Paint your perfect RPG

That actually sounds really cool, although depending on how well it's implemented it also sounds like a recipe for frustration. Did you ever play Die by the Sword? It allows you to control your character's sword arm directly, so if you want to chop your opponent's head off, aim for the neck. I guess it's pretty old now, but maybe someone has released something more refined since then.

 

I was also thinking of Die by the Sword. Funny. Arx Fatalis also has this fairly annoying gesture system for its spells.

 

The mouse-driven gestures of Arx Fatalis sound rather similar to those in Black & White, with which I am familiar. I remember those gestures being somewhat of a nuisance and I am hopeful that another system could be made better given enough attention to the actual control of the game. (not that I'm putting any effort into developing this at the moment, mind you)

I actually see the biggest obstacle being the transition from free-movement mode to spell-casting mode. Having to stop dead in one's tracks might not only feel too stop-and-go for the player, but might make any successfully cast attacks too easy for an opponent to avoid.

 

I thought Black and White wasn't too bad for gestures, though I did find in the actual creature battles I would jerk my hand round spasmodically only for the game to recognise as the creature's special attack move - when I actually tried to draw a pentacle star I never had any success.

 

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o844IJdbh88[/youtube]

Click through this video and you'll segments of a PS1 fighting game based around the idea of fighting with projectile "magic" (glowy crap lol).

I thought this game was a lot of fun when I played it as a YOUNG LAD, but it always grew tiresome due to the fact that its essentially a poorly balanced festival of unavoidable spam. It plays out almost exactly like rock paper scissors, but with dodging, and close range kung fu attacks.

While the idea of simulated hand gestures might sound immersive, there also needs to be strong implementation and a worthwhile meta game.

Otherwise it might as well be Typing of the Dead, or Police 911...
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqNVbbBV9lQ[/youtube]

 

Re:

Good lord man, is there anything you won't masturbate to?

 

Yo momma!

 

Re:

Found your momma. She ugly.

 

That hurt man, and what hurt even more was the fact I clicked the play buttons of that image for a good 15 seconds before working out it was an image.

 

The struggle is real.

 

I personally like the idea of raising skills after levelling up from XP, gained by completing quests and killing innocent people.
But some people like raising skills on the fly, by practice.

Why not both?
How about a system where you use your points after a level up to increase skills, (Fallout, Arcanum), but you can only increase them if you're experienced enough in that skill.

Example, you can't raise your stabbing things skill if you've only been throwing rocks the whole time.
Instead, you can save your points for later, or spend them on other traits.

 

I'm sorry, the opportunity was just too perfect to pass up.

 

I've had this concept in my head for a long time now.
An open world, free form RPG perhaps akin to Mount & Blade. It would feature the type of emergent gameplay elements that begin to appear only as you gain status in the world. Gradually, Crusader Kings 2-style title and relation mechanics are introduced as well as a system for fielding armies and declaring war.

You can attain titles and other goodies by either getting in a lord's good graces or taking lands by force (which would hurt your legitimacy). Despite the complex political and diplomatic system it is perfectly possible to play the game as a brigand or a merchant or a low ranking knight protecting the weak.

Eventually you'll have worked your way up the ranks and perhaps bribed the system of elective monarchy to become supreme ruler of your nation. Or in the case of a non-elective monarchy, taken the crown through rebellion or fabricated claims. At which point you'll be able to go to war with other nations. If working your way up to become king or emperor doesn't intrigue you, you can simply declare your independence as soon as you acquire your first title. Don't expect your betters to take kindly to this, however.

But yeah, basically what I want is some sort of godlike merge between Warband, Crusader Kings 2 and maybe a little bit of Conqueror 1086 A.D.

 

I'd like a game that really reacts to and aknowledges your achievements. 'Nuff said.

 

So like when you get a job, it says "Congratulations, now you can finally move out of your parents' basement"?

 

Personally, I think every RPG needs some sort of definitive character upgrade event.
Whether it be increasing skills, choosing perks or learning spells.

Some games do it well with dialogue and less number-grindy styles.
Other games, like MMOS rely strictly on numbers for everything. (they suck)

I've recently been getting a fancy bunch of ideas together for an RPG, with a persistent objective world, where everything you do to affect the environment changes it permanently.
Even got me to coding up a persistent WorldRoom save/load custom I/O, that just parses a string of world-object-placement and condition data.

I got it working in HTML5 (Chrome), so that means the string could easily be sent to a server, for cloud save.
I'm rustling my own jimmies quite a bit with these collective ideas!

Here's a screenshot of the WIP world building, if interested.

 

Like in Skyrim when you're the legate of the Imperial Legion and all the legionnaires tell you to "move along, citizen"

Or when you've

Spoiler

assassinated the emperor in the Dark Brotherhood questline

but nobody ever mentions it ever ever ever?

 

By Christ Yuki, do you not remember when...

Spoiler

General Tulius says:

Which is clearly different to when the Emperor is dead and General Tulius says:

I mean, the forethought and astounding imagination that Bethesda put into deleting a few words of dialogue to differentiate the change was to me a landmark of video game history. Kids these days - they don't know a rpg gem unless it's rubbing its sweating ball bag in their very face.

Incidentally, my elder brother showcased Grim Dawn to me this weekend - to me it seems like a very happy marriage of steampunk and arpg, and a fine arpg at that (certainly a massive improvement on the Diablo series, an opinion I'm throwing out there based only on my knowledge of Diablo II). I will almost certainly pick it up when the game is entirely complete (well, if I can be bothered to sort Boot Camp or someone releases a nice Wineskin); currently they're releasing parts piecemeal to keep their Kickstarter backers happy.

 

Enough with the bitterness already. All of our favourite games tend to acknowledge our various acts of cruelty. Remember being a slaver or a childkiller in Fallout 2? Or the orc rebellions in precious Arcanum? Hell, even New Vegas was fairly good at responding to our actions even though it wasn't all good.

"That was some battle. We couldn't have taken Nelson without your help."
followed by
"You're insane! We shouldn't let you run loose around here."

Spoiler

You could even nuke NCR lands and receive a presidential pardon. That shit was bizarre.

Ah, good times...