Turn-based RPG concept

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#1

Hi all.

I’ve had the idea for a turn-based RPG for quite some time now. I’ve gone through pages of ideas and even tried scripting out something a few months ago, but I worked myself into a corner and gave up temporarily in favor of easier projects.

But then today I spent two hours on this.

frDGYYc.jpg1276×582 132 KB

Clearly, I’ve only worked on the GUI aspect so far, and used, ahem, temporarily borrowed icons (I swear I will create unique ones! EDIT: And I did!), but I will have custom character models, animations, and the like. (EDIT: And I do!) There will also be world maps, where you progress between battles. The four move slots will be unique to each character, with the two weapon slots being able to hold any of a variety of earnable tools.

The green and red boxes with numbers by each health bar are for Buffs and Debuffs. Things like Blinded (next attack has a 50% chance to miss) or Pain (takes 10% more damage from each hit) or Camouflaged (increases evasion by 50% until hit) can be applied by different moves or passive effects, and add strategy to the game.

There will also be different classes, experience to level up on both a per-character and per-player basis, and upgrades to improve characters’ base stats.

Story-wise, the player is a Storywriter, who looks over different worlds in third-person, guiding heroes or villains (you will be able to play as both) through different stories, without actually appearing in them. Characters to use in storylines will be earned by completing stories involving those characters, and then either winning them by doing well or by spending points on them.

While I will avoid blatantly plagiarizing copyrighted material, some worlds will definitely be similar to familiar universes of superheroes and movies and books and such. (If Marvel can get away with the Squadron Supreme, I’m sure I can put my own creative twist on things.)

Some examples:

  • Roblox Battle: several Robloxians such as myself and CodeWrighter; Swordsman Noobs; Bomber Noobs; Slingshot Noobs
  • Minecraft (Post-Apocalyptic Forest): Lumberjack Sam; Undead Archer; Undead Farmer; Shadowmen
  • Marvel and DC (World of Wonders): Arachnoid; Supernova; Horned Owl; Ranger Rocketeer; Clown Prince; Space Squid
  • League of Legends (Ancient World of Wonders): I don’t actually know too many LoL characters but it’s a good inspiration bank
  • Star Wars and Star Trek (Space Race): Blake Starrunner, Dark Leader, Captain Shock, Captain Shirk, Captain Kudzu, X-8KO, Blogamma

It’s an audacious undertaking for a game, I know. I had battles working in a limited way before, so I know I should be able to do it right. (EDIT: They’re working in a much less limited way now!) It will be primarily single-player, and perhaps if it’s not too terrible to implement, PVP will come later as an additional game mode.

If anyone has suggestions or flaws to point out, I would love to hear them.

  • Actual combat has been completed, check it out. Left side is AI, right side is the player, though you should be able to tell after a few seconds.
    [video width=425 height=344 type=youtube]MxSnOKugMa0
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#2

Awesome, can’t wait, and: Chocobo pls.

Oh, and after watching Log Horizon, I thought aggro would be a neat concept for a RPG, implementing it would make the game feel more realistic, and more tactical, as the ‘tank’ player will try to keep a high aggro to absorb attacks, with ‘mage’ and ‘healer’ classes always attempting to keep a low aggro

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#3

I had basic AI working with my original script test, so they can try to attack with a certain move order, or attack highest health first, or lowest health first, or any arbitrary decision at all, in part depending on how high their Intelligence rating is. It wouldn’t be a simple single stat, it would be more complex AI than that, but it would be there.

Turn order was completely random in my test, but I could easily apply weight to that randomness, so that faster or smarter characters would have a higher chance of going first.

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#4

Some proper UI work has now been done, as well as animations. Only the idle is visible in the clip, since I haven’t added code to trigger the combat yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djoDn8AGzgA

#5

Combat is now about half complete!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkJMxHocIYw

#6

Actual combat!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxSnOKugMa0

Some technical background on the AI, for those curious:
[ul]
[li]Turn order is determined randomly, based on an speed value like Weeve suggested. Obviously, since the demo battle is the same character versus itself, it’s totally random whether I get the first turn, or the AI does.[/li]
[li]The AI’s move choice is partially based on an intelligence value, which also calls back to the simpler ‘aggro’ idea. If the random roll of intelligence is high enough, it will pick out a more optimum move selection for its situation than if it’s too low, in which case it will be more random.[/li]
[li][ul][li]For example, this character’s AI will do a roll for 1/2 the default intelligence value. If it’s successful, it will see if the character’s vulnerable-class is on the enemy team, and target it. If no vulnerable-class character exists or the roll fails, it’ll pick a random target.[/li]
[li]It will then do another check for half the default intelligence value, and if that’s good, it’ll see if the target has the Entwined debuff. (Debuffs aren’t added yet, though, so that’s always going to return false.) If it doesn’t, it’ll use move #3, the vines, which would apply Entwined.[/li]
[li]If everything else has failed, it’ll then return either move 2 (skateboard) or move 1 (katana).[/li]
[/ul][/li]
[/ul]

#7

As long as I can still do this :slight_smile: