A Sequel

[Skyblade]

We have weapons that increase every other stat, why not HP/MP as well?

Anyway, still no name, but I've moved on from that for now, I can always name him later. His position in the Goltana military is approximately equal to Maria Luvien (a wonderful name, BTW, Wolfe). They are directly under the supreme commander of the Goltana military, who is in turn directly responsible to the king. This was a carefully chosen position, and I'll explain that choice now. He is the highest ranking mage in the Goltana forces, and in a prime position to manipulate the military and political aspects of Goltana, but not high enough that he will be a primary focus of your forces. His role in the assault on Ivalice will not be discovered for quite some time (except for those of you who are being spoiled right now). While you are of fighting the war, he will be finding how to obtain the Gran Grimoire. Hopefully you will discover the truth behind the war before the tome falls into the hands of the dark mage...

[Wolf Kanno]

Just doing a check up on where you are Skyblade. I like the villain you came up with and feel this will be rather intriguing. I wonder how your villain will deal with mine within the game.

[El Sid]

I Got A Suggestion, I'd Really Like To See The Ability To Equip 2 Support Abilities. But Other Than That I'd Also Like To Know Where You're Up To With This, Skyblade.

p.s. I Quite Like The Villian You Thought Up.

[Skyblade]

Sorry, this had gone so long without a response (and I somehow missed Kanno's), I thought interest had died off. I'm about to head off to bed, but I will be sure to update this later in the day. I haven't given up on the project.

[El Sid]

Fair Enough, And Just Cause There's No Posts In A While It Dun Mean There's No Interest. It's Good That You Haven't Given Up On the Project. I Would've Posted This Sooner But The Forum Was Down >_>

[Wolf Kanno]

No, I'm still very interested as I'm sure many are as well. I would love to see a few minor updates from time to time. To be honest, I'm more excited for your sequel than the official one.

BTW how is the music going to work for this game? I'm not sure it was addressed earlier or not and I am currently too lazy to check I'm afraid

[Skyblade]

I knew I forgot something. I haven't even thought about music. I'll just kidnap some of my favorite composers and get them to make me some.

The plot has been running away with me a bit. I'm having a hard time keeping it to plan. With the introduction of my new enemy, I've extended my plans for the story to well past the death of the emperor, which was my original estimated end for the plot. As it is, the Goltanan emperor will die about halfway through the main plot, but shortly after that our clever little mage will acquire the Gran Grimoire, and then things will really get going.

The Free Area missions will likely return. Rather than protecting areas from upset clans, however, you must protect them from random attacks by the Goltana military. --Edit-- Forgot to mention: I'm having a little trouble trying to work the Free Area missions into the larger map. Since the map extends beyond just Ivalice, I'm wondering how to best work in the other countries. Any advice would be appreciated.

Wanted missions will also return, although I am thinking about changing the way they work slightly. Rather than having seperate engagements for the criminals, I was thinking of adding them to other engagements and quests in the area. Defeating the wanted opponent will usually be optional, so you can complete the engagements without fighting them, but if you have the corresponding wanted quest, you will be able to take them on for an additional challenge and some nice rewards. Of course, should you fail to grab them, they'll live to fight another day, so if you miss a bounty boss, don't despair. You'll likely see them again.

[Wolf Kanno]

The wanted missions sound fun (reminds me how the clan hunts were treated in XII) as for the Free Area missions in other lands. You can either do it as a "spies have told us of a large military build up in the region close to our borders. Investigate and hinder the enemy advances!... or troops stationed in the area need backup!"

If you go with the second idea, I think it would be interesting to give you extra penalties for losing men in the mission (by that I mean having dead or knocked out characters once the battle is over.) Either it lowers your Clan rank or you lose the characters in question and must attempt a "rescue mission" to retrieve them. Just a thought...

In fact... if you are feeling really ambtious. A POW system could be interesting. Let it work like the prison system but you need to either give up your own prisoners (that might be too complicated though...) or even conquered territories or perhaps even trade in other characters to take their place... (You can't have my Red Mage! How about I give you my second Ninja instead? ) then the character stays in the enemy POW camp until the military treat dictates them must be released (basically the same conditions you got for being in prison in FFTA). What do you think?

[Skyblade]

Thank you, Wolf, that was exactly the sort of thinking I needed to hear. I think I know exactly how to run those now, and how to work the rewards, and it is helping me with the overall story arc too.

In the original area free missions, you got discounts and new items depending on the number of free areas you had and the towns you freed. I was having trouble working enemy territories into that idea, since they are highly unlikely to want to give discounted prices to the enemy. However, if we run the area free missions as combat support missions for other attacking units, we can have an excuse to free areas that will never actually come under our control.

Due to Ivalice's lack of a true military force, the clans are the primary attackers in this war. This leads the Clan Center into becoming the primary HQ of the war effort in Ivalice. As you complete free area missions, the Clan Center will reward your efforts by reducing the price of shop items in Ivalice. However, the new shop items will be gotten in a slightly different way.

As everyone who has played FFTA knows, each Clan has its own home town (the Cyril Band is based in Cyril, etc...). Each of these Clans lost most of their influence when Clan Ultima freed their homes during the Clan Wars. Now these clans all pitch in to help the war effort, and they wind up needing help at certain times. And, as you help out a particular clan more and more, they will reward you with offering their items for sale in their hometown.

[Wolf Kanno]

Glad I could be of help.

I like what you are doing with the Clans as well. Do you get anything special for sticking with one clan more than others? Like special missions, clan exclusive items or equipment, or even altered story scenes?

By this I mean, say you help the Cyril clan exclusively, aside from the equipment and price drops from their personal shops could they eventually reward you with a special item at some point by the end of the game? Like a rare weapon or item that gets you access to a special side quest. Or does the system you set up prevent you from exclusively using one clan?

[Skyblade]

Hmm... The way I was originally planning things, that wouldn't work. The free area missions would each have a particular clan for each area. That means that once you have freed every area, you will have helped every clan equally, and have acquired all of their rewards. While your idea sounds nice, I don't think it would execute well (at least for the free area missions), because I would have to offer multiple versions of each free area mission (one per clan), and that would just get too complicated. However, the idea is somewhat appealing, so if you can think of an easier way to implement it, I'll do it.

[Wolf Kanno]

I've been thinking of a way to implement it. You may have to design them as a seperate quest entirely. I was thinking that despite the war going on, I could not imagine the overly competitive Clans from not trying to "one up" each other during the conflict.

Basically the clans offer up a mercenary contracts to help them finish off fairly dangerous or impossible missions. These missions could have very difficult requirements (No K.O.'s in your party, finish enemy with a specific type of attack, only use moogles, only use Dragoon classes, solo Marche missions ect...ect...) The missions are presented by a "contact" who only randomly appears cause the Clans don't wish for the others to know they need help. Missions could be about recapturing escaped prisoners, taking out powerful monsters used by enemy forces, or even secret rescue missions. You get very little for completing these missions until a certain point in the game when the Clan you've helped the most "rewards" you under the table with a special item (Spear of Cyril and whatnot...)

It could be used as a means for more hardcore players to get into and I feel it should be limited so it doesn't distract from the main game. Say you write out 3 scenarios for each clan, they are all avalible from the first time you meet the contact but the game should be programmed to have the contact only appear within the normal storyline about 4 or 5 times. So only if you stay consistent would you qualify for the right item. You could also make it a little more lenient if you wish.

I also had another idea for a side quest in the game but I'll probably PM it to you instead as I wish to keep it a surprise. But I want to hear your thoughts on this first.

[Bolivar]

Wow... I remember checking this thread a long time ago and there's certainly a large amount of great ideas floating around here. Sorry about the whole TA2 thing, Skyblade. But you definately have my support and I'd be very interested to see the Final Document. I'd only wish that you guys could actually make this rather than leaving it up to square (although they're infamous for their cease and desist orders).

Props on a Black Mage general, he sounds like a really interesting character. Kanno's had some crazy ideas too, i like the whole POW idea, sounds like you could collect them and have highly prized/sought after POWs...gotta catch 'em all lol.

Anyway i don't got ideas, just support, i admire what you guys are doing, keep up the great work.

edit: actually i do have one idea. I think Famfrit should transform into a motorcycle.

[Skyblade]

The clan contracting could make for some nice sidequests, but there would have to be some story arcs to hold the quests together. (It will also drive me crazy should the game ever actually be released, since it will make gathering every item a real pain [it'd be totally impossible without trading], but, what the hey.)

Not sure I'm gonna go with the POW gathering though. I've already got the wanted system and the jail system, and I don't want to overcomplicate things.

[Wolf Kanno]

Did you have any specific plans for the other clans? Any new additions to the clans? If so, I can write the sidequest scenario's if you want.