Rules Ideas That Don’t Deserve Their Own Thread

[MrZalgo]

An idea for a project I would make in the future would be titled "The Lost Chronicles of Ash." It'd be a game with a dark storyline with some deep philosophical subject matter. (Kinda like the old Xeno games) The game takes place in the world of Xanthra, whose lands are inhabited by the Neftherians: Humanoid beings whose soul is mixed with the ashen blood within them. The main protagonist is "Saryth." a crusader who was excommunicated for spoiler reasons. Joining her is the mysterious "Dante," a Neftherian whose left arm is an ashen replacement of the original arm.

I would like opinions on this story setup, so that I can figure out how best to handle a deep story when the time comes for me to develop it.

 

[gigaswardblade]

its been over a week now, and i feel i have no choice but to ask this: can someone please give me feedback on my last few posts? i dont wanna come off as needy for attention, i just know that if i dont ask for feedback, then nobody is gonna give me feedback. im completely alone on my project at the moment so i really need other peoples feedback on my game. ill put the posts i want criticized here:

Spoiler

i'm gonna do something a little different this time. instead of character critiques, i'm gonna ask for a landscape critique. by that i mean the way my world map looks. i've changed the layout quite a lot of times over the past few months, so not many things you see here will stay the same. i cut out a few structures and islands that you don't visit in this game in order to not clutter the map with stuff you dont visit. i'll go over the names of the provinces and who or what lives in them, along with the region's dungeon (if they have one). ignore the blurriness of the pictures. the pics were too big to post without shrinking them down, and i dont have photoshop yet so i had to use MSpaint.


this is riften:





and these are the boarders:




1: merigate (mare-ih-gate) is the starting region for party 1. its residence are mostly humans, but there are a lot of untamed wilds around the edges of the communities. the biggest city in the world is located at the south west coast of this region. this is also the secret home to the beastkin. they live in a secluded kingdom near the border that is engulfed in fog. the only way you could get around is by following a scent trail. the kingdom it's self isn't that foggy. there are quite a few relics from a past war that are still left lying around to be explored. dungeon: hidden stronghold

2: heldrich (hel-drich) is a dense forest area filled with hostile wildlife. the half or the region closer to merigate is inhabited by the ahn'tlo which are a race of human shaped animals. the forest is considered a sacred place where only those who they deem worthy can enter. deeper into the woods live a race of monstrous, un evolved animal people called the ferals who are a constant threat to the ahn'tlo. the woods themselves have strange mutated plant life that range from gigantic flowers to massive root towers that are made of stone. the half that's closer to the akinomori region, however, is much more hospitable. i haven't decided who owns that castle yet. dungeon: stoneroot citadel.

3: presko (press-co) is a militarized region owned by the R.D.C. (riften defense corps) which is mostly considered the human's army. other races can join, but its mostly an army of humans. they use a mixture of swords and machine guns. their job is to defend riften from danger. there also lies the ruins of a city where horrible magic experiments were conducted and almost caused the end of all life. the whole city was lowered into the ground by the goddess so nothing could escape into the rest of the world. there is also a hidden temple in the woods, and a smeltery thats on the other side of the crevice that is half owned by presko and halu vaans. the other parts of the region are mostly untouched. there is no dungeon.

4: alsidia (al-sid-ee-ah) is the most racial friendly region in the continent. the city is full of many different races and cultures. buy that doesn't mean that this region is completely safe. there's an untamed mountain range that looms over the region. it is unknown why there are so many orcs in this region. (until later in the game when it turns out that the orcs made their fortress in the mountain. caves and ruins are hidden throughout the wooded areas of the region. there is also a really strange building near the giant wall that is rumored to be a link to another world. there is a building near the edge of the woods that i was thinking of removing. dungeon: orcan fortress.

5: halu vaans (hah-loo-vans) is the starting region for party 2. it's ruled by the light elves and is home to many magical creatures. that's it really. dungeon: the hydro complex.

6: gyagyo (gee-ah-gee-oh) it's... uh... it has a savannah? and a garden maze for a dungeon? ok, i got nothing for this region. i actually had it removed for a short while, but i wanted all 3 parties to explore an even number of regions, so i brought it back. dungeon: gracia's garden.

7: xio (jhee-oh) is a vast desert full of dangerous monsters. this region is home to the dark elves and the sanders which are a race of sand people and are mostly all male. there's a volcanic region near the top of this region. there is no dungeon in this region.

8: aggron (ag-ron-) is a treacherous frontier mountain range. the only people that live there are the halflings. they moved there to escape the war between the light and dark elves that happened years ago. there's also a kind of wild west town thats in front of the mountain range. dungeon: aggron's inferno. there is also a power plant located inside a valley next to aggron that supplies power to the entire continent.

9: akinomori (ah-kee-no-more-ee) is the starting region for party 3. the whole region is full of trees that are always in autumn. it is home to the oni, which are a race of monsters that have become to look more human like over a long period of time. this was where the original orcs were first made, though its mostly ogres that run amok in this region. the other orc types have moved all around the world. it is also home to the tengu, which are a race that originated from fallen angels. the worlds biggest technology manufacturer and scientific research lab named "kolcade industries" is located in this region. your party goes there in order to stop a corrupt ceo from messing with a scientific anomaly that could destroy the world. there is also a dead forest filled with youkai. dungeons: cretin's hideout and kolcade industries.

10: vensil (ven-sil) is a big open plains region. there are a few mountains and a second frontier that hold a lot of secrets from ancient times. there is no dungeon.

11: kamborion (kam-bor-ee-on) is an alpine region that is home to a type of crystal called "kamborionite" (or should it be kamborium?) which is a crystal that does a lot of things like make its own energy and making for powerful weapons and armor. the sprites, which are a race of people with bug wings and antennas, used to protect the forests and wildlife has now become more industrialized and have built a city that has so much pollution in the air that its blocked out the sun. they'd cut down entire forests just to find even a tiny bit of kamborionite. there is a swamp full of toxic marsh that is home to giant crabs insert crab people reference here. there is also a dark and creepy mansion on top of the mountain side to the right that is rumored to be home to a vampire. dungeon: maccauley manor
ps, that giant person standing in the field is a robot and will be saved for another time.

12: elmaison (el-may-sun) is the snowy region.

13: okipali (oh-kee-pah-lee) is an underwater region that is filled with many reefs and sunken vessels to be explored there are these people called the sahuagin which are the fish people of course. all 5 of the egg born races are cursed to be mindless puppets for an overmind because of an ancient being that killed the sacred beasts. (ill probably explain that later if i remember) they live in a castle thats build inside of a trench. there are also other creatures like the tentin, which are octopuses that can walk on land and carry tridents and will attack anything that isnt an aquatic creature. you are able to go there after party 1 gets this spell that allows them to walk and breath underwater. dungeon: abyssal castle

ps i changed the name since the first post.

14: prehisto (pree-hiss-toe) island is a secluded island that is full of dinosaurs and reptiles alike. the island is roughly in the shape of a pterodactyls head. this is where the reptilians, another egg race that is cursed to be monsters, make their home. the island is covered in vast jungles. party 2 finds that this is where the reptilians live and decide to attack them head on since the reptilians are whats causing the most problems for party 2. dungeon: prehisto island.

15: beeden (bee-den) is the land of fairy tails and mystical beasts. most of the classic fantasy creatures like dragons, centaurs, gryphons, meducas, and others stuff. there is a race of insect people called insectoids which are the 3rd cursed egg race. though in this land, some of the sub races have been broken of the curse which gives party 3 hope that the ancient curse can be broken. the most powerful of the sub races are the beek, which are like greek/roman empire type bees who have enslaved the antisians, which are ants. there are also some other races of insectoids that dont live there like the beetalians which are beetles, the motholans which are moths, and my personal favorite; the skeeters which are mosquitoes. the reason for going to this area is to open a portal to a place called asrina which is located inside ancient ruins reminiscent of fantasy rpg games of old. the portal doesnt open since they dont have everything that they need. dungeon: sanctum of the eyeglass.

16: asrina (as-ree-nah) is the heaven type area in the game. there are many floating island and clouds that you can walk on. the realm is ruled by enis, the goddess of light. you visit this area after the 3 parties have joined together and have the correct items in order to enter. they need the help of the goddess to stop the villain of the game from turning the world into a baron wasteland of death and fear. the goddess informs them that they also need the help from the other goddess who rules over nagara. there is no dungeon.

17: nagara (nah-gah-rah) is the hell type area in the game. the whole place is completely underground and has a ton of lava and demons everywhere. the whole party needs to fight their way through a never ending amount of demons to get to the throne of arol, the goddess of darkness. she decides to help them and goes on to tell them about the true villain of the game, who has been using the before thought main villain as a pawn. there is no dungeon.

18: drekkulaish (dreck-you-laysh) is a wasteland full of undead. this is where the final battle takes place. the main villain sends out everything he's got to stop the mega party from beating him. they do get to his castle and lay waste to his army of elemental creations and risen dead. they reach him and have an all out battle. after defeating him, he goes on to explain that drekkulaish was once his home, and was full of life. until these monsters called the defyers tainted it to the point of no return. he was told by the true main villain that his home could be saved if he helped him. but before they could finish him off, he gets taken away by a giant undead monster. he later realizes that he was being used, and that the real main villain was never gonna bring his home back. all he wanted was to use him to do all the work for him so he could take revenge on the ones that imprisoned him in nagara. the old mail villain was then left to die, but was able to escape and helps the heroes in the true final battle. dungeon: drekkulaish kingdom.

19: the farlands is an after game area in which you meet these drow like people that are referred to as the farlanders. they actually never bothered to give their own race a name, since they just considered themselves to be "just people". the farlands are a mysterious land that is really far away from riften. the lands are impossible to explore, since any progress you make in the farlands basically sends you back to where you started, no matter how far you travel. there is a temple that has the hardest boss in the game waiting at the bottom of a gauntlet of enemies you have fought along your journeys. dungeon: temple of the farlands.

20 i guess: there are a few extra zones and dimensions that i decided to put here instead of dedicating separate numbers to. the first is called the stardust dimension which is pretty much outer space. this is where ancient beings that are higher than even the 2 goddesses dwell. at this point of the game, you should be strong enough to defeat literal gods with ease. there are walkways that are surrounded with atmosphere and gravity so that any mortal that is lucky enough to end up there doesnt instantly die. the god of gods sits at a throne at the end of a great pathway, awaiting a challenger to make it that far. there are some additional structures floating around. like the thunder palace, which is kinda a mini dungeon. you dont fully explore it, but you do get to see a good portion of what you need to see. there are these doors that lead to the other god like figures places of being. one of them leads you to the tutorial zone that you have the option of doing at the beginning of the game.

there is another dimension called the anomaly, which takes random stuff from all of time and space and mashes it all together in this weird and illogical world. there were experiments done that caused 6 anomaly pillars to appear throughout riften. interaction with the anomaly will result in horrific mutations. the only one who has ever explored the anomaly and survived was one of the super gods. they give you the ability to explore these areas and destroy the source of the corruption. once destroyed, you are instantly booted out into the normal world and the anomaly is gone. if you try to touch the anomaly before you get this ability, it will result in an instant game over.

i also thought of a shadow realm, but i think ill save it for another time.

ps i haven't thought of a reason for the wall and crevice's existence, other than to temporarily separate the 3 parties. but i will some day.

-golgas

i'm finally back with more character bios. i haven't been that in the mood for them recently. but now i'm ready to return to making them once again. ps, im no longer obsessed with starcraft 2 in case you were wondering.



name: camino yiannos (kah-mee-no yee-an-ohs)
race: human
age: 18
class: templar
element: power

camino is the teacher of the party. shes runs her family's dojo in the alsidia region. when training others, she acts more strict. but shes much more laid back when outside of training. despite her young age, she was able to master 10 different fighting styles. her personal favorite is the templar's fighting style, which is the use of massive weapons to crush enemies. shes first met after the first act when mystia and pijami are bringing konai, leori, and ciel to the dojo so they can learn how to fight better. they're surprised to see that shes much younger than they expected. later on, leori develops a crush for her. she joins the party when they're bringing riano back to her kingdom.

camino has short brown hair and auburn eyes. shes about the same height as leori. she wears armor made from... uh... metal. she has a long cape thats black on the outside and red on the inside. she has a couple of other weapons on her person, like a knife on her lower back, and a pistol on her hip. when outside of battle, she wears regular clothing.

camino uses giant weapons like axes, hammers, and great swords. her element is power, which is the strongest form of magic strength wise. she does like to use some random other moves from different fighting styles, like pulling out a gun or tossing a knife at her enemies. she also knows a few powerful spells off the bat. one of her special abilities is called "thrashing" in which she charges at an enemy and starts to wail on them.

extra note: sorry this one was really short. i'll be honest, shes one of my least favorites character wise. i was thinking of just making her an npc, but shes kinda important to the story seeing as shes the teacher and all. let me know if you have any ideas on how she can be more interesting of a character. also she technically joins the party before riano does. i've had that part of my character list mixed up for so long that i forgot about it until of recent. by the way, yes, i did name her after a planet from star wars. though its spelled with a k instead of a c.



name: elissa frein (eh-lee-sah frayn)
race: human
age: 15
class: cleric
element: light

elissa is just an ordinary girl who lives in an ordinary village. she was the first party member to meet konai. konai saved her from a group of thugs on her way home from school. the villagers have been dealing with goblins that moved into the forest next to them coming out at night stealing their stuff. one such item was an amulet that's been in elissas family for sentries. when konai entered the forest and beat all the goblins, he found said amulet and kept it for himself and pretends he didnt see it when elissa asks. later on, elissa has a dream where she is visited by one of the 7 seitries, which are these god like beings, that she needs to take it back from konai, since the amulet curses whoever isnt a part of the frein family. and that its important to revealing the way to all the elemental orbs that have been scattered around the world.

she goes to the dojo to find konai to inform him that she needs it back. at this point in the story, the main villain isnt assured quite yet for party 1, but they do know that they'll need as many elements as they can get so they can stop them. so they convince her to join their party. its later revealed that her family, along with 2 others, were guardians of the seitries and were given these amulets in order to use the powers of the seitries. she becomes friends with konai, and helps him see that there's more to life than just money. she often feels like shes the only normal member of the party, seeing as though everyone else has some ridiculous thing that they do.

elissa has emerald green eyes and long blonde hair that is cut straight across for both her bangs and at the bottom of her hair. she wears a light green dress that has a gold around her waste. maybe something on her sholders. shes around the same height as konai.

she uses light magic for healing allies and eliminating darkness. she holds out her amulet in battle to draw energy from it to increase her spells power. she doesn't have any special moves yet.

extra note: im not quite sure i gave enough info about her personality. shes the normal girl in a sea of oddities was what i was trying to get across.


-shmigas

 

[Martin_Arcainess]

A link to your posts would help

 

[gigaswardblade]

A link to your posts would help

click on the spoiler and you'll see the 2 i want to be criticized. i did edit them a bit so not to clutter the post with unnecessary stuff.

 

[trouble time]

@gigaswardblade Well I already responded to one of those two posts, so now I'll respond to the other

Camino is a Templar? Ha I scoff, the Templar order required all members have beards. Joking about the scoffing, I don't really care its just a trivia thing I like to mention. Other than that, I notice that you say you don't like her too much, what don't you like about her. She seems like a perfectly fine character to me.

As for Elissa I'm not too fond of "straight man" type characters personally, I do understand the idea behind it, but if your characters are different from one another one can play the straight man for the others in certain situations, or you can have the "Straight man" position represented by another nonsense idea instead and theres a ton of ways to go from here. I dunno.

 

[gigaswardblade]

@gigaswardblade Well I already responded to one of those two posts, so now I'll respond to the other

Camino is a Templar? Ha I scoff, the Templar order required all members have beards. Joking about the scoffing, I don't really care its just a trivia thing I like to mention. Other than that, I notice that you say you don't like her too much, what don't you like about her. She seems like a perfectly fine character to me.

As for Elissa I'm not too fond of "straight man" type characters personally, I do understand the idea behind it, but if your characters are different from one another one can play the straight man for the others in certain situations, or you can have the "Straight man" position represented by another nonsense idea instead and theres a ton of ways to go from here. I dunno.

the reason i dont like camino that much is because i cant think of any other personality traits other than "serious master when training and more relaxed when not training".

as for elissa, i was originally gonna have her be the shy priest girl, but then i thought that shed be too much like asia from highschool dxd (her design was based off of her after all) so i thought id make her more like lucy from fairy tail or something.

 

[Lyseth]

What so you guys think about the concept where if a boss beats you, before going into "game over" they say something like "A pathetic welp like you should know their place", how do you guys feel about antagonistic villains?

 

[trouble time]

the reason i dont like camino that much is because i cant think of any other personality traits other than "serious master when training and more relaxed when not training".

as for elissa, i was originally gonna have her be the shy priest girl, but then i thought that shed be too much like asia from highschool dxd (her design was based off of her after all) so i thought id make her more like lucy from fairy tail or something.

If you'd like some suggestions I can give a few. Granted I'm stupid and weird, but I can try, sometimes hearing bad suggestions help the mind reach better ideas.

 

[mlogan]

@Lyseth I've merged your topic with this one.

 

[FuryDr00d]

What so you guys think about the concept where if a boss beats you, before going into "game over" they say something like "A pathetic welp like you should know their place", how do you guys feel about antagonistic villains?

Some games do that. They can cause a lot of rage or wonder. Use it wisely

 

[gigaswardblade]

Some games do that. They can cause a lot of rage or wonder. Use it wisely

beware fool, the eye of the yiga!

GAME OVER

If you'd like some suggestions I can give a few. Granted I'm stupid and weird, but I can try, sometimes hearing bad suggestions help the mind reach better ideas.

i'd like that. i'll be honest, i'm not too great when it comes to giving characteristics beyond tropes. i'm more fond of making their designs than anything else.

 

[JayJayIsNotAJetPlane]

This has probably been done before on many games but let me explain the main mechanic of my game.

There's Player A, B, and C (Saying this to avoid spoiling my own game before the demo releases) and all of them are related to the game and have huge influences upon the story.

After the opening cutscene you get to play as Player A, who is a detective, in this murder mystery game.

Now this is where it gets interesting, and I go very slightly off-topic for a moment.

You know how plays have Act 1:Scene 1 etc etc? Well imagine the same thing for the game, except once you beat Act 1:Scene 1 with Player A, you don't move on Act 1:Scene2, no instead you get jumped into being Player B, the side-kick, and you go through the same story, but with different things happening. Once complete you then move on to Act 1:Scene 2.

Player C, who is important but won't say why, will have parts like this but only every 5 scenes, or maybe every 5 acts depending on how short/long the game is.

I'm just not even sure if an idea like this would be of interest to the RPG Community.

 

[EpicFILE]

This has probably been done before on many games but let me explain the main mechanic of my game.

There's Player A, B, and C (Saying this to avoid spoiling my own game before the demo releases) and all of them are related to the game and have huge influences upon the story.

After the opening cutscene you get to play as Player A, who is a detective, in this murder mystery game.

Now this is where it gets interesting, and I go very slightly off-topic for a moment.

You know how plays have Act 1:Scene 1 etc etc? Well imagine the same thing for the game, except once you beat Act 1:Scene 1 with Player A, you don't move on Act 1:Scene2, no instead you get jumped into being Player B, the side-kick, and you go through the same story, but with different things happening. Once complete you then move on to Act 1:Scene 2.

Player C, who is important but won't say why, will have parts like this but only every 5 scenes, or maybe every 5 acts depending on how short/long the game is.

I'm just not even sure if an idea like this would be of interest to the RPG Community.

I like it.
So the first act is basically the same story, being told in 2 different perspectives right?
And the third character will unfold bigger mysteries behind the scenes.
His story is some kind of a recap of the first 5 chapters, being told in a very different light.

I think that's gonna be pretty interesting.

 

[JayJayIsNotAJetPlane]

I like it.
So the first act is basically the same story, being told in 2 different perspectives right?
And the third character will unfold bigger mysteries behind the scenes.
His story is some kind of a recap of the first 5 chapters, being told in a very different light.

I think that's gonna be pretty interesting.

You think so? O.O

Don't get too excited now. Just because one person likes your idea doesn't mean it's good.

I'm just working on getting a demo that's atleast longer than twenty-minutes long, just to get people interested. It's amazing someone understood my idea, and thought it was cool.

 

[EpicFILE]

@JayJayIsNotAJetPlane:
Non-linear storyline always make me interested. If you can execute it properly, it'll be awesome.
And I love detective stories.

 

[trouble time]

@gigaswardblade One thing that can bring a lot of character is how they act "off duty" compared to how they act on duty. While a character probably shouldn't suddenly become an entirely different person, there definitely should be many sides to them. You mentioned that Camino is more relaxed when not training, but its important to hash out to what degree and how she shows it. For example she could be self-conscious about how serious she can be and thinks, correctly or incorrectly, the rest of the party doesn't like her much so she socializes a little strangely cause she's trying to be "cool". Naturally, you should also consider other characters reactions to the character as the dynamics of character relationships are probably the most interesting thing in most character based scenes. The thoughts behind a characters actions are also interesting, as most actions are preceded by cognition. Characters can have the same traits for completely different reasons. I can go on, but I think this is a good start.

 

[gigaswardblade]

@trouble time she acts more friendly when shes not training her students. shes serious when training because she wants her students to succeed but she tries not to go overboard. theres 1 scene where camino is training riano and she uses this special move that knocks riano down and she apologies for it. shes supportive to her friends and stuff.

its really hard to write characters that feel human when you're a social outcast like me. i literally cannot think of anything to add to her character other than what ive written so far. maybe i should find someone to help write these characters for me. im getting a headache just trying to think of how to describe her further. i dont want my game to end up like all those other games where the characters are just walking character tropes.

 

[Pim]

its really hard to write characters that feel human when you're a social outcast like me. i literally cannot think of anything to add to her character other than what ive written so far. maybe i should find someone to help write these characters for me. im getting a headache just trying to think of how to describe her further. i dont want my game to end up like all those other games where the characters are just walking character tropes.

I might be able to help you out with that part. I've been silently following your updates over the last couple of weeks and got a good idea of the setting of your game. If you are interested, feel free to send me a private message. I'd love to help you out by writing some stories about your ingame characters.

 

[Martin_Arcainess]

Hiya all. In my upcoming game, the player's character style is based on the equipment they are wearing.

So for example, if they equip Red Boots, then their character sprite will have Red Boots, same if they equipped Iron boots the character sprite will show them wearing Iron boots.

Now due to the size of the characters in MV, this might be difficult to display. So my thought was what if I made the character sprites big? To more clearly display the pieces of gear they are wearing? Now this may look odd when moving as the size of the character may be out of place with the grid system but I'm planning on adding something like Pixel movement the game as well.

So what are your thoughts? How big do you think a character sprite should be to display each piece of gear? And how well would it fit into MV?

 

[Raijinn]

Hmm, one question, if the character equips a ring, does the ring have to show?