Posting the AFC screenshot actually got me to dive around in my files and ask some other Alora Fane people about it, and I managed to unearth the .SWF file and my old quests. I've been thinking of recording playthroughs of them and writing about them on my blog, sort of to look back on the thing I put into them and why.
Looking back at some of the stuff I put in there makes me glad the game never got publicized!! I don't think the world could ever be ready for the saucy Ogre brothel scene... So much to cringe about! But also some stuff I actually quite like.
Those Sorrowlad quests hold up rather well in a charming wholesome way, and some of the Quests like Quiz Quest and QuestQuestQuestQuestQuestQuest were at the very least innovative given the engine's limitations, though they're really not executed well.
I think most JRPGs when they want to spice up the world map gameplay go for basic puzzles. You see it all over the place from games like Golden Sun to Mario & Luigi, and even back in the old MARDEK with the accursed Water Temple switch puzzle!!
I think tying the abilities to the characters's sentimancy would be an interesting starting point, especially if they were the same abilities characters could use both in and outside of combat. Like if Emela could use Aqualung inside combat too for some effect, it makes the game feel more cohesive in a sense.
I wonder how many people got stuck in MARDEK 3 due to not realizing which party members they need to trigger certain events. Needing both Verhn and Bostolm/Legion to enter the Lost Monastery was probably the most obscure one, I might have actually had to look that one up!
I don't remember suggesting such a system! It does make sense though, and it ties together MARDEK's and Taming Dreams's systems! I do really like the idea of having every combination be able to talk to each other rather than having everything be filtered through Mardek.
I'm glad you read that blog! You probably noticed yourself when playing, but every room in Hiveswap was very dense with things you can examine, like over a dozen things per room, and then when you have like 8 items every new room suddenly introduces like 100 new irreverent inane gags, and it becomes very overwhelming!
In contrast, the P-Dialogue in Taming Dreams was all meaningfully connected to the current events and further developed the characters. I always looked forward to talking to the party members! The game also spread out its P-dialogue rather well, so not every combination of party members updated after an event, only the relevant ones. And then when something BIG happens you would be able to get new dialogue with every combination, which reinforces the importance of the event since everyone wants to weigh in on it.
I can sort of understand why the Hiveswap did it though, when I played some of my old quests yesterday it struck with me that writing dialogue for examining objects was really fun to do! And it is very in-character for a Homestuck game to be full of dialogue like that for everything no matter how stupid... But that doesn't change the fact that the game is currently collecting dust on my PC! I ought to restart from the beginning some day.
When I played Yooka-Laylee they'd already patched out most of the bugs, but several other people told me about their frustrations with the game. It's a shame! I rather liked the game myself, enough to buy the spin-off. It's worth checking out more of it, or getting it yourself, I've been enjoying it!
1
Tobias 1104~4Y
Ha, it sounds like your experience of your own quests wasn't too different to mine when replaying MARDEK!
I don't remember if I've mentioned Golden Sun anywhere recently, but that's been on my mind as an example of the field skills idea. I haven't played it in years though so I've forgotten how it handled them! Maybe I should look to it for inspiration again... though it feels like all the games I'm drawing on are so old! And I still haven't played any new games!!1 I might start Octopath Traveler tonight though??
I'm definitely hoping to have a direct connection between characters' field skills and their combat ones! I've not really given it much thought, but from what little I did do, not as many obvious possibilities jumped to mind as I might have liked. I like the idea of Emeela using Aqualung, but what could something like that do in battle? That could be her field skill, but it's not really something you can have fun just spamming like you would with a sword slash or jump, so HMM...
I think what I'll likely do is having either individual or situational P-dialogue with a (!) thing to mark that it's changed like in Taming Dreams, but not for everyone all the time. Then the paired bits would be detached from the plot. I'll have to see how it goes when I get far enough to worry about the details! I definitely like that kind of thing myself, but it does take time to write!
Hmm, maybe I'll return to Yooka-Laylee first, since I already own it and I've played it before? Maybe! I never played Banjo Kazooie when I was little though, so I felt the game 'wasn't for me' when I played it before, since I'd read it was designed to appeal to people who wanted that same kind of experience but not exactly a remake. An interesting design choice, that. Appealing to nostalgia, but not directly. Not too different to what I'm trying to do myself.
1
Metrux3210~4Y
I've been watching a playthrough of the Breath of Fire 3, and they have this thing where each character has a field skill, mostly things they also do in combat, although some characters have the same skill and they're only used either for puzzles, fun tidbits or trying to get some (really very small) amount of money. It doesn't seem bad, but knowing you, in this it should be somewhat more unique.
The Fire Emblem series had at some points a similar system about dialogues between characters that got played together, since in FE you play levels in large terrains, the distance between the characters was the most important. I remember it had a special place wehre you could go to see dialogues, only if you wanted to, and it had either things about the specific mission, tips or the dialogues you unlocked with familiarity. Could work to do something similar, maybe even have the not so immediate ones only in a campfire or such? As in, you unlock them during your walkings, but only see such dialogues when your party is stopped, resting or somesuch.
Posting the AFC screenshot actually got me to dive around in my files and ask some other Alora Fane people about it, and I managed to unearth the .SWF file and my old quests. I've been thinking of recording playthroughs of them and writing about them on my blog, sort of to look back on the thing I put into them and why.
Looking back at some of the stuff I put in there makes me glad the game never got publicized!! I don't think the world could ever be ready for the saucy Ogre brothel scene... So much to cringe about! But also some stuff I actually quite like.
Those Sorrowlad quests hold up rather well in a charming wholesome way, and some of the Quests like Quiz Quest and QuestQuestQuestQuestQuestQuest were at the very least innovative given the engine's limitations, though they're really not executed well.
I think most JRPGs when they want to spice up the world map gameplay go for basic puzzles. You see it all over the place from games like Golden Sun to Mario & Luigi, and even back in the old MARDEK with the accursed Water Temple switch puzzle!!
I think tying the abilities to the characters's sentimancy would be an interesting starting point, especially if they were the same abilities characters could use both in and outside of combat. Like if Emela could use Aqualung inside combat too for some effect, it makes the game feel more cohesive in a sense.
I wonder how many people got stuck in MARDEK 3 due to not realizing which party members they need to trigger certain events. Needing both Verhn and Bostolm/Legion to enter the Lost Monastery was probably the most obscure one, I might have actually had to look that one up!
I don't remember suggesting such a system! It does make sense though, and it ties together MARDEK's and Taming Dreams's systems! I do really like the idea of having every combination be able to talk to each other rather than having everything be filtered through Mardek.
I'm glad you read that blog! You probably noticed yourself when playing, but every room in Hiveswap was very dense with things you can examine, like over a dozen things per room, and then when you have like 8 items every new room suddenly introduces like 100 new irreverent inane gags, and it becomes very overwhelming!
In contrast, the P-Dialogue in Taming Dreams was all meaningfully connected to the current events and further developed the characters. I always looked forward to talking to the party members! The game also spread out its P-dialogue rather well, so not every combination of party members updated after an event, only the relevant ones. And then when something BIG happens you would be able to get new dialogue with every combination, which reinforces the importance of the event since everyone wants to weigh in on it.
I can sort of understand why the Hiveswap did it though, when I played some of my old quests yesterday it struck with me that writing dialogue for examining objects was really fun to do! And it is very in-character for a Homestuck game to be full of dialogue like that for everything no matter how stupid... But that doesn't change the fact that the game is currently collecting dust on my PC! I ought to restart from the beginning some day.
When I played Yooka-Laylee they'd already patched out most of the bugs, but several other people told me about their frustrations with the game. It's a shame! I rather liked the game myself, enough to buy the spin-off. It's worth checking out more of it, or getting it yourself, I've been enjoying it!
I don't remember if I've mentioned Golden Sun anywhere recently, but that's been on my mind as an example of the field skills idea. I haven't played it in years though so I've forgotten how it handled them! Maybe I should look to it for inspiration again... though it feels like all the games I'm drawing on are so old! And I still haven't played any new games!!1 I might start Octopath Traveler tonight though??
I'm definitely hoping to have a direct connection between characters' field skills and their combat ones! I've not really given it much thought, but from what little I did do, not as many obvious possibilities jumped to mind as I might have liked. I like the idea of Emeela using Aqualung, but what could something like that do in battle? That could be her field skill, but it's not really something you can have fun just spamming like you would with a sword slash or jump, so HMM...
I think what I'll likely do is having either individual or situational P-dialogue with a (!) thing to mark that it's changed like in Taming Dreams, but not for everyone all the time. Then the paired bits would be detached from the plot. I'll have to see how it goes when I get far enough to worry about the details! I definitely like that kind of thing myself, but it does take time to write!
Hmm, maybe I'll return to Yooka-Laylee first, since I already own it and I've played it before? Maybe! I never played Banjo Kazooie when I was little though, so I felt the game 'wasn't for me' when I played it before, since I'd read it was designed to appeal to people who wanted that same kind of experience but not exactly a remake. An interesting design choice, that. Appealing to nostalgia, but not directly. Not too different to what I'm trying to do myself.
The Fire Emblem series had at some points a similar system about dialogues between characters that got played together, since in FE you play levels in large terrains, the distance between the characters was the most important. I remember it had a special place wehre you could go to see dialogues, only if you wanted to, and it had either things about the specific mission, tips or the dialogues you unlocked with familiarity. Could work to do something similar, maybe even have the not so immediate ones only in a campfire or such? As in, you unlock them during your walkings, but only see such dialogues when your party is stopped, resting or somesuch.