On Hyper Dimension class skills

[realmrpger]

I've made a few posts about class skills in Hyper Dimension. As you may know, Hyper Dimension implores a bit of an FFVII materia-like system where you can put abilities into slots on weapons and armors ("slot" being a rather generic term, as some enchanted items like maybe a keychain or a feather can be attached for an effect). But the thing about

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[realmrpger]

In thinking about these combinations, I keep Final Fantasy IX in mind. There a few equipment "types" and certain characters can equip them. Certain characters can share equipment types, but those characters specifically have different skills they can equip. So, by using this system, Zidane can learn the counterattack from jerkin A but Vivi and Dagger cannot... And Steiner can't equip the jerkin, so he can't learn counterattack from it.

The difference between that and Hyper Dimension would be that without a limiter, both Dagger and Vivi could learn to counterattack...

The other limiter is that any "upgraded" abilities (such as Evade and Counter) would also be shared. But maybe only Flare should get that skill, and a couple of other characters should be limited to plain Counter. I'd have to create a Flare-specific equipment.

The class-based system allowed for, say, Spritey to learn Evade and Counter, but at great cost to his other skills. I'm not entirely sure how I can do that with a pure materia-based system.

HMMMMMMM... I just realized something! The armor is very customizable! Like, you could have a mail-leather hybrid. Perhaps I could work in something where it's easier for Flare to equip an Evade & Counter item because he's a Knight/Rogue hybrid (Evade could be considered a rogue skill and counter a knight skill (or a rogue skill, I guess?). Maybe Guard and Counter would be better, then it'd definitely be a knight (guard) and rogue skill... And guard is essentially the exact same as evade).

Thanks for the help, Akane! <3

[akaneko]

Hmm, what if the skills interact heavily with each character's stats? As in, any character might learn some given counter move, but it'll be so hideously inaccurate as to be almost worthless if a character doesn't have enough speed and aim, while it works awesomely for a character with awesome speed and aim? (Unless the former character ALSO equips something that boosts their speed and aim, uhuhuhu! ... but it'd eat up one of their slots to do so.)

[akaneko]

Alternately, you might limit how various learned techniques interact with what the character has equipped. A parrying skill, for example might work just fine with swords and long daggers, but would be worthless if a character only has ranged weapons at hand, or magical or technological devices not meant for direct impact with their targets that would break if used in such a manner.

[realmrpger]

So, the original class skills went on the principle of creature affinity (which is why they were based on killed creatures), and hence why only certain characters learned a given ability from killing a certain enemy. I could probably still use the same idea for accessory abilities. So a phoenix tail might grant a regen skill. Flare has the most affinity to birds and Yuuki has a strong affinity to fire. So Flare could gain, say, three levels of regen (which I guess just equates to more health healed?) from the item and Yuuki could gain two. I suppose everyone else could get one?

That system might work quite nicely, in fact. I could have little pictures of all the characters in the item screen, and when you select an item it shows how much affinity each character has to that item.

Oh man! These brain storming sessions are great! =D

[akaneko]

Ooo, so it's kinda like everyone's a blue mage, except that they have different sets of abilities they can learn most effectively from different things because of their affinities? Neato.

[realmrpger]

Ummmmmm... Maybe? I don't have the specifics down. There are abilities and then there are spells. Spells are character-specific and abilities are general. But some characters can only progress/equip up to a certain level (over time). I'm thinking about implementing this via affinity, yeah. Or something. >.< Maybe some characters inherently can't do certain things, regardless of affinity..

[akaneko]

Just make sure there's some rationale if some character might not be able to ever learn an ability that everyone else can. Not strong fast enough? Not clever or wise enough? Not enough magic talent? Vision or hearing not keen enough? Not enough affinity with a divine, supernatural, or natural force? Missing an arm? Not interested due to some past trauma in the backstory? Not part of a character's race's natural traits? Lack of magical or technological modifications to the body necessary for a particular ability? Not a member of the Super Heroes of Destiny Club that metes out these things? Et cetera. When every character has a unique set of skills that only they can learn, or when all characters can learn all the same skills, there's no need for any such explanations, but it'd be kinda frustrating if there's a general set of learned skills that random characters are arbitrarily barred from without any pattern or explanation. Class is one way of going about that sort of sorting, but probably not the only way by any means.

[realmrpger]

Heheh. I actually thought about putting something in the game where a character goes "ugh! No way I'm wearing THAT thing!" as a way of showing why you can't equip anything on any character. I've thought about using some kind of "not my size" thing. Haha, it'd be funny if I labeled all the equipment: Women's Bronze Vest: size 6. XD

Aside from that, there's also the question of why and how characters get their classes. Different classes intrinsically function different ways (eg Flare's Dragon Knight class harnesses magic via his weapons). In this sense, characters automatically have classes; the player just enhances those classes. Chances are I'd just make it an affinity-based thing, but I can't predict how well I'd be able cook the books using just that. The combination of equipment TYPE plus affinity, however, should pretty much allow me to cover all the bases...Hopefully.

Thanks again, Akane! <3