You really need to be careful of creating requirements that would require a guide to figure out. This is a common weakness of VNs. In fact, I think notions of a 'morality' system should be nixed--individual actions should instead have their own consequences, like being a jackass to someone might alienate them and make them less cooperative. You know, consequences that make sense instead of arbitrarily (or so it'll seem to the player) setting death flags for NPCs. And don't think they won't notice that people die just because you're mean to them.

>>24862
let's uh
let's NOT do this. We should keep the choices so that they are kinda obvious in hindsight.
A good example would be the recent game yahtzee put out, poacher, where you are presented with a lot of subtle things that you dont really realize are morality choices until they are pointed out to you.
For example, in one scene the groundskeeper for the mansion you hunt rabbits on attacks you for getting you stuck in another world, and I accidentally shot him on reflex. As it turns out, that was just as much of a dick move as I thought and it made the ending a bit more of a bitch for me.
We should focus on things that arent QUITE obvious, but are noticeable enough that they dont feel cheap.

And please, lets try to avoid circuitous routes like that entirely, I never enjoy them in games and I see nothing but complaints about them for the most part.

Alright, the betraying thing plus the rebuttal to my issues with a bio-baby were good enough to convince me that it might be the right way to go. We have some ideas for the general plot of the game, we have the theming and the general plot of the first level (scify western?), and we may be agreed on a test tube terror mc.

I think that
>>24840
would make for a great intro to the game. (with each not-person being given a designation or name and the mc's being chosen by the player) Does anyone object to it?
If we go for it we would probably need 2 songs for the intro (corporate or cheesey music for the slides and an idyllic one for the field), some art and writing for the slides (in retro style?), and a system for walking and talking.

>>24840
I am actually really digging this idea for an intro
>>24865
I can probably manage the writing part of that:

(slideshow starts, cheezy elevator music playing in background:) "Hello, soldier! Welcome to the first of MANY orientation slides presented to you by Tantalon Industries! Today marks the day of your first-ever training simulation, this first step towards the start of your career as a planetary terraprimer!
However, before we begin, we should have you meet your fellow Mod-clone troopers! You play nice, now!"
(The slideshow clicks off, and you wake up out of a sort of glass pod, then are directed by a rather bored man in a labcoat towards a room full of what will later become the people you work with. You get to know them, then the rest of 24840's post would play out.)

Now,clearly this has a lot of refinement to go through, making it sound more, well, GENUINE I guess, but I think it will do as a beta line until we get to the refinement stage of our first game here.

Bob 2013/06/09(Sun)19:37 No. 24872 ID: 2baea8
Audio Slideshow.mp3 - (762.78KB )

Tried to make something for the slideshow, and it came out as annoying elevator music with what is supposed to be electronic sounds from the simulator in the background. If we're not going to be doing anything commercial with this, and nobody better at this is interested, it may be better to rip off or remix music from other things.

>>24872
I might be able to help do some music work later(qualifications are 7 years as a tuba player, 6 months as a trumpet player, and almost no music creating experience); but I have homework due in an hour, and a paper and other stuff due tomorrow morning so it won't be done for a bit. Logging off the board til tomorrow.

>>24873
If I had actual music clips to edit together I might be able to do better. I'm definitely not a musician of any sort.

>>24871
Ok my question is would this all take place before we get on the ship, when are first arrive on the ship, or what?

I'm just wondering are we going to do the simulations before we even enter the ship or would we do them on the ride over. Because they way we've made it sound up to this point was that we were already on the ship and were doing the simulations not only to train us for the planet we are heading towards but also to kill time on the way over. I do like the intro Idea but I'm just a little confused on where we actually take the simulations.

Oh and since we are starting to get to the point of actually making music how far away would you say we are from concept art? Just wondering what the Bio-colonist would look like and maybe some environments. (like the ship we'll be traveling on)

Archivemod 2013/06/10(Mon)00:05 No. 24881 ID: ea4b0b
Audio Three_Sided_Coin.mp3 - (2.38MB , Three Sided Coin.mp3 )

>>24872
I'm gonna be dead honest here I really dont think that is gonna work yo
I might bring on a friend that knows how to work music well enough though, and here is a sample of their work so you all can judge for yourselves.
This one might work particularly well for one of the more action-intensive scenes, maybe a battle or a race later on in the series?

>>24874
I wouldn't say I'm a musician either. All of what I played was in band class and that ended 2 years ago.(no practicing outside school) We only had to write our own song 3 times in 7 years, so I have almost no experience in writing music; but since we were taught and tested on our knowledge of musicality, I think I'm somewhat decent at that. [I wrote out like 6 sentences here that show what went wrong with the song and what to know to do it a bit better next time, but decided against submitting it because it sounded a bit long. It's saved if you want to hear it later.] What program did you use to make the music?

>>24881
That's pretty good I guess. It'd be better if they turned the drum down and changed the ending a bit.(either adding some to make it sound like the end of the song or making it so that it could loop; because right now it just... stops.) Do they play the actual instruments or are they from a program?

>>24875
I think they're going to start once we're in space. As for concept art... no clue, maybe a week? (trying to be optimistic, it will probably be longer than that)

>>24881
Yeah, definitely better than anything I could do with this. If we can get them on board that'd be good.

>>24885
I'm using Garageband. It's supposed to be used to edit together clips from actual instruments (or to remix songs), but has an instrument emulator that I'm terrible with. I have rhythm when it comes to dance, not music.

>>24886
Aight, I'll try and get them on board then. Considering that is their first try, I think they'll be able to do just fine music-wise for us.
Let's start on the next step: we should mock up a few map ideas for our first levels.
I'm thinking we start with the town.
If nobody is against it I am thinking the introduction rooms are gonna just be simple unfurnished rooms so we can skip straight to the more open areas like, as I said, the town.
I am thinking for example that the initial starting area where the simulation itself actually BEGINS be a poorly-lit and slightly-ramshackle wood house with bits of machinery peeking out here and there, to go with the whole sci-fi western vibe we are going for.
Anyone wanna map this stuff out in mspaint or something for us?

Bob 2013/06/11(Tue)09:13 No. 24890 ID: 2baea8
File 137096719403.png - (63.23KB , 720x720 , butttown.png )

Simple map of my headthoughts.

>>24890
Alright, that seems about doable then
I'll get to work on some sand tiles, get it so we can make a mockup from that
Someone else needs to get the saloon houses up and going, since I cant draw houses for shit haha
Make sure they are made with scrap metal here and there, we are going for that "serenity" kinda vibe remember.

>>24891
Oh, forgot the saloon. Put that in place of the chapel, then.

Not so sure about the thought of having save points. There're things to be said for allowing saving anywhere. Such as the ability to quit quickly if something arises, allowing people to make play sessions as short as they need to (not everyone can devote hours at a time to a game), and not having to annoyingly replay entire sequences like fighting all the way to a difficult point and then listening to dialogue again.

Mind, the last point can be mitigated by good save point placement. As for the other points, that can be dealt with by having a specific quit command that saves to a special slot so you can resume. But the problem with this is that it can still be exploited, it's just more annoying to do so (force-quit via the OS's task manager then reload).

Mind, another solution is to make the intervals between save points short, no more than say ten or fifteen minutes, or even less. I think this would be the ideal way to handle save points.

>>24893
Save points after long boss dialogue is a nice thing to have, with a warning that says 'this is a boss fight, keep a backup save in case you aren't ready'.

I think we should have limited save points in the Simulation, but at any time outside of it.

>>24893
My idea is to have a save-anywhere function, but save points also heal y'all to full hp and whatever the shit else we plan on poppin' in.
They can also serve as a good reminder that "hey, you just beat your way through a massive dungeon, might be time to save your shit so you dont gotta redo that shiznit bro"

>>24895
I'm cool with that. I just got the random idea of save points acting as an exit point for simulations, but I think it'd make more sense to be able to pause them at any time to attend to stuff in the 'real world' (i.e. shipboard).

Just a heads up, I kinda fell horrendously ill and it might take longer than expected to get the sand tiles done because I can barely even SEE STRAIGHT right now
In the meantime, someone should try to get the buildings for that first area sketched up inside and out for us, if anyone would be willing to do that yo.
More deets the better yall

Archivemod 2013/06/12(Wed)17:00 No. 24914 ID: ea4b0b
File 137108161248.png - (0.99KB , 64x64 , Sand.png )

ok managed to knock out a sample thing for the sand and path tiles
a BIT iffy on the path look, might work that one out harder in the actual tileset, but as it is this would be about what it would look like.
Thoughts/feedback?

>>24914
I think the path should be a bit darker.

>>24915
Righto. Looking over it again it looks more like grass then a pathway. I'll save that for when the sand turnss over to grass on the way into the forest bit, and just start the path up from scratch again.
YAY RECYCLING

>>24916
Also, the light bit is sand, in case I misunderstood you there haha

Archivemod 2013/06/12(Wed)17:52 No. 24919 ID: ea4b0b
File 137108477144.png - (1.18KB , 64x64 , Sand2.png )

>>24918
Okedoke, reworked the path a bit, added a glowstrip and scattered dust over what I had after editing the colors
keeping the original handy for grass
I'll edit it later so it has corners and intersections for the path, but for now it looks good to me, but if anyone has feedback itd be vastly appreciated

>>24919
You might want to either make the sand tiles a bit larger or make the wavy line things in it a bit more noticeable.(maybe darken them a bit? or make them brown or orange instead of green?) Because as is, it just looks like a solid yellow square with nice edging.

Archivemod 2013/06/12(Wed)20:36 No. 24922 ID: ea4b0b
File 137109457143.png - (1.18KB , 64x64 , Sand3.png )

>>24921
Like this?

Archivemod 2013/06/12(Wed)20:37 No. 24923 ID: ea4b0b
File 137109464124.png - (1.18KB , 64x64 , Sand3.png )

>>24922
or is this better?

>>24923
Have you considered using RPG maker for this? The newest one is pretty damn powerful

>>24923
This one's better I think. It gives it a bit of texture.
>>24924
He (Archivemod) really wants/wanted to use it, but
>>24811
said he'd be willing to make a system for it. (ctrl+f maker for full convo about it)

>>24924
I think we already had a small argument about that actually
theres a new one though?

Larro 2013/06/12(Wed)22:18 No. 24928 ID: a68e3e
File 137110071531.png - (288.75KB , 1280x600 , aww snap son is that the latest rpg maker.png )

>>24925
Ah, I see.

>>24926
I wouldn't say 'new' new but it's the newest one that some people don't have. Solves all the problems the previous version had and it even allows you to create your own character sprites in the engine itself.

>>24925
That was less really wanting to use it and more my lack of an understanding that HEY WE GOT SOMEONE WHO CAN PROGRAM IT FROM SCRATCH

Why use RPG Maker? Game Maker has pretty much everything you mentioned and much more flexibility. Although I have no idea what happened to it since it got bought up, I stopped using it long ago.

>>24936
We aint usin rpg maker we cleared this up ages ago please stop
We have a programmer on board who said they'd be helping us make this thing up from scratch yo

I'm only gonna start discussing using game maker or rpg maker or whatever the hell if the programmer decides they want out of things before things are up man

Now can we please get back on topic and get those art assets done? We still need someone who isnt me to draw the houses and such
I am really only good at floor tiles and walls, most furnishings and such are completely beyond my scope and full-on houses might be even worse
Remember, if you get confused about size a tile can be any multiple of 32x32, or even smaller ate 16x16 if we wanna go microsize here.

We gotta get enough assets up to mock up our first few maps, yo. Once I am done fine-tuning the sand tiles I am gonna work on the interiors, lots of busted-up wood and metal grates and the like.

Meanwhile, I want some of you guys to work on some props and items and such. If you arent confident on animation, as long as it is mechanical there is a good chance I can modify it to be animated.

now lets GET GOING ON THE ASSETS so we can actually plug this shit into whatever thing the programmer is gonna make for us and get it rolling

ALSO: I made us a google doc to keep this shit organized, someone mod it into the original post for me please!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iw4SnFgDzvT5Wq4qFJsRFhb662Yo5U4r79456CSny4M/edit?usp=sharing

Aight, gonna try to hammer out some interior tiles, starting with the starting house I guess?

Archivemod 2013/06/14(Fri)11:23 No. 24960 ID: ea4b0b
File 137123422655.png - (1.52KB , 64x64 , wood2.png )

Aight got a sampler done

Archivemod 2013/06/14(Fri)11:29 No. 24961 ID: ea4b0b
File 137123457888.png - (1.39KB , 64x64 , wood.png )

>>24960
And with the dumb red pipe thing moved so you can see the full tile on the bottom right

Archivemod 2013/06/14(Fri)16:36 No. 24963 ID: ea4b0b
File 137125298168.gif - (7.32KB , 60x60 , MachineSpriteAnimated.gif )

>>24961
possible conept for the machine? I can easily make this broke looking later, fyi

Archivemod 2013/06/15(Sat)02:28 No. 24969 ID: ea4b0b
File 137128852484.gif - (4.43KB , 208x144 , PipeTileset.gif )

An old pipe tileset I made a long-ass time ago, might be of some use here as decoration or function somehow.

>>24969
Pipe fixing minigame?

>>24974
maybe, if it doesn't take away anything from the pacing.

>>24976
Less 'match the parts' more 'weld the leaks, change the valves, watch the pressure'

Pressure gauges at each pipe cap let the player know which ones are close to blowing, and valves are commonly placed, but pressure gauges are uncommon in the system. You have to figure out simple pressure physics to understand when to open/close which valves to make the whole system work/explode.

IF your goal is to destroy the system, the AI will be opening relief valves and managing regulators.
IF your goal is to manage the system, the AI will determine what parts will break down first.
IF your goal is to sabotage the enemy, the AI will prioritize responses for each fluid to make it hard to burst the right pipe caps.

This is a simpler idea than it sounds.

>>24982
The second would be good for repair minigames during the virtual novel ship portions of the game, which I believe was mentioned before. The other two would fit with the after-landing portion against the humans.
Depending on scenarios, all three could fit at some point or other during the sims.

>>24983
That sounds like an interesting idea, I think that would be a decent thing for while we are in the city, perhaps we need to do a small repair job to earn the part?

>>24984
could make for an intro part to the first simulation too. I see it as something like this

"Hey guy, you need to fix this. Some animal got in here last night and tore this place apart before we could chase it off"

(pipe minigame)

"Ah damn it all to hell, looks like it also broke the [item name here] and unlike those pipes this won't hold together with a quick fix. We're going to have to replace it. Go check the general store and hope they have the part in stock, otherwise you're going to have to head on over to [town name here] to get the part before this turns into a problem"

or you can put the minigame in somewhere else if you can make it fit. I mean this simulation is meant to prepare you for colonization so you might as well throw a few minigames in them if you plan on using them again later in the game.

Archivemod 2013/06/19(Wed)09:37 No. 24992 ID: ea4b0b
File 137165986965.png - (38.74KB , 716x924 , map layouts.png )

>>24986
Grand idea man, I would def. go in for this one. Also, I realized having the starting area hut segregated into its own screen might be a good idea, see diagram.
rectangle marks the borders of the screen, the top bit scrolls with you as you move up.

To-do: make some objects for decorating the landscape. Broken fences, hitching posts,
a thick wire running along the ground from the hut to other buildings perhaps?
maybe an optional side-branch that will lead to a housing structure where you can learn a special skill that carries over between simulations??

So is anyone else even gonna do anything here?

No, because this has been a pipe dream from the beginning.

>>25014
Fair enough. /ollies out