So I was thinking about doing a super power type game though I don’t think I want to make it super hero. Something more of you’re a laid back type super person who gets dragged into issues. But then came up the thing of powers and my question.
Would you want to have the ability to choose your powers or would you rather be given a power and have the ability to branch it in different ways? What I mean by that is that if you given, no choice, the ability to control the elements then you have the ability to discover certain sub-powers off of what you pick. Would you be a bit put off if you couldn’t choose your own power?
I would suggest not letting the player choose the power. Not because I don’t like choice, but because you as the author would know better than anyone else what powers fit with your story, and choosing only one power makes it a lot easier on you. If there were multiple powers, you’d either have to write different stories for each (making it much harder on yourself) or you’d have to fit all powers to the same story, essentially making the choice of powers far less meaningful.
I agree with @ParrotWatcher. Offering lots of choices for powers means either: 1) they will all really function the same, with differences being mostly cosmetic (so what’s the point?) or 2) you will have to write combat scenes many many different ways, and trust me that gets old quick.
I agree with @ParrotWatcher because that coding would be extensive! And like you were saying I think giving us one power and just expanding on it is truly enough and would be fulfilling. I’d rather have a paragraph about my super cool power and such than have two sentences about this power that doesn’t seem to go that far.
@ParrotWatcher, @Eric_Moser, @ToxicDreams So would you guys think it best to also scrap the idea of the MC having sub-powers? Which would be a minor thing anyway?
Well… I’ll just put some important points about having diverse powers for your MC
+: Fun
- : Code intensive - : The difference of the powers may be cosmetic only
Now, I’m not saying that “scrap the diverse powers idea” or “stick to a single power forever.” In fact, you may choose to allow the players to be able to decide their own power, if you decided to.
It’s just about how you deal with it. Are you prepared to write the necessary codes for it? Can you balance these powers? And is there important differences if the MC owns different power?
Sub-powers would be slightly different, if just because they could be left until rather later in the story to be revealed (making it easier for you), and because the overall power should still be mostly the same.
If powers are forced upon me like a biblical curse, I certainly would love Never use it and hated them. I don’t care being set to only a power or fixed to the story. What really matters me and anger me is like how almost all authors suppose that I am so happy with the powers and I love then. I don’t care not choice the power(even if certain amount of flavor details like a secondary training could add a lot) That’s what I love so much @Nocturnal_Stillness Unnatural I can choose not use my powers conciously and say I don’t want them I want use other stuff. I also receive a special weapon. Then I feel like game is not about super powers, it becomes a game about motivation and how deal about the powers uses them or not. And for me that’s more important
Depends on what you mean by sub-power. If you mean sub-power as branching from your main power, for example we’re an elemental and one of the sub-powers is fire manipulation, then no don’t scrap it.
But I’m guessing you’re talking about a whole other power entirely, just not your main. And I think that depends on how you implement it and if you think you’re up for that coding. I would say yes but only give us maybe two or three choices and make sure to stress that this is like a fall back think, nothing to get all worked up about . . . lol I hope that made sense.
Actually I had a different concepts about such games … I mean those with power ability type …It’s that generally we have to fight something stronger so it will be good if we are like a godly power human with all sets of power just that we can invest some kind of point system in individual level to invest in power and each has some kind of ultimate move with huge SP consumption ad damage , it would be cool…Bit there is a huge draw back to it too sometimes choice might become vague and confusing so …It is not without any disadvantage … And if it’s about choice you gave then I would prefer choosing my on power…
I would rather have an author choose a power and then the choice comes in when we choose how to use it. For example, if I could control electricity, I could use it offensively to fire bolts of lightning or defensively by creating a shield around myself to protect me or others. Sort of like how the infamous games use of powers.
Your best option is picking something that can be used in a wide variety of ways like many authors have advised having widely different powers can explode into a massive amount of coding.
Start with a solid base power for example ‘shapeshifting’ it has infinite possibilities that one can narrow down. Is it biological (flesh and blood) mineral (rock sand ect…) or liquid ( self explanatory).
Using biological as an example you could personalize shape shifting and offer up quite a few options even from that standpoint. Is the character a mimic?(do they copy people, or animals) or do they alter the form of their body in lieu of augmentation? (hardening flesh, realigning bone structure, increasing muscle density) then theirs the creative aspect (can they change into a being of their own imagining as long as they understand the biology altering their limbs and organs to suit a specific purpose like breathing under water or going chameleon )
Even a single one of those branches offers up their own styles and branches allowing for a great deal of player freedom. So don’t feel that only using one power type is ‘limiting’ the only limit is how you present the power.
I think I remember one kid that became a hero, who had a superpower where he would wake up looking as some random animal and get powers from that animal, the transformation out of his control for the whole 24h of the day, until the next one appears. He could just sigh, addapt and go on. Im sure you dont know the cyoa book I mean, its not that good at all () but couldnt you do that, if you really want to give different powers and choices to the reader? Like one power, one day. Next day, different power. Addapt or die xD
There was also this weird guy who could fly, create force fields, change gravity, control atoms… and all that from a single power
There is actually a game that does something similar. The elemental saga i believe is what its called. You dont have a choice as its more or less about how you play the beginning good game definitely worth checking out if you plan on turning your idea into a game. It may help
The problem with that is u have no control of your power in most of the cases and u can’t use them freely I mean n many battles we can’t go offensive other our huge power like the one in London ,palace in the first encounter with the scouts he used it to enhance his bullets for shield penetration …Man I would have gone for the dark black hole and remove them all easily…So it has not much good points about power usage …
That I agree I played it 3 + times lol …I played many games repeatedly until I get bored and new games are rather slow in publishing man it is not a complain as it takes times to make a story and 3 hrs to read them
) but couldnt you do that, if you really want to give different powers and choices to the reader? Like one power, one day. Next day, different power. Addapt or die xD