Ok, I'm developing a fairly simple RPG (as simple as an RPG can get) just to really flex my game programming muscles. I've done the quintessential demos and basic games that don't really do much. I decided that, using a system called byond (http://www.byond.com), I would develop an RPG. The reason being that I understand a fair amount of basics and underlying theories, it's just that I want to get more experience on the actual game design , and possibly more importantly the rolling out of those ideas. Just so you know, I have no intentions or desires to make a penny. I'm going to pay for the byond hosting out of my own pocket and what-not. Now that you know where I'm going, on to the idea! Basically, the point is this: the player assumes the role of a Seeker or someone who is adventuring. The adventurer basically solves the over-cliched quests and saves various people throughout the world, all the while seeking Spheres. Spheres are what makes this game unique and interesting, in that your abilities are determined by the Spheres you have. For now, we'll work with Red, Yellow, and Blue. (assuming a common D&D attribute system) Red would give you +1 str, Yellow would give you +1 dex, and Blue would give you +1 int for instance. You can activate multiple spheres, so you could turn your character into a fast, yet strong warrior or something of that nature. Essentially, this gives the player the ability to totally customize their own character in whatever manner they see fit. The world itself is broken up into 5 areas, each with 1 town, 1 dungeon, 2 - 3 towers/castles, and 1 forest/swamp/ruin area. In each area, the Seeker can accomplish various quests for different people (some of which are mutually exclusive) to get different Spheres. They can later combine and find different Spheres to form more complex spheres that give various attribute and skill bonuses (for example, a +1 to str and +3 to hit with any sword, -3 to hit with any axe). There's still more to it, but I just realized I'm 10 minutes late for school (stupid history class). I'll write more later, but based on what you read here, any thoughts, critiques, or ideas (Good & Bad)? [edited for typoes] [edited by - ShadowWolf on February 17, 2004 7:16:23 PM]

The idea sounds good, but you should probably set some sort of limit on the number of spheres someone could apply to one ability, have total, or use at a time. I like the idea of combining spheres together to make more powerful ones, or to have more powerful effects. You may want to also have negative combinations, so that if a player combines incompatible spheres without researching it first, then it forms a cursed sphere that lowers an attribute or hampers their abilities somehow. Getting the sphere off of the character is up to you (remove curse spell, maybe?)

As for the different world areas, I wasn''t quite sure what you meant. Are you saying that each area contains 1 town, 1 dungeon, 2 - 3 towers/castles, and 1 forest/swamp/ruin area, or that they MAY have those? To add a bit of randomness to things, you should have that change from place to place, and maybe even through in a few different areas (ie, caves, deserts, water-above or below, mountains, etc.).

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the first part. I had never really thought of having a negative combination (say if you mix a sphere that gives +1 dex with a sphere that gives +1 con, the result is a cursed sphere that gives you -1 to dex and -1 to con). I think that would make the whole system more exciting in general.

I meant that each area will have all of them. I didn't want to originally do a random thing, but I think I want to now. I came up with a nice level editor concept (it generates areas based on some other similar programs), so I think that is definitely something I want to do.

The attributes thing, rather than limit it to a total number per attribute, I'm going to limit the total number of spheres. Each sphere has an RPI (Relative Power Index) who's relativity point is to dead Spheres ( Spheres that do nothing at all ).
The RPI is calculated as:
rpi = n(5a) + (3s) + (2c) + m(4b)
n = total number of attribute bonuses
a = total value of attribute bonuses
s = total skill bonuses
c = total skill negatives
b = total value of attribute negatives
m = total number of attribute negatives

So if the Red Sphere gives you +1 Str, it's RPI is as follows:
rpi = 1(5*1) + 0 + 0 + 0
rpi = 5
If another sphere gives you +1 str +3 to hit w/ sword and -3 to hit w/axe, its RPI is:
rpi = 1(5*1) + (3 * 3) + (2 * -3) + 0
rpi = 8
A cursed sphere above might be (-1 dex/-1 con)
rpi = 0 + 0 + 0 + 2(4 * -2)
rpi = -16

But attribute bonuses will be really rare, most spheres will be modifying your skills rather than your attributes (since modifying an attribute has more far-reaching affects). I think what I might do is set a maximum RPI for each sphere, like maybe around 50 or something like that. That way, players have to take some negatives to become really powerful, or are limited in how powerful they can get. Otherwise, the sphere would fizzle and nothing would happen.

The other thing I'm going to probably do is have different Sphere Anvils, places where you combine Spheres, give abilities as well. So, for example, making your Sphere in the pits of flame gives your sphere an additional +1 to con automatically. I'm not sure if I'm going to do that though.

[edited by - shadowwolf on February 17, 2004 7:16:57 PM]

I really love the concept of your game and I think it has potentiel. But there is something you must reconize making that game wont be any easyer than programming a normal rpg. The only thing simpler( it is very and trust me for this) is the use of beyond. Well, good luck and I can''t wait to see the final result.

Kevin

It sounds great! Here are a couple ideas:

1)Why don''t you make your spheres'' system based on some balance, you know, a double-sided paper-stone-scissors relationship, where some elements collide with each other and others synergize (the sum being greater than the parts). And, on top of it, create an interface that allows players to visually sort out the combination they''re looking for, out of instinct. Don''t know, maybe some sort of color mixing, or creating a sentence with rune-like symbols for each sphere. This way, not only you''re streamlining your UI, but you add an extra layer of gameplay with a mini-game feel to it that could prove to be quite appealling. Then, through the use of your restriction system, you just have to add the rpi for each of the spheres, plus/minus the bonuses for their relationship, and there you have one helluva deep system!

2)Spheres could degrade over time. The more special they are, the higher their decay rate. You could then recharge them (even using the Sphere Anvils) or just replace them...

Just my 2 cents...

Keep it up!


"Senri no michi mo ippo kara (A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step...)"

This is a neat idea. It''s so original that it''s difficult to comment on balancing issues until some kind of demo or prototype has been produced. Keep your mind open, and experiment with it.

it reminds me a little bit of the "mix" systems seen in the Final Fantasy series. Sometimes you''ll combine cheap items and get a really terrific effect, and sometimes you''ll use really rare items and it will totally fizzle. I think that a skill/probability system could work here, and of course the Sphere Anvils would play a part. So the more impressive combinations will involve a greater investment of spheres, and greater risk of failure, and a higher skill requirement.

Forgive my ignorance, but I''m not familiar with Byond, but what sort of thing is the character? A human? With the spheres for levelling, I''d be interested to see some kind of magical characters, or even mechanical beings, being augmented and customized in this way.

I like this idea a lot. I think it would be cool if there are a lot of different spheres, LOTS of different ones (almost Diablo''ish (Bone spheres, colord spheres, engraved spheres). The trick is that you can some kind of ''recipie'' system, much like Might and Magic 6 did with potions. So, you have 1 red, 2 blues, and a whole room full of whites (cheap as shit). If you combine 1 red and 3 whites, you gain +2 something, (note that you have to Merge them to keep the effects, like the gems in Daiblo2). What I am trying to say is that the following could happen in the RPG:

Bob has been sitting at his PC for hours just trying different combination, suddenly finding a kickass combo which gived a massive boost in sneaking for thiefs. He posts it on the forum to brag about what he found. Jim read this and thinks ''sweet! Im getting that combo, all I need is a purple Sphere....now where is one''. Jim then finds out that to get a purple sphere is an absolute PAIN, and he will need to do some major work to get it.

Just my 2c

Well, the balancing is going to be the really hard part. Because of the nature of the player, there will be conversions that I simply cannot forsee. That''s why I use the RPI system, so that there''s a mathematical certainty to the strength of the Spheres. That way, when someone does figure out a way to create something really powerful, it is still limited.

I think I will definitely think about the Sphere Decay. I''m not sure I want it in this edition of Sphericon (the name of the game) because it adds another level of complexity, which is not what I want. Speaking of which, when I said simple RPG, I mean that the focal point will be the Spheres and nothing else. I will probably implement a guild system and some minor, very trivial features like that, but there will be no real economy or dynamic effects such as random dungeons. Most everything will be totally static.

I''m not sure how I''m going to balance it out yet. I''m thinking, though, for the creation process and balance it will work like this:

When you go to the Sphere Anvil, you will be presented with a screen in the shape of a bowl. Inside this bowl, you may place as many Spheres as you want, but each Sphere increases the difficulty of the Merge (when you actually place your spirit in the Sphere Anvil and create the new Sphere). You will designate one Sphere as the Donor Sphere, or a Sphere that will accept the new energy. That sphere determines the base affinity (skills vs. attributes and magic vs muscle vs speed). From there, that modifies the difficulty and the straight-up gold cost to do the Merge when adding other spheres. The other areas on the Anvil are Helper Spheres, which give you 1.5 times the affinity change, but you only get 1/2 the effect from them; Power Spheres, which modify the effect by 1.5, but you only get 1/2 the affinity effect; and Secondary Spheres, which give you normal effect with a normal affinity modifier. If you use a special sphere setting (Power or Helper), then the ending difficulty of using that Sphere is increased by 50%. I''m thinking that each player has a total skill equal to their Merge Skill (which is an actual Skill), the stat most related to the base affinity, and the stat most related to the ending affinity (these can be the same).

Oh and Skills, at the moment, are all percentages from 1 - 75. You can only be better than 75 through the use of Spheres. Your Merge skill cannot be modified through a Sphere and Sphere Attribute bonuses don''t count while Merging either (since the Sphere would interrupt the Merge and it wouldn''t make any sense otherwise). Most normal humans have a skill range from 45 to 50 on their best skills to 5 to 10 on their worst skills.

Best example, Michael Jordon would have around a 73 - 75 in the Basketball skill and Bill Gates would have around a 67 - 70 in Business Skills. The overweight, unskilled, kinda-nerdy kid have around a 10 - 12 in Basketball. That kinda gives you the parity in my skill system.

Iron Chef: BYOND is a game-creation tool, it stands for Build Your Own Net Dream. I just use it to abstractualize the engine components so I can work on the design, gui, and gameplay.

Thanks for the comments so far! I''m glad to see that there''s some good responses, I''ve had around 7 versions of this kicking around, but this one''s the only one I''ve liked. :-)

HA HA HA! Sphericon! Dude, you gotta change the name, that sounds so weak. Im not trying to attack you, but come on! SPHERICON?

What the hell does that mean anyway?!

Why not just call it ''The wonderfully fantabulas adventures of the mystical ball people'' and get it over with! (just kidding)

How about something like:

BattleSphere
Seeker
Neo-Sphere
Neo-Seekers
Sphere Seekers
Sfear (maybe add an element of fear to the game as no-one is sure just where the spheres came from, and dont understand how they fully work. Nice little plot hook)


just my 1.5c

I like the idea very much!

I''ve got one question, though: is the type of the spheres random? Or does the player get the same kind for the same quest every time? If it is static, people will soon not be doing quests that do not offer good spheres as reward. I''d prefer some randomness, even if it means the game will be more difficult to design (balance).

Btw, I agree the name does not sound like a cool new RPG, more like an old acrade game or something like that. From boolean''s list I''d prefer "Sphere Seeker(s)".

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