Changing Database Terms

[MisterTorgue]

Ok I wanted your opinions of some of the changes I have made to the Terms.

It's going to be a game in the diablo style

The Changes are (Old:New):

Status'

HP : Life

MP : Mana

TP : Courage

Skill Types

Special : Valor (Uses Courage)

Magic : White/Black Magic (Healer/Damager)

>>Alternatively White Magic / Dark Arts

Conjuring (New)

Fight: Battle

Escape: Flee

Guard: Defend

I have changed only some for now, but from the old what do you guys think for a game on the lines of diablo, any seem a bit out of 'wack' ?

 

[Warpmind]

Well, if it's along the lines of Diablo, I'd say you should rewrite the Guard/Defend command entirely - the concept of actively defending yourself instead of attacking is a bit... contrary to the mechanics of Diablo, and may harm more than help in some such games.

 

[MisterTorgue]

Yeah the style is like diablo (aesthetically)  but it will still be a turn based rpg

I might remove defend anyway, very rarely do I see people use it in rpgs as its generally moot, could replace it with a counter attack style ability for some!

 

[Matseb2611]

You can always make the Guard/Defend command more useful. Like have the player regen HP when they're defending.

 

[MisterTorgue]

Hmm true, I may make it so it applied a buff for next round to ATK/MAT, that way it has more tactical use if you want stronger heals / more damage e.c.t.

 

[bgillisp]

In my game, I made it so that defend blocks 50% of the damage taken that turn. With it set like this, I mainly use it when my healer is low on health and the next hit would kill if it at full strength, but at half strength it is still survivable.

Heath regeneration can work too, but be careful with that! If you are not, you may find most of your players are just guarding constantly against a weak rat to get back to full health. Legend of the Dragoon did that (10% Health regen if you guarded), and I found myself often doing this trick just to get back to full or near full health. 

 

[Kes]

I use Guard with extras; the usual reduced damage plus a small percentage HP regen and a small chance of counter attack if hit by a physical attack/skill.  How much of a percentage will depend on your general stats distribution and how you've done your balancing.  Players have said how much they like this.

 

[Wavelength]

In my game, I made it so that defend blocks 50% of the damage taken that turn. With it set like this, I mainly use it when my healer is low on health and the next hit would kill if it at full strength, but at half strength it is still survivable.

I could be wrong, but isn't this the default behavior?

I generally modify the numbers to reduce all damage by 60-75%.  In a game that uses a "Threat" system where you can reliably determine who is about to get hit, 50% is probably more than enough, but to date none of my games have this system, so I feel like high damage reductions are a fair trade for forfeiting your turn.

Heath regeneration can work too, but be careful with that! If you are not, you may find most of your players are just guarding constantly against a weak rat to get back to full health. Legend of the Dragoon did that (10% Health regen if you guarded), and I found myself often doing this trick just to get back to full or near full health. 

This is great advice.  Any time players can get into a reliable "heal cycle" with a refillable resource like TP (or without even needing resources) the designer needs to seriously think about how their system might be abused by the player.  Sacred Hearts and Skyborn are two RPG Maker games I can think of where I abused this recently, which slightly dampened my enjoyment of their superb battle systems.  It almost felt necessary in Sacred Hearts since there was no way to heal outside of battle.

One of my good friends over at the RPG Maker Pavilion described a brilliant system where he tracks whether (a) monsters seem to be seriously outclassed and (b ) the player is using skills that he marks as "potentially abusable", and if both are true, the monsters will flee at the next opportunity.

 

[bgillisp]

I could be wrong, but isn't this the default behavior?

No idea, as RPGMaker has hidden how guard really works. But once I set it up to be 50% element rate to all the elements in my game (except one really, as that one is meant to penetrate guarding), it does seem I'm taking less damage than before. Plus, this way I can change the numbers later on if I wish.

@ksjp17: That % counterattack sounds like a good idea. I may test it. I overwrote counterattack in my game so that the counterattack is after all damage is applied, and no longer totally negates it, so it might work with a high % even. We will see.

 

[Matseb2611]

Heath regeneration can work too, but be careful with that! If you are not, you may find most of your players are just guarding constantly against a weak rat to get back to full health. Legend of the Dragoon did that (10% Health regen if you guarded), and I found myself often doing this trick just to get back to full or near full health. 

The alternative (and it's something I've used in one game already and going to use in another) is to simply give the defending character a higher recovery rate, like 150% instead of 100%. That way they are not gaining any health. Instead the benefit only applies if someone is healing them.

And of course you can give additional bonuses (as mentioned already). A small % chance to evade the attack or counter.

 

[Wavelength]

No idea, as RPGMaker has hidden how guard really works. But once I set it up to be 50% element rate to all the elements in my game (except one really, as that one is meant to penetrate guarding), it does seem I'm taking less damage than before. Plus, this way I can change the numbers later on if I wish.

Here's how Guard works: any State that gives the battler the "Guard" flag will divide the damage received by (2 * Guard Effectiveness).  Guard Effectiveness is a property that's set on the "Parameters" tab of the Features Box, and if it hasn't been set, Guarding will decrease damage by 50%, because the damage is being divided by (2 * 1).  If you left the Guard Flag up and also put in the 50% Element Rates, then you've actually reduced damage by 75%   If you removed the Guard Flag, you ended up with something similar to the original functionality but you did it your way.

#-------------------------------------------------------------------------- # * Applying Guard Adjustment #-------------------------------------------------------------------------- def apply_guard(damage) damage / (damage > 0 && guard? ? 2 * grd : 1) endI changed the 2 to 2.5 in timeblazer to reduce damage by 60% (still affected by Guard Effectiveness).

 

[bgillisp]

I did remove the guard flag. Maybe the difference was just variance then? Either way, I prefer it this way, just because I can later go and tweak the numbers if I wish, or add in other features, as I do like that small chance to CNT idea that has been mentioned on here.