided on making my own custom battles. I've downloaded several games seeing if anyone has tried that and I didn't find anything that was like what I'm working on now. I would like to see what all of you think about the idea.

I am past the planning stage and I am around 7,000 lines into programming the battle system. Everything in the battle is custom made. The health bars, attacks, even something similar to FF7's limit break system. Also, each character has their own special attack, rather than simply pressing "enter" and watching the same attack over and over.

In a little while I'm considering of putting up screenshots of a battle, but until then I would like to know what you all think.

I look forward to your replies,

~Worthy

(Also, if you have any ideas for what you would like in a battle or something that you think would even further enhance the battles please let me know.)

Squall · Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2003 10:12 pm Post subject:

Well, I hate the built in OHR engine, so if I were to ever break down and do an actual RPG, then I'd want to make a custom battle engine. By the sounds of it, you're actually serious about this, so I sure as heck would like to see some screenshots or a demo or something.

Suggestions...well, you could have timed hits like in Super Mario RPG. Hit a key right when your weapon hits the enemy and it gets 40% more damage or something.
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*Worthy* · **Critical Thinker** Joined: 11 Aug 2003 Posts: 186

Thanks for the suggestion! I'll definately consider putting that or something similar to that in my game.

Regarding the Demo...I plan on releasing a demo when I get around an hour of gameplay finished. I really can't say how long that will be but I will be sure to make an announcement when the demo is released.

Thanks again for the suggestion,

~Worthy

Iblis · Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2003 11:28 pm Post subject:

In most cases, I'd applaud you for waiting to release a demo until you've got some real gameplay. However, since you're writing your own battle engine, you might wanna release a demo of just the battle engine. It could help with bugtesting, suggestions, etc... You don't have to worry about spoiling the story or anything, just make the demo a few battles.
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*Worthy* · **Critical Thinker** Joined: 11 Aug 2003 Posts: 186

Thanks for the idea. It would be great to get feedback on suggestions or bugs with the battle system that I may have missed. I'll do that.

~Worthy

Gnome · Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2003 1:22 am Post subject:

Sounds good. I have one question though: Will it use actual hero sprites or walkabouts? Just wondering. Looking forward to some screenshots! Big grin

EDIT: Changed "actually" to "actual."
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*Worthy* · **Critical Thinker** Joined: 11 Aug 2003 Posts: 186

It will use walkabouts for the heroes and enemies, not actual hero sprites.

~Worthy

planethunter · Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2003 1:31 am Post subject:

the battle engine seems like a good idea, go for it!

I think more people would like to use the ohr battle engine if it was more
customisable. I'm tired of seeing the heros in the same position for EVERY
game. An option to more them around like enemy sprites would be good.

I think your battle system should integrate with the plot...
egs: if the hero is betrayed then he is more likely to use special attacks.
if the hero is low on food/water (items) then his special more rate lowers.
just an idea anyway...
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Setu_Firestorm · Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2003 1:37 am Post subject:

For .hack//OHR, I am going to rig up an interesting way of doing battle while still keeping the traditional OHR way (note: the test battle in the root town is excluded).

When you come into contact with the Magic Portals, you will be taken into a small field where enemy NPCs wander around that you can choose to fight. Also, in these fields, you can wander a little and there will be some treasures and stuff you can get.

Anyway, not that I've ruined THAT, Raspberry!

, I think that any OHR veteran should shoot for the stretch of creating a Custom Battle engine!
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*Worthy* · **Critical Thinker** Joined: 11 Aug 2003 Posts: 186

That's an interesting idea you brought up, about the battles related to the plot. I haven't thought about anything like that before.

But the idea of bringing areas of the game outside of the battles into the battles would really enhance the battle system and make it much more entertaining.

I had thought along the lines of if the player was in an ice cavern or something involving snow than ice attacks would be stronger because of the environment. But I hadn't thought about the actual heroes' performance changing due to their emotional or physical conditions.

Thanks for the suggestion!

~Worthy

Setu_Firestorm · Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2003 1:40 am Post subject:

Ya know what I think would be interesting? Is if someone would/could do a battle system similar to either Arc the Lad or Parasite Eve.

That I'd LOVE to see! Big grin

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*Worthy* · **Critical Thinker** Joined: 11 Aug 2003 Posts: 186

I had thought of something similar to the PE battles. But rather than only having one hero the player would move and control three heroes (kind of simliar to FF Tactics in the sense that you can move each character then have one turn to act). But when planning it it became real complicated to be moving heroes and enemies around.

I'm sure it's possible though, I may decide to attempt to do something like that after this game. Then there will probably be a new version of OHR out that will make the task slightly easier.

~Worthy

MultiColoredWizard · Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2003 2:08 am Post subject:

YESYESYESYESYES! USE TIMED HITS. EXPAND THEIR USE. THEY WILL BRING ME LOTS OF LOVE FOR IT.

Timed hits made me love Super Mario RPG's battle engine, and it sure as hell will make me love this.

Just like, try expanding on it, by making combos or something, kay?

*Worthy* · **Critical Thinker** Joined: 11 Aug 2003 Posts: 186

I already have combos in the game. Each character's attack is different so not every character will have combos, but some do.

I don't want to go into details now but I just wanted to let you know, there will be combos Big grin

and I will see how well timed hits work with the battle system.

If for some reason they don't work well I will definately consider putting something similiar in the battles (dealing with the player pressing a button at the right time to add bonus to the attack).

Thanks for you suggestion!

~Worthy

Camdog · Joined: 08 Aug 2003 Posts: 606

I'd say the coolest thing you could do with a new battle engine would be to not make it game specific. Make it extensible, comment the crap out of it, and make all the major functions easy to call scripts.

This may not be feasible depending on how you've been programming it and how far along you are with it, but it would be great if you could release your battle engine as a seperate script for use in other people's games as well. That way, other OHR users would have another option for battles other than the default without having to create their own from scratch. Just think what a boost that would give the community! All kinds of new games with completely different gameplay.