Game General Plot and Setting Summary

[Steve]

Since DarkSilver brought it up, I'll start a thread.

The idea, as initially proposed by Mayabird in my initial spasm of interest a year and a half ago, is to have it where Youz'Net - the world of the last two games - is being drawn into a barren "Web of Worlds", and the resulting dimensional breaks and rifts are causing trolls to rise again. The cause of this, and an even grander plan by the Big Bad, is what will propel the story.

This game would have multiple "Overworld" maps. Youz'Net, the Web of Worlds, and an undetermined number of other worlds that would be based off various kinds of web forum communities (as in, since Youz"Net is mostly made up of sci-fi crossover communities' web forums, other worlds might have strictly fantasy, or politics, or science, etc. Though alternate fandoms might work too). During the course of the game the protagonists would get the ability to move between worlds, necessary to deal with the main villain and his plan to use the Crystals of Light and, now introduced, of Dark to attain ultimate power.

The identify of the Big Bad has been discussed, and aside from using a unique original character the most known one would be Strowbridge (as in the ASVSer, the background idea being that he wants to wreck the new status quo because the world he knew is gone. That and the joked about ego he has works well with "I shall gain Ultimate Power!" as a motive). His main dragon would actually be Transcend; a mostly harmless joke boss in FFTFM (well, a joke if you picked up the Trashcan) who will, after an equally harmless joke boss fight with him as the game's first boss encounter, become a deadly threat to the heroes.

Initially my idea for the game would give it strong links with TFM (its main protagonist would be the daughter of Silas and Schala from FFTFM, and they would feature in the game and be guest party members), but now I'm wondering if I should keep that or try and make it more stand alone.

So, the thread is open. Ideas for sidequests, character plotlines, boss fights, worlds to visit, level settings... I'm awaiting them all.


Oh, and, the character list I have as of now:


PCs:

"Nadia" - Main PC, daughter of Silas and Schala. Jack of all Trades character (some magick and technicks, decent physical attack strength, can equip full armor)
Mayabird - Lucca-like character, will primarily wear tech gear and light armor, uses fire Magick and technology-based Technicks. Main weapons are fire guns.
Frigidmagi - Knight (Class Name: Marine, Tank-like character)
Nitram - Black Mage
Tevar - White Mage
??? - Dancer (Special Technick/Magick abilities that buff/debuff whole party/enemies, Technick physical attacks that ignore defense, high speed and light armor. Dual-wielder of swords and daggers.) - Note that this is an idea for a kind of character, not sure who'd fill it.
Isil'Zha - Ranger (Technick-using Attack character)
Klavo - Hunter (Ranged Weapons Attack character, potentially some support magick)
Steve - Slayer (Technick/Magick-using Tank)
Wong - Sage (Technick/Magick-using Attack character)
Misty - Fighter (Technick-using Attack Character, low defense but high HP and physical attacks, Technicks can ignore defense. doesn't need weapons equipped to deal physical damage)


Temp PCs:
Silas - Main PC's Dad, Paladin (Tank/Magick user)
Schala - Main PC's Mom, Holy Knight (Attack/Magick user)


Possible PCs:
Marina? Okay, probably not. Had a kooky idea of giving the Duchess of Zeon an adopted daughter who fulfills the "Lancer/Dragoon" role....
Alyrium - Red Mage?
Phong?
Kerkhof?
Slacker?
Dalton?
CynCat?
Charon?
Shep?.... okay, probably not. At least one request for making him a boss fight instead.
Lonestar?


What's missing?
No ninjas! Dammit!

[Steve]

Oh, and, of course, characters will preferably be fitted with their own theme music.

[SirNitram]

Tev knows certain types of dancing. Though that'd be a late-game class change.

Political world would probably be high level with absurd flame-type attacks tossed around. I can easily see it being a large continent filled with craters, with two towns on far sides.

Science would be relatively peaceful, but with an 'Underdark' type area which is pretty nasty.

[Dark Silver]

Please bear in mind I'm the poor slob which has to design these places

-laughs-

Tev should be the White Mage/Summoner, as planned. Nit's just being a perv right now

let's see....if we add any of the Triumviate as PC's.....

Dark Silver would be a Archmage, and late game addition during the Web of Worlds, or immediatly after (if we're still going with the Li'barc being dragged into the WoW's bit during the story).

B4UTRUST should be....shit, I'm not sure. Some insane crazy bastard who likes to inflect insanity on his opponents......a Bard. That's it...B4's a Bard....(spoony bastard)

[Steve]

To be honest, let's not go hogwild in assigning PCs, and let's remember it'd be released on SB and SDN as well.

I might dump the Dancer character, but I always liked the thought of making the class not suck. I mean, ideally, a dancer should - not counting magic dances - be a character able to dish out damage with light weapons from being nimble and agile enough to hit enemy weak spots.

[B4UTRUST]

B4UTRUST should be....shit, I'm not sure. Some insane crazy bastard who likes to inflect insanity on his opponents......a Bard. That's it...B4's a Bard....(spoony bastard)

...I'm not sure if I'm being insulted or not. By the way, I am not crazy. I've got a doctor's note saying so!

[Batman]

By the way, I am not crazy. I've got a doctor's note saying so!

So does Harley. Several, in fact. The trick is making the sanity stick.

[LadyTevar]

B4 is a Cook. A Blue Mage who cooks and eats enemies to gain their Special Abilities.

Shep = Boss Fight. Possibly over Politics.

I like the idea of Dancer better than WhiteMage/Summoner, actually.

I like Nit's idea for Political Forum World. You could get a LOT of jokes out of GOP/DEM fuss (like showing how much they're actually alike) and have an OCCUPY(x) party and a TEAParty

Phong? Kerkhof? Slacker?

when did they last post? I've not seen them in YEARS.

Dalton? -- Wookie. Big Guy, Big Muscles.
CynCat? -- Tough call. He likes 40K, could make him an Inquistor. Have cat-themes around him.
Charon? -- Guns. Mecka guns.
Lonestar? -- Military, obviously. Dragoon?

No NINJA. I MEAN IT, DAMMIT!!!

[Steve]

Keep in mind the possibles indicate people I considered as candidates, not necessarily those I wanted in but didn't know what class to base them on.

And if you take Dancer, I'd have to find a new White Mage. Blegh.

And what do you mean "No ninjas"? I'm thinking of characters in the vein of Edge from FFIV and Shadow from FFVI, not.. *shudder*... Yuffie.

[Dark Silver]

It dawns on me, while we can have up to 10 PC's, (give or take), we can still have people show up in the various towns as NPC's.

So yeah, don't worry if your not there as a player controllable character...you'll at least appear in the game in some way shape or form.



Also: I've designed the overworld map for the "Political" to be named Pol'Etik, and I like it. needs a bit of touching up here and there, but overall.....

It'll have two main towns, one on the eastern side, one on the western side centered around two major factions the "Lieftest Movement" and the "Righteous". A third faction known as the Centrilest will have a very small village near the middle of the map.

Nitram will get the honors of naming the three towns since his idea was a political world.

[Steve]

The main limit on PCs is how much diversity we can wring from the system and how much work we want to do on setting up a change party system. Common Event items can be used for party changes in the field, though to avoid complicated coding we'd have to give each character a "join/leave" item, which would become annoying I imagine.

[Dark Silver]

Basic info I came up with for the world of Pol'Etiks - needs to be cleaned up or expanded upon, but gives some idea behind why the map is like it is....pretty much a land which was devastated by it's own Flamewars - where as You'znet weathered them rather well. If someone once to take the basic framework of what I have here, and expand upon it, hey, feel free to do so and repost below!


The world of Pol'Etiks
A single large landmass (asymmetrical in shape) which once housed a great civilization. Once filled with lush and fertile plans, expansive woodlands, valleys, mountains and deserts. In it's prime, Pol'Etik was a beautiful world, while not always peaceful, where war was little known, and all were allowed to live their lives as they wish. Two groups held the most power, and handled rule of the land, the Reihtican and the Leiftocrat (note: need work on these two groups - what makes them different? what are their views? etc. need to find someone with a more political mind to do these...). The events known as the Flamewars were rare happenstance, only happening once in the history of Pol'Etik, and most of it's inhabitants did not wish to see it occur again.

Slowly, more radical idealogies settled into the ruling parties, and where once they worked for the good of their society as a whole, the Reihticans and Leifticrats became more and more opposed. Sides were taken, and a great Flamewar erupted. The Flamewar devastated Pol'Etik, barren deserts formed over the years, strewn with the rubble of a once blossoming civilization in it's prime, craters marred the surface. Civilization went from wide-spread, to being centralized in two fortress cities, (note: need names for these), each surrounded by great desert wastes.

Eventually, after the Flamewars devastated the land, people began to tire of the rhetoric spouted by both factions, and broke off, independantly at first, and formed a third society in river valley which filled the near center of the world.

Edit: Adding in some of Nitram's stuff.
Rhedstaht - Reihtican
Dahli'kaus - Leifticrat
Sea'ehn En - Centralian

[SirNitram]

Pol'etiks.

The right-wing nation-state is naturally formed from the biggest non-astroturf site on the net now, Redstate. Compared to most places on the Net, it's positively nice. Arguments are rare, flamewars are even rarer. The Moderator of it is quick and unflinching; he crushes inappropriate(By his view) posters and will toss ban and similar debuffs out casually. The only acceptable targets are their blood-foes: LEFTICRATS!

The left-wing is based off of DailyKos, natch. Fights break out in the streets, flamewars common. Completely unorganized, and only a few truly egregarious abilities will draw out a Moderator. Multiple factions all of whom hate each other nearly as much as Reihticans. Flame-protection is a MUST. Maybe pick up 'Share Recipe', a debuff on Trolls? It's a tradition I've noticed.

The Middle is harder. I can't base it off a website, no such exists. I'd personally do it in the vein of Vault City. Segregated. Outside, in the slums, the Middle voters and such, who are genuinely there to talk about compromise, working together, and the best of both. In the upper class, you have the David Broder's of the world. Expensive parties, talking about which uber-rich person should be in charge, and acting oh-so-shocked if someone disagrees with them. Or anyone. It's just so.. RUDE!

[frigidmagi]

How deep we wanna go here? Because there is more out there then the two shown.

[Dark Silver]

in all honesty frigid - we can go as deep as we want for the designing of the world and it's backstory (it might be able to come into play during the course of the main events of the game, or as possible side quests within the world).

I attached the current version of the map of Pol'Etiks, the Reihtican city of Rhedstaht is on the Eastern seaboard, while Dahli'kaus is on the Western seaboard. The remnants of of civilization is everywhere else in the world, including town ruins spread throughout the landmass.

It's possible to make these ruins into something else....but there we go for now.

Pol'Etiks.png (55.6 KiB) Viewed 15323 times

[frigidmagi]

Maybe I'm not being clear. I mean how deep into the politics do you want to go? Because there are groups not welcome at RedState or DailyKos and for good reason. Be they the racist assholes over at Stormfront (before someone jumps to tell me that Stormfront ideals are welcome on right wing websites, white nationalist separatism isn't welcome there, the goal is to dominate the US, not split it up into racial enclaves) or some of the crazier Maoist that Derek has told stories about (one little idea was that Americans should all be forced into slavery and various minorities given land in the US). Or Truthers, or the various Polygamous advocacy groups (Mormon, pagan and secular).

[Dark Silver]

Good question....how deep down that rabbit hole do we want to go.....

I originally envisioned Pol'Etiks as a generalized "Left vs Right" Politcal bent, aimed to throw some humorous jabs at the various political entities found, without going to deep and all enclusive....

Honestly, it's up to what makes good for the story, which we're still working on, could use some of Steve's input on this now...

[LadyTevar]

Well... the ones that Frigid mentioned could be nothing more than recolors of various enemies, and be found out in the deserts or ruins of Pol'Etik. Otherwise, are they really needed?

[Dark Silver]

Because B4 ruined the previous map for me with his perverted mind . . . . .

Pol'Etiks.png (62.69 KiB) Viewed 15309 times

Updated Pol'Etiks map...

[frigidmagi]

Otherwise, are they really needed?

No, but is the whole world needed? That's why I ask how far are we going? It's good for me to know what's off bounds before I start making suggestions like enemies based off the Human Extinction movement.

[Dark Silver]

For one thing frigid, the reason we're putting separate worlds into the game is due to plot, not just "because". Each world in the game will have a part in the story (similar to how things were in Chrono Trigger if you need a reference).


So, is the world needed? Multiple Worlds are needed, yes. Is Pol'Etiks going to make the cut? Depends on how easily we can work it into the story, the more information we have/can create for it, the better.