Kularian

Blindga said most of what I would have said, had I posted first. On the whole, as far as a story-telling point of view, it's very interesting, and has the potential to be something really interesting. However, there is also the fact that, as Blindga stated, when you put time and effort into one of these creatuers and it dies, then the urge to reset becomes very high. Even in Fire Emblem, if I lost a character I didn't care all that much about...I'd still reset. So there is that element to be aware of.

Oh yeah. Doubt, uncertainty, everything is going to come into play. The base of the story is a very nice fairy tale, but when your father adventured for like 20 years and didn't find any answers, and every lead that you start on ends up maybe not being what you're after...not to mention the others out there looking for the same thing... yeah. THere will be much strife and inner conflict. It will be enjoyable. The only thing I'm going to have to work towards though, is making sure the story isn't /too/ depressing. Don't want people to stop playing due to hopelessness. And yeah, I figured the runestones thing had been done before, I'm just not sure if it had been done the way I'm doing it. Finding new/better Runestones are effectively the only way to "level," I'm thinking. So combat will be gritty and dangerous and hopefully more nerve-wracking. But I appreciate the comments, and as I get more info down, I'll add it here!

I had planned to put this in the 'up and coming game' categories, but I'm really just starting on it. Unless I give the screenshots of the opening area, there's not exactly going to be a lot to be seen, yet. So I figured I'd at least post here and give the general idea of the story. (I had this nearly done and meant to ctrl+T to open a new tab and refreshed this by accident...so I may be a bit scant on the details.) World: The world itself is yet unnamed, but the main idea I have is that it's going to be low-magic, mostly. There are casters in the party, but they won't have access to incredibly-powerful spells or anything of the sort. Magic itself, both healing and damaging, are scant in the denizens of the world. There are the standard fare of orcs, goblins, ogres, etc, but magical creatures such as ghosts, fairies, dragons, etc are far and few in-between. Thus the world is still mid-high fantasy, while retaining an overall low-magic level. Something that remains from time-gone-by, however, are runestones. These runes are what can give the adventurer the edge against just anyone. For the purposes of the game, there are both Major and Minor runestones that can be affited to the party's equipment. The Major runestones are things that can affect them greatly, allowing them to light their weapons aflame, or increase their physical strength enough to lift that which could not be done so otherwise. Then there are a host of minor runes that augment the player's abilties and attributes. Finding the right combination of these will be the key to victory. Combat: I don't plan for there to be much 'random' combat in the game, as it is story-driven. There may not even be levels, or they will come only at important story moments. The characters are adventurers, but they are not capable of going toe-to-toe with gods and the like. The very crux of this will be the Runestone system, as mentioned prior. As the party cotninues to delve into dungeons and discover more about their final goal (see below) they will find rarer and more powerful runes. This combination of Major/Minor runes will hold the key to victory in several battles, which are slated to be more tactical and make one thing aside from just 'enterenterenterenter' and such. If I can figure it out, there may be a way to switch runes mid-combat...but we'll see. Story: Without revealing too much of what's planned, the story will revolve around three siblings- an older brother, and a pair of brother-sister twins. The younger sister will be the 'main' character, as a fair bit of the story unfolds from her eyes, but by no means will the story only follow her. The party, as mentioned, is in a low-magic world, and their end goal is to find some form of hidden/powerful magic that will have the ability to bring their mother back to life. This task was started before them by their father, who fell during one of the dungeon explorations. They are operating on rumor, hearsay, and if they can be lucky enough to find books that are old enough to hold any knoweldge, whatever little information they can glean from them. It is likely a fools' errand, but their longing to see their mother and the words of their father press them onward. Every adventure taken brings them one step closer to the truth of what they seek. And whether or not that truth is what they wish to hear...that is another matter entirely. Focus: Heavily Character-driven set on a melancholic background, Family(working title) will put the player into the shoes of the three siblings who are following a path set before them by their father, with no certainty of what they're looking for is even real. They'll have to do battle not only with the denizens of a dungeon, but also their own inner turmoil, doubts and apprehensions, all the while keeping the brave face on for their siblings, to avoid them going through the same confidence-eating thoughts they possess. Every combat will (hopefully) be an exercise in caution and temperance, forcing the player to use the Runestones in the most effective combinations possible for the challenges they face. For now, I'm mainly sticking with just the base RTP to get much of the groundwork lain, though I may switch once I feel enough progress is made. No clue when I'll be far enough along for this to actually be posted as a 'real' game, but I'll keep plugging away at it til then. Anyway, comments/curiosities/feedback/etc is welcome and appreciated.

Well, as far as mature themes go, you're already pressing on some boundaries with anthromorphic characters. Yes, that's going to draw in a certain crowd, but if you add in mature themes with these creatures, you're also going to exile certain crowds as well. You could possibly, if you set it up with the right scripts/events, have a 'mature filter' that would allow the player to choose how to handle that. Personally, I don't believe these things are paramount to the story overall, but if there's something that you feel is necessary to convey certain scenes properly...I'd probably have the mature filter in place. I'm working on a game solo or I'd offer my writing for you, but I don't mind being a soundboard/beta-dialog tester for you.

That would work for Evented battles, but if you wanted it to happen in random ones as well, you'd need to script it up. http://rpgmaker.net/scripts/334/ That's probably going to be your best bet, and then essentially in that common event, have the party restored to full health first, and then teleported to a specific point. If you have multiple hospitals, you may need a few branch statements to get you to where you want to go in your common event, but is easily doable. If you're not quite sure how, let me know and I'll be a bit more thorough later on; currently getting ready for work.

Thanks! My art skill is (virtually) non-existent so as my sig states, I'm kinda just working with RTP right now. I'll post my project here in the next few days in the sorting thread so it can get put into the 'no demo' place. If I still had my old computer(s) I'd let ya'll see some of my earlier stuff. (Megaman translates oddly well to the RPG environment. 8 worlds, some enemies with a boss at the end.) But alas, they're lost and gone. This new one is pretty srs and story-based, so we'll see what comes of it. My first foray into doing something a bit...different.

Also, you can have a recurring villain that you don't fight all the time. Perhaps he's a general in an evil army, and you often see this villain commanding the soldiers that /are/ fighting the party, but there's no direct confrontation. He's mostly there just to antagonize and be a force to be reckoned with, even without dirtying his hands. And then the party might catch him off-guard at some point and fight, and while he puts up a decent fight, he chooses to retreat for now. And then later, when the 'real' battle begins, he's ready to do battle with the party, and has his full armaments and is a difficult battle. I'm not a fan of having to fight the same character time and time again, unless the situation calls for it, or it's done interestingly. In FF6 for example, when you take Sabin's path, you fight Kefka a few times in a row in the Imperial Camp...but it's less a fight and more of Kefka just taunting the party. Later, you actually fight him in the snow fields. And after that you see him in combat a few times but never directly confronting the party...until the end of the game. Ways it's not handled well- Seymour from FFX. It was really just annoying. There's no other way around that. So despite my tons of FF references, such a character can be done well as long as, they're written well. As Blindga stated, writing them for laughs is generally not the way to go. Unless they're likable such as (wait for the FF reference) Gilgamesh from FFV. It's funny. They're one of my least-played series, but they have a lot of information to draw on, I'm realizing.

Well it somewhat depends on the flow you want to express. If you've got a narrative-heavy game with an emphasis on character development, then there's no real harm in having no 'random mobs' to fight. Certainly, as illustrated by another thread, you're going to want to have some method of character 'growth' in the game. However, if you have enough non-battle action, the players may not even notice, and as long as each of the battles with the NPCs actually 'means' something, and each of them are designed to be a thoughtful, interesting encounter other than 'hit enter' then I think you've got a winner. As always, ymmv. Edit- Or if you want them to fight humans... humans aren't exactly the most 'run-of-the-mill' types. You've got all manner of character types to choose from. I don't know anything about your world setup, but throwing in a few soldier types, and then giving them the same appearance but having them have a single magic spell apiece will definitely make things interesting, for a time. Just as long as you aren't fighting just soldiers, or just bandits, and each of them has several variety within each one, I doubt that many people would complain.

Could also have some of the Anthromorphs be children. And perhaps if in the event that you do not choose to settle down, you end up 'adopting' one of the village children as your own? Just as another feasibility for those who don't wish to 'settle down' with anything furry.

All I've gotta say is wow. Also Tsarmina got it right on the nose, there. But I had to just comment on that. I can dig that sorta setup.

Cool deal! Yeah, Ace seems more script-dependent than previous versions. Either way, sounds good!

Hmmmm... Could have it so your events look something like. page1 - base costume, dialog, get candy, turn on switch 1 page2 - 2nd costume, dialog, get candy, turn on switch 1 page3 - 3rd costume, dialog, get candy, turn on switch 1 ...etc And then on your final page pagelast - switch 1, dialog about how you've already gotten candy there, so it doesn't continue to work. And then whenever you change costumes/characters, just have the even turn off switch 1 Presumably...that should work, unless I'm misunderstanding something.

The Tenda were like...lizard people? I think? It's been awhile since I made it there in Earthbound. But they had the whole 'Dinosaurs hidden underground' thing. In FF4, the dwarves just had an underground kingdom. In place of water, there was lava and such. There were a few different villages in the Underground and such. It was a neat little thing.

Kinda like the Tenda in Earthbound? Or the Dwarves in FFIV? (et al) It's a really neat dynamic to explore, expecially if you work on some sort of...dual-world thing. If the party accidentally caused a quake above ground, maybe something is impassible in the Underground, of something along those lines. But it gives you a way to really 'expand' an otherwise standard world map.

No problem! Just ask if you've any more questions!