31 réponses à ce sujet

[The Fred]

OK so first off, a disclaimer. I'm not near even a demo release with this project, and I haven't even been doing any TS work recently (been kind busy, and spent my free time doing other stuff by and large). However, I was thinking of releasing a (rather small) demo of The Dragon Dynasty sometime in the forseeable future, just because the final project is probably not going to be released in the forseeable future.

Unfortunately the forum seems to be refusing to display the rest of this post properly so I'm going to see if I can display it down below.

Modifié par The Fred, 18 novembre 2011 - 05:26 .

[Axe_Edge]

Hi, The Fred.

Your post is a little....vague

[kamal_]

^^^ The Fred is demo-ing the ninja class.

[The Fred]

Ah drat, I thought when the post didn't show up it was just my PC being weird. OK I guess I just have to type it all out again...
EDIT: No, it seems OK, it's just refusing to show in the top section. OK, from above:

To [the above] end I've created a poll on which of the mini origin stories I should release as a demo. Basically each of these will be a small intro based upon certain backgrounds. Some make better sense for certain classes or races, but most can be chosen by anyone (allowing some unusual combinations, admittedly). It's great to see I already have 13 responses, but I figured I should elaborate a bit on what each entails.

Note that I can't promise I will actually go with the result of the poll (for example I've done a bit of work on Dwarf Noble and Scholar of the Tower but very little on, say, Merchant, so I'm more likely to pick one of those) but it'll give me a bit of a steer on what people find interesting and prompt me to focus on those first.

Noble
This one should be obvious, you're a noble. This origin will involve a bit of my awesome new Noble House system (a stronghold-like system for managing your peasants) and a little bit of story about the political intrigues of the Dragon Empire. Not to give too much away, the most likely way the story will go is that during a meeting of nobles or somesuch, you will get suckered in to the machinations of various factions.
If you are a Dwarf, you'll get a slightly different path where you have to travel to (mainly) human lands from the Dwarf Kindgoms of the north.

Merchant
In the lands where you live, merchants are looked down upon because they live off others and produce nothing. As a wandering peddler or somesuch you'll thus have quite a hard time of it. However, the world is changing, and a successful merchant can make it big when some of the oldest noble families are strapped for cash. I haven't really planned this story very much, but I imagine you'll be making your way to the big city to make your fortune. Possibly there'll be some trade stuff a la SoZ to go along with that.

Farmer
You're a peasant, a farmer, and pretty low in society - but like all fantasy-genre young people you want to go off and see a bit of the world before you settle down to a life of rice. Who knows what adventures you might have as you journey to the city to seek whatever it is you're seeking.

Streetwise
As mentioned on the poll, this is maybe not the most descriptive of names. To elaborate, this background is a background on the streets of the city. Think Kamal's Shadow Thief: Crimmor, but less awesome and much smaller. This will probably appeal to rogue characters, but anyone can go with it. Again, the story is still on the drawing board, but the main thread will just be trying to find work, somewhere to live, food to eat, etc. and you could end up going in a variety of directions.

Scholar of the Circle
The Iron Circle are responsible for the regulation of all magic in the realm. Those who fail to obey the law are outcast and mercilessly hunted down by the Jade Warriors. As a Scholar of the Circle, you are one of those allowed to practise magic - under the strict observation of your betters. One day, you could become a powerful spellcaster or a freelance mage, but at the moment you must conform to the rules of the Circle and learn enough to be safe outside their walls.

Soldier of the Circle
Rogue magic users abound, and the fear of hostile spirits, demons, witches, warlocks and creatures of darkness is never far away. As such, the Circle have a dedicated army of evil-hunters who seek to purge the land of dark magic -  and in fact any use of magic not sanctioned by the Circle themselves. Those who excell could even be invited to join the Jade Warriors, the elite of the witch-hunters and undead-slayers.

I'm actually kicking myself now because I missed out one of the best background, the Wildlander. I anyone really wants to see this they should say so here, but I might just prioritise it as second or third, depending.

Wildlander
The reach of the law is absolute. No magic is tolerated except by strict order of the Iron Circle. Any other infringement is punishable by death by the Emporer's samurai. Yet, in the wildest and least touched parts of the realm, the Wildlands, where the influence of the Empire is strained at best, the law of the realm is superceeded by the law of a man's blade. Here, outcast spellcasters seek refuge or plot to overthrow the Empire, and a few hardy folk carve out a meagre and dangerous existance amonst the creatures of darkness which roam the lands. As a wildlander, you are shunned by others, yet you hope that one day you might make something of yourself, and either break into more civilized society... or seek to destroy it.

Anyway, vote, and feel free to discuss and ask questions etc.

Modifié par The Fred, 18 novembre 2011 - 05:28 .

[kamal_]

Noble. It demos one of the unique features of your campaign, your Noble House system, and allows working out it's bugs. The other backgrounds may display the unique setting (Wildlands sounds fairly setting independent), but don't show as much of the unique content you have.

[Dorateen]

The Fred wrote...

If you are a Dwarf, you'll get a slightly different path where you have to travel to (mainly) human lands from the Dwarf Kindgoms of the north.

For some reason, I thought this project was going to be in a quasi-Oriental Adventures type setting. I didn't know you were featuring dwarves or other races.

Interesting. Very interesting. I do like the idea of playing a dwarven merchant, turn adventurer.

[The Fred]

The project is going to be in a quasi-OA setting, but I didn't want to make it humans-only or almost humans-only. I've tried to strike a balance between rationalising the existence of the various races, and not having the setting a more OA-themed FR clone. As such, dwarves exist (though I'm trying to paint them a little differently to the Tolkeinian, D&D default), as do elves (and half-elves) and halflings, but gnomes and half-orcs have been cut (at least for now).

I'm a bit sad nobody has voted for Dwarf Noble. Still, the non-dwarf Noble setting does probably make a bit more sense, and Kamal makes a good point in that it shows off the Noble House stuff (even if that is a bit unfinished).

If you are a Merchant or pretty much anything else, being a dwarf, say, probably won't make a massive amount of difference - at least not in terms of the overall storyline. You may still get dwarf-only conversation options etc.

[kamal_]

How much intersection of areas/plots are their going to be in the origins part? It's much less work if many/all of these origins take place in the same town for instance.

[The Fred]

The aim is to try and feed them into one or two main threads. Hence you might notice that a lot of backgrounds will end up going to the city at some point, where there ought to be something of a "plot nexus". The actual story is still on the drawing board, though, so I can't say too much for certain.

Also, though these backgrounds reflect how you start out, there should be some scope for change. For example, a wizard might pick one of many backgrounds, even the Farmer one, say, but may well end up signing up for Iron Circle tuition (since it's difficult to be allowed to practise magic at all otherwise) and then end up doing the last half of the Circle Scholar background. At least, that's the plan. Most of my work so far has been on the setting and game mechanics.

[The Fred]

So, looks like Noble is the most popular atm. As Kamal says it makes the most sense in terms of a demo since I can do some Noble House stuff. It might not be all that exciting in gameplay terms but it should showcase some interesting stuff. That's certainly where I'm leaning atm; still open to suggestions, though.

Incidentally, I was thinking of possibly adding one or two extra backgrounds, time dependant, such as Samurai or Holy Man, but these aren't going to be in the demo I wouldn't think. Just in case you thought those looked limiting.

[MasterChanger]

I'd support this idea. My own preferences probably mean that I'll end up playing an outsider in the campaign, so it would be cool to get a look inside the power structure of this interesting society you are bringing to life.

[The Fred]

Well, it's highly possible I might change my mind, so if you haven't voted yet don't refrain from doing so, but with 6 votes in favour it looks like I'll be doing some work on the Noble background. After all, who would be a peasant when you had the option not to?

My thoughts are that you'll start off in your little castle (though at the start of the game you will be a minor noble with probably something more like a manor house) and get introduced to the Noble House system. This will give you a chance to set your taxes and things. However, simply managing your estates for a long time will be boring, so you'll soon be thrown into the story (which is mostly unwritten still). I think preceding this with one or two minor encounters (pestilence, rogue spellcasters, revolting peasants, travelling individuals of note, etc) might be good idea to give you chance to learn the ropes whilst still doing interesting things, though.

I'm open to suggestions and ideas; this is one of the backgrounds which I've thought about a bit but not really hashed out the details of.

[M. Rieder]

What you describe sounds pretty involved - at least 3-4 hours play time. Have you thought about how long of a mod you are going to do? Have you considered doing a series? It makes things a lot more manageable. PJ has really done a great job with it and I somewhat envy him. He has released 2 or 3 modules in the time it has taken me to work on The Wizard's Apprentice 2.

[The Fred]

I don't think I really have enough material to make it that long at the moment. All the work I've done has been messing around with various bits of custom content and scripting and stuff, really.

I have thought about making a series, but the first bit would be the most work anyway. That's kind of why I'm thinking of releasing only a piece of it as a demo - it lets me do a smallish chunk and get it out there, even if I never finish another thing, and it means that even if it's not quite as polished as I'd like, people can still get a look at it.

[Banshe]

I like the Merchant one best but I do agree that seeing the Noble house system would be cool.

[The Fred]

I like the Merchant too but it's one of the ones I've done least on. The Noble House system is also going to need a bit more work before it gets interesting. Part of the plan is that it will tie in a lot with in-game events, kind of as Crossroads Keep did in the OC. Since not many things will happen across the course of the demo, there aren't going to be as many opportunities for it to play a role.

My plans now are to finish up as many of the systems I have (rest/time system is pretty much up and running, crafting needs some work, and all the character stuff is a way off) as possible, revisit the Noble House system, create some areas (your "castle" etc.) and write some story. So, four main tasks. That shouldn't be too hard, right?

[Banshe]

LOL. Nope, not hard at all.

I would be happy to see the Noble storyline so go for it.

[The Fred]

Took the first few steps yesterday of creating the areas necessary for the Noble starting, but had to stop because we had some visitors. One thing, though - does this game have window placeables at all?

[kamal_]

Some tiles have windows, and there are some window placeable haks. There's a couple ways to make fake windows (use the mirror placeable for your "glass"). But basically get used to curtains/no windows.

One way to do it is to use a tile that's open on the side of the "window". Then you have to fill in the width of the tile with your wall, leaving only the window opening. You can use some of the force field vfx for the glass, or even the light ray vfx. I did that in the player stronghold in PoE for tile wide interior windows.

Modifié par kamal_, 27 novembre 2011 - 09:11 .

[The Fred]

Hmm, just seems odd given that there are window light VFXs.

[Lugaid of the Red Stripes]

I just put a placed light in front of a curtain, along with the VFX.

[Banshe]

Amraphael's placeables has a window in it.

[The Fred]

OK well the project has been delayed somewhat by me impulse-buying Platinum on Steam. This means that the final product will boast many cool features, such as Cherry Blossom Trees, but will have to wait until after I (a) reconcile my old and new folders (pretty much done) ( play enough of SoZ to satisfy me for now (just done the ship bit so a bit of a way to go yet) and © fix all the content so it plays nice with the expansion stuff (I've just added the SoZ lines into most of the 2das I'd modified, except spells and feats, so that's one step along the way).

You are also now able to play a Spirit Shaman or an Invisible Blade in The Dragon Dynasty. ;-)

[The Fred]

As I say, small steps still at this time, but I will give you news of the little progress that has been made. In addition to the 2da fixes I mentioned, I found some windows in the Estate tileset (it's a MotB one, only just got it) so the player now has a functional Solar (kind of a medieval European concept but I'm blending settings here). My day/night scripting system is also not quite up and running (need to bughunt a bit, and I just threw it together tonight in about 20 mins so it'll need some refining), but does now exist, so you'll actually get light coming through those windows in the day, while fires, candles and torches are lit during the night.

I've also added a little more to the Noble House system to cover bandit attacks etc, it's not very sophisticated a system at the moment but when I finish the areas and blueprints (already started these) you should be able to have some nice bandit encounters.

As if that wasn't enough awesome for you, The Dragon Dynasty now comes with over 300% more Samurai names!

But yeah, it's still a fair way off yet.

[Banshe]

WooHoo! More Samurai names!!!!