I want to make a turn based tactical RPG
Posted: Thu May 12, 2016 11:36 pm
I got the go ahead to make a turn based tactical RPG as my final university project a long time back. Since I don't really have a deadline, I've been procrastinating way too fucking much, but it'd be nice to graduate and be able to maybe land a real job. All I've done so far is a movable camera (Movement: WASD or Arrow Keys, C and Space, shift to move faster, click and hold left mouse button and move mouse to rotate camera). Anyway, time to hopefully start taking this seriously.
Doing this in javascript because I kinda like working with it, it'll work on any modern browser (will require WebGL to be enabled) and I don't give a shit if people look at and/or modify the code. The engine will be 3D (I'm using three.js) so I can have a freely moving camera and have the vertical positions of objects be more obvious (also because I kinda want to dick around with 3D and there's a sort of not explicitly stated but definitely there minimum complexity quota that I need to fill for a good grade). Since it doesn't need to be actually be published for me to graduate, I won't worry about graphics for now.
It'll probably be high magic fantasy of some kind, though I'm not sure whether I'll go D&Dish medieval fantasy or urban fantasy (though if so, it won't be set on Earth, but may have some earthlike technology as well as magic, but no masquerade. So probably an exact ripoff of something like Full Metal Alchemist I guess).
Some stuff I want to include:
- ToEE/Divinity Original Sin style move around like an RTS most of the time, but switch to turn based when the combat music starts
- Alterable terrain. Various abilities will be able to create, reshape, change the properties of, or destroy terrain, even mid combat. I'll probably ripoff minecraft's approach.
- Trajectories for grenade like objects, and maybe stuff like trick shots and reflected rays will be shown and it'll be possible to bounce stuff off of multiple surfaces
- Maybe some sort of stealth thing instead of omniscience for everyone
- No consumables. At least in a mechanical sense. You might find items like 'big bag of health potions' that use some sort of cooldown
- Possibly a story where someone finds a mental time travel spell or artifact and this allows rewinding (like in Braid) and justifies stuff like saved games (characters will retain their abilities and knowledge after rewinding or loading and this may open up different dialogue and/or game branches). If I do this, the game difficulty will account for this.
Anyway, I had a few questions regarding game mechanics
- What are the pros and cons of using a grid vs continuous positioning? Even if I go with a grid, I'll try my best to make sure the game can handle strange angles.
- I really, really want to not use RNG for anything beyond maybe procedurally generating levels, the world and/or or AI (i.e. the game will tell you that you can definitely hit that guy with that ability, it'll do X damage and maybe something else). What are some good ways to make this work?
- Would something like D&D style AoOs be a good idea in a turn based tactics game?
Any problems or anything that seems like a terrible idea?
Doing this in javascript because I kinda like working with it, it'll work on any modern browser (will require WebGL to be enabled) and I don't give a shit if people look at and/or modify the code. The engine will be 3D (I'm using three.js) so I can have a freely moving camera and have the vertical positions of objects be more obvious (also because I kinda want to dick around with 3D and there's a sort of not explicitly stated but definitely there minimum complexity quota that I need to fill for a good grade). Since it doesn't need to be actually be published for me to graduate, I won't worry about graphics for now.
It'll probably be high magic fantasy of some kind, though I'm not sure whether I'll go D&Dish medieval fantasy or urban fantasy (though if so, it won't be set on Earth, but may have some earthlike technology as well as magic, but no masquerade. So probably an exact ripoff of something like Full Metal Alchemist I guess).
Some stuff I want to include:
- ToEE/Divinity Original Sin style move around like an RTS most of the time, but switch to turn based when the combat music starts
- Alterable terrain. Various abilities will be able to create, reshape, change the properties of, or destroy terrain, even mid combat. I'll probably ripoff minecraft's approach.
- Trajectories for grenade like objects, and maybe stuff like trick shots and reflected rays will be shown and it'll be possible to bounce stuff off of multiple surfaces
- Maybe some sort of stealth thing instead of omniscience for everyone
- No consumables. At least in a mechanical sense. You might find items like 'big bag of health potions' that use some sort of cooldown
- Possibly a story where someone finds a mental time travel spell or artifact and this allows rewinding (like in Braid) and justifies stuff like saved games (characters will retain their abilities and knowledge after rewinding or loading and this may open up different dialogue and/or game branches). If I do this, the game difficulty will account for this.
Anyway, I had a few questions regarding game mechanics
- What are the pros and cons of using a grid vs continuous positioning? Even if I go with a grid, I'll try my best to make sure the game can handle strange angles.
- I really, really want to not use RNG for anything beyond maybe procedurally generating levels, the world and/or or AI (i.e. the game will tell you that you can definitely hit that guy with that ability, it'll do X damage and maybe something else). What are some good ways to make this work?
- Would something like D&D style AoOs be a good idea in a turn based tactics game?
Any problems or anything that seems like a terrible idea?