RPG Maker Forums

Hi there,

Have you ever been thinking about creating a game in which "magic" is rare (e.g. Game of Thrones, the Witcher series, Dark Souls) or not available to the player?

I like the idea that the player, as a normal human being, must rely on his skill to defeat "magical" or supernatural foes.

Problems is, the RPG Makers have Battle Systems that are built on the smart use of skills, not the button-mashing skills of an action game. In order to win, you are given a wide array of different skills that you must choose wisely. But without magic, what skills are left?

Or in other words: How to spice up a combat system without magic or superhuman skills?

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For a while I have been thinking about giving weapons different types of attributes, slashing, smashing and piercing, which have different effects, depending on the targets armor. Some weapons could also unlock more than one base attack, for example the sword. When your character is attacking, you can choose to slash or to pierce.

Also instead of focussing on skills, equipment is now more important. Helmets can prevent critical hits, big shield have a high chance to block ranged attacks, but slow you down a lot. Bucklers cannot block arrows, but increase the melee evasion a lot (and a thus viable).

Weapons like a mace could give the character new skills, like stunning enemies. Spears could have a spearwall skill that automatically hurts attackers and make a good defensive weapon.

Drawback 1: That's still limited and doesn't leave much room for additional skills.

Drawback 2: Soon the player will have figured out, which attacks are effective against which enemies and it gets boring fast.

Drawback 3: Even if encounters are visible on the map, it'd hard to foresee how the enemy is equipped, i.e. which weapons should the player equip now?

Drawback 4: Does the player has to change weapons and armor between the battles in order to increase the chance of winning? That sounds really annoying.

What are your thoughts?