Musical TBS

[clockworkroutine]

I want feed back as to what to include and the like,
And if my musical theory notes seem off can someone make a point of correcting me.

General Info:
TBS game involving point click movement
and the battle system is based on Musical Theory as well as implementing traps.

Weapons of choice in this world are instruments,

The goal of the game is to take down governments,
establish your own rule,
implement your own laws,
and get feed back by the people,
and if they don't like you they'll guillotine you

ALL UPDATED INFO HERE:
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Plan on having music assigned to every dialogue.
Sounds will be logically added to certain letters.
I just downloaded Finale 2006, so it will be easy.
Music composition is the best!
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I thought the story a little bit more
Setting:  A culminating time between the Rennaisance and the Enlightenment,  Old brooky clitter clack towns, slummy and broken, crippling and smelly, awkward ominous alleyways, billowing pollution, death and decay.  A real dividing distinction runs between the upper class, middle class, and the lower class.  The upper class has technology so grandiose. Quality of life is barred from the poor, as the upper class sweat in sin.  Not saying that Lower and the Middle Class does not have its share of sin as well.  The Government's manipulative.

I base alot of my story on the book 1984 and also on the French Revolution as well as The Communist Manifesto.

I want to really devastate the player with the nature of man.
And so the game has some Mature content

Character (Indevelopment):
The main characters name is Figeuro Reusc.
He's 17
He's an aspiring Composer

Ludwig Van Beethoven
he's old
he's a guitar god and composer
-------------------------like I said in development----------------------------

Music Theory Battle System (Copy and Pasted i.e. very unorganized jotted thoughts):
Weapons are Instruments
The Quality of the Instrument produces a finer quality sound, thus it initials Max Damage.

Every Character has different Proficiencies in instruments,
which to aids in the quality of the attack.

String has the most ability to deal damage
Wind Ensemble has the most ability to cause an effect thats helpful
Percussion has the most ability to push away and is effective against enemies that surround the character
Brass has the most ability to cause an effect thats detrimental

Play
Songs
Dance
Deafen
Items
Move
Status

Mosh (Berserk)

How can I make my game different?

as notes are played they are added to the characters measure
when a measure is complete
a song (spell) will ensue
Playing in different time signatures
will change the spells
Not only are there instruments
but there are sound amplifiers, sound bombs
Amplifiers can increase the volume of the instrument but not effect the quality of the sound,
Sound boomers are like grenades, they are very powerful in volume, they range in different keys, and also note values.

You can make a ground resinate with different sounds,
This can in effect act as the trap system.

There are Special Sounds that attribute to condition effects,

Instruments can also be played to send characters flying in the air

Echoing plays a part as well

Volume of the Instrument Played Determines the Range of the Attack
The Quality of the Attack is lessened with the Volume increase.
Also the farther the enemy is the less effective it will be.

Each Character has a Hearing Range,
They can lessen their hearing by defending which just entails cuffing the ears,
Or they can equip ear plugs which have a 1 time battle use, or wear ear muffs as well.

You get to choose whether who plays next, or who you want to combo together.

Every Character has different preferences to different sounds and pitches in notes,
Preferences determine how effective you are using a note, and they determine how resistant you are as well,
The more whole a note is, the bigger the multiplier of the damage, but also the more AP is needed

4x=16 AP
3.75x=15 AP
3.5x=14 AP
3.25x=13 AP
3x=12 AP
2.75x=11 AP
2.5x=10 AP
2.25x=9 AP
2x=8 AP
1.75x=7 AP
1.5x=6 AP
1.25x=5 AP
1x=4 AP
.75x=3 AP
.5x=2 AP
.25x=1 AP

The root notes consist originally as

Sixteenth=.25x
Eighth=.5x
Quarter= 1x
Half= 2x
Whole=4x

adding dots take half the symbols value in front and adds it to the max damage multiplier
the AP for which is determined by how much it will add to it.

Sixteenth=0 Dots
Eighth=1 Dot
Quarter=2 Dots
Half=3 Dots
Whole=4 Dots

Whole numbers are multiplied
Decimal numbers are divided
Equations work like this:
Max Damage X Whole Number= Major Damage
Max Damage / Decimal Number= Minor Damage
Major Damage + Minor Damage= Multiplied Damage

Choosing a Different Key to hit it in, effects Max Damage.
It grabs the value of your preference in that key,
Sets the Max Damage,
And then it grabs your opponents preference in that key,
And subtracts that from the Max Damage.

(Still learning about these)
Natural Effects
Harmonic Minor Melody Effects
Harmonic Major Melody Effects
Melodic Minor Melody Effects
Meldoic Major Melody Effects
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Screen shots won't be up in some time...
And I think I solved my movement delema

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OLD STUFF HERE GETS DELETED EVERY NOW AND AGAIN


BATTLESYSTEM_---------------------------------------------------------------

This going to be fun to program I bet.  The character has AP points that go down with every action, as soon as they reach 0 character freezes whereever he is, even if he is in the air.
The Hero can jump in the air to escape enemies from reaching him during their turn, but if he gets snagged, he falls down and gets severely wounded.
Being in the Air and attacking also adds to the damage.
The Hero also learns to use traps that have different effects if touched.  I remember my brother playing a game like this on playstation, and I believe traps will definately add to the tactics aspect of a TBS.
Traps can push an enemy here or the hero here.
Launch them into space.
Deal damage.
All of the traps can be linked to form combos, surely bringing pleasure to the players face to see his enemy being pushed around like a pinball until he capitulates and dies.


 The rest that you are about to read should be a lesson to those trying to attempt what I am doing.  I would dearly love criticism on a better more easier to produce system than what I am doing.

Programming a Tbs and its Hardships-------------------------------------

So I started out with doing a simple tbs, battleground was completely flat.  I wanted to use the point and click method used in FFTactics and games of the like, it just makes me feel a lot better that I put in the effort to pull a system off.
Considering there was no change in terrain elevation, the character only knew of objects being in the way.  I had made conditions for about 16 different possible ways the character could have his sides occupied by an object, ex. up occupied, down left and right occupied, or up left occupied.

Keep in mind I wanted a smart system, where the character always always chose the best path no matter how far the destination was.

Now within those conditions, were another set of conditions designating where in relation the destination was from the hero, about 8 of them, ex. the cursor is down from the hero, the cursor is left right of the hero.  

Within those conditions I played a mental scenario of how it would all play out.  And chose the best ways to move at the time.  


Over and over again refining a system.  Having realized how to use loops became increasingly helpful.  Other variables began to take shape, within these conditions, like whether the X difference between the destination and the Hero was greater, equal, or less than the Y difference between the destination and the hero.
Random factors got mixed in when the path could be taken either way they would both be sort of equal in result (This random factor part is flawed).

And so each time I added to this growing monster of code the longer I had to wait each time I opened it.  The problem got fixed when I decided to seperate the code into sections and place them on different pages but still connected, like one big piece of code.

Then I perfected this tireless system after a month.  

But I wasn't happy...What really adds to a game is varying elevation, as I found out comparing Rebelstar to FFT Advanced.  Rebelstar is in my oppinion one of the best TBS's I've ever played, but varying elevation could of drastically added to the boring maps that you had to play on.

Anyways now I come to where I've stalled.

VARYING ELEVATION----------------------------------------------------------
Varying Elevation YOU MONSTER OF A BEAST

Well first I had to figure out how I could even make varying elevation seem possible in this 2d program.  So for starters I acted terrain on the cursor, this is how it works:  (I love what it adds to gameplay and visuals, everyone should try to incorporate Varying elevation. Adding remarkable 3d feel to what is essentially not.)

I made about 100 different terrains (Doesn't Matter) in the terrain tab.

Put them into a chipset.
Made a map with varying numbers of terrain (it helped using a chipset of just numbers at first and just masking the ugly numbers with the top layer of tiles).

Created variables current elevation and next elevation.
I made my right, left, down, and up sides be put into x's and y's.
But added to their y's was my current height.
I stored their terrain in 4 different variables.



When I pushed to move in one direction the computer checks what that elevation is and stores it in next height.
The character moves smoothly in that direction if that direction if the elevation is equal to the current elevation.
The character moves up in that direction if the elevation is higher than the current elevation (Put in loop, each time subtracting 1 from the next height until 0) and once more at the end he moves in that direction he was going to be on "tangible" ground.
The character moves in that direction at the start, and down in that direction if the elevation is lower (Looped each time subtracting 1 from the next height until 0)

And I had a working 3d terrain system.

Oh and you have to figure out how to set the hero to their starting elevation too.
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Don't follow those horrible directions directly, think for yourself how it works.
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Now that I found out that creating such a feat as terrain elevation was possible, I had to incorporate that into my character's movement.

...........

32 more condition branches that have all 8 of the condition branches of the destination in relation to the hero....plus another condition within all the branches probably multiple times, the condition of the elevation of the destination is and how it would effect movement.

I'm distraught, that takes way too much effort, another 2 months maybe.  I've got an art portfolio to create in submit before others do.

But programming is addicting, I need to finish this soon.
So now I'm devising another system where, the computer scans every possible path to get to the cursor but keeps narrowing down possible moves as more and more seem to be greater than the distance traveled by the previous path.
It seems somewhat easier...But I'm having trouble formulating such.
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This again wasn't just for ramble sakes, TBS's are Mind Killers to make, well that is if you choose to do the point and click method.  

I Think I'll go back to the point and click method later, and use the simple I push a direction key and the character follows my orders and if i choose a longer path that takes up more AP points then that's my problem METHOD.

[MrMister]

Very Funny.

[TjJackson]

Damn, mind killer indeed. I will never attempt what you just described because I would lose intrest after about two weeks of getting nowhere and leave it forever unfinished, wasting two weeks of my life.

If you ever finish it, congrats to you, must probably of given you a few headaches over it.

[Ben]

I believe nothing without screenshot proof.

Alas, I jest.

Seriously though.

Screens.

[DragonBlaze]

I remember you talking about this a long time ago and the tbs and all. So yeah, I believe you can do it. Good luck

[clockworkroutine]

I'm going to constantly be updating the first post so check it out every now and again and tell me what you think

[Beck Skyler]

Ehhh, clocky...

Dont get our hopes up again, and drop em like last time.

[clockworkroutine]

yea don't worry,
I just kind of realized that I should accept that programming is apart of me, since my brother kind of forced it into my development as a child, well gaming that is.  
Before I wondered whether I am wasting my time, which I still believe I am, but all hobbies waste time.  So programming is simply a hobby and not something that I should look down on anymore.
So I'm sticking to it,
Little bit by Little bit.

Oh and does anybody know about the Multimedia Fusion 2?  I "got" it the other day, and its so amazing, powerful, and way easier to use.  Supporting any sized graphic, pixel to pixel movement, support for isometrics, and there is no actual code you have to look at.  It comes with downloadable "extensions" that add already million lined codes that you can easily tweak with through interfaces, one of the extensions it comes with is "how to get around objects!".  My problem that would take months has already been deduced for me.
I'm not sure whether I should revel in the sheer glory of coding it myself in Rpg Maker or just do it out.  I'm so loyal to rm2k3, for some reason, because I've basically learned how a programmer thinks through it, and not to mention the hard-arsed work I put into it.

No doubt Multimedia Fusion 2 does let me look into the eye of how "a move around an object" event would work.  As do its other things.  I definately recommend this program for anyone who just doesn't have the time, and wants more than what rpgmaker can offer at this point.  The Clickteam, the company behind it is I believed American based, and they keep updating the program (the one I "got" doesn't upgrade for some reason), unlike the Rpg maker series which continues to grow stale until a foreigner decides to amp it.

Is anyone opposed to me showing my game off even if its not done in rm2k3?  Currently I realized I just don't have the time to play around anymore, I have college prep to work on.

[Trevlac]

Easier in RMXP...hahah, I had to say it.

[clockworkroutine]

Trevlac, I say "?"

What you just said kind of just seems irrelevant to this topic thread.
The Literate AI is another topic if that is where you were getting at.
I haven't thought about it but I guess the Literate AI project would be also easier in Multimedia Fusion 2.

But where did this Rpg maker XP come from?
I just wanna know, I'm not personally attack you.

[DragonBlaze]

 

I'm not sure whether I should revel in the sheer glory of coding it myself in Rpg Maker or just do it out.

You know, theres nothing really glorious about it. Its been done before, multiple times by various people.  

Use whatever you think will make your game turn out the best.

[Meiscool-2]

Seriously... coding in RPG Maker isn't hard at all. You'll need more than just a custom system to impress us.

And quite frankly, you sound more stuckup about your claimed RMing abilities than I do.

[Trevlac]

Multimedia Fusion isn't the best thing in the world for making this sort of game. It provides no scripting, just an events table. I suggested RMXP because you can script it. Quit acting like a damn Republican.

[A Forgotten Legend]

Ohhh!  This sounds really cool!  I love music.
What kinds of instruments are in the game?  All kinds?  What instruments?  I love the oboe.  its so fun to play!  hard though.  dum double reed...   this looks like fun!  I can't wait to play it!

Go woodwinds!