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[McDohl]

Not particularly serious about this, but I think it'd be neat if savepoints were a usuable item.  You can buy them in town for a reasonable fee but you can only carry so many at a time.  Bonus if it's stated that the item is an actual save point, and you're carrying a bag of them around with you.

Back in my VERGE days, I toyed with something like this, and actually got it working properly.  However, when I threw up a demo of it, the guys who messed with it said that it is probably the worst thing you can possibly do to the player.  Eventually, I scrapped the project.  Keep in mind that this is back in the days of VERGE-1, with its hard cap of 18 individual items per character.  I think, given enough time, I could have added a Nall-from-Lunar-like item mule, but still.  Hard item caps are a real pain in the dick when you have to balance healing items, support items, plus space left over for whatever you'd be finding in that particular dungeon.

EDIT: I'm still very irritated at Final Fantasy VII for doing that Save Crystal thing at the final dungeon.  I had half a mind to 'shark a bunch of them and lay save points down every few feet just to spite Squaresoft.

[jsnlxndrlv]

Guys.

Guys.

There should be no mechanical consequence for falling in battle.  You see, the Mayor cannot lose.  But if he doesn't care enough, maybe he won't win.  In which case his HP are reset to however much he had at the start of the fight, and the enemy is gone from the map.  It's just a waste of time and energy for no reward.

Except in the case of specific important encounters, in which case it probably affects the branching of the narrative.

[Brentai]

Royam's human forces are comprised mainly of members of the PMC group T.H.U.G., and provide such colorful enemies as Average T.H.U.G., Captain T.H.U.G., Sergeant T.H.U.G. and so on.

Harold, on the other hand, employs the much more elite and expensive G.O.O.N. troops.  While less numerous, the player will still have his hands full going up against First Rate G.O.O.N.s in the final areas.

[Zaratustra]

The world map should be shaped like the United States.

[Zaratustra]

Also: A minigame such as that in Disgaea where you pass laws that affect the workings of the game.

[Bongo Bill]

The world map should be shaped like the United States.

?

[Mothra]

Probably my biggest concern about a Mayor RPG is my deep-seated loathing of front-view foightin'; if this game is going to do anything, it had better not bore the shit out of people. I'm almost positive someone, somewhere on the internet has already made a passable side-view and put up the code somewhere, so while I don't really know what kind of implementation problems one might run into, you'd really only need three or four new sprites for attacking, using an item, and death.

Guys.

Guys.

There should be no mechanical consequence for falling in battle.  You see, the Mayor cannot lose.  But if he doesn't care enough, maybe he won't win.  In which case his HP are reset to however much he had at the start of the fight, and the enemy is gone from the map.  It's just a waste of time and energy for no reward.

Except in the case of specific important encounters, in which case it probably affects the branching of the narrative.

Death seems like an annoying turn-off for players. Unless we plan on having some massively deep combat system, a game like this should be all about using daring strategies and plowing through with sheer, illogical bravado, the consequence for recklessness still being a loss of time and effort, just without the need to endure the repetition of being pushed back to the last save. This might be a little ambitious, but it would be pretty sick if you had one shot at pumping-up the Mayor from death, to full or near-full health, by following onathem rigorous Mario Part 1 button-mashing combos or a string of commands. This might even give the Mayor one turn of invincibility or a temporary stat boost.

[James Edward Smith]

Wouldn't it be the French Foreign Legion? Well, anyway.

That's why I put Sgt. Frog in there. Conversely, I don't care.

ADDENDUM: Povertoid, a parasitic organism. Once it latches on to your spinal cord, you become something far worse than even a mindless zombie: you become Poor. It disguises itself as a humble knapsack tied to a stick.

That's a bindle stick, Ninja. People's lack of education on the subject of Hobo matters in this neck of the woods is saddening.

[Brentai]

With you on the Dragon Warrior Let's-Stare-Down-A-Static-Image thing, but Arc was pretty specific about wanting to avoid the Final Fantasy Standing-In-A-Row-Taking-Turns thing too.  And doing something like Crono Trigger or Grandia just gets too damn complicated.

Personally, I don't mind the front view IF it's got some visual action going on.  Pretty much thinking of Phantasy Star II and IV here, where you viewed your party from the back and watched them go up and attack or get hit.  It doesn't take a whole lot of animation (PS4 had something like four frames per character - standing, two frames for attacking, and one where they raise their hand for a spell or item or something.  That's it, the fuckers don't even react to getting shot) and with an extra frame or two for the monsters you can skip the bit about having the write (and read) text for what the hell is going on.

[Disposable Ninja]

That's a bindle stick, Ninja. People's lack of education on the subject of Hobo matters in this neck of the woods is saddening.

Shit, thanks for the heads up. That kind of blunder is just embarrassing.

Anyway, re: front fighting, and making it interesting. My thoughts: gigant-O player character portraits. And give them reactions, too. Make the character portraits change depending on whether the character in question is getting hurt, healed, poisoned or whatever else.

[Brentai]

Just be careful you don't make it look too much like RPGMaker XP.

[Detonator]

Also: A minigame such as that in Disgaea where you pass laws that affect the workings of the game.

No legislative bullshit in this game, sir.  Did you pass any laws in Sim City?  No!  You bulldozed the shit out of people you didn't like.  The Mayor is an executive role, which means he accomplishes things by executing people.  That should be the theme here.

I don't like the political theme, people are taking The Mayor too literally (I am looking at Bill here).  I'm thinking of a RPG equivalent of Final Fight (I wonder why?).

I suggest the following ground rules for The Mayor:

1. The Mayor should not speak.  He communicates with his fists.

2. The Mayor's attacks should be directly or tangentially related to Pro Wrestling.

3. The Mayor is travelling the country wreaking havoc because the main villain stole his cake.

4. Fetch quests will be resolved by beating the quest-giver into a bloody pulp and using his prone body as a bridge to get to the next area.  Needless to say, the children lost in the nearby cave are fucked.

[Mothra]

1. The Mayor should not speak.  He communicates with his fists.

The Mayor could potentially be a pretty badass character if we stuck to a bunch of high-handed absolutes and rich-speak. He'd just always be completely convinced that the world's problems need a little more disciplinary violence to resolve.

[Brentai]

So basically, The Mayor speaks only in one-liners.

  The Mayor!  You must rescue your daughter from the evil forces of Royam!
  It's time for legi-SLAYtion!
  You fool, The Mayor!  Do you think you have a chance of defeating me?
  I take taxes, not chances!
  The Mayor, I... I'm in love with you!
  Hail to The Mayor, baby.
 

[jsnlxndrlv]

Yeah, one-liners is cool.  The Mayor isn't just a placeholder; he's a character.  The player can influence him; the player cannot be him.

[A²]

Keep the Law-Passing bit, but tweak it.

Say, you can collect laws in stages. And at the start of each stage, you can pass or repeal one or two.

Law: Farmers' Market must close by 6pm: Less health powerups, but enemies are weaker
Law: Bikes are allowed anywhere on the road: More traffic that can hit you or your enemies
etc etc.

[LaserBeing]

irrational side-view lobbying

visual action going on

gigant-O animated portraits

That's all very nice but keep in mind that every sequence of animation or set of enormous colour portraits you add is equal to one more nail in the coffin of this project.

[Mothra]

If it means the difference between a fun game and a tedious one, I'd say it's worth a few extra sprites of animation. Fighting's like fifty percent of an RPG!

[Kayin]

It saddens me that I have absolutely nothing useful to contribute to this project, even though I made a game :P.

I'm good enough at things to get by making a game by my self, but not good enough to contribute when there are people superior to me in each field. Level design is out as it's a jRPG (blurg), leaving me with.... sprites -- depending on the style.

Well. I guess I have some thoughts. This game seems even more niche than IWBTG. While THE INTERNET is a big demographic to hit, Dragon Quest doesn't seem to maintain most peoples interest very long. I'd guess, through statistical reference, that about oh.... 3 people can still stomach Dragon Quest these days. It seems everyone is already taking cues from Earthbound,but I think Mario RPG is a good place to look as to show how to keep things interesting. Theres a fine line to be careful of when it comes to campy gaming convientions and just an unfun game.

Anyways, hope I didn't miss anything that addresses this stuff. I had to skim 10 pages to get up to date. Will help where I can!

[Brentai]

We may need someone on this project whose job is simply to cut the fat wherever we can.  Someone who just goes around saying "Hey guys we don't need an elaborate animation here just two frames will do it" or "Diagonal facings are a nice touch but we don't need them" or "Maybe we should wrap this plotline up after the third dungeon."