@Proasdfase
Common Mistakes and Things to Avoid
I would like to quote Xaklor here
These are 3 categories A LOT of item ideas fall into. I will explain them more
1. it’s overpowered
You might think making an item overpowered is going to be liked since it’ll be used. But on the forums we look for atleast somewhat balanced ideas. If you make a UT item and it’s a direct upgrade from a tiered item, that is a strong hint that your item is overpowered. Compare your item to other items of the same type and try to balance it out from there.
2. Status effect pile-up
This is very common throughout the forums. People just introduce a random new status effect and throw it around into another item. The problem? It’s boring, if it’s just a new status effect try adding some other mechanic or do something smart with it. VERY rarely an item is liked that is merely a status effect(s).
3. OP with some random nerf
You want to create an item, but it’s overpowered!! You might think of some random nerf that might not work very well. You should think about the nerf more. How the “nerf” you created can be countered.
4. Boring as hell
ok boyz new armor has +18 def and -3 spd for leather armor!!
Well there’s not much wrong with it it’s just boring. If you just tweak stats you should probably include it in a set or a compilation of items.
You also want to look at
About the Ideas category
this thread and look at the Common ideas to avoid list, it’s generally a bad idea to post an idea that is in that list.
Complexity
Read Xaklor’s quote here:
Complicated items are fine sometimes, if your idea needs a lot of explaining it’s all good, as long as if it’s actually used in-game the person using it will quickly grasp what the item does.
However overly complicated is another story, if you compare your item to UT items currently in-game and find that you went completely overboard then I suggest you tweak it!
What's in a "Good Idea?"
Good ideas usually have atleast one of these 3 characteristics in them.
1. Changes the playstyle of the character
2. Can be used and effective in a wide variety of scenarios
3. Item name goes well with the sprite, effect and lore
If you have all 3 of the characteristics up above, most likely you have created a good item!
Talking more in-depth now-
1. Changing the playstyle of the character
It should offer something new to the character and how the user of the item plays the game.
Why? Because items that offer a different playstyle will appeal to MORE people. Diverse playstyles in characters allow players to pick and choose, which way they want to play it and giving the character a nice touch. This is what UT items are here for.
2. Can be used in a wide variety of scenarios
If you made an item that is only good for a specific scenario, it will be useless most of the time in others. It should be able to be used in many situations and NOT just one. You should provide examples in your item idea to make it more clear to the reader.
For example
helm of water breathing you get perma water breathing
The idea is only useful in the ocean trench, and is too specific. Not good
Sprite, name effect work together well
This is more optional, but if an idea has a cool theme it goes VERY well and it’s more impressive.
It wouldn’t make much sense if a fire based helmet was blue right? So you should try to make the sprite effect, and name go together.
Note: drop locations , feed and fame bonuses aren’t required but remember when creating a drop location make it something non-farmable.
MP Cost Issues
I’ve seen a lot of people with the issue that the MP cost is too low for their item and “Divine Pet Users can Perma it” so they make the MP cost really high to counter divine pet users, but at that point Divine Pet Users are the only people who would even consider the item because the MP cost is so high!
So don’t completely base your MP cost around countering the folks with +45 MP/s make it so players with poor pets can use it to. Here are two ways how.
If your ability is something that uses MP/s
For example, ninja stars they use 10 MP/s, if your ability does something like that I suggest using the MP scaling method.
This method is where the mana cost per second gets higher the longer the player holds the ability.
So it will look something like
-
5 Mp/s for the first 3 seconds
-
10 Mp/s for the next 3 seconds
-
20 Mp/s for the next 3 seconds
and so on, when you release the effect there will be a 4 second cooldown
Basically using this method, the MP cost starts very low so people with terrible pets can use the item effect for a fair amount of time BUT it progressively gets higher the longer the effect is held. This is so good pet users DO get a benefit but they can’t perma the effect because the MP cost per second will eventually get too high for them to sustain their MP.
If your item idea is just 1 actuation MP cost
I would suggest giving it a cooldown, when you give an item a cooldown everyone will have to wait a designated amount of time before using it so it’s not spammed. OR giving an MP deficit as a stat bonus. For example giving your item -80 MP on equip so the player has a lower MP pool and can’t spam the ability multiple times in a row
Sprite Help
When creating a sprite use http://www.realmofthemadgod.com/draw.html
NOTE: When creating an item sprite THERE IS A GLITCH where the item won’t save, to fix this go to realmofthemadgod.com (the actual game website) and click log out, if you are signed out it should be able to save.
When I create sprites I usually have an image in my head already. To get some inspiration look at the TIERED item sprite for the item or search in the art maker for some sprites. You can also look at the other ideas on the forums, some have very nice spritework.
You can’t actually save the sprite as a file from the art maker so take a screenshot and crop it with Paint MS.
Here are the sizes your ideas should be
Item: 8x8
Character: 8x8 (recommended) can be 16x16
enemies: 8x8 or 16x16
Thinking of a Concept
Thinking of a concept, you need a concept to start off your item but what should it be?
Realm is a small game and not many “concepts” are implemented in the game so far, think of any other games you play, look at existing items on the forum as they may inspire you and make sparks go off in your head leading to a new item idea.
Projectile GIF
Want a GIF like this on your item idea? Creating one is fairly easy. Go on http://www.pfiffel.com/dps/ and choose the weapon preview, clicking will shoot the weapon. Open the weapon editor on the side and choose a unique projectile sprite and shot pattern.
Next, to record the GIF I recommend ShareX there is a tutorial on how to do this here: How to GIF like the cool kids
Here is a GIF of me playing around with the editor and creating some random projectile pattern
The End
It’s time to post it, but it’s not done when you post it. Forum goers will come to your item idea and criticize it, suggest new things to it. Suggestions are good but do not listen to every single suggestion you get. If you do, your item will become a trash fest. Add only what you think will be good for your idea.
Of course there is trial and error involved in creating items, go out and make your idea it probably won’t be perfect but you are one step closer already if you tried and perhaps reading this guide helped you.
Feel free to leave suggestions to the guide or give me questions below
inb4 “proasdfase u didn’t even follow ur own criteria on the items you made!!!”
