Maarten ter Huurne wrote:
> By the way: Dragon Slayer 6 has some nice "jokes" with strong and weak
> enemies. For example the owls in the cave: at first, you can't possibly
> beat them, but then you get the great weapons and they're easy, later you
> lose those weapons and they're hard again.
That's a nice solution. `:)
> At another point in the game, you fight enemies with a group of 4. Once
> they become easy, one of the characters leaves the group and the same
> monsters are suddenly hard again.
I like it; it adds to the enemies' value. The
designer isn't obligated to waste the weaker
enemies once the PC's become stronger. `:)
> FF7 contains such items. But there are some problems with the
> implementation:
> - you only get them once you're already quite far in the game
Hmmm... If I remember well, DS6 also had
something like this, but you could find it
in the second disk.
> - it doesn't influence the chances much, unless the items become a high
> level (in FF7, the magic spheres called "materia" gain XP)
> - the item that scares off enemies gains little XP... (because it only
> gets XP in fights, how ironic)
FF7's approach is awkward. This item only
becomes useful when the player is powerful
enough to dispose of almost any monster.
> FF7 chocobo avoids enemies on the map, just like the helicopter/spaceship.
> But it doesn't work inside towns and other non-map areas.
A lot of games use this "ship" approach. It's
nice if you don't allow the player to have a
"ship" all the time.
> > 2. Characters never fight with weaker enemies
> It is sometimes nice to see enemies that were hard to beat before and
> notice how much power you've gained since then. So I think this option is
> not the best solution.
I remember Final Fantasy Tactics: the enemy
has usually the same level as the PCs. But
this could get annoying, because you see the
same monsters getting very stronger. It may
ruin the setting. <:)
> > 3. Characters don't fight with weaker if in possession of some item
> Works well, but it may be hard to integrate such an item nicely with the
> setting. It shouldn't immediately strike the player as a "fix to the
Right.
> system". In a magical world, it's easy to explain (you don't really need to
Magical wards. :)
> explain). In SF, it would be harder. If you have an item that transmits EM
> signals to scare off enemy robots, it would also disrupt the player's
Well, it could be tuned for some kind of robot/android,
and some mechanic character could upgrade it later, so
it could work on other enemies. We also could have
something like a brain wave emitter, also tuned to
certain kinds of targets.
> gadgets. Or if it is harmful to organic tissue, the player character may be
> affected (if he's organic, ofcourse...).
Maybe some gas capsule which is poisonous for some
alien race... :)
> > 4. Stronger characters are less likely to encounter weaker enemies
> I like this approach. Because chances are used, the player will be
> surprised from time to time. But random encounters with weaker enemies
> won't waste much time compared to option 1, because they are less frequent.
I'm looking forward a RPG engine allowing this... :)
> In Ultima V (I never played the others extensively) that was true, but if
> there were many enemies in a screen, it would still take a long time to
> escape. Same in FF7: escaping is possible, but slow.
I only played Ultimas from VI on. Yes, sometimes it
takes a long time to escape and you may even lose a
character. In FF7, I believe it's only possible to
escape after you encounter an enemy, right?
> Speaking of Ultima V, it's a type of battle we didn't discuss yet. It does
> have a separate battle screen, but it's not face-to-face with the enemy as
> in SD/DS6/PA3. The battle screen is a map, just like the normal map, but
> smaller scale. The battle happens turn-based. You can use range weapons
> effectively (make sure you can hit the enemy, but the enemy can't hit you,
> or at least has lost some HP before he reaches you). You can also place
> your characters strategically, taking advantage of the map layout, having
> strong characters protect the weaker etc.
Strategic battle? I don't like it very much
but I like some games which use it, like
FF Tactics and Shining Force.
> In Ultima V, in game mode you see only one character, but in battle mode
> you see every character in your group. In Ultima VI they changed this: they
> integrated the battle mode with the map. You would always see all
> characters in the group. This was a bad idea: you could walk into a battle
> without noticing it, you could lose track of characters because they got
> stuck behind some wall or tree group etc.
I like having all my characters on screen. And do all
kinds of evil things to them, like locking them, moving
them inside a chest, killing them without notice and
then resurrecting them... :) I think it would be inte-
resting if we could change the lead character and
having some different NPC interaction in consequence. :)
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