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Chapter 2 Progress Log

Started by 3lric, August 20, 2013, 06:52:12 pm

KingUrameshi

Here I am (the royal pain in the ass) bothering you for another update. Looks like chapter 1 re-release is nearing completion and should be out sometime next month, which tells me that the chapter 2 release will most likely be around December. Any ideas concerning this, thaaaanks.  :D
  • Modding version: Other/Unknown
You have allies... Friends that would risk their lives, and I am one of them.

Analogman

I'm so god damn excited for this patch, I really appreciate all the time you guys put into this. I loved the first chapter, and I know that Chapter 2 is going to kick some major ass!  Take all the time you need, slow and steady makes an amazing game! 
(P.S. I know you want to keep spoilers away until release, but if you feel inclined to let a little information leek, is playable Zelda a feature?)  :D



Angel

  • Modding version: PSX
* Angel should quit being a lazy bitch
<@Elric> I agree to that as well

nyanyame nyanyajuu nyanyado no nyarabide nyakunyaku inyanyaku nyanyahan nyanyadai nyannyaku nyarabete nyaganyagame
At the end of the day, are we not all trapped inside lemons?

Nyzer

  • Modding version: Other/Unknown

3lric

  • Modding version: PSX

3lric

To answer the question about release. As I always say, there is no way to predict that until we are in bug testing phase.

Currently we are reworking the items in the game (which we already did once, but as making more slight changes due to finding some old resources that were assumed lost) to work well with the upgraded synth shop. It's going to add a big new mechanic to the game and because we are who we are, it has to be perfect, professionalism and Perfection is the biggest thing we strive for as it becomes less of a mod and more of its own game. The plus side of this is that once done, it'll be setup for the entire game (though of course 90% of everything will be dummied out of the re'release so none of ya'll can spoil my fun)

  • Modding version: PSX

Nyzer

Quote90% of everything will be dummied out of the re'release so none of ya'll can spoil my fun


Why stop there? Throw in some red herrings while you're at it. A fake Sheik for one, maybe :P
  • Modding version: Other/Unknown

LarsJunFan

Damn! Never thought to see such game!!! It's really great crossover game! :D
Anyways... i'm new here =) sorry for off-topic. Just wanted to say i'm looking forward to 2-nd chapter =) good luck to ya guys! ;)
Let's see what happens now =)

3lric

  • Modding version: PSX

Nyzer

Heh, it's more than just a good crossover. Put that crossover stuff aside and you'll see that Jot5 also manages to succeed as a proper sequel to FFT - a lot of the story is dedicated to "what happens after the Altima battle?" as opposed to just "look, crossover!"

That's the biggest thing that sucked me in, actually. A fanmade sequel to a very well-done game.

It's very enjoyable, especially compared to the crapfest of FFTA2's terrible, terrible story.
  • Modding version: Other/Unknown

Pandemoniu

Quote from: nyzer on August 07, 2015, 11:44:58 pm
Heh, it's more than just a good crossover. Put that crossover stuff aside and you'll see that Jot5 also manages to succeed as a proper sequel to FFT - a lot of the story is dedicated to "what happens after the Altima battle?" as opposed to just "look, crossover!"

That's the biggest thing that sucked me in, actually. A fanmade sequel to a very well-done game.

It's very enjoyable, especially compared to the crapfest of FFTA2's terrible, terrible story.


You had me in agreement with you, all the way up until that last sentence...

Nyzer

Luso was a very poor choice for the main character in TA2, because his entire plot is basically "I'm an outsider just messing around with whatever random events happen!"
Adelle and Cid were actually tied to the plot, but because the focus was more on Luso than them, the plot suffered for it.
The main villain had basically no motivation. She was a one-dimensional parallel to Luso, filling up her book with Teh Evulz instead of Teh Randum Quests.
And most of the above happened simply because the main questline didn't have enough to do with the main plot. All of these problems wouldn't have BEEN problems if not for the lack of focus.

TA had a simplistic plot, too, but tied Marche to the plot very well and even has the player base divided on whether he's the hero or the villain of the story. Marche starts off randomly screwing around with clan missions like Luso, but only until the plot gets rolling. I'll admit that his general motivation was rather weak and not fleshed out well, but it was pretty solid overall.

To wrap up my post here and put it more on topic: FFTA2's approach would be as if Snake or Dante were the main character in Jot5, and got returned home after the final boss battle of Chapter 1. Currently, they're barely tied to the plot, as most of the events have revolved around Ramza, Cloud, and Link.

Instead, Jot5 Ch. 1 focuses on those characters, their antagonists, and their motivations. It drops strong hints that Dante is going to see some focus later on, too. There's still not much for Snake, but that's perfectly fine the way it is, because it's implied that all four of the otherworlders are in Ivalice for a reason. With much of the story left to tell, it's perfectly sensible that some of the main characters have to wait for their turn in the spotlight.
  • Modding version: Other/Unknown

3lric

Quote from: nyzer on August 08, 2015, 10:13:07 am
To wrap up my post here and put it more on topic: FFTA2's approach would be as if Snake or Dante were the main character in Jot5, and got returned home after the final boss battle of Chapter 1. Currently, they're barely tied to the plot, as most of the events have revolved around Ramza, Cloud, and Link.

Instead, Jot5 Ch. 1 focuses on those characters, their antagonists, and their motivations. It drops strong hints that Dante is going to see some focus later on, too. There's still not much for Snake, but that's perfectly fine the way it is, because it's implied that all four of the otherworlders are in Ivalice for a reason. With much of the story left to tell, it's perfectly sensible that some of the main characters have to wait for their turn in the spotlight.


You've restored my faith in humanity.

No seriously, you have no idea how nice it is to see this. Twinees, Xifanie, Angel and I have been working non-stop these last few weeks on the re-release. We have LOTS of awesomeness planned, however the amount of work has been incredible, since there have been even more things completely changed or reordered.

Example:

(O) Items have all been renamed (in a proper fashion or course, you'll still get potions and phoenix downs, mostly weapon/armor name changes) and reorganized for the best possible randomization based on Glain's hack using Shop Progression (which is obviously custom in Jot5)

(O) For those who remember reading about the upgrades to the Synth shop to use materials a few weeks ago, Xif and I have been hard at work on this. Xif has come up with materials for crafting all the items in the game (also once again based on shop progress, sorry, you won't get Ultima Weapon in Ch1, lol) this has also been balanced by tier. You will be able to purchase some materials, other will have to be scavenged from dead monsters, some will have to be mined or gathered on marks, some you will flatout receive from marks, as you can imagine, this adds an entire new level of gameplay, there is a lot of details that come a long with this that I can't even explain, but basically, it's going to be amazing.

(O) We are adding in the Soldier office upgrade, and although limited, because it is Jot5. You can use this to buy other types of units, or monsters if you so wish.

(O) I've spent the last week now redoing the entire attack.out and worldmap to remove setup events and fix some organization errors. This is finally completed and in testing phase as of this morning (just this, not bugtesting in general). This is done thru the end of Chapter 2, so I'll be testing the entire worldmap for that and filling out event errors as i go along.

(O) Twin is working on some amazing things graphic wise. For the re-release. I won't spoil anything there though.

(O) Toshiko/Angel is doing some other graphic stuff that'll add a neat twist to certain game conditions. As well as going thru the event dialogue (in addition to what I already did) in further attempts at removing any awkward wording.

(O) Originally Chapter 1 had 2 marks, Chapter 1 now has 7 marks. As well as several marks involved in gathering materials for Synthing (These Material gathering marks are repeatable)

(O) Xifanie has been toying around with the idea of making a Jot5 Easytype as well, this allows us to pretty much make EVERYONE happy. And no one can get butthurt over their work being altered. So yeah, look for that at some point after Chapter 2 I would imagine.

(O) (Other things I can't remember to mention because I read a awesome comment and decided to do a quick spur of the moment update)
  • Modding version: PSX

gatebuster202

  • Modding version: PSX
Winner of the 2nd FFT Arena SCC Tourney. -Geomancers

Nyzer

No problem, Elric.

Truth be told, I was kinda leery of Jot5 at first because of the crossover element - it seemed a little gimmicky and I was worried it would dominate the game. And I say this as a Kingdom Hearts fan, even. (Ignoring the main plot in favor of screwing around for the majority of a game has been something that series has had issues with too :/ )

But Jot5 takes this element in stride and doesn't let it slow the game down. You guys made changes and upgrades all around. The Jobs have changed, but they come across as alternate versions of the FFT jobs - they're very close to the jobs they were born from. (Except the Ranger, but then, Archer sucked hard.) Things like the formation screen and the camera have been put to better use in Jot5: the formation screen now uses custom poses, and the camera has a zoom function.
And, of course, the biggest thing: the story is coherent. You've given us a good setting for Ivalice - Delita's rule isn't ironclad, and Ovelia's attempted backstabbing in FFT and his response to that has put him on the outs with several people he should have otherwise been able to trust. Including Ramza. So he's trying to keep his rule secure, others are trying to take advantage of this, and Ramza is chafing under Delita's restrictions. (The only part I had any issue with was that Ramza didn't seem to put much effort towards trying to explain the situation when he first left the castle, instead basically just telling the guards "I'm leaving, piss off scrubs". But trying to explain wouldn't have changed much, so that's mostly a nitpick.)

All of this makes Jot5 feel to me like the difference between Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. MM's central gimmick was the 3-day cycle, but it didn't dominate the game, and even though the game used the OoT engine, it was completely overhauled, made better in almost every way imaginable, and all with a brand new sequel story. There's a reason why MM was always one of my favorite games, and it's always stuck with me as a lesson that a game doesn't need a completely new engine and new graphics from scratch to truly succeed as an amazing sequel.

And - just as an example for how Jot5's crossover setup doesn't dominate the game - Dante makes a crude joke towards the end of Ch. 1, something that seems COMPLETELY out of place in the world of FFT.
And everyone around him acts like it, staring at him in shocked/disgusted silence. Ramza doesn't even respond to the comment. He's a cultured noble who always took his nobility and code of honor seriously, so of course those kinds of jokes would be out of place around him.
Neither Dante nor Ramza's personalities were altered to make the crossover mesh better, as most crossovers might do. And it makes it an awkward, hilarious scene.
I loved it.

Ultimately, the crossover element has indeed been a big part of Jot5, but it doesn't dominate the game. The story and the setting could still function as a proper setup for a sequel even without the crossover. It's very clear that you guys treat it that way, too. You're building it as an actual sequel and giving it the attention that an actual sequel would deserve.

And the game's amazing for it.
  • Modding version: Other/Unknown

Selius

you really know how to make the waiting painful >_<

ferret7463

  Finally, a true FFT sequel. The GBA version is way to much like a "never ending story/ Page master" story to me (I despise the judge system). I thank you very much for this. 

Nyzer

September 04, 2015, 08:02:28 am #157 Last Edit: September 05, 2015, 01:57:59 pm by nyzer
Eh, I think the GBA story has its own merits. The fact that you're essentially playing a villain protagonist makes it quite interesting, honestly. Unfortunately, the DS sequel to it basically just took a massive dump on the story and called it a day.

The judge system being terrible is inarguable though. The penalty for breaking it is ridiculously severe (you can lose equipment and stats from that?!) while the bonuses are garbage, especially because combos and Totema don't show up until late game.

I agree that FFTA isn't a real sequel to FFT though. It's more like a different version of FFT meant for younger audiences.
  • Modding version: Other/Unknown

RayKamiya

Acctually...

I like the idea of the Soldier shops letting you buy monsters like they did in the Tactics Ogre games, maybe have it each month is a different monster or job type that you can hire but more powerful Jobs/monsters be more expensive.

3lric

September 05, 2015, 02:35:30 pm #159 Last Edit: September 05, 2015, 03:54:01 pm by Elric
It's already been mentioned that we are using the Soldier office upgrade, but don't expect it to be cheap.

We definitely won't be restricting it by months.

HOWEVER (for the few people who might actually read this one tiny response in all of this section)

After deciding on all the special characters for Jot5, we did have a few UNIT.BIN slots left avaliable. SO in addition to the units you'll be able to buy at the Soldier Office (which are restricted by story progress. You won't buy a Ninja at Level 1) You'll unlock SPECIAL type Generics from the Soldier Office if special conditions are met. For example, let's say you beat all 4 Chicken Durbs marks in chapters 1-4 (each one requires the previous one to be beaten) once yu beat the last one, you'll unlock a Chocokin in the Soldier office, with a skillset close to what Chicken Durbs would have.

Due to the limited space, I'm not taking suggestions on these outside from the team, I more just wanted to explain a bit about how it works.

I'll also be writing 'Guidebooks' to go in the Bravestory menu, explaining more about the Synth and Soldier Office upgrade systems.
  • Modding version: PSX