November Goals & Progress Thread

[bgillisp]

@Marquise*: Probably best to just finish it first though. Then you can make it dance...if you want to. I wonder what kind of music a dragon likes? And now that I brought this up I just had a vision of a dragon who likes...slow jazz music. Might make an interesting character in a game somewhere.


@Mirpono: Ah, I see. I've shied away from Moghunter's due to the fact those scripts seem to not work well with many others that aren't Moghunters (and I know too little coding to be able to fix the errors). Hope it works out for you!


@Lantiz: That was pretty much what I did with my little side project too.


@Vox Novus: I've considered it still, just need the time to polish the bugs, and fix the quirks MV has that Ace doesn't (as I used MV for it for some odd reason that made sense at the time but not anymore). Maybe someday it will see the light of day? Maybe as a bonus game with the main game?


@Arithmetician: Seems like a good start so far. How big is  your world map? Just wondering as it looks much bigger than mine, and mine was 83 x 72.


11.22 Update: Spent today placing NPC's on another zone of Riverdale, finished another side quest (2 down), and drew the top level of the mines. Still got to do the lower tunnels, but now there's enough drawn that I can implement quest 3 for that town (as only quest 4 requires the lower levels).


Also started adding the NPC's that move around via Chapters to this town. So far I've focused only on those that make an appearance in Riverdale so far, though this does mean some of my towns now have 1 - 4 NPC's placed as they either start there or end up there as the game progresses. So in a way I'm making progress on the other towns as well while doing this. 

 

[Punamaagi]

I haven't got much to update, except that I created a spreadsheet for my characters' skills and so forth (to make sure that everyone gets roughly the same amount of skills)... and that I somehow ended up despairing probably for the first time with my project. While I was fixing bust placement in one scene, I realized that one thing in the game doesn't make a lot of sense. That lead to discovering more flaws and thus more despair, and the end result was a horrible feeling. I'm glad that it's mostly gone for now.


I think that I ought to try to move my focus away from the characters and into the story in general, in addition to the mechanics. As easy and entertaining as it is to come up with character traits, I probably won't need half of them (such as the fact that one of the main characters likes to drink copious amounts of coffee), and I really need to fix some of the inconsistencies in the story and the setting.


Next thing I might do is try drawing my title screen. I have an idea or do, but I'll have to test whether I can make them look good.

 

[EliteZeon]

Turns out the lighting scripts I have used so far have not been what I been exactly wanting... so I think I'll stick to the simple black image with a hole in the center for my torch light sequences for now. Apparently one of the scripts somehow killed all my save files. But not a big deal for now I suppose, since I only lost my 30 minutes of testing data.


I been working on refining what I got so far, did more behavior sprites, a few more simple faces and redid part of the dialogue for the cinematic story swaps I am doing.


I'm also trying out methods to build out a city using the rtp resources. Unfortunately, it's not giving me the vision I want of said city. I'm currently debating with my wallet if I want to buy Fantastic Medieval Buildings and the Ancient Dungeons Base Pack, but they will not be able to cover my entire game world, and the art styles will clash... I could try giving Parallax mapping a shot, but I don't like the idea of uploading more files than I need to for this game.

 

[Arithmetician]

@bgillisp  It's a 200 x 200 map... so 40,000 squares.    Your 83 x 72 map is 5,976 squares.  So mine is 6.69 times larger than yours by area.


I wanted a sufficient scale for a variety of environments in the world and detailed continents, plus to separate locations sufficiently so that there would be a reasonable number of random battles between destinations.  

 

[bgillisp]

@Arithmetician: I thought it was quite a bit bigger, as here is my world map for comparison:

Spoiler

Believe it or not, that's 23 cities too (Elmwood, Silas Rest, Crossroads, Riverdale, Aurora, Blackmire, Darkspyre, Raindew, Pegasi, Silvanos, Eastwood, Winterglen, Thundermeadow, Silverdale, Mithral Castle (spelling's probably off on this one, and I'm too tired to look it up), Northpass, Icetop Fortress, Dragonblast, Emberfield, Tir Koraz, Gnoa, Clearwind, and the Dwarfen Towers), though that is because my game takes place in the densely populated SW corner of my game world. Though that also means this map doesn't loop either.


Though, I also have no random on map encounters on the world map, so I used a different scale than you did, as I wanted the player to get to their destination quickly. If I had used random encounters on the world map, I'd probably increase both dimensions by 2 - 3x.

 

[Arithmetician]

@bgillisp Makes sense.


Anyways, I made some more progress on the map design.


World Map Progress Screenshots

Spoiler

 North





Most detail work has been done here so far.


South





The Imperial Capital will be located somewhere in the center of the large southern continent (not counting the Antarctica analogue).  While there are a number of geographic barriers, airship technology negates these, allowing its unhindered expansion.


Vanet Area Detail





The starting area.  Does anyone know how to animate an event like the red portal/rift near the mountains?


Dragon Coast Area Detail





The region Arthur originally hails from.  There are a number of dungeons here, some of which may be in side quests.

 

[Lantiz]

@Lantiz: That was pretty much what I did with my little side project too.

Hahaha it's nice, right?


Oh my God!


These world maps are awesome!


I just feel like making one too '-'

 

[Canini]

@Arithmetician Interesting idea with having a advanced civilization that was destroyed so recently. You don´t see that very often.  

 

[AceOfAces_Mod]

Progress Report #9


-Finished with the side missions. And the last goal is done.


-Fixing bugs.


-Working on the lore.

 

[Lantiz]

Finally an update:

• more plugin fixes and features added
  
• created the dungeon map
  
• added random events and treasures
  
• added monsters
  
• finished main quest eventing on dungeon
  

Lacking:

• enemies on space, to protect the exploration planets and engage the player
  
• space eventing - new
  
• main quest eventing on space
  
• random events on the first planet
  
• main quest eventing on the first planet
  
• one though monster spawn on the first planet
  
• landing on the second planet
  
• random events on the second planet
  
• main quest eventing on the second planet
  
• dungeon entrance on the second planet
  
• monsters on the second planet
  
• random events on the dungeon
  
• monsters on the dungeon
  
• main quest eventing on the dungeon
  
• boss on the dungeon - removed
  
• boss room - new
  
• boss room quest eventing - new
  
• boss monster
  
• post boss quest eventing - new
  
• ending scene
  
• credits scene - on game start
  
• title image
  

 

[Arithmetician]

@Canini  Yeah, usually it's "the advanced civilization was destroyed 1,000 years ago..."  In this case, it was destroyed in living memory of many, and there are still survivors from the civilization, but most have been wiped out from a civil war, the cataclysm that left that large devastated region on the northern continent, and subsequent persecution.   The cataclysm, seen as a sign of the coming doom of the world, has driven many to religious fanaticism.  Others have begun to scavenge the technology and artifacts of the civilization to drive their own advancement amidst the resulting chaos.

 

[Marquise*]

Worked on IRL thingies yesterday and today... yay... and....  not much done.


@bgillisp about music for dragons; good one.  I was thinking of Rhythm Of The Night that was the theme of Last Dragon then it became clearer that Kung Fu Fighting would be best XD  ADDENDUM just saw your map and WAAAAAAA....?

 

[Arithmetician]

Made some incremental additions to the world map.  It's going more by an organic/worldbuilding perspective for now.

 

[EliteZeon]

Mostly worked on more graphical stuff for the past few days I had time to work on my RPG.


Also made progress with redoing some of the cinematics, unfortunately the one that introduces a new party member and another character ends up freezing, probably due to a movement bug with my eventing.


Ah more images:

Spoiler

Preview of my Icon Sheet, I've been completely redoing some of my original icons. The ones that look blurry are amongst the ones I need to redo. On the fourth row shown, you'll notice they all don't have color. Ideally, those are icons that I can recycle constantly and be used as templates to make new colored icons. Examples of them are the armor arts shown on the second half of the first row. Ideally, I can also use them uncolored icons as placeholders or to represent armor and items that don't need unique art.

Cinematic dialogue rework and behavior sprite use examples. Also, decided to try giving one of my main characters a country accent. I'll listen to complaints and feedback after I release the newer demo.

Image made for the newer cinematic. I'm horrible at painting buildings.

 

[Canini]

@Arithmetician It definitely seems like you have thought this true and found some interesting angles for your story and recently collapsed civilization. Are they a central part of the story or more incidental?

 

[Arithmetician]

@Canini  They play a fairly central role in the story.  Since you directly asked, I'll list some of my ideas in the spoilers box below.

Spoiler

• One of the player characters, Brenna, is a half-blooded descendant of one of the survivors.  Her role as such ties into several aspects of her design.  She has mystical gifts as a result of her heritage, such as the visions that draw her to where she encounters the party in the first place, but without formal teachers she is untrained in magic and works as a freelance mercenary instead, work which caused her to receive a facial scar
  

• The collapsed civilization created twelve stones storing the wisdom and experience of its great sages and heroes, which it used both as a store of knowledge to drive its own advancement and to harness their powers again in times of need.  Most of these were scattered or stolen during the civil war that preceded the civilization's destruction.  This is the basis of the game's job system.  Some stones were held in safekeeping by allied kingdoms or the Academy, while others ended up in Imperial hands, driving its own research program and allowing it to start creating its own advanced technology.
  

• The small rift Arthur is investigating at the start of the story at the behest of the Academy is a phenomena resulting from the large rift that opened up and destroyed the civilization, a fraying of the world's fabric of reality.  It spawns monsters and leeches vitality from the surrounding land.
  

• The para-militarization of the Academy to deal with the threat draws ire from religious orders, which see it meddling where it should not, and the greed of the Empire, which wants the two stones that the Academy safeguards.  Obviously, the Academy will get attacked early on.
  

Bigger spoilers:



Spoiler

• The prophet who helped bring about the civil war and the collapse of the civilization is at least in part responsible for the creation of the rift in the first place, and hence the civilization's destruction.
  

• This prophet is now working with the Empire, contributing to the widespread view of the Emperor Theodore as a near messianic figure.  They are in fact the co-big bads, each trying to manipulate the other for their own benefit.
  

• Part of the final dungeon will be the central blocks of the civilization's capital city, which were swallowed into the rift.
  

• The prophet, a nihilist, is trying to destroy the world, throwing everything into chaos.  The Emperor instead wants to harness the energies of the rifts for himself to become a god and establish worldwide order and a new golden age under his absolute, immortal rule.
  

 

[bgillisp]

@Punamaagi: That could be a good way to approach it. Have you considered writing out your story in word first, now that you know how the engine works (and therefore what is feasible and not feasible to implement)?


@EliteZeon: Yeah, adding and removing plug-ins can kill save files, due to what they add (or remove) from the save games.


@Arithmetician: Are you planning on making the entire map first, then the dungeons and towns? Or just doing part of it, then doing the dungeons and towns, then the next part, etc? Personally, I'd recommend the 2nd, that way if things start to change as you work the game you don't have parts of your world map that you don't need.


@Lantiz: You could always make a world map of your own. Though it looks like you are doing a space game, so maybe a space map?


@Marquise*: Yep, that's the official map for the game. It might change a little as I tweak things (or add a dungeon here, remove a dungeon there), but the towns are final as 90% of them are all mapped already.


11.23 and 11.24 Update: No update for 11.23, as I took some time off and played a game instead. Once I was done with that though, I continued my work on Riverdale. The town now has all of it's NPC's for all 4 regions and the shops and pubs and inns now. Also implemented the 3rd side quest, and started the 4th one. Once I finish that one and the 5th side quest the town is completely done short of the reaction of the town to events of Chapter 9 (which I will probably save until Chapter 9, as it is easier to do it then).

 

[Lantiz]

@Lantiz: You could always make a world map of your own. Though it looks like you are doing a space game, so maybe a space map?

Only the demo is a space game, and its not entirelly.


Funny thing is: I can generate the space, and each planet surface with its own world map and its zones. All random.


But I dont have a plot put in it hahahaha


I'll make a space game of thrones one day or another... you'll see.


Did nothing today... BUT my graphics are done!


Can't wait to use them.

 

[Marquise*]

@EliteZeonNice graphics!


Well have almost no times from here to Sunday.  So thought to try to accomplish something into my most primitive -not really true- form of communication and made an additional 4 NaNoWriMo pages this morning.  My first shot I made around 1100 words (?) this one I am at 3076 words.  :3  I wonder if I should post it here somehow.  (I kinda pulled Max Headroom in there and err  disguised him a wee bit.  But sure I would had like characters of his universe crossing mine!)

 

[Arithmetician]

@bgillisp  That is a very fair point.  With the current method, I will undoubtedly have areas that I won't end up using, or a map that is potentially too big, so there is merit to what you suggest of designing just the relevant parts at a time.  That being said, the organic / bottom-up world building method is also useful for generating plot ideas and creating the sense of a broader world, and has produced ideas that I may not have thought of otherwise.