Movesets / Movepools

[ZeroInsignia]

Just looking for a bit of advice. I am planning on making the highest level a character can be either around 40 to 45. Does 12 to 15 different kinds of moves sound too little or too much? There are 9 class Attributes in all and different classes have different moveset themes such as Flare dealing with more attack and Earth dealing with more defense related moves. This is what I have so far for the first two. The first half of each of these two movesets are more physical magics whie the second half (indicated by +) are more special magics. The 100% moves are secret moves unlocked under certain circumstances. I've also generally kept the order of the moves from weakest to strongest but some may be a bit stray here and there. Constructive criticism is appreciated!

Flare Moveset

Candle Swing - Materialized Flare creates a burning candle projectile.

Torch Swing - Materialized Flare creates a burning stick projectile.

Lantern Swing - Materialized Flare creates a burning lantern projectile. Chance to burn

Candle Missiles - Materialized Flare creates several burning candle projectiles.

Torch Missiles - Materialized Flare creates several burning stick projectiles.

Lantern Missiles - Materialized Flare creates several burning lantern projectiles. Chance to burn

Bonfire Bomb - Materialized Flare creates a bomb projectile that engulfs all foes in a bonfire. High chance to burn

+Heat Theif - Hurts the enemy by stealing their body heat. Regain a little HP. Small chance to freeze

+Blister Burn  - Blisters appear on all enemies, causing them to lose a little HP when attacking.

+Flare Boomerang - A boomerang of fire hits the enemy 2 times. Chance to burn.

+Stoke the Flames - Attacks for 1 party member are boosted for 3 turns.

+Flare 100% - Uses all MP. Attacks the enemy with a massive storm of fire and then removes the foes body heat to freeze them to death.

Earth Moveset

Soil Streak - A trail of hard, dry soil flies towards the enemy. May lower enemy defense

Clay Drop - Clay rocks crack against the target

Desert Streak - A trail of blistering, dry sand flies towards all enemies. May lower defense

Stone Drop - Large stones pummel the foe

Marble Manifold - Marble boulders attack all enemies

Iron Drop - An iron ball strikes your target

Salt Twinge - A sharp pillar of salt stabs the foe and has a high chance of paralysis

+Steel Wool - Lowers enemy defense and does occassional damage

+Crumble - The earth crumbles below the target's feet causing them lower accuracy for 2-5 turns

+Sand Coat - A coating of sand raises 1 party member's defense

+Glass Facsimile - A glass replica of 1 party member takes all damage for them for 1 turn. If the enemy uses a melee attack, they lose HP

+Earth 100% - Uses all MP. The enemy is struck with pain internally as their bones grow a jagged layer of salt for a few seconds. They become paralyzed with trauma and suffer lower defense.


------------ E D I T -----------
The player always have access to these moves once learned and if they currently have the assigned class active.

 

[Shaz]

It seems you're talking about "skills" (we don't call them "moves" - that's something else).


Too much choice can sometimes be a point of confusion for players. If it fits your game and they're not just there for the sake of having many options, it would not be a problem.

 

[Wavelength]

I'm a fan of including as many skills as you can, so long as you can make them unique enough that you never run into the problem where one skill is useless because another specific skill is better in almost every situation.  The more interesting gameplay effects skills can have ("Glass Facsimile" is a good example of a unique effect you've come up with), the more skills you'll "have room" for.  What's the qualitative difference, for example, between Torch Swing and Candle Swing, or between Stone Drop and Iron Drop?  If there's no good answer, get rid of one of them.  And all the while, be sure to keep your classes distinct enough so that each one has clear strengths and weaknesses (which you're doing a fine job of so far).

My game How Badly Do You Want It? has six character classes which each gain about 12 different skills in the first 10 levels, and it's only a ~5 hour game.  So far most of the feedback I've gotten has suggested that players really like the variety of skills, and have not been confused by having so many available.  But I did a lot of fancy stuff with the Formula box to give each skill a unique wrinkle, and I also spent a long time coming up with good wording to make skill descriptions as clear and concise as possible (right down to using words like "Medium" or "Extreme" to quantify how much damage you'd expect to do with it).  If redundancy or clarity become a problem, that's when you know it's time to cut back on your skills.  Until then, go wild!

 

[ZeroInsignia]

I'm a fan of including as many skills as you can, so long as you can make them unique enough that you never run into the problem where one skill is useless because another specific skill is better in almost every situation.  The more interesting gameplay effects skills can have ("Glass Facsimile" is a good example of a unique effect you've come up with), the more skills you'll "have room" for.  What's the qualitative difference, for example, between Torch Swing and Candle Swing, or between Stone Drop and Iron Drop?  If there's no good answer, get rid of one of them.  And all the while, be sure to keep your classes distinct enough so that each one has clear strengths and weaknesses (which you're doing a fine job of so far).

My game How Badly Do You Want It? has six character classes which each gain about 12 different skills in the first 10 levels, and it's only a ~5 hour game.  So far most of the feedback I've gotten has suggested that players really like the variety of skills, and have not been confused by having so many available.  But I did a lot of fancy stuff with the Formula box to give each skill a unique wrinkle, and I also spent a long time coming up with good wording to make skill descriptions as clear and concise as possible (right down to using words like "Medium" or "Extreme" to quantify how much damage you'd expect to do with it).  If redundancy or clarity become a problem, that's when you know it's time to cut back on your skills.  Until then, go wild!

Ah, thank you for your feedback! And my apologies for not including some more detail about the differences between some of the moves.The entirety of the Drop series of skills in the Earth set are (in my opinion) different enough from each other. Clay Drop is a fairly weak attack that does minimal damage (It's an earlier skill). Stone Drop is multiple stones striking one target 1 to 5 times with 1, 4, and 5 strikes having fairly low chances to happen. Iron Drop is a heavier hitting type of attack and a good ammount of damage to a single enemy. It is also unavoidable by enemies who have a Static Attribute (Enemies who have an electrical element) while dealing less damage if used on those kinds of enemies. And as for the Swing and Missile skills, I guess they might be pretty boring and too similar. The one thing different between them all is accuracy and agility. The higher you go from Candle Swing to Torch Swing and finally to Lantern Swing affects your attack's accuracy and agility. Candle Swing is a fast attack with better accuracy although obviously fairly weak. And once you get to Lantern Swing it does higher damage at the cost of speed and accuracy. But I will look into changing up the Flare Skills a bit more. Thanks again for your help!

 

[Eon]

This is just a bit of advice, but if you're aiming to have skills that 'upgrade' in a sense, I'd recommend the Learn and Replace script that Tsukihime made, to prevent too much clutter in your skills.