New game plus: can it be done?

[Deeth Irteen]

Quite recently I was designing my game, when I was struck with a question: Can you make a "New Game Plus" option RPGM3?

[Karr Lord of Chaos]

Re: New game plus: can it be done?

i suppose if you could somehow loop the final scenes and make the game start over. make sure there would be some kind of bonus for doing so, though your levels and everything youve gained would still remain as it where before.

im not sure how many would even want to play though a rpg maker game again, unless it was short and very fun which would nullify the need of the new game feature.

[JPS]

Re: New game plus: can it be done?

You could have a password at the beginning of the game thats ## characters long that would change X variable to "1" and base the events that would be different on a 0-1 variable

[Wavelength]

Re: New game plus: can it be done?

Oh, sure it can be done. And it depends on exactly what you want to do, of course... you might want to keep your items/money/skills/experience, or you might want to unlock secret areas, or you might want to enable some sort of cheats...

JPS' idea works well if you don't want the player to be able to keep anything. But if you DO want the player to keep stuff like their Money, then the key would be to set all the Display On/Offs, (appropriate) Variables, Modes, etc., back to their original settings, and send the player right back to the very beginning, without touching their skills/money/whatever you want them to keep in the New Game Plus.

[Pagerron]

Re: New game plus: can it be done?

One downside, however, is that treasure chests would not be able to be reset unless they were all creator-made events.

I guess you could have duplicate dungeons with new chests with the same name as the first playthrough. Lots of memory gobbling then though.

(I seem to remember a similar topic a long time ago, but I wasn't able to find it when I searched)

[ezz1692]

Re: New game plus: can it be done?

Simple. At the credits screen or something like that, you display a number from 1 to 9. At the beginning of the game, have a option- control branch (or something like that, the one where you put a question and answers). You put 9 different answers and when you select the correct one you get a very good item or something.

[Wavelength]

Re: New game plus: can it be done?

One downside, however, is that treasure chests would not be able to be reset unless they were all creator-made events.

I guess you could have duplicate dungeons with new chests with the same name as the first playthrough. Lots of memory gobbling then though.

(I seem to remember a similar topic a long time ago, but I wasn't able to find it when I searched)

Page has got a good point here. But you can use Events that look like Chests or anything else (which give you stuff, then switch to an empty mode), rather than the standard Treasure Chests. Then you can work it into a New Game Plus without worrying about duplicate dungeons. It makes the Treasure events more versatile, anyhow, and you don't get a lot of annoying text forced on you. It does take up one Event and a bit of memory each time you do it, of course.

[Ivan Rosenguard]

Re: New game plus: can it be done?

Page has got a good point here. But you can use Events that look like Chests or anything else (which give you stuff, then switch to an empty mode), rather than the standard Treasure Chests. Then you can work it into a New Game Plus without worrying about duplicate dungeons. It makes the Treasure events more versatile, anyhow, and you don't get a lot of annoying text forced on you. It does take up one Event and a bit of memory each time you do it, of course.

But does it take up any more memory than a regular treasure event? I've never experimented with event object animations, if you activate the treasure chest animation, will it open and close or will it stay open? And one more thing: Items received from events are added to a selected characters item list. If that character's item list is full, then does it give you the option of trading/dropping an item when you are awarded it? As far as I know it doesn't work like that...

[Wavelength]

Re: New game plus: can it be done?

But does it take up any more memory than a regular treasure event? I've never experimented with event object animations, if you activate the treasure chest animation, will it open and close or will it stay open? And one more thing: Items received from events are added to a selected characters item list. If that character's item list is full, then does it give you the option of trading/dropping an item when you are awarded it? As far as I know it doesn't work like that...

Yeah, I *think* the Chest will close again in the Custom Event, so your other mode will have to say "this chest has already been ransacked" or something of the like. If one character's items are full, I think it will be placed in the next character's inventory as long as you've selected "Party Member" rather than a specific member. I have no idea what happens if all the inventories are full, though.

[Perversion]

Re: New game plus: can it be done?

I've had a problem giving items to the party when their inventory was full, especially when you designate a specific character, which was one of the "bugs" discovered in my first game.

Also, I was/am planning on making a "Game Plus" feature in the last game of Series 4, assuming it ever gets made. Although, it's not going to be a standard "Game Plus." It basically is going to be, you play through the game the first time, and you pretty much die at the end (the game, by necessity, is very linear). Then, you "restart" the game, whereby all the events, etc, are reset with mode changes and display ons/offs, and when you play through the second time, it will be programmed that you will encounter/resolve the events a bit differently, which will lead to a different outcome in the end.

This can be done twice, as in the beginning, you can join either the thieves' guild or the assassin's guild. The tricky part is, the events that correspond to the "losing" thieves' guild scenario also correspond to the "winning" assassin's guild scenario, and vice versa. So if you play through once, you will participate in certain events, but not necessarily think too much about them. But if you play through in the oppposite guild, you will see these same events occur from a different perspective.

Now let's see if it gets made. *sigh*

[Deeth Irteen]

Re: New game plus: can it be done?

Ooooh. Aaaah. So many variations on a "new game plus".

[MagusMartovich]

Re: New game plus: can it be done?

I find it odd that the Game+ idea hasn't caught on in more mainstream games... Chrono Trigger did a good job with the whole idea, and even the Lufia(s) at least changed the gameplay after beating the game at least once. But with the exception of a handful of games, the game+ is truly under utilized.

I really like the idea, but its definatly a better bet for the first 2 RMs in my opinion. In fact, I'm still trying to figure out a way to incorporate game+ into an RM3 game where it would matter, but I think that people would tire after one playthrough and give up if they had to play a second time through a game. Either way, it is quite a moot point, as I won't be finishing/uploading any games for at least another 6 months, we're all waiting on everybody else...

[Wavelength]

Re: New game plus: can it be done?

I find it odd that the Game+ idea hasn't caught on in more mainstream games... Chrono Trigger did a good job with the whole idea, and even the Lufia(s) at least changed the gameplay after beating the game at least once. But with the exception of a handful of games, the game+ is truly under utilized.

I really like the idea, but its definatly a better bet for the first 2 RMs in my opinion. In fact, I'm still trying to figure out a way to incorporate game+ into an RM3 game where it would matter, but I think that people would tire after one playthrough and give up if they had to play a second time through a game. Either way, it is quite a moot point, as I won't be finishing/uploading any games for at least another 6 months, we're all waiting on everybody else...

A little down on RM3 as of late, eh, my friend? Well it's not all that hard to incorporate the New Game+ into a RM3 game and have it change the gameplay for your second run (or keep things that you earned in your first run).

Like you said, a lot of the time people might get tired of a game after the first run, even if they enjoyed it while they were playing. I guess that's where it comes down to making the game a joy to play through. If you make the gameplay fun, hopefully people will want to keep playing, even after the final credits have rolled.

[MagusMartovich]

Re: New game plus: can it be done?

This seems to reflect the "gameplay" that I don't believe can be changed via the creator through the available mean provided by the RM3 software. I do agree that there are games that I've played through at least seven times (7th Saga) just so that I could see every possible variant of the game itself, but I can't say that "forcing" a player to replay a game is the same as causing a game to have "replay value"

Point in hand, Chrono Trigger has replay value, as does say, FF7. CT has game+ but FF7 does not. In CT, the game plus functions, because basically, you CAN just power level right from the begining (and at later points in the game as well) to either "max out" or just give an unreasonable boost to character stats/levels/magic/etc. In FF7, although you CAN do the same thing, the game itself is set up in such a way that you find something (usually) after whater it is that you found would have come in handy. Cracking out 4+ KotR on the first boss would be fun (if for no other reason than overkill) but being able to do it would actually make the game a lot less fun to play.

In summation, I think that although the game+ idea can be extremly effective, you really need to have the right kind of balence in the game or else it only becomes a needless waste of programming and playing time.