An RPG that uses a generic set of similar enemies+bosses

[kerbonklin]

With that being said, i'm looking for ways to design various enemies and bosses under the conditions of SV human battlers and my main fear is that the fights in my game get stale or repetitive in a sense. In my SV enemy/boss planning, the first thing that comes to my mind are their weapon types used against the player, which may correspond to their abilities/stats/AI, as well as their physical looks as a Tribe (battlers wearing armor clothes, battlers wearing light clothes, or sharing similar sets of looks in general) There's also stuff like Wings, Tails, Beast Ears, Hairstyles, Colors that could also describe enemy/boss Tribes.

To those who have worked heavily with SV battler enemies in their projects (especially from the character generator), I am looking for general tips and advice to keep my enemy roster as diverse as possible, while keeping said roster number high enough to contribute to a full game.

Thanks!

Edit 2: Altered the post to be a bit more misleading to some in its purpose

 

[NeoFantasy]

I did this in Ace with Kaduki’s sprites and i’d Say it depends on the type of game. Since you want it diverse I’d reccomend looking online first for some custom sv battlers. I’m sure I’ve seen some orcs or something done for Mv in the past.

One thing I did was Frankenstein’s the sprites with some of the Rtp. For example I used the legs and back of the spider on a sprite to make a hybrid between the two

 

[Kes]

What I would like clarification on is whether this is simply a discussion about graphical resources - in which case it doesn't belong here.

A simple check in the Resources section will pull up a significant number of SV battlers in MV generator style (start with hiddenone's orcs) so I am slightly at a loss to understand what the problem is.

 

[kerbonklin]

@Kes Resources is not my concern, but rather how to make and design using limited ideas without the game getting stale and keeping the player immersed in the world.

As a first MV project, I plan to keep it very simple so I can focus more on the maker itself rather than aesthetics.

Also edit: I miss you guys, it's been so long.

 

[Kes]

Ah, in that case, I think you need to edit your opening post, because NeoFantasy, judging by their reply, also interpreted this to mean you were asking about Resources, and I think that is the natural way of reading it.

If resources is not your concern, it seems to me that talking about these being SV battlers might be something of a red herring. Is your query is about diversity of boss skills? Is it about how to ramp up difficulty? Is it designing bosses whose only variation is their weapon type? Or is it something else?

 

[kerbonklin]

I suppose it would be "How to design multiple + diverse enemies using limited visual human-like elements (a limitation) to prevent Staleness" I'll edit the opening post in reflection.

 

[CosBlade]

I think this will come down to battle behavior more than anything. It's easy enough to swap colors to "diversify" your enemies, but if they all do the same basic attacks, with varying levels of power, damage and HP, your players will be bored. Design it so that different subgroups have different behaviors. Perhaps one type is known for "hit and run" tactics, and is likely to flee once HP is below 50%, another commonly uses healers among their own party, etc. Think of the different built-in ways you can give them behavior variety, and that will keep gameplay engaging.

 

[trouble time]

Im currently planning to do something like this, with the justification that your enemies are an invading force in one city with a few different leaders. Inspired by Warhammer 40k's Chapter Tactics/Legion Traits where the same units get extra rules depending on what army they're a part of. For example some inject combat drugs before battle which results in random and potent buffs that last the whole battle unless they have an officer type enemy with them whi can activate the drug injectors a sevond time (it overwrites the initial buff though and sonetimes it just fails and poisons them), another boss instead has enemies that get a selection on buffs the longer the battle goes on. They all aldo call on other equipment that isnt with them, strafing runs, artilery bombardment, radio reinforcements, stuff like that. Each "series" of enemys tend to fill the same role, but generally have different skills that fit the style of warfare the main atmy uses. For example all of the enemy armies have some form of caster, but the one thats focused on ripping and tearing in close combat uses mostly counterspells and uses physical attacks for offense. Theres even more too it than this but i think i've rambled long enough

 

[kerbonklin]

@CosBlade I'm definitely big on the idea of different subgroups and behaviors, or "Tribes" as I mentioned above. Right now I have their Tribes and behaviors categorized by weapons, but maybe I can also categorize by my game world's region type, changing the visuals and strategies to match the location.

@trouble time That's a very nice way imo to influence Item usage (as your drug buffs for your enemies and maybe the player) and themes into a game world, a topic that I honestly don't see much in games at all. I actually have my own form of this, but instead of Items being used by enemies/players, it's a state called Devilite Sickness from casting too many spells or taking too many hits from spells. (Also a main plot point of the game) Perhaps I can make an enemy Tribe that can be more self-conscious of my state within a certain game world location, playing more passively with spell usage, while in some other location they would go ham and embrace the sickness.