Dynamic Freeform design for a easy mod system....
by John Weddington II · in Game Design and Creative Issues · 10/11/2002 (8:00 pm) · 2 replies
for the last few years i've been mulling overan idea that one might consider hopefully yet just out of reach. i was wondering that in an RPG that a player could literally write there own spells, or the equivilant there of. i took the new knowlege on design documents and earlier when i was young. i called it TechnoMage, i was into cyberpunk at the time , haveing just seen Johnny Mnuemonic. the player would choose his sex, race, and would be given points in which to distribute bwteen his attributes. but ultimately, he/she was the technomage that used a language that was simular to a programming language and each command did different things. as the character progresses, he/she learns new commands and the commands that they've had become stronger. they could write there own spells that would fit there own style of RPG game play and pass on what they know to other players. (this was before i knew the full power online play). i starts off as a community leader asks you to take care of a gang called the "South Central Augments". teenagers with cybernetic body implants, and hopped up on various neuro drugs that they cause general havock. as the story progresses, you'll find that almost anyone with electronic augmentation is acting the same way. causing havock and harming all those that don't have such 'improvements' as a technomage you seak to return the gentle balance that has formed between man and mchine. it eventually leads to a long dead hacker that set up an AI to carry out this invasion of the human mind. you kill him with any and every kind of spell you can come up with so it would get more fun by the hour. i was a very deep story line and i was rather proud of it when i was done. but after countless drive reformats and upgrades, i find that document gone. but the idea is sound. to have such a dynamic battle system would give the game itself very much satisfaction to those who love hardcore games. but that narrows the audience margin by alot. the casual gamer would be very intimidated by something that requires more grey matter than most games. so you could add something like a set of premade 'spellPrograms'that the player purchase to learn, but deffeats the purpose don't it? yet any way. with all the same game having more sequals than rocky on steroids a system like that would strike a unque cord that would attract attention, but will it live up to someone hopes? that depends on the design team and the programmers and the complete staff that makes. it's one of those ideas that look good on paper, but it's all in the execution.
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Torque Owner Robert Brower