Custom multi-part skills

[Nate McCloud]

I had an idea...what if it was possible to make something similar to a Calculator class in Final Fantasy Tactics, where you learned skill modifiers instead of just skills? Then I had another idea...what if you could cast custom skills on the fly this way? The cost of the final casting is determined by the combined cost modifiers of all its parts.

So, for example, let's say you start with the skill parts "ATK", "DEF", "Standard Attack", and "2x Effect". You use "Standard Attack" as the skill type/formula, so that the skill calculate's a.[stat] * 4 - b.[stat] * 2, and is an HP-damaging skill. This costs no base HP or MP. You then select "ATK" to represent the attacker's stat, "DEF" to represent the target's stat, and then select "2x Effect" (which adds 10 to the MP cost and then doubles the cost) so that the final skill formula is (a.atk * 4 - b.def * 2) * 2.


Though...now that I look back on it, it looks like it might be a bit too complex.

 

[Wavelength]

I'm planning to commission a similar script to this next year (similar "building blocks" concept but the skills are customized and registered on a menu and then appear in battle, in order to keep the action flowing quickly in battle), and I've planned out a lot of it, so I just want to give you a couple of hints from things that I've discovered during the planning.


Most of the kinds of cool effects you'd want to create (even simple stuff like "2x effect") will require individualized custom scripting, so unless you're moderately competent with coding, just receiving a "system" capable of designing skills on the fly probably won't give you everything you need to implement your dreams in an actual game.  (For this reason, if you don't know JS, I expect you'll need to convince someone who does to join your team, or hire someone to build out all the content in your skills' "building blocks".)


Additionally, as you come up with different effects and further refine the system, you'll need to think about how Scopes (affect allies vs affects enemies, affects one target vs affects a whole party, etc.) affect the different building blocks, and you'll also need to carefully think about which building blocks shouldn't be allowed together for technical, logic, or balance reasons.  As an example, I have a building block called "Sap" that heals the caster for 10% of damage dealt by the skill.  For obvious reasons, Sap requires that the skill's Primary Effect is "Damage" (as opposed to only apply a state, healing someone, or providing some other utility) and in turn the "Damage" building block requires that the skill's scope is Enemies (either one or many).  It wouldn't make sense for Sap to be on a skill that deals no damage and buffs an ally.  As another interesting example, I have a building block "Precise" which gives a bonus if the skill is a Critical Hit, and another called "Critseeker" which gives the skill a 100% chance to Critical.  In my game, I feel this would be too obvious and overpowered, so I'm stipulating that they cannot appear on the same skill.  But in your game, if you are giving the "Calculator" character random building blocks to construct a skill with on the fly, then it wouldn't be a big problem for these blocks to appear together.


Best of luck with this very cool (if ambitious) skill-constructing idea!

 

[Nate McCloud]

I'm actually quite competent with JS (so much so that I baffled my Advanced Web Dev. teacher in college), so it...shouldn't be a huge confusing thing for me, I guess? I just don't know how I'd actually code such a system. Additionally, I figure that the MP cost modifications would circumvent the overpoweredness of the skill aspect combinations (and perhaps allow only one modifier skill to be selected), as some of the building blocks would not only add to the cost, but also multiply it...sometimes exponentially. But then, I've always been a big fan of games that allow you to make ridiculously powerful setups.

Now that I think about it, though, I think I like your idea of building skills out of battle and saving them to a skill book better. It would, in fact, make battle flow a lot more smoothly.


Thanks! I'll probably need all the luck I can get. XD