Comic Genesis Forums

Been thinking about the plot. Probably the best thing to do is to start off, after some initial leadup to the choosing ceremony, with a big chunk of time spent in Freeman Downs.

To whit:

1. Short battle with Gilder at the council meeting. Not a difficult battle, just initial practice in whackadu (sp?) swinging. (This is changing canon slightly, but it'll make for a better game, and it's easy enough to have Rilcreek and the Adjucator call a halt to the battle after Quentyn gets a couple whacks in instead of before. Makes for a stronger start.

2. Training with Quentyn's father, etc: It's a couple panels in canon, but it'd make an excellent introduction to all the basic combat stuff, as well as the use of basic thrown/fired weapons.

3. The challenge? Could leave this in its canonical anti-climax, or make it a really derisory challenge. Either way.

4. Misuses of the Questor: A few (optional ?) mini-missions to give the player a chance to try out some of the new equipment he's just got - not that we ought to be giving him everything at this point. I'd suggest just Wildcard and the water-activated bombs. He'll need to get the boots before the swamp mission, but we can hold off on that until part-way through these things. I'd suggest the bow be left out for now, and the Glimmer Rope be held off until Sanctuary City, when he'll start needing to get up walls without enough clearance in front of them to run up.

Anyway, a mixture of slightly contemptuous missions - clearing out someone's dryads - and missions given by more sympathetic characters like Rilcreek which he thinks will be good training for the lad. Not too many of them, but enough to make use of the sets we have.

Of course, just because we don't want too many of them in the final game is no reason not to make plenty. Can always move some of them into use as sidequests later on, and in the meantime have a fun game set in Freeman Downs.

Anyway, after the initial tests on him, some in the hopes he'll fail, others by people a bit lazy, and maybe one by Rilcreek to get a chance for a few good hints in the Questor's ear, the novelty's going to wear off and we can continue, more-or-less, with the canonical lead in to the swamp missions, which'll be the first big test of Quentyn's ability, and probably use the boots' ability to run on water a lot.

Neat idea: have an underwater version of the swamps as well as an above-water, so that Quentyn can temporarily dive. Probably do it by having an overlay when he's swimming at the surface that you take away to show the deeps when he dives down - But I'm getting ahead of myself. Freeman Downs is the first step.

N.B. On the boots: I'd suggest giving them a relatively short maximum distance followed by a recharge time (use a meter, if needed). Throw the rest of it into a combined Lux meter for Quentyn, but the boots'd be a nightmare to work with gameplay wise if they were on the collective meter. Too easy to end up with the player trapped in the middle of one of the swamp puzzles with no way back or forward. It'd also give a maimum height to walls that can be scaled, giving the glimmer rope strategic use in Sanctuary City.

Of course, the scaling walls provides a certain number of challenges coding-wise, and we might have to silently cut the boots' ability to climb walls outright. Will still get good use out of everything else they do, and the glimmer rope'll make up for it.

Or you could make him only able to climb certian walls. Or you could make a little lip on the top of walls that you don't want players to climb so they can't get on top of it.

I really like the second and third option the most. Here is an idea. Have the same lead-in with his daydream in the Library and Choosing Day. He Picks the Questor job and his father trained him for two weeks, remember? Thats plenty of time for an introductory training session with movement and combat skills with the whakadu. His father could send him on obstacle courses and combat, Rillcreek could try him on some VERY basic spells. Good ideas, Cuerdan. I like the second and third ones best.

I can only hope Nitendo doesn't have after me with torches and pitchforks for this but I was thinking (and we all know how dangerous THAT is) and I was wondering what sort of things we could compare Quentyns weapons and methods with....so here goes:
(I am compare these with SNES, N64 of these games)
Glimmer Rope could operate similar to Hookshot in Zelda 64 (or SNES) .
Fish poppers could operate similar to Bombs in Zelda 64 (or SNES).
Journey boot could operate similar tos, hold Winged Boots in Zelda 64 down for a burst of speed or higher jumps, and have a lux meter on screen.
Wildcard could operate similar to the sword in Zelda 64 (or SNES), in that holding down the attack button charges a special attack and the user could choose (in a pause menu) what sort of attacks he might want. (which is a bit off canon).

Good ideas everyone!

Madmoonie wrote:He Picks the Questor job and his father trained him for two weeks, remember? Thats plenty of time for an introductory training session with movement and combat skills with the whakadu. His father could send him on obstacle courses and combat, Rillcreek could try him on some VERY basic spells. I

...Didn't I say that, or did I muddl it up due to sleepyiness? =)

fusion wrote:Or you could make him only able to climb certian walls. Or you could make a little lip on the top of walls that you don't want players to climb so they can't get on top of it.

Was ythinking more of perspective problems: Running up a wall from the left, right, or behind could be awkward to get to look right

Cuerden wrote:

Madmoonie wrote:He Picks the Questor job and his father trained him for two weeks, remember? Thats plenty of time for an introductory training session with movement and combat skills with the whakadu. His father could send him on obstacle courses and combat, Rillcreek could try him on some VERY basic spells. I

...Didn't I say that, or did I muddl it up due to sleepyiness? =)

Ummmm....yes?

...Arr, maybe I should nap a bit more. am really easily confused just now... =)

Alternatively, you could make his daydream the interactive tutorial. The old questor didn't have Wildcard's unpredictable abilities, the journey boots or the glimmer rope, so you'd only have to worry about the very basic controls. The enemies would naturally be pathetic in the daydreams of a callow youth (I'm sorry if his being described that way offends anybody, but it seems quite accurate to me), and the dragon could either be a cutscene or a continuation of the enemies being unable to do much damage while you throw infinite Dragonsbane potions that act just like the fish poppers Quentyn eventually altered to go off in air.

Good idea, at least as far as the really basic fighting goes. "And then, o, the questor pressd "A" and threw dragonsbane potions into the dragon's mouth =P

Of coure, Quentyn doesn't have much in the early start eiher. The training missions'd give him a whakadu and fishing bombs. (He'll get a number of bombs as he goes on, but...


One thing: How to hndle Lux recharge? Clearly, it should be easier in some areas than others.

You've got two basic choices, as I see it... first, if you want to script the game so it keeps track of where you are in the world, you can set lux regen up as a complex equation involving distance from leylines and luxfonts, the general level of living matter in the area and presence of lux dampers like wraiths and what the Rac thieves used. It sounds insanely difficult, but can probably be handled by a good programmer.

Second, you can just leave it at a flat regen rate in most areas with certain spots scripted to be lux-dead or even draining(the wraith-filled sewers would be a huge area of lux drain, while getting too close to an unshielded tapper in the Royals' lair would take your current lux charge to zero, but you could start recovering it just a few steps away)or immediate regen (mostly lux fonts, though you could probably buy items like miniatures of that lux barrel he made to blow out all the lux-powered equipment the Royals and Redcaps had).

Eh, just set the lux rate up to a standard level per map, with a few special squares.

considering Quentyn is a blackbander I dont think he'd be too worried about ley lines and the like so for the most part he'd not even try to go for a fast recharge. so you could keep the recharge rate at a standart rate with preselected changes.

probably in a 'daydream' sequence the lux recharge (if lux is managed at all) might be double or quadroople the standart ammount.

in the wight caverns lux is at a flat zero (much easier to calculate) and your items you have to manage yourself so you don't bring anything lux powered. my figuring is that part of the challenge is the wights lux draining will drain anything enchanted which will make the items useless and you get attacked more with more enchanted items (maybe throw in a way where if players are persistant they could smuggle wildcard out of the artifactors college to go on the mission but that's just me dreaming )


I like the idea of miniquests that the questor goes on though hardly any of them he'd get paid for I think. stuff like going fishing and navigating the boat and using the fish poppers at the same time. also doing errands for family and friends that aren't technically questor related but give Q something to do. (I mean if he really just stayed in the hut all day everyday he'd start losing muscle mass due to lack of exorcize and other various problems would probably settle in) plus it would force the player to explore (forced level up?)

I like the idea of some (most?) items having their own lux meter, especially if they operate on their own and are quite critical to the game. I personally don't think the glimmer rope should have a lux meter to it but that's just me.

I wonder about saving games and etc. Final fantacy styla has it so you can use tents anywhere you can save and that is very usefull for recharging your HP and MP in the game. but if we did something like that, then what would be the save game points?

one level that I think of that wouldn't have much (any?) fighting would be the luft ship level, mostly just a few puzzles that reveal some treasure and stuff.

you could have the levels like this

intro: daydreaming of the adventure of Quentyn of Ridgedale

cutscene: library/Kestral/Fen/Rillcreek/Freeman Downs

town: explore Freeman downs while on your gloomy way home

cutscene: Quentyn mopes while his parents talk

town: do some menial tasks in Freeman Downs (before lunch)

fishing: (after lunch) go with Quin (Quentyn's dad) on a fishing trip, intro boat and fishpoppers and whakadu

white stag: quentyn hears a bell and follows it, some minor enemies (mosquitoes etc. (very minor)) and finds the white stag

cutscene: Quentyn gets kicked, er licked in the head/goes back to sleep/goes home

choosing festival (I don't know weather it'd be best to leave this as a cutscene or not) maybe make some possibably choices for quentyn to say that are humerous but serve no other point then that.

council of elders: mostly a cutscene though guilder does try hitting quentyn a few times

practice: 5 challenges await; the bow and arrow VS the apple, the guard's practice area VS the guard's records, tussling VS Quinn, magic VS Rillcreek, and studying VS the clock (can anybody say speed reading (mostly it's just a book collecting challenge in the library))

...

well, I've written a lot more then I origionally intended but I think I've made my point though there are a lot more ideas.

I think those are some REALLY good Ideas. Got my vote.

Cool stuff! I especially like the idea of having a 'swimming' map versus a 'surface' map. A hijack, if I may: I'm confused as to whether there's a separate battle mode, or if it's just part of the travel mode, or what. In essence, are we doing Zelda/Legend of Mana or Final Fantasy? Each has unique characteristics, and I don't think I'm qualified as a fan at this point to pick a side and start defending it.

I thought it was a SNES Zelda-type Adventure RPG.

I thought it was a SNES Zelda-type Adventure RPG.

Well, that's a very important point. Right now, the specifications of the game are kinda fuzzy. Everyone has their own idea of what they'd like the game to be like, and that's okay for now. A variety of ideas make things richer.

However, there will come a point when we have to "refine" our plans. We'll formulate and vote on a list of specifications for the game we're making. Of course, things will be changed as we go along, but we do need something concrete to start with.

I think that the time for specifications should be after we decide what programming platform to use and we decide on a place to host the project (sourceforge, yahoo groups, msn groups, etc).

How does this sound to you?

Another point of importance is whether or not Quentyn has stats that will improve as the game progresses.

Weel, there's several models:
1. Any generic RPG: Not really appropriate for TotQ: RPGs that don't have reasonably large parties tend to suck.
2. Lufia 2: highly interactive world, but all batles are done standard RPG style. Suffers same problems as 1.
3. a great number of bad RPGs, also Crystalis, Spike McFang: Have Levels and a certain amount of LoZ style fighting, but generally don't have the variety of attacks and special items LoZ has. (There's no reason we can't, though) - have the slight disadvantage of needing to level up, which LoZ never actually outright requires - you can skip every heart container in LoZ and still win, but can't in, say, Crystalis.
4: LoZ style: stats improve through getting heart containers and better items, as well as certain quests.
5. Adventure game: Weel.. something like King's Quest doesn't have quite enough action for TotQ, I think. Could add some elements, but the "Spot item in scene and grab it" is... a little awkward to impliment.

Of them all, I think 4's best, though probably best to do the heart container "level ups" invisibly.