Original SRPG with Charity Mechanic, mix of Fates Conquest and GBA games

[Lore]

So this is a passion project of mine that I'm planning on making in Java, probably using libgdx. I was thinking of using something like FEXNA, but I think the game's system will be different enough that it'll be more work to customize it.

Despite the lackluster story, I consider FE Fates Conquest to have the best game play of the series. This game takes it as a basis, and attempts to refine it even further, while also adding in a lot of unique mechanics.

Probably the most unique concept of the game: You can do good in the real world to effect the world of the game. The game's setting is similar to the world from Neverending Story, separate from our own world but linked. Suffering in our world manifests as shadow monsters in that world, and goodwill in our world manifests as divine aid. Mechanically, this is represented by being able to get in-game bonuses by donating to real world charities.

It's not that you just get "pay to win" stuff and trivialize the game. Instead, you get things that can positively effect the story like reviving dead characters, getting special reclass options, bonuses to supports ala Seeds of Trust, etc. I want to make a game that takes the science of freemium games, and uses it for good instead of evil. Also, I want the game to feel cozy but not purely escapist like Animal Crossing, since you can look on the tranquility you've created in this fantasy world and feel good about it.

The story takes place in a kingdom plagued by these encroaching shadows. The privileged of this kingdom live safe behind the capitol city's walls. The rest live in small villages on the outskirts, constantly prey to monster attacks. It is a difficult life in the outskirts, and few make it past their 20s. The protagonist is an orphan child living in one of these villages. He begins to hear the voice of an otherworldly being (aka the player), and similar to Joan of Arc, follows this voice to become an unexpected tactician. He ends up leading a small but growing band of villagers and other vagabonds, eventually coming into conflict with the king's regime and many other factions in a quest for deliverance.

Other Features:

Non-Linear Plot: Minor arcs and major arcs are triggered by and feed into global variables like the player's reputation with certain factions, or things like "the protagonist's faith of themselves as a leader" and relationship levels between characters.

Rich Chapter Design: Chapters have multiple ways to win, as well as lots of optional side objectives, each of can affect the direction of the plot. Nearly all maps have some element of time pressure, and you can't just use the same tactics of turtling or easy baiting.

Focus on Consumables: Weapon durability is back. There are some crazy staves, and using them effectively is key to getting through chapters without deaths. There's no grinding in the game, and player's must manage their resources carefully.

Rebalanced Weapon Triangle: takes some ideas from Fire Emblem Fates and some from Fire Emblem Heroes. Nothing is neutral on the weapon triangle, like bows and magic. The weapon triangle is tied to an elemental trinity in the game.

Humanity/Fire, the element of ambition and the progress. Corresponds to the Ego. Red. Tends to have balanced units.
Weapon Style: Agile and Slashing
Melee: Swords
Ranged: Daggers
Magic: Fire
Divine Being: Dragon

Celestial/Wind, the element of enlightenment and universal law. Corresponds to the Super Ego. Blue. Tends to have units with high movement, high resistance, and low defense.
Weapon Style: Precise and Piercing
Melee: Spears
Ranged: Bows
Magic: Wind
Divine Being: Kirin

Wilderness/Earth, the element of ancient and unchanging nature. Corresponds to the Id. Green. Tends to have units with lower movement, high defense, and low resistance (the equivalent of an Armor Knight uses Clubs instead of Spears in this game).
Weapon Style: Powerful and Crushing
Melee: Clubs
Ranged: Slings and Siege Weapons
Magic: Earth
Divine Being: Forest Spirit (Giant Elk)

Divine Beings and Blood: The player can recruit a small number of divine beings. Unlike Manaketes/Laguz, they are always in a non-human form and can't reclass. However, their abilities are strong enough to make up for it. Divine beings have intermixed with humans over the years, and nearly everyone has some small traces of divine blood, but some have enough divine blood for it to express physical as horns, animal ears, etc. These characters have Major Divine Blood, which lets them use certain weapons/items. However, there are also weapons effective against the divine blooded.

Other Features from Fates

• Same reclassing system with internal level maxing at 40, Heart Seals, and Partner Seals.
• Personal Skills

Differences from Fates

• Uses the Rescue system from GBA games instead of Pair-Up.

Possible Features

• Child units received after a ~25 year time skip at one point in the story. After the time skip, the now elderly characters will start leveling with negative growths, to represent aging.

[Dragoncat]

I love this idea! Your way of doing child units is pure genius, and awesome concept overall and love the charity donating thing!

One thing though...no grinding might be a problem. One, some people might struggle getting through the game. Two, adding optional grinding maps will add replay value and make the game longer in general.

[Koumal8]

Seems amazing and very, VERT ambitious; best of luck developing this, I have no skills that could be of use unfortunately, sorry :P What is the class system going to look like?

[Lore]

2 hours ago, Koumal8 said:

Seems amazing and very, VERT ambitious; best of luck developing this, I have no skills that could be of use unfortunately, sorry :P What is the class system going to look like?

Yeah, it is a lot! My plan is to start with a scaled-down proof of concept without the non-linear and "outside battle" mechanics, a limited selection of classes and items, and just a short campaign of a few maps strung together, to show off the basic game play and story.

RE: Classes I'll post more later, but the basics are: There are Tier 1 and Tier 2 classes. The class system is designed to be balanced among the weapon triangle. For Tier 1 classes, every side of the triangle has:

• 1 Physical Melee Class
• 1 Physical Ranged Class
• 1 Mounted Class
• 1 Mage Class
• 1 Staff Class

...plus right now there's 2 extra outside this division, for 17 total Tier 1 classes. Each Tier 1 class can promote into 3 possible Tier 2 classes. Two promotions are shared with other Tier 1 , and one is unique.

Staves are also of a type (Fire, Wind, Earth). All types of staff have healing staves, with some variations...one might have the 1-2 range healing staves, others have the high value staves. Utility staves are split among types. Fire has the equivalent of Hex (since they already have Hidden Weapons) and Inferno (which deals damage to all, friend and foe, within 2 spaces), Wind has Rescue and Silence, Earth has the equivalent of Freeze (Root) and Mire (Fissure), and there's plenty of others.

The planned Tier 1 classes are:

Base Classes in Sequence

Swordsman: Sword-using infantry, with balanced stats.

Rogue: A foot unit that uses daggers, and can unlock chests and doors.
Locktouch: Can unlock doors or chests without keys

Wyvern Knight: Flying cavalry that uses swords. Weakness: Dragon, Flying.

Mage: Glass-cannon magic unit that uses fire tomes.

Troubadour: A mounted healer that uses fire staves. Weakness: Beast

Soldier: Infantry that uses spears. Has skills that make them strong in tight phalanx formations.

Archer: Infantry that uses bows.

Pegasus Knight: Flying cavalry with high Resistance that uses spears. Weakness: Beast, Flying, Sacred.

Seer: Balanced magic user that wields wind tomes. Weakness: Sacred.

Monk: A swift-traveling healer that uses wind staves. Weakness: Sacred.

Guard: Heavily defended infantry that uses clubs. Weakness: Armored.
Fortify: Takes 4 less damage if hasn't moved that turn.

Slinger: Sling-using infantry.
Brace: Gains +1 range when using slings if hasn't moved that turn.

Outrider: Horse-riding cavalry that uses clubs. Weakness: Beast.

Shaman: Bulkier mage that uses earth tomes.

Healer: A more robust healer that uses earth staves.

Base Classes Outside Sequence

Cavalier: Sword and spear-using cavalry. The only base class that can use two weapon types. Weakness: Beast.

Bard: Can refresh units. Uses clubs.

(The weakness "Sacred" is like "Armored" but for high-RES units. There's an Earth tome called "Profane" that deals effective damage vs. Holy units, like the magic equivalent of the Hammer)

As an example of Tier 2 classes, the Mage can promote into:

Magus (shared with Seer): A levitating mage that can deal AOE damage to friend and foe, whirling around the battle like a storm of flames. Uses Wind and Fire tomes. Weakness: Flying.

Vagabond (shared with Swordsman): A capricious warrior that uses Swords and Fire tomes. On even-numbered turns, gets a large bonus to MAG and penalty to STR. On odd-numbered turns, gets a large bonus to STR and penalty to MAG.

Warlock (unique to Mage): The ultimate offensive spell-caster, potentially able to ORKO bosses. Uses Fire tomes.

[Maritisa]

You had me interested until "Java"
why in fuck's name would you code in that atrocious language
do you have any idea how much that's going to make you hate yourself in the future

anyway this looks like just another "GUYS I HAVE A COOL IDEA LOOK AT ALL THIS IDEA" thread, and then nothing will actually get done.
But whatever, I'll take it with a grain of salt, for whatever reason.

You're better off waiting for FEXNA, which no, I still cannot give you a forecast release date for, but literally everything you've suggested could be done in FEXNA in a far better coding language in far less time and without the need to tear your hair out over every little thing.
Seriously the only thing you'd need to actually go out of your way to make edits for is reclassing and holy blood. All the rest of that can effortlessly be done in FEXNA even at its current stage.

In the mean time you should try lowering your aim a little and trying to actually make a project and complete it. Trying to make something ambitious like this without experience is a nightmare. Trust me on this one, I speak from experience, after having tried to cut down my ambitions at least ten times and still struggling with it. You'll be doing a lot alone and the last thing you want to do for yourself is to give yourself more work than you're going to want to do. Ability isn't the concern, it's motivation, drive, the will to keep doing it. Do not overestimate this about yourself. A passion project should be something you enjoy, and something you'll enjoy making, not something you'll power through out of obligation.

Try to make some chapters in FEGBA. There's loads of really good hacking tutorials and FE8 hacking has made great strides in recent time, even so far as to have a whole skill system thanks to Circleseverywhere. Learn Fire Emblem level design. Seriously, this is really important. I don't mean making maps, I mean knowing how to make interesting chapters and make them work. You have good ideas, that's good. But ideas mean nothing if you don't know how to execute them.

Go make a one-chapter hack or something. Just for fun. Don't get in over your head, just make a chapter that's fun to play and conveys the elements you want. If you can't art, just use some of the free-to-use assets floating around on various threads here, or heck, wherever. No need to restrict yourself to FE style if you can pull it off, after all.
Restrict yourself to a small map. For the love of all that is holy restrict yourself to a small map. Just learn how to do things. Game design is a very, very organic process. Things will just come as they come, and it's best to embrace that. Don't plan every little detail out, as tempting as it is. That just gives you a lot of obligations to fulfill and an ever-increasing to-do list. Don't do that. You'll feel like you're making no progress and get discouraged.
Just do what you want to do. Have an idea that sounds cool? Do it! Have a mechanic you wanna test out? Do it! Have a narrative you think you can pull off within your scope? Hell, do it! Did something you didn't even plan work out to be really cool? That's great! Let it stay, build on the idea if you feel it necessary. That's how game design works. You just roll with how things go, work within your abilities. At least, that's how I've found it best to do it. It's the least stressful that way and usually yields just as good if not better results than the over-planned model.

What you decide to do is up to you, but from someone who's worked on a project for over two years or so, take my word for it and don't try to overkill it until you're actually ready and have more than just yourself on your team. Seriously, save yourself the stress and just do it for fun until you have an actual goddamn team together and a strong grasp of what you're doing.

Edited May 15, 2017 by Ritisa

[sirmola]

1 hour ago, Ritisa said:

In the mean time you should try lowering your aim a little and trying to actually make a project and complete it.

I definitely support this. Trying to do a massive thing with no experience just results in a tangled mess of a code-base that will need to be rewritten anyway. I have seen SO MANY projects die because the author bit off way more than they could chew. code simple games first just to get an idea of how everything works. I highly recommend watching this youtube playlist first. 

It is also a good idea to make your first few games in an existing engine (like unity or something). Yes, i know lots of unity games are horrid, but that is because unity is accessible and easy to pick up. GBAFE is actualy a decent starting point, because of all the examples you have already. In the parlance of the vidio above, a minimum viable product for GBA FE would be a single chapter.