The Gaming Den

I would like to note my interest in this.

maglag wrote:Anyway for a project of this scope, I would advice first putting everything in paper (numbers, classes, story branches, NPCs), only after that is done getting to coding.

Just like to reiterate this, and to remind you not to underestimate how much time it takes writing out all the incidental dialogue and object interactions and everything.

I dabbled in an RPGmaker game about 10 years ago and it is amazing how much time it takes just placing all the fire sprites in the temple scene or writing the interjections when party members are having a discussion. Before you plan out a grand campaign involving multiple distinct kingdoms and character arcs for a bunch of NPC's you might want to knock up a ballpark idea of how many locations you will need and how many conversations at each one. Then you can get a feel for how much work you are actually looking at.

Schleiermacher wrote:I would like to note my interest in this.

Same

I have made a sort of "Can I do this?" game with it before, and I started by filling the database, the time-consuming part. I am aware of how long it takes.

Now this one will be bigger in scope than a two-towns-and-a-dungeon affair, but still. I'm not underestimating the time it will take.

Would it be better if you just focused on making one small dungeon first? See how long the basics take before planning out a bunch of things you may not have the time to implement.

That's not a bad idea, and it can also work as the start of the game. "I'm going to loot the fuck out of this, then go straight into the neighbouring lands and sell all this shit, it'll be awesome!"

Please forgive my ignorance: Is it possible to have both avoidable sprite encounters and random encounters in the same RPGmaker game? I could see value in the former being used in quests to clear undesirables from an area as part of establishing trade routes, with the latter reserved for bandits preying upon merchants using said routes.

Perhaps there could be passive trade-based benefits each class offers. Half-assed example:

Wizard: shrink goods before transport to lower costs
Druid: increase the value of agricultural goods via plant growth/arresting spoiling
Cleric: access to higher quality goods valued by the specific god
Warlock: ready access to slaves for trade/increase value of ritual paraphernalia
Ninja: improved chance of smuggling contraband
Bard: Slightly improved favor everywhere
Rogue: Lowered chance of bandits attacking due to getting a heads-up from thieves' guild.
Assassin: Ability to bypass via murder NPCs resistant to establishing trade routes
Ranger: Lower maintenance cost of caravans due to hunting supplementing supplies, improved favor with rural regions.
Kensai: Improved initial reaction to trade delegation seeking to establish routes because of honor and shit, bypass a couple of difficult NPCs via dueling
Swashbuckler: Improved favor with coastal/fashion-conscious cities, bypass a couple of difficult NPC via romance
Monk: ?
Berserker: Chance bandits flee in terror upon attacking

You totally can have both. But when you set "these are the random encounters in this area", that's saved into area data and can't be changed in-game. So if there are halfling bandits as random battles, there will always be halfling bandits as random battles.

Can't you have the area replaced with an identical area that doesn't have random encounters after an event occurs? Baldur's Gate uses that trick for most of the stronghold quests and I seem to remember it being possible in RPGmaker.

Red_Rob wrote:Can't you have the area replaced with an identical area that doesn't have random encounters after an event occurs? Baldur's Gate uses that trick for most of the stronghold quests and I seem to remember it being possible in RPGmaker.

You can definitely make multiple versions of a map with different events and random encounter fields. You can even do it without doing any real coding, at least in VX Ace.

Wanted to let you know, Koumei, that the current humble bundle is a "Game Maker" bundle-

The real problematic thing would be to implementation of the barter system. The only video game I can think of that had one was Ultima Underworld.

Thanks, Prak - I grabbed it, for future learning and stuff.

Currently doing concept art and also making lists and stuff.

Leress: it'd be a pretty simple thing that's more like fetch quests: they will specifically trade X for Y. And in some cases you can keep doing it if you really want lots of X and have loads of Y. In some cases you won't bother at all because getting Y is a bit of a pain and this isn't an actual fetch quest with quest XP rewards. I'm basically working within my limits here.

Awesome, glad you found it possibly useful. I hope that it's still going when I have a bit of cash. I don't know how into video game design I am anymore, but with that kind of value...

Koumei, I don't know if you've seen it, but the current Humble Bundle deal is a big pack of indie development tools and sprite resources, including spriting tools and whatnot, that can be had for $12. It might be worth looking into.

Sigil: just look up a few posts :p

Looking forward to what you come up with Koumei! Just a few questions I had reading through the material:

Just how much of the TotFIE was laid out in the previous discussions? Do you have an adventure framework or are you going to have to come up with most of it whole cloth?

What level of economic knowledge are you expecting on the part of the player? Is this going to double as Econ101 and walk the player through the basics or is it going to assume that given the basic setup the player will be able to figure out the right actions based on modern economics?

Are you planning on playing this as pretty straight fantasy with a twist or were you thinking of going more full-on parody? The Evil Demoness Merkel as the bad guy trying to get everyone to agree to her single currency and take over the world, money lenders overusing the new "creddit" magic and causing a global magical disaster, the players visiting a literal bear market, that sort of thing?

Red_Rob wrote:Just how much of the TotFIE was laid out in the previous discussions? Do you have an adventure framework or are you going to have to come up with most of it whole cloth?

Pretty sure Frank had only typed out what the places are like, the causes of the problems, and what a few famous people are saying. So actual adventures and stuff will be up to me and my (liquor) cabinet.

What level of economic knowledge are you expecting on the part of the player? Is this going to double as Econ101 and walk the player through the basics or is it going to assume that given the basic setup the player will be able to figure out the right actions based on modern economics?

There will be some discussion on it, explaining what happened, but it's up to the player to decide "Yeah, that talking head has the right idea!" or "What if we just did ___?"

Are you planning on playing this as pretty straight fantasy with a twist or were you thinking of going more full-on parody? The Evil Demoness Merkel as the bad guy trying to get everyone to agree to her single currency and take over the world, money lenders overusing the new "creddit" magic and causing a global magical disaster, the players visiting a literal bear market, that sort of thing?

Somewhere between the two. Largely straight fantasy, but a little tongue in cheek. Maybe with characters being a bit genre-savvy and scraping up against the fourth wall.

Time Consuming I know, but I'm rather interested in this project having just learned about it. Hell, I'd put down actual money pending to the quality and variety of assets (Probably about $5-15?). Of which quality is something you've done well, also bonus if you somehow get the art Frank used for the campaign into the game somehow (character portraits were a cool thing).

Aryxbez wrote:Time Consuming I know, but I'm rather interested in this project having just learned about it. Hell, I'd put down actual money pending to the quality and variety of assets (Probably about $5-15?). Of which quality is something you've done well, also bonus if you somehow get the art Frank used for the campaign into the game somehow (character portraits were a cool thing).

That should be easy to do. If Koumei doesn't know how, I could at least convert the files.

Was this project one of the casualties of the Great Laptop Disaster of 2015?

This is a rather late reply, but yes, it was a casualty.

I did look at a few tools for Linux, GDevelop and RPGBoss, but... the former is more for basic web games than complex stuff (and the Wiki is basically abandoned and in such an incomplete state that I'd be walking blind through it), and the latter is a pretty buggy, incomplete engine.

That said, I think I'm going to end up getting a second hard drive and getting Windows 7 on it, if I can find a way to apply some kind of "Don't try to downgrade to 8 or 10, in fact just don't talk to Microsoft" patch. Once that's there, I'll again have access to RPGMaker (and Game Maker if I want to buy that, probably not a terrible idea to be honest).

So I'm thinking in the meantime I could start writing up all the content, like "the databases of weapons and skills and shit", in dead tree format, so that I can hit the ground running when that happens.

So I'm locking in the following three characters:
1. "Player Character", female yuan-ti, and you choose Kensai or Ninja or Wizard
(This raises a question of "What type?" Pure Blood is "lazy spriting" mode, but there could be fun with a snake-headed person (Half Blood) or a snake with arms (Abomination) or a snake with arms and a human head (the weird Special Abomination). I imagine people would want some kind of snakiness to a character who is described as being serpentlike. I'm okay with letting you guys debate and vote on that.)
2. Female drow, you choose Monk or Assassin or Warlock
3. Male orc, you choose Berserker or Ranger or Druid

With the fourth slot going to elf (Spellsword or Jester or Elementalist) or halfling (Swashbuckler or Rogue or Bard). I could see the merit in "not having literally half the party be elves", but I could also see "keep the party the same height, because ease of sprite creation". Similarly, while almost every time I think of a character to create, I instinctively think female, there should probably be some effort at making it appeal to more than just me, and maybe having a 50-50 split. (Not that I intend on putting much in the way of romance in there, if only because I don't think I could write it very well.) So for the fourth character, I'm okay with letting you guys debate and vote.

I think it might be fun to do the 1-20 system for levels, with bigger stat increases per level and 1-2 abilities gained each level, instead of the traditional 1-99 with a gradual increase and a lot of empty levels.

The major locations will of course be:
-The Underdark (One big city and a few outposts, lots of "dungeon areas")
-The Mountain Mines (One big cityfortress and a few mining settlements, lots of "dungeon areas")
-Halfling Farmsteads (pretty much all one massive farming city thing, with a lot of houses and fences and crap. Not much dungeon exploration, but probably a good number of asshole monsters that attack farms and roads. Like manticores. Especially manticores.)
-Orc-held Woodlands (a handful of towns scattered about, and a fair amount of wandering monsters)
-Elf-held Woodlands (one big city and a few smaller towns, and probably a few ruins that allow for dungeoncrawling)

Koumei wrote: Similarly, while almost every time I think of a character to create, I instinctively think female, there should probably be some effort at making it appeal to more than just me, and maybe having a 50-50 split. (Not that I intend on putting much in the way of romance in there, if only because I don't think I could write it very well.) So for the fourth character, I'm okay with letting you guys debate and vote.

Cough Touhou cough.

Also the dimension neptunia series.

If you want to make Legend of Lesbian RPG, I believe plenty of boyz would approve.

Koumei wrote:That said, I think I'm going to end up getting a second hard drive and getting Windows 7 on it, if I can find a way to apply some kind of "Don't try to downgrade to 8 or 10, in fact just don't talk to Microsoft" patch. Once that's there, I'll again have access to RPGMaker (and Game Maker if I want to buy that, probably not a terrible idea to be honest).

http://winsupersite.com/windows-10/how- ... our-system

I'm running Win 7 with the shitty Win10 update hidden on both my laptop and desktop currently. Because I play mostly oldish games and Win10 is shit for them.

Prak wrote:Because I play mostly oldish games and Win10 is shit for them.

Also in general.