Creating "Interesting" enemies

[Ivan Rosenguard]

Since RPGM3 was first released, we've seen dozens of projects create interesting and innovative concepts--out-of-the-box thinking has produced some exciting gameplay features...except where the battle system is concerned.

Even the most innovative RPGM3 projects have all had drab, uninteresting battles. I do believe that it is possible to do better with the battles.

While we all know that nothing can be done about changing RPGM3's battle system's core mechanics, we CAN, however, exploit certain aspects of the system to create enemies that perform some interesting actions.

Take my game: The God Gene. The first fight you'll be able to go against in the Demo will be against some soldiers. They've got beam weapons that fire rounds of plasma energy. Each clip that the enemy has has three rounds. They each have a single shot attack that does minimal damage and takes up one round, a double shot that hits
both your party members for minimal damage and takes
up two rounds, a triple shot attack that does heavy damage to one party member, and a "Reload" action which
reloads up to three rounds.

How did I do this? Well, I made it so this particular enemy
begins the battle with 990 MP. The single shot takes 330 MP, the double shot takes 660 MP, and the Triple shot takes 990 Mp. The Reload command restores up to 990 MP.

Another boss that will be in the demo has the "MP shield" ability. It will be represented in the battle as a shield that must be broken before the boss can be damaged. The boss can re-cast this shield (by restoring MP) at any time at the
cost of some HP. In addition, since most of the boss' spells cost no MP, I've made a spell which restores her HP by a small amount at the cost of 1 MP, so that when she casts the shield, she will begin the process of slowly healing herself.

Your ability to overcome this challenge will depend on how quickly you can bust that shield (which may involve some smart thinking on gathering MP and knowing when to use it since you have to attack to gain MP in my game). In the second round of the fight, however, things will be different. She will no longer be able to cast her shield nor will she be able to heal herself and she will have less HP. However, she will be able to do twice the amount
of damage she dealt beforehand.

So that's basically what I'm talking about. It isn't as though past RPGM3 games haven't been great, its just I'd like to see more of that out-of-the-box thinking in the battles department. I'd love it if a few of you could share thoughts and ideas on this.

[Lausen]

Re: Creating "Interesting" enemies

I like what I hear especially sense the battles can get old fast. I thought about doing a limit break were you have to attack to get MP, but scratched it, because then your basic magic takes from the same MP.

For the MP shield how do you indicate it has to be broken? Does it say something about it before the fight? How do you know it recasted the shield? If you can't tell these thing's then it's just more damage you have to do without even knowing it.

What do you use to make it look like beam weapons? Is it just a skill, or what? It's a good Idea I just don't know how you would make it look like a gun or what not.

Other then that it's nice to know you're trying to make the fights more interesting.

[coldwar]

Re: Creating "Interesting" enemies

Those are some awesome ideas. Everytime you give more details, the God Gene sounds more and more like the mother of all games.

I wouldn't have the patience to put that much thought into each monster. I do, however, diversify between each one. Changing races and assigning weaknesses puts an easy element of strategy into the game, with some monsters being pure tanks, damage dealers, debuffers, and mana burners.

[Ivan Rosenguard]

Re: Creating "Interesting" enemies

I like what I hear especially sense the battles can get old fast. I thought about doing a limit break were you have to attack to get MP, but scratched it, because then your basic magic takes from the same MP.

For the MP shield how do you indicate it has to be broken? Does it say something about it before the fight? How do you know it recasted the shield? If you can't tell these thing's then it's just more damage you have to do without even knowing it.

What do you use to make it look like beam weapons? Is it just a skill, or what? It's a good Idea I just don't know how you would make it look like a gun or what not.

Other then that it's nice to know you're trying to make the fights more interesting.

Glad to answer. The dialogue at just before the fight with "The Violated" goes like this: (Or something like this, I'm too lazy right now to get my written script)

Ivan: Little girl? *approaches and is thrown back*

Ivan: What the...

Michael: Some kind of field.

Girl: So...even you can't tell a smile from a veil. No one I ever knew could--all wrapped up in their own concerns;
keeping about them a wall that stood fast against the pain even as the Beast himself consumed them from within!

But I thought you were different. Have they already gotten to you? Don't let them trap you in your own cage like a canarie frightened of the outside world--unable to fly!

Ivan: What are you--

Girl: This is MY wall, Ivan. You helped me to be free of it once. Can you break it down again? Can you even escape
from your own cage?

And during the battle, the skill she uses to summon the shield is called "Veil of a Smile".

And as for the soldiers, I used the Ninja graphic with the camo skin. So they have a katana. I used the yellow special effect on their weapons. Basically they are armed with what is called a "Plasma Bayonette" and its basically a lightsaber that can shoot plasma shots. Fortunately, the Ninja's Attack 3 effect's thrusting motion looks like the firing of a gun.

[JPS]

Re: Creating "Interesting" enemies

wow you make some really long posts

[Jamos]

Re: Creating "Interesting" enemies

Sounds nice. Kind of reminds me of a boss battle I had on one of my attempts at making a game. It was a fight against a demon woman called Dominia. She had an MP shield but it's main purpose wasn't to act as a shield. Instead she had two monsters in front of her preventing you from attacking her. One of the them healed it's allies' HP or MP and the other casts negative effects on your party. You have to quickly dispose of them before they become too much too handle. Then you have to blast away at her MP before she casts her move that revives all of her allies. It only costs 1MP so that has to be completely taken down. Then all you have to worry about is her increadibly powerful spells which can also stop any or all of your allies. That was a rather tough fight, though probably not the most original. Does make for a nice challenge.

[jvrlopez]

Re: Creating "Interesting" enemies

wow you make some really long posts

It's called grammar and formatting.

You should try it sometime.

[Ivan Rosenguard]

Re: Creating "Interesting" enemies

Sounds nice. Kind of reminds me of a boss battle I had on one of my attempts at making a game. It was a fight against a demon woman called Dominia. She had an MP shield but it's main purpose wasn't to act as a shield. Instead she had two monsters in front of her preventing you from attacking her. One of the them healed it's allies' HP or MP and the other casts negative effects on your party. You have to quickly dispose of them before they become too much too handle. Then you have to blast away at her MP before she casts her move that revives all of her allies. It only costs 1MP so that has to be completely taken down. Then all you have to worry about is her increadibly powerful spells which can also stop any or all of your allies. That was a rather tough fight, though probably not the most original. Does make for a nice challenge.

Actually, that sounds awesome! Glad to see someone else is thinking outside the box when it comes to battles. A little arduous and difficult perhaps, but it'd make a great challenge for an optional boss, I think. I'd really keep that one in mind. Never throw away your ideas, they might be useful elsewhere.

Why I can recall HUNDREDS of ideas I had for The God Gene--I didn't use half of them, but perhaps they can be put to use in future projects (or optional bosses within the game, as I've said before. There are tons of them in GG).

[Cysma]

Re: Creating "Interesting" enemies

I had a few ideas for enemies myself. Let's see...

-A boss that is immune to weapons AND magic, but would die on its own after a certain amount of turns have elapsed. I don't know how to implement this, however.

-An enemy (monster or boss) that does nothing but buff its offensive power for several turns, then take down the entire party in one shot. The heroes have to defeat it before it does so.

-A boss with low HP, but heals itself often.

[The Toecutter]

Re: Creating "Interesting" enemies

-A boss that is immune to weapons AND magic, but would die on its own after a certain amount of turns have elapsed. I don't know how to implement this, however.

You could make your characters not have access to poison until a later point in the game, and then use it.

More specifically, you could create an item that can only be used once and which you get just before the battle that can poison the enemy. Do everything possible to make the enemy extremely susceptible to poison so that it always works, while simultaneously immune to pretty much all other (if that's possible in RPGM3)




In RPGM1 this would be easy, as you could just set a number of turns for the battle. But RPGM3, you'll have to be creative.

[Dusk Raven]

Re: Creating "Interesting" enemies

The MP shield ideas remind of a robotic boss that has a shield and it also has the Restore MP ability. It can draw power from the shield to cast spells.

Also, in Fimbulwinter, I had the main character have 15 MP. His "Spells" Represent him using his handgun, with MP as ammo. There's the "Standard Shot", taking 2 MP, the "Sniper Shot", taking 1 MP with a chance to insta-kill but with reduced damage, and "Rapid Fire" which uses 6 MP but damages all enemies. There's also items that refill MP.

[JPS]

Re: Creating "Interesting" enemies

It's called grammar and formatting.

You should try it sometime.

Yeah, this advice coming from a guy in Texas bangin' on da corner slangin'...




I'll watch my grammar and formatting next time...