The Last Sa'rin

[Vizel]

• Basic Info
• Gameplay Info
• Story
• Quests
• DEMO
• Latest Progress Report

BASIC INFO:

The Last Sa'rin will be a single player, turn-based¹ RPG. You play as Argan, who is the last Sa'rin. You will have party members join and leave as the story progresses to help you on your journey, giving it a true RPG feel, along with an epic storyline with hundreds of Quests and encounters that will leave you wanting to continue.

Team

Vizel	Project Leader/Units/Story
Ikithe	Terrainer/Ideas
Laserdude	Triggers/Spells/Effects
Fjury	2D Artist
L2love	Terrain
EMPTY	Cinematics

I personally believe that a small team is better than a large team.

GAMEPLAY INFO:


The world of Assairot is where your adventure will take place. It's a world plagued by bizarre events. The world is quite huge, and this will be quite in-depth, so we will be using a WorldMap-SubMap system².

Some other features included will be (Already implemented/Confirmed systems are underlined):

¤Arrow Key Movement

¤A fixed third-player camera

¤A Mount System

¤Fullscreen Inventory*

¤In-depth Magic/Spell system

¤Random Battle System

¤Turn-based battle system

¤Unique Stat Enhancement System

¤Karma System3

¤Day/Night Creep System4

¤Additions System5

And much more.

STORY:

The Sa'rin are an ancient order that was founded some thousand years ago or so. Nobody knows for sure the exact date of its founding.

The Order of the Sa'rin were basically a highly organized group of mercenaries. They would be hired by kingdoms to fight for them, or even to do more mundane tasks such as police the streets, or to settle small disputes. The Sa'rin would not kill another Sa'rin, no matter the circumstances.

The Sa'rin were basically Samurai who had honed their skills so well, that they were able to get in touch with the Soul of the Earth, allowing them to perform magical abilities, and thus enhancing their already fearsome power.

However, when the Neverending Rains started, a chain of events led the higher powers (That is, the Governmental Council) to believe that they had caused the Neverending Rains. Therefore, they unanimously voted that the Sa'rin should be eradicated. Within five years of this order being issued, each kingdom had (in its own manner) disposed of every last Sa'rin. Furthermore, the wielding and making of swords was outlawed, and any violation carried swift, powerful, and irrevocable punishments to the violator AND their family.

However, there remained one Sa'rin, who had managed to hide well enough that everyone presumed him dead. But he is far from it...

Argan (the last Sa'rin) has made it his life's goal to find out the true cause of the Neverending Rains, because he does not believe that the Sa'rin had anything to do with it.

QUESTS:

The focus of The Last Sa'rin is definitely on the storyline. The main storyline revolves mainly on Argan and his mission to find out what really caused the Neverending Rains. However, the other characters have their own background stories that can be fully explored as well.

The main storyline will consist of a multitude of quests that will allow you to explore this vast world. You will see places and people, laugh and cry, and really follow the characters throughout their adventures.

There will also be a plethora of side-quests. Some will ultimately tie back to the main storyline to enhance it even more. Some will reveal the background of the characters, areas, or even just a general history. Then there are completely unrelated side-quests that will help you level or just give you a feeling of goodwill. Or maybe not?

There will be Boss Encounters. They may range from Beast to Man, and everything in between. They may not be what you might think, and not necessarily "fought" in a traditional sense.

DEMO:

Currently, we are working on producing a short demo that will showcase some of the playing-style of the game. This demo will encompass the hero's first visit to one of the major cities, and will include some character introduction, plot setting, and general introduction to the features of the game through quests and tutorials. It will be worth playing the demo multiple times, I might add!

¤Arrow Key Movement

¤A fixed third-player camera

¤Karma System

¤Random Battle System

¤Turn-based battle system

¤Unique Stat Enhancement System

¤Additions System

The following table scales from 1-99, since I believe there's no such thing as 100% completion.

Terrain	|||||||||| (90%)
Triggers	|||||||||| (80%)
Systems	|||||||||| (86%)
Units/Items	|||||||||| (20%)
Gameplay Mechanics	|||||||||| (30%)
Overall	|||||||||| (61%)

I will hereby announce progress in here every few days as such information is available. So please do stay tuned.

1 - Turn-based means that during battles, players and enemies will "take turns" on attacking, much like the old RPG's like the original Final Fantasy.

2 - That being said, the World Map is itself broken up into segments. At this point, it is to be many (Currently undetermined) separate 256x256 (Cause larger ones had certain issues) maps. Certain places like major cities, or thick forests, might be Submaps to enhance the quality of the areas, and to thicken gameplay, and make it more in-depth.

3 - Karma System is a system that will change how the world sees you (The player) depending on the choices you make. Some choices (Not all) that you make have a chance of increasing your Karma. Your Karma Rating will change some cinematics, or give you extra bits in them, or perhaps even change rewards. The most notable is that depending on your karma level, you will see a different ending cinematic after finishing the game!!

4 - The Day/Night Creep System basically means that the time of day (Daytime, Nighttime) depends on the types of monsters you will encounter in many places. Some places, like caves, may not have this because there's obviously no difference!

5 - Additions System. This is (I think) a unique system that's being made for us. If you ever played Legend of Dragoon, it's the "Attack Chain" system where when you hit a button at the right time, you increase the chain up to your current maximum. Damage of course will scale accordingly. It's the most exciting system (IMO) to be included because it brings a whole new level of skill to gameplay. I hope you anticipate it even half as much as I do!

*I have one implemented, but it isn't 2.4+ compatible.

 

[Fjury]

Bumping for justice

 

[FibSaSk]

I found the idea nice, please post some screenshots when it`s possible please.
This post also worked as a bump

 

[Vizel]

Well, my old screenshots in the recruitment thread were well... >.>

Anyway, when it gets closer to release, I'll post some more screenshots. I have a couple but they aren't exactly DEMO shots,

Furthermore, I'd like to say thank you, FiBSaSk, that means a lot. I know it gives me motivation to continue doing this overwhelmingly large project, and while I can't necessarily speak for the rest of the team, it probably motivates them too. Thanks a lot,

 

[Vizel]

Big Bump!

 

[defskull]

Can you tell me the approximate release on the beta version ?

 

[Vizel]

At this time, I'm anticipating the first release of the demo to be between the end of november and the end of december. Depends, though.

 

[defskull]

Would love to be your Beta Tester
Count me in =D

 

[Vizel]

Already got 8 of em

Plus, do you have vent? and possibly a working mic?

 

[Fjury]

Bumping.

 

[Vizel]

Bumpage for exposure.

 

[defskull]

Okay, the Project Logo is a good start...
Good Luck !

 

[takakenji]

do you have any terrain screenshots? it is 90% finished anyway

 

[L2love]

I could screenshot some of the terrain I was working on but none of it's on the demo I think.

 

[Vizel]

Well, I have one screenshot I'm halfway proud of. But, it's got nothing to do with the demo, other than the map it's on is part of the package,

L2love, indeed your work isn't to be included on the demo, but it's looking great, from what I last saw.

Need Ikithe to finish up the city, I'd be terrible at interior design, xD

I'll keep fiddling with minor stuff in the meanwhile till I get it back from Ikithe.

Haven't heard from laser in a while either. Last I heard, he was trying to remake the battle system completely.

 

[Vizel]

BUMP!

I edited the first post. Included a navigation into it, now.

• Terrain is still in progress by Ikithe.
• Battle System has been returned to me, and I'm currently working out how I want to fix it up to fit current needs.
• Spells (Magic) for 4/5 heroes have been solidified!
  • There will be 4 Castes (elements).
    • Fire:
      • Mostly AoE attacks.
    • Earth:
      • Most spells affect only Ground Units.
    • Wind:
      • Most spells affect only Air Units.
    • Water:
      • Most spells are Healing or Defensive types.
  • Each of the heroes who can use spells will have a specialization to a unique Caste. This allows them to learn the Ultimate Spells of their specific Castes.
  • Each of the Castes has 8 spells, most of which are upgradeable.
    • 6 Base Spells, which any of the 4 heroes can learn. Each of these is upgradeable 3 times.
      • 2 Base Spells from each Caste are upgradeable a fourth time, as an Ultimate Spell. These have improved damage, and/or capabilities over the normal spell.
    • 2 Ultimate Spells, which only the specialized hero can learn for their Caste.
      • One of the Ultimate Spells of each Caste needs to be taught by a Master to learn them. These are Master Spells.
  • All spells are bought with a special currency, except the Master Spells. Details aren't worked out yet about this currency.
  • The remaining hero shall not use spells such as these, and will be otherwise unable to use them. This hero will have other powers. More info later!
  • Magic is not obtained immediately, and will be available later in the game. Thus, it shall not be included in the Demo. A tutorial on how to use Magic will be available after you obtain it.
• An outline detailing what shall be included in the Demo was completed a while ago. I don't remember mentioning it, so here's the mention!
  • The main cinematics are planned out, but the alternate cinematics (a la Karma System) are still boiling in the roiling clouds of my Brainstorming (i.e. not done).
• A boss to be included in the Demo as an optional boss you don't need to fight has been planned out. Also an old update I never mentioned.
• Items included in the demo are being concocted by myself and my Roommate (Who is not an official member of the project, but is a huge contributor.), so expect an update on that later.

This appears to conclude this Progress Report. It's been a while, and there's no physical progress to report, but please realize we're still working on this.

As soon as the Terrain is finished, there will be a large surge in progress soon after, as well as some screenshots. Pending my work schedule, that is...

Thanks everyone for the help and support shown so far. Your kind words are a huge motivation for me.

P.S. Def, I know you're going to read this eventually, I'll let you know when I need the Spells made. Once I get the Battle System 200% finished (not a typo), I'll let you know.

 

[Skycraft]

bump.

 

[Vizel]

Err. Was that really necessary?

Appreciated, though, lol.

 

[Fjury]

 

[Vizel]

Cute, ^^

How's it going, on your end?

PS: 7am, worked all night, GOODNIGHT.

 

[GhostThruster]

Btw, have you checked out my Fullscreen Inventory?

 

[Vizel]

Possibly?

tbh, I don't remember. I am trying to stay focused on getting everything done that needs doing when I'm NOT working, which isn't often atm.

The last two days I've woke up, went to work, got home, slept, woke up, work, got home, slept...

No time for anything.

Anyway, I sifted through a lot of them a while ago, so I probably did check it out, I just haven't made a decision yet, since I have many more pressing matters to attend to first. I need a GUI one, so that I can understand how to use it, and save it's contents.

 

[Skycraft]

 

[GhostThruster]

My inventory is GUI. But, yeah, I'm just saying in case you need a GUI one, you can use mine.

 

[Dragonson]

Hmm...
I read through the first post and i think this is very interesting.
I've had ideas of making a turn-based Wc3 map several times Myself, and i would very much like to help you guys out on this one.

If you need a loading screen, a thread banner or a Minimap preview i can make you some in between the requests in my signature Shop.
You can also check out the signature shop, Bladetitan Signatures, for some examples of what i do.

Anyways, whether you'd like my help or not, i wish you guys good luck with this.

 

[Vizel]

Thsnks, Dragon, the support is appreciated.

Unfortunately, I haven't heard from Ikithe since I gave him the rest of the map to terrain, D:

I'll probably end up doing it myself, unless some other terrainer would like to take up the spot who is good at interiors (Cause I'm certainly not). Oh well, I'll update the recruitment thread.

 

[Dragonson]

That sure sucks. :S
Hope you can find someone who can do interiors then, for i sure cant either.

 

[Vizel]

Well, I had a nice long post written out when the power suddenly decided to shut off, so I'll just make this short.

Still need a terrainer for Interior Designing. I fail at it.

As for progress, I've been on vacation, and now I'm back. Will be working on the multiboard system for now. Once I get the first bit worked out and...well...WORKING, then it will be simple from there. Almost done with the "first bit" I mentioned.

Stay tuned.

First things first: Gotta judge the story contest!

 

[Vizel]

Progress Report!

Well, as a bump, I'd like to give everyone a Progress Report! Before I get to that though, I want to say a few things.

Firstly, Atticus has returned! He's offered to help me out with some issues I've been having, and I will try to see if I can't get him to finish terraining the first world map segment, since L2Love has issues with JNGP.

Second, this has taken a mostly backseat to other, important real life issues atm. As a brief summary, I have had a shitstorm smack me in the FACE here in reality. So...yeah. Kinda have more important matters to deal with. Soon, I hope this will be done with, and I can return to a more steady pace.

Last, I have to judge the story contest still. Which means I'm not going to be doing any hefty work on this till that's done, which won't be till after I'm done with the shit that is my life is back on track.

With that out of the way, here we go:

• I have finished my first draft of the Multiboard System right before "the shit hit the fan" in my life.
  • This is a test map I've been working on periodically over the last month trying to figure out an easier way to set up the multiboard using almost nothing but loops in order to make it EASIER.
    • The test uses only 4 heroes, cause the way everyone was saying it needed to be done would have meant for 5 heroes (which this will have) would require 15 multiboards for this. Whereas 4 needed only 8.
    • The test on an alternate way of doing it is a SUCCESS. I only need 4 multiboards to do what I wanted instead of 8, and will only need to add one more to make it work for 5... And edit every trigger to accommodate a fifth hero.... Yeah.
  • The test so far has only one of the three systems I shall be using done so far. That's the basic Hero Information Multiboard. The next one I'm working on will be the easiest, the Hero Status page. The last one, which will be the most difficult is the Multiboard for Battles. However, now that I've done the first bit, the rest will be quicker.
    • The Hero Information page is displayed outside of combat, optionally, at any time you aren't looking at another page. This window will show you basic hero information for ALL heroes currently traveling with you. You may only have 3 members in your party for battle, but this will show all 5 if all 5 happen to be traveling with you, regardless if they're in your battle team or not. This will show Level, current HP, current MP, EXP%, and APs for all heroes.
    • The Hero Status page has detailed information about one hero. There is a similar page for every hero. This page shows the stats of the hero (STA, STR, INT, SPD), as well as spells, abilities, and even status Ailments and Augments.
    • The Battle page will have pertinent battle information. The details of this page haven't been decided yet. However, it will surely include HP, MP, Turn order for your party. And, if you use certain skills, more information may appear. Stay tuned for updates on this!
  • As you may be able to tell, I've completed a draft of what the Status Window page will look like. I have it worked out how I shall set it up, but have not begun to make it just yet.
• Draft 2 will come when I get a chance. Draft 2 will have a complete version of the Hero Information page, and a first version of the Status page for all heroes.
• As I stated above, Atticus has returned (Under a different name I shall not disclose). Since I've got no time to work on this, I've asked him to fix up the battle system for me, since he so kindly asked if he could help out. He knows what I'm trying to do here, and so hopefully he'll be able to tweak it how I want.
• If he's willing, I might be able to bring Atticus back onto this project officially, once I have time to give it some attention. Since as I stated above, L2Love has issues with JNGP that prevents him from using it, he cannot finish the first world map segment that Atticus began. We shall see what becomes of this, however.
• *Something that my roommate asked me this morning about battles reminded me about how it will work. So here's a mention about how the characters will be set up for battle!
  • When a character is selected, the regular character UI will be shown. On this UI will include the following buttons: Attack, Defend, Flee, Abilities, Spells, Status.
    • Attack - Use a basic physical attack on a targeted enemy.
      • This may or may not include the Additions System. We're still working on implementing said system into the Battle System.
    • Defend - Defends against damage for one turn.
      • Reduces how much damage you take if you are attacked before the character's next turn.
    • Flee - Run away from the battle. Doesn't always work. Can't run from all battles.
    • Abilities
      • Clicking this button, which is actually a spellbook, allows you to view the Abilities which are available to use for your currently selected character.
    • Spells - Use a Spell (Not available till later in the game).
      • Clicking this button, which is actually a spellbook, allows you to view the next submenu, which contains the following buttons: Fire, Earth, Wind, Water.
        • Pressing one of these opens another spellbook which actually houses the appropriate spells of the character.
    • Status
      • This will bring up the Hero Status multiboard to replace the Battle board until you switch back. This might not be a permanent addition to the battle UI, but we will see!

I do believe this concludes the newest addition to the Status Reports. I would like to finish this with a question. I am certain I will have to wait till after the demo is released to get a good answer from a group of people, but I'll go ahead and ask prematurely anyway.

How would you prefer this map to be released (Full version, I'm speaking of, not the demo)?

Would you like it to be released completed (This would take a while, as this is a huge project); or
Would you like it to be released a bit at a time?

Pros and cons:

Releasing it all at once is good cause there it is, only need to do bug fixes afterwards. However, the wait for the game to be released will be quite long, maybe a year or longer.

Releasing it in bits would be good cause it would allow us to do a bit at a time and fix it up as necessary, in order to perfect it piece by piece. However, I believe this would mean that in order to play a new release, you have to start over from scratch. If I'm wrong on this, please do correct me, and this question would be answered!

Thanks for reading. This project isn't dead again. Just slow.

EDIT: I added the bullet with the "*" on it in an edit, cause I forgot to add it in.

 

[defskull]

Does this still... active ?

 

[Vizel]

Yeah.

Kind of.

I'm working on it whenever I have a few minutes, especially when I'm agitated.

Why, you ask, would I do this only when I'm agitated? Cause the times I'm not agitated are devoted to the Story Contest. If I judge some story when I'm agitated, I won't make good judgings. I have to be level-minded to do it.