WIP Azure Dreams

[perkeyone]

I've been working on this map for quite some time now...
I've had a lot of setbacks and had to restart completely once
but i feel like this version will be better.

Azure Dreams is an old playstation RPG from 1998, made by Konami.
I used to play it a lot. It was really addictive despite steep learning curve and sub par graphics
I decided to remake the game on WC3 so that I could have the multiplayer experience I craved and take the creative liberties I so badly wanted to take.

Story

Deep in the burning sands of the desert, a distant town.
Looming over the town, the Monster Tower.
Within this gigantic, ancient Tower,
are hoards of monsters swarms and breeds.
Despite the long hazardous desert journey, the town is a mecca.
Treasure hunters...
they come seeking the golden hoards hidden in the tower.
But even more,
they are lured by the monster eggs, a prize found nowhere else.
When a monster is raised from the egg, it can be tamed
Eggs and tame monsters fetch high prices in gold.
And rare breeds of monster can make a vast fortune for the hunter.
The town has grown rich from buying and selling monsters.
So the town is called... Monsbaiya.

In Monsbaiya there lives a certain youth.
His father understood the hearts of the monsters,
and gained renown as the greatest monster tamer of all.
Sadly, he died early,
leaving their mother to bring up the youth and his sister alone.
The small family struggled to survive.
"To hunt for eggs and make my fortune..."
The youth had inherited skills as monster tamer form his father.
He longed with all his heart to hunt for eggs.
But the entrance to the tower is strictly forbidden to those not yet fifteen.
The mighty tower is a nest for countless monsters.
A maze to confuse the unwary, its dark depths are filled with danger.
Even old, experienced egg hunters venture but a short way into its vast interior
The law against entering is strictly enforced,
so year after year the youth can only dream impatiently of his goal.
Slumbering in the depths of the great ruin
lie the eggs of monsters no man has ever seen
He yearns to brave the dangers of the tower, to seize these priceless eggs.
Today is the day...
The youth is fifteen and free to enter the tower...

Load screen synopsis

For years the Demon Tower has beckoned to you and, today, on your fifteenth birthday, you have come of age. Do you follow in your father's footsteps and enter the Tower or live a peaceful life in the town of Monsbaiya ~ it's time to choose.

-Take the role of an apprentice monster tamer.
-Search the magical tower for demon eggs to collect and grow.
-Tame the monsters you raise and sell them for profit or use them in your search for even more powerful demons.
-Spend your profits to build up the town of Monsbaiya ~ attracting new settlers and maybe a love interest or two.
-Search for the true ending ~ does it lie in the summit of the Tower or in a prosperous, well-planned town?

Features

Gameplay
-carry up to 20 items
-1 main quest -reach the summit of the tower
-4 sub quests

Single player features
-finance the construction of buildings in town including a theater, hospital, racing track, casino, bowling alley, gym, and library
-develop love interests with up to 7 npcs

Multiplayer features
-up to 12 players
-pvp dueling
-cooperative pve
-vote kick system
-save/load system
{due to the massive amount of familiars, i think i may have to make it an option to save familiars individually}
{i will also have a feature to "save all" but it will likely yeild a very very long code}
-difficulty scaling with groups of players

Town
-upgradable bank item storage of up to 40 items
-upgradable familiar storage "hut" of up to 80 familiars
-mini-games
{gambling, races, bowling, whack a mole, rhythm}
-specialty shops
{there will be a shop for almost every item but stock will initially be 0 and it will not replenish unless you sell an item to the shop}
{it wont matter which shop you sell the item to, it will be stocked in the appropriate shop automatically}

Tower
-40 floor tower-dungeon
{difficulty scales exponentially}
{not only do higher floors have higher level monsters but the monsters also have better stat growth}
-randomly generated rouge-like dungeons
{each floor of the tower will have a random number of rooms capped at 8 or 9 that are all inter connected via hallways}
{an elevator and random items will be placed in random locations in the rooms}
-huge variety of items
{equippable items include: swords, wands, and shields.}
{consumables include: herbs, seeds, fruit, scrolls, bells, loupes, glasses, crystals, sand (i can describe what these different types of items do at a later time)}
{charged items include: orbs, *swords, *shields (*shields and swords can be tempered, the charge is used to indicate the level of tempering)}
-unidentified items
{equipment may be cursed or blessed, eggs contain unknown monsters, orbs contain an unknown number of charges}

Monsters
-40 tamable monsters types
{if you add in unlockables and transformations 57}
-ai controlled familiars
{familiars have several ai levels: 1 stay, 2 follow, 3 use back up magic, 4 attack directly, 5 be aggressive}
-fuse familiars together to make them more powerful
{one familiar will absorb the other, certain traits from the absorbed monster can be inherited, other times new spells may become available}

Combat
-completely revamped hero attributes
{stats are now called vitality(hitpoints), endurance(armor), and strength(damage)
-stat based damage
{damage is calculated by subtraction half of the defender's endurance from the attacker's strength. there is also a chance to miss and crit}
-completely revamped armor and attack types
{one attack type and armor type are devoted to each element group, and one is for non-elemental.}
-3 unique elemental classes
{each element has a significant advantage over the other. fire has advantage over air, air has advantage over water, water has advantage over fire}
-30 custom spells (no premade)
{those spells can be divided evenly into 2 groups. active and auto-cast and evenly into the 3 elements}

Unlockables
-quest related hidden monster types
-quest related equipment
-familiar transformations

Plans & diagrams & icons (screen shots coming soon)

Spoiler

this is a diagram of the town.
white boxes are labled
colored boxes are player houses
i cant take a picture of the terrain yet because i havent decided what tiles to use,
i may end up importing some

this is a diagram of what the minimap might look like,
there are 12 large gray boxes which will serve as instances of the tower,
there is also a large circle which will be a visual representation of the tower,
there is a copy of each building from the town inside the tower visual, these will be the interiors of buildings in the town

these are spell and interface icons

Updates

Spoiler

march 21
-completely redid terrain
  {there are no longer 40 individual floors, there are now 12 instances.}
  {two player may enter the same instance if they specifically wish to do so}
  {the two or more players must be entering the same floor within 20 seconds of each other}
  {one player must invite the other to their group and the other must accept}
  {difficulty will scale according to the number of players entering a floor}
-implemented system to allow players to enter their houses and monster huts
  {the current version does not allow other players to enter each others houses}
  {a future version may allow this but disallow the guest from attacking and picking up items}
  {i will probably use the same invite system as i will with instances}

march 22
-added 57 monster book entries
  {each entry lists the number, name, element, and habitat and includes a description of the monster}
  {each monster book page is an optional quest that is initially undiscovered}
  {after defeating one monster of a particular type, the monster book entry will be filled (discovered)}

march 23
 -developed a simplified version of the original azure dream's stat growth
  {i made a table of all the stat growth rates from the original game and conglomerated similar rates into groups}
  {each group was assigned a rate which was approximately the mean of all the rates in the group}
  {the rates of each group were then adjusted to scale linearly}

march 24
 -diddly shit
  {mostly redoing some icons (there was nothing wrong with them, i am just picky)}
  {i also picked out 90% of the models i intend to use}
  {i also did a tiny update to the information listed in the "features" section}

SEPTEMBER 29 LOL
 -implemented my system for upgrading the monster huts (familiar storage)
  {there are 8 sizes of monster huts, 1 default and 7 upgrades}
  {the standard monster hut has room for 4 familiars}
  {expanded huts have room for ((2+L)^2-L%2) familiars where L is the number of expands}

Unresolved Issues

-my biggest obstacle at this time is deciding how to implement the random dungeon generation. I did some research and found an algorithm that was used in a rogue-like rpg that i might be able to adapt to suit my needs. Its current form leaves too many dead ends, which i have already figured out a way to remove. But now i have to turn the pseudo code into gui =[.
-another pretty big issue is that i havent been able to find models that i am happy with. ill go into more detail about the model issue later though, and maybe someone can lend a hand.
-i was hoping that i could use item charges to display the quality of a weapon or shield, but in my map i planned to have certain traps and curses that would lower the quality, possibly into the negative numbers, but the way wc3 handles items with negative charges is to treat them like 0 charged items. and there is no way to set the charges to a negative with triggers. it can only be done in the object editor.

Feedback

-is much apreciated
-tell me if you ever played either the PS1 or GBC version
-suggest a feature
-help solve issues
-constructive criticism (once i make a map available)
-wish me luck haha

 

[BlackRose]

I like the name.
Is it RPG?

-40 floor tower-dungeon

Ok, I don't want to play

 

[perkeyone]

yeah it is a neat name, i wasnt the one who made it up though.

yep its an RPG i added that in the first paragraph now

haha, dont quit already =P, there will be a save load system for multiplayer

 

[perkeyone]

bump-updates

march 22
 -added 57 monster book entries
  {each entry lists the number, name, element, and habitat and includes a description of the monster}
  {each monster book page is an optional quest that is initially undiscovered}
  {after defeating one monster of a particular type, the monster book entry will be filled (discovered)}

 

[Galdiuz]

Sounds like fun, I really wanna play this when it's done! (And maybe as a beta tester too?) :thup:

 

[perkeyone]

thanks
ive still got a long way to go before a beta
but beta testing would definitely be useful
ill try to whip out a version with the bare minimum
(a small set of monsters/items/spells/etc)
and attach it to the first post
then i can get some real feedback
(i bet people will hate my terrain lol)

 

[CaptDeath]

i will play it when i comes out XD

 

[perkeyone]

great, i hope its actually worth playing =P

i added two diagrams for a projected finished product

i am currently hashing out a scaling issue
(there never seems to be enough space!)

then i will crunch out an alpha version just as a teaser
i think it will probably take 1 or 2 weeks
depending on crap and stuff

 

[perkeyone]

tiny bump
added 2 pics (not screenshots)
added a little more info

 

[CaptDeath]

aren't those more like proposed layouts and shouldn't they be named so to indicated what they are instead of screen shots which would be assumed to be from game play

 

[perkeyone]

grr yes they are just layout but i figured that the text above them would clarify that. ill change the title of the spoiler too for now though i guess.

 

[crazymoronx]

Now this is a map I can really get behind--and I don't mean sexually.

Azure Dreams was one of my favorite PSX RPGs, so I'm expecting big things from this here map.

Keep up the good work. :thup:

 

[perkeyone]

6 month old bump,

my old comp died.
i managed to salvage the hd and pulled the map off it.
i have a new laptop and ive been making progress on the map as of today.
i will be updating this thread to reflect recent changes soon.

 

[Bloodcount]

It is good to see someone not give up after a set back like this.

 

[Joccaren]

I'll Beta test and help with a of the smaller things. (Score Boards, making units +abilities, anything simple that is not terraining)

 

[13lade619]

played this on the gbc..

 

[perkeyone]

thanks bloodcount
i would really like to see this thing through all the way
my main problem is im too picky about dumb stuff and it slows me down.

thanks for the offer joccaren i think ive still got some ways to go before a beta
man this is taking so long =[

i never played the gbc version, 13lade619, but i definately will be stealing some ideas from it

in other news i have selected about 90% of the icons i intend to use for spells and items. im going to do some minor edits to the boarders and make a few color changes, and then that part will be taken care of.

next i will import my freshly baked icons and start making items and dummy items in the object editor.

 

[perkeyone]

This is gui from my map...

• hut expansion
  • Events
    • Unit - A unit Finishes research
  • Conditions
    • (Researched tech-type) Equal to Hut
  • Actions
    • Set leak_point = (Center of hut_exit[(Player number of (Owner of (Researching unit)))])
    • For each (Integer A) from 1 to (((Current research level of Hut for (Owner of (Researching unit))) / 2) + 1), do (Actions)
      • Loop - Actions
        • For each (Integer B) from 0 to 3, do (Actions)
          • Loop - Actions
            • Set leak_point_copy = (leak_point offset by ((192.00 x (((Real(((((Current research level of Hut for (Owner of (Researching unit))) / 2) + 1) x (((Integer B) + 1) mod 2)))) x (Power(-1.00, (Real((((Integer B) + 1) / 2)))))) - ((Real(((((((Current research level of Hut for (Owner of (Researching unit))) / 2) + 1) - ((Current research level of Hut for (Owner of (Researching unit))) mod 2)) - (2 x ((Integer A) - 1))) x ((Integer B) mod 2)))) x (Power(-1.00, (Real(((Integer B) / 2)))))))), (192.00 x (((Real(((((((Current research level of Hut for (Owner of (Researching unit))) / 2) + 1) - ((Current research level of Hut for (Owner of (Researching unit))) mod 2)) - (2 x ((Integer A) - 1))) x (((Integer B) + 1) mod 2)))) x (Power(-1.00, (Real((((Integer B) + 1) / 2)))))) + ((Real(((((Current research level of Hut for (Owner of (Researching unit))) / 2) + 1) x ((Integer B) mod 2)))) x (Power(-1.00, (Real(((Integer B) / 2))))))))))
            • Unit - Create 1 Spell Circle for (Owner of (Researching unit)) at leak_point_copy facing Default building facing degrees
            • Custom script: call RemoveLocation (udg_leak_point_copy)
            • Unit - Set the custom value of (Last created unit) to (((Integer((Power((Real(((Current research level of Hut for (Owner of (Researching unit))) + 1))), 2.00)))) + ((Current research level of Hut for (Owner of (Researching unit))) mod 2)) + ((((Player number of (Owner of (Researching unit))) - 1) x 80) + ((4 x ((Integer A) - 1)) + (Integer B))))
            • Game - Display to (All players) the text: (String((Custom value of (Last created unit))))

i worked on that junk all day

and in case you were wondering it does exactly what i wanted it

 

[perkeyone]

icons =]

they are all blizzard icons,
some wc3, some wow
i had to add boarders to all the wow ones
and i did r/g/b component switches to change the colors to what i wanted
feel free to steal any of the icons
i wont even be upset if you dont give me credit
(they are blizzard icons any way, anyone could add a boarder and recolor)

 

[ertaboy356b]

Is this a Playstation game?