Chain game ideas and discussion 2022-20??

[Fisherson]

Thanks Fish.

I think that as long as there is an incitement to explore open world will be fine.
We could add collectibles of different kind, such as the birds in Heart of Gold. Or place resources of different kinds that are needed in difficult to reach places.
Or just take the metroid route and place stat upgrades and unique weapons and upgrades out there.
Regardless, gotta make it feel alive somehow.

Also, realized that I had removed the npc map with character notes. So here they are instead. Feel free to use or dismiss, didn't come up with names for them all.

AHA! The missing link to build the story around. Thanks for that Purps adding it to my document with Chain Game ideas for this year. I also might add the base ideas I have to the list. Oooh should we take another stab at what we did with Juno? Collective ideas Google Doc to posit stuff and leave notes? I know it wasn't a great thing with Juno but did smooth out some rougher spots/get neat source material even if we didn't use it all. Kinda wish I had saved it actually now cause so many scraped ideas could be used for side quests or even main story not that I think any of us really want to focus on the story path itself this go. In fact this may be the first where villain groups and big bads don't really matter in the long run.

Awesome, with the characters, prpl. My intention is to use the story/lore you posted before. Not sure how much of the politics and characters will be in the start, writing and story isn't my strongest side. But feel free to go back into my part and flesh it out.

Here's how I'm thinking about the open world: You can't leave the main base to go directly into the wilderness. Instead you take a shuttle. When you take the shuttle you see a world map and get to pick a zone to be dropped of in. Each zone is a larger area to explore and they are tied to the base level. So upgrading the base level also adds a new zone to the map.
Thinking there can be barricades between the zones as well, so you can buy items from the base to destroy them and interconnect all the zones into a larger open world (like Pokémon HM)

Also thinking of having a special resource, a crystal or something. Each zone only have one of them and one is always required to upgrade the base to the next level. So if we have main story events we want to happen in a zone we can gate the crystal behind those events. Think it will be a pretty effective way of making the player experience what we want and forcing them to explore each part of the world.

Ooh I normally dispise maps that use this system but oddly that does sound like we can focus on larger areas without worrying about connecting them on single map and causing lag. The special resource collecting creates a goal for each area which in lieu of overarching story could be a good marker for game progression as well as a ay to track player progress as a variable that unlocks story stuff at the Settlement. Kinda Jedi Fallen Order/Skyrim that: complete the story as you want and move on only when you're ready. I like it! Also having a ahcievement system might not be a bad idea at some point to pin point where the player is for themselves but also for us for when we decide to code in the endings or just fun paths you can only get if you pathfind certain events.

Also not sure what you guys think about it. But I was thinking of removing gold and experience from fights. So instead you just get items from defeating monsters. Some of these items can be sold for gold and other can be traded in for Research Points (RP). And these RP can be used for various things in the base, one being leveling up your character. Thinking you could also put in RP to research new gear and such in the base, that gets added to a shop. But I'm not sure yet, depends a bit how long everything else takes to make.

This is necessary I think yeah. The player needs to be more creative in gathering pure cash and we already positied trying to move away from level ups too if possible. Perhaps we should ascend Juno's DNA system a game early? Make it so that obtaining a Key Stone (working name for the unnamed goal crystal in each area to keep my OCD mind at bay) unlocks a level of the shop and depending on the goals in the area you get one DNA Point to spend on the character for upgrades. No need for stat leveling that way and weapons are more cosmetic/situational like Monster Hunter right?

[Momeka]

Would you guys be opposed to doing first person battles? It would save so much time on doing battle characters. Specially when we're aiming for a lot of characters you can switch in and out.


Here's some random progress shots:


Progress is real slow. If it was a normal chapter based chain game I would probably been pretty close to finish. But this is way more complex than the others. Still making the resources and systems for it all. Started mapping out stuff for the intro area.

[Prpl_Mage]

Looks great Momeka, digging all those poses and animations.

I still haven't finished any battlcharset so go ahead and do the first person battlers. It would be a first for us. Maybe do it like Mother where you only see the charset head at the top of the character's stat block.

[Fisherson]

Gonna warn you that is way harder than it looks in RPG Maker 2003 as it was a goal of mine after playing some RM 2000 games...and coincidently? I have my template from those. I almost played with it the other day while trying to jump start my creative process for cool classes & experiments for on going stuff with my own projects.

[Momeka]

Almost done with the skill selection system



So I made it only work for the main character. Each tier and the skills in each tier are tied to base upgrades. So say upgrading the base to level 3 might unlock tier 2 and 2 tier 1 skills etc. The number of available skills is also tied so a variable to we can connect to either base upgrades or character levels etc.
Figured the party members recruited from the barracks can just have skills. It will be less of a headache for us all.

The number of skills is set. It will be a bit of a pain to change it. But there is 20 skills in total for the player to learn. 8 in tier one, 6 in tier two, 4 in tier 3, and 2 in tier 4.

Should be pretty easy to update the system with the names and info for the skills you make. You will just need to update two images in the project. I'll provide the font I've used in the project as well so you can use that if you want.

[Moosetroop11]

Looks aaawesome : )

[Prpl_Mage]

Let us know if there is anything we can help out with. I have some charsets lined up that I probably have time to finish in a week or so.

[Momeka]

More npcs to fill out the maps with would be nice. Also I don't know if any one else is musically incline other than moose. But if you have time sometime some tracks would be nice.


Also finished the character selection system:



It has room for 48 characters in total, 16 in each tier. Also added a rank for each tier. Figured you can spend resources to upgrade a tier up to 3 times. And it gives each character in the tier a level up.
Also decided to bite the bullet and make a **** ton battle characters. Tried front view battle but it was really unclear who was being attack etc. think it would just be annoying to play.

Don't think the system will be too complicated setting up. But I'll try to write some guides for the custom systems before I finish up.

[Fisherson]

That scrolling background is so satisfying. @u@ Tiers in place of levels then? Interesting concept. Effective and rewards currency grinding. I like it! Also wow that's more characters than any RPG so far including Juno's Odyssey.

[Fisherson]

**Pokes the project with a stick to see if it moves**

[Momeka]

I'm working on it. Currently on vacation over the summer, will not be able to work for some weeks. But since this is game is a bit outside of our normal chain games and requires several custom systems it's taking a while.

I've finished most of the custom systems (80%). Started making the maps for the first open world area (90%). Made maybe like half of the level 1 base maps. Made the intro sequence. But have made 0% on the story and npcs. Made templates for charsets and battlecharas for all class types.

So will be some more work when I get back home.

[Moosetroop11]

Sorry I didn't notice your mention of music Momeka, I'm up for it of course. Are we thinking just midis like usual? And what sort of style are we going for? : ) If you're not sure I think I can work something out based on the screens and themes so far

[Momeka]

I don't have anything special in mind. I've added a royalty free track in the intro sequence and timed some stuff after it, but it's not midi. But doesn't mean the rest can't be midi. Would be nice to keep the file size down.

I can send you the project when I'm back home again and you can take a look at the environments.

[Fisherson]

I say we follow the same rule for Spring Valley: Two MP3s will be fine but try not to raise it past 3. If you can find midi conversions to help keep compression down as Red said do it cause this will be quite large due to what we're trying to do. Heck it may lag out from the massive map and systems we're running alone even before the MP3 tracks play. RM 2003 is a steady 'ol gal but she's always hated when you put too much pressure on her. ^^; Held up well for a game engine it's own company abandoned once before though I think. Still know modern users of it outside our little cabal believe it or not.

[Momeka]

I'm back home again, going to pick up the chain game again. Not sure how fast it will go, my plate is kinda full at the moment. But I'll do my best.

In the meanwhile, Fish asked me about how the battles looks like. I've decided to stick with sideview, as it was hard to get the placement of the heroes correctly in fps view. Specially when we need to switch them in and out dynamically.

But here's the template battle characters for the different classes:

Infiltrator
Male



Female



Specialist
Male



Female



Specter
Male



Female



Support
Male



Female



Fighter



So basically you just need to add heads to them as long as you want to stick with the basic look of the classes.
Here's some charsets of the classes as well for a general look of the class:



And moose I try to get you a copy of the project soon so you can walk around in the environments. See if you get any inspiration.