Just a few ideas I had after reading your post :

-I don't know how you want to design the shield charm but if it's possible you could use a shield as a buff which cancel the next spell used against you.

-If you want another Hufflepuff character you could add Sally Anne Perks if you succeed in keeping her in Hogwarts or in your year depending on your take on her character.

-You can also improve your character roster by adding the quidditch players from your house after specific quidditch matches.


Anyway, good luck on your game it's ambitious!

 

I can do two things with the shield charm. I can have it just add some sort of magical resistance, to lessen the damage of the next spell, or I think I can actually add a buff that lasts for 1 turn and reduces the damage of certain elements to 0.

I'm certainly open to party member suggestions. Only thing is that I got to keep semi-equal amounts between the houses (though it doesn't have to be exact. Easier for Gryffindor and Slytherin than for the others. Either way, I do need house lists so I can have a roster of people to use as npcs. Also, some characters will likely be functionally the same as others.

I'm not sure how I'm handling Quidditch. I can't add a minigame or anything like that, so it will likely be some text-based progression, or maybe a mini-quest that sends you out to the quidditch stadium, you go and receive a small stats bonus. I have the quidditch stadium marked on the overworld map, but the only real use it has at the moment is to trigger the Draco duel quest.

 

I imagine you'll have issues with copyrights and stuff as soon as you try releasing anything, even for free. Call it some Harry Potter inspired thing. And don't use actual spells/names from the HPverse.

 

Putting the issue of you wanting advice and ideas on how to build up your game, aren't you worried about getting a C&D?

 

If he even gets to the point where Warner Bros./JKR even notices the project, that is worthy of congratulations. I'd think there was a whole bunch of things he needs to be worried about before he gets worried about that.

 

If you just reduce the damage to 0 you could still be affected by the debuff of the spell no?

 

That kind of ruins the magic, if I have to call something "TOTALLY NOT A STUNNING CHARM" rather than "Stupefy". I haven't even thought about a release, since that could be years from now, if ever.

I'm not worried.

Given my track record, there's about a 99% chance that I'm in over my head and this thing will never get past the first year, let alone finished.

It depends on how the specific debuff works. if the debuff has the same element, then you can have it be nullified as well. You can also specifically nullify specific debuffs. I guess it depends on what you're going for. If you want protego to protect you from Incendio, but still want to be damaged by the heat radiating through the shield, there's probably a way to do that. Honestly, I'm thinking the best way to representing the shield mechanically is to have it prevent X amount of damage. That way it can stop damage from small spells, but big spells will always get through - you can kind of visualize it by the shield charm withstanding the spell for a brief second before being overpowered. In all cases it will be doing something though, and it will scale will player level and stats, and there will be three ranks of the spell. Now that I'm thinking about it, I guess it's not too different from a priests shield from WoW.

 

Someone pointed out that focusing on the Gryffindor path first might be a good idea. I'll add to it, and say focusing on the first year alone might be a better idea. The beauty of the Harry Potter books, especially the earlier ones is that they are very self-contained and make for a nice adventure. Additionally, it would give you a much more manageable work load, and allow you to learn from your mistakes if you allow your testers/players to actually give you feedbacks after Year 1. If only one year is not enough for you, you could push for up to Year 4 which is kind of a nice ending for a "Arc One" type of thing with Voldemort returning. The Y5-6-7 do have a lot of locations that are not Hogwarts, and a more mature approach. Just something to keep in mind perhaps.

Armor
I don't know why you would make 1st-2nd-3rd-etc Year Robes a reward for finishing each year. I think it removes the value of the treasure, and doesn't really fit the Potter Verse as there isn't any difference between Y1 and Y6 robes.

Instead, I'd go for something more thematically oriented.

• First Year: School Robes (basic protection, perhaps even malus for social encounter dealing with adult characters when wearing them)
• First Year: Quidditch Gear (increase protection against physical attack, basic against spells)
• Fourth Year: Dress Robes (no protection, bonus to social encounter and allows you to participate in the Yule Ball event)
• Fourth Year: Triwizards Gear (+increase protection against fire)

Spells
If you can make it that leveling up increases your chance to resist/dodge/parry/block/etc. while increasing your rank in one spell (by practice or learning) increases your chance of bypassing said resistance, than I think you could make everything work pretty fine even for something like an expelliarmus.

• Rank 1: +5 dmg, +100% disarm, +0% hit
• Rank 2: +15 mg, +100% disarm, +5% hit
• etc.

Wizard

• Dueling Skill 0 = -50% chance to hit and dodge.
• Dueling Skill 1 = 0% chance to hit and dodge
• Dueling Skill 2 = +15% chance to hit and dodge

Let's say a 1st year student (Duel 0) casts Expelliarmus on a 4th year student (Duel 2). Standard hit chance is 100%. He gets -50% because of his inexperienced, and 0% from his rank 1, and -15% because 4th-year has experienced. FOr a total of 35% chance to hit with his spell.



Obviously these are placeholder value, but you get my meaning. You could also change the way the maths work, and make it so that the attacker has a hit chance that is independent from the defender's dodge chance. So with the previous scenario, 1st-Year would have 50% chance to hit with the spell, but 4th-year would have 15% to dodge if said spell would hit.

 

Thanks for the post. I've given the whole Gryffindor thing a great deal of thought, and I do agree. For now, that is all I will be doing. I'm a big proponent of only doing something if it actually means something. Like, there shouldn't be a reason for Harry to go into Hufflepuff, if everything is just going to be the same. You see it in fanfiction where someone writes the story and just changes the pairing or even Harry's house and all the canon events pretty much just stay the same. It's frustrating when a Slytherin!Harry still has Ron and Hermione as friends. Sure, there can be an interesting dynamic there, but there almost never is.

So, long story short, if I were to add the possibility of getting sorted into a different house, I would want to do it proper, with actual plot that makes sense. Sure, it's easy enough to think that Harry would side with Draco over the remembrall thing, and then end up duelling against Ron, but where does that go? Does Harry help Draco snitch on Hagrid? It is simple to just switch the antagonists around, but it really doesn't work for every situation, so it's more complicated than that. Like, how is the plot going to progress? Is Harry at any point in time going to suspect Snape would be the one trying steal the philosophers stone, when he is the head of his house? The bottom line is that it's more complicated than a cut and paste job, and doing something like that would need some dedicated time to plot out a realistic Hufflepuff!Harry, Ravenclaw!Harry, and Slytherin!Harry. And, it has to be new and interesting, yet still feeling true to the world. Because if it's not interesting, then what the hell would the point be? Anyways, I guess creating a Slytherin Harry plot wouldn't be too different than me having to write fanfiction. Perhaps at some point in the future.

As for the items, I love having a lot of items in rpgs, but maybe that's just me. They do get new robes every year, but I guess they're still technically the same. I just think it would be silly if after 7 years you're still using starter robes. My thought process is pretty straight forward. I'm just picturing looting a crate in the dungeons and finding a worn set of robes that you can vendor for a few gold. Similarly, going to the high end shop in Diagon Alley and being able to buy well made robes.

Mostly, it is a mechanical thing. Like, these guys don't wear magical rings and necklaces, they mostly use the same wand their whole life unless something happens to it, they wear their robes until they stop fitting, and even then they can use magic to extend their lifetime. That's a whole lot of things that don't really lend themselves to good gameplay. But the whole purpose of this is to be an rpg set in the world. You're not playing it for the plot, since you already know the plot, so you're playing it for the gameplay, and for the experience.

I'm not saying what I came up with is perfect. Perhaps there's a way to make the robes simply have a level requirement, which would cut down on the quantity of them. A quick google search shows that it's possible, but a bit tricky to do, but might be worth it. It might be better that way, because as is, it kind of feels like there would be two level systems in the game, one for your actual level, and one for what year you are in. Combining them both means you won't get gated by random things like be underlevelled before the TWT or something like that. Regardless, this is the type of discussion I want to have in this thread. I haven't made any of this stuff in the game yet, so it's all just theoretical.

As for levelling up, that's a bit tricky. You can control how much of each base state an character gets when they level, and it's based on a generated curve that you can increase or decrease. You can have them gain skills when they get a certain level, kind of like pokemon (TBH, I'm not sure how much I'm going to use that, versus emulating learning magic in game through various events). Anyways, increasing the rank of a specific skill when levelling might be possible, but very difficult. Beyond what I know how to do (and I've only watch some tutorials right now, haven't actually done it in the programe yet).

Firstly, I have to physically make every spell. I don't think it's possible to make an event that changes the variable in a spell, since the spells are on the global (program wide) database, and would effect everyone with that skill. So, what I can do is make an event that replaces a spell with a new spell, so replace rank 1 with rank 2. It also seems like it would be extremely difficult to do. I would have to make a bunch of variables, and have each spell correlate with a variable. They're kind of the same thing as event switches, except with more functionality I think (for doing more complex events). All switches in the game start "off". So, I can program an event that says gaining spell X turns that switch on, and it stays on the entire game. Then, I would need a second event that checks to see if that first switch is on. If it's off, it does nothing. If it's on, then it replaces spell X with spell Y. And then you have a third event trigger, that checks if both X and Y are on, to replace it with Z. Now imagine that with 100 different spells, or 100 different spells that each have 3 ranks each. It's possible, and perhaps that's the best way to do it. You can copy/paste the code where necessary, and I know there are things such as common events (which in this case would likely be this entire massive sheet of all the spells), but what I don't know is what determines when this event triggers. You don't want it to trigger every time you level, and even then, you don't want all of your spells to level at the same time either.

I don't think there's a way to check specifically if a single specific spell has been cast 100 times, and then level it up. Like I said, I'm still new to the program, and haven't really dug into how events work. For all I know, perhaps there is a way. Perhaps there's a way that makes it so every time you cast the spell, it changes a variable. Say it starts at 0, and then every time you cast the spell, it triggers that event, which is a simple event that simple changes a variable by adding +1 to it. Then, there's a common even that checks when any variable hits 100, and replaces the spell with the new one. If there is a way to do this, that might be the way to go. It makes it so you can grind out a spell's power a bit, but not too much since the next version of the spell will have to be unlocked at some point. You can still lock some things by year, by simply having each year be an event variable (1 through 7).

Anyways, it does seem like kind of a complicated mess. But, if that is how the spell system needs to work to have this as a functional, enjoyable game, then I will certainly do it.

As a small side note, character level disparities will innately help during a battle. For example, most spells are calculated as such: Base damage + ("A".magical attack*1 - "B".magical defense*1). "A" is your character, and "B" is the enemy. So, if you're lower level, you likely have a lower magical attack stat than the opponents magical defense. Also note, that each stat can have a multiplier, so it can be B.mdef*2 or something like that. This is just a formula for the base damage. That works on a sense that a spell just isn't going to do as much damage to a higher level person as it would to a lower level. Resistance is a whole different thing. You can probably chance someone's resistance as they level up, but I don't think there's a way to have it dynamically change for a battle depending on the other persons level.

So, the way you presented it might actually work, in that perhaps a player has a an actual "duelling skill" modifier. Duelling skill 0 would have no benefit, or perhaps even negatives, while dueling skill 10 would give you +hit, and magical resistance, perhaps even an extra attack per turn. The neat thing is that battling an opponent with the same exact duelling modifier would essentially cancel each other out, as your +15 hit would be negated by their +15 dodge.

The tricky part is making the dueling skill feel like something special, something different than just a persons normal level. I think it's certainly doable, but of course, there's the issue of what exactly causes you to level up your duelling skill. I think the duelling club would unlock it, though that would mean that the idea of negative stats wouldn't really work, since you'd go from not having the duelling skill, to suddenly getting it and suddenly having negative stats. So, I guess that means you start at dueling skill 0, and then various events increase it. It would certainly add an interesting dynamic, such as if Voldemort's duelling skill was set to 10. It would add some realism, because it would mean that no matter how many levels you grinded, if you're duelling skill is shit you're still going to suck against him. In that sense, it seems like it would be better served as a plot device than a levelling mechanic, perhaps constructed in such a way that the main plot gives you enough +duelling to get by and beat the game with some difficulty, but you can find more +duelling by doing a bunch of sidequests to make it slightly easier for you.

-edit- should note that there is a fanmade pluggin that adds more options when levelling. not sure exactly what they are though, i think it's gear, or cutscenes.

 

Are you working with stock RPG Maker MV assets or will you be creating your own and importing them in?

MV is a good choice, it has some good advanced lighting techniques that separate it from earlier versions of RPG Maker.

 

I'm not artistic enough to make my own. I'm not really even skilled enough to change the color pallet on them. That's not to say I can't learn, but I know it takes time to learn it. I've searched for some stock databases and haven't really found anything other than a greenhouse.

Truthfully, for all I know someone could have already made an HP rpg and I simply don't know cause I haven't actually looked. I kind of don't even want to know the answer to that.

 

Sprites like these could be helpful, though you probably already saw them:

http://www.gdunlimited.net/resources/cat/rpg-maker-vx-ace/harry-potter

 

Those are pretty nice. Though, I haven't actually looked for an Harry Potter sprites. Mostly because I didn't want to get spoiled and see that someone else has already done the same game idea in rpg maker.

 

Well, doing sprites and doing a game are totally different things. There are several places on the web where people just do sprites as resources to be freely used.

 

Small update on my progress (though I am at work). I finished physically making Hogwarts last night. Now, what I mean by that, is that I took that map flow excel sheet I posted earlier up, and actually created all the rooms for it. It's around 100 rooms or so. But, I'm hardly finished. Some of them still need the actual map graphics made. For the various classrooms, most of them are the same size and have the same basic layout, so all I have to do is put some distinguishing features in them so they all just don't look the same. Not too hard to do, just something that's going to take some time. I also have to make all the doors and transfer zones, which is slightly more tedious since copy/paste isn't that effective with it. You can do that, but you have to be certain you've actually changed the locations, because otherwise you're going to have multiple rooms all teleporting you to the same spot. Then, the actual work happens, and that's populating the place with events. NPCs, loot chests, enemy encounters, etc.

I'm not exactly sure how to create quests, but I have a vague idea. I've been watching a lot of tutorials, and they've helped quite a bit. Pretty much just involves a whole lot of flags and checks.

Lastly, I think it is actually possible to make spells have XP. I theorized that it was in a previous post, but I think it's a lot more complicated than I was expecting. The tricky part is that spells work different than events. This is what the spell editor looks like (shameless taken from google) and this is what the event creator looks like (also shameless taken from google)

The "contents" of the event is the actual important part. You can create a variable with it, so whenever a trigger happens, you can add +1 to that variable. Then you can have it so when that variable equals 100 (or more), then you can replace a skill with another skill. Then that next skill has to call forth a new variable, and the whole thing is a new event.

So, if you take a look at the picture of the spell creation screen, you'll see there is no "contents" area, so you can't really have usage of the spell trigger anything direct. So you have to do it indirectly, and I beleive that it is doable through using the effect called "common event."

Now, common events are exactly that. They're shortcuts to help cut down on a million identical events. So, for example, if you have 50 locked doors in the game, you would have one common event that is simple a text box that says "this door is locked" and all the doors would call upon that same event. But, in this situation, the common event would be slightly different, and not really common at all. Each spell would have it's own common event, but in essence that spell would be calling upon the same common event every time, so I guess that's sort of how it works.

So I think it works something like this:

>cast spell Incendio, run effects: common event "Incendio 1A"
>Common Event "Incendio 1A" activates: "control variable Incendio 1A" +1

Then, you need the actual event
>Event Incendio 1A. Trigger condition is variable "Incendio 1A" >99
>Add Skill Incendio 2A.
>Remove Skill Incendio 1A.
>Text "Congratulations, you leveled up Incendio to rank 2!"

There might some switches that need to be triggered to get it to work without looping, I'm not sure. So it's not actually that bad if that actually works. I think you can actually control all the ranks through the same even page, since you can have multiple tabs in the event page. I think I can either have each rank of each spell be it's own event, or I can have it all be in one event and use some switches. Switches is probably the smarter way to do that, since that means I can just use the same variable for all 3 ranks of the spell, and just have each new rank of the spell trigger at a different amount. The switch is important because you want to be able to turn that event off so it doesn't trigger when you get 101 XP, and 102 XP, etc.


I think it can be done. It will be a lot of copy/pasting for every spell and replacing the right trigger numbers with the right ones, but certainly doable. The one issue I'm not sure about is how to get it working with multiple characters. What if two people in the party both know incendio? As is, everyone would be using the same spell XP variable. The only way around that is for everyone to have their own individual Incendio spell, with their own variable. Now, if you've got 20 different potential party members, that's 20 different incendio spells. That's waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much work.

So, I'm not really sure what to do. There might be a fanmade plugin that simply has it all built in, or perhaps there's just an easier way to code it. But, I think to fix it means it's going to be an even harder code, especially if there is some way to track which character is actually triggering the event. I wish the answer was simply having shared spell XP, but while that is what the spell would do, the actual even that levels up the spell would have to be interestingly coded. It would have to be a blanket code that checks to see if you have the spell, if you don't then level it, or something weird like that. I'm not sure.

-edit- so I have looked around a bit, and it looks like I was on the right path by using common events. I found a couple plugins that seem to do it (though it looks lime most are for older version of RPG MAKER). I also found a youtube video that shows how to do what I was trying in a simpler manner - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZwcJOKNWBs There is still the issue that I came across in that two characters have the same skill is still a problem. So I still need something that is a solution to that.

---------- Post automerged 06-30-2017 at 01:35 PM ---------- Previous post was 06-29-2017 at 04:20 PM ----------

So, I've been doing some work. I did a bunch of stuff with the dungeons and revamped the great hall using my slightly improved mapmaking skills. I had a small issue where when I'd add a tileset to another tileset, they were all coming in on default terrain values, meaning you'd walk up the walls and stuff. That was annoying, but it's fixed. Also made sure all the doors and transfer zones work. That took a bit too, but wasn't too bad.

Anyways, the spell leveling system has given me fits. I've found two plugins. The first one seemed promising, but it's glitchy/broken and I lack the coding skills to fix it. It had something to do with the XP bar for the spell, the formula to generating it was giving infinite numbers and crashing the game. I guess the person who made it didn't figure out how to divide by odd numbers without that happening. The second plugin has the problem that I've been mentioning all along, is that the XP was shared by all characters, so two characters using the same spell would have the same spell power, and I don't want that.

So, without making 20 sets of identical spells for 40 actors (which aside from being tedious to make, would cause logistical problems in game. It would compound on itself, so instead of having one Spellbook of Incendio as a possible drop, you would need one for each character. No thanks).

Then I found a couple of tutorials. The one I linked in the previous post is the one I got inspiration for, even though it only works with unique spells. But, I actually tested it in game, and it did work as advertised, which was good.

So, trying to adapt that to multiple players is where the hard part was. As far as I could tell, there was no parameter that kept track of when a character activated an skill in battle. I checked the javascript file that has all of the objects, and I didn't see anything (though I'm a noob). It would have been so easy if it could just be when ActorA uses (skillB), then run (ActorA SkillB xp event). The only thing I could find was a trigger when the actor was in the party, which might be useful later on.

So, then I had an idea. I don't know if it works yet, but I think it should. I can make it so a spell applies a State to something. I can then make it so an event checks to see what that actor is affected by that state, and then run the script. So, when ActorA casts Incendio, the state "incendio" will be applied. Then an event runs, triggering when "incendio" is applied. That event then does all the XP levelling stuff. Then, it has to remove the Incendio state, so it can retrigger next time.

The one small problem with that is how states are applied. If you're using an offensive ability, then your target is the one who is going to get the state applied. I can't figure out a way to attack the enemy with the skill while having the buff applied to you. If there's a formula or script or something I can do that with, that would be great, otherwise there's another janky workaround.

I guess I'm still kind of stuck. I can have it so the skill triggers a common event, and that common event can add a state to any actor, but I'm a loss on how to tell which actor to give it to, since the whole purpose of this was to make it so a skill can keep track of when someone used it.

Perhaps the solution is to figure out a way to have each spell trigger a second spell, with that second spell having to cast time, no animation, and just targeting the user and applying the state. I do beleive there is a plugin for that, but the trick for that is to not have the second skill cast take more than a millisecond, since you dont want it to be noticeable

TLDR I can't figure out the spell xp system since I'm a noob

 

I think you could make your life easier by simply creating a skill (if it is possible to do so) to reflect each category of magic, and a skill for combat, and make each spell reflect from that.

e.g. You learn Incendio in Y1. It does 50+1.5*(Duel Rank)+1.5*(Fire Rank)
You find a tome that can teach you Fiendfyre, but it requires you to have Duel 3 and Fire 3. Fiendfyre does 300+2.5*(Fire Rank)+2.0*(Duel Rank)

 

Yeah, I'm contemplating just going back to my original idea. It is probably a lot easy to just keep it simple, and have spell damage have a multiplier based on the players level. I could have multiple ranks of spells available via various events like spellbooks, or teachers. That is easy to do, but that really depends on how long I expect it take to finish a year. like, if gameplay is only going to be 5 hours, you don't need there to be 2 more ranks for each spell if you'll just outpace them anyways.

I still do like the duelist trait i mentioned earlier. That won't be nearly as hard to implement as spell XP, but I guess it really depends on how many spell improvement systems in the game

 

Small update:

I'm still undecided on the spell system. Having them just scale based on level, and then having a higher rank version that you learn from a teacher or spellbook later on is probably the best thing to do, and probably makes for smoother gameplay. I'm still interested in having a "dueling skill" trait, but I think that runs into the same problem as spell XP, so it would have to be done through event triggers rather than grinding.

I've been mostly working on trying to "finish" diagon alley. I use the word finish loosely. The plan is still to have Diagon Alley be the tutorial.

Right now, the idea is:
Start Game->
Intro that explains who Harry Potter is->
Dialog with Hagrid who tells Harry to get his shopping list out->
Go one by one to the various stories, buy the "quest" item for each quest->
End at Ollivander. Brief duel when Harry gets his wand with a target dummy or similar. Starting spell would be Spark or something like that. Funnily enough, Spark is actually the default spell in RPG Maker, but it works here.

With that decided, it's just a matter of actually doing it. The first thing I had to decide is what buildings actually matter. For the tutorial, it's simply a matter of the buildings that are needed to get all of his school supplies. Later on, the rest of them will be available. Then, there's the matter of actually creating the vendors. And, to do that, I need to create all the items that they can sell. That's the time consuming part. I made like 100 potions and ingredients, but most of them don't have prices and abilities set yet. That can come later after I figure out balancing. Right now I just have the Leaky Cauldron and Slug and Jiggers Apothecary done. TBH, I think I'll probably have to get a shopkeeper plug in because the default interface is kind of clunky. Also, I don't think theres a way to set quantity limits, which is annoying

Then, there there the actual quest. I don't actually know how to do that yet. My first idea is that Hagrid will give Harry the coin he needs to buy the item from the specific shop,, harry will go to the shop and buy the item, then bring it back to hagrid, rinse and repeat. It's probably doable, but I think it would be much better with a quest plugin, especially one that can keep track of quests. Otherwise there would be some janky method like giving a quest item that is a scroll that tells you the quest that is also removed upon quest completion.

Lastly, I still need to figure out how to implement some mechanically from a gameplay point of view. Namely, the Owlery and Quidditch. Firstly, I forgot to include the Owlery on my Hogwarts map, so I'll have to add that. The simplest thing I can do is simply have Harry get Hedwig during the tutorial, then simply have her event popup at various points in the game. That's doable, since I have have a single event with 12 different triggers switches in it, and then have various points in the game toggle the various trigger switch in the game for the event to happen. I think it will have to be something like that, otherwise it's kind of hard to keep track of the timeline in game for events to happen. You can implement the clock, but the gameplay doesn't revolve around the actual days, it revolves around events.

As for quidditch, I'm not sure what to do with it. Truthfully, I kind of hate it. It's probably technically possible to program subgames, but that's pretty much the last thing I want to do. It's possible to have brooms I think, since you might be able to treat it as a vehicle, but from a gameplay perspective, it doesn't do that much. It's fine to fly around the overworld, but you're not spending much time there anyways. Elsewise, you're flying inside hogwarts, and while you'll get to rooms faster, it doesn't make sense lorewise. So that means the only time you'll be flying is on quests, or inside the quidditch stadium, and I wasn't actually planning on making an inside map for the quidditch stadium. I was mostly just going to have it be a quest location, and if I really felt the need to have quidditch games (perhaps as a method to control the passage of time), I would simply have it as a popup, like have the screen fade to black and then have Harry appear outside the stadium or whereever. So, if that were the case, a broomstick would simply be a quest item that stays in the inventory. Perhaps having different kinds of brooms opens up different quest options, but I'm not sure what those quest options are. Perhaps different brooms can give different passive effects, or add a permanent trait to Harry (similar to a spellbook). If it was something like giving Harry the first attack in battles, it would be pretty OP. I'll have to think on it. FWIW, it's sort of the same situation I have with the invisibility cloak. It'll likely end up as a key item that is only useful when the situation calls for it. Marauder Map is sort of the same way, except that I think I can have it so it actually unlocks some secret passages.

---------- Post automerged at 03:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:40 PM ----------

So, I had an actual showerthought for what I just posted. The invisibility cloak will make it so you can't get random encounters when it is worn. Like, think of a repel potion from Pokemon.

Also had a thought as to how to simulate the passing of a school year. Basically, it involves utilizing the stations of canon or whatever you want to call them. That means I have to go through and pick out what I think the key events are. So it would be like the Duel with Malfoy, the Troll event, Christmas, and a couple of others. The quantity is important. The idea is that there will be 6 or 8 different dialogs for each classroom. At the start of the game, each teacher will have one dialog for you, a "lesson" that grants a skill, some xp, or even just some lore. Then, one you complete one of the Key Events, the next set of "lessons" becomes unlocked from all of the classes. I feel like it will help control the pacing of the game. I can also make it so lessons are actually missable, in the sense that if you decide you don't want to go to snape for lesson 3, then it is possible to make it so you've missed it forever. Of course, that would mean that the lessons will have to be strictly optional from a gameplay perspective (so no main storyline quests unless its made in a special way such as with McGonagall talking about the chamber of secrets). Elsewise, I guess it would be possible to just have them not skipable, and just giving you all the lessons you missed in a row. I don't really like that option, but it does remove the feel-bad completion element from the game. Perhaps the best of both-worlds is to have some method to catching up later (perhaps an extracurricular lesson with a teacher at some other point)

Lastly, Transfiguration. It seems super hard to implement it so it has any effect on gameplay. The only way that makes sense is that you summon a creature to fight by your side for the remainder of the battle. That is actually pretty sweet, but I have no idea how to make it happen. The max party limit is 4, so I don't know if that can be temporarily increased by summoned creatures during a battle. If it can be, then it's probably a great solution. Otherwise, it won't look that much different than other spells, and probably weaker.

 

I find myself strangely interested in your project; would you mind to share some screenshort of the arts you're using perhaps? I'd be interesting to see what you Diagon Alley/Hogwarts looks like.

I like the idea of Key Events dictating time. If you're aiming for a little bit of sandbox, than it would definitely be a better idea to make lessons optional; at least some of them. If you skip, perhaps when you come back you can ask for "Remedial Potions" and it gives you an opportunity to do the lesson that you missed.

 

My maps are pretty amateurish at the moment, mostly because I am an amateur. Once I get more skilled, I might be able to start making my own tilesets, but everything is pretty much the default texture packs. Haven't even been able to find some decent free packs.

Diagon Alley
Hogwart's Grounds is pretty bad.
Greenhouses
Outside Zone that won't be used except like once probably.