Ursus Quest: 'Tree of Life'

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Ursus Quest: Tree of Life, unlike the previous installment, is NOT about exploring the world, but about exploring a small part of a world. Because of this, the game will be richer and deeper...just not as expansive.

At the beginning of the game, you pick whether you want to play as the male hero (Victor), or the female hero (Zoey). At the next major life event, your character ages one level, and becomes 1 of 4 different adolescent characters, depending on your choices and actions during your 'child' stage. From the adolescent stage, you can become one of 8 different 'adult' characters...again, depending on your actions during the adolecent stage.

Here are the main character trees:
VICTOR
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d106/localgods/victortreesmall.jpg
ZOEY
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d106/localgods/zoeytreesmall.jpg
I think I'm going to track this with just 1 variable.

variable X = 01 child Victor
variable X = 02 child Zoey
variable X = 03 adolescent Victor 1
variable X = 04 adolescent Victor 2
variable X = 05 adolescent Zoey 1
variable X = 06 adolescent Zoey 2
variable X = 07 adult Victor 1
variable X = 08 adult Victor 2
variable X = 09 adult Victor 3
variable X = 10 adult Victor 4
variable X = 11 adult Zoey 1
variable X = 12 adult Zoey 2
variable X = 13 adult Zoey 3
variable X = 14 adult Zoey 4

The only time I really HAVE to check this variable is when one of the 3 'life-changing' story events happens. Ok, so someone asks you a question like 'what is the most important thing in the world to you?' And then gives you 2 options:

A - Strength
B - Compassion

(this is just an example, but you get the idea.)

This event will check to see your current X amount before it asks you this question, and depending on your response, it will go something like this:

*If you're child Victor (variable X = 1) and you choose...
A (Strength), your X var. amount will be changed to 3
B (Compassion), your X var. amount will be changed to 4

*If you're child Zoey (variable X = 2) and you choose...
A (strength), your X var. amount will be changed to 5
B (Compassion), your X var. amount will be changed to 6

Later, when one of the life-changing story events happens, it again checks for your X variable, and will then 'transform' you into whatever value X holds. (It actually is simply adding 1 character, and removing another.) I'm sure I'm going to have LOTS of gender-bending/reverting back to childhood bugfixes to mull over, but at least they should be entertaining.

The same thing could happen going from Adolescent to adult. The previous options would not have to be there, since they were already covered in the previous event. In other words, it wouldn't have to check and see if X was (1-2), because at that stage in the game it would HAVE to be at least 3...you see what I mean? I think a simple 4-way val-conditional branch should suffice for each life-changing event. We'll see...if all goes as planned, it should look like this:

*If you're adolescent Victor A (variable X = 3) and you complete a quest path in group...
A (non-rogueish), your X var. amount will be changed to 7
B (rogueish), your X var. amount will be changed to 8

*If you're adolescent Victor B (variable X = 4) and you complete a quest path in group...
A (non-rogueish), your X var. amount will be changed to 9
B (rogueish), your X var. amount will be changed to 10

*If you're adolescent Zoey A (variable X = 5) and you complete a quest path in group...
A (non-rogueish), your X var. amount will be changed to 11
B (rogueish), your X var. amount will be changed to 12

*If you're adolescent Zoey B (variable X = 6) and you complete a quest path in group...
A (non-rogueish), your X var. amount will be changed to 13
B (rogueish), your X var. amount will be changed to 14

As you can see, the point of the adolescent era is to reach level 8 on any one quest. After that, you become an adult. Each quest path will grant a player not only the highest-level quest item for another quest path, but will grant a stat bonus...depending on what quest class you complete. Regardless of what quest path you pick, your appearance is set in stone. If you want a different appearance, answer the corresponding questions differently (IE, give 'pro artist' views, even though you plan to be a thief...or whatever).

FAME:
In 'Tree of Life', there will be 2 kinds of fame - 'Quest Fame', and 'Overall Fame'.

Quest Fame is only checked by a particular questmaster, so there are 8 variables to check these values...one for each quest path. Upon completing a quest path, your quest fame is tallied, and your reward varies depending on your score.

Overall Fame is a running record of all your actions in the game, and controls several things, primarily NPC attitudes toward you, but other things, as well.

- Your Quest Level (1-8) - this is the level of your quest
- Your Quest Fame (1-80) - this is for each quest path
- Your Overall Fame (1-700) - total for all deeds

QUEST PATHS:
The meat of the game revolves around interaction with NPC's, eight of which need your help in a bad way...these NPC's are the source of the 8 quest paths...and each of these have 8 subquests within them. These paths can be completed in any order, but each subquest will check to see which set of 'quest tools' you are using (4 levels), and alter your 'quest fame' and 'overall fame' accordingly.

Since there will be 4 tiers of quest items, I've decided to give them all a prefix, depending on the level.

Basic Harp
Good Harp
Great Harp
Supreme Harp

or...

Basic Bandit Gloves
Good Bandit Gloves
Great Bandit Gloves
Supreme Bandit Gloves

This way, there's no mistaking which level you have...as there's a system to it. Also, I think I will remove the old versions of the treasure, and replace them with the new one. In the same event where the treasure is gained, I could add a message to the effect of 'your harp became a 'Great Harp!'

Speaking of moving treasures around, the TRADER quest path is looking very promising. Maybe I should NOT be removing the lower versions of the treasure items, so that they can be traded. Only thing is that you would be automatically using the best one...why give the option to use an inferior tool? There will be plenty of other treasure items in the game to trade...like the pieces of music from the 'musician's guild' quest.

Since I can't have a treasure set as the requirement for an event branch, I'll have to track all of this with variables. There's going to be a LOT of variables in this game.

Y = (quest item variable)

Y = 1 (you have quest item 'A') - Basic
Y = 2 (you have upgraded it once) - Good
Y = 3 (you have upgraded it twice) - Great
Y = 4 (you have upgraded it 3 times) - Supreme

After each event where the quest item is 'used', variable Y is checked, and you get one of 4 results, depending on the value of Y.

I'll need 8 of those, one for each quest item set.

The quest paths are not meant to be linear...you can do them all at once, or one-at-a-time...but in order to get a 'perfect' quest fame score in any 1 quest path, you HAVE to use the highest-level quest tools from the very beginning...which means (usually) avoiding that quest path completely until you have the best tools. Since the tool sets are all found (mostly) scattered within the 8 quest paths, this means that you have to do some other quest paths before you can get a perfect score in another one.

The rewards for completing a quest path vary, but you always get the highest-level quest tools for another quest path. The rewards for completing a quest path with a perfect score vary also, but include things like being able to marry that questmaster, or access to other lands, characters, or items which are exlusively obtained this way.

A general overview of each quest path:

ARTIST Gain fame by making sculptures and portraits of people
THIEF 8 Highest quest tools...8 quests to steal them. It's your karma, dude.
SAINT Atone for your sins by living virtuously
COOK Gain fame by cooking, and make money by opening your own restaurant.
TRADER Learn the ropes of trading, and ultimately open your own chain of trade depots.
ARCHAEOLOGIST Uncover and explore ancient ruins for fun, fortune, and glory!
ROMANTIC Regardless of your character's gender, you can flirt with ANYBODY (almost) in the game. How well you do can ultimately result in either rejection or marriage, and after a sucessful union, you can either have a child, or adopt one.
MUSICIAN Locate and 'gather' your fanbase by playing for them. Become famous when you achieve 'standing room only' at your shows...where you actually perform for your adoring fans!

At this point I've made a good start on a map...basically a town on a small, flat acropolis in the center of a larger area, which is divided into 8 different areas by water, mountains, or other obstacles. I've also made most of the characters, and tested most of the quest event concepts...they all work great. WuHEWww!!
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d106/localgods/Image74.jpg

NPC Modes:

All NPC's will wind up having many different modes, and these will be switched mainly by your overall fame, but also by things like your quest levels and life stage.

MODES that each character will need (so far):

1 - Child hero mode - Only active during main character's child stage.
2 - Adolescent hero mode - Only active during main character's adolescent stage.
3 - Basic mode - This is your 'mode switchboard'. Choices you make here give you access to the others.
4 - Shun mode - No one will talk to you until you convince them you've turned over a new leaf.
5 - Fan mode - Gives special messages after achieving high quest/overall fame, then goes to mode 3.

MODES that only CERTAIN characters will require:

- QUEST MODES - 10 modes total
* quest level 1
* quest level 2
* quest level 3
* quest level 4
* quest level 5
* quest level 6
* quest level 7
* quest level 8
* quest complete
* Quest Item Stolen

- 'Love mode'
...and 1 mode (hopefully) for each of the following:

NPC Options:

- Chat
- Quest
- Flirt
- Info
- Join
- Play Music
- Portrait
- Cook
- Trade
- Steal

Of these, ALL characters will have FOUR.

Here's two possible examples:

Character A -
- Chat (this option can alter your fame, give items, etc.)
- Trade (this character is looking to trade treasures)
- Join (this character is a possible party member)
- Flirt (this character is a possible spouse)

Character B -
- Info (this character provides helpful clues)
- Quest (this character is one of the 8 questmasters)
- Cook (this character is hungry...you want to feed em?)
- Play Music (this character is a potential fan)

So...there are 10 potential audience members, 16 potential mates, 8 potential questmasters, 4 people
you can cook for, etc. But figuring out who gets what may prove to be REALLY hard, especially since they overlap. :-/

I have a plan, though. I'm just going to finish making ALL of the characters, and see which 8 I want to be the questmasters, which 16 I want to be marriable, etc...until I start running into characters who have all 4 slots full already...or I start running into characters with 1-2 slots open...in that case, THOSE I'll just give 'INFO' or 'CHAT' ;-)

IF I HAVE 30 CHARACTERS:

that's 30 x 4 = 120 possible 'action' slots

- 4 have 'cook'
- 16 have 'flirt'
- 8 have 'trade'
- 8 have 'quest'
- 12 have 'steal'
- 12 have 'portrait'
- 10 have 'play music'
- 7 have 'join'
- 20 have 'chat'
- 19 have 'info'

That allotment is probably going to be adjusted a bit here and there, but it's a good start.

I REALLY need to work out just EXACTLY how many modes each NPC action will take...because I will probably not be able to give them 'quest' and much else...'quest' alone will take up 10 modes out of the 20. this means that if someone has 'quest' as one of their options, their further options will be limited...they only have 10 modes left. Also, ALL of the NPC's will need some slots to remain open...for things like 'shun mode', 'baby hero mode'...etc.

I'm going to try DESPERATELY to fit all of these into that amount of modes...without having to add modes, or segue to other events. Also, these are ALL just ideas...I haven't actually tried to code any of this yet. It can all be easily done, but whether it can be done in 50 lines of code per mode, and 20 modes remains to be seen.

*A few experiments later...*

JOIN - 1 mode (2-way val-conditional branch, checking for 'number of people in party' variable, and maybe other things)

STEAL - 1 mode (4-way val-conditional branch, checking for your 'glove' quest item level, within a 2-way val-conditional branch, checking for whether you've already stolen from them or not, within another 2-way val-conditional branch, which checks to see if you have the 'glove' item)

INFO - 1 mode (4-way choice branch)

CHAT - 1 mode (4-way val-conditional branch, checking for 4 different levels of overall fame)

COOK - 1 mode (4-way val-conditional branch, checking for your 'Dish' quest item level, within a 2-way val-conditional branch, checking for whether you've given it already or not, within another 2-way val-conditional branch, which checks to see if you have the 'dish' item)

TRADE - 1 mode (4-way val-conditional branch, checking for your 'scales' quest item level, within a 4-way val-conditional branch, checking for certain treasure items, within another 2-way val-conditional branch, which checks to see if you have the 'scales' item)

FLIRT - 1 mode (4-way val-conditional branch, checking for your 'romance' quest item level, within a 2-way val-conditional branch, checking for whether you've already married or not, within another 2-way val-conditional branch, which checks to see if you have the 'romance' item)

PORTRAIT - 1 mode (4-way val-conditional branch, checking for your 'art' quest item level, within a 2-way val-conditional branch, checking for whether you've drawn them already or not, within another 2-way val-conditional branch, which checks to see if you have the 'art' item)

PLAY MUSIC - 1 mode (4-way val-conditional branch, checking for your 'music' quest item level, within a 2-way val-conditional branch, checking for whether you've played for them already or not, within another 2-way val-conditional branch, which checks to see if you have the 'music' item)

I'm actually rather surprised that a lot of these won't require more modes, so even if I have to add a mode here and there, I should still have enough modes to give anybody pretty much whatever I want them to have. I mean, I'm looking at the list...and a LOT of them say '1 mode' when I expected them to say '2-3' when I was first thinking about it.

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Musician Quest Path...I've been doing a bit of experimenting with this quest path...and I am 100% excited by the prospect. My initial trials were very encouraging!

I set up a 'Musician's Guild', and a 'Music Hall', and decided that 10 of the characters in the game would ask you to play your harp for them, if you have one of the 4 harps in your inventory. If you say 'Yes', then your 'Musician Fame' will go up, but the amount will vary, depending on which harp you use. Also, those NPC's will say 'When will you be performing? I'd love to come and see you play!'

At that point, their 'audience' display in the music hall is turned ON...you just scored a fan! Whenever you're ready to accept a musician's quest, you go to the guild, and speak with the guild head. Answer 'Yes', and you are immediately teleported to the spot where you perform from in the music hall. You can't move from there, all you can do is activate the podium in front of you. Begin concert? Y/N

...silence, please...all eyes are upon you...

Say yes, pick an instrument,
and the concert begins.

The number of people (up to 10) at one of your shows is determined by how many fans you have gathered, and each will give you a certain amount of fame after the show, depending on which instrument you play. As you might imagine, it's a FAST way to build your fame...the problem is finding the highest-level instrument to really exploit that fact...which makes the thief quest to STEAL it all the more enticing...if you want to sell your soul for rock-and-roll...just make sure you don't choke on your own vomit. Doing it the evil way, you will STILL have to find the 8 pieces of music...or else you won't have anything to play! At the end of each quest to find the music scroll, you give a concert where you perform that piece of music.

The individual audience reactions are based on the QF you scored when you played for them, but with the 4th-level instrument, they ALL go into fan mode. So now, if your overall fame is enough, people REALLY get into it when you play! :D

Right now, there are 4 levels:

At level 1, the audience fidgets nervously, acts totally indifferent, or just stands there.
At level 2, some people begin to act like they enjoy it
At level 3, some people are really excited
At level 4, raise the roof

You get the idea ;-) I know 10 people doesn't seem like a lot, but in a smallish space, and in game terms, it actually does seem like a lot. BTW, does anyone have a suggestion for a good 'theater' type interior? The one I'm using currently is rather lackluster. I wish there was one with a stage...

[EDIT] I found a decent room for concerts...can you tell which one it is from the 2nd picture? Hee hee...I had my first concert, with a full house...and it was pretty cool! They reacted favorably...but then, I told them to. LOL!! NPC 'idle' animations are a bit sparse, though...they spend a lot of time just standing there. It comes off ok, though...because the music's not exactly rage against the machine.

It kinda sucks having only 10 audience members, but that is the limit for NPC's in a single building :-/ Oh well, it still looks ok...just more of an intimate 'club' type feel than a major arena. It's really cool looking out into the audience and seeing the people you got hooked on your music! It's a small, but dedicated following...they are all there for EVERY one of your shows! :-) The idea is that you don't have many fans at first, but as you progress through the game you 'collect' them, and in some cases 'win' them, until you have a full house. This is also a good way to make serious cash, as each member of the audience that's there will pay you a certain amount of gold after each performance.

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This quest path is divided into 3 parts:

- Obtaining art supplies
- Creating sculptures
- Making portraits for people

When you accept the artist guild quests, it's basically as a stonecarver. The guild recieves commissions from people for commemorative statues and monuments mostly. When you take one of these jobs, you arrive at the site, to find a huge marble boulder there, ready for you to carve it. If you have the 'art supplies' treasure item, you can carve the stone into a statue! During this event, your 'art supplies' quest item level is checked, and your overall fame and quest fame awards are adjusted according to it.

Sculptor Path experiments:

First, I set up some simple stone-carving events. they all 3 worked GREAT!! Hu-zah! It was one of those 'YES!' moments. The stone models completely covered the statue models, so I didn't even need 'display-ON/OFF' codes for them. I even found stone models that matched the texture of the statues they spawn!
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d106/localgods/artquest03.jpghttp://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d106/localgods/artquest05.jpg

Originally, I was going to have different statues produced, depending on which level quest item you used, but now the resulting statue is always the same...the only difference is your awards. That will give variety to the 8 stonecarving quests. Instead of getting the 'scary' statue with the lower-level chisel and the 'warrior' statue with the higher one, which statue you get would be determined by the order placed for the individual commission. So now I just have seperate messages for each instance:

'Your FAME in stonecarving has increased by 1!' as a result of using the lower-level chisel, or:
'Your FAME in stonecarving has increased by 10!' for the highest-level chisel.

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This quest path has 6 parts:

- Finding cookware
- Finding ingredients
- Finding recipes
- Making the actual dishes
- Opening your restaurant
- Recruiting customers by tempting them with the right dishes

I think I've decided that...like the musician having to track down the pieces of music, the cook will have to track down not only recipes, but ingredients to make them with. I'll have to track the individual dishes made with a variable, but if I make the actual 'cooking' process around an event, I can set 3 ingredients and the recipe (treasure items) as the requirements for the event...without having to use any of my variables. Now, the 4 NPC's that have the 'FEED' option when you speak to them can look for a specific meal. If you have it, they'll show up at your restaurant. Each one will spend a little money there each day. In this way, it's similar to 'collecting stores' on the trader quest, or 'collecting fans' on the musician quest (except that the reward for collecting is FAME, not money in that case).

I'd like to make it where, if you choose the 'trader' quest to complete during your adolescent stage, and therefore have all of the stores that you can, then when you start as an adult, you'll begin with lots of money...because of all of those days that went by while you were collecting 100-500 gold a day. I could do the same for choosing the 'cook' quest, but maybe not give as much money...maybe give some other reward, in addition? Hmm...Maybe I could give a different award for completing each of the quest paths that first time.

Here's how cooking is going to go:

There's an NPC in the tavern who is the head cook there, but she can't cook anything, because the other cook just quit, and took all of their cookware and supplies with him! If you choose to accept her quest, you must track down the 4 pieces of missing cookware. When you've found a cooking utensil, bring it to the cook lady, and she'll turn on one of 4 'cooking events'. Once activated, the events will look for 4 items: a specific recipe, and 3 ingredients. I will need about 24 treasure items, just for this ONE quest path! Once you have all of the required items for making a dish, you can cook them, to make the FINAL item...the actual dish.


Cooking Utensils:
Wok
Hibachi
Brasier
Steam Tower

Ingredients:
* Fresh Herbs
* Vegetables
* Pork Loin
* Rice Noodles
* Spices
* Sesame Oil
* White Rice
* Hot Peppers
* Beef Strips
* Sugar
* Soy Sauce
* Seafood

Recipes
**Vegetable Sashimi Recipe (cooked in steam tower - requires Vegetables, sesame oil, soy sauce)
**Pork Cutlet Recipe (kooked in hibachi - requires pork loin, white rice, spices)
**Mongolian Beef Recipe (cooked in brasier - requires beef strips, sugar, rice noodles)
**Neptune Platter Recipe (cooked in wok - requires seafood, fresh herbs, hot peppers)

Final Dishes:
***Vegetable Sashimi
***Pork Cutlet
***Mongolian Beef
***Neptune Platter

Once you've sucessfully made all four dishes, the restaurant can be opened again! Now it's time to get some customers. There are 4 NPC's throughout the game that LOVE to eat, and each one is looking for a specific dish. Give each one their favorite dish, and they'll appear at your restaurant, and spend some money there. They will show up as a customer no matter what you feed them, but the amount of money that they spend there depends on which dish you let them try.
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This quest path will probably be the least linear of all of them.

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This quest path is divided into 2 parts...thief quests, and stealing from NPC's.

At first I was reluctant to put stealing into the game...I mean it's one thing to steal from goblins who are trying to kill you anyway, but to steal from your neighbors? In the end, I decided that yes...this too is a life path...but I made it so that it is VERY, VERY, VERY DANGEROUS. You can get away with it if you're really good...and really lucky...but if you're not? Um.....yeah.

All NPC's in the game start out on the slightly positive side of neutral. The only ways that players can make their overall fame go down, are to either cheat in a buisiness deal, or outright steal from someone. Whether you get caught or not, your overall fame will go down...it just goes down a LOT more if you get caught. The effect of stealing (either in quests or from NPC's) on your fame is cumulative...it erodes people's opinion of you slightly...until you enter 'infamy'...welcome to the wonderful world of 'shun mode'. That's just one of the lovely new concepts introduced by this quest path...the others are death, and imprisonment...aw.

When (and if) you accept the first thief quest, you are given a set of bandit's clothes. When you change into these clothes, you're actually switching out your main character for one of the 2 bandit versions of...you. This character must always fight alone, and his/her stats SUCK. You don't have to equip the bandit's clothes before you go pilfering, but if something goes wrong, it's YOU that takes the blame. With the bandit's clothes on, people will still suspect you, and your overall fame will go down a little bit each time you steal...but they can't ever prove it unless you don't disguise yourself...or if you're sloppy in your crimes (there are 'traps' EVERYwhere). In that case, you're not only shunned, but you go to jail.

Most of the sub-quests within the thief quest are to steal a different highest-level quest item. Since these are all held by questmasters, it's their house you'll be breaking into. If you trigger the guards, you'll have to fight them. If you lose, you wake up in jail...and everyone in town goes into 'shun mode'. If you win, there is about a 50/50 chance that the guards will trigger a burglar alarm. If this happens, the owners of the house wake up...and you have to fight them. If you win this time, you KILL that questmaster...they are gone from the game.

If you do this WITHOUT your bandit's clothes on, the jig is up. You're arrested, put in jail...and have to sit there and wait for morning, so that you can be executed. GAME OVER.

Being shunned by society (either by stealing repeatedly or being arrested), means that you can't continue on any quests...because nobody will talk to you. In this situation, the ONLY people that will still talk to you (more like yell at you) are the thief questmaster, and the SAINT questmaster...who can help you get out of 'shun mode', and provide you with items to bribe the guard when you go to jail. If you don't have one of these, you'll have to spend as much time in jail...doing stupid tedious tasks...as you have earned in your sentence. This amount of time increases by one day every time you're caught.

The thief quest path is the only one which cannot increase your overall fame...it can only hurt it.

This being the case, the quest item for it (the bandit's glove), only affects stealing from NPC's...not your fame. If you try and use a lower-level glove to steal, you may get a small award...but you'll probably get caught...and go to jail. Even if you get away with it, your overall fame will go dawn a bit, because people will strongly suspect you...even though they can't prove anything.

Messing up on a thief quest either means resetting, or you pretty much HAVE to do the saint quest path. At least there's a way to redeem yourself.

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This quest path revolves around a woman who has lost all hope that true love still exists in the world. She was once truly in love herself, and was rather horribly betrayed...that, and Mercer's prior ravaging of the land pretty much turned people's minds away from romance to survival, and the gossip fence (of which she was the queen), has been dull for years.

When you take her quest, you're actually showing her...bit by bit...that love is still in the air. She doesn't even care about her own love...she's over that, but she glows when it's around her. Each time you complete a sub-quest within this path, she hears echoes on the grapevine, and her faith in love is restored a little more. The better you are at pitching woo, the more impressed she is ('romance' quest fame).

16 of the NPC's in the game can be flirted with, and any (ONE) of them can be married. There are 8 male, and 8 female characters that can be bonded with in this way. The quest item for this path is the 'cologne' (hey, at least it's better than the 'phrase book' or 'breath spray'...LOL!). If you use the lower level cologne when you flirt with someone, you'll get one reaction, but with higher item levels...the reactions are different. These reactions are different from person to person, but using the 'supreme cologne' will make ANY person at least respond favorably to you. Nobody in the game will actually marry you based solely on this, but it's a prerequisite in any case.

Hmm...I'm thinking I may have more 'flirtable' people in the game, but have it be that only 16 of them can be married...it's something to think about.

In the higher ranks of the romantic quest, you have to find a place to live. This place will be your house for the rest of the game. You don't have to accept the romantic quest to get the house, you just have to have one to finish the romantic quest.

Once this place is established, you just pick one of the 16 people to marry. Each person's requirement to answer 'yes' to your proposal is different, and some are quite tricky...but once you've won a mate, you've completed the quest path. In addition to this, one of 16 NPC's is turned 'on' in your house, and each one will do something different for you...like healing you, curing you, reviving you, making you special dishes, and other things...like provide a bit of conversation.

Once you're married, you can continue to flirt...but it begins to erode your image after a while. This reminds me...I need to add a 'love mode' to my list of modes that certain characters will have.

And yes, there is a way to marry the romance questmaste...mistress. It's a bit heartbreaking, but...it works out for everybody in the end (almost everybody). *SPOILER*...You have to prove to her that her husband is dead, and so he will never come back to her.

[Ωbright]

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d106/localgods/archaeologistquest01.jpghttp://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d106/localgods/archaeologistquest02.jpg

The questmaster for the archaeologist quest is a cantankerous old fart...he's the only one who starts out in shun mode. If you played Shining Force 2, then you'll see a similarity between him, and the character named 'Rohde'. Neither character will give you the time of day unless you have something truly ancient to get their attention with.

Once you've done that, you can accept the archaeologist quest.

Throughout the map, there are places that can be excavated using the quest item for this quest...the 'archaeologist tools'. Like the other quests, which level tools you use yields a different bonus to your fame. Within each excavation site are items (including quest items for other paths), and even dungeons to be found.

Probably the coolest thing about this quest path is that if you complete it, you gain the title to a completely undeveloped land (the other world map). Within this land are many, many ancient sites to discover and excavate! This new realm is dangerous, but rewarding. Several side quests (treasure hunter, inventor, and librarian) can be completed here, as well as the gold lying buried within the ruins.

[Ωbright]

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d106/localgods/tradequest1small.jpghttp://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d106/localgods/tradequest2small.jpg
The trader quest begins with an old man who is standing outside of his shop...which is now closed. This man was once a mogul, with a chain of 3 stores...but after Mercer's rampage, his business collapsed, and he was forced to close all three of them. He earned his fortune by working his way up from his humble trader background, and to earn his respect, you have to do the same.

There are several NPC's in the game that have the 'trade' option. Each one is looking for different items, and will trade you different items for them. The questmaster is looking for certain items, and if you can manage to obtain them through trading, the old man is able to open his shops once again...one by one. In order to complete the quest path, you must open all three stores. Like most of the other quest paths, the level of your 'trader's scales' determines the amount of fame that you receive from each instance where you use them in the quest.

This quest path introduces two characters who provide sub-quests...the old man's 2 sons. They both have left the small town of Moyos, and moved to the much larger, nearby town of Karn to seek their fortunes. One is a treasure-hunter, and the other is an inventor...who is the reason why you've been finding all of these weird things through trading. It seems that the old man hid a good bit of gold by burying it...but now he can't remember where he buried it. His inventor son is working on a device called a 'metal detector' to find the stashes...but he needs the parts first. Once you've had him make the metal detector, you can use it in many places throughout the game. Hidden events all over the place wait for the metal detector to be in your inventory before you can see them and dig them up. You can walk right over them a million times without knowing it...but once you have the metal detector, you can find them. There are other items that he can invent...like a 'sonar' for finding underwater treasures.

The other son, the treasure hunter, simply buys treasures from you if you no longer need them.

Since you're helping Maximillian (the old man) out, he will pay you a certain amount of money each day for your trouble. This is basically a share of the profits from that day. Each time you open another store chain, you get more reward money.

Maximillian's East - 50 gold per day
Maximillian's West - 100 gold per day
Maximillian's HQ - 150 gold per day

Once you complete the quest path, certain...drastic events occur. If your quest fame as a trader is high enough, you become part-owner of the store chain. Since the passing of each day is tracked with a variable in the game, each day that you are in posession of a store, you recieve a certain amount of gold. It's a similar situation as before, but this time you get a much larger share of the profits. Again, the amount will correspond with the number of stores you've opened.

Maximillian's East - 75 gold per day
Maximillian's West - 150 gold per day
Maximillian's HQ - 300 gold per day

Even if you complete the path with low quest fame, you still have opened all of the stores, and as a result you can now buy from them. Most of the best equips (but not all) are bought...all of the others are found in other quest paths...especially the archaeologist path. This being the case, it's in your best interest to open them as soon as you can.

[Ωbright]

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d106/localgods/saintquest01.jpghttp://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d106/localgods/saintquest02.jpg

This path requires you to trudge through enemy-infested areas, and do other unsavory activities...all for the good of humanity. There are people who need the 'relief supplies' that you carry...and you have to make sure that they get them. This often includes many encounters with enemies, but that makes this quest path a good choice if you want to train up for another quest path.

One of the main purposes for this quest is to pull your name out of the gutter. If the people in town are in shun mode, you'll need to talk to Hugo in the church (he's one of only two people that will talk to you). There's a certain religious token that can be won on this quest...you can sell it to the treasure hunter for a LOT of money...or you can sacrifice it at the shrine. If you do this, then Hugo will vouch for your ernest intentions, and people will resume talking to you again. Also available in this path are tokens that allow you to bribe the guards, and get out of prison (very few of them). These will not work if you are scheduled for execution...you're explative is deleted.

[Ωbright]

*NOTE* There was a rift in the cyberspacetime continuum, and the resulting black hole swallowed the original thread for Tree of Life, apparently. I copied it from RPGMMAG, so it was no problem, but that's why all of the comments are now gone...in case anyone was wondering.

I think I'm done with the basic outline for the game mechanics, and a good start on each quest path. Now though, some questions remain:

- How will I interconnect the quest paths? I like the idea that the 8 paths are non-linear...and so I'm going to try as much as possible to maintain that. You won't HAVE to complete part of one path to open part of another...usually...but I think a certain amount of this is inevitable...especially with quests like 'archaeologist', which opens up dungeons that almost all quest paths will use. The quest tools, however, are the key. Let's say a player completes the romantic quest without first completing any part of any other quest path. That's possible, but the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th-level colognes are all found in other quest paths.

- How will I distribute the treasures within the subquests of each quest path? I guess I'll just have to wait until I get to the 'questmaking' stage of development, and see how it goes. I have a vague idea how the 8 levels will be designed for each quest path...but it's still fairly amorphous at this time. I know that (probably) every quest path will have at least one trip through a map with battles (of one sort or another), or a dungeon...but which quest levels include these will probably be different for each quest path.

- I know I'll be tracking the passage of time for several reasons, but will certain game events happen on certain days? What about the weather? I know the weather is going to change every day (at least once), but will that be carved in stone (on October 20th, it will be stormy), or will it be controlled by a variable that changes throughout the game somehow (simulated random weather)? I'm leaning more toward the last one. Some events will probably be set to occur on a certain day, or a certain number of days after another event...but I'd like to keep that to a minimum, because I hate time limits in games. If I can, I will most definitely have a yearly cycle, with Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. I'll probably make a season be 30 days, so in 120 days players will see an entire year elapse. I'm probably going to have 3 invisible events for this...one which adds one to the 'time of year' variable at nightfall each day, and 2 which respond to this variable...one by changing the weather, and one by changing the season. Maybe those last 2 could be combined into one. If I track the weather and season with two seperate variables, then I may even be able to add a special 'weather mode' to NPC's...and if it's Winter and raining, people could say 'it's snowing!' when you enter 'chat mode' with them...maybe. I actually don't think you can set an event branch to occur if X=3 AND Y=3...I'll have to check and make sure. This could also work if it was Summer, and sunny...NPC's could say 'It's HOT today!'

- The possible main characters need to be grouped somehow...maybe 4 groups with 2 each within? There also needs to be similar divisions in the 8 quest paths, and these 2 divided systems need to correspond with each other somehow. I need to do this, because I've decided that which adult hero form you become will depend on your interactions within the 8 quest paths. I know this is the opposite of what I envisioned initially, but I'm liking the idea. *SOLVED*

Here's how the life-events are going to go (as of right now):

At the beginning of the game, there's a knock at the orphanage door. The proprietor (you) opens the door, and finds a basket on the doorstep. "Why, it's a..." (boy/girl). You select which one it is, and you begin the game as either Victor or Zoey. During this stage, your interactions are limited...you don't have access to anybody's 'basic mode', so stealing, flirting, quests, etc. are out for now. However, key people will ask you questions which will determine which adolescent form you take.

During your adolescent stage, the NPC's greet you with a similar (non-adult) message, but this time it gives way to 'basic mode'...which means you now have access to any NPC options that they might have. including QUEST. Which quest you decide to complete first will determine your adult form.

Any comments? Suggestions?

[Ωbright]

Ok...the adult form you get will be determined by which quest path you master during your adolecsent stage. Since there are 8 quest paths and 4 possible adult forms (for each gender), I need to find some way to group the paths to correspond to the adult forms. Here's what I've worked out so far:

I divided the quest paths into 2 groups...ones that were very 'rogueish', and those which weren't. These two groups wound up having a yin-yang type feel to them, because the 'rogueish' side has the romantic quest, which ultimately ends with family responsibilities...and the 'non-rogueish' side, which has the trader path within it (which can be a bit roguish at times.) When you look at the main hero trees, you may notice that the 2 adolescent forms are very different. For Zoey, the difference is sadness...and for Victor, it's anger.

No matter what choices you make, there will be almost identical choices later. In other words, just because you choose a more socially acceptable quest path does not mean that you will be a goody two shoes as an adult, and just because you're a rogue in your adolescence doesn't mean that you have to be a rock star as an adult. If you look at the trees, you can see that the male rogueish side ultimately ends in 2 adult forms...only one of which looks like a gypsy...the other one looks rather austere. The same is true of the other side of the male tree...one adult form here looks like a knight, and the other is a dark knight.

It's all indicative of the character's emotional state, really...the male and female main heroes may show these states differently, but they're the same emotions: joy and sadness.

The female heroine is more obviously sad, but again...it's a yin-yang type of situation. She either chooses to express her feelings (the 'dancer' 2D portrait), or she becomes a martyr of sorts for the common good (the 'knight' 2D portrait).

Again, the first branch happens as a child, when you answer questions about yourself. After each eanswer, your score is tallied...if you're over a certain amount, you go to adolescent form 2, if you're under a certain amount, you assume hero form 1.

Then in your adolecsent stage, which quest path you choose to complete first will determine your adult form. They are in 2 groups:

Roguish paths:
Thief
Romantic
Artist
Musician

non-roguish paths:
Cook
Trader
Saint
Archaeologist

*NOTE* I DID NOT delete anybody's comments from my other Tree of Life thread! I know I was anal about keeping all 9 posts together, but that thread getting lost was nobody's fault. Don't be afraid to post here...I'd still love some comments or suggestions...and I absolutely WILL NOT delete anybody's comments!

[hitogoroshi]

Sounds fun, Obright! I notice that Kezu's head is used, and it leads to the thief. Coincidence much? :lol

[Ωbright]

LOL!! Well...yeah...that's bound to happen with RM3. I honestly hadn't played Torayu all the way up to the thief part until after I'd already worked out the thief quest in Tree of Life, so...'any similarity to any NPC, living or dead, is purely coincidental...' :lol

[DYRE]

This looks amazing, but I already told you that. I really didn't think that RM3 could do this. Well, I really want you to prove me wrong. :)

[Ωbright]

This looks amazing, but I already told you that. I really didn't think that RM3 could do this. Well, I really want you to prove me wrong. :)

Thanks...again! :D

I'm really just using variables and NPC modes to weave 8 quest paths together...I know it seems complicated, but really it's not! I'm proud of the way it's coming together, but I don't think I'm doing anything except what the editor was made to do...you know? People were so concerned about what 3 couldn't do that they never noticed what it could do. That's not AT ALL directed toward you...3 just has a bad reputation.

Of course...the proof will be in the pudding...and it's not even cooked yet! :lol

[JPS]

I havent read through all of the posts yet as I dont have time(busy today) but will later when everything slows down

Have an estimated release date yet? or how far are you with the game? Game stats would be cool:) You may have already said but I didnt see it

This sounds like a really interesting game, its amazing how youve been able to manipulate the game in ways the programmers probably didnt even think about

[Ωbright]

Have an estimated release date yet? or how far are you with the game? Game stats would be cool:) You may have already said but I didnt see it

Well, it's at 16% DU, and there's a progress thread here:
'Tree of Life' checklist (http://www.pavilionboards.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9558) That states what's immediately planned, and what I've already finished. I couldn't possibly announce a release date at this point...it would be utter folly...I might release it on that day, but only if don't SAY I'm going to release it on that day...:lol what can I say, I hate deadlines, even if I've set them myself.

I've got to finish my contest duties, but when I'm done with that...it's all systems GO on tree of life. For the first time since I thought of the ideas for the game, I'll have no other RM3 obligations looming over me...and I can just focus on finishing! I can't wait...

This sounds like a really interesting game, its amazing how youve been able to manipulate the game in ways the programmers probably didnt even think about

Why thank you! While the developers might get a mild kick out of reading this, I doubt anything in here would surprise them too much...they've probably seen it all.

[Libby]

^_^ Do you need a playtester? I have been DYING for this to come out so I can play it!

[Ωbright]

^_^ Do you need a playtester? I have been DYING for this to come out so I can play it!

W...u....j.....um....YEAH!!! LOL!! Sorry...it's just that my last game had to be released without much playtesting AT ALL...I mean I playtested it several times, and I had friends play a little bit here and there, but after the entire game was finished I had to wait until I had some feedback which never came. I finally just said **** it, playtested it one more time myself, then uploaded the damn thing. (^ ; ^) Oh well, it's my first game. I'm still really proud of it, but I've learned so much after making it...the first game was almost like 'practice' for this one, in retrospect. 'Shadow of the Towers', with all of its limitations (the overall data size being the real killer), is a nice little RPG romp, but it's SOOOO passe'...LOL!! It is what it is on purpose, and it does a pretty good job, but it appeals to the old-skool RPG gamer, with a sentimental streak (like me)...and most people today seem to have had it with games based on turn-based RPG battles...particularly ones with random encounters.

While that game was more geared toward a specific audience, 'Tree of Life' will appeal to a much broader group of people...I hope. If you play as the female character (and are therefore white by virtue of the lack of variety in 2D portraits required to make the hero-trees), you can become romantically involved with an arabic-looking woman, or black man, or white woman...etc. etc. etc. etc. So, I guess the only group I'm going to exclude is the people who don't worship diversity like I do. You can still play as the traditional male hetero main character, but you won't HAVE to...that's the key.

Anyway, THANK YOU, and of course you can play-test! I'd be honored!

[Libby]

:P Awesome. If you want, just shoot me a PM and I can get you my e-mail if you want to send me the max file. :D I look forward to playing it!

[162]

Oh this sounds cool! Expect me to play THIS game!

[Wavelength]

Alright, man, so you know I've always loved the thought behind this, but after reading the entire topic and seeing the screenshots... I'm amazed! The screens look GREAT and I'm glad to see that it looks like you won't have to sacrifice storytelling as much this time around.

You've seen just as many posts at GameFAQs as I have about people trying to "simulate real life" and make a "completely open-ended game" and all that crap. This and the Evil Mastermind game were the only ones I had faith in that they'd actually become anything, and it's great to see that you've made so much progress already!

I wish you would be able to make a few "decisions" on the Business (trader) track, but besides that, all the quests look amazing! In fact, I feel bad for nitpicking something that minor. Can't wait to see how this actually pans out.

[Ωbright]

Thanks youz guyz!! I was finally able to resume working on Tree of Life today! I didn't accomplish much, but my work's cut out for me tomorrow. I'm going to pick one quest path to work on...not sure which one yet, but possibly 'musician' or 'achaeologist'.

It's great to see you over here, Wavelength!! Oh, and I agree about the 'trader' quest...there needs to be a way to cheat at that path and either get away with it, or lose face. Maybe I'll make a quest item called the 'Stilted Scale' or something, but to make it ALWAYS result in 'shun mode' would be boring. The only reason you can have even a slight chance of getting away with it in the 'thief' quest is because the battles can either be avoided with care, or fought without triggering the alarm if you're lucky (IE if the 'alarm' is not dropped by the guards during your battle(s) with them).

I'm also seriously thinking about doing this with the 'romantic' quest, also...if you 'flirt' after you're married, or with a person who's married (or both), your overall fame will go down.

[Ωbright]

*UPDATE*

Most of the items in the game are at least begun, many are finished, and I've assigned classes to each of the possible hero forms. I think it will be easier to work on the quest paths when those parts are there. I may go ahead and finish all of the classes and skills before I start the quest paths, and maybe even finish all of the items, but what's there now is a good start.

It's looking like there will be 10 playable characters in the game (11 including the main character). I think any can be recruited in either Victor's game or Zoey's, but the conditions will be different in some cases. It annoys me in games when I can't have character A because character B is already in my party. I understand why it's done in games, it promotes replay or portrays character relations...but I'll do those things differently in Tree of Life.

I also began work on the jail. There are several places that have a 'jail-like' area, but NONE of them have doors that can be locked...unless I'm missing something. I'm probably going to warp from one of these areas to a dungeon which doubles as a jail. I'll have many small chambers with the 'special' barred doors (which are locked, thank you very much). I've pretty much decided that the work you'll have to do during your jail sentence will revolve around mining in some way, and all (or most) jail activities will take place underground, but I haven't yet worked out exactly what those activities will be. I have some vague ideas, but nothing concrete yet.

I think the next step (after completing the 'parts') will be to complete ALL of the characters, and assign modes to all of them. Once THAT is done, a HUGE chunk of work will be complete, and it will pave the way for the quest paths, and many of the invisible events. Completing all of the NPC/playable character modes (all of the coding) will be another story, but getting the basic framework is really important.

Whether I make enemies before or after is another thing which remains to be seen. Honestly I don't even know why I even bother to speculate about what I'm going to work on next...it almost never happens that way anyway.

[Ωbright]

I had an epiphany today...

During your childhood form, you'll be at the orphanage...that's always been the case. Now, though...I've pretty much decided that there will be 2 NPC's that can adopt you after you've talked to all 8 questmasters during your childhood phase. Which of the 4 adolescent forms you take will be determined by which of these NPC's decides to take you in. I haven't quite worked out how that will be determined. It might be something as simple as 'if you choose to complete one of these 4 paths, person A will adopt you...if it's one of these 4, person B will adopt you. It seems like that might be kinda boring.

I think this will help build the story, and the characters also.

[Wavelength]

The being-adopted idea is great and somehow very original. It seems like orphans in RPGs almost never actually get adopted, you know?

As far as the Trader track, I was referring moreso to legitimate business decisions. I suppose trying to "get away with stuff" could be neat as well, especially since it's the oddball grouped into the "good" professions, right?

The mining sounds like a good idea. Even though prison is an undesirable place, I feel like you should still try to make mining a fun activity, rather than a boring one. I'm not sure which way you were planning on designing it.

If you're planning on populating the prison, I think there's another good opportunity for a couple of "odd-jobs" type of quests.

Tree of Life really sounds cool. I'm looking forward to it. At the same time, it's obvious that it's something you really care about, so you take your time with it. And I'm really itching to get back to Shadow of the Towers; I feel like I should be apologizing to the both of us for not making more time to enjoy it.

[Alzar]

This sounds great bro. Keep up the ingenuity.

[Ωbright]

The being-adopted idea is great and somehow very original. It seems like orphans in RPGs almost never actually get adopted, you know?

*SPOILER ALERT* There are things in the following paragraph v That may ruin a surprise or two...

The adolescent phase was always in a gray area as far as production went, while the childhood and adult stages were...um...set. Shoot me later. Anyway, this brings a new dimension to the adolescent stage. I'd already pretty much decided that what you say to the questmasters during your childhood phase will determine which adolescent form you take, but it also will determine which family adopts you. If you answer questions from the artist, musician, romantic, or thief quest paths positively, then family A will adopt you. This 'family' is comprised of the lord of a huge mansion estate. If you answer questions from the Cook, Trader, Saint, or Archaeologist quest paths positively, then family B will adopt you. This family is well-meaning, but just not as well-off. I'm not sure about the other ways that the 2 adolescent forms will differ, but that's at least one way for now.

As far as the Trader track, I was referring moreso to legitimate business decisions. I suppose trying to "get away with stuff" could be neat as well, especially since it's the oddball grouped into the "good" professions, right?

Ah...I see. What did you have in mind? The way it's set up right now, you have to open 'store A' first, but you can choose whether you want to open the armor shop or the weapon shop next...that's really the only choice you have

The mining sounds like a good idea. Even though prison is an undesirable place, I feel like you should still try to make mining a fun activity, rather than a boring one. I'm not sure which way you were planning on designing it.

I originally said it would be drudgery...boring work. I have decided however, to make it interesting in at least 1 or 2 ways. First, when you dig in the mines, you can sometimes find treasures and pocket them. The only way LUCK and INT will be increased is via events...not equips. That way, I can track those 2 stats with a variable and hijack them. Yup. In tree of life, your LUCK not only determines what it normally would in the game, but now it determines which of 4 items you discover while digging in the mines. Sometimes these are of Archaeological importance, sometimes they're raw materials for other things which may come in handy like Magnetite or Copper, or are valuable in themselves...like Gold, Silver, Diamonds...even a cooking ingredient or two can be found down there (they can almost all be found in a multitude of ways...it won't matter if you find more than one). The INT stat will be some sort of real estate points...get 100 of them, and you can buy a house with them.

If you're planning on populating the prison, I think there's another good opportunity for a couple of "odd-jobs" type of quests.

Well, I know that at least one of them will have the 'trade' option...maybe you can get one of the 4 bandit gloves from them...? LOL!! they'll definitely have 'flirt'. No, the dungeon areas are NOT co-ed. :D Zoey goes to a different prison area than Victor does.

Tree of Life really sounds cool. I'm looking forward to it. At the same time, it's obvious that it's something you really care about, so you take your time with it. And I'm really itching to get back to Shadow of the Towers; I feel like I should be apologizing to the both of us for not making more time to enjoy it.

I hope the game doesn't disappoint you...or me...or anyone who's looking forward to playing it! Oh yeah...you have a Shadow of the Towers game going...I forgot! I hope you like that, as well!

This sounds great bro. Keep up the ingenuity.

Thanks, Alzar! :D

The VERY NEXT thing I need to do is to finish making the storytellers for the opening, the game beginning, the 2 childhood forms' storytellers, and the events that go with them. I've started on them, but I just need to finish them. Only then will I feel like I can move on to work on the quest paths...I'll have a firmer base to work from. Not only that, but I'll be closer to being able to send the demo to anyone who might want it.

[Ωbright]

I need some help from you guys...

I've worked out how I'm going to make the 'mirror' event, and it's actually quite simple:

4-way V-C Branch 1
-If variable 01 = 1, display storyteller 01
-If variable 01 = 2, display storyteller 02
-If variable 01 = 3, display storyteller 03
-Go to V-C branch 2
--4-way V-C Branch 2
---If variable 01 = 4, display storyteller 04
---If variable 01 = 5, display storyteller 05
---If variable 01 = 6, display storyteller 06
---Go to V-C branch 3
----4-way V-C Branch 3
-----If variable 01 = 7, display storyteller 07
-----If variable 01 = 8, display storyteller 08
-----If variable 01 = 9, display storyteller 09
-----Go to VC branch 4
------4-way V-C Branch 4
-------If variable 01 = 10, display storyteller 10
-------If variable 01 = 11, display storyteller 11
-------If variable 01 = 12, display storyteller 12
-------Go to VC branch 5
--------2-way V-C Branch 5
---------If variable 01 = 13, display storyteller 13
---------If variable 01 = 14, display storyteller 14

Basically, it shows players a picture of which ever character they are playing as right then (1-14). The 'thief' forms will be in seperate events...probably in a thief quest or two. There will be certain thief quests where there will be a mirror you can look into. It will either be 'thief Zoey' or 'thief Victor'.

Hopefully I'll have room to fit those into one mode, but I haven't been able to experiment yet...and that's where I could use some suggestions.

I've already made the 16 storytellers, and declared the variable which will track who you are, but the problem is that I don't know WHERE this 'mirror' event should be...

If it's in the orphanage, you won't be able to see it in your later forms, and the opposite is also true. So...should it be in the central town square, or...somewhere else? Maybe a reflecting pool? It needs to be in a central place that ALL forms have access to, unless I want to split them into many small events, the same way I did the thief ones. I don't really want to do that though...I don't want to close off the game so much, and I also don't want to have to completely redo the mirror event 12 times in 12 places.

Any suggestions?

[Libby]

I'd make a reflecting pool, using the Fountain graphic. It may be cliche, but it's something that you would find in a common area, and it'll be the easiest to program I think.

[Ωbright]

I've been thinking about it a lot, and I think you're right, Libra. Also, I just realised something...if I change variable 1 during gameplay, that won't affect things until the next major life event happens. That's fine, but it also means that the mirror will display who you WILL be...not who you are. I'll have to have 2 variables now...one for who you ARE, and one for who you WILL be.

Unless...it might be cool to have a 'magic mirror' somewhere...which can tell your future, and tell you which adolescent/adult form you'll take, if you don't alter your future somehow. It's not a gradient, though...you either do what you need to be adult form 1, or do what you need to be adult form 2. Right now there's no way to alter the path you've chosen, so I guess it's not such a cool idea.

Anyway...I need to add another variable!

Thanks, Libra! :D

[Libby]

I've been thinking about it a lot, and I think you're right, Libra. Also, I just realised something...if I change variable 1 during gameplay, that won't affect things until the next major life event happens. That's fine, but it also means that the mirror will display who you WILL be...not who you are. I'll have to have 2 variables now...one for who you ARE, and one for who you WILL be.

Unless...it might be cool to have a 'magic mirror' somewhere...which can tell your future, and tell you which adolescent/adult form you'll take, if you don't alter your future somehow. It's not a gradient, though...you either do what you need to be adult form 1, or do what you need to be adult form 2. Right now there's no way to alter the path you've chosen, so I guess it's not such a cool idea.

Anyway...I need to add another variable!

Thanks, Libra! :D

It's no problem. You could always have a treasure item as well that was some sort of looking glass that you could only use in certain places. For example, each town/area has an event that checks for the variables based on if you have that treasure item, and it tells the future...Umn..well, kinda just like you said. Or you can make magic future seeing specticles that will let you see the future images of things--it could also make for some neat puzzles. :P

Anyways, good luck with it..

And when do I get to playtest?!

[Wavelength]

or fought without triggering the alarm if you're lucky (IE if the 'alarm' is not dropped by the guards during your battle(s) with them).

You know, I don't think there has been any item drop in RPGM history that had players so desperately hoping NOT to earn!

I can't help but laugh out loud when I think about a player being thrilled about NOT earning an item drop, or crestfallen to see that they DID get it. It's so perverse--I love it! Should also keep things interesting as you get to the end of a battle you know you're about to win.

I take it, though, that nothing the player does (besides simply not getting into the battle in the first place) will affect the drop rate of the Alarm item?

[Ωbright]

It's no problem. You could always have a treasure item as well that was some sort of looking glass that you could only use in certain places. For example, each town/area has an event that checks for the variables based on if you have that treasure item, and it tells the future...Umn..well, kinda just like you said. Or you can make magic future seeing specticles that will let you see the future images of things--it could also make for some neat puzzles. :P

Anyways, good luck with it..

And when do I get to playtest?!

Ok wow...that's a cool idea. Ok, so basically there will be certain places where you can 'use' the treasure item. Maybe this could be a crystal ball treasure, and there are pedestal bases here and there on which to set it? Yeah...cool...and once the event has detected the treasure, it then activates, and depending on a certain variable amount it could show you your current path to adulthood?

No...wait...I think you've just helped me make a new character...a fortuneteller! Gaze into her crystal ball, and see which of the 4 adult paths you're currently headed toward! I think a lot of people would think this a huge spoiler, but people wouldn't HAVE to use her services.

Thanks again, Libra! :D You've helped me a lot already, and you haven't even started play-testing! Oh, and I'll send it to you as soon as the game is playable up to the adolescent stage at LEAST...that means the beginning intro needs to be finished, some storytellers, and minor coding. I know I've been a slack-ass with it lately, but hopefully that will change here very soon...maybe even tonight if all goes well.

Thank you again for your interest in this game, and for wanting to play it! That really, really means a lot to me.

You know, I don't think there has been any item drop in RPGM history that had players so desperately hoping NOT to earn!

I can't help but laugh out loud when I think about a player being thrilled about NOT earning an item drop, or crestfallen to see that they DID get it. It's so perverse--I love it! Should also keep things interesting as you get to the end of a battle you know you're about to win.

I take it, though, that nothing the player does (besides simply not getting into the battle in the first place) will affect the drop rate of the Alarm item?

:D Well, since there's no event code to change an enemy party's drop rate, I'll have to make certain parties have different inherent drop rates. That's fine, that will make it possible to increase difficulty rates within the thief quest path, and within each thief subquest. Even set at 'often', though...there is still a good chance that you will not get the alarm.

Thanks to everybody that's posted here, I apaologise for being such a slacker, and hope to get a demo out to anyone who asks very soon!

[Ωbright]

I just started working on Tree of Life again tonight for the first time in a couple of months! Woot! Anyway, it went pretty well. The beginning is worked out much more, for one thing.

When the game starts, you (as the player) are the old caretaker of the orphanage. There's a knock at the door, and you must go to the door to answer it. When you do, you see no one there, but someone has left a baby in a basket on the doorstep. There's a note attached, which says that the baby's name is...

Choice branch -
A) Victor
B) Zoey

You pick, and get a different storyteller for either choice. These storytellers mark the passage of 5 years, and give the player a vague idea of what the main hero(ine) has been going through during that time. When it's over, you gain control of either Zoey or Victor, depending on which you picked.

The mechanics are pretty much done, but I have to finish making the actual storytellers. Now that I have events sitting there waiting to reference a storyteller, it's much easier to get the ball rolling. I don't feel so overwhelmed.

Storytellers to work on next:
- Game intro 1 (game beginning)
- Game intro 2 (choose main hero)
- Zoey's first storyteller (up until you gain control as child zoey)
- Victor's first storyteller (up until you gain control as child Victor)

That's my immediate project. Once these are done, the entire beginning of the game will be finished.

[Wavelength]

You must spread some reputation around before giving it to Obright again.

This really sounds great, Obi!

You've come up with a particularly clever way to introduce the game, and a quick explanation of the five years will be fantastic.

Knowing that it could be playable in demo form soon just makes me want to :drool. There are several games uploaded that I'd really like to play, including your very own SotT... but Tree of Life is really taking the cake right now!!

[Ωbright]

This really sounds great, Obi!

You've come up with a particularly clever way to introduce the game, and a quick explanation of the five years will be fantastic.

Knowing that it could be playable in demo form soon just makes me want to :drool. There are several games uploaded that I'd really like to play, including your very own SotT... but Tree of Life is really taking the cake right now!!

Thank you, m'friend. I actually wanted to have a more interactive baby stage that was similar to the adolescent or adult stages...but after seeing the 'baby' hero models, I was like........no. SO far the storytellers are doing an ok job, but one of those s-tellers I mentioned above (the 'choose main hero' one) wound up being an event dialogue instead. It works fine, and it integrates the environment with the story much better than using a s-teller for it.

I also added a variable to simply track whether the main hero is Zoey (female), or Victor (male). This really only comes into play in NPC modes like the 'childhood stage', and the 'adolescent stage' modes, at least right now. When you talk to an NPC for the first time as a child, you get their 'I'm talking to a child' messages, but now the messages are specific to the 2 main hero forms, so you'll get either "Hi Victor!..." or "Hi Zoey!..." messages. That will wind up being a very important variable, as lots of other differences will arise in the 2 branches of the game by way of it.

I'm still working on those storytellers though........

**UPDATE EDIT!**
The main world map is set for 'no encounters', so if you get into a battle on the world map, it's either because you A) triggered an event battle, or B) used an item or skill that attracts enemies. LOL!! Yes, if you want to train on random enemies for a limited amount of time, you have to make it happen by using a skill or item. The spell costs MP, the items cost gold, but if you want to make the most of your training experience you should cast the spell 3-4 times, or use 3-4 of the items. This won't increase the time you have to work with (I don't think), but it does knock up the encounter rate 3-4 levels, which will allow you to make the most of that time. I still haven't decided how the dungeons will be...

[Ωbright]

WHEW!! The beginning is FINISHED!! :D The intro storyteller, the begin-game mechanics, Victor & Zoey's intro storytellers....all of it. Those storytellers are going to change, I'm sure, but they're done...and the game is playable up to either main character's childhood stage. THAT, itself isn't finished...only 1 NPC is wired up to interact in 'child mode' at this point, but the town's locked, and so the number of NPC's either child hero can encounter during this stage is limited. One of them is done, and now I have to wire up the rest of them. They will all ask questions, and your 'score' at the end will determine which adolescent form you take.

I guess I have about 8-9 more NPC's to wire up with 'child mode', and then I have to set up the invisible event that brings about the next life stage. Once that is done, the second part of the game will be complete.

I can't BELIEVE I've gotten so much done on Tree of Life here lately. Also, I've pretty much decided to send the demo to anyone that wants it as soon as the adolescent stage is reached in the game. If I keep up this pace, it won't be but a few more days until I can do that.

[Ωbright]

I took some time out of working on Tree of Life to play Pagerron's Daniel's Quest:3 demo...and to be voilently and copiously sick (the 2 things were not related...:D), but tonight I've gotten a HUGE chunk of coding done. Right now the game is playable up to the middle of the adolescent stage, but not completely. I still have a few more NPC modes to complete.

Four of the biggest things I've been dreading are the weather, yearly cycle, and the 'mode switcher' and 'switch to adult' events. For one thing they seemed hairy and smelled bad, and second I only had two event slots open in Moyos city...and I thought I was going to need 4. WRONG. A little 'event recycling' via modes went a long way. Now, one moyos town event is set to automatically add 1 to the 'days' variable, and a V-C branch checks for the number of days that have passed. 'Months' are 10 days in the game, and 1 'season' = 30 days, or three months. So, after every 30 days it changes the season, and after 120 days (1 full year), the cycle repeats.

Right now that's about the only thing working the 'number of days' variable...well that, and on DEC 10th, the weather changes to 'aurora' for one night...but eventually a lot more will be wired into it.

SIMULATED RANDOM WEATHER IS MY *****. Here's how I did it:

The afforementioned 'clock' event in town automatically adds one to the 'days' variable, and THEN switches to mode 2, which is set to auto-run when it's morning. Mode 2 is where the weather changes happen. Like the season codes, this mode adds one to the weather variable (X), checks to see whether it's 1-12 (3 4-way V-C branches), and changes the weather according to that. I know...that's not random, it's a list of weather conditions that get scrolled through over and over...but there are 3 such events...one in Moyos (proper), one in West Moyos (residential district), and one on the world map...and all three of them have different 12-day weather outlooks. And yes, even that is not random, but it IS 'simulated random'. If you're on the world map in the morning when the weather changes, you'll take that weather back into town with you for a day, but if you stay in Moyos until the next morning, you'll go onto the Moyos weather schedule. So far it works GREAT...if you run around in the normal course of playing the game, going through the three places as normal, you really can't see any pattern in the weather. If you stay in one place for at least 12 days though...you might begin to see a pattern.

It snows 2-3 times a year. :D

Since NPC's cannot be moved, I can just use which ever weather cycle the character appears on. For instance, a character can say 'It's snowing!' If the 'days' variable = 90-119 AND the 'weather' variable = 3 (which is 'rain' for that map). I've already pretty much decided that there will be 1 NPC that simply talks about the weather in their 'CHAT' option, but there will be other uses (other than the purely aesthetic ones) I'm sure.

Ok, so...that's 19 events in town (the 'clock' one which also serves as the 'weather station' was the 19th one), which leaves room for one more...and I still needed to 'switch modes' with one event, and bring about the adult stage in another. Recycling with modes to the rescue...again. I used the 'bring about adolescent stage' event's second mode, and instead of turning that event off later, I switch its mode to 2 later, instead. After that it sits and waits for you to complete any 1 quest path, and transforms you into one of the 8 adult characters (with a storyteller, of course. ;)). That event is not finished completely, but the skeleton is all there, and it works! YAY! That leaves one event slot in town open for the last event (I hope) that I'll need there!

That last event is very simple...it just waits for your overall fame to dip below a certain amount, and switches 34 NPC's to 'shun mode'. Then it switches itself to mode 2, and waits for the overall fame to rise again before it brings everybody out of shun mode. That's all it does right now.

I recently told Pagerron that I was 'almost finished with the adolescent stage.' LOL!! Yeah, right....what I MEANT to say was that I was almost done with adolescent MODE. I was nowhere NEAR finished with the adolescent stage! After you see your 'adolescent conversation' with NPC's, they open up their 'NPC options' menu...which means that each option switches to a mode which must be filled with code...for over 30 people. LOL!! Boy, do I have my work cut out for me. WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING?

It's just craziness.

[Pagerron]

Whoa! That's quite a lot of recent progress Obright. How cool that you're creative juices have been revived. It really seems like your going forward full-steam with this. "HUGE chunks of coding" are the most rewarding to get out of the way.

The whole weather change cycle you have going is really something. That must have taken a while to figure out.

And "stage" / "mode" what's the difference anyway? LOL.
Wow. All of your work will be worth it, I'm sure.

I really look forward to trying out this demo when you upload it here.

[irate giraffe]

For one thing they seemed hairy and smelled bad, Boy, do I have my work cut out for me. WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING?
It's just craziness.

...:run

[Ωbright]

I know...I'm insane. :|

Actually, since I posted that last post I've finished with another questmaster, bringing the total up to 5. Only 3 more to go! Those events that seemed hairy/smelly turned out to be candy-ass pushovers. Vanilla ones. Also, since the modes (like 'steal', 'portrait', 'flirt', etc.) are repeated, I only have to get them working once, write down the code, and then just fill them in for whoever needs them. It goes by pretty fast. Right now, the only option I haven't done at least once is 'trade', but I've worked on that quest path in other ways.

Now I only have to finish the NPC modes of 3 questmasters, and some NON-questmaster characters. The biggest pain in the ass is quest mode...and the biggest devourer of data, so I'll feel much better once those 8 guys are finished at least up to quest level 2 or so...

Once that happens, I'll call it a demo. It's either that, or complete all 8 quest paths, open up the adult stage, and THEN end the demo. If I do that, it'll take me a month or two...as opposed to a week or two.

[EDIT]Oh, and sorry...I missed this:
Whoa! That's quite a lot of recent progress Obright. How cool that you're creative juices have been revived. It really seems like your going forward full-steam with this. "HUGE chunks of coding" are the most rewarding to get out of the way.

The whole weather change cycle you have going is really something. That must have taken a while to figure out.

And "stage" / "mode" what's the difference anyway? LOL.
Wow. All of your work will be worth it, I'm sure.

I really look forward to trying out this demo when you upload it here.

Actually, I keep paper and a pen with me all the time, and when I get an idea for how something could work AT work...or in the shower...I can write it down so I don't forget it. Before I started back working this last time I had a list 2 pages long of things to do...and I just went down the list...bam bam bam. It's the most productive way for me to work, and the most efficient. Also, like I said, I have templates written for quest mode 1, quest mode 2, and all of the other modes except for 'trade', so that goes by quickly also. Other times, I'll open up my game, drop an item down somewhere, call it 'weather' or whatever, and place it there just as a reminder. It only takes a second, and I can get back to whatever I was doing.

If you hadn't noticed, I'm 100% addicted to finishing this game. I can't sleep, I can't eat...it's all I think about (when I have time to think about anything). I know, it's crazy. And yes, I did work on Tree of Life once or twice while I was playing the DQIII demo, but it was only to put those placeholder things there to remind me what I wanted to do later.

Taking time out to play your new demo was not a burden in spite of this, but a privilege. Thank you, again!

[MJM]

Amazing! I had no idea half of this stuff was possible, and I thought myself
experienced with the software. Just reading through all your posts and the replies was enough to inspire me quite a bit.
I like the fact you decided to "keep it small" in terms of game world, yet managed to flesh it out so thoroughly.
I'm looking at my own work now and thinking of ways I can improve upon it.
So congrats to you for drawing me into your game without me having even
played it yet, and bringing something fresh and exciting to the table to
inspire and impress the rest of us! Keep it up! I will definately play the demo
and/or finished product, if you need any help or suggestions I will do my best
to lend a hand. Just drop me a PM or e-mail and let me know.

[Libby]

I got first grabs at the demo. Without an extensive addition here, when this game comes avalible PLAY IT. Seriously. You are a geek if you don't.

[Wavelength]

I AM a geek, and I really want to play it anyhow! :)

[Ωbright]

After yesterday, ALL of the characters are placed, and many have complete skeletons (with empty text boxes). The 8 questmasters are finished...at least DEMO finished, and all of the NPC options have been done at least once except for 'Trade' and 'Join' (forgot all about that one). Most quest paths are complete at least up to level 2. Those are by far the hardest, most complicated, and most annoying part of making the game, because each one is set up totally differently. Other NPC options can be copied for each NPC, but not 'Quest'.

After giving everybody the correct number of modes, my DU shot up to 70%. I know that adding modes does that, but hopefully adding code to those modes won't make the DU shoot up quite so high again...if it does, then the game might have to do without battles of any kind, which I don't want to do. In my experiments, I made a character with 20 modes, and about 8 of them are full of code. I deleted the character and checked my DU, it went down by 3%...just for one character. Then I reset, and kept the modes but deleted the codes from them...the DU only went down by 1. That's encouraging...it means I'll probably have enough room to finish coding the remaining characters AND to add battles, dungeons...the rest of the game.

Amazing! I had no idea half of this stuff was possible, and I thought myself
experienced with the software. Just reading through all your posts and the replies was enough to inspire me quite a bit.
I like the fact you decided to "keep it small" in terms of game world, yet managed to flesh it out so thoroughly.
I'm looking at my own work now and thinking of ways I can improve upon it.
So congrats to you for drawing me into your game without me having even
played it yet, and bringing something fresh and exciting to the table to
inspire and impress the rest of us! Keep it up! I will definately play the demo
and/or finished product, if you need any help or suggestions I will do my best
to lend a hand. Just drop me a PM or e-mail and let me know.

Thanks, MJM! If my posts inspired you, then I'm very happy.

The reason why I decided to keep it small, was because the last game I made (see sig) was designed to sow my wild wanderlust oats. That game has 14 maps, and ONE npc...because I ran out of room. The game plays fine in spite of that, but it could have been so much better with at least 3 NPC's per town. This time I scaled the world down to a microcosm, and have about 40 people in it.

I got first grabs at the demo. Without an extensive addition here, when this game comes avalible PLAY IT. Seriously. You are a geek if you don't.

:spin:spin:spin I hope you like the full demo (and full game) even more! Thanks, Lib!

I AM a geek, and I really want to play it anyhow! :)

YAY! Universal appeal at last! :D As soon as the current demo is polished up a bit, I'll send it to you and Libra. Did you get a new MAX drive, or find your old one?

[Wavelength]

After giving everybody the correct number of modes, my DU shot up to 70%. I know that adding modes does that, but hopefully adding code to those modes won't make the DU shoot up quite so high again...if it does, then the game might have to do without battles of any kind, which I don't want to do. In my experiments, I made a character with 20 modes, and about 8 of them are full of code. I deleted the character and checked my DU, it went down by 3%...just for one character. Then I reset, and kept the modes but deleted the codes from them...the DU only went down by 1.something. That's encouraging...it means I'll probably have enough room to finish coding the remaining characters AND to add battles, dungeons...the rest of the game.

Uh oh... that does sound troubling... damn DU!! DU sucks! I want to spear DU! Or something. Really neat the way the coding only dropped it by 1 though... that's encouraging.

Has anyone gotten any further trying to figure out the DU mechanics?

wanderlust

Ah, I love that word.

YAY! Universal appeal at last! :D

Hehe, seems like it.

As soon as the current demo is polished up a bit, I'll send it to you and Libra. Did you get a new MAX drive, or find your old one?

I couldn't find it while I was packing last night... I scoured the whole thing. I went to Best Buy (where I got my first one) and no dice. Went to Gamestop. No luck. Went to Wal-Mart. Didn't have it. I got back home about six hours ago... I'm going to look all around my room here and make sure I didn't leave it here. If I can't find it, I'll see if I can download the software online (because I do still have the flash drive part of the package). And if that doesn't work, I'll call all the stores in the area and if they don't have it I'll buy it online. I'm GOING to get this!!! I haven't wanted to play a game this badly since Star Ocean 3!

UPDATE--Today I went to my local ("back home") GameSpot and they didn't have the Max Drive. I then took an off chance on a Best Buy that opened nearby--and got the last one on the shelf! I was euphoric. Tomorrow I'm going to see if there's anywhere on the net I can download the software to use with the Drive, before I open it. If I can't find it tomorrow, I give up on the $25 and open the new MaxDrive I got. And OH is it going to get some use in the next week! :D

[irate giraffe]

Wavelength,

Forget the Maxdrive -- that's a piece of ancient history now. I suggest you step into the year 2007 and get a PS3. Then you'l have no problem tranfering games at all.

[Ωbright]

I'm almost ready to send this demo to a few people to test (one last time) before I upload it. I STILL don't have a USB keyboard, and I'm bloody SICK of going ticticticticCHING! ticticticticticticticticCHING!
I can't do it any more for a while. I THINK everybody in the main part of town is done for the most part, but I'm having REALLY bad luck with lockups here lately (as opposed to my usual MODERATELY bad luck with them), and so play testing has been impossible.

Wavelength, I'm glad to hear about your MAX drive! I swear...tomorrow (maybe tomorrow night) I will send you what I have. I hope you like it!

[Misty]

Oh oh oh...I'm late I'm late I'm late!

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e151/kristopherallen/Alice%20In%20Wonderland/disney_712.gif

I had been following this, Obright, and just wanted to say what I should have said a long time ago. This is an excellent project you're working on! Keep up the good work and whatnot, friend. I don't need to offer you advice because you're doing excellent anyway!

So, uh, yeah. Rock on, dude!

^_^

[Wavelength]

Just wanted to say to everyone who's following the topic... if you've been thinking about playing this... PLAY IT! Jump on the opportunity like there's no tomorrow! Beg, borrow, and steal from Obright in order to get your hands on this! :)

The demo's pretty short (took me about an hour to complete, though Obi says you can manage it in 20 minutes if you know where to go), but the writing's fantastic, the game is FUN, and if you take it into the Teen Stage (remember... you've got to make the "decision" with Aratos and Loren and several others... and in Aratos' case, make sure you look around for something he'll be interested in ;)), while it's not officially part of the demo, you'll get a glimpse of some great things to come.

Tree of Life could hold some really nice things in the future.

[Ωbright]

Man, I don't know what range you fall under in the energy spectrum, but I'll bet it's in the VLF range at just the right frequency to induce ecstasy. LOL!! In any case, you made my day. Thanks!! :D I'm glad you're liking Tree of Life so far! And many thanks to you too, Misty!

I've honestly nothing much to report otherwise, as I haven't been working on the game for about a week. I'll get back to it soon, but I'm taking a break after the first demo to play Series 1, and stagnate a couple of cesspools for the garbage contest. So far each of these endeavours have been cathartic as ****.

One thing that definitely IS new, is that now, you don't get overall fame from completing the individual quest levels within each quest path. Instead, you get it all in one lump sum upon completing that quest path. The amount that you get is determined by your total quest fame that you scored in all quest levels of that quest. I know that sounds insanely convoluted, but really it's not. I'm just not very good at explaining. Actually, doing it this way simplifies things tremendoudly in the game, and makes more sense overall. When you complete a quest path, you're basically making your professional debut onto the scene.

It came about simply due to lack of room for code, but now I'm rather glad it happened.

Oh, and one more thing. Now all characters are either nocturnal or THAT OTHER 'WORD'. >: There are much more characters who are active during the day, but several key figures are only found at night. Again, I did it to save space, and again...I like it that way much more anyway. I swear I'm using up all of my good luck for the rest of my life on this game...

[Ωbright]

Remember when I said I'd used up all of my good luck for rest of my life? Well, apparently I had at least a little bit more.

At first I was thinking of having about 3 towns, and about 3 world maps. During that time, I was thinking I was going to use a HQ to house all of the characters I'd collected because nobody (including me) was going to want to go all over 3 maps just to get a character they want to be in the party, and because I just like using a HQ. Because of this, I went ahead and made characters for the 12 people that could be in the HQ.

Now, the game is only 1 main map, and 1 town (which is actually 2). Since that's the case, it really kinda eliminated the need for a HQ. Given that I had just almost breached the 80% DU mark, it was nice to be able to delete 12 characters. Now, almost all of the characters in the game AT LEAST have 'chat' done, which is probably the biggest of all the NPC options in terms of data due to all of the text boxes. I'm just now getting back up to 80% again.

If I can finish all of the other 3 NPC options for everybody, and finish all 8 quest paths...at right about 90% DU, I'll be happy. That means that I'll probably have enough room left for some enemies, and enemy parties. Battles in the game will be minimal, but I DO NOT want to eliminate them all together. There are 8 different adult main heroes you can be, and each one is either an archer, a swordsman/woman, a mage, or a 'knight' character. Other than the purely aesthetic aspects, why would anybody care if there are no battles? Also, the rewards for completing quest paths with a high quest fame are things like weapons, armor, and stat bonuses. Those won't matter if there are no battles. Why open the shops? All they have are weapons and armor in them anyway. Why earn money? You can't buy anything but food...and weapons, accessories, and armor.

Eliminating battles completely would undermine one of the fundamental strategies of the game. In other words, if you want 'a female mage with a high intelligence' for your adult form, you would pick Zoey to play at the beginning, select mostly pessemistic responses in your childhood phase, and then pick the quest path that rewarded the M-ATT bonus to complete in your teenage phase. When you (then) become an adult, you'll be a female mage with +20 M-ATT...but again, why would it even matter if there were no battles?

Speaking of battles......ok.....before I post anything game-related in this thread, I try to make sure that it's actually feasible with the software. I set up experiments and see if they work before I go running my mouth. Well...I didn't really do that before I went screaming about how I was going to have the enemy encounter rate be 'none' to begin with. You can't do that, as it turns out. >: It was a blow, but oh well. Now I'm just going to have to use the old 'invisible auto-event' trick to track gold, and exp for all 12 possible characters. It'll be a pain, but this way you can train to level 5 as a teenager, and then become a level 5 adult with the exact same exp, no matter what choices you make. I can also (pronounced WILL HAVE to) do the same thing with special skills that are learned, so that you'll keep your skills no matter which form you obtain.

And speaking of skills, all possible hero forms (except the child form) will have 4 groups of skills:
- Ones that all will have (5)
- Ones that they can either learn or not (5)
- Ones specific to that adult class (whether male or female)(5)
- One uber skill/spell, which is specific to each adult character.

So you SEE? I GOTTA keep the battles. I just have to. Plus, I'm someone that will jump up and down and scream that the battles in RM3 can be fun if they are done well. Even though battles will play a much smaller role in the game than they did in SotT, they must stay.

[Ωbright]

This is probably going to be the biggest update since I started this thread.

Ok, well a few days ago I had only done about 5 of the 14 people that had the 'Trade' NPC option. I knew (about) how much data was required to do 1 of those NPC's, and so I just added it up in my head. I estimated that by the time I got done with the rest of the trade modes, I'd be at about 88.5%, As it turned out, however, I finished the trade modes at right at 88.2%. Also, 'steal' is only on 2 NPC's, and it required little data. Thirdly, 'Join' was by far the simplest, least-mem-using NPC option yet. As a result, I wound up finishing all NPC modes at under 86%! But then I still had to worry about finishing all 8 quest paths...even WITH that good luck, it didn't seem like I was going to have enough room.

Then I actually started seriously planning and executing the quest paths...and found that I had alotted WAY more modes to 'quest' than I needed. I'm glad I did it that way, it's better to have too much and get rid of some than to not have enough...and have no more room to add anything.

Now I'm totally done with 1 quest path (cook), VERY close with 2 others (romantic and trade), and my DU is right at 89%. It looks like I'm ACTUALLY going to be able to fit all modes...including all quest modes...into my projected goal of 90% DU or less! I can't believe it...I just can't.

Speaking of the Trade quest, Wiring that thing up was a HUGE headache. Ok, here's how 'trade' goes: There are 14 people in the game with the 'trade' NPC option, and 8 items to be traded. I had to track all 8 items with a variable, but it worked well. Basically, for any trade item that you can have, there are 2 people who want it. One person will trade you 'X' for it, and the other will trade you 'Y'. All 8 items are required for either the Cook quest or the Trade quest, so you can trade your cookware for Chester's invention materials when you're done with them, or vice versa. It's even set up so that you can 'use' an invention part, trade it for another one, use that one, and trade it for another one, use it, trade that for a Wok to use on the cook quest, use it, then trade that for a Hibachi....on like that. It's a cycle (actually 2 cycles) that you can use to get whatever you want from it whenever you want...if you know how to do it. Using that, you can complete the cook quest and the trade quest in tandem. Like I said, it was a roaring monstrosity to build and playtest, but it works! With all that out of the way, the rest of the Trade quest was EASY...so far. I stll have to make 1 'minigame' to complete the trade path all the way. It's a minigame where you lower one of Chester's inventions down into a cave through a shaft, and steer it remotely to find the last important stash of Maximillian's, and open the 3rd shop (jewelry store). Once you do that, the 'trader' path is complete.

Another NPC option that I've finished (like I already said) was 'join'. I had a fairly major problem at first. You see, there's no way to prevent someone from switching another character to be the main hero...and the game is based on how ZOEY OR VICTOR interact with the people of that world. Nothing was preventing some smartass from putting the damn DOG in the lead party position and then flirting with everybody...while ZOEY took all the credit! That aint right! I had to figure some way around it.

It was another one of those moments...where I'm mad about something not working out, but my solution to the problem actually exceeds my expectations, and works even better than it would have otherwise. I decided that, given Moyos' violent past, there was a town ordinance passed that forbade armed bands from setting foot in Moyos...upon threat of imprisonment or worse. If you want to have some people join you for an adventure, you have to meet them beyond the gates of town. Makes sense, right? The thing I really love about it though, is that when you step past the 'no-party' zone, it checks to see who's agreed to meet you there...and one by one they appear and utter their battle calls...it's like a roll call or something. Anyway, I love it. When you come back from the other side, you don't even realise anything happened, but it kicks everybody out of your party so that you can enter town. I like how all of that works, but more importantly it keeps it so that ONLY the main character (whichever one it is) is in the party while in town.

And here's another incentive to do battle. The real estate agency of Moyos only accepts one kind of currency as payment for a house...INT points. The town of moyos was struggling to survive in the wild area of the world, so it was decided that the only way to own property was to help rid the area of dangerous pests, and encourage the town to grow. When defeated, these enemies drop 'Indiginous Nuisance Tokens' which can be collected and traded for a house. Since there's only one house for sale, and it costs 100 INT points, you'll have to defeat 100 enemies in order to collect enough tokens to buy the house. So far, there are only 2 ways of getting INT points...the way I just mentioned, and by completing the Romantic quest. When you do that, Althea will grant you 75 INT points to go toward the house, but you'll still have to fight for the other 25. Enemy parties with 3 enemies will grant 3 INT points, parties with 4 will grant 4...etc. It would make sense that nobody had bought the house, since the armor, weapon, and accesory shops had all been closed for a while. And yes, I'm actually hijacking the 'INT' stat. It's at least one variable amount that can be displayed in-game. If your current INT is '97', then you only need to fight one more party of 3 enemies to earn enough points for the house.

And you know...90% of the game will be honing, directing, and customising your character to achieve the adult form that you want with the stat bonuses, items, and weapons that you want. The result of all that is for the remaining 10%...the battles. Honestly, I've found that when you've spent 8-10 hours making and building your character, you start to have some time/energy and maybe even emotion invested in them, and so you really want to see them in battle if for no other reason than to see them in a new way, doing things besides interacting with people. You earned those skills and that character by guiding their actions through the...years! :D Not only that, but when you consume an order of 'Mongolian Beef' in battle, it's not just something you found festering in a chest...or bought for 150 gold. You tracked down all of the ingredients, the cookware, and the recipe to make it...YOU were the one who actually made it for the first time, and went around recruiting customers to the restaurant simply for the PRIVILEDGE of BUYING IT from the store once you opened it. Also, that sword you're using wasn't just found in a field (or in a stone, for that matter). You traded for the parts to make the metal detector to find the buried stash of gold to open the weapon shop just so that you could buy that sword. Things like that give a whole new dynamic to the battles, and makes them far more enjoyable. Plus I've tried in any ways possible to MILK the battle engiene in RM3 for every single drop of joy that can be generated with it. I learned a lot from making Shadow of the Towers...the battles in that were much more central, but I learned a few tricks to speed things up and keep things interesting to spice up Tree of Life...and that's all battles really are in it...the cinnamon...on the icing...on the cake.

I guess I should also mention that the explanations of the NPC mode dynamics in the first post of this thread are now out of date. And yes I know I should just update it but I'm not...I'm going to just tell you about it instead and then go pass out. So there. I realised that it was possible for someone to find the highest-level quest item for another path without ever accepting even the first subquest on that quest path. The problem with THAT, is that when you finally DO accept that quest path, you're given the lowest-level tools for that path, and your 'quest tool level' variable is altered accordingly...which would over-ride your current (higher) quest tool level. I had to add a VC branch in all 8 quest paths that checks your current quest tool level before it gives you the lower one. It was another major headache...but it works now, and as a result one of the main keystone mechanics of the game was spared from a grizzly demise.....................and it STILL only took up one mode! (With 0 lines of code to spare). I'm still truly amazed by the number of NPC option modes in the game that took up EXACTLY 50 lines of code. Seriously...wtf is up with that?

Oh, and I've done a lot of work on the world map. You can now leave the acropolis in the center of the map where Moyos is, and venture onto the world map's other areas. There are stone bridges over many of the rivers, and other areas which are not accessable yet. Overall I'm liking it so far, but I wish you could have more than one kind of tree/forest per climate per map. :( I love how the 'temperate 1' trees change with the seasons, but the evergreens of 'european' suit the ancient theme of Moyos much better, as they look like Greek cypresses...sort of. Anyway, I wish I could have both on the world map, because it's going to be hell to decide. I guess it all depends on whether I'll have enough room to keep the bonus map (gained from the archaeologist quest), or whether I'll have to axe it. If I DO have to axe it...'Lembria' will be the only map in the game...and I'll go insane. If I can keep that map, then it won't matter so much. I can just have the Lembria map be 'temperate' to show off the fact that the seasons are changing, and 'europen' for the other map to accentuate it's ancient...ness.

While I'm overjoyed that it looks very strongly like I'm going to have plenty of room for battles and extras, there is one slight detail that I've overlooked....If I have 13 (total) join-able characters, then I'm going to have to have 13 CLASSES to attatch to them. Never MIND the quest masters that can be fought on the thief quest if you **** up. For each questmaster you can fight, there's another class I have to add. Umm...duh. I at least had the foresight to make classes for all of the 14 possible hero forms (including the 'thief' forms), and a few more...but not 13. That's ANOTHER thing that's going to have to be accounted for in the final stretches...that, in addition to the enemies and enemy parties that I already accounted for (the last 10%).

This is a rollercoaster ride. It's a good thing I like rollercoasters, but this one might just kill my fat ass.

In closing, I can't believe I'm typing this...but this damn game is almost finished. It'll be at LEAST a good strong demo soon, where you can achieve all 8 possible adult forms, and all 8 quest paths are complete-able. I know I might as well just complete the game at that point, but the demo will be completely playable without getting into one single battle if you don't want to. In order to release the full version of the game I'll have to make enemies (including stats and skills), enemy parties, hero classes (including stats and skills), and finish designing all of the blank equips that I've already made as placeholders. That's still quite a bit...I guess...so I guess it's premature to say I'm 'almost finished', but a HUGE portion of the game is done. I guess I should put it this way: All I have to do before I can release a good, solid demo is to enter text into a few (a lot of) empty dialogue boxes, and finish 5 quest paths...and that's not a whole lot. The event which brings about the adult stage could use a little work, but it's already there for the most part.

[Perversion]

:)


I'll be sure to play the demo on Saturday or sooner. It sounds like you did a lot of thinking, complex coding, and time making this game. I can't wait to play the full version!

[Ωbright]

Thank you...and yes, I've been working hard on it, and at time's it's turned my brain inside-out. It hurts, but it's good for you. :D

I intended to finish all NPC modes AND complete all 8 quest paths at 90% DU or under, and at first it seemed like it would be impossible (see previous post), but now it looks like I'll actually be able to do it by compressing modes (combining 'SHUN' and 'FORGIVENESS' modes into one with a VC branch, for one thing...plus a lot of characters are going to wind up needing fewer modes than they currently have.), restructuring the adolescent dialogues to have fewer text boxes, and changing 'CHAT' for steal on several people...and now a NEW NPC option...'HELP'. My current DU is 87.9%.

Almost all of the other quest paths have NPC options that are associated with them except for 'Archaeologist', so I thought 'HELP' would be perfect for the 'Saint' path. Now, 5 people in the game need you to help them somehow, and they offer small mini-quests.

Also, there are now 5 mini-games. 4 of them are simply locked cabinets with a combination lock (cook quest), and the other is a minigame where you lower one of the inventions you helped Chester make into a cave to find some of Maximillian's gold. I'm pleased with how they all turned out...esp. the cave one.

I was originally thinking 'INFO' was going to simply be a message box or two that explained various aspects of the game. Many will still be that way, but I'd like for some people to tell you things like the weather, moon phase, season, your overall fame, etc. If I have enough room, I'll definitely do that.

I did some experiments and some adding up, and found that it would take 7.7% of the overall data to add 20 enemies, 20 enemy parties, and enough classes to cover all of the joinable characters. That means that if I can finish everything else (npc options/modes and all 8 quest paths) at 90% or less, I'll finish the game at about 97.7%...which will leave enough space (hopefully) for anything else that I may have to add. Like I said, I have several tricks up my sleeve to economise space. A lot of them I've already used to pretty good effect, but many others I'm saving for when I really need them (like when I start doing 16 people's 'love' modes...). Sigh...I KEEP thinking of new things I'll need.

[Ωbright]

As of last night, the following quest paths are about 99% complete:
- Cook
- Trade
- Romantic
- Artist
- Saint
- Musician

That just leaves Thief, and Archaeologist...and I've done a whole lot of work on those. I'd say Arch. was about 75% done, and Thief about 50%. My DU is at 89%. :D Looks like I'm going to make it!

I've also been working on 2 puzzle chambers, to be found and solved on the Archaeologist quest path. I like them both A LOT...I really pushed myself to do something different with them, they took forever to build, and now they work! One of them you have to push switches to make chests appear, but you have to do it in the right order or else you'll block switches that you may not have pushed yet. It's possible to get 4 chests, but there are two ways to get 3 chests, and 1 to get 2 chests. I don't think it's possible to get just 1 chest with that one, but I could be wrong. The other puzzle room has 3 brown chests, and 1 red one that you can't open. When you open 1 chest, it opens or closes another one, and one chest opens/closes all 3 chests. The object is to get all 3 chests open in order to open the red chest in the back. That one is easier than the first one, but still pretty cool. I still have 1 trick up my sleeve for the last Archaeologist quest puzzle room, but I haven't tried to make it yet.

I like the whole random weather thing, and it works great...but I wonder if I should leave it in the game. If the weather were more predicatable (the same 12-day weather pattern for all 3 weather areas in the game), then I could have a character tell you what the weather outlook is, or have people's display turned off when it's raining, or have hidden characters appear when it was 'heavy fog' conditions, etc. I wonder if I'm missing a trick with that...

I keep finding ways to economise data space, and also keep finding things that I'm going to have to add. Still, I really didn't think I was actually going to be able to cram all 8 quest paths, and all 4 NPC options for 40 people...into 90% DU, and here I am almost done with all that, and I'm at 89%. A new way of economising space is to give everybody a VC branch on their mode switchboard (mode 3), which checks for a variable. If it's over a certain amount, you get a special message INSTEAD of going to a special mode for 'Fan Mode'. If I can do that, then 40 +/- people will be able to drop a mode, which will free up about another 2-3%. By the time I get through, people are going to have about 6-7 modes instead of 10-20...but who cares? No functionality was lost whatsoever, and in some cases the change actually improved functionality.

I still have to finish those last 2 quest paths, enter a lot of text, playtest and tweak...but it's looking like I'm going to be able to release this as a demo fairly soon. I really need to take a little break from it for a while though...I'm starting to burn.

[Draygone]

I don't know about weather forcasts, but couldn't you just set a variable at a weather-specific number when the weather changes? Granted, I don't know how RPGM3's weather works, so for all I know it's automatic instead of controlled by scripts.

[hitogoroshi]

I like the whole random weather thing, and it works great...but I wonder if I should leave it in the game. If the weather were more predicatable (the same 12-day weather pattern for all 3 weather areas in the game), then I could have a character tell you what the weather outlook is, or have people's display turned off when it's raining, or have hidden characters appear when it was 'heavy fog' conditions, etc. I wonder if I'm missing a trick with that...
You could, but it might take a bit of DU. I mean, no matter how you slice it, you're using variables for the weather - so you can forecast no matter what. It just depends how much of a monstrosity the code will be.
And for the display on/off based on weather, couldn't you just put an event transistion for each condition to lead to a mode change event for said characters? Or is the code too full for that?

[Ωbright]

Thanks for the suggestions, guys! The problem is that I'm tracking the weather with a variable, and altering the weather daily based on it. Actually that's NOT the problem....THIS is the problem: I have 3 different 12-day weather outlooks for the world map, west Moyos, and Moyos proper. If the weather variable = 'rain', and you're on the world map, that's fine...but that same variable amount will mean 'heavy fog' when you go into town.

Ok, say you have an NPC that only appears when X (weather variable) = 11 (rain) on the world map. Say that you know that character will be there now that it's raining, and so you go into town to find him/her/it. Only problem is...X in TOWN does NOT = 'rain'. Since you take the weather from one area to the next, it's possible to easily skew the weather so that secret characters start showing up in all kinds of weather, and all of the weather forecasts that people give you are all wrong...unless you stay in the same place for several days (or unless I take out the random weather). Oh well...weather reports are always wrong anyway. I'm probably just going to leave it like it is.

Not much to report otherwise...I've finished the 3rd (and last) archaeologist puzzle chamber, and with it came the end of the Archaeologist quest path...it's done. Now the only path left is 'Thief', and I'm at 88.9% DU.

I keep remembering things I'll need to add...like 8 adult storytellers, a few more events here and there, finish 'shun/forgiveness' modes for everybody (simple), give special messages upon reaching certain requirements to many NPC's in order to take the place of 'fan mode', which is now gone. Also, 16 people in the game will have a (hopefully fairly simple) 'love mode', which they can be brought into. I still have to add all of that...not to mention find a way to display 16 possible 'spouse' versions of 16 characters in a house that can only fit 10 people......and already has 2. I know I'll need to make 'dummy' houses that can be warped to from the 'main' house somehow, and I'll put the other mates there...but still...my point is that I have a lot left to do besides 'finish all 4 NPC option modes for everybody and complete all 8 quest paths'.....a lot more. Hopefully I'll still have room.....we'll see.

I also keep coming up with ways to economise space. I've already used most of them, but I still have 2-3 more that I'm saving...like condensing modes for certain NPC's even further, and replacing the 'chat' option for 'steal' or 'info' on a lot of people.

Wish me luck people.....it's coming down to the wire.....

[Ωbright]

http://s34.photobucket.com/albums/d106/localgods/ToLpromo.jpg

[Hikari no Kaze]

Ye Gods.




That's beautiful!

The entire concept of this game is amazing! I will get this as soon as possible...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Sorry. "No Max Drive deprives a Devout Fan" frenzy.







Heh heh.

[Zeos]

I so want to copy that idea, lol. This game looks fantastic! The screens are beautiful, and they make me want to go steal your memory card from your house and play the game! I also have a little question, on the trader quest path, will thiefs steal from your stands?

[Ωbright]

:D

If you want to use an idea in this game feel free. Go ahead and shave your head though, to save you the trouble of pulling your hair out later. Programming that was a sackful of harpies...but it's totally doable. ;) Just keep track of everything on paper...especially the variables list.

Oh, and the three 'trade depots' in the game that can be opened on the trader quest are not true trade shops, but rather default shops which exchange weapons, armor, and jewelry for gold. So the thief can't steal from them. There are 4 NPC's in the game that can be stolen from, and thief quests to steal 6 highest-rank quest tools (artist, saint, musician, trader, archaeologist, and romantic).

Thanks for the comments!

[Perversion]

I like the teaser pic....oh, and yeah, clear out your PMs already!!! And get on YM!!!!

[Ωbright]

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d106/localgods/characterpromo01.jpg

PROGRESS REPORT:
I'm done with ALL of the NPC's in downtown moyos, and now I just need to finish the NPC's in the residential district, and finish the thief quest path. once all that's done, I can either release it as a demo, or just wait and finish the whole thing. What are some views on this? If I wait until it's finished, it may be Christmas before I release it, as opposed to the beginning of September.

[irate giraffe]

Dear Lord, did you use every damn portrait in the game?

I say wait until it's all the way done.

[Ωbright]

Oh HELL no! There are about 650-700 portraits in the game. And yeah, I guess I should just wait and upload the whole game. :(

[11Evil Chipmunk]

Nice, it looks fun! I wish I could play games here.

[Lausen]

How did you get so many people on the map? I thought you couldn't put people on the maps. Is it just a camera trick or what? I would really like to know.

[Ωbright]

I took screenshots of all 8 characters on the map, all at the same time of day, and then photoshopped them all into one picture. It was a pain in the ass, but I guess the picture came out ok.

[Ωbright]

Well I've been working on Tree of Life again here lately.

As some may have read, my plan for months and months was to finish all 8 quest paths at 90% DU or under. Well I just 'finished' the thief quest (it's complete, just not 100% finished) and I wound up RIGHT AT 90% DU. I couldn't believe it. I went ahead and added the enemies, and some ally classes, and now the DU is 97%. Damn. I knew this would happen, so it's no real surprise, it's just that I have since thought of a lot of other things that I'll need to add.

The following things still need to be added, and will require using more data space:

- Finish filling in 'Love Modes' for 16 people
- Finish filling in 'Fan Modes' for a ton of people
- Finish filling in 'Shun/Forgiveness Modes' for a ton of people
- Jail events
- Finish filling in the quest rewards
- Make adoption/having a baby possible
- Finish making the hero mansion
- Make adult stage storytellers

The rest of what I have to do should not require any further data to be added:

- Place mansion mates
- Finish entering text in some dialogue boxes
- Finish making weapons, items, and armor
- Finish making enemy stats and skills
- Finish making ally stats and skills
- Make item descriptions

Some of the top list will have to go, I'm fairly sure, but I'll try to economize space to the fullest extent first. I'll go after the top list first, and then move on to the second. The last thing I'll need to do is playtest, and hopefully I'll have the game ready for release before the new year, if not sooner.

[Lausen]

Thats a bummer. It's a good thing you've been through this before so you have a better understanding on what you can eliminate and add. Either way 97% is good new for us at the Pav. That means it will hopefully be realesed soon. Hopefully. Anyways good luck with fitting everything you need to. I'm sure you'll be able to do it.

[Wavelength]

Where's that drooling smiley? Oh right, here it is: :drool

From the first demo, and from all you're explained about what else there is to explore in the game, this sounds absolutely tantalizing. Definitely going to factor in to my Winter Break.

[Lausen]

Where's that drooling smiley? Oh right, here it is: :drool

From the first demo, and from all you're explained about what else there is to explore in the game, this sounds absolutely tantalizing. Definitely going to factor in to my Winter Break.

Wait you have a demo out of it?

[Wavelength]

Wait you have a demo out of it?

Back in May I had the pleasure of playing a "demo" of this, yes. I played the hell out of it, and helped get rid of one or two gameplay bugs in the meantime. It was just the Child stage and the beginning of the Teen stage, with no action outside of Moyos. But the great writing, the freedom, and the overall fun of it all, it got me really looking forward to what's coming next.

I think the Demo was only sent out on request at the time, though. There's no official download at the Pav.

[Lausen]

Oh I see. I was going to say I'm blind as hell because I've been up and down the games on the main page and didn't see it. Then again it says it hasn't been updated since 05 so??? I'll just wait for the final version.

[Ωbright]

The following things still need to be added, and will require using more data space:

- Finish filling in 'Love Modes' for 16 people
- Jail events

The rest of what I have to do should not require any further data to be added:

- Finish entering text in some dialogue boxes
- Finish making weapons, items, and armor
- Finish making enemy stats and skills
- Finish making ally stats and skills
- Make item descriptions

Fixed.

I wound up getting rid of shun/forgiveness modes, and fan modes all together. Instead, there are now VC branches on the main switchboard mode that give special messages in certain situations. That freed up a lot of space, as did getting rid of the secret bonus character and the bonus map. Right now my DU is at 96.6%, but that's much better than where I thought I'd be after adding all of the enemies, enemy parties, and ally classes...not to mention the fact that I've completed the adult storytellers, finished the basic skeleton of the quest rewards, completed the hero mansion, and made having a child/adoption possible. Now I just have to fill in 16 love modes, and finish the jail events! Everything else will either not take up any additional DU, or take very little to add something. As long as those 2 things don't go over 3.4%, I'll have at least a little room to work with, and the game will be complete.

Mind you, that doesn't mean 'finished', that just means that all of the parts will be in place. I'll still have to enter craploads of text, make skills, stats, etc., and playtest like crazy...but the basic framework will all be there for the first time, and that will feel great.

Lausen, if you want to playtest this soon, just let me know and I'll send you a copy!

[Lausen]

Fixed.

I wound up getting rid of shun/forgiveness modes, and fan modes all together. Instead, there are now VC branches on the main switchboard mode that give special messages in certain situations. That freed up a lot of space, as did getting rid of the secret bonus character and the bonus map. Right now my DU is at 96.6%, but that's much better than where I thought I'd be after adding all of the enemies, enemy parties, and ally classes...not to mention the fact that I've completed the adult storytellers, finished the basic skeleton of the quest rewards, completed the hero mansion, and made having a child/adoption possible. Now I just have to fill in 16 love modes, and finish the jail events! Everything else will either not take up any additional DU, or take very little to add something. As long as those 2 things don't go over 3.4%, I'll have at least a little room to work with, and the game will be complete.

Mind you, that doesn't mean 'finished', that just means that all of the parts will be in place. I'll still have to enter craploads of text, make skills, stats, etc., and playtest like crazy...but the basic framework will all be there for the first time, and that will feel great.

Lausen, if you want to playtest this soon, just let me know and I'll send you a copy!

Well thats good news. I'd love to help you do some playtesting before the final release. Anytime you feel ready enough to let someone play it tell me.

[Wavelength]

I know you're getting close, both to completion and in terms of the DU... how's it worked out for you these last couple days?

[Ωbright]

Well thats good news. I'd love to help you do some playtesting before the final release. Anytime you feel ready enough to let someone play it tell me.

It's almost time!

I know you're getting close, both to completion and in terms of the DU... how's it worked out for you these last couple days?

Well I ran into some problems, but just like this whole project seems to have been from the beginning, the compromises I had to make wound up being changes for the better.

My first problem was that, even though I still had a full 3% DU left, I couldn't edit any of the characters. Apparently, you have to have at least as much DU left as the size of the object you want to edit.

As a result, I had to delete about 50 blank weapon/armor items, and 7 blank classes which were reserved for characters in order to free up enough space to edit those huge characters and events. Before I put them back, however, I had to playtest out the wazoo to make sure I won't have to add anything.

And in spite of the fact that I had to add a TON of things, hopefully I'll be back to just about right where I was before I deleted those blank items/skills because I was able to free up space by getting rid of about 10 superfluous events, and by completely eliminating 'shun' mode, 'fan' mode, and 'quest item stolen' mode on a lot of NPC's. Those modes only held a couple of message boxes at the most, so I simply edited the 'mode switchboard' (mode 3 for most characters) to add VC branches checking for several things. At the beginning of everybody's switchboard mode, I added a VC branch checking your overall fame. If it's zero, you get a shun message, and that's all (shun mode). I added fan mode to 'chat', so the VC branches there can check your overall fame, any particular quest fame, or anything else that's tracked with a variable in the game, and give a special message (and/or award a prize), before going on to the normal chat dialogue. Quest item stolen mode was another one of those that occupied an entire mode just to tell you that the questmaster has been robbed, and cannot continue with their quest as a result. On the mode switchboard, in place of the code that changed the NPC's mode to 'quest item stolen', there's simply a message there saying the same thing.

The point of all of that is that hopefully I haven't lost any functionality in exchange for the space I freed up, and instead have been more frugal and efficient with the space I have to work with. So far it seems so, but we'll see, there's still an assload of play testing to do.

So what did I add?

The jail events are complete, and function well. They wound up being a shell of their former selves, but they work. Originally I was going to have your sentence increase by 1 day each time you were arrested, but that was when I had other activities planned in the prison. So yeah, I had to get rid of those. The only thing you can do right now is explore a few passageways that secretly attach to your cell, and nobody's going to do that for more than 3 days. >RESET< However, the 'death sentence' event is done and wired in, and it's kinda cool. The means of death chosen was guillotine. :) If you have a certain item, you can bribe the guards with it and get out asap, otherwise you have to wait 3 days to be let out. The variables that track the weather and season are continued while you're in jail, so when you get out the weather won't still be whatever it was when you went in. Hopefully that will add to the feeling that you've just spent 3 days in jail. Anyway, I've playtested all of that, and it works...including the 1 true method of getting the execution game over. Um. WHOOOO!!! That was a major headache that I've been dreading for months because I knew it was going to be such a major headache. And it was.

The invisible events that check how much, if any proceeds you are entitled to daily (if you've opened any/all of the shops and/or the restaurant) are finished. You'll get anywhere from 25 gold to 300 gold every day. There's no message telling you when you get it, but you get it. I wouldn't have had the room to make all of the message boxes necessary to tell players exactly how much money they were getting, but I experimented on using 1 default message box that just says 'you have just received your daily payment' or something, but it was jarring and interrupting in spite of the good news it brought. I weed on it.

And finally, the event that triggers the 'final event' in the game is made, and it works. Basically, after you complete a quest path (either by doing it the right way, or by stealing the quest award), a variable is added to. Once that variable reaches 7, all of the 'legit' quest paths are completed. At that point your overall data is tallied, and you earn one of 4 rankings.

So what do I have left to do?

A CRAPLOAD. In comparison to what's already done it's paltry...but...yeah. Although the basic skeleton, and (hopefully) all of the parts are there, I still have to:

- design all skills and stats
- design enemy skills and stats
- fill in text for about 300 (less than a quarter) message boxes
- finish designing weapons, armor, items, etc.
- enter item descriptions
- finish the quest awards
- finish love modes
- playtest out the ass

All of that stuff has been accounted for space-wise, either with blank weapons and items as placeholders, or complete events with blank message boxes. Either way, 'completing' them will not require using more data...I just have to DO them.

I had my very first complete playthrough of the game last night...

I completed all 7 main quest paths and got my ranking, I bought a mansion, I got married, and we had a kid. Yay! After you've completed all 7 quest paths the game doesn't end. You can keep playing, but your ranking is final.

So YAY! The game is almost done!

[Lausen]

Well I'm ready when ever, but it sounds like it could be a few weeks yet. I know how long it takes to make all of the battles balanced.:( It takes way to long and thats one thing you can't rush. Well good luck with the last 3%

[Ωbright]

I'm afraid you're right. Further hampering things is the fact that now that the basic skeleton is there, I'm burning out again. I just REALLY REALLY REALLY don't want to have to type in all of that text. I hate writing it on paper beforehand, and with all of the edits and re-writes, it can take a LONG time just for 1 message box. Couple that with my infamous incredible locking-up PS2, and it's really nerve-wracking to input text...which is rather sad, as I love to come up with things for people to say. I can come up with things for THEM to say all day long, but when it's time for ME to say something I...oh **** it. When the text box is done I have to RACE like a demon to get to the save menu before my system locks up. It was the same with my first game, except that I didn't have a USB keyboard back then.

Yeah, the battle balance takes a while. One good thing though, is that several characters are in both this game and the first one, so I can just copy them over. There will be some changes made though, I can already tell you. For one thing, one of Brogans lower-level attacks will be replaced with a 1-target heal spell in Tree of Life. In fact, the only playable character that didn't make it over was Karl, and there's a similar character in Tree of life whose stats I can at least base on the stats of Karl. I'll use those 7 characters as my base, make the remaining playable characters based on those, and adjust the enemy stats accordingly. Then I'll tweak the whole things with weapons, armors, and accessories.

[EDIT] WRONG...Karl, Troy and (most importantly) Gabriel are not in the new game. That's one of the main reasons why I'm giving Brogan an extra heal spell.

Great. That still leaves the stats of the 12 possible hero forms. One good thing is that the levelup stats will have to be the same for each branch in order to maintain fluidity when you attain your new hero form. Zoey's stats will be one way, and Victor's another. However, when you earn a bonus in a stat as an adolescent, you'll still have it when you become an adult.

Skills will be similar. As Zoey, you'll be able to learn 'these 6 skills' as adolescent zoey 1, or 'these 6 skills' as adolescent Zoey 2. As Adolescent Zoey 1, you'll still have those 6 skills when you become an adult, but the other 6 will be different depending on which of the 2 adult forms you take. The same is true of Victor's side.

I forgot to mention, I eliminated the default levelup system. Since the number of enemies was tracked already anyway, I simply made it so that after 10 enemies are defeated, you levelup. Not just you though...everybody levels up, even people in town who have never joined you in battle. It sounds strange, but it makes sense. Battles in ToL are supposed to be aiding the community by eliminating hazardous or harmful pests (hence the INT points), so when you do that you're making the water cleaner, and generally making people happier, healthier, and more productive. Thus, their levels change when yours does.

Also, since there's only one map, and dungeons have scripted battles (if any) only, I had to make the most of that one map, and I think the levelup system will work pretty well. I have 4 terrain types, and 4 enemy parties that can be encountered in each, with either 1, 2, 3, or 4 enemies. I tried to use a big variety of enemies to avoid monotony, and the layout of the map promotes a firm division between enemy difficulties. What I mean is, when you leave town, the terrain you'll encounter will be 'desert', which has 'these 7 enemies' at a beginning difficulty. The next is 'scrubland' or whatever, with slightly more difficult enemies. The further away from town that you get, the harder the enemies are.

On a final note (before I go and try to work on the game some more), I was worried that all of the work that I did on the seasons system was for nothing, because it wouldn't even take 30 days (one season) to complete the game anyway. After my first playthrough, I completed the game in 45 game days. That's pretty cool, considering the fact that I basically cheated my way through a bunch of parts in order to play test, like to gain INT points, for example...I didn't go and fight 100 enemies. I haven't had a TRUE playthrough of the game yet, but I feel like (using my result as an estimate), players who complete the game will at LEAST see Autumn, if not winter unless they continue to play after the 'end'. We'll see, though. Oh, and it took about 16 hours of actual time.

I'm out...

[Ωbright]

Just a quick update:

The love modes are all finished, CHAT is done, including special messages, the 8 adult storytellers are done, and the ending storyteller. I'm pretty sure all empty message boxes have been filled at this point, but we'll see. Oh crap...I still have 15 more 'mate' messages to go, but those are so easy.

All ally stats are done, and half of the skills. Only about 400 more skills to go! Ha ha ha KLUNK. I thought my EIGHT CHARACTERS in the last game was bad...now I have 13 playable, 6 fight-able, and 14 possible main heroes to give skills to, for a total of 528 ally skills. Shoot me. Please. Oh well, at least the stats are done.

Seriously though...I have enemy stats/skills to do, and some items, some more ally skills, and about 20 more message boxes. That's it, except for typo fixing and play testing/minor tweaking.

Oh, and my MAX disk may never read again. HAH! Isn't that great?! :|

[Ωbright]

WHOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! I just got through with the last enemy. I think...I think Tree of Life is DONE!! I know I'll have to playtest, and depending on how that goes it may take a bit longer, but if all goes well I might be able to upload the game before the weekend is out!

I'm stunned in a state of disbelief. I just can't BELIEVE I'm finished with Tree of Life finally. It's been a lot of work for the last year and a half or so. I may have to wrestle with my MAX disk upside-down for another 3 hours before I can get the damn game loaded, but load it I will. I guess I'll send this final playtest version to Wavelength, Lausen, and anybody else if they want to give it a preview. There's no playtesting responsibilities per se...just play through the game as you normally would, but keep an eye out for bugs, glitches, or typos.

If you can't do this before the weekend then that's fine. I'll be testing over here, and if I have to I'll extend the upload ETA by a bit...but I'm anxious to get the game uploaded at this point, and Pagerron, Wavelength, Libra and I have already playtested it a lot.

*passes out*

[Lausen]

I can't wait to see this thing on the pav!!! I'm more then willing to help playtest. I need a bit of a break from my game after these last two weeks. Might be a bit later then the weekend though. I need to go buy a new flash drive. Can't wait.:D

[sleepywolf]

I just downloaded both of your games,Obright! And I plan on playin them tonight and reviewing them for you! ^_^

[Ωbright]

THANK YOU! I hope you enjoy them! :)

Um...you might want to play Tree of life first, unless you don't mind the number of battles in Shadow of the Towers.

[sleepywolf]

I started with tower first, and...I am already stuck, so I came online to lookup some help. Do you have a guide for your game?
Nvm, I found the walkthrough in your game forum ^_^;

[Ωbright]

I can't believe that was 3 years ago. >_>

Well I just wanted to say that, since I got my RM3 disk to play on my PC via an emulator (finally), I've been able to play this game without having to contend with a PS2 that randomly locks up...for the very first time. :) YAY.

I'll try to get a walkthrough/guide for Tree of Life put together soon, for anybody that might want or need that. It'll be a little on the long side, and take forever, but I think it might be helpful for somebody somewhere...?

And since this was my production thread for the game, I might as well use this as the production thread for the game guide. I'm not sure when I'm going to be able to really focus on it, but I wanted to get it started anyway.

Here's the basic outline:

Intro - Basic game guide
- Cooking walkthrough
- Music walkthrough
- Trading walkthrough
- Saint walkthrough
- Artist walkthrough
- Romantic walkthrough
- Archaeologist walkthrough

- How to get a perfect score as any adult character
- Marriage guide
- Thief subquest/stealing guide

- Battle guide
---Weapons/armor
---Character/skill guide
---Enemy/item drop guide
---Joining requirements guide

- "Info" guide
- "Chat" guide
- Shop guide
- Speed-running a perfect game guide
- bonus extras

Wow, now that I look at it, that's even more than I expected. Plus I know that I've left things out, but like I said, I just want to start the project.

Wish me luck!

[Perversion]

Luck!