Regicide

[lonequeso 1,921]

Ooookay. My posting what I've been up to all this time is far overdue. As I inch closer to having a demo, I felt I should get this all down.

 

So the title of my game is the same as the thread's:  Regicide

 

A simple, but bold title   (get it? Bold? Like the font?...)

 

Anyway moving on, 

 

• Genre- Well, seeing I'm using RPG Maker to create it, you probably already guessed it's a first person shooter-  I mean, RPG. A very traditional sprite based RPG. LIke something you would've played on SNES. 

 

• Game Progression- Hard to say cuz I keep adding more and more stuff and sometimes things to it. I don't have as much free time as I used to, but I hope I can get a demo out at least within 6 months. I really would like it to be more like two or three, but that's looking more and more unlikely.

 

=========================================Story=========================================

 

 

 

I want to keep a lot if it under wraps, but here's the rundown:

 

Young man wants to overthrow the evil tyrant king who also happened to kill his father. I did mention it's a traditional RPG, right?

Can't get much more traditional than that. ALong the way he, of course finds allies to fight with him, and they press onward to reach the big bad. A traditional, cliche story that takes place on an alternate Earth that mostly follows a religion that's more or less a carbon copy of Christianity. Terra. Eden. Hades. Can ya guess which ones represent what? 

 

So, why the cliches? I always have believed what kind of story you tell isn't important. It's how you tell it. That set up provided me with a simple base to get very creative with. If also believe if you're going to use cliches, don't try and dress them and pretend they're 

something new. 

 

The setting is also pretty traditional as well. I arbitrarily made up the calendar so the dates don't sync up with actual history. The era is late renaissance- early industrial revolution. They're roughly a hundred years more advanced than we are. Pretend the Dark Ages never happened and that where they're at when the game starts in the year 1653. Combat is still largely swords, shields, bows, and staves, but gunpowder is becoming more common. A bit later in the game, the player gets access to magic rifles for some of the mages. Sorry, no regular rifles. One character can wield pistols though. 

 

Most of the starting continent, Elysia, is based of off early America. The names reflect that or perhaps England: Hanover, Port Marcus, and so on. There is one Egyptian themed city in a desert complete with a pyramid, too. I couldn't resist using that cliche 

Obviously, that cities culture is a bit different than the rest.  There is also a city called Cid, that's a hybrid of a feudal Japanese city.

There are two other continents, but I'm not going to do into detail about them quite yet.

 

Lastly, the purpose. Embark on an epic journey and kill the main antagonist. Enough said. 

 

 

 

 

==========================Characters==========================

 

 

 

For now this will just be the actors. There will be ten party members for the player to choose from. Ten bios is enough for now, right?

Good. Cuz I don't feel like making anymore than that  I'll get into their classes/equips/skills and stuff at a later time.

 

Shine- He's the main character. The hero. Other than the obvious metaphor, I chose that name because it was ambiguous. Originally, I was going to allow the player to choose their gender, but that was one of many ideas I scrapped due to time constraints.

There wouldn't be enough difference in how the character looked or how other characters interacted to make it worth my time.

 

Anyway, he's your traditional young man/teen (I never really gave my characters concrete ages) on a traditional quest to stop the traditional evil tyrant who traditionally also killed his father. He has all the traditional hero qualities, too. Brave with a natural talent to lead others, and natural demeanor to protect and aid those in need. He's not some infallible ultimate good guy though. While he does want to stop the evil tyrant to help his country, the real reason for his quest is much less noble. Revenge. If the king, Pious had. He also conveniently neglects to tell his allies that the king, Pious, killed his father. The whole saving the nation and protecting the weak story sells better than revenge. Does that lie come back to haunt him? I guess you'll just have to play the game to find out 

 

Fun fact: I grew up in a suburb by the name of Hanover Park so Shine's hometown is Hanover. 

 

Julia- Definitely more a tomboy. If you've played Dragon Age 2, think of Aveline only with a bit of a foul mouth. She's hails from Cid, a city-state with a long, proud tradition of warriors. Most of Cid's citizens practice martial arts. Julia is one of the few who likes to train with weapons. She is young, too. Around Shine's age. She decided to travel around Elysia honing her skills wherever she could find good competition. She's never afraid to speak her mind, and doesn't take crap from anyone. She's a bit short tempered and blunt, but a kind hearted person at her core.

 

She joins Shine to protect Cid. The city is a sovereign nation sitting in the heart of the Elysian Empire. There is much fear that king Pious will invade and annex it or slaughter everyone and raze it due to soiled relations.

 

Ed- Inspired by a person I once worked with. I diminutive man whose small size is compensated for by a huge ego. He's in his late thirties and thinks he's a Don Juan with the ladies. Of course, he's not. He's got a Robin Hood type mentality of stealing from the rich to give to the poor....  sometimes. Usually he just does it for fun. He also got drunk once and raided that pyramid I mentioned earlier. Then he got drunk again and lost all the loot in a poker game. 

 

He joins Shine half because of his thirst for adventure and half for the whole "protect the weak" thing.

 

Marduk- A very old wizard with a very old sounding name. How old is he? I dunno. He forgot. And yes, that is a scene that happens in the game. There's a bit of a running joke about his oldness culminating at that point. In his youth, he travelled all over Terra on various adventures. He would have been at a very high level when he joined the party, but apathy and age have greatly rusted his abilities. He also forgot most of his spells... 

 

He joins the part for similar reasons as Ed. The noble quest, of course. He also has grown very bored in his long retirement and yearns to have one last big adventure before he dies.

 

Artemis- A perfect name for a female Archer. She another youngin around Shine and Julia's age. Her backstory is a bit depressing. It also involves explaining a lot about the town she lives in so I'll be brief. She is an orphan. Both her parent's fell victim to a plague.

She was also exiled from her town due to her deformity. She has ears like a fairy. Not a very open-minded village, but you'll understand why once you're there. So she pretty much was living in the woods on her own when you find her. But that's not where and how you meet her. Ooo! Suspense!

 

Luckily for her, she is a naturally talented archer and a novice herbalist so she has enough skills to survive on her own. She has a very timid demeanor. Shy without a lot of self confidence. If she'd ever realized just how talented and strong-willed she really was, she'd be unstoppable. She's the last person you'd think that would hunt down cute little animals, but when her back is against the wall, she'll do whatever is necessary to survive.

 

She largely joins Shine out of gratitude. Gratitude for what? More suspense! 

 

Wendy- She's from the same village, Salem, as Artemis, and she's the last of the youngins. She's also an orphan, but for different reasons. Her parents abandoned her. I know, right? Salem is pretty much the most depressing place ever. She has a very similar backstory as Artemis. She was also ostracized by the village, but for a very different reason. She dabbled in witchcraft which made her a perfect scapegoat for all the village's troubles. See what I named it Salem? She was also a risk of being burned at the stake before Shine and friends moseyed into town.

 

She joins Shine out of gratitude for in all likelihood saving her life, and simply because she knew she had to get the hell outta that village, and had nowhere else to go.

 

Duncan- Do you know what time it is, kids? That's right! It's cliche anti-hero time!  It's also my first DBZ reference on the thread. His personality is very similar to Vegeta's minus the self entitlement. In other words, he's a jerk. Brash, cocky, and just generally not a nice guy or a people person. He's the type of person that will say mean spirited things simply to get under your skin. He's also the type that quickly resorts to violence simply because he enjoys hurting people. Naturally, he doesn't talk about himself much or at all really unless it's to pick a fight and/or insult someone.

 

So how and why the hell does a guy like that end up travelling with a group of heroes? He invites himself. Shine didn't fully trust him, but knows he needs all the help he can get, and Duncan had proven himself to be formidable in combat. Duncan is definitely the anti-authority type who would rather die than bow to anyone regardless if they were noble or a tyrant which is a big plus when you're looking for people to help you kill a king. Later on, Shine and friends learn of Duncan's true motives. It's one of my favorite scenes so far. No spoilers!

 

Hermes- A man of the cloth. A travelling one at that. He is a priest of Theonism (look! another cliche name!), the main religion to Terra. He is on a pilgrimage of sorts. No specific location. Part of his training includes traveling the world, spreading the teachings of God and stopping evil wherever he sees it. Of course, that's how you run into him. His personality is for the most part what you'd expect from a priest. Pure hearted, honest, noble, and very introspective. Pretty much the polar opposite of Duncan which causes some friction (and fun dialogue).

 

He joins Shine because they have the same goal. Kill king Pious. Priests can and will kill someone if they believe that person is truly evil. And Pious is really really not good.

 

Ken- He's a martial artist. I thought of naming him Ryu, but that's too cliche even for me. So I went with Ryu's rival.   He is from a very old village, Jilu. Like Cid, it is a sovereign nation in Elysia. The village is home a monastery themed after Tibetan Monks. That's what Ken is. At least what he's training to become when Shine and friend's arrive. They actually help him complete it, but I don't wanna get into that whole story quest right now.

 

He joins Shine at the request of his master who sees that the heroes seem to bring the best out of Ken and travelling with them on their quest will be the best way to further enlighten his mind and hine his body. Though these monks mostly practice martial arts as self-defense, they are not afraid to strike if they feel the cause is righteous. 

 

Elsa-  Now not that Elsa. If that's what you thought, you just need to Let it go! Let it go! I chose the name because she's a mage and it literally means magic. Prolly why Disney chose the name, too, so knowing, them, they'll prolly try and sue me  I also chose the name simply because I've just always really liked it. That was before well Frozen and before I even knew what it meant. That's right, I like it before it was cool! (ice pun?)

 

She is the last character to join the party, and therefore I've had the least time to develop her character in story. I have a pretty good outline for her though. She hails from a small island, Oria. This island is like the Jilu of magic. She is on a similar pilgrimage as Hermes. Aside from having a long tradition of practicing magic, Oria's people are also very scholarly. They are constantly seeking to learn about... well everything. Elsa's pilgrimage is not simply to hone her magic, but to visit and learn about as many cultures as she can. Like Hermes, she is also honor bound to stop evil wherever she sees it. In fact, when Shine meets her, she had already decided that she was going to kill King Pious. 

 

I have a pretty general idea of her personality. Kind, strong-willed. She's normally has a more formal way of speaking. Don't let that kind, calm, sophisticated demeanor fool you though. If she ever speaks sharply to you, take heed cuz if you keep pushing, she'll push back with a giant blast of magic.

 

 

 

 

==================Screenshots===============

Here's just a few little samples of some maps. I have lots and lots more. Eventually, I'll lay them out area by area. 

 

 

 

 

 

================================Features================================

 

I'll lead with one of my favorites. The combat system. It took a ton of working and reworking, and required me asking for a ton of help especially for scripts to create the system I now have. Here's the rundown:

 

It is a traditional front view turn based system. I'm using Yanfly's Ace engine plus a ton of his add ons. Per usual, the battles feature four

active party members. Eventually the player will have 10 total actors in their party. Party members can be switched out at the start of a turn, but there is a three turn cooldown so switch wisely. At the moment, all buffs and status conditions both positive and negative don't go away 

when switching nor do the fade after x  turns. I may change that at least with some statuses, but that's still up in the air. 

 

Seeing as there are so many actors, I'm making sure the enemies are formidable. It's impossible unless you're really over powered for an area to one-hit kill an enemy. Usually, they take about 5-6 hits on average. This of course means longer battles so encounters are a bit more spaced out than you typically see. Quality over quantity. One of my biggest pet peeves in RPG's is when you can just mindlessly spam attack through battle after battle. My game is far more tactical than that. If you don't think about your actions, you're not going to last long. I should note that there is nothing to stop the player from level grinding until they can just steamroll through. Personally, it's not my play style, but I have no desire to restrict those that do other than with the XP curve.

 

The individual enemies aren't the only feature that makes battles tougher. The troops are typically well balanced and have a wide range of elemental, buff, and status weaknesses/resistances. All the default states plus a few others I added, but that's for another section.  The default ten elements make up my game elements. Coincidentally, I planned to have the same exact ones well before I ever opened the program. The player has plenty of opportunities to inflict states, but so do the enemies. Naturally, the rewards of the battles are sufficient to allow the player to get stronger and buy more and better items and equipment. There's plenty of crafting items the enemies drop, and of course, the occasional equipment piece or item. One drawback to my battle system is you'll likely have to heal after almost every battle. I'm considering having the player regen a small amount (10%) of the party's HP after each battle. I did that with MP, and it worked out beautifully. 

 

Sound challenging to you? It gets worse! Tsukihime has this really awesome script called Enemy Conditions. It allows for a lot more freedom in creating how and why enemies uses their skills. Less randomness; more strategy. Enemies will try to cure statuses, heal each other, exploit states and debuffs, and more. 

 

==================Classes=================

With all them there challenging baddies, I had to ensure the player has the proper skills to deal with them accordingly. That brings me to the class system. I am incredibly pleased with how this came out. Not only am I proud of the balancing of the individual classes, but the system I managed to put in place. 

 

There are ten party members in all. The main character, Shine, cannot change his class. The other nine however each have three base classes. each of those classes upgrades to another. That means there are 55 classes in total. Some are more traditional like the Warrior and Archer, but then there's the more unique ones, like Psychic and Botanist. There are no differences between them in terms of elemental and status affinities. Those are altered through equipment and skills. Each class does have differing passive bonuses. Ex-Parameters (CRI, MEV, EVA, etc) and base stats (ATK, DEF, AGI, etc). There are small differences is the base stats themselves, but they play a very minor role. My game features a stat point system so the player can choose which stats to increase upon leveling. That means a difference of 10 points in say ATK can easily be overcome. 

 

For the most part, skills are gained through leveling up. Other than the MC, all the classes learn skills at the same levels. The base or Tier 1 classes are mostly available to the player as soon as that actor joins the party. There are several classes that have to be unlocked through side quests. The system is fairly simple. Skills are able to be "mastered". This done simply by using a skill x amount of times. In a very basic way the skills the actors learn are tailored to how the player plays the game. Any and all mastered skills are transferred over when an actor changes classes. I made sure to put in some nice combo skills that require the player to master a skill n two different classes. 

 

As I said before, all the Tier 1 classes can be upgraded to Tier 2. This is unlocked at a certain part of the story. There are two requirements. The first is the character must be at level 20. The party should be at or near this point when Tier 2 classes are unlocked without grinding. 

The second is to have at least two of the Tier 1 skills mastered. To avoid confusion here's how it works:

 

Warrior upgrades to General. For this to happen, the actor must have two Warrior skills mastered and be at least at level 20. 

All mastered skills will transfer over regardless of class once the player can use it. 

 

 

What's the difference between Tier 1 and Tier 2 classes? I'm glad you asked! Firstly, Tier 2 classes learn better skills than Tier 1. 

Secondly, they also have higher passive bonuses to those Ex-Params and base stats. Thirdly, the base stats all get small boost.

Fourthly, Tier 2 classes have two special skills. These are TP based. They learn the first at level 20 so, if you were paying attention, they will have it right off the bat. These skills were inspired by FF7's Limit Breaks. They are really powerful skills whether they deal damage, debilitate, or aid the user and his allies. They don't trigger like the limit breaks; you select them like any other skill as long as you have enough TP.

TP is gained per default, and is preserved after every battle. These skills cannot be mastered. They are exclusive to the their respective class. Every lv 20 skill requires 50 TP to use. Each class has a additional special skill that requires 100 TP. These are not gained by level up. They have to be found just like the hidden limit breaks in FF7. That means there's 24 in all hidden throughout the world. Can you find them all? Good news is, they are all found the same way, by finding Magic Books. 24 skills. 24 books.

 

One last thing about the class system is how change them. Pretty simple. Pretty much every town has a special Class Change Crystal. A wondrous marriage of science and magic. All you do is go up to it and choose the character you want to change, and pick their class. 

Any incompatible equipment is removed automatically and all the mastered skills transfer over. Easy peezy 

 

 

=============================Credits=============================

 

 

 

Scripts

 

Theon Allen, Cookie Ninja, Tsukihime, Double X, Rikifive, Shiggy, Soulpour777, RPG Maker Source (for Audio Fade In Copyright © 2014 Maker Systems.), Karanum, Yanfly, Natanial B., Glasses (Mr. Trivel), Vlue (V.M of D.T), Killozapit, modern algebra@ rmrk.net, snow, vFoggy, Mithran.

 

Yeah... I have a lot of scripts.

 

Graphics

 

Battlers: Thazlon, PandaMaru, casper667, qut, Pentagon Buddy, charlesthehurst, bougainvillea.egoism.jp, Belzak, Inquisitor, Danari Art.

 

Tilesets:

 

xoferew

ayene_chan

 

RPG MAKER Fantastic Buildings: Medieval

 

Developer

ENTERBRAIN, INC

 

Artist

Celianna

 

Publisher

DEGICA Co., LTD

 

[Copyright]© 2014 ENTERBRAIN, INC

 

RPG Maker Community Resource Pack

 

Developer

ENTERBRAIN, INC

 

 

Publisher

DEGICA Co., LTD

 

© 2014 DEGICA Co., LTD.

 

 

 

Windowskin: RPG Maker Source  http://rpgmakersource.com/freebies/graphics/

 

Battlebacks:  Wendell, Evil Eagles, Scanime, AzRaezel, Enterbrain, bougainvillea.egoism.jp, emuas, HavenEdwards

 

 

 

Music

 

Eric Matyas (http://www.soundimage.org/)

 

Kaimen

 

 

RPG MAKER The Blackheart Power Resource Pack

 

Composer/Musician

Kain Vinosec

 

Publisher

DEGICA Co., LTD

 

© 2012 ENTERBRAIN, INC.

 

 

RPG MAKER Undead Fantasy Resource Pack

 

Composer/Musician

Kain Vinosec

 

Publisher

DEGICA Co., LTD

 

© 2012 ENTERBRAIN, INC.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 2, 2016 by lonequeso

[Rikifive 3,411]

FIRST!

JK!

 

I was always curious about stuff you were working on, my little silent developer. =3

 

That's a some nice wall of text you have there!

That's great you finally decided to put that here ~ Good luck with further development! =3

[Cookie Ninja 374]

Ohh.... I've been waiting for this! I've been so curious! C'mon gimme dat demo >_<

[lonequeso 1,921]

I made a big ol' edit. 

[Lord Vectra 414]

It's good to see ur making progress.

[lonequeso 1,921]

All that "new" stuff has been in place a while. I just didn't get around to adding it.  As far as progress goes, I'm nearing completion of another level. I just have a couple more puzzles to event, and then add the enemies and it will be done. I'll probably jump right into another level in the same region after. That one will be interesting. A ruined castle. Three really aren't a lot of resources out there to make one so I'm probably going to have to make my own.

[Lord Vectra 414]

Yay for originality! Puzzles are fun. I only hate it when I can't move forward in a dungeon because I can't find the stupid lever (Ugh, Skyrim/Oblivion memories of frustration).

 

I do enjoy virtually assassinating tyrant kings. Could be why I love Assassins Creed: Brotherhood so much.

[Dymdez 77]

I would highly consider going into parallax mapping because the quality of the rest of your game seems so high, it would be a shame not to!  feel free to contact for help

[lonequeso 1,921]

I could make an entire game just out of the features I want to include. Parallaxing is one of those features. I actually like the traditional look anyway. It reminds me of the games I grew up playing on Sega and Nintendo.

Edited July 3, 2016 by lonequeso

[lonequeso 1,921]

It's been a while since I posted anything new. Been busy. Anyway, I finally finished a level I've been working on. It still needs some minor work, but it's pretty much done. I had to make a few custom tile edits so it took a good while. The level is an ancient castle that was overrun and badly damaged by some dragons many many years ago. Look! Screenies!

 

 

Edited October 1, 2016 by lonequeso

[Rikifive 3,411]

Oooh these maps look great! It indeed looks like all the houses were rekt by some dragons! :3

Nice progress-  keep it up!

[lonequeso 1,921]

Thanks

[lonequeso 1,921]

Been a while since I updated. I just made a warehouse that came out really nice so why not show it off? I made a few tiles: The railings and steel drums. There's a small edit to the window tiles to gave them a night background instead of the default white. 

 

 

Edited December 18, 2016 by lonequeso

[Cookie Ninja 374]

Looking good! Still waiting for that demo >_<

 

At least I now know where the secret event is in that warehouse

[lonequeso 1,921]

 By that time, it won't a secret, but  it is the final location for a fun lil' sidequest. Completing it will earn you a unique weapon. 

[Cookie Ninja 374]

Bummer, I thought I had some insider information >_>

 

Anywho, great to see your game coming along nicely

[lonequeso 1,921]

Slowly, but surely.

[lonequeso 1,921]

UPDATE TIME!!!     

 

I've been working on a few side quests for the final town on the first continent. Two of the four are done. The first one is simple enough. Go to a warehouse and kill

a bunch of rats for someone. To make things interesting, the rats have a unique status they can inflict, Bubonic Plague. It drains HP faster than normal poison, and 

lowers stats. It can only be cured by walking or healing at an Inn.

 

The second is a three part quest where you try and get some fellow to win over the gal of his dreams. The first step is pretty straightforward. Just go deliver a love letter. After that doesn't work, she at least agrees to turn him down in person. So the man, Julian decides to write or rather make you write a love poem. You don't actually write in the quest. Instead, Julian recites it by having you choose from various choice options to recite the poem. (Almost) Every choice is a line from an actual poem. I had to add one extra to one of them. There's eight lines in all. Some lines are more obviously not correct than others. 

 

After successfully reciting the poem, the woman, Annabelle is teetering ion the edge of falling for him. She panics and runs off. Julian refuses to stop trying and has one last idea. He volunteers one of your party to follow her and pretend to mug her so he can run in and "rescue" her. You must follow her without being seen

to your destination. Upon success you pretend to mug her, Julian fights you off, and Annabelle is finally won over.

 

You get a decent chunk of XP for completing it, and a Magic Tome that unlocks a special skill.

 

 

The next quest to complete is going to be a mafia themed one featuring some gangsters using the name of a righteous group of rebels to do their shady deals. That one will be pretty straightforward. It will consist of two battles. The first one involves you breaking up a deal at the docks. The second is to go to their hideout and defeat the mob boss. 

 

The last quest is going to be puzzle based. Not sure exactly what puzzle(s) I'm going to use, but the quest revolves around fixing the city's power plant before things go boom. 

 

After all that, I'll add the main quest in. That is a rendezvous with the real group of rebels, Ironforge.

 

So much work,so little time. Anyone have a cloning machine I can borrow?