[RM2K3] Runic Cipher, Project/demo thread of the game Options

[Allen Hunter]

If anyone read my greetings thread back in late December 08, I said I'd post my current info on my game, which as of currently is called "Runic Cipher".

Do notice that I *may* change the title some other time later. And another thing is, please bear with me on this: I'm not a writer or someone who's good with storylines. My top talent in Rpg Maker is mostly mapping.

So I just stuck out a cliched concept that atleast makes sense.

The Plot (UPDATED ON 2/28/09):

Spoiler! --Click here to view--

Emperor Hilgar is an envious and power-hungry ruler who rules the country with the biggest, most developed economy in the entire world. He had studied about the four ancient Runic Stones, in which if brought together and cast under a certain spell, may very well grant him the desired "Ultimate Power", as said in an Ancient Witches' Spellbook that was given to him by a traveling pagan.

Eversince then, the emperor curiously had been showing such strong desire as he started reading through the Ancient Witches' Spellbook (which included names of past users prior to the book's completion) and realized that he too can have this kind of power if he wanted to rule every land on Earth other than his.

But in order to be able to unlock the "Ultimate Power", he must scatter his military around the world to settle on other peoples' lands, where protective altars for each Runic Stone (each stone contains a phrase used for casting the spell) may be located.

The countries of Jadin (essence of Earth), Calupa (essence of Water), Sassoon (essence of Air), and Noviat (essence of Fire) are the four targets of the emperor's plan. Caught discovering about his ambition, his wife confronted him, but ended up being imprisoned (her life was spared however).

Only Calupa and Noviat were successfully invaded and conquered by Hilgar's military, as many of the natives are forced out of their own land to settle in remote territory.

Jadin's people are bravely fighting off the invaders through the deserts to keep them off their land and the Earth Stone. Sassoon, being a country ruled by women yet with plenty of highly-trained soldiers, simply prefer to abstrain from wars as much as possible. But this time however, they have to fight back to protect their land.

A rebellious squad named "EDGE" are sailing their ship around the world to fight off against Hilgar's military and try to get other countries to unite with them and recover the Runic Stones that were pillaged by the ruthless invaders.

The Runic Stones are key items for good luck that strengthen the four elements that make up our world: Earth, Water, Air, and Fire, from the East to the South to the West to the North of the planet. Innocent people are wanting to know just why Emperor Hilgar is interested on collecting the four Runic Stones...

This is currently my plot. I've tried other ideas but didn't have the balls to elaborate more. So basically you're a group of rebels who hate an evil organization because they invaded the leader of the rebel's land and doesn't want them to succeed.

I know it's nothing too special, and I do intend on bringing the "Final Fantasy" feel into the game, but it's NOT going to be a Final Fantasy fangame.

The "Relic System":

Instead of buying weapons & armor, I've changed "Equipment" to "Relics". You get to equip one ability to each six slots for each character (like in FFTactics):

1st slot is called Inflict, which is you get to equip an element or abnormal status ability for your added physical attack effect against enemies' weaknesses)
2nd slot is called Protect, which is the same as Inflict, but it's about protecting you against a bad status or absorbing an element attack)
3rd slot is called Command, which gives you a free special battle command of your choice you have in your inventory other than your initial special one.
4th slot is called Support, it's obviously whatever can boost your attack/magic/speed/defense points for battle or increasing your evasion, etc.
5th slot is called Field, pertains to nothing in the game but your walking characters on the screen, such as being able to walk over tile floor damage or watching out for traps. It takes only one field ability to be equipped to affect everyone in the team with that character on, so you get more freedom this way.

The Cast (Updated on 2/28/09):

Spoiler! --Click here to view--

(IMG:http://thehuntersdomain.webs.com/RunicCipherRickBio.gif) Rick
Age: 20
Job: Dishwasher, EDGE member
Warrior Class: Archer
Weapon: Hunting Bow
Initial Battle Command: Poach - Turn a near-death foe into a Relic item.

Bio: A bored jobhunter who looks for new job opportunities all over the city of Regindo, a small remote island that makes fine chinaware and are famous for their food cuisine. After a lucky meeting with Talon and Veronica at the pub he works at, Rick instantly quit his job there and joined EDGE to get paid more to travel around the world and to help fight stop Hilgar.

(IMG:http://thehuntersdomain.webs.com/RunicCipherTalonBio.gif) Talon
Age: 37
Job: Leader of EDGE
Warrior Class: Thief
Weapon: Double Lance
Initial Battle Command: Steal - Take an enemy's item.
Bio: The leader of a rebellious team. Originally from Calupa, but after it was invaded and taken over by Hilgar, Talon contacted a nearby friend of his and decided to team up and look for other recruits on his friend's ship to be able to get Emperor Hilgar's men off of their land and all other affected nations.

He hopes to confront the tyrant himself one day to settle the score once and for all.

(IMG:http://thehuntersdomain.webs.com/RunicCipherVeronicaBio.gif) Veronica
Age: 24
Job: EDGE member
Warrior Class: Sniper
Weapon: Revolver
Initial Battle Command: Snipe - Assault your enemies.
Bio: She is a feisty gunner that likes to get to the point of things. Veronica was left on the streets of Damen when she was an infant, but was rescued and she was raised by a poor widow of the slums.

Lacking much friends as a child, she started using a revolver to defend herself when she's out there in the crime-filled streets.

While Veronica does want to fight against Hilgar with EDGE, she also wants to find out her parents' whereabouts and interrogate them about it. Her only sources is a photograph of her folks and their full names.

(IMG:http://thehuntersdomain.webs.com/RunicCipherIsabellaBio.gif) Isabella
Age: 28
Job: General
Warrior Class: Knight
Weapon: Excalibur
Initial Battle Command: Swordskill - Powerful knight skills.
Bio: Isabella is the general of Sassoon Castle's Ruby Knight military. She proudly defends her land for the power and the glory of her queen. She is as bold and as brave as her heart is of gold.

As a child, she grew up from a rich family in the city who are good friends with the royals themselves. She mastered the art of swordsmanship and joined the Ruby Knights as early as at the age of 13.

(IMG:http://thehuntersdomain.webs.com/RunicCipherAlexBio.gif) Alex
Age: 25
Job: Adventurer
Warrior Class: Geomancer
Weapon: Battleaxe
Initial Battle Command: Geography - Use the earth as your weapon.

(IMG:http://thehuntersdomain.webs.com/RunicCipherZafarBio.gif) Zafar
Age: 50
Job: King
Warrior Class: Knight
Weapon: Falchion
Initial Battle Command: Swordskill - Powerful knight skills.

(IMG:http://thehuntersdomain.webs.com/RunicCipherKaylaBio.gif) Kayla
Age: 19
Job: Unemployed
Warrior Class: Magician
Weapon: Scepter
Initial Battle Command: Magic - Cast a stock of spells used to protect allies and attacks enemies.

(IMG:http://thehuntersdomain.webs.com/RunicCipherBarbaraBio.gif) Barbara
Age: 22
Job: Unemployed
Warrior Class: Monk
Weapon: Fists
Initial Battle Command: Chakra - Unleash the hidden powers in Monks.

And that's pretty much it.

Demo testers:
- Elemental Crisis
- Raian The Fallen

Please give me your honest opinions and do check this thread as often as possible if you have the time for it. I will keep my promise that I'll add more info in the next few weeks, with screenshots and other ideas I've come up with. Eventually, I'll put up a demo for y'all to try out (hopefully BEFORE June hits).

4/26/09 Update: Taking time off;decided to move release date to August or September. I apologize to those who want to try this game out.

[Elemental Crisis]

I like the whole idea of Relics, something fresh and new. (IMG:https://rpgcrisis.net/forums/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Why type of battle system do you plan to use?

[Allen Hunter]

I like the whole idea of Relics, something fresh and new. (IMG:https://rpgcrisis.net/forums/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Why type of battle system do you plan to use?

Yeah, the Relics system will provide more fun to the game. I wished I could've also added the equipment system along with Relics but I had to make some sacrifices. (IMG:https://rpgcrisis.net/forums/style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

The battlesystem will be the basic generic ATB system that came with the RPGMaker2003 program. I'm not that good at progamming at CBS or CMS anyway..

Oh, and here're the screenshots I've promised:

(IMG:http://img4.pictiger.com/cd6/17630517_th.jpg) (IMG:http://img4.pictiger.com/00a/17630518_th.jpg) (IMG:http://img4.pictiger.com/959/17630520_th.jpg) (IMG:http://img4.pictiger.com/265/17630521_th.jpg) (IMG:http://img4.pictiger.com/4ee/17630526_th.jpg) (IMG:http://img5.pictiger.com/354/17630577_th.jpg)

[Elemental Crisis]

I fixed the image links, you had this in front of the link "http://\\\"". May I suggest you attach the images to your main post? Its very easy to do, just edit your post and at the bottom below the content box use the attachment box to upload them and add them into your post.

Very nice looking!

Some suggestions:
- In the Equipment screenshot I noticed your using the color red for increases, may I suggest you change the color to green? Most people associate red with negatives and green with positives.
- In the battle screenshot your characters should be spaced out so there's space between them.

The mapping is really good! I like the style and feel of it!

Can't wait for a demo!

[Allen Hunter]

Sorry for not replying in such a long time. As you've pointed out, I've fixed the colors for the equipments whenever a stat goes up/down. I set the positive stat number to yellow and the negative positive stat to either red or gray (because I've noticed the unusable skills/items also use the same color at the "negative"). I also spaced the characters out so they aren't crammed in together by finally making use of the grid lines for the battle terrains.

I'll post to show more images and/or other sorts of information about the game later on.. I really am hoping to release the demo sometime around Spring if possible, by the way. I just need to fix up some monsters, maps, and some character abilities. If I have time to spare, I'll even put a mini game or two just to make the download worth it.

[Allen Hunter]

Alright, I have to show my 2 recent completed maps so far for anyone who still checks this thread out. I'd appreciate it if more people replied here. Thanks.

Sassoon's City
(IMG:http://www.geocities.com/angelwitch666@ymail.com/Town2.PNG)

Regindo
(IMG:http://www.geocities.com/angelwitch666@ymail.com/Town1.PNG)

Please tell me what you think!

Oh, and here are the designs of the characters who you will be playing as in the game..

Names from left to right of characters' line-up and parenthesies mean their fighter classes: Rick (Archer), Talon (Thief), Veronica (Sniper), Isabella (Knight), Alex (Geomancer), Zafar (Knight), Barbara (Monk), & Kayla (Magician).
(IMG:http://www.geocities.com/angelwitch666@ymail.com/RunicCipherCast.PNG)

Yes, I am really going to implement an ACTUAL elemental command that uses random skills appropriate for the current terrain your character steps on in the world map or their current location, just like in Final Fantasy 5. And I might even consider making an ability that can change terrains temporarily during battle, just like in Final Fantasy 6 when you use one of Mog's skills that does it. And it is possible to do so because mostly it just requires Map X/Y/ID memorization, Switches and Forks Events.

Please everybody, give me some C&C to motivate me to finish this first part faster, and in the next few weeks I'm going to start asking for anyone out there who want to test the demo out for any glitches or mistakes in the game for me to fix prior to releasing Runic Cipher's first public demo. You will be credited as long as your job is done. More to come!

[Elemental Crisis]

Screenshots look good!

The character classes really interest me, can't wait to play your game!

[Kurysu]

Love your ideas and concepts. The Relic system seems like a really neat idea. My project utilizes something similar, but not to the same extent(read:more like having magical spell slots). But, I digress. Love that concept.

The storyline seems well-thought out and well upon it's way to completion. And it's an interesting storyline, as well.

Overall, I think this game looks promising!

I'm looking forward to more screenshots!
:]

[Allen Hunter]

Hey everyone, sorry for NEARLY A MONTH of no more updates from me on this game. Starting March, I'll spend more time working on my game, I promise. It's just that I've been real busy and shit, heh.

What's new with Runic Cipher so far:
- Finished up all of the battle graphics for my characters.
- Added the intro for my game, but I'm still tweaking things around here and there.
- A total of 96 maps used in my game.
- 16 count of Attack Relics and also another 16 for Defense Relics, 9 Command Relics, 11 Support Relics, and 6 Field Relics for the player to use in the game.
- All Magic spells are nearly complete.
- Every single city/town/village and castle has a map already. May still need some more work on them though!

Things I still need to work on:
- Finishing the Relic system (including a common event for it to check who has it equipped in order to learn a new command)
- Feature some more monsters on the game roster for atleast the first few parts of the game. I also hate the stupid Attributes thing!
- I still need to edit some chipsets.

After reading this, check above at the first post of this thread to see some minor changes I've made as of the date. The next reply you see from me here will have plenty of screenshots to go by.

Later!

[detsed]

I love the runic system in this game it is very in-genius i cant wait for newer versions (IMG:https://rpgcrisis.net/forums/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Great job on the game (IMG:https://rpgcrisis.net/forums/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) (IMG:https://rpgcrisis.net/forums/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Allen Hunter]

Here are the screenshots of my game so far...

(IMG:http://www.geocities.com/angelwitch666@ymail.com/RunicCipherScreen1.PNG) (IMG:http://www.geocities.com/angelwitch666@ymail.com/RunicCipherScreen2.PNG) (IMG:http://www.geocities.com/angelwitch666@ymail.com/RunicCipherScreen3.PNG)

(IMG:http://www.geocities.com/angelwitch666@ymail.com/RunicCipherScreen4.PNG) (IMG:http://www.geocities.com/angelwitch666@ymail.com/RunicCipherScreen5.PNG) (IMG:http://www.geocities.com/angelwitch666@ymail.com/RunicCipherScreen6.JPG)

(IMG:http://www.geocities.com/angelwitch666@ymail.com/RunicCipherScreen7.JPG) (IMG:http://www.geocities.com/angelwitch666@ymail.com/RunicCipherScreen8.PNG) (IMG:http://www.geocities.com/angelwitch666@ymail.com/RunicCipherScreen9.PNG)

In this twin-screenshot, I show you (the gamer) how the command "Poach" will be like. The enemy fades after telling you what you received.
(IMG:http://www.geocities.com/angelwitch666@ymail.com/RunicCipherScreen10.PNG)

Enjoy.

[IRONic632]

Wow... your game sounds rad mate!!! Relics system really caught my attention to go ahead and reply to this. (IMG:https://rpgcrisis.net/forums/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

i really like the cast and the plot sounds real cool, yeah. great job w/ the chara design (specialy on isabela, alex barbara & zafar), i see you have a special talent with map designs too! lol i suck at those honestly. hey, i have this rm2k3 game im workin on too and its influenced greatly by final fantasy stuff like yours, who knows if you wanna do some designs for me hehehe. dont worry ill credit you and all, so yeah!

but yeah Dude, wish ya good luck and i realy am impressed by the screenshots you took. mighty effort to put this all up hehe. XD

i am eager to try out your demo when its out lol (IMG:https://rpgcrisis.net/forums/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Allen Hunter]

Wow... your game sounds rad mate!!! Relics system really caught my attention to go ahead and reply to this. (IMG:https://rpgcrisis.net/forums/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

i really like the cast and the plot sounds real cool, yeah. great job w/ the chara design (specialy on isabela, alex barbara & zafar), i see you have a special talent with map designs too! lol i suck at those honestly. hey, i have this rm2k3 game im workin on too and its influenced greatly by final fantasy stuff like yours, who knows if you wanna do some designs for me hehehe. dont worry ill credit you and all, so yeah!

but yeah Dude, wish ya good luck and i realy am impressed by the screenshots you took. mighty effort to put this all up hehe. XD

i am eager to try out your demo when its out lol (IMG:https://rpgcrisis.net/forums/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Thanks, I'm glad you like what you see here. And sure, I wouldn't mind helping you out with your game if you want me to. Just PM me about it. Don't worry, the demo will be released before summer begins, but I seem to be doing alot of work on it with my free time.

If anyone wants to test my game, let me know and I can send you the demo for you to try out before releasing it publicly!

[edumazieri]

very cool game good luck man!

[Ryan15000]

Very nice screen shots, I loved Final Fantasy 5 and your making pretty nice stuff with the resource.
(where did you get the chipset from? I liked to know please)

[Bizarro_x]

Aaaahh.... This looks so cool, dude ! I can't wait for a demo release ! Love the screenies ! I think this game is gonna rock ! **

[Allen Hunter]

Don't worry, I'm working my ass off on the game as we speak! Expect a release shortly before June or summer time. Thanks for the feedback, and if anyone else wants to test my game, let me know.

(where did you get the chipset from? I liked to know please)

I got most of the FF5 chipsets from a Final Fantasy fangame I downloaded years ago. Hate to say the rest of the title escapes me. But I'm now adding some FF4 and FF6 and even Live A Live chips into them, so my game doesn't look like a sequel.

[Openwound]

I think the system shows promise. Any added layer of strategy is welcome, as long as it is correctly implemented vs. a tacked on, but useless feature. Don't worry about the plot too much; most stories have been done, just try to spice up some of the tired details.

[Allen Hunter]

Unfortunately, I have paused working on my game because I am having some personal things to deal with. Demo release date is currently uncertain, but I will eventually get back into the process of the game. Not to worry.

[Rory]

Thats a let down.
The game looks really good, hope your personal things gets back on track soon.