I just had an idea and I encourage anyone to steal it!

Alright so I was thinking about whether it is possible to implement a unique battle system without any scripting whatsoever. This is what I came up with and since I have so many other things on the go I encourage anyone to try it out or make a game out of it! (Not sure if this has been done before but here it goes...)

So normally a game can have 4 heros in the party at a time, each character can have different abilities (magic, etc...) and equip different weapons and armour.

My idea:

-Make a game in which you control a Mech (robot) as your main character. The main character is just the core body of the mech which can be built on to.

-Then make shops where you can purchase 'parts' for your mech. These 'parts' will actually be heros which can be added and removed from your party.

-Then have other shops where you can buy 'features or perks...' which will simply be the equivalent of equipping armour or weapons to a hero. These features will change the stats of a part or allow a new ability to be used. Certain parts can only equip certain features. Of course instead of your traditional sword and shield your going to want to have some nifty mech features like laser cannons and heat sinks.

-Finally, during battles, set up your heros battle placement such that all the parts of the mech will fit together (overlap each other) such that your mech appears to be one single unit. I think the cool part about this is the enemy will be able to target each separate component of your mech. Likewise you should create your enemies as multiple enemies which are bunched together to look like a single unit of which you can target each component. Create a battle condition such that if the 'core' (main hero) of your party dies, the game is over but if a 'part' (other hero) dies the battle goes on.

Additional ideas:

-If a 'part' (other hero) dies in battle remove them from your party after the battle. (I believe this will need a short script or tag system to check if heros are dead then remove them from party) I think this is a good idea because it will make the game challenging and have a high risk, high reward payoff for the player which should make the game very enjoyable.

-Another neat thing would be if your 'part' dies in battle it might "explode" inflicting damage on other parts of the mech. This could similarly be done for the enemies.

That's it. I think it's a great battle concept which would make for a very tactical game. It requires little to no scripting and I encourage anyone to steal this idea from me since I'm fairly busy with other projects, school, etc... Let me know what you think, let me know if you decide to try it out too. No credit needed if you decide to make a game out of it but of course it's appreciated.

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Not a bad idea. Only hitch I can see is the "Finally, during battles, set up your heros battle placement such that all the parts of the mech will fit together (overlap each other) such that your mech appears to be one single unit" part. Otherwise, nifty.

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Being from the third world, I reserve the right to speak in the third person.

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Why is that? Does the battle arranger not allow for sufficient overlap? I suppose I've never tried. I guess a fix for that could be the 'core' of the mech is on to the battle screen background and all the 'parts' are arranged such that they appear to be attached. This would mean the main hero would just be invisible in battle but still be targetable. This would still allow for a death animation per say since the main hero could have a visible death sprite of an explosion, smoke, or something...

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Unfortunately the formation arranger does not allow heroes to be moved at all. Not one pixel :(

That could change in the future, but I have no estimates for when.

Oh, I had no idea. I guess maybe some strange work around could be done in which enemies are somehow the hero's but that's a bit ridiculous. Another option could be to make all heros invisible and make the background look like a big HUD so that it appears you are in the cockpit of the mech. Then draw all the enemies such that the are facing you head-on. (this might be best, I think it would actually be more fun this way)

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⍠ C O L L A B M U S I C: https://dustpuppets.bandcamp.com/releases

You might also try drawing pod-racer style lightning on the battle backdrop between the areas where the heroes stand, to sort of connect them. The fact that they're always in the same spot can be a blessing as well as a curse.

That'd be nifty to move around the heroes as you please. I'd totally move my heroes down to the bottom of the screen to replicate an Earthbound-esque battle system.

Or you could even make pincer-attacks and back-attacks like in Final Fantasy 6.
I think I'd like the 3rd person perspective the most, though. Having the heroes line the bottom of the screen, back to the player, staring, mouth agape, at the hideous fiends which layout before them.

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dOn'T MiNd mE! i'M jUsT CoNtAgIoUs!!!
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I think it's still possible to pull off this idea.

Even if you can't move the heroes around, all you need is one visible hero. The other heroes can be invisible. Alternatively, you can make all four heroes invisible and use an enemy sprite to represent the hero. Each time that enemy is hit, it passes on the damage to one of your heroes.

Yeah that's actually how I want my game to be once it's done. I figure I'll have to do some sort of work-around to make it happen but it's probably doable. I love the Mother series. Itoi's style is so awesome. Another series that pulls off that battle arrangement well is Phantasy Star. I actually really like the elaborate attack animations in Phantasy Star. Of course Earthbound and Mother 3 have some pretty crazy attack animations in their own right. It would be really cool if someone made a rhythm based battle system like in Mother 3. I figure it's doable but unfortunately would have to be done from scratch.

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⊕ P E R S O N A L M U S I C: https://open.spotify.com/album/6fEo3fCm5C3XhtFRflfANr
⍠ C O L L A B M U S I C: https://dustpuppets.bandcamp.com/releases

http://hamsterrepublic.com/ohrrpgce/docs/plotdict.xml#about-setformationbackground seems useful and relevant to a lot of the discussion going on in here.

Great find. Do you know if scripts can be triggered by attacks and such? Or is this to be run as a before battle script? It would be cool to have an animation temporarily run in the background while a special attack is being performed, then end once the attack has subsided.

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⍠ C O L L A B M U S I C: https://dustpuppets.bandcamp.com/releases

Unfortunately, you can't run any kind of a script inside of a battle. I was thinking you could run it before battle to set up a backdrop that would reflect your current party configuration.

I see, so basically check who's in you current party, then carryout backdrop 1. I'll keep this in mind, it'll be a good thing to know especially for doing a 'heroes on the bottom of screen' work-around.

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⊕ P E R S O N A L M U S I C: https://open.spotify.com/album/6fEo3fCm5C3XhtFRflfANr
⍠ C O L L A B M U S I C: https://dustpuppets.bandcamp.com/releases

Actually, I kinda like the HUD idea, seems that it'd be pretty cool. And you'd be able to use the hero ready meters as charging meters for the different parts or something.

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Being from the third world, I reserve the right to speak in the third person.

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