I absolutely LOVE 1st person Dungeon Crawlers and one game (or more!) of this kind is in my todo list. Actually I had already started doing it in "semi-3d", but the programmer quit
http://www.youtube.com/v/8FwynbJg4eQ?version=3

Well not sure yet about those two last features I posted.
Boring battles for a GROUP of people. There are obviously others who loved the battles. Though maybe I should give up trying to "appeal everyone" and focus on the features that my code audience prefers in my JRPG.

If anyone's interested this is official WIP forum for the game:
http://www.winterwolves.net/viewforum.php?f=30
has some WIP screenshots. Warning: big boobs ahead 

Thanks for the suggestions. In the end I'm thinking to go with turnbased and use of initiative and Action Points. I have limited resources and cannot do isometric animations like FF or Fallout sadly
So it's going to be fist person look and use that turnbased system, but will have an auto-combat for easy/normal mode and use auto-leveling enemies for Hard mode, to solve the problem of "boring battles" that some people had with my other JRPG Planet Stronghold.

aren't there already enough rpgs being made with real-time combat? it dominates rpgs right now -- dragon age, the elder scrolls series, fallout series, modern final fantasy games, etc. -- turn-based combat rpgs are relatively rare nowadays. so i say do turn-based just so you can stick out from all the others

Yes that's true. Beside probably the style of visuals I'll have wouldn't really work well with real-time!

the frozen synapse idea could work but that basically *is* turn based, not semi-real time; i don't really think it's real-time at all. turn-based to me only means that you have unlimited time to make your decision, not that the action necessarily happens through "turns"

I couldn't find a way to describe it but...

if you haven't played the suikoden series, they basically do what you suggest. you tell everyone what to do, then the turn begins and everyone mostly does it all at once

Yes, I LOVED suikoden series!! but even more recent JRPG like Last Odyssey have that system, you tell orders and then you execute them. That's what I meant by "semi-realtime" It's still turnbased, and that's what I was thinking to do.

Thanks, I am really unsure what to do. Of my users, many still like the classic turnbased system, but I would at least use initiative to decide who moves first.
I don't want to make something too complex, so I'm thinking either turnbased with some sort of map, or semi-realtime with no map.

I'm designing a new RPG, and I have a big doubt... is better to use a semi-realtime combat or classic turnbased?
1. classic turnbased using action points with initiative/speed movement order (think fallout 1-2)
2. semi realtime with two phases, planning and execution (a bit like frozen synapse)

I'm thinking about 2, even if will be obviously harder to code...because need also to think about player AI or "tactics" like Dragon Age 2. But I think the 2nd would be better in particular for non-hardcore RPG players ?
Any feedback welcome

Can't tell which ones since was confidential info, sorry
Anyway basically I agree with what you say: if you as indie have as only/main option to get on Steam, you need to rethink completely your business plan!
Today was fun, Impulse rejected my Planet Stronghold game. You might say that "of course is not good enough". Problem is that before the change of company management, they accepted lots of my old games (which objectively are much less good).
I think Impulse is yet another place where indies (not famous ones) will struggle to get into. For me doesn't matter much since I rely mostly on direct sales.

Hehe, it's complex
Personally I am OK with time-limited sales like Steam. I mean, I'd rather have my game on Steam for $19.99 regular and have a christmas sale for $1, than have my game on steam all year for $9.99 and never have a promotion!
You never heard of dev complaining, because on those sites they tell "success stories" and also no dev would dare to complain in public about the sales.
Since I know personally LOT of developers with games on Steam I assure you it's not like everyone is happy. Some had poor results with promotion sales, other noticed a decrease of direct sales and more.
Problem is most people on Steam (or most indies in general) completely forgot what means "selling directly from your website", so they cannot even notice if their sales would be better in the long run without those discounts or not.

Also if I had my game on Steam, could I refuse a sale? no, it's "an offer you can't refuse". An indie has very little bargainig power and will always say "yes" to the big man.

Well there's one difference between BFG and Steam: on BFG games are "always on sale" ($6.99 is max price except a very few "special edition") while on Steam we have time limited cheap sales and then "normal" prices.

Still both are damaging for indies, even if I understand that as a player probably they don't care much...

Steam is not fixing prices or excluding competitors, and they are not actively seeking out that power.

Well, what about those insane sales? 50 games for $1, and so on? even if are time-limited, I know lots of people who have a backlog of titles that bought for pennies that they didn't even had time to play 

Yes I know what monopoly is, and obviously it is not a monopoly in the STRICT definition of the term. Even in casual market, BFG is NOT a monopoly, yet speaking with some casual developer I know, it generates 99% of the money. So while in theory not, in practice, it is

and using the economic definition of monopoly, Valve/Steam is quite far from being one.

Far? Last I checked I think was 70% of PC digital download purchases are made through Steam. If that's not a monopoly... 
I agree about not wanting to have several clients running, and that's why I think GFW will be the only serious competitor, since WILL BE installed by default on windows8 and all subsequent releases for sure.

It seems to me like Steam is based on whether they actually like your game or not, and less on how much the game is expected to sell. I could be totally wrong, but that's what I've heard about it, anyway.

To some extent yes. I mean if is a small mostly unknown indie game, then yes. But recently they have added in the submission form "Sales"... Yes you need to tell them how many sales you had of your game 
Which obviously depends on many factors like marketing, if you just started, etc and doesn't really/always reflect the game potential.

i think it'd be good for steam to have actual competition that isn't 1/100th of its size, a monopoly is never good for anyone

Listen to Paul, those are holy words! 
Seriously a monopoly is not good in any business field, and I have some of my games on those platforms Paul mentioned but not on Steam. I'd say is hard to find a distributor LESS indie friendly than Steam! 

Origin will compete with steam as much as the old republic will compete with world of warcraft

Lol that's a very clear comparison :D

Just found this news:
http://www.next-gen.biz/news/ea-announces-origin

honestly I'm surprised that EA didn't do such a thing SOONER. But... will it last? can they compete with Steam now or is a "bit too late"?

[HEY LADIES IT'S TIME FOR ROMANCE]

Your use of the smiley in this context is rather creepy.


HEY LADIES IT'S TIME FOR ROMANCE

Haha is just the face all Dragon Age characters have after 5minutes of gameplay (all spattered with blood lol)

No this one is a normal RPG, but you'll be able to do romance, a bit like Dragon Age 

Working on several new dating sims but also RPG. I am particularly fond of my amazon princess RPG since has .. interesting art 

Neat, it looks promising