In typical RPGs we can freely change equipments, change members that go ventures with you (if it’s party-based), but what do you guys think of changing skills?
like when your skill slots are full but you want to add some more, is deleting a skill to give room for new skill is too technical and breaking immersion?
to be honest, I don’t really care about immersion, my goal is to make a text-based game with choices, not a story with choices, I lean towards “globally-acceptable” game mechanics rather than “subjectively-good” story.
nonetheless, I still want to know what people think about it, thank you.
I hope that you don’t feel offended but It is my advice. Try another engine to make your game. Many have intended a rpg mechanic text game in Choicescript. None was finished.
Choice script wasn’t designed with that rpg systems in mind and it is a pain in the ass and a ridiculously hard o code a game like that. when other engines are extremely easier and with an audience focus on those types of games.
Here is not the main audience focus. You will have a smaller scale following the game.
I assume you mean “skill” in the more typical video game parlance, like powers and moves you can activate in combat? Not “skill” as in numerical abilities/traits used for stat checks? Because if it’s the former, I would understand being able to change them.
If you’re already upfront about your story being a text-based game first and interactive fiction second, I honestly don’t see why not. It would make for interesting gameplay, like when you know your enemies have frost resistance so you make sure not to equip frost-based skills.
My Dark Order project is still (slowly) being written. In that game, besides the abilities that serve as the basis for stat checks (dexterity, fortitude, etc.) the MC can train his skills with different weapons and spells progressively as the story unfolds. I don’t think it makes much sense to just “delete” skills in this context, not only because the choice of what to train is part of the game strategy, but also because the player ends up identifying with the MC throughout the story, with both his weaknesses and strengths. Not being able to easily swap skills also fosters replayability, as the player may want to try out several different combinations for the MC.
For an rpg video game, I think that could be interesting. But for an interactive text game, it seems too complicated. Especially sense some players don’t pay as much attention to their skills as they do their MC’s personality.
Maybe a workaround to implement that could be to add it to the story itself. A device, or a special ability or trait that allows the character to channel the energy into different traits.
I don’t know what’s your story about but the idea could make the player choose the ability it wants to boost before each challenge, so in a way, the player could almost choose if wants to pass or fail. That way it wouldn’t be breaking the immersion cause it’ll be an ingame-aware thing, but it’ll add a lot of other stuff into the game too.
As it is, I tend to despise stat raisers and prefer, as you put it, a “subjectively good story.” Translating RPG game mechanics to text–instead of focusing on the RPG story with just a taste of the mechanics–is just not appealing to me. It’s one thing to play Morrowind, where you have to jump up and down in place for hours on end to bump up acrobatics, or to sneak around in Skyrim having guards make fun of you because your sneak skill blows and you’re trying to up it, but it’s quite another to have to somehow manage this in text.
I play Breach, which walks the line between the two, and like it, but there is enough meat to the story, and the characters, that I keep playing it (and code dive so my MC doesn’t constantly die). The dice rolls inevitably turn out poorly for me, anyway (if I were a D&D character, I’d have rolled a 1 for luck), so I get annoyed.
I guess my point is that, game mechanics are all well and good in a video game, because we expect it. Making these text games overly focused on typical game mechanics either means the game is going to become nearly uncontrollable in its scope or the story will be weak or nonexistent. Of course, others may feel different. But, as far as I’m concerned, if I want to play a video game, I’ll play a video game. I come to these to RP a MC that can shape the story.
I would strongly advise you not to, it will be extremely tedious for you and the reader alike.
Immersion and storytelling are core to text based games and it’s the only thing they can do better than other media. Discarding them in favor of game mechanics which work well in tradional games would be like choosing to eat a soup with a fork because you like steak.
