[XP] Novostrana (v0.30 - 14th May 2010)

Overview

Novostrana is a Fantasy RPG currently under development by RPG Magic.

In Novostrana you will meet many unique characters, travel through the vast wilderness, forests and marshes and fight many enemies. You will also be able to trade, perform alchemy, work with companions and participate in many more activities.

Novostrana will be free to download and play. No strings attached!

Feature List

• Over 80 unique areas to explore.
• Side Quests with many risks and rewards.
• Every person in the game has their own unique story to tell.
• Real-time on-map battles.
• Dynamic weather, lighting and time of day.
• Characters will do different things and be in different places in the game world depending on many factors, including time of day and weather.
• Dynamic Character Development where you choose how to upgrade your character.
• Your character actually wears the armour that you equip!
• Create items through Crafting.
• And much, much more!

Pictures

Spoiler for Pictures:

For more pictures, go to: http://www.moddb.com/games/novostrana/images

Novostrana v0.30

Version 0.30 has now been released!
To download it, click here.

A patch has also been released that fixes a couple of serious bugs: http://www.rpg-magic.org/games/novostrana/downloads/nov_032_patch.exe

It features a whole raft of improvements from the previous version:

Spoiler for Changelog:

Code: [Select]

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-----CHANGELOG-----
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----VERSION 0.30---
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1. Added Health and Vitality potions to the game.
2. Changed HUD to display Health and Vitality bars more accurately.
3. Changed 'Skill Points' to 'Vitality Points' and 'SP' to 'VP'.
4. Running and Jumping will now lower VP.
5. VP will recharge over time and recharge faster when sneaking.
6. Implemented new book viewing system.
7. Added new books and documents.
8. Redesigned the title screen background.
10. Added Running and Jumping as Skills.
11. Shadows have been removed.
12. ABS Pre-Menu disabled.
13. Hotkeys disabled.
14. Shop Loyalty system replaced with a Settlement Prosperity system.
15. Some controls have been remapped.
16. Some dialogue bugs corrected.
17. A new start has been implemented.
18. Mr Baldadrir is now called Vilfred.
19. Vilfred is now a Village Headman.
20. Mapped the 'M' Key to open the music selection menu and removed the option from the Journal.
21. Added new 'Statistics' option to the Journal.
22. The way bandits work has been changed.
23. Evil dialogue options and actions have been removed.
24. Fame has been added to the game, but due to the low number of quests it has    not been implemented yet.
25. An inventory weight limit system has been included.
26. You can now buy a bag to increase the weight limit.
27. Created new enemy groups.
28. Adjusted all weapons to have a greater reach to make combat easier.
29. Adjusted prices of all Weapons and Armours.
30. Changed some menu vocabulary.
31. Improved enemy AI.
32. Added interiors to all buildings in Willenke Village.
33. More buildings and interiors added to Willenke Village.
34. Updated title screen quit script to show a dialogue with forum details before quitting.
35. Added shortcut key to Journal.
36. Added a wait system so you can make time pass by.
37. Added lock-picking system.
38. Added door interaction system.
39. Max HP and VP calculation has been tweaked.
40. A Work Bench system has been implemented.
41. More NPCs have been added to Willenke Village.
42. All NPCs in Willenke now have Scheduals.
43. Doors will be locked when houses are not occupied or the residents are asleep.
44. Contextual dialogue added to NPCs in Willenke.
45. Added new icons.
46. More music added to Jukebox.
47. Proper track names are now displayed in the Jukebox.
48. A wooden background has been added to the Character Creation screen.
49. More Devil's Flowers added to Hirgil Marsh.
50. Random NPCs added to Willenke Inn.
51. Added a few more items to the game.
52. Updated a few items.
53. Character Creation has been overhauled.
54. Classes added to the game.
55. Your HP and VP will now be restored on Level-Up and the bars will be full when you start the game.
56. Random chest items lists set up.
57. More enemies and enemy types have been added to the game world.
58. Fixed several bugs in the Axe of Evil quest.
59. The game will now check how many people are in your party before it adds a new member.
60. Fixed a bug where the number of distributable level points was being   incorrectly calculated.
61. Some character graphics have been recoloured and some new ones added.
62. Fixed a bug where clouds would be shown when inside after sleeping.
63. Added more sound effects to some parts of the game.
64. Mining Equipment and a Mining system has been added to the game.
65. Added a new Level Up! HUD symbol.
66. You can now see what you are wearing!
67. The Game Over screen has been changed to look a bit better.
68. Enemy processing has been improved.
69. Added more Quests to the game.
70. A new game manual has been included.

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----VERSION 0.20---
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1. First Installer version of Novostrana.
2. Levelling and Stats have been completely overhauled.
3. A saved game auto-updater has been included.
4. All areas that were previously locked out are now accessible.
5. More areas have been added.
6. More quests have been added.
7. More NPCs have been added.
8. Can now check for updates.
9. New start and backstory implemented.
10. The game will now ask if you want to start the game in full screen mode.
11. A new credits script has been included with an up-to-date credits list.
12. Installed Blizz-ABS.
13. All Weapons and Armours have been rebalanced.
14. Fixed several issues with levelling-up.
15. Added new crafting system.
16. Added Dynamic Shop system.
17. Large pieces of dialogue have been split up a bit.
18. Tilesets should now work properly.
19. Fast Travel System added.
20. Banking System added.
21. Added new item limits system.
22. Documents system improved to show instructions text.
23. Item storage system added.
24. Night lighting has been rebalanced.
25. Shadows have been completely re-done.
26. Shadows can now be turned off.
27. A new game manual has been added.
28. An improved time system has been included, but not implemented yet.
29. Two "note" items have been converted to be viewed in the document viewer.
30. Items have been checked to make sure they can be used properly and whether they should be consumed or not.
31. A shop loyalty system has been implemented.
32. A few other things which I have forgotten!
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More Info

If you would like more information about this project, please visit:

Our Profile on ModDB

The Novostrana Minisite

I am so confused..... is this online?
cool though : D

It's an offline, single player game made with RPG Maker XP.

Looks cool, cant wait to see more xD and how long did it take to get over 100 locations O_o? it sounds like you guys are normal developed if you have over 100 good maps now xD.

waiting for the demo =]

We don't have over 100 maps just yet. That's what it will have when it's finished (maybe I need to fix the text to make it clear).
At the moment we have 67 areas, with more coming in the next release.
It's hard to say how long it took to make all the areas because we've been developing most of the different bits game simultaneously (i.e. we've been modifying the engine at the same time and doing graphics, etc).
We've been developing the game on-and-off since November 2007, but it's only been in 2009 that we've really started to do it properly.

Sorry for double-post. A new version of Novostrana has been released. See the first post for more details.

I'm not a big fan of the mapping. Most of them are quite empty and lack the visual flair that I look for when I play a game. I would strongly recommend putting some work into revamping them. It would be a welcome change, I can assure you of that.

Beyond that minor gripe, it's a decent game in need of some polish. I look forward to seeing more.

Thanks! Yeah, I need to get Skydancer to have a look at the maps and see if she can improve them. I'm more of a Coder and Eventer than a Mapper. What would you recommend to make them look less empty?

Try to make them as detailed as possible without sacrificing performance. As it stands, there is a lot of empty space and they are and sparsely detailed, and they seem to lack organization.

If it helps, one of my techniques involves envisioning the map as if it were rendered in 3D. That way, it gives me an idea of how the map would look through the eyes of the player character. Try it out.

Thanks, I'll try that.