Post by The Smurf on Jun 15, 2012 12:56:05 GMT -5
Oh, hey. Just as soon as you think this project is dead in the water...BAM! Here comes another update. I've done a lot of thinking about what features I want to add/remove/update, where exactly I want the story to go, and all of that. First of all, let me do a general progression update to put things in perspective:
GAME START
-Opening scene
-Arcul
-Langdon Woods
-Hideout
-Redwood Mountains
-Landover
-Eulica Forest
-Langstoon
-Hargrave
-SS Rocinante
-Guernsey
END OF MOST RECENT DEMO
-Bacchus Cavern
-Covenant City
END OF MOST RECENT SCREENSHOTS
-Rigel Desert
-Dimsdale
-Paxon Marsh
-Dundee
-Hideout
-Vega Crags
-Port Worthington
-SS Lamneth
-Mews Harbor
END OF LAST RUN OF WORK
-Palmer's Mill
-Sproul Mountain
-Marple
-Marple Mine
-Mizar Wetland
CURRENT POINT
So, over the past year I think I've managed to add about an hour of play time to the game. I'm at about 6.5 to 7 hours. That's all well and good. Also, all the playable characters are now in the game except for Sora and Aeron.
As far as features are concerned, here's what I'm currently thinking about:
-Agatha's Potions/Hunter's Guild, Alchemy, and Blacksmithing are all the same as before
-Chef's Guild - similarly to Agatha's Potions, you can bring ingredients to a Cafeteria and have the chef combine them into a meal. Meals essentially combine the effects of the ingredients and add more to them - the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Every chef has a unique menu, as well.
-Lithographs - this is inspired by the Magic Carta minigame in Tales of Graces f. In one of the towns will be a collector who collects lithographs. There are 56 lithographs, and each one represents a character from a previous Chronicle Games project. There are 7 sets with 8 lithographs per set - GC, KC, SS, SS2, Seraphim, ALITS, and Miscellaneous. Collecting all the lithographs in a set will earn a prize.
-Titles - I love the idea of characters having titles (Tales series style, not RPGM2 style), but I never figured out how to implement them into FBOP. I've decided I'm going to make them the same as accessories, so you can either equip an accessory or a title. Each character will have a certain number of titles that can be acquired through private actions, side quests, or cutscenes. There will also probably be universal titles that any character can use - these will be rewards for minigames or other non-character-specific tasks.
-Party Lounge/Relationship Points - I've decided not to have the final party calculated based on relationship points. I think I'm going to go the Tales of Symphonia route and just have your top relationship character get a bunch of scenes near the end of the game. Instead, once you reach a certain point in the game, you'll get access to the Party Lounge, where upon entry your party will be cleared except for Laef, and you'll be able to pick the other three party members at will. These selections will not affect relationship points (unlike when you select party members before the lounge is unlocked).
I think that's about it for now. I'm still working on the game, and I've got a lot of the story worked out. I know who all the main enemies are, and I have the final boss worked out fully. I still need to iron out a few details (mostly reasons for plot twists), but the endgame is clear, and I know where the immediate events are going (stupid blurry middle part). I have no idea how long this game will take to finish (six years and counting! Woo!), and I don't know how much more to the story there is (I'm probably about 1/4 of the way through). Once I finish having to make all the maps, events should be much easier to create. Looking forward to that. Most of the world (or, at least, the main areas of the world) is already built, so there shouldn't be a whole lot more of actual worldbuilding. We'll see how it goes.
Hopefully there's someone out there who's still interested (or who's even reading this). At this point, I want to finish it just on principle, but I really do think this will be my magnus opus if it ever gets done. Fingers crossed!
-the smurf
GAME START
-Opening scene
-Arcul
-Langdon Woods
-Hideout
-Redwood Mountains
-Landover
-Eulica Forest
-Langstoon
-Hargrave
-SS Rocinante
-Guernsey
END OF MOST RECENT DEMO
-Bacchus Cavern
-Covenant City
END OF MOST RECENT SCREENSHOTS
-Rigel Desert
-Dimsdale
-Paxon Marsh
-Dundee
-Hideout
-Vega Crags
-Port Worthington
-SS Lamneth
-Mews Harbor
END OF LAST RUN OF WORK
-Palmer's Mill
-Sproul Mountain
-Marple
-Marple Mine
-Mizar Wetland
CURRENT POINT
So, over the past year I think I've managed to add about an hour of play time to the game. I'm at about 6.5 to 7 hours. That's all well and good. Also, all the playable characters are now in the game except for Sora and Aeron.
As far as features are concerned, here's what I'm currently thinking about:
-Agatha's Potions/Hunter's Guild, Alchemy, and Blacksmithing are all the same as before
-Chef's Guild - similarly to Agatha's Potions, you can bring ingredients to a Cafeteria and have the chef combine them into a meal. Meals essentially combine the effects of the ingredients and add more to them - the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Every chef has a unique menu, as well.
-Lithographs - this is inspired by the Magic Carta minigame in Tales of Graces f. In one of the towns will be a collector who collects lithographs. There are 56 lithographs, and each one represents a character from a previous Chronicle Games project. There are 7 sets with 8 lithographs per set - GC, KC, SS, SS2, Seraphim, ALITS, and Miscellaneous. Collecting all the lithographs in a set will earn a prize.
-Titles - I love the idea of characters having titles (Tales series style, not RPGM2 style), but I never figured out how to implement them into FBOP. I've decided I'm going to make them the same as accessories, so you can either equip an accessory or a title. Each character will have a certain number of titles that can be acquired through private actions, side quests, or cutscenes. There will also probably be universal titles that any character can use - these will be rewards for minigames or other non-character-specific tasks.
-Party Lounge/Relationship Points - I've decided not to have the final party calculated based on relationship points. I think I'm going to go the Tales of Symphonia route and just have your top relationship character get a bunch of scenes near the end of the game. Instead, once you reach a certain point in the game, you'll get access to the Party Lounge, where upon entry your party will be cleared except for Laef, and you'll be able to pick the other three party members at will. These selections will not affect relationship points (unlike when you select party members before the lounge is unlocked).
I think that's about it for now. I'm still working on the game, and I've got a lot of the story worked out. I know who all the main enemies are, and I have the final boss worked out fully. I still need to iron out a few details (mostly reasons for plot twists), but the endgame is clear, and I know where the immediate events are going (stupid blurry middle part). I have no idea how long this game will take to finish (six years and counting! Woo!), and I don't know how much more to the story there is (I'm probably about 1/4 of the way through). Once I finish having to make all the maps, events should be much easier to create. Looking forward to that. Most of the world (or, at least, the main areas of the world) is already built, so there shouldn't be a whole lot more of actual worldbuilding. We'll see how it goes.
Hopefully there's someone out there who's still interested (or who's even reading this). At this point, I want to finish it just on principle, but I really do think this will be my magnus opus if it ever gets done. Fingers crossed!
-the smurf
. Good luck!