What is a Card Battle System?
I decided that I would like to use a Card battle system after playing Metal Gear Ac!d for the PSP. For those of you who haven’t played it, it plays totally differently to the normal Metal Gear games.
• I would like to have Magic cards, to suit the more fantasy setting of the game with more powerful magic attacks costing more COST.
• Metal Gear Ac!d allows two characters to be controlled during a battle. I would like it to become a maximum of 4 but for it to still function perfectly with less.
• As well as the equip menu used by Metal Gear Ac!d (for equipping weapons, armor and status cards... all covered in the equip card bullet) I would like a group equip menu. If one character equipped a gun card to it and another on their go equipped a fire magic card they would combine to create a fire bullet skill. (Bad example)
• The Original Metal Gear Ac!d supports 200 cards, I am thinking more in the region of 300.
• I would still like random encounters, but rather than loading the default battle it to load an Isometric board with randomly placed (or not in some cases) obstacles such as rocks to hide behind and rivers to cross (more bad examples ïŠ ). I will be dealing with all graphics for this battle system however.
• In Metal Gear Ac!d each player has a deck of cards that can be edited. I would however like each character to be able to use 3 sets each. While they cannot share 1 copy of the same card (meaning for all 4 characters to have a certain card they would all need a copy of it) I would like the same card to be able to be used again by that character within their other two sets. (for example if their favorite weapon card is in character 1’s first card set he can also add it to his second and third because he is currently using that card overall but character 2 cannot unless another copy is found/bought.)
• At some point the deck editing system would need to be made to become part of the menu (obviously replacing skills) I think this could be done now or I might request this separately but to make a totally original menu.
• I would also like to add a new class of card called Limit; these cards are very rare and result in flash limit breaks that do a lot of damage. (Standard RPG stuff really)
Thank you for taking the time to read this long and probably rather boring request.
I doubt anybody would take this request up without being paid for it and if that is the case please feel free to send me a quote via PM or this thread and I will get back to you as to whether or not I can afford it :P
I also don’t think each individual card would need to be coded because once the basic sets have been created (Movement, Character, Action, Equip and Limit) It would only require editing on your behalf of an original code for higher states or some other variable (or even I could do it if instructed correctly)
Edited Feb, 13th 2007 10:43PM GMT
I have finally got around to creating a mock up of the menu that I would like to go with the Card Battle System. I understand the colors may seem garish to some people when put into context with my game it will work fine.
Ok, I have tried to be as detailed as possible in these pictures but I will back them all up with a written section on each one.
Main Menu
This is the main menu as it should appear when you press ESC, I would ideally like it to move on screen from the top left at a reasonable speed, but if it seems to be too difficult or just generally not cool having it just appear is acceptable. It is not shown in this picture, but the cursor is nonexistent, being replaced by a highlighted box as seen in other screens.
Next up is the Item menu.
Item Menu
I would love this to slide across from the left. This is not a full screen menu and would be shown over the top of the main menu. The bottom bar that says NOTE: followed by some text is where the description of each item that is selected with the highlighted cursor will appear, I would ideally like this to be a moving line of text, similar to Final Fantasy X-2 when the description is longer than the black box allocated to it.
The player has to pick a page using the highlighted box and the left and right arrows before they can click on the content of that page, each page stores 12 items. I have used the same Icon on each item to show were each would be placed.
Deck Editor
This is the deck editor page, seeing as it is a whole page it doesn't need to slide from any direction. The player must first use the Highlighted box to choose a characters deck to edit and then click on a type of card to add to the deck from the 4 choices shown next to the overall deck number (33/30 in this example) They can then move the highlighted Box up and down the cards and add them to the total of their deck by pressing left and right. The numbers next to the cost are how many cards you have in your deck, and how many you have left. For example if I were to add a Camisado card (such an original card name :P ) and I had 5 in my collection, before I had added any it would say 0/5 when I then move the arrow left to add one it would change to 1/4 saying I have on in play and 4 left. You can only ever have 4 of each card within your deck so once it gets above four the color of that section turns yellow (the same as the overall is displayed and contradictory to the picture... sorry)
If the card has more than 1 page of information (which most likely will) pressing enter when hovering of that card with the highlighted box will force it to show the second/third page.
I would like it so that if any player has over 4 of one card (causing it to go yellow) or has over there total amount of cards (causing the overall number to go yellow) they will not be allowed to leave this screen until they have amended this error.
I am currently in the process of changing this screen slightly as I'm not happy with it and I need a way to allow you to change to the other two decks of that one character.
Status Screen
This screen is similar to the original menu screen in that it needs to come on from a direction; however this comes from the bottom left hand corner, rather than the top left.
I would like this screen to have no enter commands at all, instead the player just moves the (in this case nonexistent) Highlighted Box to move from left to right over the three characters data in the top bar to change the rest of the info shown below it.
The notes bar at the bottom would be ideal if it could have a scrolling feature like the item menu. Also as the story progresses I would like to be able to add new information to this bar so having been able to be edited in events or something would be very handy.
Config Menu
Cancelled due to its relative pointlessness.
Save Menu
Very similar to the Item menu, just with two selections per page and no NOTE: bar at the bottom.
Also I have missed it out in the picture but I have recently decided to release the game this is for in episodic content, so having which episode it was from in the save details would be great.
Also I think this is obvious but I will say it just for the hell of it, but when a character is not in the party (I.E before they have joined or if they go off on their own for a while) there Square remains but is just empty with no face detail.
Quit Menu
And finally the quit menu, this is a really simple menu really just a yes or no question with a highlighted box to choose.
The font I have used while creating this shockingly bright colored monstrosity is called 'System'
Ok, I have tried to be as detailed as possible in these pictures but I will back them all up with a written section on each one.
Main Menu
http://img49.imageshack.us/img49/2198/mainmenurc4.jpg[/IMG]
This is the main menu as it should appear when you press ESC, I would ideally like it to move on screen from the top left at a reasonable speed, but if it seems to be too difficult or just generally not cool having it just appear is acceptable. It is not shown in this picture, but the cursor is nonexistent, being replaced by a highlighted box as seen in other screens.
Next up is the Item menu.
Item Menu
http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/9545/itemsqk7.jpg[/IMG]
I would love this to slide across from the left. This is not a full screen menu and would be shown over the top of the main menu. The bottom bar that says NOTE: followed by some text is where the description of each item that is selected with the highlighted cursor will appear, I would ideally like this to be a moving line of text, similar to Final Fantasy X-2 when the description is longer than the black box allocated to it.
The player has to pick a page using the highlighted box and the left and right arrows before they can click on the content of that page, each page stores 12 items. I have used the same Icon on each item to show were each would be placed.
Deck Editor
http://img117.imageshack.us/img117/6554/decked2jk3.jpg[/IMG]
This is the deck editor page, seeing as it is a whole page it doesn't need to slide from any direction. The player must first use the Highlighted box to choose a characters deck to edit and then click on a type of card to add to the deck from the 4 choices shown next to the overall deck number (33/30 in this example) They can then move the highlighted Box up and down the cards and add them to the total of their deck by pressing left and right. The numbers next to the cost are how many cards you have in your deck, and how many you have left. For example if I were to add a Camisado card (such an original card name :P ) and I had 5 in my collection, before I had added any it would say 0/5 when I then move the arrow left to add one it would change to 1/4 saying I have on in play and 4 left. You can only ever have 4 of each card within your deck so once it gets above four the color of that section turns yellow (the same as the overall is displayed and contradictory to the picture... sorry)
If the card has more than 1 page of information (which most likely will) pressing enter when hovering of that card with the highlighted box will force it to show the second/third page.
I would like it so that if any player has over 4 of one card (causing it to go yellow) or has over there total amount of cards (causing the overall number to go yellow) they will not be allowed to leave this screen until they have amended this error.
I am currently in the process of changing this screen slightly as I'm not happy with it and I need a way to allow you to change to the other two decks of that one character.
Status Screen
http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/3411/statusve3.jpg[/IMG]
This screen is similar to the original menu screen in that it needs to come on from a direction; however this comes from the bottom left hand corner, rather than the top left.
I would like this screen to have no enter commands at all, instead the player just moves the (in this case nonexistent) Highlighted Box to move from left to right over the three characters data in the top bar to change the rest of the info shown below it.
The notes bar at the bottom would be ideal if it could have a scrolling feature like the item menu. Also as the story progresses I would like to be able to add new information to this bar so having been able to be edited in events or something would be very handy.
Config Menu
Cancelled due to its relative pointlessness.
Save Menu
http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/3285/savezy0.jpg[/IMG]
Also I have missed it out in the picture but I have recently decided to release the game this is for in episodic content, so having which episode it was from in the save details would be great.
Also I think this is obvious but I will say it just for the hell of it, but when a character is not in the party (I.E before they have joined or if they go off on their own for a while) there Square remains but is just empty with no face detail.
Quit Menu
http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/4261/quitkj7.jpg[/IMG]
The font I have used while creating this shockingly bright colored monstrosity is called 'System'
Thanks in advanced
Camisado