First ideas for the game

Here's where we'll discuss the very basics of the game.

First of all, the game must be simple, so, for the sake of easy programming, it's going to be 2D, unless a number of programmers with the capability of creating 3D graphics appear.

The most important is defining what will the game system be.
I'd suggest three styles:
- Platform game engine. ex: Maple Story
- Overview shooter. ex: Touhou
- Overview RPG. ex: Zelda

If you have a suggestion, please post. Also, tell your opinion on which engine should be used.

What about a RPG with transporting is a Touho shooter type thing?

Touhou-style shooter RPG is nice.

If we use this, would we have real characters or spaceships?

Hello guys.

I'm thinking in the overview Zelda's style.
Some reasons for this:

• I'm a real fan of Zelda games;
  
• That RPG style is similar to RPGMAKER, making it easer for "new guys" to comprehend;
  
• We can put more FUN in it. By "FUN" I mean funny things like a NPC that can't be reached by players 'cause he has a big belly or 'cause there was a big tree and he's stucked behind it.

What do you think guys?

A friend of mine suggested something interesting: That we make an Overview Map Style, with a grid floor (like the 2D engine of Zelda) that is, at the same time, a shooter game.

So, you'd move your character through the map with the Arrow keys (or ASDW) and would aim and shoot with the mouse.

This is just one idea, the group shall decide what to do.

Hey, that's a good one!

I like the grid style of The Legend of Zelda, A Link to the Past.

We can fuse it with the shooting sure as hell!
=D

Something like "Bomberman", but we'll shoot, not "put" bombs.

lol... bomberman, indeed.

This system can still be changed if we want to, but since our main focus for now is overview instead of platform, I'll start coding the map engine.

This topic is always open for new ideas.

Let me code something about this to.
Maybe something related to "cut grass" or "place bombs"?
I'll try code the base movements (just a bunch of listeners).

You don't have to ask me, this is an open source project, right?

I was thinking a bit about the mouse attacks thing. Maybe it's not only related to shooting.

If, for example, we have a warrior character, he could AIM with the mouse and slash at the click, although the distance of the mouse from the character would not make any difference, since it would only count slashes on the sword range.

I'll try to do a short animation on flash showing what I mean.

EDIT: Finished a really shot animation on how the system I had figured earlier would work.
I'm no artist, so the effects and objects are really simple.

This, however, doesn't show the Sword attacks. I might do those later.



Oh, and I forgot of adding. The mouse can also be moved while shooting. It will alter the direction of shots, but keeps shooting.

EDIT (20/06): Fixed broken link

Omg! Good flash!

I really like flash, but don't know how to do anything on it.

Anyway, that was a good idea(). I really like it (including the flash)!

Ah, and I'm not asking you to let me code, just making a lil' joke about the Zelda and Bomberman stuff :jocolor:.
If you want me to do something instead of it, just ask me. =)

ricmax wrote:Omg! Good flash!

It's not really good, it's very simple. Later I'll try to make that animation which simulates the battle style with swords to see how it'd come out.

Well, let's see... As of the battle classes... We already may have a gunner/ninja, a warrior... what else?
Mages, maybe... And summoners?

If you have a suggestion, please tell. ^^

ricmax wrote:If you want me to do something instead of it, just ask me. =)

C'mon, it's free open source, just do whatever you want.

I think the flash is dead on for what is awesome. Some weapons could be able to attack more then 1 square at a time; It could be like Final Fantasy Tactics ( I read someone liked this game here?), but not turn based. (?)


EDIT: I want zelda style mmo

scrag_10 wrote:I think the flash is dead on for what is awesome.

I told you, I'm not an artist. That was only to illustrate the engine I had in mind.

scrag_10 wrote:Some weapons could be able to attack more then 1 square at a time

That's a good one. Maybe some spells have a high damage area, or hitting with a hammer on the ground causes a shockwave. Longswords may also attack on three squares instead of one.

scrag_10 wrote:It could be like Final Fantasy Tactics ( I read someone liked this game here?), but not turn based. (?)

EDIT: I want zelda style mmo

About this I'm sure. It's got to have an active engine. I hate (and I've always hated) those boring mmos where you only click the mob, then your character walks there and starts killing the mob on it's own. You just watch it dieing, then you click another one and wait again.

An Action-RPG-ish engine allows us a lol of interaction on battle, such as avoiding the enemies while you still attack it. And having the mouse control the aim while the ASDW keys move your character may make that a bit frenetic.


EDIT:
Finished that other flash animation from before. The one about the sword system. After I re-watched it I realized it's not very clear so here is an explanation: "The damage box for short range attacks (such as swords, knives, axes, etc) stays close to the character, and the tile it's on depends on the direction of the mouse.



We still can change anything on the system if we want to.

Man, that's a good style.

I'm a lil out of time by now, but when I've time I come back to coment some ideas.

ricmax wrote:Man, that's a good style.

You don't have to praise it... "¬¬
I know some people don't, but I actually like negative feedback and critique, I appreciate them because these help me make a better final result, and correct my mistakes for next time.

So, this is just one SUGGESTION of stile, if you don't like it, please critique, if you have another one, speak up! ^^

ricmax wrote:I'm a lil out of time by now, but when I've time I come back to coment some ideas.

Take your time. ^^

Well, I'm only putting my toughts. If I don't like something, I'll critique for sure.

Sometimes I put my enthusiasm before me, but that's not the case.

I'm really in the idea, and found that style really cool, so that my point.

Anyway, I'm a lil hurry again (working =P) and come back when get at home.

Whoa, I think that was a lil dead here.

Finally found some time to post. My computer has a lil problem, and I can't connect from there, but here I am again.

Well, for the engine:
I really like the way it was done. It follow one idea that I have for games. In a game, not only your char's (can I call a character a "char" right?) stats count on your gameplay experience, but your own experience, your "fighting style". Am I making myself clear?
I think that if you can use your ability, it'll be more fun.

Once, I play a game that do not depend only in your character's ability (Mount and Sword, I think). It was a game that a noob can kill a pro. Obviously that was a hard think, because of the equips and high stats of the pro player, but if you're good you could do it. The game was only a beta when I play it, but I'll search for it again. The felling that I has when I see KaoroSorane's flash was the same that when I play Mount 'n Sword.

Well, if you guys can, play that game. It was really something.

I get what you mean. Ability counts more than stats.

That's why I hate those point-and-click MMOs, where you only click the mob and your char goes there and kills it all on it's own. Most MMORPGs are like this, few are actually entertaining.

With this in mind, we can think of special attacks for the enemies, that require dexterity and reflexes to keep you alive. Since it's partially a shooter, we can get a few Danmaku* attacks.

*Danmaku = Curtain Fire

Indeed.

I hate those mmo to (I play then, but do not like that style). If we can do something that has the balance between "OMG-ALL-ABILITY-GAME" and "OH-MY-GOD-DAWN-STAT-BASED" I think that will make a great sucess.

Another thing that I'm thinking was about the mob respaw.
That's something that I like in Tibia, the monster do NOT simply appear in front of your eyes, comming from nowhere in a "PUFF" or "TADAA" animation. They respaw ONLY if NO player was in their respaw area (this means the respaw area plus the screen vision).

I really want a MMO that thing in this little things. Don't you guys?

I was thinking of something around these lines for the dungeons. Remember when we said the same dungeon could be accessed by many people at the same time but in a way they play adventures on their own. The server would create a new map each time a player chooses to enter the dungeon alone. That is his sole map, and can't be visited by anyone unless he invites them.

Well, this makes it much easier to grant maps will be empty at the time a player enters them, so that all of the monsters in the area can respawn.

But how would the training maps OUTSIDE dungeons work with this? They'd be packed of players, so monsters would never respawn.

You could have a well, or hole in a tree or behive, that monsters continually jump out of?

If it occours (a map packed with players) the monster WILL NOT respaw. Why? Do you think that a monsterm who lives in the florest, will actually comes out if the outside was FULL of hunters?

Same idea for dungeons, if a player go in his sole cave to many times in a row, the cave will be empty in no time. I think we can apply here some code from that "Game of Life" thing (http://www.bitstorm.org/gameoflife/ for reference and http://www.bitstorm.org/gameoflife/code for the source code) to make our monsters respaw. Something like they reproducing while nobody can see they.

What do you think guys?

scrag, that's a good idea for boss mobs. The players will be like "Oh, nothing here!" and then BAM! A massive hit of a boss! I think that will be so coll...

The monsters SHOULD respawn on training areas, because they're training areas.

If these areas, which are specific for training, get empty too soon, players will be forced to train on dungeons, but then they'd never meet each other in-game.

Maybe we can have immortal monsters on these maps (like slimes, skeletons, zombies or other stuff), but I don't actually like this.

Alternatively, we may NOT have training maps and try to implement a lot more ways for players to cooperate and interact with each other. Party Quests are one option, and maybe we have maps that can only be cleared if there is a mage and a warrior in the party (just a suggestion).

I like the idea of a noob being able to kill a highly experinced, with skill alone. Like in bomberman you can get a shield to block attacks, but it can be really hard to use sometimes, but if you are good with it you can survive anything (except the bombs with the skull and cross bones on them).

I like the idea of certian classes needed for certian missions, there could also be Pubs/Poster Walls/Town Crier to make announcements and stuff to gather people for a quest, like make an announcement. Or maybe you can rent a boat and pool your money together to make a party.