Spell out the spell.

TwinHamster · Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 3:13 pm Post subject: Spell out the spell.

What do you guys think of this:

Type in a three lettered combination to use a magic spell. I've already implemented like... three spells. For example,

typing in b, l, u would make Alm do "Blue Fire"

B, o, r would yield "Beam of red"

and W,n,d gives you "Wind slice"

You can't do these all the time though, they can only be accomplished when Alm's attack randomizer sends his attack to the magics catagory. (He has three altogether) So you get a 33% to type in a command.

Should this continue with this?

Moogle1 · Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 3:42 pm Post subject:

What is the point of randomly selecting an attack?

And your poll should say "your," not "you're."
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LeRoy_Leo · Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 5:58 pm Post subject:

This sounds interesting. However, you might run into problems down the line with spells that start with the same letter... That can be avoided with a lot of planning, though. I'm sure you already realize this, but Hell. It doesn't hurt to speak up.
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TwinHamster · Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2005 2:38 pm Post subject:

Iblis · Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2005 3:22 pm Post subject:

Moogle1 · Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2005 7:07 pm Post subject:

Exactly. Moreover, if the decision is so trivial, isn't the player just going to cast the same spell every time he gets to cast a spell?

You really need to rethink your battle system.
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Raekuul · Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 8:34 am Post subject:

I have to agree. If you need a random spell list, and you give no main attack, then the main attack must have been too powerful.
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TwinHamster · Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 12:10 pm Post subject:

Hold on here...

Iblis:
The whole point of the randomizer is so that the player doesn't always choose the same attack. Let me try to describe the system again:
Chooses a random catagory (sword techniques, magics, summons)

First, techniques: The player should recognize the stance that the hero takes and get prepared to push the buttons "e", "d", or "c" to do a critical hit, or chain it to another attack. As of now, the player can hold all three down to do a critical. But I'm working on penalties that will weaken the attack if the wrong keys are held down.

If the category is magic, the player is supposed to type in the name of a skill of whatever element would be best in the situation.

Next, summons: This category is randomized, but the summons level up when the hero level ups (not every level) so that no summon is significantly better than any other one.

Seeing the hero do poses should trigger something in the player's mind to press some combination of keys. That's the thinking part, and the whole question of this thread. I'm not talking about a completely randomized battle engine anymore (That was the up to the second update). I'm asking if players would like to stimulate their brains by pushing keys on their keyboard.

Moogle: I suppose you're right... I'll have to make magics cost health or something to balance the system out. [Just like the old Gaiden!]

Raekuul: Err... What are you talking about?

I'll be including a text file on the actual spells and combinations with the next upload of the game. I'm going to release a bigger demo after I implement a few more maps and attacks and stuffs.

The Wobbler · Joined: 06 Feb 2003 Posts: 2221

TwinHamster · Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 12:29 pm Post subject:

Okay then, here's a prerelease:

http://www.geocities.com/twinhamster/emblem.zip

If you can't remember three lettered combinations, you may want to write the attacks down.

This is still a relatively primative version, but still.

You get sixty ticks to push down the SPELL keys.

Edit: Um... The enemies in the beginning do seem a little too easy, I'll have that fixed soon.

The Wobbler · Joined: 06 Feb 2003 Posts: 2221

TwinHamster · Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 2:02 pm Post subject:

Text Boxes: Yeah. You're right about these. When I started the game, I gave the main character a darker shade of green and eventually made the green lighten to the brightest one. I'm not sure why I did this, but I did. And I guess the green text on grass is a horrible combo. I apologize for that. Okay...So you don't like the text box format. I suppose I can change that.
[Edit]: The text colors aren't supposed to be funny, It just looked cool when I was making text boxes in a black backround.

Battle: Yes, the first battle is insanely easy, as I said before, I'm giving the foes more health and I'll be granting the enemies at least two attacks each in the next update.

Npc movement: When this game was first made, it was a parody of Fire Emblem Gaiden. As I got more into it, I started to leave the whole Fire Emblem format. But the npcs don't move, because the original npcs in Gaiden didn't move, and the npcs in Gaiden were also activated by touch. As the game was getting more stuff added to it, I just kind of forgot about the entire touch activated thing. I'll just switch them back to "use".

Moogle1 · Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 5:38 pm Post subject:

Forget about all of the cosmetics and let's go back to the battle engine. The fact that you are randomizing anything that the player should be in control of says that it is not a real strategy game. It says that there is no real strategy to the game. It says that winning is a matter of attrition and/or luck.

"Spelling the spells" is a clever mechanism. You can do a lot with a battle engine like the one you're using, but you need to put much more thought into its core design.

Specifically, you seem to be indicating that the game would be easier if the player could choose his attack. That should not be your concern. Your concern should be allowing the player to make interesting choices. Incidentally, that is the definition of good gameplay! Once you have made the choices more interesting, worry about the difficulty level of the game.

(Difficulty is also a factor in making the choices interesting. As an example, suppose you have a wide variety of interesting attacks and status effects, but your regular attack kills everything in one hit. The other choices become less interesting!)
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