You mentioned Might and Magic. Reading advice from other pro gamers on M&M6/7, the conventional wisdom is to avoid playing as druids at all costs; "they're worthless". However, when I tried a party of all druids, they quickly became unbelievably overpowered. Far more so than any other party combination I've heard of. With 4x more mana than health, I was able to do some rediculous things like casting Inferno more than an archer would shoot arrows. (Inferno being rather costly top tier spell) I could clear out entire end-game dungeons without running out of mana. Evil didn't stand a chance. Yes, that does fall into the "ranged damage dealers and AoE fire everyone to death" tactic, but my point is -in this case- it is a path everyone else considered the most difficult. Maybe some of the games are broken, but others are designed to have "different strokes for different folks".
Either you're kidding / using sarcasm or they were kidding/trolling/using sarcasm, because x4 druids is THE STRONGEST party in MM6-7. Second place is x4 sorcerers. Some will say that sorcerers are better than druids, because they have access to dark magic, which is OP, but dark is overkill and endgame, which means 95% of the game you won't use it and at end game you no longer need it lol, because you'll instakill everyone with insanely high fire/water skill using fireballs and acid something, thus x4 druids is the best combination as they also have access to body magic for healing, what makes game a little easier (enemies will usually die instantly, but you may sill be damaged by traps). With x4 sorcerers you have to sleep to regenerate health after every trapped chest, until you can open them with Telekenesis spell (which completely destroys Thief class, seriously... the best trap disarmers in MM6-7 are sorcerers and druids... who are also the best damage dealers... and they can also cast fly spell and teleport... "balance"), with x4 druids you also have a party of healers, so it's just makes game a little more comfortable.
Also "pro" gamers from forums aren't always pros :D
I always laugh at NMA forums when people talk about Fallout1/2 builds there. There're a lot of fallout veterans, who completed fallout like 10000 times and they still don't know anything about game mechanics. They say how they like to play snipers and then they say... "i don't rely on luck, so I see it as dump stat". *facepalm*. Luck in Fallout1/2/Tactics is the key stat. It affects aimed shot critical chance - the whole reason to play sniper! Character sheet doesn't show the formula, it just shows that 1 point of luck gives +1% crit chance, but it doesn't show the formula for aimed attacks. I don't remember the formula for each body part (for torso it's just your crit chance, for everything else the formula involves luck stat AND then crit chance is added on top), but I remember that with 10 LK you have 70% (10% base crit chance for each point of luck +60% from formula) crit chance in the eyes (85% with x3 More criticals perk, 95% if Finesse trait is also taken), with 2 LK (1 + Gifted trait) something like 30-40%. Plus the perk "Sniper" makes [LK*10]% roll for crit, with 10 LK each your ranged attack becomes critical, what makes it the best perk in the game and makes More Criticals perk and Finesse trait obsolete, as it's a separate roll. Ironically Sniper perk is almost useless for snipers (as they already have at least 70% crit in the eyes), it's OP for bursters. x2 Bonus Ranged Damage perks, Better Criticals and Sniper perk will oneshot everything in the game in point blank burst, since every burst will be critical and deal insane damage. Luck is the most important stat in Fallout1/2/Tactics, even more important than Agility, as it also a stat requirement for the best perks in the game and also affects rare random encounters (alien blaster, the best non-bursting weapon in Fallout1 is attainable only with high LK) and most "pro" gamers see it as dump stat, because "they don't like to rely on luck" lol.
Don't read forums for character build tips, study game mechanics yourself :D Most people who post on forums don't even know what they're posting. If we talk about pure efficiency, then MM6-7 has only one best party composition - x4 druids. Everything else is for roleplay/fun/challenge/etc. So in truth you were playing the game the easiest possible way with x4 druids contrary to forum pros.
The best game designers are non-casual gamers. Programmer, writer, artist - it all doesn't matter. People who play games every day since childhood will always be the best game designers, since they will learn on others devs' mistakes. Munchkins/powergamers will be the best in balancing and combat mechanics design, people who played every RPG in the world will be the best quest-designers, etc.
Also game design is very broad definition.
For RPG it's quests, choices and consequences and non-boring and non-repetative combat - I'm yet to see an RPG with this, 100% of current RPGs in our universe has idiotic combat made by some game-designer-wannabes with one or two "the best" character build and the same universal tactic which will work in every situation, even the most modern RPGs, who claim to be balanced and diverse, have this problem. EVERY party-based RPG in the world suffer from the same game design mistake made over and over and over by amateurs from AAA studios or indie game devs alike. Just make a party of ranged damage dealers and focus fire / AoE fire everyone to death. Works every time. From DnD-based games on infinity engine to Might and Magic series or even NWN2 or Fallout Tactics or Divinity Original Sin or Wizardry or Pillars of Eternity, Wasteland, whatever else I don't remember, every party-based RPG has this problem, one universal tactic which will work on highest difficulty with the very first playthrough without game knowledge, I guarantee.
For RTS it's unit composition balance, timing, etc.
For 4X strategy it also includes AI. 4X strategies are usually played single player due to the amount of time you need to dedicate to the game. If an AI is an idiot, then the game will be piece of trash. And one of the ways to have good AI is to design the game itself for AI, rather than player. Because player can adapt. AI in 4X strategy games is usually cheaply made cheater, because this game genre is too complicated for good algorithm, because devs make it for humans. It can be considered as a game design mistake, unless they know how to make really good AI who can compete with human.
You need experience with those games as a gamer yourself. This is what makes you a good game designer.
Programmers or writers - it doesn't matter at all, it's completely different skills which are unrelated to game design. A person, who plays one particular game genre whole his life will be the best game designer for this particular game genre. Be he a writer or a programmer or none of it. Because he'll learn from others' mistake and see what actually works and what doesn't. And what makes this particular genre fun. He doesn't need to analyze anything or listen to feedback, because he's the gamer - he knows it.
shirish, no, unfortunately I won't be able to make it open-source, because the code is human-unreadable, since I was doing the game alone for ~5 monthes and I knew that no one will join me, "converting" it to human-readable code will take ages, there're ~24k lines on one script, ~4.5k lines in ship script alone. The project is rather huge and most of its features aren't even mentioned in the first post. Making it open-soirce may only enrage people, who will look into code and will be like "WTF am I reading?".
Danimal, companions give so much advantage in firepower, that upgrading their equipment will always worth it.
Ships are 3D, I downloaded almost all free ship models from Unity Asset Store and then changed their textures to match faction colors, so each ship has 9 possible textures: neutral + 8 faction colors. They're so small, because the camera is zoomed out, you can zoom in so much, that ship will be almost on all your screen. When zoomed out on max, ships become partiall 2D and change their color in faction color completely, so it's easity for a player to see them. Also they're easier to click when zoomed out max, by increasing the area, where cursor is considered to be over a ship. They same with torpedos, they also become 2D on max zoom out.
Reemax, yes factions are simply named after their colors, at first it was like a placeholder, then I decided to leave it as it is. I don't like senseless stuff, my game isn't based on existing universe, so the game has no history, which means no matter what names are give - they will be senseless and just random words. So I decided to simply call them by their colors.
The game is 100% turn based, you give an order to your ship(s), then press space button and 1 turn passes, during that turn, which lasts 2 seconds, all ships in that system fly to their destination, moreover the turn has 5 phases, that happen each ~0.3 seconds, during 1st phase every ship fires 1st turret, if it's aimed at something in range, 2 - 2nd turret, etc.
Companions have no AI, they're like your character, you select them and point where to fly.
To tell short: this is 4X strategy game for AI, where you, player, play RPG in their world. When you start a new game, the galaxy is randomly generated and all factions start with just 1 system, then expansion simulation happens until there're no neutral systems left, then don't remember how many turns pass as simulation again and then you start the game. The game is super boring and mostly created for AI to play... poor human player has almost nothing to do in this game, that's why this project is half-dead, even if it's almost completed, because no one is interested in it, even I. So I think it can be considered abandoned. Opengameart forum is actually the only place where someone said something about this project, I was even surprised. On Unity forums and social networks is was 100% ignored. Even my friends don't want to try it ^_^
Either you're kidding / using sarcasm or they were kidding/trolling/using sarcasm, because x4 druids is THE STRONGEST party in MM6-7. Second place is x4 sorcerers. Some will say that sorcerers are better than druids, because they have access to dark magic, which is OP, but dark is overkill and endgame, which means 95% of the game you won't use it and at end game you no longer need it lol, because you'll instakill everyone with insanely high fire/water skill using fireballs and acid something, thus x4 druids is the best combination as they also have access to body magic for healing, what makes game a little easier (enemies will usually die instantly, but you may sill be damaged by traps). With x4 sorcerers you have to sleep to regenerate health after every trapped chest, until you can open them with Telekenesis spell (which completely destroys Thief class, seriously... the best trap disarmers in MM6-7 are sorcerers and druids... who are also the best damage dealers... and they can also cast fly spell and teleport... "balance"), with x4 druids you also have a party of healers, so it's just makes game a little more comfortable.
Also "pro" gamers from forums aren't always pros :D
I always laugh at NMA forums when people talk about Fallout1/2 builds there. There're a lot of fallout veterans, who completed fallout like 10000 times and they still don't know anything about game mechanics. They say how they like to play snipers and then they say... "i don't rely on luck, so I see it as dump stat". *facepalm*. Luck in Fallout1/2/Tactics is the key stat. It affects aimed shot critical chance - the whole reason to play sniper! Character sheet doesn't show the formula, it just shows that 1 point of luck gives +1% crit chance, but it doesn't show the formula for aimed attacks. I don't remember the formula for each body part (for torso it's just your crit chance, for everything else the formula involves luck stat AND then crit chance is added on top), but I remember that with 10 LK you have 70% (10% base crit chance for each point of luck +60% from formula) crit chance in the eyes (85% with x3 More criticals perk, 95% if Finesse trait is also taken), with 2 LK (1 + Gifted trait) something like 30-40%. Plus the perk "Sniper" makes [LK*10]% roll for crit, with 10 LK each your ranged attack becomes critical, what makes it the best perk in the game and makes More Criticals perk and Finesse trait obsolete, as it's a separate roll. Ironically Sniper perk is almost useless for snipers (as they already have at least 70% crit in the eyes), it's OP for bursters. x2 Bonus Ranged Damage perks, Better Criticals and Sniper perk will oneshot everything in the game in point blank burst, since every burst will be critical and deal insane damage. Luck is the most important stat in Fallout1/2/Tactics, even more important than Agility, as it also a stat requirement for the best perks in the game and also affects rare random encounters (alien blaster, the best non-bursting weapon in Fallout1 is attainable only with high LK) and most "pro" gamers see it as dump stat, because "they don't like to rely on luck" lol.
Don't read forums for character build tips, study game mechanics yourself :D Most people who post on forums don't even know what they're posting. If we talk about pure efficiency, then MM6-7 has only one best party composition - x4 druids. Everything else is for roleplay/fun/challenge/etc. So in truth you were playing the game the easiest possible way with x4 druids contrary to forum pros.
The best game designers are non-casual gamers. Programmer, writer, artist - it all doesn't matter. People who play games every day since childhood will always be the best game designers, since they will learn on others devs' mistakes. Munchkins/powergamers will be the best in balancing and combat mechanics design, people who played every RPG in the world will be the best quest-designers, etc.
Also game design is very broad definition.
For RPG it's quests, choices and consequences and non-boring and non-repetative combat - I'm yet to see an RPG with this, 100% of current RPGs in our universe has idiotic combat made by some game-designer-wannabes with one or two "the best" character build and the same universal tactic which will work in every situation, even the most modern RPGs, who claim to be balanced and diverse, have this problem. EVERY party-based RPG in the world suffer from the same game design mistake made over and over and over by amateurs from AAA studios or indie game devs alike. Just make a party of ranged damage dealers and focus fire / AoE fire everyone to death. Works every time. From DnD-based games on infinity engine to Might and Magic series or even NWN2 or Fallout Tactics or Divinity Original Sin or Wizardry or Pillars of Eternity, Wasteland, whatever else I don't remember, every party-based RPG has this problem, one universal tactic which will work on highest difficulty with the very first playthrough without game knowledge, I guarantee.
For RTS it's unit composition balance, timing, etc.
For 4X strategy it also includes AI. 4X strategies are usually played single player due to the amount of time you need to dedicate to the game. If an AI is an idiot, then the game will be piece of trash. And one of the ways to have good AI is to design the game itself for AI, rather than player. Because player can adapt. AI in 4X strategy games is usually cheaply made cheater, because this game genre is too complicated for good algorithm, because devs make it for humans. It can be considered as a game design mistake, unless they know how to make really good AI who can compete with human.
You need experience with those games as a gamer yourself. This is what makes you a good game designer.
Programmers or writers - it doesn't matter at all, it's completely different skills which are unrelated to game design. A person, who plays one particular game genre whole his life will be the best game designer for this particular game genre. Be he a writer or a programmer or none of it. Because he'll learn from others' mistake and see what actually works and what doesn't. And what makes this particular genre fun. He doesn't need to analyze anything or listen to feedback, because he's the gamer - he knows it.
shirish, no, unfortunately I won't be able to make it open-source, because the code is human-unreadable, since I was doing the game alone for ~5 monthes and I knew that no one will join me, "converting" it to human-readable code will take ages, there're ~24k lines on one script, ~4.5k lines in ship script alone. The project is rather huge and most of its features aren't even mentioned in the first post. Making it open-soirce may only enrage people, who will look into code and will be like "WTF am I reading?".
Danimal, companions give so much advantage in firepower, that upgrading their equipment will always worth it.
Ships are 3D, I downloaded almost all free ship models from Unity Asset Store and then changed their textures to match faction colors, so each ship has 9 possible textures: neutral + 8 faction colors. They're so small, because the camera is zoomed out, you can zoom in so much, that ship will be almost on all your screen. When zoomed out on max, ships become partiall 2D and change their color in faction color completely, so it's easity for a player to see them. Also they're easier to click when zoomed out max, by increasing the area, where cursor is considered to be over a ship. They same with torpedos, they also become 2D on max zoom out.
Reemax, yes factions are simply named after their colors, at first it was like a placeholder, then I decided to leave it as it is. I don't like senseless stuff, my game isn't based on existing universe, so the game has no history, which means no matter what names are give - they will be senseless and just random words. So I decided to simply call them by their colors.
The game is 100% turn based, you give an order to your ship(s), then press space button and 1 turn passes, during that turn, which lasts 2 seconds, all ships in that system fly to their destination, moreover the turn has 5 phases, that happen each ~0.3 seconds, during 1st phase every ship fires 1st turret, if it's aimed at something in range, 2 - 2nd turret, etc.
Companions have no AI, they're like your character, you select them and point where to fly.
To tell short: this is 4X strategy game for AI, where you, player, play RPG in their world. When you start a new game, the galaxy is randomly generated and all factions start with just 1 system, then expansion simulation happens until there're no neutral systems left, then don't remember how many turns pass as simulation again and then you start the game. The game is super boring and mostly created for AI to play... poor human player has almost nothing to do in this game, that's why this project is half-dead, even if it's almost completed, because no one is interested in it, even I. So I think it can be considered abandoned. Opengameart forum is actually the only place where someone said something about this project, I was even surprised. On Unity forums and social networks is was 100% ignored. Even my friends don't want to try it ^_^