Entertaining an idea

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Yes, I do like the way that the random battles are in CC, you're running around in non-combat mode (can't attack or cast spells). Screen pausing a moment as enemies appear, you drawing your weapon and readying for battle and enabling the use of combat magic. Of course, like I said before, would keep it more toward the original with the materia and such, including the limit breaks, though those would require pausing the enemy and ally units on the battlefield to perform properly, it wouldn't require much changing those from what they are now. I'm not quite sure what you mean by a KotOR, you talking about the Star Wars game? If so, I've never played that one, played JKJO and JKJA though.
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Yeah Star Wars lol. KotOR has a style in which you can literally pause the game, select attacks for all of your party members (you can switch between three of them either paused or unpaused). The only difference is KotOR lets you select all attacks, whereas I'm only talking about materia, and only for one character.

Also, on a note of ways to make AI parties seem more helpful when you aren't switching often, check out Dragon Age: Origins. The way you can give characters a "Job" with a list of if-then statements such as "If _____ health <50% cast heal," these statements can work for any aspect of combat too, as there are many variations for the spells to use and the reason's to use them. You can even set them to change fighting style.
 
That sounds much like FF12's battle system. Which most people did not like.
 
The only FF12 I played was for the DS so I'm not sure how similar it is in that aspect. I don't think I'm being as clear as I want to be with this lol, but I'm unsure how to put it.

General Combat - Normal attack maneuvers and combination based on buttons/keys used (Also, note to Senti, I would suggest making the game Controller compatible)

Materia Aspect - Fighting Pause when you hit button or key to bring up materia menu, menu should take up quarter of the screen. In menu, select skill/magic/summon to use. 2 ideas for targeting - 1. (This idea is new as I was thinking of "Arc The Lad: Twilight of the Spirits") All magics/skills should have an AoE, and the range (length and width of scope) should be judged on level. 2.Specific targeting using the "Arrow-over-head" method and selecting as many enemies as magic/skill was meant to hit. Summons should hurt all, and encompass entire feild in their attacks.

AI Fighting - (When not controlling certain members of party - ) Prior to going into battle (i.e. like when player is setting up skills and whatnot) Player should be able to set the general terms for his party members (including Cloud) with such values as "Upon: Enter Battle, (Character) Casts (Support Magic)" or "If: (Party Member) (Health/MP) reaches < (percentage) use/cast (healing potion/spell/elixer/etc)". Another thing would be to set styles such as "Beserker, Medic etc" for preset usage, unless you want to force players to set them up themselves. Another aspect to AI fighting would be deciding whether you want to make like Infinite Undiscovery and have Party stances such as "Focus (attack one enemy), Spread (each Party Member attacks random enemy), Etc." or to set these kinds of stances for each character along with their general terms.

AI Materia use - Similar to KotOR, you can set characters to use materia under certain terms, but if, for instance, there is a boss like Ifrit, who you want to constantly cast Blizzard on, Materia pause menu should let you select 3 to 4 materia attacks that you want your AI's to use in order (similar to taking control, casting them, then switching back to Cloud). To clarify, I'm Playing as Cloud, fighting Ifrit, I open up Materia menu, I select Blizzard and fill up 3 empty materia queue slots (meaning it will use the spell three times, which also means a cancel button could be implemented), Staying in the Materia menu, I switch (using designated key/button that would allow you to switch in battle) to Barret, select Blizzard 3 times, Stay in Materia menu, switch to Tifa, select 3 Blizzards, Switch once more so I'm back on Cloud (Because the option of exiting on Barret or Tifa would exit you into assuming that character) and exit the Materia menu and wait for all my blizzards to cast, then continue on with the battle. This would also work without casting anything on Cloud, filling up the AI's queue and coming back to cloud to take Aggro while the team hits hard.

/long explanation that hopefully makes more sense  ;D
 
Here's what I have wrote down in regards to the combat system, the way that I see it in my head. Mind you it's not entirely complete yet but it does cover some of what you were talking about.

General Battle:

AI Role options for secondary party members, which can be changed via Ally Orders during combat, or set through menu. Basic AI pre-battle would include:
Front Line: Getting up close to them and attacking, to draw the enemy attacks.
Artillery: Attacking with long ranged attacks and drawing back if an enemy closes in.
Support: Primarily uses non-damaging actions to "buff" the party or "de-buff" the enemies and heal damage taken, such as haste, slow, barrier, cure.
Defender: Moves to defend weaker allies, engaging enemies that target them.
 
During battle the above commands could be changed and the following would be added:
Focus Attacks: Focus offensive actions against targeted enemy.
Retreat: Similar to Artillery, but would fall back in an attempt to flee the battle.
Defend: Toggles a defender role for targeted ally.

Item and Spells can be used by a system of split "quick bars", twelve options on each quick bar (first six slots containing spells, second six slots containing items). These can be switched to the next series of quick bars one side at a time or both sides at a time and the order of each can be changed before battle. Each one spell or item can be set as "active" for easy use, or each item could be used by pressing the corresponding key.

While in battle the PHS system would not be accessible however should the main controlling character be KO'ed, manual control would be switched to one of the remaining, conscious, party members chosen by you.

Targeting controls would be able to cycle through enemy or ally targets, one command would cycle enemy targets while another would cycle ally targets. Spells or items used would take effect on the active target (ally or enemy).

EDIT:
And yes, I was thinking of game pad support, here's what I was thinking for one possible configuration.

Gamepad Battle Control Layout:

The following commands use a Playstation 3 controller layout as an example, this would be the default control layout.

L1: Cast active Magic                         R1: Use active item
L2: Defend                                         R2: Attack/Limit Break
Up: Previous full quick bar                 Triangle: Target next enemy
Left: Next Spell                                  Square: Target next ally
Right: Next Item                                Circle: Ally 1 commands
Down: Next full quick bar                   Cross: Ally 2 commands
Left Analog stick: Movement              RIght Analog stick: Camera
L3: Unused                                         R3: Unused
Select: Both Ally Commands               Start: Pause

Second Edit: Corrected myself on the quick  bar, used for spells, not materia.
 
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I'm really liking your system. I kind of forgot what it was like to have a unique battle setup, as I listed a bunch of games with nice battle styles. Yours really had me thinking while I was reading and I really like it.

Controller setup really doesn't matter to me, about an hour into a game, controls become second nature to me :P

I think the Combat System has been covered pretty thoroughly.

On to the second biggest deal of the game. Moving around. Creating the environment.

A few questions that could shed some light on the idea if answered:

Are you planning on starting the game like it actually started?

Will the world map be an obsolete way to get from town to town? If so, have you considered what to implement instead?

Will all towns/feilds be the same (recreated to look like the original)?

Are you planning on implementing any new areas?

What will moving around be like in The Highwind/ The Tiny Bronco/ Chocobo/ Hovercraft be like? New or old?

Just a few questions to keep things rolling, and that I have had nagging in my mind. If you have an outline or something that you want to throw at me to say "Shut the hell up" I understand  :P

I just have so many questions, and I kind of want to keep the ball rolling, keeping this thread active so it stays fresh   ;)

I also am looking for ways to suggest improvements for/help continue this project  :D
 
Working on all of that in my list still, but to answer your questions...
Are you planning on starting the game like it actually started?
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Yes, keeping the same story the way it was originally done.
Will the world map be an obsolete way to get from town to town? If so, have you considered what to implement instead?
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No, you will still have the world map.
Will all towns/feilds be the same (recreated to look like the original)?
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Yes, though due to the fact that the maps are not fully 3D it will require quite a bit of imagination to flesh them out into a fully 3D environment.
Are you planning on implementing any new areas?
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Not currently, no.
What will moving around be like in The Highwind/ The Tiny Bronco/ Chocobo/ Hovercraft be like? New or old?
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I was thinking of using a "cockpit" style view when moving around in the vehicles, showing you actually moving through the glass and such. In the case of the Chocobo, more or less showing the same as it is now, you riding it. I was also entertaining the idea of riding a Chocobo in battle similar to the way you do in Final Fantasy Tactics, increasing your movement speed.

Like I said, I'm working on compiling a list of all the aspects of the current game and how I'm seeing them in my head. That's the first and easiest step, but with how many different parts of the game there are, this alone takes a while of typing, especially when it comes to attempting to put my thoughts into words to describe them.
 
i can imagine running through the opening bombing run mission in first person view now...

can we get a "demo" of the bombing mission similar to the original ff7demo how it had just the single mission?
 
battlemage210 brought up a good point.

First person V.S. Third

I think I remember you saying something about doing an over-the-shoulder.
You think it would be possible to kind of pull an Bethesda thing and make it swappable? all controls still the same, just different camera positions?
 
Would be possible, of course, though I was thinking of keeping a third person view for a better field of vision, and so you can watch your character. All it would require doing is altering the camera angle during play and removing the majority of your model from view so that it's not being rendered needlessly. Hands/weapon and legs (should you be looking down) would still be rendered as you could still see them, but the rest of the body really wouldn't need to be rendered.
 
I like Third person, but I think First person would just be interesting sometimes.

I also had a thought earlier, how are interactive objects going to be handled?

by interactive, I mean: Chests, pianos, squeaky floorboards lol

You know, all those things in FF7 you just kind of pressed a button at and things happened.

The basic question would be, is it still going to be a "Stand in front and press ____" and it happens or are we looking at a cross-hair targeting system? Also, are you thinking of implementing any animations for interactive objects, such as actually reaching out to the piano when it plays or kneeling to a squeaky floorboard?
 
Well I think it's a very ambtitious idea. But - I disagree with you on your battle idea. For me, this point is probably nothing more than personal preference, but I want to give you my opinion anyway. Making it the way you're describing is almost exactly the same as FF12, as sl indicated. Most people didn't like it. I would never paly the original game in a such a style, because I'm all about originality and not fixing something that isn't broke. For instance, I was a huge antagonist to seif in the Translation project, and was part of the debaucle that took place here. But that's not the point. If you're appealing to true fans, I don't think they would wanna see a different style of fighting, because that starts to change what they loved about the game in the first place. So in my opinion, leave it turn based, it will still look bad ass, and you won't be changing it from an RPG to an FPS. My two cents, and like a said - probably just personal preference.
 
Well I guess every rpg game has its own uniqueness like legend of legaia's arts system or suikoden with choosing their movement but all of them can attack at once. Final fantasy 7 is unique for its choosing options like choosing attack and the enemy. Maybe add some things to it but the manner should still be the same. *my opinion*
 
I like Third person, but I think First person would just be interesting sometimes.

The basic question would be, is it still going to be a "Stand in front and press ____" and it happens or are we looking at a cross-hair targeting system? Also, are you thinking of implementing any animations for interactive objects, such as actually reaching out to the piano when it plays or kneeling to a squeaky floorboard?
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i agree. third person is just about the only way i could play a game through, but first person would be something really cool if it were like the piano scene.. in the same token, rendering that to any attempt in a 3d format would take a total rewrite and im sure the graphical aspect could be amazing but an attempt from a group like this (no offence guys i know your all great at your own thing) would just likely be a huge upset.
 
Sorry for no updates, been down with a major sinus infection. But I'm back up and running now, picked up a new computer so I can get to work with the UDK (since the other one had crap for materials to learn the system with), and playing through FFVII again to ensure I don't leave any part of it out on my list.
 
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