Fighting Styles Changed by Weapon

[Rezanta 373]

Heya folks! While I was prancing around my college life and all that fun, cheery stuff, I came across a bit of an idea to allow one of the playable characters in my game to have access to different styles of weapons.

 

Crystal, a rare breed of water/ice dragon, can manipulate the water in the air at her will, allowing her to essentially cloak herself to look almost completely human, and she can use the same ability to cast spells and so on. Now, this tactic has been built upon to also include the following: A scythe, a shield, claws, and her traditional staff. (Do note all of these are made out of ice) Each weapon has its own strong point, of course, like how the staff focuses her spells more accurately. The scythe gives her range, allowing for some great setups, but it does block her magic use due to her focus to keep its shape while fighting. The shield is self-explanatory, besides that it can also double as a group protector. Lastly, the claws allow multiple attacks and fast movement.

 

This leads to my question: Is it good to approach this method? Or should I stick with one weapon?

[HeckHound 61]

I've always enjoyed the idea where weapons were more than just a "stat stick", where they affect your basic attack and what skills you have.

 

The one thing to consider though is stats. If this character is going to have unbalanced stats (i.e. higher magic attack than physical attack) then one choice is going to be better than the rest (i.e. staff over scythe and claws).

 

Two ways you could go about it:

 

* Equalize the character's stats.

* Have each weapon apply a state that increases / decreases the stats (and maybe even apply a few other things i.e. MP cost down, attack twice).

[Lord Vectra 414]

I'll add on to what HeckHound said.

 

In the effects section in the weapons tab, you can add a skill type.

 

For example, let's say there are two fighting styles: Offensive and Defensive

 

Hammer of Exodus: Adds the offensive skill type. Whether they get the weapon skills from equipment, items, etc. is up to you.

 

Sword of Wonders: Adds the defensive skill type. Same as above.

 

Hope this helps

[Kayzee 4,032]

I always liked the idea of having special weapon or weapon type specific moves, attack formulas, and/or other stats or features. Though to me it's probably is also a good idea to have more general skills as well. It's not really THAT hard to set up making particular weapons or weapon types unique. You can do a lot of stuff even without doing any real scripting to do so.

[Rezanta 373]

I always liked the idea of having special weapon or weapon type specific moves, attack formulas, and/or other stats or features. Though to me it's probably is also a good idea to have more general skills as well. It's not really THAT hard to set up making particular weapons or weapon types unique. You can do a lot of stuff even without doing any real scripting to do so.

What you said got me thinking on using weapon abilities as skills, since MV allows skills to added by the weapon being equipped.

 

 

I've always enjoyed the idea where weapons were more than just a "stat stick", where they affect your basic attack and what skills you have.

 

The one thing to consider though is stats. If this character is going to have unbalanced stats (i.e. higher magic attack than physical attack) then one choice is going to be better than the rest (i.e. staff over scythe and claws).

 

Two ways you could go about it:

 

* Equalize the character's stats.

* Have each weapon apply a state that increases / decreases the stats (and maybe even apply a few other things i.e. MP cost down, attack twice).

The character in mind has stats altered, but then the game bites back by countering each weapon by certain setups, whether it be bosses or normal enemies, so equivalents are already handled. As for decreases, the claws don't derease anything, where all the others do I might need to fix that.

[Kayzee 4,032]

What you said got me thinking on using weapon abilities as skills, since MV allows skills to added by the weapon being equipped.

So does VX Ace for that matter, and I assume MV also has the features where you can make learned skills only usable with particular weapon types, and that was even without scripting/plugins.

[+ Gongorro 2]

You can do a common event, where if your charaters equip a wep, he or she will lose a skill type, and gain a skill type. But im not sure on bow to go about changing weps in battle thou.

[+ CVincent 234]

This is an interesting concept because of how many dynamics it introduces the player (and the developer) to the game. Balancing such a system would be a challenge, especially if you want to encourage this type of gameplay consistently throughout the game.

 

Depending on how many weapons you intend on creating, you could balance this in a variety of ways. Equipment that scales in power with the player would encourage them to switch gear based on circumstance and strategy. Questions the player might ask and answer may be which weapon is most effective at slaying what target, what defensive strategies would need to be made in order to counteract against an opponent who may have the upper-hand.

 

The important thing, I would imagine, is giving the player enough freedom to choose how they want to approach an event before they come to these decisions. A player needs enough feedback to understand the importance of item 'a' versus item 'b'.

 

With that said, story and general game progression plays an important role. Consider how the player would upgrade their gear to give them these modifiers, what resources it would require. Weapons could grant the player a set of skills based on that particular style of combat, essentially creating a sub-class.

 

For sake of example, if an archer had equipped a short sword they might find they are much more likely to be mortally wounded in combat if they aren't capable of preparing ahead of time against an enemy who might be more proficient with such weaponry. Giving the player the freedom to choose any type of gear between any of the characters in the party creates a diversity that doesn't exist in many games because many classes have restrictions.

 

I'm experimenting with a similar idea myself, however I'm approaching this using switches and common events to modify the way a piece of equipment can be modified to create skills. I would recommend focusing on progression above functionality while you experiment with the idea.