| 2003/05/21 18:22:24 PDT by Temporal [manager] |
I still think the morph ability is way too powerful. :P
Character Abilities
| 2003/05/21 21:32:07 PDT by Siemova [0/24] |
An idea for morphing-related "puzzles":
We could have certain places which can only be accessed by morphing someone into a tiny creature and sending them in through a hole/crack/whatever. We might even require this at some point - the party can only progress by morphing (one at a time) into mice and going through a drain pipe, or morphing into birds and flying to the top of a cliff, etc.
| 2003/05/21 22:57:47 PDT by mystik3eb [0/43] Edited at 2003/05/21 22:58:39 PDT Awards: 1 from Dev |
Ok, let's see. I see some development with her Morph. I don't think the ability is too strong, Temp, if we work with it a little. Lemme lay out my idea:
1) She has a menu that allows her to morph only what she has touched (meaning she can morph people into monsters you fight, bad men you encounter, little creatures, as long as she touches it somehow).
2) Limit her learning abilities to develop as the game goes on (like with the story, with level-ups, etc.), meaning she can only learn how to morph people into the physical shapes of living things (excluding plants...unless you guys have some funky ideas) that are easy enough for her to learn at her point in the game. Am I making sense?
3) Only living things. I dunno about plants. That's an interesting question, because plants ARE living, and we could bring in some plant enemies. Not sure what use turning into a plant would have (not saying there aren't a million side-quest ideas we could come up with to use this ability) besides perfecting the game =). Up to you guys.
4) It's the only (or one of two or three) ability she has, hence making it not so powerful.
I can't remember if I said this before, but I'm starting to think back to my suggestion that we go to the story section, down to the characters, and start developing each one of them (possibly focus on one character for a period of time, like a week and switch off constantly, or a month and try to get it all done to the best of our ability in that month, whatever), including these abilities.
| 2003/05/22 02:57:45 PDT by Temporal [manager] |
Brooke can only morph people into things she is extremely familiar with. So, she basically has to have lived with a particular type of animal for a long period of time before she can morph someone into it. I remember deciding this a long time ago, though I'm not sure if it was just between Dev and myself or if we posted it somewhere...
| 2003/05/22 21:33:17 PDT by Dev [manager] |
I think that was just between you and me, Temp, and I remember talking about it too. I'm not sure if we agreed on the "live with" part; after all, we see Brooke gain the morph ability, learn her first animal, and use the ability all in the same general section of the game, so it can't be that long of a time period. It could just be very intensive, like she has to do nothing else other than meditate while in physical contact with the creature for an hour three times or something. This would require some sort of capture ability, to keep the critter with Brooke for that amount of time.
(Hey, idea. Remember that one of Ko's chores is to help Kory catch food for the day at the swamp in Tarikun. Maybe one of Ko's abilities should be capture-related? I think it's an interesting thought that certain abilities of characters might be able to "level-up" the abilities of other characters; that is, a character alone could use their ability, but not improve it without the help from another character's. Just a thought.)
Anyway, I would agree that Brooke's morph power should not be learned simply by touch. However, I don't know if it's too powerful. I mean, we can balance the numbers, for one. Also, if anyone's played Dark Cloud 2 yet, I was a little embarrassed to see that they basically did the exact same thing with Monica. Unfortunately, I find it rather useless, since it's not easy to level up your monster forms and even less easy to get new ones. The best part about it is that you get to talk with some of the monsters and hear their side of things.
| 2003/05/23 12:38:34 PDT by mystik3eb [0/43] |
I like the idea of having the characters kinda depend on one another. We'd have to be specific with who benefits with what from who, since the characters aren't all together until the end anyway.
Also, I when I thought of morphing, in my mind it would only change their physical shape and appearance, not give them any additional stats (though they won't be able to wear armor or use weapons in many cases). So I'd think that it would be most useful for certain petty tasks (sneaking into places, reaching something really high, getting into someplace because you look like someone, etc.), not for fighting battles or things super powerful like that. One question: I don't remember from the story, but could Ko talk after becoming a skunk? In other words: would these people be able to talk when transformed, no matter the species?
| 2003/05/23 17:03:32 PDT by Temporal [manager] |
Alright, Dev, I approve of everything you just said... still, we have to be very careful to insure that the abilities of the morphed creatures don't make any of our characters obsolete. If one of Ko's specialties is that he can fit in small places, for example... well, you could always morph anyone into a mouse to get the same effect.
Of course, if Brooke morphs someone into a mouse and they go through a hole, then they won't be able to un-morph on the other side, since Brooke won't be there. However, if Brooke morphs herself, I assume she'd be able to un-morph herself on the other side. Perhaps, in the interest of not stepping on other characters' abilities, we should say that Brooke can't morph herself? Or... other ideas?
| 2003/05/23 19:20:40 PDT by Morpheus [0/5] |
What about a time limit on the Morph spell? The better Brooke gets at casting it (higher stats) the longer the spell can last? That way she does not have to be with the castee all the time?
| 2003/05/23 22:58:29 PDT by Temporal [manager] |
Good point, Aetrus... ok, scratch that idea.
Morpheus: I think it's part of the story already that Brooke has to be present for both the morph and the reversion (morphing back to normal), but that she doesn't have to be around in between. Anyway, my point was that I LIKE it that way. I don't want people to be able to revert without Brooke present. If they could, then it would mean that any time there is a small hole in the wall, the characters could all morph into mice, one by one, and head on through, reverting on the other side when their time limits ran out. If Brooke has to be there to un-morph them, however, then they can go through but they can't do anything on the other side since they are stuck as mice.
Anyway... I think it will work well enough for the morph ability to have the following restrictions:
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Brooke must touch the person who is being morphed.
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In order to revert a morphed person to their original state, Brooke must touch them again.
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Brooke may only morph one character at a time.
| 2003/05/24 11:26:19 PDT by Morpheus [0/5] |
I especially like the one at a time thing. I mean you hafta have limits on things like that.
| 2003/05/26 15:45:21 PDT by Bahamut ONE [0/4] |
Well, I don't think morphing would be too powerful since characters you morph lose all the cool abilities they have to be replaced with other (maybe not as cool) ones. Remember that witch character in Chrono Cross? She could morph into almost any ennemy but still sucked. -_-"
Just my $0.02
| 2003/10/22 09:45:30 PDT by Seraph [0/1] |
Duct tape is always a useful item in any story. Always.