RPG with Combining Elements

[TyberAlyx]

So I am designing a RPG at the moment where you can combine attacks (in form of orbs) to perform a usually stronger attack, lets say for example I have fire element and a slash attack; combining it together forms a stronger fire slash attack. The orbs at the moment will come based on what equipment you brought in so if you brought in a blade weapon, you have access to slash orbs and having a shield that is magically augmented; gives you fire orbs to mix.

Currently these are the orbs I thought of so far

Offensive Orbs (For Attacking)
Physical Orbs (Close Range, Sus/Burst Damage)

• Slash - counter
• Blunt - def decrease
• Pierce - knockback

Range Orbs (Far Range, Sustainable Damage)

• Arrow - def decrease
• Bullet - counter
• Blast - knockback

Fire Orbs (Mid Range, Burst Damage) * Game story revolves around the element of fire only.

• Mortal Flame - damage/time
• Dark Flame- weaken
• Divine Flame - stun

Support Orbs (Supplementary)

• Mind (Attack Rate)
• Spirit (Healing)
• Body (Toughness)
• Soul (Orb Generation)
• Blood (Damage Buff)

As the number of combination is staggering, its obvious that not all orbs can combine with one another.

Some examples of possible combinations regarding some orbs could be like:

Fiery Slash (Slash + Mortal Flame) /buff/ Augment your blade weapon with fire that extends its reach and burns enemies by adding 80% fire damage for each slash for 3 turns, can counter

Blink Slash (Slash + Divine Flame ) /instant/ Summon 2 Lightning Blades in front of a random enemy and do a slash attack turning your attack to multi-target. Can stun and counter.

Dark Blade (Slash + Dark Flame) /buff/ Attack on already weakened enemies heals you 8 health per hit and increases your damage on them per hit. Chance to weaken enemy per hit by 10%

Rail Gun (Bullet + Divine) /instant/ All your shots pierces thru multiple enemies with a chance of stun and increase damage by 50%

Explosive Slam (Blunt + Blast) /instant/ Each swing of your hammer releases explosive fragments that deal 100% damage to enemies hit

Dark Arrow (Arrow + Dark) /instant/ Fire a dark arrow that deals 30 % damage on enemies per 0.2 seconds on contact. Chance to weaken enemy. Damage increases on weakened enemy

So which is to say what do you think of this system? Any opinions about it if its plausible..? Not plausible? too complex? Has potential or not..? Any people out there who played something similar?

 

[kranasAngel]

It can definitely work, Bravely Second did something similar with it's Wizard class where it could use an ability called Spell Craft
What spell craft does is it takes a base spell, and then augments it, for example if you use fire as a base spell, you could add on the spell craft ability ~all to make the spell hit all enemies.
In that regard, I think you'd be best off if you separate the orbs into separate categories. With Physical/Ranged orbs in one category and Fire/Support in another category.
Then if you restrict combining to one from each category, things would be much easier to follow.

 

[lianderson]

Looks interesting. The only I thing can add is to change the piercing from knockback to bleed.

 

[Basileus]

Pretty sure this is the system the God Eater series uses so it should work just fine.

Still confused what "Orbs" are and why they matter. If you can get these skills just from equipping certain combos of gear, then there is no need for orbs to exist. Are these orbs collected in some way during combat? Or are they just a dummy item you are using to change which skills the player has access to at a given time?

 

[TyberAlyx]

It can definitely work, Bravely Second did something similar with it's Wizard class where it could use an ability called Spell Craft
What spell craft does is it takes a base spell, and then augments it, for example if you use fire as a base spell, you could add on the spell craft ability ~all to make the spell hit all enemies.
In that regard, I think you'd be best off if you separate the orbs into separate categories. With Physical/Ranged orbs in one category and Fire/Support in another category.
Then if you restrict combining to one from each category, things would be much easier to follow.

Mhm, I was thinking that you cannot combine orbs with the same category too, so a slash and a blunt is no go.

Looks interesting. The only I thing can add is to change the piercing from knockback to bleed.

I am not really keen to bleed as there is already burn effect, knockback feels like something necessary but I guess flipping pierce to def decrease and blunt to knockback could work.

Pretty sure this is the system the God Eater series uses so it should work just fine.

Still confused what "Orbs" are and why they matter. If you can get these skills just from equipping certain combos of gear, then there is no need for orbs to exist. Are these orbs collected in some way during combat? Or are they just a dummy item you are using to change which skills the player has access to at a given time?

Think of equipment as orb containers and with each equipment have a set of orb types. They become your deck of orbs which you should try to maximize each turn. Lets say a blade weapon with just 4 slash orbs can give more room for attack than a small blade weapon with just 1 slash orb. But thats how I plan to put it.

Anyways thank you for the responses! I feel like there is more to it in combining elements as I do its game design documents that could be elaborated. I'll try to post my findings here.

 

[Basileus]

@TyberAlyx

My first thought on weapons and armor storing orbs would be Final Fantasy VII and the Materia System. It's not quite the same since those orbs determine all of your abilities besides the basic Attack, Guard, Item, Run commands.

My second thought was the Chamber System from Tales of the Abyss. Instead of weapons, those orbs get attached directly to skills with 4 types of orbs to choose from. Carmine Chambers increase the effect of the skill (more damage, more heal, stronger stat boost, etc.); Cobalt Chambers increase the duration and knockback of a skill (buffs and debuffs last longer, attacks knockback farther); Grass Chambers reduce the cost of a skill and add the ability to steal items to certain skills; Sunlight Chambers enable FoF Shifting from a half-full field.

FoF Shifting was the way Tales of the Abyss really combined elements. Most elemental skills leave behind a zone on the battlefield aligned to their element. These zones are half-full and casting another skill of the same element within the zone fills it up. Some skills morph into different, more powerful skills if cast within a full FoF zone of a certain element (i.e. using a Wind skill in a full Water FoF zone can change the attack into a much stronger Ice skill). Using these Chambers well, the player could enhance their skills in whichever way best suited their play style by making their favorite combos more powerful and/or easier to pull off.

This sounds roughly like what you are working on so it might be a good idea to look into Tales of the Abyss and see what their system did right that you like and where you see places to improve on it.

 

[dahlys]

This reminds me of Trails in the Sky. The orbments you equip in the game determine a character's skills, and different combinations of orbs lead to different skills. See here. Perhaps that would be a good reference? Path of Exile has a weapon gem socketing system that grants skills too.

It would definitely be fun to experiment and explore with different combinations!

 

[TyberAlyx]

@TyberAlyx

My first thought on weapons and armor storing orbs would be Final Fantasy VII and the Materia System. It's not quite the same since those orbs determine all of your abilities besides the basic Attack, Guard, Item, Run commands.

My second thought was the Chamber System from Tales of the Abyss. Instead of weapons, those orbs get attached directly to skills with 4 types of orbs to choose from. Carmine Chambers increase the effect of the skill (more damage, more heal, stronger stat boost, etc.); Cobalt Chambers increase the duration and knockback of a skill (buffs and debuffs last longer, attacks knockback farther); Grass Chambers reduce the cost of a skill and add the ability to steal items to certain skills; Sunlight Chambers enable FoF Shifting from a half-full field.

FoF Shifting was the way Tales of the Abyss really combined elements. Most elemental skills leave behind a zone on the battlefield aligned to their element. These zones are half-full and casting another skill of the same element within the zone fills it up. Some skills morph into different, more powerful skills if cast within a full FoF zone of a certain element (i.e. using a Wind skill in a full Water FoF zone can change the attack into a much stronger Ice skill). Using these Chambers well, the player could enhance their skills in whichever way best suited their play style by making their favorite combos more powerful and/or easier to pull off.

This sounds roughly like what you are working on so it might be a good idea to look into Tales of the Abyss and see what their system did right that you like and where you see places to improve on it.

Ohhh! This is gold! I'll look up some lets play on how they work. Thank you so much for these references!

This reminds me of Trails in the Sky. The orbments you equip in the game determine a character's skills, and different combinations of orbs lead to different skills. See here. Perhaps that would be a good reference? Path of Exile has a weapon gem socketing system that grants skills too.

It would definitely be fun to experiment and explore with different combinations!

I played path of exile, the combos are really interesting if they all merge together, I'll keep that in mind. And thank you so much for the link!

 

[Wavelength]

It sounds like a cool system.

Here are a few of the things you'll have to consider as you work through it:

• Can you come up with enough interesting, diverse skills to account for every single combination of orbs (depending on the rules you set for combining them, this could be hundreds or even thousands of different skills)? If not, you may want to allow the skills to be "built" from building blocks rather than "discovered" by specific combinations of orbs.
• What controls do you have in place to prevent the player from just throwing every orb they can onto a single skill? Do more orbs increase the cost of a skill? Do weapons only allow you to combine a limited number of orbs, a la FF7's Materia system?
• Since the skills that a character can use depend on the player and what orbs they choose to use, how are you as a designer going to ensure that your characters have their own "personality" and style in battle? Or are you okay with them being complete blank slates?