Rules - Ideas That Don’t Deserve Their Own Thread

@trouble time i was actually thinking of having this thing where you can see random interactions with the characters if you go out of your way to see them. sorta like xenoblade's heart to heart thingy. you'd go to a certain area after meeting a certain criteria and then a cut scene would play of the appropriate characters interacting. you will also get rewards from watching them. like items, costumes, and free EXP for the characters that were involved. they can range from silly to heart warming to i dont even know. i've also been reading up on peoples opinions on having a lot of party members in an rpg and so far i've seen mixed results.

There's a simple game mechanic in Final Fantasy III that I've seen done better in World of Warcraft, and I think RPG Maker MV can top both. It's the Rogue's Pick Pocket skill. My idea is to make it work off of NPCs that a party rogue considers "fair marks". Criminals, enemies, monsters, that sort of thing. The player can elect to Talk, Fight, or Pick Pocket (if a rogue is in the group). I resolve this with an unseen d20 roll. The warier the mark, the harder it is to rob. A critical fail causes a brawl to break out, while success yields treasure (and the rogue gets XP from the mark once.) I know this is achievable through eventing, but would it be more immersive?

I just wanted to get some feedback for my game Dance of The Damned. I was wondering how many puzzles do you think are too many? There are about 37 rooms in the mansion in my game. I was thinking a puzzle to open each door would be too much. What do you think of a puzzle for every other door?

I'm not an expert, however as a practicing DM I can tell you that the idea of balance applies. There's no hard and fast rule for how many different puzzles or traps to use... begin with your own feelings. If you played your game from a beginning perspective, how would it feel for you? If you have fun solving a certain amount of problems, odds are, other people will.

I'm currently making the designer of a Bloodmancer. I'ts a VERY important character so I'm really open to ideas. Almost all powers are blood based., but she is also a Darkness sorcerer.

Bloodsucker (Passive)
Everytime one foe or ally take damage from Bleeding (State X) the Bloodmancer recover 50% of that HP.
How to: No clue how to archieve that effect yet.

Red Blade (Magic)
Cause dmg with a blade made of blood. If target has blood then drain = dmg done.
How to: Enemies with <Blood> tag, then I can check if theres tag in the notebox.

Blueblood (Magic)
Cause large damage against vampires and other blood based monster. Cause charm. (No effect if the target is not a Vamp or blood based monster)
How to: Enemies with <Vamp> tag. I can Check if theres tag in the notebox.

Blood Protection (Magic)
Spend blood to give more blood to ally (Shield).
How to: Perharps with Yanfly barrier or some other similar plugin. Need test.

Blood Link (Magic)
Conect to the target. Every time he lose HP you recover the same amount as HP.
How to: No clue yet.

Red Torment (Passive)
The ability has a toggle mechanic. Toggled off, it passively restores HP upon killing a unit. Toggled on, it drains HP while damaging enemies surrounding the user.
How to: From Alistair Tips & Tricks "Defile". Change MP to HP.

Revenge in Kind (Magic)
Cause damage to all foes. Make the skill stronger based on the number of fallen party members.
How to: Simple damage formula with ($gameParty.deadMembers().length * X)

Red Moon (Magic)
Create a big red moon in the sky. Every blood based enemy become charmed and attack other foes (1). Every foe lose X HP every turn and add it to the pool (2). At the end of the effect the red moon disapaer and the bloodmancer recocer HP based on the pool, and the left in made into direct dmg to foes (divided among all foes) (3).
How to: Very Complex. 1 Is possible. 2 Perharps using Yanfly Aura plugin? 3 No clue how to archieve that.

That's all I came up for now. Some of them is quite easy but other (I'm looking to you Red Moon) are really a pain. Theres also her dark spells and weapon skills (Starve, whipe and Sickle)

Upon reading my original story from my game I found only 13 puzzles to solve. Not counting puzzle pieces used to solve them. I've been told that my mapping was bad. My battles were too hard. And my shopkeepers didn't have enough personality. Who knew that was a thing? So I have no idea what people like. I'm just guessing.

Weird suggestion... have you played Maniac Mansion? I realize it would have differences from what you're trying to do, but it's a quintessential site-based adventure from the 80s.

A lot of games have included some form of pick pocketing skill for rogue/thief characters, but it's often a half-cocked afterthought designed to make the rogue character more uh... rogue-like! The rogue usually ends up being a swift, skilful fighter character e.g. a swashbuckler.

If you really want to be immersive (and if by this you mean allow the player to REALLY feel like a rogue), a more challenging- and interesting- a game would be one that really stretched the trope, with characters requiring the full compliment of thieves' skills, and maybe even a guild at which to train (plus, rival guilds... hey! There's your game's title!).

I'm imagining a puzzler with some combat, fairly open ended, perhaps with multi-classing/prestige classing options, the ability to set up your own guild... a reputation score... bribing local officials...

Wait... this idea is too good... it has to exist already, right?

@Sofinho: Thank you for your reply. I don't expect to create something that doesn't exist by tinkering with the concept, I'm trying to apply it differently. For example, the idea of changing classes exists in RPG Maker. I can do that already, so it's less interesting to me. I'd rather try to represent elements of the classes I find interesting, and where feasible, find a small way to do something new with them. Would that make the design something no one's seen before? Of course not, but layered in with the right plot and adventure elements, and it can add to the fun.

That was sort of my point- creating a game that emphasises class features instead of chucking them on as an after thought- and I wasn't suggesting YOU were chucking them in as an afterthought, rather that this is how the rogue class is typically handled.

In my game, I'm trying to innovate on the limit break and trance concepts from Final Fantasy VII and IX, because let's face it, almost every RPG Maker game under the sun probably has at least one of those two features and I don't want my implementation to be just another carbon copy.

At the time of writing, the way the mechanic works is that at a certain point in the story, the player learns a skill called "Hyper Mode". This skill can only be used when the TP gauge is completely filled. While Hyper Mode is active, the player gets a 50% boost to all stats except Max HP and Max MP, and can use DX skills which are souped-up versions of skills the player already knows (Hyper Mode doesn't grant new abilities, it merely upgrades what's already there). Every turn, 10 TP is lost, and when the TP gauge is empty, Hyper Mode ends.

Here's what I need feedback on: if DX skills had static damage values, then they'd outclass any other options the player might have access to. Would it be better to have the skill use all of the TP the player currently has, and then have it do different amounts of damage depending on how much TP was spent?

Here is one of my Boss Encounters. I'm looking for some some general feedback and any pointers to make it more interesting.
Also, I wanted to post at least one of my "Boss Battles" in conjunction with RPG Maker's Birthday. Happy Birthday !!!
Windows
iMac

I watched the walkthrough of maniac mansion. And learned 3 valuable lessons. Don't put the hamster in the microwave. Wandering around in complete darkness is not fun. And finally meteors write terrible screenplays. So not sure how that helped.

I think the problem with giving ideas for this is we don't know the effect it has on party synergy or game mechanics to take into consideration.

@CaptainRadish I think it might be a good idea to make the d20 roll visible and to tell the player their chance to succeed. I like the idea though.



@Tanarex I think it might be better to do a few more multi room puzzles, but that's just me.



@TreguardV I think that the latter option sounds better for a few reasons, if it uses all your TP it'd end hyper mode right, so it becomes a kind of risk reward, if staying in hyper mode the whole time deals more damage overall you're still risking being K.O.d in the middle of it (for this reason I'd reccomend that only your offensive stats rise) vs using a DX Skill and getting instant damage.



@lokirafael Personally I also have a blood magic user, but she casts magic from hit points rather, has life steal on attacks, and doubles up as the parties healer. I think your approach is pretty cool too, I like the sound of the skills, but its going to come down to your enemy design and the design of other party members how good it may be. Personally though, if the characters cool and has an interesting personality, I'll try to make them work in my party no matter what (this is probably why I like Trail of Cold Steel so much so far, every character is great and I love seeing all of them.)

Thanks for the reply! I figured Hyper Mode could be a risk vs reward thing, but it never occurred to me to do it that way.

That really reminds me of Absorb.

@lokirafael What about items? A sorcerer, correct? So, talismans, ritual items?

@Archeia @troubled time

She do use HP in her Blood Skill, but she's also a talented caster (MP). One problem I face is the fact she is nearly imortal with the healer in the party. I'm trying to make all healing done to have no effect beside her own blood healing to combat that.



I changed her kit many times, but I finally chose to make she use "Blood Necklace". Theses are crafted with her own blood and magic to make her own power stronger. The acessory are like empower to the Blood Necklace.

Her armor is the Eternal Nightmare, a cursed dress from the game lore. It can't be unequiped, but gain status as she level up and aditional effects based on the skills and necklace equiped.

Edit>

I forgot to tell, but the dress "suck" her HP every turn in combat. Her mechanic is all about gain and lose blood. She has alot of survivel skill but her own skills and dress can kill her with she is careless.

I'm assuming this is the right thread to post on for this!

In MV I have a state called Sweaty where the afflicted Actor has a chance each turn to drop their weapon, but I can't figure out how to program that. The only in-program feature that's close is Seal or Lock Weapon, but I want them to actually drop their weapon and spend a turn to re-equip it. I also want it so the afflicted Actor is the only one who can spend their turn doing so, as opposed to another Actor using their turn to do it.

Any ideas?

EDIT: Never mind, I found a Common Event function that helps. I wanted to delete this reply but can't figure out how. :X

I'm considering added a mini-card game to my game.
That will help players learn the battle system. The way I have it now is that before each battle one of the characters explains the strengths and weakens of each enemy and ally. Which to me seems kinda boring. So I was thinking of having a stranger at the Inn ask the players if they wanted to play a card game called Magic and Monsters or Warriors and Wizards or something. Then he'd explain the rules and the cards would have strengths and weakness, etc. He'd play a card at random (A creature or a character class) and you'd have to find the right card to counter it. An auto-battle would begin and you'd win or lose depends on what you choose. After winning 5 battles you get the skill Enemy target info. If you lose three battles you'd have to start over. Or I could just have them learned it in a book. Also boring. I also considered having all the info in a book because by the time you find out what you need for a battle it might be too late.