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Messages - mekk_pilot

1
It occurred to me today:  besides FFH, what group in the world has comparable knowledge regarding the functioning of Tactical RPG's?  This group has weighed and debated, both individually and in groups, the mechanics of FFT to the extent where expertise is the only word that could describe the collective body of knowledge.  And then I thought:  Why not use this knowledge to create a totally new TRPG?

I propose that members of this community collaborate on a from-scratch, totally new TRPG, perhaps as a spiritual successor to FFT.  And sell it. 

Granted, due to time commitments and the amount of work involved, this would be a multi-year effort, likely involving a rotating cast of characters.  I see the work being done in three stages:

First, the *total* design and concept art.  The game mechanics would be in place, including pseudocoded AI algorithms, elevation maps, etc., so that the game could be tested in toto "on paper."  This would be the stage where wrangling over features would occur, and they would be subject to rigorous testing.  The storyline/script would be totally written.  As of this point, there would be no coding and no actual art done for the game.

Second, as testing continues, the working group will cast the net for additional talent.  With a design and story in place, as well as some native art and coding capabilities, I do not think it would be impossible to get help.  At this point spriting and coding begins, as testing has provided proven mechanics.

Third, work on implementing all features of the game is completed.  The game becomes a finished product, and testing turns from validating designs to "bug-hunts."  Finally, the game is done, and ready to sell.

A few immediate issues:

Consensus:  I propose a group of 3 or 5 "elders" be chosen to steer the project.  They will vote on controversies.  There should be periodic chat meetings, with predetermined rules of order, to handle issues and guide action.  In the initial stages of this project, they may occur once a month, while the rate would increase during periods of heavy work.

A Seperate Forum:  If the community has any interest in this, it should have its own forum where the preliminary design and decision-making is done.  The forum will be active throughout the project.

Compensation:  I have to admit I am almost totally clueless as to how this would work.  I imagine there would be some kind of system of "shares," with more ownership of profits accorded to those who put in the most work.

That's all I've got for now.  This topic is open for discussion.
2
@Doku:  Now that I've started this, I might just write some FFT-inspired fiction, rather than make a mod, at least ATM.  I will remain a fan and player of FFH.

@fdc:  I'm not really trying to recreate any medieval tongue, I'm trying to create something wholly artificial, to draw attention to it's artifice (it should read as if "you are not in this world");  another reason the syntax is so messed up is because I'm trying to write quasi-metered prose (try reading it aloud), and I need to put a lot of things where they wouldn't normally be written....which adds to the artifice.  And it's meant to be vague...dropping a lot of exposition in the beginning of the book is usually known as "terrible writing."  I'm trying to write something a little mysterious, a little intriguing, in short, something FANTASTIC.  That said, I appreciate the criticism, but what's important to me is that I'm having some fun writing it, for now.
3
OK, hold on, before I say anything else, let me throw this up before my internet dies again:  (next part)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And indeed, Ustrur, Magistrate of Free City Gelta, was across the river with his retinue, a half dozen knights.  Waited they at the far side of the bridge, weapons drawn, speaking lowly.  The magistrate came forward, and addressed the three:

--It is not Mid-Summer yet, and if it were, thy choices of costume are of extremely poor taste.

Brynn yelled:

--I am Brynn, Thunder Priest as my father before me, and as fathers upriver in time but farther.  Do not beg for your life, you will not be spared!

The knights prepared to advance, but Ustrur held up a hand.  He spoke:

--Thunder Priest, have you not heard the Good News?  The One Who Laughs has ascended higher than heaven.  He has transcended these petty games powers once played.  He desires nothing but peace and mirth among men, and their enjoyment of the earth's bounty allotted.  Surely, you do not wish to follow the Destroyer.  He would make ash of our striving, of what we've acheived!  An end to all Kings!  He mocks their vanity!

Xaviuus spoke to Brynn.

--Brynn, we did not come to parley.  This man is to be killed.  Please, pray of the Dancer to expand my time.

Brynn began an incantation, audible barely.  After a moment, streaks of light began to ascend around Xaviuus.  Xaviuus looked up at the sky, and prayed in silence, before drawing his blades from behind him to ready.  He held them at invert, the leather loops around his wrists, and pushed he the dull sides of the blades gainst his forearms.  He began to walk across the bridge.  The streaks of light disappeared.  Ustrur's knights shifted on their feet, as nervous steeds.  Ustrur spoke:

--Knights!  Be not afraid of the damned magic!  They are outnumbered, and employing no strategem!  Slay these ones who will not join us in brotherhood!

A pair of knights began crossing the swaying bridge.  Xaviuus, advancing, was three parts in four crossed.  Brynn aimed a look with much meaning to Griselm, then started his own crossing o'er the river.  Griselm slowly behind, awaiting her opening.

Xaviuus met the first knight, who wielded a greatsword.  Xaviuus first wheeled, his right blade snapping out.  The knight parried, but it was a feint;  as quickly Xaviuus spun his left through the neck.  The artery erupted as the knight dropped his sword, a mere moment he had to consider his death.  The follow through had turned Xaviuus facing rearwards, and he slightly stooped before thrusting skyward foot left.  It caught the dying one below the breastplate, and lifted and threw him back towards Ustrur.  He was dead when he landed, and now Xaviuus and Brynn running, the second knight raising his shield to meet. Xaviuus jumped, letting go the right handle, flicking his wrist till the blade was upright.  Left blade to parry, right arm raised for the striking, he kicked at the knight's shield as he dropped like a fell-star.  The knight staggered back, thrusted, was parried, the right blade of the quick one slashing the sword arm.  The spin of Xaviuus continued like a cyclone, and left blade, inverted, thrust out and pierced belly.  Drawn out quickly, spun he back the other, upswinging right through the face of the knight. 

Ustrur dropped back, jaw-slackened, behind knights;  Xaviuus now had fully crossed.  Brynn right behind, soon was abreast, together they stood, inviting the four.

Griselm moved, and she considered, what name shall she call to harm these knights?  But perhaps she would let them attack first.  In confusion of battle, the mind is more open, to visions of gods that shred mortal minds. 

The knights fell upon them, swords raised in high guard, and the two dodged and parried, eyes open for error.  Brynn held his hand half-staff on the spear, and as a knight drew back, he threw the spear outward.  He let the shaft slide on through his loose grip, till it found its mark, in the knight's side.  Then grasping the spearshaft, he drew it out-wound, leaving the knight to drop sword and die.

Xaviuus in his spinning, was slashed down the back, and wearing no armor, it cut to the bone.  As he dropped back, Brynn advanced to guard him, and Griselm knew that Brynn would soon make an error.  But it was more prudent to call the Dryad, to heal the wound Xaviuus had sustained. 

She focused on a path, cut through the forest, which never existed but in her mind.  Concentrate on the leaves, the bark, and the mists, bring forth the soul that animates growth.  She saw raindrops on a leaf.  Then superimposed, a tree-face ambiguous, both wizened hag and maiden untouched.  She saw the face smile, and her calling was answered, green specks like blinkflies shot round Xaviuus.  He began to rise, and rising he bellowed:

--My body...cannot....die!

Then even past Brynn he stepped to the knights, who shocked, hesitating, began to swing at him.  He spun, evaded, and as they in awe of his healing, he quickly caught them in his quick deadly arcs.  The last knight to fall, staggering rearwards, was lanced below plate by Brynn, who advanced.  Ustrur was kneeling, prostrate and begging, and as Brynn advanced, he spoke these words:

--Be you now beyond games of power?  We are playing a game, yes, but no man is above it. 

Spoke Brynn, and then buried the lance, heart-peircing; then removing, and Ustrur bled out.  Xaviuus spoke:

--We must quickly away; in a matter of hours, hounds will hunt the blood on our hands.

He turned to Griselm.

--Thank you, maiden.  The healing is wondrous;  my pain became a glowing light of joy.

Griselm responded:

--My duty, sir.

Brynn wiped the blood on his spear through the grass.  He spoke:

--Let us to the farm then, may it serve as a haven.  The elders will contact us with tasks further.
4
I don't know what happened to my OP, but here it is again:
Oh yeah, working title "Hierophant"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

With much noise and much violence the river crashed o'er the rapids-rock, which mutely protested the unceasing cascade.  Boulders uncrested, dry where touched sunlight, stood in defiance of the prophets of flux.  You will yet yield, thought Griselm, in her moment of reverie.  She searched the chaos for hints of pattern, knowing these to be merely projections of mind.  There is only one thing that can be known about the river:  the ungraspable flow breaks all that resists.  The vanity of these rocks!  No, not vanity.  The ignorance.  If agency was theirs, would they seek this rage?  But they have agency not, and as all, act their role.

The path cut through cedars had led them uphill, where snowmelt in this season made war with the earth.  Brynn was resting against rock, spear lain cross his shoulders, gathering strength for the trial soon coming.  Brynn, of the crimson robes, blonde hair thick and cut at his ears.  Of the Thunder Priests, the mediators between storm and man, perhaps two dozen remained.  The old faith, which for generations had held men in thrall, was being routed by men who put faith in the demos.  A mob, the master?  A crowd, the king?  Such blasphemies issued from the new temples.  Temples to the One who laughs.  Be we the rock?  Be we the river?  Griselm pondered.  I would wager that even a jester can bleed.

The bridge cross the rapids, swayed in the carrying, of the other would-be avenger, eldest of their party.  Greying hair tied back, but shortspiked on the top, the style of warriors serving the crown.  Anachronistic, and as defiant as Brynn's vestments.  Xaviuus approached, resting hands on twin machetes, hung crossed off his hips.  He was pristinely eager to draw them from behind him, to interrupt a life with an iron exclamation.  Brynn raised his head and regarded him.  Xaviuus spoke:

--They will be here anon.

He said, and looked at Griselm.  Then, addressing Brynn:

--Thy confidence she has?

Brynn said, laconic:

--She will not fail us.  She has yet to fail us.

And Xaviuus:

--This time there is no surprise.  You wished to confront them direct.

And Brynn:

--There is no other place where meeting is certain.

Xaviuus, again:

--These men, when awoken, will become as clockwork.  She must pierce as an arrow, should she send the visions.

Griselm spoke, then:

--It is not a matter of sending, it is a matter of awakening.  The presence of gods will wash over as surf; like grains of sand, it will bind their delicate cogs.

Xaviuus seemed unconvinced.  Then he spoke:

--It is foolish of me to express doubt however.  They are nearly upon, and it will be what it is.  Brynn, will you pray for us?

Brynn straightened himself, and held his spear upright.  Xaviuus and Griselm bowed their heads as Brynn intoned:

--O Destroyer.

Brynn paused, then continued:

--O Destroyer, O Eater of Worlds, grant us thy presence; for we seek to make offering.  Fight we the arrogance, fight we the insolence, of the builders of dwellings of delusions of men.  Readeth we thy will in the Book of All-Living, readeth they their lies in the book of men.  Help us to decipher this world-prison mathematick, help us to dance as you flicker through the unreal.  Thy flicker the promise of consuming fire.

Brynn cleared his throat and recited:

--The dancer stalks the energies; detects the fearful symmetries; absorbs all forms by mimicry; and manifests zoologies; morphologies distinkt; species differentiated; for all is of warrior descent; and by blood consecrated...

Xaviuus interrupted:

--They come.
5
Help! / Re: How smart is the AI?
July 17, 2012, 02:49:16 pm
Thanks.
6
The Lounge / Re: Game idea for my own profit
July 17, 2012, 10:58:36 am
Alright, then...my bad.
7
The Lounge / Re: Game idea for my own profit
July 17, 2012, 10:44:35 am
Quote from: Xifanie on July 17, 2012, 09:59:55 am
Thanks for the offer but:
1) I don't own, nor can afford a cellphone to test
2) I hate learning new programming languages because I hate coding
3) I only proposed this idea because at least I get a little motivation coding my own stuff, if it's other's, my drive is very low.


Alright, thanks for considering.  Are there any other coders on this site who I might ask if they'd be interested?  I mean I know people hate working on other people's ideas, but I'm pretty confident that the design is fun.
8
Help! / How smart is the AI?
July 17, 2012, 10:28:36 am
Sure we can make all these new crazy skills,  but does the AI actually know how to use them?

For instance, say I made books a smart targeting range three AoE.  If the AI had a book it its hand, would it realize this and utilize it effectively?
9
The Lounge / Re: Game idea for my own profit
July 16, 2012, 09:11:33 pm
Xifanie, if I can approach you humbly...

If you need to make money quickly, I've got a card game that could be made into a phone app (with stock graphics, even, if you can find them).  I've put in probably over 100 hours of testing*, half of which on the finished iteration.  It's based on American football, uses Ace-9 and the defender uses the kings to pick his defense.  I don't have the AI done, but that would probably take a week to figure out (I'm a non-coder, but I could write stuff  like "If condition Y is true, do A 80% of the time, B 15% of the time, and C 5% of the time")  If you wanted to make it, I'd take an 85/15 split, me taking the low end of course.

*and I didn't twist anyone's arm, they came to me and wanted to play more!

Just putting that out there.

Your idea:  Personally,  I like your suggestions for attack/combos, but most of the stuff seems needlessly complicated, IMO.  And simple is where it's at, if you want to pick up a lot of players.

10
Help! / total n00b is lost
July 16, 2012, 04:11:20 pm
There's a lot of info on this site, but I can't seem to find a FAQ on how to actually get started hacking FFT.

I both the PSP and PSX version, is one easier to work with than the other?  I'd like to eventually do some pretty hardcore warping of the game.

For instance, I want to make it so battles and events flow one after the other (no world map) and Agrias is the main char.   Those are just a couple fo the things I'd like to do, if they are possible.

So, is there an utter beginner FAQ somewhere that I'm missing?
11
The Lounge / Re: (maybe) making my own game....
July 16, 2012, 02:21:49 pm
I've had "learn 2 code, n00b" and "don't be so ambitious" drilled into my head so many times it's finally starting to take.

I think I'll just see what I can do here, first. 
12
The Lounge / Re: (maybe) making my own game....
July 14, 2012, 11:09:20 pm
Also, I'm toying with the idea of having a hard time limit on stages so some kind of turtle/buff strategy isn't an option....
13
The Lounge / Re: (maybe) making my own game....
July 14, 2012, 11:07:58 pm
Some Clarifications:

When I say Vietnam-like, I'm not talking about putting it in a modern setting.  I'm just refering to the storyline possibilities...a rebellion, an ousted colonial power, the escalation and "advisory" roles, a proxy war between two greater powers, both sides trying to utilize the populace, the withdrawal and abandonment, etc.  Of course, I'd make the actual narrative a little neater--for instance, the rebellion would succeed, but only by betraying its ideals, for instance.

So, no levels, how do you do progression/challenge?  Well, let's say the opening missions you're an Imperial Captian and you've got some foot soldiers and magitek-armor like forces under your command and your task is capturing a town.  Since this is the beginning of the game, you've got massive advantages--it's not a fight, it's a massacre--but it gets the player used to the general feel of the game.  Gradually the odds begin to normalize.  Now, since the history has already been written, and the player is just playing through it, the intense challenges would be elective paths where, at some point in the history of the conflict, a force succeeded despite facing overwhelming odds.  For instance, there might be a Colonel who seems to have the magic touch;  he never loses.  But if you actually play his battles, they are incredibly hard.

14
The Lounge / (maybe) making my own game....
July 14, 2012, 09:43:09 pm
So I've always loved FFT, but when I think about ways I'd like to warp it to my will, I wonder to myself:  why not attempt to make your own game?

I'm not a total noob to design;  I've got a table-top RPG system on sale for kindle.  That probably took a hundred hours to design and test, so I've got commitment to follow-through.  I'm not bad with fiction either, but I haven't published or self-published any of that--it hasn't gotten through my internal censors.

What I'm wondering is if I can get a sprite artist on board while the game is still in a nebulous form, so when the story and gameplay are in a more concrete form, We'll(!) have some art to back it up.  I'd love for the art to be done FFT-style. 

I'm imagining a FFT-like game with much larger battlefields, that are semi-randomly generated (by which I mean, there will be strict parameters for an iteration to comply with, but the exact layout will be different on every playthrough).

There will be no levels (there are none in my table-top RPG either);  skills will be closely balanced and every skill will have an opportunity cost.  There will be no obviously *right* build.  Many of the opponents will have their skills generated randomly, in the same way as the battlefields.

The player will take multiple roles in a story that centers on a Vietnam-like conflict.  At different points in the game, the player will be fighting with different characters at different points in the history of the conflict.  The whole shape of the conflict will be illustrated to the player as the game moves on, although the story will not necessarily proceed with a linear chronology--the player will probably start in the middle of the war, and there will be flash-forwards and flash-backs.  The player will also play characters from different factions of the conflict.  Certain paths will be mandatory, and some will be elective.  I'm not sure if some will be "unlockable" or not.

My plan for skills right now is:  Every unit will have a basic class, with 2 support skills.  A Healer may have half-MP cost and extra magic range, or she may have turbo-MP and doublecast.  Every unit will probably have a specific weapon, so that can be animated with the sprite.

So, does this sound like an interesting project to anyone?


15
Help! / total sprite noob
July 14, 2012, 12:04:09 pm
I joined this site because the thought of hacking fft, warping it into what I want a TRPG to be, makes me shiver.

But lately I've been wondering, why don't I just try to make my own game, instead of bending the FFT engine to my will?

So, that said, is there some kind of program where I can experiment with making FFT-like sprites?