Making Fun RPGs

From AgeofWiki

Introduction

Note from original author, Jonathan1222: This guide is indeed outdated and was originally published years ago in 2003/2004. Over the course of time I will be updtating and correcting the many grammar and spelling errors contained in the document. Most of the below is applicable to AoE3.

Role-Playing Games, abbreviated as RPGs, are the hardest kind of map to make. This is because RPGs consist of character development, an immersive storyline, appealing and balanced gameplay, and a good unique idea. This guide should give you a good basis on where to start, as well as provide you with ideas you may find useful.

The Basics of an RPG

Names

The name of any RPG map should detail what exactly the RPG is about. For example, your rpg could be about a legion of roman warriors in the forests of gaul getting teleported to a mysterious new land. The name of this map could then be 'The Lost Legion'. Secondly, your charecters need some decent names, that if possible, represent their personality.

Interaction

Characters should talk to eachother. They should move and not just stand still. Characters should talk to you, etc.

Objectives

Have a main goal which the story progresses up to. Have side quests for entertainment and rewards along the way.

Basic Ideas

Gathered from weeks, to months to years ago for RPG's

• Food heals
• Gold for money
• Favor for magic
• Entering a shop teleports you to a buying area

Quests

• Kill dragon/monsters and "plant" teeth to make a army (Greek myth)
• A quest based upon the fox, chicken, and grain

Arena

• Fight larger opposing army and win
• Arena-Death results in loss of gold and teleported back to town last visited

Map Design

First off, most RPGs use large maps or even bigger, say Gaurdian's KotM series used 512x512, to get such a map size, go to world->Map size in the editor. Next, you must include eyecandy to make your RPG enjoyable, manually add your trees from the object selection window is also a good idea. Add wildlife, rocks and anything else that suits the enjoinment your doing. Now the most important thing of map design is to mix terrains that suit your RPGs environment. Set your brush size to 1 and keep using different terrains, for more information, check out some of the other Mapwork articles on eye candy.

Story

An RPG needs a unique, fresh storyline to make it interesting, it needs problems and solutions, take it you were writing up a story at school. You could have problems that keep on getting bigger, that result in something bad. Objectives should go along with the storyline. An RPG does not need to be long to have a good storyline.

Atmosphere

A good RPG trys to have atmosphere, to get such, use terrains, music, unit animations, SFX, sounds from the environment, cinematics, and dialog to explain it.

Other

This is ideas that aren't necessary but are good add-ons

• Use day-to-night cycles. Basics cycles would use dawn,defualt,dusk,night, while advanced cycles could use Cheezy's World Map VX lightings.
• If you have this long path your character has to follow, make sure you have to follow it for 30 minutes max. Include multiple paths and/or puzzles along the path to make your RPG more interesting
• If you have puzzles in your RPG, make them challenging, no to hard to get, not to easy to get.
• If you have a day to night cycle add sounds from the environment and possibly SFX.

Quest Vars in RPG's

By Battlestar000

RPG's and Quest Vars

Quest vars are, as its name suggests, also very important factor to control quests. You can use it for easier reference of quest progress to have greater control. A classic example (From an mmorpg, The fourth coming) would be: before you found the nomad’s letter, the old druid says the same thing to you every time you click on him; after you found the nomad’s letter, the old druid will ask you to get his staff back; after getting the quest and before you get his staff back, he’ll remind you about it every time you click on him; after you get the staff back to him he’ll thank you every time you click on him until another quest involving the same druid becomes available to you. Using quest vars you can easily control the druid’s speech since quest vars can easily identify before and after you finding the nomad’s letter, and also before and after you help the druid get his staff back. Using quest vars you can control multiple NPC’s speech as well.

In the RPG template, taking an example of the potion sellers, they will sell you potions if the variable “quest” equals 0 (you can change that of course). That means you can use the same potion sellers to deliver quests, and when you finish the quest, the potion seller will sell you potion as usual.

Randomization and Quest Vars

Randomized rain, events, etc. using quest vars will add replay ability and more natural feeling to the map. Randomized enemy monsters are installed in the RPG template.

Rewards and Quest Vars

As in the RPG template, if things are recorded on quest vars, you can use them to grant extra experience, skill points, stat points, increase a specific skill, etc..

Extra options

In Geneforge, a turn based RPG, there is a skill is named leadership. At a certain situation, such as at where asking a thief to return a stolen item, you can ask it back safely by selecting “‘Of course you didn’t steal it, perhaps it was just lost in the grass’ and turn away” but the option is only available when you have enough leadership. You can use quest vars to recreate the example above. Make a trainer to buy leadership, record it on quest vars, and when you have enough points recorded on “leadership” variable; the extra option becomes available to the player. Doesn’t always have to be leadership either, it can be “luck,” where special things happen only if you had enough luck, or “wisdom”, “athletics”, etc.. Since the RPG template’s stats, spells, and skills etc. are recorded on quest vars, you can do this with it.

Credits

The AoMH community, AgeofWiki for hosting. Jonathan1222 for original creation and frequent updating.

External Links

• RPG Trigger Template (http://aom.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action=ct&f=13,17332,0,10)
• Hero Levels (http://aom.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action=ct&f=13,17223,50,30)