Idea: Writing a Sequel

[Ronin1984]

I've been thinking hard about writing a script for a 'Volume 2' or 'Chapters 5, 6, 7, and 8' that's true to canon and is specific to Ivalice. I have a few ideas but I'm just getting started. Any thoughts?

Protagonists:

Ramza Beoulve:
Job: Paladin: "A demon-slaying knight that rejects all noble titles and any form of injustice. An expert with shields and defenses, this warrior fights purely out of love and a sense of duty to protect the innocent."

Alma Beoulve:
Job: Spiritist: "A person born with a special connection to otherworldly beings and trained in the performing of holy rites. This mage has a special affinity for communing with espers and expertise on the topic of possession."

Mustadio Bunanza:
Job: Magitek Knight: "An expert machinist who has infused his body with alchemically altered magicite. This knight often combines gun strikes with magical forces and is an expert in combating constructs."

Agrias Bunanza [Oaks]:
Job: Holy Ronin: "A blessed blade master that now swears fealty to no one but God. This warrior is an expert at utilizing and combining the mystical abilities of both knight swords and katanas."

Rafa Galthana:
Job: Holy Psion: "A telepath and prophet born with mysterious powers. This blessed mage combines mystical abilities with the art of subterfuge."

The initial scenario of the sequel:

- Two years have passed since the end of Final Fantasy Tactics.

-  Orran, heir to Count Orlandu, used his newly-inherited wealth and station to keep the siblings in hiding the past 2 years. During this time he and Alma became an item. Ramza has been scouring the land for any traces of further demonic incursion while using Orran's castle as a base of operations. In the first scene of the sequel Ramza is comforting Alma after she just received the news about Orran's execution through burning at the stake for trying to reveal the truth. Ardis Durai, Orran's younger brother and now the Count, does not betray the siblings after this but asks them to leave his castle since Orran brought the Church's suspicion to them all.

- Mustadio and Agrias are married. The newlyweds have spent the last year traveling from ruin to ruin trying to learn the secrets of the past civilization that disappeared and to discover the true nature of magicite and the zodiac stones. They have been partially successful- Mustadio has already begun rebuilding primitive magitek items. Agrias, severely traumatized by the death of Ovelia by the hand of King Delita (Rafa had a vision and told her), she watches her husband like a hawk and when the two discover in some ruins that Alma may still be in danger because she is still a spiritual conduit Agrias becomes passionate about protecting Alma from any harm that may befall her.

- Rafa's powers grow in ways that create more questions than answers. She sometimes foretells the future, watches events from afar, and manipulates minds- abilities she uses to keep her dear friend Ramza one step ahead of anyone who may still be wondering about him or tracking him down. Over the last 2 years she has developed a romantic affection for Ramza but the demon hunter still keeps himself emotionally distant for his own reasons. She and Alma became confidantes quickly.

Other Characters:

-Malek, unable to get along with Ramza and the others for long, left to find his own way in the world a few months after the end of Final Fantasy Tactics. He comes in contact with Judge-13 (an ancient construct) and becomes enamored with its goal of becoming immortal ruler of Ivalice and establishing an atheist totalitarian government.

-Meliadoul disappears within a week of the final events of Final Fantasy Tactics.  While some within the Church still whisper her name and claim that she covertly aids those with legitimate and selfless faith, her continued existence in Ivalice can never be confirmed.

- Judge-13 is a recently reawakened construct originally designed to replace the living (and thus fallible) judges of ancient Ivalice. This model is unique in that it possesses a form of emotions and true sapience. It arrogantly views itself as the perfect authority on justice, order, and the nature of the universe. After it's reawaking it quickly becomes disgusted with modern Ivalice's primitive technology and offended by the existence and power of the Church.  It decides that humanity is not worthy of ruling itself and begins secretly questing after any and all the magicite it can gather (including zodiac stones) to build and awaken other constructs for the sole purpose of establishing a new civilization.

- In addition to the threat of Judge-13, the Lucavi are not completely defeated........

[Angel]

I'm confused by the mishmash of PSX and PSP names. There should really be cohesion there. And I hope Meliadoul will make an appearance afterall, but I'm sure you don't want to spoil anything, either. I'm with you so far, though.

[Ronin1984]

Thanks! I'm hoping to gauge interest in the idea. That point about the names is a good one. What would you recommend? I played through both versions and I was just clicking around the FFT wiki for references and I suppose I didn't notice. The feedback and interest about Meliadoul is just the sort of thing I was hoping to know about before I poured all that time and effort into a full script! I planned on making her a guest character but I hadn't thought about how much story time she should get yet.
As far as spoilers go I don't plan on tossing things out willy-nilly but given the scope and hopefully interest in the project I'm very open to the idea of co-writers (that'd be nice, lol).
Also I've done plenty of story writing before but I've never made a game hack so someone signing on that knows how to put the script into the game would be a godsend.
Thanks again!

[Angel]

99% of the people who actually work on mods here will want to stick with the original PSX naming conventions. AFAIK, only Eternal likes the PSP names. Rad, Lavian, Rafa, Malak, Orlandu, Olan, etc. The only PSP name change that didn't bother me was Lede -> Lettie, because it was like, "oh, now I finally know how it was supposed to be pronounced! And Lettie is actually a name, instead of just some random letters here and there."

A good enough story will have a chance at garnering some attention, but most won't show interest until something tangible is posted, unfortunately. Don't give up hope! Keep working, keep writing, and don't be afraid to get your hands dirty.

[Ronin1984]

I am now officially working on this! So far researching the current lore of Ivalice, brainstorming, and outlining has been fun. I plan on posting updates. If anyone has any wishes, ideas, or support to offer I'm very open to it!

[Ronin1984]

Here are some of my notes for jobs. The idea is that the concept of 'job requirements' is gone- all jobs will be available from the start with every job balanced with all others. The command abilities will be tweaked quite a bit of course but this should give a sense of the style for each job. Hopefully I'll figure out how to make adding/removing abilities and multiple reaction abilities triggering a reality somehow. I dare to dream   If not, I'll just have to downgrade.

Final Fantasy Tactics Sequel Jobs
All Jobs Are Balanced + No Job Requirements

The List:

White Knight
Red Knight
Black Knight
Dragoon
Samurai
Geomancer
Ranger
Scoundrel
Ninja
Monk
White Mage
Black Mage
Green Mage
Summoner
Red Mage
Blue Mage
Bard
Dancer
Alchemist


Job Traits:
*I Am Building Off Of The Remix Version So Far. Weapon Guard Is Universal. Items Will Be Rebalanced.
*Maintenance Provides Full Immunity To Battle Skill Abilities.
*Mind Magic = Modified Talk Skills
*Monster Skill And Mind Magic Should End Up Improved Quite A Bit
*Mental Fortress = Finger Guard
*Banzai Slash = Meatbone Slash
*Alchemists Will Be Able To Throw Ninja Bombs

White Knight      Command: Guard Skill
HP: High MP: Low       PA: High MA: Medium SP: Low   Move: 4 Jump: 3 Evade: 15%
Gear:   Helmets, Armors, Shields, Daggers, Swords, Knightswords, Spears
Innate: Defense Up, Magic Defense Up, Caution, Move- HP Up

Red Knight      Command: Battle Skill
HP: High MP: Low       PA: High MA: Low SP: Med       Move:  3 Jump: 3 Evade: 10%
Gear:    Helmets, Armors, Shields, Swords, Daggers, Knightswords, Flails
Innate:    Two Swords, Attack Up, Speed Save, Maintenance

Black Knight      Command: Ravage Skill
HP: Med MP: Med       PA: High MA: Med SP: Low      Move: 3 Jump: 3 Evade: 10%
Gear:    Helmets, Armors, Shields, Daggers, Swords, Knightswords, Axes
Innate:    Two Hands, Attack Up, Magic Attack Up, Move- MP Up

Dragoon      Command: Dragon Skill
HP: High MP: Low       PA: High MA: Low SP: Med       Move: 4 Jump: 5 Evade: 10%
Gear:    Helmets, Armors, Shields, Swords, Axes, Spears
Innate:    Attack Up, Defense Up, Ignore Height, Monster Skill

Samurai      Command: Bushido Skill
HP: High MP: Low      PA: High MA: Med SP: Low      Move: 3 Jump: 3 Evade: 10%
Gear:    Helmets, Armors, Katanas, Swords, Bows
Innate:    Counter, Banzai Slash, Attack Up, Two Hands

Geomancer      Command: Gaia Skill
HP: High MP: Low       PA:  High MA: Med SP:  Low      Move: 4 Jump: 4 Evade: 15%
Gear:    Hats, Helmets, Robes, Clothes, Swords, Axes, Flails, Poles
Innate:    Attack Up, Two Hands, Magic Attack Up, Any Weather

Ranger         Command: Scout Skill
HP: High MP: Low       PA: Med MA: Low SP: High       Move: 4 Jump: 4 Evade: 15%
Gear:    Hats, Clothes, Shields, Bows, Crossbows, Guns
Innate:    Speed Save, Secret Hunt, Equip Change, Float

Scoundrel      Command: Raid Skill
HP: High MP: Low       PA: Med MA: Low SP: High       Move: 4 Jump: 4 Evade: 20%
Gear:    Hats, Clothes, Shields, Daggers, Crossbows
Innate:    Speed Save, Reflexes, Vanish, Secret Hunt

Ninja         Command: Ninjutsu Skill
HP: High MP: Low       PA: Med MA: Low SP: High       Move: 5 Jump: 4 Evade: 25%
Gear:    Hats, Clothes, Daggers, Swords, Bows, Crossbows
Innate:    Two Swords, Speed Save, Vanish, Catch

Monk         Command: Chi Skill
HP: High MP: Low       PA: High MA: Low SP: Med       Move: 4 Jump: 4 Evade: 20%
Gear:    Hats, Clothes, Staves, Poles
Innate:    Counter, Speed Save, Martial Arts, Attack Up

White Mage      Command: Holy Magic
HP: Low MP: High       PA: Low MA: High SP: Med       Move: 3 Jump: 3 Evade: 5%
Gear:    Hats, Robes, Staves, Fabrics
Innate:    Magic Defense Up, Short Charge, Move- HP Up, Move- MP Up

Black Mage      Command: Ravage Magic
HP: Low MP: High       PA: Low MA: High SP: Med       Move: 3 Jump: 3 Evade: 5%
Gear:    Hats, Robes, Staves, Rods, Books
Innate:    Magic Attack Up, Short Charge, Half MP, Move- MP Up

Green Mage      Command: Time Magic
HP: Low MP: High       PA: Low MA: High SP: Med       Move: 3 Jump: 3 Evade: 5%
Gear:    Hats, Robes, Staves, Rods, Books
Innate:    Short Charge, Critical Quick, Float, Move- MP Up

Summoner      Command: Esper Magic
HP: Low MP: High       PA: Low MA: High SP: Med       Move: 3 Jump: 3 Evade: 5%
Gear:    Hats, Robes, Staves, Rods, Books
Innate:    Magic Defense Up, Short Charge, Half MP, Move- MP Up

Red Mage      Command: Battle Magic
HP: Medium MP: Medium   PA:  Med MA:  Med SP: Med    Move: 4 Jump: 3 Evade: 10%
Gear:    Hats, Robes, Clothes, Shields, Daggers, Swords, Rods, Staves, Poles
Innate:    Magic Defense Up, Counter Magic, Absorb Used MP, Critical Quick

Blue Mage      Command: Mind Magic
HP: Medium MP: Medium    PA: Med MA: High SP: Low      Move: 3 Jump: 3 Evade: 5%
Gear:    Hats, Robes, Clothes, Shields, Rods, Staves, Poles, Books, Bows, Crossbows
Innate:    Train, Mental Fortress, Monster Talk, Monster Skill

Bard         Command: Song Magic
HP: Medium MP: Medium   PA: Low MA: High SP: Med       Move: 3 Jump: 3 Evade: 5%
Gear:    Hats, Robes, Clothes, Daggers, Staves, Rods, Books, Instruments
Innate:    Auto-Potion, Short Charge, Monster Talk, Move- MP Up

Dancer         Command: Dance Skill
HP:  Medium MP: Medium    PA:  Med MA:  Med SP: Med      Move: 4 Jump: 4 Evade: 20%
Gear:    Hats, Robes, Clothes, Daggers, Staves, Rods, Instruments, Fabrics
Innate:    Reflexes, Catch, Float, Move- HP Up

Alchemist      Command: Alchemy Skill
HP: Medium MP: Medium   PA: Med MA: Med SP: Med       Move: 3 Jump: 3 Evade: 5%
Gear:    Hats, Robes, Clothes, Daggers, Crossbows, Guns
Innate:    Auto Potion, Equip Change, Throw Item, Move- Find Item


Old Names/Substitutions:
Mime -> Replaced By Special Jobs
Squire -> White Knight
Chemist -> Alchemist
Knight -> Red Knight
Archer -> Ranger
Priest -> White Mage
Wizard -> Black Mage
Time Mage -> Green Mage
Thief-> Scoundrel
Mediator -> Blue Mage
Oracle -> Red Mage
Lancer -> Dragoon
Calculator -> Lunar Knight [Remix Version] -> Black Knight
Bard -> [Any Gender]
Dancer-> [Any Gender]


Any information, opinions, or suggestions?

[Angel]

I like the idea of all jobs being unlocked from the start, but I think JP costs should be higher to compensate. The job list itself sounds interesting, indeed. I hope you'll focus on the jobs and abilities first, just to put out an alpha version for us to play and critique the gameplay. That will also be a great way to get more people interested.

[Ronin1984]

Thank you much for the support, Toshiko! It means a lot   One other has offered to help co-write so far but we've had some communication challenges so far. I'll work on this now and hopefully learn enough as I go. I hope to get a writing team formed before I dive headfirst into such a big script to make sure the hardcore fans (A.K.A. all you patch players out there) are happy with the resulting play experience. I've learned that its good to just up and ask what players want beforehand rather than guess and hope for the best; lol. I have some general brainstorming / sceario outlining done and I've been doing lots of research into final fantasy and Ivalice lore. As far as this job list is concerned I just need to learn the technical skills  to create the sprites, alter the job commands, and allow for multiple reaction skills on a character.

Here are some other ideas as far as gameplay goes:

- Expect to be outnumbered in every fight. I want the player to get the sense that the world is coming down on our heroic fugitives' heads hard.

- Plenty of 'construct' type opponents that produce 'parts' when poached that Mustadio can use to 'craft' magitek items at fur shops.

- Expect more status ailments and buffs to be flying around than in vanilla FFT along with more ways to heal/remove them
.
- Characters that reach 0 Brave will not become an actual Chicken (but still a coward, lol) and those that reach 100 Faith will not leave the party. I want to be fair in how religious people are portrayed- the good, the bad, the passionate, the pacifist. I feel this theme of honest religion facing off with selfish and/or false religion is a great strength of the final fantasy tactics story and I'd like to preserve that.

- Gear selection should become a tactical choice rather than a 'this is all around better than that' choice. For example, the best knighswords and the best katanas will have the exact same weapon power ratings but knightswords will have defensive abilities and katanas will have offensive ones. A ranged example is guns having high range and weapon power, bows having elements and damaging magic, and crossbows having nasty debilitations- all balanced to hopefully make the player scratch his or her head for a couples minutes choosing what kind of heat he or she wants a ranger to pack. I plan on using 'this increases speed' and 'that lowers speed' quite a lot when creating items, too. I could go on

-No booting Alma, Rafa, Agrias or Mustadio from the group! Alma is blood, Rafa keeps Ramza from being found,  Mustadio is the last guy Ramza has left to go drink a beer with when the ladies are all hormonally irritated at the same time, and telling mother-hen Agrias to stop watching your back is just asking for a stalker. :p Of course each character has his or her own plotlines as well.

[Ronin1984]

I would like to report that the project is progressing well overall but I've run into a few challenges that need ASM hacking and, apparently, that stuff is WAY over my head. I'm hoping to learn fast enough that I can get enough done fast enough that interest isn't lost on the sequel project idea. I may be starting to burn out a bit, though, since I've been working on this every day since the origional post. I just wanted to express that I am not at all giving up but I may need to rest, lol. Does anyone have any advice regarding large overhauls like this?

[3lric]

Learn to either event or Sprite. You will get more attention and help when you have things to show off. It does help a lot.

Also, when I started Jot5, I made sure to read this first:
http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=6125.0

You are trying to do too many things at once. Try to do things scene by scene, once you have a chapter or so of story down
and evented and such, then focus on nailing down the gameplay for said chapter, which includes all your jobs/asms, etc.

I know I preach this a lot. However, can't really argue with results and this is the route that I took.

[Ronin1984]

Wow, that link was something. First of all thank you for the advice! I will not take the point of that thread lightly.
I come to this community with experience writing books and I want to try a script instead of the usual prose. I was downright touched the first time I played through FFT and I feel it deserves a canon sequel- and by that I in no way intend to take away from any other project. I'm mostly excited by story in the case of my proposed project- sprites and all that are neat (there are some really cool ones shown at this site) but if the White Knight uses the Squire sprite but says profound lines I'm happy. If I didn't change a single thing about vanilla FFT and just produced a playable script I'm happy. Toshiko suggested I do jobs and things first and once I took her up on it I got hooked but I really want the focus to be a good sequel story ASAP. It seems you and her are suggesting opposite approaches between mechanics changes first and storytelling first. I guess I'll have to think on it.
I don't mean to bug people or beg for services such as custom sprites or free ASM hacks. I just have worked on a few tabletop games by myself and I would like to know what its like to work on a team with people for once. During the making of those tabletop games others came and went- giving up, moving on, breaking up with so-and-so, yadda yadda- and I was always the only one left by the time the stuff was playable so I can understand and sympathize with much of the frustration that I sense around here from time to time.
I'm not doing this because its fun- I'm doing this to prove to myself that I can. Granted, like I said, playing with the patcher has been a blast and I'd love to know how to bypass the hard coding of the Jump skill (I think I read someone made a tool for that) but I seek to prove myself creatively and honor a story that influenced me profoundly at the same time. I want script writing and implemenation experience. I want experience working with a team- but I will continue alone if need be. I wouldn't prefer spending 5+ years on this with the scope of it and my disappointing learning curve but as far as I'm concerned the only direction is forward. 
I will take a look at eventing and try to learn that next in between research and outlining- and by research I mean learning as much lore as I can about Ivalice and final fantasy in general.
When the first draft of the script is done should I post it or does it not matter if it can only be read but not played?

[3lric]

Well, to each him own, though Toshiko is also a part of the Jot5 team and can vouch for both sides of doing things.

They both have their pros and cons. However I can tell you for a fact that people will be more inclined to watch a 2-5 minute video of an event than to read a giant story without first having something visual to draw in interest. And honestly, no one wants to see another vanilla patch with only FFTP stuff done. I had to do a lot of work myself before having any kind of team.

Despite how it may seem, we are a relatively small community so if you don't get any hits right away don't let it get you down, these things come with time as well as News posts.

The one thing you want to avoid at ALL COSTS is saying you cannot do something without X. X can equal spritework, ASM work, etc. Naturally, these are the two hardest things we really have around here, and they should never cause you to halt for one of these things unless you cannot make a release without them. There is ALWAYS something else or another aspect of your mod that you can be working on until that time comes.

Try to focus on 1 or 2 things at a time. If you wanna write, then write and then make it into short events, that can be improved upon later. Record the events and post them, or make them into a playable demo. While I understand the draw of doing the easier stuff in FFTP first, there is NOTHING that you are going to do in there that hasn't already been done in one vanilla patch or another. Which is why vanilla patches no longer do so well. However when you show the dedication to actually start producing visual work and laying down the story for people to follow and take an interest in, they will eventually start to join and offer help. With how many patches start and die, no one ever wants to join a patch without making sure the leader will be in it for the long haul.

I hope this makes sense and does not discourage you, as this is not at all my intention

[Ronin1984]

Thanks! I'm not discouraged and I appreciate the warnings. I plan on creating some events to show as soon as I am able.

[Angel]

FWIW, the reason I suggested getting the jobs and abilities groundwork laid first is because it can be really daunting to try and do everything at once. If you start small and work your way up, you learn as you go along and don't get quite so overwhelmed. It's a 'slow and steady wins the race' method, but Elric is right in the end; events draw the most interest.