Tales of Yezlofa

I decided it's about time to discuss what I've been working on for two reasons.

A) To get people interested in playing the project upon it's completion.

B) To verify that I am the creator of said project, in case someone decides to unprotect it and claim it is their work.

Tales of Yezlofa will be a series of maps resembling an Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game made by myself. Each map will boast a different area, some with different rulesets. The first will likely be a co-op map and the second or third is likely to be a Player vs. Player environment. The max level for the series is likely to be 100. Characters choose to put points in Ability Trees instead of abilities themselves. By investing in ability trees their abilities become more powerful and they learn new ones along the way. All abilities are stat based or percentage based, so any build with ability trees really is viable. Yezlofa will be my first project, and I plan on using it as a step ladder. Yezlofa will be the home to tests for my ideas and hopefully one the stepping stones towards my career in Game Design.

Yezlofa will feature a thick plot but will attempt to remain non-linear. (At least once you get past the first area anyways, and by area I don't mean map.)

Now I thought I'd introduce you to a little background to get you better associated to what your life will be like when you start your character.

The town of Cantel has sent word to several of the Kingdoms and Organizations all about the world of Yezlofa. The people are in dire need of aid. The water around Cantel has become stagnant and toxic. They fear that the source is coming from the ruins of the old city they were forced to abandon. The Imperial Scouting guild, whom has great reputation amongst all the people of the world, has reported the situation as a D rank situation. Thus fresh recruits members of Kingdoms and Guilds have been sent to town to get in a bit of training. However several members of the Courts and Organizations have their doubts about the seriousness of the situation.

Thirty years ago the town of Cantel did not exist, but immediately next to it the majestic city of Tora'Nol loomed over the landscape. Seemingly overnight a demonic infestation attacked the town and decimated it. Most of the population was killed but a few were able to escape through the trade entrance in the western wall. The invasion was so dangerous that the situation was given a high S ranking and no one answered their cries. The city became warped by the magi of the demon hordes, becoming a ruined labyrinth of sorts. Several weeks after the invasion the demons vanished almost as quickly as they came.

Many people fear that the strange pollution of Cantel is the herald of the return of the demonic hordes but say nothing for fear of political backlash. They can only pray that the horde does not return to claim the rising champions of their respective orders.

Tales of Yezlofa features 9 classes as of now, but may reach 12 before release as 3 more are currently in the planning stages. Here are the classes and their ability trees as of right now:

Paladin
-Swordsmanship
-Pious Chants
-Pious Healing
-Sacred Force

Swordsman
-Sword Mastery
-Enemy Study
-Secondary Weapons
-Nature Survival

Barbarian
-Axe Combat
-Savagery
-Moralizing Shouts
-Destructive Shouts

Swordslinger
-Sword Slinging
-Stealth Skills
-Dextrous Training
-Minor Elven Magic

Assassin
-Swordsmanship
-Stealth Skills
-Poison Mastery
-Assassination

Ranger
-Bow Mastery
-Nature Survival
-Trapping
-Animal Taming

Cleric
-Smiting
-Pious Healing
-Pacification
-Augmentation

Sorceress
-Manipulation
-Pacification
-Enchanting
-Illusionism

Wizard
-Elementism
-Elemental Summoning
-Enchanting
-Disempowering

More to come later! If you have a request for information about something, feel free to reply here as you're probably not the only one thinking it and I'll try to respond.

I suggest you use less classes but more skills for each class.

Also make sure each class can end up as a unique one. There should always be a unique way of building up your character, so that the same kind of characters doesn't end up having the same powers after all. I'm saying this because some people make up for their lack of unique builds with having a lot of characters to choose from.

Characters are only given 100 ability points. Each ability tree can take up to 50 ability points. Think that leaves plenty of room for unique builds.

The reason it has so many classes is because every class has a planned role depending on how they specialize their character.

In truth I'm still trying to figure out exactly what abilities to give who. I already wrote a large graph sheet that puts at least 5 abilities in each ability tree, but I'm thinking of throwing more into the mix. (The Wizard's Elementalism has far far more than that though.)

What's with all the D&Dish classes people seem to be unable to avoid using? Or demon invasions, for that matter?

You spend one sentence saying that the plot will be thick, and the rest of your post appears to be made of fantasy cliches.

So, what's the big original thing in this project that should get us excited?

Agreed.

Mass Classes isn't a good Ideia.
It's much better to make bunch of Skills in Each Class, or, a 2nd Level for Each Class, with less Skills and Less Number of Different Classes.
:)

I only used thos classes because they're the most fitting for the models I have to work with. I'm by no means a model artist so I'm stuck with models I scrounged up here and there and with models that came with the game.

And what would you prefer over a demon invasion? Aliens? Mutants? There are only so many things that could possibly fit into an "Evil" theme that you can make out of Warcraft's existing models.

As for what's original about the project... Have you looked at battle.net recently? Most of the open RPGs on there are just chaos. There's no story. There's no goal. They're basically clones of Everquest but with less players. Grind EXP until your max level and then farm for some loot until you have the best stuff, then you're out of things to do.

Oh, and the only reason I'm using classes is because this is the first WC3 Project I've done that I'm truly serious about, thus I need something to give me some experience in the mapping field. This map is that something. Once I completed this series I was planning on creating a new series that would be a bit more open, letting players completely design their character.

And might I add... for a moderator you sure seem intent on driving people away from the forums, your tone was quite rude.

Can't come up with something that isn't a cliche? Take a cliche, turn it upside down, and voila, you have an origional twist.

NB: Make sure the twisted cliche isn't a cliche in itself.


Evil...*sigh*. Evil isn't dangerous.

I'm guessing you're all assuming I mean "lol stereotypical demunz frum hel." No. The demons of Yezlofa are actually creatures from other places in space and time that have been twisted by an unknown presence to serve it completely. They're like animals that have been genetically spliced to be more vicious and sinister looking, but with unknown methods.


I didn't even mention what goal the demons have, it's hard to guess how dangerous they are when I don't give you information on it. I was vague on that for specific reasons, I want players to discover the plot in real time as they progress through the series.

Throughout human history, give me one example where evil has been truly dangerous.

I very much doubt you can find one.


Overlord controlling mutated beings to come from another dimension...oldest one in the book. Basic story line for 80% of FPSs, incidently.

What I'm saying is there is nothing at the moment that would make someone thing 'interesting' about your storyline.

Nazi Germany. Bent on genocide. Evil and Dangerous. Case closed.

Learn history, or at least usage of the English language.

For someone to be evil, they must be deliberately doing something they think was wrong. Hitler was not evil. Insane and misguided, yes, but not evil. Which is exactly my point.

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

Most storylines don't realise that very, very few people are actually evil. There is no black and white, only gray.

not really, a person can be considered evil by you if you think what they are doing is wrong. Evil is a point of view, it's relative.

Woah we're getting off track, have you actually done anything besides conception on the project.

Aye, I've done quite a lot of terrain. I've been planning formulas for all the spells and practicing triggering them. I don't expect it to take too long, should be out during the summer some time. Terrain is probably about 60% done right now.

Okay, so is everyone ONLY going to complain, or going to actually want to get something done around here? I think I understand now why most maps made by this community "never pass".

So the map uses cliches, who the hell cares? A map is a map. And every map is a map within itself. And map within itself is different. What else is there to say? You guys take this cliche thing way too far.

So then, tell us(if not, me) more about your map. I love RPG's, so I'm hoping that this will be a good one.