- Joined
- Mar 14, 2009
- Messages
- 3
For the past six months I've been working on an RPG. I only recently joined the Hive because I wanted to be more up to date on how others feel towards making maps and starting up 'projects'. One of my concerns for custom map-making was few map designers delved into original storylines for their ORPGs and RPGs, even less for fast-paced tower defenses or RTS or Hero defense or castle defenses, etc. I was dissapointed.
Now I have created a single-player RPG, titled Urizen's Fall using multiple submaps and creep revivals similar to the Orc Expansion map. The storyline is the most intensly scrutinized part thus far, comprising an RPG similar in scale to Gravano's Season of Uncertainty, Link's Awakening, and one of my favorite old-time RPGs: Enchantasy. The triggers, units, storyline, customization, ideas, doodads, themes, etc. are all figured out. I imagine this very large RPG might take 10-20 hrs to finish, especially with its refusal of a fast, efficient, cheap hero ressurrection. However, I'm only 50% done with the game, with most of the work required being triggering.
You can be assured this is one of the largest and longest maps that Warcraft III will ever see in custom map-making. I've wanted Urizen's Fall to come out before a release date is set on Starcraft II, that way I can start right in with custom map making for Blizzard's other top-notch game. If you want to help out, I'll forward you the maps and let you know all about the storyline, and work with themes that are present in the already made submaps and major maps.
Many of my influences come from Gundam Wing, Chrono Trigger, The Secret of NIMH, and a game I mentioned above, of which little is known about, called Enchantasy. Music, proper names, and game features are directly imported from some of these, so I only want to give credit where credit is due.
Overview
Sofia Durmale lives in a village in the land known as Horeb. Horeb is the first large primary map that the player works around. You play as Sofia, who is a hero unit aged 18, but for the opening has no attack or spells, only two abilities called Talk and Search (see below Features). Later after the first part of the game, she will have grown into a 21 year old sorcerress with her own book of spells in addition to some abilities. She will be joined by three other party members in an effort to discover the forces bent on destroying Horeb and the city of Antioch. The storyline unfolds from one small birthday party to the cosmic battle between good and the personification of evil: Urizen. Who is Urizen? Who am I? What's the difference between life and death? What is the meaning of life?
Magic has the same use, but a different meaning, in Urizen's Fall. Magic was historically known by the ancient priests and wizards of Horeb as the expression of the will of Esse, the one supreme divinity. Thus, it was believed that magic could only be used for good, because Esse is all good. However it was recently discovered by Arch-Priest Peters, working with Sofia's father, Duke Durmale, that magic was actually whatever the caster wanted it to be. The real magic user shifted reality, as opposed to conforming to reality. Thus the order of wizards has grown tremendously over the past couple of years, and while some have used it for petty crimes, evil magic is an unknown term in Horeb and nobody would recognize what could possible be meant by dark magic.
Features
Creep Revival: Can't have an RPG without one.
Map Transitions: Using the campaign editor and the Orc Expansion map triggers I've added several submaps to expand the terrain, feel, and size of the game.
Talk Ability: This is my most proud, and unique, feature of the game. Talk is an ability that can be used on any friendly/neutral, organic, living unit. Sofia alone has this ability, and when used she will activate a string of dialogue with the target. The player can interact in the dialogue by asking one-word questions, based on quests or topics of interests. All units respond to "name", "job", "yes", "no", as well as having a response to a blank chat message or a mis-spelling. This feature involves the players need to learn more about Horeb and progress the game through dialogue (not merely hack-n-slash).
Search Ability: Another one of my unique abilities for the game; Sofia can search any destructible for hidden objects. There are crates, bushes, logs, rocks, ancient ruins, gold mines, book shelves, fallen treens, etc. all throughout Horeb. One of the things the player must search are book shelves, which reveal added, and sometimes necessary, parts of the story that are not brought out in the normal action.
Food: Sofia and her party needs to eat, and thus you must have food for the journey. The food used indicator counts down how much food is left, and if you don't have any food for a certain amount of time your party will die.
Real-Time and Calendar: The game follows a calendar round, inspired by the Mayan calendar. While you're trying to solve all of Sofia's quests, the clock keeps on turning. Time is a factor in this game: if the day comes when the cosmic forces of good and evil are to break out, and Sofia is not prepared, then there's no help coming. Some quests will even involve Real-Time clocks, and some events in Horeb are timed for certain days on the calendar. Don't worry, I didn't make up dates for months or days, so if something will happen on March 15th, it'll happen on March 15th. However, all months have 30 days, with 5 days being 'nameless' days for religious worship in Horeb. You'll have to find out what the meaning behind some of these events are, and know at what time to act.
Cinematics: A quick brag about the cinematic clips: I made them look good. No more of those choppy, overly-timed, unedited, half-assed scripts with poorly placed animations and special effects with no coordination with sound or music cinematics that you see all the time. These are professional. Heh.
Unique Triggered Areas: One battle at the end of the game will start a light show across the screen while Sofia battles one-on-one this endgame boss. Each time damage or spells or other events are done by Sofia or the boss, several special effects and animations will slowly be turned on/off, color values changed, or transparency decreased to eventually at the end of the battle have this ultimate symphony of light and effects, mixed with a remixed song taken from Gundam Wing. This battle is averaged at 5 min., one on one, and is just one example of several unique ideas I have for the game.
Skillz Training: As the four members of your party grow they will receive training passes which can be used to train in skills. There are 11 skills: One weapon skill for each of the four heroes (staff, hammer, gun, and bow), one armor skill for each of the four heroes (robes, chain mail, iron plating, and leather), First Aid, Engineering, Alchemy, and Language. The weapon and armor skills are useful for combat, and later will enable hidden abilities for the players. The other skills will help with the storyline at certain points later on in the game.
Engineering and Alchemy expanded: These two skills specifically create items that the player can use: engineering can create things like stash boxes, RPG launchers, nightvision goggles, rowboats, and eventually a helicopter. Alchemy creates potions, such as health and mana, as well as vampiric, transmuting, acid bomb, molotov cocktail, and petroleum used in heavy machinery. Both skills also require ingredients for making the items. These ingredients can be bought, dropped off creeps, or searched for in several destructibles around the map.
The game is meant to have an ORPG feel to it, something Oblivion: Elder Scrolls meant to do. However, Horeb's fate will be shaped by forces totally out of Sofia's control unless you work hard around the Calendar Round to discover what powers are at play. So if you wanted to play this game with the normal view of "go-out-kill-creeps-find-items-level-to-200-quit" then you'll surely lose within the opening scene of Urizen's Fall.
I will post the game here when it is finished. I do need some help in order to finish the job, so if you care to look at this thread I posted in the request help section. The faster the better y'all can play, right? (Hopefully summer 2009)
Now I have created a single-player RPG, titled Urizen's Fall using multiple submaps and creep revivals similar to the Orc Expansion map. The storyline is the most intensly scrutinized part thus far, comprising an RPG similar in scale to Gravano's Season of Uncertainty, Link's Awakening, and one of my favorite old-time RPGs: Enchantasy. The triggers, units, storyline, customization, ideas, doodads, themes, etc. are all figured out. I imagine this very large RPG might take 10-20 hrs to finish, especially with its refusal of a fast, efficient, cheap hero ressurrection. However, I'm only 50% done with the game, with most of the work required being triggering.
You can be assured this is one of the largest and longest maps that Warcraft III will ever see in custom map-making. I've wanted Urizen's Fall to come out before a release date is set on Starcraft II, that way I can start right in with custom map making for Blizzard's other top-notch game. If you want to help out, I'll forward you the maps and let you know all about the storyline, and work with themes that are present in the already made submaps and major maps.
Many of my influences come from Gundam Wing, Chrono Trigger, The Secret of NIMH, and a game I mentioned above, of which little is known about, called Enchantasy. Music, proper names, and game features are directly imported from some of these, so I only want to give credit where credit is due.
Overview
Sofia Durmale lives in a village in the land known as Horeb. Horeb is the first large primary map that the player works around. You play as Sofia, who is a hero unit aged 18, but for the opening has no attack or spells, only two abilities called Talk and Search (see below Features). Later after the first part of the game, she will have grown into a 21 year old sorcerress with her own book of spells in addition to some abilities. She will be joined by three other party members in an effort to discover the forces bent on destroying Horeb and the city of Antioch. The storyline unfolds from one small birthday party to the cosmic battle between good and the personification of evil: Urizen. Who is Urizen? Who am I? What's the difference between life and death? What is the meaning of life?
Magic has the same use, but a different meaning, in Urizen's Fall. Magic was historically known by the ancient priests and wizards of Horeb as the expression of the will of Esse, the one supreme divinity. Thus, it was believed that magic could only be used for good, because Esse is all good. However it was recently discovered by Arch-Priest Peters, working with Sofia's father, Duke Durmale, that magic was actually whatever the caster wanted it to be. The real magic user shifted reality, as opposed to conforming to reality. Thus the order of wizards has grown tremendously over the past couple of years, and while some have used it for petty crimes, evil magic is an unknown term in Horeb and nobody would recognize what could possible be meant by dark magic.
Features
Creep Revival: Can't have an RPG without one.
Map Transitions: Using the campaign editor and the Orc Expansion map triggers I've added several submaps to expand the terrain, feel, and size of the game.
Talk Ability: This is my most proud, and unique, feature of the game. Talk is an ability that can be used on any friendly/neutral, organic, living unit. Sofia alone has this ability, and when used she will activate a string of dialogue with the target. The player can interact in the dialogue by asking one-word questions, based on quests or topics of interests. All units respond to "name", "job", "yes", "no", as well as having a response to a blank chat message or a mis-spelling. This feature involves the players need to learn more about Horeb and progress the game through dialogue (not merely hack-n-slash).
Search Ability: Another one of my unique abilities for the game; Sofia can search any destructible for hidden objects. There are crates, bushes, logs, rocks, ancient ruins, gold mines, book shelves, fallen treens, etc. all throughout Horeb. One of the things the player must search are book shelves, which reveal added, and sometimes necessary, parts of the story that are not brought out in the normal action.
Food: Sofia and her party needs to eat, and thus you must have food for the journey. The food used indicator counts down how much food is left, and if you don't have any food for a certain amount of time your party will die.
Real-Time and Calendar: The game follows a calendar round, inspired by the Mayan calendar. While you're trying to solve all of Sofia's quests, the clock keeps on turning. Time is a factor in this game: if the day comes when the cosmic forces of good and evil are to break out, and Sofia is not prepared, then there's no help coming. Some quests will even involve Real-Time clocks, and some events in Horeb are timed for certain days on the calendar. Don't worry, I didn't make up dates for months or days, so if something will happen on March 15th, it'll happen on March 15th. However, all months have 30 days, with 5 days being 'nameless' days for religious worship in Horeb. You'll have to find out what the meaning behind some of these events are, and know at what time to act.
Cinematics: A quick brag about the cinematic clips: I made them look good. No more of those choppy, overly-timed, unedited, half-assed scripts with poorly placed animations and special effects with no coordination with sound or music cinematics that you see all the time. These are professional. Heh.
Unique Triggered Areas: One battle at the end of the game will start a light show across the screen while Sofia battles one-on-one this endgame boss. Each time damage or spells or other events are done by Sofia or the boss, several special effects and animations will slowly be turned on/off, color values changed, or transparency decreased to eventually at the end of the battle have this ultimate symphony of light and effects, mixed with a remixed song taken from Gundam Wing. This battle is averaged at 5 min., one on one, and is just one example of several unique ideas I have for the game.
Skillz Training: As the four members of your party grow they will receive training passes which can be used to train in skills. There are 11 skills: One weapon skill for each of the four heroes (staff, hammer, gun, and bow), one armor skill for each of the four heroes (robes, chain mail, iron plating, and leather), First Aid, Engineering, Alchemy, and Language. The weapon and armor skills are useful for combat, and later will enable hidden abilities for the players. The other skills will help with the storyline at certain points later on in the game.
Engineering and Alchemy expanded: These two skills specifically create items that the player can use: engineering can create things like stash boxes, RPG launchers, nightvision goggles, rowboats, and eventually a helicopter. Alchemy creates potions, such as health and mana, as well as vampiric, transmuting, acid bomb, molotov cocktail, and petroleum used in heavy machinery. Both skills also require ingredients for making the items. These ingredients can be bought, dropped off creeps, or searched for in several destructibles around the map.
The game is meant to have an ORPG feel to it, something Oblivion: Elder Scrolls meant to do. However, Horeb's fate will be shaped by forces totally out of Sofia's control unless you work hard around the Calendar Round to discover what powers are at play. So if you wanted to play this game with the normal view of "go-out-kill-creeps-find-items-level-to-200-quit" then you'll surely lose within the opening scene of Urizen's Fall.
I will post the game here when it is finished. I do need some help in order to finish the job, so if you care to look at this thread I posted in the request help section. The faster the better y'all can play, right? (Hopefully summer 2009)
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