ID:112086
 
Keywords: fantasie
Work on Fantasie progresses ever slowly each day. I've been struck with a significant but temporary illness, but that's not about to stop me (though it will/has slowed me down)! Before we can get a playable, open alpha release going we want to complete all of the core ingame functions.

So far, the skeletal structure of competent AI behavior has been completed as well as complex PvP and PvE combat. Right now all that remains is implementing a whole lot of what are known as techniques, which play a vital role in gameplay. We hope to have at least half of these done before we start testing sessions with real players.



(Click to enlarge)




But just what IS Fantasie?


Being the humble man I am, I am reluctant to say you've probably heard the word "Fantasie" or the game itself floating around BYOND chat servers or anime games. Some of our more overzealous developers have been less than reluctant to talk about Fantasie, but never explain what it is. So, here it is:






Fantasie is an open-world RPG project which will emphasize freedom of choice without GM intervention. You could call it sandbox gameplay. Imagine a time where you played any kind of online RPG. Remember that level 2,000 jerkwad running around killing every babyface newbie who had just spawned, fresh from newb island? That will not only not be against the rules, it will be in a way encouraged. However, instead of a game official intervening and slapping the said jerkwad's hand, AI-controlled characters and pre-programmed procedures will attempt to punish the player.

Rules in this game will hopefully be enforced by NPCs, and rely little on any GM's input. This will allow for a more friendly environment and laid-back social interaction. GMs will be there to liven up the game, make sure the players are having fun, and have fun themselves. I don't see why GMs should be punished by having to resolve player disputes.


Fantasie's combat will be the main dish of the game. Each player can choose one of eight main classes. Each class has a score of different abilities, which are, technically speaking, sub-classes. These abilities, when chosen, allow access to a variety of different skills, or techniques, specific to that class and ability. Each person would have a very specific role in any organized combat event, and there will be a lot of diversity.

Imagine combat where you have front-line soldiers doing all of the dirty work and soaking up incoming attack. Behind these front-line soldiers would be supporters who aren't meant for the front lines but can deal decent damage. Further back you go, the offensiveness decreases but the defensiveness and protection value increases greatly. This sounds very generic, I know. However, the techniques each player is equipped with will allow for battle that is more than just damage and numbers. Techniques will be very unique, and most will focus on environmental effects. This can include casting a tornado attack that will suck up every poor soul in its path and spit them out a great distance after greatly damaging them. This would mean players have to be constantly moving instead of standing there and trying to out-damage your opponents, like in traditional ORPGs.

In short, the combat is very fast-paced. PvP will be a sight to behold, and will require strategic use of manpower as well as level vs level.



Players won't be up against only other player foes though. A lot of the combat will revolve around AI combatants, which have been dubbed "Meos". Meos are monsters of the Fantasie world, who can be very bizarre-looking horrors from the dark or cute but deadly hug-buddies. The focus of the AI in Fantasie is to provide a fun opponent for players when they're not off fighting eachother. They will behave differently and, in due time, structure themselves strategically as well as players do. This AI structure and communication is something already in the works. Meos will do more than fight, run, and heal. Meos will, depending on the species, rely on their buddies to help them win battles. These guys will move around, dodge attacks, and try to flank enemies much like players do.







If you've managed to read all of that, congratulations! While you're here, visit our forums hosted by the amazing Terulia service (ps these guys are amazing, check them out). There's some stuff in there I didn't go over in this post. Nothing new with Space Colonies, but like I said, that's not my main project. Nobody's really shown much interest in it anyway.





I apologize for any typos hidden in this post, I'm coughing a lot while typing and my fingers can slip.
Wow not bad at all. I wanna play this game :O It sounds EPIC
dude this stuff looks like insane dog how many classes are their going to be i want to have the power of cats
The power of cats? Also, there are eight ROOT classes. There are many more abilities under each class.
you know like shooting cats out my arm and summoning cat minnons

and maybe using a cat as a silencer

so can cats be an abilty under summoner class

if you dont have summoner class that sucks im not playing it unless it contains something even better
I best have a Special Person rank in the game with a Teleport verb!

Anyway i have been a big supporter and follower of this game for quite some time, i still eagerly await it. :)

Keep up the good work.

P.s Laserdog, Even from your game you are making, It appears you have a very Very strange and wacky mind, but that could lead to something amazing\!.
The art looks nice. The gameplay on the other hand looks pretty generically crappy BYOND-ish. I suppose I can't say for sure until I play it, but that's what it looks like. The tile movement just kills real-time combat, even if the combat would be fun.
Fugsnarf wrote:
The art looks nice. The gameplay on the other hand looks pretty generically crappy BYOND-ish.


Well, why don't you tell me why you think it looks "generically crappy"?
I did. It's just that BYOND's tile movement really destroys all hope of a real-time combat system being very fun, even if that combat system would normally be a good one. Generically crappy BYOND games try to merge real-time combat with tile movement. They almost always fail unless they're anime games harboring trolls, or if they're very creative in how they do it like Final Fantasy Online for example.
I realize how BYOND's vanilla atomic movement may seem like it'd never work with a fast-paced combat system, but creating a pixel-based movement is out of the question. Most of the people we've let test our game have agreed the combat is fun, but everyone's entitled to express their opinions on what's fun or not. However I don't know if you think this game will not be fun.

There's not much else I can do to make the game seem less "generically crappy" without writing a CPU-killing pixel movement system or leaving BYOND to develop in another programming language.
Pixel movement does not have to be CPU-killing these days. However, it is true that I haven't played your game. Maybe I'll have a different opinion when I do, but I've already expressed my first impressions.
I love you. Don't leave me.

Stay. Stay.

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Good luck, lolo.
Thanks.