As far as designing the gameplay system goes, I found that it was easier to write this todo list in the form of questions.

• What are the basic rules and mechanics of gameplay?

  • What sort of statistics do characters have? (hit points, strength, intelligence, etc.)

  • How does equipment affect these statistics?

  • What are the mathematical equations which use these statistics? For example, how is damage calculated?

• What abilities exist for use by players and by enemies?

  • What "standard" abilities are all characters capable of?

  • What special abilities does each player character have?

  • What eumonetics techniques are available?

  • How do enemy abilities work?

• How do characters advance?

  • Does the player earn character advancements, or do they come with the plot?

  • To what extent can the player control the way the characters advance, and how is this done?

  • How are eumotetic techniques learned?

The list isn't complete, of course. If you have anything to add, post it below.

Erm. Well, maybe, but it's been pretty much decided that our battles will not involve heavy action so much as intelligent tactics. You don't just go at it and fight; you look for clever ways to avoid enemies or lure them into traps. You might, for example, lure an enemy under a cliff where a big rock is sitting, then push the rock down on top of it. Or with human enemies you might look for ways to talk your way past them.

In any case, it is essential that the player control all characters precisely, since any AI we could write for the characters would probably not be able to execute the player's clever tactics. In order to allow the player to control all the characters at once, we allow them to pause the game at any time to give orders.

As for stats, I am of the opinion that we shouldn't bother with too many numbers. The objective of the game is to focus on tactics, not raw ability. But others have certainly disagreed with me there.

My problem with the whole tactics thing, is that it is very hard to coordinate so many characters at once. The pausing thing should help a lot, though.

I'd feel a little better if there were only, say, four people in the party at a time, as opposed to eight...although, I assume that was the plan the entire time. Especially with the systems I've read about on the site, it might become quite unwieldy to have eight people trapsing about and trying to control them all at the same time. XP

Also, it also might be a good idea to have something to the effect of a partner or group attack...like: Let's say you have Ko and Brooke in the party at the time. You can execute a group attack that does more damage than it would if they were just attacking normally. Or Cade, Syne, and Dell could have a triple attack of some kind.

Combo attacks. Happy Chrono memories coming back...*blissful grin*

I think I'd cringe everytime I saw it. Fozzie Bear, watch out! We've got a punny guy here.

::thinks back:: Didn't Golden Sun use "synergy"?

People of the World, UNITE! SYNERGIZE! *Cheesy animation and cute little sparklies floating around..some kind of weird transformation, where the persons involved turn shiny instead of detailed and do an attack*

I had the idea that having 'strategy points' (making informed desicions) would affect the ending you had, since we don't have much good/evil wing space.