LoE Questionnaire

Here\'s a few simple questions regarding LoE (that little RPG I\'m making about all of you)...ANSWER THEM OR DIE!!! ...*cough*...

1.  About how long should the game be?  Keep in mind that longer length means more stuff must be included, which means it\'ll be a bigger file that you will have to download.  

2.  How difficult should it be?  The demo I released was rather easy (in my opinion).  Increasing the difficulty would mean stronger monsters/bosses, harder puzzles, etc.  People have mixed feelings on how hard a game should be before it is no longer fun to play...what are yours?  

3.  Outside of battle, should enemies be seen on the screen?  If so, then after you defeat them and they disappear, should they reappear after you leave the area and come back?  

4.   Do you have any ideas for some simple mini-games?  I can create almost anything, as long as it doesn\'t require too much expertise when it comes to drawing complicated graphics.  All requests will be taken into consideration.

5.  If you noticed in the demo, there\'s a part where you are forced to choose what "scenario" you want to take part in.  The question:  How many of these "Choose Your Path" choices should there be in the final game?  The replay value will skyrocket as the number increases, but at the same time, the story may become somewhat tangled up.

6.  This may seem odd, but here it goes anyway...Should I include playable characters from real video games (i.e. Snake from MGS2 and Cloud from FFVII)?  They would have absolutely no relation to the main storyline; they\'d just be there to help you out in a fight or two.  On top of that, they\'d be super-hard to find, and after a certain amount of time (or after a significant event in the plot), they would just leave.  Seeing as how LoE centers around the PS2, I don\'t think it would be too out-of-place for such a thing to be possible.

That\'s all the questions I have now.  I\'ll mold the game\'s basic features in respect to the replies I get, so I hope a lot of you take this opportunity to voice your opinion.  

P.S.:  I still need some help concerning this forum\'s history.  If any of you out there can remember some of the bigger events (in other words:  popular topics and people), and you\'d care to inform me of them (a link to the topic is all that is needed), then please reply here or PM me.  I\'ll include your name in the game\'s ending credits, and also make your character in the game better in some way.  PLEASE help me out here, because otherwise I\'d have to look through the entire forum archive myself, which would take a lot of time (I\'m on 56k), which means LoE gets delayed for a year.  Thanks!

1. At least 20 hours. This is an RPG after all.

2. Not too hard. To me the game looks like it\'s a satire, and it\'s focus should be on laughs, interpretation, and a message that you want to convey to the players. (Fanboy\'s suck... don\'t be a fanboy). Make a few pretty challenging scenarios, but keep the overall mood light.

3. Yes and no. I think it\'s good to have the oppertunity to avoid battles before you get into them, but if advancement in the game hinges on raising levels (I.E. like most RPG\'s) and not on puzzles or hunting for stat increasing items, then you need random battles to keep the player constantly improving.

4. No idea.. I\'ll leave this open for someone else.

5. However many as you want. If I was you, I\'d keep a flowchart of ideas and storylines that tell you what decision will lead the player where, and how he gets around to solving the core problems of the game. That way you can make noumerous choices that lead you down noumerous paths, but at almost always the same conclusion. (Ties up loose ends better that way)

6. No.. but maybe you could have other high ranking members in each of the forums being like supercharacters that will join the party for a short time when found.. or can be summoned for a special attack or effect in battle. They\'d be kinda like the summon spells in Final Fantasy. I could just see Oyuki (sp?) playing that role.

That\'s my 2 cents anyhow.

BTW: How about having multi-console characters like Soul Reaver, Akira, or DeathsHand who will help you out in the name of fighting ignorance as long as you don\'t do anything to piss them off or disrespect the Sega Dukedom and Barony of N.

1. 10-20 hours. It means a great amount of work for you, Ways, but I would hope it\'d last long. And you don\'t have to hurry with it - take as long time to make the game as you want.

2. Not too easy, not too hard. Think about FFVII for example - it\'s really hard on some spots, and really easy on some spots. Try to compare the difficulty to FF-games, as I think they\'re just difficult enough.

3. Well - random battles are always random battles - but this is your choice alone. I\'m happy with both solutions, as I\'m quite used to FF-style random battles.

4. Minigames? Well - some whack-a-rat style game would be nice ( in some Theme Park for example ). I mean a board with holes in it, and you\'d hold a club, and bang the rats as they come from the holes. Stupid idea, but at least I offered you something

5. I loved the scenario-change idea, and three was enough - as it means I\'ll have to play the demo trough two more times Not too many scenario-changes \'tho, as it might leave players in frustration ( if the game is large ), and some might not have nerves to play it trough again ( if it\'s too hard ). But you\'re right - it certainly adds up the replay value a LOT.

6. Well, I like the idea - include some popular RPG-characters, wich should be very well hidden, and we could have discussions here of who has found whom - great idea

1. 10-20 hours. Long enough to keep people interested but not too long.

2. Hard at some spots, easy at others.

3. Random battles are fine.

4. Hmm, mini-games. I\'ll get back to you on that one.]

5. The scenario part does add more replay value but it can get annoying as well cause people want to find out what happened, they don\'t always want to play it through again.

6. Yeah, having real video game characters make a cameo appearance would be cool.

About the major events\\threads and stuff, the only thing I can think of right now is the huge countdown to the US PS2 launch thread which spanned 20+ pages.

Hrmmm, I\'m surprised to see this thread pushed so far down the topic list. After such a successful demo release, you\'d think that people would take a keen interest in being involved in the development of the full game. Ah whell... Anyhooochooo

1. I don\'t really care how long it is, just as long as it doesn\'t get too tedious and unfun. Never extend game time at the expense of fun. That\'s what its all about, afteral,

2. I initially had a hard time defeating the Guardian in the Ceremony Scenario, but I figured it out in my second try. The current difficulty level is adiquate in the battle arena, but its a little bit neutered in the puzzle dept. In fact, I don\'t really remember any puzzles in the demo.

3. I\'ve hated random battles since the early  FF\'s on NES and I made a prettey big deal out of the fact that Enix\'s gem, StarOcean had to have it too. Some semblance of the choice to fight should be in the hands of the gamer, not the game.

4. Hrmmm... would u consider an artillery based version of the sniping game presented in the demo? U basically have the same system, only your using artillery. Perhaps you can use it as the game-alisation of a city seige/surgical strike kind of thing where u destroy bulidings rather than fanboys.

5. The solution to the "going through the same thing" problem lies in the option to "skip". Perhaps the ability to save anywhere you want, whenever you want should be implemented. Things were only that way to cater for the limitations of console hardware, there is no such limitation on the PC.

6. I like Darth Joyda\'s idea, it makes yet another desired connection to the community that\'s playing the game.

For a history gude, the thread What\'s ur Forum History is an excelent refference resource. Use it well. Take particular note of:

*The Glorious, Massive Kick Thread
*The Spamtasticness of the Countdown thread
*My Rise and Demise (hey, that rhymes!)
*Small Lady thnks my "Knight Talk" is Cute

1. More than 6 hours and less than 20, or as long as you could do it without being a problem for you.

2. Make the game interesting, not difficult. Most of the people will play it to have a good time and this is something to be enjoyed for everyone.

3. The enemies only should appear on the screen in special events IMO, but i know that some people don\'t like random battles. It\'ll be fine whatever you choose.

4. I can\'t think of anything real innovative right now. If i\'ve something i\'ll pm it to you.
Anyway, you should add an event like that one in Monkey Island, when you had to fight with the pirates using your best insults( that was hilarious).
Hehe, btw you must include pirates in the game; they\'re at least as bad as the fanboys .

5 Don\'t include too much or the people will need to play the game lots and lots of times to view everything.
In that case, each time they\'ll try to see a new part, they\'ll  need as well to repeat most of the scenes in the game. Replace that with lots of little but curious secrets; the people will talk about them in the forum and everybody will want to play the game again to see them for themselves.

6. Yep, why not?. But make them not to like the Fanboys( even the Sony Fanboys ). Maybe they would be like the summons in FF, as well as participate in some parts of the story.

PS: I can\'t help you with a complete forum\'s history, but i\'ll probably post mine in the other thread tomorrow.

Thanks for the replies everyone!  Here\'s how the game is shaping up:

1.  As of now, I\'m thinking of having the game be somewhere between 20 and 30 hours long.   Obviously, this may change if I become a little more ambitious as time goes on, but so far I\'m thinking 20-30 will be just right.

2.  The game will be generally easy (like most of the demo), but with a few challenging puzzles.  For example:  In the sniping minigame that was in the demo, I will make it so there\'s a limited amount of ammunition.  If you don\'t kill all the Fanboys with the gun, then you must go down and fight them in melee combat.  Also, the basic enemies that you fight will usually be easy as well.  The bosses, on the other hand, will present quite a challenge.  For the most part, there will be some trick to making boss fights easier, but that will be for the player to discover.

3.  I\'m still debating this one.  Perhaps I\'ll have it so everywhere except the world map will have the enemies appear on-screen.  That way, the player can choose to avoid any battles.  When travelling on the world map, however, there would be random encounters.  Let me know if this is a good way to do things.

4.  I like everyone\'s ideas for this question, so they\'ll all go into the game.

5.  This is tough, but perhaps I\'ll include a dozen or so "Choose Your Path" decisions in the final game.  I really can\'t say right now, though.

6.  Here\'s another one I\'m debating.  I kinda like the idea of real video characters acting as "Summons" during battle.  Perhaps I\'ll have items, like "Game Discs," scattered everywhere, and if you find one, you can use it in battle to summon a character.  For example:  You find a "Metal Gear Solid 2 Disc" in a dungeon.  After entering a battle, you use the disc like an item, and Snake enters the battle and will either shoot the enemy with a tranquilizer round (causing the Sleep status), throw a Stun Grenade (causing Confusion status), throw a regular grenade (big damage to one enemy), or use a FA-MAS to raise hell on all the enemies on-screen.  What attack he does would be determined randomly.  

If anyone disagrees with any of those, then please feel free to tell me.  As of now, none of those things I listed are set in stone, so they can be changed with no problem.

The best way to make your RPG really long is to Make the MAP REALLY BIG and you have to go from place to place to get items. Much like Zelda for the SNES

Can I be a main character?  I would like do wrestling moves(and turn into chaos- Vincent[FF7])  

1. I have a cable modem so I doesn\'t really bother me.  However I will go with popular vote here and say 20 hours. (25 tops)

2. If this is a RPG there is leveling up.  Level ups should be quick, and characters should grow according to level.  So keep it at a pace where everyone can keep up, even those who havent read "RPGs for dummies"

3. Yes, the common Docwiz should be found everywhere and should reapper evertime you reload the screen for more killings.  Also, I wonder if N-Player is a boss.

4. Hmm... shoot the fanboy... simple... little targets with trolls/fanboys/bashers appear... Ohh... the feeling of shooting N-Player, it\'s like... better not say.

5. A lot but not too many... choices means replayability.  And replayability = good.

6. Vincent FF7... nuff said.

[nO-One]

Ohh I have one more request

Can you include a Nintendo fanboy by the name of Don Diego La Mancha (or Don Diego La Dipsh*t as he was called)
He was one of the most idiotic fanboys I can remember.Not just annoying but making thread so stupid they were considired entertainment.

He was here a long time ago,only the oldies remember him.

Yes, you\'re a main/playable character, B. Gunn.  

And nO-One, I\'ve never heard of Don Diego La Mancha, but if he\'s as bad as you say, then I\'ll definitely include him.  

Anyway....

IMPORTANT NOTICE :  

I need everyone who has 400 or more posts and does not have a pic under their name to find one and get it to me somehow.  The reason for this is because in the game, your character\'s facepic will be the same pic that you use in the forums.  So, if you don\'t have a pic here, then I\'ll end up having to find one for you unless you send one to me.

[nO-One]

Yeah just make the character as stupid as you can make him

And the pic limit is 500,not 400

Originally posted by nO-One

And the pic limit is 500,not 400

Yeah, I know, but (most) all of the members here at \'Central who have at least 400 posts (and are posting on a continual basis) will be playable in the game, therefore they need to find face pics.

Originally posted by 182Ways
Yes, you\'re a main/playable character, B. Gunn.  

And nO-One, I\'ve never heard of Don Diego La Mancha, but if he\'s as bad as you say, then I\'ll definitely include him.  

Anyway....

IMPORTANT NOTICE :  

I need everyone who has 400 or more posts and does not have a pic under their name to find one and get it to me somehow.  The reason for this is because in the game, your character\'s facepic will be the same pic that you use in the forums.  So, if you don\'t have a pic here, then I\'ll end up having to find one for you unless you send one to me.

Hey cool. I was thinking about mentioning. Sounds great.

well i am assuming i am in the game but i am curious how you are gonna do my character - am i gonna be a rat/mouse or something since my pic is one

well anyway i agree with your suggestions

i have somehing to add to the mini games - you should have one game that makes for a good replay value - like the chocobos in FF7 and FF9 - not necessairly that but some sort of mini game that would last throughout the game and you could build on to it and stuff like that