Something ActRaiser-ish

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Thad
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Something ActRaiser-ish

Postby Thad » Sun Nov 30, 2014 2:57 pm

I should probably focus on my existing game idea before I go spitballing new stuff, but this one came to me and I figure I should write it down for later.

I've never played another game quite like ActRaiser, with its city-building core bookended by platformer stages. And that's a shame.

So I was thinking of something I'd like to see: something similar but maybe with more of a Mega Man bent, with selectable area order and learnable skills.

Say in this version, instead of just playing one god, you've got a pantheon. And instead of the different continents being iterative, with each one being more difficult than the previous and unlockable at a certain experience level, all of them (or at least several of them) are selectable at the beginning.

Each god has a different skillset. At the outset, when you select an area you can only play that area as its respective god. But each time you beat that area, you unlock its god to (optionally) use on the other sections in the game.

I'm thinking the city-building portions should be similar -- different gods have different angels with different skillsets.

Maybe force (or at least encourage) a bit of bouncing around between the different zones, by having certain tasks (both on the action and world-building) sections require abilities you can't get until you've finished one of the other zones.

I'd also like to see something a little more nondeterministic in the city-building. In ActRaiser, each area has a maximum population, and the right way to get that population is, invariably, to fill every square on the map, wait until your people achieve their most advanced building level and then wipe out all the old buildings and make them start over. I'd like to see the building section be a little more open, with less of a set endpoint.

And hey, the bookend segments don't even necessarily have to be platformer stages like ActRaiser; there are plenty of different genres you could use to break up the main building portion of the game. FPS, roguelike, dungeon crawler, shmup -- there are lots of different options.

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nosimpleway
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Re: Something ActRaiser-ish

Postby nosimpleway » Sun Nov 30, 2014 4:38 pm

Thad wrote:In ActRaiser, each area has a maximum population, and the right way to get that population is, invariably, to fill every square on the map, wait until your people achieve their most advanced building level and then wipe out all the old buildings and make them start over.


And get sufficiently high scores in the action stages, since skimping on demon-slaying means you don't free enough souls to populate your cities.

So something a little less undocumented and obtuse than that would also be welcome.

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Thad
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Re: Something ActRaiser-ish

Postby Thad » Sun Nov 30, 2014 8:28 pm

Hm, really? Can't say as I've ever had that problem; I've maxed out my population and hit level 20 every time I've tried. Is that just down to my "kill everything that moves" play style?

At any rate, what I'm picturing would, by its nature, allow you to replay completed stages. So even if I did provide some kind of bonus for a certain score or achievement on an action stage, it would be possible to go back and try again.

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nosimpleway
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Re: Something ActRaiser-ish

Postby nosimpleway » Mon Dec 01, 2014 1:17 am

I think by the time you complete Action 2 in any area, the combined score from Action 1 and Action 2 is enough to max your population. But if you feel like grinding, you can max out population in a couple areas before doing Action 2 at all.

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