I know it has been some time since i last posted on this particular forum but Im still around and reading your posts. Fotgive me, i have not interjected any opinons but that was for the best.. heh heh kill me mad keith. lol. anyway, seriousness time. THis is a situation that i am trying to resolve about my projects battle sysyem. The game is an online only rpg that is meant to use a simple tile based engine to show layer based sprites. The character gen allows users to make their characters based on 4 layers of animation that will be shown on the screen for every character that enters the feild of view. now, this is sort of off topic but im kind of proud of my character gen and you know, it doesnt work for small res. but hey. thats not what i need imput on. Readers of this post should have an open mind and be willing to interject ideas in a positive fassion. The point is to construct a battle engine that fits into a tile based rpg. since it is impractical to have real time battles on the map, I have put forward the principle of a battle arena screen where battles will take place. this is sort of like the final fantasy random battles but battles are not random unless you are in dungeons. The way i have planned it, when two characters meet in battle or a character or party encounters a random enemy, they stop moving, the tile they occupybecomes passable by others and they become translucent. there is also a little icon above them that shows that battle is indeed active. if more than one character is engaged in battle, the icons will be linked together by a line to signify a large battle or party battle. parties will be shown with any of 4 colors as up to 4 parties can join a battle at a time. there is no limit to the number of members in a party. ok, this eplained the way that the battles influence the world map, dungeon map and town map. battles can be called whena character talks to another and challanges them. battles cannot be turned down but the battle can end when a character flee''s from battle. since the text manager remains active in battle, this can be planned. going up to a charcter and hitting b will bring up the battle menu, selecting challange will force a battle to be triggered. the other character then joins. however, placement in a battle grid and location on the battle arena map will be in favour of the challanged. once a battle starts, we see the cool little screen change filter and shit starts to go down. there is a grid in each battle arena that varies in size. this is a grid of action tiles where a charcter can move over and complete actions. whenever a menu command is chosen, tiles will light up :red for non supported action or green for good to go. battle placement is somthing that i should explain first. but before that, i will explain the battle stat system. there are only 3 numbers that show up on the screen at a time and this is because you will not have a static menu on the bottom of the screen. above the character is a little window that shows Hp, Mp and Ap. Hp and mp is simple and im sure that you all know what it is. AP is somthing else entirely. Ap is used to determine the power level of actions. all actions on the battle map use ap and when a character uses all the available ap, their turn is considered over. Ap useage varies dependant on the situation (ie; the map) and the conditions. a rolling hill map will make your character use more ap when moving to get to the enemy. thus, your attack would also be weaker as your ap would be low. this is a complex thing as there is no real turn. essentially, you cannot make an action if your ap reaches zero and then you will have to wait for it to reach full again to perform more actions. since your stamina and speed stats determine this, your charge time may be more or less. this makes things interesting as you may run in to some creatures that have higher charge times than you, this could be in your favour. however, others may have faster times and you will get fewer actions. You only have 100 points percharged turn and you must use these efficiently. attacks take a set amount of ap and so does magic. in fact, mp is only used to determine how your learn spells. I think i should take the time to touch again on the battle arena itself. when you enter it, it looks very iso. the view is angled side and the grids move along the horizontal axis. essentially, it looks like a side scroller in some ways but there is both x and y movement. when a charcter is placed on the map, they are randomly assigned to the players in order of strategic importance. if you were the challanged, you might be placed behind a tree or somthing that might mask you. the enemy may waste precious action points while trying to find you on the map. if a battle is called randomly, your possitions are also random. Commands are set up to use however many tiles are supported. moving will use so many action points per tile moved (variable once again) and so does attacking. ranged attacks will use ap per tile and so will magic. when the characters ap runs out, they will sit there and their ap bars will charge again. watching or entering a battle: it is possible for players to enter or watch a battle from the world map should they run into one. if a character steps onto a tile that a battle is happening in, hitting b will bring up the options: Battle or watch. this will either allow you to take part or simply watch the battle. some characters:moderators will be on a unreachable level so that they can prevent people from actng like dicks. if moderators come across a gang bang against a newbie, they will be allowed to use their power to school the instigators. I have a lot of ideas but they are hard to explain in words, visual representation is the best thing. I am not text, I am not organized pixels, I am not killed by turning off your monitor, I am not isolated by turning off your computer. I just am.

Conshape Electronic Arts Millennium ED Redwyrm Online

not interested?

I am not text, I am not organized pixels, I am not killed by turning off your monitor, I am not isolated by turning off your computer. I just am.

Conshape Electronic Arts Millennium ED
Redwyrm Online

Remember EGG? Sometimes its months between posts

Ok, your system only allows four sides in a battle. What happens when a fifth player tries to engage in conversation someone who is already fighting?

For that matter, what happens if someone in the main game world wants to get past the point where a couple of avatars are parked whilst their players are fighting?

1. The player inadvertantly joins the battle. This would be inconvenient in the extreme if the battle happened to occur over a ressurrection point.

2. The player hits a battle which already has four combatants. Hmmm. Problem there.

In fact, a character could hide from an enemy, by getting together with 3 friends. Four sides fighting. Noone else can join. Perfect safety.

If mp is only used to learn spells, why confuse your players by including it in your combat system?

End of the post -for now

I thought of this problem myself with my own combat system, which uses a similar approach, except that my battles take place in the actual game world, with the battle area marked off by a circle to allow other players to avoid combat.

It occurred to me how many assholes we have online who might start a fight in front of an important entryway just to prevent people from entering. (It would be pretty damn funny if a high-level bad ass came along and wasted them, but how often is that going to happen?) So, I was required to think of a solution.

The most obvious solution is to let non-participants walk right through the fight. This isn''t realistic, but how many rules do we have to break already just to make our games fair? Another solution would be to take the battle out of the world entirely, avatars included, so nobody else knows it''s happening. Again, very unrealistic, and this eliminates the possibility for someone else to join.

You don''t have the same problems, because there''s no reason you shouldn''t allow someone to walk right through an avatar. My situation is completely different, and since I''m now considering real-time combat instead of turn-based (thanks to input from the GDNet patrons), I don''t really have to worry about it.

There''s never an ideal solution when you need one. Just do your best and fix whatever doesn''t work.

well, this is a complex thing to try to explain... this is why i voted to make a flash movie of the actual game graphics i need to do and animate them as if they were in engine. maybe, just maybe the graphics will be good enough that people in the engine department will actully listen to me when i suggest changes...
so, in stead of trying to make you all understand, which i cant do for anyone at this point... ugh, tired, i will refer you back to the flash movie... when i do it. lol.

that should clear anything up as a visual representation is often better for this kind of thing.

I am not text, I am not organized pixels, I am not killed by turning off your monitor, I am not isolated by turning off your computer. I just am.

Conshape Electronic Arts Millennium ED
Redwyrm Online

oh, i noticed that this came up a lot. usully, tiles with characters are set to passable. i wanted it to be impassable for realism but online, someone could block the way and things could get nasty. so, by default, you can walk behind people. the reason for this is that free movment is used instead of direct tile movement. there is 8 directions of animation and the character moves one pica for every instance of the directional key.now, since characters occupy a certain amount of pixels, they only need to be one or 2 over to pass by a character from behind. solves the door issue. in addition, battle tiles are automatically fully passable but hittin the battle key when on one will give you some stats of the battle and a choice to enter. since teams are not code supported, just user intervention, there is allowed as many teams as can fit on the grid. when the enemy is defeated, leaving the arena (which can be done at any time) ends the battle, the character gains experience from what they did.

as for people joining. there will be moderators walking around all the time to make sure things are going smoothly, they are to be preceived as the law in the world. first off, their stats are set to be roughly ten times that of the most powerful user on the server. this is so the odd asshole will not be able to take over as they will not get to defeat the only real defense short of deleting characters there is.

the rest, will be outlined in the flash. when i get my lap top sometime this summer, i will start to learn flash at school and i will make this demo. most of the graphics will be ingame but i will certainly use flashes effects to my advantage

I am not text, I am not organized pixels, I am not killed by turning off your monitor, I am not isolated by turning off your computer. I just am.

Conshape Electronic Arts Millennium ED
Redwyrm Online