Ludus Sophiae: Latter-day Saviors

[Lihinel 21]

The MESSIAH  is COMING, and SHE is a BI(-winning) ATHEIST.

 

Explore the world and the space above it, beat enemies and collect their skills, manipulate your environment, upgrade your base, unlock more heroes, mine gems&ores, craft weapons, raise plants and animals and use the produced goods to cook, then feed your heroes to increase their strength, or simply get wasted and start a good old bar brawl.

Build cities, raise armies, and lead them into battle.Can you free the world from the tyrannical rule of Providence?

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The year is 255 AS.

It's now been slightly over two and a half centuries, since humanity suffered its greatest downfall, the Searing, brought about by Terra's own Defence Sattelites, that got taken over by Providence after a series of coordinated attacks.
Civilization is slowly building up again, but is nowhere near its previous heights.
The technological progress, held back by Providence, seems stuck in a medieval state.

This story follows the adventures of an initially small band of slightly wayward people, as they set out to recover an artifact, possibly containing secret millitary codes with the capacity to retake the hijacked satellites. However, the artifact in question got stolen from a merchant, by a bunch of mercenaries turned highwayman, and they likely won't give it up peacefully.

Where will their travels lead them?
What dangers will they have to face?
What obstacles to overcome?
What foes to vanquish?

There is only one way to find out.

 

 

 

 

 

Spoiler

History:
Terra was once home to a space faring civilization,
though not advanced enough to traverse the distance to the next solar system.
They spread out to the various planets and build Foundations.
These large space stations where created as footholds
for exploration and, in some cases,
preparation for later Terra-forming and settlement.

All this changed instantly,
when an until then little known sect managed,
to simultaneously release poison gas
into the Foundations life support systems
and turn Terra's Planetary Defense Satellites against itself.
The following cataclysm would later be known as the Searing,
or, as proclaimed by Providence, the wrath of god.


Countries:

Invidia:
The split realm.
Torn apart after the death of its former king, this country was split into factions, loyal to the various successors, and plunged into a 30 year war.

After the dust settled, only 3 factions remained.
One of them, lead by Joffrey Evyn, collapsed in on itself, after he failed to pay out the mercenaries, who's services he employed, to conquer much of north and central Invidia.

After their regicide, the leaders of the 3 biggest armies divided the conquered lands amongst themselves, though the newly formed borders remain contested until this day.

Superbia:
The lone island.
Home to proud and xenophobic clans of warriors. Rule over this isolated island is constantly shifting from warlord to warlord, the only constants being war and the presence of Providence.

Luxuria:
Land of love.
A rather small and unimportant kingdom, who's only claim to fame seems to be the unconquerable libido of its ruler and his never ending love affairs, which, more often then not, threaten this otherwise peaceful land.

Ira:
The artists of war.
If you want peace, prepare for war, and prepared they have.
Nowhere in all of Gaia will you find a more skilled bunch of warriors.
Every male child is trained in the art of war beginning at his sixth birthday.

The main export of this country are skilled mercenaries, which fought and won in every mentionable battle for the last century. With all this in mind, it might come as a surprise that Ira hasn't expanded at all, since its founding, and has never fought a war on its own territory. Just as they say, if you want peace, prepare for war.

Avaritia:
Land of merchants.
This country lies in the center of Gaia's main continent, bordering every other country except Superbia, making it the ideal place for trade among all nations.
It's said that its king would sell his own country – for the right price that is.

Gula:
The great desert.
A hungry country with little arable land, who's leader is known for his opulent banquets and not much else.

Acedia:
The sleeping giant.
A land which has seen better days, but still harbors the potential to rule the world.
Seat of the holy city, headquarter of Providence.

Albion:
The cursed island.
There is a legend of an island chain east of Superbia, however, no one who ever went there has returned alive.

 

 

The Mundburg serves as your base of operation, it starts out as a run down fortress at the edges of Invidia and is restored partially in the beginning of the game. It can be expanded during the game with rooms such as a library, sickroom, bar, or bath. Different events/cutscenes occour between your playable characters and can unlock new quests among other things.
 

 

 

 

 

While inside your base of operations, you control Broseph Iroth, gentleman butler and renaissance man.

Use loot and bought items as materials to craft more powerful weapon and Sphaerae

Farm plants and raise animals and use the resulting resources to cook food that can be used to increase your character stats and elemental affinities.

 

 

 

Create your own towns with buildings, fitting for the region the town is in and overall progress you made, gather resources and raise an army.

Unlock new buildings and resources by playing through the storyline.

 

 

 

 

Use your army to take on neighboring towns, regions, or entire kingdoms.
 

 

 

 

Battles take place in semi real time, but the ability to stop time at any moment to devise a strategy or input commands. Skills are the same for enemies and player characters, once you have encountered and defeated an enemy, all his skills are unlocked for your party and can be trained with skill points that can also be acquired through battles.
You can equip 3 weapon skills and 5 Sphaerae skills. (with 3-5 regular and up to 2 elite skills, selected from the 2 elements determined by your equiped Sphaerae)

 

 

 

Unlock Hidden Sphaerae abilities to manipulate objects in the world. Like move a wood log, light a torch on fire, freeze a puddle to a solid ice pillar, or melt a pillar down.
 

 

 

 

Challenge opponents to optional bar fights in this guitar hero style mini game.

 

 

 

 

 

Social Media:

 

 

Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo_oWlV1hAfzIdStgwV6L9w

Tumblr:
https://lihinel.tumblr.com/

Twitter:
https://twitter.com/LihinelC

 

 

Edited December 31, 2018 by Lihinel

[SpookyMothman 361]

How has nobody commented yet?

 

I've been looking forward to this for a while. I'm glad to see that it has it's own topic, now. This game looks very cool.

 

How long have you been working on this, anyway?

[+ TBWCS 953]

I remembered this on RMXP. Your title screen was the first motivator for me to learn how RMXP's title screen can be edited, lol. I really loved that title screen where you can open the save file in the title screen itself. Was the RMXP version abandoned or what?

[Lihinel 21]

@SpookyMothman: Thanks, been working on the VXAce version since the end of November last year.

Most of it was done in the first two months and I haven't been doing much these days (except for some parallax maps), due to exams. Ill resume development in April.

 

However, I already had most of the systems planed out in design documents and there was an old version of the game made with XP back in 2009.

 

@SoulpourVII: Oh that's nice to hear.

The XP version was lost in an HDD crash, I didn't have a backup back then and kind of lost all my motivation.

(Now I have some copys on an external HDD and store a copy in dropbox every time I finish something)

Was working on other projects and then didn't work on any game for a while, but decided to give it a try again, after buying VXAce during a sale and goofing around with a fun/trash game.

[Tsarmina 2,612]

Wow! This is beautiful ^-^ I was wondering if, at some point in time, the facegen graphics will be replaced with customized ones? The rest of the game is executed so beautifully that the faces clash a little bit since they're seen so often (that style.)

[Lihinel 21]

Yeah, the faces could be subject to change, though they are not high priority.

(I didn't pick them because I liked them so much, but because I couldn't find preexisting portraits to fit all my characters, besides those portraits I could find have been used in other games too, so they would be even less unique.)

 

They are low on my list because of two things:

I am not good at drawing faces (like really really terrible) and replacing faces in a finished game is trivial.

 

So yeah, maybe Ill have improved my drawings by the time the game is close to being finished so I can draw other faces myself, or maybe Ill find someone willing to draw some faces for me. (Of course the later possibility is only likely if I manage to deliver a good product and generate sufficient interest)

[Lihinel 21]

Quick Progress report:

 

I am in the middle of remaking most of the maps, here is a screen of the new version of the mundburg:

 

There have been changes to the resources:

- "Steel" no longer exists as a resource, same goes for all resources made from it. (This means there are now 3 clearly defined stages of development before the endgame, instead of the weird 3,5 that existed priro to this change)

- All weapons of a stage have been combined into a single resource (So instead of "Iron Swords", "Iron Daggers", "Iron Hammers", and so on, there are only "Iron Weapons". The main reason for this change was, that most weapons are produced by the same building anyway and that changing production was a pain, as you almost always had too much of one weapon class and not enough of the one you needed to produce specific units.)

[SpookyMothman 361]

I stand by what I've been saying: this game is looking hella tight! Usually, games that have a lot of different mechanics kinda turn me off, but I'm really curious about how your game will turn out.

[Lihinel 21]

@SpookyMothman: Thanks, I'll do my best to make things consistent between systems. (like elemental types and critical/resistant damage indicators in normal battles, conquests and space battles) (stats between normal battles and conquests) (weapon and armor types corresponding to different levels in the battle system and stages in the town building system)

As well as trying not to add unnecessary stuff. (I was close to removing the cooking system at one point, as I wasn't happy with the hero unlocking mechanic. What saved it was its use as buffs before fights. It won't be required for most of the game, though it might make things easier and some of the hidden bosses could be quite a challenge without buffs)

 

@Topic: Improved world and remade land maps are done:

 

 

 

(all thats left before Ill get to make new content again are new sprites for the space shooter minigame and a different background for cooking)

Edited April 2, 2014 by Lihinel

[Lihinel 21]

After a series of additions, cuts and multiple restructurings, I am happy to present (what I sincerely hope to be) the final version of the resources:

 

 

 

 

 

 

The order in the game is the same as seen in the pictures (except that there are no subcategories, its just back to back, all in one list).

[SpookyMothman 361]

In a world where medieval armaments and microchips can exist at the same time... What sorta awesomely insane fantasy world does this game take place in, anyway? 's crazy, yo.

 

Every update gets me psyched about this game. The thing is, though, I still don't know what kind of a game it is. It has RPG elements, sim elements, freakin' shoot-'em-up elements... This game is shaping up to be kinda nuts, in all the best ways.

[Lihinel 21]

You got leftover, salvaged technology filling in the role of magic. Here is a dialog scrap to explain:

 

Sophia: In a way, its magic that's real, but, you see, its not real magic. Magic that's real works by exploiting physical laws to generate the effects of magic, while real magic tries to evoke supernatural powers and is therefore not real.

Shango: Wait a second, you're telling me that magic that's real isn't real magic while real magic is not real?

Sophia: Kinda. You see, any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.

(Ideas stolen from Arthur C. Clarke, Daniel Dennett and the creators of Babylon 5 and Doctor Who)

 

Actually, its so common, its a trope.

 

Though its not like you start out with microchips, the advanced materials are endgame content.

 

 

 

As to what it is, as the summary says, it's a fantasy RPG with elements of economic simulation games and other ideas borrowed from various genres.

 

Those systems are used to unlock new areas or advance the story.

The town building system is used to generate resources.

Resources are either used directly or as material to produce soldiers.

The soldiers are used in the conquest system, to conquer new areas.

The space shooter is used in the intro and then again at the end of the game to reach spacestations.

[+ Retired 274]

Are the resources sorted in the menu or are they all under menu?

 

With so many materials and items, it would make sense to categorise them instead of all of them appearing under the item tab. 

 

Edit: Okay I saw the screenshots and it makes more sense now (assuming its represented as variables).

[Lihinel 21]

I am not sure I fully comprehend what you mean.

They are not regular items. (I don't use the standard system)

 

The resources are their own category and only accessible in the town building system and menus linked to producing new soldiers.

There they are either viewed as a full list or in the case of the HUD and soldier production only the necessary resources are displayed.

(You can also see how it looks/works in the video about the town building system)

[+ Retired 274]

Well I figured it out now but thanks for the explanation - it looks like an interesting project anyhow.

[Lihinel 21]

@Alliedg: Thanks.

@Topic:

Food Items have been repurposed, they are no longer used to unlock Characters/Quests/Explorable Areas and are part of a buff system instead:

- Eating grants you points, you can get up to 7 points for each stat.
- Food can only be consumed outside of battles, there is a special menu showing current points.
- The first 5 points grant a 10% stat increase per point (10% for 1, 50% for 5), the last 2 points are just a buffer.
- After every battle, you loose 1 point in each stat.
- Each character has a different taste, normal food grants 3 points, food they dislike 1, food they like 5 points, food they love 7 points.

[cazziuz 9]

After reading the info in the post ...i have to say ..WOW i am very impressed.

cant wait to see the demo/and or finished product, my wife will hate me when either of those things are made available

 cause i know i will just sit here and play this for a while instead of doing the things on  the honey do list ,lmao 

[Lihinel 21]

@cazziuz: Glad you like what you see. Techdemo (Demo with the start of Arc 1) will be first, but I can't really set a date right now.

 

@Topic:

The new system to generate soldiers is now done.
Some optimisations for the town building system are due next week, after that I can start focusing on content production.

[SpookyMothman 361]

Very cool. I swear, this project will never cease to amaze me.

[Lihinel 21]

Not much happening these days, I have gone back into a phase of slow development and will likely resume work once my last other sideproject is done.

Edited May 11, 2014 by Lihinel

[Lihinel 21]

Believed dead live longer!

 

After some time working on a side project and a prolonged period of illness, I am back at my game and working on it again since september.

Here are some newer screenshots:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The description will be updated at either chrstmas or new years eve.

[Lihinel 21]

Last screenshots before the christmas update.

Here are a newer ingame Screenshot of the Town Building System (added backdrops) as well as an eagles eye view of the same Map:

 

 

[Lihinel 21]

Edit2: Todays Update is the Barn, in video and infosheet form.

This concludes the holiday updates.

Next Update is scheduled for new year(s eve).

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Edit: Todays Update is the Greenhouse, in video and infosheet form.

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Added major updates to the starting post (3 info sheets among other things), as well as a video of the Intro.

A new feature together with a video and info sheet will be released tomorrow and the day after that.

 

Happy holidays everyone.

Edited December 26, 2016 by Lihinel

[Lihinel 21]

Final Update of 2016, this time its the Cooking and Crafting system.

Added 1 new video to the playlist, added 2 new screensots to the start post.

 

 

Wish you all a happy new year.

Edited December 31, 2016 by Lihinel

[Lihinel 21]

Updated the main post, added:

 

Info sheet with all 60 Characters

 

Main character portraits:

 

Second part of the intro, including bar brawl minigame:

Edited January 16, 2017 by Lihinel