Ive been trying to find/think of a project to work on, and had an idea today for something that I think could turn out to be really cool, but I'd like others' opinions as well before I decide to devote a lot of work to this. So here's the basic idea:
Action-RPG (single-player) centered around the Changeling unit
Beginning of the game:
The game starts out as an army of protoss ravage your zerg camp and destroy everything. None of the zerg manage to escape other than one dying overseer whose last act is to birth you, a changeling. Having just come into existence, you wonder around (barely able to control your form) and come upon your former home, a wasteland of dismembered zerg and a few dead protoss. Devastated and overwhelmed with anger, you travel a little down the road and see a live zealot. In a whirlwind of rage, you charge at it, only to morph into one yourself. The zealot greets you and begins to talk, saying that the zerg here were becoming too prosperous and could become a nuisance to the protoss living on the planet. As he talks, the zealot shows you around the wreckage and finds a dying overseer (your parent). He makes a comment about the zerg's pettiness and kills the overseer. Overtaken again by rage, you kill the zealot with your own zealot arm-blade things. You vow to kill the ones responsible for your brood's death
You search for and find the protoss camp (as a changeling again until you get close, then turn back into a zealot). You are recognized as the zealot you killed and his friends say they were beginning to worry about you. Soon into the conversation, a group of terran bandits come and raid the settlement. You seize your opportunity to fight. Upon killing your first marine, you're given the option of either form. You continue to fight in the brawl for a little while, but you can only kill marines if youre in zealot form, and vice versa (can't risk being discovered as an imposter!)
Some of the mechanics:
-as you kill each unit type, you gain two types of experience: Race and Unit exp (ex. Killing a marine in the brawl above grants 1 terran exp and 1 marine exp)
-you level up at certain exp caps for both race and unit. Unit level-ups will award 1 new ability for each new level, based on the unit you leveled up (ex. Zealot charge ability). Race level-ups will award talent-like points
-players learn to harness the powers present in all 3 races and to mix/match different units' skills. For example (when no one is around to see your true form), you can charge [zealot] a wild enemy, perform a spin attack with a scythe [DarkTemplar], Mind Control the enemy [infestor] and make him walk a distance away, then open up on him with guns [Marine]
-Every unit type has at least 2 or 3 active skills, allowing for a huge amount of combos and for players to be very creative with their strategies
-When in the presence of units who can't become aware of your secret, you are limited to the units under that race
-Linear quest-line similar to Diablo 2 but with side-quests and other things to do as well
-Different strategies for different enemies (ex. some units only vulnerable to guns, others only to melee)
-Boss fights that make you think
-Environmental secrets that aren't required but make things a little easier (for example, the power band in the original Legend of Zelda [which I'm currently in the middle of playing] lets the player move big rocks and discover 4 teleports around the world. While they aren't required, it can save a little time)
Feel free to suggest any changes, or say "it'd be better/worse with/without ___"! I mainly just need to know if I should devote time and effort to this. Also, if you'd be interested in helping me (especially with non-trigger stuff), let me know! Thanks to all
I don't care if there's already another changeling RPG out there, as long as mine has a different story, feel, and design. How many shooters are out there? Yet Gears of War =/= Halo =/= Unreal Tournament
With that said, does anyone like/dislike/have feedback on the idea posted above?
Alright...well I read through it again and I think it's fairly nice. The idea you get experience depending on who you kill is interesting...perhaps 2 strands of exp/DNA? Story wise, not so sure. If it were finished and it wasn't super buggy, I'd play it. Sounds interesting. If it were an rpg, I'd also add stuff like when changing into different races, maybe leveling up in a race would allow you to morph into different kinds of unit types. Maybe each unit type also has interesting abilities. The only concern I have is killing the opposite race, be it terran or protoss, upgrades you for that race? Kind of concerns me. That's my feedback.
So I just spent some time trying to hash out some more of the details. I like your suggestions too. While I'm still playing around with ideas, i'll leave the OP the same and post the different stuff separate. here's what I thought of now:
-2 types of exp: Unit Type exp and Race DNA
--Unit type exp has one level system per unit type in the game, but each maxes out at a low number, around 5ish
---Leveling unit type exp gives the players new ACTIVE skills based off that unit type (ex. Zealot Charge)
Unit type exp can only be gained by performing a killing blow as the unit type you wish to level (so if your killing blow is a marine skill, you gain marine exp)
--Race DNA is gained by making a killing blow of any unit in the given race (so if your killing low is a marine skill, you gain terran dna)
---Leveling up Race DNA unlocks 2 things: new unit forms and "talent points" (diff name, but essentially that's what they are)
---You start out able to take Zergling, Zealot and Marine form, but the other unit forms are locked. After you level Protoss/Terran/Zerg DNA some, you gain the next units up the ladder's forms, and therefore the ability to level those units' exp
---Players have 3 "talent trees" -- one for each race. Talents are strictly passive abilities until the end of the trees. Players can choose their own playstyle, whether focussing on one race first then leveling the other two, or slowly getting all 3 together. Either way, at the end of the game the player should be towards the end of all 3 talent trees
-Players have 3 stances/auras (like the 3 WoW warrior stances/DK presences) -- one for each race. The corresponding stance/aura (idk what to call it) is required to morph into a unit of that race (so no going zealot in terran presence)
-Still not sure if a money/inventory/armor system is required. Obviously head/chest/shoulder/etc armor would seem pretty stupid for a changeling, and I dont plan on adding the stereotypical stats str/agi/int etc because they seem to be nothing but number-crunching game mechanics rather than fun aspects. However if I do need a money system, money will be "blood," received by killing enemies. I'm thinking about adding "essences" or "relics" or something that give buffs or universal abilities and serve as armor/inventory, but I'm not sure yet.
Starting working on the map (had to look up how to make a cinematic). Still looking for feedback! If anyone's interested in helping me work on this, or would just like to play the game as-is to see what it's like so far, please PM me -- all help is appreciated!
Ive been trying to find/think of a project to work on, and had an idea today for something that I think could turn out to be really cool, but I'd like others' opinions as well before I decide to devote a lot of work to this. So here's the basic idea:
Action-RPG (single-player) centered around the Changeling unit
Beginning of the game:
The game starts out as an army of protoss ravage your zerg camp and destroy everything. None of the zerg manage to escape other than one dying overseer whose last act is to birth you, a changeling. Having just come into existence, you wonder around (barely able to control your form) and come upon your former home, a wasteland of dismembered zerg and a few dead protoss. Devastated and overwhelmed with anger, you travel a little down the road and see a live zealot. In a whirlwind of rage, you charge at it, only to morph into one yourself. The zealot greets you and begins to talk, saying that the zerg here were becoming too prosperous and could become a nuisance to the protoss living on the planet. As he talks, the zealot shows you around the wreckage and finds a dying overseer (your parent). He makes a comment about the zerg's pettiness and kills the overseer. Overtaken again by rage, you kill the zealot with your own zealot arm-blade things. You vow to kill the ones responsible for your brood's death
You search for and find the protoss camp (as a changeling again until you get close, then turn back into a zealot). You are recognized as the zealot you killed and his friends say they were beginning to worry about you. Soon into the conversation, a group of terran bandits come and raid the settlement. You seize your opportunity to fight. Upon killing your first marine, you're given the option of either form. You continue to fight in the brawl for a little while, but you can only kill marines if youre in zealot form, and vice versa (can't risk being discovered as an imposter!)
Some of the mechanics:
-as you kill each unit type, you gain two types of experience: Race and Unit exp (ex. Killing a marine in the brawl above grants 1 terran exp and 1 marine exp)
-you level up at certain exp caps for both race and unit. Unit level-ups will award 1 new ability for each new level, based on the unit you leveled up (ex. Zealot charge ability). Race level-ups will award talent-like points
-players learn to harness the powers present in all 3 races and to mix/match different units' skills. For example (when no one is around to see your true form), you can charge [zealot] a wild enemy, perform a spin attack with a scythe [DarkTemplar], Mind Control the enemy [infestor] and make him walk a distance away, then open up on him with guns [Marine]
-Every unit type has at least 2 or 3 active skills, allowing for a huge amount of combos and for players to be very creative with their strategies
-When in the presence of units who can't become aware of your secret, you are limited to the units under that race
-Linear quest-line similar to Diablo 2 but with side-quests and other things to do as well
-Different strategies for different enemies (ex. some units only vulnerable to guns, others only to melee)
-Boss fights that make you think
-Environmental secrets that aren't required but make things a little easier (for example, the power band in the original Legend of Zelda [which I'm currently in the middle of playing] lets the player move big rocks and discover 4 teleports around the world. While they aren't required, it can save a little time)
Feel free to suggest any changes, or say "it'd be better/worse with/without ___"! I mainly just need to know if I should devote time and effort to this. Also, if you'd be interested in helping me (especially with non-trigger stuff), let me know! Thanks to all
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Curse PremiumChangeling rpg? Already being worked on...
I don't care if there's already another changeling RPG out there, as long as mine has a different story, feel, and design. How many shooters are out there? Yet Gears of War =/= Halo =/= Unreal Tournament
With that said, does anyone like/dislike/have feedback on the idea posted above?
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Curse PremiumAlright...well I read through it again and I think it's fairly nice. The idea you get experience depending on who you kill is interesting...perhaps 2 strands of exp/DNA? Story wise, not so sure. If it were finished and it wasn't super buggy, I'd play it. Sounds interesting. If it were an rpg, I'd also add stuff like when changing into different races, maybe leveling up in a race would allow you to morph into different kinds of unit types. Maybe each unit type also has interesting abilities. The only concern I have is killing the opposite race, be it terran or protoss, upgrades you for that race? Kind of concerns me. That's my feedback.
So I just spent some time trying to hash out some more of the details. I like your suggestions too. While I'm still playing around with ideas, i'll leave the OP the same and post the different stuff separate. here's what I thought of now:
-2 types of exp: Unit Type exp and Race DNA
--Unit type exp has one level system per unit type in the game, but each maxes out at a low number, around 5ish
---Leveling unit type exp gives the players new ACTIVE skills based off that unit type (ex. Zealot Charge)
Unit type exp can only be gained by performing a killing blow as the unit type you wish to level (so if your killing blow is a marine skill, you gain marine exp)
--Race DNA is gained by making a killing blow of any unit in the given race (so if your killing low is a marine skill, you gain terran dna)
---Leveling up Race DNA unlocks 2 things: new unit forms and "talent points" (diff name, but essentially that's what they are)
---You start out able to take Zergling, Zealot and Marine form, but the other unit forms are locked. After you level Protoss/Terran/Zerg DNA some, you gain the next units up the ladder's forms, and therefore the ability to level those units' exp
---Players have 3 "talent trees" -- one for each race. Talents are strictly passive abilities until the end of the trees. Players can choose their own playstyle, whether focussing on one race first then leveling the other two, or slowly getting all 3 together. Either way, at the end of the game the player should be towards the end of all 3 talent trees
-Players have 3 stances/auras (like the 3 WoW warrior stances/DK presences) -- one for each race. The corresponding stance/aura (idk what to call it) is required to morph into a unit of that race (so no going zealot in terran presence)
-Still not sure if a money/inventory/armor system is required. Obviously head/chest/shoulder/etc armor would seem pretty stupid for a changeling, and I dont plan on adding the stereotypical stats str/agi/int etc because they seem to be nothing but number-crunching game mechanics rather than fun aspects. However if I do need a money system, money will be "blood," received by killing enemies. I'm thinking about adding "essences" or "relics" or something that give buffs or universal abilities and serve as armor/inventory, but I'm not sure yet.
Starting working on the map (had to look up how to make a cinematic). Still looking for feedback! If anyone's interested in helping me work on this, or would just like to play the game as-is to see what it's like so far, please PM me -- all help is appreciated!