EoFF RPG Maker Collab

[Laddy]

Since some people (me included) seem pretty serious about this, I decided to make a thread. If this idea gets off the ground, I'll get a site or something.

Discuss.

[Bunny]

Can I be President of Special Projects?

[Shoeberto]

Psy and I PMed a little bit about it. I'm on board, totally.

Story idea: The hero, NAME WE WILL VOTE ON, sets out on a quest to explore the world, meet new people, and destroy the Ultimate Evil!

[Jiro]

I'm in support of this. I've got no skills that could help, so I'll just be a cheerleader :D

[Laddy]

I'd love to do some of the writing, particularly in story and dialogue. I have no artistic talent, but I could try character design as well.

I have a secret knack for writing, particularly poetry and dialogue.

[Psychotic]

Character design isn't really necessary. If using 2000, just say "I want a black dude in orange armour" and that can be knocked out in seconds. Later RPGMs, you have to use whatever resources you can find.

[Laddy]

Character design isn't really necessary. If using 2000, just say "I want a black dude in orange armour" and that can be knocked out in seconds. Later RPGMs, you have to use whatever resources you can find.
Well, yeah. That's what I meant. Perhaps I should call it 'Sprite Choosing Guy' instead.

Oh, and Psy. I vote for a black protaginist.

[scrumpleberry]

I'd like to help with writing and concepts for towns and sidequests and stuff.

[Marshall Banana]

Story idea: The hero, NAME WE WILL VOTE ON, sets out on a quest to explore the world, meet new people, and destroy the Ultimate Evil!
Including many more references to Star Wars, I hope!

By the way, I know every line in Episodes IV, V, and VI.

[Psychotic]

Oh, and Psy. I vote for a black protaginist.
Regular guy, Regular guy AFRO edition, Regular guy hair edition, helmetted dude (who is still black underneath), Black Cape + Axe combo, Bearded, Sephirothed, Mohawked.

Easy. :aimsun:

[Shoeberto]

imo, having people write up dialog and town concepts and passing them off to coders would be pretty annoying, just because you'd lose a lot of the hands-on spontaneity that usually goes into RM2k games. I'm all for giving concepts/ideas/whatever but if we try and make it too organized with everyone taking on abstracted roles it'll become too mechanical, losing a lot of the spontaneity that comes about in RM2k games.

I'm all for contributing ideas and artwork! But if you have something really specific in mind, it'd probably be best for you to just pick up RM2k and go to town yourself :) It's really easy to learn (I started my first game in it at age 12) and the more people we have directly making in-game content, the more content we'll have overall and the faster it'll all come together.

edit: I guess some of you might've missed the original discussion we had going in the BAoTW thread - here's some important posts to get the idea of what some of us were going for
http://forums.eyesonff.com/2696225-post180.html
http://forums.eyesonff.com/2696228-post181.html
http://forums.eyesonff.com/2696259-post188.html
http://forums.eyesonff.com/2696266-post190.html

[Lawr]

You're using iDraw right Psy? Can I ask what type of this game is going to be? Right now it looks like it's going to be comical like BAoTW Forever.

[Psychotic]

imho it's whatever we want it to be. If someone wants to do a serious chapter, they can. If someone wants to do a comical one, they can.

Also, no I am not.

[Shoeberto]

Yeah, I think the only constant should be the main character (unless two people organize to have someone stay on between their chapters). But you can do whatever you want, really. One person could have it be all medieval and then the next have it go sci-fi. As long as everyone discusses how their chapters will run into each other and have it transition decently, then it's cool!

I already have an idea for a chapter I'd like to do :colbert:

[Laddy]

How about we could do it DQIV style. Each person can have a character have their own chapter, each matching the character's style, while the characters team up for one final chapter. A suggestion. I also have a chapter idea coming along.

[Markus. D]

Try for an original battle code, or a very good variation.

and for not getting-sued sake, please go to the various enterbrain related sites and purchase an activation code n_n.

Also, not RMVX if you plan on using all the default scripts, I truly reccomend RMXP.

[Levian]

I'm definitely interested in doing a chapter. I am however not interested in having someone else design characters/story/dialogue or write something that I have to put in the game. Basically, if I'm going to do the annoying parts, I also want to do the fun parts to make up for it.

Just having an extremely loose storyline to work something out from, which Hsu brought up, sounds pretty awesome to me.

[The Unknown Guru]

I would most certainly help with just about anything but the actual coding. I have my own project to work on :p

But yeah, i would love to do a script. Just give me a basic plot and away i shall go :D I would also love to help design the world and setting, and maybe write some history or something.

[Jiro]

I would love to write a section, but I don't want anyone else to have to go to the effort of coding it. Perhaps I'll give the coding a shot, but don't count on me.

[Timekeeper]

I usually have brilliant ideas, but I fail at evoking them and using the for my own purposes. So I might just stick around and brainstorm ideas with people...

[theundeadhero]

You might as well get Marick in on this from the start.

[Shoeberto]

For anyone who is doubtful about the coding: RPG Maker 2000 is super easy, and there's a ton of resources available online to help understand how to do things. I'd also be available to explain some stuff via PM or whatever as needed.

Question: Which do you guys prefer - doing something like Laddy said with multiple characters and each having their own chapter, or just one constant character through the whole thing with party members that come and go? Or throw out your suggestions for how to structure that. That's probably going to be the most important thing starting out. Then we can figure out who wants to develop a chapter, and then what order everyone's will go in. Then the fun can start!

[Goldenboko]

RPG 2k3 is better than 2k imho. The biggest issue is you need to make character battle sprites. However the battling can actually get sorta... fun, unlike 2k which just feels horrible at every second you battle.

[Levian]

Random Encounters are pretty horrible either way. The way I see it, sideways battling doesn't make up for not being able to freely choose what your party members are going to look like.

[Goldenboko]

*slams table* Just get a spriter in here dammit >:0

[Rodarian]

I am technologically ill exquipted...But I would support and help out in any story development, , dialogue composing.

Plus I'll put my user name as a hero candidate , but since I'm not exactly the popular name around here, supporting cast member I don't mind! :D

This is exciting!!

[Psychotic]

Question: Which do you guys prefer - doing something like Laddy said with multiple characters and each having their own chapter, or just one constant character through the whole thing with party members that come and go? It could be both. If a couple of people want to a deviation chapter then they can, but I like the idea of a constant character, personally.
Random Encounters are pretty horrible either way. Seriously.

[Shoeberto]

In my now-lost game, I had devised a pretty easy way of having on-screen enemies that you'd fight instead of random encounters, and it didn't use any switches or anything. They'd just respawn when you left a map and came back. Also in that game I did sort of a Chrono Cross type of leveling system where you wouldn't get XP in battles, just money. You'd only level up at milestones in the game, which make it a lot easier to pace the game. Just throwin' some stuff out there.

[Goldenboko]

In my now-lost game, I had devised a pretty easy way of having on-screen enemies that you'd fight instead of random encounters, and it didn't use any switches or anything. They'd just respawn when you left a map and came back. Also in that game I did sort of a Chrono Cross type of leveling system where you wouldn't get XP in battles, just money. You'd only level up at milestones in the game, which make it a lot easier to pace the game. Just throwin' some stuff out there.

I remember doing that, it was pretty simple. "On Touch"->"Trigger Battle"->"Erase Event"

If I remember properly.

[Rantz]

*slams table* Just get a spriter in here dammit >:0

http://forums.eyesonff.com/members/black+orb.html

[Psychotic]

I think I can definitely approve of your levelling system when it comes to this, because nobody is going to know how much EXP you're likely to get from everybody elses' chapters.

EDIT: @ Hsu ^

@ Rantz \/

I was going to ask black orb to draw some enemies for my game, but in his thread he said it took him 6 months to do people's requests as he was very busy, and the project n00b gang were already asking him to do stuff for them, so I didn't in the end.

[Laddy]

I got a basic chapter idea! Behold!

Laddy's Freshly-Picked Magenta Sequin-laced Homosexual Memphinian Adventures, Gayer than INXS and Tingle combined.

I even have a basic plot outline done! ^0^

[qwertysaur]

I can write plots and string them together. I'm also willing to assist in spriting and providing code help. I will be unable to do the latter two until August as I am currently almost 4000 milesd away from my laptop and that has all my programs.

And also I ahve renamed the Laddy chapter Laddy and the Fluffy puff adventures.

[Shattered Dreamer]

I'd love to help with this but again I can only offer help in the storyline department!

[Freya]

I'll be a tester :D?

[Marshall Banana]

Will the Cid's Knight Competition be part of the plot? A side plot?

[Rase]

Looks like you all have plenty of offers for writers and such, so that's shot for me. I guess I'll just wish you guys/gals good luck and keep checking in on this. :)

[Lawr]

Since there's a possibility that there are going to be multiple characters and chapters made by other people, I think it would get kind of tedious making consistent monsters, stat growth, items, etc.

A suggestion I have is to keep everyone's statistics stagnant, and use leveling up only as a way to learn new abilities or even only resort to Seeds and Scrolls. This way you could even have everyone revert to Level 1 at the end of each chapter and just switch to a Class with a new set of skills to learn.

There's also efficient simplifying methods with stats too, like--character has one digit of MP (1-9 or even 10+) total, and each one of their skills uses only 1 MP--this works great with Agility too, a useless stat to pay too much attention to.

It saves you a lot of time and lets you focus on other more important things, like actually making maps and writing the story. It's a weird direction away from the traditional role-playing game style though.

I guess it doesn't matter, but to me it seems a lot more interesting and efficient.

:twocents:

[Laddy]

I think the very first thing we should do is create a story, what are the characters? What significance do they have with the plot, of any? What is the tone of the story? What are the antagonists, allies, and locations we visit?

[Markus. D]

I can map test if you guys are using VX or XP. It's very easy to overlook collission issues when fiddling with custom maps (even default)... so I'll help with that ^^~

[Marshall Banana]

You know what I just thought? I wish there was EoFF Fighter or EoFF Kombat.

[Momiji]

Monda vs. Huxley!

Ready~

Fight!

[qwertysaur]

I was thinking of the story being something in the style of Dragon Quest IV where at given intervals the player gets an entierly new party reverting to level 1, and eventually all the small seperate storielines weave around eachother in the second half of the game.

[theundeadhero]

An excellent idea.

[Psychotic]

Running with qwerty's idea-

- They are all in the same world at the same time.
- They are all in the same world at different time periods.
- They are all on different planets at the same time (but because they are in different worlds, this can explain why somewhere could be at medieval level, somewhere could be sci-fi, somewhere else could have Elves and Orcs and other fantasy things, etc)

You could still have the same main character for any of these ideas too, with a "he's journeying around the world/universe/through time" thing.

[Rase]

Of those three I would say the second one offers the most due to being able to have fun with time travel. Always nice to have things from the past affect things from the future and all that (anything from land deformation to one nation being very friendly until the party accidentally changes that so the next party farther in the future has to deal with a totalitarian government). I mean sure you could have a parties actions affect another parties within the same world or along different planets, but I feel that you could effectively avoid the feeling of backtracking thanks to time travel allowing you to change things so much (eg. Party A travels through a forest, villain/party triggers an earthquake and scorches the forest and earth [preventing Party A from turning back on thier quest], than Party B just sees the area as a barren wasteland with a bridge having been constructed over the crevice formed from the earhquake).\\

Just some musings.

[Shattered Dreamer]

Running with qwerty's idea-

- They are all in the same world at the same time.
- They are all in the same world at different time periods.
- They are all on different planets at the same time (but because they are in different worlds, this can explain why somewhere could be at medieval level, somewhere could be sci-fi, somewhere else could have Elves and Orcs and other fantasy things, etc)

You could still have the same main character for any of these ideas too, with a "he's journeying around the world/universe/through time" thing.

Sounds good. I especially like same world at different time periods ala Chrono Trigger. You could have one main villain but a hero in each time zone with the villain trying to change history in order to become super powerful. Just a suggestion:tongue:

[Goldenboko]

Time travel would be very possible and straightforward using the RPG Maker Engine, however it would take a long time to make.

[Shoeberto]

Well, it could be cool to have maps that others remix for their parts. Though I wouldn't want to limit ourselves strictly to that. Maybe just like a hub world or set area that gets passed around, but everyone is open to branch off and do their own thing off of it.

[Psychotic]

Yeah I think I like the idea of a hub. I'm not so sure if I want to be restricted by other people's work.

I also think that we probably shouldn't discuss this openly on EoFF anymore because that is, I assume, the intended audience. Spoilers abound! We should figure out who is willing and able to actually make chapters/episodes then make some SUPAR SEKRIT FORAM.

[Goldenboko]

I could probably make a few maps or something for this, not during the fall because of applications or around AP testing time, but I can see myself doin' something to help out.

[Shoeberto]

Count me in, totally.

[Ultima Shadow]

RPG 2k3 is better than 2k imho. The biggest issue is you need to make character battle sprites. However the battling can actually get sorta... fun, unlike 2k which just feels horrible at every second you battle.Agreed.

Random Encounters are pretty horrible either way. The way I see it, sideways battling doesn't make up for not being able to freely choose what your party members are going to look like.
I actually disagree. While lots of people may find "random encounters" to be a pain, an enjoyable battlesystem is still essential for an RPG to be truely enjoyable. Without any challenge and the possibility of getting "game over", the gameplay will suffer horribly. Thus, battles are necessary (for an RPG made in RPG maker anyways). Yes, random encounters are often just a pain but well made "boss battles" can be totally epic. The sideview system, while still pretty plain and boring if you just use the pre-made moves/characters/monsters, is still at least 10 freaking times more fun than the system in 2k. There are a whole lot of things that both systems lack and that can only be fixed with advanced scripting, but by making a "balanced" stat-build along with well thought out moves, it should be entierly possible to make the battles an enjoyable experience.

Yes, the main issue still remains: the sprites. But unless you want hyper-advanced and well-looking character animations, it shouldn't be that bad, right? I mean... if you want a penguin as a battler, just look for some small, good-looking penguin sprite and make some edits on it for the different required battle animations.

I'll admit though, making sprites and such is not my kind of thing, so I might be wrong and it might not be worth the effort and way too much of a pain to make a few animated battlers, but...


...if you people somehow end up using the sideview system, I'll gladly work on "battle planning, balancing" and "possible moves" to make the battles as enjoyable as possible. If you'll stick with the frontview system, I'll pass on that job though, as it's impossible to make those battles entertaining.:greenie:

[Shoeberto]

tbh I don't really see the combat system being worth worrying over too much in this. At least for me it was always more fun coding in minigames, puzzles and dungeons than battles, and if BAoTW is any indication, Psy's the same.

[Ultima Shadow]

tbh I don't really see the combat system being worth worrying over too much in this. At least for me it was always more fun coding in minigames, puzzles and dungeons than battles, and if BAoTW is any indication, Psy's the same.
Well, I guess the battle system's just important to some, and of no importance at all to others. But to me, battles can totally make or break almost any RPG.

If an RPG has a bad battlesystem, it might as well not have battles at all. If the RPG doesn't have battles, my standards for every other aspect of the game are almost doubled. In most RPGs, the battles = the "gameplay". If battles are missing, or just plain suck, the RPG must make up for it with either a story that must be extremely entertaining and never boring, or the "minigames" must be entertaining enough AND happen at a frequent enough basis that they can basically replace the battles. :greenie:

[Psychotic]

Well, honestly, I don't think it would be too much trouble to make battle sprites as I guess you could just use the same ones that you use for side view, and maybe give them a sword.
tbh I don't really see the combat system being worth worrying over too much in this. At least for me it was always more fun coding in minigames, puzzles and dungeons than battles, and if BAoTW is any indication, Psy's the same.mm-hmm.

But if anyone actually enjoys planning out the balancing of the combat system, I can't see the harm in them doing it.
In most RPGs, the battles = the "gameplay"For me, exploration is the gameplay.

[Ultima Shadow]

Well, honestly, I don't think it would be too much trouble to make battle sprites as I guess you could just use the same ones that you use for side view, and maybe give them a sword.Exactly! :)


For me, exploration is the gameplay.
Okay, let me rephrase: "for some people" the battles = the "gameplay". =P

Also, what's the best part about exploration? Well, it might depend of course. But when exploring a cave, for example, it's not quite as fun if all you do is just "moving your character trough the cave". When exploring, you want to "discover things", like a super-cool hidden sword with magical effects. But if you the sword will make no difference anyways, since all you do in the battles are mashing buttons while being bored, the idea of trying to discover it becomes much less attractive. And isn't it more fun to discover that hidden area with some cool minigame, if you had to defeat a tough dragon to reach it rather than being able to walk straight over there from the very start? Exploration and battles go hand in hand! =P



And I mean c'mon... who doesn't want the final boss to be an EPIC battle rather than some boring event that you have to force yourself trough by spamming a single button? ;)

[Laddy]

I think the DQIV idea is amazing too! ESPECIALLY considering I came upwitht he idea first. =/

[Dignified Pauper]

As far as the best maker. RMXP really beats the pants out of 2k. 2k3 is actually pretty terrible. If anyone recommends VX, they will get shot.

That said, I'm definitely on board. I'm pretty good with speeches and dialogue, though, I have yet to bother learning Ruby.

[Goldenboko]

As far as the best maker. RMXP really beats the pants out of 2k. 2k3 is actually pretty terrible. If anyone recommends VX, they will get shot.

That said, I'm definitely on board. I'm pretty good with speeches and dialogue, though, I have yet to bother learning Ruby.

RMXP is awesome, but it doesn't work with Vista, requires Ruby to really get the 100% awesomeness out of it, which requires a lot of time spent into learning, and most of my previous resources are useless on it.

[Ultima Shadow]

As far as the best maker. RMXP really beats the pants out of 2k. 2k3 is actually pretty terrible. If anyone recommends VX, they will get shot.
I agree that XP is the best (well, if you get some nice battle scripts for it anyways). But since it's not aviable for free, only some have it/will bother getting it.

[Shoeberto]

The nice thing about 2k is that you don't really need to know any scripting. It's all just point and click. It's a little more limited, I guess, but if you learn the limits you can do some cool stuff. Plus just about anyone can pick it up just by playing around a bit.

[Dignified Pauper]

VX doesn't work on Vista? I never knew. I still vote for that. I mean, I can get it for anyone who needs it. As far as Ruby, you don't need to know it at all really. It's a bit more versatile than 2k. And the graphics are to die for, especially since your character sprites can be huge for mega bosses! That said, doesn't really matter. Just throwing my two cents.

[Psychotic]

A note on random encounters - Honestly, I loathe the things. I get what Shads is saying about the need for danger, but having the screen swoosh and you being dumped into battle through no fault of your own, with no rhyme or reason, is annoying. So I'm thinking each dungeon can have 1-4 "events" (depending on how big it is) before a boss. Fights that are more challenging than your random encounter, but not boss-level. Let me give some examples:

- You see some enemies waiting up ahead, and you have the choice of attacking it head-on, or sneaking around to the side for an ambush. If you sneak around to the side, you can silently kill two of the enemies, leaving less for you to fight. However, it could (for whatever reason) fail and your mage ends up slipping down a small cliff face and can't take part in that fight.
- On a similar note, you can either fight an enemy, or you can try to stealth around it. The stealth route is extremely long (and your movement speed will be slowed because you can't just go sprinting around a cave and not expect to be heard).
- You are surrounded by a group of enemies. You can either fight your way out, or you can try to run (actually run rather than select the "Flee" command) but if they catch you, the battle will be harder because you weren't prepared for it. (reflected in the enemies' stats)

Stuff like that would be infinitely more enjoyable - and strategic - than "take two steps, SWOOOOSH, kill enemy in three hits, take two steps, SWOOOOOSH" etc.

As for 2k vs XP, well:
And the graphics are to die for, especially since your character sprites can be huge for mega bosses!Yes, I do like that XP can have huge sprites. Although to be honest, I think all the XP sprites look as ugly as sin and 2000's simplistic ones look entirely more stylish.

But I mean really, if people are desperate to use XP, I say why not? We can have some people do a 2000 collaboration, and others do an XP collaboration, and release them as one big package. No harm done.

[Goldenboko]

But I mean really, if people are desperate to use XP, I say why not? We can have some people do a 2000 collaboration, and others do an XP collaboration, and release them as one big package. No harm done.

"Insert next disk" xD

[Shoeberto]

Actually, it would be kind of funny to have the first and second game in the series developed and released simultaneously.

Or even better, release them as "Our Collab Game" and "Our Collab Game 3: The Reckoning" at the same time :)

[Ultima Shadow]

A note on random encounters - Honestly, I loathe the things. I get what Shads is saying about the need for danger, but having the screen swoosh and you being dumped into battle through no fault of your own, with no rhyme or reason, is annoying. So I'm thinking each dungeon can have 1-4 "events" (depending on how big it is) before a boss. Fights that are more challenging than your random encounter, but not boss-level. Let me give some examples:

- You see some enemies waiting up ahead, and you have the choice of attacking it head-on, or sneaking around to the side for an ambush. If you sneak around to the side, you can silently kill two of the enemies, leaving less for you to fight. However, it could (for whatever reason) fail and your mage ends up slipping down a small cliff face and can't take part in that fight.
- On a similar note, you can either fight an enemy, or you can try to stealth around it. The stealth route is extremely long (and your movement speed will be slowed because you can't just go sprinting around a cave and not expect to be heard).
- You are surrounded by a group of enemies. You can either fight your way out, or you can try to run (actually run rather than select the "Flee" command) but if they catch you, the battle will be harder because you weren't prepared for it. (reflected in the enemies' stats)

Stuff like that would be infinitely more enjoyable - and strategic - than "take two steps, SWOOOOSH, kill enemy in three hits, take two steps, SWOOOOOSH" etc.
Actually, that was exactly what I was thinking as well. Less battles, but longer lasting and more strategic battles. That's how it should be.

[Psychotic]

QWERTYSAUR

RPG Maker 2000
Psychotic (rules)
Shoeberto
Levian
Loony BoB (?)

RPG Maker XP, unless these jerks are willing to use a PRO editor :aimsun:
Goldenboko
Dignified Pauper
oddler (?)
Rase (?)

I don't know because he didn't specify but he will be angry if I do not mention him
Laddy

Other junk

Battle Balancing/Planning
Ultima Shadow

Writing of some form
scrumpleberry
Jiro
Timekeeper
Rodarian
Shattered Dreamer
The Unknown Guru

Butts
Rantzien

Things to be assigned by number for each person:

Maps
Switches
Variables
Heroes
Items
Monsters
Monsters Party
Skills
Battle Animations
Chipsets
Terrain
Common Events


How many of these do you think you, personally, will need? It doesn't have to be exact, just a rough estimate'll do fine. More can be added to your allowance later if needs be. Some thoughts:

- I don't think Conditions needs to be unique.
- I think a uniform selection of items (eg everyone's chapter has potions, ethers, whatever, rather than all having different names for things) would be best.

[scrumpleberry]

If people will get annoyed because I can only offer writing and can't do any of the heavy lifting because hurr durr RPG Maker ignorance, then I will by all means let you guys have the fun with writing, and forget about contributing. I really don't mind. I'd probably feel the same way.

[Psychotic]

I don't mind helping someone with their own written chapters if my own is done (although I do have 3 ideas I'd like to do!) and not everybody else has finished theirs. And I'm more than willing to accept creative input on my own. Maybe.

[scrumpleberry]

I'm telling you man, Gullwings music was so the way to go!

[Dignified Pauper]

As far as using XP/2k. I really don't mind, just adding my two cents. I always have considered XP's sprites to be way better, especially a lot of the custom ones.

Further, you can do a lot more without knowing Ruby in XP than you can in 2K, that's besides the points. However, I don't care either way, I just think it's a better system overall. The tilesets are also great, since the maps have three layers and much more versatility.

[Levian]

Could you mention something specific that can only be done in XP and not in 2k? From the little I've used XP, I don't remember very much, and I'd check it out myself but I can't download or install anything on this computer.

[Marshall Banana]

Making little sprites is easy. Editing existing sprites is even easier.

Look! It's Butz Necronopticous! http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m285/fofonda/emoticons/necronopticous02.gif

[Rantz]

I'm not gonna help but I want you to add me to one of your lists anyway.

[qwertysaur]

I already said I will do writing of at least one section of the story as well as writing the parts to weave stories together. I have pieces already planned out for a section, with a rough sketch of the map it will take place in and the plot piece of the story. (If you want to be in this section send me a PM)

I'll also work on monster sprites but I need to know the orientation of the battle before I start on them. Would be useless to have a monster side sprite in the front/back oriented battle.

People who can not use PRG maker itself can contribute with concept art.

As for random battles why not remove them for the most part alltogether? Have random monster sprites walking around dungeon rooms that if the player touvhes them the battle starts. Some dungeon rooms can have random battles, with a title like "room of hidden foes" to give them an added effect. :p

If different people work on different sections then it is really important that you let other scenario writers know who you are using. If Rye is the queen who gets killed in one section of the game, the barmaid in another, while in a third the main character then it gets really convuluted and falls apart. Especially if the barmaid hires the main character to kill the queen.

[The Unknown Guru]

I think the "different parties in different times" thing is brilliant, for reasons that everyone has already fully explained.

I really do want to do some form of writing, too. Put me on that list dammit :mad2:

As soon as we start this, just PM me i guess, and I'll jump in and start brainstorming for the setting and characters as soon as I can.

[Ultima Shadow]

All I really need to know before starting are the following:

-What the battle characters will be/look like so I can adapt movepools and such to the charastics.

-What kind of enemies there should be (while a seriously dangerous-looking dragon or a pink chocobo could both be made equally tough and have the same stats, once again: the moves better not be the same. I have to adapt movepools for enemies as well.) Especially if there are going to be specific story-bosses, I need to know "who" and "when".

-Possibly the most important thing to know, though, is: exactly which RM version will be used. (and once again, I won't bother if it's for 2k's standard combat system).

So... once it all gets started and everyone agrees on the decision(s), just PM me about it.

[oddler]

I really am so game for this if it's in XP but it doesn't look like it's going to be. I've never used 2K and I don't have the editor. :(

Levian, you can do anything in XP if you can code Ruby!

[Blue Harvest]

I demand a role in this as an NPC who comes out with random flirty lines every time you talk to him. Also a cape and a pimp stick.

[Psychotic]

I really am so game for this if it's in XP but it doesn't look like it's going to be. I've never used 2K and I don't have the editor. :(tbh they're pretty much the same. I think it comes down to whether you prefer ridiculous levels of customisation for your characters (2000) or big sprites and ruby (XP). Honestly, if you can work XP, you can work 2000 with ease.

I think me, Lev and Hsu are all stuck in our ways and will be using 2000. I thought about 2003, but seeing as how pretty much everyone at EoFF can now use 2000 thanks to my thread, I don't really want to hassle them into getting more stuff. I also tried using charas sprites in XP but the work that goes into converting them, plus the fact that they look out of place with the scenery, has turned me off to that idea.

As I said, though
But I mean really, if people are desperate to use XP, I say why not? We can have some people do a 2000 collaboration, and others do an XP collaboration, and release them as one big package. No harm done.You XP users make up your mind as to whether you want to do this or go with the 2000 crew. It'll be the same project either way. I might even do a little something for the XP one too, if I have time.
(and once again, I won't bother if it's for 2k's standard combat system).That sucks. :(

qwerty, you said you would be happy coding. What RPG Maker do you want to use?

Lastly, someone come up with a name. :p

[Levian]

Levian, you can do anything in XP if you can code Ruby!

I asked for something specific! :p and I can't code Ruby.

I won't refuse to use XP, but I remember having much frustration with layers and stuff, so I can't guarantee any product if we're going with that.

Should we move this to a forum soon? an invisionfree perhaps?

[Laddy]

I will write a section of the storyline. If that does not work, I will do the 'other stuff' or do RPG Maker 2000.

[Psychotic]

If you really want your story to be written, it's probably best if you tackle it yourself in 2000 as I think everyone else has their own stuff they'd like to do.

[qwertysaur]

I have some experience with XP, but I will use either as the computer that had XP on it was stepped on by my sister so it kinda doesn't work anymore.

[Shoeberto]

Honestly, I think the idea of two loosely-connected games, each made with one program, sounds fun xD We could just establish some very loose premise that ties the two together ("GUY fights the ULTIMATE EVIL" and "The ULTIMATE EVIL returns, but will the new GUY be able to handle it... ?") and then have some fun.

[Psychotic]

How aobut have the GUY have a million past lives on different worlds, where he tangles with ULTIMATE EVIL (also in past lives) and possibly even FEMALE LEAD. Then all the past lives could unite and whatnot.

[qwertysaur]

In at least 1 life GUY will be GAL because the person who runs the reincarnation section of the afterlife got drunk and hit the wrong switch. :p

[Shoeberto]

How aobut have the GUY have a million past lives on different worlds, where he tangles with ULTIMATE EVIL (also in past lives) and possibly even FEMALE LEAD. Then all the past lives could unite and whatnot.
That would be pretty cool :)

[Psychotic]

To link them, you could start each chapter with the GUY (or GAL, qwerty :p) waking up in bed, having just been dreaming of the previous life. Shrugging it off as a really fucking weird dream, he goes about his business.

[Levian]

Ah, kinda like A Nightmare on Elm Street? Every time our main hero falls asleep, he'll wake up in some weird realm where he skips around meeting other people and being stalked by some crazed lunatic. and if he dies in the dream, he dies in real life. :eek:

[oddler]

Dream Crusade? :choc2:

[~*~Celes~*~]

I'll be a tester :D

[Mogi]

Two ideas!

One would be the story. I had an idea for a story when I first started messing around with 2k3 where the protagonist dies in the first chapter. Each following chapter is a tale of him being transported by some divine means to either the past to undo his death (of course only to return to the present to find that he was killed by some means connected to his first death, in the end determining that he was causing his own deaths) or another dimension in which he was not dead, where he would have to figure out why he was not dead in that dimension (my original idea involved the protagonist accidentally causing the death of his alternate selves in each dimension until his death in the final chapter). The mood was that of an off-the-wall anime with lots of oddities and randomosities.

The second idea is for the random encounters issue. A battle-initiation system I've upheld in almost all of my projects to date is the Vanquish system. Monsters are visible on-map and are initiated by touching them. Moving too close to them will cause them to chase you for a specific amount of tiles. Once initiated, you can choose to either "Vanquish" the monster or fight it. However, you can only Vanquish it if you have a certain amount of Vanquishes available. Generally speaking, the stronger the monster, the more Vanquishes it will cost. You obtain Vanquishes by defeating enemies - again, stronger enemies supplying you with more Vanquishes.

I'd love to do a chapter! I'm up for whichever Maker is the majority. I'm most comfortable with XP, but I could download 2k or 2k3 if it's called for.

I like the dream-sequence plot concept, but I think that, if some progression of the awakening concept wasn't addressed after the third or fourth chapter, it would start to seem really random. If the central plot of the entire project eventually turned into the protagonist trying to understand the dilemma of his/her constant re-awakenings in new worlds, it could work well. Also, if the protagonists meet in the end and join together to form one big band of protagonists, the amount of chapters should be limited. Since everyone is dong their own chapter, that's not going to happen. So the amount of protagonists near the final chapter could be overwhelming.

Just a few thoughts.
I'm interested.
:3

[Laddy]

REM Saga

[Dignified Pauper]

I think why I'm so adamant because in XP, even if you don't know Ruby, you can do everything you want in 2K. The battles aren't the awful side-ways version of 2k3, and coding really isn't necessary anyway. The maps for XP also look much nicer, with the three layered system, and making maps isn't that terrible. Setting restrictions and things like that can take time, but could worse, and the overall animations for spells are much nicer.

Further, I can help everyone get the game no problem.

And Laddy's Name is brilliant!

[Psychotic]

Dream Crusade? :choc2:


REM SagaPick one (or suggest one of your own) and we can get this show on the road.

[Dignified Pauper]

REM Saga sounds amazing, tbh.

[Psychotic]

I don't mind either. Although I gotta say, I've been playing oddler and Rase's RPGM XP games and I noticed that on big maps, they get lagged to fuck. I don't think it's my PC as I have 2GB of RAM, which for XP is more than enough grunt under the hood.

[Laddy]

I like that you like the name I made, which I like.

I'm a broke high schooler, so I cannot BUY XP, but even if we use XP I'd be glad to help however I can, but I could have a more hands-on role with 2000.

[oddler]

I've been playing oddler and Rase's RPGM XP games and I noticed that on big maps, they get lagged to smurf. I don't think it's my PC as I have 2GB of RAM, which for XP is more than enough grunt under the hood.

It may have been that the maps were too large or that I had too many events on the maps. I wasn't very efficient with my events back then! I know what you're talking about, though. A lot of people tend to have that problem with RMXP; pretty sure there's an anti-lag script out there somewhere.

[Shoeberto]

REM Saga is fine on the grounds that "It's The End Of The World As We Know It" is the theme song!

(jk, either title sounds tits, just whatever you guys think is best)

[arcanedude34]

Definitely on this. I think a packaged 2k and XP set would rock, but I'm 2k all the way. Is it going to be like, one person works on their chapter and passes it to the next person or are we all gonna work on them at the same time? The former would work better, but the latter would save time and prevent the project from falling in the cracks in case there's a Lazy Larry or Procrastinating Patty somewhere along the line.

[oddler]

Farmer Fred, Nurse Nancy, Pilot Peggy. Have you been playing Old Maid, arcanedude34? :choc2:

[arcanedude34]

I have a title for our game. Old Maid 2k, who's with me?

[Psychotic]

Farmer Fred, Nurse Nancy, Pilot Peggy. Have you been playing Old Maid, arcanedude34? :choc2:BENNY BARKER!!!!!!!!!

Also I figure that the idea is to work on it all at the same time, as that's the point of the collab - it takes YEARS to get :bou::bou::bou::bou: made in RPG2k, so if each person does a little bit we should have a full game in a short amount of time.

[arcanedude34]

Okay, then we really need a plot and characters, a basic premise, the specifics, items, weapons, stats, leveling, monsters, the works.

Start pitching ideas everbuddy

[Psychotic]

We kind of already did that stuff. Read the thread :p

[arcanedude34]

I did, but ya didn't really come up with much.

[Psychotic]

Plot: Multiple past lives replayed in a chain of dreams. I do like Mogi's idea of further down the line, the guy wondering what is up with that. At the end, the lives unite to fight the evil guy who has been plaguing him in all of his existences.

Characters: Whoever you want for your chapter.

Items: I think we should standardise these, yeah.

Weapons: Whatever you want for your chapter.

Levelling: Again, entirely up to you. I'm probably going with no levelling, or levelling with plot events for my chapter.

Monsters: As above. :p

Basically, think of a short story in whatever setting you want, and go hog wild with it.

[arcanedude34]

As for items, anyone have a problem just using the standard FF items? (potion, ether, hi-potion, what have you)

Oh, and is there a certain time limit/requirement per chapter?

EDIT: Oh NOES!! rm2k not supported on Vista? Say it ain't so!!

[Laddy]

I was kidding about my chapter, guys.

My story is about a young woman who, through various events, believes she murdered an important political figure in the eyes of everyone, the problem is, a curse has been placed on her that scatters her memory of the incident around the world, and she must retrieve these items that symbolize parts of her memory, and depending on the order you find them, she may slowly discover she did or did not commit such a crime.

I also wish to ask that the main characters vary significantly in role and personality. Sure we could have testosterone-assled badass warriors, but what's the fun in that? It would be nice to have older and younger, male and female, combative and magical characters. My character will be a ranger-like characters specializing in bows and natural magic. Her personality will be active, resourceful, knd-hearted, alert, and independent. She may or may not be human.

[oddler]

...and depending on the order you find them, she may slowly discover she did or did not commit such a crime.

I love variables in a story! :love:

[Levian]

I'll probably not end up using random encounters, or the battle screen at all. I'll find some other way to make it challenging.

[Shoeberto]

I'll probably not end up using random encounters, or the battle screen at all. I'll find some other way to make it challenging.
Samesies :)

[Dignified Pauper]

I'll probably not end up using random encounters, or the battle screen at all. I'll find some other way to make it challenging.
Samesies :)

Yeah, random encounters are terrible. I'm might make meandering battles that regenerate... maybe. I dunno how many switches would be involved in that. Either way... The one thing we have to do is decide the premise for each game if we're doing the 2K AND XP bit. I'd say we sort of need an end to 2k before starting the XP bit.

[Psychotic]

REM Saga's SUPAR SEKRIT FORAM (http://z6.invisionfree.com/remsaga/index.php)

I think it's time to take this to an outside forum now. This is mostly just to get the final organisation done. In a couple of days you won't even have to check it anymore.

[f f freak]

I would be interested in helping out with this, especially because I have no school now so I have a lot of free time, but unfortunatly, I suck with all types of RPG Maker, so instead, I'll just support you all and follow the project as it goes.

[Psychotic]

Just to let interested folks know that work has begun on the project, but there's still room to contribute. Swing on over to the forums to learn more ;)

[Christmas]

This is how Psy's game was born. :bigsmile: