Shades of the Ancients

[Joyce]

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**Shades of the Ancients**

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Oh yes, I decided to bring this back.. But this time, I'll be working on it a little differently. And need MOTIVATED people. I swear, I hate it when people act demotivating. It demotivates me as well! If my team can't get their acts together, I'll drop out sooner than a pregnant girl in highschool. Just saying.

Anyway, this idea of mine has been around for a very long time. And some of my recent tutorials were features I had planned to use in this myself this time, but decided to share them for the heck of it. I mean some people shared much more complicated systems! So why not be kind and share this where possible? Right?

Now, right of the bat I'll say I have no actual progress done on the game itself, just been writing down ideas and features I'll possibly use, and written some which I shared.. And a few I dropped, or haven't finished due to my own stupidity on the subject, or simply not bothering because it didn't work out the way I wanted it to. I have no maps, no UI nothing. Does it bother me while writing this? slightly, because I know people prefer existing projects. But being the terrible graphics designer I am.. I decided against making a new UI and tiles myself. I just cannot do this!

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**Back story**

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>! It was a rough time for us all.. Our corrupted landlords were pushing us all to our limits, we were forced to labor in the Mines of Agony as we called them. What we were there for nobody knew, not even the taskmasters did, there was no Ore, no Gems nor Gold to be found anywhere in that cave.. Yet, we were to dig further and further up to the point where there was no more pure oxygen, suffocating the ill and weak. It were harsh times for us all.
I believe it was the second alignment of the sun I had seen in my lifetime, I was a mere boy forced to serve the lords just like everybody else, but rather then putting me inside the mines they forced me to study ancient artifacts, I did not understand why.. I did not understand how either, they gave me directions to ruins, caverns and various other locations, but everywhere I went I did not understand what to do.. I could not understand why they sent me there.. The only explanation I obtained was the ever same “You’ll know when you find it, boy.. And when you do you shall make us very happy”, after those words their eyes were filled with greed and the need for power.. But, I never understood why until that day.
>! It was just another day like any other, I said goodbye to my family as they were dragged down into the mines, and reassured my little brother we would see better days some time before I headed off to get a new task for the day. Once I entered the great hall where the lords resided I had an eerie feeling, a feeling like there was something not quite right. But I shrugged it off and walked further to obtain my orders. “You are to search the ruins of an unknown city hidden within the mountains, there is a temple which might be of interest to us there.” was all they said before they handed me the map with its location.
>! The journey itself wasn't as hard as I had imagined, the climb was easy almost as if the air itself was pushing me upwards towards the giant plain up on the mountains. It took me almost half a sun-cycle to get up there still, but when I made it I was surprised, there was no city, there was no temple.. Had they lied to me? There were only a dozen statues, six on each side, aligned in straight rows towards.. I couldn't see, there was a blurry figurine at the end of the display.. It almost seemed like a heat haze, but the sensation of just looking at it was.. Amazing! I'm not sure what it was, but with each step I took to get closer it felt like there were people touching me, dragging me closer and closer to the hazy bit.. And as I reached the end everything went dark around me, the haze spread and suddenly the fabric of reality was torn apart inside it, creating a small rip in everything where a small human-like creature walked out of staring at me.
>! “So you have come..” was what I heard in my head, and it felt as if something stabbed a dagger deeper and deeper into my heart as the creature came closer. “Do you know why you're here? Do you know what you are?” Were the words that come up in my mind.. But I couldn't answer, my mind went blank but the creature nodded as if I answered.. And pointed to a flow of wind next to me, which seemed to take my shape. “You are nothing.. You are everything, you are the flow of air through their lungs, the air that keeps a bird afloat, and the air that suffocates people within the mines your so called ‘Lords’ are in..” I grasped for air, and fell down onto my knees even further, my vision went black altogether and it felt as if my body was torn to shreds by a thousand blades. “They sent you here thinking I would let you help them accomplish their selfish goals.. But I won’t make that mistake again.. I was doomed to stay imprisoned here until the next one came along to take over my duties as an Ancient.. Now, your time has come to avenge the deaths of the innocent, and to set things straight in this world.. As it should have been.” The pain suddenly faded, and I couldn’t feel a thing.. at all.
>! When I could finaly get myself to stand up, I saw the entire place had been ruined, everything turned brown and the trees and plants died as soon as I walked towards them. We all heard the stories of the Ancients, but we believed them to be false.. But this creature, talked as if he was the corrupted Ancient of Air! I looked around some more, trying to figure out the cause of this curruption around me, only to see my own body rotting away before my own eyes, I stood there looking at my decaying corpse which was lying beside me.. But I felt nothing, I looked at my hands only to see there were none. Just a flow of air, and heard the voice of the creature inside my mind “We are one, you are me.. and I am you.. We should head off now, and fix what I did wrong so many years ago.. Don’t mind the corruption, it will be dispelled by someone.. over time.” And so without any form of control over my body at all, everything went blank..
>! The next thing I know was looking over the pit where the Lords their castle once stood, proudly next to the mine, but there was nothing. Everything was destroyed leaving only a few houses standing in a small town I had no memories of being there.. I wasn’t sure what I did, and I stood there for ages.. and ages.. And I still do as the corruption of my airflow slowly fades away, I watch this town stand against the horrors my corruption created.. Wondering why and how this happened, drowning in my own sorrows.

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**Planned Features**

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Updated as I think of more:

* **Instanced Maps:** Have you ever wanted to take on the corrupted spawns of evil with your friends? The remnants of the old gods that wander this planet? Or perhaps simply want to beat something over the head while people are watching without random adventurers taking away your boast? Well, that is what this is going to be designed for. Certain maps and features will be instanced for your own personal(or group) experience!
* **Fully Customizable Characters:** Ever wanted to be a black man with purple hair? Or a purple person with black hair? Honestly, I haven't. That'd look plain stupid. BUT with the customization I'll be implementing this would be possible.. Well, if the graphics are ever made that way, anyhow.
* **Guilds:** Guilds are just.. guilds! But we'll likely feature basic guild emblems which your leader can switch between.
* **Corruption:** Killing other players gains you corruption powder, which can be traded in for gear that.. well, will help you slay more people? I suppose. Note: Yami does not support the mass slaughter of individuals. If you so desire however, go ahead. I'll look the other way
* **Lore:** The world will be full of little lore bits and pieces, be it a book you find.. A sign, or a conversation with an NPC!
* **World Bosses:** Instances not your thing? Try conquering the spawns of corruption outside! The mountains surrounding the village have plenty of caves, and are sure to bring many adventurers to their knees..

There's many more, but listing things that are almost considered as a standard in Eclipse seems rather pointless, doesn't it? So I'm just listing stuff I'll program myself. :]

The game's flow is as follows(for the time being, this is still very much a work in progress)

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**Graphics**

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I don't have any. :[ But the idea is that the tiles and sprites will be in the style of say, Zelda: Oracle of Seasons:
-2.jpg)

Why? Because I love that game. And the lack of bright colors and shiny things displays the idea of corruption I would want to show with the game. Obviously, if the artist decides he has a different style he/she would like to try, hit me with it. I might like it more, but that is my personal idea of what I have in mind right now.

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**Team**

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**Programmer(s):**

* Yami

**Composer(s):**

* ℕḯℊℌ☂☾

**Pixel Artist(s):**

* You perhaps?

That's the team so far! We could really use a Pixel Artist! I can not promise you any pay, nor will I. If it comes it comes, if the game never reaches a state where it will earn money.. There won't be any. I consider it fun to make a game, if you do things for the cash that is your cup of tea, but I am not all that focused on it.

Note that before I accept you, I would love some examples. Your motivation and interest in the project would help as well. :] I'm not blindly going to accept anyone and his mom again, because this just works demotivational.

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**Contact**

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**MSN:** [email protected]
**Google Talk:** [email protected]

[Joyce]

Bump, I could still very much use a Pixel Artist and Composer.

Also, in more interesting news.. I finished the character customization. Currently there are four layers to it, but I can always add more should I feel the need to.

Body:
Face:
Cloth:
Hair:

Combines into the following:

It's nothing spectacular, but I do feel it's a feature that's missing in most Eclipse based games. Also decided to add my contact info the the OP.

EDIT: Night decided to join me as a composer, hopefuly I can get some music out of him on a fairly short term. :]

EDIT2: A basic layout of the questing flow in the game for level 1 - 15:

[Guest]

I'm trying to fiddle up some music and making it a loop so I might show it to you later…

[Joyce]

Alright! Got my server computer all set up. So those worries are out of the air, and modified the client to stream music from the interw3bz to prevent a loooot if additional space that the game would otherwise take. I mean c'mon! Bitmaps are huge enough as they are. (Server currently located at http://server.shades-online.nl/ omnomnom, it's a dedicated that's pointed at through a DNS at the domain ;])

Could still very much use an artist though, it's not very fun working with and looking at temporary graphics.

[Joyce]

And another feature done.. Animated tiles! There's currently just one layer of them, and it's completely separate from the existing standard layers.. Rendered on top of Mask2, which I can always change, of course. :] It basically loads a 4 tiled image as, say below:


And switches the frames every .25 second. It's quite neat, and something EO has been missing from the start. :]

EDIT: Actually, now that I have this done I think I should make three animated layers.. One that renders after Mask2, without transparency, one that renders after that WITH transparency, and a third one that renders after Fringe2.

[Joyce]

Bump, could still use a graphics artist for the tiles, sprites and whatnot. :)

[Guest]

bump fer lulz this ain't going anywhere >.>

[Myron]

@ℕḯℊℌ☂☾:

> this ain't going anywhere >.>

Probably for a reason.. Pixel artists aren't common here and don't forget that this is a serious game project which would require people to spend a lot of their time in it and be motivated.

Seeing that the age of most members are <18, time is not an issue as it's the motivation to work and the determination to stick with the team until the game's done that is the problem here.

[azkanan]

You would have a better chance at finding a Pixel Artist if you were to have two things; presentable progress and a brilliant game idea. If you have these, you have a chance of grabbing both a Pixel Artist and public attention.

With a niche for public attention, you have a possibility for generating revenue, at which point you have a decent chance of grabbing a Pixel Artist.

Get as many of these steps done, then go look for a Freelancer Hub or a Pixel Art-based forum and present yourself professionally, promising a fair % cut of any profits.