A Totally Awesome RPG Plan

[Kryton87]

So... I was involved with the Tales of Litany. It seems like that fell through, and no one has posted on it since like weeks ago. So! I have decided to start my own Awesome RPG.

The plan is, we start an RPG and get some progress by the end of this year. The RPG will be Awesome, and I guarantee nothing else. If its not Awesome, we're NOT TRYING HARD ENOUGH!!

So the basic plot so far (all possibly and probably subject to change) is set in modern times (currently) and this guy (call him Mr. A) goes to a gaming convention. They have all sorts of awesome things, like stores, and games and such. So he finds some awesome people to hang out with, like the DM of a D&D game (Mr. B), and an old friend (Mr. C), and then this other guy (Mr. D), a friend of Mr. A, shows up in a space suit, and claims to be from the future. So they go out and find that Mr. D has a space ship sitting outside.

The rest of the story takes place in space or in alternate times.

I haven't figured anything else out yet, but it has potential. And if we can get that first scene done by the end of December, I think we have a shot at an awesome game.

Anyone can help as much or as little as you want, and positions can be filled by multiple people, and the same person can fill multiple positions provided you're willing to do the work.

a '~' after a person's name means part-time, not willing to put full effort in. Status can change at any time. This is a fluid project! (added 06-11-17)

Positions still available:
Director
Manager
Soundman - Tsukasa
Music Composer - Tsukasa
Music Composer - nikOtine
Music Composer - Omecle~
Music Composer - Kryton87
Music Composer - sephirothishere
Graphic Designer
Spriter - Omecle~
Artistic Master - Nominus Experse
Map Maker - Nominus Experse
Map Designer - Kryton87
Storyboarder - Kryton87
Story Writer Spirit - Anyone and Everyone
Story Writer A - Nominus Experse
Story Writer B - Bahamut2000X
Story Writer C - RedXIII13
Story Writer D - sephirothishere
Dialog Director - Bahamut2000X
Code Writer - Kryton87
Code Writer
And Many Many Testors - everyone

Ok, thats all for now, If anyone is even slightly interested in joining this project, just send a post, and I'll answer any questions you have. Remember, the goal is AWESOME, and Nothing short of it!

[Jigsaw]

What does a manager do?

[nik0tine]

Sign me up for music composer, but I probably don't have the skills to participate full time. You might want to get more than one musician.

[Kryton87]

The manager does managorial things, I haven't decided yet, Until further notice, the manager has to know what everyone is doing, and will be motivating everyone to get the job done. Along with the director, who will be doing the same thing. Its nice to have a partner you see...

[NeoCracker]

I also suggest multiple story writers, and I would like to fill that role.

[Nominus Experse]

If you wish, I could fill any of these positions relatively well:

Mapper
Artist
Writer
Tester

[Rostum]

I could probably help out Nik with some of the music, but I wouldn't be able to work on it full time... Same deal with any pixel / concept art.

[Markus. D]

Soundman :D

I know the where of many many neat sfx ^-^

[Bahamut2000X]

Wow sounds...interesting...Well as I'm always trying to work on my own RPG's I wouldn't mind lending a hand in one for once. (It'ld be nice to not be the only guy making an RPG by myself for once. >.>)

Anywho's my main areas of expertise are mostly story, plot, scenario, and character/enemy design (like come up with the concept, not the physical making of them for game usage like a sprite or something <.<).

But yeah I could help out with the writing of the game, dialouge, and those sorts of things.

Also incidently what program are you using to make this with? RPG maker I presume?

But yeah sign me up somewhere and I'll start thinking up some stuff.

[Kryton87]

this is sounding awesome already! First task, we need good communication, and file sharing capabilities. Does anyone have a server that they can use to put files on? How does everyone want to do communication? We could use IRC, AIM, or any of the other various messenger services out there. We can continue using this thread, but its a bit clunky. I think IRC would be good, I have mIRC, and its really easy to get. www.mirc.com if you're wondering. We'll work out logistics later, but give me input.

As for what program we'll be using, well, RPGmaker 2003 is what I'm most familiar with, but provided someone can direct me to where I can find XP for free, that would be better.

However, the best idea in my mind would be to write the whole thing in C++, or even better still, Java 1.5
Admittedly, that would take more work, and its a bit of a stretch, but it would be a nice idea. Then we'd all get practical programming experience, that anyone could put on a resume. I mean, would that not be awesome?

Realistically speaking, RM2k3 or RMXP. No RM2k, 2k sucks due to its inability to process side view battles. And Side View Battles are the way to go.

[Bahamut2000X]

Well 2k isn't horrible if get around the graphics in battle by either using custom battle graphics in battle or just programming your own unigue battle system. Which arguably takes a while, but is nifty if done right. But yeah quicker to just use 2.3k. >.>

Anywhos as for communication I'm down for pretty much anything, AIM, Y!M, and MSN I got at the moment but could get anything else if need be. Although we'll still probably need to do thread/email talkings for some of us, since we're all over and all can't be on to chat at once, so it'ld be good to save some of our conversations for others to use a reference if they wern't on then or what not.

[NeoCracker]

When should we start discussing the Story?

[Kryton87]

discuss whenever you want to. But remember, only discuss awesome ideas. Things we need, and want, story ideas, bad guys, good guys, and all sorts of things like that. What we can do, is I can set up an IRC channel, and just keep it open. Like set up a bot or something off a remote server, and have that do things like set operators and such like that.
I'd really like to write this thing in Java or C, so Anyone who knows these such languages, please let me know. Otherwise, RM2k3 is what we use. We just need a crapload of graphics. Which we'd need anyway of course.

[Markus. D]

I will be able to help not this wednesday but the following, where I can get my new PC :3 .... back.

[Bahamut2000X]

Firstly we need to kind of know what kind of tone to set for the game. Like from the sounds of the decription it's not a very serious style perhaps? More like a comical RPG where your always guessing what kind of whacky antic will pop up next.

So umm yeah what kind of over all theme/tone we trying to establish?

[sephirothishere]

i think settin up hte channel on irc would be a good idea...and...we can attach files like midis to posts in here...ez...but...i havent really thought bout it yet....if its gonna be dramatic...i can help wiht that kinda sound.....i can do vamps..and you could put that on a loop or somethin....i was htinkin maybe some kinda music liek from ToP..seein as thats hte game i most recently playe.d......but..once we all find out hte storyline....and kinda mood we're goin for...itll be pie...

EDIt...heres a sample midi.,.its not been polished....its kinda sucky in the slower parts cuz of the phrasin...but hteres a rockin piece where the thing goes ot major and i do a diminished arp thingy...thats cool...if i say so maself....haahahh....

[Kryton87]

Its sometimes serious, and sometimes not. The idea is to be as awesome as possible. The storyline will be sci-fi in nature, and as serious as it can be. But the game mechanics, objects, and all that stuff will be as wacky as possible. I fully intend to have a character with a "middle finger" as a final weapon.

I'm thinking there will be a few different time spaces within the story. As I've said, the friend, Mr. D, comes from the future with a space ship. So if he could travel to the past, he could easily travel further to the past, or the future. Such things could make for interesting storyline bits. Like, a gem that was destroyed 500 years in the past, you must now find to fuel the faster-than-light drive... perhaps even going to different planets and such. That would be cool. That comes later though.

The first part of the game, I want to take place on a space station. A space station that has been invaded either by enemy nations, communists, aliens, dwarves, elves, ya know, some kind of thing like that. As for what exactly, I haven't decided, and it probably doesn't matter all that much. Maybe orcs... that could be interesting. Space Orcs invade a space station, and ransack the crew. That'd be cool. Ok, we'll figure something out, but whats gonna happen here. Mr. D knows the layout already, so he'll likely be the guide. I was thinking it might be interesting, if Mr. D's brother shows up in the transport vessel that Mr. D show up in. Kinda like a stowaway. After all, previously Mr. A and Mr. D were friends. But then the higher power chose Mr. D to go fight some evil, and here he is. So his brother, Mr. E, could decide to follow him.

As for time travel mechanics, thats another debate waiting to be happened. So, we'll work that out when it becomes necessary.

Ok, I'm going to go into mIRC and set up an IRC channel in the global server Undernet called #AwesomeRPG where we will discuss things like the name of this game. I'll keep this open as long as my computer is on. Anyone wishing to join, simply log into Undernet, and under the channel list, type #AwesomeRPG

[Kryton87]

Try checking this out. This is some midi music I've made, Its not designed for this game, but it potentially could be used as such. Also, we need more graphics people. We have an balance issue with the graphic people and the sound people. If I wanted to I could do all the music myself. But I can't make graphics worth crap. So if anyone can make graphics, please let me know.

If you want to see the music I've made, here it is: http://winegarden.homeip.net/phoenix/index.php/Music_stuff

I also have a world map that could be used. It can be modified if necessary, but this is what I use for my fantasy world, so why not use it here.

[Ashley Schovitz]

I think the battle theme, the cave, and the church siongs fit perfectly.

[Sylvie]

Well I can't help with anything, but I can only wish you luck. Do not give up on it, and it might work out. RPG Maker is horrible, so it might be better for you to learn Java or C++ and build with that. It has more flexibility and things. If not, I reccomend RPG Maker XP. It has more flexibility with the scripting system, so basically you can do anything you want with that if you learn RGSS.

[Kryton87]

I wouldn't say its more flexible, I'd say it makes it home brew, and thus its not so much that it can be customized, but more that you have to make the customizable parts yourself. Its kinda equivalent to painting a miniature. You can paint the prepackaged miniature whatever colors you want, or you can make your own miniature to paint, and if you're not good at it, it'll look like crap no matter how well you paint it.

I'd like to do it in C++ or Java, and I know the very basics of both languages, but I'm not skilled enough in either one yet to make a project on this scale.

later added: Wait a second... That church music was originally called Church for lack of a better name. I renamed it to SlowBells. Yet you called it church... you confuse me. Are you reading my mind?

[Sylvie]

I wouldn't say its more flexible, I'd say it makes it home brew, and thus its not so much that it can be customized, but more that you have to make the customizable parts yourself. Its kinda equivalent to painting a miniature. You can paint the prepackaged miniature whatever colors you want, or you can make your own miniature to paint, and if you're not good at it, it'll look like crap no matter how well you paint it.

I'd like to do it in C++ or Java, and I know the very basics of both languages, but I'm not skilled enough in either one yet to make a project on this scale.

later added: Wait a second... That church music was originally called Church for lack of a better name. I renamed it to SlowBells. Yet you called it church... you confuse me. Are you reading my mind?
Actually, it is more flexible. Coding has almost limitless possibilities. RPG Maker 2k or 2k3 are pretty limited if you're just using that program as a stand-alone. Its battle system is complete crap, the graphics aren't too smoothed, and text looks like something that came right out of my ass 2 weeks ago. RPG Maker XP actually could be considered limitless however, due to Ruby being a feature in it. Customizing that, you can change various things in game play with scripts. I would recommend XP for this project myself, since I would call myself an advanced user of RPG Maker XP. Its A LOT nicer looking, you can find great scripts online for it, and its just better.

PM me for info on how to obtain it free.

[Markus. D]

Is there going to be a Bard-like class?

I could start off conjuring sounds for that if you want.

[NeoCracker]

Lets get the Channel started then so the writers can get to work.

[Markus. D]

sorry, used the wrong sounds n_n"



Sound 1 - I wanted to get in the mood of what a very dark mooded monster/vampire/Death Lord etc.... and try to figure out what It would have for a spell charge (an instand RMXP allowance, they have charges before skills, <3).


Sound 2 - a Menu sound, its sparkly, so it can suit alot of other things.

[Kryton87]

If you want to join the IRC channel, use the server: us.undernet.org, in port 6667. Then go to the channel #AwesomeRPG

Thats it. Its ready, and not registered. So when we make a name for it, we can get a registered channel (or whenever I figure out how exactly to do that) Anyone who's know more about IRC than I do would be appreciated here.

I'm going to sleep right now at 3:06 am. But if you guys want to check it out, please do. It would be preferable to get on and not get off, though I realize that would be difficult for some, including myself. So, just yeah... do that, and its there. I'm Kryton87 there.

Please recommend something if you feel anything needs to be changed. Such as the location of the server, or whatnot. We can always set up the room with a topic that tells people where to go if the room address changes, but we shouldn't do that too much.

Now, once we get this thing set up, it will be for any ideas you want to work out. Things that you want to just shoot out there and see how they evolve. And for things you're working on right then and there.
The forum is for ideas you want everyone to consider, without evolving or getting shot down. They may not make it in the final scene, but it'll be something to consider that way. Think of it as long-term memory.

Now, as for a programming language vs. a preconstruced platform, Yes, programming languages are more "flexible" but only because you have to build whatever flexibility is in it yourself.

Ok, I would like to do this in C++ if possible. So, if anyone knows how to make an engine so that you can walk around in a map-like environment, and interact with something there, that would be great. Also, if perhaps, there could be some kind of random encounter system, that would also be good, but not necessary at this stage.

I'm thinking a structure so that you can just type like, "a a a a b b a a a" into a text document, and it'll display all the tiles associated with 'a' where the 'a's are, and all the tiles associated with 'b' where the 'b's are, if you see what I'm saying. Then some kind of mechanism so that, first of all, you can pan the on the screen, and keeping the character always in the center, and second, so that when you scroll off one side, you can get onto the other. Because most maps will have a blocking mechanism so that you can stop people from lapping around if necessary, but things like the world map, and in some cases interesting other things could require use of a lapping mechanism. Also, it would put far less strain on programmers to just be able to say the character's always in the center of the screen.

That is what would be most necessary if we were to do this in C++ or Java. Given that thats done, the rest is pretty easy, or at least we can start worrying about that when we get to it.

[sephirothishere]

yay..battle theme......this might be able to go at the end of the one kryton made....and its easy to change the key....ill add more instruments too...

[Bahamut2000X]

Well I had some ideas for characters I'ld post here.

In regards of the A-D Mr.s I've had a few ideas on a couple of em.

Mr. A

Well seeing as he begins at a gaming convention I was thinking he would be most like a geek type, like one who has extensive knowledge of Sci-Fi type things. He's all facinated with technology, expecially the more advanced the better. Battle wise he could be a technology buff, using laser guns and light sabers for his main weapons, and technigues based on technology, like maybe an energy shield for a buff, or other such technology, which he gains new technigues by acquiring new items.

Mr. B

I can picture him as a more big person, fat almost. And especially involved heavily in the fantasy type of fandom, so he'ld naturally be a fan of Lord of the Rings and that sort of thing. His premise for joining the party would be the idea that there's adventure out there for him, as any true hardcore D&D fan would hope for. Battle wise he could use dice as a weapon maybe, or keep him to traditional fantasy/medevil type weapons and dice worked into his arsenal somehow. I was thinking for technigues he could use cards like Magic the Gathering type, which he could buy at a shop or something and would allow him different types of effects to use.

That's all I have at the moment, I'll try and think up some concepts to better flesh out the other characters. Also I'll try and think of possible names for them so we can stop calling them Mr.s >.>.

Also I had an idea for another party member who could be a female to the group (to balance out the entire male populace we have so far to give a bit more diversity.) and she could be some sort of Sci-Fi series main character, like think along the lines of a Xena character, only more Sci-Fi type, and more popular. I figured if we have a strong Sci-Fi and convention type theme, might as well throw in a Sci-Fi idol as a type of party member perhaps? Anywho's just an idea in progress.

Anyways comment away and whatnot.

[sephirothishere]

ya....comic book store owner dude sounds like mr.b....and you should have that hot chick from startreck...ya knwo hte one...with big boobs....nevermind...hey...this reminds me of that thing...uhh...galaxy quest....

[Kryton87]

I dunno... I like the idea that everyone in the party is not of the timeline that the story takes place in. Or rather, all the party members are already friends, and are all geeks together. I know several girl geeks, and having a female character would not be a bad idea. But I mean, its just the concept that the gamers finally get to do what they've been dreaming of for so long. Maybe the ones you find later are people who the main character knew before and are just older versions. Or better yet, chryofrozen so that they're practically the same age as they were before. And of course, any game that deals with time must include a part where the main character meets himself. And everyone will be like, "Oh noes! It'll make the entire universe collapse!" But then, nothing happens, because physically there's no reason anything should. But maybe they can't touch eachother... kinda like that whole Matter-Antimatter thing... Maybe they try shaking hands, but then the one guy's hand gets annihilated. That'd be fun

Nearly forgot... As for the bard thing, I don't know yet, just make some stuff up, and we'll see how awesome it is. If its good, I'm sure there'll be a way to put it in.
I like the sound effects. The dark charge is awesome, and the sparkle is useful.
As for the battle music, It needs more. I'll mess around with it a bit I think, see if I can make it more awesome. In the mean time, good work everyone! Starting is the beginning of finishing.

Now, could someone work on making like, drawings for maps or something? Like on graph paper, or better yet, just like a bmp in paint with one pixel per tile in different colors. That would be awesome. I know what convention halls look like, but I have no idea how I'd portray that in a grid based game. So, maybe someone could help out with that. And we still need a space station. I'd like some concept drawings here, I have no idea what a space station is supposed to look like. I figure a good Midgar sized portion of the game will take place here, so bigger is better. Also, I want the player to be able to access any area that they have previously accessed unless there is a strong reason they should not. I hated that about several games, in particular FF9, where once you save on the fourth disc, you can't go back to practically anywhere. What I'm saying is, lets make some secret stuff that you can only get after finding something interesting. Or by knowing exactly what to do. I also like things where you can get stuff early if you know how. Great in Metroid... so yeah.
If you can decipher my stream-of-thought style typing, then please tell me how crazy I sound.

Remember, most importantly, this project is for fun, and for awesomeness. So play around with it. This is an opportunity to do whatever you want in a game. Please feel free to add your own secret room somewhere, and put whatever you want in it. I hope that when we're done with this, there will be a secret room for each person who helped make this happen. Thats gonna be a lot of secret rooms.

The other thing is, What will the incentive be in getting said secret items? If its to beat a boss that should be beatable without such secrets, then why bother finding them? some might say... There should be something more interesting to do. Perhaps you need to find these secret items in order to beat the final boss, who by the way has no story yet, anyone who wants may fill this in, or I'll come up with something eventually.

[Bahamut2000X]

Hmmm well that's a lot to take in but I'll start playing around with ideas to toss around here.

As for the secret room idea, sounds like it could be fun. Although making a developers room like in FFIV would be a nifty idea for maybe like halfway through the game.

Also it was FFVIII not IX that cut off all access to anything but the final dungeon at the end of the game. >.>

Also as for secret things, it doesn't all have to be special weapons or equipment, it could be extra abilities for certain characters, ability to play the different BGM's at will in a secret room, or other numbers of other little fluff things.

Also I could try and throw up a few crappy paint-job design ideas for the convention hall if no one else beats me to it later today.

[sephirothishere]

http://www.pia.co.jp/column/music/images/paul_gilbert_050415.jpg


i think hte idea of a stoner spaceman is a great idea....hahahah....and i like hte idea of a dungeon for the secrets that the developers can make...like....there can be like 30 floors...and each person that helps with the game can have a floor..and if there are lots of people...maybe htere could be liek...2 rooms per floor...

and i liek the idea of a good old fashioned psycho protaganist...

[Moon Rabbits]

Now, as for a programming language vs. a preconstruced platform, Yes, programming languages are more "flexible" but only because you have to build whatever flexibility is in it yourself.

Ok, I would like to do this in C++ if possible. So, if anyone knows how to make an engine so that you can walk around in a map-like environment, and interact with something there, that would be great. Also, if perhaps, there could be some kind of random encounter system, that would also be good, but not necessary at this stage.

I'm thinking a structure so that you can just type like, "a a a a b b a a a" into a text document, and it'll display all the tiles associated with 'a' where the 'a's are, and all the tiles associated with 'b' where the 'b's are, if you see what I'm saying. Then some kind of mechanism so that, first of all, you can pan the on the screen, and keeping the character always in the center, and second, so that when you scroll off one side, you can get onto the other. Because most maps will have a blocking mechanism so that you can stop people from lapping around if necessary, but things like the world map, and in some cases interesting other things could require use of a lapping mechanism. Also, it would put far less strain on programmers to just be able to say the character's always in the center of the screen.

That is what would be most necessary if we were to do this in C++ or Java. Given that thats done, the rest is pretty easy, or at least we can start worrying about that when we get to it.

If you want to make some real progress by the end of the year I recommend you just use a pre-made game engine, because hard-coding an engine that will be anything more than basic would take a good period of time.

[sephirothishere]

i have set up a room on hte server for eyes on ff... the server is called irc.eyesonff.com thats the regular serever that you enter from teh java chat...
i thought this way..
peopl that struggle with mIRC could still enter the room...so...thar ya go... the room is called....

#AwesomeRPG

an op for whoever is involved in the project....and..btw..it would be good for lots of people to go into thsi room cuz..then we can brainstorm or whatever...it would be much faster the n the forums...so..laters...

[Bahamut2000X]

Well here's a little concept idea for the convention hall layout, it has the essential rooms a convention hall has. But of course this isn't to scale and lacking all of the actual stuff to go inside said area. >.>

But it's an idea to work from at least.

[Kryton87]

ok, I'm in the EoFF server. I'll be in there as long as my computer is on. Nice work on the convention hall, that would be nothing short of perfect. Maybe an extra room here or there for sales. Because there are sales at conventions, and that will be the first weapons shop. And nothing short of a plausible excuse. I've bought weapons at conventions before! I even saw a morning star with a massive D20 on the ball end. it was awesome.

As for the engine, yes, it will be brief, and it will be not very complicated. The first task is to get it working. So, once thats done, we'll try to get something awesome going on. It shouldn't be too hard. I can think of almost exactly how to do it. Now I just need to write it down, so that I can program it.

Also: I do not intend to make real progress. What I intend to do is show that making this game is possible. If we can't get anything working by the end of this year, or if it's not at least in sight, then it may not be worth it to continue. However, I figure that by doing things this way, we might gain support. We might even get support from corporations, though admittedly, thats rather unlikely. The point is, that getting something awesome done in a month shows that doing something even better is possible over the process of making this game. It may not happen as fast as using RPGMaker, but it will wind up vastly better in the end.

Hey... there's even a chance that we could get a 3D engine working like this. Probably not, but its possible.

[Eiko Guy]

Krypton i liike the story but maybe you could change it from modern time to past or future and make it a time travelling game. The main character could be like a journalists and follows the spaceship guy until he discovers the ship and accidentally flies off. Then starts an intergalactic war. or whatever...

[Bahamut2000X]

Actually if you read more of the posts in here, the game is about time travel later on, and in fact right after the Convention Hall scene they go into the future and are on the space station for a bit. Then later travel all about.

Also Kryton about the Convention Hall, actually the shops could be thrown into the main area with all the other vendors, as that's typically where they have people selling stuff at a convention, at least from my convention experience, I dunno how others do it. So we could sneak any shops into the main convention area of it easily.

Anywhos I think it's time some of us start to get some work on the characters done so it's easier to make up the story and dialouge.

Oh and I've begun to work on the dialouge as much as I can, mostly just the beginning text in the convention hall. I'm just sort of winging it at the moment, so hopefully others would see we got some beginning work already begun and will join in on helping out. Anyways I'll post it up later when I have a bit more complete.

[Zeromus_X]

Oh, I thought sephiroth was talking about Tales of Litany. xD

Well, I'd like to offer to be in character design, if you don't mind. :cat:

[Eiko Guy]

Maybe the main character could be cosplaying an original character. And when the special whatever happens his gear turns real

[sephirothishere]

i thought that maybe..when the main character is in the bathroom......he would go outside the bathroom ecpectin to be back in the convention hall..all dandy and stuff...but he realiases that something is wrong when all the otehr people are gone...so hes walkin around...and he sees this space man dude...holdin up the fat dude with a gun..(a fancy space gun)...and anywho....turns out theyre in anotehr dimension......adn a battel commences between the spacedude..and fat dude and mr.a...so..then halfway through the battle this chick shows up to help you...and...you kick the dudes ass...but hes not dead...jsu dizzy...and then hes like...hey..your in another dimension...wanna come for a ride in ma spaceship..so..everyone is kinda weirded out by him..wonderin if they should trust him and shizzle...but they all decide to go in the spcaeship...i think hte space dude should be a member of your party...and then the protagonist can be one of his minions....and then...if you ever kill this minion...before the battle...the spacedude will leave your party mysteriously...and then aftetr youve killed him...the space dudell show up again..then you have to fight the spacedude...as he will be the true protaganist...

[Bahamut2000X]

I just sort of threw the bathroom into the map as a joke thing really. Like the bathroom in FFVII or VI where they had some bathrooms just for kicks. Mostly the same thought pattern here, just having a random bathroom to interact with it.

[Eiko Guy]

Cool i can i be random story idea guy? plz im really good at making things fit

[Laddy]

Ok, can we have me be a writer, character designer, or SOMETHING!? I've developed a full-length play before for a talent show, three times, and one each of them when I was in high school. So, can I write something. Just something creative. Or, maybe I could write the lyrics for a theme song, if someone can sing, or something. I just want to tell you this: check the Writer's Forum, check my first song, in a thread made by me, and tell me if I write lyrics or not.

[Markus. D]

Okay...

Here is an ambient sound.

I could send you the wave form so it could loop if you would like (the mp3 wont, trust me... well it will, but with pauses in between).


I actually dont know what it would suit, I am blindly experimenting.

[Kryton87]

Well, for now blind experimentation is all we have. We need someone to take this map and come up with events that will happen there. First of all, where will the character start? Remember that this can be changed later, but within the convention hall, where should the main character start?

From there, how does he get into the convention, how does he get around there, will there be optional things that can happen? If you trip over a rock, does a door open? That kind of thing. When thats decided, then we can work out what exactly goes on. And then we can work out the various musics and graphics we need. And then we can start programming it. Well... technically we can start programming it now, all the programmers need to do is make a engine... oh wait, I'm the only programmer... heh... I'll work on that. But I doubt I'll have the time or mental capacity to do anything else during that time aside from any homework and my basic routine. So I need you guys to help come up with everything else. If in a couple weeks, the engine is not finished, or not started, or something like that, we'll use RMXP or 2k3, whichever I can get my hands on for free.

So, until then... let me shed some light as to the personalities I had in mind. I'll give them names just to be more interesting, these don't have to stick, and probably shouldn't. First of all, Mr. A (Alfred), the "main character" if there is one, is a childhood friend of Mr. D (Danish), the spaceman.
Danish was invited by aliens, or time travelers (haven't decided, could be anyone) to go solve a problem they've had somewhere. He was told he could bring some friends. So he's using a shuttlecraft as transport to go find his best friend Alfred, so as to go solve the problem. (I haven't come up with why they would want some random adolescent from the past to go solve a problem, or what problem it is, could be anything).
Alfred is also friends with Mr. B, or Benny. Benny is an incredibly thin man, wirey to the point where its impressive he can stand properly (though doesn't need to be exaderated that much). But the important thing is, Benny is a geek. He's a geek of all geeks, he's a computer nerd, he uses Linux, he does networking for a living, and he knows hardware pretty well. He could code this game entirely by himself if only he wanted to... (based on a friend of mine I must say, and I've been trying to get him to help with this project) His skill is Technobabble, I'll describe that later.
Anyway, Alfred is just the type of geek who tries a bit of everything. He's into video games, computing, little bit of programming, and also into wargaming, roleplaying, and all that other fun stuff. His skill is TechnoMagic, and he's based quite a lot off of myself.
The GM, Mr. C, or we'll call him Calvin, is at heart a mage in a trenchcoat, that uses Katars and Katanas.
Lets get some new characters too. We'll say we got Mr. E (Edmund), Danish's brother who snuck aboard the shuttle and now will not leave.
Lets say we got Ms. F (Fran), who's just a random girl from the convention who wears cat ears. Lets say she somehow got cursed, and now Is a catgirl. I've always wanted a story like that...
Then a man from the future. He might actually make a better badguy. But lets say he's Mr. G (Ganson), who dual wields sub-machine guns, and also uses TechnoMagic.
Then a friend of Alfred's who is now much older in the later timeline. Mr. H, or Hank, who uses a medieval sword, and a sniper rifle. Along with an energy shield.

I was thinking of several other characters as well, but those can be added as necessary. I think this is a good list for now.

I was also thinking that at some point there will be demons. Big nasty demonic creatures that can only be harmed by swords. Because thats the only thing that can kill a demon, is a sword. Any character can use a gun, and they are mostly more powerful, but they're completely useless against demons, which later in the game will become the true enemy.

[sephirothishere]

....sounds kinda hitchhikers guide to teh galaxy to me....i dunno...maybe if you think hte demons are kinda liek...the baddies...but then end up bein pawns...such as the jenova sephiroth type thing...which is still bein debated...hence givin it more power...
so...maybe the spaceman..aka. danish..could have been compromised whilst in space....and his memory was wiped of stuff on earth...and then he had no recollection of his friends....so...he is told to get his friends on the spaceship and trty to get them killed by demons and all htat kinda shizzle....well...im stumped for aynmore of it...but im jus a muso......im kinda...single minded...

[Bahamut2000X]

Well with the script I got working on I'm working a bit on the story events of the opening sequence, but if anyone wants to put up a few ideas as to what happens (I currently have the main character set up the setting then gets into the convention while also having a conversation with some other convention goers about a famouse Sci-Fi star making an appearance there.) but any of the little extra bits are something I'm not working on just yet, like anything involving the bathroom and such. At the moment I'm scripting up just the main plot through the Convention Hall.

Also I can make up a sheet with all the character concepts thus far, and we can nix some if we wanted, or change the other characters as needed. One thing we should keep in mind is we shouldn't have too many characters, about 7-8 seems to be a good number as a maximum. Too many and it becomes sort of hard to keep track of them all, or involve them all very well into the story.

But yeah anyways I'll work on some of this a see if I can't get something up in a day or so.

[Eiko Guy]

Okay i'll give it a try. Main character(ryuusen) goes to the convention in his cosplay outfit and buys a cool space sabergun combo type thing. he meets a mysterious man that feels strangely familiar to him but he pays it no mind. Then the convention is attacked by (bad things what ever they are) and the mysterious man drives them back but accidentaly gets ryuusen and his friend (yuki) in the hole to as well. He seals it and then destroys the monster and notices the kids. They talk about what is going on and how they are being overwhelmed. (ryuki(ryuusen & yuki)) decide they want to help but the mystery man says absolutely not and on his ship he looks for another timegate to take them back. He finds one and is about to take them back when they are attacked and ryuuki saves him (their cosplay outfits turn real and they can fight) so he aknowledges their strength and decides that maybe they could stay and fight against(bad things)

[NeoCracker]

Me and Bahamut have been working ont the Story. Basicly in the Future there is a war Waging. The main Character, who has yet to be named, came across a man from the future at the convention and was told he pionered a system that alters space and time. However it cannot be finished for another ten years. The man from the future helps finish it earlier than it was meant to be in order to achieve some form of Omni Weapon.

That is the begining so far.

Please speak with me and Bahamut about any Ideas you may have.

Currently the Character Roster includes the Main Character, the Space Man, A guy who plays D&D, and a Cat Girl. Other Ideas include a werewolf and a Cyborg/Android/Robot.

[Eiko Guy]

Has anyone read my idea? T-T i feel so neglected

[Kryton87]

wait.. no, not quite... No Space-Man

The space man is nothing more than a man from the future who came to Mr. D and said that the future is in need of his help. Mr. D responds by getting his childhood best friend from the convention, or Mr. A.

The SpaceMan commissioned Danish, who then asked Alfred to help him. And its important to note, that as I said earlier, Every Playable Character MUST be a geek of some kind. You haven't said anything against that yet, but I'm noting it for if you were thinking of it. Everything else is up in the air, but that much I want in there.

Also, I was thinking it would be awesome if Danish could be a Dragoon of sorts.

[Eiko Guy]

HOw can yo work a regular guy into being a dragoon make him a semi-gay gymnast with strong legs

[Kryton87]

Ok, I was just going over what you guys posted in the IRC channel.

I like the progress, and I want you to know that most of my idea was rather vague, and thats why I ramble a lot. However, I want it also known that there are some things I expect, and some things that will cause this to be awesome.

First of all, I like the multiple worlds idea. One of them I think should be Orisus, a planet I designed for my D&D fantasy setting. The physics of this planet are rather strange. First of all, in terms of planetary scales, the thing is tiny. Like, the size of the moon or smaller. There's no way this should be able to support life without some other strange thing going on. However, of course, there is. This planet is a natural hot spot for particles called Gravitons. Gravitons naturally exist in every atom and molecule. They create the force we know as Gravity. However, very rarely do these particles float free in space. Mostly because usually as soon as they're not attached to an atom, they float off into the 11th dimension and travel to other universes. I did not make that part up, I got it from a Nova program on Theoretical Physics. However, in this place, there are gravitons shifting in and out of other dimensions and universes all the time, carrying with them bits of energy, like light energy, heat energy, and so on. Because of the abundance of these particles, a small planet like Orisus is capable of sustaining an atmosphere, and supporting life. An additional side effect of such a quirk, is that anyone living there who can find a way to manipulate these gravitons, can effectively create effects similar to the Magic that we all know and love.
Historically, the planets original race is Dwarves. Dwarves existed in the extensive natural cavern network (think Zebes) of the planet for many years. They built the first civilization. Some of them eventually evolved into Humans, who grew tired of their dark, cave-dwelling existence, and began to find tunnels to lead them to the surface. There were three seperate tribes to do this successfully. The first was Kor, who discovered an island continent, and made several political kingdoms there. The second was Zyi, who found a large land mass, and attempted to unite under a dynasty system. The third was Nough, who only recently reached the surface, and have not had time to develop a proper civilization. Many other dwarves have tunneled closer and closer toward the surface, but because of the tunnels they found, they never quite fully reached the surface. When they did break into daylight, they found nothing but an infertile land, that had terrain so rough, they might as well not even bother. By this time, Kor and Zyi had already flourished in politics, population, agriculture, and began forgetting they ever came from beneath the earth. So, the Dwarves of Dhour, and the Humans of Kor and Zyi existed with trade and all sorts of things like that. Seperated by a thousand miles in any direction from one another, it would take quite a bit of time for anyone to reach anyone.
Anyway, then the elves came. Elves are nothing more than a race of aliens that crash landed their colony vessel on this planet because they failed to realize the high quantity of gravitons associated with this area of space. The elves colonized this planet in the continent of Thyiesse [Thi-yes]. They built a country much like their homeworld, except using the tools of their area. Some then ventured forth into the world abroad, and came into contact with the other denizins of this world. They most found the people of Kor. This was many thousands of years ago, and now many of them have forgotten much of their elven heritage. Sure, they know it, but they don't know it well. All they know is stories. So, These elves are known as Common Elves, whereas elves from Thyesse are known as High Elves.

Ok, I went on with that for far too long, but thats the history and physics of my world of Orisus.

[Kryton87]

Now back to what I originally wanted to say. Sorry for doubleposting, but it is a logical break, and I don't think a post should go on that long.

So, first of all, about the cat girl. She will NOT be the main character. She will NOT be from another world. Every playable character should be a geek, nerd, or some other such thing. My thought with the cat girl, is that she was in costume at the convention, but was hit by a curse that turned her into what she was cos-playing as, which happened to be a cat girl.

The main character will be a well rounded geek, into video games and RPGs, into programming and wargames, and that kind of thing. That is after all, basically me. So, he used to be friends with Danish (sticking to that naming scheme) and hasn't actually spoken to him in years. Then at some point in the convention, Danish shows up, and the main character's like, "Whoa! I haven't seen you in ages!" And then Danish says "Yes, well I'm here now. And some random guy from the future just told me that I had to save the world, and that you can help! How Awesome is that!" And then they all go off and figure out how to save the world.

Dialog needs work, but thats the idea. This "Space Man" will have no part in the story. In fact, I'm thinking he may just be some guy you take orders from but never see. Or you only see him much later in the game. Maybe you find out that he's really the villain. But in any case, the first place you go is a space station, and thats how you travel through time. Or thats what I'm thinking. Maybe the time drive is down, and you have to find out why, but you have to get back to the future, when you can travel to other planets. Or maybe that should be reversed, so that you travel to other planets, and then have to travel through time.

Also, we should come up with something about an actual premise. So far, its just people doing awesome things for the sake of awesome. But I'm thinking we need a villain, or at least a scape goat. Someone who's being really evil, and needs to be stopped by people from the past. Or by these people specifically.

I'm also thinking that once you get to the future, there'll be a friend of the main character, that froze himself chryogenically, and is now unfrozen, and just like he was back then. It could be something like: "Well I didn't get to go on any adventure, so I froze myself so that when you guys get to the future, you'd have to take me along!" Thats just an idea, but I think its a "cool" one.

In any case, I hope thats more clear than what I was saying before.

[sephirothishere]

So, first of all, about the cat girl. She will NOT be the main character. She will NOT be from another world. Every playable character should be a geek, nerd,

uhh...well..we decided against that....she wsant ever really gonna be the main character...and...we shouldnt overkill it with nerds...thats the kidna thing that would make it less awesome...hte more ideas and differences we have in the characters hte more awesome it will be...
and...as for the other stuff...i have to ponder...

[NeoCracker]

Sorry, but what you wrote is just random Crap that is extremely difficult to work with. IT really doesn't make much sense. I',m sorry, but if you want this to work you'll have to make everything you said their more coherent. There is no premise behind why any of these people are doing anything. We can't work with something like that.

[Zeromus_X]

Okay, yeah, need to trim down that wall of text, there. >_>. :cat: Not that I'm any part of the story, but what corncracker/Bahamut was working on was pretty nice. It won't do to just shatter a perfectly good story premise with convolutedness. Also, making everyone a geek/nerd/whatever will take away the diversity in the characters.

[Bahamut2000X]

I do agree not everyone as a geek/nerd type, but I think making them all somehow related to that premise works well. Such as the spaceman; he's not a geek himself, but he's a sci-fi type character. And the Cat girl is the epitome of all anime goodness....a cat girl.

If that made sense...then good. >.> My mind is all weird like at the moment.

[Zeromus_X]

It made perfect sense to me.

[NeoCracker]

Every character either beeing a geek or geek related, which is all of our character Ideas. That seems far better than all geeks. Plus they are all original characters, at least in the Idea behind them.

[sephirothishere]

hmmm...i like to see contrast between characters...

and heres some more midis...they arent arranged properly..and the synth sucks..but its better then the guitar midi...whiich sucks..sooo...youll jus have to bear with me til i find out what sound to use....and they arent arranged yet...cuz..id like..have to know what kinda part of the game they are gonna be used at....and..i wrote them on my guitar..soooo..they are jus jams/vamps/improvs that i did...and thought they sounded cool...so i wrote them down as i remembered them ^o^.....

[Markus. D]

music me please. I wanna make some midi music aswell.

in between sounds :3



edit: attachment

[Kryton87]

alright... maybe I was a bit hard about that... but I have a very strong opinion about what I want the fourth character to be, and I will not be moved on that part. The space man character should have a minor part in the game. I don't want to see it degenerate into taking missions.
I do not want a character who is and always was a cat girl. If there is a cat girl there should be a definite explanation as to why, and not just that she's like that, or that they simply exist. I know the cat girl as the main character idea was shot down, after reading a bit more I discovered that... sorry for overstating that a bit. I also know that cat girls are a staple of anime. This is not an Anime. And in terms of storyline, I intend to give it as much continuity as absolutely possible. I hate stories where one thing happens, and then another, and they completely contradict eachother. Especially when there's no explanation behind it. Or when the explanation is a complete cop-out, like how they explained The Legend of Zelda by saying every two games they get another Link.

In further news, yes, geek related characters are fine. Thats actually closer to what I originally planned anyway... In fact, I made a list of characters and weapons that they'd use a while back... not anything specific, but a list of weapon types. I don't know if I can find it, but I'd like to share that with you because I think it would help. They're all named after friends of mine, so I'll just put in first names, I'm sure they wouldn't care that much about that. Maybe I could latinize it...

I should have that ready in a couple hours, maybe tomorrow... we'll see if I can find that page...

Ok, I couldn't find that page, but I found others...
Dylan, Sam, Scott, Ben, Josh, Ilya, Andy, Craig, Joel, Andrew

And the various weapons: Dagger, Sword, Katana, Massive Sword, Pistol Carbine, Rifle, Big Guns, Sniper Rifle, Polearm, Staff, Hammer, Claws, Katars, Hand signs, SubMachine Guns, Dual Daggers.

Dylanius - Katanas, Katars, Swords, Rifles
Samsocutus (Mr. E)- Massive Swords, Swords, Daggers, Pistols
Scotticus - Carbine, Pistol
Benjicus (Mr. C)- Sniper Rifle, Sword, Rifle, Carbine
Joshuacius (Mr. D)- Polearms, Staff, Carbines
Ilyanicus - Claws, Swords, Daggers, Pistols
Andronicus - SubMachine Guns, Carbines, Swords
Craigiticus - Daggers, Dual Daggers
Joeliticus (Mr. B)- Big Guns, Rifles, Carbines
Andruiticus (Mr. A)- Swords, Polearms, Hammers, Daggers, Pistols

And then there would be various abilities like Magic, Technomagic, TechnoBabble, Energy, E-Skills, Knife Figher, Dragoon Skills... I hadn't come up with all of them, but stuff like that.

And the story was that a visitor either from the future, or from another planet talks to Josh, and tells him he needs to help them. Then Josh goes off and finds Andrew at the Convention. Andrew gathers his buddies, and goes off to save the day. First stop being a Space Station. After that, I wasn't too sure, but I knew it would be awesome.

There can be more or less characters, I have always enjoyed large numbers of characters though, Especially in FF6. Even if they are just random guys that had little story, but simply were there to be awesome. Like Gogo. And how many speculations have there been about Gogo's true identity? How many of them are right? All of them are! Because as far as Squaresoft is concerned, I don't think they even care! I doubt they made Any story for the poor sap. And because of that people start to speculate.

I usually don't say this, but I love things like that. When there's an aspect of a game that isn't fully explained, so the fans have to make something up. And they do. This is not to say that nothing can be explained, but not every hidden item needs a backstory, or a completely descriptive name. The Economizor for example... where the heck did it come from? I never actually found it. But I mean, Illumina! Where did it come from? Why does it have to be the best sword in the game? Why not Ragnarok, or Excalibur, or the Masamune? Is Masamune even in that game? I forgot by now.

Yeah... I like that kind of thing. Thats my steam of thought for today, I'll try to work some on that engine.... but its not going well. I unfortunately don't know quite enough about Java to put that together. I don't know enough about C++ either... but I at least have a tutorial using C... so, we'll see how that works. With any luck, I'll get something started by next week.

[Markus. D]

RPG Maker... XP...

[NeoCracker]

1) who was the fourth Character you were thinking of? I don't want to reread all your massive posts to find it.

2) Yes, catgirls are an anime staple, but since we are dealing with geeks anime stapes definately have a place in the game.

3) IF we are dealing with multiple worlds, its highly unlikely they will all have humans, but another race, in this case cat Girls. It fits the geeky profile, and gives a reasonable explination.

4) I have no Idea where this unconnected events thing you came up with came from. We barely put together an Idea for the begining, and me and Bahamut are going to make sure everything connects well. That what makes a good game.

5) We are sticking to that story with the exception of gathering a group of friends, as that doesn't make a lot of sense. Why would a random group of friends decide to help out? Most explanations would suck, hence why we didn't do that and instead had the guy who is a DM come along, and for good reason.

[Kryton87]

The fourth character is the guy most of you have been discussing as the Space Man, or as I referred to him as Josh. As far as the story goes, he's not a space man. He was inspired by a space man. I'll decide exactly how when it becomes important, but it could be that a man from the future comes in a time ship and speaks to him, saying he needs to help the future and all that. Or it could be something like he sees the space man in the distance, and asks if he could come along. Maybe he hears the name of his friend and requests that he be the one to break the news. In any case, Josh is most definitely of the same time and place as Andrew.

Here's another idea. There is no man from the future. What Josh finds, is future technology that allows time/space travel. Josh comes to find his friend to come and check it out. Simple as that, completely logical, and something that I would most certainly do, and I think anyone would do if given the chance.

Lets say in the first scene we discuss how these guys are best buddies, but Josh lives in the desert, and Andrew lives in the city. The Andrew has tickets to a local convention thats happening far after Josh has to go home. So then the next scene is at the convention. Thats where Josh comes to visit Andrew, and thats where the real story starts. Its a bit of an unbelievable fantastic idea of mine, but given the right circumstances, which I hope to provide, I think it could work.

Nearly forgot about the rest of the questions...
ok, Yes, catgirls are an anime staple, and yes they can exist. But how likely is it that another planet, hundreds lightyears away, or even like, 10 lightyears away... how likely is it that a race of cat people would have evolved there, when cats are a native animal to earth? For some of the things, I put very specific circumstances in mind, but for others, lets not be ridiculous. One catgirl made by genetic testing, or by some magic curse, or something else, I could understand. But how would the cats get there, and how would they evolve into humanoid beings? Why would they evolve into humanoid beings? Why couldn't they just become big cats? Cats have no way of manipulating objects very well, thus, how would they build a proper society? How does a cat use a tool? And why would they even need to? They can hunt for food just fine. If there is no reason to evolve, and nowhere to evolve to, there is no evolution.

The next point was about continuity. There are currently no major gaps in continuity. I'm simply saying this to ward possible problems off. Such problems are made by careless mistakes. I want everything to have a way of being pieced together, even if its not explicitly explained. Thats to come later however, when such problems could potentially appear. Another thing, we need to start focusing energy on what happens after the first part of the game. Thats completely up in the air. Anyone can suggest anything, and you are all encouraged to.

The last point is restating the first, so I'll be brief. The original story is dealt with. The fine details can be put together once we have an idea of how it'll work. I'm gonna get the engine together in about a week. My friend finally came through with that.

So I should have the engine working by this time next week, and you guys can send me graphics and maps and I'll put the whole thing together... I'll come up with a format for text file maps. When I'm done with it, the entire thing will be completely modular, and easy to use. And the entire thing will run off of text files. Now I don't know how I'll make it hard for users to modify... we don't after all want to condone cheating. I could just hard-code the entire thing once its all together... but that would make it ridiculous. Too many Strings.

Progress is happening. I may have found a person for the graphics. I hope that it works out. And I hope that my posts aren't too long.

[NeoCracker]

I'm not trying to sound rude, but it seems like your throwing out what we've done so far. We've spent a good amount of time discussing this based of what you had originally said you wanted, and now your pretty much saying we shoudn't go with what we've finished. In addition it almost seems like your mind about what you want keeps changing little by little, making it difficult ot keep up.

As for cat Girls in another world, who says they evolved from cats? They have ears and a tail, probably evoled to that like any other animal, out of nescessity. All it takes is a world where they would have use, and thats it. Humans evoled they way they did because of that, no reason that it wouldn't be the same their.

Also, We are working on how it will work. We can't have you just coming in and posting what you want and not be involved in the conversations, that just screws up continuity that we are forming. If you want to be that involved with the story, actually come in and talk with us in the room, and not through the posts. I think that way we can establish a good way to put this together. And Share and change the Idea's there, that way we can avoid the problems we're having.

Your Idea's right now, to be honest, kind of suck. I'll chalk it up to lack of detail on what should be done, but thats why you should talk with us in the chat before posting these Ideas up here like you are.

[Kryton87]

I would love to, but every time I get on, nobody's there. Once, when I was in the channel, Buckethead(Sephirothishere) was there, and I talked to him for a bit, but then had to run a bunch of errands, and that screwed my day up. I have had no time to do anything lately. Yes, I agree it sucks, yes I agree that my ideas are not as fleshed out as I would like them. I do not think however that they are in direct conflict with anything else.

There are a few things I do have issues with, most of them are simply because I have my own ideas as to what is good story, and what makes a good world.

The problem is definitely communication. I have very strong ideas about how the story begins, and very strong general ideas about how it progresses. But the specifics about what happens after the beginning, I don't care. I want it to be on a space station, but what goes on there could be anything. After that I'll merely be quality control. I've seen a lot of corny and fake sounding ideas in other games, other projects, and other things in general. Everything about this game should sound like it could happen.

There will be a main bad guy, but I don't want him/her to seem like a bad guy. I want everything about him/her to seem like anyone could do it. They should not be insane, (that happens way, way, way too much in games) their actions should be completely reasonable. If you were on their side, they would seem like a good guy.

I'm sorry if I've shot down ideas. There are only two ideas I have completely shot down, and I suppose those were the only ideas you guys had worked out. The first was about the cat people planet. In retrospect, now that I think of it more critically, yes, it could work. Hey, Moogles worked for Final Fantasy, cat people can work here. I didn't like the idea at first because it mostly just seemed silly. But since then, I've grown less angry about things, and I think I can see it more clearly now. Cat people can work, but don't put them everywhere.
However as for the cat girl character, I think it would be cool to have a character who was originally a human, who was transformed into a cat girl. That way, she still knows what the party is after, and can relate to them perfectly, but at the same time, has something else going on, and has an ounce of storyline even before we begin. It could be by genetic experiment, or by Magic from Orisus. In any case, it could be fixed, but not easily. Possibly not even by the end of the game.

The second idea that I shot down was the one I feel most strongly about. I don't want the main character to get the first quest. I want the main character to get his quest from other characters. It seems like its always the main character who's either doing everything, or getting orders from some guy we can't talk to. I want the main character to be nothing more than the guy we follow. He won't be the guy that knows whats going on, but he'll be the guy that can figure it out the best. No one will really know whats going on. Any space man who comes to earth from whatever planet should not be a main character. The main characters should consist of only those who are in progress to becoming great, not those who are great already.

I like the idea about five worlds. One of them should be Earth, because thats where the adventure starts. Then one should be Orisus, because its awesome. Then based on the storyline of Orisus, there's a planet of Elves somewhere out there. Whether or not they get involved may or may not happen... thats for the story to decide. A planet of cat people as I said in my previous paragraph, is cool. That leaves one planet undecided. That could be anything. The planet where the evil resides, a planet without life, or perhaps thats where all the little green men live.

Whatever they are, they exist, and in the present, maybe only a couple are space travelers. But in the future, most, if not all of them have space flight capabilities. I'm thinking the cat people could be less developed in the present, but when people go to visit them, they discover space travel and use it religiously, rather than commercially.

I want to say more on this, but I want to limit the size of my posts.

edit: Crap! I nearly forgot to say when I'd be available.
I will be available from when I say so, until 2 hours afterwards. I may show up a little early, or a little late. I will change my nickname in the channel to AwesomeHost when I'm not there. When I am, it will be Kryton87. After two hours, I make no guarantees. And of course, there will be pockets where I'm going to the bathroom or something like that, hopefully nothing longer than 10 minutes. All times are in Pacific Standard Time, and Greenwich Mean Time, and on a 24 hour scale. I don't know where everyone else is, but I'm in California, and I have school. Thats my reasoning.

Monday, I will be here and online after 22:00 PST, or 6:00 GMT.
Tuesday, I will be here and online after 19:00 PST or 3:00 GMT.
Wednesday, I will be here and online after 16:00 PST or 0:00 GMT.
Thursday, I will be here and online after 16:00 PST or 0:00 GMT.
Friday, I will be here and online after 16:00 PST or 0:00 GMT.

As said previously, all times are approximate, but I'll try to leave my computer on as much as possible, and keep conversation logs so that I can go back and check if anyone said anything I should know. That should keep me informed. I hope it works.

I'm not trying intentionally to make things harder. If there is anything you are really intent upon that you think I'm being an ass about, let me know. And when I say "you", I mean everyone helping out with the project.

I really need to stop talking now before I make an even bigger fool out of myself.

edit again: Should I rewrite my posts and make them more concise?

[NeoCracker]

The main character doesn't really know whats going on. HE really is just some random geek. He just happens to do something that significantly effect the future later. So I don't know where you got the Idea of him knowing more than that.

The only way it would make sense for him to do anything is if he is somehow involved with whats going on, otherwise no one would go to him for help. So the only way to keep it reasonable is if he some how has something to do with the grand scheme of things. To start it on a space station also would be strange. If we are dealing with normal people there isn't really a good reason for the space station, unless of course thats where they live, and its more of a colony than a space station. In which case it wouldn't really make a difference if it were on a planet or a space station.

Plus, it is a space station they would most likely detect the arrival with the space man, but that would have to change more aspects of the story thus far to make it fit. It makes much more sense to keep it on a planet in moder times to start. Now if you just want the space station to be an opening seen before you actually take control of the main character thats a different story. That can be easily worked in. However its one of those things that we'll work on when the overall plot and story is decided upon.

Your Idea's just don't seem to work so well when you try to put them together. Given what you've said it would cause to many bothersome uncertainties that would cause us to make some stretches to work in, even if we only used your Idea's and scrapped our current work.

[Kryton87]

Ok... either I'm not explaining myself properly, or you're not understanding me properly. I'm going to try to be more concise.

The setting is in Modern Times to begin with.

The story begins as:
You follow one character who has nothing to do with anything.
Then his friend comes along and pulls him into this awesome adventure.
His friend has a space ship that they use to travel to a space station.
The space station has problems. What problems, I don't know.
From there, the story unravels.

[sephirothishere]

well...kryton...to be honest..it doesnt seem to have the punch that the idea cc and bahamut have come up with....

[Kryton87]

Of course it doesn't! Thats the short version. I'm trying to be concise. Details will be added, characters will be met, everything happens in a wild crazy way that makes it awesome. But thats the general story... kinda like the classic "boy meets girl" story. I mean, if you just say it like it is, its crappy. But if you take into account the details, the how's and why's and all that stuff, thats when it becomes interesting.

[Markus. D]

# chatroom is a good time now :)

[Kryton87]

Ok, outline of the 3:30 today chat session - Any spoiler text was taken out from editing. Any red text was added. Just so that you can track the edits. Last edited 23:54 GMT 11/28/06

-- == Characters ==
_| * Main character
_| | A general geek
_| | Possibly from the future
_| | possibly came from future to tell his past self to begin a quest
_| | perhaps invented a device that can change atmospheric conditions making space travel easier to accomplish

_| * Space Man character
_| | Possibly is main character who came back in time from future to begin the quest... Paradox?

_| * DM character
_| | Sneaks aboard ship, but his hiding place is dangerous, and he is exposed to radiation that gives him strange powers. Like Spiderman... kinda...
_| | Powers could be similar to what we know as Magic
_| | Vampire like

_| * Cat Person
_| | Undecided as of yet... possible descriptions
_| | Cat girl from another planet, acts friendly, cheerful, and cosplayerlike
_| | Cat girl was originally a cosplayer, but was transformed into a cat-girl due to a curse or some such thing.
_| | Cat girl is a tribal figure, who acts on cat-like instinct

_| * Character from other planet
_| | found somewhere on another planet, in a dark mysterious place
_| | joins party and then leaves randomly to find something
_| | when he finds said something, its not what he expects, he's all bloodied, and such
_| | Turns out its like reliving his past, but not the way he remembers.
_| | rejoins party, and is a better person because of it
_| | Vampire Like
--- sidenote: Sounds suspiciously like Cyan, but I'm guessing thats not what was in mind.

_| * Other characters
_| | likely from other planets
_| | we may have enough human characters for now
--- sidenote: I don't think we do, but we'll work it out.

-- === Environment ===
_| * Planets
_| | there will be five(ish) planets, and two time lines
_| - Earth
_| | Earth will be the planet you start on, in a current, or slightly future time.
_| - Orisus
_| | The tiny planet with a bunch of gravity will be here, populated by dwarves and elves, and it will contain an evil elf named Has'Neledak... possible idea, not yet necessary
_| - other planets
_| | considering a planet of elves
_| | any other planets can exist depending on need/circumstance
_| | a space station should be present somewhere, either orbiting Earth, or in the middle of nowhere, built either by Humans, or Elves.

_| * Time
_| | Two times, one during present, and one thats several years in the future (10, 25, whatever)
_| | Begin in Present, on Earth
_| | After that, is undetermined, either spend lots of time in future, or half the game in the present. Perhaps a past time... nothing more than ideas at this point
_| | Potential for Paradoxes, because loads of fun can be had with Paradoxes.

-- === Game Mechanics ===
_| * Battles
_| | No traditional limit to number of characters. Limit is simply the number of people in your party at any given time.
_| | possibly turn based, would be simple, undecided at this time

-- === SideQuests ===
_| | something about Lycanthropes

Did I forget anything? let me know... next time everyones on the chat room, I'll make another one of these.

[sephirothishere]

_| * DM character
_| | Sneaks aboard ship, but his hiding place is dangerous, and he is exposed to radiation that gives him strange powers. Like Spiderman... kinda...
_| | Powers could be similar to what we know as Magic
_| | Vampire like

well...this isnt the character we said would be vampire like...we jsu thought hed be regular guy that ends upwith some sort of magic type using ability thingy....maybe soemthin to do with electromagnetic fields...and shizzle...


* Space Man character
_| | Possibly is main character who came back in time from future to begin the quest... Paradox?


"ITS ME DOC...IM BACK..BACK FROM THE FUTURE..."...i know that cc and you were kinda into this idea...but...me..not so much...it seems to me like bad ripoff...more discussion needed...


Cat Person
_| | Undecided as of yet... possible descriptions
_| | Cat girl from another planet, acts friendly, cheerful, and cosplayerlike
_| | Cat girl was originally a cosplayer, but was transformed into a cat-girl due to a curse or some such thing.
_| | Cat girl is a tribal figure, who acts on cat-like instinct



well..ya gots it all right...except for the friendly and cheerful bit...she should be kinda mean looking...yet sensitive...know what i mean...
but thats jsu my opinion...



* Character from other planet
_| | found somewhere on another planet,
_| | joins party and then leaves randomly to find something
_| | when he finds said something, its not what he expects, he's all bloodied, and such
_| | Turns out its like reliving his past, but not the way he remembers.
_| | rejoins party, and is a better person because of it
--- sidenote: Sounds suspiciously like Cyan, but I'm guessing thats not what was in mind

horray for my idea....jus kiddin..this was pretty mutual...
i thought maybe he could be found in some kinda dark and not so friendly area of the first planet you visit whilst in hte future dimension...
THIS IS THE CHARACTER THAT WILL HAVE VAMPIRE LIKE CHARATERISTICS.......by that i mean..shady...and quiet.....i thought there could be like some weird dungeon area type thing...where he sees like some kinda trickery in his mind...about the memories which have troubled him...the something he was...SOMEONE......
is a girl called lisa..she disappeared....no one nows what happened....??!?!?!?!!!he sees his chance to refind her...when these images are forced in his head...he runs at an ancietn looking wall type thing...jumps...then is gone...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...then he comes back bloody and distraught.....like you said...then when he composes himself...i dunno what happens...havent thougth tha far...


-- === SideQuests ===
_| | something about Lycanthropes


ya...some place..that is inhabited by werewolves and sh it...they are a strong people..with basic yet incredibly strong weapons......

if i have forgotten anything...let me know...good summary kryton...btw..

[Kryton87]

We should start working on a plot. Like, a full on plot that would take the heroes across the galaxy. In particular, most games of this type have a specific Bad Guy. Who's that here?

I had this idea that he'd be a guy that we can relate to. Super villains are far too often insane, so I think it would be much more interesting to have a bad guy that has a logical reason behind everything he does.

[sephirothishere]

hmm...villains arent insane...they jus seem insane cuz they are doin weird stuff and killin people...


oh...PEOPLE THAT ARENT ON TEH DEVELOPMMETN OF THIS PROJECT SHOULDNT READ ANYMORE...SPOILERVILLE...

but yeh...i dunno how we're gonna work on the plot...
well...at least not til corncracker gets on...thats not til thursday...and uh...i think i have an idea...for the antagonist...its the whole dimension planet type univere thign...so...uhh..its that thign i was sayin about that planet of destruction and war and stuff called MARS.....i liked your idea last night..youll have to refresh my memory on the details...other thenthat its cool...i think maye that evil elf could have that kinda thignthat you said goin on...but maybe the earlier fights would be with deciples claiming to be the legendary evil elf...and then some of the other fights with him could be optional.....imm jus sayin this cuz it seemes a good idea...jus..i dun see were you could go with it...??!?!??! but we havent discussed this stuff yet...but..how hard could it be?!?!?!?!!!?!!and ill post soem of the songs i wrote/finished off today...there are a couple of cool classical songs too....and then some other stuff for certain scenarios...and a couple character intro theme things...
^o^

[Bahamut2000X]

I'll need to get on the chat a bit more and get caught up. >.>

Yeah but anywhos if Seph didin't already mention it, I've been away for a bit cause I got finals coming up and work is killing my schedule. But I'll try and pop in on chat whenever I get the chance. Which hopefully should be more after my finals are over next week.

[Kryton87]

well thats cool, I'd like to talk to you a bit more about this. I was going to get on at 4:00 today, but I lost track of time in the computer lab at school... I didn't get back home until just now. And of course, I didn't think of logging on at school.

Anyway... I had some ideas for battle systems. The classic Final Fantasy style system of RPG battles, though classic and easy, is a little bland. I was thinking it would be cool to spice it up a bit.

First of all, I liked whole thing with Chrono Trigger, where you weren't always in the same place, and your position had an effect on the battle, however minor that effect was. Well, I was thinking, maybe it could be like that, but where you are has a much bigger effect. Like, you've got your team arrangement, say, a leader, and then two behind him, and two behind them. Then you're attacked by a wild Bazooka Bill! The Bazooka Bill shows up on the screen, and you enter battle mode. The screen doesn't fade, or switch, and all your party members are in their positions. When its your turn, you can move a short distance, then make an attack, cast a spell, something like that. If you attack, you'll run up to the guy and attack it, if you cast a spell, it might have a range, and maybe you can hit an AOE, and maybe, if your characters are caught in the AOE, you'll hit them too. Something like that. I guess its kinda like D&D style battles. You get a half action, and a full action. The half action is to walk a certain move distance, the full action is to attack or some stuff. And you can't attack if you can't get close enough. But your full movement should be enough to reach nearly anywhere on the screen.

Its just an idea... another one is that when you use moves, you have to do something for the move to go off. Kinda like in FF6, or in particular for Sabin's Blitz attack. You pull off Street Fighter moves to do the various Blitzes.

I like the idea that you would enter various button combinations... or maybe mouse gestures. Not for everything of course, but say... I said something about one skill being Technobabble. Now, that could be taken many different ways, but I was thinking it would be cool if you enter a group of ones and zeros to input your command. So like, 01001011 would be one command, and 11011010 would be another. As with before, its just an idea. And of course the effect would be either damage moves, or healing moves or something like that, balanced in such a way that you don't feel its not worth it, and so that its not the ultimate move ever. They shouldn't cost MP or anything, but they could be just strange effects. Maybe TechnoMagic could be like, the same thing, but half as long. Or you'd like select a spell, and then cast it all techie-like. Kinda like a Calculator from FFT. (never played it but saw those things, and they're cool)

Ok, ask me to elaborate on anything, and I'd be glad to.

[sephirothishere]

sounds ok...but dont you think itll be far more difficult to do the kinda action thing??? turn based is easier...and i personally prefer playing turn based games...in action based games ive played...you can jus keep spamming a strong attack that knocks things back and slows them down...whereas in turn based...its like that..you jus get to your characters better.....maybe there should be way for the characters to move a little bit...i like hte idea of turn based though...if you can incorporate a menu to choose skills from in battle...then thats cool with me......


oh yeh...i made some midis...here ya go...

[sephirothishere]

...these are the midis for that character i suggested to you all about entering the party and bein strong and knowledgeable and stuff....i made a character theme for him!!!!and a song for when he goes crazy and disappears to find lisa...i have quite a spectacular thing in my head for after he gets crazy....and then in a flurry of speed he jumps at teh wall and is gone...thats the last part of the song...the crazy bit is the part that sounds kinda eerie...and the cat girl intro isnt finished...i jus thought bluesy might be cool...i have a kinda seductive image of her...but anywho....laters...oh yeh..i named him charles...but that doesnt have to stick...

[Kryton87]

ok... nice songs. I've been noticing something in general about them though.
First of all, they seem unfinished. I understand thats probably cause they're not. But its nice if you can add something in there to tie it in with the beginning, and maybe conclude the song, or repeat it. Remember also, they do not have to repeat at the beginning. Somewhere in the middle is fine, but I would just need to know where that is. RPG Maker uses the controller change 111 to determine where to repeat.
They also seem to have issues with timing. Like, switching between 4/4 and 4/15 or something in one note and switching back the next (I don't mean anything specifically, but thats an example of what I mean). I find that music that has relatively consistent timing tends to sound a lot better.
You make what seems like excessive use of the pitch variant. Most of the time it seems a little out of place, and could easily be replaced with a solid note and be as good or better.

These are mostly just general things I noticed. I mean it entirely as constructive criticism. The songs are really quite nice, but they all seem to be missing key elements that would make them good video game music.

Another thing just as a sidenote, When using Midis, you have the capability to put in up to 16 tracks. That means you can make fully orchestrated music, and put very little effort into playing it yourself. Provided you can write it, you can have it.

I'll attach some of my music when I get a chance, hopefully I can find something that would show you what I mean.

[Kryton87]

These are midis that are not done. They either need more added to them, or they just don't fit right.

Army.mid: I really like this one, but its not complete. Its way too short. I need something in there to make it so that its not so repetitive.

Battle 2.mid: This one's actually based on something that sephirothishere made, I tried to take that idea and add to it, but I couldn't keep track of exactly what I was doing... so this is what came out. I think it has potential... but its nowhere done yet. I can make it louder, but I havn't...

Tzeich-Different Instruments.mid: I have this one on that wiki site I linked to way back when. Basically this I think sounds better than the piano version I made before.

City.mid: I made this one long ago, and I like it a lot. But I cannot seem to tell where it should go in any game. I mean... it doesn't fit anywhere. I called it City, because I couldn't think of anywhere else it would go.

Boss.mid: This is some boss music that I put together, I can't figure out how to finish it, but I think it kinda sounds nice.

oh yeah... and that wiki I linked to... just in case I actually didn't and just though I did... here it is: http://winegarden.homeip.net/phoenix/index.php/Music_stuff

[Markus. D]

music me please. I wanna make some midi music aswell.

in between sounds :3



edit: attachment

this one is complete. just unnamed ._.

[Kryton87]

Not to be too critical, but I was speaking mostly of sephirothishere's stuff. The one you made, Tsukasa is really quite good. It would do well for like... space. Loneliness. That kind of thing.

Call it Loneliness, or Space.

As for the sound effects, you've been quite good with those too. You should probably be a full time composer, given that you have the time.

[sephirothishere]

i like that boss midi...i think it might make good world map music even...and as for the constructive criticism you gave me...it is incomplete due to the lack of complettion of the game so far....i cant set how many times to repeat teh thing til i know what the situation is in hte scene...and in a couple of the songs it does have a different tempo.....in the charles theme it goes from somethin like 130bpm to 150 or something.....and what are you talkin bout teh abuse of high notes???remember this kind of music is unfamiliar to me...im jus testin out...and they are unfinished...i havent done any harmony in some songs....the only song that i am fairly happy with is the song with a slight attempt at bein mozart...then the sonata that is beethoven esque i am quite happy with...i think the only thing wrong with that is the harmony...i wasnt sure if i wanted to make it contrapuntal or what....and the spookiest dungeon is finished as far as im concerned and should just be played on a loop....


Somewhere in the middle is fine, but I would just need to know where that is. RPG Maker uses the controller change 111 to determine where to repeat

and what happened to the java engine???

[NeoCracker]

I originally was going to try and find a way to work out the difficulties me, Kryt and sephirothis her have been having. While with Sephiroth there is no more proplem I've come to realize that ther is no more working with Kryt. He has only shown himself to be a horrible director, at least the involvement I have had with him and seem to, in the end, have no Idea what he himself wants, making working with him a nightmare. I tryed to continue with resolving the issue, but it seemed as though they had just started ignoreing me completely, so now I'm done. I'm dropping from this project.

[sephirothishere]

WHAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT......
seriously...we sorted it.....no more chances???kryton completely understands what he needs to do....so do i.....dont go out like this... :(
:( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :(

[NeoCracker]

With you its fine. ITs with Kryt my issue is. He was shown he isn't a very competent director right now, which in the future is going to cause serious problems for everyone. Even if its fine for now, I can only see horrible things happening in the future. First off he was going to design the game engine. He said he would have it done by the end of they year, seemingly ignoring the guy who said if you desinged your own it would take much olonger to make one thats more than mediocre. Kryt, apperently, did in fact take his advice later, so I can overlook that.

However there is the huge communication issue involving Kryt which I for one had been getting extremely irritated over. Since it shows no sign of improving as he seems to just be walking away from story all together, this only screams problems. In my mind unless Kryt seriously improves on this issue soon, this is a doomed project.

Also, as I said, he doesn't seem to know what he wants anyway, so I see no point in continuing on with this.

I will not continue with this project.

[Kryton87]

you know what... I've been pissing around too long. You're right, I don't always know what I want. I'm gonna step off my pedestal, and allow someone else to direct this project. Maybe even you, corncracker. You have good ideas, and it seems like you know what you're talking about. What probably needs to happen is that we can only have One story writer. Otherwise, nothing gets done.

But I'll leave that up to whoever decides to direct this project next.

[sephirothishere]

i nominate bahamut...
corncracker has officially left this project...

[Kryton87]

ok, I haven't got the engine working yet, so its time to use RPG tool kit... it'll take me some time to get it figured out, but no worries, it'll be a hell of a lot faster than writing that engine... 'specially considering how I've been working on it this week... or rather, lack there of. I don't know why, but I was doing so well, I got it halfway working in one day, but hadn't worked on it since.

Well, I'll just download RPG tool kit, and figure out how to use it. If it turns out it would be more complicated than writing my own, then I may have to go back to that... we'll see.

[sephirothishere]

yup...
well...if you can get rpg toolkit thatll be great....but dont go usin rpgmaker or anythin...and you can still script a lil in the rpg tool kiit thing so as it looks better....and plays better....

[sephirothishere]

midis....

[sephirothishere]

HEADS UP...ALL YOU GUYS BETTER JUS MOVE ALONG...CUZ ITS OVER...OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!

[dont worry...its cool...im makin it on my own now...im doin programming characters maps...sounds....dialog...story...everythin....it might take a lil while longer then expected...btu ill hope to have some kinda demo up within hte next month or so...

[Zeromus_X]

What on earth is going on here? O_o Does this mean that it's just going to end?

[NeoCracker]

Indeed. It is a failed Project, now move along little X'y, let the thread die in peace.