Blazing Renaissance ~ Planning

Oh, @Arch, yes it is, it is a time of drastic rejuvenation and exploration.

[quote=“Arch, post:34, topic:168”]Enjoying how things are shaping up with this so far - we were chatting about this, and honestly this is a great community project. Ye olde FEU spawned the artist-now-known as The Last Promise (formerly Tactics Universe), Serenes Forest had its Serenes Emblem, and FEU2 can have Project Fire Shell. Instead of some sub-par self-insert game, we’re building a community project for use by the community.
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Let’s take this one step farther.

Okay so the thing is this. As you said, I don’t want a sub-par self-insert hack. But I think, pretty unarguably, we have some of the best and most experienced hackers around here. So instead of some forum-hack we’re going to do a never-before-seen quality organized community hack. Organization, I feel is the key. Not everyone is good at everything, but then, I feel that peer-reviewing is important. So let me give my rant on how I think this should be organized and then tell me if you don’t think our little community would be up to it, ever.

The idea is this – I want to stress organization and dependancies. We want the people who are good at certain things doing THOSE THINGS specifically. So here I feel like this: What mechanics we implement are dependent on how the game plays which is dependent on story(but story should keep heed to keep interesting ideas). Graphics floats around a bit. So my proposition is this, in a bulleted list:

  • After BLAZING SHELL is finished, we use that as a base and the first hack we release based on it will be ours
  • We will have the categories of:
  • Writing (@Siuloir, @Arch and his friend, optionally/as needed: @SentryDown, @Myke) (Should be mostly taken care of?)
  • Eventing (@Arch, @Primefusion, @dancer_A, ~Ash3wl) (Arch counts as the force of two eventors in the personage of one.)
  • Mapping (@Primefusion, @AuraWolf, @dancer_A)
  • Nightmare-ing/Balancing (@Primefusion(working between the writers and eventers counts as balancing, right?), @SentryDown, @dancer_A, ~Ash3wl) (Shouldn’t be an issue)
  • ASM Hacking (Crazycolorz5)(Rofl I can only mention 10 users in a post)
  • Spriting/Portraiting/Animating (@L95, @Overlordpichu)(Hacking in ~Jubby)
  • Composing (@Siuloir, @Agro) (Should be good?)
  • Each category needs 2-3 people
  • Each person should limit their work to WHAT THEY DO BEST. They should refrain from being in more than 2 categories.
  • By the above two restrictions, we need 6 people minimum to start the project
  • The working title shall be Blazing Renaissance(subject to change)
  • The working length will be(ultimately decided by the writers, but I think) 5-6 chapters(would be short enough to keep everyones’ interest)

Please reply with whether you’d be interested in any of the categories for this project. This is still just the planning stage, so there’ll still be some things before finalization, so please reply if you are interested to any degree by this. Please include what categories you think you’d be suited for along with your reply. I think this community can really pull off something amazing.

If you want to be included, you must reply.

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i think this would be pretty fun. i’ve already got ideas for a hack i wanna make with the fireshell base but a community hack that is high quality using fireshell would be a good way to advertise the base i guess.

What part(s) of hacking would you say you’re best at?

mostly graphics related, though i guess im not terrible at the events (not the best but good enough to make a functional chapter)

This is just a thought, but I actually already had a project in mind as a “sample for Fire Shell” type thing. I’m going to rebuild this after Project Fire Shell - I guess the release name will be Blazing Shell? Dope. - is finished.

But also I’ve got some concepts for small hacks (approx 10-chapters in length) that I’ve been kicking around for a while now. My plate is pretty full with my owned planned projects, but I’d be happy to take a directoral/co-directoral role. We’ve actually got a concept for an expansion of @Siuloir’s Inheritance of Ash hack’s universe, which would be cool to communally develop since I fully anticipate IoA will be one of the big hacks that we’ll be seeing on FEU (alongside the aforementioned FE1 and @dancer_A’s Fratured Realms).

And also multi-categorization isn’t supported :. This software is still in development and there’s an budding modding scene, but nothing has popped up in this realm. If somebody wanted to take a crack at it (I think this is written in ruby), I’d be happy to have the functionality. Not much of a programmer, sadly. I’m a community organizer humanities guy at heart. With a cool hobby that’s about to get way cooler.

D’aww, I was hoping you would event for us, to be honest. Well, an honorary position is saved for you, in any case.

I’ve been meaning to learn ruby, but I haven’t yet. I’ll get back to you if/when I do. Or maybe ask some of the other coders around here?
Edit: Also themes. We need themes. White-on-back is never a good idea; hurts the eyes after a while.

“Can I use my own skin or theme?
Absolutely. We ship with a reasonably good looking default theme that you are free to use, but Discourse is designed to be fully skinnable and themable through CSS so it can match your existing site design. You can specify override CSS from within the admin pages, inject arbitrary HTML in the top, bottom, and header of each page, and so forth.”
@Arch, time to learn CSS :P. Jk. I’ll read this more when I have more time, but I’m calling it a day. Really not a web design person myself, but seeing how this is a modding community, I’m sure someone here is.
But let’s not get off topic.

I’d be happy to explore possibilities for developing new types of chapter goals and implementing them, but I know @Ash3wl loves to event so we could split the work between us if he’s willing.

Actually server-side is Ruby, and I think the main application is javascript? They talk about this stuff here: http://www.discourse.org/faq/

Oh this seems like it will an interesting project! While I don’t have confidence in my skill to help, I’ll be here rooting for you guys!

EDIT: Actually, if writers are needed, feel free to contact me.

Or hell I could just event for this. Yeah. Since Ash is helping me with FE1 and the mapping for that is going along swimmingly, I’m not as worried about making progress on that front. Imagine doing a 5-6 chapter game (with maybe a gaiden or something) with only new chapter goals not utilized in the basic game engine. I’d be so down.

yes this would be great. i’m a decent mapper i could make some of the maps.

One condition: playable Centaur.

expect to be pretty busy over the rest of the year with 7x and freelance stuff but feel free to contact me if no other writers volunteer

I’d be down to help out with eventing and/or ASM.

I can provide mugs When I feel like it

(I can technically battle-sprite, but I’d take far, far too long to actually finish it, so don’t ask unless it’s something I can cheat on with simple animation ex magic user who does fancy hand motions)

I guess this is going to force me to put some semblance of order to my setting notes, re: Inheritance of Ash.

But I’ll happily do some writing and music.

there;s aboslutely nothing i can do to help this hack sorry find another person

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My strong points are maps and events. I also have an interest in writing though I suspect there’s plenty of other more talented folks out there. Maybe proof reading/editing?

That might actually work out well. Basically, I want the writers to have as much freedom to tell what they want, so I want the setting(general layout maps) and goals(win conditions) basically determined by them. That said, they should keep an eye on making the goals interesting/fun, as @Arch wants to event. So we can use someone who can rewrite and work with the writers to either accomplish the same thing with a different goal or rewrite if necessary.

Speaking of, @Arch, when you think creative win conditions, think way outside the box. Like, outside the realm of events. I can make as many asm conditions as you want. The possibilities are endless.

After a brainstorming session with @Siuloir, we got some details hammered out for a potential plot concept that I’d been discussing with my friend The Blind Archer.

  • The tl;dr version of the background is that a recently deceased conqueror - who united most of the continent of Valsadia - left behind no heir, and willed his kingdom “to the strongest,” triggering a stiff competition between territories and alliances vying for the throne. Thus far, it’s mostly been skirmishes and self-promotion while viable candidates have worked to forge alliances and prepare for the coming war.
  • This plot takes place in the southern province of Grevana, where the Marquess (?) was recently assassinated, triggering an inheritance feud between his two children: the elder Prince Theseus and his sister, Lady Aderyn.
  • Well-settled coastal province with a strong military presence, to the north lay a deep forest which is home to native tribes of Centaurs, who have resisted human society and religion as the original settlers of this territory.
  • Also features a remarkably high nonreligious population, of which Prince Theseus is a member. It is still, of course, a majority religious population which fuels resistance to the prince’s superior claim.
  • I was thinking of either splitting the chapters between the two characters, or doing an Eliwood/Hector mode type of thing that changes the perspective completely.
  • Theseus primarily draws support from that solid block of nonbelievers who want to see one of their own in charge of the territory, the Centaur tribes who find his approach (freedom of religious practice/non-practice) the best bet for peace between the two races, and soldiers loyal to his claim as the eldest heir. A personal rift between the two camps leaves Aderyn to be seen only a usurper, rather than a sibling.
  • Aderyn gets her support from the motivated members of the religious majority who feel threatened by the idea of being ruled by an atheist. Like her father, highly spiritual and noblehearted. Popular sentiment is on her side, as Theseus often in the past has appeared as shrewd yet inept. Several other factions vying for the imperial throne see her as a continuation of the isolationist political views of the father, which would keep Grevana out of direct contention in the coming war. They see an opportunity to win an ally in supporting Aderyn, whereas Theseus is more of a wildcard.

And I’ve been thinking of some chapter goals to use:

  • FE4-style multi-seize chapter (already doable in-engine).
  • Escape mission (it’s gotta finally be done).
  • Defend villages (AFEV game overs if village is destroyed).

Those are the three I’ve got, and honestly it’d be great to communally brainstorm this. If we did a Eli/Hector mode situation (we’d have to get it to load on New Game the Eli/Hector mode select that appears after Lyn’s tale) it’d probably be about 5 chapters each, with a final chapter that harks back to the Sacred Contention hack (if y’all remember/have seen that).

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If I can figure out how the crap the game stores the xyposition->unit map(seems to be adding ghost columns and rows that aren’t there O.o?) an escape mission should be easy. … hopefully.

Also, arrive conditions can be done through events only, but may still be worth trying.
Or how about this – arrive all/escape all condition – you get units off the map by having them arrive at a castle and you “win”/proceed to the next chapter when all your units are off the map(and at least your main character arrived/escaped, obviously)

Edit: How about there are like, 3 enemy tribes(though they’re working together), like an archer tribe, mage tribe, etc etc. And you win when you defeat all of any two of them(and recruit someone based on the one you didn’t defeat)