Falnax

Well, something that is very important in determining the strength of a storyline is whether it is event-driven, focusing on what happens and how the characters react, or character-driven, focusing on the inner struggles of the characters and how that relates to the world around them. Final Fantasies VI and VII were both strong examples of an event-based storyline; VIII's more experimental character-based storyline was, in my opinion, the best in the series, though because the character-base is less popular, and less immediately identifiable, not a lot of people seem to agree with me there. Of course, in an MMO, it is quite impossible to have a character-based storyline; it can be done, but that results in things like characterization being chosen for the player, and long forays into the background of people beyond the player, which were things that were done in LaTale, and not particularly well (That game was still event-driven, either way). What would make a good MMO story is one that is fairly immersive, really tying the play experience into the world of the game. Strong characters would still exist, and players could identify with or enjoy disliking them just as much as they could characters in a single-player world, yet the story could still allow the comparative unknown of the player to make contributions to this storyline. Admittedly, that frame is almost precisely what FFXI has already brought to the online gaming front, but, considering that was a game well known for mediocre gameplay with a quality story, why not use a similar story frame, and spice it up with a more innovative gameplay structure? It's not like there's too many people doing the same thing.

As good as World of Hyrule is as a game, there are a lot of Zelda ORPG projects out there…so I'm going to have to say that's a difficult one to choose for most unique. Still an amazing project, much better than any other endeavor in its category, but hard to classify as unique.

@DrNova: > Adding killing to a harvest moon game would be a cheesy cop out. Um…what about Harvest Moon: Rune Factory? That was a Harvest Moon title in which there was plenty of killing. And the killing was tied to the animal raising system, so...you could slaughter a lot of cows and sheep in that title.

So it'll be kind of like the myriad of historical texts floating around Morrowind…good to hear, something like that adds a lot more depth to a setting. Can't wait to start reading it, though...that'll answer a lot of questions.

@Transdéath: > just need mappers Fine, I give up, then. Best of luck to you. Because, frankly, you'll need a lot of it.

Your edit has done nothing to tell anyone what the game is actually about. That's just very basic information…the kind of thing that could easily be thought up in 30 seconds. I still think you need to give this a good thinking over first, because, unless there's something you're not telling us, that hasn't happened yet. Also, compare the things that you listed in your edit to the things I asked about in my post. They aren't the slightest bit similar.

This is a very amusing role reversal… Though, honestly, the topic is kind of unnecessary, since the question was clearly answered in the last, identical topic.

Right, that would be the big question right now. What kind of game is this going to be? The community needs setting, genre notes, a general idea of your aesthetic, maybe a plotline, and, though not required, I recommend you try to figure out what makes your game idea stand out from the competition. If you don't have a fair amount of that sort of information yet, it's probably too early to be actively pursuing a mapper on these forums.

I've actually had this problem myself before, particularly when playing Ambardia…not entirely sure why it is, though, if you're patient and click on them very precisely, they do seem to deposit eventually. Not a very good solution, though...I've seen other games where the bank is less of a problem; custom-coding the GUI seems to be surprisingly helpful.

Aren't these all library file errors? In order to make absolutely sure that the problems do not occur, the best course of action would be to have them uninstall your game, install the library files, and then reinstall your game. Some of those errors tend to be linked to installing the game before the library files, which, surprisingly enough, does make a big difference.

@Devogen: > Taunt said TAW-NT > > Want said W-ON-T Actually, depending on dialect, want can be pronounced in a way that rhymes with taunt - seriously, look at a dictionary. It lists both the pronunciation you've suggested (which is more common), and one that is a rhyme. Though, what you didn't point out is that he rhymes "no" with "alone," which is much more questionable. Now that I think of it, the couplet containing the no-alone pair is in rather poor taste…the only time I've seen proper writers use that kind of argument is when they're presenting a character who is not very charismatic. It's one of those things that you'd like her to know, I suppose, but it's in rather poor confidence, and kind of has an air of "doing it wrong."

The use of the A-A-B-B-C-C D-D-E-E-F-F rhyme scheme is also sort of plain, and takes a lot of the subtlety out of the sonnet form…Shakespeare used alternation rhymes for a good reason, after all.

@Skillzalot: > I never thought eclipse was hard but my friend is giving me this engine that is 2 gigs and has 2.5 gigs worth of addons so ya ill be learning 3d game design. As for the languages it is in Python and ruby which i know pretty well and C++ that is what im having trouble with. So I am working hard on this and I want to go to college for video game development Oh, that's good to hear. Carry on, then. Do you have a 3D graphics designer yet? Because those are mandatory, and since there's a lot of very complex tasks that entails (modeling, skinning, rigging, animating…), if you don't have one, make sure to get on the lookout for one sooner, rather than later.

http://home.vicnet.net.au/~poems/ps/html/terza_rima.html Plagiarism fail. (On XxArchAngelxX, not on the OP).

@MaxAnstey: > I made a **sonnet** for this girl i like so much Sonnets have fourteen lines, while the poem you made only has twelve…so if she's a poetry lover, she might find that a little suspicious. Anyway, I love the concept of giving girls poems, I think it's really charming and romantic, but, I've talked to a number of girls on the subject, and most have told me that they found the fact that someone wrote a poem about them to be kind of creepy. Though, the few that enjoyed getting a poem were really impressed...so, you're going to have to play the odds. If you know Nicole as well as I hope you do, you should know how she feels about poetry. If it's something she never talks about, she probably wouldn't like a poem.

@Admiral: > http://www.marstoday.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=27336 > But there are NO known active volcanoes on Mars. Not necessarily true. There are several volcanoes on Mars, most famously Olympus Mons, that have lava flow from them from time to time, and are classified as, at the very least, dormant. It is possible for volcanoes to release methane gas even when they are not erupting, so it would be foolish to completely discredit the theory of volcanism as a source, at least with a word of the discredit occuring in all caps. Though, I'd certainly consider life on Mars to be an exciting discovery. I just don't want everyone thinking it's certain until they have more solid evidence.

Also, remember that you're going to need to offer quite a large number of quests in order to make this work out - if the player can only level up by quest, you must continually design more and more as the players get stronger. Since quests normally take longer to design than they do to complete, chances are good that a player will reach a level plateau, and leave for having nothing left to do. But, still, there are more quest types than collection quests. Delivery quests, exploration quests, boss quests…just make sure you have a good mix of gameplay opportunities.

@Admiral: > Hmm… Well, I could... It'd be the first Eclipse game that's made purposely TO SUCK! And yet it would still be better than all of the noob games whose creators don't even realize they suck.

@Skillzalot: > Also the other classes will get their time in the light but it takes magic to open a portal. Wait for Chapter 3 The Arrival I have nothing against the idea of you fixing it in a later post, just make sure that you actually deliver, and don't just plan to make it work. Often times, people argue that something they'll post later will fix the problem, when in reality it never comes. As to the information you gave about the enemy? Tell the people who are going to read your story, not just me. @Skillzalot: > It is going to be 3d and I have not planned that much. Now, this is an interesting statement…how much research have you done into 3D game design? Because, as someone who has done both, I can safely say that 3D is more complicated in every way, and requires a much bigger, more skilled team with far more free time than a 2D game would. So, if you thought that making an Eclipse game was hard, this will be far harder.

Well, the ability of something to make sense is one of the many subjective attributes we assign to something; therefore, something that makes no sense to someone may make sense to another, and, as a person's perceptions change over time, a statement might make more or less sense to the same person at a later date. So, there is validity to the quote, but the same could be said of many things. You might meet a girl who you don't think is pretty enough to date, but after you realize she's a master Eclipse coder, you might find you have a very different assessment of her.

@Skillzalot: > I will keep details about the game hidden This is by far my least favorite part of this post. Honestly, it's a little difficult to judge the quality of something without context; and, as to the post about it being in the wrong place, I think this decision alone makes it eligible for Chit Chat. But, on a much more positive note, about the actual story itself, the base concept is fairly good. The fact that mages are constantly the saviors of the world is a little obsessive, but perfectly alright if the game is only about mages (which, though it sounds limiting, is completely doable); if warriors, rogues, other classes are presented as class options, then it should rationally follow that they would also have some important role in history. Though, it really doesn't read in a very visible way. The fact that "the enemy" has no name, no motive, and very few presented traits makes it very hard to feel threatened by him. That's fine for an outline, an abstract, but you definitely want to make sure to develop the characters on implementation.

@DezireSoftware: > To the topic you brought up, he's doing the story like a book, to make more sense, he only released part of it to eclipse[as of now], and he will allow players to view the book from page 1 in-game, or on the website. Right, so I've heard. My main issue here stems from the fact that there just seem to be far too many excuses, and not enough actual information going around.

@SoiWilliamSoi: > but when ive done pot ive never seen "psychadelic" anything. its like being out of your body looking down at yourself. and being fuzzy. make a blur system. Well, true, but the game would be much more charming if it simulated stereotypes revolving around being high, rather than trying to accurately depict it. Not to mention that a fair perecentage of players would probably be playing it while stoned, and game-blur plus substance-blur would probably equal out to be so disorienting it might not even be playable…

@Ninja-Tech: > its part of the story but its not at the very beggining… >.> Well, if it's something that's not explained to the players until far later, it doesn't particularly make sense to have that be the first thing they see of the game. But this is dragging dangerously off-topic…the foremost problem with it would be the lack of contrast. The background is too dark to support black letters, which could be easily (if not very elegantly) solved by placing a layer of white or off-white letters over the black ones...though, that's only if the original layering isn't available anymore. That would open up options.

Still, I'd consider putting a bit more thought into what identity you want to present and how you want your logo to portray that. It often helps to try sketching out a few things on paper, then try to imagine how you could produce that digitally. Not sure if that's helpful to the majority, though…