Drighton

[Drighton]

Well, I'm reconsidering the title of the game, as well as the story.

THE STORY
The story is changing from what I had written here before. Certain elements will remain, but setting and plot are a little different.

GAMEPLAY
Drighton is a non-linear game, meaning whether you frolic in the fields or join the army, the story you play is up to you. While game expansions may add chapters to previously established story threads, the game itself has no end.

••Characterization
Characterization is the act of individualizing your character from that of any other player's. This will be done in two ways: visual and by stances.
Upon creation, the player will be able to name their character, select skin and eye color and from a variety of hair styles. Any armor that the character wears will be reflected graphically, completing the customized look of the character.

••Character Attributes and Progression
The character will have three main attributes. Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence. Unlike most RPGs, these attributes will grow with their use, not through Levels and Expereince points. For example, to swing a large sword would increase the character's strength with each swing. Using a bow will increase Dexterity with each shot. Learning new chemical compounds and fabricating items will increase Intelligence. Each action you take in the game will help your character's progress.
Skills and Stances are also affected in the same way. The character will become increasingly effective at accomplishing a certain task or executing a certain maneuver the more those skills or maneuvers are used.

••Stances and Mentors
A stance is a style of combat. A player is able to learn a maximum of three stances. These stances can only be learned from a mentor who accepts the player as an apprentice. Mentors will be situated around the world, some hidden, some in plain sight. The mentor will look at certain factors such as attributes, actions, weapon use, etc before accepting an apprentice. Since the player is only allowed to learn three stances, it is important to deduce which stances would best suit the player's style of gameplay.

••Combat
The character will not attack, even when attacked, unless input is given by the player.

See the My Battle System Concept thread for details.


THE WORLD
The world will consist of multiple interconnecting maps. The farther a player travels from the Kingdom, where guards are ever-present, the stronger resistance s/he will meet up with until, eventually, the player will not be able stand alone and expect to live.

••Multiplayer
Ultimately, I will have Multiplay over LAN and possible TCP/IP as a feature of the game. The player will be able to load the same player they've used in single player into the world and group with their friends.
With the aid of friends, the players will be able to venture farther into the world, and gain access to places and events previously inaccessable.


THE PROGRESS
I will continually update the progress of this game and post screenshots from time to time (Site is down). I will also keep this thread up to date and refer you to my website when there progress has been made.

••Latest Screenshots-------------------------------------->(Site is down)
Look here for the latest screenshots.

EDIT (8/26): Link to website fixed.
EDIT (9/7): Revised game summary.
EDIT (9/10): Added class description and attributes section. Obsolete
EDIT (9/12): Updated Class List Obsolete
EDIT (10/18): Revised game summary to reflect changes in the game
EDIT (1/31): I thought I had posted this way earlier, but apparently I didn't. Because of lack of time and somewhat loss of interest the progress on the game had halted sometime after the last edit. However, as of this edit I'm reworking the story. I've been way too ambitious as regards to programming ideas and lately all I've really wanted to do is tell a story. Don't expect me to drop something awesome out of nowhere but just know that this project still exists and may resurface with a different look and feel. Obviously, I've let this thread die, but if you're reading this then you probably want to know what happened.

[Osmose]

Naming him after his country? That just sounds... quirky.

Perhaps name the kingdom Dritonia or something phonetically close to Drighton?

[DragonBlaze]

Hmm, that link isn't working for me. You really should post the screenies right in this thread instead of somewhere else. Its kinda annoying to go to differant places to get info on one topic, especially when everything loads slow with dial up.

Anyway, your game sounds pretty good so far. Since rm2k3 dosen't support networking, what system are you using to make this?

[Drighton]

Originally posted by Osmose
Naming him after his country? That just sounds... quirky.

Perhaps name the kingdom Dritonia or something phonetically close to Drighton?

yeah well... thats just the beginning on his old man.

Originally posted by DragonBlaze
Hmm, that link isn't working for me. You really should post the screenies right in this thread instead of somewhere else. Its kinda annoying to go to differant places to get info on one topic, especially when everything loads slow with dial up.

Anyway, your game sounds pretty good so far. Since rm2k3 dosen't support networking, what system are you using to make this?

Okay, will do. However, I put the screenshots on a different website for three reasons: 1) save charas the bandwidth, 2) organization, 3) the images can be viewed at full size.

I'm using Visual Basic 6, DirectX 7, and a lot of brain-power to program this game. Suffice to say, my head hurts.

[Drighton]

First off, the first post now has a direct link to the screenshots page on my site for those who don't want to navigate there. However, I recommend checking out the concepts page, since it will give you an idea of the features I plan on implementing in my game. Also, the screenshots page includes captions for the pictures so you know what it is I'm trying showing you. Unfortunately, I can't always properly illustrate a concept or feature in a still picture.

[Meiscool-2]

If your "game" has as much customization as it appears, it'll be pretty sweet. Is it going to be ABS? because, it'll be really hard to make a spilt battle with all thet customization.

[Drighton]

The battle system is still in concept, meaning its all in my head and none of it is drawn/written out yet. I intend to make it kind of like Zelda (NES) or Diablo. Current controls are not set in stone, so things may change according to my limitations.

I feel I should let people know what I've been up to.

Those book graphics you see were taken from Fablegame.com, as a sort of guide until I found out what I wanted to do for the windows in the game. Now that I've made up my mind about the graphics, I've actually been spending time in Paint putting it together. The result will be a semi-original work. Semi-original because I'm using a graphic from an old microsoft program and distorting it so it isn't immediately recognizable (i hope).

Next screenshots won't be for a while, at least until I finish everything I need to do with items.  

[Grandy]

 

Naming him after his country?

 Whats the problem? I've hear some celebrity will name his child "Londom" for it was there where she first met her husband.

 And hell, your game looks cool with all this.

[Drighton]

Originally posted by Grandy

Naming him after his country?

 Whats the problem? I've hear some celebrity will name his child "Londom" for it was there where she first met her husband.

 And hell, your game looks cool with all this.[/B]

True. Plus there are those two celebrities anmed Paris (who are engaged   )

[Drighton]

School is catching up with me. I have yet to read the first 9 chapters of a core class.  

Expect development to slow down. It WILL NOT stop, however. When I can't sit and program, I'm ironing out my concepts.

If I feel its been too long since I've given you all something to chew on I may leak a little more plot, reveal a character class or two, or something else along that line.

To make things easier, instead of creating multiple threads, I will keep this one active. Any new updates, including screenshots and other game info, will be posted in the FIRST POST of the thread so you don't have to dig through the topic.

Thus, it may help to check this thread from time to time, because I may simply edit the first post rather than reply (thus bumping the thread).

The last thing I've done with the game is replace the book graphic you've seen in the latest screenshots. Just making that graphic took me a week (you'll see why when I show it to you).

As of right now, I have no ETA on the next update.  

[Drighton]

(EDIT: See my next post concerning classes)

I certainly hope people are keeping track of this even when I don't bump it with a reply. Because I'm gonna be adding some things very ninja-like into the game description.

[Meiscool-2]

Sounds good. In most games the rouge (which I believe means outcast that lives by himself or somethng like that) is a thief that uses picks and daggers. This adds a nice twist to things.

It's sotra like how you would expect a warrior to use a sword, but in this one game (can't remember name) he uses an arbalast instead, which is a huge crossbow/bowgun.

[Drighton]

I'm not sure how many people saw the update with the two classes I had a few days earlier, but further thought on the matter revealed that I might have began posting too soon.

As I said, I had lost my list, however upon finding it I realized that my class list was not as complete as I had thought. In an effort to make a diverse class list I've revise the list from 15 classes to 12 classes to 9 classes to 6 classes, and I'm now at 7 classes. This might even drop to 5 classes. As you can see, I have not even begun to be close to finalizing a class list. For those who read earlier, the Rogue class, currently, is no longer on the list. Hell, I could make this easy and cut it down to three clasees.

Either way, whoever doesn't make the cut may likely appear in an expansion.

[Starduster]

Wait, so the game is going to be an online multiplayer game of sorts? Hmm, if you're going to make it online i'd rather see some original graphics made by you or someone you have helpng you rather than rtp. Of course that's my opinion. Also, the battle system, is it atb? Or still the traditional rpg battles?
I dunno about this one, i suppose i'll keep my eye on it though.

[Moosetroop11]

Sounds awesome, Drighton