Commission: Turn-Based Grid Battle System [Group Buy Proposal] - Page 2

Any updates regarding this?

As am I! In fact, when this gets implemented, I have plans to be working on a separate Fire Emblem-like project alongside DG, in a separate team.

I did notice a few pretty big omissions in the original proposal though, there are a few essential things for building a tactics RPG, and would be good things to additionally suggest, if they aren't implied or already possible in the original details:

-A conditions system for adjacent combatant units or objects and adding custom Actions.
Using the classic Fire Emblem example, if an specific Ally is next to a recruitable enemy character, you can choose to 'Talk' to the unit, starting an event, and possibly converting the enemy combatant to your own side.

Another classic example (as seen in FFT): you need one of your units to pull a lever somewhere in the battle. You send your unit to the lever (either on top of it directly or adjacent, depending on what you want) and that unit gains a (Pull Lever) action.

So basically there should be checks/conditions for who is being controlled, who/what is being targeted, etc, so we can add custom actions.

-Different Areas may limit or enhance movement speed or other attributes

Moving through a desert/sandy areas may severely limit the movement speed of a character/class on horseback, while a character on foot would move through it normally. Forests and mountains slowing down the movement rate in general. Etc. Just having a way to mark specific grids as being able to limit or cut movement is pretty important.

-Attack Cinematics

When it comes to tactic-RPGs, there's generally two styles of how an attack is represented. Either the attack happens directly on the battlefield. (Tactics Ogre, Final Fantasy Tactics, Fallout 2) or upon attacking, you are brought to a separate screen via screen transition, where you can witness both units attacking each other in stylish fashion. (Fire Emblem Series, Advanced Wars)

Both of these styles being possible would be ideal, if not built in directly, then via battle events or something similar.


-Set-up Phase/Starting Formation

In most Tactics RPGs, when you begin a battle, you select from a list of Allies/Units to bring into battle, and place them down into a starting formation before the battle begins. This is a pretty important aspect of the genre and a UI/menu components would need to be implemented with this in mind.


-Grid-Highlighting

Being able to move the cursor (both mouse and keyboard controls) around the map, and display properties of any given unit (examining them, seeing what they have equipped, their name, etc) or what kind of terrain the particular grid is.

I think without these additions, there'd be a lack of versatility with what you could do with grid movement in the way of Tactics RPGs. Many of these things, I think, are already present in ORK in some form or implied in the original proposal; but the designer in me is a stickler for specifying tool requirements. :D

Me too, sent a PM about 2 weeks ago, haven't received info yet.

Does gil know how to contact Griffin?--Griffin must have gotten in touch with him somehow to get the price unless it was done via pm.

I expressed an interest even though I don't use turn-based battles right now. But nobody ever contacted me. It's a shame to have this hanging out in limbo.

I'd be fine with your being the representative Kirb. I'm sending you a pm.

I just looked at my pm/message threads and realized I sent him a pm October 13th expressing interest and never got an answer. Of course people have trouble/accidents/tragedies/unforeseen events all the time in their lives so maybe something unforeseen happened but as we don't know it would be good if you could follow this up with gil. I hope Griffin is ok and this is just a topic that got lost somehow and can be recovered.

@gamingislove Thanks for the update, and the info! Going to adjust some of this google doc I've been writing up. When or if Griffin is still up for it, I'll talk to him about it.

@catcomber

Griffin never really quite clarified, but I'd assume we'd be aiming to make this a Public feature rather than exclusive one; that is to say, it would become part of the standard ORK featureset to be updated/maintained. :)

@gamingislove

Understood. Beginning tomorrow, I'll contact you with a slightly revised proposal doc; contact everyone that seemed interested in this thread (hopefully Griffin can give me a list of people who sent him PMs to make this transition easier!), and start a new thread.