[project1dev] Re: first things first
- From: Kent Petersen <kentkmp@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: project1dev@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 7 Apr 2009 21:48:08 -0700
I understand your vision for the game a lot more. It sounds like it will be
a pretty sweet
On Tue, Apr 7, 2009 at 9:26 PM, <figarus@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Game objective: to provide an amazing experience to gamers by fusing action
> adventure elements and traditional rpg gameplay - with the extra twist that
> only WE can provide.
>
> Theme: the overall theme of the game is a new mythology. I picture more
> like greek myths, old folklore, etc rather than modern fantasy like lord of
> the rings. It is really important we establish our own creatures, stories,
> myths, monsters etc. Obviously we can be inspired by things we think are
> great (zelda, oldschool ff's, modern rpg's) but we want it to be in the
> universe we define and design. In my head, the characters, npc's, etc. are
> mostly real down to earth ppl with real problems, but they live in subtly
> surreal world with all sorts of wonders and dangers that don't exist irl. I
> think a major key here is to remember-less is more. If you have one
> magician, he's unique and interesting, if you have 100 (like harry potter)
> magic becomes common place and loses its *ahem* magic. If we want stuff to
> have an impact, it is smart to keep it's mystery and rareness. Supply and
> demand, etc. You all took economics.
>
> Setting: this game is set in a yet unnamed world. In the beginning, there
> are the pocket "worlds" - each representing its own self contained little
> world of various size, including town/towns, landscape settings, etc. A
> world might be an island or a dessert world. These worlds are connected by
> doors that progress forward towards an unknown 'final world' in a linear
> fashion. there are two doors hidden in each world - one forward to the next
> world and one back towards the beginning. When NPC's go through the doors
> they turn into crazed demonic creatures called karzi. For an unknown
> reason, the main character can freely transverse through the doors - the
> first half of the game will mostly involve the quest forward to the final
> world. The second half of the game is after the main character reaches the
> final world, something happens that causes the borders between the worlds to
> crumble creating one large interconnected worlds made up of the lands that
> the character went through and some he didn't. While to the character it
> was only mere moments between the event in the final world and his arrival
> in the new one, it is 10 years later in the now combined world. New empires
> have formed, aliances made, and new adventures to be had.
>
> Character skill/stats:
> The stat system is going to be deep and interconnected with other systems
> and stats in the game. Things like speed will affect both overworld
> movement and combat speed. Besides the standard stats like strength,
> quickness, speed, constition, etc. there will also be auxillary stats
> involving the character's will power. These stats are aggression and
> discipline - these stats affect things like going berserk, getting scared,
> etc. which will have influences on combat.
>
> Stats:
> Strength: influences damage, lifting ability, critical hits.
> Quickness: influences dodging, rt, speed running
> Constitution: affects HP, stamina, lifting ability
> Will: influences discipline/agression system, magic abilty
> Charisma: influences ppl's reaction towards you, ability to recruit, some
> magic, also influences faction stuff. (Maybe there's order charisma and
> chaos charisma and some ppl are attracted to either or neutrality)
> Perception: influences dodging, also makes things like traps, secret doors,
> hidden treasure, etc glow.
>
> Skill intro:
> There are basic skills, master skills, and perks. Basic skills are the
> skills everyone has.. Things like parrying, swinging a weapon, dodging,
> swimming, jumping, etc (all affected by stats) and then there are master
> skills which basically is how classes are defined. Master skills are skills
> that "level up" and give bonus perks and abilities in combat. An example of
> this would be like final fantasy skills like swordtech for cyan or blitz for
> saban. Another example of a master skill is magic. Perks are things that
> can affect overworld or combat, like a quickdraw perk that gives you first
> strike more often, lockpicking, an ability to sense if certain
> creatures/characters have magic ability... There can be a ton.
>
> Ahhh magic:
> Yes there will be magic. It will not be like magic in normal games. Magic.
> in this game is all about imposing your will on the world around you.
> Instead of using the elements, etc. Magic will be used to do telekenisis,
> mind control, mentally destroying the enemies, and bend physical reality
> etc. Now that's not to say we can't have crazy bad ass spells, as mages can
> warp reality and the world around them using the power of their will...
> Causing rock spikes to burst from a boulder, etc. Also telekenisis can be
> used in the overworld, its range and strength varying on will power and
> magic skill. Perhaps further power in magic would allow time manipulation,
> etc. Very very few ppl in the world can use magic, and it is secretive and
> looked at as evil.
>
> Movement in the world:
> The main character can run, jump, climb, etc. Exploring is going to be an
> adventure, with things like ropes to swing across, places to jump, things to
> dodge, etc. I am picturing indiana jones type of things with giant
> boulders, darts shooting from the wlals, spike rooms, places to swim, etc.
> Just a lot of cool actiony things to challenge the gamer.
>
> Combat:
> Combat is initiated by bumping into or being ambushed by an enemy. It will
> change screens to a combat screen like a traditional rpg but it will not be
> standard turn based action once in. What it will be is something I have
> termed the "slip strike" system. Basically combat will be like a bizarre
> chimera of mike tyson's punchout, gemstone and final fantasy. Basically you
> control your character by selecting a command and then deciding when to
> execute it - while waiting you will actively control a block/parry/dodge
> defense and when you see an opening you'd execute. I can see this system
> being awesome, but perhaps overwelming. Maybe the beginning will be standard
> atb combat and only at the end is this... We'll have to play with it and
> find what is fun. Status effects like being maimed, etc will affect dodging
> and can either be made via critical hits or damage inflicted by overworld
> obstacles/etc.
>
> Important notes, re: combat -
> To grind or not to grind, that is the question... Basically, there are
> going to be two kinds of areas in this game, explore areas and grind areas,
> now grind areas can have adventuring and explore areas can have combat and
> enemies, but we want to keep in mind the theme of the area. Basically it is
> my belief that every battle should be dangerous and challenging and pose an
> actual threat to the player. Rather than make the game a war of attrition as
> the main character plows through an endless horde of weak enemies, all the
> fights in an adventure area should be meaningful. Less enemies, more epic
> fights basically. There will, of course, be grind areas too where you can
> do battle for the hell of it.
>
> Party member:
> Two quick things here... This is subject to change depending on how the
> combat system plays out but basically you'd either control your group
> actively like ff or dq or issue them general commands. This will need
> tweaking once we get in. The other aspect of party members that is
> important is this... I want death to be meaningful - losing a party member
> is easy to ignore if you can just ressurect them in battle or right
> afterwards, there is no concequence. My solution is this: if a party member
> dies, they go to a node and you have to go to the node to jail break them
> out and have them rejoin your party. We could have these nodes in various
> places and it could add an element to gameplay. Obviously, this will need
> to be balanced out, etc.
>
> Character creation, the first level:
> Basically you pick your face and general looks and the screen fades and
> your character appears in a black void. An NPC (character in hat/cloak)
> explains that its time to test you and you are put through (I like 3
> randomly ordered with a secret 4th one that pops up occasionally and maybe
> imbues special powers or only 4th test ppl can learn magic). How the player
> plays out the tests gives them a general starting point for their stats,
> skills and perks.
>
> THE TRIALS:
>
> Test 1 - cave - you are shoved through a door, tumble down 1000 steps and
> arrive at the foot of a cave. The cave has treasure and a warning not to
> touch it. There will be various ways through the cave (like going through a
> trapped tunnel, dodging the traps gives appropriate bonuses, also just being
> a crazy mofo and walking through does too. There is no way to lose - its a
> test of character). I also like barriers you could smash down or try to
> pick. Also I think there could be an avarice/generousity system which would
> balance by ppl liking you or finding more loot. At the end of the cave
> there is a door leading to the next quest. There is a lot of neat stuff we
> could do here.
>
> Test 2 - you come out the door and are on a ship. The ship is a warship.
> You make choices depending on information you find by talking to crew
> members, items you find, and talking to the prisoners. The outcomes could
> be things like... You free the prisoners, there's a mutiny, you escape via
> lifeboat, you join the crew of the warship. We can flesh this out but what
> I have in mind is that there's conflicting stories which makes the outcome
> seem morally ambiguous and maybe the best solution is only revealed if
> you're super perceptive and find the right clue.
>
> Test 3 - the tower - the tower is basically a spiral tower upwards with
> traps, monsters and treasure but no real storyline. This will just help
> flesh out the character stats.
>
> Remember, these tests are random so no specific order...
>
> Test 4 - you go through a door and end up in the cloaked man's room. He
> asks how you got there, you answer some questions and he decides whether to
> teach you magic and maybe what kind (physical magic that helps enhance
> physical skills ... Maybe an example would be double jump or jedi like
> stuff, mental magic which was discussed above, or a hybrid) magic probably
> comes at a prohibitive cost so that it balances w/ non magic players (I.e.
> The path of magic is harder but had awesome rewards ... It isn't for
> everyone). Maybe the cloaked man asks you what you sacrifice from a list we
> can develop. Afterwards, he pushes you out the door and end up in either one
> of the untaken tests or the exit .
>
> The first world: we'll need a town and storyline for this, and include the
> cave we are making now... The rest of the storya nd environments need to be
> developed but I figure by the time we get to the first town, we'll be
> rolling along pretty good.
>
> This is basically just an overview... Obviously many things need to be
> fleshed out, decided, tested, perfected...but I figure this would give a
> nice starting platform to work off of.
> Things like the mechanics of skills, stats and the perk system will need to
> be laid out in more detail but I think this is a nice start.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Eric
>
> Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
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