RPG collaborators

I've been working on this RPG (tentatively titled Oberia in homage of Grandia and Ultima and the like) for about a month now, setting up game mechanics triggers to get it all working, and I think I'm about ready to start polishing up the story.

I'd like to collaborate with some other map-makers on this; it's a bit of a large task for one person!

So... Anyone have any good ideas for a nice old-school RPG plot line? I've got some stuff in mind but most of it is half-baked.

Here's some screens of what I've got going...

This is the talking system at work - you can either press "Talk" (or T on the keyboard) and then select who you want to talk to, or you can just right-click on him.

All comments welcome.

And upgrading your characters' equipment is handled with abilities...

(I know, these are all just taken in the same little village... Haven't started terraining yet really, story comes first.)

I really like the TALK thing...but the upgrading things inside the abilities? I don't really like that. How about making it so they are at a BLACKSMITH or something?

Yeh that's the plan, you'll only be able to upgrade your abilities at the blacksmith... by finding raw materials for him to work with, you'll enable new upgrades. I got the idea in part from ChronoCross...

I see you're a story writer... want to help out?

Combat is on a timebar system... when you come within range of a hostile unit, the camera pulls up, and all timebars start at the bottom. Timebars fill up at a speed relative to their character's AGI, or if they're enemy non-heroes, their point-value.

Once the timebar for a character is full, the character is auto-selected for the player who gets to choose whether to attack (as normal in WC3) or use one of his item powers by hitting that spellbook icon or typing "I"

That seems really cool, Ligature -- can you Talk to foes or Attack neutrals? It'd be fun if foes had something to say when you talked to them during a fight.

"Hey, if it's all the same to you, could you go easy on me? I've got a wife and kids.."

As for the story line, yeah, do take some time to come up with that. All the map helpers you'll recruit can't do much for you unless there's a story you want to tell. Since you're working on a turn based RPG, presumably there's some story elements there that appeal to you. Might I suggest a flow chart/spider web of ideas you like, and you fill in the gaps? That should get the ideas flowing.

this looks very much like Hero RPG but put together more easily and simply, i loke how did the tlak thing ans such but this looks to hard for me to help and also im doing my own project, but if u have anything simple someone could just PM me and ill see f i can acomplish it in a timly fashion but anyway great map so far

This is reminding me very much of a game called septerra core. They had it so you had multiple characters which you move arround, once you come close to an enemy they attack, you can choose who talks to people (and they react differntly to each of them).

I cant really help you on the story line unless i have a basic idea of what happens. Is it the basic quest arround and eventually you ave the world type of thing, or is it more of a person who never makes too much of a differance but still runs arround doing what they can in a time of chaos.

Definitely the saves-the-world-by-preventing-big-evil-bossman-from-getting-scifi-fantasy-weapon-of-mass-destruction kind of plot.

I'm afraid what I had for a story was a little too quick and too linear and too... boring. I'm gonna try to work up a new one...

Oh and there definitely will be multiple characters in your party. (see that itty-bitty Wyvern? that's your Pack Beast... a la Lunar: TSS)

OMFGG!:D You really are good at using the WE aint you? Wish i was as good

Use ideas from the FF games they usually have long and very deep stories.

Setting the scene is VITAL! People need to know who's who, where's where and what's what. By setting the scene it draws people into your game.

The thing you have to achieve here is originality and suspense, people will enjoy and want to play more often if the story is more in-depth and original, a simple re-write of FF7 would be gr8, but because it's not original then people would get sick of playing really quick.

Think of something that's got allot of depth so that the story can keep progressing without repetition, maybe a campaign rather than one single map might be required (obvious problems with this is you wont have the same items/lvls ect in the new map).

As for story ideas the idea of the "big bad" with his super evil ideas and weapon try to destroy/take over the world and only you can stop him always works well, its getting the originality and good twists in the story that make the game more playable.

(I'm not sure if this is helping at all but ill continue)
You also have to get allot of char development, people don't want to be handed 3 heroes and not know anything about them. Background stories and information is just as important as the story you're telling. Once people are attached to your chars events like deaths ect really enhance the story.

Motives are also very important, its nice saying that Bobs a nice guy so he decides to save the world, we want to know why he wants to save the world/girl ect. Bad guys also need strong motives, without them they wouldn't have a reason to be bad if you get my drift.

Anyway I'm sorry I couldn't write the story or help you in that way i just hope these pointers help you get a good story in mind. If you were to give more information on the settings and time ECT I might be able to help a bit more.

IDISacredIDI

Thanks for the suggestions man... Not to mention the compliments... didn't think this game warranted an OMFGG.:yup:

And oh yes, this is DEFINITELY going to be more than one map. I've worked through the Game Caching system already so it will be able to remember what you've done on each individual map and how much gold, lumber, food you've got, how much health and mana your characters have, etc.

I hadn't thought of talking to enemies, but that's a good idea. Danke...!

If you want to use the final fantasy series (or any other game for that matter) they always have a theme that is used threw out the entire game (somethimes they change it, or it is unclear what it is untill you are 95% of the way threw, but they always have one).

Something that you could do is have parts where you talk to a townsfolk, a conversation starts, then all of the sudden they villager attacks with some of his friends because of something you said.

Also have parts that you need to talk to the bos before you fight him, just to set why you are actually fighting him.

Allow people to talk to the enemies(mainly bosses) durring the fight, kind of like how they did in ffx. The characters gets extra str for talking because they get pissed off at the enemies responce to what they said.

Stupid Questions:

A. Where did you get those custom tiles?

B. How did you change the position of the attack/hold position/stop/go/whatever buttons?

Ideas/Concepts/Random Blah Blah:

You need to de-flattenize your terrain

Use the wyvern as a familiar instead of a pack beast. Familiar > Pack Beast. Bleh.

amazing stuff. I admire your work. Hey I need talented people like you at my project, it is MMORPG project and I know you will like it. If you are interested in this just click on the link, http://www.wc3campaigns.com/forums/s...threadid=34602
PM or reply on the post if you are interested in joining