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Progress Report
The T4-42109 Bot
Finally have something to show.
The T4-42109 Bot
Reference:
Took about an hour and a half or so.
I am going to attempt to do the resources for this game for the Revive the Dead event. Maybe even a prototype demo (but probably not much farther than that). Resources take a long time.
The T4-42109 Bot
Reference:
Took about an hour and a half or so.
I am going to attempt to do the resources for this game for the Revive the Dead event. Maybe even a prototype demo (but probably not much farther than that). Resources take a long time.
Progress Report
A fox... with antlers?
Do you have any idea how hard it is to draw fur? I know now - it ain't easy.
I had 45 mins to kill, so I spent it drawing this (based on the reference below). This is the first draft - some touch up will be coming after, but I wanted to share it nowbecause I need attention dammit #needy
Thanks for paying attention!
I had 45 mins to kill, so I spent it drawing this (based on the reference below). This is the first draft - some touch up will be coming after, but I wanted to share it now
Thanks for paying attention!
Progress Report
Punks with Lasers
- kentona
- 10 post(s)
- 07/10/2014 09:41 PM
- 3048 views
You feelin' lucky? Well, do ya, punk?
Just to prove that I am in fact working on other things than my
Here is my reference:
By the way, I have a whole folder FILLED with references such as that, so hopefully I will be able to crank out a couple more battlers tomorrow!
Announcement
Life uh uh uh uh uh uh finds a way
So after a hectic 8 months, my life is about to slow down SIGNIFICANTLY for the month of July. Which is good because my birthday is next Monday (July 7 for those of you without a calendar handy. 07/07 baby! That's double-07 to you.)
Anywho, because the slowdown took place about a month and a half later than I was expecting, I didn't get a chance to make my entry for the Indie Game contest (I could have really used that $10,00 too)(the game was going to be called "Good Morning! You have Amnesia!" Instant classic right there, I tell you what)
So anywho, I scuttled that plan (for now) and decided that I really need to get back into game making, so I cast REVIVE on this project. It has had only about 1.5 months of love from me over the last 1.5 years (bad ratio). We'll see how it goes this time around (no promises)(because I ought to work on PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT and/or RMN'S CODEBASE, but Aether Pulse feels more appealing to me right now)(I'll probably just end up playing videogames instead).
So wish me luck!
Here is Towndog, the town's theme music, to set the mood
Towndog (town music)
Game Design
Nature's Uplifting Revenge
What if you could separate the activity of science from the human researchers who conduct it? Automate it, in fact? Imagine creating a bot that does physics experiments and builds an internal model of the world based on those experiments. This is what I call 'Thalience'.
~Dr. Karl Schroeder, designer of the Sapphire Arcology
Aether Pulse, as a game, has always had only a barest of plots half-formed in my head. During the 2-Day Do Something challenge, I aimed to remedy that. As a result, I have here to present to you some of the backstory and worldbuilding for Aether Pulse.
*DO NOT READ IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE SPOILED*
Some music for your listening pleasure while you read.
As a refresher of the basic plot...
Decades after the war with Entity 0, the world lies in a ruinous and desolate state - a truly apocalyptic nightmare. Mutants and monsters roam the land, magic has grown wild, and the AI systems that once automated the world have gone rogue. The decimated human populace struggles to survive, eking out a marginal existence in this harsh environment.
A brave band of misfit warriors aim to change humanity's fate.
With the McGuffin Trigger in hand, they seek the Aether Pulse, a genesis device said to be able to restore balance and vitality to the planet. They make their way to the ramshackle town of Kamsack, a place of outcasts living at the edge of the Wastes and near the Sapphire Arcology - rumoured to be the origin point of Entity 0 and ground zero of the Entity War that nearly destroyed the planet. The Aether Pulse lies somewhere therein...
Concept art from SimCity
The Sapphire Arcology was a massive undertaking - the first of its kind - and a herald to a new era in humanity. The brainchild of the brilliant scientist and billionaire Dr. Karl Schroeder, the Sapphire Arcology was going to be a model of the future way in which humans will inhabit the world, with the most minimal of ecological footprints. The arcology would be a hyperstructure of extremely high human population density and be a sustainable, economically self-sufficient, zero-waste facility containing a variety of residential, commercial, and agricultural aspects. The arcology would need no connections to municipal or urban infrastructure in order to operate. The vast logistical operation of running the arcology would be conducted by SLAI (Sapphire Logistical Artificial Intelligence), created by Dr. Karl Schroeder.
The genesis of the plot of Aether Pulse lies in the idea of thalience, a concept that speculates about the possibility of engineered systems that could generate their own categories for understanding the world. Let's say we combine this ability with the technology of self-reproducing machines. Let them learn and experiment on their own. Let them share their findings and refine their models. If they were allowed to freely invent their own semantics, would their physical model of the universe end up resembling ours? Would their theories be compatible with our own? We can turn metaphysics into a hard science; and this becomes the first interesting meaning of the world thalience: it is an attempt to give the physical world itself a voice so that rather than us asking what reality is, reality itself can tell us.
These systems could help humans determine what reality actually is, instead of requiring us to define it and acting on our instructions. A thalient system might collaborate with humans to answer questions such as "What is the world really made of?" and "How much of our understanding is subjective, and is truly objective knowledge even possible?" An thalient intelligence of this scope could revolutionize human culture... if it was understandable.
In a secret research laboratory in the Sapphire Arcology, Dr. Schroeder continued his research into his true passion - thalient systems. He did manage to create a distributed sensor net that began to test the nature of the universe - he had successfully engineered a thalient system! The thalience experiments did manage to produce results over their autonomous span - but they were not humanly-accessible. The theories were only comprehensible to other thalient constructs of the same ilk. Efforts to reconcile the thalient and human worldviews were unsuccessful... until, that is, Dr. Schroeder co-opted the computational power of SLAI to act as a vector and bridge between thalient and human thought. However...
The imposition of human thought processes, values and concepts turned thalient constructs hostile to humanity and resulted in the hybrid creation of humanity, artificial intelligence and thalient contructs, dubbed 'Entity 0'. Entity 0 was seemingly bent on the eradication of humankind and a war between Entity 0 versus humanity erupted (The Entity War). In the end, the war ended after the detonation of a powerful mutagenic electromagnetic pulse superweapon. Entity 0 was stopped, but the world itself was left in an ecologically desolate place. The MEMP superweapon did horrific damage to the world's ecosystems. Many decades after this day is when the events of Aether Pulse take place - in a world filled with wastelands, rogue AIs, mutants, and a decimated human populace.
I would liken Entity 0 to Dr. Manhattan from Watchmen - immensely powerful and knowledgeable beyond human comprehension, but not evil. But whereas Dr. Manhattan becomes ambivalent, Entity 0 becomes chaotically idealistic. His intent is to ascend humanity into a new plane of sublime existence. Remember, people aren't evil to be evil, but are evil because they believe they are doing good.
"To believe in an uplifting and satisfying vision of your place in the universe, and to know that this vision is true would be sublime"
~Entity 0, to the heroes of Aether Pulse
The ideas here are a blend of ideas from the book Ventus by Karl Schroeder (the author), Watchmen (graphic novel) by Alan Moore, and the movie I, Robot starring Converse sneakers, vintage 2004. You should read and watch those media (respectively) if you haven't already.
Your post-biological successors will live in bliss. Thank you for reviving me.
Progress Report
Heores in a half shell
Using the power of Greyskull, our heroes find themselves on the frontpage, featured as a Development Spotlight. Fearing reprisal from the masses should they not do anything, they quickly get together and write a half-baked blog entry. Chaos ensues.
One of the largest outstanding pieces of work left for this project is for me to nail down the plot, progression, story, backstory, and ultimate resolution for this game. I have vague ideas floating around in my head, even fewer written down, and nothing truly solid.
As I had started this for the... *clicks Event History link*...RPG Make Ace Lite Cookoff?! Seriously?!! Has it been that long???? Christ almighty. Well, anyway, I started this off for a small event and I had planned to keep the scope of the game itself small, but include some facets to it to increase its replayability. Having 9 classes (some with multiple variations) was a start for this. The other was to have multiple (3) paths through to the midpoint area, then the some more paths (2) to the final fight. I have also toyed around with the idea of having 2 factions that you could engender yourself towards: the Federation (BIG GOVERNMENT!) or the Outlaws (the rascals who resent BIG GUBBMENT!), but I have nothing solid on how that will even work out in-game. I was also going to add in Outside-Of-Battle-Skills (OOBS) like in Hellion, so that you could further customize your party in a given playthrough.
Plot
The party will start off on the road to Kamsack, the ramshackle town on the edge of the wastes. It is far away from the more populated towns to the south. (Remember, the world is post-apocalyptic - after the war with Entity 0, the land is pretty damn barren). The city states to the south have formed a Federation, but Kamsack is currently outside of their realm of influence... for now. Anywho, they talk a bit about their previous adventure to get ahold of the McGuffin Trigger and their plans to enter the Sapphire Arcology and activate it - thus restoring balance to this world. Noble goals, eh?
After a brief respite in town, they set off. They quickly find that the Arcology is sealed completely, and without power. So now they have to travel deeper into the wastes to reactivate an emergency power supply station. They have to contend with a droid-worshipping cult, renegade scavenger gangs, and merciless big-game hunters. If they ally themselves with one of these factions, they might have an easier go of it. Who knows?
Anywho, after powering on the station (which was guarded by a fearsome beast, of course), they head back to the arcology. The defense systems have been reactivated, blah blah blah yadda yadda yadda fight the big bad and win game.
SPOLARS (don't click)
The big bad is Entity 2.0, reactivated by your use of the McGuffin Trigger and you were just a pawn! Naturally.
As you can see, I am pretty clear on what I want to face in the wastes, but when it comes to the arcology itself, I'm a bit ...shallow... on ideas. Any suggestions on ideas for the second half of the game is welcome. Also, ideas for mini-quests. Some I had:
-bounties on criminals/radicals (posted by the Federation)
-hunting some big game monsters
-innoculating foolhardy hunters against disease using vaccines (because FUCK PEOPLE WHO DON'T GET THEIR KIDS VACCINATED - this is so going into my game; get vaccinated or DIE)
-destroying an old droid factory
-decimating the scavenger gangs
-...fetch quests??
Anywho, thanks for reading. Maybe I will post more art or battlers soon (once I draw some more)
Miscellaneous
My battlers are ridiculously detailed compared to my charsets...
- kentona
- 10 post(s)
- 10/25/2013 09:42 PM
- 3469 views
I mean, this was always the intention, but now that I've made a handful of battlers the stark contrast is really striking.
Oh well...
The latest creation is something I made today:
Took about 2 hours to make (or so).
Reference:
I have no real backstory for her yet - I just thought she looked cool.
From just before I took that hiatus for August/September (and most of October) is the Urban Druid. They are part of a fanatic cult that worships technology in this now-desolate world. They make their homebase in a derelict droid factory a few miles north of the town of Kamsack. They can often be found in the company of aggressive droids. They don't care much for human chatter.
He took a fucking long time to draw because dear lord I don't know how to accurately represent shiny cape material.
Reference:
I recently redid the Scorpinok enemy, because oh god.
I haven't quite settled on the size yet (you can comment on that in the Images Feedback section - I put them side by side in a battle for comparison). I might even keep both sizes for variety.
Reference:
No.
Oh well...
The latest creation is something I made today:
Took about 2 hours to make (or so).
Reference:
High fashion is a treasure trove for wacko enemy getups!
I have no real backstory for her yet - I just thought she looked cool.
From just before I took that hiatus for August/September (and most of October) is the Urban Druid. They are part of a fanatic cult that worships technology in this now-desolate world. They make their homebase in a derelict droid factory a few miles north of the town of Kamsack. They can often be found in the company of aggressive droids. They don't care much for human chatter.
He took a fucking long time to draw because dear lord I don't know how to accurately represent shiny cape material.
Reference:
I recently redid the Scorpinok enemy, because oh god.
I haven't quite settled on the size yet (you can comment on that in the Images Feedback section - I put them side by side in a battle for comparison). I might even keep both sizes for variety.
Reference:
No.
Announcement
Life is getting in the way
Since this seems to be a common thing to blog about these days, I might as well get in on the action.
As I stated somewhere on this gameprofile (the first blog maybe? the most recent one? idunno), I intended to get this game out the door by the end of summer. Personally, I was hoping to get it out the door by the end of August, but even the actual "end of summer" (Sept 20th) is looking unlikely.
As those on IRC already might know, my consulting gig with my work has been terminated early, and as such I have been swamped at work just wrapping things up and transferring knowledge. I haven't had a chance to even peek at this game. The gig is up at the end of August, but I already booked the final two weeks as vacation.
As a result, my gam mak has taken a backseat, pushing back all my plans at least 6 weeks back. So... that would make it about Halloween now as the target release date for this game.
Sorry 'bout that.
(NOTE: I am not actually out of a job - my vendor and I just need to find a new gig)
As I stated somewhere on this gameprofile (the first blog maybe? the most recent one? idunno), I intended to get this game out the door by the end of summer. Personally, I was hoping to get it out the door by the end of August, but even the actual "end of summer" (Sept 20th) is looking unlikely.
As those on IRC already might know, my consulting gig with my work has been terminated early, and as such I have been swamped at work just wrapping things up and transferring knowledge. I haven't had a chance to even peek at this game. The gig is up at the end of August, but I already booked the final two weeks as vacation.
As a result, my gam mak has taken a backseat, pushing back all my plans at least 6 weeks back. So... that would make it about Halloween now as the target release date for this game.
Sorry 'bout that.
(NOTE: I am not actually out of a job - my vendor and I just need to find a new gig)
Game Design
Energon Axes
I have nothing of merit to show, but I have been working on the game! I have been developing a list of skills and weapons, and working out how leveling will work.
LEVELS ::..
Like I've mentioned before, this is going to be a low level game, and recently I decided that the level cap will be 12. I haven't worked out the experience curve yet, but I am hoping to balance the game such that level won't be that big of a factor in how far you can progress, and that you'd reach the cap about three-quarters of the way through the game, if you were a completionist.
With classes only having 6 skills, you will start with 1 skills and gain a new skill on the even-numbered levels. So, levels 1, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 award a new skill to your class. Levels 11 and 12 will provide better stat boosts. (And if the game turns out more difficult than I anticipated, I might bump the cap to 14, with 13 and 14 also getting good stat boosts)
PARTY ::..
At the start of the game you will choose classes for your 4 starting party members from this list: Facepuncher, Brave, Technoviking, Beekeeper, Guitaromancer, Gastromancer (with a specialty of Gourmand or Gourmet), Pokerface, Mad Hatter, Droid.
However, your active party size will be 5. Throughout the game, if your skills and abilities allow, you will be able to recruit or repair droids to join your party. You will be able to activate one of those droids to be your 5th party member, or even swap out one of your existing members for more droids. These droids will be very niche and focused in their skillset, and will not be as versatile as your other party members or even the Droid class you can choose.
GAMEPLAY ::..
For the gameplay, I am opting to go the "Hellion" route and have onscreen enemies. Like in Hellion, there will be Outside of Battle Skills (OOBS) that you can use on the map.
Awareness (trap and hidden enemy detection)
Computer/Tech (hacking/use of computers)
Demolitions (deactivating mines/traps/using ordinance)
Repair (repairing damaged robotics or consoles)
Security (lockpicking)
Stealth (hiding, avoiding detection)
Persuade (influence in conversations)
Medicine (healing/med pack effectiveness)
some other ideas, depending on what I do in the game:
Salvage (recovery of materials/bonus items from defeated enemies or refuse piles)
Science (understanding of investigated items, crafting?)
So that should be fun, right?
Also, like in Hellion, enemies will drop random items. There is only one town in Aether Pulse, so it's not like the game can follow the standard formula of "Town > Dungeon > Town > Dungeon", where increasingly better equipment can be purchased.
WEAPONS ::..
This is what I've brainstormed so far:
This list does not include any unique or rare items, and the numbers are subject to change. I will be using Yanfly's Weapon Skill Replace to achieve these damage types.
What I am thinking of for equipability for the classes. Xs are decided, Os are I am not quite sure yet.
Final note: I am hoping to finish this game this summer!
LEVELS ::..
Like I've mentioned before, this is going to be a low level game, and recently I decided that the level cap will be 12. I haven't worked out the experience curve yet, but I am hoping to balance the game such that level won't be that big of a factor in how far you can progress, and that you'd reach the cap about three-quarters of the way through the game, if you were a completionist.
With classes only having 6 skills, you will start with 1 skills and gain a new skill on the even-numbered levels. So, levels 1, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 award a new skill to your class. Levels 11 and 12 will provide better stat boosts. (And if the game turns out more difficult than I anticipated, I might bump the cap to 14, with 13 and 14 also getting good stat boosts)
PARTY ::..
At the start of the game you will choose classes for your 4 starting party members from this list: Facepuncher, Brave, Technoviking, Beekeeper, Guitaromancer, Gastromancer (with a specialty of Gourmand or Gourmet), Pokerface, Mad Hatter, Droid.
However, your active party size will be 5. Throughout the game, if your skills and abilities allow, you will be able to recruit or repair droids to join your party. You will be able to activate one of those droids to be your 5th party member, or even swap out one of your existing members for more droids. These droids will be very niche and focused in their skillset, and will not be as versatile as your other party members or even the Droid class you can choose.
GAMEPLAY ::..
For the gameplay, I am opting to go the "Hellion" route and have onscreen enemies. Like in Hellion, there will be Outside of Battle Skills (OOBS) that you can use on the map.
Awareness (trap and hidden enemy detection)
Computer/Tech (hacking/use of computers)
Demolitions (deactivating mines/traps/using ordinance)
Repair (repairing damaged robotics or consoles)
Security (lockpicking)
Stealth (hiding, avoiding detection)
Persuade (influence in conversations)
Medicine (healing/med pack effectiveness)
some other ideas, depending on what I do in the game:
Salvage (recovery of materials/bonus items from defeated enemies or refuse piles)
Science (understanding of investigated items, crafting?)
So that should be fun, right?
Also, like in Hellion, enemies will drop random items. There is only one town in Aether Pulse, so it's not like the game can follow the standard formula of "Town > Dungeon > Town > Dungeon", where increasingly better equipment can be purchased.
WEAPONS ::..
This is what I've brainstormed so far:
Weapons | MIN | MAX | Hands | Notes | Average | Type |
Hunting Knife | 1 | 4 | 1 | speed boost | 2.5 | Sword |
Vibrocutter | 3 | 9 | 1 | speed boost | 6 | Sword |
Gladius | 2 | 7 | 1 | 4.5 | Sword | |
Katana | 5 | 15 | 1 | 10 | Sword | |
Vibroblade | 7 | 14 | 1 | 10.5 | Sword | |
Vibrosword | 8 | 20 | 1 | 14 | Sword | |
Energon Blade | 9 | 28 | 1 | Energy | 18.5 | Sword |
Energon Sword | 20 | 28 | 1 | Energy | 24 | Sword |
Bladestaff | 5 | 12 | 2 | Attacks x2 | 8.5 | Sword |
Energon Bladestaff | 7 | 24 | 2 | Attacks x2, Energy | 15.5 | Sword |
Tomahawk | 3 | 6 | 1 | 4.5 | Axe | |
Cleaver | 4 | 11 | 1 | 7.5 | Axe | |
Broad Axe | 10 | 18 | 2 | 14 | Axe | |
Battle Axe | 9 | 30 | 2 | 19.5 | Axe | |
Energon Axe | 22 | 45 | 1 | Energy | 33.5 | Axe |
Spear | 3 | 15 | 2 | 9 | Spear | |
Trident | 9 | 15 | 2 | 12 | Spear | |
Pike | 15 | 23 | 2 | 19 | Spear | |
Force Pike | 14 | 63 | 2 | Energy | 38.5 | Spear |
Wooden Spoon | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2.5 | Dipstick | |
Dipstick | 1 | 4 | 1 | 2.5 | Dipstick | |
Honeystick | 1 | 8 | 1 | 4.5 | Dipstick | |
Honey Dipper | 1 | 12 | 1 | 6.5 | Dipstick | |
Lyre | 1 | 4 | 2 | 2.5 | Guitar | |
Guitar | 2 | 6 | 2 | 4 | Guitar | |
Double Guitar | 2 | 12 | 2 | Attacks x2 | 7 | Guitar |
Cherry Ax | 9 | 15 | 2 | 12 | Guitar | |
Wicked Ax | 8 | 22 | 2 | 15 | Guitar | |
Fists | 1 | 1 | 2 | Level based | 1 | Fists |
Saute Pan | 1 | 6 | 1 | 3.5 | Pan | |
Skillet | 3 | 10 | 1 | 6.5 | Pan | |
Frying Pan | 7 | 16 | 1 | 11.5 | Pan | |
Panhammer | 19 | 29 | 1 | 24 | Pan | |
Playing Cards | 1 | 4 | 1 | Surprise | 2.5 | Cards |
Tarot Cards | 2 | 8 | 1 | Surprise | 5 | Cards |
Aracana Cards | 2 | 14 | 1 | Surprise | 8 | Cards |
Blaster Pistol | 4 | 9 | 1 | Energy | 6.5 | Pistol |
Heavy Blaster | 6 | 11 | 1 | Energy | 8.5 | Pistol |
Disruptor | 8 | 12 | 1 | Energy | 10 | Pistol |
Disintegrator | 12 | 15 | 1 | Energy | 13.5 | Pistol |
Blaster Rifle | 6 | 9 | 2 | Energy | 7.5 | Rifle |
Blaster Carbine | 9 | 16 | 2 | Energy | 12.5 | Rifle |
Blaster Cannon | 14 | 26 | 2 | Energy | 20 | Rifle |
Sniper Rifle | 1 | 36 | 2 | Energy | 18.5 | Rifle |
Assault Rifle | 3 | 9 | 2 | Attacks x3, Energy | 6 | Repeater |
Repeating Blaster | 6 | 12 | 2 | Attacks x3, Energy | 9 | Repeater |
Heavy Repeater | 9 | 15 | 2 | Attacks x3, Energy | 12 | Repeater |
This list does not include any unique or rare items, and the numbers are subject to change. I will be using Yanfly's Weapon Skill Replace to achieve these damage types.
Types | Fp | Br | Tv | Bk | Gu | Ga | Pf | Mh | Dr |
Shield | x | x | x | x | x | o | x | o | |
Sword | o | x | x | x | x | x | |||
Axe | o | x | x | x | |||||
Spear | o | x | x | x | x | x | |||
Dipstick | x | x | |||||||
Guitar | x | ||||||||
Fists | x | ||||||||
Frying Pans | x | ||||||||
Cards | x | x | |||||||
Blaster Pistol | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x |
Blaster Rifle | o | x | o | o | o | o | x | ||
Blaster Repeater | x | x |
What I am thinking of for equipability for the classes. Xs are decided, Os are I am not quite sure yet.
Final note: I am hoping to finish this game this summer!
Game Design
Classes, Balancing, Ruminations, Oh My!
- kentona
- 14 post(s)
- 04/05/2013 10:46 PM
- 6457 views
You might have thought this project dead: not quite!
I have been keeping this on the backburner since I last posted an update on this gameprofile (February 21st, it appears). I haven't really done much, to be honest, but today I sat down and did some brainstorming and refinement of my class ideas. I'll get to those...
But first some housekeeping!
I plan to finish this game thismonth year
While my April Fools status had me claiming that I'd finish a game a month for a year (which I could never do), I do want to start clearing out some of my game design ideas! It's been too long since I've released anything of merit...
Aether Pulse is not a big game. It was supposed to be a small game made for the Cook Off. While the scope is bigger than I initially envisioned, it's still pretty tiny, as far as RPGs go.
Moving this to the full version of RPG Maker VX Ace
Since the contest is well over, there is no advantage for me to keep on Lite. This is still my first VX Ace game and I won't be using the engine to its full potential, I will be using it to overcome Lite's limitations (fuck you 10 events per map!)
My Vision
I aim to make this game by myself with custom assets that I've developed myself... with the exception of sound effects. I have no fucking clue how to go about making those. But music, tilesets, enemies, charsets, artwork - yeah, I'm going to try my hand at that (evenifwhen it sucks!). A game like this has been a personal goal of mine.
Balancing and Numbers
Since this is a small personal project, there was a stats system I was going to try to see if it's viable. It is a variation/interpretation of some D&D rules. That means stats in the 8 to 18 range for classes, and a battle formula that accounts for that.
ATK will be the character's strength and weapon damage. To come up with relatable weapon damages, I would take a common D&D damage range (ie- 1 to 4, or 2 to 12) and work it through this formula:
I think this does a good job of capturing the D&D weapon's average damage as well as its dispersion/variation.
In practice, I am not sure if this damage formula will work out! But its something I want to try and test.
Classes
The wacky classes I've come up with were more chosen for wackiness quotient than for reasonable and workable gameplay, so it's been a challenge brainstorming, balancing, and complementing these classes with each other, while also meshing with the worldbuilding! Stupid me!
In my infinite wisdom I've selected the Facepuncher, Brave, Technoviking, Beekeeper, Guitaromancer, Gastromancer, Pokerface, Mad Hatter and Droid as my game's classes.
To keep it manageable, I decided to limit each class to 6 skills and to limit the number of levels to something like 10 or 12 and to keep stat growth rather small.
I am going to go through the classes one by one outlining what I've come up with, relating it to more familiar class archtypes, and going over the role I hope for it. I also have no real clue how this whole "TP" thing works in Ace.
In oldschool RPG terms, you had common archtypes like FIGHTER (fast damage dealer), SOLDIER (slow damage dealer with high defense), MAGE (squishy offensive magic caster), HEALER (healing magic caster) and ROGUE (very fast middling damage output but usually coupled with some unique skill or equipment). Oh yeah, and the HERO (kinda good at everything). I tried to balance these weirdo classes by tying them to one or two of these oldschool ones.
Keep in mind this is all early brainstorming...
For information, here are the elements and statuses
Elements
Physical
Energy
Fire
Ice
Lightning
Sonic
Poison (organics only)
Ion (robot only)
Healing (organics only)
Repairing (robots only)
Surprise - some people think there are 4 elements; they are wrong. They forget the element of SURPRISE
Statuses
Poisoned - Slip damage (human only)
Swarmed - Slip damage
Blind - Prevent physical attacks
Mute - Prevent magical attacks
Stunned - Prevent any actions
Confused - Attack allies
Counter - Counterattack
Berserk - Attack enemies with Attack boost
Maxpow - Attack boost
Maxbrite - Magic boost
Maxward - Defense and Magic Defense boost
Maxrun - Agility boost
Forcefield - Repel energy attacks
Hidden - Evade boost
Weak - Attack, Defense, Magic debuff
Cover - Cover other allies with low HP
Facepuncher
Category: FIGHTER
Role: Surge Damage
Weapon: FISTS (or maybe gloves?)
This guy is going to be my straight-up fighter, with some elemental affinity.
One Inch Punch - weaker attack, but with a speed boost
Haymaker - (PHYSICAL) stronger attack, but with chance to miss or random target
Fist Feast - (PHYSICAL) attack 4 random targets (weaker attack)
Dragon Uppercut - (FIRE) fire punch
Falcon Punch - (SONIC) sonic punch
The Shocker - electric punch
Dim Mak - (PHYSICAL) attack with a chance to stun
TP Special: Fists of Fury - (PHYSICAL) physical damage all
Brave
Category: MAGE/FIGHTER
Role: Generalist
Weapon (dual wield): Axes, Blaster Pistol
This guy I probably struggled with the most, because I didn't have a clear idea of what I wanted him to be, and the ideas I did have overlapped heavily with a lot of others. Then I played to the end of FF5 and realized I liked the Summoner class. So this guy became a summoner/fighter class that calls upon animal spirits!
Spirit Stallion - haste party
Crowfoot - stun enemies
Otter Romp - heal party
Screaming Eagle - (SONIC) sonic attack vs enemies
Wolverine Claw - attack x2
Brother Bear - defense buff party (ward)
TP Special: Aurora (revive and heal allies)
Technoviking
Category: REPAIRER/FIGHTER
Role: Repair/Surge Damage
Weapon: Axe, Blaster Rifle, Shield
There are droids in this game, remember, so Repairing is like healing, but for robots. This guy is also a viking so he goes "viking" (the verb) (ie- steal) and can enter a berserker rage. But he is also techno, so he repairs and reboots droids
Viking - steal
Berserker Rage - berserk gives ATK and AGL boost, but loose control
Repair Tech - heal droid
Reboot - revive droid
Ionic Wave - heavy damage vs droids (in KOTOR, Ion did heavy damage vs droids, but was ineffective vs humans)
Runic Buff - ATK buff
TP Special: Ragnarok (chance of instant death)
Beekeeper
Category: HEALER/FIGHTER
Role: Heal/Sustained Damage
Weapon: Dipstick, Sword, Shield
This is an old class idea I lifted directly from T&T (an old game idea of mine) and during the course of its development, we realized that the Beekeeper is essentially a Paladin - but with BEES.
Bee Swarm - attack all with chance for slip damage
Honey - heal ally
Hivemind - confusion skill
Hive Guard - counterattack mode
Beeswax Salve - status ailment heal
Royal Jelly - heal ally more
TP Special: Bee Dance (MP heal)
Guitaromancer
Category: MAGE
Role: Surge Damage/Crowd Control
Weapon: Guitars, Lyres, Lutes
Another class lifted from T&T. I am playing him as mostly a straight-up mage because I am uncreative. (Maybe once I get to his spin-off game I will really go hogwild with the gameplay systems!)
Light My Fire - fire
Ice Ice Baby - ice
Thunderstruck - lighting
Rock You Like A Hurricane - sonic
Toxic - poison
Auto-Tune - general stat boost (atk, magic, defense)
TP Special: Killer Riff (surprise damage all)
Gastromancer
Category: HEALER/SOLDIER
Role: Healing/Tanking
Weapon: Frying Pans
A variation on the Barkeep class from T&T, with a bit of alchemy thrown in.He is my least developed class at the moment, so bear with me. I intend to have him as the healer, but also have high defense and HP, but the skills I have for him aren't really jiving with that!
The Gastromancer will have two available specialties that you pick at the start: Gourmand (offense) and Gourmet (support). Both will have the Iron Chef skill (cover) and the Yerba Mate Tea (heal + status recovery), but the other four skills depend on the specialty chosen. Both specialties share the same
Tonic - heal ally
Ether - MP recover ally
Ailment Ale - status ailment heal
Witch's Brew - poison attack
Firepepper - fire attack
Energy Drink - stat boost
Iron Chef - cover allies with low HP
Yerba Mate - heal and status recovery
> Gourmand
Coq au Vin - target's critical rate up
Chillying Sea Bass - ice attack
Witch's Brew - poison attack
Shrimp Gumbo - mute
> Gourmet
Turtle Soup - target's mp cost reduced
Cherries Jubilee - attack and magic boost
Horiatiki Salata - agility boost
Soylent Green - regen HP
TP Special: Elixir (HP/MP recovery)
Pokerface
Category: ROGUE
Role: Support
Weapon: Blaster Pistol, Knife
Kind of my ninja/samurai class. Also underdeveloped at the moment.
Check - scan enemy
Raise - revive ally
Fold - hide from enemies/evade rate boost
Ante Up - Gil Toss like skill
Wild Card - random effect!
???/All In/Royal Flush - I don't know what to do with the 6th skill
Big Blind - blind enemies
TP Special: Liar's Dice (random damage based on number of "dice" earned in the round)
Mad Hatter
Category: HERO
Role: Depends!
Weapon: I don't know yet!
The idea behind this guy is that he can wear hats! And hats convey different abilities! And you can change hats!
> Tuque - ice skills
Ice
Iceall
Icemore
TP Special: Freeze - stun enemies
> Sombrero - fire skills
Fire
Fireall
Firemore
TP Special: Ignite - haste allies
> Zucchetto - healing skills
Heal
Healus
Healmore
TP Special: Prayer - MP heal
> Mitre - lightning skills
Lit
Litall
Litmore
TP Special: Thunderclap - mute enemies
> Beanie - ion/repair skills
Ion
Ionall
Repair Tech
TP Special: Flash - blind enemies
> Cowboy - physical skills
Quick Draw - fast attack but lower damage
Six-Shooter - attack x6 but weaker
Bushwack - heavy attack but slower
TP Special: Stampede - damage all
> Fedora - general elemental skills (weak)
Ice
Fire
Lit
Ion
Heal
TP Special: Antipode - all elements attack
> Top Hat - general elemental skills (strong)
Icemore
Firemore
Litmore
Ionmore
Healmore
TP Special: Dapper Strike - surprise attack
> Ass Hat - status effects
Poison
Stun
Confuse
Weaken
TP Special: Lucky Strike - critical attack
> Capotain - support/revive
Life
Reboot
Silence - mute
Ward - defense boost
TP Special: Pilgrimage - counterattack for party
Droid
Category: SOLDIER
Role: Depends!
Weapon: Blaster Pistol, Blaster Rifle
Initially, I was going to have two different droids - a utility droid (think R2-D2) and a combat droid (think HK-47) but instead I came up with the idea of mid-way through the classes growth, you could permanently apply a programming module: Medbot, Techbot, Warbot or Tankbot. Unlike the Mad Hatter, though, you can't switch out.
Diagnostics - self-repair
System Shock - lightning attack
Reboot - revive other robots
TP Special: Plasma - ion attack
> Medbot
Triage - heal all allies (humans)
Acute Care - heal ally a lot (humans)
Revive - revive to full health (human)
TP Special: Viral Injection - strong poison attack
> Techbot
Repair Tech - repair ally (droids)
Forcefield - reflect energy attacks
Barrier - status resistance + recovery
TP Special: Reset - reboot/repair to full health
> Warbot
Rapid Fire - attack x3 (ENERGY)
Flamethrower - fire skill enemies (FIRE)
System Shock 2 - stronger lighting attack (LIGHTNING)
TP Special: CRUSH! KILL! DESTROY! - heavy attack
> Tankbot
Tank - cover (like Cecil in FF4)
Synthweave - defense boost
Magneto - taunt enemies
TP Special: Refactor - repair and status heal self
So there you have it! My ideas so far. Please weigh in. Also, skills are definitely subject to change (and you can also see where they might not be well thought out!).
Remember, in this game you get 4 party members, and they can be of ANY class (even two of the same class).
UPDATE (Apr 9):
I further refined the skills for some of the classes, and added info on the elements and statuses.
I have been keeping this on the backburner since I last posted an update on this gameprofile (February 21st, it appears). I haven't really done much, to be honest, but today I sat down and did some brainstorming and refinement of my class ideas. I'll get to those...
But first some housekeeping!
I plan to finish this game this
While my April Fools status had me claiming that I'd finish a game a month for a year (which I could never do), I do want to start clearing out some of my game design ideas! It's been too long since I've released anything of merit...
Aether Pulse is not a big game. It was supposed to be a small game made for the Cook Off. While the scope is bigger than I initially envisioned, it's still pretty tiny, as far as RPGs go.
Moving this to the full version of RPG Maker VX Ace
Since the contest is well over, there is no advantage for me to keep on Lite. This is still my first VX Ace game and I won't be using the engine to its full potential, I will be using it to overcome Lite's limitations (fuck you 10 events per map!)
My Vision
I aim to make this game by myself with custom assets that I've developed myself... with the exception of sound effects. I have no fucking clue how to go about making those. But music, tilesets, enemies, charsets, artwork - yeah, I'm going to try my hand at that (even
Balancing and Numbers
Since this is a small personal project, there was a stats system I was going to try to see if it's viable. It is a variation/interpretation of some D&D rules. That means stats in the 8 to 18 range for classes, and a battle formula that accounts for that.
(a.atk - 8) - ((b.def - 10) / 2) + rand(4)
ATK will be the character's strength and weapon damage. To come up with relatable weapon damages, I would take a common D&D damage range (ie- 1 to 4, or 2 to 12) and work it through this formula:
Avg(Min,Max) + 0.5(Max - Avg(Min,Max)
I think this does a good job of capturing the D&D weapon's average damage as well as its dispersion/variation.
In practice, I am not sure if this damage formula will work out! But its something I want to try and test.
Classes
The wacky classes I've come up with were more chosen for wackiness quotient than for reasonable and workable gameplay, so it's been a challenge brainstorming, balancing, and complementing these classes with each other, while also meshing with the worldbuilding! Stupid me!
In my infinite wisdom I've selected the Facepuncher, Brave, Technoviking, Beekeeper, Guitaromancer, Gastromancer, Pokerface, Mad Hatter and Droid as my game's classes.
To keep it manageable, I decided to limit each class to 6 skills and to limit the number of levels to something like 10 or 12 and to keep stat growth rather small.
I am going to go through the classes one by one outlining what I've come up with, relating it to more familiar class archtypes, and going over the role I hope for it. I also have no real clue how this whole "TP" thing works in Ace.
In oldschool RPG terms, you had common archtypes like FIGHTER (fast damage dealer), SOLDIER (slow damage dealer with high defense), MAGE (squishy offensive magic caster), HEALER (healing magic caster) and ROGUE (very fast middling damage output but usually coupled with some unique skill or equipment). Oh yeah, and the HERO (kinda good at everything). I tried to balance these weirdo classes by tying them to one or two of these oldschool ones.
Keep in mind this is all early brainstorming...
For information, here are the elements and statuses
Elements
Physical
Energy
Fire
Ice
Lightning
Sonic
Poison (organics only)
Ion (robot only)
Healing (organics only)
Repairing (robots only)
Surprise - some people think there are 4 elements; they are wrong. They forget the element of SURPRISE
Statuses
Poisoned - Slip damage (human only)
Swarmed - Slip damage
Blind - Prevent physical attacks
Mute - Prevent magical attacks
Stunned - Prevent any actions
Confused - Attack allies
Counter - Counterattack
Berserk - Attack enemies with Attack boost
Maxpow - Attack boost
Maxbrite - Magic boost
Maxward - Defense and Magic Defense boost
Maxrun - Agility boost
Forcefield - Repel energy attacks
Hidden - Evade boost
Weak - Attack, Defense, Magic debuff
Cover - Cover other allies with low HP
Facepuncher
Category: FIGHTER
Role: Surge Damage
Weapon: FISTS (or maybe gloves?)
This guy is going to be my straight-up fighter, with some elemental affinity.
One Inch Punch - weaker attack, but with a speed boost
Haymaker - (PHYSICAL) stronger attack, but with chance to miss or random target
Fist Feast - (PHYSICAL) attack 4 random targets (weaker attack)
Dragon Uppercut - (FIRE) fire punch
Falcon Punch - (SONIC) sonic punch
Dim Mak - (PHYSICAL) attack with a chance to stun
TP Special: Fists of Fury - (PHYSICAL) physical damage all
Brave
Category: MAGE/FIGHTER
Role: Generalist
Weapon (dual wield): Axes, Blaster Pistol
This guy I probably struggled with the most, because I didn't have a clear idea of what I wanted him to be, and the ideas I did have overlapped heavily with a lot of others. Then I played to the end of FF5 and realized I liked the Summoner class. So this guy became a summoner/fighter class that calls upon animal spirits!
Spirit Stallion - haste party
Crowfoot - stun enemies
Otter Romp - heal party
Screaming Eagle - (SONIC) sonic attack vs enemies
Wolverine Claw - attack x2
Brother Bear - defense buff party (ward)
TP Special: Aurora (revive and heal allies)
Technoviking
Category: REPAIRER/FIGHTER
Role: Repair/Surge Damage
Weapon: Axe, Blaster Rifle, Shield
There are droids in this game, remember, so Repairing is like healing, but for robots. This guy is also a viking so he goes "viking" (the verb) (ie- steal) and can enter a berserker rage. But he is also techno, so he repairs and reboots droids
Viking - steal
Berserker Rage - berserk gives ATK and AGL boost, but loose control
Repair Tech - heal droid
Reboot - revive droid
Ionic Wave - heavy damage vs droids (in KOTOR, Ion did heavy damage vs droids, but was ineffective vs humans)
Runic Buff - ATK buff
TP Special: Ragnarok (chance of instant death)
Beekeeper
Category: HEALER/FIGHTER
Role: Heal/Sustained Damage
Weapon: Dipstick, Sword, Shield
This is an old class idea I lifted directly from T&T (an old game idea of mine) and during the course of its development, we realized that the Beekeeper is essentially a Paladin - but with BEES.
Bee Swarm - attack all with chance for slip damage
Honey - heal ally
Hivemind - confusion skill
Hive Guard - counterattack mode
Beeswax Salve - status ailment heal
Royal Jelly - heal ally more
TP Special: Bee Dance (MP heal)
Guitaromancer
Category: MAGE
Role: Surge Damage/Crowd Control
Weapon: Guitars, Lyres, Lutes
Another class lifted from T&T. I am playing him as mostly a straight-up mage because I am uncreative. (Maybe once I get to his spin-off game I will really go hogwild with the gameplay systems!)
Light My Fire - fire
Ice Ice Baby - ice
Thunderstruck - lighting
Rock You Like A Hurricane - sonic
Toxic - poison
Auto-Tune - general stat boost (atk, magic, defense)
TP Special: Killer Riff (surprise damage all)
Gastromancer
Category: HEALER/SOLDIER
Role: Healing/Tanking
Weapon: Frying Pans
A variation on the Barkeep class from T&T, with a bit of alchemy thrown in.
The Gastromancer will have two available specialties that you pick at the start: Gourmand (offense) and Gourmet (support). Both will have the Iron Chef skill (cover) and the Yerba Mate Tea (heal + status recovery), but the other four skills depend on the specialty chosen. Both specialties share the same
Ether - MP recover ally
Ailment Ale - status ailment heal
Witch's Brew - poison attack
Firepepper - fire attack
Energy Drink - stat boost
Iron Chef - cover allies with low HP
Yerba Mate - heal and status recovery
> Gourmand
Coq au Vin - target's critical rate up
Chillying Sea Bass - ice attack
Witch's Brew - poison attack
Shrimp Gumbo - mute
> Gourmet
Turtle Soup - target's mp cost reduced
Cherries Jubilee - attack and magic boost
Horiatiki Salata - agility boost
Soylent Green - regen HP
TP Special: Elixir (HP/MP recovery)
Pokerface
Category: ROGUE
Role: Support
Weapon: Blaster Pistol, Knife
Kind of my ninja/samurai class. Also underdeveloped at the moment.
Check - scan enemy
Raise - revive ally
Fold - hide from enemies/evade rate boost
Ante Up - Gil Toss like skill
Wild Card - random effect!
Big Blind - blind enemies
TP Special: Liar's Dice (random damage based on number of "dice" earned in the round)
Mad Hatter
Category: HERO
Role: Depends!
Weapon: I don't know yet!
The idea behind this guy is that he can wear hats! And hats convey different abilities! And you can change hats!
> Tuque - ice skills
Ice
Iceall
Icemore
TP Special: Freeze - stun enemies
> Sombrero - fire skills
Fire
Fireall
Firemore
TP Special: Ignite - haste allies
> Zucchetto - healing skills
Heal
Healus
Healmore
TP Special: Prayer - MP heal
> Mitre - lightning skills
Lit
Litall
Litmore
TP Special: Thunderclap - mute enemies
> Beanie - ion/repair skills
Ion
Ionall
Repair Tech
TP Special: Flash - blind enemies
> Cowboy - physical skills
Quick Draw - fast attack but lower damage
Six-Shooter - attack x6 but weaker
Bushwack - heavy attack but slower
TP Special: Stampede - damage all
> Fedora - general elemental skills (weak)
Ice
Fire
Lit
Ion
Heal
TP Special: Antipode - all elements attack
> Top Hat - general elemental skills (strong)
Icemore
Firemore
Litmore
Ionmore
Healmore
TP Special: Dapper Strike - surprise attack
> Ass Hat - status effects
Poison
Stun
Confuse
Weaken
TP Special: Lucky Strike - critical attack
> Capotain - support/revive
Life
Reboot
Silence - mute
Ward - defense boost
TP Special: Pilgrimage - counterattack for party
Droid
Category: SOLDIER
Role: Depends!
Weapon: Blaster Pistol, Blaster Rifle
Initially, I was going to have two different droids - a utility droid (think R2-D2) and a combat droid (think HK-47) but instead I came up with the idea of mid-way through the classes growth, you could permanently apply a programming module: Medbot, Techbot, Warbot or Tankbot. Unlike the Mad Hatter, though, you can't switch out.
Diagnostics - self-repair
System Shock - lightning attack
Reboot - revive other robots
TP Special: Plasma - ion attack
> Medbot
Triage - heal all allies (humans)
Acute Care - heal ally a lot (humans)
Revive - revive to full health (human)
TP Special: Viral Injection - strong poison attack
> Techbot
Repair Tech - repair ally (droids)
Forcefield - reflect energy attacks
Barrier - status resistance + recovery
TP Special: Reset - reboot/repair to full health
> Warbot
Rapid Fire - attack x3 (ENERGY)
Flamethrower - fire skill enemies (FIRE)
System Shock 2 - stronger lighting attack (LIGHTNING)
TP Special: CRUSH! KILL! DESTROY! - heavy attack
> Tankbot
Tank - cover (like Cecil in FF4)
Synthweave - defense boost
Magneto - taunt enemies
TP Special: Refactor - repair and status heal self
So there you have it! My ideas so far. Please weigh in. Also, skills are definitely subject to change (and you can also see where they might not be well thought out!).
Remember, in this game you get 4 party members, and they can be of ANY class (even two of the same class).
UPDATE (Apr 9):
I further refined the skills for some of the classes, and added info on the elements and statuses.
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