MEWD'S PROFILE

I ask your pardon, Eschalt. I'm having a hard time understanding a lot of what you are saying.

I'll let Kentona and anyone else who intends to do system work decide what is and isn't plausible in this. But I don't imagine it to be that difficult to allot points to spend per level up. And you wouldn't necessarily need an NPC character to spend such points. It could be an inventory item or skill that brings up a menu or be an option accessible at save points. Assuming a custom menu isn't bothered with.

Instantly changing party members partially made sense in Chrono Trigger because of the time portals/the epoch, but in this scenario, most contrivances I can think of are not very attractive. Mages summoning people to and fro, perhaps.

Personally, I'd rather have one consistent party that is heavily customizable than having the ability to switch people out. I sort of like the idea that the world military is so crushed that no one can begin to reorganize it for such an effort as a guild system. But that's just my vote. I will see how the group at large feels.

Being able to instantly able to transfer a character to your current location could be exploitable. Of course, one might argue that a player is entitled to this if they bother to level up a whole separate character just to be good in one or two particular skills. But I think it adds a certain replay value to make the player commit to a selection of skills

Another personal note: I loathe blue magic style skill learning. It's never seems like any fun unless you have foreknowledge of the bestiary.

And going back over the topic, I am all for an intricate plot and storyline. While story certainly doesn't make the game typically, to be constantly developing it is a good way to keep people interested (me, for one). Plus, I really love a good story. I would much rather have an atypical story, though.

I think it is perfectly possible to have a compelling storyline without bottlenecking the player into events. It relies more on world building and an assortment of smaller events to set the tone and personality for the game. Quests can be involving so long as the player actually sees an impact from their actions, even if it is entirely optional.

Don't get me wrong, though. I'm a cutscene whore, and I adore games that have momentum generated by story. But I kind of expect that leniar story telling wouldn't fit well for this project.

Instead of directly confronting a villain at the beginning, note that an evil exists elsewhere in the world, and the party, while not directly affected by its presence, will certainly have to confront it eventually. Even better, the great evil is defeated by the third party before the player even gets a shot at it. The third party could in the end be corrupted by an artifact possesed by the evil, forcing the player to battle old friends, too. This is just an example of a way to spice up an old cliche (not that this example hasn't been done before. .) While greater heroes are off fighting a terrible evil, the player's party could be stuck in more rudimentary conflict, like they are fighting against a not-so-evil rival faction that is vying to gain diplomatic control over the immediate region.

Assuming you aren't implying a time limit (time limits suck.) Kind of steals the player's thunder. It could be interesting, but probably doesn't fit this scenario unless this third party is introduced and endeared properly. Which may not work well when the game is this open ended. The player would HAVE to have some emotional investment in this third party or it would just be a more convoluted evil over the original.

I definitely think that the player should be distracted by smaller conflicts and events for much of the game. Taking on any villain probably shouldn't even be on their minds for a great long while considering the odds. Confronting the villain, whoever he might be, is inevitable but I'd like for the defeat in this war to feel like a grim reality.

What I envision is that the world is under the villain's total dominion. Rebellion has been crushed, and there is no real way to organize a new effort to take him down. He WON, and you're living by his rules now. It would be a slow and long process to work up enough to strike back, and right now, survival takes priority. This challenges the player if he should be selfish and better take care of his party or sacrifice in order to help the common man. Either you accumulate power by exploiting and taking advantage of people (Which would drive you into a darker alignment, but naturally offer you more instant gratification) or you would do your best to serve your fellow man at your own expense, (Which would drive you into a more heroic alignment, it would be more difficult, but the people would rally behind you.)

I'm not very worried about the confrontation between your party and the villain being cliche. We can flesh out the villain later. I'm thinking that atmosphere, character building and the involvement of many side events will shape this game more than direct story telling. I think this is an instance where a journey is its own reward.

I don't mind having classes so much.

Here's the thing about control: It's good to give the player choices, but TOO MANY choices can be utterly overwhelming. If you are are given a choice between too many statistics, the player won't have any idea what to invest in and would probably become frustrated when the game crushes them as a result.

Classes help define a character's role in the party. I would prefer a sort of Fallout style leveling up system, where you get points to spend. Give the player enough options so that they can pick a handful of skills that are gratifying to have, (Being able to open locked chests at the expense of not being able to disable traps, for instance) but at the same time offering value to see what the other skills are like.

You might be able to 'rotate' the leader (Like Final Fantasy 4,) but have it where the one in the lead is the one whose skills are accessible on the map. Is that a bit too much work?

I vote against a CBS. They take way too much time to implement, most of the ones I encounter are way too clunky and a lot of projects are canceled because they get too engross with custom systems. Four party members is enough. We can focus our efforts on our already ambitious on out-side battle skillsets and balancing the skills and quests.

Forking dialogue to react to alignement/charisma is more work, but I think it's perfectly reasonable if our story isn't driven by the Player Characters. I think we should aim more for memorable supporting characters and keep the heroes blank slate avatars for the player. That will give the player freedom in developing their heroes without worrying about their independant motives and backstories. Those would just get in the way for a game this open ended.

Edit:

It would be interesting that maybe the "epic weapons" stemmed from this initial party that gets wiped out.

That would be cool. Maybe we can use the text commands to name the weapons after whatever you name the initial protagonists, even.

As for 'guild master' style, I don't know. It WOULD allow the player to focus a character on any given skill, and be able to switch them out as necessary. But this would also kind of require a 'home base' and this could be massively inconvenient if you're traipsing all over the world. Personally, I prefer small parties, since I hate grinding to keep a half dozen people up to par. Guild format gives the player more versatility, but also moves us away from a sensation of a close knit group in a dog-eat-dog world.

Achievements are great and everything, but do you REALLY need to be acknowledged for your virtual accomplishments? They're just little digital trophies. They really shouldn't make normal games any less gratifying to play.

Sweet jujubees. I love Quest for Glory.

It would be good for the remaining participants to list their strengths and weaknesses as previously suggested. This way we can see what skills are available and how we can best utilize them. The participants are liable to shape what direction the game takes, so the game's potential mainly depends on what tools are available.

The project does not neccesarily have to be so old school that it can't raise above the faults of an old school style game. Assuming I'm allowed, I'm sure I can add more story depth to this than empty fetch quests. The game aims to be open ended, and open ended games have been perfectly capable of having interesting plot lines.

As for graphics, I don't know. I tend to feel rips are pretty lame. Low resolution graphics may have an appeal here, though. It depends on how well they're utilized.

Having a Pixel Artist wouldn't hurt either.