Final Fantasy Tactics : End of days.

[Zuka]

I've begun work on a patch for all the zombie fans out there, the story will rotate around the theme of the undead suddenly taking control of Ivalice, as a few brave souls, attempt to battle back the hordes in search of what few survivors there may be. In this dark time, on the coattails of the lion and fifty year wars people are scared and broken from years of bloodshed, as the dead soldiers begin to rise on all sides, with a united front against all that still lives.

Changes:

spoiler

Nearly all humans encountered will have the undead status and the blood suck ability, Goblins, and all forms of undead will gain blood suck (Goblins become undead), On top of this all bull demon varieties will become undead, and gain the bloodsuck skillset. Classes don't change for the most part, though I may swap some out for classes more suited to a zombie specific game.

Blood suck will become a small skillset, including more than just blood suck, other skills to be included are yet to be finalized, but sleep touch, and drain touch may become more prominent.

Monsters as a general rule of thumb will become much less common, except in the cases of monsters who have been converted into special undead (like the boss zombies in Left 4 Dead... Sorta...) Monsters that are in combat and are not undead will not be on your side however, the undead are not on anyone's side, but when a monster is encountered in a random battle, you can be assured he's just as much a target as anyone on your team.

Some equipment will be over-hauled to better suit a world of undeath, as well as a few abilities.

To be honest I have alot of ideas to work with in this patch, but I don't want to make a patch that no one wants to play, which is why I come to the community about it. I'm looking for a team of people interested in working on a zombocalypse patch. I won't be posting a beta unless this generates some buzz because i don't really want to crowd the forum with something that, in the worst case scenario, will end up being a solo patch, and might take a LOOOOONG time.

This patch will involve a story rewrite as one might assume, and takes place a few years after the end of the Lion's War, exactly how long is still undecided. Anyways I hope this generates some interest as I would REALLY like to get it done, so please, flood me with your ideas and criticisms and if you want to be a part of the patching team just send me a private message, I don't know exactly how many people I will need but the more the merrier at the moment.

P.S. I'll be posting replies in this entry as spoilers so as to conserve the forum space.

|| Help Needed ||
ENTD
Spriters
Idea people
more to come I'm sure...

|| Edit ||

spoiler

i think blood suck is very imba if it's too spread...you should reduce the % of the ability

- I agree completely, I was also thinking of granting immunities to a few main characters, I think it would be a good thing if the story revolved around just a small handful of people who were immune (therefore the only ones capable of actually fighting without a massive bloodsuck-fest) I was also going to make getting actually hit with the blood suck status cause you to become invited as well, so that if someone got transformed into a zombie, they were gone. Of-course, this would continue to exclude the main characters being that they would be immune to the transformation all-together. I was also thinking of re-naming blood-suck to something more appropriate, like "Infect" or something. any ideas?

You should also rebalance the healing items...

- I agree with you completely on that, I'm just not sure yet how I should go about re-balancing them, I mean, obviously pheonix downs can't be instant kilers anymore, but what else to do I wonder?

|| Edit ||

spoiler

Ivalician (I don't think that is a word... yay for inventing)

-  *clap clap* Props to you sir.

White Magic would become immensely more powerful as it would serve multiple purposes.

- I agree, and I've decided that limiting white magic use to a select few special characters (who may or may not have any imunity) would help a great deal to balance them over-all, there is a thought I'm bouncing around as well in my head about taking off the hurt undead values of white magics basically changing the dynamic.

The greatest issue I see is that being set in the same world, the jobs and magic of FFT would presumably still be around... but things would get horribly lopsided very quickly with the classes and abilities, especially White Mage, as I mentioned.  
You could work around it and have new jobs developed specifically for zombie slaying and then have the normal stuff make an occasional "cameo" appearance or something to help continuity.

- My plan is to modify some classes that tend to be less used (any ideas? I've come up with archer, bard and dancer, I was thinking dancer could be a sort of necromancer, kinda thing) And simply removing some other classes that prove to be outbalanced against the horde.

 - As far as special characters are concerned none of the originals should be present in my opinion, as it seems to me they all are likely dead after the airship graveyard, although I haven't heard the official story, just beaten the game several times, though i still have my doubts. Here's where I need some serious help, I need some original sprites and have had a terrible history in my attempts to sprite, any good spriters wanna sign on?

I also think the amount of characters immune should be rather limited, perhaps even only two.  What good is a zombie survival game with recruitable generics if there isn't constant danger of losing characters to the enemy and being forced to kill your former allies?  

- I agree, I was thinking of making two maybe three people immune,(have to test it to be sure) I also had the idea of making them guests you don't actually control and allowing for you to recruit people you can control but may lose.

The risk shouldn't be absurd, so Bloodsuck would need to be used less often or have a fair chance of not turning them, but the danger of that occurring should always be looming over the player's head.  

- I've set it up so that blood suck is a skillset on human characters, there are more skills they will have access and while increasing the challenge I think it will also help to lessen the risk of people being hit with blood suck, in addition I made blood suck evadeable so that it's easier to dodge.

Perhaps make it common enough that players will give up resetting for every single generic they lose...  Unique characters that are vulnerable to it would wind up causing some needed tension as well.

- There are several monsters who have been converted to undead and given blood suck, I think it'll be the kind of thing players basically learn to live with.

Extra challenging encounters should be on every area from every direction so there is always some danger of running into something nastier than usual.  This is a fusion with a survival horror genre after all.

- There's always a chance of encountering the horde. BWA HA HA!

Of course the phoenix down would do 25% damage to the undead, like in 1.3
Potions should heal 20% of hp, hi-potions 25% of hp and x-potions 30% of hp, and damage undead by the same ammount ofc.

-
As far as potions and pheonix downs go I think that's a good idea, I might stretch out the % a little bit, maybe 15, 30, 45, or 20, 30, 40, I don't know, I'll playtest a few things and pass them around to try out, but I definitely think you're on to something there.

All special character should be immune to blood suck, and the name of the ability could simply be "bite"

- I think I am going to make a couple, but I do like Silvas idea of making very few characters that were immune, I don't want to fill up battles with immune characters, though i might make a support ability that grants immunity for special characters, so if you wanted to risk it... well.

A necromancer could be the cause of the plague, resulting in a new enemy.

- I was bouncing around the idea of a disease, some kind of mutated poisoning, or even the notion that they weren't really undead (like 28 days later) but at the moment the actual cause is still kind of up in the air, and when i do decide I think I'll keep it pretty confidential, don't want to divulge everything after-all.

Yeah battles should be a lot harder, with some human guest and enemy animals as happearence (that will be blood-sucked sooner or later xD)

- there you go, I may remove the recruitment system all-together, and simply throw survivors out there once in a while, if you can keep them from being infected then you can gain a new ally.

Priest will be imba, so you should use some support ability like "energy immune" to make some boss-enemy immune to potions and raise-cure shit like that...

- I am going to make certain bosses immune to the damaging effects of healing abilities, but I'm not sure about a support ability, I may simply change the elements of their individual status so as not to actually be undead, but treated as such.

Also put the necromancer class to charm the undead xD

- I was thinking of replacing the dancer with a necro style character to charm undead, maybe replacing the bard with a sort of undead hunter.

P.s: You already decided the story?

- Not entirely no.

[Dome]

It seems a good idea...
But i think blood suck is very imba if it's too spread...you should reduce the % of the ability, otherwise every battle will end in blood suck festival xD
If you want a tester or u want some idea im here ^_^
You should also rebalance the healing items...

[SilvasRuin]

Ivalician (I don't think that is a word... yay for inventing) zombie apocalypse?  Could be interesting.  The AI will some tweaking probably to keep from spamming the crap out of Bloodsuck.
White Magic would become immensely more powerful as it would serve multiple purposes.
The greatest issue I see is that being set in the same world, the jobs and magic of FFT would presumably still be around... but things would get horribly lopsided very quickly with the classes and abilities, especially White Mage, as I mentioned.  You could work around it and have new jobs developed specifically for zombie slaying and then have the normal stuff make an occasional "cameo" appearance or something to help continuity.
I also think the amount of characters immune should be rather limited, perhaps even only two.  What good is a zombie survival game with recruitable generics if there isn't constant danger of losing characters to the enemy and being forced to kill your former allies?  The risk shouldn't be absurd, so Bloodsuck would need to be used less often or have a fair chance of not turning them, but the danger of that occurring should always be looming over the player's head.  Perhaps make it common enough that players will give up resetting for every single generic they lose...  Unique characters that are vulnerable to it would wind up causing some needed tension as well.
Extra challenging encounters should be on every area from every direction so there is always some danger of running into something nastier than usual.  This is a fusion with a survival horror genre after all.

I think this has potential, and if done right, it could wind up a lot of fun.  I'm not sure what I could contribute, but if I can help, I would be interested in doing so.

I won't vote.  My response would be near "only if it is really good," but I don't feel making that vote is entirely accurate.  I really would like to see it attempted at least, whether I wind up wanting to play it or not.

[Archael]

This idea would work better in a custom map for an RTS or a Shooter game.

[Shade]

This idea would work better in a custom map for an RTS or a Shooter game.

In many of shooting game's have zombie mods at moment  so gg.

[Dome]

mmm...
Of course the phoenix down would do 25% damage to the undead, like in 1.3
Potions should heal 20% of hp, hi-potions 25% of hp and x-potions 30% of hp, and damage undead by the same ammount ofc.
All special character should be immune to blood suck, and the name of the ability could simply be "bite"
A necromancer could be the cause of the plague, resulting in a new enemy.
Yeah battles should be a lot harder, with some human guest and enemy animals as happearence (that will be blood-sucked sooner or later xD)
Priest will be imba, so you should use some support ability like "energy immune" to make some boss-enemy immune to potions and raise-cure shit like that...
Also put the necromancer class to charm the undead xD
P.s: You already decided the story?

[Archael]

This idea would work better in a custom map for an RTS or a Shooter game.

In many of shooting game's have zombie mods at moment  so gg.

Yes, and the idea is still better suited for a shooting game.

gg

[LastingDawn]

Well, Parasite Eve was a good game, which based around an RPG survivor horror element, so to speak. If you get rid of the map things become much easier, also to give it a real Resident Evil effect, you should try a lot of things out of the norm, seeing what makes the gate in Lionel click, how to activate it with a "key" picked up somewhere down the line, if you make it Resident Evil, in a Tactics environment that would be a truly interesting idea, depending on how it's done.

[ArkDelgato]

Switch flails to whips, make whips equippable on bards.
I love castlevania.

[SilvasRuin]

though i might make a support ability that grants immunity for special characters, so if you wanted to risk it... well.

Great compromise.  With a variety of very powerful and/or useful support abilities available, it would allow special characters to have some security, but the character would sacrifice potency for it.  I don't like the idea of being able to fill up a party with people equipped with the ability though...  Plus, the main character would really need to always be immune to it to avoid the trouble that would result from doing otherwise.  (Immune to the invite aspect at least, but it makes for wonky continuity if he is undeadified during battle and suddenly back to normal afterwards, considering the whole concept behind this.)

[Dokurider]

Another idea would be have limited resources. You can only carry so many items, shops are few and far between, and you can't earn money. You only get what you start out with at the beginning of the game and have few, if no chances at getting additional items. It's a very classic feature of zombie games.

[SilvasRuin]

No rewards sounds bad to me.  Making rewards small is a better means of doing that.  Reducing the amount of shops on the map and spacing them out fairly well should be a good idea for the right feel.  Hm...  Making rewards rely on thievery and poaching could help, but I'm not sure if too many undead should have stuff to steal.  Yeah, poaching at least should play a rather large part in scrounging supplies.  Is it possible to add more items than just Common and Rare to poaching?  At least adding an uncommon on to it?  Shops could just have the low tier stuff and reward money be minimal.  Poaching should be relatively cheap with that approach depending on just how tiny the gold rewards are.  Perhaps make the best stuff steal or drop only and holding back from planting them on too many enemies, especially lesser ones.  Hm... limited healing magic would make potions more important.  Adding more potion tiers and making them poaches and drops would help the scrounging and survival feel.

[ArkDelgato]

You could also nix shops and make all the rewards war trophies.
Only new resident evils have shops, the classics had rewards.
I like the idea of getting a linear weapon scale, perhaps better weapons and rewards on the hard random battles that have a % of occurring at each random.

[SilvasRuin]

There's a problem there, ArkDelgato.  A character dying off or getting converted would cost a whole set of equipment.  There would need to be some way to get replacements without having to have a recruit fighting naked.  I strongly advocate that there at least be the most basic equipment in at least a few scattered shops.  Even in a zombie apocalypse, there could be areas where enough people have band together to hold the undead off from a place of shelter.

[Kaijyuu]

The only way I think this would work is if everyone doesn't take it seriously and sees it for the massive cheese fest it is. At best, it's a joke; and it can be a pretty good one.

For example, survival horror titles have some features that are intended to increase tension, like random wandering and limited items. There's no good reason to implement those into a game that's not going to be scary.

[ArkDelgato]

That's a good point, lose one character and that's a lot of wasted items.
Perhaps a few shops would balance it out a bit.

[SilvasRuin]

Eh, slipping in horror and survival jokes could make for an amusing patch, but it won't work as well without at least trying to mimic attributes from them, even for the cheesiness.  You could even incorporate the attributes into jokes.

[Asmo X]

This is the very definition of something that belongs in the ideas/proposals thread.

[Dome]

If you want some idea for the ENDT, STORY, just whistle me xD
And yeah, remove the invite-tame sistem
If you want to recruit someone, you must encounter him and save him from battle ^_^
I was also thinking on how to make zombie stat:
In films they endure lot of damage before actually dying, so it would be possible to put them innate defense up and move hp up, or just drain touch...
In every battle you should be outnumbered, and you should also put some item that can reverse status blood suck...ofc they should be rare...the item (holy water?) should also damage undead badly (60% of hp?)
you can also lower the number of shops-remove them and make every battle (also random) give one random equip that is good for your level.
Also some new sprite for complete new monsters should be implemented (ok for goblin and bull demons zombie, but i want a true zombie sprite and a vampire one ^_^)
And another one thing...the main character should have some ability that no one else possess...he should be half-hundead (items heal him for half of normal, but he can use the blood suck skillset except for the blood suck ^_^)
I always wanted the main character to be different from the others...
Also, to do something new, you could give male and female different class...if you put dancer and bard as early job (prerequisite 2 squire) maybe altering them, you can divide the class in male class and female class...which would be a new and fun thing IMHO

[Xifanie]

This is the very definition of something that belongs in the ideas/proposals thread.

I'm wondering as well why this isn't closed yet.