More Project Oracle stuff.

[majutsukai]

So I've done a bit more brainstorming, and I finally figured out some stuff that'll help me set up the party configuration.

I mentioned last time that I set up a framework for Slash, Strike, and Pierce attacks. You know what I noticed when I did so? With the nine characters I had set up, with the signature weapons they've had ever since I started this thing back in high school, exactly three of them have Slash weapons, exactly three have Strike weapons, and exactly three have Pierce weapons.* That couldn't have gone better if I planned it.

Anyway, I figured that, because of that, I should set it up such that each party of three has one Slasher, one Striker, and one Piercer. Makes sense, right?

But then I thought of something. One of the Strikers uses a staff, and is primarily a magic user. His physical damage sucks ass. So does that mean that the party he's in would basically be without a Striker?

So I started going through my planned characters, classing them as Weak, Medium, or Strong, based on how I figured their physical attacks would be. (Because I'd already sort of planned out who would specialize in what.)

Guess what.

Each weapon class had exactly one Weak user, exactly one Medium user, and exactly one Strong user.

It also turned out that the Weak users were the same characters that I'd planned to have learn healing magic naturally, but I half planned it that way anyways.

(For convenience, I'm going to start referring to the Weak, Medium, and Strong types as W, M, and S; that's the terminology I plan to use in the game, at any rate.)

So how does this help solve my problem? Well, it doesn't, strictly speaking; but it was such an amusing set of coincidences that I couldn't help but entertain that line of thought. It also helped me figure out what the party configuration might be, since I figured that each party should also have one W user, one M user, and one S user. But it also helped me figure out something that would solve the problem.

I'm basing all this pretty heavily on the Persona games, right? Well, there was one fairly important gameplay mechanic in the Persona games that I had largely forgotten up till now: Physical skills.

So that's when I got the idea that would solve my problem: Everyone will learn physical skills, but the way their physical skills work will depend on whether they're W, M, or S.

In RPG Maker 2003, attack skills have settings called "Attack Influence" and "Intellect Influence"; they basically determine how much of an effect your Attack and Intellect stats have on the skill's damage. They can be any number between 0 and 10.

So here's how I figured it'd work. W users would learn W skills, which have an Attack Influence of 0 and an Intellect Influence of 10. S users would learn S skills, which have an Attack Influence of 10 and an Intellect Influence of 0. M skills would have an Attack Influence of 5 and an Intellect Influence of 5.

That way, everyone's physical skills are set up in the way that best compliments their stats, and everyone would be able to deal viable damage of their weapon type.

I dunno, I find this stuff ridiculously fun to do. A dork am I.

(*Additionally, out of the characters I cut from the final lineup, one had a Strike weapon, one had a Slash weapon, and one had a Pierce weapon. Holy crap.)

Comments

[nytyngayl.livejournal.com]

How amazingly and awesomely convenient.

I love it when things happen like that.