I'm not quite sure where to post this, but it was either this or Community. Sorry if it's in the wrong forum.
Well, Ephraim and I have been pondering on our game's setting. We've decided it's either going to be another one of those somewhat-cliche'd generic fantasy settings based on the olden, medieval days...
Or..
A "Pseudo-Modern" setting. Somewhat like Final Fantasy 7's, with the cities here, the hamlets there, and the armies with machine guns o'er yonder.
No, I haven't exactly expanded on either of the two, but that's what you guys are for. You're the ones who would (hopefully) be spending their time enjoying this game, not us.
So BYOND players, tell us what you would rather have, please =D.
And if you can, can you expand on your reasons? To further convince us and others of your reasons.
Yes, I am somewhat bias toward the pseudo-modern setting. I apologize for that, but it's just my opinion. It ultimately has nothing to do with the game, otherwise I wouldn't have asked for some mac, player opinions on the forum. =D
ID:265736
 Jun 3 2007, 10:36 am (Edited on Jun 3 2007, 1:34 pm)
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Alrighty. So you're "Futuristic/Olden times" setting would be a futuristic-medieval hybrid type setting? Like a Final Fantasy 8 Esthar (Futuristic city) in some places, then in others some small, quiet village (FF9's Black Mage Village)?
Or do you mean something different? And your "bask in the technology of the future and the fantasy of the past" was a very enticing point. And yes, we're still planning on using swords and such in our game, but with some modern/futuristic weapons; guns, laser manipulation (laser guns, laser swords), etc. | |
Let me give you an example.... You ever played Star Ocean 3 for the PS2.
That was pretty much set in the future no doubt about that, but they had certain worlds which had a name for the which I can't seem to remember, but it was somewhere along the lines of "Under Developed Worlds" these worlds where ofcourse under developed sort of like our 3rd world countries, but with a twist. These worlds weren't poor as such, but they were periodically behind everyone else in technological advancement so for example they would be in the Medieval times. One of the reasons they didn't recive help from other worlds was because of some Law the prohibited any interferance from outside worlds that were far more technologically advanced than them. This option gives you the past and the future. Which is what I mean. Setting a game in the just the future or just the past is like setting a fence around your game development and enclosing you inside a box with a few ideas to fuel your imagination. While being able to access the future and the past real makes the game versatile and gives you more opportunities to make a better game. | |
Yup, and that was an amazing idea. Kudos to Tri-Ace (I think?) for that.
I've actually really wanted to make it so the player could be in a present setting at one moment, then somehow lead them to a past or future (technology wise) setting in another. But the only way I could think of doing that was time travel, which I really didn't want to work with. As for the means of combining the times into this game, I can't take the different planet ideas, for they're already taken. Can't use time travel, as again, I don't want to work with it, as it doesn't work out all that well. Excluding Chrono Trigger/Cross, of course. But I know what you're saying, and unless there aren't any other ideas, Ephraim and I will somehow implant that into our game. Thank you =D [Edit] Working with just one time setting isn't all that bad, however. Sure you don't have the lasers/machines/high-tech environments if you're in the past, or the swords/hamlets/farm animals if you're in the future, but not all games need to have them all. I guess, in the end, it all depends on the game. Once we actually figure out where we're going with our game, we can then focus on the setting. | |
Besides the multiple worlds thing that was already suggested, you could do virtual reality. The VR worlds could be from different time periods. You could also do semi-accidental interdimensional travel, where the settings are different in the alternate dimensions.
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Jon88 wrote:
Besides the multiple worlds thing that was already suggested, you could do virtual reality. The VR worlds could be from different time periods. You could also do semi-accidental interdimensional travel, where the settings are different in the alternate dimensions. Ephraim has actually brought that up also. It may have been a novel he read. I wasn't too keen on the idea, basically just because it wasn't epic enough. From the VR world, to make it into an actual good, amazing epic game that we desire, it would take too much for me to even acknowledge the idea. Yes, it's obviously my fault that we aren't going to get anywhere with our game because of my "must be epic"ness, but BYOND needs epic! And I'm going to try my hardest, no matter how much good ideas I must thwart. | |
Back when I was a lad, I had countless journeys through forests, hoping to slash some orcs with my wooden sword. I wished ever so much that I could have an adventure.
But alas, it always hit me. In this modern day and time, who could have an epic adventure? One of those times that I thought of it, which was regrettably not that long ago, I started to think. What if I could bring an epic adventure to others? It then hit me, what if I could do it through BYOND? I could show others that it would still be possible to have a modern-day, epic adventure. It wouldn't have to be believable per-se, hence the RPG part, but still modern and epic. I'm sure I could think of a way to bring swords and such into this, but that was my basic reasoning for Ephraim and I's game, and for this topic. | |
Umm Inter-Dimentional travelling sounds fun and exciting and new. Having some sort of device or maybe a mode of transport like an Inter-Dimentional Bus!
But the thought of traveling to diffrent dimensions is quite entincing and attractive. I would enjoy traveling through the very fabric of the universe to vist other places and people for new quests etc. This could really open up the game to a whole new level. Giving the potentional for mapping to be endless because of the ammount of dimesions is unlimited and the size of the universe could seem like nothing in comparrison to the "Dimenuverse" (Just a name I came up with for the name of the expanse of area which holds all the dimensions... Sort of like a Planet with countries and each country simbolizes a dimension) Well I hope you get something good out of this topic =) | |
Some interesting future settings as an alternative to Tokienesque fantasy:
Dark Future: The cyberpunk ideal. Megacorporations run corrupt vestiges of government in conjunction with organized crime. Street violence is rampant but so is alt culture. Infuse with magic ala Shadowrun if you need a fantasy fix, or just leave that to neural net avatars. Steampunk: Fantasy with a healthy injection of heavy metal. Picture Wells or da Vinci style steam contructs such as wood and iron robots or steam powered rockets. Pick a suitable era and location from colonial America to Victorian England to the Wild West. Supernatural elements may or may not be present. Gothic Sci-Fi: In the darkness of space, no one can hear you scream. Combining elements of horror, this genre tends to focus on isolation and cramped space stations/ships where nasty aliens/demons/whatever pop out at inopportune times. See Doom, Aliens, etc. for inspiration. I also like the Vampire Hunter D styled world- post apocalyptic meets Wild West with a touch of horror thrown in after dark. So people cluster in villages around natural resources and use what futuristic tech they can scavenge and replicate to hold off the bizarre mutants and monsters that roam the lands. Vampires are a vestige of a forgotten time when they ruled the night. Now, they have been driven back by dedicated hunters and rebellion and most have fled into the eternal night of space. Cowboy Bebop's futuristic setting was also pretty cool and gave plenty of room for exploration without any supernaturalism. The cramped environments of space ships, stations, dens urban environments, etc. give a stage for close combat and usefulness for otherwise archaic weaponry. Add in the "space marine" effect (mechanized soldiers in robotic/powered armor that invariably looks like modernized plated mail) and things like plasma swords and monfilament whips start to look right at home. | |
How about using that same "other worlds" concept, but shrink it down to just "other countries"?
Perhaps your game world is divided into very rigidly bordered lands with very striking differences? Like you might have one area of incredible technological advances, right next to an area that's stuck in a "medieval" state... How to explain the reason that they don't blend together? Maybe at one point in the past, the world was interconnected, but something occured (what exactly, I leave up to you) that divided the population into extremely hostile factions... Each of these factions took control of its own country, and cut off all outside access... Separated like this, each area began its own course of history... Some of the lands made leaps and bounds with technology, while others remained primitive, and some turned towards the mystical... And for the most part, none of them have any contact with any of the others, due to a deep hatred of the "outside"... There is no trade between any of them, no communications, and not even any travel from one land to another (and perhaps they're divided physically by natural borders like mountains, oceans, etc. that the people refuse to cross, or can't cross) | |
Very mac ideas, thank you.
Ephraim and I now have much to decide from, and can't wait to start working on the setting of the game. I can see those of you who contributed have nice, original and exiting ideas, which is just what we need to lead this game on. | |
Oblivon_2 wrote:
Jon88 wrote: maybe something like .hack (dot hack), where they log in but then they can't log out (I mean, they themselves can, but the characters they're role-playing can't). To get out, you must... must... I never saw the ending! I just relized that! | |
Let me think, this is quite a tough question.
The ideal setting for me would be a Futuristic/Olden times sort of setting. You may perhaps ask why? Because it gives the game versatility. It gives the Player a chance to bask in the technology of the future and the fantasy of the past. Which in my view is quite an oppertunity not found in alot of games. Like I said about giving the game versatility, it has the option of bringing advanced weapons or weapons from the old era like blades, axes and lots of other melee weapons that tend to be used in the old era.
There's my opinion for the time being.