[Role Playing Game] Call of the Swarm: Rise of Qiraji

[The Nightmare Book]

CALL OF THE SWARM

RISE OF QIRAJI

"Can you tame the untamable lands?"

OVERVIEW

A singleplayer, story and choice-driven RPG, positing itself as an official spin-off to the "Call of the Swarm" campaign, cause story upholds in parallel to the original campaign.
This project was deeply inspired by Baldurs Gate 3, Cult of the Lamb and Dune.

You are qiraji prophet Zaqash, an ever-ambitious priest sent into a distant wild land with a missionary mission.
Visit iconic wildlands - Barrens - and claim them for All-Seeing Eye. Or fall, trying.
Solve difficult problems, convert infidels into righteous faith, and seed disarray among your enemies - "Rise of Qiraji" deeply focuses on role-playing, and trust me - you'll see many unusual situations, and who knows - which way you'll complete your impossible task.

STORY

"Barrens.
So many emotions invoke this one simple word.
Nearly endless lands of once verdant lush forests, now Barrens are short of supply and green, land of constant strife and struggle for survival.

But in this sea of centaurs and quilboars, there are unusual aliens called silithids has been saw here.
You are prophet Zaqash, and with their help, you will subdue the untamable energy of Barrens...
Or die, trying."

FEATURES

EXPLORE WILDLANDS
Discover iconic Barrens - even a thousand years before their iconic entrance, this land is still plagued by eternal conflict.
Explore, hunt, corrupt, dominate - only the fittest survive here.

STRANGERS IN STRANGE LAND
You are aqirs - aliens to this land.
Your choices matter a lot. Your freedom is nearly absolute. What will you do to peaceful taurens? Or cunning quilboars?
Think twice before acting as locals thrice to remember actions and words. Bloodshed should be the last argument.
Arrange alliances, dismay enemies, and convert unfaithful - "Rise of Qiraji" allows you to choose.

POWERS OF THE VOID
You are a powerful qiraji prophet - a creature, born out of darkness incarnate.
Master different shadow-powered spells, break the minds of weaklings, and change your appearance by will only.
This is playground and who knows - are you master... Or puppet?

LEAD THE FAITHFUL
You are Prophet and what prophet are you without a cult? Raise your hideous, shadow empire under the noses of petty warlords.
Charm the lustful, break strong, convert doubters, and control the weaklings in the name of the All-Seeing Eye.
All in the name of God.

MEDIA

MODEL CREDITS	ICON CREDITS	MISCELLANEOUS CREDITS	KNOWN ISSUES
TBA	TBA	TBA	TBA

DEVELOPMENT LOG

1. DevLog #1: "Disguise Self & Combat System" - 11/04/2024;
2. DevLog #2: "Map Art: Barrens in Camera" - 19/04/2024;

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"Remember - Nothing is hidden under His gaze..."

 

[The Nightmare Book]

And here we are!
Another unfinished project, huh?

Maybe you didn't understand anything, so let me clarify:

• I'm not a fan of Baldur's Gate 3, however, during its walkthrough I enjoyed how many possibilities and unusual features this game offers to players, still not transforming into an immersive simulator;
• "Rise of Qjrai" won't be a turn-based RPG, but rather a classic story action RPG similar to "Call of the Swarm" and "Pearl of Azshara", if I compare it to my other projects.
• Choices. I want to give you many different variants for every situation in-game, different endings, etc. Let's say that the prologue part of the map will show it to you, so I will ask you - your bugs have caught a night elf pair, who casually walking in your nest, what you will do with them?
• Disguses. You can morph, and change your alliances with that simple feature. And Rise of Qiraji will contain some kinky stuff...
• NPC will "remember" what you had said to them and act accordingly. Do not expect Radiant AI, it will be a simple but fun system.
• I'll explain your main hero abilities system later, even I can do it right now.
• You can speak with the dead like D&D;
• You can speak with animals like D&D.
• Giraffes WOULD NOT want to conquer the whole of Azeroth, what nonsense is that?!

In the coming days, we will talk and watch about disguises and combat systems.
Ah, and in the topic start post, I uploaded a simple video with Diablo-styled walking - you can hold your left mouse button and Zaqash will walk toward the cursor. Simple yet nice.

 

[The Nightmare Book]

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Today I want to talk with you about 2 things: Disguise Self and Combat System. All of these are related to our main hero, Prophet Zaqash.

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Disguise Self

casually morphin'

• Disguise Self is powerful trickery - albeit you need to steal the desired guise. How? That's an open question...
• Inspired by Baldurs Gate 3, changing your form means changing your person. Like did you kill one NPC as qiraji? Don't worry, without proper magic skills, no one would suspect you in your quilboar guise as a murderer.
• Changing guises means a change of your alignment: as a centaur, you can freely contact other centaur and their allies or friends. And your allies/enemies list will change freely as you change your guise. Aqirs and one another race can sense you through guise, so your relation with them won't change;
• You are a priest, remember? With some mind magic and proper words, you can easily convert people to the will of the All-Seeing Eye;
• Your crimes in one guise won't put on another;
• You can take all quests on the map, even from hostile factions!
• Cinematics will adapt to your current form;
• You can achieve some endings more easily if you acquire and use particular disguises.

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Combat System

• Unlike disguises, I cannot show much for now as I didn't implement it.
• However, take a close look at this table:

Spell-Filler [Q] =>	Spell - Combo [W] =>	Spell - Seria [E] =>	Spell - Ultimate [R]
Use it to acquire combo points and generate mana for the next spells; mostly auto-use if you want	Use it when have combo points; Higher combo -> better the effect	List of spells: from weak up to big; benefit from fillers too; rotation is circular	Uses a lot of mana, even if its passive; benefits from all other spells

• Spells won't be hard to understand, you will be able to freely change and choose new spells for slots;
• You can fight without casting, but it will be harder than active casting.
  

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That's all for today, folks. Thanks for your attention.

The next development diary will be focused on map art, featuring prominent locations and views.
See you soon, cya!

 

[The Nightmare Book]

The next development diary will be focused on map art, featuring prominent locations and views.
See you soon, cya!

And here we are, in another, very short development diary.
Today I'll show you... Pictures, mostly. Continuing my work over "Rise of Qiraji", you'll see that the main landscape work is finished, and now started doodad and actual location creation.
Some locations were teased in the previous development diary if you look closely into a morphing gif...

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Map Global View: Current State

Gallery of Locations (WIP)

Yes, I'm slightly dumb and sleepy, just open images on a new page for the full screen ;P

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That's all for today, folks. Thanks for your attention.

The next development diaries will focus on races inhabiting The Barrens.
As my part of the story RPG teller in D&D style, I see it like a book and I'm a humble storyteller only.
But, just as a prelude, the next development diary will tell you more about NPC's in "Rise of Qiraji" - it's important to know before we start the actual story.
Oh, and maybe I'll share some actual gameplay videos for that.
See you soon, cya!