For anyone keeping track, 3 maps down, 197 to go.
Busy week but I managed to get a fair amount down. I did the intro with Insandru first this week but then I put off mapping the next area as things like chests will be easier to do once the database is done. Databasing is also one of my least favourite parts. So I moved onto Nero. In the original Kinetic Cipher it was possible to fail the test at the beginning of the game and then Nero didn’t join your party until much later, in Kinetic Cipher again that was done away with and Nero is so far a pernament fixture on the team. Where as Karen suffered from too many skills, Nero only has two skills, although it looked like he was close to getting his third skill (having gone through the database). His skill system was mentioned after he learned Brain Buster, Nero was set to learn skills by defeating specific opponents. Given that I had the upgrade system in place already for Karen/Nate I decided to extend it to Nero (and probably all non-guest player characters). Kinetic Cipher is a long game and it’s more fun when your characters develop along the way. So for Nero’s skill system display I broke it down into two parts. First is a screen listing his skills and their potential upgrades. Second is a list of challengers, which will get added to as you play. Hopefully it is simple enough and straight forward.
The pirate will show up after you’ve met those other pirates.
After Nero, Robin is next to grace the party. Brickroad did a thought exercise a long time ago where he detailed five things he would change about Kinetic Cipher (http://scibbe.com/archives/1804). I’ll go through the list but the pertinent point is that he would change Robin’s status as a playable character to that of a guest NPC. I don’t 100% know what Brickroad considers a guest NPC to be; until corrected I’m going to operate under the assumption that it’s a one time party member who never rejoins the party after their time is done. The alternative would be that Robin travels with you but not in any combat capacity; which given that I am remaking Kinetic Cipher again and the fact that Robin was a big part of Kinetic Cipher again would feel wrong to me. I designed her system such that with a couple of minor edits it could later become a stand alone crafting system (say Robin sets up shop and you visit her to craft). It works very similarly to Kinetic Cipher again, you combine a metal and an element to create either a gadget, consumable, weapon or piece of armour. Though now it’s done via menus rather than text boxes. You have the ability to filter all of Robin’s possible creations by their various options. I think it turned out well.
Sorry about the confusing icons, icons are becoming a job I need to do sooner rather than later.
Going back to the five things Brickroad would change, for the most part I’m going to incorporate them into my remake but there are two exceptions. Going through in order the first was that the world map would be smaller; this is one of the things I’m not at this stage going to do anything about. I agree with the points Brickroad makes but I am terrible at making world maps and at such an early part of development it’s much easier for me to keep it as it was. Brickroad’s second point is about introducing Melissa earlier, I’ll take it on board and try to insert her somewhere sooner, the boat ride between continents seems like it might be a good time for a “Meanwhile…” Also she is the only character without a pre-designed advancement system, I already scribbled down some ideas which you can see below, though no doubt it’ll change while I’m actually implementing it (I’ve included Karen, Nero and Robin’s pages for comparison). The third point I’ve already addressed partially, but Cor can have the same treatment as Robin, though I might pass giving him a system, he can just use the Cipher skill tree system that Karen and Nate use – albeit with severely reduced options.
Next is the battle system, I agree completely ATB was cool in the 90s and early 00s but rarely did it actually add anything good to game. I’m not a fan of them. While I haven’t started on that side of the battle system yet I’m very much anticipating a turn based system where everyone inputs their commands on their specific turn (like FFX) though I’m also considering a twist based on agility which was one of the dominant stats in Kinetic Cipher again. I’m thinking that if your characters are at least double the speed of the average enemy speed that you could sometimes get a second action per turn – I think it’s an idea I will try and then decide whether or not it was a good idea. I’m also thinking that to allow for more tactical planning you might be able to postpone your turn e.g. Nate the healer goes first but everyone is fully healed, waste of a turn but if you can postpone his turn then he can take it after the enemy have had time to damage you.
Karen’s layout changed multiple times. Also sorry about the fading pen on Melissa’s first page, it’s safely in the bin now. Also if you’re curious about the little man on the corner of the page, this was a birthday present and they drew an old school flick-book animation on the corner of every page. The animation is me being hit on the head by an overhead hoist.
The final point is the one I disagree with, Brickroad says he would have “dramatically shortened the freewheeling.” He describes his new plan to be get around the world as fast as you can then open up the freewheeling. I’m really not a massive fan of when games do that I really enjoyed FFX until post Zanarkand where suddenly I’ve gone from playing a really linear game to one that is now nearly all side content. I much prefer it when games are consistent through out, I don’t mind linear games and I don’t mind game with sprawling side content but I find it jarring when games try to be both. I loved the Tidal Caves (with the slight exception of the final puzzle) and the stuff with Tristan is one of my favourite parts of Kinetic Cipher. So I’ll be faithfully recreating the side content in Kinetic Cipher again as best I can.
Backtracking a bit now, Robin’s crafting system did lead me to do most of the databasing. All of the weapons and armours are done (except a Robin only item which I never found in KCA but position wise looks like it is right before Robin would leave), all of the character skills except for Nate are done (KCA cast only). A lot of the regular items are also done but there are some left. I still really need to do the status effects though. With all that done I decided the next job really had to be the battle system as once it’s done I can really begin to make the remake playable and do less essential systems later (e.g. menu system). So I started the battle system this afternoon, I started with the animated battlers, I’m adapting my old animated battlers script so it’s missing some features (e.g. weapons) but I’ve managed to get the 2k3 battlers working for the most part. As you might have noticed from the screenshots this week I’m trying to decide how to handle stat displays, hearts or HP? PP, Chi, Fuel or the Star of David? (whose symbol isn’t in my font so I’ve already had to sub it). I haven’t got an answer for this one yet, it’s one of the decisions where I am really in the middle.
So with all this said and done my plan for next week is very much finish the battle system, if I should finish earlier than expected then I might try and map/event the Cipher Guild but I think that might be a stretch. I also want to try and do some reviews for RMN given the current reviewing contest. Anyway thanks for reading.
1 map down, 199 to go to catch up to the previous KCA.
Fomar0153 