Maia 2K8

DOWNLOAD THE DEMO

ALPHA 1 DEMO (8 MB)

http://cixe.planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/rpg/Maia2K8_alpha.exe

ABOUT THE GAME

Maia 2K8 is a reincarnation of the Maia series. The names and people are the same. Their roles have changed into being a reincarnation on a different world put in danger by a tear between two worlds.

This game offers a free form unlike any other; a very adaptive personal story. From the birth of the player's character you enter the name, and specify where the character's father is during the birth. The older brother and sister are then asked for their reaction over the player character's birth. This affects they way they feel about the player's character from the start.

When the player's character jumps ahead into school age, the character is aloud to visit instructors of the town of birth. These instructors will teach the player skills according to the class of the instructor. Once the player's character has learned five skills, the character graduates and assigns their own class.

After graduation, the player's character will then assign their own look based on the character's gender. Each look has a stereotype and will be seen in a certain way to the general public. If the player's character looks like a thief, the character will not be liked by those that fight. If the player's character looks like a nun, the church will be more generous to the character. Stereotypes can be overcome such as a priest can become a mighty warrior respected by the guild of fighters with a little work.

Through performing good deeds or evil ones, the character's prestige will raise or lower. Some will bow before a prestigious character, while others may not be impressed if not try to assassinate a character that seems like royalty. With prestige comes rank as well. There are many factions, each with ranks for completing quests, deeds and duties for the faction. The player's character also gains respect when being educated by members of a faction in school. Not all factions are accepting of new members until the player's character has earned the respect of the faction. Not all people will sell goods, skills and services to those with poor prestige. In fact, dark magic will only be taught to those that have negative prestige. Even knowing dark magic makes any character feared!

Faction members will fight along side of the player's character and rival members will fight against the player's faction if not simply disrespect the player's character at every opportunity.

Along with prestige is the character's bounty. Break the law by stealing, murdering or other offenses and society will not look with a smile to the player's character. There are however people on the other side of the law that will praise those that break the laws of the human kingdom.

There are multiple races, both hostile and friendly; each having their own system of law. If the law is broken in the human kingdom, only the human guards and legions will uphold it. Break the law of another race though and the player's entire party might find themselves at the end of sharp blades, teeth or swords!

With races, prestige, factions and bounties there are relationships; Love, Friendships, hatreds, rivalries, loyalties and family. Through dates, respect, journeys and quests together the player's character can make bonds with several people along the way. The player starts out with three family relationships; a mother, a brother and a sister, but along the way there are many other relationships that have highs and lows; Love and bitter hatreds.


CURRENT FEATURES IMPLAMENTED
ALPHA 1 FEATURES
- Free From Game Play: You are free to chose your own destiny. Your education, class, gender and name are all your own choice through the new education system. You are free to chose which quests to complete or participate in. Every action has a reaction.
- Adaptive Story: For each choice you make it will adapt the story to your character. Your choices will change the story and how others react to you. Gain allies or make enemies through personalities, prestiege, factions and even classes. Some classes are not as respected as others. Some factions are hated by others.
- Education: When the player begins the game, part of the free form game play is learning skills from multiple instructors in order to create a more custom experience.
- Stereotypes: With everything there are stereotypes. When you select a look for your character you will receive a stereotype that comes with it. Such as if you look like a mage, other mages will be accepting of you, while fighters might not. Having a darker look will make people fear you. However all of these stereotypes may be over come with a little effort. It adds to the game play dynamic with the NPCs.
- Greetings: Now each NPC is assigned a name, faction, class and presteige. Each will greet you differently based on their faction, your faction, their class, your class, thier prestiege and your prestiege.
- Advanced Talking: You can now ask simple questions to NPCs and learn about their lives and their jobs. There is a standard talk, after the greeting, but there are questions to ask the NPCs as well.
- Factions: Yes they are back... with a vengeance. Guild of Fighters, Guild of Mages, Guild of Thieves, the Clergy and the Legion to name the major ones. Members of factions will aknowledge you as such and even according to your rank. You can also take fellow members with you on quests; assuming they like you enough. When going through the education process of the game you can get instructed by a trainer from the Guild if Fighters as a protoge or learn how to heal from a nun in the Clergy. This will help you get your foot in the door of a faction even before you join them.
- Duels: Oh yes the duels are back as well. This time you can challenge virtually any NPC to a duel! They must accept first of course. With duels comes risks and rewards. Kill a thief and get bolstered by the fighters and legion. Duel with the wrong member of a faction and they will hate you if not all try to kill you.
- Day / Night System: The game ticks time away throughout the day differently than Maia 2K7. More intelligently, but there are still seven time periods a day. Most shops close each night, but when the sun goes down a different sort of cast comes out!
- Lock Picking: For any locked door or treasure chest in the world there are lock picks that can open them with a little luck or skill.
- Stealing / Theft: Normally if a player were to take an item, no one would care, but to add some realism and stealth. There are now laws and people to see the player steal things.
- Bounty System: For each crime the player commits it will add a bounty to the player's head. Theft adds a small bounty, but murder adds a large bounty!
- Reaction System: NPCs react differently when a player has a bounty on his or her head. NPCs also react differently to the player's personality and prestiege that their character carries. Some NPCs will refuse to talk with the player, others run away and still others try to collect the bounty in combat!
- Multiple Races: There are different races that inhabit the world. Some are more hostile than others. You can gain their respect and trust over time. Each race has its own set of laws, such as only the humans uphold the bounty system. Other races do not, but instead they have their own laws and consiquences.
- Calculated Weather: The weather system works on five variables: rain / storm / snow / fog / sand storm. The game intelligently creates weather based on the region.
- Inn: Not just an Inn, but you get a room to stay in for the night to sleep, party or use however you want.
- Traveling Merchants: Traveling merchants are random, but when they appear they can save you in the wild.
- Movable Objects: If you are strong enough you can push barrels and boxes or destroy them!
- Destructable Objects: Douse fires with water bombs! Use plant slices to cut down bushes and pick flowers.
- Random Lootable Houses: As somewhat of a mini game for theives with lock picks. There are houses that can be looted. The interiors are random.

ALPHA 2 FEATURES
- After Life: In a game with an after world... there is after life. The entire point of the game is the player and Maia entering the realm of the dead. Thus meaning there is no true death in the game. Probably for the first time in any RPG ever; When you die in battle you do not go to a game over. You literally go to the realm of the dead and keep playing until you either find a way out or get pulled back into the world of the living by a priest that ressurects you. Once you are ressurected the normal game continues, but as punnishment the player loses half of their gold... you could always load a saved game if you have a problem with that.
- Detailed Ressurection: Churches have priests that will ressurect dead party members for a fee.
- Time Ticks By: With the day and night system comes the time system itself. Unlike the two previous games, this game time ticks by when in the over world. The previous two games had time tick away as you stood there doing nothing. That made the game itself slow. The new system for time will reduce lag and slow play.
- Dreams: Like in the two previous games there are dreams. However, now there is more to do and the dreams get deeper, but if you don't want to do anything with a dream, just stand there for 10 seconds and the dream will fade. You can also combat in dreams now! The in game dreams are foreshadows or memories based on past experiences. If you die in a dream you merely wake up.
- Gifts: Because there are relationships in the game, if you ever get someone so angry that they will not talk to you, but you need them for something... give them a gift! There are an assortment of gifts like pets, flowers, drinks and so on. Even offer to take them fishing! However based on who they are, they will react differently.
- Dancing: Yes indeed it is back! You and your date can indeed go dancing, where you need to mirror your date or fail trying. This time you know where to start from, and the dance continues with 5 rounds of action that your date will judge you on! Also this time you have a choice to keep dancing or end the date.
- Transports and adaptive prices: Yeah exactly what it says. There are now transports and based on what factions you are in they will either charge you more or less.

There will be more features all from Maia 2K7, but improved and streamlined.



GAME RATING

TEEN +
- intense puzzles
- provokative items and armor



BASIC STORY

Maia is the only person to have ever broken through the living plane into the realm of the dead and return again. After defeating the lord of the damned Malcius, she broke through a hole in the sky and plunged down to the world only to discover her mission was in vein. She had let her love slip through her fingers and returned to the world of the living alone.

Weak, weary, bruised and emotionally broken from her journey, she is found by a stranger that helps her; a stranger that had heard a prophecy of her return to the living plane. With the help of this stranger, Maia will return to the realm of the dead to save her love. This time Malcius will not be taken by surprise and he will have his legion of demons, undead and terrifying minions rallied to keep her soul.

The legion of undead are no longer confined to their realm. With Maia's return to the living plane, the hole was left open; a hole that will turn into a tear between the two planes that will allow the dead to flow into the living. Aided by a reaper named Sekio, Malcius will have his revenge on Maia by conquering the world of the living. Meanwhile with the help of a new ally, Maia will find a way back into the realm of the dead to save her love.




CHARACTERS

Five of the major characters are customizable and adaptable to the game play experience. Those five characters (Player, Brother, Sister, Mother, Father) will not be listed because of this.


MAIA:

alliance: unkown
age: she is the constant
gender: female
race: human
class: assassin
preferred weapons: daggers
skills: dagger tech
sign: lady
purpose: protagonist
character importance: A+
image: Open minded, determined, sleek, tunnel visioned
self image: Loathe
beliefs: Afterlife is possible
past: Maia was once normal. She had a family until she was taken and programmed by a shadowy faction bent on overthrowing the human kingdom. As part of the mysterious faction her love was killed and Maia was left with no choice than find a way into the realm of the dead and return her love to the realm of the living.
present: Maia has just defeated the afterlord Malcius to save her love. However, Maia returned alone. She failed in her mission, but undaunted she will return to the realm of the dead to complete it with the help of a stranger that will accompany her on her quest to save her love and repair the damage that was done when she escaped the realm.




PAPA HASP:

alliance: good
age: much older than Maia
gender: male
race: human
class: forseer
preferred weapons: none
skills: prophecy
sign: mage
purpose: catalyst to start the plot
character importance: C
image: Mad man predicting doom
self image: Savior
beliefs: The future can be changed
past: In the past he was known as something different. A man with a family, but little prosperity until he made money off of his gift of being able to see the future. A week after that his eyes were taken by pirates. While that was the physical cause that lost his eyes, he always felt that spiritually his eyes were taken for profiting off of his gift.
present: Papa Hasp has been condemned to live in the west point light house alone with his own personal demons. The blind light house keeper had been seen as a menace to a peaceful society with his raving mad predictions that the world would end by an Afterlord.




FREDERICK ALLANSON III:

alliance: good
age: older than Maia
gender: male
race: human
class: governor
preferred weapons: short staffs / rods
skills: diplomacy
sign: lady
purpose: governor
character importance: C+
image: Beloved leader
self image: Does not belong as governor
beliefs: Value his people
past: He came into power after the citizens saw him as they would any man; a loving father, a great husband and a man of the people that regrets his elected power.
present: The good hearted governor that sees no one respects him. If he is respected he is insulted, he wants to be as common as the next man, so it is best to insult him or be treated as poorly as possible.




COMMANDER BILLINGTON:

alliance: legion
age: older than Governor Allanson
gender: male
race: human
class: paladin
preferred weapons: swords
skills: sword techniques
sign: tower
purpose: commander of legion forces in the region
character importance: C+
image: Beloved commander
self image: Best man in the legion
beliefs: Stronger rule results in a stronger society
past: The commander grew up in the region exploring caves until he was old enough to join the Imperial Legion. He soon became the commander after the mysterious deaths of members in the legion that lead to his field commission.
present: Billington is the man in charge of the forces in the region. He disagrees with the governor's lax way of communicating with his citizens and feels that the people must have a strong leader not a common one.




SAM HAWKINS:

alliance: guild of fighters
age: older than Commander Billington
gender: male
race: human
class: warrior
preferred weapons: swords
skills: sword techniques
sign: demon
purpose: commander of fighters guild
character importance: B+
image: Beloved commander
self image: Glorified
beliefs: Personal glory out weighs army glory
past: The former best friend of Commander Billington after their paths in life split. Hawkins went on to command the Guild of Fighters and has been looked down upon by Billington since he turned down the Imperial Legion.
present: Hawkins is a strong and wise commander that does not thirst for commendation. He only seeks the thrill of the fight and the gratification of personal glory.




RAVANA MICHAELS (RAVENOUS):

alliance: guild of mages
age: older than Maia
gender: female
race: human
class: witch
preferred weapons: wands
skills: black magic and alchemy
sign: demon
purpose: quest
character importance: C+
image: Desirable witch
self image: Underrated
beliefs: Wicca
past: The sexy little witch that studied magic because it was popular at the time. She grew up privileged as a noble woman but chose a darker life style that would give her more entertainment.
present: She is always pulling pranks on her friends and fellow guild members.





MYSTO:

alliance: guild of mages
age: much than Ravana
gender: unknown
race: human
class: foreseer
preferred weapons: wands
skills: telepathy
sign: apprentice
purpose: information
character importance: C+
image: Laughed at
self image: Better than those that laugh at him
beliefs: In the future
past: Mysto's parents were killed and he was sold off as a slave to a band of thieves, when he was old enough he struggled for independence where Mysto joined the guild of mages.
present: Able to foresee the future of individuals Mysto has become a token of the guild of mages. Mysto is less than respected by peers and does not care one bit.




SEKIO:

alliance: evil
age: ageless
gender: male
race: spirit
class: reaper
preferred weapons: scythe
skills: dark magic
sign: mage
purpose: take souls to the afterlife
character importance: B
image: The devil himself
self image: Just doing a job
beliefs: He is immortal
past: Sekios have always been the reapers to carry the dead to the afterlife. While the living may beg and plead to stay on the plane of the living, there are Sekios to make sure that the string of their life is cut and ended.
present: In the public eye Sekios have turned from mere servants of the Afterlord into being considered a singular devil feared by humans.




AFTERLORD MALCIUS:

alliance: evil
age: ageless
gender: male
race: demon
class: demon
preferred weapons: claws
skills: dark magic
sign: tower
purpose: rule the realm of the dead
character importance: B
image: The Afterlord
self image: The Afterlord
beliefs: He will rule the world of the living
past: He was created by a single God to test the cunning, intelligence and wit of the angels. Tricked by the angels that rule the heavens above, Malcius has ended up ruling a dead realm.
present: Since discovering that the realm of the dead is full of soulless zombies that walk the plane, Malcius has sought a way to conquer the world of the living. Now Maia has created a tear between the worlds that Malcius can use to start an invasion.








SCRIPTS USED

Zeriab's Anti-Lag Script
Blizard's Bestiary



CREDIT / THANKS

MAIA = Everything
RTP = All Graphics
Zeriab = Anti-Lag Script
Blizard = Bestiary



SCREEN SHOTS

ALPHA 1 SCREEN SHOTS

TOWN OF VALYON



That is your family house. Home to your sister, brother, mother, father and yourself


Both pigs and fountains right next to the entrance of town


A walk through the residential area of town


The beauty of the western side of Valyon


All barrels and boxes are pushable and movable... assuming that you are strong enough


A stroll through market street


The end of market street contains the two known guilds. There is a third guild, but they do not publicize


The sub level of the guild of mages. There is Mysto the instructor


The shop of magic inside of the guild of mages. One shop sells light magic, the other sells dark magic


Outside of the pub / inn to the west is the market place and to the north is the fishing pond


This is the smith in the guild of fighters. There is also shop that sells weapons and armor in town


Outside the church north of town. The path leads to the back a flower feild and a grave yard


A flower field northwest of town. Yes you can clear all of the flowers as well



TELEGRA VILLAGE



Telegra, a village of the Anadans a cold blooded reptilian race forced to live amongst humans


Two competing items. One is a loom that sells tapestry the other is a straight up item shop



THE LIGHTHOUSE



The central chamber contains the staircase to walk up five flights of stairs to the mad man at the top!


The bar in the light house features music played by an unearthly pianist


The western chamber contains the living quarters


The eastern chamber contains the lock up for ghastly souls


The path on the approach to the fog covered haunted lighthouse


Over the entrance of the lighthouse is a balcony to see over the fog



ALPHA 2 SCREEN SHOTS

CASTLE VELOIT



The front of the castle looks a little boxy. I might go back and change it. The guards attack if you have a bounty.


The court of the castle. One building is the armory. The other is the kitchen and library.


Pushing a few boxes, vases or other objects will get you further into the towers.


One of the castle walls. The castle is a multi leveled indoor / outdoor maze!


The path to the dungeon is a long one. The path out of the dungeon is even longer!



CASTLE VELOIT DUNGEON



As stated before... every box is pushable, some lead to secrets.


A cave in created a massive sink hole leading to an abyss. Prisoners were lost.


Most of the dungeon seems well constructed.



GRAND TREE WOODS



Many animals can be found here, along with the poachers that hunt them.


The cluster of great trees and the animal hidden within one of them.


You can get lost very easily in these woods. However, you can stick to the path!



EARTH CAVE



The entrance of the large cave beneath the Earth.


The main chamber of the cave. The stairs overlook an underground lake.


Follow the paths and you may not get lost or even bring a lantern to guide your way.


So many directions to take.


A multi layered winding cave with choices to make.


An underground beach with a subterranian lake.



OVERWORLD MAP



Telegra is at the center of it all. A good place for the Anadans to be.


On the way to Veloit Castle. That is a port that you see in the north.


The bridge north of Telegra that leads to the other half of the sub continent.