Azala's 90KB RPG 1.102 - README file
Table of Contents
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1. Overview
2. Gameplay
3. Detailed Mechanics
3a. Fights
3b. Evolves
4. Credits
1. Overview
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It's a unique 3-Player RPG that's typically been described as some combination of Final Fantasy and Pokemon. It is probably closer to Squaresoft's SaGa series in inspiration, although it still plays quite differently from that.
2. Gameplay
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- You have a character that runs around the main map and engages enemies
- You command an army of 8 basic units that “evolve” up a tech tree as you gain experience
- There is always a boss that you have to locate to finish a chapter
- There are two sidequests. Each boss gives you +1 army
- Cure/Revive items in-battle to help you out
If that's confusing, just play it and you should get the hang of it within a few minutes. Easy to learn, but hard to beat. If you do beat it, there are two different endings, and you have to play it in hard mode (skip at least one sidequest) to see the better ending.
3. Detailed Mechanics
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3a. Fights
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- On the main map, there will be tan-colored units that you run into to fight.
- If an ally's hero is close to your hero when you start a fight, he will be dragged in with you. The "drag radius" is about 5 tiles, and is much larger for boss fights.
- Once the fight starts, the battlefield will be set up, and for every hero dragged in the fight, his army (initially of size 8) will show up on the left side of the battlefield.
- Your "anti-ground" units will spawn slightly to the right of "anti-air" since they are mostly melee and better at taking damage.
- The enemy's army shows up on the right side of the field.
- Its composition is entirely random, calculated as follows:
1. Each enemy you run into on the main map has a certain "field point value (FPV)". For example the FPV of the first enemy you run into, a marine, is 60.
2. Each unit that shows up in the battlefield has a certain "battle point value (BPV)". For example, the BPV of a marine is 10. Typically BPV = 10 * (unit's level). Unit level is discussed in "3b. Evolves", but in short, it is indicated by the color of the unit's name. At the beginning of the fight, FPV is immediately given to the enemy as "BPV currency".
3. Each chapter has a selection of battlefield units that the enemy "spends" BPV on. For example, Chapter 1 has marine for 10 BPV, zergling for 10, hydralisk for 20, and zealot for 20. Since we know that a marine on the main map has 60 BPV, you could theoretically run into (2 hydras 1 ling 1 rine), (3 zealots), etc. Later chapters have much wider unit selections.
- Once the selection is done, the two sides mass each other. You can manually pull units back, and aim or shift+A+click (waypoint attack) as you wish. You'll want to keep as many units as possible alive, see "3b. Evolves" for details. Dead units are removed from the field, suffer an evolution penalty, and quarantined until the end of the battle.
- You can, and should, use the Cure or Revive items to keep units alive. Cure sets all living units to 100%, while Revive brings all quaratined dead units back to the battlefield (albeit with the evolution penalty), plus applies a Cure.
- You can only use one Cure and Revive each per battle, even if you have more in stock.
- Cure and Revive restock by 1 every few minutes, up to a maximum of 5.
- The enemy AI is set to attack to a location centered on "any Force 1 unit in the battlefield". Since your "anti-air" (typically weaker) units are spawned in the back, this means more often than not that the enemy will target them. Keep that in mind when designing your strategy.
- You win if your side has units remaining and the enemy has none.
- You lose if your side has no units remaining. That means two things: in a tie (both sides lose the last unit at the same time), you lose. Also, if you still have a unit in the battlefield, and one of your allies got wiped out in the same battle, he is still technically alive and can use items.
- Losing a battle ends the game for all players.
- After winning a battle, all units on the battlefield are eligible for evolves (see below). That means if you've got a few units and a revive left near the end of a battle, you should use it to make all the otherwise dead units eligible for upgrades.
- There are a limited number of battles. There is one area in the game that might cause you to believe otherwise, but it is not an infinite supply.
3b. Evolves
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- There are two main branches of units in the evolve tree:
1. "Anti-Air": Low HP, High Damage, can hit both ground and air
2. "Anti-Ground": High HP, Low Damage, can only hit ground
- When you get +1 Army, you get to choose to add one unit in either branch.
- Anti-Air can only evolve to other Anti-Air, same goes for Anti-Ground.
- There are five "levels" of units, indicated by the color of the unit name: White, Yellow, Orange, Red, Purple.
- Each chapter has a "level cap" which prohibits evolving past that level. This is indicated by the number of orange Infested Terrans above the cure/revive area.
- Evolves are random. They have nothing to do with the number of kills a particular unit has.
- Evolves sometimes pick between two "branches", for example, a marine can upgrade to a ghost or a hydralisk. This pick is also random.
- The probability that a unit will evolve depends on four factors:
1. Which unit it is. (higher level units evolve less frequently)
2. Which unit was run into on the main map. Much like each unit has "FPV" described in "3a. Fights", each unit also has an "Experience Value" that affects evolve likelihood. Bosses have very high Experience Value, thus making two-player boss fights worth doing when possible.
3. How many allies were dragged into the fight. (more allies = penalty, see below)
4. What chapter you are in. (later chapters = higher likelihood for low level units to evolve)
- There are evolve penalties for having multiple players dragged in a fight:
3 players: nothing will ever evolve (otherwise the game would be too easy, wouldn't it?)
2 players: chance to evolve for all units cut in half, and level cap is dropped by 1 for this battle (no "top-level" evolves).
- 2-player fights have a non-obvious, but excellent use: if two players have subpar unit levels, they can team up, or a single weak player can "piggyback" on a strong one, to help with leveling up toward a self-sufficent level.
- There is a death penalty: every unit that dies on the battlefield is replaced by its "de-volve" and quarantined until the end of the battle. Level 1 units don't suffer the devolve, but you should keep them alive because only living units are eligible for upgrades.
- Boss fights are exempt from the devolve penalty. Go all-out!
4. Credits
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AntiSleep[01], CaptainFalcon, Conspiracy, cubanpita, Demand, derekeom, Descartes(DB), DtL]Bunny, exelsisxax, FoxWolf1, kirbyair1969, Iceman16, Kilabyte, Lysdexia, Morana, Mudrekh, Negroed, nightchao, ObiWanKanoli, outlawpoet, OwNedUrFacE, Picardathon, PROUDLIKECOW, quizboy, remiss, Shwank, Subdue, TheRager, TheRisenPower, Warshrike, Whisperwell, ws-Tank_7
> Very nicely done rpg! It isn't too hard to get hang of but takes some getting used to later on. The evolves system was fun, I enjoyed the hammer part, only part that required much loading. Anyways funny story, evolve to the max and defeat your enemies, help your allie if he suffers too many de-evolving losses. Definitely worth a shot!
Wait that means you managed to beat the final boss without restarting much? o_O
If so, well done, and try hard mode. To get it, skip a sidequest, so basically you're down one army, beat it and get a better ending. gl :D
Very nicely done rpg! It isn't too hard to get hang of but takes some getting used to later on. The evolves system was fun, I enjoyed the hammer part, only part that required much loading. Anyways funny story, evolve to the max and defeat your enemies, help your allie if he suffers too many de-evolving losses. Definitely worth a shot!
That is an impressive feat (the size for the content)
It's 84kb :( Looks magnificent though! You make awesome maps Azala!