What happened to the RPG template?

[TechLord]

@BrUnO XaVIeR;243654

Even the small RPGs on mobile platforms are working on a scope of around 2 million budget.
Even if you do a simple one, alone, the time you’ll expend to make it will be around that as well. But translated in more time than money; you can’t assume your own work hours are free because it’s not…
And text based RPGs for today’s market is as complicated as a regular title because, to have people’s interest when you publish, you’ll end writing a book the size of Lord of the Rings’ instead of focusing more on graphics. Although there’s really no real market for that genre today.

I would also advise against trying to build a RPG by buying different pieces of systems from other developers and then trying to put them together; That is really not a good idea, not when coding and game systems are involved. Art assets are ok to buy, but when you use pre-built systems and someone has a complex bug and asks for a fix you’ll be catch into a nightmare because your game has someone else’s code/blueprint systems that you in fact have no idea how it works or what’s going on.
IF someone really want to build a RPG and have not much experience developing game systems, wait for the time when something like ORK ( http://orkframework.com ) hits Unreal’s Marketplace and you’ll have greater chances of making your RPG game.
That is a real ‘template’ and (although nobody will ever build a ‘real’ game using that because you know, serious developers don’t need that to build in-game mechanics and they code right in Unity itself) I think if Epic’s template is something like more people will have a better idea of the complexity a well structured RPG game has.

I can understand the concern for Bugs with adding different Blueprints, that risk exists with adding any plugin, upgrading, etc. At least with BP one can view the nodes, step through them, and modify if necessary. I would anticipate most devs having knowledge of blueprints and purchasing with intent to modify to some degree… an RPG Template would require modification. As complex as an RPG can be to develop, I can easily understand different BP Plugins emerging to support. Even a single solution like ORK Framework (which is very nice, btw), would do better as a modular system.

I see the issue for a RPG Template as defining what exactly is going into it. I would narrow it down to Core RPG mechanics: Character Attributes and Skill Trees. As a programmer, I view a Character Attribute, Skill, Ability as a Float Variable. One can add this variable to a Struct that contains variables for Caption Text and Graphic Icon. Store these Structs in a LinkList and you have a Skill Tree, Spell hierarchy, etc.

I’m not sure a RPG Template is required to achieve this or will deal with it in a manner desired. Thus, I elected to script my own RPG Attribute and Skill Tree System. There is a plethora of Tutorials and Examples (not necessarily related to UE4) to help build your RPG subsystems. I drummed this super-duper RPG Attribute BP in about 30mins:

https://arcadekomodo.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Screenshot-2015-03-13-04.16.41-150x150.png

I’m developing a FPS RPG and have modified/replaced 95% of the BP provided in the FPS Template. It was a good place to start with the very very very basics.