hellwalker

Hello,

I have played the ORK demo and I really love the feature set. But I'm trying to create an RPG that is a bit different from the Demo's. Basically ORK's turn based gameplay is similar to JRPG's and I'm looking to create a grid movement turn based game like Fallout 1,2, Age of Decadence, Shadowrun, Wasteland 2 etc.

I know ORK does not support this type of combat system, but I was wondering if anyone tried to do that and maybe combined ORK with some other Grid solution like Turn Based Battle System from asset store? How hard/easy would it be to modify the battle system?

And second question is how universal is ORK? Is it heavily geared towards JRPG or can it be used to create a game like Fallout 1,2, Age of Decadence, Shadowrun, Wasteland 2 etc. ?

Thanks in advance,
Sandro

avantis

you can't create with a combat grid in ork (for moment) but you can make a game almost to fallout, diablo-like

robahouston

Remember that you can make your own scripts for use in ork. There is a plugins feature and some assets from the Unity store will work with ORK. The best person to ask would be @Gamingislove. Contact him directly if you don't get any information here on any specifics. The community is helpful and the developer is really devoted to the community.

Jade

The short answer is that ORK is very flexible and it will surprise you.




The long answer is that there are certain issues, including a fairly big one, but all things considered, I can't recommend ORK enough. Here are some of the more obvious problems you need to solve if you want to make a traditional RPG:

1) You will need your own camera. One of ORK build-in cameras is *almost* good enough, but it's setup to always follow character, so it's not suited for a Fallout-esque game.

Cameras are easy. Personally, I use cheapish "RTS Camera" asset from the store. It does overcomplicate some of the ORK systems a little bit, like you will need to modify the camera script fields directly from ORK event to make the camera move in a cutscene, but honestly it's not that hard.

2) You will probably need your own character controller. I admit that I'm still using the one provided by ORK, but it's not optimal for isometric RPG (for example, it can't queue actions properly so it can't walk into the usable range of an object and then use it with just one click, etc).

3) This is the huge one -- it's very hard to make anything like AoD or Fallout combat system with basic ORK tools.

There is a group buy proposal to commission a proper Turn-Based combat system for ORK: http://forum.orkframework.com/discussion/2407/commission-turn-based-grid-battle-system-group-buy-proposal

If this doesn't work out, my plan B is to implement some sort of abstract, isometric blobber combat for my project (maybe even something like the system in Darkest Dungeon). I hope it won't come to that though.

Kirb

Related to the post above, there is a new thread relating to the Grid Battle Group Buy feature for ORK, which can be found here. :)

hellwalker

Thank you for the replies, this is very helpful.
I guess I need to download the example project and study it a bit more.
I'm more or less decent with C# programming now, so I can probably combine/add/change functionality to ORK. But even if I only use inventory/quest system/trigger system/dialogue etc this seems like a very good deal. I just have to check if it's flexible enough to support specifics of wester RPG's.

Jade
1. For camera I'm thinking about Simple RPG Camera asset - https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/9763
It looks solid and supports several camera options.
2. Controllers are easy with mecanim. Should not be a problem.
3. hmm I would not mind pitching in to get proper grid support, but by the looks of it, it's not confirmed yet and there is no ETA. I searched some more and one guy at RPG Codex forum seems to have made it work with this asset - https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/10686
this is the thread - http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/ork-rpg-framework-for-unity-is-half-off-is-it-worth-getting.90416/

probably worth a shot, definitely if some of these go on sale.

Jade

hellwalker said: I searched some more and one guy at RPG Codex forum seems to have made it work with this asset - https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/10686

TBTK will work for a game that consists of a sequence of battle arenas. It's a good asset for that, but anything more sophisticated will require a lot of coding (or at least this was the case when I explored this option a few months ago). If you are a good at C# and are willing to put a lot of work into it, this might be the path to take.

That being said, the proposed feature list for the Turn-Based system for ORK is a lot more impressive than anything offered by TBTK.

Catacomber

I looked at the TBTK too and sent a message to Kirb a bit back about it and our group buy proposal--I haven't actually bought it but followed it and its users. I haven't bought it because I think our group buy proposal will make that kind of functionality work for us in ORK with much more functionality to make a better game.

If it went on sale, I might buy it out of curiosity to see what I could do with it with my budding knowledge of C# as a kind of hobby but practically speaking--that would be a laugh as I know it would take a lot of scripting knowledge to make it work for me and to make the kind of game I want to make.

And--I really don't want to spend months getting a real rpg game to work with it.

I'm learning C# coding--it's my major project for 2016 because I'm curious and like to get better at things I don't know.

But--I don't want to spend more time than I have to to make a real game. So--I think ORK's version of grid-based gameplay integrated into the Framework is better for me.

TBTK as far as I know is a script---if you are happy scripting, as Jade says, I think you still have to do a lot to really make it work in a real game that is marketable. Just my take on it too.

In fact, I think you have to do quite a lot of scripting imho to make it viable for an rpg type game--just my opinion.

Catacomber

I know someone made an rpg game for ios with TBTK--and open betatested it at Touch Arcade and I have the game and it's pretty good. It crashes a lot for me but that's irrelevant--the poor developer had to go through a lot of hoops to get it to be a good rpg game, imho. : ) But it's basically as Jade said, a sequence of battle arenas. That's it.

You can't just take TBTK in my humble opinion and make a good rpg game with it unless you do a lot of scripting. And then you also have to do a lot of other things too. And it still might be just a sequence of Battle Arenas.

I don't see where ORK wouldn't be superior for making this type of game with a lot more ability to make things interesting.

Sorry for the double post. But I've thought about this ever since the group buy proposal was put up and my attitude is TBTK thumbs down although it's a nice script--and the ORK buy proposal--thumbs up because I don't want to waste my time and I like to get games done with as few learning curves as possible and still be a good rpg game.

Still learning--but don't want to waste my time on something that won't work for me without spending another year or so trying to make it work.

ORK works for me. Assuming the group buy proposal would work for me too. : )

Waiting one to two months for it is not going to kill me, particularly since I'm making a game with ORK without grid-based movement that I hope will be really enjoyable.

hellwalker

Catacomber
Good stuff thanks. So TBTK is not the way to go.
For group buy I can wait like a half a year that's fine, more than that is problematic. Dialogue is a giant focus for my game as well and I can focus on that part first. Turn -Based combat can be prototyped as physical board game as well.

hellwalker

Just wanted to say, I tested TBTK for another project and it's not the way to go for RPG where you want combat to start any place on the map.
The main reason for this is TBTK has a single grid system, so one scene is one grid. And it generates this grid as square/rectangle collision objects. It does not "Project" grid on the terrain. You can basically only use it for flat maps.