A Sequel

[Wolf Kanno]

The question would be "What does Marche and co. believe to be?" Since Ivalice is based off of the past FF games from their memory it would probably be similair to that. But the world isn't completely based on their will. Perhaps the physical manifestation of the books power? So each time a crystal is destroyed either the book loses power or more intriguing would be that the book loses control of it's power and it begins to run wild and no longer works based on the "rules" it seems to have...

[Skyblade]

Ok, dumping the crystal idea. Not that it is a bad idea, but it is too difficult to work into the plot. I don't want to fracture the storyline.

[Wolf Kanno]

Sounds good. Maybe you can use the crystals in a sequel to this sequel

[Fireblade13]

I think that the Warrior and Soldier Class should be combined but the sniper and hunter can remain split. Also we should have a Class dedicated to Crit's .

Oh and what about the Chocobo mounts? I can't remeber getting an answer.

[Skyblade]

Warrior and Soldier are already the same class. But, you might notice that no Bangaa class can be used by any non-Bangaa race, no matter how similar the classes are. So they will remain split.

Hmm... You're right, you didn't get a clear answer on the Chocobo mounts. The truth is that implementing them would likely involve changing the monster capturing back to the way it worked in FFT. That might work, but I'd have to get a few more opinions on whether or not to do that.

Anyway, here's the plot thus far: Our heroes start out in the Clan Center Headquarters in Cyril, discussing the attacks, and the collapse of the judge system. Ezel and Babus decide to work on a way to cancel the antilaws (despite Ezel's personal feelings against them [that part has been so much fun to script]). Shara and Ritz go back to clan Ritz, in order to ensure that there are as many forces as possible availible to defend Ivalice. The reason why so many defenders will be needed soon becomes clear: Defending the borders will not stop airships. The first battle is an attack against the Clan Center, and your clan for that battle is Marche, Montblanc, Ritz, Shara, Cid, Ezel, and Babus. You may notice that there are more than 6 people in this battle. You're right. Since the first battle here contains all of the secret characters from the last game (and Cid, Ezel, and Babus's abilities have been spruced up some [and they can jobchange now]), this battle is fairly easy. After this battle, those secret characters leave you, and you are left to organize the defense with the basic forces of Clan Ultima (or whatever you name your clan, as long as it is not Nutsy). The Area Freed missions from FFTA return, this time in the form of large scale engagements with Goltana forces (at least, for the normal areas. The cities have their own special sidequest...). The story quests start out as defensive engagements all over Ivalice, including an airship battle and a naval landing in Baguba Port. Your first Jagd fight comes in much earlier than it did in FFTA, and leads to speculation that the anti-laws that are causing all the problems may not be widespread enough for their entire army to use. Nevertheless, to win the war, Ivalice will have to go on the offensive...

I'm not going to show the script, because it is long, unnecessary, and I'm too lazy. If you guys want to put some scripting ideas up here, I'll pay attention to them, but I'm not going to stick my own script up here.

Going back to a technical aspect: I've switched the Judge Law abilities a bit. When fighting in lawful places in Ivalice, the Judge abilities will cost very little MP. However, when engaging far outside the normal range of Ivalice's laws, the MP cost will steeply rise, so you will have you use your judges well near the end of the game.

[Wolf Kanno]

Thanks for the update.

Sounds good so far. I would love the full script but I understand where you are coming from about not posting it. I was curious if you were going to use the Moogle and his two henchmen though...

As for Chocobo mounts. I would love to see them. The story is more epic so it would be cool to watch Marche leading his troops into battle with a Chocobo.

[Skyblade]

Thanks for the update.

Sounds good so far. I would love the full script but I understand where you are coming from about not posting it. I was curious if you were going to use the Moogle and his two henchmen though...

As for Chocobo mounts. I would love to see them. The story is more epic so it would be cool to watch Marche leading his troops into battle with a Chocobo.

I would actually really like to use the Moogle and his henchmen. It's a neato idea. Since it is the prelude, it doesn't have to fit in much at all with the main plot, so work the idea up some more. Give me the personalities of our pom-pom sporting villain and his henchmen, and the storyline that he'll be in. If it's enough fun, I'll turn them into recurring characters in sidequests. Just a little too busy to do it myself at the moment.

Airships are going to be a much bigger part of this game. I had my map of the continent drawn out, but the placement of the countries did make conflicts between Goltana and Ivalice a little difficult, as the two countries did not share a huge border. Airships solve this problem, allowing troops to be dropped anywhere in Ivalice. Luckily, you will be able to get Nono to make you an airship of your own so that you can go on the offensive against the vile invaders.

Well, I'm willing to put the Chocobos in, but I'll have to shift around the Capture ability and the Monster Bank. It will mean being able to capture more than 1 monster of each type, so that you can collect Chocobo mounts for everyone. However, if we are going to be able to capture more than one, I could give you the option of sending 1 to the Monster Bank for your Morphers, and saving the rest as mounts/teammates, the way they were in FFT.

[Wolf Kanno]

I'll get to work on that for you.

[rajzin]

you could have a stable system? like animals caught are sent to a stable where you could rent out stalls, and you may rent out special stall where monster spirits are collected for morphers? sorry i haven't been posting my comp has been awal >.<

[Skyblade]

you could have a stable system? like animals caught are sent to a stable where you could rent out stalls, and you may rent out special stall where monster spirits are collected for morphers? sorry i haven't been posting my comp has been awal >.<

Well, I think I'll stick with the Monster Bank for the Morpher's monsters. But I'll consider the best way to handle monsters for mounts and other such things.

Of course, a chocobo class will have to be introduced, since there wasn't one in the original (in fact, the only chocobos that appeared onscreen were ridden by Judges).

[Wolf Kanno]

Piette, a moogle trying his best to become "THE GREATEST BANDIT IN THE WORLD" He has a major inferiority(sp?) complex cause he tries to be bad person but he's actually a pretty damn cute moogle (I imagine Doned always hugging him everytime he see's him.) Even the usually cold and calcualting Viera can't resist his cuteness...

Piette is a Monster Tamer (He controls monsters but his class would be more like theif with animist sub class) In his childhood, he was always overshadowed by his "perfect" brother. His brother became a great engineer but Piette had no similiar talents. No matter how hard he tried, his brother would always surpass him. Finally, he turned to the "dark side" of society and got into a whole mess of trouble. Eventually he was captured and escaped a serious punishment thanks to his brother speaking on his behalf. Piette was humiliated and left his home to become a bandit. He felt being a criminal was his forte and set off to become a feared bandit of great renown, so even his own brother would have to bow down and acknowledge his greatness.

Piette is a capable bandirt cause he befriends local monsters and uses them as his henchmen. His two most valuable companions are a Bomb (Biggs) and a Goblin (Wedge). Both of them do their best to make sure that Piette doesn't get into too serious of trouble. For them, this is harmless fun. Piette, unfortunately isn't too bright about his plans. He tends to build overly elaborate plans and always seems to create greater goals than he is capable of, but this would explain why his minions stay with him. They admire his tenacity and ambition. Piette is hardly as evil as he thinks he is and tends to do more good than evil (think of him as a cross between Laharl from Disgaea and The Monarch from Venture Bros.)

His first hair brain scheme when he first comes to Ivalice is to pretend to be an invading army in hopes of frightening the locals into submission. He does not realize that a real war is about to start nor does he realize that the people of Ivalice are comprised of the battle loving Clans...

Hope this helps.

[Skyblade]

Biggs, Wedge, and Piette... That sounds familiar... Got it! Vicks, Wedge, and Piette: The three look alikes from the "horror" show in Chrono Trigger!

Hee. Fun characters. This will definitely work, and these guys will be recurring villains. I don't think they should ever join you, but you won't actually defeat them either. They'll just pop up from time to time to help (or hinder) you.

[Wolf Kanno]

Happy to see you caught the reference

I agree, they should be minor comic relief that you run into time and again, but never join.

[Fireblade13]

Ahhhh... Yeah for Chocobo goodness.

Making a riding class could be complicating but the main point is speed but hindrance on attack.

I would not go to large scale 10v. 10 tops

[Skyblade]

8-10 is about what I was thinking for the player's max forces. Of course, that would only be for certain missions, not all of them. But why limit the enemies to that number? Clans are certainly abundant in Ivalice, but they are still outnumbered by an opposing army. There will likely be several engagements where the enemy has more forces than you will ever be able to bring into a single engagement. I have also considered having some missions where the enemy will be able to send a messenger to call for reinforcements, though I am not sure I will use that one.

The seams will make a reappearance in the game. The crystals were built into the seams. While the crystals may be no more, the seams still exist. After the first few battles, Marche will notice a seam, the first one he has seen since the original game. In the first game, he always related the presence of a seam to the presence of a crystal, but, with all the crystals destroyed, he knows that there must be some deeper meaning behind the distortions. We'll learn a little more about them from Babus, and continue to learn more as the game progresses.

Sorry for the lack of updates, but you would not believe how hectic my life has been lately. More is still to come.