Realism regarding spells & non-combat

[Kitsou]

For the upcoming RPG Maker MV I'm planning to make a game, where you play as a time mage.

Therefore you have a little bit of time control, which is displayed mainly in battle by manipuliating turn order, buffing, debuffing etc.

But I'm not sure how realistic the world outside of the battles should be, because you could potentially use your spells on everyone and everything.

For some riddles I plan to have some powers usable, as well as for certain situations (like sneaking behind someone or repairing objects). There can also be something along the lines of a speed buff outside of the battle, so you can feel like you could always have at least some power.

Now there are also tons of situations, where you could potentially use your powers, but it would just be too much to implement it for every random person or thing. And it would also be way too much of script work or would need plugins.

So the question to you guys is, how far should the spells from battle to normal world reach? What is acceptable for you?

 

[Ms Littlefish]

I think this falls under the umbrella of "game logic."

It's fun and useful to think about how reality and science could make up the mechanics in your game, but games also need rules and creative liberty to keep it from becoming too chaotic and too complicated.

It's often way beyond scope and it's sometimes not even fun to perfectly emulate reality.

 

[trouble time]

For the upcoming RPG Maker MV I'm planning to make a game, where you play as a time mage.

Therefore you have a little bit of time control, which is displayed mainly in battle by manipuliating turn order, buffing, debuffing etc.

But I'm not sure how realistic the world outside of the battles should be, because you could potentially use your spells on everyone and everything.

For some riddles I plan to have some powers usable, as well as for certain situations (like sneaking behind someone or repairing objects). There can also be something along the lines of a speed buff outside of the battle, so you can feel like you could always have at least some power.

Now there are also tons of situations, where you could potentially use your powers, but it would just be too much to implement it for every random person or thing. And it would also be way too much of script work or would need plugins.

So the question to you guys is, how far should the spells from battle to normal world reach? What is acceptable for you?

You should try golden sun, there are many spells used for exploration and the like, as for how far it should extend into logic, it really depends on the game. In my own project magic and physics are intertwined, but that's cause I love physics and chemistry.

 

[BloodletterQ]

I will second Enrico Pucci/trouble time's (I have a thing where I tend to call others by their avatars) Golden Sun reference since I too intend to create a game involving characters based off the elements that they can use for exploration. Legaia 2 and Wild Arms also involve switching characters on maps to solve puzzles using their tools.

 

[captainproton]

Golden Sun was great for on-map spell utility.

Also, Zelda. Virtually all your items are used to fight and to solve puzzles. Oracle of Ages used time travel as a puzzle solving mechanism, as did Majora's Mask.

 

[Wavelength]

First of all, great question!  Even feeling the need to ask this shows really good Game Design instincts.

I think different types of players will probably have different feelings about this.  My personal feeling is that the biggest slap in the face would be the game asking me to "figure out" I'm supposed to use my time powers to manipulate one puzzle, but coming up with a perfectly reasonable time-bending solution to another puzzle and finding out that the game creator didn't think of it themselves (or didn't want to implement it).  Therefore, I would personally suggest coming up with more general "mechanics" that can be used out of battle (such as using an ability to 'rewind' every character moving around to wherever they were six seconds ago) and using those general mechanics to create puzzles or to let the player manipulate pieces in ways that you may not have even thought of.