Tuesday, June 24, 2014

RPG Maker VX Ace: Project1

Ifn you wanna help out
whats your fave element?
What should I call it?
How would you write the blurb?
what should i change/fix?
Is it FUN?

I'm aiming to host v1.1 on Wednesday
Should have 1.2 poasted on friday
Whatever is done on sunday will no be playtested, just entered onto [HERE]
[Version 0.9]
[Version 1.0]
[Version 1.1]
[Version 1.2]
[Version 1.2.5] [On Steam]

Development notes:

a proficiency based tower defense RPG, where your skills reflect
your playstyle, not the other way around.
Actually its not so much a RPG as a turn-based Tower Defence.
and not really a tower or defense either. More a 4 pronged elemental assault.
player must either diversify and maintain a balanced build
or focus and have severe weekness.
Either coordinate attacks, one opponent at a time
strike at the weakness individually
or combine to aoe the group with a single damage type.

For the competition this needs to have an hour of gameplay, I suppose either a long run or newgame+
must feel like a full game dispite the content notincluded in the list below.
will need somebody to playtest it for me. Sam and Joseph are the only helpfull people so far.
Credit the humble bundle resources
Credit Yanfly and Shaz for their scripts

I'll see how far I get down this list of content. main thing is the elemental scaling.
once the fundamental game mechanics are implimented it seems I have a lot of additional content that is unessesary.

Char
M mat, magic, want the default attack to be magic, high varience
F Fey, Fighter, consistant dmg
make them typical australian names?

Normal: 1 Physical + magic (seems this is not really a thing, exept TP/MP)
Spiritual: 10 Yin + 9 Yang = 200% (dark, holy)
Entropy: 7 Order + 5 Chaos = 200% (earth, thunder)
Enthalpy: 3 Heat + 4 Cold = 200% (fire, Ice)
Emotional: 11 Sunny + 12 Gloomy (for Buff Debuff)
Mental: 6 OCD + 8 meditative (active, Passive) (wind, water)

can take 4 paths from begining
at the start of path you can see your resistance
themed shops along each way? in a camp with the skill.
ice area gives ice skill and ice buff equipment.
...so getting there may require fire skill, or grinding the base attack

attack is boosted by weakness
ie take 150% dmg from fire, so boost ice dmg by 150%
default formula: a.atk * 1 - b.def * 1
formula: a.atk * a.element_rate(3) - b.def * 1

mage skills
mp, not tp
high varience, 90%

change default attack to
(a.atk * 1 - b.def * 1) + (a.amg * 1 - b.mgd * 1)
then the fighter has no magic and the mage no attack
this should be the only pure physical/magic damage
but wait, magic doesnt apear to be a thing?
also note that since this scales, it should always be somewhat usefull

game balancing
may need to start the attacks at 100damage, not 10, need an over 9000 joke
need to be able to damage slimes with physical attack
paralell elemental planed need to do some damage but less than deault attack
only zero damage for like element attacks.
base attack is 10, slimes have no defence
player class starts with 10 of each defence
slimes flat do 10 damage per round, helping indicate current resist
4slimes, killed 1 per round, player takes >=100hp damage
begin with 500hp each char, to last 5 battles, ~20 with second char
Since I have no limitation on the affinity it now goes negative, automatically healing

info NPC, in ceter
later for the highscore but for now...
records slime kills and totals can be recorded through the troop event page
counts slime goo in inventory
also needs to have game version ID, incase I do some game balancing each version.

enemy
Slime, benchmark for everything else
on death, increase a variable count by 1, this will be used for quests
total kill count of all slimes devided by time will be a score mechanic.
30% chance to drop 'slime goo' resource of the relevant element

enemies to have their own elemental attacks, ones that dont call common events.

~~~~~ [Version 0.9] Patched by Me ~~~~~
~~~~~ Version 1.0 |Done| ~~~~~
--------------------
For damaging skills
On cast, If actor[x] attacks with element [y] and an enemy gains state [Death]
Then actor[x] gains 0.05 element [y] and loses 0.05 element [1/y]
--------------------
For utility and out of battle skills
On cast, If actor[X] uses element[y]
Then actor[x] gains 0.01 element [y] and loses 0.01 element [1/y]
--------------------
eg
[Fey] has element_rate [ice] = 0.50;
[Fey] has element_rate [fire] = 1.50;
IF
[Fey] uses a [ice] ability and an enemy gains state [Death];
Then
[Fey] has [ice] = 0.45;
[Fey] has [fire] = 1.55;
End
---------------------
skill, fey ice has common event fey_ice:
V[25]caster=1;
v[26]curent_element=4;
v[27]invert_element=3;
Rather than calling a common event on skill cast there is
just baraly enouch room in the damage calc to
set the above three variables.

Skill, Mat confuse, adds stat confusion, call common event Mat_Chaos
V[25]caster=2;
v[26]curent_element=7;
v[27]invert_element=5;
AND, call common event 11, (same as 10 but increases by 1% not 5%)

Fey & mat combine to cast ice
call common event ...
V[25]caster=1;
v[26]curent_element=4;
v[27]invert_element=3;
calls event 10
V[25]caster=2;
v[26]curent_element=4;
v[27]invert_element=3;
calls event 10

#

Every enemy
on death calls event 10

Common event 10
###

#if statment could go here to prevent element_rate($game_variables[27]) becoming negative

#calc new rate
$game_variables[28] = get_feature(:actor, $game_variables[25], :element_rate, $game_variables[26])-0.05;
$game_variables[29] = get_feature(:actor, $game_variables[25], :element_rate, $game_variables[27])+0.05;

#to clear the deck
remove_feature(:actor, $game_variables[25], :element_rate, $game_variables[26]);
remove_feature(:actor, $game_variables[25], :element_rate, $game_variables[27]);

#to set the new element rate
add_feature(:actor, $game_variables[25], :element_rate, $game_variables[26], $game_variables[28]);
add_feature(:actor, $game_variables[25], :element_rate, $game_variables[27], $game_variables[29]);
###

#reset the variables ready for next skill
#would prevent multiple increases on a multitarget attack though
$game_variables[25] = 10; #make actor 10 not exist?
$game_variables[26] = 10;
$game_variables[27] = 10;
$game_variables[28] = 10;
$game_variables[29] = 10;
#may add and remove 10 from Yin of actor 10

#returns errors when variables 25 - 29 are empty,
#so common event 9 called on leaving town to set them all to 10


Quest
located in fire area, defeat 5 ice slimes, reward is fire strike/blast skill
kill count is per game, not per char, so using fire on Mat can unlock fire skils on Fey
begin with only the base physical attack (which therefore needs to actually hurt them)
can have a common event that records slimes killed, then use it as a high score and
as the variable for this quest.
Wow, n slimes! your e affinity must be % by now.
Otherwise you would never have been able to do that.
if int(n/10)=n/10 and skill(n) not learned
"I think you are ready for a new skill"
add skill(n), to each actor in the party
and slimes drop a resource that is used to craft elemental equipment


Boss enemy:
is healed by fire damage (unfortunatly requires editing scripts)
ice weekness is 200%+
other elements at 0%, ie cannot be interacted with

As an Ice Elementalist
ice affinity <0.50 (Ice mastery at 0, taking ice damage heals)

A high affinity to ice, means you have a low resistance to fire, because they are on the same dimension. The dimension on Enthalpy.
ice attacks that kill add ice afinity and fire weekness
Ice attacks are innefective against ice enemies
is week against fire
you are more likely to wear blue
does ~half fire damage, making physical attacks more efficient than fire
since fire damage is reduced, it is hard to change to a fire elementalist
does ~1.5x ice damage (fire enemies may take additional 2x damage)
needs to defeat ice slimes to gain 'ice goo' resource for ice shops

frequents ice shops for ice themed equipment (additionall ice buffs)
needs to defeat fire slimes to gain new ice skills (see NPC in ice village)
Fights in fire area for high risk/reward, then returns to safe ice area to heal and shop

fighting in the other elemental planes, you take advantage of buffed Ice but not enemy weekness.
entering ice town adds a stat that heals 1 per step
entering fire town adds a stat that damages 1 per step
will have great difficulty with the ice boss that must be defeated to get to the next ice area
they should be friends so they struggle to hurt eachother.
may use fire equipment to balance out weekness
can also be a order/chaos and yin/yang elementalist as they are paralell paradigms
In battle prioritise fire enemies, as they are the most dangerous and easiest to kill
in battle leaves ice enemies till last as they may heal me, or at the least do reduced damage.
When two Ice elementalists work together their attack is multiplied and forms an AOE

monster multipurpose element attack
Default ||(a.atk - b.def) + (a.amg - b.mgd)
multiplied by monsters affinity ||a.element_rate(3)
Plus 5% of HP, so that it is always a threat || b.hp*0.05
so, when at low HP the wrong element wont harm you
the healthier I am the more this will dammage
--dont think this works as expected

inn at Fire camp costs 5 red goo to use.

inn at center is free if balanced, >75% in affinities
if affinity <50% in anything then inn is dissabled.
else costs 5 goo of highest affinity (75-25%)
currently central town (and inn) is the only place to spend cash

~~~~~ [Version 1.0] Patched by Joseph and Sam ~~~~~
~~~~~ Version 1.1 |Done| ~~~~~

Playtest
Fey:chaos Ice (even spread)
Mat: Yang
took 1h30min, main bottleneck was changing my affinity, so reduced the slime HP from 20 to 11. 15 would probably be better.
Yang was powered up, but by this stage Fey was healing from half the damage sources.
Mat was just as effective using the unskilled ability and preying on their weekness.

Playtest
Fey:ice, Chaos
Mat: fire, order
Leveled up the entropy skills, then in 30 min I was unbalanced enough
to beat the order and chaos bosses. then the balanced level 2 attacks
another 15min to get the ehtalpy bosses.

To fix:
red and yellow goo look the same
order blast, needs to be powered by chaos
cake no click
change where bosses hide, remove them once defeated.
incremental tally when beating bosses.
make red is broken
path to inn and house
Order blast was OP
some walls can be walkid into

Overarching goal:
Prove your elemental paradigm is the best
Defeat the four elemental masters
and jump ship.

Thankyou contentTarmikos chaos for levi
instructins on what to to do
~
My name is Tarmikos , I once was a true
follower of Order. But Levi lead me,
He taught me the power of Chaos.
So strike by strike I slew slimes.
With each kill my skills improved,
With each death I resisted their strikes
~
Red for sam...

Skill
Default attack:
[(a.atk*1 - b.def*1) , (a.mat*1 - b.mdf*1), 1].max
whichever is greater: Physical, magic or 1. But then it may be resisted.
Also, a common event woth 5% frequency to on crit display a message, over 9000, and apply state death. Hilarious when I tested this agains the daemon king, second attack did 1 damage and killed him.

TP Share:
Mat can transfer 10MP into ally TP
otherwise Fey keeps running out of TP.

Mat Yin, 50%. But Fey nutral and can use both
All other skills need to be learnt in the first camp

Maybe only Bosses and nightmares have access to Yin/Yang abilities.
Nope instead of nightmares the inns have other tennants, an OCD cleaner that wakes you and a Meditative tennant that you wake up.

element_rate()
Possibly use items as a replacement for levels. eg 10 goo for +5% MHP
#    item    name    Goo    stat effect    energy    area       invert
1        Physical
2        ?Absorb?
3    AGI    Fire    Red    Burning        high    SE       Ice
4    ATK    Ice    Blue    Agi down    low    NW       Fire
5    LUK    Chaos    Yellow    confusion    high    NE       Order
6    MAT    OCD    Magenta            high    Inn (maid)       Meditative
7    DEF    Order    Green    Paralisis    low    SW       Chaos
8    MDF    Calm    Cyan    sleep        low    Inn (sleeper)       OCD
9    MHP    Yang    White    HP vamp            Day    Yim
10    MMP    Yin    Black    MP Vamp            Night       Yang
11        Sunny    Multi    Buff        high    Sunny       Rain
12        Gloomy    Grey    Debuff        low    Rain       Sunny
Possibly use sunny goo to change a paradigm
Possibly use grey goo to neutralise a paradigm
Took a while to rethink all that, running out of nice colours and I wanted some interactivity between dimensions. Also I like the word Paradigm, so that may be in the title. Or maybe something about dimensions or elemetalists. I dont think Alchemy is a relevant word, Polar maybe?

Mechanicspreserve the kill score over saves,
on save set all global variables to key item counts
on load remove these key items back to the variable locations.

Boss enemies are invisible untill you have the elemental skill from their area, nope bad idea because then the players have no clue what to do.

Use some of the humble bundle music assets. in each town I suppose

not really sure how to keep Fey physical and Mat magical,
thinking that Fey should be the vanilla classs, multiples of ten or fibbonachi
Mat can get weaker snowball magic then, that reduces the targets element resistance.
    nope magic is Mat's thing sombody else can snowball.

Since all the inns are bassed off of Fey's resistance maybe make it so she is  always the party leader? At a later date though I would prefer if players could swap her out and maybe begin Newgame+ with a different class.

~~~~~ [Version 1.1] Patched by Sam and Levi~~~~~
~~~~~ Version 1.2 |Done| Patched by Joseph ~~~~~
Playtest
no specialisation
just use whatever attack is strong to prey on their weakness without investing in strength. need the leveled up spells.
25min to red boss (all level 2 skills learnt)
40 min to finish

Playtest
Fey: yin, Chaos, Ice
Mat: yang, Chaos, Ice
no items, bosses are much harder now and I think I need to change the way all affinities increase. Yin/Yang is not very helpfull by the time I get to bosses.
51min to red boss
58min to green boss
game ended while I was fighting yellow. My first loss :( screenshot

To Fix:
`Tarmikos name spelt wrongly
`yellow shop not selling? goo color probably wrong
`Green goo shop definatly looking at the wrong colour

`nope it's all the shops need fixing.
`check the elements charge at 0.05% -there are issues with the common events run with skills-
`boss yin/yang attacks far to strong.
`Red master attack seems to poison his allies
`Make Red not hurting at all
`blue boss, agility down attack is not really a threat. added sleep

`make bosses take 50% damage from all other elemental paradigms.
`TP share should not cost any MP
`make half price mana pot
`Green boss still stunlocks, need to reduce paralisis more
`Yellow also stunlocks tomuch still.
`last line of the score is wrong.referencing wrong variables.
Once your affinity becomes negative you cannot kill with that element anymore. May need a new attack that always has flat damage.

`over 9000
only kills the first mob (if it is there)
is random, not sure about fun though
and occasionally causes a "Doubble resume" scripting error
Removing this, may add it back later.

`Mat's yin/yang paradigm does not change.
its not running the common event on cast, again. This seems to be a bug with RPG maker and not my game. The alternative is to set the variables witing the damage formula like this:
$game_variables[25]=2;$game_variables[26]=10;$game_variables[27]=9;(a.mat+10)*a.element_rate(9);
the damage part of the foruma needs to be last. I dont know why the custom formula works for nearly everything then here I need to do it differently. So I may have to migrate this fix accross all elemental attacks to make the game uniform.

Deo
Added to the game, there is one other bloke whose name I cant recall so I cant credit him as having helped as yet.

~~~~~ [Version 1.2] Patched by Joseph ~~~~~
~~~~~ Version 1.2.5 |The Entry| ~~~~~

Last version only has bugfixes. But now I'm not likely to add any of the content below. Though I may find some more bugs between now and when I submitt it tomorrow afternoon. I hope I get graded on what I've done and not on the hidden potential.

To Fix
battle play-by-play is too quick
Deo appeared too often and paralised too much.

Score incentive
Automatically take a screenshot of the highscore list?
nickname (title) changes bassed on stats, paragon = all exept one element is balanced
acheivements/highscore
slimes per min, possibly used to unlock skills?
hall of fame for tracking, like steam acheivements. made into a humerous graveyard.

Mechanic
Permadeath->newgame+ with abilitys from prior run
Change save to save & quit
further areas do ground damage, fire damage in fire area (heals if you are at maxx)

create a reason to remain balanced and using all elements evenly
maybe center town is only avalible to balnced average players
if between 0.5 and 1.5 affinity then you become thermodynamically stable
meybe: make the inn only avalible to balance players,
and then ice masters need to get attacked by ice to heal up?
therefore the inn nolonger works if one of the resistances reaches <0.01
error, "You are too unbalanced for me to allow you to stay here."

Content

exerpts from tao te ching
multielement opponents/attacks
skills with status effects
start weaponds/armour/equipment
how will artificial resistances effect the power adjustment?
each area needs a specific enemy that is unique
day/night cycle for Yang/Yin
weather? sun and rain for later emotional energy?
Items, there are 2 already. but are they OP?

Skill

 Start game with Yin/Yang and attack, and the boss has one, but the element is wrong. also I should change the boss attack into an AOE.

Combined AOE attack
with both participants gaining buffs for kills.
make it a combo that requires 1&2 in the party and then dissables actor #2
run common event on cast that edits the affinity of all participants.

Enemy
slime hearder
for ice, is immune to ice, uses order abilities (low entropy for low enthalpy)
and has order dog help him
can summon ice slime to battle
is found only in ice areas
30% chance to have a bagfull of 'ice goo'
is in the second ice area
on opening bag contains 3-10 slime goo of the relevant element

Classes
Finally add a third class that swaps out with Mat
50/50 physical/magic atk/def
can crit, more balanced varience
only 2 characters allowed in party


~~~~~ Version 1.3 ~~~~~ 

If I get this far... try to add to steam greenlight
sell for a cheap flat rate, comparable to FTL and Sudeki
offer for donations >x the donator can have an avatar added to the game as a NPC

allow changing of primary protagonist?


make the graveyard dynamic, including some player deaths.
emotional energy? love hate? lonelyness, community? (Buff and debuff probably will fit best)
quotes from psalms
mental energy: OCD bi-polar, meditative vegatative (Active and Passive)
quotes from Tsun Tsu
more classes bassed of TGTIWLTP, unlocked through newgame+

~version 1.4
things that are leftover or were too complex
Try to get it into Steam greenlight.

~version 1.5
by now all gameplay mechanics should be implimented, only extra content and game balancing.

~~other notes
seems anything in Romancing SaGa will work
ie, use a skill to learn a new skill.
instead of elemental immunity you can absorb the damage.

elemental damage indicator
http://yanflychannel.wordpress.com/rmvxa/battle-scripts/ace-battle-engine/element-popups/

description of what state icons mean
http://rmrk.net/index.php/topic,44730.0.html

multi elemental attack
http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/21849-attack-element-modifiers/

can show more item details, including the elemtnt rate
http://mrbubblewand.wordpress.com/rgss3/too-much-information-item-scene/

See #4
http://www.rpgmakervxace.net/topic/8986-skill-ideas-you-can-do-with-custom-formula/
http://www.rpgmakervxace.net/topic/2340-how-to-make-the-most-of-custom-formulae-part-1/

maybe this
http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/20839-actor-formulas/

If I wanted to use attack and defence element rates, then this could display them
http://www.rpgmakervxace.net/topic/3708-elemental-status-info/

shaz-dynamic features
http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/19645-dynamic-features/

on death activate a common script
http://yanflychannel.wordpress.com/2012/03/07/yea-98-death-common-event/