The in-game world consists of a group of islands, with the 3 larger ones being where most of the story takes place.

There will be a method of “fast travel” between a few of the cities/outposts. The goal is to make certain locations that are not intended to be visited more than once (like dungeons etc) remote and/or challenging to reach, while still keeping locations that players are likely to revisit often (such as quest hubs) easily accessible.

And I’m just posting this to remind you that the project’s alive.

The lockpicking skill/minigame/feature is finally done. Or well, it’s re-done; I changed it to make it work better. It now does. I like event coding¹.

I’ve probably said this before, but lockpicking will be done by pressing the keys as they appear on the screen. More or less. It will only be available with the Bard in the party, but fear not  - the Guard can also open some locks, but in a less… subtle way. This skill is called Force, for now.

I want the two skills to compliment each other, so that having both characters in the party won’t be pointless in terms of Special skills, so I will work hard on achieving this ^_^

• Lockpicking and Force are both “Special” skills, belonging to the Bard and the Guard, respectively.
• Lockpicking is based on dexterity and Force is based on strength.
• You will not be able to use Force on chests and doors you can’t open by breaking.
• Force can be used against doors without locks and doors which are bolted from the outside. And sometimes to lift heavy things.
• For standard locked doors in the game, both skills will/might be useful.

When interacting with an item (thing/door/and so on) on which one of these skills can be used, a little icon will pop up in the top right corner providing the right character(s) is in your party. It will do so even if their skill is insufficient, so if there’s no little icon and you know you have the right character(s) in your party, you will know that it’s a door which is impossible to unlock by these means (usually that means it’s plot related, requires a specific key, or is just useless xD) and you won’t have to waste your time on it.

Please note: While the coding is finished, all of this might still be subject to random changes, in case I see it fit.

¹) Event coding is what was being used in the older versions of RPG Maker (RM2K and RM3K3) before scripting was introduced to the software; that feature was introduced in RMXP. So, event coding != script.

I suppose I’m looking for something more original. Or something that makes it more original.

So I’m leaving this as an open question. Should I leave the standard sideway battle system as it is, or should I change it to something else? What makes, in your opinion, a good battle system? I’m quite open for suggestions; the only thing I know I do not want is a Tactical Battle System (TBS) because those tend to be a bit too slow paced and DC isn’t meant to be focusing on battles to the extent of being suitable for a TBS. I even considered leaving battles out altogether :3

Now, the interface is irrelevant here. It’s the system itself I need to decide on. The skeleton, if you will, and the basic layout, if relevant. Suggestions for features are welcome as well, but keep in mind that DC will not focus heavily on battles, so I do not want an overly complicated battle system. I also want it to have a bit of a SNES feeling. If you’re not sure how to describe an idea, compare it to some other game (maybe this article helps).

TL;DR: Battle system ideas welcome.

It’s fine to reply here or poke me on MSN as usual. Thanks!

Click the image to enlarge it slightly.

• Does everything make sense?
• Is anything missing?
• Is anything unnecessary?
• Is the layout organised well enough?

Please note: The portrait on the right, the menu background and Lani’s class are placeholders. Stats are not final.

The black background behind the menu will be removed; the menu will have no background, and rather simply show the current map (which will of course be “paused” while the menu is open). The picture does not give off a good impression of the size and/or shape of the game screen; it’s square (leaving an empty space above the menu) and about twice the size.

Status icons (poison and so on) are displayed under the experience bar.

Elemental Resistance Icons

These icons show the character’s elemental resistance. The light green plus indicates that Lani has a slight resistance to Fire. The little plus also comes in a bright green version, indicating that the character has a strong resistance to the element in question. If the icon shows a bright green heart, the character is so attuned to the element that attack spells of that element would heal him/her. Negative resistance will show up as little red (light or bright, with bright being the most negative one) minuses. A faded out icon indicates that the character has a standard resistance level to that element. Earth, Fire, Air and Water will not be the only elements.

Special

All characters will have a  “special” skill or ability, which will not be usable from the skill menu, but rather something that might affect the maps you’re on. For example, lockpicking is one of those. But more on that later.

See, what I haven’t decided on, is how to gain them.

Suggestions include, but are not limited to:

• Gaining skills automatically, as you level up
• Learning from tomes/books/scrolls, etc
• Skill trainers
• Some kind of a combination of the above

Comments and/or more suggestions are most welcome. ^_^

This post is to let you know that this will not happen in Dreamcatcher. What will happen is that you’ll trigger the same cutscene as before, but you will be presented with the option to skip it if you’ve already seen it before.

Isn’t that just lovely? :3

Since Dreamcatcher will be a game that focuses more on story related battles than random trash mob killings on field maps, I felt this would be a fairly important feature to implement.

Please pay no attention to the actual looks of it right now; the image is just an old doodle of said world map, used as a place holder until I draw something better. Why upload the image at all, then? Why, to explain how the map works, of course.

See the white X? That will show the player’s current location (unless you’re not supposed to know where you are).

The cyan X shows which location (if any) that you have Marked. In case you’ve played Morrowind, you’ll know what I’m on about. Mark and Recall are two of my favourite (most used, anyway) spells from Morrowind. Mark will, as the name suggests, mark a location. Recall allows you to teleport back to said marked spot. Quite nifty and convenient.

“Thanks just played the game and it’s pretty good. I don’t know if it’s just me but I have problems jumping from platform to platform.”

It played the game?! Spam bot is also a ninja hacker, apparently.