catacomber.com : : ride the light

mitsu1 wrote:

QUOTE:
Ok, some more ideas for you to think about...

One of the most important things an RPG developer needs to always consider is balance.
However another is variety.

Everyone plays RPG's differently. If every piece of armor and every weapon is balanced down to vanilla the game becomes less interesting. Also what ends up happening is "toon-morph". This is when every player begins to morph their character into "what the game requires" rather than what they intended their role play experience to be in the first place. An example is: a player that wants to play a pure warrior class morphing into a battle mage because he would be gimp if not doing so.

Part of balancing is the art of equalizing the pros AND the CONS. It is the cons of the game that make the players decisions harder, their choices more meaningful, and their paths different.

Most of the items in this game have only up-sides.
Consider "stretching" the balance by attaching cons to an item too. This can allow the Pro to be even better but at a cost. An item that has this concept built in forces each player to make tough choices and maybe even change the way they play the game to accommodate their choice.
An example: a blade that raises their melee extra high but makes them very weak against magic or even prevents them from casting at all.

When making new items for the game; some creativity, a bit of story, and a good mix of pros AND cons, will help begin to separate the classes and give the game a more personal feel and drive re-playability.

This concept can also be taken into the enchanting process. cons that accompany some benefits. Like a sword that does a higher amount of damage also beginning to weigh more and more or reduce accuracy. Or a mage's staff that greatly increases spell points but reduces AC to dangerous levels.

Consider that every decision should have a trade off.

My 2 cents.
Mitsu1

All these things can be done with the current editor. : )

CivilStriker wrote:

QUOTE:
I think I know it :)
An evil thing to do would be have a door pickable at level 1500 lockpick skills :evil:
And then put some awesome item behind it :D

But no one would be able to get it and therefore they would want to throw all sorts of throwing knives at you. : )

Game balance is very important--you always have to think about game balance--as mitsu1 mentions. Nice tale about the moral aspects of stealing in a game. : ) Children think about all these things and weigh out your answers. : )

One of the hardest things to do is to know what you could do but for the sake of game balance to do only 10% of what you could do. : )

But yes, you can definately override default scripting.

And no one should not max out the things you could do in the editor as soon as you can do them. : )

That would spoil a lot of peoples' games and if on iphone I don't think Elendil would allow it to happen.

I'm really conservative. : )

I'll try to be more conservative

boss, i have a new idea. how about this new kind of 'shop' which is a theatre. it is similar to a bookshop and wouldnt take abre coding: the sign can be the happy and sad drama masks or something. when you go on the door the receptionist asks you what play or musical you want to see, and you choose. daily the plays can change like items in a shop, eg. 5 or 6 options a day out of a total 15-20 plays to see. having payed for a play (should be quite expensive) your shown slideshows of a story the same kind like you get at the beginning of an xpansion. having watched the play, you gain levels (the receptionist would tell you what you learn like a librarian in the boolshops in the game.) for example if you watch a play about a mage, you may get +10 env magic +5 attack magic. a story about a great warrior u get +15 heavy weapon +10 heavy armour. dig? you may have to b creative like the story books u can buy, or do them of existing legends. plz say if u like the idea or its bad. thanks if u read this far

Good idea

cat?

I think it's a very good idea and could be done nicely with the right graphics but you would have to watch the size--too many graphics can overload the editor--so you'd have to try it.

But it's a very clever and good idea. I like it a lot.

Ronak I sent you a pm. Only answer me in a pm please.

how do you get to pms? i keep forgetting

Go to your profile and then look down for your inbox. : )

feel free to use that idea.. i dont think im at any sort of level in editing that i could make something like that.

I may use it then someday to some extent---will let you know if I do. : ) And give you credit for it if I do. Thanks.

Asteroids and HOLIV and HOLV are packed graphically right now but there will be HOLVI and perhaps HORDE II. : )

id be delighted if you did

does asteroids come before or after holiv and holv?

Before
then (hopefully) my expansion, the lost archipelago,
then hol 4

Ronak wrote:

QUOTE:
id be delighted if you did :)

does asteroids come before or after holiv and holv?

Ronak, although I'm tied up with testing HOLV and putting in iphone version of Asteroids, I want to start learning real iphone Objective C programming and experiment with some little games.

Would you mind if I tried to implement your idea in iphone/ipod as a little standalone game? It would take me some time as I have to break away from the Quest and get the graphics together but I think the idea is really interesting and might work better outside the Quest, because the Quest editor is limited in the number of graphics you can add but it is the type of thing iphone/ipod does so well! : )

It could be done in Quest editor and could do it but I also want to try it eventually as little standalone. : ) I might fail but it would be a good mission for me. : )

Cat, would this game you make be like a replacement to the quest?

yeeh yeeh you can put it where u want. if the idea works out well and you learn the coding you could if you want put it in all future quest xpansions like holvi and hordeii etc. cities just like other shops. feel free to put it whereever you like. what kind of game would this be? would it be similar to the quest?

It would be a simple game--I'm just learning iphone coding. The quest is coded differently then wrapped up in code for iphone. : ) Will see how things go. There could be room in VI or HORDEII but have to see how to do it. : )

ok. it would be great if you could manage to fit it in to holvi or horde2. good luck with the iphone coding, im sure you'll be very good at it

Will do my best to fit it into either VI or HORDEII. ; )

wud u fit it in both if u cud?

If I could. : )

zomg cat i just had an xtreme idea for another xpansion!1 like a proper storyline do u wanna hear it?? (fine if u dont want to but if u need a new expansion idea its like amazing !)

Pm it to me... I might try to put it in a future expansion of mine... (not my next one, the one after that...)

ok i already pmd a different one before, do u want to hear this one aswell?

Yep

ok. how did you and liz find my other one?

It was good, we're working some of the details into my next expansion
I'll pm you the storyline once its written (that won't happen till my expansion is out for ipod...)

No, because anyone who isn't running equipment that deals with that by then deserves the aggro of repeated visits to an alchemist.
Running up from start and on my permanent gush every level up character, I have so for used 3 full health, 0 undead (obvious really) and 15 full manna.
The character has just finished HoL1, but held its own against the few ventures its had into Horde and HoL 111.
Let's not make it to easy!

What idea don't you like moth?

Ronak wrote:

QUOTE:
zomg cat i just had an xtreme idea for another xpansion!1 like a proper storyline do u wanna hear it?? (fine if u dont want to but if u need a new expansion idea its like amazing !) :side:

You can post it here if you like. After HOLIV am working on HORDE II with Lord Yuz so it would have to fit in. : ) HORDE series takes place in Far Eastern environment. : )

I didn't not note your post but was away. : )

is lord yuz a person?

also my idea was an independent srotyline. the one i gave vivilstriker. but i can help with some far eastern ideas for hordeii?

cat?

also, for hordeii, is it set in far east or general asia, because u said there are genies? but that isnt far east so is it general asia? i can help a lot with middle eastern and indian things if you would want any ideas. I know a bit about far east but not as much.

I know you could have new herbs such as saffron, cumin, tumeric,

i also know many comestibles

heey?

cat cn u respond please

Hi, Ronak, I was away visiting relatives who have teenager, which means my computer time doesn't exist. : )

I will be away this coming weekend too.

Lord Yuz is a real person. We co-write the quests.

He will write the overall storyline.

He lives in Indonesia so game will be set in Indonesian type world as was Horde I.

If you are familiar with that world and have suggestions you are welcome to contribute. We had Lily from Indonesia write some quests for Horde I.

I've set up now a Horde II thread in the betatesting area. So you can write any comments there. Thanks. Yes, cumin and saffron would be good (I love them and use them in real life). I have the genie now from Sylon and it's great! : )

Have another new monster as well. The Garuda. Try to post in beta thread now for this.

Have more or less finished getting HOLIV ready for iphone so my thoughts are now turned to HORDE II. : )

Thanks. : )

Horde II will follow HOLIV in sequence and HOLV is already ready for iphoneizing after HORDE II. : )

Every good game should be balanced in respect to a player that wants to play a certain role, or simply complete the story line....

However I do wish that in later expansions, "optional non quest bosses/bonus dungeons" would be implemented. (think ruby/emerald weapon in ffVII).

Why? Well for example my character (10 quests into astroids) without any bug exploitation has an ac ~4k, dealing 25-35k dmg, all resistances 100% etc, and I still have about 2k worth of enchant space available.

Having "bonus end" sidelines that would require players to really learn the dynamics of the game and fully exploit them to succeed a challenge (bosses that inflict temporary resist drops, have ungodly amounts of strength/hp etc, so coming unprepared/without a learned strategy is garaunteed death) would definately be something I... And I'm sure any other uber character owner would appreciate.

Rewards should be like Easter eggs, no real benefit other that a mark of conquest, so people that don't do it, wouldn't be put at a disadvantage...

Balancing for class types could be done by making boss movement relatively stationary, so warriors would have to approach, magic/range classes would be able to stay away, all with associated nightmare's and risks just a thought...