some new game ideas........

so imagine if you will a JRPG design like FF 7/8 on the iphone with some mixed in platform gameplay where you can jump and swing a la prince of persia style with some crazy complex and imaginative puzzles and a world that evolves and changes as you play the game even though its comprised of pre rendered backgrounds just like the 7/8 well except the open world that is....

anyways in traditional JRPGs the random battles are just a natural way of life in these games some dont even attempt to explain them and traditionally the only way to effect the random battles is to use items or special materia/magic but no one afaik has attempted to make the random battles an effect that the gamer can interact with in real time as in complete a specific task and the random battle frequency goes down or in some situations you have to complete a puzzle by activating something that makes a lot of noise alerting enemies to your presence and the random battle frequency goes up thats what i want to experiment with.......

also another idea is waypoints different waypoints scattered around the level these are optional of course but you can walk into them to initiate alternative battle sequences that will effect the random battle frequency and/or enemy types that you will be facing from then on in random battles and these battle sequences can be a mix of duck hunt where you are static and you shoot enemies that are coming at you or on rail shooters, a watered down RTS or a stylish action sequence or cut scene ish like with some QTE stuff but with a few options of different commands you can execute in each situation think like resident evil 5 where almost in evey cut scene you have to press a button or you die

so in essence the random battles are an effect very much like the wanted levels of GTA games or alerting the horde when setting of car alarms in L4D i want them to be more realistic in this sense a dynamic element that changes depending on the situation, story and what the gamer is doing in the environment of the game

what do you guys think? cool idea or lame?

 

also would love to make RPG battles a little more interactive and cinematic

heres what im thinking:

-the RPG battles will be more realistic as in enemies will appear and come at you from all different sides and formations there may even be multiple waves of enemies for each battle and you can change your parties formation each turn by changing formation you can alter certain variables or change the person who will be getting attacked the most

-i want the system to be optimized to where it feels as if your party and the enemies parties act as one entity together as a team rather then as individual units but you can still micro manage and set individual commands if you need too

-there may also be some kind of feedback that the gamer can input refresh and select as each command executes during the animation so you can essentially do combos similar to how quickening combos work in FF 12 but you can only "echo" the offensive commands and each character has to be set on executing an offensive command if one of your characters is using an item or healing magic they can not join in on the echo of commands only characters who are going to or are executing or have executed offensive commands can join in on the echo combo for each command executed and it is limited by a timer each time but you will also be graded by points as your engaging in combat the more points you gain the longer the timer will be for each echo combo, doing defensive or vitality commands or using items will decrease your points and if a character is set on executing a magic command they can only join in on the combo by doing subsequent magic commands or double team commands you can not change their set command until the next turn and as their MP depletes and if they dont have enough MP they can not join in on the combo or execute their set command when the others are finished

- a system like that will make it more interesting when selecting commands on your turn because you will always want to select commands that maximize the combo potential for each command that gets executed and it will be more dynamic and cinematic that way even though you can still micromanage but as a gamer you will want to experiment with different combos and double team match ups to maximize the damage for each command

-there may also be feedback on the opposite end of the spectrum while you characters are being attacked on defense while the animation is playing out there may be floating points on the screen (this is just an example) that you have to tap or keep up with by tapping them all out before they expand beyond a certain point and if you do tap them all out you will block an attack which doesn't cancel the combo only blocks the damage and if you hit all of them on some occasions your character may parry which will cancel a combo and on some occasions counterattack after the parry which will do damage to the enemy but keep in mind the enemy can do this as well

if you haven't played FF 12 watch a youtube video of quickening combos and this will make more sense but im going to try and explain how this will work for basic commands

for example lets say i have 3 characters in my party they are all in good health and its my move......

i select an attack command for one character as my first command
a special attack command that requires MP for the second command/character
and finally the last command for magic user i select a spell or technique if its not a fantasy IP

so when the first command gets executed and while the animation of the attack is playing out i have a few options i can select an echo action from the onscreen menu, i can refresh the options to get new ones or just ignore them and let it all play out

of course the first option would be to redo the first attack command and you can essentially replay the command two or even three times on occasion but thats only if your doing some crazy refreshing to get it to come back

the second option would be to have the other character join in on the combo with a special attack individually or a double team option depending on other variables both of which will deplete MP for that character

and the third option if available would be to have the magic user cast a magic spell in the combo individually just to continue the combo or cast magic with a double team attack which will do massive damage but only appears on occasion and depending on other variables as well

now if im not thinking ahead and i spam the crap out of the combos from the first command right off the bat when my special attack character goes to execute his/her commands if they dont have enough MP to do that then they will just sit there like "duh" and not do anything they may have an animation where they do a charge or get hyped up or do a taunt and that may charge a little bonus MP or give a special effect to the party but you cant echo combos off of that and if your not careful you will lose that command and its potential to do combos or any damage at all if you spammed the combos without thinking ahead same thing with the magic user

now if i select all melee attack commands for each of my party members i can essentially echo off crazy combos from each command that gets executed from each character only thing limiting it is the timer and how fast i can select the next option (which is randomized and effected by certain variables) or refresh then select an option if there is no option before the timer runs out

this battle combat system will rely heavily on high production value cinematic animations its not just your character runs across the field slashes once while the enemy stands there oblivious does damage and then your character hops back in line depending on the enemy type if its a human with a long range weapon when your character goes to execute their command the animation will be more cinematic as they will take off running dodging/blocking/reflecting incoming fire then get into close range combat which will be very dynamic as the enemy will block a few hits here and there and if you echo combos it will be sooo EPIC and it doest end with the character hopping back into the line it may end with an anime ish splash image of the party doing a pose and a rating of how awesome the combo was slamming onto the screen after which it fades out and the party is back in their formation either way this system would be way more realistic and also cinematic in that aspect besides it a random battle anyways and its completely separate experience from walking around in the world and the platform engine its a controlled environment and you cant even walk around or move the only thing you can do is issue commands select options while animations are playing out, or tap pop bubbles as they float around on screen to block attacks or some kind of mechanism like that to be able to block/parry/counter attack so yea it completely possible on the iphone.....

just some thoughts........

what do you guys think?

EDIT: on second thought i think while being attacked or on defense your characters will randomly dodge, block, parry, counterattack as they are being attacked during the long animations depending on formation/stance, weapon match ups, levels and character attributes

 

yea a nice stylish action game would be awesome on the iphone but the gameplay pace and controls would have to be spot on fast quick and awesome looking but insanely easy to control you would need to break it down to action reaction controls QTE stuff or use the touch screen in a very innovative way on screen controls i dont think could handle a very fast paced action game, i will try to brainstorm some ideas about that and post them in another thread for sure

as far as dev my game ideas or executing them i dont have the skillset required to prototype yet (working on that) and for the time being i like to brainstorm ideas it keeps me very creative and on my toes and is fun to do as brainstorming exercises go when im extremely bored and besides it free to use your imagination i know ideas are a dime a dozen but i enjoy coming up with them

but here what im trying to do is re-imagine a turn based RPG in the traditional sense the first one i played was FF7 but i want to kinda re create the experience of a RPG and push the boundaries a bit as far as innovation and gameplay are concerned............

with ideas/concepts like:

-random battles as a realistic dynamic effect that changes depending on the situation, story, or what the gamer is doing in the environment

-extending the quickening combo concept from FF12 to more quick fast paced action thru basic command sets and building a system that revolves around the idea of being able to have your characters combo any offensive command executed multiple times for each command executed

-and all the animations are more "cinematic" and realistic

-throw in some platform gameplay with the traditional exploration and level grinding

-throw in some waypoints or seamless situations where your party can ambush or cut off enemy forces or be thrown in with gameplay elements from on rail shooters or watered down RTS which will of course effect the frequency of random battles after the sequence is finished

-more realistic combat situations and formations and battles with multiple waves of enemies depending on the situation and the level of alertness the enemies are on and of course being able to maybe go into hiding or sneak mode to effect random battle frequency

-boss fights that are more epic in terms of over all experience rather then just enemies with insane amounts of HP and strength throw in some platform elements and puzzles where its a struggle for survival experience that is bound together by many different gameplay elements that way it can be more cinematic, although it would be nice to go up against a couple bosses here and there toe to toe as an RPG battle like the final boss but for the majority of the insanely huge monsters scattered through out the game i would rather struggle to survive in that situation as it would be more realistic in that sense where as the "boss" RPG battles would be like quantity based where the "boss" is in essence, just a huge amount of enemies or waves to go up against

- as far as IP for this sort of system i would go with Sci Fi a dark gritty realistic atmosphere that gets exposed for the most part by learning more about the history of how things turned out the way they did and of course finding out more about your party members where they come from who there people are and driven for the majority of the game by open ended side quests the overall tone of the story is one of survival just making ends meet until the end where it becomes a quest to save the universe or the existence of your species for the most part a lot of games start out with a quest to save the world which seems to make the seemingly awesome side quest irrelevant in the overall scope of things why not tell the story thru the side quests for the majority of the game and then near the end blow it up or slowly escalate it through the overall experience

-the iphone is perfect for RPGs which for the most part dont rely on player skill or complex controls its just move & interact (talk/pick up) and when your in battle all you have to do is select commands which a touch screen is perfect for more so then a controller is

anyways just bored and posting some thoughts

 

ahhh please grammar is all about formatting the information its does not improve the quality of the information itself......

sure you can argue that using good formatting/grammar could "slightly" improve the reading experience but then again im not trying to write a term paper or essay here im just sharing my thoughts as they flow when i type.

im not the best with grammar not going to lie but to be honest i could really care less about formatting in this medium if i wanted to make the text look all legit and organized and formatted properly i could.

but like i said im just sharing thoughts.........

its not a article, its not an essay, its not a term paper just raw un formatted thoughts

but thanks for the advice tho i will certainly take it into consideration

 

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