Breath of Fire: Zodiac (In Progress)

[Wade Monroe]

www.maelstormm.com/Games/BoFZ/BoFZ_main.htm

- 6 different characters total, up to 3 can participate in battle at one time.
- Field maps will be 8 bit, Combat scenes will be drawn/rendered (32bit-ish)
- Will use an odd kind of time-based battle system in combat.
- Each character will have a main command set and a special ability in combat. Those not participating in the current battle will be able to take support roles for the main combatants. For example: Ryu has "Battle Skill" and "Ascension" in combat. Battle Skill contains various attacks he's learned throughout the game. Whereas "Ascension" allows him access to his draconic forms. If you take Ryu out of the main group and place him in a support role he uses his "Spirit" ability to help the battle party slowly regain Health & Energy.
- Each main section to the game will be it's own 'chapter' unless I manage to somehow keep the filesize around 8mb's.


<<< Background story as it is now >>>

In the old mountains of Mithra, the warrior Ryu patrols the area keeping it safe from dangerous animals and bandits so travelers can pass easily. On one of his routine patrols he notices a shooting star land near the peak of Mount Caim. Upon reaching the peak, Ryu finds a strange girl with angel wings exhausted there.

He learns her name is Nina and that she's being pursued by cruel people who have been torturing her for a long time. Even though Ryu can't speak, his empathic abilities tell him the girl is sincere and he decides to help her escape her pursuers. Once they reach the path off of Mount Caim, Nina's pursuers catch up and prepare to aprehend her.

The pursuers have strange technologically advanced weapons that would have decimated any normal warrior. Much to the pursuers dismay and Nina's luck, Ryu is not a normal warrior. In Ryu's blood flows the power of a high dragon which makes him far stronger than the pursuers anticipated.

After dealing with the problem, Ryu decides to take Nina to his adopted father to figure out a way to protect her.

[dark ZERO]

zodiac isnt that a boat ??

[kyop16awaitingapproval]

I think, in the terms of the game, the term zodiac has to do with the constalations, ie scorpio, capricorn, etc. and that would make sense because nina apparantly comes from outer space, along with her pursuers. this game sounds very interesting and I have been highly fond of the breath of fire series. based on what I have seen of megamen next and roll next and the comic this game is going to be awesome.

side note: I learned that there is a brand of boats called zodiac, as I googled it to see what dark zero meant.

[Wade Monroe]

Update =========================
First draft of my RPG engine's done. No fights in it yet. Mainly just map and menu work.

www.maelstormm.com/Games/BoFZ/BoFZ_main.htm

The control scheme is super simple right now:
Arrows = Move/Change Selection
"A" = Select/Interact
"Q" = Menu/Cancel

The only thing available in the menu right now is under 'System' and let's you change the text background color.

When wandering Mount Caim, you can press "3" to take a look at the rough draft for the combat screen. Press "1" or something to go back to the field.

Currently there's only one person hiding on Mount Caim that you can talk to, and Mount Caim is the only place selectable on the map.

----------------------------------------------------

I'm going with the Zodiac as in constellations/horoscope. Though the thought of "Breath of Fire: Boat" is good for a smile ^_~

[Dude]

"Fischen","Handel","Ruhig". Can we expect more German words being used like that?

[nova]

This wont be like that crappy breath of fire dragon quarters will it? I hated the dragon power 100% and you die thing.

If it is not in this game I might like it.

[evilwumpus]

Is the time-based battle system like in Final Fantasy, where you had a little timer that counted up until you were ready to act? Most of the demo says (maybe screams?)
FINAL FANTASY

[kyop16]

My question is who is that third character? looks pretty good for a first draft. and on the dragon quarter thing, the timer didn't bother me as it forced me to strategize on when and how to use the over powered dragon powers, though the game was short for me, only two to three hours a speed playthrough, and 6 to 7 on a do everything and watch all cutscense play though, that is after a coupl sol restarts.

[Wade Monroe]

The combat system is going to use an active timer, based on each character's agility. Every action performed will drop that timer a certain amount so you can either spam really quick actions or chug along with really massive attacks.

I personally didn't like BoF5 (Dragon Quarter) very much. Lots of innovation in it, but it lost the feel of the other parts of the series to me. I liked it in BoF1 and BoF3 when Ryu would turn into the dragon, look like a full fledged dragon and stay as the dragon, so that's what he'll be doing in this one.

Beings as it's the first RPG engine build I'm not going to make this to expansive. There's going to be a good chunk of different attacks. Only like 20 items and 20 different charms that can be equipped through out the game.

Total game length at the moment I hope to be about 10 hours for a regular player.

There's going to many different languages used for characters/places throughout the course of the game depending on the location.

Character List ======================
RYU
>> Male - High Dragon - Warrior (Sword)
>> Combat: Battle Tech & Ascension
>> Support: Spirit (Recovers Health/Energy every round)
-- Dragon Forms: Drake, Linnorm, Wyrm, Kaiser

NINA
>> Female - Noble Wyndian - Cleric (Magic)
>> Combat: Prayer & Bind
>> Support: Focus (Recovers Energy every round)

BO
>> Male - Canine Folk - Paladin (Spear)
>> Combat: Knight Stance & Sacred Aura
>> Support: Battlecry (Recovers Health every round)

KATT
>> Female - Feral Folk - Assassin (Daggers)
>> Combat: Shadow Arts & Prism Gun
>> Support: Cover (Attacks foes every round)

GARR
>> Male - Human - Mage (Magic)
>> Combat: Symmetry & Alchemy
>> Support: Strategy (Increases chance for critical hits)

BRIE
>> Female - Element - Shaman (Bow)
>> Combat: Commune & Tension
>> Support: Guard (Helps remove status ailments)

[FanZ26]

And so Wade begins tending yet another wonderous plant in his long overgrown and undernourished garden of ideas
Seriously, looking at your old news, you've been working on that Q game for a few years and haven't even given it a section on the site. But, if jumping around between projects is how you function, then who am I to judge?
Anyway, this seems like a solid RPG with an interesting premise. One glitch, I paused and changed the screen background while over by ogre cave on the world map, and whgen I unpaused, I was on the mountain and everything was glitched up.

[Wade Monroe]

Hrmmm.... apparently still a few bugs when changing between field and map mode's. Anyhow, got the character switch part working and all 6 character's field graphic's done. Laying the groundwork for the rest of the party menu's in progress.

===================================

- My attention span is what makes me hop back and forth so much. If I just drill on one thing I'll lose my interest and then stop being productive in any form. Basically just leave PC's and play videogames and watch DVD's until I lose interest in that, then wander back to programming. Wash, rinse, repeat.

- The Legend of Q game never really got it's feet off the ground since me and the Co-Author (a former friend IRL) never caught up to each other enough to work on it. The game premise will likely be kept and used on something else, but that game is grave-fodder.

[Pineappler]

Go short attention spans! It's only through that very same ideal process that I am able to make progress in my massive RPG project for the last 17 years. I don't think it'd've made it this far if I stuck just to it. Some ideas are made just for temporary fancy, only to see the scrap pile in the future. Others are planned for fruition. What makes it, I wouldn't know, but I'll be yarned if I let myself lose interest in my project.
So, I can connect with Wade's attention span functioning.

So far, looking good, but I hate to judge a thing off of just so small info. I'll wait until it becomes clearer.
One thing to note: NPCs can move while they talk. Also, they can move into your party if you are moving at the same time. If, say, I'm static and I make a wall around the unfortunate NPC, he can't move past us. But, if I move at the same time, and say, he moves to where Bo is moving, Bo and the NPC will share the same position. Quirky.

[FanZ26]

heh, as a matter of fact my attention span works in a similar manner (though my span of interest seems to be shorter then yours).
So have you ever considered working on comission? You know, like allowing people to hire you to program a game for their site? The metal box does it, and it seems like a good idea to make some money off your hobby.

< Nah, if I was getting paid by someone else to do it then I'd feel obligated to finish it ASAP which would burn me out. - Mael >

[Wade Monroe]

Update ===============================
- Menu portraits of character's are done.
- Party menu has 'Group Order' and 'Status' activated.
- New Title Screen.
- Fixed map/menu bug where you'd get teleported into Mount Caim.
- Revised BGM's.

Note: Changing the quality by right clicking speeds the game up a good chunk, but makes the text less legible.

[Pineappler]

Goody goody gumdrops.
Bo and Katt look particularly familiar, but then again, I see too much in the world. Anything could look familiar at this rate.
Garr so far piques my interest. Can't wait to see what combat turns out to be like.
Just a minor note, under 'Bind' for Nina, it says 'A Ether Spirit', which technically should be 'An', unless Ether is pronounced... Yether, or summat like that. Again, apologies for my nitpickiness.