Eisenstern : The RPG project

by Aardappel_ on 05/10/2006 01:20, 317 messages, last message: 12/12/2010 14:57, 205222 views, last view: 12/09/2021 06:26, closed on 12/12/2010 15:10

As you all know, we have been silently prototyping the RPG project for a while now, mainly in the form of Levels and design.

Today marks the day of the more official start of the project, with a name, a domain, and something hinting at a game design.

Check out the website: http://eisenstern.com/

Particularly note the design notes linked from that page. If you want to have your say about the direction this RPG is going, or feel that certain features "won't work well", then now is a good time to discuss that, in this thread :)

Just because we have a website doesn't mean that we should start announcing this project everywhere, unlike most people, I don't like advertising thing that I am going to do, I prefer showing what I have done :) But it is good to have a home for the project, because we'll shift a lot of our focus towards it as the FPS is getting more mature.

I will be doing some of the core gamecode for this project soon, so people can start to play around with it.

   Board Index   

#31: Re: ..

by CC_machine4 on 05/11/2006 21:35, refers to #29

as YOU play the game, YOU gain experience playing... and as you have full control of the character, your skill will improve as you go on.

just a thought...

reply to this message

#32: Re: ..

by Pxtl on 05/11/2006 23:20, refers to #31

That means that a hardcore l33t player can rush the Final Citidel and kill Skeletor 5 seconds into the game. "Gameplay-experience" doesn't sounds good until it lets you skip 90% of the game.

reply to this message

#33: Re: ..

by kurtis84 on 05/12/2006 00:43, refers to #29

"Erm... a rpg with not experience points is not a real rpg :/"

no...thats a more fun rpg. I would rather focus on exploration, and gathering of tools, spells, weapons, etc, than worry about getting a points system to the right count at the right times.

reply to this message

#34: Re.

by cronodevir on 05/12/2006 01:06

..

reply to this message

#35: ..

by cronodevir on 05/12/2006 01:06

Firstly, sorry for the double post, stupid keyboard.

secondly, is there a need for quest writers? if so, id love to help out.

reply to this message

#36: Re: ..

by Aardappel_ on 05/12/2006 06:12, refers to #26

in an rpg, the range of stats between the easiest monster and the strongest one is MUCH bigger than in an fps. Imagine when you start, the easiest monsters to be like hellpigs, and the strongest to be like a baaul but with 10x more health, 5x the firerate, and the 3x the damage. Also you will just have a dagger initially, things like bullets will be rare and expensive. So no point going even close to those montsters until you yourself have 10x health, etc.

reply to this message

#37: Re: ..

by Aardappel_ on 05/12/2006 06:16, refers to #28

I would like to set an art direction, but the reality of the world is that art will always be the bottleneck of a project like this, i.e. I am dependent on what I can get, rather than what I want. So setting a very specific art direction won't work because the majority of things won't fit.

That's why I am setting a very loose art direction, which is in essence "medieval", but with a touch of fantasy or steampunk in there if need be. Yes that is a horribly boring/unoriginal theme, but also the most feasible, flexible. I would like us to also not care too much about realism, but more about fun/cool/beautiful.

reply to this message

#38: Re: ..

by Aardappel_ on 05/12/2006 06:24, refers to #32

You're all not getting it. It may be easier to just say YES THE GAME HAS EXPERIENCE, except it is represented by items, not your character. Its the same in the end but... better.

Also FPS skillz matter, but not a great deal. The RPG will play a lot slower, and you will have a lot of time to aim or run away. Unless you are completely hopeless with the FPS controls, 80% or so of a battle outcome will be determined by your stats, not by aim etc.

reply to this message

#39: Re: ..

by Passa on 05/12/2006 07:43, refers to #38

So your ability to win really depends on your weaponry and armour etc? So I am guessing at the start you will have a fist or something, and work up to a chaingun etc. ?

reply to this message

#40: ..

by cronodevir on 05/12/2006 13:40

why not have a level system similar to morrowind? Heh. you have a list of skills, controlling everything from combat to stats etc, and these go up with use. for instance, the more damage you take, the more your Endurance skill would build, and the higher this skill is, the more overall health/resistance to phsyical you have.

The player won't have a 'level' the status page could consist of simply a list of skills with thier level, some skills could even not have a maximum, if you really want the players to achive an 'uber' status.

This way, you won't even need stats or levels, just skills, life, mana, and maby stamina. The damage you do and the Ac could be found by examineing the items you use.

reply to this message

#41: mutiplayer and maps?

by NIm on 05/12/2006 18:00

WIll there be multiplayering? It would seem to me that it might be a good idea to have a multiplayer version, so the players could go through and win as a bunch. or they could start in different parts of the world and compete.

WIll there be more than one campaign? will there be map submissions, just like sauer?

reply to this message

#42: ..

by makkE on 05/12/2006 18:03

Multiplayer: NO
Simply because the efforts are just too much for a bunch of _few_ spare time devs.
SP is simply a more realistic goal.

Well as far as I see it, yes, everyone can make his own map (=campaign) and if itīs good probably it will get official (correct me if Iīm wrong aard, but thatīs the idea, innit?)

reply to this message

#43: Re: ..

by Aardappel_ on 05/12/2006 23:50, refers to #42

Yeah we can have multiple campaigns. For RPGs, bigger worlds tend to be better though, so a lot of work will focus on a main campaign. Sofar we have two big RPG maps, and my evil plan may be to want to combine them into an even larger world, assuming Kurt & Nieb would like that.

reply to this message

#44: Re: ..

by Passa on 05/13/2006 00:51, refers to #42

'Simply because the efforts are just too much for a bunch of _few_ spare time devs.'
Why don't you guys ask for donations to help?

reply to this message

#45: Re: ..

by kurtis84 on 05/13/2006 03:44, refers to #43

"Sofar we have two big RPG maps, and my evil plan may be to want to combine them into an even larger world"

I always thought that was the goal at some point, so yeah fine by me.

"Why don't you guys ask for donations to help?"

um...I really don't think the lack of time has anything to do with money, unless you start talking commercial, which Aard is not. If you click on the "Donate to this project" link from the SF site, you get from Aard, "All money will be spent on margeritas and chicken fajitas" So, if people want to donate they can, but as you can see, Aards not really concerned about that. Keep in mind who we are talking about people...go really look at what he's done. Despite him being serious about developing them, Cube and Sauerbraten are like toys to him ( I assume this ). A simple hobby for his "spare time".

P.S. To date, nobody has donated to Sauerbraten....though it appears at least 2 people did donate for Cube.

reply to this message

#46: ..

by CC_machine4 on 05/13/2006 18:34

"it will be SP only." (i kno this isnt the real quote, couldnt be bothered to find it..)

coop SP in eisenstern(sp?) would not only be awesome, but turn the game into a MORPG rather than just an RPG.. again just another thought.

reply to this message

#47: just FYI -- SP

by Aardappel_ on 05/13/2006 21:11

the reason we're doing SP is because the multiplayer programming effort for such an extensive list of features is gigantic.

Everything that has to be synchronized over the network makes the programming effort go x10. Now that is doable for something as simple as an FPS (but even there its hard work), but for an RPG its immense.

By making it SP we can keep all data local, and many features we will be able to implement relatively quickly. Unlike 99% of the people on the interweb, I have some pretty solid experience with knowing how much effort certain tasks take in game development. I also know how much resources we have on average, and I know I want to have something playable not in 10 years but in months. That knowledge drives a lot of the design decisions.

Once we have a solid and fun SP RPG, we can always look if we can make it coop or even pseudo-MMORPG (hate to say the word), there's noone saying we have to stick with SP forever... but doing SP first is just the smart thing to do, unless we want to fail like everyone else.

reply to this message

#48: ..

by CC_machine4 on 05/14/2006 23:52

ok, you've convinced me there. :)

reply to this message

#49: Re: ..

by stephen on 05/15/2006 21:43, refers to #29

RPGs without XP...

How about any MMO end game?

This is one of the best parts IMO of, for instance, World of Warcraft. Once you hit the level cap the game entirely changes. It becomes about finding gear to improve your char insted of the BS level grind. I really dislike the linear XP system.

Most of the end game content in WOW is far too hard for a group of noob 60s to just walk into. One must farm easier instances to find gear to let you defeat the harder instances.

I think this concept could be adapted wonderfully for a SPRPG. I think it fits better with a non-linear "plot" style of play.

reply to this message

#50: Re: ..

by Aardappel_ on 05/15/2006 21:50, refers to #49

well, that is sortof what we already plan, but more extreme. Have a look at the design doc on the web page.

reply to this message

   Board Index