The project I have been working on for a while is nearly at alpha stage. However, I am not that confident that people will like a game that is a mixture of choose-your-own-adventure-ish virtual novel and text-based rpg. ( Not everyone can create magic like Fenoxo)
So I am here to get some feed back first of whether I should process with current rpg system, that took me quite sometimes to come up with, or switch back to more virtual novel route.
Also, when I mean rpg, I didn’t mean just old style, hit, hit, spell, hit, run; no. There are opinions to end engagements peacefully and each enemies will, mostly, be unique. (Influent greatly by ‘Undertales’ in term of combat, except bullet hell part.) However, in usual style of CoS, there will likely be no virtual, though I plan to put ‘Appearance’ option in for you to check.
So please answer my question. I thought about poll, but I rather have ACTUAL replies feed back, I want quality not quantity.
As long as it isn’t punishing when it comes to ‘not having put enough points into stat/skill X’ - I have issues with those game where I might end up losing down the line because I didn’t specialise.
But the way you describe it - albeit vaguely - it sounds like something I might very well enjoy. Especially the peaceful resolutions, I love games that offers that possibility (with reason befitting the situation and so, naturally) so it is not just fighting all the while.
Don’t all choicescript games use the stats as can/can’t marks? I find I like having those as long as it depends on more than one variable (such as if you are strong, you can move the boulder, if you’re charming you can convince someone else to do it for you), if you’re neither you can go around it or something)
@555sarin Cool idea. I don’t know if I do well in the “quality” part , but I’ll try. As long as its not completely old style and has some aspects that us choice of gamers love so much, it shouldn’t be a problem. I kinda wanna see what you’re gonna do with it, where you go with it, and how you balance CoG and rpg.
What I meant is when I am severely punished or even die down the line because I did not invest in the right ability long before I hit the spot where it all matters.
You can bet I would. I already buy every game that this company make but I feel like those would have a greater game time. Instead of the regular 3-7 hours novels those could push further because of the roleplay element if done right. And thats pretty sweet.
And I also have a random old man gripe. It still sounds odd and wrong to me that what you’re describing would widely be considered more of a “role-playing game” than a more typical CS interactive novel like (say) Choice of Robots, which is all about shaping a character and a narrative through your choices.
Not that you’re using the words wrongly, @555sarin… it’s the world we live in. And it’s great that you’re talking about more than hit, hit, spell, run. But somehow the role playing bit has gone missing from the definition of RPG, to the point where we have to talk about a “mixture” when it’s brought back in.
Yeah, role-playing is not dice rolling. There’s games out there without dice. Dice can, can, add something, but it can also both take over as well as destroy the role-playing part. In Choice Script terms, the dreaded RNG illness when it is used wrongly, dictating the game as opposed to enhancing it.
I had a good laugh out of that post. And Choice of Games plans to further develop the use of typed words and plot lines in forming text-based games, I suppose.
To answer the thread’s original question, I really don’t like fighting (in fact, I was disappointed in Undertale because even if I didn’t fight, I still had to mess about with fight scenarios and battle mechanics and pea-shooting creatures - although I may be pretty much the only person ever who doesn’t particularly care for that game.
Anyway.
If I could end engagements peacefully, or even avoid fighting as much as possible (diplomacy rolls?), I would love that. There are a few computer RPGs that I’ve adored, but it’s usually been in spite of the fighting, or because the mechanics were so interesting that the game part was fun even though it was battles, battles, battles.
But I would certainly give the game a try!
Will we be fighting as part of a party, or solo? Party mechanics always appeal to me. Eggs and baskets.
Something I like is Failbetter’s Fallen London where failing a skill check means you get better at it and maybe a minor reward. I also recommend checking out some Japanese “simulation” games like Princess Maker where you take a character through a set period of time and build them up. There’s no failure or death state, how well you do simply determines the ending you get. So there’s a set time limit, which I think is important in letting the player know when it’s going to end, and there’s stuff you won’t see meaning the game is highly replayable. King of Dragon Pass falls in this realm as well although you can technically lose at it.
You know what would be really cool? an interactive fiction game where your main character is a human playing in an in-universe tabletop roleplaying campaign! Huh? Huh?
…
Just throwing that out there.
What you described would be cool too, of course. I’d be interested in playing it
Sounds like someone put all their points into swimming when playing Deus Ex xD
Anyways. I see most CoG games as RPGs more than AAA “RPGs” released recently since it’s super hard to Roleplay in such games (looking at you FO4).
So aye I’d play your game. Long as its well written and doesn’t have terrible combat. So far combat “mechanics” on CoG games have only put me off or made me quit.
I am as clueless as a clew with less than a clue on a cluedy, uh, cloudy Monday morning. Or, to rephrase it: wut?
But propose I had - a clue, that is - it’d no doubt gone swimmingly, I say, to have stayed afloat in the current situation, if not then. Want some milk or sugar with this piffling?
Basically Deus Ex is an RPG game, a classic one, in which you have a wide variety of skills.
One of those skills is swimming. Few levels actually have water to swim in. So the joke is someone can waste tons of points into a skill that is absolutely useless most of the time, thus making the game basically impossible to finish.
I find what you describe intriguing. I myself am working on a game where I’m trying to replicate the tabletop RPG experience, so I’m interested in what direction you take this.
Can you elaborate a bit on what you mean by RPG? I haven’t played Undertale (though I hope to get to it sometime), and I have exhausted my eight-and-a-half minute lifetime allotment of all the time I will ever spend playing a game by Fenoxo.
Are you talking about a role-playing game in the sense of a strategy game that includes stats among its mechanics, like Diablo II, the Princess Maker games, the Borderlands games, and a lot of JRPGs (in other words, the sort that @Havenstone might not consider RPGs at all because they don’t focus on role playing)? If so, I’d be skeptical of what a text-based interface had to offer, but I would probably try it.
Or are you talking about a role-playing game like the Shattered Lands, Elder Scrolls, Baldur’s Gate or Mass Effect series, which involved making up characters and deciding what sort of “roles” those characters would “play” in an interactive story? If so, how would it be different from other Choicescript games that already do that? Most of my favorite CoGs are a mixture of choose-your-own-adventure-like virtual novel and text-based RPG.
Maybe name a few more influences besides Undertale? That might give a more solid picture of what you have in mind.
How much do you want to bet Emily Short has already done that?
But at least you could swim well. 