Monster Raising/Taming Game Discussion

First, i'd like to start off by saying i am not sure this is the right place to post this or not; but seems appropriate, also posted in general discussion.

Currently me and my team are working on a Monster Raising/Taming game where you play as a "Magician" and acquire familiars. A majority of the concept art is done and coding and world building has already commenced.

However, there are a few things I would like outside input on; mainly concerning the taming, farming, and battle system aspects.

Taming: Taming is changed to a more complicated mechanic. Each familiar with have a set way to tame it (may vary on a personality, but unimplemented right now). You have to discover what it is by using dialogue commands in battle. Creatures will vary between wanting feed, held, gave items, conversed with, certain magic used, beat in combat, etc.

Farming: In the game you have a small demiplane where you store your familiars and items. You can plant farms here as well as unique items to give creatures stat bonuses or experience boost. However, I am having trouble coming up a variety of unique items.
Currently i have things like Yggdrasil (large tree, grants Insect familiars an experience bonus, allows gathering of fruit in free time).

Battle System: As of right now we have you encountering monsters on the main world and then going to a small "battle area" where the fight actually occurs. In this area, we are using a turn based system using AP to determine what you can do per turn; however this feels off to me. Your magician does nothing during combat (seems wrong to me as well). Looking for input on ways to make it more unique and interesting.
Another idea I was tossing around was after going to the "battle area" your familiars act on a set AI (you can choose on they act on their page). You control one directly, switching freely with the click of a button. Attacks are done in real time (with a range system determining what attacks happen) with a short cool down. Dodging can be done while blocking.

Magic/Techniques: Each familiar has techniques and skills it learns by leveling up. Techniques are its attacks and abilities it can use in combat, split into 3 categories (melee, ranged, other). Skills are passive bonuses that can not be manually used. Each creature can have 6 techniques and 10 skills at a time.
Magic are the spells your player learns that they can use in combat and in the overworld. They learn magic by finding grimoires, OR by setting a familiars techniques to "link". While linked, when that familiar uses that technique, it gains TP (technique points) and once it maxes out, your character writes it in their grimoire, learning it as a spell (some techniques change upon learning to be more of a spell then an attack).


All ideas are welcome and would be appreciated. And if interested, as usual, PM me.

 

For taming, what if instead it was more involved? Like, say you had to collect certain reagents to summon familiars? Specific reagents would affect certain stats, which would determine what familiar you get. To be able to control the familiar, you need to defeat it in combat. So let's say you have some... sulfur, charcoal, and saltpeter and you use them as summoning reagents. This would get you something akin to a Bomb from Final Fantasy. Some water and, I dunno, eye of newt, gets you a little water dragon or something. You could use more of those reagents during the summoning process to boost their base stats.

Obviously, this would require a lot of balancing, but in doing so, you'd be able to capture the general mystery and exploration of a Pokemon game while having an entirely different system for expanding your party.

 

I sort of like that. The only thing is, i am not going for a pokemon style game. Its more of an RPG with familiars being your party (think sort of like Ni No Kuni then pokemon). However, this idea def fits the magician theme.

 

For the battle system, you could do something like Heroes of Might and Magic (I'm not sure if you have 1 or multiple familiars available in a fight?)
Have your familiars (or familiar) on a board where they can move on the grid, and attack/use abilities once they're in range of an enemy.
You could put spots on the board which grant your familiars bonuses e.g. a grass familiar will heal while on lush ground.
Your magician would not be on the board, but could cast a limited number of spells to buff your familiars or debuff the enemy.
The magician could use a different points system which is persistent, so if you use too many spells in 1 fight, you wont have any left for the next one.

 

This is sort of what i already planned with a few changes. Originally the player would be out of combat only buffing your creatures, but i decided to go a different route.

Been a few updates since i published on here earlier (this isn't the only place i am discussing this); we think this is the route we are taking combat:

You initiate combat by interacting with a creature on the world map, which takes you to the battle area. On the battle area, your player summons their 3 active familiars. Combat is turned based; on familiars turns you can tell them to Attack (brings up a wheel of attacks they can use at that range {ranges are melee vs ranged}), defend (they protect themselves taking less damage), or return (they return to your demiplane to keep them from being KO). I think their needs to be something else here but idk what.

On the players turn they can: Cast Magic (use a spell you have learned, you learn spells by finding Grimoires in the world and by linking with a familiar's known technique, increasing with each use, until you acquire it), Defend (cast protective magic to reduce damage you take), Use item (use an item in your inventory), Run (try to escape from battle), and Dialogue (you can talk to intelligent enemies to gain info, increase chance of "linking" with them, etc).

Thoughts and opinions.

 

Maybe you should take a look at Digimon World on psx... The battle, pet raising, etc etc...

That only applies on HoMM 1 to 3, since at 4th and later, the leader is participating in combat(in some time in some campaigns, the leader must do the battle alone)

 

I have played the digimon world games. Although they are not exactly what i am going for. I want more of the RPG side, with a nice helping of the monster raising/farming. Although, i agree, it wouldn't hurt to play one again and see what i would like to take inspiration from.

Have made several changes to the post to show developments.

 

Game has stalled. Our 3D environmental artist was a fraud.

 

So hire a new one.

 

Lol I am actually having trouble finding one currently. However, think it is covered now.
May update forum or create a new one late next week to show the game world and such.

 

Will have an update in a few days. The first of the models are about done and we have a small demo of the first area in the game working.

 

Gasp!

Cool!

 

Lol we will be moving this to a new Thread shortly. We have really moved past this part of the discussion and are about ready to show what we have done and see what you guys think.

 

Honestly forgot i had this forum lol we have made a lot of progress lately, so should i create a new forum or update this one with our progress?

 

If it's come far enough, you can probably start a thread here.

 

Thank you. and its about to the point I am happy with the first level.