Community Contest Re-start

[Kijuki_Magazaki]

XD lol good, well I saw b-chars, so I thought you might've not been aware.

[Tomi]

Well, If we have extra time, we can make battle animations look like our character's attacking.

[Osmose]

The four part plan doesn't appeal to me at all. Too many differences in a game that's really going to only be two parts anyway.

As for dialogue, I can do some of the more important events, but really you need someone else to handle that. Preferrably someone with good diction and who knows how to make things sound a bit more natural. Red, maybe. Although I doubt he'd like doing it

Anyways, back to the story.

So, Mora and Jefferson are in the High Trade Center. After a bit more perusing they leave and start asking around the town for someone who saw a vampire flying off in the sky. One person points them in one direction, one in another, and one says that he recently saw the vampire within the city. Here's where our players get to make a choice of which lead to persue first. These events are totally seperate of each other, so the player can switch between them, do multiple paths at once, or just follow them in the order that they wish.

Lead 1 - Vampire to the (some direction to be determined by the mapper)

This vampire was the one carrying the soldier, the one who defeated Jefferson but let him live. After heading in the direction they're told, our heros come upon a Dwarf by the name of Ignar. Ignar, after introducing himself, challenges them both to a fight. Jefferson is all ready to face this challenge, but Mora stops him and declines, much to Jefferson's displeasure.

Ignar is thirsty for a good fight, but accepts this decline and goes about his merry way. He does warn them of a wierd forest in the direction they're headed in. He tells them of the rumors of witches and warlocks, fairies and demons, and the Great Tree of the forest. Jefferson and Mora decide that this Great Tree would know of the vampire's whereabouts, and so go to ask him.

Once inside the forest, which is nestled in a nice cozy mountain valley, they find the monsters withing the forest are much much more powerful than they've seen so far, and reconsider entering when a Fairy appears and asks them what they're doing in the forest. As Mora begins to ask her about the vampire, the Fairy turns into a flying demon Imp, and waves his spear to command the tree roots to grab the two heros. The Imp summons a Great Wolf to take care of our heros, but then the tree roots release them and attack the wolf, dragging it underground. The Imp, scared, flies away. Mora and Jefferson are about to run away when a deep voice greets them and introduces itself as the Great Tree. He bids them to come deeper into the forest to talk with him, and they agree.

After making their way through the forest, they reach the Great Tree in the middle of it, but the tree is half covered in a squishy rancid film-goo, taking up the left side of his face. He speaks with half a mouth and asks Mora and Jefferson if they could find the Imp they met earlier and squirm a cure from this dreadful illness out of him, who caused it.

They agree and eventually track the imp in a deep, dark part of the forest. The imp summons another Great Wolf, but this time our heros defeat the wolf and capture the imp in a jar. They take the imp to the Great Tree, and it asks Mora to channel her energies through him so that he may cure the Tree. Mora has her doubts, but the Great Tree tells her she may trust him and she agrees. The Imp, with Mora's powers, heals the Great Tree and apologizes. In reality he only wants to cause mischief, not real trouble. He ntells them that he infected the tree with the power from the strange purple skinned man who passed through here and instructed him to do so.

Mora and Jefferson are eager to go after the vampire the Imp mentioned, but the Great Tree tells them that they cannot leave the forest from the other side without two items: The Sceptre of the Ridhelmian King and the Scroll of Passage. Either that or they learn how to fly, which is not an option at the moment. Mora and Jefferson ask where the Scroll is, as the sceptre is obviously with the king at Ridhelm. The Tree says that the last time he heard of the scroll it was heading towards a small city of magicians called Jellen. Mora and Jefferson thank the tree and go off to find the two items.

Lead 2 - Vampire to the (some direction to be determined by the mapper, but not the first one)

Mora and Jefferson head towards where they were told a vampire was seen flying, and eventually arrive at the city of Homel. Homel is another Satellite city of Ridhelm, and use the trade as a way of attracting customers. Mora and Jefferson enter the town and are surprised when they are greeted by none other than Tark! Tark and Jefferson are greatly surprised to meet eachother, and Jefferson introduces Mora to Tark. At this point our attention is, albeit covertly, drawn towards Mora's rising confidence in herself and how she isn't as shy as she used to be at her old town.

Anywho, Tark reveals how he got to the town far before Jefferson and Mora did - a car powered by his new Steam Engine! Soon after Jefferson and Mora had left for Ridhelm, Tark finished his steam engine and built a car system around it. Using this he whizzed past Ridhelm as Mora and Jefferson were wandering the town, and arrived in Homel, home of the Invention Fair. JEfferson and Mora use their time here to stock up on brand new weapons, including a new prototype gun that shoots elemental bullets!

Tark invites Jefferson and Mora to stay in his hotel room that night while he demonstrates the power of his car to the night crowd. They agree, and the night goes by. In the middle of the night, though, Jefferson wakes up, goes outside, and eventually finds himself at Tark's stand. No one is there to see him sow them the car as they are all busy staring in awe at the new guns some smith has made. Tark is really disappointed that these ignorant people would rather shoot eachother than look into the new and revolutionary technology of the Steam Engine.

Jefferson cheers Tark up and takes his mind off the matter by asking him how things have been going back home. Tark says that everything was well when he last checked in - the Telephone system he installed there has kept him in contact with the villagers. Jefferson is relieved that the village is surviving without him, and gains a confidence boost in this.

The next morning, Jefferson and Mora are set to go, after Tark mentions rumors of a vampire seen headding towards the nearby magician town of Jellen. He bids them goodbye and uses his car to travel to another town far away that will appreciate his genius.

Mora and Jefferson reach Jellen and find it in ruins. Tents have been put up over the rubble of what once was a magnificent city. The people they ask say that "it" came and destroyed their town, with Dark Magic matched only by the White Magic of Priestess Shira. They meet Shira, head of the town church, and ask her what happened.  She retells about how the Vampire came, used his magic to attack the weaker citizens, and was pushed off into a nearby cave with her white magic. They decide to persue the vampire, and Shira offers to go with them, but she must stay in the city.

They delve into the maze cave and eventually find the vampire, badly hurt by Shira's White Magic, but still strong enough to be a threat. They defeat him, however, and his body explodes. In it's place is a nearly-naked man, with a wierd amulet around his neck. They take the unconscious man back to Shira, who immedietly removes the amulet and destroys it. The man comes to, and says that he was a warrior in his kingdom, one oif the best, when a vampire captured him and brought him to the Overlord, who used the amulet to transform him into a vampire. He thanks them all, and Shira thanks Mora and Jefferson for saving the man and the village. In return she heals them, teaches Mora an advanced spell of her choice, and gives them the Church's sacred treasure: The Scroll of Passage. Mora dn Jefferson thanks Shira and  backtrack to Ridhelm to continue their fight.

Lead 3 - Vampire in Ridhelm
Rumors of a Vampire in Ridhelm lead Mora and Jefferson on a search throughout the city, following a trail of clues and sightings left by the vampire. Eventually they track him down to a building in a back alley, the headquarters for the "Black Cat Gang", a ruthless group that steals and plunders from shops and houses all over the city. Mora and Jefferson fight their way to the top of the building, and find the leader of the Black Cats almost dead. He tells them before dying that the Vampire stole a set of Royal Keys that he was saving for robbing the castle one day.

Jefferson and Mora head to the castle and find the guards outside dead. Inside is more of the same, but most of the non-warriors are hiding in kitchens and side rooms, safe. The castle is also infested with monsters, following the scent of blood. Mora and Jefferson eventually go through all the caslte levels to the throne room, where they find the Vampire mad for he has lost the King and Queen. He decides to take his anger out on Mora and Jefferson, who fight him off and defeat him. The purple skin on the man withers away and reveals a near-naked man of strong build.

They notify the castle that it's all clear, and the King and Queen come out of their emergency hiding spot under the throne. A nurse comes to look at the man and removes the cursed amulet so that a White Mage may destroy it. The man wakes and tells of how the Overlord used him as a host for the evil spirit within the amulet, and that nearly all of the Vampires are warriors filled with evil spirits.

The King thanks Mora and Jefferson and asks them what they would like in return. They explain to him their story and the reasons behind their journey. The King, intrigued by this, gives them his royal sceptre, and hints at them needing it sometime in the future.

So, as you see, once all three paths are complete, our heros return to the Great Tree, who uses the Scroll of Passage on the Royal Sceptre to create the Wind Rod, a very very powerful weapon. They use the rod to dispel the harsh magical winds blocking them from leaving the forest, and move on.

Coming up next time - The final two characters join, and the path to the Overlord opens!

[Robotam]

Keep up the good work, Os.
Will be looking forward to the final part.

Since it is important to find spritors, I may have to PM all active members to tell them about it. I hope I'm not breaking some rule by doing that, but currently we have one active guy who makes good charasets and that's Tomi and we also have another active guy wich takes care of the storyline and we also have Red Fox who made a couple of gameovers and title screens. They are all doing/done a perfect job, but it's far from enough, so contacting people by PM may be the only way to make it a sucess.
I guess it's because some people ignores this forum completely, I know because I did. -_-
So am I alloved to contact all active people by PMs?

EDIT:

If you want to know more of the "Community Contest" you can  find more interesting information Here.

Tomi:
Yes we could, I did that for my game.
I'll think about it.

[Robotam]

Here's some important and good news.
I've found a two guys who's willing to help me with chipsets.
One is an old member of charas called "Viper Snake", he's willing to make a half poor village for me.
The other one is an active member called Red Fox, he's willing to help me with a cave chipset.
And Kijuki might help me as well.
And it's me who's currently doing a worldmap chipset.
I have to say thank you Red Fox and Viper Snake I really need you badly.  
Here's my currently work. (watch the attachment)

[Osmose]

Add some texture to that grass, boy!

Oh, and I've gotten shindo to agree to color any faceset we get, and I'm going to contact Mr.X about making facesets. I'm assuming only main and important characters will have faces?

Anyway, I'm a bit concerned. How long should I go before I reach the Overlord? I judge all that I've written is about 30 mins - 1 hour of playtime, depending on how it's implemented, AKA difficulty of the dungeons. I know that now, as they've left the forest, they'll meet Ignar very soon, and then Ordoth(or whatever his name is, too busy to look back) will be seen and aquired soon after, should I then have a bit of other sutff before they actually challenge the Overlord, or perhaps I should just shorten things up a bit and delve into the actual twist?

[woundedgoat]

My offer to make the system graphics and do some of the programming still stands.  I can also do some chipset work if need be.  Unfoprtunately, I'm sick as a dog right now, so I'm going to be spending the next few days lazing about the house attempting to get better.

[Robotam]

 

Oh, and I've gotten shindo to agree to color any faceset we get, and I'm going to contact Mr.X about making facesets. I'm assuming only main and important characters will have faces?

Shindo and Mr.X for facesets, that's the best idea you could get!
And yeah only the important characters has facesets.

 

My offer to make the system graphics and do some of the programming still stands. I can also do some chipset work if need be. Unfoprtunately, I'm sick as a dog right now, so I'm going to be spending the next few days lazing about the house attempting to get better.

That's very good, wounded.
When you're ready PM me.

 

perhaps I should just shorten things up a bit and delve into the actual twist?

Yeah, some things has to be shorten.
But not too much shorten, and I'm afraid no sidequests.

Everything sounds good with the storyline, resources and such and this project is actually coming along good.  

[Kijuki_Magazaki]

Well I may have to disapoint you but no, I thought about it, and I don't want to to take the job of the chipset spriter. However XD, I'lll fool around and whatever I can come up with might be given to the CC ( In another words, I am not giving a maybe, I am giving a no. But that does not mean I cannot contribute, because regardless, I am still part of the community. So count me out, but I'll be around.)


Anyway, like I said before robotam, if you need some mod work around the forum, PM me, or IM over MSN when I am logged on and I can help.

Sorry for the news xP.


(I hope you saw what I was trying to say)

[Robotam]

Okay, Kijuki.
If you say so. ^.^
We still need a few more chipset makers, anyone?

[Ari Rahikkala]

I guess I get idiot of the week award for not noticing that there was more than one page to this thread. So, yeah, Osmose told me to criticise this story, and I did criticise it, and we ended up in a huge metaphysical argument about how Jefferson could prove (to himself) that something is wrong with the world.

When I found out that he'd laid out quite a few details that weren't in the big plot summary, I decided I might just as well register on this board and say what I have to say in public...

Disclaimer: I've only played a precious few RPGs, most of them hack-n-slash-oriented instead of plot-oriented, so I'm not even going to try to evaluate this story as the plot of a game. Instead I'll try to provide a more general sort of critique about what I find cool in the plot and what I don't find quite that cool.

The Imp, with Mora's powers, heals the Great Tree and apologizes. In reality he only wants to cause mischief, not real trouble.

This sounds a bit like a cop-out to me. It might be true, imps are traditionally considered not to be all evil, but just imagine the words actually spoken (well, written) out in the story: "I'm sorry, I didn't want to cause real trouble, I was just... um... being mischievous". I'm sure the tree that had just had half of its surface covered by a "dreadful illness" was reeeeaally happy about knowing that.

Tark always had an affinity with technology, and practiced his inventing skills as he grew up. He gained a bit of fame after he invented the gun

Anywho, Tark reveals how he got to the town far before Jefferson and Mora did - a car powered by his new Steam Engine!

Tark says that everything was well when he last checked in - the Telephone system he installed there has kept him in contact with the villagers.

I find this feature quite interesting, perhaps so interesting that it should be considered silly: Tark is an incredible, wizardly inventor who should at *least* be hailed as some sort of a god. A gun that's light and reliable enough to be wielded as the preferred weapon of the hero of the story? A *wireless* telephony system? A steam engine that's light and efficient enough to be mounted on a *car*? (not to forget all the technology related to cars that you would need to invent - an external combustion engine isn't quite enough to get you from point A to point B, you know :p)

Of course, it's your universe, and you have the creative right to say that something this unlikely can happen quite well... still, I wonder if it might be a good idea to either let Tark wield at least some sort of magic power that could help him create all of those inventions or *tone them down*. Considering that the first half of this story doesn't seem nearly as quirky as the second half, you might want to foreshadow the weirdness by adding some of it to the characters here... and Tark is, IMO, a perfect choice to go for a Gyro Gearloose type of insane inventor whose contraptions might be incredible but that never *quite* work the way they should.

In return she heals them, teaches Mora an advanced spell of her choice, and gives them the Church's sacred treasure: The Scroll of Passage.

The King thanks Mora and Jefferson and asks them what they would like in return. They explain to him their story and the reasons behind their journey. The King, intrigued by this, gives them his royal sceptre, and hints at them needing it sometime in the future.

I understand that sometimes in a RPG this kind of thing has to be done: "Here, you resolved an important quest, please take this unique and extremely expensive artifact that doesn't seem to have anything at all to do with what you just did". Perhaps people are so used to it that they don't really notice it, I don't know. However, wouldn't it really be quite a bit less trouble to just take the first lead first and let the other two be taken in any (possibly random) order? Then your characters could just notice the Scroll placed in a convenient place and ask for it when they're through, and ask the king for the sceptre once they've saved his ***.

Besides, that ordering would make the story just a bit more exciting for most players because the first quest they would not find out about the nature of the vampires on the first quest they take here...




It's 3:14 AM, and the world is going 'round my head in perfect circles... time to go to sleep, I'll return to say more if more needs to be said. This post isn't copyedited, so if parts of it don't make sense... just ask what they should mean and I'll try to figure out what I was trying to say :p.

[Osmose]

Oh lord...

Tark's inventions never get noticed because the other crappy inventors stole it and spread guns throughout the world fairly quickly. The telephone is only in his hometown, one he dropped off with a friend at Ridhelm, and one with himself. And the car didn't get noticed because people were too busy going crazy over the elemental guns, showing how stupid they are.


And you assume what the Imp will say. I was thinking something more along the lines of "I didn't know it would hurt the Tree that bad...", and the tree, being a Great Tree, has the mother nature love of all life, good or bad. He also understands that if he killed the Imp his imp babies would have no daddy and so would grow up on the streets with no guidance, become rappers, and be a bad influence on the little forest chidlren.

And our heros might not know they need the items, but Both the King and Shira have a connection to be revealed later which will show why they give the travellers their items.

Your too picky, Ari.

[AsakuraHao2004]

Im sure Mooses story is really good, and read it and tell you what I think when Im not in such a lazy mood...

[Osmose]

I've signed up Mr.X to help with the facesets, so now we need to design the characters. Tomi, you're in charge, but I'd like Boar to have a beard, Mora to have blue hair, Ordoth to have long black hair and a black robe, and the overlord to have a helmet. I'll desribe it to X, and then you can sprite it, so put the overlord off for now.

[Ari Rahikkala]

Originally posted by Osmose
Your too picky, Ari.

Hey, being picky is the only way I can even try to be of help