Hi there. I'm definitely not trying to become not a Leech so I can not not request a script. Definitely not.
Anyways, I have two ideas for RPGs (using RPG Maker XP) bobbing around my head which are fairly different from eachother. One is a lot more complicated to make but undoubtably much more awesome, while the other is relatively standard. Thing is, I have terrible motivation and tend to never get past two hours of gameplay's worth of RPG, so the completion ANYWAY is relatively VERY LOW. ^_^; Anyways, which of the two ideas do you think I should try to tackle? Also, note that I have next to no storyline or specifics thought out yet, so bear with me...
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Standardish Initially Unoriginal RPG
In this idea, I felt like doing the cliched six- or eight-elemental stuff, with the unoriginal dragons representing each and the half-true promise of 'non-linear' gameplay. Basically, the heroes start in the middle of the available world or so and for whatever reason the story presents, they're tasked to go kill each dragon to save the world and stuff. Each character has their own elemental alignment type thing, and when you start the game you get to choose the main character's alignment (fire, water, ice, etc) and their preferred fighting style (melee, magic, balance, y'know). The player can choose which of the six/eight dragons to hunt down first, and each dragon and preceding monsters get progressively stronger depending on which order you go first (for reasons that are actually explained in the story because that was one of the few things I didn't like in Final Fantasy VIII).
Specifically, when you slay your first dragon, some mysterious light I haven't specifically identified yet would rise up out of it into the air and burst into whatever number of smaller mysterious lights (based on the number of remaining dragons at that point) and fly away. Later the party learns that these are sort of reinforcing the powers of the other dragons. For example, dragons 2 through 6/8 would have part of dragon 1's power to strengthen itself, and near the end of that part of the game the last dragon would have the combined power of all the dragons (though in the form of basic things like HP and SP and more advanced variations of its element-based skills, not a fire dragon that can suddenly use water magic and stuff).
Furthermore, after slaying the first dragon the world noticably changes. Since each element has its counter-element like, for example, fire and water (though I'd probably pair them with something else, but whatever), killing the dragon that represents, say, fire, would cause some kind of imbalance in the world and stuff and it would start raining and flooding a lot. The balance is restored when the water dragon is also killed. Thus the world can enter various states of disarray throughout the progress of the game, such as the whether being very dry and warm (fire overbalanced), really cold and snowy (ice overbalance), really, really, really, windy (wind overbalance), et cetera.
The only problem with that idea is that I think I would have to force the player to slay the counter-element dragon to restore the balance without informing the characters why it's raining a lot (or whatever) in the first place. So I'd have to do stuff like conveniently flood the paths to all the other dragons that aren't the water one, dry out some lake that needs to be crossed by boat for some reason, cause a rockslide, et cetera. This is the only way I can see how I would counter the possibility of multiple imbalances at once. Like a fire overbalance and a wind overbalance at the same time without reducing the impact of each overbalance on the world.
However, the idea, compared to the next one, is extremely easier to make, and has a relatively greater chance of finishing it. However, it won't as easily shower me with the fame I so shamelessly desire. :P
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Ridiculously Complicated Realistic Awesomesauce
In this idea, the game has several immersive and innovative features. Because I'm very ambitious like that.
For less entirely original starters, the main character is, in effect, the player. Not as in the player fell out of Earth and landed in mystical fantasy zone, but Knights of the Old Republic style. Yes, to have the player interact in every conversation his or her character has with every NPC. This will itself probably require a script, since Show Choices or whatever limits you to four choices that don't provide enough space for a decently-lengthed answer anyway. The character would also interact with the other party members, perhaps whenver they so wish (again, like KotOR). This would require either an option in the menu screen to talk to a character (similar to how Dragon Quest VIII did it) or to have them (like KotOR) following the main character and can be spoken like any other NPC by walking up and talking to them. However, the latter option would require that the party members would follow the main charater, but in a way that allows the player to walk up to them and speak to them. Thus, this would render the caterpillar system ineffective, and would require very advanced event-usage and/or equally advanced scripting to have player characters follow the player around without walking into a tree among other things. Though the former option is immensely easier, the latter option would simply be SO MUCH MORE AWESOME if it worked properly.
I'm just getting started, however. The main character's personality is determined by all the player's choices in dialogue and other actions. NPCs will, of course, react accordingly. Slightly more important NPCs will remember the general idea of the character and act accordignly around them (friendly to nice people, unfriendly or scared of mean people). Other NPCs that are actually characters will remember specific things the player says, have specific, hidden gauges on how much they like and trust the player, and, of course, act appropriately. This doesn't even neccessarily even mean when the player is talkign to that particular character, either. If the player is really nice to Jill, who likes nice people, but is very mean to other characters and Jill witnesses it, she probably won't like the character (going so far as to be confused as to why the player is so nice to Jill and only Jill, and mistrusting the player's motives, and, depending on the character, filling in the blanks with their unique imaginations. I can tell I'm too ambitious.
The other big thing is that the story is not only non-linear, but not directed by the player. In other words, yeah, Meteor is going to hit Midgar and destroy the world in two days, according to Barret (or Cid, I forget). Two sleeps at the inn later, and it's still two days left. But then those two days have passed even if you only took two hours to go from that point and beat Sephiroth and whatever. Except NO. To be more specific, it wouldn't be a page-by-page book about the life of the main character, while all the other characters and events wait around for the convienience of the player to go to them, but instead an RPG that has a realistic story with several characters following all their own stories and paths at a realistic pace with the game only being in the perspective of one character.
Example 1: A tournament of some sort starts in three game days, and the player wants to participate and has to sign up within those three days. If the player arrives four days later, the tournament has already started and the player doesn't get to participate until next unrealistically short amount of time (side quests will have magical powers like that).
Example 2: Frank, enraged at the death of Bill, decides he will avenge Bill's death by going to Ultikusepheymour's lair and having a fight to the death. Frank will go from point A to point B. The player is at point C, which allows the player to head Frank off half-way to point B, in an attempt to dissaude him from killing himself or in an attempt to join him and fight Ultikusepheymour together. Or the player takes a bit too long and is too late but arrives in time to see Frank in mid-battle. Or later than that and finds him dead. Or doesn't go at all and is told later by Alex that Frank is dead.
Example 3: Jill is a character from town Superville. The player is told by Bill that "someone in Superville wants to meet you." Jill wants to hire the player to help her recover some important thing that was stolen from her from a violent bandit because the authorities don't police areas outside of town and won't help her. She really needs that important thing back for whatever reason. The player decides that's boring and travels in the opposite direction to Lazy Town. Meanwhile, Jill is waiting, but the player doesn't show up. But since she needs that important thing, she goes alone in pursuit of that bandit. She goes to Somuther City in search of clues. If after a while the player happens to travel there he or she might bump into Jill. If not, after a few days Jill will have found out where the bandit is and goes and confronts him. The bandit of course wins and decides to make pretty Jill his unwilling wife and ties her up in his camp or some such. Bill later discovers this, but because he isn't stupid, doesn't try to be a hero but tracks down the player to tell him/her the bad news and tries to hire the player (the player actually doesn't know it happened UNTIL Bill tells him, but the stuff is actually happening and the variables secretly tinkered with by the game). The player accepts and they go and rescue her. Or the player isn't interested and starts to walk away. Bill tries to offer more money or something more valuable, but the player still refuses and promptly returns to Lazy Town. Bill tries to find help since he's smart enough to know he'll die if he goes alone and eventually meets Frank, who, because he's so awesome, agrees to help Bill. Still unknown to the player, they go and kill the bandit and rescues Jill. So, ultimately, the results of the game are that the player meets Jill and Frank and different possible times in the game, Jill and Bill don't like the player, Frank probably doesn't like the player, Jill, Bill, and Frank don't really want to have anything to do with the player, and Jill and Frank may develop a relationship when otherwise Jill and the player could have developed such a relation if the player was likeable enough, was male (though I suppose I COULD add the option of the player's sexual orientation...), and was so willing. By the way, that could happen maybe. Except better than KotOR's way of doing it.
Example #4: The player hasn't met John. John comes from the north somewhere and is travelling southward. The most direct path has a broken bridge, and if it isn't fixed by the time John arrives at the bridge, he has to take an extra few days reaching his destination by taking an alternate route. A side quest of some sort that the player can do fixes the bridge for the player's own convienience. If the player fixes the bridge before John arrives at the bridge, John will reach his destination faster and start doing whatever he's trying to do. Futhermore, if at the right time, the player can meet John at an inn that's located on the alternate route. They converse, and John takes a liking to the player, but they part ways. John reaches his destination, and his mission is to go to a dungeon that's actually in the game and find some sort of thing. The player could have, but hasn't, gone to this dungeon. After whatever time, John completes the dungeon and in a chest finds some cool sword that was in a chest that's in the actual, playable dungeon. This sword is a key item for some later part of the storyline or a sidequest. Since the rules of "key items can't be sold for some reason" apply to this game, but not to NPC's, and since John has no real use of it, he decides to sell it to the next weapon shop he reaches. Assume he does, and later in the game join the main character's party. John's weapons and armour will be better than what they would have been if he had joined before selling the sword and getting extra money. Plus, minor NPCs in whatever town will start talking about rumours of "an amazing new sword" that the weapon shop has. Or, the player tells John about his quest, or the party receives such a quest, and John remembers selling that sword to that weapon shop. However, as it happens, John has a memory problem and has to write things down important things in a notebook because he forgets what he's done approximately two weeks prior. So, two weeks after he sells the sword, he won't remember to mention that he sold the sword to the player, because he was unaware of its importance and as such didn't bother to write it down, knowing he'd sell it within a few days. However, in the event that the player bumps into John in the short timeframe between John finding the sword and selling the sword, John, who as earlier stated likes the player, might simply give the player the sword as a gift if the player or on of his/her party members uses a sword. Or, if John joins the party at that point, teh sword (and any other weapons/armour John intended to sell) would be added to the party inventory.
Of course, I don't intend to be so specific as "You have 48 hours, start time, NOW!" Or "It's 3:00 and Frank'll arrive at about 3:15 so you have that long to do whatever." Instead of having an actual in-game clock that keeps going even when the player's house randomly catches fire and he or she forgets to pause the game and doesn't want to turn it off and doesn't have time to go to the save point that's a minute away and save it and comes back twenty minutes later to find Frank dead but hasn't saved it for a couple hours and doesn't want to play it over again. That would just be stupid. Instead, there'd be a pseudo-ingame clock that's characterised mainly by what day it is and whether it's, say, morning, afternoon, evening, and night, where time doesn't actively progress, but it just changes parts of day when they do things like sleep at the inn or travel a considerable distance outside of towns and other such deliberate things. This system allows a realistic time-of-day that can still be controlled by the player without the risk of time progressing too naturally fast for the player who doesn't want to waste a few game-days being stuck at one puzzle. So, to quote the above examples, the times in-game would be about this:
Example #1 (Tournament): The sign-up for the tournament ends at Evening of Day 12 in-game. The player arrives in the Morning of Day 13. Sign-ups are closed, and the talk around the city is about the contestants. Or, the player arrives at any time of Day 15. The tournament is well underway with several contestants eliminated, and the talk of the city is some randomly-generated "interesting" battles that occured. Or, the player arrives at Morning of Day 16. The talk of the city is that the final round takes place to today, and tickets are available. Or, the player arrives at Afternoon of Day 16. The tickets are sold out. Or, the player arrives at Evening of Day 16. The tournament is already over.
Example #2 (Frank vs Ultikusepheymour): Bill dies on Day 21. In the Morning of Day 22, Frank leaves point A on his way to Point B. If the player arrives to a particular area between points A and B durign the Morning, the player will run into Frank. By Afternoon, Frank is already arrived at point B and when the player arrives, Frank is engagned in battle with Ultikusepheymour and the player can react accordingly. But if the player arrives in the Evening or later, Frank is already dead. If the player doesn't go at all, Bill will tell the player the news during the Night of Day 22, waking the player up to tell him/her the news.
Example #3 (Jill's Important Thing): Jill assumes the player isn't going to arrive on Day 3, and in the morning of Day 4, starts her way to Sumuther City. She arrives in the Afternoon of Day 4. In the morning of Day 7, if the player hasn't met and joined Jill, Jill starts her way alone to confront the bandit. If the player hasn't joined her by the Afternoon of Day 7, Jill will be captured. The player can go at any time afterward and rescue her by coincidence, and for a while there'll be some talk about Jill's searching in Sumuther City. Bill discovers the news at some point in Day 9, and starts to track down the player. However, how long that takes depends on where the player is in relation to Bill and how famous the player is (thus affecting how often s/he's talked about and tracked and such). For this example, we'll say Bill finds the player on the Morning of Day 11. If the player refuses, and Bill hires Frank, this takes place, for example, on the Evening of Day 11. On the Morning of Day 12, they start there way to the bandit's camp. How long this takes depends on how far away they are. If the player hasn't rescued Jill alone or hasn't joined Frank and Bill by, say, Afternoon of Day 14, Frank and Bill rescue Jill by themselves.
Example #4 (John and the key-item Sword): John leaves wherever on Day 1. He arrives at the bridge at Afternoon of Day 2. If it's fixed by then, he arrives at his destination by the Afternoon of Day 3. Or it takes him until the Evening of Day 4. Assume he met the player at the Inn, at Evening of Day 3 before he goes to bed, so arriving at his destination Evening of Day 4 as stated. During the Morning of Day 5, John is in the dungeon. Assume he finds the sword. During the Afternoon of Day 5, John is making his way back to the town and can meet the player and give him the sword as a gift. Else, by Evening of Day 5, John has sold the sword. John's memory lasts approximately two weeks. A variable will randomly determine when he forgets about selling the sword somewhere between Morning of Day 17 and Night of Day 23 (for a give-or-take 3 days example, I don't actually know anything about memory loss). If after this randomly determined time the player talks to John about his quest to find the sword or the party receives this quest, John will not remember selling the sword and thusly won't tell the player about it.
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So, as you can see by the sheer size of the latter idea, it's much more complicated and difficult to make. However, with so many things happening at once, and so many different possible paths, the game can offer numerous endings and countless variations to that ending. For that matter, entirely different stories determined from an early point in the game. Assuming the game is actually FUN enough(some professional RPGs fail to do that *cough Chrono Cross cough*), the game can be replayed multiple times with near-infinite different experiences throughout the game.
I love my latter idea, but the chances of me doing in are, like, a thousandth as likely as completing the first idea, which is less than 5% anyway since I can't forge commitment 'cause I fail at life, or whatever.
And I've thought about combining the two ideas, but the somewhat-linear and basic system of the former, I don't think, would mix well with the excessive realism of the latter.
Anyways... perhaps I'm looking at it the wrong way. Perhaps my first post on the forum should trigger a huge, collaborative RMRK between all the interested members. Or perhaps something similar has already been suggested and I'm a bad person for saying it again, even though it took me three hours to write this post. This post should count as ten posts as it is, but whatever. Back to beign serious.
So, which idea should I think about starting more? Or should this be offered to the community as a huge group project? Or am I being ambitious to the point of sheer stupidity? Please leave your comments (and any questions), I'll appreciate them all! ^_^
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