So im currently in the process of making an rpg pokemon style game with a friend of mine. we both are sort of torn between two ideas...
now as you probably are away, in pokemon it is completely turn based and the pokemon with the higher speed stat attacks first unless another attack prevents it (such as quick attack, which always hits first)
now i thought about doing it that way, but another idea i had was instead of making it so the speed effects who attacks first, make it so the speed effects how frequently they attack. so fast monsters would hit very frequently but not do much damage, where as powerful types hit slowly but hard.
would that method be too difficult to balance all the monsters and mechs? should i just stick with the classic style of an rpg game? or would it be more unique to do it timer based?
[Game design makes my brain feel like its gonna explode.]
There's no reason why you couldn't use either / both of those systems - I'm sure they've both been used successfully in various games before now, and neither strikes me as being much more difficult to implement than the other.
I don't play a lot of RPGs, but the game "Riviera" springs to mind. In that game, characters / monsters have a "speed" stat determining the initial order of attacks, but then each of the different moves / attacks has an associated "wait" value, which is basically the delay before that character can act again afterwards (naturally, the more powerful the move, the higher the "wait" value and the longer the delay).
As you'd expect, there are also moves and status effects which modify a character's current "wait" value (either lowering it to allowing allies to act again more quickly, or raising it to slow down enemies).
There's also an "overdrive" gauge which gradually fills during the course of a battle, and which allows the use of powerful special moves when full (like the "rage meter" you see in a lot of other games, or the "CO Power Meter" in "Advance Wars").
If you can come up with something really original, then so much the better (like the complex Djinn system in "Golden Sun", or the realtime combat in "Ring of Red", for example).
you know i really like the idea of using an initial speed and then using the wait time to add more depth to the gameplay. also that will allow me to add more non offensive attacks to the move pool. just curious.. but how do most people do a "critical hit" system where every once in a while you deal more damage than normal? and would that be a good idea with a somewhat time based gameplay?
[Game design makes my brain feel like its gonna explode.]
* Probability of occurring is based on weapon and/or character stats (luck, skill, attack, etc).
* Usually inflicts double the normal damage, but may have other effects such as the attack ignoring armour (to simulate a precise strike to a weak point), permanent stat reduction (to simulate loss of limbs etc), instant kill (to simulate a head-shot), or always inflicting the maximum possible damage (where the amount of damage inflicted is usually partly randomized).
There's no reason why any of those effects shouldn't work in any battle system.
Other ideas I've had (but not thought through at all)...
* Some kind of combo system. Maybe a critical hit allows the character to immediately attack again, with an increased probability of scoring another critical hit (and therefore getting another free attack) - so you might have a weak attack with a high critical rate, allowing you to chain a couple of attacks together and then finish with a more powerful move. Or maybe a particular sequence of attacks grants some kind of attack bonus? I don't know...
* Some kind of synchronization bonus - so if you're able to manipulate the wait time system so that multiple characters attack at the exact same time, they get an attack bonus.
The notion of "conditional turn-based attacks" reminded me of a jumping attack Mario could do in SMRPG. Each selected attack had a corresponding animation. Mario could jump on an enemy and if you timed it right, you could continue to press the attack button at the precise moment you were impacting an enemy. This resulted in a player being rewarded for their skill, allowing an otherwise humble attack being transformed into a useful utility attack that increased in usefulness throughout the game.
I just stumbled across something that demonstrates pretty much exactly what I had in mind:
At the bottom you can see a waiting list of characters, in the order in which they will move, with a number to show how many time units it will be before they can make their move. When the player is selecting an action (attack / defend / etc) they can see how much of a delay it will produce.
Something else that occurred to me...
It's a subtle distinction, but another option might be to make it so that instead of actions causing a delay after they are performed, the character would have to save up enough action points before they can perform the action. If a character doesn't have enough action points to perform the move they want to, they can "wait", which will give them extra action points (maybe +1 or +Speed), and the next character is allowed to take their turn. Perhaps also, if after making an attack, a character still has enough action points remaining to make another attack, they are allowed to immediately do so, and with some kind of bonus (going back to the previous idea of combos).
The big downside would be that it could make combat quite a bit slower (players might end up just pressing the "wait" button a lot, unless you can think of a way around that?). The upside is that it prevents characters pulling out their most powerful attacks in the first round of combat (a long delay after making a move is not an problem if the enemy is already dead!) - instead, characters have to "charge up" their more powerful moves. There might also be more scope for strategy - if you can see the enemy is storing up a lot action points in order to make a powerful attack, you can predict both when they will attack and with what move, and prepare accordingly.
I really like that idea you have there. i think i may go with that and have it run off of an energy kinda think. maybe have each character have a set value that is their starting energy. so say the character has a lot of starting energy, but the characters speed is very slow, so its the last to attack but its first attack is strong, after that they will have to save up energy for another strong attack. i like this idea, also to speed it up so people arent mashing the wait key give the characters held items that can boost the starting energy, the amount of energy gained each turn, the amount of wait energy gained etc. maybe even on rare occasions a character can learn a move that lets them use any one of their moves without energy cost once per battle or something along those lines. this would end up making the game turn based but i like what you have going there. i think the fact that being able to watch an enemy and see if its charging so you can prep for defense is a cool idea too, it would add a lot more strategy to the game. and the left over points thing is also a good idea, so if the character wanted they could save up a lot and perform long combos instead of single attacks that are really strong. lots of possibilities for this one. thanks a ton for the suggestions! ill have to update the Monsters VS Mechs project page very soon with some artwork and demonstrations of what game play will be/ look like.
[Game design makes my brain feel like its gonna explode.]
Just a quick thought, if you don't want to frustrate the player by having them mash the 'Wait' key if they can't afford an attack, just skip any character that doesn't have enough energy to execute an attack/move until they do. The whole point is to save the player having to hit a button when that button is literally the only option. It just seems like a step that can be automated.
That would seem sensible, although there'd still be some waiting if you had enough time for a quick attack, but wanted to wait to make a more powerful attack instead.
I like the idea of moves using multiple "resources" (not just time). One option, which may or may not suit your game, would be to have a time unit system something like we've discussed, but also introduce "stamina" (or whatever you want to call it), which doesn't regenerate at all during battles (except by the use of items), but which regenerates slowly while the player is walking around the overworld (or even just when they visit an inn or something). That would be another way of discouraging the use of powerful moves on weak enemies - particularly when forced to fight several tough battles in quick succession (without the opportunity to recover in between).
Anyway, these are all just ideas - they may be terrible. I'd suggest you try a few things out, and go with what you think will work best.
actually i might be able to use that last idea. cuz you wont exactly be using multiple characters in one battle, but your character transforms into different monsters etc, i could have each monster have a stamina bar that was you dont over use one monster.
[Game design makes my brain feel like its gonna explode.]
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