Sandbox Games

Hey all,

Just a small question.

What do people feel about sandbox in the RPG element that RM(XP preferably) offers?

Would be cool, and also a lot of work.

Hmm, it is quite a lot of work.
My project is pretty sandbox-y. It's sort of like a more linear Oblivion. Scratch that, it isn't very linear at all. I have a main quest, with a bunch of side quests. After a certain part in the main quest you can just completely forget about it.

It is a lot of work in the sense of Switches and Variables for all of your choice needs, the maps and their consistency as most sandbox games don't have world maps, and enemies! Random encounters in areas won't work unless you have a leveled enemies script or something...or else the game still feels linear as you'd need to be a certain level to go to this place. But it shouldn't be oh so leveled. I don't know, it's pretty hard to explain.

But yeah, it can be done, and it'd be interesting if it get's done. Hopefully I finish my project one of these days/months/years ._.

As already stated, it would be a lot of work, but very much within the realm of possibility. I've been working off and on (mostly off) on a project that incorporates some sandbox elements, and it's actually quite a simple process. The challenge is rooted in its monotony.

It is a lot of work in the sense of Switches and Variables for all of your choice needs, the maps and their consistency as most sandbox games don't have world maps, and enemies! Random encounters in areas won't work unless you have a leveled enemies script or something...or else the game still feels linear as you'd need to be a certain level to go to this place. But it shouldn't be oh so leveled. I don't know, it's pretty hard to explain.

Well, on that note, is there anything I can do that manages Switches with my character's level?

EDIT: Also, thanks for the replies so far.

I don't know exactly what you mean by that, but a parallel process common event with something like

if Player is level n
 >Switch:[Blahblah] == ON
end

I dunno if that's what you wanted ._. The problem with common events being parallel process is the lag it adds to the game.

laaaaaaaaaaaaag

Just saying, it would be much easier with script. Also, you can set a variable to equal an actor's level (in VX at least), but I think there was a bug with that function.

Yeah, a script would cause way less lag.
And the variable = actor's level option is available in RMXP, too. Along with every single one of his stats o.O I never noticed that before...should play around with that more often ._.