...Yet.
I'll need to see if my fix works.
If it doesn't, THEN ranting is justified, but I don't need to complain yet if it ends up working.
I was typing up a longwinded rant on something, but that rant MIGHT not be justified...
...Yet. I'll need to see if my fix works. If it doesn't, THEN ranting is justified, but I don't need to complain yet if it ends up working.
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And you know what that means.
Today I worked. Today I was trapped with my mind with nothing better to do than to just go from topic to topic, including me thinking up a reimagining of Gauntlet: Dark Legacy, just with my own twists on it to make the game even bigger than before. I thought that there would be eight classes, with eight elements, with both genders, each with a secret form unlocked with New Game + (New Game + resetting levels and items, sets the story back to zero, but allows you to still access the levels from later on, the benefit being it raises the stat cap from 750/800 to 900/999). Like in the game I'm reimagining, each would have a different name (with an accompanying appearance change) at levels 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, and 99, for 11 total forms/names if you include the original. Each class would have a focus stat, of which there would be eight. Attack Speed (Elf/Archer), Movement Speed (Jester/Temptress), Turbo Magic (Sorcerer/Sorceress), Potion/Item Magic (Wizard/Witch), Damage Reduction(Armor) (Viking/Valkyrie), Damage Tanking(Endurance/Extra HP) (Knight/Samurai), Basic Attack Damage (Berserker/Barbarian), And Combo Attack Damage (Warrior/Duelist). Stats cap out at 750, 800 for the prime stat (which grows at double speed); on NG+, it's 900, 999 (the max) for the prime stat. Yes, that would mean 256 unique characters (each needing a melee quick-attack, melee power-attack, ranged quick-attack, ranged power-attack, weak-turbo, strong-turbo, and 2-3 combo attacks), and as far as names/appearances, you'd need to multiply that by 11 for 2,816 different names/forms. (Which is mostly aesthetical, butstill.) It sounds daunting but you'd be surprised how much the actual game proper had in it for a PS2 game (and this would presumably be a more advanced game). Like, one thing older games had (which I kinda miss from newer games) is that they had a bajillion secrets, often near-impossible to actually obtain, some even requiring cheat codes. Gauntlet: Dark Legacy among them. (I could look it up in a guide and probably still be left knowing that the guide no matter how thorough was still missing things.) The elements of course would be my standard eight: Earth (color scheme, various browns/greens), Air (color scheme, yellow/green), Water (color scheme, various blues/white), Energy (color scheme, cyan/yellow/white), Ice (color scheme, various cyan/white/blue), Fire (color scheme, orange/red/yellow), Light (color scheme, yellow/white), And Shadow (color scheme, various grays/black). Okay so Shadow isn't the name I normally use (I use Darkness), but it felt like 'Darkness' wasn't appropriate for an element for the given aesthetic I was aiming for here. The game as I envisioned it would feature twelve controls--sixteen, if you count directionals. Quick/Rapid-Attack (100% damage at normal speed), Power Attack (200% damage at half speed), Turbo Attack, Magic Potion (capped at 99 carrying capacity--keys would also be increased to that amount), Block, Strafe, Sprint (uses turbo), Tagteam (for multiplayer; uses half of both players' turbo meter), (De)Activate Inventory Window (one thing I loved about Gauntlet Legends which Gauntlet Dark Legacy took out was the ability to NOT AUTOMATICALLY USE ITEMS since some items are best stored for later use rather than drained immediately), (De)Activate Item (NOTE: not all items can be deactivated; all items have a cap on how much can be stored), Scroll Left through item inventory, And Scroll Right through item inventory. Note that obviously, you don't need all of these at once. In fact, most are optional. Block's only used essentially to stop boss attacks, Strafe is an entirely optional mode, Sprint is designed to be an awesome thing which is never actually used, Tagteam relies on HAVING multiple players, you can't both power-attack and turbo-attack except when trying to create Combos, and it's a bad idea to be micromanaging items in the middle of a fight, so you only really deal with a small fraction of them at a time. As I designed the game, the controls would also be adjustable, too. A feature of the game is also combo attacks: 2-3 different attacks (which unlike in Dark Legacy can be either melee or ranged), which are about as powerful as a weak-turbo, but require specific timing in order to pull off. I'm thinking to keep it simple the combos would be power-power-weak, weak-weak-power, and then if a third, power-weak-power. The game does feature elemental modifiers so the choice of element is not just aesthetical: against the opposite element (Fire <-> Ice, Water <-> Energy, Air <-> Earth, Light <-> Darkness), there is a two-way damage upgrade: your attacks do more damage, but the enemy does more damage to you. Similarly, against the identical element, there is a two-way damage reduction: your attacks do less damage, but the enemy does less damage to you. This modifier only applies to rapid/power attacks and does not influence either turbos or combos. The power attack modifier is 3: against opposite elements, doing 600% at half speed, so 300% damage. Against the same element, doing 66% at half speed, so 33% damage. The quick attack modifier is 2: against opposite elements, doing 200% damage. Against the same element, doing 50% damage. Enemies do 200% damage against opposite or 50% damage against same regardless. As regardless of which level design I use, there will always be levels focused around enemies of one element, this means that every class will have times where they have a harder time killing things and a harder time defending against things but an easier time surviving and an easier time dishing out damage. Speaking of level designs, I thought of one of two ideas, the latter of which is probably easier to design but makes things considerably shorter. The first is where the game has 64 realms (one for each element/class combo), with five levels plus the boss level. Then, a 65th "realm", a single level called Purgatory. At the end of the level, the final boss's first form would be fought. Then, a 66th "realm", a single level called Hell. At the end of the level, the final boss would be fought. Then, a 67th realm (with either 3 or 5 levels) called "Roots of Evil". After all levels are beaten, a bonus boss can be fought, and this is considered the conclusion of the story. The 68th realm is considered to be the "Mission Control" hub station world you start in from which you access the shop, save, get hints, and so on and so for (the equivalent of the tower), called "Yggdrasil". The 69th realm would be the Eternal Hall: a series of 69 interconnected levels (as in, start one, go through all of them), where you face apparitions of all the monsters, and all the bosses. It's bonus content only, unlocked after the above, and something to do purely for fun/bragging rights. (Each level would, of course, be reasonably short compared to actual levels.) OR, a much simpler game (and thus, less fun): 8 realms, with 8 normal levels each (each level representing a different element), with a 9th level being the boss for that realm, and the boss being tied to the class and shifting through the eight elements as part of the fight. The 9th would be a "boss realm"--a single level where you face a boss rush of all the bosses you have fought, back to back, before then facing the final boss's first form. The 10th realm, Final Realm, is where you'd face all the monsters in the game on a single level, at the end of which you face the final boss. The 11th realm, the Eternal Realm, would be somewhere between Roots of Evil and Eternal Hall, in that it'd have 3-5 levels, each featuring a mixture of old monsters with a new monster introduced, at the end of which there would be a bonus boss, and this would be considered the conclusion of the story. There might be the 12th realm, where you face monsters THEN the bosses, in subsequent order, but this is not a requirement. I also thought it'd be good to have optional extras in difficulty. Normal, Hard, and Hardcore. The only difference between Normal and Hard is that Hard features friendly fire, in that you can hurt any allies you have (thus, not influencing a solo-player). Hardcore introduces a gradual health-drain (though, to compensate, extra food items are dropped throughout levels more periodically)--not active while in Yggdrasil, but active whenever inside a level, effectively giving you a time limit for the level as your health slowly drains away. It would be possible to switch difficulties in a game, for obvious reasons. Also, miscellaneous thing, but at 25, all heroes unlock an ability (didn't decide if it was by class, by element, or by both, which makes the difference between 8 tied by class, 8 tied by element, or 64); at 50, this ability is upgraded and they gain a familiar (which launches an attack with them); at 75, their familiar is upgraded. I also think level 99 (the level cap) should have something, but what, not sure exactly. That's about all I thought up in advance while at work. I'm sure I could keep delving deeper into the idea of a reimagined game were I to actually do my research. Butyeah. This is how I'd handle things. Oh, I guess I also did some precursory thinking into some of the characters involved. Specifically, the appearance and blurb for a Fire/Ice Wizard. For the Fire Wizard, I'd reuse the image I had for a different game which was also inspired by Gauntlet Dark Legacy, which was a laughing mad mage, and it'd have the caption: "The definition of a pyromaniac. The answer to which half dominates is 'yes'." For the Ice Wizard, I'd have him have spiked cyan hair, and a slasher smile with all his teeth being fangs, and he'd have the caption: "As far as his enemies are concerned, cryomancy? Not cool." (I'd claim credit for that, but I'm lifting it from cryo mines and certain robots' reactions to them in Ratchet & Clank.) But I didn't really hash things out beyond that. ...But since I can't remember what, you get a nothingness entry today. Apologies.
I was basically watching an anime (dubbed in this case, with an all-star cast which I recognized most of the voices for), which had a pretty interesting setup.
The show began with following a basically-loser-teenaged protagonist, with many of the typical traits of one: rash, bullheaded, naive, reckless, complete idiot, and in this case, also a wimp. (You know the type.) He somehow landed in a local jail, where he met a woman. Said woman decided to, on a whim, show him some kindness, but was blunt about her nature and who she is. Essentially, a rebel biker/street racer, the like, in that she has zero respect for authority, she does all sorts of illicit activities (in jail she was openly whoring herself out for cash; she asked the protagonist if he had a problem with that, but she also does drugs and the like), she knows how to fight both in melee and with guns, the like. (You know the type.) However, the protagonist ends up released thanks to who he is (which is left unspecified), and mentions that thanks to him using the influence of his mother, he decided to leverage things such that the woman would go free. She stays reasonably clean...for a while, but then she goes on what amounts to an incredibly destructive rampage, one which happens to also leave a bloody mess behind. She shows no signs of slowing down, until she is suddenly shot in the stomach...by the protagonist. Except, the protagonist looks entirely different. His eyes have gone from the wide idealist to the narrow stone-cold serious look, and there's no emotion in them. She barely even recognizes him, but can tell that it's still him, and is confused, as she passes out. We then get introduced to a bunch of characters who have ties to the protagonist, wherein it is essentially shown some more supernatural elements are involved. (For a start, they're all aliens/demons of a sort, whose native language is not English, so they have many quirks about them. They speak it to try and practice the language, but make the occasional mistake here and there.) The protagonist, among their ranks, more or less in the time gap involved, had a sort-of coming-of-age, wherein he went from not being involved in their profession to being one of their more ruthless agents thanks to an unspecified trauma involved in the process. The woman, when she recovers, is slowly introduced to this world, but mostly is wondering what the hell happened to the sweet kid she had known before. At a later point soon after, she ends up taking a bullet to save the protagonist, and for a flash of a second, she can see the old him return when he panics about what happened. After this incident, she is introduced more formally to the world, and is made to be one of their agents, partnered with the protagonist. There, her skills would be able to be put to good use, and she would also get to know the details behind the protagonist more. The dream was surprisingly coherent and I am doing an absolutely terrible job of explaining it. When I was "watching" the anime, it was following many typical anime patterns. The way characters were introduced, the quirks they had, the pacing of events, how things switched perspectives/scenes, all were dead on the money with how an anime focused around a particular organization with about a dozen IMPORTANT members would treat their cast. This also means that even I don't know all the details. I only know the details as they were given to me in the show. The dream was keeping me from being spoiled about anything too major. There was a potential hint that demonic possession was implied to be a thing and that the organization fights the things who possess people, but I didn't get far enough into the dream to confirm. It was really good, and I wish I could explain to others just how good it was. I'm just...way, way, way too tired. I'm not feeling rested. I suspect it has to do with a combination of the amount and the type of sleep I'm getting: not getting enough of the high-quality sleep, and partially because I am maintaining a semi-awareness of my surroundings when sleeping.
Said semi-awareness is often manifesting as me incorporating my actual situation into my dream, except adding an extra element which isn't there in real life but which exists and is realistic in the dream. As an easy example, while I was attempting a nap at round dancing before the dance, I dreamt that there was a chain link fence separating the back half of the parking lot from the front half, and due to circumstances today we were behind it. We were in fact due to circumstances today in the back half of the parking lot, but there is no such chain link fence. The dream was almost otherwise identical to real life, including my exhaustion and trying to sleep, except I saw someone which sparked my curiosity. This type of sleep is incredibly common for me right now. High levels of lucidity, aware of my surroundings with clear control over my thoughts, and yet my surroundings while 90% true to real life have a fantastical element added in. Other common areas for this to happen are in my bed and out on the couch, but the result's much the same. I don't think it's good restful sleep, because my brain is still active. If anything, I think that it's making things worse, because it creates a dissonance when I wake up, a confusion for what's real and what's not, and causes me to go through the motions "out of it" for the time following, because I'm just stuck in another world, as it were. So instead of getting more rest, my mind gets more exhausted. I'm going to attempt to counter it by sleeping early tonight. I work from 11-2 tomorrow. It's not even 11 PM. That'd give me 11 hours before I need to leave (I leave at 10), and 10 hours before I need to get up, so I'm thinking I'll try sleeping for a solid 9 (with extra to allow for time to actually get into sleep), to see if hopefully that fixes the problem. Meaning I'm going to bed now. It unfortunately requires a specific mindset for me to talk about it (namely for me to be more of a certain me), which means that right now I can't, but...when I can, you will enjoy it!
I drafted out the outline for what was gonna be a blog entry for yesterday...but I never actually typed it out, only having written it. While it was technically written on the day of, for me I can't realistically claim that the cliffnotes are enough where I can write a ramble (well, rant) of that length and call it an entry for yesterday, since 95% of the content would be written today because I forgot to actually make the entry yesterday.
OH WELL. So in a sense I blogged yesterday, but officially, I did not. I ended up not having work this morning as I thought. I did of course have my staff meeting this night, and I got just about as much sleep as I would have if I had worked anyway (I took a shower, waited for my hair to dry, then napped, but the time the hair was dry came well after I'd have been done with work), meaning I am extra tired and today was just all-around disappointing in terms of doing things.
Oh well. The day is lost...but there's always tomorrow! Because of family night running to the point where I needed to go to bed, and me needing to go straight there, essentially. Basically, I was holding out for family night to end before doing other stuff like blogging and going to bed...but because I needed to go to bed (and was dead tired) and couldn't nap, was a bit limited.
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