Glyph/Rune System Options

[vasten]

Been working on this a long time

a ways to turn full words into sigils, symbols and glyphs..

been thinking it could make a great runeic system, the symbol on the runes are leters or short combos" like sylabals" or short words like "fire", "earth" etc..

by combining the rune you can spell longer words ot short phrases, the ways they could be combined ould be almost infinte, and the combination systems would allow for great creativity i think..

what about it??

you can design your own glyphs easily..

first use this alphabet



Connect them simply to make stuff like this


arrange them like puzzle pieces to make legible symbols (the letters and even sequenbce are still there)


This easily makes glyphs and symbols, kinda like chinese





There are even tons of video tutorials like this
http://youtu.be/Q2NhAw0I3sQ

A full chanel full of tons of such videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/freedscript

official website
www.dscript.ca

Released into creative commons

all materials on site, all youtube videos, and dscript itself are free for use, with or without modification, by anyone, even for profit, with no licence, fee, royalty , or any legal reservations whatsoever.

This post has been edited by vasten: Jan 15 2012, 11:15 PM

[Titanhex]

I think used mildly this could be very valuable.

By mildly I mean keep the number of runes small. For every rune you can combine you get like x*x combinations.

So at 3 runes it's 9 possible outcomes.

But at 10 it's 100. That's 100 things to think of.

Even so the more excercise a designer controls over it the better. Just good to find the right balance so the player gets a sense of control and mystery as well.

Systems like these are always a big hit too.
And to be honest this information is value to anyone wanting to design a system like this. Very helpful :3

Obviously we're not limited to spells, but also this can go into puzzles and languages.

This post has been edited by Titanhex: Jan 16 2012, 12:59 AM

[Jens of Zanicuud]

I've just built a project with a similar engine, in which a combo of three to five runes, chosen between six, each associated to a key (Up, Right, Left, Down, A, S) determines the resulting skill.
The engine was a mix between a common_event and a script.

See screenshots below to have an idea...

[Show/Hide] Screenshots

It worked fine but let me say that with more than six-seven runes would make the player faint!
Too much choice, I suppose...
If you find a way to implement all your symbols, well, it would be great.
The idea is rather good, keep working on it...

Jens

This post has been edited by Jens of Zanicuud: Jan 16 2012, 08:59 AM

[Kaust]

That is a pretty ace idea Jens though I'd recommend the player has to 'discover' (try out the various combos) rather than have a complete comprehensive list, either that or have to find a few of the runes. Though these ideas are simply to prevent constant use of the strongest skills and also imbue a sense of progress for the player.

Edit: just realised the numbers on the side are for MP not power lvl. My bad.

This post has been edited by Kaust: Jan 16 2012, 09:08 AM

[Jens of Zanicuud]

In that project, you have to find every rune singularly and each time a rune is added, new spells are available.
You have a little time to insert the combination and if you fail, the main character damage herself.
This is the meaning of the Grimoire (screen #1).

I've just abandoned this game because I cannot find a good story to fit that system.
Anyway, the idea was rather good...

Jens

[Kaust]

Frankly that system seems too good to merely abandon for story purposes, what with gameplay being such a massive element (and many stories seeming 'cliche' anyways). While you may wish to do something original with the story I'd recommend going through a number of magic based rpg's and even anime (always good for jrpg for storylines), and then trying to find your own rune based twist, even if only to continue work on this project. I often find a story writes itself after a certain point ( and I'm pretty sure some pop author like Stephen King has an agreeing quote )

[Jens of Zanicuud]

That's the main point. I rather lack mapping skill and the whole project was in Italian. Now, even if I wanted to recruit some mapper, I should translate it in English in order to make it understandable and I should provide a copy of the plot to the mapper themselves.
I've written something, but I'm more interested in modern-time/sci-fi RPGs (just look at the link below my signature...) and as a result, this project was closed. If anyone would like to restart it, well, I'll be the happiest man on the Earth and I could provide the whole engine, but I'm not seriously thinking of waking up that again, at the moment. Maybe when I complete my main project, I'll resume this...
However, thanks, Kaust.

Jens

This post has been edited by Jens of Zanicuud: Jan 17 2012, 07:16 AM

[vasten]

I think used mildly this could be very valuable.

By mildly I mean keep the number of runes small. For every rune you can combine you get like x*x combinations.

So at 3 runes it's 9 possible outcomes.

But at 10 it's 100. That's 100 things to think of.

Even so the more excercise a designer controls over it the better. Just good to find the right balance so the player gets a sense of control and mystery as well.

Systems like these are always a big hit too.
And to be honest this information is value to anyone wanting to design a system like this. Very helpful :3

Obviously we're not limited to spells, but also this can go into puzzles and languages.

see tyahts the beauty though..

you could allow for all combinations so there are TONS of possible combinations

but the symbols are alphabetical

meaning it is NOT random, and as they learn to read it they will definatly feel more involved and the battle more "custom"

even better, since words or phrases are the "key" for each spell, the words for spells can be hidden throught the game, environment, dialogue, etc..

just allow for anything, but make it obvious when they find something.

soon they will learn...

"oh".. this is "er" and this is "a" and this is "th", if i put them together in that sequence its an earth strike.
(or so far as each letetr)

further you coudl allow longer string like "flamestrike" or "tornado"
or easier would be just combing "earth" and "bomb" or something like that so they can "re-use pieces

you could even let them save the piece in a "book" and keep track of the combos.

You may have to help them along at first, but i immagine if you designed it right it would be just easy enough to avoid a rage quit and just hard eough that they they feel they are creating their own innovative solutions.

and here is one, some part of the spell word could be unique per install (ie their registration key gives them a unqie permutation)
like this
UserID:1:
fireball = "fireball"
flamwave = "flamewave"
iceball = "iceball"

UserID:2:
fireball = "firestrike"
flamwave = "firewave"
iceball = "snowball"

UserID:3:
fireball = "sprakshot"
flamwave = "firestorm"
iceball = "freeze"

etc..

thsi way users cant tell each other the names of spells, preventing cheating and spoilers
if you are really desperate to prevent spoilers, the registration code would be used to seed a random generator. that way you just have to insert a huge list of possible names forspells, and each user will get a unique version, some may be the same, but it would not be as simple as "figuring out which version you are playing"..

even more desperate, just use so many word the player could never try all the possibilities, make them rely on gameplay and dialogue hint to reveal the words to them,


if you designed the engine, all you would then need to do is have a "secret list"(never let players see it) has a bunch of phrases and their corresponding spells

ie.
"fire" - Spell-Animation:57 - Damage [ singleTarget:(fireDMG:20) ] - mana:3 - levelRequired:1
"fireball" - Spell-Animation:58 - Damage [ singleTarget:(fireDMG:30)(explodeDMG:10) ] - mana:5 - levelRequired:4
"flame" - Spell-Animation:33 - Damage [ SmallAre:(fireDMG:10) ] - mana:8 - levelRequired:7
"flamestrike" - Spell-Animation:63 - Damage [ singleTarget:(fireDMG:45) ] - mana:15 - levelRequired:8
"flamewave" - Spell-Animation:89 - Damage [ LargeArea:(fireDMG:30)(airDMG:10) ] - mana:18 - levelRequired:10

I can imagine the systm, the big question is would you build a system that just incude the p[ieces, and the full lyphs for thegood combos, or build an engine capapable of drawing any combination.

I figure when a spell is cast you would want to show the full glyph.
maybe withot the full engine,in bad combos, the piece would just stay individual.. or an animation of all the piece slamming together and bouncing apart, as if "they didnt fit".

I wish I could build such an angine, but thats beyond what my time and resources allow for.
put it in the creative commons, so remeber, you canfeel free to use it andit completly yours, no licence/royalty.

This post has been edited by vasten: Jan 18 2012, 07:19 AM