Love = status ailment?
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I've been thinking about lighthearted RPGs and think that it would be cool to have love / crushes / infatuation as a 'status' ailment. Ie. Blushing, your character blushes whenever they come near their crushee.
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Mumbling where the font size changes and becomes really small and unreadable.
Any ideas for love-status ailments?
Final Fantasy always had a 'Confused' (IIRC?) state, and if that attack was from a seducing beauty the animation (FF9) was with little bubbling hearts. The person would then do all physical attacks on a random teammate instead of the enemy.
That's kind of in love, since the confused character would be protecting the loved one.
That's kind of in love, since the confused character would be protecting the loved one.
A slightly less annoying way would be to have the character unable to attack the one they 'love' (or make it nearly impossible to hit them). This way the party members don't suffer. There's nothing worse than getting a critter down to near-death and having your party members wipe eachother out.
Quote:Original post by Ketchaval
Mumbling where the font size changes and becomes really small and unreadable.
Hahaha! That's an awesome way to mimick reality!
Quote:
Any ideas for love-status ailments?
I'm assuming you didn't mean strictly in combat, right? How about bumbling or creating embarassing, disasterous messes?
Do you mean love as in the love is returned? Because a character feeling love but not having it returned would be WAY different than one getting it back. I'll assume mutual.
If it's a big part of the game, you could really run with it. Love could influence nearly every action you take. Speaking real life, it can pick you up to super human zeal and pound you down into deep depression :D
Anyway, I think any type of bonus you want to grant to a character feeling love would be pretty realistic. I suppose the main attribute would be confidence. But for realism, you might as well boost all of their stats, as that is what confidence will eventually do. I would make the bonus hidden from the player, though (no +5 display). It would add more 'magic' to the game.
If it's a big part of the game, you could really run with it. Love could influence nearly every action you take. Speaking real life, it can pick you up to super human zeal and pound you down into deep depression :D
Anyway, I think any type of bonus you want to grant to a character feeling love would be pretty realistic. I suppose the main attribute would be confidence. But for realism, you might as well boost all of their stats, as that is what confidence will eventually do. I would make the bonus hidden from the player, though (no +5 display). It would add more 'magic' to the game.
I'm in super-rushed paper editing mode at the moment, so I'll be brief (I've been procrastinating way too much by posting at GameDev.net this week, but at least it's kept me reasonably sane, I think! [smile]).
This is really interesting, as I don't think I've seen this done yet. I'm going to be having "love" as a sort of feature in my RPG-ish game, but not really as a status ailment (although I suppose it will be having that kind of an effect).
In combat, I suppose love could act a bit like berserk, like how Minsc in Baldur's Gate II would go crazy if Aerie (his adopted "witch" who he has sworn to protect) was in danger.
Of course, if a character was in love with the enemy, that's a bit harder to do... I suppose confusion is a suitable metaphor, I guess.
This is really interesting, as I don't think I've seen this done yet. I'm going to be having "love" as a sort of feature in my RPG-ish game, but not really as a status ailment (although I suppose it will be having that kind of an effect).
In combat, I suppose love could act a bit like berserk, like how Minsc in Baldur's Gate II would go crazy if Aerie (his adopted "witch" who he has sworn to protect) was in danger.
Of course, if a character was in love with the enemy, that's a bit harder to do... I suppose confusion is a suitable metaphor, I guess.
The berserk idea is neat. I'm reminded of the wants and fears system from The Sims 2, where your sim would have fears based on their experiences. If you have a good friend or a lover, then their death will frequently be prominent among your fears.
You could use the love as a modifyer, a source of buff and debuffs in-game. If the object of your love is in danger, then you could derive some kind of adrenaline rush from that, and get a free buff. If they get hurt, then you'd go into a frenzy until the one who hurt them is punished, and then you'd take a big hit to your stats as the shame of failing to protect them hits you. If they die and there's no obviousl target of revenge, you go into depression. A kiss, or a rebuff, or a gift from your lover could have an effect on your in-game performance proportionate the the strength of your feelings for them.
This is a neat system, and could be extended to family members, feudal lords, political entities (in-game virtual patriotism, Wavinator?) or long-time team mates without too much difficulty.
You could use the love as a modifyer, a source of buff and debuffs in-game. If the object of your love is in danger, then you could derive some kind of adrenaline rush from that, and get a free buff. If they get hurt, then you'd go into a frenzy until the one who hurt them is punished, and then you'd take a big hit to your stats as the shame of failing to protect them hits you. If they die and there's no obviousl target of revenge, you go into depression. A kiss, or a rebuff, or a gift from your lover could have an effect on your in-game performance proportionate the the strength of your feelings for them.
This is a neat system, and could be extended to family members, feudal lords, political entities (in-game virtual patriotism, Wavinator?) or long-time team mates without too much difficulty.
To expand on Wavinator's bumbling idea: How about making the character much less likely to be able to hit an enemy when his true love is near him/in his party?
EDIT: Obviously this would have to be used sparingly as it would be EXTREMELY frustrating!
EDIT: Obviously this would have to be used sparingly as it would be EXTREMELY frustrating!
Quote:Original post by pan narrans
To expand on Wavinator's bumbling idea: How about making the character much less likely to be able to hit an enemy when his true love is near him/in his party?
EDIT: Obviously this would have to be used sparingly as it would be EXTREMELY frustrating!
Or more likely to hit, as long as he's attacking the biggest, baddest threat in an attempt to impress her. Or even more so against a threat that hurt his love. He might also be reluctant to let her engage in combat. If she tries to fight, he could go help her so she doesn't get hurt, ignoring whatever threat he should be dealing with. He could even try to get between her and the enemy both to keep her from fighting and to show her how it's done.
Also, remember Ness' homesickness in Earthbound. If apart from his love too long, he could fail to concentrate on the task at hand. In conversation, he'd always be talking about her and not be able to pay attention (Could simply replace text with "..." or maybe even a picture of her with little hearts around it, or something). A call/letter from her could be a positive or negative event. If she shows concern or interest in what he's doing, he'll be king of the world. If she doesn't even mention it, he'll feel ignored. If she talks about problems of her own, that'll be the only thing on his mind.
how about different types of love/attraction. (by the way, I use "stat" to denote statistics like attack,hp,speed,etc )
admiration - skills slowly gets more stat increase if loved one is in the same party.
crush - high attack bonus at start of battle but low hit rate. The bonuses decrease till zero each time you miss (to denote losing confidence.) (works if target crush is in the same party)
guardian - if a monster attacks a loved one, player may deal more damage to monster in anger. player random blocks for loved one??
love(?) - couple gets more stat bonus over time. separating couple causes massive (even negative) stat changes. putting them together again brings their stats up to the previous value at a faster rate.
jealousy - (assuming 2 guys over 1 girl) guy 1 causes guy 2 to have negative stat change. guy 2 may also give guy 1 negative stat change if he is the vindictive type (works if all 3 are in the same party)
love-hate - pair gets random (+/-) stat change each battle.
rejected - possibly long term negative stat change till cured of depression
spurned love - cause massive negative stat change to target while in same party
hmmm.. dating sim cross RPG...
admiration - skills slowly gets more stat increase if loved one is in the same party.
crush - high attack bonus at start of battle but low hit rate. The bonuses decrease till zero each time you miss (to denote losing confidence.) (works if target crush is in the same party)
guardian - if a monster attacks a loved one, player may deal more damage to monster in anger. player random blocks for loved one??
love(?) - couple gets more stat bonus over time. separating couple causes massive (even negative) stat changes. putting them together again brings their stats up to the previous value at a faster rate.
jealousy - (assuming 2 guys over 1 girl) guy 1 causes guy 2 to have negative stat change. guy 2 may also give guy 1 negative stat change if he is the vindictive type (works if all 3 are in the same party)
love-hate - pair gets random (+/-) stat change each battle.
rejected - possibly long term negative stat change till cured of depression
spurned love - cause massive negative stat change to target while in same party
hmmm.. dating sim cross RPG...
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