Charas-Project
Game Creation => Other Makers => Topic started by: Dragonium on August 02, 2011, 11:14:57 PM
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So lately I've been messing around with UDK, and (after finding out that making a third-person shooter in the Unreal engine is, bizarrely, just about the most difficult thing you can do with it) started work on what I hope to be a pretty standard action-RPG, à la Champions of Norrath and Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance. It's still millenia from being finished, but I'm getting a decent heap of ideas together. What I need from you guys is an opinion on something.
I had the idea to implement a hierarchical skill tree, so that players can choose to specialise as much or as little as they'd like in one particular type of weapon. Using melee weapons as an example, you could choose to put points into melee weapons, making yourself a jack-of-all-trades, or specialise a bit more into a type or size of weapon, giving you less flexibility but more outright skill; a guy with all his points in melee will be outclassed by a guy with all his points in 2-handed axes, but the former guy isn't restricted to one type of weapon like the latter. I think it's a cool system which has almost certainly been done before. Here's where I'm stuck, though - what order should the hierarchy go in? Should whether the weapon is 1- or 2-handed come first, or its type? I explained this to my girlfriend and she was like what, so I drew a pretty picture.
(http://i53.tinypic.com/20iui6x.png)
So, being that you guys know at least the basic points of what makes an RPG work: which system looks like it'd work better to you? Yes, they're pretty much the same, but some people might look at one and think it's utterly retarded, so that's what I'm looking for. Opinion.
No, I don't have anything to show yet, and yes, I'll probably be back with more stupid questions like how big to make the character's nose and how much of the game should revolve around accumulating hats before long.
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I'd personally prefer it being being separated by type.
That's actually one of the things that's irritated me about Skyrim, despite the fact that I know I'm going to play the **** out of it anyways.
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I'd go with the left one.
Personally, I prefer choosing between four one/two-handed weapon types than be limited to, say, axe.
I wouldn't see the point of putting a point in axe as I never switch between one and two-handed weapons. If I go one-handed, I stay one-handed.
So, yeah, the first one.
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I've decided that my previous explanation of "I prefer this because Skyrim irritated me" is inadequate, so I'm going to explain it a bit better.
Weapons should be organized by type, due to the fact that a person who fights with swords isn't going to be able to pick up a mace, or an axe and fight as well as he did before, due to the differences in fighting style.
However, there's not that big of a shift in fighting styles with two handed weapons of varying types. With maces, you're still crushing, with swords you're still slashing/stabbing, and with axes you're still chopping.
Hence, I believe the right hand side makes more sense from a realist standpoint.
The left hand side is a bit more streamlined, but streamlining isn't always the best thing to do.
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I don't know, both have some part of realism.
While a mace and a sword are two different weapon, I doubt one-handed and two-handed are the same either.
Sure, you're still crushing, cutting, etc. But with an heavier and slower weapon.
I just don't the why I'd put points in "Axe" since I'd never switch between one and two-handed weapons.
I'd rather have 4 choices of weapon than be limited to one.
But that's just my opinion.
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Go with the right in my opinion. Mainly because of what Fruck said, and it seems more appealing from a gameplay standpoint.
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I remember when I was playing KOTOR 1 and I made a one-handed Jedi Guardian. Fights were getting harder and harder until I looked up a strategy guide and it basically said something like "the guardian is a good job, unless you go one-handed, in which case you're mostly just screwed." The point is that customization can be a terrible blind alley. Nothing is the same - certain builds will always be good and certain builds will always be less good and it pisses people off to find out that they picked a build that sucks for the rest of the game.
With that said, I'd rather see the right. Actually I really don't think the one-hand two-hand thing is that important really. It would be better to just either lump Swords and Great Swords into the same category (so specializing in swords gets you both) or treat them as two seperate weapons and only have one level of organization.
Also I hate Hobo's sig and have difficultly supressing the want to go into the admin control panel and delete it.
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Alright, I've changed my opinion.
The right one is less likely to be irritating in the long run, that way the player can just switch skills if they feel the need without having to retrain an entire tree.
Either that or you can say "**** it" and not have trees at all.
Just sayin'.
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Speaking of Skyrim, I've been playing Oblivion a lot lately. Oblivion has a stat for bladed weapons, one for blunt weapons, one for bows and one for hand-to-hand. I would recommend doing something like that, perhaps with extra categories for more specialization - ie. you could specialize in either one-handed, two-handed, dual-wielding or sword & shield. Something like that, anyways.
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The right tree would probably offer more versatility, as people before me have pointed out...even though I feel that the left-hand tree is probably more realistic. Even though one-handed weapons are very different, it's a lot different to use a two-handed weapon versus a one-handed one.
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It's just that I wouldn't see the point of specializing in "swords". Do you guys often switch between one and two-handed swords? I know I never do.
However, I'd gladly put a point in "one-handed" since I could switch between maces and swords without changing combat style.
I suppose it's just a matter of preference.
No, actually, I don't suppose. It is a matter of preference.
But I suppose if you want more versatility and make it a little less easy, the right one is better.
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The left has a more purist approach.
However, I'd go with the right. It gives you more options to branch out to and more stuff to potentially upgrade.
In other words, there's a higher level of individuality to your character.