> Marteen ter Huurne wrote >On Wed, 31 May 2000, Pablo Vasques Bravo-Villalba wrote: > >> Maybe the engine could >> support some characters *without* sprites as >> well. This way we could enable visible and >> invisible enemies in the same game. :) > >That would be a more elegant solution. It should be simple to make, as a >special kind of animation routine. > That's a very good idea. Not only you'll give the option to the developer, but also you avoid that "monster generation" feature from FF7. I really hate that, it looks like they have infinite monsters. This way, you can have a better control of how many enemeis the player will face >> But sometimes >> a stronger character could want to fight some >> weak enemies to build up experience easily. Have you ever played Pokemon? (For gameboy) In this game, there's area with invisble enemies, and areas with visible enemies, but usually you can't avoid the visible enemies (And when you can, you will not want to do it), but the "RUN" command will always work against weaker opponents (And usually just one single attack can kill it) > >> Yes, it looks like monsters appear by >> spontaneus generation. `:))) However, >> every Final Fantasy has some "devices" >> which use this as a gameplay feature; >> when you get a chocobo, for example. > >FF7 chocobo avoids enemies on the map, just like the helicopter/spaceship. >But it doesn't work inside towns and other non-map areas. > BTW. Final Fantasy series sucks, imho >> Four options: >> 1. No way; the characters must always fight! (not very good) > >Agreed: it's boring. I agree too, if you care :-) >> 2. Characters never fight with weaker enemies > >It is sometimes nice to see enemies that were hard to beat before and >notice how much power you've gained since then. So I think this option is >not the best solution. I agree with Maarten, it's nice to face enemis you saw before and notice how much power you've gained. Chronno Trigger (for SNES) does that beautifully >> 3. Characters don't fight with weaker if in possession of some item > >Works well, but it may be hard to integrate such an item nicely with the >setting. It shouldn't immediately strike the player as a "fix to the >system". In a magical world, it's easy to explain (you don't really need to >explain). In SF, it would be harder. If you have an item that transmits EM >signals to scare off enemy robots, it would also disrupt the player's >gadgets. Or if it is harmful to organic tissue, the player character may be >affected (if he's organic, ofcourse...). > Again, I agree with Maarten >> 4. Stronger characters are less likely to encounter weaker enemies > >I like this approach. Because chances are used, the player will be >surprised from time to time. But random encounters with weaker enemies >won't waste much time compared to option 1, because they are less frequent. Have you people ever played Chrono Trigger for SNES (If you don't, you should!). In this one, the enemies are invisible, some are avoidable, some aren't, and this have nothing to do with the enemy strenght. If you get in a certain point of the map, it will set a trigger, and the monster will attack you, and every time you get in that part of the map, the trigger will be set, and the monster will attack you. But the enemies are always visible, and that's the most important. > >> In Ultima, for example, you can escape almostany enemy if you want to, >> unless it's much stronger than you. > >In Ultima V (I never played the others extensively) that was true, but if >there were many enemies in a screen, it would still take a long time to >escape. Same in FF7: escaping is possible, but slow. > >Speaking of Ultima V, it's a type of battle we didn't discuss yet. It does >have a separate battle screen, but it's not face-to-face with the enemy as >in SD/DS6/PA3. The battle screen is a map, just like the normal map, but >smaller scale. The battle happens turn-based. You can use range weapons >effectively (make sure you can hit the enemy, but the enemy can't hit you, >or at least has lost some HP before he reaches you). You can also place >your characters strategically, taking advantage of the map layout, having >strong characters protect the weaker etc. Personally, I love this strategic battle mode. Shining Force, imho, has the best battle mode ever done, and this mode really has to be consideraded. It requires much more thinking than the usual "Attack, receive attack, attack, receive attack, attack, receive attack, attack, you win" that most RPGs uses. (Play Pokemon for GB, Earthbound for SNES or even FF7 or Chrono Trigger..those battles are really boring) When I finished Chrono, near to the end, I was avoiding every battle I could, because it was getting to boring to do the same thing again, again and again. Shatterhand **** MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes) in the body (not the subject) of the message. Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] More information on MSX can be found in the following places: The MSX faq: http://www.faq.msxnet.org/ The MSX newsgroup: comp.sys.msx The MSX IRC channel: #MSX on Undernet ****
