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This is really the relevant wave; good thing it's also the easiest to post in here because it's the most forumlike:

edited 4th Feb '10 3:34:54 PM by BlackHumor

I'm convinced that our modern day analogues to ancient scholars are comedians. -0dd1

Month is halfway over and nobody's posted here.

I think we need more people; probably also want to move off wave, people seem to be avoiding it for some reason.

I'm convinced that our modern day analogues to ancient scholars are comedians. -0dd1

We really could use more people.

You can't even write racist abuse in excrement on somebody's car without the politically correct brigade jumping down your throat!

I'm still here... -has been waiting for discussion to come back-

EDIT: Quick question: would it be awesome or Narmy if one of the protagonists had a Big Damn Heroes moment while screaming "DEEEEEUUUUUS EEEEEXX MMAAAAAAACHIIINNAAAAAA"? 'Cause if it's the former, we should totally do that.

edited 15th Feb '10 9:02:06 PM by Blueeyedrat

"I've come to the conclusion that this is a very stupid idea."

If we pull it off right, anything can be awesome.

That said, I don't really want to stick in random cool things until we run into a situation where they would work; otherwise we've got to plot around the cool thing and that's no fun.

I'm convinced that our modern day analogues to ancient scholars are comedians. -0dd1

I just found this thread worthy to dig out.

Why don't you two just combine those ideas, Black Humor and eX?

Like this:

• it seems like the orcs are forming an alliance to join the war
• they actually try to find a way to stop it, with the help of the ecn (entercoolname)
• they attack the governments to force them to band together against a common enemy
• the ecn are well known among the five factions, so a mass panic breaks out
• the factions have to sign ceasefire
• the factions send the party to search for the McGuffin to give the people false help while trying to protect themselves
• the party notices the fake and the resistance of the ecn to singe attacks, but also that they may be beaten by the combined forces of the five races.
• While they're shunned by they're governments for these stupid ideas, they steal the strongest weapons each faction has, with help of the people who still have hope
• the party defeats the ecn (actually not, as the ecn are of a higher existence and cannot be defeated by mere mortals)
• they're celebrated and set an example for an alliance
• While the governments are still not convinced, the simple people are and it will not take THAT long to get they're wanted peace
• The orcs and ecn sit in a corner and say "just as planned"

well, I tried

Y'know, that's pretty good. I think I could actually agree to that as presented, but just a few changes I'd like to make:

• Move the Plot Coupon collecting bit to the first part (or really second part; the first part will be the party collecting bit)
  • Or hmmm... it doesn't seem like a good idea to stack two collecty parts on top of each other like that, at least not without a Wham Episode in between. Maybe kind of mix it with the party collecting bit.

Anyway, going with it anyway: The orcs have collected around the Awesomegate[to be named later] in order to summon the ecn[kind of a Precursor/spirit race whom all the races trust to be impartial] to make a decision and end the war.

There's a bunch of Mac Guffins they need for this, which is why none of the other races could do it alone. Each member of your party brings their race's MacGuffin along, supposedly to help the orcs end the war.

The orcs insist on a week long [5-day] ceremony before they open the gate. During this, each member of your party, on orders from their government, takes everyone else's MacGuffin and bribes the ecn to decide in their favor. Therefore, when the orcs actually do summon them, the ecn are a combination of disgusted and amused at all the infighting and decide they would be better rulers then anyone else, and wage one hell of a half a war during the next few months [which we probably will timeskip over].

The rest of the game is spent convincing (or "convincing") all the governments to band together to fight the ecn. Once this happens, the ecn are impressed at this display of unity, reverse their previous judgment, and go home.

I'm convinced that our modern day analogues to ancient scholars are comedians. -0dd1

So, from what I can gather, the orcs don't care how this war ends, but just want it to end.

The order of the acts seems to depend on the overall length you want this game to be. If you mix the party and coupon collecting, then it is a lot shorter than if you the the coupon collecting two acts later. But I don't think that makes sense and would feel like awful backtracking, unless you just meet your party in your town aka the prologue...

edited 25th Feb '10 11:55:54 PM by Rented

Hmmm... I think it might be better if we actually start with the game before we decide that. The story arc works pretty much the same anyways.

So, anyone have anything to say about the gameplay? So far it's no random encounters, maybe TBS, maybe not.

I'm convinced that our modern day analogues to ancient scholars are comedians. -0dd1

*waves hands*

Hello?! Is anyone home?!

I'm convinced that our modern day analogues to ancient scholars are comedians. -0dd1

I'm still here...

"I've come to the conclusion that this is a very stupid idea."

I'll look into this later. May be interested in proofreading as this thing gets underway. But it'll most likely have to wait - school and all.

edited 7th Mar '10 9:28:12 PM by Barcode711

Worshipper of Ahura Mazda, as proclaimed by Zoroadster http://twitter.com/bpglobalpr

Hmm... I think it might help to break this up into some explicit roles, instead of just having everyone do everything. Then maybe we can get a conversation going in this topic, which should keep the game going.

So first few obvious things we'll need: writers and spriters (maybe some musicians too, but that's going kind of far ahead). We sort of already have a plot, so all we have to do is flesh it out a bit and then write a script.

Oh, and also one or two "designers" besides me, to figure out what the gameplay should be like.

Any volunteers for any of those?

I'm convinced that our modern day analogues to ancient scholars are comedians. -0dd1

Hmm. I'll try to see where I can fit in; I'd like to design levels someday, so why not start here?

"I've come to the conclusion that this is a very stupid idea."

Yeah, ok.

I'm convinced that our modern day analogues to ancient scholars are comedians. -0dd1

So, looking over the database, we need (I am assuming we will stat these out later):

• A list of all the playable characters, with approximate role in the party. Probably we will also need sprites for all of these eventually.
• List of all the classes in the game. This might be as short as the list of playable characters, or we might decide to add a gameplay mechanic to change classes, in which case this list might actually take some thinking.
• A list of all the magic/skills in the game, along with exactly what each does.
• Seperate lists of all the usable items, weapons, and armor in the game, along with what they all do.
• A list of all the enemies in the game. We will probably need sprites for these, also.
• A list of all the status effects in the game, along with what they do.
• Animations to correspond with all those skills from above. A lot of these we should certainly be able to get from the RTP [Run Time Pack - all the sprites/music/animations/whatever that RPG Maker XP comes with].
• [We don't really need a list of extra tilesets; just whoever is making maps know that you can use tilesets that RPG Maker doesn't come with]
• The party you start with. We seem to have already decided this will be The Hero only.
• All the elements in the game. (Super effective against, say, undead is an element.)
• There's a bunch of random sound effects at this point but I think we can probably just use the defaults.
• Names for all the stats in the game, plus all armor slots, plus the names of the options in the combat menu (Attack, Item, that kind of thing)

Plus any scripts we want to use.

I'm convinced that our modern day analogues to ancient scholars are comedians. -0dd1

So, anyone still interested in this? I really don't want to just let it die.

Maybe I could make a new thread and start from scratch? Might help us to regain our inertia.

edited 19th Apr '10 5:42:29 PM by BlackHumor

I'm convinced that our modern day analogues to ancient scholars are comedians. -0dd1

Again, I'm still here...

We should probably keep this thread, 'cause I don't think restarting will do much.

"I've come to the conclusion that this is a very stupid idea."

You wanna help us write then? Because I think with you, me, and eX we could actually get somewhere.

I'm convinced that our modern day analogues to ancient scholars are comedians. -0dd1

...Maybe? I was never that great in narrative; I spend my time with other aspects. And besides, I have a slightly awkward style: I think up an idea (a character, a weapon, an element, etc.) and slowly build a world around it (and hopefully tie it in with other ideas of mine).

...But alright then.

edited 21st Apr '10 6:35:25 PM by Blueeyedrat

"I've come to the conclusion that this is a very stupid idea."

So then, should the entercoolname be kinda like demons or kinda like zombies? Because that was really the big thing me and eX were fighting about, if I'm remembering it right.

I'm pretty sure the views of the plot we had go like this:

Me: You, as the hero, spend the first act gathering the other four members of the party from the lands of the other races, along with their respective MacGuffins. This part serves mainly as character development.

Then at the beginning of the transition to the second act, you travel to the point where the orcs are trying to contact the entercoolname with all your respective racial Plot Coupons needed to contact them. At this point, a sequence happens where each member of your party individually contacts the entercoolname and bribes them. At the end of the sequence, Wham Episode where the entercoolname tell everyone what happened over the previous week or so and on the basis of this (claim to) decide to kill everybody.

Then a bit where your party is going around to the various racial govts and trying to convince them to unite against the entercoolname. At the end of the game, (and after you start fighting) the entercoolname reveal that they were hoping for exactly this reaction and so leave you alone.

eX: (sorry if I get any of this wrong) The vast mago-technical war has caused enough residue that the dead are beginning to rise as entercoolname. First act, the various govts send you to get a party of soldiers to get a MacGuffin or MacGuffins to fight the entercoolname.

Second act: You go get the MacGuffin. It doesn't work, it turned out the plan was crap all along. The govts were actually all hoping that the entercoolname would attack somebody else first, which would have allowed them to swoop in and win the war. This act is also the first act where you really start fighting entercoolname, as opposed to wild animals and stuff.

Third act: The heroes run away and start stealing superweapons from the various races to fight the entercoolname.

Final dungeon: The heroes, using all their powers combined  ^*

, storm the entercoolname's base and defeat them [my commentary here: it doesn't seem like zombies should have a base, or should be able to be defeated in this way. Wait... aaagh I'm criticizing my opponenent's position within a description of it sorry sorry sorry]

I'm convinced that our modern day analogues to ancient scholars are comedians. -0dd1

To be honest, I'd say demons would work better in a setting like this, and the story could still be tweaked as we see fit.

"I've come to the conclusion that this is a very stupid idea."

Great.

But the problem now is that eX doesn't seem to be paying attention. So I think I'll PM him.

EDIT: Done. Probably should poke NSBL, Wicked, and Kinky also.

EDIT 2: That's done too now.

edited 22nd Apr '10 1:08:34 PM by BlackHumor

I'm convinced that our modern day analogues to ancient scholars are comedians. -0dd1

The thread! It lives!

You can't even write racist abuse in excrement on somebody's car without the politically correct brigade jumping down your throat!

YEEESSSS!

Though actually, I don't know why I'm not just outsourcing this to Bison, so:

MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

edited 22nd Apr '10 2:17:01 PM by BlackHumor

I'm convinced that our modern day analogues to ancient scholars are comedians. -0dd1