Idea for an FF7 mod - individual magic learning

[Vicaris]

I have an idea for a FF7 mod. One of the problems I see in the game is that characters become more or less interchangeable given how they can equip any materia. The only thing that sets them apart are the slight stat differences, limit breaks and weapons (slots, power, type). You can pretty much move all the materias between characters and have them fulfilling the same battle roles.

So, I don't know if this would be too hard, but have the materia levels be related to each character. Example: the Fire materia. Cloud had this materia equipped until it reached level 4, but then he removes it and some other character equips the same materia, but this character never used the Fire materia, so it is level 1 for him.

It is like, instead of evolving the materia, the character evolves his mastery of the materia. This would force each character to have a specific role in the game. Like healer, support, offensive magic, etc. It would be kinda like the job system, but more flexible.

I think some small things could be fixed, like the learning rate (could be increased), the time at which you get each materia (maybe getting some materias earlier, or coming with the character), the status change for each materia (change the values to significant bonuses), maintain the mastery for every materia of the same kind (if cloud reached level 4 with a fire materia, he should be level 4 for any fire materia).

The status changes I think could be interesting, because it could really change the character during the battles.

I can see this putting a whole new spin go the game. I have very, very basic notions of programming, but I would gladly helping in balancing and testing this mod.

Oh yeah, and one last thing, removing the damned damage cap, which is a total game breaker for later in the game. Some spells become a waster of MP because of the damage cap.

[Nightmarish]

I guess it's something like the FF6 (can't remember that well now).
When you had one summon/esper/wtv equiped he had some magic abilities and by using them the players would learn those skills after a while. Then we switched summon/esper to another to learn new magic skills, etc.

This system makes more sense to me, although it changes the concept of the materia as we know.
Now materias work as a recepient where you "deposit" AP to get to XX level. After the materia is in this level anyone can use it in full power. And after getting all materias of this rank maxed, you could get master materia from this grade (green, for example).

Changing to a FF6 system, materias wouldn't have levels, the character would be the one "leveling" his magic abilities. Now instead of being a recepient, materias would be a catalyst to the character so he could learn magic spells. By using a Fire materia for XX time would make the character learn Fire, Fira, Firaga and after that was time to learn from another materia. In the end a character could know all the magic spells (green) without having to use the green materia, however a single/master materia would have to be in weapon/belt to connect to all/elemental/etc.

I kinda used your idea and put it from my point of view sorry  

Anyway, i don't know if something like that could be easily done  

[Vicaris]

Yeah, I hope it can be done though.

I was thinking of something like you said too.Bundle the materias in groups, and when you gain AP for one materia you gain for another one as well. For an instance. Fire, Thunder and Ice. All AP gained when Fire is equipped would go to Thunder and Ice as well. The idea would be bundling the materias according to their jobs. The FF6 comparission is perfect.

Another thing I was thinking: Some weapons and acessories come with an extra slot that has a unremovable materia. This way the player could be given access to spells before they found that materia, and that would also add a new depth to the characters and their gears. Aeris' rods, for an instance, could have a lot of useful white magic. A character would, along the game, have an extra push to be perceived and used for a specific job. A weapon could still be useful even if it is not the strongest one you have. Of course, this materia in the weapon would be of fixed level, never gain any AP and would not help the character learn new skills.

Edit:
I think it would work better than FF6's magic system because even though the learning is tied to the character, the use of magic is still tied to the materia. In FF6 each character had access to every spell learned, in the end game several characters would have the same spells and could all use them. If the magic use is still tied to a materia, even if several characters know how to use that spell, only the ones with the materia would be allowed to do so. Character's roles would be more specialized, but still flexible.

[Bosola]

I have an idea for a FF7 mod. One of the problems I see in the game is that characters become more or less interchangeable given how they can equip any materia. The only thing that sets them apart are the slight stat differences, limit breaks and weapons (slots, power, type). You can pretty much move all the materias between characters and have them fulfilling the same battle roles.

So, I don't know if this would be too hard, but have the materia levels be related to each character. Example: the Fire materia. Cloud had this materia equipped until it reached level 4, but then he removes it and some other character equips the same materia, but this character never used the Fire materia, so it is level 1 for him.

I can't really think of any way of implementing this with what we have available. You can sorta stop characters equipping and unequipping materia, though.

A lot of the other stuff would be pretty trivial to do, though.

Oh yeah, and one last thing, removing the damned damage cap, which is a total game breaker for later in the game. Some spells become a waster of MP because of the damage cap.
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[gjoerulv]

This pretty much can't be done. You have to seariously tweak the game engine; add variables and stuff. An approch like chrono trigger is easily achivable. Just takes some time.

EDIT: Good idea though.