I'd like to run by this game system with everyone

[Grimoire LD]

Hello everyone, I'm really getting to work on my first project and I'd like to see if this idea can be improved, or any ideas for it, of if I'm completely off of the mark.

I wanted to try something a little different and make a very non-linear experience in a rather small world. The game begins and after a short scenario you can choose three locations to obtain your next party members. Once the core party is gathered you are allowed access to the rest of the island that has eight more scenarios involved in recruiting eight optional party members that can be tackled in any order along with a smattering of optional dungeons which have useful treasure in them. Having certain optional party members in your current party can shorten the lengths one may need to go to obtain a specific character. (For instance an ancient note that is delivered to an Adventurer for information on a lost city can instead be given to the Adventurer by a Spirit Golem  party member) Like FFVI you may try to go to the final levels at any time once your core party is assembled.

Because I'm a bit clueless when it comes to numbers I set my characters up to have 1 A, 1 B, 2 C, 2 D, and 2 E stat numbers. Because of the free roaming nature of this project there will also be no level ups. Every character will stay at Level 1. Characters can gain strength by using Stat Marks which they can obtain from dungeons and rare drops from foes. The more common and more noticeable method of character progression is using YanFly's Amazing Item Upgrade system. Enemies will have titles in front of their names like "Vitality Bat" and from this you can know that they can drop Vitality Stones which increase HP by 30 when applied to a weapon (and only weapons. Armor cannot be upgraded). Weapons likewise can be obtained from certain types of foes and with 30 weapon types there's a lot of ground to cover, there is a planned 3 variants of each weapon type each with their own stat boosts, elemental settings, other quirks. Weapons are very much tied to the characters themselves. For instance only the Scholar can equip a book (and a Railgun) and only the Hero can equip a Futuristic Sword, Chainsaw, and Great Sword.

This gives a good variety of weapon types and character types. Now I haven't really thought too much about skills yet, but I'll be aiming for 10 of them for each of the 12 characters, each unique from one another. We'll see how it goes. 

Does this all sound workable? Is there something I'm missing here which will throw everything off? Is there any improvements anyone can think of?

 

[Wavelength]

It sounds okay, but how are you going to manage the difficulty if you don't know in what order the player is going to do things and you don't even know what "level" they're at (i.e. how many Stones/upgrades they've collected) when they go somewhere?  Won't think make the early going rough and the later quests much easier?

 

[Grimoire LD]

It is something like that, yes. Well I realize that I wasn't exactly thorough with my explanation. Since every weapon has a slot maximum (ranging anywhere from 0-5, that max may be decreased) I can balance battles around the middle point of expecting characters to have at least two or so stones put in each weapon, and have the end of the scenarios as consistently difficult (for some since all characters aren't retrieved through battle scenarios alone). The Marks are very small upgrades. +5 HP, +3 MP, +2 Attack, Defense, etc when a given character can have as little as 209 starting HP and as much as 644 HP. I want a greater focus on tactics and customization choices through what stones you put in a weapon than just grinding and expecting to steamroll through things.

 

[hiromu656]

So, what I'm understanding is that Marks and Stones sort of do the same thing, but Marks are permanent and Stones are for weapons only? If the Marks are so small of an upgrade, why have them at all? You already mentioned armor (although stating they cannot have Stones applied), why not put the Mark's effects into armor instead of having two very similar item types. Having Marks as dropped loot, even though you don't want the player to grind, there's really no stopping them from grinding Attack Marks (for example) and getting really powerful. But you may of course have a solution to that! 

 

[Grimoire LD]

That is a rather good idea to have armor supplement the character's stats in addition to supplying other bonuses. I should note that Marks are rare drops only when not found in chests so the player would have to grind for a rather long time to get any significant numbers of them, but it is a fair point. I'll try a combination and make armor that affects attributes similar to the Stones, thanks for your feedback!

 

[Kes]

Can I remind everyone again of Rule One of this particular forum.

1) Discussion should be general, not project-specific.
While you're welcome to use your project as an example, please try to keep the conversation broad. Feedback that's only specific to your project should be posted in your project thread. If it's too early in planning to have a project thread, you can use the Features Feedback thread.

@Grimoire LD

It sounds from your last post as if you have the answer you needed.  Is that the case?  If so, I can close this thread.  If not, I shall move it to Features Feedback.

 

[Grimoire LD]

I must have missed the Features Feedback board, eh heh. Sorry about that. I think this can be locked then. I'll probably start another topic when I'm further in.

 

[Kes]

That's okay.  There are a number of specialised sub forums, and it can be easy to overlook them when you're a new member.