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Castle Paradox
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Clamps
Slayer of the Moon
Joined: 18 Jan 2008
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 Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 10:02 am Post subject: |
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| Abelhawk wrote: | | Well, any suggestions are welcome. Especially storyline-related ones. |
Hm, I always love writing a good yarn. Some random sci-fi plot ideas, on the basis that your main character is a probe and there are aliens.
1.) The probe is exploring a dangerous area, and discovers a cache of alien technology/precious resources/phlebotinum. He order to retrieve it, the probe has to spend a prolonged amount of time in a volcano, which will severely damage it. The scientists decide the cache is worth the loss of a probe, but the probe itself disagrees, and goes rogue. While only looking to survive, the probe is believed to have gone evil, because it's disobeying orders. It escapes, and tries to survive in the wild volcano-planet wilderness, before being grabbed by Space Thieves.
2.) The probe is being sent into enemy space. The good guys are at a state of Cold War with a human colony planet where the inhabitants have placed their brains into machines, Ghost in the Shell style. The colonists are highly advanced technologically, and physically tough. The probe is sent to gather information, keeping itself hidden. Along the way, it meets alien species in the colonist's space that are looking to be independent. The colonists aren't evil, but are a bit pushy it exerting their influence. The colonists are very science-driven, and the probe will need to evade powerful androids.
3.) The probe was set to sleep for 5 years as it traveled to a faraway star. However, due to a bug caused by the two species making it using different counting systems, the probe stays at the star, sleeping, for 500 years, and awakes to find no signal from it's home. It heads back, to try and find out what happened. |
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Newbie_Power
Joined: 04 Sep 2006
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| Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 11:22 am Post subject: |
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Fully elemental gameplay...
Well, it's possible, but...
- Firaga, Blizzaga, and Thundaga is a very poor elemental system, but Pokemon did it right in the fact that type combinations can make or break a Pokemon, even to the point where even something very strong has a ridiculous 4x weakness (or more!) That, and Same Type Attack Bonus meant that a Pokemon of a certain element had stronger attacks in said element. That's not all why Pokemon is so deep, but it was still very important to consider. Final Fantasy has a crappy elemental system. You never had to worry about weaknesses, and exploiting enemy weaknesses was as simple as choosing the correct spell out of a spell list that tended to have every option available. Add to the fact that you eventually got non-elemental spells that were more powerful and negated the need to use elemental spells (since end game bosses tended to not be weak against Fire and such), and you've got a very minor thing to think about.
- Random battles need some tricks none of the less, to break up monotony of just exploiting weaknesses every dungeon. Say you exploit a weakness in one dungeon, trying to do the same strategy is more difficult in some way next dungeon.
As for story... I can't help you there. I am not good with stories myself, much less Sci-Fi ones.
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Abelhawk
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Joined: 22 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 12:35 pm Post subject: |
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| Clamps wrote: | | (Clamps' Stories) |
Hmm... some of those seem like they have elements that may work. Maybe I should show you what I have so far, as far as gameplay goes:
It's centuries into the future, and you awaken. You are an A-8 Probe, constructed in the Perseus-509 Space Station in outer space. A man known only as "Dr. Aton" speaks to you on a computer screen and tells you that you were constructed to aid the humans indirectly from the space station and throughout outer space.
Your first mission is to travel to the swamp planet Oronne to retrieve the Perseus-509 Station's defense turret, which malfunctioned and crash landed somewhere on the planet. You land on the planet, explore, and fight various alien creatures there, which aren't much of a threat. Finally, on a small inlet, you find the turret, still functional.
As you take the turret(you can also equip it as an item for added accuracy), you start to move back to the takeoff site to return to space. Suddenly, you are attacked by a massive mutant alien. The alien was obviously once one of the types of creatures that you've already fought(called Oronne Turtles), but it has grown to immense size and is much more durable and fierce. It has shards of metal stuck in it, which may have caused its mutation.
You defeat the creature with your built-in armament and return to the space station. a confused Dr. Aton is impressed with you and apologizes, as you were obviously in for more than you had signed up for with the mission's difficulty. He promotes you and, um... aaaand that's where I'm stuck.
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| Newbie_Power wrote: | | (Newbie_Power's comment) |
Yeah, I never liked Final Fantasy's FIRE, FIR2, BOLT, ICE3 system. What I meant by elements is different types of damage, like Laser, Plasma, Gravity, Thermal, and Biological. Each type not only is strong against certain types of enemies, but they have different attributes, such as Plasma penetrating defense, and Lasers never missing(but being weak).
I think it's got potential, as you'll have to change armaments to use different types of attacks in different "dungeons."
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Newbie_Power
Joined: 04 Sep 2006
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| Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 12:40 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Yeah, I never liked Final Fantasy's FIRE, FIR2, BOLT, ICE3 system. What I meant by elements is different types of damage, like Laser, Plasma, Gravity, Thermal, and Biological. Each type not only is strong against certain types of enemies, but they have different attributes, such as Plasma penetrating defense, and Lasers never missing(but being weak).
I think it's got potential, as you'll have to change armaments to use different types of attacks in different "dungeons." |
I know Moogle1 doesn't consider changing equipment a "strategy", but it might help that said equipment requires you to actively search them out, instead of games like Xenogears or FFX where you get said equipment very easily just from fighting random battles, as if flat out telling you what the enemies are weak against for that part of the game. This way, when you enter a dungeon (for lack of better word), you will have to strategize until you find better equipment to help you.
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Abelhawk
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Joined: 22 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 12:50 pm Post subject: |
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Oo, that's a good point. Maybe it'd be fun to take a "Zelda" approach, where once you enter a dungeon and find the enemies very hard to fight, then find a new weapon 3/4 of the way through, and it helps when defeating the boss as well. Good idea, though I wasn't planning on making the weapons accessible all at once.
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Moogle1
Scourge of the Seas
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| Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 1:05 pm Post subject: |
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| Newbie_Power wrote: | | I know Moogle1 doesn't consider changing equipment a "strategy" |
Whoa, wait, what? Did I ever say this? If I did, let me apologize. Character setup is 90% of the strategy in most RPGs. (This includes more than just equipment, but equipment is a large part of it.)
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Rya.Reisender
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Joined: 18 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 1:08 pm Post subject: |
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Also there are many different ways how to let equipment work.
For example in SaGaFrontier equipments have completely different effects when equipped by different races. For example Robots could equip just everything even a potion (it raised HP and Charm a bit) on every slot, but they also had "Machine Parts" that gave greater boosts. |
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Newbie_Power
Joined: 04 Sep 2006
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| Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 1:22 pm Post subject: |
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| Moogle1 wrote: | | Newbie_Power wrote: | | I know Moogle1 doesn't consider changing equipment a "strategy" |
Whoa, wait, what? Did I ever say this? If I did, let me apologize. Character setup is 90% of the strategy in most RPGs. (This includes more than just equipment, but equipment is a large part of it.) |
I think it was in one of J.A.R.S' threads. Anyway, yeah.
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Clamps
Slayer of the Moon
Joined: 18 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 3:01 pm Post subject: |
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| Abelhawk wrote: | | Clamps wrote: | | (Clamps' Stories) |
Hmm... some of those seem like they have elements that may work. Maybe I should show you what I have so far, as far as gameplay goes:
It's centuries into the future, and you awaken. You are an A-8 Probe, constructed in the Perseus-509 Space Station in outer space. A man known only as "Dr. Aton" speaks to you on a computer screen and tells you that you were constructed to aid the humans indirectly from the space station and throughout outer space.
Your first mission is to travel to the swamp planet Oronne to retrieve the Perseus-509 Station's defense turret, which malfunctioned and crash landed somewhere on the planet. You land on the planet, explore, and fight various alien creatures there, which aren't much of a threat. Finally, on a small inlet, you find the turret, still functional.
As you take the turret(you can also equip it as an item for added accuracy), you start to move back to the takeoff site to return to space. Suddenly, you are attacked by a massive mutant alien. The alien was obviously once one of the types of creatures that you've already fought(called Oronne Turtles), but it has grown to immense size and is much more durable and fierce. It has shards of metal stuck in it, which may have caused its mutation.
You defeat the creature with your built-in armament and return to the space station. a confused Dr. Aton is impressed with you and apologizes, as you were obviously in for more than you had signed up for with the mission's difficulty. He promotes you and, um... aaaand that's where I'm stuck. |
A mutant alien?! Those are the worst kind!
It doesn't really make sense to promote a robot. You build it specifically for a task, then give it what it needs. Is A-8 an evolving AI?
You also sound like you're writing the story in the order the player sees it. That's not a good way to write stories. Figure out the end of the game first, and then you can foreshadow properly. Having said that, let's talk about the crazy phlebotinum metal that made the alien mutate. The obvious explanation is that it's some kind of secret government project by the bad guys. Which is why that shouldn't be it. The turret came crashing down (Like....it fell off?), right? Maybe the new metal being uses as armor can cause mutations in certain lifeforms. None of those lifeforms live on earth, so we just never noticed until now. A-8 and the scientist want to change it, but there's a difficult political situation, and the army isn't exactly looking to replace their ENTIRE FLEET, so bad things happen. |
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msw188
Joined: 02 Jul 2003
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| Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 6:02 pm Post subject: |
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I think I've already said it in various places, but one thing that can help balance elemental damage is to have enemies with different strengths/weaknesses in the same battle. If one enemy is weak to Plasma, but his partner absorbs it, it makes choosing that area plasma attack a much harder choice. That's a really simplistic example, but the more enemies you have in the formation the more options you have.
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Abelhawk
Professional Procrastinator
Joined: 22 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 7:25 pm Post subject: |
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| msw188 wrote: | | I think I've already said it in various places, but one thing that can help balance elemental damage is to have enemies with different strengths/weaknesses in the same battle. If one enemy is weak to Plasma, but his partner absorbs it, it makes choosing that area plasma attack a much harder choice. That's a really simplistic example, but the more enemies you have in the formation the more options you have. |
Oh, yes. Of course. At first, you fight 'Organic'-type enemies on planet Oronne, but later there will be all sorts of enemies in one battle. Mechanical robots with Organic 'guard-dogs' or something, or Cyborgs with gravitational control, making Planetoid enemies around them bash into you.
| Quote: | | It doesn't really make sense to promote a robot. You build it specifically for a task, then give it what it needs. Is A-8 an evolving AI?........... |
Yeah, you're probably right. In the game, Dr. Aton basically says if you cooperate, you'll be one of the most valued fighters in the galaxy, or something to that effect, but I don't think 'promoting' is a good way to become that way. I think maybe with each task finished, you'll just get a new accessory, like a new armament, hull, or core. Heck, perhaps before that whole 'defense turret' quest, I should make it so you have to go on some actual training missions. I do sort of jump into a mysterious storyline pretty quickly.
As for your mutation metal idea, that sounds rather interesting.
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Rya.Reisender
Snippy
Joined: 18 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 11:57 pm Post subject: |
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| msw188 wrote: | | I think I've already said it in various places, but one thing that can help balance elemental damage is to have enemies with different strengths/weaknesses in the same battle. If one enemy is weak to Plasma, but his partner absorbs it, it makes choosing that area plasma attack a much harder choice. That's a really simplistic example, but the more enemies you have in the formation the more options you have. |
But then again why having an area plasma attack if there aren't formation where it's useful? |
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Newbie_Power
Joined: 04 Sep 2006
Posts: 1762
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| Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 12:02 am Post subject: |
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| Rya.Reisender wrote: | | msw188 wrote: | | I think I've already said it in various places, but one thing that can help balance elemental damage is to have enemies with different strengths/weaknesses in the same battle. If one enemy is weak to Plasma, but his partner absorbs it, it makes choosing that area plasma attack a much harder choice. That's a really simplistic example, but the more enemies you have in the formation the more options you have. |
But then again why having an area plasma attack if there aren't formation where it's useful? |
msw188 was just talking about a single formation, not the whole game. His example can be reversed where multi-target plasma can be very useful, while single target otherwise can endanger the party.
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Rya.Reisender
Snippy
Joined: 18 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 1:05 am Post subject: |
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Nope he was talking about formations in general.
My general advise here would just be: make lots and lots of different formations!
I really dislike those games that only have like 3 different formations in the whole dungeon and there are plenty of these. ^^' |
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Newbie_Power
Joined: 04 Sep 2006
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| Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 1:10 am Post subject: |
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| Rya.Reisender wrote: | | Nope he was talking about formations in general. |
Are you having trouble reading?
| Quote: | | but one thing that can help balance elemental damage is to have enemies with different strengths/weaknesses in the same battle. |
| Quote: | | That's a really simplistic example, but the more enemies you have in the formation the more options you have. |
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