Ideas for story, Post, discuss, debate on plot lines Options

[bulmabriefs144]

No, this is not what I mean.

I mean, don't drift into an idea. Decide on it.

Deciding on it, means taking responsibility, thinking it through, and having everyone agree on it. But while you're at it, hurry the fuck up, because right now we're paralyzed by indecision.

Community is about the people in it as a team, democracy is about a vote. Democracy doesn't work anyway. We need closer to something that whatever it takes that everyone agrees on the concept, we make it work, even if it makes zero sense to the audience. Audiences like to have a bit of mind screw every now and then anyway.

Also, let's try to append ideas, rather than vetoing former ones. If we can make everyone's ideas work, so much the better...

This post has been edited by bulmabriefs144: Mar 26 2012, 04:14 PM

[Turkwise]

Deciding on it, means taking responsibility, thinking it through, and having everyone agree on it. But while you're at it, hurry the fuck up, because right now we're paralyzed by indecision.

Yup. Indecision is the #1 killer of community projects. I've seen plenty fail, been involved in some failures too. People are given tasks but no direction, because nobody can decide on what direction to take...nobody seems to WANT to decide.

Also, let's try to append ideas, rather than vetoing former ones. If we can make everyone's ideas work, so much the better...

What we need is a good solid framework around which to build a game. A story concept with a beginning, middle, and end. We need to know the style and setting. Many of the details, characters, and locations can be worked out over time but a concept must be settled on first.

The Amerk's Treehouse/Island thing with noobs taking over is the only idea that currently presents such a skeletal framework to build on, though in its current form isn't a whole lot to go on.

Here's an example of a skeletal story. You can disregard this as an actual project idea because the current story ideas don't seem to going in this direction at all, but it's just an example I've come up with to demonstrate a viable story for a community project.

CODE

(the setting for this would be medieval fantasy, possibly renaissance or steampunk fantasy)
A group of refugees is finishing their long journey across a mountain range.  Their small home country has been ravaged by plagues, famines, and hordes of vile monsters that seemed to spawn from nowhere.  To their relief they are welcomed with open arms when they arrive at the large and prosperous nation on the other side of the mountains.  The regional governor grants them a plot of land near the border of two regions to start anew.  One condition is that their leader (main character) serves the governor as a knight.  While it seems like an act of kindness, it is not.  This governor, along with several others, has been plotting to overthrow the beloved monarchy, and actually had used the refugee's homeland as a test for their plan, involving powerful dark magic.  When the refugees show up on his doorstep he can't help but seize the opportunity to launch this plan, and soon monsters and disasters wreak havoc upon those regions loyal to the monarchy. (and even their own cities, as to not arouse immediate suspicion)  The refugees provide the perfect scapegoat while the conspirators amass their forces to overtake the kingdom.  The main character must protect his people and is must fight against the conspirators to prevent them from being wiped out as people blame them for the misfortune befalling the land.

Again, I can see the project isn't headed in the final fantasy - like setting. But this is, in my opinion, representative of a good starting point. It has a clear direction, plenty of room for additions and details, and would benefit from a rich, detailed history that people could contribute to. Sidequests and side characters would naturally fit into such a story.

There will be plenty of time for throwing ideas around, but bulmabriefs is absolutely correct, a plan must be made. What's needed is a solid, concrete story concept. Something with focus and direction that provides a good outline of a complete story. You have to build the foundation before you build the house.

[bulmabriefs144]

Thanks, Turkwise. I work part-time as a volunteer at community theatre, and my "boss" has be help with construction and lighting. He has be open lights all the way, only to be like all "that's not right, close it more, more, now open it, more, more." Not only is that a pet peeve of mine, but we had a game programming class in highschool. All of the kids that weren't in remedial wanted to make an rpg. But despite the fact we were pretty good (btw, this might have something to do with the fact that I can't stand scripts, one command in rpgmaker code often is made from 1000s of lines of script, making it more powerful to just edit a few lines of script well, and use lines of code instead), none of us knew anything about how to actually get C++ to display graphics first of all (even me after reading tons of visual C books, trying the code with the nearby graphics and still not having it compile), and second we couldn't decide on anything, so the more talented kid with code broke away and stopped working on that idea and I got stuck with a kid with an inferiority complex (I had to keep convincing him he wasn't stupid, I mean geez, he's in programming class, and not remedial) who was really into Ronin Warriors. The name of the game we were working on? Oracle of Tao. Seriously, true story. I dug up the concept up, from some scrap papers, and started working on it myself, now that I knew how to use rpgmaker (so much for C script, I'd still be struggling with it), and had it half done in free time while volunteering as a computer assistant for Hospice.

That skeleton above is a workable idea. Just build on it some, adding at least two worlds of play. And lotsa characters.

This post has been edited by bulmabriefs144: Mar 27 2012, 08:54 AM

[Sparrowsmith]

I'd still say I have a preference for 3, mostly because of how versatile it is.
Teamwork? What represents teamwork more than programmers having to enlist the help of the game characters they themselves created?
Gaming? See above.
and meta... meta is just... the best

but no, my real reason for preferring it is that it makes the work load substantially easier. Not in a cop out kind of way, but in a realistic way. The game can be easily packaged in installments that can stand on their own, and could even be from different engines, featuring different art work (so long as we keep each layer on the same art work) so everyone can work in their area of expertise, and it rolls into the meta thing nicely.
Installments means cliffhangers, something which you can rarely do in video games. From our perspective, this won't be a surprise, but anyone playing the game and encountering the story for the first time, they will flip out when they see "this is just a game" (or some less shitty variation thereof) followed by a "end of chapter" screen.

It puts us in a position where we can start bringing out the games as soon as we have the majority of the story mapped out. Different people can be assigned to different sections. Before each installment is published we all take a look, give criticism, and alter it as necessary.
In an absolute emergency, we can edit and rerelease sections of the game almost effortlessly, and without anyone playing the game to go through the entire game again just to view that one change. This is an emergency failsafe, not because we're likely to need it, but because it's good to have something on hand just in case.

Yup. Indecision is the #1 killer of community projects. I've seen plenty fail, been involved in some failures too. People are given tasks but no direction, because nobody can decide on what direction to take...nobody seems to WANT to decide.

I think this is probably because projects are BIG. No one wants to be the person who kills dozens upon dozens of hours of work with some shitty idea.
Another advantage of multiple chapters. If we have a few paragraphs written out that happen over fifteen-twenty minutes, and all the sprites/music are either available or in development, then anyone can give that chapter a shot, upload it, and then someone else can pick it up, edit it, and pass it along.

Little bites means less pressure.

I'm arguing a little stubbornly towards the whole meta thing, but that's because of this:

Deciding on it, means taking responsibility, thinking it through, and having everyone agree on it.

The meta idea isn't the best idea possible, but I think it has serious merits.

The versatile nature of the meta thing means we can (don't have to) use multiple different methods for the same thing. IE multiple battle systems, multiple menus, multiple ways of setting the mood.
Also, when you acknowledge that you're playing a game, you're allowed to do some pretty off the wall things. I mean, if we're calling ourselves RPG Revolution, don't we have a duty to make sure we try something new

[MEands]

Sorry if this idea has been proposed already, I'm in somewhat of a hurry and I couldn't read through all of them

If this is a sort of game about the RRR Community, then what if it goes in segments. Really short ones.

Like, each member gets his own chapter or section of the game, like a 5-10 minute level. Each member can create their own story, using their style of RPG making stuff.
This way the game wouldn't get old, and each "chapter" would almost be a new game, but still tie in to the original story.

I also heard someone else talk about that they meet up later on, which sounds awesome.

This might be confusing the way I said it, it makes more sense in my head.

EDIT: wait, did someone just say this idea?

This post has been edited by MEands: Mar 27 2012, 08:07 PM

[shinyjiggly]

With your idea, it wasn't directly said, but it is something that was slightly implied with option 3 (the meta game). It's still a good thing to voice your ideas, even if they do overlap with others. It seems like it would be a very compatible idea with a bunch of the story ideas that are floating around here.

[bulmabriefs144]

I'd still say I have a preference for 3, mostly because of how versatile it is.
Teamwork? What represents teamwork more than programmers having to enlist the help of the game characters they themselves created?
Gaming? See above.
and meta... meta is just... the best

but no, my real reason for preferring it is that it makes the work load substantially easier. Not in a cop out kind of way, but in a realistic way. The game can be easily packaged in installments that can stand on their own, and could even be from different engines, featuring different art work (so long as we keep each layer on the same art work) so everyone can work in their area of expertise, and it rolls into the meta thing nicely.
Installments means cliffhangers, something which you can rarely do in video games. From our perspective, this won't be a surprise, but anyone playing the game and encountering the story for the first time, they will flip out when they see "this is just a game" (or some less shitty variation thereof) followed by a "end of chapter" screen.

It puts us in a position where we can start bringing out the games as soon as we have the majority of the story mapped out. Different people can be assigned to different sections. Before each installment is published we all take a look, give criticism, and alter it as necessary.
In an absolute emergency, we can edit and rerelease sections of the game almost effortlessly, and without anyone playing the game to go through the entire game again just to view that one change. This is an emergency failsafe, not because we're likely to need it, but because it's good to have something on hand just in case.

Yup. Indecision is the #1 killer of community projects. I've seen plenty fail, been involved in some failures too. People are given tasks but no direction, because nobody can decide on what direction to take...nobody seems to WANT to decide.

I think this is probably because projects are BIG. No one wants to be the person who kills dozens upon dozens of hours of work with some shitty idea.
Another advantage of multiple chapters. If we have a few paragraphs written out that happen over fifteen-twenty minutes, and all the sprites/music are either available or in development, then anyone can give that chapter a shot, upload it, and then someone else can pick it up, edit it, and pass it along.

Little bites means less pressure.

I'm arguing a little stubbornly towards the whole meta thing, but that's because of this:

Deciding on it, means taking responsibility, thinking it through, and having everyone agree on it.

The meta idea isn't the best idea possible, but I think it has serious merits.

The versatile nature of the meta thing means we can (don't have to) use multiple different methods for the same thing. IE multiple battle systems, multiple menus, multiple ways of setting the mood.
Also, when you acknowledge that you're playing a game, you're allowed to do some pretty off the wall things. I mean, if we're calling ourselves RPG Revolution, don't we have a duty to make sure we try something new

And that is what I mean by giving a good reason. Heck we could even use multiple engines (or at the very least, radically different sprites and mapsets) if some people have preferences, since now you're saying it's just a game, you can be changing what's real. Have sidescrollers one game, direct attacks another (like 2k3 default), and have one of the later ones can have technical sidescrollers but various enemies who can attack the screen (via special attack, and making the player an enemy that can't be targetted by normal attacks, since it's immune to everything, though you'd have to have the player run in a victory).

On the cliffhanger thing, most of the save files are okay to be non-transferable, but the last cliffhanger should definitely be using same stuff as the next to the last, and we need a common map where you save and move the save file to, where it will then load a teleport to the new event. The very last installment should not be a new game, but the ending and epilogue (possibly with the option after the credits to meet avatar sprites of the production team). This also prevents people from just seeing the ending as they've gotta send the savefile from the ending, and starting from the New Game won't work.

In general, the only thing we need keep the same is the game's title. Which I'll make a separate section for, since we don't want all the energy devoted to the story to get lost on thinking up a title.

MEands, yes that was my option 7. Which we could do on some level, even if we pick option three.

(As I said, the first episode of the game can be a conventional fantasy/horror story)

CODE

A long time ago, there was some haunted mansion. One day a kid was abandoned on the steps of this house, and learned ghostly powers from continued exposure to its energies (we might as well do a quick haunted house exploration, even if we have an fantasy meta rpg). He decided to travel the world and he met...

This post has been edited by bulmabriefs144: Mar 28 2012, 05:01 AM

[Sparrowsmith]

I think I mentioned the possibility of different engines somewhere earlier, and different graphics. Something along the lines of:
Layer 1 (the first game) cliche game sprites (RTP?)
RTP battle system (or similar) etc

Layer 2 more 'real' looking sprites, but still noticeably game like.
battles held on map, but with menus

Layer 3 the most realistic system in general for the programmers who 'made' the game.
battles held in real time on the map. No inventory, etc.

As for save files, I've been thinking about this, and maybe we just shouldn't have any (except for the very very end).
My reasoning is pretty much this: Each game will (generally) be short enough to play in a sitting, maybe two (so maybe save files within a game) but then it ends and you go to the next chapter. If there is a character change (layer jump) then the previous save file is unimportant, but when we return to the character from before, why preserve what work was done in a single sitting?
Instead, we give the player a set inventory, a set level, and a set of skills that they have to use in each particular game (maybe even put a timer on it) and the focus becomes skill. Can you beat chapter 6? That's it. You can't grind your levels, or find a loophole in the skills system, you just work with what you're given.

I can imagine players might not like this though, in which case we'll have to have some kind of common map, you're right. How about:

At the end of each chapter (this is layer dependent by the way) once the screen has faded to black, the player is transported to an 'opening map' and a variable is altered. The game is then saved and closes.
When the next chapter that takes place on that layer begins, it opens the save file, and an event checks the variable value to see if the player really has played the previous chapter. Problem solved.

Also, I've been thinking more about a concrete storyline for the layering idea. Just putting it out there if we're at the 'pitching' part of the process. Not much point in typing the whole thing out if barely anyone is on board with it.

The main theme is that the games that make up the layers are online games. This reinforces the online community and the feeling of cooperation in the game, I think anyway, and explains the chat features within the game (that the characters never question until they asked about it) that allows the programmers to talk to the characters within the game.

[bulmabriefs144]

You don't need a variable, just the save file. If you push to new game, the start location is in a screen that says "please play game 1 first." Copying and pasting the save file means you load in that screen. Only, it has different code now, and teleports you (after a brief "converting information" message) to the new game parts. This is the reason for identical maps; it's a save file, this means everything is saved. Unfortunately, 2k3 used .lsd files to do this, and XP uses rxdata probably. And I have no clue what VX uses. As transitioning happens from engine to engine, expect those characters to be more or less lost forever. The main story can be retained but we'd need some safeguard against people skipping around.

What we could do, however is make a save file that is inside a locked WinRar or zip file. If game one is XP and game two is VX, you can have game one with game two's savefile locked inside it. It won't store stats from game one (because well, it can't), but it will start the game from a load file while trying to start without it (and without being able to unlock the coded storage) is virtually impossible, since instead you get the "please play game # first" message. Zip files can be done pretty easily, just read here. At the end of a game, you tell people "the save password is ...." and they can open it, and copy for the next game. Here's an example. Good luck opening it without removing the seal.

(Let's try this again...)

This post has been edited by bulmabriefs144: Mar 28 2012, 01:56 PM

[Sparrowsmith]

See, the problem with just copying over the save file is that they would have to use different maps. If they ALL use the same map then you can do this:
1-2-5-6-3-4-3-4-2-6
but upon repeating sections of the game (with your power characters) the variables you have saved will mess up and break the save file. So we need a safe guard.
1 (set game variable to 2 - save game) 2(check game variable = 2, if not, end game, if true, begin game)

As for different engines (if we use them) you just have several different save files being copied around:
A=Layer 1 B=Layer 2 C=Layer 3
1A 2A 1B 3A 2B 3B 4B 1C 4A 5A 5B 2C 3C 6B 4C 7B 5C 6C 8B 7C 8C 9C...
Where the number indicates the save file.

So at the end of 2A, you keep the save file.
Begin a new game for 1B. Keep the save file at the end of 1B
3A (important 2A save file)
2B (important 1B save file)

I think that would work.
I'm a little off put by the lack of input from anyone else by this point. I'd prefer criticism of the ideas we're throwing around than silence.

[Lydyn]

At the end of each chapter (this is layer dependent by the way) once the screen has faded to black, the player is transported to an 'opening map' and a variable is altered. The game is then saved and closes.
When the next chapter that takes place on that layer begins, it opens the save file, and an event checks the variable value to see if the player really has played the previous chapter. Problem solved.

I'm sorry, but how in the world is this possible across multiple game engines?

[Sparrowsmith]

At the end of each chapter (this is layer dependent by the way) once the screen has faded to black, the player is transported to an 'opening map' and a variable is altered. The game is then saved and closes.
When the next chapter that takes place on that layer begins, it opens the save file, and an event checks the variable value to see if the player really has played the previous chapter. Problem solved.

I'm sorry, but how in the world is this possible across multiple game engines?

Like this:

As for different engines (if we use them) you just have several different save files being copied around:
A=Layer 1 B=Layer 2 C=Layer 3
1A 2A 1B 3A 2B 3B 4B 1C 4A 5A 5B 2C 3C 6B 4C 7B 5C 6C 8B 7C 8C 9C...
Where the number indicates the save file.

So at the end of 2A, you keep the save file.
Begin a new game for 1B. Keep the save file at the end of 1B
3A (important 2A save file)
2B (important 1B save file)

Each engine deals exclusively with a layer
EG: 2k3 - layer 1 - A
VX - layer 2 - B
XP - layer 3 - C
(this is just an example, we may use the same engine for all three layers)

At the end of each layer 1 game, you get the save file and variable for that layer.
At the end of each layer 2 game, you get the save file and variable for that layer.
At the end of each layer 3 game, you get the save file and variable for that layer.
So:
1A 2A 1B 3A 2B 3B 4B 1C 4A 5A 5B 2C 3C 6B 4C 7B 5C 6C 8B 7C 8C 9C...
is actually
1A 2A ... 3A............ 4A 5A (Layer 1 2K3)
... ... 1B ... 2B 3B 4B ... ... 5B ... ... 6B ... 7B .. ... 8B ... ... (Layer 2 VX)
... ... ... ... ... ... ... 1C ... ... ... 2C 3C ... 4C ... 5C 6C ... 6C 8C 9C (Layer 3 XP)

So it's technically three save files that travel through three separate engines, but the plot takes place over the entire story.
So (in theory) you could JUST play Layer 1 without any problems, the plot would just stop making sense.
To play 4A, you have to have played 3A
To play 6C, you have to have played 5C

Imagine it like a TV show that jumps between various characters. Exactly the same. It just jumps between different perspectives on the story, and jumps engine too, but you have to play all three layers for the game to make sense.

[bulmabriefs144]

Well the way I was putting it like my last post is you don't even need the same map. You just have a map (it can even be an opening map, where you construct a "NewGame" is ON event, and save it with that ON, and remove the save option and the switch being turned on, so it starts there from a Load file. If you don't have the right save file, you can't do anything. Then you include the needed savefile locked up, so you have to have the needed code (given after finishing the game) to unlock it.

That is, you have the opening map with two pages:

Page 1
New Game switch ON (add any starting characters and such here)
Save Menu
(after making one save file, which you store for people who completed the previous game, remove the above, including characters, and replace with...)
Message: Please finish the previous game.
Return to Title Screen

Page 2
(Checkbox NewGame ON)
Opening sequences
Teleport to any new maps needed, for more opening sequences

They then unpack the now unlocked file, and have the save game to load the next chapter. Of course, you could have previous chapter new sections this way too, you basically make the file on the game itself (instead of using the same map), and import it as a save file to the game it attaches to. You can even have branching files where one when unlocked only works on game 5, while another choice of events works on game 3.

This post has been edited by bulmabriefs144: Mar 30 2012, 06:21 AM

[Lydyn]

Since when can saves be used across engines? O.o I'm pretty sure even if it is possible, they were be corrupted. Sorry if I'm confused.

[Kaust]

Sorry about the lack of input, I've been moving the last couple of days.
I like the idea of installments for cliffhangers (might make moving between layers a bit more fluent too) but lets try to avoid being too liberal with them. Who's going to want to download 6 times in an hour just to see what happened next. Also we'd have to include the RTP's in each download as not everyone has every engine, but using more engines would be a good way to encourage more people to contribute a little somethingsomething.

@Lydyn; the way Sparrow illustrated meant that each save would be used with one engine. All layer 1 (the ingame) plot would use a layer 1 save, all layer 3 (the developers world) would use a layer 3 save. If each layer is engine specific I dont see a problem with this. I'm not 100% sure about how Bulma's route works but I know she's good at eventing so I'll just trust her. Either way there's no need to quibble about such a detail on this (storybased) thread.

[Sparrowsmith]

Since when can saves be used across engines? O.o I'm pretty sure even if it is possible, they were be corrupted. Sorry if I'm confused.

How can I put this...

You know how each of your games has a different save file, but you can load and play each one individually?
Imagine that, only all of your games are each telling a DIFFERENT part of the SAME story.

That's essentially what the plan is at the moment. To have multiple games each with several sequels, but the games are very short. The Sequels can use the save files of the previous game in that layer, and all the games together make up a story. The save files don't go across engines, the story does that, the save files go between games kept on the same engine.
Hope this is cleared up now.


Kaust makes a good point. We've outlined at least two ways we could successfully pull off multiple engines being used. We can work out the details later, for now lets get back to the story.
If we go with layers (I'm still not hearing objections to this, which is worrying, or good? Hard to tell) then I think we should have a tangible entity that is the 'bad guy' so to speak, and have the gaming abstractions be obstacles.
Example: Enemies in layer 2 (where I imagine a lot of the story will take place) can be damaged programs/monsters from layer 1 that have been hacked out/etc. However, certain 'off-limits' areas of the world will be unlocked to the player, and these areas won't be finished. This means the player has to navigate unfinished maps (maybe even complete them) so they can get through.

I have some more ideas regarding enemies in layer 3, over arcing plots, etc etc. It's nothing ground-breakingly original, but I think it's pretty unique as a game concept.

[bulmabriefs144]

I think I have an idea for major boss (possibly final boss, unless we wanna have a trick final boss, followed by something random, like Necros for Final Fantasy IX).

You know how the story revolves around a sort of "russian doll" version of reality, with layers after layers? And then I thought of it like a box and figured on a rather famous box that causes depair. Yea, like the Pandora box.

Main Design: Not a over-the-top villain that makes grand boasts of "soon I will rule everything." Actually, it's the opposite, for much of the game, it seems like a rather harmless recurring miniboss. Each time you meet it (besides maybe the final time), it should be like the prized monster of some other leader, so you dismiss it as harmless (this works best when names aren't shown for it in battle), and do little damage compared with the leader. It should be like a hermit crab in that its container gradually gets larger. When you first find it, it should be in a small crate with a lock of it. There should be some dark shadow inside or around the thing, but after one hit of damage (to the lock), the lock breaks and the crate flees. You see it again later as a bigger than average mimic boss (again, open the lock, and the creature flees), and then as a huge urn over top some shadow with eyes. This time hitting it a bunch of times causes the urn to shatter, and you see this huge shadow (transform events are your friend). This should actually start to mess things up (before every now and then you were headed to a new layer, but this creates some sort of distortion where the screen shakes and a portal appears (sorta like in Chrono Trigger when Magus is defeated and everything messes up)). The very last time, it's the screen itself, with a black fog backdrop, and the screen is effectively its box.

Long installments are better. Lydyn, you can have savefiles from other engines if you have the next game's savefile stored on this game's extra files. It's a gimmick, but it's kinda cool.

@Lydyn; the way Sparrow illustrated meant that each save would be used with one engine. All layer 1 (the ingame) plot would use a layer 1 save, all layer 3 (the developers world) would use a layer 3 save. If each layer is engine specific I dont see a problem with this. I'm not 100% sure about how Bulma's route works but I know she's good at eventing so I'll just trust her. Either way there's no need to quibble about such a detail on this (storybased) thread.

Heh, I'm actually not a girl, I just like Dragon Ball. I can actually demonstrate it with pictures.

At the opening screen, turn on the New Game switch, and then save the game. (Don't blame the complete lack of art, this is a demonstration I made in only a few minutes)

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/687/tutorial1j.png
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/580/tutorial2h.png
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/12/tutorial3xp.png

Obviously, a lot better than this suckiness, but you get the idea. This is the part II storyline playing out, after the save. Now, go back and remove the New Game switch, and the save menu on page 2. Replace this with a return to title screen, and this message.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/195/tutorial4aq.png

So, now unless you use the load menu, every time you try to start from new game (unless you wanna edit the code), you're pretty much stopped. Normally, you'd do this game to game moving the savefile, but if you're using multiple engines, this is an impossibility. Heck, retaining stats is an impossibility too, but you can probably work around this by doing either an assumed level (based on limits, like the max level for game 1 is ten, so the character starts at level 10) or by editing the database (more on that later). So, no, you're not really doing "cross-engine" you're making a simple file in that engine, and then copying it to hide somewhere in another folder (maybe your XP folder). You get rid of the one in the first game so you have to at least have the first game, and move it over to the second one. If you really wanna be mean, you make it so you have to actually finish the first game, and collect a password.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/859/tutorial5a.png
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/32/tutorial5b.png
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/819/tutorial5c.png

This is pretty much it. You then make a locked zip file, as shown above with the attached file GameSave.zip. You basically switch engines, but keep the same story. Now, if you later wanna go back to the same characters, you can edit the database.

EDITING DATABASE:

In 2k3, there's a file called .ldb (and other engines probably have a similar one, but I'm less experienced with them. You could probably do this by altering scripts, though). You can make a copy of this and alter it. Example, the ending screen where you'd save the file, and/or give out this password mentioned above. Make a common event called GameFileFlag AFTER the save menu (so as to save stats of characters). Map events are stored in the lmt file, and also in their personal maps, but common events, character info, monsters, and monster troops are all stored in the ldb file. Make a branch inside this common event, making it look like this:

variable GameFlag is 0
Condition: GameFlag is 0
(Tell the password. This is for the first time of gameplay)
Else
Condition: GameFlag is 1
(Teleport to new area, give new cinema events)
Else
Condition: GameFlag is 2
(Teleport to new area, give new cinema events)

(etc)
End

Instead of a save file, give an altered ldb file (1,2, etc, as GameFlag instead of zero) in a zip folder, possibly with a few more map files added as well, and this copy will pretty much allow you to load the same game where it would've ended, in a new area.

This post has been edited by bulmabriefs144: Mar 31 2012, 08:57 AM

[MisterToonz]

Okay, let me get my zone and let's see what I can come up with in this short five - ten minute burst of random inspiration...

Ready....

Go...

So, seeing as how this is a community project for a forum, what if we took this forum and made it a sort of litteral world. Each forum being a kingdom, the mods being the kings, the users the NPC's and Character refrences, and the Admins the powers-that-be.

The story begins, as I see. With our user registering into the forum. He goes through the breif registration office in the office before being released into the vast open-ended world of Revolution.

The main plot hook is the open-ended exploreation, but of course nothing is perfect in these types of games, something is amiss. A deep plauge trudges over the lands.

A dark power has been amassing power, and a dark corruption is spreading across the land spreading a sort of digital rot on the boards and killing all activity in the areas cause entire forums to freeze and wither and die.

It's up to the new user to recruit the other members in an attempt to get the post count and praticipation going, by locateing resources and by pushing back the curroption and finding the source.

The source? Who knows, let's all decide the ending together.

----

Gameplay concepts involved ---

-Open-Ended world that emphasizes player exploration.

-A system where the player can recruit anywhere from 20-60 uniqe actors, each representing a member of the forum and a bit of there personality.

-A very personal community game, doing something directly reflecting our community here will really express how this game is for us and those working on it, and not just another RPG.

-Uniqe concept, turing that of thought into a physical world. It's been done before yes, but honestly how often.

-Custom main actor, perhaps a way for the player to truly register themselves.

-A "Post Count" system where players spend PC in order to buy new skills.

-Who knows?

==---===---===---===---==

Please give me some feed back on this, for those who take the time to read it.

[shinyjiggly]

Wow, that actually sounds pretty interesting! A great thing about this idea is that a lot of the things (like what areas there are going to be, ) are already laid out. Also, the way that things are already presented even now make the transition even easier (levels, types, RM skill, etc...).

We could also incorporate "rev points" (those points that you get for participating in contests) with this as well. Perhaps those could be used to gain access to new spells?
Also, because these boards are centered around building RPG's, maybe that could be the replacement for religions? (if you've ever seen an XP vs VX fight, you'd get what I mean) Also, the player would probably want to pick one for alignment purposes (which may or may not affect anything depending on those that he wishes to be in cahoots with). To make things simple, the choices offered to the player would be RM2K3, RMXP, RMVX, RMVXAce, Other maker A, Other maker B, and Game maker. Each one would have their own perks and disadvantages when it comes to trying to get help.
And all this while, the character would be making an RPG in their engine of choice (most likely unplayable, but would allow for problem solving with problems in the code/script/eventing.) Some things will only be solvable by community help and sometimes resources will need to be made. That is where the traveling to the land of the forums comes in. By recruiting others in Recruitment city, you can get those things done, it you're lucky. If you just want to talk about specific problems in your game, you'll have to go to the correct forum town.
If you talk about the wrong thing in the wrong forum town, the mods will come and take you to the correct one while giving you a light scolding. If you somehow become too obscene to even utter a single syllable in public, you'll be taken to temp ban jail. But because this is a game (which in this case probably won't be stated anywhere within it), there has to be something that causes people to do these things.
Because some people are even afraid of this mysterious thing, they will stop talking until you find a way to remove them from the specific forum. Also, after a while, you'll probably get noticed for doing that much around the forums and people will try to join your cause (a mix of regular members, revolutionaries, staff members, and gold members; one of each type probably). They will all eventually become apart of your party for getting rid of the unknown enemies. Also, your party members will be more likely to help you with your RPG project, maybe even crossing engine boundaries to help if needed.

The different classes will be the things included in the "Type" section for a poster. (example, I'm a beginner-level artist so I will know some beginner-level art-related skills/attacks) The poster's base level will most likely be their level as of now or some other time. They would probably look like their avatars (example: XMO would be rendered as constantly changing anime boys/a funny little magenta ball). Because the main character is supposed to be a customized person, there should be a method of using your own sprites for the character by importing appropriate picture files. Of course, it would also have to come with some pre-made stuff for those that don't want to mess with things like that. The player would then be able to chose their type and they would start out as a beginner at level one with zero posts. They would probably arrive at introductions train station or something like that.

[MisterToonz]

So well put Shiny! So well put!