A potentially crap idea: Customizable Demigods

[:1]So I got this idea while playing Spore, and thought it sounded interesting. Or it could be crap, I'll let you guys decide.



Basically I was thinking, what if we had customizable demigods? Could a system be created that would work well for this? What problems might arise?



Well, here's my idea.



You start out by creating the physical appearance of the Demigod. The game would probably implement a more strict sort of Spore-esque creation engine. You might have to pick between several different body styles, which you could then customize by adjusting the overall size, size of the limbs, and add extra doodads, limbs, etc. You could then be brought into some sort of painting area, where you could customize the color and texture of your demigod.



This is all well and good for physical appearance, but what about abilities?



First, you could choose the basic attributes of your demigod. You'd be given a set amount of "points" to spend on starting HP and MP, character speed, attack speed, armor, etc.



You'd then be brought into an abilities creator. Here, you'd set up a roster of the various abilities your character has to earn by leveling up during the game. Here's how I picture it. Again, you'd be given a set amount of "points" to spend on your abilities, but in this case you have a certain amount of points per ability. In other words, you could have as many abilities as what every Demigod currently has, but you are only allowed, say, 100 points per ability. This would prevent people from using all their points to make one ability overpowered. Once you're editing the ability, you could first choose what a certain ability does by picking from a list of standard abilities, and then use points to adjust certain aspects of that ability. For example, you might make an ability do a lot of damage, but you'd have less "points" to spend on lowering the cooldown time. On the contrary, you could spend most of your points lowering the cooldown, but you'd have less to spend on buffing the attack power.



Once your ability is chosen, then you could choose from a set of animations/effects- in other words, what it looks like when said abilities are cast. This might not be too customizable, but basic things like effect color could probably be changed.



Finally, you choose an icon to represent that ability in the game.



You do this for all your abilities, and bingo- you have a full roster of customized abilities.



After all is said and done, you could save your demigod, and upload it to a "vault" (ala SupCom), where you could look at and download other people's demis.



So, what are the potential problems?



1) It's highly likely that a set of "perfect abilities" could be made, and that would reduce the creativity factor. You'd be compelled to just make the abilities that everyone else says are the best, and then everyone would kind of have the same powers. This could be offset by careful testing of each ability and what kind of effects spending points has on each ability.



2) With customizable demigods, you'd no longer be able to strategize as easily. You wouldn't know what abilities each person has, and it could get very confusing.



3) It would be a lot of work to implement, test, and perfect, and would probably be saved for a sequel.





So, questions, comments, etc?|||JWest|||This is what mods are for, besides, the mod makers will probably churn out higher quality stuff than this is implying. (Hoping that the expected mod support will allow such changes as adding in new Demigods, which might be sorta the difficultness to pull off, but then again I know next to naught about modding)|||This game you want to play is not Demigod, but you are right that it has potential. Very few attempts have really been made at something like this, but one of the few is Fallout Tactics, which while it deserves to bagged out for tarnishing the good name of the first two games, did offer something like what you're after: completely customisable characters under a point limit (skills, items, levels all cost points) slogging it out in multiplayer.



But yes, in principle, the game you are describing could be an awful lot of fun and I do hope some devs take up the challenge one day, I don't think DG is really the right platform for it though, certainly not in its current state |||Heh, didn't think it was anything too fantastic, just thought I'd throw it out there |||This is like Guild Wars' PvP balance, which is actually pretty fun and interesting. However, due to the way Demigod plays / the low number of skills, I don't think it would work very well.|||the thing you are describing up there is basicly modding :), integrated modding



the thing is almost everyone is atleast a little creative and enjoys making their own stuff. so this is a good idea?



could be, Though very very very very hard to implement. Go to hardcore, whoops the (mentally)ten-year-olds cant handle the interface, go to simple and you get another spore.



edit: because own is spelled with a w|||No offense, but this would most likely just fill the game with crappy looking demigods. That's why i'm fine with GPG being the ones who make new stuff, rather then modders atm.|||Modders would supply Better Code and Demigods, well the good ones at least.



Mike