Chain game ideas and discussion 2022-20??

[Prpl_Mage]

Yes that's sounding good. So 'episodic' meaning kind of like megaman where you can do all the bits in any order but you get a reward from each part that makes the other parts easier, maybe.

If we do an episodic approach akin to "Everyone does a part 2" then yes. It would be a good middle ground between true open world and completely episodic.

You want to start it Purple? I don't think you started one yet.

I could start if we feel ready to begin but it's probably gonna take me a while to put together a start and such, as always will take any sort of assistance with music and artwork if you guys feel like helping out.

Random idea, instead of having level ups we instead have a "Level Up Shop". Where you can buy stat increases, so you pick characters to level up and maybe it cost different items to level up certain stats. The more you level up a character the more expensive it will be. Would give the player more freedom how they want to build their party. Who should be fighter and mage etc.
Don't think it would be too complicated to set up.

An interesting idea for sure, would just need to set up a cool interface for it.

It's not what I thought of. But I kinda like it. Would work well with some sort of hub area. And would probably take some planning, like maybe we should figure out the themes and weaknesses before hand. Instead of picking a chapter maybe you pick a theme. Like I want to do the Fire Dungeon etc.

If we want open world elements to the game as well as episodes then I suppose this could be a good way. Likewise, if a person wants to do something entirely different from the party itself it can be a story told, or a log found which at the conclusion rewards the party with the "thing".

But yes, some sort of broad plan for the game would most likely be good idea before we start since we don't need to continue the story per say. So we need some sort of premise that would lead the player onto 4(?) different trips and what that would ultimately lead to. If we go with Sci Fi if could simply be that a Ship/Station is stuck and needs to get back home and these planets / areas have the material needed. Or something. As Fish mentioned, doesn't need to be a "save the world" story.

Also I have what might be an unpopular opinion. Could we keep the number of characters down? Like keeping it to only a full party. I really dislike the party switching system and really don't think they are that fun. Like I don't mind having a bunch of npc character around the party that can jump into cutscenes, but not everyone has to be playable. If you guys like it we can keep it, it's just something I never really been that into.

If we can add variety with the characters we create for the game then I agree that the party system could be moot. We could also make it so that the main cast is 3 people and our different chapters can offer a guest character present in that chapter alone, or switch out the main cast during the chapter for those who want that kind of system. Maybe without a leveling up system we can explore other ways to make combat interesting and therefore not needing the multitude of characters and instead focus on bringing depth to the ones we do have. Let let rest travel along and be important but not available everywhere.

But I agree that NPCs can still follow along with the party even if they don't participate in combat. Rockwell for example stayed with the party until he was actually made a complete character during the post game round.

[Fisherson]

If we do want to do another sci-fi perhaps not a pure planet hopper like Juno's was, after all one day I hope you'll all join me in making a sequel to that one day soon enough, but something exotic and not a total Star Wars parody. I mean if you want since it's open ended we could add planet-to-planet travel but I would like to see something unique and new for a world that only loosely resembles what we've done before and pushes the boundries we've not tested before. After all that is what this Untitled Chain Game is about right?

[Moosetroop11]

I personally love party switching in rpgs momeka, part of the fun is choosing my party : ) Having said that for this sort of game where we're buying level ups using rewards we've found in the various sections, I reckon a single, unchangable party sounds perfect. We can go back to party changing next time.

However, that does mean that the person who does the first part will likely have to design the whole party, unless we come together beforehand and design a character each

[Momeka]

Yeah, I figured I would be a minority when it came to that. If it works for the game we’re making than I’ll yield. It’s not that big of a deal. The biggest reason I don't like it is cause I like to animate stuff in cutscenes. And if I don't know what the party is or have to do like 4 variation of an animation it's just too much work. We don't do it much, but what I also dislike is when you're forced to play with some characters. Cause I tend to just pick my party and ignore the rest. So on those sections they are just horrible under leveled.

I was thinking of a premise that might work for an open world game. People that get stranded on a planet. And it’s basically survival, you need to gather supplies, build up a camp, maybe an early goal could be to scavenge a distress beacon from your ship. And as you find more materials your camp grows. Like we switch out the map and add more structures and features to it. Could maybe be fun.

[Prpl_Mage]

If we do want to do another sci-fi perhaps not a pure planet hopper like Juno's was, after all one day I hope you'll all join me in making a sequel to that one day soon enough, but something exotic and not a total Star Wars parody. I mean if you want since it's open ended we could add planet-to-planet travel but I would like to see something unique and new for a world that only loosely resembles what we've done before and pushes the boundries we've not tested before. After all that is what this Untitled Chain Game is about right?

Hmm, good point. Maybe focus on a single planet/world.

I personally love party switching in rpgs momeka, part of the fun is choosing my party : ) Having said that for this sort of game where we're buying level ups using rewards we've found in the various sections, I reckon a single, unchangable party sounds perfect. We can go back to party changing next time.

We can try it of course, just need to figure out the system and all.

However, that does mean that the person who does the first part will likely have to design the whole party, unless we come together beforehand and design a character each

That could be a way to do things in the future.

We don't do it much, but what I also dislike is when you're forced to play with some characters. Cause I tend to just pick my party and ignore the rest. So on those sections they are just horrible under leveled.

Oops.

I was thinking of a premise that might work for an open world game. People that get stranded on a planet. And it’s basically survival, you need to gather supplies, build up a camp, maybe an early goal could be to scavenge a distress beacon from your ship. And as you find more materials your camp grows. Like we switch out the map and add more structures and features to it. Could maybe be fun.

Sounds like a good starting point. If they still have access to a ship then the main quest would be repairing that ship, otherwise survival, getting into contact with "HQ", complete the mission/contract etc would all suit well.
We just need to make the place look real exotic for it to sell I think.

[Moosetroop11]

Yes I like the idea of being stranded on an alien planet : ) You could have lots of exotic landscapes and weather types and creatures

[Momeka]

Oops.

No offense : P We're not the only game that's done that

What I particular like about the survival thing is the base building. Like starting the game we just have a very simple base camp. Like maybe it just have an "inn" where you can rest. Then you need to gather some materials like for example 15 wood, 10 rocks, 5 metals and you can upgrade the camp. Then the camp will have an extra building that acts a rudimentary shop where you can buy potions etc.

The camp itself is very simply set up. Each level is just another Camp map that you enter.

Think it could work well for a open world thing where gathering things in the world can be optional goal the player can have.

[Moosetroop11]

Yes that sounds good, I like the idea that one or more of the the stranded people might be a researcher or scientist by trade and you could have them also cataloguing flora and fauna as you go around. I know that's a bit of a trope these days but it might be fun to bring a plant seed back to the base and try and grow it.

[Prpl_Mage]

Okay so been brainstorming a bit and this is what I got so far.

The United Worlds of Sol, named by the Humans from planet Earth (surprise) is is spread across the stars. Recent technology allowed both Humans and other intergalactic races to reach a new system previously beyond their grasp, this system is ripe for the taking for anyone who dares to give it a try. The truce between the different space-faring races are tense meaning that no real military presence can enter the system without a 20 year bureaucratic mess stalling everything going on in the universe. But the different members of the coalition intend to take their piece of the new system and have still sent people to begin terraforming and settle down.

The planet designated Sanco Avasara (after a commercial voting campaign started by the SSF-TCS) is the humans' main target in the new system, having an abundance of metals only found in small quantities in the Solar System and other colonized planets as well as an exotic (and relatively lethal) wildlife. The first ship with the terraforming processor arrived at the planet 10 years prior to the second ship carrying settlers, researchers and blue collar workers to make the world their own.

However, as the colony ship arrives at Sanco Avasara it is clear that something has gone awry.
The terraforming of the planet is not completed and the settlement they do find is nowhere near what was promised them by the commercials shown by the SSF-TCS. The colony ship wasn't supplied with enough fuel to make a trip back and the AI is following protocols to disassemble into usable parts for the future habitats.
Just what went wrong here? How are they supposed to survive on this planet and can they create a settlement for when the next ship arrives?

The PCs would be new arrivals and veterans who've been on the planet for a while. Maybe the main character was supposed to fill some sort of profession that just isn't there because no one built it or the failed terraforming doesn't allow it. So they are given this new and exciting task.

[Fisherson]

The planet designated Sanco Avasara.

That name resonates with me quite well! I also like the idea of a colonist ship sent to investigate and our party is a bunch of people from different walks of life. We could do something Red mentioned earlier: have the ability to just pick our party from the outset and set off with who we want instead of following a main character. In fact there was a weird thing I wanted to do in Juno's Odyssey but scrapped but what if we had two main protags? A Loke and Terra from FF6 situation where each has importance to the plot but not necessarily overshadows one another. Instead of just choosing Ash we also get a Gary we can choose to be the leader. Just using this as a conditional branch we can set up two obvious endings from their paths but why stop there? Let's also give the Rockwells and Nezas out there a chance to after completing an established storyline. It would be tighter focus but I think it could harken back to my favorite things about Juno and Spring Valley: the sheer number of secrets there were to prise loose. Also without a focus on leveling up and grinding we could focus nearly 100% on character x character interaction for once.

I also like the Minecraft little thing of gathering resources. Always wanted to do that but never even did my parody of it so it would be a nice challenge. The one thing that worries me is we're gonna need a custom menu this time so we don't look at levels and get that same "gah why can't I just hide you" feeling I still get from Nicknames. <.< seriously I could swear there was a system to change those to titles or something that semi made sense in other narratives years ago on Pirated RM2003.

[Prpl_Mage]

@Fish
I feel like a 2 version story line would work better if the game was linear. But we could of course have plenty of different characters to choose from to join our main person. Maybe, depending on how the system for progress is made for the characters.
Being true to a more open world approach we could of course give the player 3 choices of the main character's appearence, although it wouldn't affect the story itself much just the actor shown on the overworld, battle and cutscenes etc. It would however force us to make cutscenes a bit trickier with all the options. Maybe better to let the player pick a "intended profession" which gives them a starting item and affects some dialogue and ending instead.

Also, I just had this crazy idea that I don't know if it will be viable. But what if we let the player decide where different installments are placed in the settlement, kinda like in Dark Cloud. If the buildings are pictures we can give them more character, and also easily give them different "tiers" depending on if they are upgraded and how well the colony is doing.
If he have 4 choices from the start and the player wants to place the Medical Center they get a choice to build it on plot 1,2,3 or 4. Then the Foundry, Bazaar and Forge can't be placed there, but instead need to go on the other plots. We save that for later, display the picture of the building there, place the 3 NPCs related to it in that place etc. If the establishments do their business up front instead of entering it would also be easier to manage the teleporting.
(Scrap that, just remembered that pictures on the map is such a hassle unless they are as big as the map.)

Also, we can change "lvl" to ID" and just make a 3 digit number for each character

[Momeka]

- Worldbuilding -

Sounds solid to me! I'm really looking forward to make an open world exploration

Also, I just had this crazy idea that I don't know if it will be viable. But what if we let the player decide where different installments are placed in the settlement, kinda like in Dark Cloud. If the buildings are pictures we can give them more character, and also easily give them different "tiers" depending on if they are upgraded and how well the colony is doing.
If he have 4 choices from the start and the player wants to place the Medical Center they get a choice to build it on plot 1,2,3 or 4. Then the Foundry, Bazaar and Forge can't be placed there, but instead need to go on the other plots. We save that for later, display the picture of the building there, place the 3 NPCs related to it in that place etc. If the establishments do their business up front instead of entering it would also be easier to manage the teleporting.
(Scrap that, just remembered that pictures on the map is such a hassle unless they are as big as the map.)

I don't think big maps and pcitures should be a problem? But I'm not sure, it's been a while since I did  something with big maps. The only thing with doing it with pictures is that they are either below or above the player. So we would have to either make sure you can't walk behind them or have some system that dynamically switches the layer of the pics depending on player position.

Could do it as events as well. It would be a lot of set up for the events though. But it wouldn't give us any sorting issues or issues with big maps.



Also another random idea I'm just gonna throw out there. Depends on how much we want to tell a story though a party of characters or if we more want to tell a story with the cast of npc in the base. But we could only have one "main" character. That character is like any other game, you equip them and level them etc. Then in the base you could recruit a bunch of no name npc to join you for expedition. So their gear is set and they can't level up. So if you're going into say the poison area you might want to bring Chuck cause he is a medic and can remove poison statuses etc. Making switching out party members something you do a lot and we could have a lot of variation allowing the player to put together a party that fits their playstyle.
Then as you upgrade the base and add more buildings to it you unlock more characters you can bring with you. 

[Prpl_Mage]

The problem with pictures and maps is that the pictures are displayed in relation to your current screen. That's why it works for UI and such, however it becomes a problem with objects that are expected to be somwhere else on the map and in that fixed location.

Also another random idea I'm just gonna throw out there. Depends on how much we want to tell a story though a party of characters or if we more want to tell a story with the cast of npc in the base. But we could only have one "main" character. That character is like any other game, you equip them and level them etc. Then in the base you could recruit a bunch of no name npc to join you for expedition. So their gear is set and they can't level up. So if you're going into say the poison area you might want to bring Chuck cause he is a medic and can remove poison statuses etc. Making switching out party members something you do a lot and we could have a lot of variation allowing the player to put together a party that fits their playstyle.
Then as you upgrade the base and add more buildings to it you unlock more characters you can bring with you. 

This could work.
Right now in my planning stage I've categorized characters into different classes/skillsets, So we may have Chuck, Bob and Gaston who are all considered to be "Support" and have most things in common like starting stats and most of the skills and equipment options. But they each have something unique. Chuck could have a skill that cures poison while Bob and Gaston lacks it but instead have something else.
I was tinkering around with the spell book from Spring Valley, thinking if that could be something to bring over to this game as well, if each character has 4 options and you pick 2. Or like two of those "spell books". And that's it. Generic skills for everyone, the books to allow for customization, and then items for stat upgrades and such.

Other "classes" ideas right now are:
Fighter - operative, brawler, gunner
Infiltrator - tracker, sniper, scouth
Engineer - Scientist, Mechanist, demolitionist
Support - medic, zealot, communications
Totally-not-a-mage - Mindthief, destroyer

I'm also in the progress of testing if I can pull of some different "mini games" for harvesting resources in the field. Right now Mining is the same as Tidus overdrives in FFX, press the key at the right time to line up the curser with the area. And Cutting is mashing the button to reach the intended goal in time.
A system is in place where each "gather point" randomizes between 3 positions when entering the map, and they don't respawn until you return to the hub.
Keep in mind, this is all done with old spring valley chipsets and stand in resources until I figure the rest of the stuff out.

Speaking of figuring stuff out. Are there any past systems we want to bring over to this one? Such as the caterpillar system, the portraits for conversations etc?

[Momeka]

Sounds nice!

I rather not do caterpillar for this. It's really annoying having to set up for each map. And if you add a new hero or something we need to go through every map and fix it. It's also annoying to deal with when making cutscenes.

We need to sneak some scifi owl merchants in there. Personally I liked how they were in in Mystery. Acting like a secret shop. Maybe it's overkill, but we could do a custom shop for them where you can buy stuff for Owl-Tokens you find in the map.

Let me know if you want me to do some art or something. I'm down for whatever. Might not have that much time this week, but can probably get started at least.

[Prpl_Mage]

Yeah, if we go with many party members then the portrait and caterpillar system may be a bit bothersome.
Although I personally feel that portraits are good at emphasizing the character's importance.

I like the idea of having collectibles in the game, we seemed to like the bird quest, we could have similar things in this one. And if there's some sort of use of the things you find, even better.

I'd take any art you feel like making. Personally, anything that sets the tone inspires me such as the System graphics, facesets, chipsets and so helps. I just assumed we're going with the Spring Valley style and palette again.


Right now I'm thinking about making this first settlement pretty large with room for lots of additional content added by you guys. Some areas will be closed off from the start, with more parts of the settlement being unlocked as you complete quests. More room means more shops and establishments etc and places where we can put NPCs and such. I've added some empty spaces for more establishments with services and shops when we come up with good ideas.

I plan to make my own part like an episode of a TV show, not just a questgiver that leads to things but entering a place which triggers a cutscene and then at the end of the cutscene you have something to resolve. Kinda like a Simpsons/Star Gate episode or something. The relevant characters will be part of it, others may make short appearances but it's an episode with its own cohesive dramatical curve. It shouldn't be much different from what we've done so far though in terms of content.

How well off do we want the colony to be? Are we talking more punk in this scifi or more high end scifi? I'm thinking that the new arrivals should be cleaner and have cooler gear but the overall state of the existing things are kinda worn down. But do we want like shelters or complete buildings and such that are in disrepair?