RMMV Blades of Twilight [Tactical RPG]

[alice_gristle]

@Frostorm, I like the idea of lightning magic being unpredictable. It'd be cool to have a mechanic where your magic can backfire and you shoot lightning bolts randomly across the field, while depleting all your MP... but then again, I think I'd hate it if the game punished me like that. Soo, without being able to play and see fo' myself, your ideas seem cool.

Edit: I have no idea why a Nephilim would want to hook up w/ a Trogg or Ogre... But hey, to each their own, right? Maybe some of them got bored at some point in their immortal lives lol.

Shrek. Anyway, I like yo evolutionary tree, 'cuz everything seems to be made up portions of "good" and "evil", like mixtures of holy and profane... and I like how yo humans are a mixture of, uhh, dwarves and elves. Even if I'm not a fan of traditional renditions of "races", yours seem reasonably cool. Is this gonna have story significance, or is just for flavour and lore?

 

[Frostorm]

Line of Sight mechanics working, yay! I'm also glad the trees are on TOP of the units, phew.

Note to self: I really need to redo/improve the layout of the status window (bottom left).

Re: racial significance...it's mostly lore, but will have some impact on the story since most of those races will make appearances throughout the game.

Edit: Still a bit torn whether I should use the light/detailed or dark/plain treetops:

 

[Pootscooter]

@Frostorm I think I like the dark treetops more...

 

[Frostorm]

Desmodor Empire
Structure: Oligarchy (Aristocracy)
Desmodor is a country ruled by Vampires. With strict divisions of class dictated by birth, members of the elite class, henceforth called “Nobles”, rule its people with an iron fist. To be a Noble is to be a Vampire, and vice versa. Desmodor is divided into several provinces, each ruled by its own “House”, which is a family of Vampires who can trace their lineage back to a common sire. The various Houses sometimes consider each other rivals and other times form secret alliances with one another, but are kept in check and held together by the Highlord. The Highlord is always the single most powerful, and usually oldest, Vampire currently alive and is usually an Original. This head of state position is mostly symbolic but is necessary to ensure stability between the various Houses.

Key Positions:

• Highlord – A figurehead position held by the single strongest/oldest Vampire within Desmodor. Their purpose is to ensure stability and unity between the various Houses. Thus, the Highlord doesn’t actually involve themselves in governing the country, except for being present for various international affairs.
• Lord – The leader of a House and typically the sire of the other members of the House, or in rare cases, the eldest direct offspring if the original sire is deceased. Most of the political power within the country resides with the Lords.
• Noble – These are the elite class of Desmodor’s society. They range from old to young, strong to weak, but are all Vampires or at least a Dhampir in rare cases. The House they are loyal to depends on which sire-line they were sired from.
• Commoner – The majority of the population (90%+) are commoners, but this does not necessarily mean they are poor, though they often are. In Desmodor, a commoner is simply someone of "low birth" (i.e., Human). They could be farmers, craftsmen, traders, etc… Their standards of living vary depending on which province they reside in. This largely depends on how benevolent the House that rules over them is.

 

[alice_gristle]

Commoner – The majority of the population (90%+) are commoners, but this does not necessarily mean they are poor, though they often are. In Desmodor, a commoner is simply someone of "low birth" (i.e., Human). They could be farmers, craftsmen, traders, etc… Their standards of living vary depending on which province they reside in. This largely depends on how benevolent the House that rules over them is.

Sounds cool! What do the commoners think about their lords, though? I mean, the vampires feed from this lot, right? Are they all living in terror, or is there like... I dunno... a sub-class of commoners who are offered up to the Nobles as food? Or is it like, "Ooh, it's such an honour to be food for the baron!" I mean, I guess it'd depend on what kinda experience it is to be, uhh... bitten.

 

[Frostorm]

Sounds cool! What do the commoners think about their lords, though? I mean, the vampires feed from this lot, right? Are they all living in terror, or is there like... I dunno... a sub-class of commoners who are offered up to the Nobles as food? Or is it like, "Ooh, it's such an honour to be food for the baron!" I mean, I guess it'd depend on what kinda experience it is to be, uhh... bitten.

It kind of depends on the province I guess. Here are a few examples:

Province A is ruled by a very sadistic Lord, so naturally, the commoners live in constant fear. Commoners are chosen at random to be sacrificed as food at regular intervals. The Nobles may harvest more or less people depending on simply their mood or if their constituents have been "misbehaving" lol. Those selected to be food are basically facing a death sentence since the Nobles here prefer to drain their victims dry (it's not good to waste food, after all lol). Therefore, the Nobles in this province basically see the commoners as nothing more than cattle.

Province B is ruled by a more benevolent Lord who calls for volunteers. The volunteers, in this case, are not killed, but simply fed upon to a certain extent. The logic behind this approach is that the blood of willing individuals tastes better than those who are in a state of fear/anxiety. This is because the Human body will release different hormones depending on their mental state. Generally speaking, a positive disposition correlates with better tasting blood. On one extreme would be a Human that's in love or infatuated vs the other end of the spectrum where a Human is in a state of peril, facing inevitable doom. So in this province, the commoners may actually consider it an honor to be selected. These volunteers may even be given preferential treatment, such as better food, shelter, and etc. So it's kind of like upper-middle-class vs lower-middle-class of the other commoners.

Province C might be ruled by a more "efficient" Lord. In this case, all the commoners are called together to offer a small portion of their blood. Perhaps they are gathered in the town square every now and then and told to spill some of their blood into a single shared container/cauldron/barrel. This is basically akin to "taxing" the people.

Province D could be ruled by a Lord who's House enjoys "the hunt". Therefore, no warning is given as to when they decide to harvest. Instead, the commoners live in perpetual fear as they are hunted down during the night at random.

 

[Frostorm]

Ok, so I'm assembling the monsters for a cave dungeon but I'm stumped on what to name this guy:

It's some sort of weird flying creature lol. Definitely not a Bat though cuz that's what this is:

Edit: 2 more re-skins for the Damp Caverns monsters!

Btw, is this an attractive art style in general?

 

[TheGentlemanLoser]

I think this thread is probably long enough to also qualify as a design document. Like, it's hard to imagine reading ALL of that text w/o being involved in some way in developing this game.

 

[Frostorm]

New command UI! I love this circular format, it saves a lot of screen real-estate and just looks more aesthetically pleasing overall:

I think this thread is probably long enough to also qualify as a design document. Like, it's hard to imagine reading ALL of that text w/o being involved in some way in developing this game.

Yea, I gotta redo the 1st post and reorganize everything. Possibly move it over to the Games In Development subforum as well.

 

[TheGentlemanLoser]

'sup with the bugs...bug monsters...monster bugs??? in the top right corner

 

[Frostorm]

'sup with the bugs...bug monsters...monster bugs??? in the top right corner

Oh, that's the turn order thingy. The one w/ the blank in the square is supposed to be the player's avatar, but since I'm using a template character right now, it's empty...for now. The current/active battler's avatar is shifted down a bit to denote whose turn it currently is. Most of the UI still needs more work, in general. I especially need to redo the status box in the bottom left. Thanks for having my back in that other thread btw, I really appreciate it. ^.^

Edit: Hmm, I'm guessing the confusion was because the Worm is barely visible on the map. It's standing next to the player unit but covered up by the circular command UI. Guess this just means I need to tweak things for more clarity, heh.

Here's what the colors mean:

Enemy unit


Friendly unit


Active unit