Castle Paradox

[Battleblaze]

no one cared to tell BB

this is why we need mailers....
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Indy OHR! and National OHR Month Contest going on now!

"Aeth calls PHC an anti-semite; PHC blames anti-semitism"
-squall

[Newbie_Power]

Until then, you can look at the "Recent Changes" feature of the OHR Wiki so that you know what has been changed or added to articles.

[msw188]

The 'super multiple attack' idea is kind of interesting. Its also good to know that a poisoned target is damaged often according to their speed. A weighted vehicle could make for interesting gameplay as well, but the script would likely be very complicated.

Another thing I just thought of would be having characters' stats affect what they can do on maps. It is a simple plotscript to check the leader's stat; say if a certain door needs busted down, it can only be done if the leader's atk stat is high enough, or things like that?
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My first completed OHR game, Tales of the New World:
http://castleparadox.com/gamelist-display.php?game=161

This website link is for my funk/rock band, Euphonic Brew:
www.euphonicbrew.com

[TwinHamster]

[msw188]

It'd also be a pretty funny cutscene to see four people trying to break down a door together. But anyways, using any character's stats to affect out of battle gameplay was really what I was thinking of.

What about food/rations? Not as items used to recover HP, but maybe every so many steps food is consumed, and if you don't have any, your heroes slowly lose HP. I think this would be a pretty easy 'each step' script.
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My first completed OHR game, Tales of the New World:
http://castleparadox.com/gamelist-display.php?game=161

This website link is for my funk/rock band, Euphonic Brew:
www.euphonicbrew.com

[Moogle1]

The "Tales of" series uses food in the opposite way: using food places it in your food sack. Food in the sack is consumed as you walk around, restoring HP.
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Slime Salad :: Independent Game Design

[msw188]

Oh, I had forgotten about that. That could also be pretty cool, and again probably a fairly easy script.
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My first completed OHR game, Tales of the New World:
http://castleparadox.com/gamelist-display.php?game=161

This website link is for my funk/rock band, Euphonic Brew:
www.euphonicbrew.com

[Newbie_Power]

How about a "hunger" stat, by changing the counter stat to said stat, then when "hunger" reaches zero, the plot script begins triggering negative effects, such as HP dropping and stats will be cut by a certain percentage in battles?
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TheGiz> Am I the only one who likes to imagine that Elijah Wood's character in Back to the Future 2, the kid at the Wild Gunman machine in the Cafe 80's, is some future descendant of the AVGN?

[msw188]

Interesting. Then maybe enemies could have attacks that affect your hunger stat, adding another thing to worry about in battle. It would be nice if your hunger going to zero in battle could have an effect as well, but this sounds much more difficult (although probably still possible, hmm...).
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My first completed OHR game, Tales of the New World:
http://castleparadox.com/gamelist-display.php?game=161

This website link is for my funk/rock band, Euphonic Brew:
www.euphonicbrew.com

[Newbie_Power]

Well, since the hunger plotscript happens outside of battle, having enemies dock your hunger stat wouldn't make sense since you wouldn't be able to lose stats in-battle because of hunger (it would have to be before the battle). I would make the battles themselves tax hunger by removing some of the hunger stat after each battle.
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TheGiz> Am I the only one who likes to imagine that Elijah Wood's character in Back to the Future 2, the kid at the Wild Gunman machine in the Cafe 80's, is some future descendant of the AVGN?

[msw188]

As I was saying, it would be cool if there were a way to implement stat reduction due to hunger in-battle as well, although this seems a much more difficult task (an invisible, untargettable enemy that has only one attack, which targets stats that being hungry hurts, but is defended by the hunger stat, perhaps?).

Even if this does not turn out very feasible, it still could be worthwhile to have enemies able to affect the hunger stat. It could make the cumulative effect of such battles more pronounced if you are seeing your hunger stat slowly going down battle after battle (the more I type this, I realize we've named the stat backwards. It should be the opposite of hunger that is going down - we're supposed to be getting MORE hungry here).
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My first completed OHR game, Tales of the New World:
http://castleparadox.com/gamelist-display.php?game=161

This website link is for my funk/rock band, Euphonic Brew:
www.euphonicbrew.com

[Pepsi Ranger]

Sheesh, the very idea of this thread is like the cracking of a whip across my back. Time for another reality check.

Okay, here's a basic rundown of OHR tricks you might find in some of my released and unreleased titles that I'd like to see more often in other games--which hopefully they'll give you ideas:

(some of these are slight spoilers, but get over it)

--Released Games--

Powerstick Man V1:

The last area of the current demo can only be accessed when a certain hero is present in the party.

Certain dialogues change according to who's in the party, according to what actions have or have not taken place, and whether a certain item exists in the inventory.

Random special effects increase the suspense (for example, in the last level, an earthquake shakes a series of boulders from the ceiling of the cave, crushing some to the ground while splashing others in the river, but the fall pattern changes with every new game).

The use of maptiles to create a visual sequence--the two notables here include the Powerstick Mobile driving out of the parking lot, and the Creature Signal coming to life on the Heights Hotel.

At the Risk of Manipulation:

Event lotteries--where the presentation changes according to the random number called. This happens in all the character dialogues (which I do see in other games from time to time), but also happens in the character select screen, where every once in awhile you might have the option to choose the Fat Bastard persona rather than the Austin Powers persona. The picture of the girl also changes for those who make it to the end of the game (there are actually nine different images the game chooses from).

(Powerstick Man also does this for the basketball and picnic sequences at the Cannonball City Park--the former deciding whether he hits, misses, or dunks; the latter deciding who chases the deer off, the dog or the hunter. The fishing sequence at the lake uses the event lottery, too.)

(Magnus Prologue was also supposed to randomize the picture of the final character, looking sometimes like his original self, other times like Goldmember, but I ran out of time.)

--Unreleased Games--

Junkyard Bob's Mission: Impossible and All About Amber, All About Jack:

Both games use an in-game character selection that allows the player to switch heroes on-the-fly, to let one access a switch that another may not be able to reach (or in the case of the latter game, for one hero to distract an authority figure while the other gets away). There's a tech demo of this on the gamelist, but it's not the game itself.

Nativity:

Implements an inventory limit, where the player can only carry five things at a time (used for bartering for better things).

Powerstick Man V2:

Flips between two tilesets in the first level to ensure each room has a higher, and variant range of detail.

Real-time clocks. The clocks on the wall change every five minutes of game time, showing position according to how long the player has been playing the game.

(There are quite a few more tricks on the waiting list that I have yet to implement, most of them involving scenery tweaks according to the player's sequence of action.)

Tightfloss Maiden:

Okay, this game is the candy store of neat tricks and would take too long to list everything, so I'll stick to the primary examples--

Character animation tells the story. I try to do this in all my games, but this one goes all out. This is the one feature I wish every game designer would take the time to implement, but it seems no one is patient enough for this. So far, Sephy and Lucier's Genesis is the only one I've played that really tries (and does it well).

Each-step scripts--the Windows version of the game actually slows down from the extensive uses of the each-step script (something I hope James had a chance to investigate), but it still runs okay in DOS. In short, the game draws footprints in the sand behind all characters, dehydrates the hero in one area if she doesn't keep drinking water (which she can only hold six rations of if she's carrying her purse, none if she isn't), changes her stance if she's about to collapse from the heat, calls on a visual random enemy attack, performs an Earthbound-style auto kill if she reaches a certain level, and remembers scenery changes (to the cacti, mostly) after battles and map exits.

One level eliminates the edges to give the player the feeling of being trapped in a maze.

Interaction with scenery--sure, most games have the obligatory treasure chests and door switches, but what of the bed that displays a bulge in the sheets when the hero climbs in? What about the well that has water, instead of nothing? This game has an oasis instead of a well, granted, but still functions as a water source for the hero (and we actually get to see her drawing water in full reflection, which I'm proud of). There's also some neat tricks involving the cacti, depending on what level you're on, and other things you might discover if you look hard enough (like the bedsheets, for example).

Points system--this is actually a much bigger deal in Powerstick Man than it is here, but this game still uses a points system that accumulates credientials according to your actions, and rewards you at the end with a "ranking" based on your score. This is something I'd like to see more in games for the simple fact that it makes the sub-journeys seem as important as the main one. Moogle1's Scary Game does the best job with this feature that I've seen, and is what inspired me to implement it in my first game.

And that's it for starters. Please use some of these ideas if you think they might suit your game. I'm tired of looking at generic presentations all the time, and would love to see something new for a change, so get on it.

Thanks for posting this thread, msw.
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Progress Report:

The Adventures of Powerstick Man: Extended Edition

Currently Updating: General sweep of the game world and dialogue boxes. Adding extended maps.

Tightfloss Maiden

Currently Updating: Chapter 2

[Jack]

[Moogle1]

Sword of Jade did something similar with its fatigue system. The scripts are open-source now, too, if I'm not mistaken.
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Slime Salad :: Independent Game Design

[msw188]

I'm glad that this topic has helped you in some way, Mr. Ranger. Hopefully it will get others moving with their games too, if they need it.

I'm afraid that I'm one of those people that slacks off in the visual presentation department. It's just not my thing, I guess. Most of my favorite games had surprisingly little in terms of things like character animations, etc. On the other hand, the first time I played FFIII, I thought the animations were funny and sometimes 'cute', but never essential.

On the other hand, I wish I was much more creative with map interactivity. I have to think more about this. I have to go to work now, but I'll post again with more thoughts on this hopefully.
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My first completed OHR game, Tales of the New World:
http://castleparadox.com/gamelist-display.php?game=161

This website link is for my funk/rock band, Euphonic Brew:
www.euphonicbrew.com