Dragon's Requim: Return of the Lunar Dragon

[Crimson Dragon Inc.]

hi everyone this is my first project that i am looking to actually complete, every other project before this one was simply for getting to know the programs


Synopsis: long ago in the world of alicontra, also known as the crossroads, a great war was fought for dominion of the world between the alliance and the fallen ones. the land was left in shambles, and a great scar was left in the wake of the final battle, the heroes of this war the 10 dragons were victorious, each were given dominion over a certain part of the world. the crimson dragon was split into 5 brothers and they ruled the dragonian empire, led by the eldest brother Rudra with the divine dragon Reina as his queen. they ruled the dragons, drachen (basicly dragonic like wolves) and the dragonians.  the Amethyst dragon and the Emerald dragon took dominion over the forgotton lands to hold watch and sentinal of the border with the fallen ones. the blue dragon wyvern, and the black dragon xaron ruled over the human lands of alimarch. the Shadow dragon vanished but is known to pop up randomly to stir up some chaos ageisnt rudra. the the leader of the 10 Bahamut and his mate Shin-Ryu watched over all the world to keep the balance of power. the 10th and final dragon, the lunar dragon was suppose to be given dominion over the kingdoms of the valley, but he was no where to be found, and now after 100,000 years a great evil stired, and chaos returned to the world. 


thats basicly it for the synopsis, dont want to give to much away at the moment, it will get bigger/edited as i work on the game


ok switching it to MV for more support and i need to get my money's worth out of the program.....and i like the SV....


the game in and of itself is a survival rpg, the game is meant to give a level of challange to force the player to plan out how they build their party, properly stock their inventories and to think on their feet in battle


it will have a number of challanging puzzles that include, mazes, remembering lore learned earlier in the quest, pushing objects into order/ placement, and some puzzles inspired by the


games beyond the beyond for PSX, the lufia series, and dragon age


the story is about the main character's journey for the truth of his origins and accepting this truth, and then learning his origins arent who he is, and choosing to change the world for the better


it has a good cast of characters at the moment, i do plan on a lot of character development


max level 9,999


max stats 999,999,999 hp, 99,999 mp, 9,999,999 base stats


every character will have a total of 10 slots to equips skills in and 4 core elements (5 for main hero) along with a weapon that grows in power along side them.


Sigfried: 4 magic, 4 wild, 2 passives                                                                                                    


Core Elements: fire, lightning, holy, spirit, dragon                                                                              


Weapon: Einlanzer - well balanced, absorbs damage dealt as hp,  can be upgraded thru a side quest.


no specialization but has a multible path way of play


warrior youth of unknown origin believe to be part of the legendary lunar wolf tribe, his magical and warrior prowess are above the norm


Elincia: 3 magic, 5 dance, 2 passives                                                                                                    


Core Elements: lightning, wind, holy, spirit                                                                                            


Weapon: Sigfried - high spd, very accurate, hits twice, higher spd = more damage


no magic but has songs and dances to buff and support the party while also debilitating the enemy


eldest duaghter of chief reinbach a half breed wolf and shadow fox, sigfried's wife and loves to dance and has a song voice so amazing some believe its magic


Kilata: 3 magic, 3 hunt, 4 passives                                                                                                        


Core Elements: fire, lightning, wind, spirit                                                                                            


Weapon: Soaring Comet - high crit and damage, very accurate, higher luck and atk = more damage


specializes in dealing damaging crits and AOE attacks, has some skill with healing magic


last pure blood shadow fox, one of the 4 immortal mystic fox tribes, alive. became a hunter to support her family. sister to elincia


Garret: 2 magic, 5 smash, 3 passives                                                                                                          


Core Elements: fire, earth, dark, spirit                                                                                                      


Weapon: Dark Fenrir - high damage, ignores portion of barrier effects, deals more damage to barriers


specializes in high single target damage and barrier bashing


Elincia and Kilata's elder brother, a pure bred wolf who trains every day with Sigfried


Luna: 8 magic, 2 passives                                                                                                                        


Core Elements: fire, lightning, holy, dragon, star                                                                                  


Weapon: Stardust - high magic, strengthens all elements                                                                


Luna's unique equip grimores change the defualt attack command to a spell that is cast for free (including single member/full party heals),


specializes in magic..... in general....


a young maiden at the lunar temple, studied magic for the purpose of serving the dragons, is close to sigfried


Galahad: 3 magic, 4 guardian, 3 passive                                                                                                     


Core Elements: earth, holy, spirit, dragon                                                                                                


Weapon: Silvalance - high def and mdf, generates barrier


specializes in tanking and buffing the party defenses and making barriers


luna's father and shrine guardian of the lunar temple, nicknamed the Adamantium wall for his unbreakable defense


Xero: 3 magic, 3 Fist Art, 4 passive                                                                                                              


Core Elements: lightning, wind, light, dark                                                                                            


Weapon - Blazing Dragon - well balanced, hits three times


specializes in single target combo damage


Sigfried's step brother, a monk who trains his body every day to become heir of the phoenix fist


Sol: 2 magic, 4 dragon, 4 passive                                                                                                              


Core Elements: fire, lightning, earth, dragon                                                                                          


Weapon: Gungnir - high attack and spd, ignore portion of barrier, generates barrier


specializes in slaying enemies by type


luna's elder brother and a dragoon of bahamut


there will also be a limit of 10 consumables in your inventory at anytime, along with 200 armors..... you can collect loot items that can be used as currancy, sold, or made into other items


equipment slots are as follows:


weapon


sheild


head


body


back


hand


legs


unique


amulet


ring 1


ring 2


orb


insignia


tattoo


aura


rune


tips are basicly plan ahead, save often, keep healed and choose skills and equipment carefully


there are gonna be multible differant ways to learn skills including  leveling up, friendship levels, spending jp, gaining through accessories and unique equips (like FF9)


i'm a fan of function over pure stats and power.... but i also know that some prefer pure stats and pure power..... so i implemented skills and gear that favor both sides


also i should mention that i am using img/BMG resources  from vx, vxace, DS, samurai, MV, and XP


anyways thats all for now  wish me luck


special thanks to


Yanfly, Yami, moogle_x and Dekita for plugins and help with getting them to work right


nessy, nio&ichi, akashics,  byBibo and hiddenone for art provided


i will be giving you all a free copy and a unique cameo apperance in the game (with your permission)

working on obtaining the busts and face pics for all 8 characters, and the new sprite for sigfried


character bios, stats, and gear are being rewritten due to new machanics, new art and adding a new character to the mix


this game is just the first installment of a series of games i will be implementing


the game is gonna be long but will be consistant, and remain true to continuity.... i hope that those who play the finished copy enjoy the game through out


we would like to state here that i do need help with mapping and eventing, not help as in someone to do it but someone to like walk me through some of the new complex stuff i never did in previous projects......


also if you know any good tutorial videos and tips and tricks videos involving mapping and eventing.... feel free to post them here that way others who need help can find them aswell.....


Crimson Dragon Inc. youtube channel














skill cool downs and limited skill uses and equip skill disabled for this test


the bosses in this video are watered down for testing and will be several times stronger in final edition

 

[Crimson Dragon Inc.]

Bump (i'm pretty sure its been more then 3 days if not sorry)

 

[Crimson Dragon Inc.]

another bump......hoping for some support with this ever changing and improving game

 

[Gabrelik]

This sounds really interesting so far. Do you have any screenshots, etc, to give an example of how things are shaping up? What kind of support are you looking for?

 

[Crimson Dragon Inc.]

no screen shots yet.....i'm just now working on mapping, then i have to do eventing, then i will post a short video on game play and such.....and i'm mostly looking for sprite and battler support and some plug in support

 

[Gabrelik]

I'm building a project as well, but I'd be happy to share what I've learned so far. I do a lot of battler editing, so if you need any help creating custom battlers from existing resources, I might be able to help! Looking forward to seeing what you come out with.

 

[Crimson Dragon Inc.]

the hard part is the mapping and eventing for me, if i can find sprites/battlers, or edit them myself makes my job easier, now i have to go and find a good way to implement a resource gathering system, make hunting a thing, and then come up with some crafting types

 

[Crimson Dragon Inc.]

a quick bump, anyways anyone know how i can add images from my computer to the original post? or do i have to upload them to a site and then use the link to bring them here?

 

[Crimson Dragon Inc.]

bump

 

[Sol Rising]

a quick bump, anyways anyone know how i can add images from my computer to the original post? or do i have to upload them to a site and then use the link to bring them here?

edit your original post and just upload them on another site, and use the

tag link and it will show automatically when loading the page.

 

[terrorchan]

Eh? Are you not using the default ones? I mean, in Ace they were hideous so I'd understand not using those sprites, but MV's are so adorable. Though that might not be the feel you want for your game. Maybe Holder's battlers would work out?

 

[Crimson Dragon Inc.]

i am using the defualt, but i need alot more, mostly cuase i'm adding in a lot of furry races, dragon races, fey type races, and such and i need battlers/sprites for this, the world the game is set in has a feature if it exists in another world it exists in this world in some way shape or form (of course no copy righted things will be used with out explicit permission)

so i need sprites, battlers and side view battlers for this very reason 

 

[Crimson Dragon Inc.]

Major update and a bump will be adding images soon after posting this

 

[Crimson Dragon Inc.]

major update with pics..... still needing alot of work in some areas..... and i'm bad at art.... guess i might need an artest D:

 

[RPGdoe]

i like the idea would be great to see this released as a full game one day 

 

[Iliketea]

Giving feedback without a demo is hard, do you have one?

If so, I'd be happy do give you some really detailed feedback

 

[hadecynn]

@Einherijar

I agree with Iliketea about having a demo would be easier, but a few things have crossed my mind just by looking at what you're written on paper.

1. Equipment - Knowing that you have at least 7 active characters in your team, are equipment types shared across all characters or are they unique? Having them shared might still be manageable, but if all characters have unique weapons, body, back, rings, whatever, you are implying that there are at least 16 * 7 = 112 categories. Not only is that going to be a balancing nightmare for you as a developer, as a player its also going to be extremely frustrating to navigate through.

2. Parameters - It's nice that you have all these growth parameters for each character, but in what context? Without knowing your damage formula, these numbers can't be interpreted in any meaningful way. Having said that, is the HP growth or HP cap mistyped? The Max HP is 999, but all your characters on average gain around 40 HP (to what I assume is per level), does that mean everyone will be at Max HP by around level 25? Out of a maximum of 50?

3. Pacing - Please carefully consider the pacing of your game. If the active party has seven characters, and you designed the battles so that players need to strategize and think ahead, what does that do to the duration of combat? If it takes even just 3 seconds to input the command for each character, you are already looking at 21 seconds just for the player to finish one "turn". What about the animations? If each animation is 2 seconds, that's another 14 seconds just on the player's side. Keeping in mind that for most traditional SNES-era RPGs, trash enemy battles rarely exceed 10 - 15 seconds in duration. 

Hope this helps. Good luck! =)

 

[Crimson Dragon Inc.]

@Einherijar

I agree with Iliketea about having a demo would be easier, but a few things have crossed my mind just by looking at what you're written on paper.

1. Equipment - Knowing that you have at least 7 active characters in your team, are equipment types shared across all characters or are they unique? Having them shared might still be manageable, but if all characters have unique weapons, body, back, rings, whatever, you are implying that there are at least 16 * 7 = 112 categories. Not only is that going to be a balancing nightmare for you as a developer, as a player its also going to be extremely frustrating to navigate through.

2. Parameters - It's nice that you have all these growth parameters for each character, but in what context? Without knowing your damage formula, these numbers can't be interpreted in any meaningful way. Having said that, is the HP growth or HP cap mistyped? The Max HP is 999, but all your characters on average gain around 40 HP (to what I assume is per level), does that mean everyone will be at Max HP by around level 25? Out of a maximum of 50?

3. Pacing - Please carefully consider the pacing of your game. If the active party has seven characters, and you designed the battles so that players need to strategize and think ahead, what does that do to the duration of combat? If it takes even just 3 seconds to input the command for each character, you are already looking at 21 seconds just for the player to finish one "turn". What about the animations? If each animation is 2 seconds, that's another 14 seconds just on the player's side. Keeping in mind that for most traditional SNES-era RPGs, trash enemy battles rarely exceed 10 - 15 seconds in duration. 

Hope this helps. Good luck! =)

 

unfortunately no demo right now i want to atleast get done with the first dungeon and boss

1. every character has a unique unique and weapon equip set up (this includes sheild due to only one character can equip sheilds) 

2. forgot to edit hp growth, and havnt figured the average for each character yet, i do know that only two characters will reach max hp with out supplemental items, and just so you know atk is always vs defense, and mat is alwasy vs mag attack dont see how they cant be interpreted in a meaning ful way 

3. ATB system from yanfly, so the duration of the battle is determined by how fast the player can decide how to act with each character, also there are no trash mobs in this game, every battle is gonna be a challange, and extreme grinding is gonna be tedious simply cuase of how many battles you will have to fight to level up, also how are you getting 10-15 seconds for trash battles? name one snes rpg where a trash battle is only 10-15 seconds i mean seriously name one snes RPG where the battle is only 10-15 seconds, not a single snes RPG can any battle be completed in that amount of time even with strike all abilities the animation of them makes them much longer then 10-15 seconds.... not to mention there are no trash mobs in snes rpgs unless you go to earlier areas, or extreme level, due to inorder for it to be a trash enemy it has to be defeated in 1-3 attacks from the party before it can deal any damage, and if your at the normal level for the area your in your looking at 2-3 hits per enemy while taking decent amounts of damage, specially in traditional snes rpgs sso i'm not getting the pacing thing your talking about

just to clarify here is a list of every snes era RPG including non SNES rpgs i have played :

burning heros

breath of fire

breath of fire 2

paladins quest

final fantasy 2 (4)

final fantasy 3 (6)

shin migami tensai

arcana

earth bound

eternal filana

lufia and the fortress of doom

lufia 2: rise of the sinastrals

inindo

phantasy star 3

phantasy star 4

super mario RPG

mystic ark

romancing saga 1

romancing saga 2

romancing saga 3

shin migami tensai 2

rudra no hihou

silva saga II

magic knight rayearth

Bards Tale

dragon quest

dragon quest 2

dragon quest 3

trash enemies and quick battles didnt come about til  the PSx era of rpgs though some still stuck to the old formula (special call out to you beyond the beyond) due to the increased amount of gamers for the PSX who didnt want to play games with any sort of actual challange the rpg designers started dumbing down their games to increase the sales of their products (before anyone says anything the keyword in this statement is "actual" which most players who have played and completed inindo and/or paladin's quest will know what i mean (comparing the difficulty of those games on easy mode (thats using cheats) to any current era rpgs' hard or chaos mode, they are harder and thats just battles, with puzzles its even more complicated on the snes era rpgs then current day rpgs))

also current era does not include remakes of snes era games unless they changed one of the core machanics (dragon quest IV DS is included in the current era)

not trying to be rude but the whole pacing thing kinda just made no sense and had false facts

to ILIKETEA i will have a demo ready by christmas, though i personally dont celebrate it i will use it as a christmas gift to the community

to RPGdon the full release should be out sometime late 2016 or mid 2017 not giving a solid date due to not able to predict future road blocks but it should be out sometime between DEC 2016 and july 2017

 

[hadecynn]

2. forgot to edit hp growth, and havnt figured the average for each character yet, i do know that only two characters will reach max hp with out supplemental items, and just so you know atk is always vs defense, and mat is alwasy vs mag attack dont see how they cant be interpreted in a meaning ful way 

Can't be interpreted in the sense that there's no context for me to help give you feedback on play balance. Let's say your damage formula is linear, if I know that, then at least if I see that character A has 10 times the amount of ATK as character B, I can help by suggesting that A might be over-powered because he would do 10 times the amount of damage. But if you were using a logarithmic scale, then the numeric difference in the ATK of the two characters won't be such a big deal in actual play. 

3. ATB system from yanfly, so the duration of the battle is determined by how fast the player can decide how to act with each character, also there are no trash mobs in this game, every battle is gonna be a challange, and extreme grinding is gonna be tedious simply cuase of how many battles you will have to fight to level up, also how are you getting 10-15 seconds for trash battles? name one snes rpg where a trash battle is only 10-15 seconds i mean seriously name one snes RPG where the battle is only 10-15 seconds, not a single snes RPG can any battle be completed in that amount of time even with strike all abilities the animation of them makes them much longer then 10-15 seconds.... not to mention there are no trash mobs in snes rpgs unless you go to earlier areas, or extreme level, due to inorder for it to be a trash enemy it has to be defeated in 1-3 attacks from the party before it can deal any damage, and if your at the normal level for the area your in your looking at 2-3 hits per enemy while taking decent amounts of damage, specially in traditional snes rpgs sso i'm not getting the pacing thing your talking about

By trash mobs, I meant battles that the player doesn't really want to fight (because it's not that interesting, whether because they are overleveled, returning to previous area for side quests, whatever), but are forced fight. Either because of high encounter rates, or because grinding is necessary to progress. Since you didn't mention that your system discouraged people from grinding in your original post, I assumed (to my error) that players needed to fight a lot of encounters throughout your game.

With that in mind, the point I was trying to get across was that with 7 characters, the tactical planning and strategizing you are emphasizing as a feature will take much longer compared to having a party with 3 or 4 characters. This might not be a bad thing; having deep, 30-minute long battles and a system that discourages grinding might be exactly what you are going for, and that's great. But if it's not, if you wanted your battles to be snappy and fast, and more importantly if your audience prefers fast-paced battles instead, then you might have a problem. Hence, I said that you might want to carefully consider how you pace your battles. 

Finally, here's a random video of some guy's SNES FF4 play through of the first area: 



Granted, this is the beginning of the game, but the player is definitely at the "normal" level range. Look at the video time bar and see for yourself how long an average battle takes. Try to imagine if these encounters were twice or three times as long, and if the notion that the average player might be annoyed or frustrated comes to mind, then that is EXACTLY what I am concerned about.

 

[Crimson Dragon Inc.]

for damage formulas... well i'm balancing them to account for one character's massive crit rate and crit damage modifier (min of 37% crit rate and a 355% damage modifier compared to the static 12% crit rate and 157% crit damage modifier held by the next best crit lander) and even lowered the max damage and this character's attack growth, to make sure this one character cant just be a break thru character that does most of the work in battle with no strategy (in fact i greatly nerfed this characters def, mdf, and eva to balance the game even more)

and i guess the fact that i'm using yanfly's armor script would help determine how damage will be presented

also for the video the level range in that area is 1-2, and the party starts over double that, with two heavy hitting warrior types, one who is really fast the other really strong, if the party was at the level range of 1-2 teh battles would be longer and would take more damage also i do believe that is the PSx version of the game (the snes is called FF2 not FF4) which has a much eaiser beginning then the snes version (overall more challanging but easier at the beginning while being harder later)

also a very big drop of wisdom that i must impart:

never assume, and always say exactly what you mean 

and trash mobs are actually fights that are easy, and infact are not forced on you as you can always use the run option if you dont want to fight, a forced fight is a fight that you can not avoid/run from and have to kill all opponents, which are annoyances not trash mobs