Barrou Climate

[Avator]

Barrou Climate
is a futuristic single player action RPG for Starcraft II with multiple brand new features.





Lore

The year is 1386 by the Barrouan calander. As you start the game, you are a little kid on planet Garros that is simply curious about what is behind the guarded gate of the local power plant. The power plant is build next to what appears to be a bottomless abyss that's many, many miles broad in diameter. This abyss is very unknown, but it is definitely not made by nature and it's a huge source of power. That power is harvested by the power plants for the use of the colonies surrounding them.
A lot of history was lost when colonists went to Garros. All we know now is that the planet they originally came from was becoming overpopulated, and the government was looking for new planets to colonize. However, only 2 other planets were found that allowed human life. They were very small, and soon those were overpopulated as well. Then, scientist came with a solution to populate some of the planets that did not initially allow human life. Those planets would be habitable due to a strange power source from abysses. With the power from these abysses, exo-suits can be powered to provide human beings with everything they need to survive. After several successful tests, the project was initiated at large scale, and multiple planets were colonized with metropolises build around the planet's abysses.
However, the colonies were self-sustaining and since interstellar communication across these distances was not possible, the colonies were gradually separated from eachother and the original home planets. But it was alright: The overpopulation problem was solved for many millennia to come.
To find out what happens after you start your little exploration as little kid, you'll have to play the game.

Gameplay

Barrou Climate will have gameplay features that no other game has. These features will allow the player to guide the game more to his own bidding then he was able to do before. You are not bound to play alone, with a small team, or with an entire army. You are not bound to preset choices or tactics. Barrou Climate breaks these limitations and will allow YOU to choose what you want. And this is how you get it done.


Extra-interactive system
How many times did you play an RPG and thought 'Hmmm... Shall I beg him to join me? Shall I threaten him to let him join me? Or shall I play hard to get and ask him later to join me?'. Well, I don't know about you, but if I don't want him to join me, he doesn't join me! That's how we do things with the new extra-interactive system. You are not limited to choose between 3 possibles ways to say yes. In Barrou Climate, you don't get 3 options. Instead of buttons who tell you what to say, you say everything first-hand. It's a very simple way of communicating, just like you would communicate with anybody else (if they played a game with you): You type in chat! All you have to do is select the unit you want to talk to and type in the chat a question for him to answer or an answer to a question he asks you! Person #1 knows things that person #2 doe not. So if you ask person #1 about where you can find George Bush's house, he may have no clue, while person #2 points you in the right direction. Talking to people gives you info about many key objects, events, places, people, etc.
Obviously, if you talk to a stranger, you don't know his name, his profession, his day-to-day stuff, etc. If you care to know, all you have to do is ask! There might be something useful in there or simply gives you reference points.


Allies and enemies
Just like in real life, anybody can be your friend or foe. Make as many as you want! With a good chat, you can convince most people to help you in battle, even if they're not combat-experienced at all! Currently, the plan is to limit the number of possible brothers in arms to 50, but this might change. It is entirely your choice to use every spot available, to take only a handful of companions or even go completely solo. Everything has it's pros and cons. More people means more manpower, but also means you have to equip more, which forces you to leave them with crappy stuff that might not get the job done. With the various unique situations, a certain setup has a larger advantage then another.


Exo-suit
As read in the lore, life is only possible in your exo-suit. These suits are the exact same for everybody. But since everybody needs something different for their job, the suits are made to automatically modify to a state that's set up through a lay-out chip. The default suit lay-out is that of a civilian. It has default clearance to public buildings and area's. People who need a different lay-out for their jobs will get their chip from the company they work for. Their new lay-out may be required to handle special tools or carry heavy material. Scanners at area's which require certain clearance will detect if a chip with proper clearance is active in a person's exo-suit when he wants to enter the area.
As you progress, you will be required to possess a chip to get to certain area's. Other chips allow you extra slots for tools, upgrades and weapons, which are very useful in certain combat situation. However, more slots doesn't always mean it's better. Each slot might only accept a certain type of equipment or weapon, and some are not allowed to be combined in 1 lay-out.

Combat

With the different ways of communicating and equipping, you're given the same large freedom in your battles. If you go by yourself, you will just control everything like you're used to do. but if have some good friends, you can give them complete protocols exactly the way you want them to handle in a situation. You may decide who does what at what moment, on which target under which conditions. People who are known with GUI triggering will notice that this protocol system is very similar to that. The protocols will be divided in 3 steps:

1. Unit following protocol
2. Start signal
3. Performed actions

You first select which allies form a unit that you will give a protocol to follow. Then you give them a start signal. This can range from the moment you enter the area where the battle is about to start to when a certain opponent is taken down by another one of your units. You are never again limited to preset combo's. The boundaries are as far as your own imagination.

Credits

Special thanks
The World Is Flat - For helping me come up with an interesting storyline.








Should any more info become available about this game, you will be updated. Any comments, discussions or criticism on this game or its systems are allowed, as long as it is properly motivated/constructed.

 

[The World Is Flat]

Great, reading up, checking out your systems and setup.

 

[Vengeancekael]

Cool Yet i still have to read the whole thread xD Will post again when finished.

 

[The World Is Flat]

Your interaction system is going to be a BITCH to code. especially to spelling numbskulls and people with poor word order/choice skills. or people who use different words... 'care to reitterate that little reguritation of words my good dicky old chum?'

 

[Avator]

Only simple and correct grammar is allowed. People who think they can get answer by saying whatever crazy words they can think of will find themselves in the same position of someone yelling at a computer monitor. The plot-questions are very simple, but to find out more about the details or info to make some things fall into place will require the player to dig in his mind for specific questions. I also make a glossary in the game, so people can view their progress in gaining information on a specific subject. If people are unsure by what name they have to describe a subject, they can look it up in the glossary.

I am thinking about splitting the game in 2 modes: Normal and extra-interactive. Normal mode will only grant access to the key-questions, while extra-interactive will not only allow you to gather more info (which will lead to an advantage in battle and interactions with other characters), but also add a little extra difficulty to the game for those seeking a challenge in creativity.

 

[Cardinian]

I think the interaction system is a no no.

The majority of players are going to be put off by this. Plus it's one hell of a job for the developers of this map to:
1) Keep the dialogue interesting.
2) Keep the options available as replies interesting.
3) Make it logical. So that players know what to say.
4) But not too logical. Otherwise conversations will just go one way.
5) Make the 'error' messages logical and non-repetitive.
6) Most people are not going to like it. I can tell you this, right away.

But, you seem hell-bent on having it your way, so good luck...

But, my two cents first. There is nothing wrong with a system in which you choose your reply through an 'a', 'b', or 'c' option. I think it will be a lot more impressive if you store how a player acts, responds and interacts with others, and then use this record of his behaviour as something which limits his possible responses.

For example, if I start the game off by being aggressive to everyone in 'Town A'. Later on, in 'Town A' - people might just tell me to 'flark right off.' or 'get out of my shop.'. Etc.

Alternatively, if I was to be really nice to people in 'Town A', later on, they will be more receptive and much more likely to help me out later... But. Say for example, one quest (or mission) involves you handing 'Person A' over to the Authorities on a bounty-hunting contract... then obviously the friends of 'Person A' in 'Town A' are not going to like you very much... but, if you are smart about it, I could learn about the mission (bounty hunting) and not accept it, but then go and tell Person A. This could, for example, give me increased reputation with the friends of 'Person A' who turn out to be a criminal gang who specialise in importing illegal chemical weapons... And so on, and so forth...

So, yes. My two cents. I strongly advise you to forgo your choice of 'total interaction'. People are going to want to play the game, not type out responses to NPCs. And what if the person makes a typo? It's just too many problems to even comprehend, but anyways, thats my two cents.

Good luck and good night

 

[Avator]

Since I currently AM the development team, I can also assure you that:
1) The dialogs are just as interesting as that of a game where you have limited choices. So that's a terrible excuse.
2) I have no idea what you could possibly mean with that line
3) I already said there are going to be guidelines of how to interact. All that will be explained in the tutorial.
4) Too logical is something entirely different then predictable, which is probably what you meant. and with that, I refer to #1.
5) It's all covered.
6) Since this hasn't been tried before and there are no similar situations for you to compare, that is simply your choice. If the game is split into normal and EI mode, you can just go for EI and stop trying to make this game look like a failure while you haven't even tried it yet...

As for your idea of your responses, that's not related to my EI system, so don't try to compare them. Mine is about how you interact and your is about personality of the character. That is by the way not very new, since a lot of games already contain a similar 'alignment' system.
But if you're asking for the generalized system of doing something that effects the game: That is obviously going to be implemented in the game. It's such a basic feature for a game that tried to make interacting realistic that I don't really see it as a feature.

The EI-system is going to stay. Typo's can be fixed with just 1 new chat message. And if interaction is not a part of your type of games, you should ignore all RPGs by default, not comment them. If you want to convince me that the interaction system is not going to work, give me more then 'because I think so'...

 

[Cardinian]

Okay. Good luck then I guess.

 

[Levdragon]

I lol'd at the above conversation ^

Sounds really epic and interesting, I cannot wait to try it O_O, I also cannot wait for a medieval version '_' Good luck with this, I'd offer you help, but I doubt I can match your abilities xD Still I will be following this up and giving you my opinions etc..

Good luck

 

[Avator]

Here's a preview with a small tutorial including a few of the game's features, like the EI-system. None of the things you'll see in the preview are final. It's simply to give you an idea of how they are going to work. After 5s, the tutorial will automatically start. After that, you can check out the Glossary from the menu (Esc). You can find the preview map attached to the first post. I will keep the latest preview maps there and will notify you of a new preview when available and uploaded.


Known bugs you might encounter:
-The first time you'll open the menu, you'll be unable to close the window with the X. Simply click on the Glossary button to open that window and it shouldn't happen again. In hunting that issue down right now.

 

[I-am-murloc]

Good luck with making the extra-interactive system thingy

 

[Avator]

The next preview will include the Exo-suit feature and will have a minor improvement in the EI system accepted lines. You may expect that preview in a few days

 

[The World Is Flat]

Great! I cant wait!