An MP System?

[Jotari]

So Gaiden had HP draining spells, and Shadows of Valentia expanded it with HP draining skills. It's all pretty cool and stuff, but I find that it has the down side of being pretty negligible at a certain point. HP recovery items and equipment are so wide spread, which is good, you need a way to recover your ability to use these things mid battle, but then you also get things like fortify and tile recovery and stuff and at some point only the truly absurd HP costs actually matter. At least, that's in my experience, I barely ever have to worry about the HP costs. But if recovering HP was more limited, then using spells would be outright unfeasible and also useless.

So then the question arises, what about an MP system like almost every other game out there? MP being separate to HP would mean recovering HP doesn't outright nullify the system, Auto HP recovery could be a more useful and limited skill, in a way making HP more valuable by making it less useful. At least, that's the way I'm thinking. What do you think? Would this fix some of the problems with Gaiden's system? Do you even think it has problems? Or do you think the HP cost is a bit more unique and an MP system would make the series a little too samey to the rest of gaming.

Edited June 11, 2018 by Jotari

[NinjaMonkey]

Or we could have magic function the same way as any FE that isn't Gaiden or its remake. That eliminates the need for a MP system altogether, making this thread worthless.

Edited June 11, 2018 by NinjaMonkey

[Michelaar]

21 minutes ago, NinjaMonkey said:

Or we could have magic function the same way as any FE that isn't Gaiden or its remake. That eliminates the need for a MP system altogether, making this thread worthless.

 

[Ryo]

An MP system could serve as an alternative for the RNG-based skill system, in that active skills can be triggered at will at the cost of a certain amount of MP, however it'd have to be implemented differently from standard RPGs so that people cannot simply abuse it to spam skills all over the battle.

[X-Naut]

Instead of an MP system, combat arts could use the stamina system. Couple it with immediate consequences for becoming fatigued and with another resource to budget stamina on the system becomes a lot more meaningful. Stamina can't be regenerated as easily as HP and this can be accentuated by reducing the potency and abundance of in-battle replenishment.

[Jotari]

43 minutes ago, NinjaMonkey said:

Or we could have magic function the same way as any FE that isn't Gaiden or its remake. That eliminates the need for a MP system altogether, making this thread worthless.

Well yeah, Mages under the classic system are obviously going to be the norm. But I'm just shit shooting here. I personally would like them to try something like the Gaiden approach again.

[UNLEASH IT]

You could just retool the dual guard system from fates to work with skills (which is essentially what they do in Heroes)

[X-Naut]

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

Well yeah, Mages under the classic system are obviously going to be the norm. But I'm just shit shooting here. I personally would like them to try something like the Gaiden approach again.

They could have both? Innate black magic lists could work alongside tomes, with black magic giving certain characters access to spells their tome rank wouldn't otherwise allow early on.

[thecrimsonflash]

no, if they add an mp system fire emblem will be dead in my eyes.

they lack of these things is what has made fire emblem stand out, and the last thing I want fire emblem to become is disgaea.

NB4 FE16 breaks my heart.

[Shadow Mir]

I say no - being an RPG aficionado, I know that in some games, MP restoration tends to be limited and/or expensive compared to HP restoration. I consider that a problem when we already have to keep our units stocked with weapons, staves and healing items. It doesn't help that most games only give you 5 item slots.

[Modamy]

Maybe a cool down for skills like in Heroes, but you can use it when you want by choosing the command in the menu.

[Jotari]

4 hours ago, Levant Mir Celestia said:

I say no - being an RPG aficionado, I know that in some games, MP restoration tends to be limited and/or expensive compared to HP restoration. I consider that a problem when we already have to keep our units stocked with weapons, staves and healing items. It doesn't help that most games only give you 5 item slots.

That doesn't necessarily have to be the case. An item that restores MP would of course be welcome, but auto restoring measures like the rings in Gaiden would probably do a good job to make it available and adequately limited. Imagine if all the auto HP healing items instead healed MP, while all the other HP restoring methods still restored HP. Recovering 5mp at the start of every turn would give units the ability to use magic and skills freely, but over use of things like Ragnarok or Anew would quickly deplete things to zero. There could also be skills and weapons that steal MP from enemies in the same vein as Nosferateau and Plentitude.

[HK Motendra]

9 hours ago, Ryo said:

An MP system could serve as an alternative for the RNG-based skill system, in that active skills can be triggered at will at the cost of a certain amount of MP, however it'd have to be implemented differently from standard RPGs so that people cannot simply abuse it to spam skills all over the battle.

An easy solution to that is to limit the number of uses said unit can do said skill dependent on their skill stat. Naturally, the more powerful skills would have less uses as they would require more skill stat, though  then that begs the question of whether such a system only affects individual skills having their own individual limited uses or all the skills said unit possess being subject to the same gauge.

Either way, I'm all for doing away with the RNG activated skills. That Echoes allows this puts its gameplay above both Fates and Awakening for me on that aspect, alone, for having more control

[Lord_Brand]

Both weapons and magic would presumably require energy to use, so here's an alternative:

Energy

Every unit has an energy meter. Attacking with weapons and using certain skills consumes energy. Each weapon, spell, and skill has a different energy cost. Heavy weapons and powerful spells and skills require heavier amounts of energy to use. If a unit's energy hits 0, the unit becomes exhausted, and must rest for a few turns before they can take any other action again. If a unit tries to spend more energy than they have left, that results in overexertion damage equal to the amount by which they over-exerted (for example, if a unit has 2 energy left and they use 4, they take 2 damage). A unit's animation will also reflect their current energy; the unit will act normal at 76-100%, will show slight signs of exertion at 51-75%, will start panting and heaving at 26-50%, will be barely standing at 1-25%, and will be on their knees or even unconscious at 0.

Units can choose to Rest at the beginning of their turn to recover energy, forsaking any other action that turn, though certain items can also be used to restore energy. And like HP, a unit's energy cap can grow as they level up.

This in turn opens the doors to classes with energy-related skills, such as spending energy to increase attack damage, or spending less energy when performing certain actions.

Edited June 13, 2018 by Lord_Brand