Just incase anyone is reading this, the RPG project isn't dead; it's just progressing very slowly. I'm going to delete/edit the maps, events, enemies, weapons/armor/items and type up a bare bones plot, share it with any active team members for feedback, edit it if necessary, and then type up a timeline of events that will span the first demo and share it. Then after more editing(if any is needed), I'll start working on the game itself. I'll post screen shots of the work in progress here as well as share them with the team and perform any necessary editing. Then I'll get a demo ready.

Of course, I may not start on this for a while, but I'm not giving up on it.

Posted by Draconis at 12:45 AM CDT

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It's been ten days since my last post and I haven't even begun adding NPCs and I've only added a few events. I did however manage to stop being lazy long enough to a few scripts that will enhance gameplay. There's some screenshots, too.

The handy integrated reserve party script. Allows for an active party of four, with as many reserve party members as I want. In this case, it's currently four, making for a total of eight party members available. The best part is that they can be switched out whenevre you want. from the menu screen. Well, not in battles but that's no big deal. Want to take some sort of solo challenge until you get your sixth member? Go right ahead.

The upgraded Item menu. There are subsections for useable(potions and the like), Battle(damage, status and battle only healing), Equipment(weapons, armor and accessories) and important(Key) Items. Don't mind the icons, I recently imported a huge ico set and haven't gotten around to changing them.

Instead of a command named skills with all the magic and special attacks bunched together, there will be sill subsets. Black Magic, White Magic, Geomancy(Think Mog's dance ability from FF6 minus the dancing, and specific terrain limitation), Dark(Physical skills used by the Dark Knight), Archery(Physical skills used by the Archer), Weapon Arts(Physical skills used by the Warrior).

Also, I've changed the default window skin as seen in these screenshots.

So far, I've mapped out the first continent, the first village, first three dungeons, a checkpoint that comes after the second dungeon, and added enemies to portion of the first continent and the three dungeons that will be explored before the first chunk of actual plot becomes available. I may throw in a tutorial area much like the one in many of the Final Fantasy games. I'm going to cut the demo down to cover up to the end of the first three dungeons since I want to release something before December.

Posted by Draconis at 5:50 PM CDT

Updated: Sunday, 27 September 2009 6:48 PM CDT

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Finished mapping the first two dungeons, and they look better than they did before. I added/tweaked the enemies and two bosses that appear in the first two dungeons. I haven't finished the characters yet(two are done, the other six I haven't even started on), but I figuered I'd post anyway. Imported a bunch of new battlers(enemy graphics) and typed out a rough outline of events that will cover the demo. I'm reworking quite a few things, too.

-You get your first new party member after the second dungeon.

-The next member of your party joins you when reach an unnamed city.

 -The Dark Knight leaves the part temporairly upon entering the as of yet unnamed city.

-The Archer joins after the party of two explore a village/town, dungeon, shack/tent and another village/town.

-Two dungeons later(a third optional one becomes available after completing the second), the party returns to the unnamed city where the Dark Knight rejoins.

-They are told about a ferry, and the demo ends having covered most of the first continent.

-The Dark Knight's weapon pool is limited to axes, and the club they start with.

-The Warrior is wielder of many weapons, but master of none. Swords, spears, daggers, and axes are available to him. I'm still on the fence about whether I should give him an ultimate weapon like everyone else, or a really devestating skill.

-A dungeon puzzle or two may or may not appear in the demo. Depends on if I feel like throwing any in, and if I don't have a lot of trouble implementing them. Maybe I'll put them in the optional dungeon.

Within the next week or so, I'm going to add events to the areas I have mapped out, add at least two more characters, add some NPCs and playtest what I come up with. After that, I'll make another post, this time with screenshots.

Posted by Draconis at 12:56 AM CDT

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Apparently, I'm not letting the loss of three months worth of work keep me down. I just finished Aynd Village(starting point). I had to push myself to get back to work on it, but it, along with the first continent of the World has been restored. Next, I'm focousing on the first two dungeons. I've added/modified the weapons and armor found in both, and the few that become available as rewards after. Tommorow, the mapping. After that, creating characters and tweaking monsters, then finishing everything else that's going to be in the demo.

I'll make another post after I finish creating the characters. That should be anywhere within a few days to two weeks. There will be slight changes made to the characters, but that's mostly what kind of equipment they wield, and maybe some different skill sets.

Posted by Draconis at 9:21 PM CDT

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So, one or more of the files in the Reploid Rebellion RPG folder became corrupted. Three months of work went down the tube. Time to start over.

I'll post an update after I make some progress.

Posted by Draconis at 2:19 PM CDT

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After my last post, I had a burst of 'get yer ass in gear' and immediately went searching for a way to implement a party change feature. I found a wonderfully amazing one. It allows for the player to have a main party and reserve party. Since there will be eight available characters(I'm still toying with the idea of a few hidden/extra characters), the active party is limited to four, and the reserves have four slots. Not only can the party be switched around at any time(putting active members in empty slots to add a challenge, switching members), but you view the stats of the reserve party members, and they gain a portion of the experience you earn from battles. Credit for the integrated reserve party script goes to: modern algebra of rmrk.net.

I've also added some more sprites and icons.

New Classes:

Archer(AKA Jeremy, AKA Stardust):

Skill wise, the Archer is an arrow master. Most of his skills are based on the combined of him and his weapon. They will do some damage, but their best feature is speed. The Archer may just get the first attack in battle and most of the time, will attack before any of his allies. He has two poison inducing skills, one that ignores defenses, one that hits random enemies, one that hits one enemy multiple times, a couple that hit all enemies and one random, slightly inaccurate but powerful attack. His ultimate attack hits all enemies will hit for around one thousand damage. He also has two standard physical attacks, one of which can stun an enemy, and two speed boost spells.

Stat wise his HP grows at about the same rate as the Geomancer's. It'll be in the eight hundreds by level ten. His MP grows at a slower rate than the Geomancer's, attack and defense are lower than the Geomancer's, but he has access to better weapons and armor, spirit is higher than the Geomancer's, he needs to have some advantage if only a better magic defense. Last but not least, his agility is second only to the Ninja's.

Overall, the Archer is a decent character with good agility, and accurate attacks. If you want someone who can deal a bit of damage with pinpoint accuracy(unless he's blinded, or his accuracy lowered), the Archer is a good choice. Though you'll want to keep the Geomancer or white mage/priest/cleric in the same party. After he reaches the higher levels, potions and high potions just won't cut it in battle.

Defender(Aka Daniel, AKA Dna446):

Skill wise, the defender is all about buffs. Attack, Spirit, Defense, you want to survive a really tough battle without healing every turn, or going through your entire stock of potions, the Defender is your best friend. There's also the Elemental buffs. Protection against every elemental spell except light and dark. There's also one attack skill which hits hard.

Stat wise, the Defender's HP growth is better than any class(slightly better than the Dark Knight's), his attack is good, it has to be to balance out the lack of attack skills. Defense is the best of any class, but he's lacking in spirit and agility.

Overall, the Defender is a defensive tank that can dish out punishment, and protect himself and his allies from it. Not only that, his equipment is the most durable in the game. His one weakness is his low spirit. Magic attacks will hit him hard. If you're going up against a foe who specializes in, or is good with magic have your defensive spells ready.

Ninja(AKA Zerkai):

Skill wise, the Ninja wields status inducing attacks, elemental spells, shuriken attacks, and one speed boosting spell.

Stat wise, the Ninja is pretty well off. HP growth on par with the Warrior's, ok MP growth, great attack, good spirit, and the best agility of any class in the game. His defense isn't all that good, and not being able to equip shields doesn't help.

Overall, the Ninja is fast, has good attack and can cast spells. His defense isn't great, but wielding two weapons(some with evasion bonuses), having great attack and awesome speed will only help.

Posted by Draconis at 2:05 AM CDT

Updated: Sunday, 6 September 2009 9:02 PM CDT

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Let's kick this off, shall we?

First off, there will be eight characters. Each member of the Reploid Rebellion will be available.

So far, three out eight classes are set in stone:

Dark Kinght(AKA Darius, AKA Draconis):

Think Cecil from Final Fantasy IV, only with actual skills and he doesn't become a paladin. Skills include damaging attacks with a chance of inflicting a negative status, debuffing spells, a few damaging sword skills shared with warriors and knights, a dark elemental sword skill and the two dark elemental spells which the wizard will get, albeit at earlier levels and with a bigger punch courtesy of his higher spirit stat.

Stat wise his HP is on par with the warrior's. The only class with a faster HP growth rate is the Defender, and he's pretty much a defensive tank. His attack is the third highest, the second highest being the ninja and the first being the warrior. He starts of with some MP, but it increases slower than any other class thus far. Defense is good and the only class that beats the Dark Knight in this area is the Defender. Spirit is decent, but he's no mage. Agility isn't all that great, the only class with lower Agility is the Defender.

Overall, the Dark Knight can hold his own in battle, but must rely on his teammates when dealing with powerful magic wielding foes, hard hitters with good agility and long boss battles where healing is a must. Also, potions are your friend until you get another party member.

Geomancer(AKA Nakori):

Think Mog from FFVI, minus the dancing, and spells are learned through leveling. All the Geomancer's spells are unaffected by their spirit stat, damage from attack spells varies very little, and healing spells restore a set amount with no variation. The spells a Geomancer learns won't hit the thousand mark...with the exception of one which will deal around two thousand damage to every enemy. Naturally, this spell will be housed in a treasure chest deep in a possibly optional dungeon and will be guarded by a powerful creature. With the exception of this uber spell, the Geomancer will wield elemental spells. Fire, Ice, Thunder, Water, Wind and Earth.

Stat wise, the Geomancer is pretty well rounded. The only area that's not so great is spirit being the second lowest of all the classes thus far. Everything else is pretty average. Of course, the Geomancer will only have access to mage type armor made specifically for them, but most of it will have some form of elemental defense. Attack is pretty good, better than the Archer's. However, the Archer will obtain better weapons.

Overall, the Geomancer is a well rounded class with healing capabilities and damaging spells that you can rely on. They are masters of the elements, and may just save you in a pinch with armors that enhance their elemental resistance.

Warrior(AKA Shift):

Skill wise, the Warrior deals in the physical. They have a few attacks with elemental properties, one that can poison enemies, one that can stun an enemy, and two non-damaging skills that can stun or blind enemies. Their penultimate skill is slow, but powerful.

Stat wise, they're about the same as the Dark Knight. Their attack is slightly higher, defense a bit lower, spirit a bit lower, agility a bit higher and they're the only class with no MP what-so-ever. That's okay though, they don't need any. They are masters of many weapons as well. Swords, spears, daggers and axes. Most armors are availbe to them, too.

Overall, this is your physical attacker. Sure, the Ninja is close, but doesn't have nearly as many physical skills at his disposal. Of course the Warrior has no healing skills, so a Geomancer, Priest/Cleric/White Mage is a must.

Currently, the game is a standard RPG. Towns, Dungeons, Random Battles and sidequests. There will be save points in all the towns and dungeons, in some dungeons, they will serve to heal your party. Each one will allow you to swap out your party, as well. That's pretty much it on gameplay right now. I still need to tweak enemy stats and finish mapping some areas before an actual non-crap demo is ready.

Here's some screenshots:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/XZERO22XX/RR/Mountainpass1.jpg

A mountain pass that leads to an underground passage which exits in a checkpoint in the middle of a forest. I put passable tiles on the walls for climbing, and on the impassable ceiling tiles to make those passable. Floor tiles didn't look right surronded by wall tiles.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/XZERO22XX/RR/mountainpass2.jpg

Part of the mountain pass. There's a cave with a healing spring here.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/XZERO22XX/RR/healingspring.jpg

Healing spring.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/XZERO22XX/RR/mountainhome.jpg

A little cottagge in the mountains. A place to rest up and save before entering the underground passage.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/XZERO22XX/RR/undergroundpass.jpg

Part of the underground passage. It's pitch black unless you have a lantern.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/XZERO22XX/RR/undergroundpass3.jpg

Part of the underground passage. Mapping this place was sort of a bittersweet experience for me. On one hand, I love how it turned out. On the other, setting up the lantern event was a tad frustrating. It was worth it though.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/XZERO22XX/RR/undergroundpass2.jpg

Last of the underground passage. After this, there's a rest stop with a shop(items only), inn and save point followed by the Forest Path which leads into a boss fight, followed by some plot and another boss fight, and then you'll have to go through the Underground Passage again, but not the Forest Path.

Sorry about the links. Just copy/paste into your browser bar to see the screenshots.

Information on the Archer, Defender and Ninja classes will be posted as soon as I finish them, and maybe some more screenshots. I'm not promising anything, but it might be this weekend.

Posted by Draconis at 2:08 AM CDT

Updated: Wednesday, 2 September 2009 2:27 AM CDT

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Welcome to the development blog for the Reploid Rebellion RPG. I'm Draconis, AKA Blizzard Wolfang of the Rebellion and I'll be maintaining this page. This isn't meant to replace the RPG section on the main site, it's meant to be an extension of it. This is where I'll post bits of information, screenshots and anything else having to do with the RPG. At the end of every month, I'll consolidate everything I've posted so far and post the end result on the main site.

Check back tommorow for a bunch of screenshots, and actual information.

Posted by Draconis at 6:06 PM CDT

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