Legacy Reborn

So, part of the plan is that players visit the Dojo of the Dragon Fist, and talk to the Grandmaster. He won't talk to them right away, of course. Players have to pass the trials of spirit, mind, and body. The problem is what these trials actually involve.

The trial of body will probably involve fighting in some way, shape, or form. What, who, or where might be interesting, though. The initial thought was to have players go to the bottom-most level of the Dojo, and fight a battle with a monk. However, I literally just thought of inserting a dungeon into the wasteland area somewhere. Though, wait, wouldn't that just pad the game? Hrm.

I am absolutely horrible at designing puzzles (or I just plain despise doing puzzle set-ups), so the trial of the mind will probably be some kind of knowledge test based on the books that you can read on the top level of the Dojo.

Then there's the trial of the spirit. For full disclosure, I'm having a few issues with this in regards to Oracle of Askigaga as well. I mean, this trial would probably be more metaphysical than anything else, and, to be frank, I'm not sure how I'd go about testing it for either games. Maybe a trial of morality? Hrm. If I go with that idea, I figure there would have to be some kind of setup, or it would just fall apart.


I think, ultimately, I just need to keep things simple for this game. Which probably means my initial thought about fighting the monk for the trial of the body is going to happen. I'm probably okay with the ideation I have of the trial of the mind. Still not sure about the temple trial of the spirit, though. Huh. I just realized that players would have access to Jobito and Dark Forest again. Maybe, I could do something with those?

Perhaps thanks to a bit of galvanization from flapbat's review, but, I guess I'm working on this still! A few dev-notes, and thoughts, in my typical stream-of-consciousness nature.

One of the things I'll be doing is getting a scene into the Jade HQ showcasing Kazuto and Miho being separated. I wasn't really planning on a particularly emotional departure, but I should at least attempt to keep in mind that the two are friends (and no more than that).

I'm kinda thinking of removing Blind as a status condition altogether, to be honest. It only affects normal physical attacks, which, seems a bit narrow in it's use.

I should put some treasure chests in the wasteland. Probably take out an oasis, or two.

So, I did a speed-stat check on Assassins versus an average level 6 character. With the equipment available to the player, a level 6 character would have 57 SPD. Assassins, which are supposed to be level 3, have a 50 SPD. 50 SPD, by the way, is what a level 3 character would typically have with equipment. Now, I am aware that the stat curve was built so that there would be larger gains at higher levels, so there only being a seven-point difference seems fair to me. Though, there might be the small point about the "with equipment" part. I dunno. It just seems weird to include equipment for calculations involving STR, DEF, INT, HP and MP, but not with SPD. Could be just me.

I kinda have to wonder if I will allow players to return to Jade HQ after Miho rejoins after the five-year gap. Would Miho stop Kazuto, and be like, "Hey, the Dragon Fist is to the South!" Possibly. Or, I could let them through, and feasibly do something that, now that I think about it, might seem a bit out-of-character for Kazuto. Though, it would be a player-choice. Hrmm.

I know the existence of a bug in the current demo. It's not a huge issue, and could probably be rectified in a matter of moments. The demo could probably use a re-balancing in respect to the first boss too. However, there is the small point of there still not being all that much game to be had. The idea MakioKuta had of having players physically traverse the wasteland area (rather than skipping it) is certainly an idea worth considering.

Now that I think about it, I may want to re-consider how the world map functions as a whole. It used to be a collection of linked maps, kinda like how Matsumori Days was set up. A traversal of the wasteland might be better suited under such circumstances. As for encounters on the world map, I think they might need to exist. I would probably be consistent, and stick with on-touch encounters. The ones for the Jobito sub-area might need to change after the five-year gap, but that shouldn't be a huge issue. Well, at least as long as I actually make the check on the appropriate switch on the appropriate event-page! Geeze.

Saying that, I have no idea when I'm going to get around to doing anything with this project! There is a small voice that tells me to just let this die again. Which, I admit, is pretty tempting with both Konae and Oracle still hanging over my head, let me tell you what. I dunno. I guess, I'll leave it on haitus on the vague off-chance that I actually do come back to this. Though, using the wording "vague off-chance" probably speaks volumes about what I think my chances actually are.

Violator!

I have all the maps I'll need for a while. Maybe they could use some sprucing up, but I can leave those concerns for later. I'm not touching the skill database. So, the things I get to work on now are enemies, and dialog? Exactly! Even now, I'm preparing to set up the fight with Matsuda and Tomika, and generally getting the opening sequence into the game before players get whisked off to become Kazuto.

The hope is that the demo will be up to the Proving Cave (or whatever I'm actually going to call it). I figure it just being the Matsuda/Tomika fight would be dumb, and not particularly representative of what the game could offer. How soon will it be before it's ready to be tested, or whatever? I'm going to approximate a week, but, we'll see how things fall into place. I'll certainly make a post when things are ready! Maybe a status as well for a bit more visibility. I dunno. I get the particular impression this game is very much under-the-radar since there's much better games out there. Not to mention how long this page has been dead.

I have, at the very least, a vague idea of what I want this game to look like. However, mapping is my worst enemy. It probably doesn't help that I don't have a very good sense of what makes a map good. As a research effort, I've downloaded RMN's answer to everything (read: Hero's Realm) as an attempt to observe what makes it RMN's answer to everything.

I have no doubt that I will have to play the game to dissect as much information as possible. That could mean a month or two just to play the game. In the end, that means this project will go into hiatus. I hate having both of my projects on hiatus, but I really need to work on mapping in general.