/agdg/ - Amateur Game Development General★

Innis to Outtis (Counterspell Outtis to Innis)

- The Gender Bender.

Instantly changes the caster into the opposite gender. Miscasting the Innis to Outtis while you are a male, or Outtis to Innis while you are female will mutilate the caster, or alternatively cause them to shrug and shake their head before accidentally casting it.

>>27038

That's interesting, good spell for a witch/hexer.

Thanks anon, I'll add it to the list.

Grab a copy of the 3rd edition's version of GURPS Magic, it'll have enough spells to suit you.

>>27036 (OP)

My exposure to SMT was SMT:SJ. I was kind of disappointed that charm spells don't affect demon negotiations.

>>27058

Thanks

>>27061

Uh, actually demons are the only mechanic that my game doesn't have. It's similiar to SMT because it focuses on abusing weaknesses and planning useful spell combos.

>>27065

>Uh, actually demons are the only mechanic that my game doesn't have.

Good because I don't you can pull it off without making it a rip-off.

Are you making a dungeon crawler because it would be nice to add some non-combat elements into the game.

>>27072

Game has two segments, first one gives you a hub (city) and a pretty big area to explore. It's full of dungeons. Some of them are mandatory, some aren't.

I'd show you some gameplay but I'm too lazy to make webms and I haven't decided on the artstyle yet so it looks fucking horrible.

>>27073

One of the things that I liked about the spells in SMT is how straightforward it is.

Ma- all enemies

-a - mid strength

-dyne - high strength

X-i - cure x status

Me- all allies

-rama - mid heal

-haran - full heal

FF's x, x-ra, x-raga naming system is also nice.

>>27074

Shit, spells in my game have completely fucked up names. There aren't many "Fireball" type spells, especially because many of them have mixed elements - Dead Tree is a basic Earth/Death spell and Mathemagics scales with both Fai/Int.

But I'm thinking about implementing a basic spell system and adding a spellmaking system that would allow all the gimmicky and quirky spells to stay.

>>27075

What is the barrier to having spells with the right weaknesses?

>>27086

What do you mean?

>>27088

SMT:SJ makes you have to fuse demon together in hope that you get a strong demon with the right skills. For example the boss is weak against electric spells, you have to build a party of demons with electric spells with the same alignment as you using the demons that you already have.

>>27094

Ah, I know what you're talking about. I'm thinking about mixing it up, by adding status effects that would change weaknesses and making spells that have multiple elements.

>>27094

>In hopes of

>Not knowing how 2 fusion

Nigga this is SMT 101

Also look at DnD for spells 3.5 has a million of the damn things.

>>27103

Of course, I know how to fuse. I finished the game. However, I had to learn the system and it isn't like I remember all the fusion combinations.

>>27102

I'm basically saying how are you going to stop your character from becoming Batman pulling whatever from his utility belt?

Maybe say that the spell are tattoos and have different rules and limitations in equipping or card system like in Megaman Battle Network?

>>27107

Oh, that's what you're talking about.

Simple - main character starts with 4 slots. Every 10 levels you get one more, with a limit of 8. You can fill them with spells, potions or techniques.

Spells are learned by using spell books (consumae) and they scale with stats (Int, Fai) and affinities (darkness, light, etc). You can rewrite it if you have a lot of paper.

Potions don't really scale with anything, but they mostly benefit Str characters.

Techniques are physical spells - they're learned by attacking with weapons (for example, Stance by using a rapier and Lunge for using a spear) or getting hit by techniques.

>>27108

What happen when you learn a new skill beyond slot limit? Does it replace a skill?

>>27110

You can replace a spell, like in SMT when a demon learns a new skill.

>>27103

Also, there is random skill shuffle in fusion.

>>27112

What are the elements and status effects?

>>27115

Currently Fire, Ice, Lightning, Darkness and Light. Gonna add more.

Status effects - Burn, Frost, Blindness, Poison, Bleed, Paralysis

>>27117

I asked because I found this interesting article.

>Flavor

http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/bursting-flavor-2003-02-24

>Ten Things Every Game Needs -- by Mark Rosewater

http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/ten-things-every-game-needs-part-1-part-2-2011-12-19

Flavor is basically the story explanation of things in this case mechanics. For example, the MC of SMT:SJ has a passive expel immunity because humans cannot be exorcised.

I think balancing elemental types and sticking to common flavor rules would naturally create more enemy variety.

>>27118

Wow, thanks anon

>>27121

It makes the figuring out of the weakness less like guess work. Besides the undead is weak against light, angels are weak against dark, shadows are weak against both; you can introduce interesting mechanics like having a candle monster be weak against fire but have its attack power greatly multiplied if it is burning.

My experience tells me that treating physical as a neutral damage type is generally a bad idea.

>>27125

I'm thinking about doubling crit chance of techniques to make physical builds better.

What you said about candles - that's my general idea of how mini- and standard bosses would work. Weird gimmicks, multiple ways to beat them and reacting to spells/equipment used by the player. For example, currently I'm trying to design an Undead Paladin. He'd be weak to both dark and light, but at this point in the game it's hardly possible to have both spells. He'd react if the player was wearing paladin armor/weapons by attacking less furiously. Also if the player used necromancy he'd instantly change to the second phase of the fight and get a strong buff to the speed and damage.

>>27132

I don't see why it would be both weak against both light and dark. I'm not saying that it couldn't work but you have to telegraph it better. What I called Shadows is a reference to things like Foul race in SMT. Shadows require both light and darkness to exist. In Warcraft 3, undead are hurt by healing spells; while in WoW, undead regained their humanity thus regain the ability to be healed.

It doesn't seem very clever. The Doppelgänger in SMT:SJ reflects both physical and gun while being weak against both Expel and Curse. The Decarabia in Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia is resistant to both cut and mace while weak against every magic element except ice. The Decarabia cause poison on touch and is rather large so it must be quickly killed with a spell. Both these are just mob enemies and their weakness is meant to compensated for being strong against its game's often relied tactic. Bosses need to be more clever than that.

Does he serve as some kind of fork in the road for light or dark builds? Does he serve as an introduction to enemy behavior as a mechanic?

Also, flavor works best when it is chained together for world building and stuff. Like that Candle Monster that mentioned may have two varieties white ones (mob) and black ones (boss). Besides white ones being weaker than the boss version, the burning mechanic works differently for both. The burning status effect hurts the White Candle Monsters every turn while it regens the Black Candle Monster every turn. While the white ones are just dangerous if they aren't one shot by your fire spell (they have high defense), the Black Candle Monster is a dangerous boss. The mob version of the boss gives a preview of the mechanic that the boss works on.

>>27134

Shit, I mixed it up. He's supposed to be resistant to them. Resistant to dark since he's undead and resistant to light since he's wearing paladin armor set. First thing I'll do to telegraph his weaknesses and resistances will be changing spell effects - I'll add a couple of dark/black particles in "Holy" spells used by paladins and I'll play around with sfx to make them more zombie-like.

>Does he serve as some kind of fork in the road for light or dark builds? Does he serve as an introduction to enemy behavior as a mechanic?

He's an optional boss who drops a weapon with Fai scaling and a buff. Most important thing about him is that he's supposed to remind the player that playing as a spellsword doesn't mean using magic over and over, since he's resistant to both light and dark. Basically, he's an easy opponent if you're using physical weapons and rewards you with a weapon for spellswords.

I like the idea of Candle Monsters, but I wanted to make the bosses unique - give them a little personality and things like that. But now that I think about it, multiple versions of the same enemy would really fit in my setting, so I think that I might play around with gimmicky mechanics.

Thanks again, anon, your advice is extremely helpful since I haven't really played many RPGs in my life

Include stuff like Fear or Rage in the list of status effects. Affecting enemy/player behavior would be pretty important in a SMT style RPG. Check out Darkest Dungeon for a neat way to do mental, PTSD style debuffs.

>>27149

I already have Burn, which is basically Rage + bonus fire damage.

Fear would probably work the same way as Stagger so I don't think it's necessary. But if I'll come up with a cool unique mechanic for it I'll definitely add it.

FireGrid

IceCross

FartGas

>>27264

Gah, too generic. I already have a shit ton of fire and ice spells.

Use all elements and then some, use a thesaurus like there's no tomorrow, and also one thing I love in games but rarely see is vampirism/health leech!

Also really do try to not make your spells generic except at low level.

A wizard specialized in wayer/ice could learn these spells in order of increasing difficulty:

Water Stream

Condensation (aoe slow or map change like yugioh map spells)

//can't think of any :^)

Torrent

Flood (huge aoe)

>>27289

Shit, I'll definitely put these in, maybe except the buff one - it would be hard to determine which spells are buffs because most of the high level ones have multiple effects.

>>27293

Thanks anon. Most of the high level spells have multiple elements and effects. I want to make sure that the game offers a huge variety of playstyles.

Also I'm kind of terrified when I think about making animations for them all.

>>27298

My main goal is to make everything as complicated as possible while making sure that the player can figure it all out without reading a wall of text or playing a tutorial. Also I'm not planning on adding any hidden mechanics, I want the player to feel confident in what he's doing.

>>27303

d54a6d here btw.

I've imagined two more, fun ones!

Tombola (The magical kind!)

>(always first in turn) Every spell cast during this turn will be applied by a different unit chosen randomly. Has restrictions on boss units (50% missing chance? Lowered effect scaling with stats?).

Duck

>Throws a magical rubber duck at the enemy, dealing exactly 1 damage (yes that's a CS reference). Pierces through every resistance, barrier, immunity, and never misses. Also has 1% chance of unleashing doom upon all enemies. If this is used during the same turn as Tombola, the doom proc effect chance gains an additional 4%.

Each has it's uses, but combined they make for a great synergy given that one is lucky enough to avoid the doom proc!

Chaos is always fun!

>>27302

>My main goal is to make everything as complicated as possible while making sure that the player can figure it all out without reading a wall of text or playing a tutorial.

Most people only read the rules to the point that they think that they understand the game. The first thing people ask about a game is how to win. The advance stuff should use the basic stuff as a foundation.

>>27303

Siam is a really interesting one, but there's one problem. Player's party won't ever be bigger than 3 chars at once.

>>27289

>>27303

>>27304

Before looking more complicated status effects, why won't you work something simpler.

Look at the two different ways Final Fantasy treats Zombie status:

>In some games, Zombie status reduces the character's HP to 0 and makes the affected character uncontrollable and hostile to the party, similar to Charm. In these games, a zombified character is flagged defeated for the purpose of Game Overs.

>In other games, Zombie status makes the afflicted characters undead, acquiring the same inherent weaknesses, resistances and immunities as undead monsters, while leaving them alive and under player control. Typically, this means that healing magic (and some healing items), HP and MP drain and some Instant Death effects have the reverse effect. The reviving items and spells have the same effect as Death (though in some games it simply deals a significant amount of damage). The spell Reverse in Final Fantasy XII bears some similarities to this status. In some games, Zombie status cuts physical damage taken.

>In some games, such as Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI, both versions of the status condition appear, with the former known as Zombie and the latter referred to as Undead.

I prefer the newer effect because there is more interesting things you could do with it and you don't have violate the most basic rule in this game (character don't move when they have zero HP). Also, FF9 did something interesting by making it the persist after death making it necessary to cure it before reviving the character.

Here are some of my ideas:

>Mana Shield

Damage taken is deducted from MP instead of HP. When MP reaches zero, the status is removed.

>Blood Magic

Spells cost HP instead of MP.

>X Magnet

X element spells will target afflicted character.

For the spell crafting, I reminded of an analogy for how parents pass their genes. People have the misconception that a child would be like mixing two even parts of two different colors. It is more like shuffling two decks of cards together and cutting them in half with card representing traits. Some cards more likely to be paired with other cards while some cards would be over-shadowed or overpower other cards.

flood error bump

>>27036 (OP)

DnD version 5 spell list.

https://www.dnd-spells.com/spells

It's not hard.

>>27481

What happens when you cast a spell and have both Mana Shield and Blood Magic active?

>>27550

You use your HP to cast magic. Every hit you take would cost MP. I don't see how that is hard to understand. It isn't like they contradict each other.

>>27559

Okay, but originally you didn't say "hits" for Mana Shield, you just said "damage taken." Those are two different concepts.

Since you cast from HP with blood magic, that would count as "damage." But with mana shield, "damage" doesn't get taken out of HP, it gets taken out of MP. So I wasn't sure if you intended having the two together to work just like regular casting (Fireball costs 8 MP, with Blood Magic it takes 8 HP, Mana Shield converts that 8 HP damage into 8 MP), or if only one could be active at a time, or if blood magic came after mana shield in the effect timeline so the issue of conflict would never arise, or if somehow blood magic didn't count as damage, or what have you.

But, yeah, I suppose if Mana Shield only counts damage taken from outside sources, then the issue never comes up.