Prome 2010-08-23 09:33:51

I dont know

Lostcauz 2010-08-23 10:02:46

Defend does have strategic value depending on how it is used. Your right in believing that doing nothing but defending is pointless, but when enemies have hard hitting attacks defend can save your life. In most RPGs enemies will announce their super attacks the previous round either by wasting the round "gathering power" or doing some weak attack that ment to foreshadow it.

If you want to incorporate a defend command, by all means do so. It is your game after all. If you want people to use it though the I would suggest that you follow the above tactic. You don't have to make it obvious in your boss fights, just make it so that people who pay attention to the fight will benefit from using defend.

Also with defend you have to make it worth using, but don't make it so that the characters are completely invincible while defending. Its a bit of a balancing act. The increase in physical and magical defense in most games is between 1.5x to double its normal value when using the defend command. This is usually enough to save your hide with super attacks but lets the player know when they are in over their heads when they have to defend constantly to stay alive.

Regularjoe 2010-08-23 10:02:46

Times when defending is useful:

The opponent is charging a huge attack that could potentially one hit kill you. Defending allows you to survive. Example: Epic Battle Fantasy 2

One of your party members suddenly stops being useful, like if your mage runs out of mana. They can still use items, but having them attack does not deal very much damage. Defending gives them more time to recharge. Example: Many RPGs

Defending does not take a full turn. Therefore, when a player uses defend they really just want to change the order that their characters take their turns. For example, if a monster can counter-attack your fighter's moves, you may want to heal the fighter before he attacks. Example: Gladius

Plot related battles involving moral decisions. Suppose your party gets attacked by a runaway child. You can easily beat him into submission to return him home. However, if the player has the foresight to weather the child's blows, they may get an extra reward for bringing the kid back safe and sound. Example: Mother 3

Defending sometimes does more than just increase defense. You can have the defend lead to a counterattack. You can have the defend absorb some of the attack into mana. You can have the defense boost last for a few turns afterwards. You can have one party member's defend boost the defense of all party members. Example: Charles Barkley Shut Up and Jam Gaiden

Dotlink 2010-08-23 11:13:14

A good game to look at is Legend of Dragoon, the bosses would show an ultimate attack coming your way by doing just what Lostcauz said they do gather energy, or "target" you something like that, so you would want to defend that round to save your life. Also you heal in that game when you defend, so if you were fighting something weaker you could totally just kill everything off except that one and heal everyone to full health if you had the time and patience.

Fro 2010-08-23 11:23:50

I only ever use defend in an RPG when it heals the player by a small amount.

Registar 2010-08-23 11:41:16

Having the enemies have a super attack that charges up and makes you defend is just a tedious waste of a turn. I rarely ever use defend in RPGs unless I'm forced to like in situations like that, but sometimes I'll use it if I don't want someone to do something that turn for whatever reason, or if I have a weaker healer character who doesn't have anyone to heal that round. Anyway, there's no reason not to put in Defend.

Thundaboom 2010-08-23 12:18:26

I think defense is bad but since its your game instead of defend you should make it DO NOTHING.

No just kidding if you seriously do want to do something like that then go ahead :D

Veradux 2010-08-23 13:56:11

I would also use defend if I want to spare my mana for an attack that is on cooldown or costs to much mana for me to use now. Of course, this would only work if I can regenerate mana by using defend.

icecold128 2010-08-23 14:03:04

I agree with the other peeps here.
If a boss or enemy triggers a super attack (1hit kill for sure if you DO NOT defend)
then defending can be pretty usefull and it gives the game more depth and makes the bosses harder.

Starogre 2010-08-23 14:25:39

defend is for quickly skipping a useless character's turn while you let your other stronger characters attack to finish the battles faster

MrCalzone 2010-08-23 15:09:05

Apart from the many excellent points raised by Regularjoe, defend has value as a tanking trait. As in defend automatically drawing aggro from the enemy, if someone is unfamiliar with the concept of tanking. But yeah, it loses all that value in a singleplayer type of game.

As for the defending a super heavy blow; I would find that, even knowing the trick, that can add tension to a fight as long as its done right. If theres no danger at all that the boss will get his attack off before you defend, i.e if theres a completely rigid turn structuring system like chess, then of course maybe it can be more annoying than fun. Im not saying it always is, but I see your point there. If theres a chance he breaks you if you slack though, theres a whole different psychology. You go "OH SHIT HES DOING LASER TAIL MISSILE I GOTTA DEFEND" and then after youve defended you go phew. See what I mean?

TheFlyingChinchilla 2010-08-23 16:49:52

"defend" just mitigates physical attacks, I assume? Doesn't sound too helpful against those spell-happy fuckers that a lot of RPGs seem to have.

hellfire9 2010-08-23 18:55:03

i got one idea for the defend
you could use a guy to tank but then again that just leaves us to more questions like How are oyu donna do they'll attack the tank? and sht like that....... im confused

tacosorburritos 2010-08-24 00:06:04

How about something that increases both attack and defense?

Ojiva 2010-08-24 00:08:34

unless the game has skills or attacks that take time to recharge, DONT do the defend option
good luck with your game ;)

sweet21 2010-08-24 01:32:27

if you give that much a damn just make "defend" into a counter-attack, instead of taking half damage, make the character take half damage and then counter-attack, but make it half damage than normal or it will become abuse prone.

AnEnigma 2010-08-24 03:15:18

I suppose if it's something like FF7, you could make a character completely devoted towards defense, make him constantly defend, and put mastered cover materia on him so he covers the other players. It'd make him a pretty sick tank, but your group's damage would go down a bit (and I'm sure aoes would still rape your party).

eristef 2010-08-24 06:48:10

EBF3 IS OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YEAAAAAAHHH!!!1111one!!

infiniteloop 2010-08-24 07:54:32

The game mechanics could be such that you set your party up like most MMORPG's with a character who focuses on defensive capabilities, like dodge, block stamina. (i.e. the "tank"). Defend could offer the defensive buff but it also would give a chance to take a hit for some other character that has little defense. In this way your tank character would defend most of the time assuming you'll fight monsters that hit hard enough to justify specializing a character in that way.

Also I've seen defend used as a way of gaining "combo points" more quickly for special abilities. If I remember right, this is how the game "Epos" here on NG utilizes blocking.

Gunther994 2010-08-24 08:28:17

Let's imagine a combat situation :

You're a team of 3, one healer, one ranger and one fighter. Attacking a golden beetle (the first thing that came into my mind)
The fighter has 350 hp, the healer has 225 and the ranger 265. The ranger is the slowest of all (Dunno why, but it's necessary for my example, let's say (s)he has a broken leg), and attacks AFTER the beetle. The beetle, being though, deals around 50~100 damage per attack, thus can kill a character quite quickly if nothing is done. Moreover it attacks fairly quickly, so it can deliver two blows per turn (not necessarily on the same target) once in a while.

The ranger gets hit by a critical strike, and has 40 hp left. The healer also gets attacked and has 165 hp left (I know it's a quite deadly critical strike, but hey, it's a goddamn GOLDEN BEETLE !!1).
Now, if the ranger doesn't defend itself, it can cause either one of the characters to die, either both.
=> Ranger healed, critical again (lulz, unlucky) & another critical on the healer (thus very unlikely, but it CAN happen)
The fighter goes fighting alone, and he get eviscerated. Yey !

The ranger defends : (S)he gets healed, AND doesn't die immediately from an upcoming critical ('cuz dmg /2, /3, or /0 ), allowing the healer to heal him(her)self on the next turn, even if a critical strike on the healer is still likely to appear.

Mhh...I think I should not try to create a RPG, golden beetles, critical strikes who almost cut a character in half, and slow rangers. ~_~