Turn-based RPG

[SushiGummy/GeorgeBoden]

Well, first of all, am I supposed to be making new threads for every idea? Or should I be posting these in a particular thread? There weren't really any clear instructions, so I'm not all too sure if I'm doing this right.

I love the turn-based RPG genre, but it's always felt to me as if there simply aren't enough good games for it out there. Many of them seem to follow the same formula, and almost none of them ever introduce anything new. I've always wanted to make an RPG, and I'm sure that with our powers combined we could bring oodles of new creative ideas to the RPG table.

Genre: Turn-based RPG

• An interactive environment could work out. For example, instead of attacking the enemies, you attack a stack of crates behind them, which topples over them and leaves them more vulnerable for the next couple turns. Paper Mario had a few instances where you could attack something other than an enemy in order to help you in the battle, such as the nut tree in the King Goomba battle or the pile of rocks Gulpins used as weapons. Unfortunately, it kinda abandoned the idea for the rest of the battles.
  
• Color-based combat, where a red attack or red weapon will damage a red enemy much more. This will bring a lot more strategy into the game when, say, a player has to decide whether to damage all enemies a little bit or to damage one certain enemy significantly based on their color. This is not to be confused with racism, you prejudiced psychopath.
  
• A 'negative' world, where the player can switch back and forth between their current normal battle or an alternate version of the same battle. Enemies, and sometimes environments, would appear differently in the negative world. For example, the player is being attacked by a ghost they cannot physically damage. They switch to the negative world, where the ghost is no longer transparent and is now vulnerable. Another example would be the player switching to the negative world while fighting a pig or something only to see that there's dynamite inside it (you can see through pigs in the negative world, I don't know). A simple fire attack would then be used to blow it sky high.
  
• Pretty much the third idea I listed here with the mirror-box around the mouse or whatever you want to call it. I actually had an RPG in mind when I first came up with that idea, so it would certainly work.

Now, of course, there are still all the messy details, such as how often certain features would be used and all that, but I'm sure there's a way to organize it just right while still keeping the game fairly simple to understand. I'm thinking one thing that could be done about it is to have some powers split up between the protagonist and his/her/its partners.

[MitchRichardson]

Just to clear things up, yes, every new separate idea should be in a different thread such as this.

As for your idea, I also enjoy the turn-based RPG genre. I also believe there is a TON of room for innovation in this genre. I like some of your ideas, and in addition to these in battle mechanics I believe they would transfer well into the overworld as well. For example with your negative/mirror world idea, this could be used to solve puzzles in dungeon maps as well as finding weaknesses in your targets.

[jordan]

I really like the idea of doing an RPG. Sure it might be a bit more work in the way of story and artwork to create, but I think it when finished it would be much more impressive than a simple puzzle game or platformer.

The color idea is great, because it simplifies an already existing mechanic in RPGs by changing it. What I mean is it's similar to how elemental damage works in Pokemon, but instead of having to remember which element is effective against what and what is weak or does no damage at all you can easily figure out what type of attack to match up. I think we could take it a step further though, and instead of just having a red attack do more damage to red, we could also have it do less damage to green, because they are opposites on the color wheel.

Here's what I'm thinking would be neat. Check out this color wheel
I'm thinking a key feature of the game could be for special attacks or magic attacks when you select it this color wheel comes up and it spins and you have to choose when to stop it to try to maximize your attack for whoever you are attacking. I wouldn't necessarily call it a minigame, but it would definitely make combat more fun. So say there are 3 enemies on screen, two blue enemies and one yellow enemy . They do a magic attack that is an area attack and when the spinning wheel comes up they stop it on blue - that would do 1.5x damage to blue enemies, but no extra damage beyond the base damage to the yellow enemy. But let's say that they meant to stop it on blue and their timing was a little off and it ended up on the purple next to the blue, it would still do a bit more damage to the blue enemy than base damage because it's close (let's say 1.25x damage) but because it's further away from yellow and almost completely opposite it would only damage the yellow enemy 0.75x damage. And just to make it clear to the player we can have multipliers pop up above the enemies when the color wheel stops so they catch on.

I like the negative world idea too, and aside from twilight princess I don't think I've seen it in an rpg before. It works well in platformers too(there's one in particular that I can't recall the name of but theres a black world and a white world and it lets you get to places you couldn't by switching them). I can't say I'm sold on incorporating it into combat (at least not along side the color thing), and unless there's a not large mix of different types of enemies it might get repetitive or annoying to have to switch back and forth. For instance, I'm thinking in a dungeon flooded with ghosts it would be okay because you wouldn't have to change it constantly, but if there are ghosts which you have to hit in negative world, and skeletons that you have to switch back for and they're constantly mixed in groups it would get on peoples nerves I'd imagine. Personally I like the idea better for the overworld setting and dungeon puzzles like Mitch was saying. Using the negative world to find which steps are safe to walk on, which lever is a trap and which is the right one to pull, secret rooms, etc. I think it would work best if it wasn't a constant thing, just so you wouldn't have people switching back and forth all the time trying to find this or that. Let them forget about it for a while and when they get stuck on an area it will hit them that they haven't used that in a while and bam! problem solved.

PS: Sorry about the really long post, I'm notorious for typing way too much and I'm really bad at shortening things

[SushiGummy/GeorgeBoden]

PS: Sorry about the really long post, I'm notorious for typing way too much and I'm really bad at shortening things

I know what you mean, I'm the exact same way.

I like the color wheel idea for special attacks, along with the opposite color doing less damage idea. The negative world getting in the way of combat could be an issue. This might be a possible fix:

We can make it so that you can switch worlds once per turn without having to use up a move for any of the characters. Like pressing a certain key on the keyboard anytime during your turn to switch worlds. If you want to change worlds AGAIN in the same turn, you do have to use up someone's turn. If we let the player control 2, 3, 4 characters in battle, it shouldn't get in the way of the combat.

In addition, the 'negative' world could make certain enemies stronger, could change the color of certain enemies (not all enemies, that would make the game too easy), and could change their attacks.

We could also let the player go to a certain place (maybe somewhere in a town) to pay to have the colors of their weapons or attacks changed. If we make it so that different kinds of enemies are more likely to get certain colors over others, it could become a super-fun-load of strategy all over the place.

edit: I also agree that using certain abilities in the overworld to solve puzzles would be pretty cool.

[Nina]

I think having a turn-based RPG would be awesome just because it let the writers/artists create a world/story for us to play in (and from the looks of it we have plenty of them) as opposed to something that might not have as much of a story involved. And there's lots of places where we could have tricks to use in battle (like interactive environments) or other think-outside-the-box to keep the game interesting.

The color wheel thing would be really cool, especially if we could incorporate the concept of colors into the story/world. I like having the color wheel affect your damage but not having the actual spinner come up for more than a few attacks; it seems like it would either be so fast that it would be random/extremely unreliable or too slow and be tedious.

We could also have the negative world only affect certain enemies in battle (ghosts, not skeletons), so being in the negative world would change how ghosts were seen but skeletons would be the same no matter which one you were in. Once you ran into battle with one, you would be stuck in it, so you'd have to be careful not to run into something that you couldn't hit or would have a lot more trouble defeating while set in the wrong world (but you wouldn't have to change between them in the same battle).

[jordan]

So I was thinking of a way to tie in the whole color based combat and the mirror world with the actual game. I know this is something that the writers will be doing in much more detail if this idea gets picked but I already had bits of it in my head after reading about it, so I figured it might help get people more excited for this idea.

RPG Lore Tie-In

The player was chosen from birth to become one of the few people in the world who has the ability to focus their energy into different magnetisms in the earth (or whatever planet the game is set on). From birth they have shown an exceptional grasp of this energy (kind of like midi-chlorians from the star wars universe) and so they were taken put in a school to help them master the energy. We can have them start out near their graduation (so to speak) in which they must perform basic maneuvers displaying their grasp of the energy and the ability to see things in mirror mode (tutorial!!!).

Before they are officially considered graduates and serve the duty of the king/emperor/government (this can work in either a fantasy or sci-fi setting) they must perform a final quest for the schools headmaster (if we decide to make you be in control of a party instead of a single character it can be as simple as saying it’s a group test because they need to prove that they must show the ability to work with others). And that’s where everything goes wrong. Blah blah blah, leaving that up to people who actually write.

Anyway, writers, please feel free to hack up, change, alter, or completely discard this entire thing. I just had this basic idea in my head and figured I would put it here.

[pridethesaint]

Since this is the idea we are going with, I'd like to throw my hat in to develop things further:

So the PC, chosen at birth, has grown up to be a squire in the color guard, a knight in the service of the king who uses the power of light and the spectrum to energize his attacks. Color magic is extremely unstable and difficult to use, so its only practiced by a select few groups, one of them being the Color Guard, the oldest and largest of the chroma-mages.

This is where our team comes in: There are three members of the in-training main characters: A color guard (a boy who uses the spectrum to defeat his enemies), a Prism wizard (a man who uses his body as a conduit for light, creating magical spells that burn, freeze, and explode), a Shadow Monk (a boy who uses the shadows to conceal his actions and allow him control over enemy perception), and a Cleric of Light (a girl who acts as both tank and healer, a paladin basically).

So these four brave souls venture off on what begins as a coming of age ritual and ends with them saving the world. Maybe the first mission is their journey into the temple of the sun, (the sun being the world's most cherished diety) but inadvertenly opening up a "pandoras box" and opening up a door to the negative world and the beasts that haunt there in (negative beasts are weak to the opposite color of them on the color wheel). Perhaps they read a book they shouldn't or someone performs a forbidden magick.

Thoughts?

[MitchRichardson]

I like this a lot actually pride, you have good writing skills. It's a good base that would be easy to develop further.

[jordan]

Yeah I'm really like how the terminology works with the colors. Maybe we can flesh out the feeling of a real world and culture by using some different languages for things. Now I don't mean people speaking, but key items or terms can have a bit of an 'ancient' flare to them by using another language. For example, prism in Swedish is prisma, which is very close but it gives it that feeling of "old magick" where the certain terms and items were made long ago when the language was different.

Here are just some examples of simple language chances that can add some flavor:
Sun = sol
Sword = svärd
City = stad (so there could be like Greenstad meaning Green City)
Shadow = Skugga (so maybe that can be the shadow monks name, or even the name of an attack or something)
Guard = vakt (color guard makes me think of people waving flags around, so maybe it could they could be called the Color Vakt)
Worship = dyrkan (could be a temple name, like Dyrkan Temple meaning the temple of worship)
Forest = skogen (name of an area with a lot of trees?)

and here are some color names in swedish. The verb forms sound good as magic attacks. I'll add some attack words to them so they could be names of attacks
Yellow = Gult Attack \ Gult Fist \ Gult Strike \ Gulna (magic) \ Gulfarga (more powerful magic)
Orange = Apelsin Attack \ Apelsin Fist \ Apelsin Strike \ Apelsina (magic) \ Apelsfarga (more powerful magic)
Red = Röd Attack \ Röd Fist \ Röd Strike \ Rödna (magic) \ Rödfarga (more powerful magic)
Purple = Lila Attack \ Lila Fist \ Lila Strike \ Lilana (magic) \ Lilfarga (more powerful magic)
Blue = Bla Attack \ Bla Fist \ Bla Strike \ Blana (magic) \ Blafarga (more powerful magic)
Blue-Green (aka cyan) = Blagrön Attack \ Blagrön Fist \ Blagrön Strike \ Blagröna (magic) \ Blagrönfarga (more powerful magic)
Green (aka cyan) = Grön Attack \ Grön Fist \ Grön Strike \ Gröna (magic) \ Grönfarga (more powerful magic)

Obviously some work better than others, and it's just an idea. Writers: do as you please

[pridethesaint]

Yup, love the idea of renaming colors. That's definitely gotta go in.

[pridethesaint]

Here's what I'm going to do:

I'll write up a treatment for the main storyline, flesh it all out, and submit it back to you guys. Specifics are all up for debate, and we can always knock the idea down, but if we're going to do a long-storied rpg then we're going to need to get moving ASAP.

[MitchRichardson]

Here's what I'm going to do:

I'll write up a treatment for the main storyline, flesh it all out, and submit it back to you guys. Specifics are all up for debate, and we can always knock the idea down, but if we're going to do a long-storied rpg then we're going to need to get moving ASAP.

Sounds like a good idea, and your right the faster we get started the better. Just remember the final decision on the overall themes of it will be made by George as he is the idea creator. Guaranteed he's loving these additional suggestions anyways haha.

[jordan]

the faster we get started the better

Yeah, that's really the key here since we need to get the idea and story parts done quickly so there is more time for programming, art, and animation as all of those things are a lot of trial and error until we get a solid workflow going.

Mitch, what is there in the way of communication outside of the forum? Don't get me wrong, this is a great place to post samples for everyone to see at their leisure but it would really be nice if we could get some kind of chat room or something going to speed up the beginning stages. Right now, aside from the getting to know you thread, there really hasn't been a lot of group communication. It would be nice to know that everyone is on the same page, and that everyone will know what everyone else is doing or getting started on. I know we can't expect everyone to be available at the same time but maybe if we had like 2-3 short 'meetings' every week where as many people available at that time could pop in the chat room and give a little update, ask any questions they need for other team members and get an instant reply.

[MitchRichardson]

Your very right Jordan, I'll see what I can whip up tonight and post a link in the updates.

[pridethesaint]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BEajE2qlXJiTbva3qxlDXzhnJLSOkh1q3wAD9t-zzSE/edit?hl=en_US

You guys heard of this thing called Google Docs? It's great! Anyway, I'll be DOING IT LIVE, so to speak, but everyone's welcome to contribute.

[jordan]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BEajE2qlXJiTbva3qxlDXzhnJLSOkh1q3wAD9t-zzSE/edit?hl=en_US

You guys heard of this thing called Google Docs? It's great! Anyway, I'll be DOING IT LIVE, so to speak, but everyone's welcome to contribute.

Nice. I'll probably pop in and out of here. Is it okay to add notes next to things (in a different color of course)?

[pridethesaint]

Yeah, lets just keep things organized!

[SushiGummy/GeorgeBoden]

Before we jump too quickly into one possibility, let's throw out a quick list of themes and story ideas.

Not here, though. Let's leave it to the writing forum.
https://elgp.canadian-forum.com/f6-writing-and-story-telling

Just gimme a few minutes and I'll put together a thread for story and theme ideas.

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