Yes...even a person that started out making a DBZ game has his own ideas... Hard as that may be for most of you to swallow...that is the case...lol

However...my first priority is to making my DBZ game...so I won't have the time to put my ideas into creation... And quite frankly...I don't want to start multiple projects... I've been in the habit of doing so all my life...and all it does is slow down overall progress and end up killing the older projects... So I've decided to just stick with my DBZ game until it is finished (which may never come) and give my ideas out freely in the hopes that someone else would take up the cause...

So here goes...

I've been thinking about RPGs a lot... And I've come up with some elements that I would REALLY like to see in one of them...

First of which concerns leveling... I would like to see an RPG that gets away from that sort of thing...or at least puts less importance on it...

So I propose that instead of simply gaining experience to up yur level...and therefore gain more powers... I say that every player begins with a set of all of the powers/skills/spells avaliable in the game but only in a rudimentary form... And these powers only grow if the player uses them... And they atrophy if the player does not... Meaning that a player can "mold" his character into the type of warrior he favors...by pumping up selected powers...and letting the others fall into disuse... Or maybe /he can create a balanced character by keeping all of his powers at a decent level (of course the more you choose to focus on...the less each one can be raised overall)... Or on the other hand...a player could choose one of their spells/attacks/whatever and use ONLY that one... Making it EXTREMELY powerful by the end of the game...while all others are basically useless...

Other benefits that come from this is that perhaps not all skills are useful in certain parts of the game... And maybe there are some places where something just can't be accomplished without a certain power... So a player is forced to learn what lies ahead...and prepare himself for it... So it will involve strategy...rather than just walking around killing everything you can in order to level up (not much better than a pbag in a DBZ game when you get right down to it)...

This should also lend a solution to the problem of people going out and getting the ultra legendary items in the game and lording over the newbies... A "Legendary Sword of Flame from the Elven King of the Dark Forest" is worth about as much as the "Steak Knife Found on the Counter in Your Starting House" in the hands of a master swordsman...lol

And to keep the "choose your own path" feeling that this system has...the whole game itself should be entirely non-linear... If the player wishes to...he could find out where the main villain lives...and go for a direct assault unarmed and with little to no skill... And promptly die...lol Of course, he'd have to learn from that mistake and go about the rest of the game...building his chosen powers up to levels that would do him some good against the Dark Lord of the Realm...

Speaking of which... Our player should not know from the start who this bad guy is... He should only learn of him through his travels through the game world... And until that last moment when he faces him...he really shouldn't ever know for sure who or what he is...or what his weaknesses are... Meaning he'll have to trust blindly in the rumors he hears (or other hints he gathers along his road) that the Dark Lord and his minions are only harmed by water (or whatever)...

And if he puts his faith in the wrong info...and pumps up his water based spells to the roof...and goes to face his enemy...and discovers that water has no affect on him... Then he must die a failure...lol

Speaking of death... In this game it will be final... If you die...that's all... Game Over...no starting again from your last save point... There will be save points...so you can turn the thing off to go eat dinner or sleep once in a while (lol)...but if you die in your travels...you'll have to start a whole new game over from scratch...

I think that this would lend immensely to the excitement and stress of the game... If you know that you only have one life to live...then you're going to be more cautious in your gameplay...and coming near death will scare you even worse than it ever has... Again...strategy comes into play... No more charging into a black castle, dying, and restarting outside... You'll have to make a tough decision on whether you think you can handle that castle or not before you go running into it like a fool...

And going back to the non-linear aspect of the game... There will be no events that you simply MUST perform in order to go further into the game... There will be many things that will HELP you in your quest... As in saving the life of a future ally from a terrible monster... Or destroying a mining operation that is sending resources to the Dark Lord... Or whatnot... but none of these things are a must... You will be able to get by without that ally...and if you leave the mine alone...there will just be more machines of destruction waiting for you near the Dark Lord's stronghold...

And this also lends to strategy... Say that ally is a known healer... But you have a fairly decent healing ability yourself... You don't need that ally then, right? So why waste time on them? So instead of saving their life...you can go onward and do something that WILL help your cause... Even if it pains you to let someone die because of it...lol

But of course...being completely non-linear...we need some way of keeping the game in check... Some limit on what can be done... So we use a time limit...

During your travels...you learn from some scouts that a huge force is being ammassed in the Dark Lord's realm...and that he is planning a massive assault to take over the land... So you've got until he decides to launch his attack to stop him... If you don't make it in time (because, say...you stopped for too long to save that useles healer...lol)...everything is ruined... The Dark Lord wins...and your game is over...

And for the fun of it... Let's throw in an awareness to our Enemy... At first...he knows nothing of your existence... But if you detryot too many of his resource factories...he'll begin to take more and more notice of you...and you'll be assailed by more and more of his minions... After all...this is not a stupid overlord that follows the conventions of all the others... This one will try to squash you long before you become a real threat... And if he fears you too much...perhaps he'll play his hand and send out his armies earlier than he originally planned...

So you can either try to remain low key in order to give yourself time... Or you can go gung ho and wipe out as much as possible and make as much commotion as possible...thereby shortening your time and making life more dangerous...but at the same time...weakening his forces perhaps enough that you can take him out early...

And again...there's more strategy...

So this game becomes less of a "do as we hint to you to do and follow a rather strict order of events" like nearly ALL current video game RPGs are...and more of a "it's in your hands...everything is up to you now... Please don't fail us for you are our last hope..." lol

I think the players would appreciate that immensely...

And something else that I would love to see now with the connectivity of the Game Boy Advanced and the GameCube... Is a game like this on the GBA that is there solely as a training ground/character building game that once you've finished it...you can then upload your character into the GC game...which is MUCH bigger and perhaps even has an online capability... But I digress from BYOND with that one...lol Although perhaps this sort of thing would work with BYOND as well... Having a single player version of the game that is the training ground...and then at a certain point...the player gains access to the online world and can play with everyone else in the "real" game...


And that's about all on that for now...

Another much smaller idea I've had recently is a game along the lines of Battle Bots or Robot Wars or Robotica or any of those types of "build a robot...and compete against others" types of shows...

You start out with a basic robot "chassis" and a certain ammount of money... You then spend that money in buying parts to build up your robot... Giving it weapons, armor, etc... And it's up to you how to customize your robot...

And then you take it into the arena and battle it out with your fellow players and their creations... And by winning, you get more money to go spend on more weapons and upgrades and so on and so on...

And that's all I've got for now... Anyone who wants to run with any of my ideas is free to do so... Like I said...I don't have the time to use them myself in a project...yet I would really love to see them come into being...

All I ask of anyone that DOES decide to use any of these...is that they would ask for and accept my advice on how to carry them out properly... And I mean advice on how it should be done...not how it should be coded...