Primus - Nemaria Universe

[nemarious]

I just found out that the script I'm using for item synthesis can support as many reagents as I want. I'm going to have fun making ridiculous recipes for really good loot that you guys aren't going to be able to resist making.

A cool example I've thought of would be having a sword that requires six other different weapons in order to be made in homage to Cloud's Fusion Sword and Omnislash.

Obviously, I'm not going to be making anything completely ridiculous like an accessory that requires twenty other accessories and ten million gold to make as that would never be justifiable unless equipping the accessory made you immortal or something but that would be pointless anyway.

Also, There will not be any hidden recipes in this game. Or at least there isn't any planned at the moment. Perhaps Easter eggs like the idea above could be? Not all items will be findable though, as in some reagents will only be able to be bought. An example of this would be Vials used for creating potions.

EDIT: Since writing this post I've also had ideas for having anime related Easter egg alchemy stuff. The only ones I've thought of so far is having a Death Scythe and Excalibur from Soul Eater. I would welcome other suggestions as I've not really watched all that much anime, or at least not all that much where they have unique weapons.

[nemarious]

Hey guys and gals. Just thought I'd share a few things with you. I recently bought this book which I'm using for planning the weapons in the game. Talk about realism, eh? Expect weapons to be from realistic areas like Persian Jambiya daggers and Indian Peshkabz to be found in the arid Malmasc.

I'm personally a big fan of two-handed swords - and have some training in how to use them too - so I will take personal interest in having Landsknecht swords (literally Land Knight in German) and other such beasts. I also like some Scandinavian swords that have Nordic runes engraved in their fullers which as I have a passion for all things Norse mythology also take my interest.

I also got round to donating some money for the site again which I forgot to do last month, woops. I would encourage anybody with some spare money to do the same. As I type this we're only half way to meeting this month's target with only a week left in the month. Not only do your donations keep the anime side of the site running, it also helps this part of the site facilitate me bringing you these updates so please donate anything you can.

On another note, I was wondering whether to set up a parent thread for the games. I have two more in the pre-production stages so it would be nice to be able to put some details of them up. That way anyone who has become a fan of Primus could also check out my other projects. I mentioned this to Koby a few posts back when I asked him to sticky this thread. I think it would be a good idea myself because I can set up other threads as part of that, like a fan demand thread where you can suggest ideas etc. I'll see what you think before I set it/them up.

[nemarious]

Just another note on weapons now I think about it. Previously each party member was going to use just one weapon type, now that has changed and they each can use two different weapon types. Details are found below.

Leni:

Sword & Shield - Medium physical attacks. All round setup.

Bows - Long ranged physical attack. Lower defence. Allows decent damage from back row meaning you can have a tanking setup with Dakin at the front and the rest behind.

Takero:

Staves - Low physical damage but slight increases to Intellect. Two handed.

Spears - Medium-Low physical damage. Also allows the use of shields. High accuracy.

Alysha:

Staves - Low physical damage but slight increases to Intellect. Two handed.

Daggers - Low physical damage (Higher than staves). Also allows the use of shields. Can be dual-wielded.

Dakin:

2H Axes - High physical attack, lower accuracy.

2H Sword - Medium-High physical attack, higher accuracy.

So you can see this will allow some tactical changes. If, for example, you know that the upcoming boss is resistant to most magic attacks then you could change to daggers with Alysha as you won't need her offensive magic. Or if Leni is running low on HP and you don't have any potions you can give him a bow and stick him on the back row to reduce damage.

Also, if anyone actually donated to the site because of my above post then thankyou very much.

[nemarious]

I haven't written an update here for a while as I've been working on an assignment for uni. Anyway, I thought I'd share with you a list of the locations you will be able to instantly zoom to in game.

Irvine

Trapern

Alydra

Pisteen

Lamplight

Tul'Klamh

Tul'Fahnd

Tul'Rakass

Tul'Rukiss

Malmasc

Ehatia

Sepulchre

Verunas

Ironblood Assembly

Isle Of Titans

Daralas

Tyne Coppice

Mago Caves

Gate Of The Exiled

Signaterras

Bear in mind this is not a final list. I have only officially confirmed up to Pisteen which is a lovely name for a port town if you get the joke

[Caledoriv]

I'm getting more and more interested in this game. AfaIk the balance between spells / abilities and normal attacks is quite difficult to achieve (well, I don't know many RPG-Maker Games in which that's the case). Nevertheless, I think it's a good idea, as well as the realism. It'll need a whole lot of fine tuning, but it should be worth it.

I'm personally a big fan of two-handed swords - and have some training in how to use them too - so I will take personal interest in having Landsknecht swords (literally Land Knight in German) and other such beasts.

I've got the impression you are quite interested in those weapons. That's why I have to tell you that your translation is wrong. "Landsknecht" could be translated with "yeoman" (literally "lansquenet").

"Knight" means "Ritter", a "Knecht" is a "servant".

[nemarious]

I'm getting more and more interested in this game. AfaIk the balance between spells / abilities and normal attacks is quite difficult to achieve (well, I don't know many RPG-Maker Games in which that's the case). Nevertheless, I think it's a good idea, as well as the realism. It'll need a whole lot of fine tuning, but it should be worth it.

That's what beta testers like you will be for . Of course unit testing has been instilled in me from a programming point of view anyway so I'll be testing things like that as well myself. I'm going to try to balance in out more by having the monsters level up with you to a degree. One of the things I've learnt from previous projects is that the basic damage calculation algorithm is pretty crap but in order to maintain compatibility with other scripts I don't want to mess about with it too much.

I've got the impression you are quite interested in those weapons. That's why I have to tell you that your translation is wrong. "Landsknecht" could be translated with "yeoman" (literally "lansquenet").

"Knight" means "Ritter", a "Knecht" is a "servant".

Quite right, my mistake. The thing is I knew that they were mainly light armoured (if armoured at all which was uncommon) footmen more commonly found wielding pikes rather than swords. I think the reason I got confused is probably due to all the films where Landskneckt swords are more commonly used by men in armour who were called something else, beginning with 'D' I believe. Either way they're pretty badass - the swords and the soldiers.

[nemarious]

Just a little update concerning some locations in game. The locations that begin with 'Tul' are part of the Malmascan continent. 'Tul' litterally means 'The' in Malmascan tongue so whilst all these places are given there Malmascan name they do have common Nemarian translations. For example 'Tul'Fahnd' means 'The Circle' and is a Colliseum city where you will have all the joys of fighting through the ranks.

Anyone who has played DragonQuest VIII will have played these sorts of things before. Ragazzo!

Eight ranks assigned a letter (S, A, B, C, D, E, F, G) consist of three rounds. Each round has three bouts which you must complete in order to unlock the next round. When you have beaten all three rounds in a rank you unlock the next rank. You can also, at that stage, 'Complete' the rank by attempting to complete all nine bouts in a single run.

For example, G rank, round one will have three bouts against various creatures. Completing that gives you a small amount of gold (first time only) and unlocks the next round. Completing round two will unlock the third round of G rank and completing that will allow you to enter F rank and attempt to 'Complete' all bouts in G rank in one go to unlock a special prize. These special prizes can be rare alchemy items, armours etc.

Anything goes in there. All items skills and spells are allowed but you do not get experience for completing them. It is worth it though as there are alchemy items as rewards that cannot be obtained through other means.

Put another way each rank is as follows:

Rank G

Round 1

Bout 1

Bout 2

Bout 3

Round 2

Bout 1

Bout 2

Bout 3

Round 3

Bout 1

Bout 2

Bout 3

Completing all the way up to S rank will allow you to challenge the 'Fahnd Kargh' or 'Circle King' to a match. He will be a super-boss whose defeat will unlock a legendary skill for each of your characters which is not possible to get otherwise.

I'm also working on something else but I'm not sure if it will work yet so I won't bother announcing it at this time.

[nemarious]

Sorry for the long silence guys and gals.

I've been completely swamped with work from University over the past 6 weeks or so. As such I will admit that I haven't been doing anything as far as Primus is concerned but after next Wednesday I'll have three weeks over Christmas to work on it.

After that I have an exam on the 11th and will then be starting some new modules the week after but those first few weeks are usually pretty quiet as well.

The point is I should have around 6-8 weeks of time to work on it over Christmas and through January into early February until things start getting hectic again. During that period I hope to get all the preliminary stuff (GDD, database, script editing etc) out of the way so that it's just about content creation then which should mean I can flood you guys with updates about areas that never made it in before my PC died.

I have been doing something, but that's mostly superficial. I don't want to post details of it just yet because I'm not happy with it yet but I'll try to get something up sometime next week.

Until then enjoy yourselves.

[Renzourin]

idk if your still looking for beta players but sign me up this seriously looks interesting

[nemarious]

I'm always looking for beta players.

One of the things about game development is that proper testing should take just as much time to complete as the rest of the whole development time. Obviously the more people I have the less that should be required. Plus if it was just me I'd probably miss stuff because my brain won't be telling me to check it. For example, hidden items and not checking you cannot get multiples while playing.

I'm away visiting my dad before Christmas but I'll add you to the list when I get back.

[lemmingllama]

Well, I can beta test too if you want. The more the merrier!

[nemarious]

Cool, I'll add you to the list.

I think I'll have to keep numbers manageable. I guess 10 people would probably be enough so if I do ever get to that amount I'll have to turn people down. At the moment though I have three applicants which is nice.

Stupid Christmas cold is pissing me right off though.

[nemarious]

I've add both of you (Renzourin & Lemmingllama) to the beta tester list.

Would just like to clarify what you get for beta testing:

• Credited in text file provided with the game DL.
  
• Credited in end of game credits under both Testing and Special Thanks sections.
  
• Named NPC in game.'
  
• Advance access to the game. Play it before anyone else. Admittedly in a slightly buggy state but still...
  

'If you've played Pokemon Black/White you'll know there is a Game Freak building in Castelia city where you can talk to people who worked on the game. This will be like that, with a little village somewhere having all the people that helped make the game come to life in it.

So if you want to get early access and a named NPC just for playing the game then sign up today!

[nemarious]

I have been doing something, but that's mostly superficial. I don't want to post details of it just yet because I'm not happy with it yet but I'll try to get something up sometime next week.

I will be putting the stuff regarding the above up on Friday. It's nothing that exciting. Basically I've redesigned the four main characters because, if you remember, they were all a bit colour coordinated in that Takero was completely green just because he had green hair etc. I have made the designs somewhat more authentic. They're only minor changes but I think they're noteworthy as you'll be seeing these people a lot.

I have also been expanding the facesets for some of the characters from 4-6. Additions are a confused/shocked expression and a second talking face for any long conversations so it doesn't look too static.

I'm still polishing a little bit but I should have them up Friday some time.

[nemarious]

Alright. I'll going to be uploading the new design as I do them. I've done the first one (Alsyha - alphabetical order).

I'm going to put each one in a separate spoiler tag so this post doesn't become too big. In each one there'll be the new design featuring the full faceset and the standing sprites. I'm going to explain the differences and why I've changed what I've changed.

Feel free to let me know what you think in a reply.

Alysha

Alysha hasn't really changed all that much.

• Her hair is now straight rather than curly and is a darker blond than it was before.
  
• You can no longer see any armour in her faces, it's changed to show the cloak she is wearing.
  
• One of the things I did change was to go from a cloak with laurels to the standard one. I changed this because it looked a bit too posh. The only people in the RTP with those cloaks are royalty or dignitaries.
  
• Her clothing is now black and gold rather than straight red. With her being an offensive mage this will give players an idea of what she is without having to know because anyone that's played some Final Fantasy will know the class of black mage.
  
• Her eyes are now brown rather than blue.
  

Dakin

Dakin has changed more than all of the other characters.

• His hair has completely changed. Before he had white hair no he has a brownish red colour, slightly darker than the colour of Koby's character in game. He now has a ponytail as well, this refers to the Greek myth of King Nisus, whose hair gave him great power. Dakin comes from a powerful warrior race who only cut their hair when they lose a fight.
  
• His clothes have also changed as well. He used to have an open jacket. He is now more armoured to reflect his melee strength. He now wears shin guards and shoulder armour. The shoulder armour is more functional, it gives somewhere for him to rest his 2H weapons when he isn't fighting.
  
• He no longer has facial hair.
  
• He no longer has Elfen ears, they are human.
  

Leni

Leni has changed mainly for secret reasons...

• Leni's hair has changed colour from black to white for secret reasons.
  
• His eyes have changed from dark brown to blue.
  
• His eyebrows are now thinner.
  

Takero

Takero has changed a little. The changes reflect his class in game mostly.

• Takero's hair has become more sweeping. It is a different green as well.
  
• His eyes are now a really light blue instead of green.
  
• He no longer wears armour. As such his faces show his cloak rather than any armour.
  

Alright, that's all the redesigned characters. As only Leni had ever been seen in game I doubt it will have made much difference to you guys but I thought I'd share it with you anyway.

Koby, Square and Enix also have a slightly expanded faceset but as they're not main characters there's no point showing them. Plus it's only them with their mouth open so nothing noteworthy.

Let me know what you think of the new looks in a reply if you feel like it. I'll carry on with the GDD over the next few days but will obviously be taking some time off over Christmas to get drunk. Have a merry few days everybody .

[nemarious]

Well, I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas. I was, as usual, pretty cynical about the whole thing and, again as usual, my parents surprised me once more by buying me a Kindle which I had been planning to get after Christmas! Additionally my brother bought me DQM Joker 2 which is fantastic news, just look to the left << to see what my fave game is and you'll see why. I didn't even know it was out over here! Then I got so much chocolate and booze it will last me until next Christmas most likely.

Back onto game news. I'm aiming to get the Malmascan part (part two of five) done in the GDD in the next three days or week if something new comes up. I was working on something script related yesterday but I don't want to tell you about that because it may become a surprise feature! If I get the Malmascan part done I'll drop you guys a little note with the highlights of that part. Until then enjoy what's left of this most festive of times.

[lemmingllama]

Awesome stuff, glad that you enjoyed your christmas. Also, I love Leni's look. Keep up the good work and we are all cheering you on. Merry Christmas!

[nemarious]

Awesome stuff, glad that you enjoyed your christmas. Also, I love Leni's look. Keep up the good work and we are all cheering you on. Merry Christmas!

I had reservations about Leni's to be honest. I didn't want people to think he was too Sephiroph-y which isn't really what I was going for but he does look a bit like it now...

[nemarious]

Additionally, while I think about it, I thought of another little thing I've not seen an RPG Maker game do before (some may well do, I haven't played that many...).

All monsters will have an attribute (fire, water, earth etc) but each will also have a type (undead, beast, fish etc) so I can not only make weapons/armour/accessories/potions/states that do additional fire damage I can also make ones that do additional damage to undead monsters. This has many benefits. For example, one of Takero's (priest) main spells are the light-based-damage Lux tree. These will not only do additional damage to their antithesis, dark monsters, but also additional damage to undead monsters.

This is just one example. I could do rings that make you resistant to a certain type of creature or Sword of Beast Slaying that does 10% more damage to beast type enemies.

It's just one thing I've noticed yesterday that a lot of modern RPGs do but most RPG Maker games don't.

EDIT: Just realised I could have done this as an addendum to the previous post but oh well. Also the next post will be the 100th one of the thread. Wonder who'll post it...

[nemarious]

I want to ask you guys a question. I've started thinking about game balancing when I was looking at customizing the default damage algorithm. I decided to leave that as it is and work with it but my question boils down to this:

When you're playing a game do you like big or small numbers?

Now, just to clarify things, by that I don't mean the actual font size. I mean do you like the more common RPG system of starting with a small amount of hitpoints and parameters and working up slowly or, like me, do you prefer having loads of everything and dealing loads of damage at the beginning.

When I bought Eternal Sonata I was surprised by the large numbers. I liked that I was hitting hundreds and had a thousand hitpoints, more than I did starting weaker, because it seemed like you were actually pretty strong.

There are pros and cons for both systems though, right?

With smaller numbers you do feel like you have gotten stronger when you return to a starting area and beat that mob that gave you trouble at the start in one turn. On the other hand with larger numbers you already feel like a hero.

How many games have we all played where you have a big, muscular hero that hits a rat for like 3 even whilst wielding his sword. It just doesn't feel right does it?

I was thinking of doing large numbers for that reason. Your party members should feel like heroes! The only problem with large numbers is it makes balancing the game harder. When you're gaining 12 attack points every level having it so that slime doesn't die in one hit gets pretty hard, especially with the default algorithm.

Because of this I figured I'd ask you guys what you think. I know I'm going to be having large amounts of exp and gold each fight. Who doesn't want to get 3,452 exp and 1,000G for beating a group of hawks, eh?

Let me know which you would prefer and I'll do my best to appease the majority.