Game Characters Options

[shinyjiggly]

Rasquel, emissary of the Exiles
Layer of origin: Layer 1
Age: 30???

[Show/Hide] unfinished pic

Rasquel came from "the village of the Exiled ones" and for many years was an aimless traveler, visiting every town that he could to try and change the opinions of the masses with regard to the ones of his hometown, which was originally a wasteland where those who had chosen the twisted path of dark magic were all exiled to by the order of *insert powerful political official here*.
He attempted to tell them that over the generations, the exiles had forgotten their old ways and were no longer a threat to society. But, of course, nobody would listen to his words, assuming that he was lying or something.
The soot black skin of an Exile is said to have been a curse mark passed down from the original exiles, who accepted it in order to pursue greater dark powers, not knowing or caring that it was hereditary. But not many commoners knew this and assumed that Rasquel practiced the dark arts as well. Many times he was ostracized and kicked out of places simply because of his origin.
One day while he was sitting in a secluded pub, a cloaked individual approached him. He had heard of the adversity and strife that Rasquel had faced and presented him with a curious looking box.
It was made of a sturdy wood and had a relief carved into it that looked like a rose. It was also gilded at the corners and had a peep-hole at the top. The cloaked one got him to peer inside. What he saw was in glowing letters: "Persuasion". He was told that he would get what he had seen if he opened the box up. He didn't particularly believe the cloaked one, but he was also very desperate for a solution. When he turned to accept the box, the cloaked one was nowhere to be found, leaving the box behind.
Rasquel took the box with him to an abandoned alleyway, feeling power emanate from the cracks. Hesitating first, he slowly opened the box. What happened next was unknown.
When he woke up, it was dark and he was lying in the mud, still in the same exact alleyway. He peered back into the open box, and saw nothing inside, just ordinary wooden walls with no decoration. He then closed it, picked it up, and started walking towards his camp site. Why would somebody just give away a box like this? And why would it knock someone out? Had something escaped?
As Rasquel was leaving the city, a drunkard jumped him, barely able to hold the knife in his hand in his perpetual stumble. Tonight this poor man was going to be a hero and take out his financial frustration on an unarmed kin of the Exiles. Rasquel was grabbed by him before he could turn to run. The man slowly weaved and wobbled his knife towards him with a satisfied look on his face, glad to finally bring justice down on the one who had done nothing wrong. As the knife closed in, Rasquel yelled "STOP!" This caused the man to immediately halt the trajectory of his blade, accidentally tearing his own shirt with a miscalculated back-swing. Amazed at what had just happened, Rasquel yelled "LET ME GO!", and sure enough, the drunkard released his grip, just sort of staring at his arms as Rasquel scampered away.

Some days passed and he had already mastered his new found gift of persuasion. It didn't exactly work the way that he had hoped it would, but it still was very useful. It could not change thoughts directly, but it could cause others to act through his own will, via the power of suggestion. Not all were susceptible to it, but it did work on quite a few. He utilized this ability to band together some allies to protect himself.
There were many who were wary of his company and his intentions and plotted against him. His mighty lackeys disposed of any who conspired against him.
Not all of his recruits had to be persuaded. Some of his more powerful associates had ulterior motives and there were some that joined in order to try and warn him about the nature of his abilities. They were ones that had previously obtained the box in some fashion. All of them needing something, got something, lost control, and eventually lost everything to their name.
Rasquel had abandoned the exiles who did not follow him to establish a kingdom of his own, not that far in the east. In that mountainous region, his vast army of mindless drones trained, awaiting the day that the land that had forsaken him would strike back.

If you guys find any details that need to be changed, just post them.

[MEands]

I like the way you said it overall, I just have a couple things to point out that might need some debating.

I really like what you did with them being exiled for using dark magic, but when I think of a mysterious group of people I just don't picture them in that costume. It's a cool outfit, but I picture the exiled clan to wear things like cloaks and hoods and long flowing robes. I don't know, it seems more mysterious and more of a thing that would be worn by users of magic.

The secluded pub sounds a lot like Diablo 2

The persuasion power is a cool concept, but how are we going to work that into a final boss fight? I feel like the player would be frustrated if the boss's attack was to make the players harm eachother. Perhaps we could make him use illusions or something possibly. I don't know, my thought on the box is kinda different. I just imagined that he was given immense power and he was able to oppress them all into equality by force. That seems to make him seem more villain-like, persuasion seems more confusing and might make it harder to show that he's the main villain. In an mmorpg the main villain is usually very obvious.

But that's just my take, whatever we decide on in the final cut is what it'll be.

[Sparrowsmith]

personally I quite like the outfit.

What if the Persuasion power isn't always fully effective?
25% of attacks will be 'stopped' or something to that effect. Maybe it even harms the player too?

[shinyjiggly]

I sort of pictured the persuasion power in-battle to be able to summon henchmen and maybe sometimes, if the player has a low enough IQ stat or something (could use magic defense stat if IQ stat isn't a thing), they get temporarily put on his side, though there will probably be at least one party member who is immune to it completely.
Also, it could be made to be somewhat easy to block if your mage character happens to have learned the deflect spell by then (most likely by level-up or taught by an NPC in a certain town).

As for the outfit, keep in mind that most of the exiles don't even practice dark magic anymore, it was their ancestors who were hardcore about it. If you guys want, I can add a hood to the cape to make him look a little more mysterious.

I'm glad that you guys are giving some solid feedback on this stuff. Keep tossing ideas onto the table if you think of any.

[MEands]

Actually I'm starting to like this. They've abandoned their evil ways so they have no need to dress in dark cloaks and such. Actually, if they're exiles you might think they'd be in rags or something, they don't have much connection to the rest of the world so they can't obtain quality materials.

I was thinking perhaps, that when you fight him at the end he should be wearing a king's robe, since he has persuaded the people to follow him. Maybe the robe could resemble the robe's that they used to wear when they practiced dark magic, symbolizing his return to evil.

It seems like you guys are liking the idea of the persuasion. In my opinion, when main bosses send out enemies to fight for them it seems like a dissapointment. You've traveled all the way, you want to see the villain's power and you want to show him that you can defeat him yourself, not his minions.

I like the idea of the deflect spell and the use of IQ being a defense. The only thing I worry about is that he doesn't seem, "powerful" enough. But perhaps I'm just looking at it from the wrong direction.

(Sorry i'm being picky, i get a little bit defensive of certain ideas sometimes)

[bulmabriefs144]

Here's a working model for Rasquel. I'd need help with like the spikes, and feathery gauntlets.

This post has been edited by bulmabriefs144: Jul 22 2012, 04:47 PM

[MEands]

He's looking good so far.
So I'm assuming from what I've seen so far that we're going to be using the more round design of the xp characters, not the standard rtp shape. Clashing the two usually looks unprofessional. So we should make sure we stick to one type.

[bulmabriefs144]

Ummm, I dunno. I think this works better for general. I'm just doing it because it gives a detailed sprite design.

Conceivably, we could use the VX-style characters for the layer 1 game, and use XP style for everything else. Right now, I'm just taking the designs and using this char maker to create easy characters. Lemme see if I can make it on VX Ace. Holdon...



The faceset is altered some, but I wanted him to have a more drawn, weird look, much like Gollum.I generally don't like VX munchkins.

Hmmm, aren't boss characters usually drawn with better graphics than the heroes (i.e. Kefka in FF3 for instance)? I don't think it would conflict.

This post has been edited by bulmabriefs144: Jul 23 2012, 03:57 PM

[MEands]

VX does look a lot more like an MMO for its cartoony characters and more fantasy game look. The only problem is that the graphics are kinda lacking. It might just be me, but I'm much more inclined to play a game made in XP than VX just for the look alone.

Also, I like the kinda weird look you gave him. It shows his insanity, the way his eyes aren't really looking at anything in particular.

And boss character can look better than the characters, but usually human characters are drawn the same, while monsters and superhumans get the good graphics.

This post has been edited by MEands: Jul 23 2012, 04:16 PM

[Sparrowsmith]

I agree with MEands on the face. It makes him seem blinded to whatever is happening. It's the face of someone who can justify a horrible act by looking right through it.
It's spooky.

I think VX would work for layer 1, but I'm no specialist on this stuff so I'll let you guys hammer out those details.
If we could find a way to make VX look graphically good despite it's cartoonish nature, would that be good?

[bulmabriefs144]

Just a note, I had to reformat, and I decided against going and getting VX Ace again, so I won't be able to use that character creator anymore.

VX is best for parody. For serious stuff, VX Ace is probably on par engine-wise with 2003 (plus it's legal), but in terms of sprites, yea you'd better be doing something making fun of 8-bit stuff. You can't convince anyone that it's heavy drama. Which is why it works great for something supposed to be a game. But yea, it's a horrible eyesore.

[MEands]

I'd prefer that we didn't do rough graphics. It's somewhat of a turnoff for people looking for a unique game to play. Perhaps we should stick with VX? There are a lot of serious VX games, you just have to use your imagination.

[shinyjiggly]

I don't really dig the VX squat charset style very much. If I had things my way, we'd be using a completely custom charset style, but nobody could really decide on a specific style that I had laid out when I tried months ago.

But, of course, this thread is about outlining some things on the non-main characters, not about the form that they will take when on screen. So this post of mine right here is moot.

In the meantime, there's lots of room for more characters to be outlined for all the layers. This thread's purpose has only just begun.

[bulmabriefs144]

I prefer the XP custom chars that I've been making. I prefer either the 2003 (which people say is illegal, so no), or one of the VX engines. Ace seems as good as any, if whoever is doing the actual programming has it.

Alot of points in just three short paragraphs.

[MEands]

Perhaps we should use the custom XP sprites for layer 1, then for layer 2 we'll use more RTP looking characters, then layer 3, if we feel really ambicious we'll make a completely custom character set.

Also, there's a main character that we've really failed to address. Who/what is the rogue program. Is it the junkyard owner? We really haven't agreed on anything for that.

[Sparrowsmith]

That really depends on how we're going to approach how he is as a villain.
In my very first draft of the rogue program, he was just a shopkeeper, or perhaps a churchman of somekind. Later I ran with him being the junkyard owner (unless my memory is failing me).

Him being the junkyard owner makes the most sense. The idea is that Johnny (actually being a subconscious influence from layer 3) can make things in layer 2 more human. So the people he interacts with on a day to day basis become less and less like NPCs and more like people who just happen to be stuck in layer 2.
So if Johnny interacts with the junkyard owner often, then the junkyard owner is going to be more 'alive' and 'real'. This means that when the programmers try to kill him to test their update, he clings to life. He's different enough from the code to recognize it and abuse it.

Of course, it also depends on how we play the programmers. If the programmers are antagonists for playing god, then it should only be their fault and the Rogue program should just be a random person. But if the origin of the rogue program is a culmination of several factors, then the fault lies in part with everyone, and so everyone has to work together to stop him.

The exact identity of the rogue program is quite fluid at this point, but by the end of their journey he (or even she) is something of a nihilist, believing that nothing is real, and yet at the same time the rogue program strives to find the 'real' world. He's sort of a mixture between Mal from Inception, and Lucifer from the Old Testament. Confused about what is and isn't real, and striving to rise above god (or in this case, the world).
He isn't inherently evil, and makes no real attempt to kill the characters. He knows that they are just like him, they just don't want to leave for some reason. He really believes that what he does is justified. I imagine him saying a line like so:
"If you are so set in your ways, determined to stop me, then I shall go ahead, and send back what I can to slow you down. I will blaze the trail. I will tear down this world and all its illusions, and you will follow me. And once we are all on the other side. Once we have all escaped this... Prison. Then you will thank me."

I don't think any of this really answers your question though.

[bulmabriefs144]

Sounds alright. Or maybe they're part of Johnny's memories that somehow got stuck in the game while he was playing, and got warped due to a defrag (sorting them added them as extra code to a character). Just some freak accident that made things messed up.

Also, I was wondering something. We want any character cameos from previous games we've made?

This post has been edited by bulmabriefs144: Jul 28 2012, 02:35 PM

[MEands]

If we're going to do cameos it would have to be layer 1.

I think junkyard owner sounds like a good idea. So in a way Layer 2 is like a dream for Johnny, the characters you interact with most seem to be more real that those just walking about.

I like the idea that it really is the fault of everyone, we shoulnd't antagonize the layer 3 cast as we will be playing as them at one point.

[bulmabriefs144]

Bump. We need more NPCs.

[Sparrowsmith]

we'll get to them as we get to them.

We could probably do with some more programmers though. I have the feeling we need a bit of a snarky one, comic relief if you will, to lighten the mood with his apathy.