Ursus Quest: Tree of Life, unlike the previous installment, is NOT about exploring the world, but about exploring a small part of a world. Because of this, the game will be richer and deeper...just not as expansive.

At the beginning of the game, you pick whether you want to play as the male hero (Victor), or the female hero (Zoey). At the next major life event, your character ages one level, and becomes 1 of 4 different adolescent characters, depending on your choices and actions during your 'child' stage. From the adolescent stage, you can become one of 8 different 'adult' characters...again, depending on your actions during the adolecent stage.

Here are the main character trees:
VICTOR

ZOEY

I think I'm going to track this with just 1 variable.

variable X = 01 child Victor
variable X = 02 child Zoey
variable X = 03 adolescent Victor 1
variable X = 04 adolescent Victor 2
variable X = 05 adolescent Zoey 1
variable X = 06 adolescent Zoey 2
variable X = 07 adult Victor 1
variable X = 08 adult Victor 2
variable X = 09 adult Victor 3
variable X = 10 adult Victor 4
variable X = 11 adult Zoey 1
variable X = 12 adult Zoey 2
variable X = 13 adult Zoey 3
variable X = 14 adult Zoey 4

The only time I really HAVE to check this variable is when one of the 3 'life-changing' story events happens. Ok, so someone asks you a question like 'what is the most important thing in the world to you?' And then gives you 2 options:

A - Strength
B - Compassion

(this is just an example, but you get the idea.)

This event will check to see your current X amount before it asks you this question, and depending on your response, it will go something like this:

*If you're child Victor (variable X = 1) and you choose...
A (Strength), your X var. amount will be changed to 3
B (Compassion), your X var. amount will be changed to 4

*If you're child Zoey (variable X = 2) and you choose...
A (strength), your X var. amount will be changed to 5
B (Compassion), your X var. amount will be changed to 6

Later, when one of the life-changing story events happens, it again checks for your X variable, and will then 'transform' you into whatever value X holds. (It actually is simply adding 1 character, and removing another.) I'm sure I'm going to have LOTS of gender-bending/reverting back to childhood bugfixes to mull over, but at least they should be entertaining.

The same thing could happen going from Adolescent to adult. The previous options would not have to be there, since they were already covered in the previous event. In other words, it wouldn't have to check and see if X was (1-2), because at that stage in the game it would HAVE to be at least 3...you see what I mean? I think a simple 4-way val-conditional branch should suffice for each life-changing event. We'll see.....

I think I'll make the point of the adolescent era to be to reach level 8 on any one quest. After that, you become an adult. Each quest path will grant a player not only the highest-level quest item for another quest path, but will grant a stat bonus...depending on what quest class you complete. Regardless of what quest path you pick, your appearance is set in stone. If you want a different appearance, answer the corresponding questions differently (IE, give 'pro artist' views, even though you plan to be a thief...or whatever).

FAME:
In 'Tree of Life', there will be 2 kinds of fame - 'Quest Fame', and 'Overall Fame'.

Quest Fame is only checked by a particular questmaster, so there are 8 variables to check these values...one for each quest path. Upon completing a quest path, your quest fame is tallied, and your reward varies depending on your score.

Overall Fame is a running record of all your actions in the game, and controls several things, primarily NPC attitudes toward you, but other things, as well.

- Your Quest Level (1-8) - this is the level of your quest
- Your Quest Fame (1-80) - this is for each quest path
- Your Overall Fame (1-700) - total for all deeds

QUEST PATHS:
The meat of the game revolves around interaction with NPC's, eight of which need your help in a bad way...these NPC's are the source of the 8 quest paths...and each of these have 8 subquests within them. These paths can be completed in any order, but each subquest will check to see which set of 'quest tools' you are using (4 levels), and alter your 'quest fame' and 'overall fame' accordingly.

Since there will be 4 tiers of quest items, I've decided to give them all a prefix, depending on the level.

Basic Harp
Good Harp
Great Harp
Supreme Harp

or...

Basic Bandit Gloves
Good Bandit Gloves
Great Bandit Gloves
Supreme Bandit Gloves

This way, there's no mistaking which level you have...as there's a system to it. Also, I think I will remove the old versions of the treasure, and replace them with the new one. In the same event where the treasure is gained, I could add a message to the effect of 'your harp became a 'Great Harp!'

Speaking of moving treasures around, the TRADER quest path is looking very promising. Maybe I should NOT be removing the lower versions of the treasure items, so that they can be traded. Only thing is that you would be automatically using the best one...why give the option to use an inferior tool? There will be plenty of other treasure items in the game to trade...like the pieces of music from the 'musician's guild' quest.

Since I can't have a treasure set as the requirement for an event branch, I'll have to track all of this with variables. There's going to be a LOT of variables in this game.

Y = (quest item variable)

Y = 1 (you have quest item 'A') - Basic
Y = 2 (you have upgraded it once) - Good
Y = 3 (you have upgraded it twice) - Great
Y = 4 (you have upgraded it 3 times) - Supreme

After each event where the quest item is 'used', variable Y is checked, and you get one of 4 results, depending on the value of Y.

I'll need 8 of those, one for each quest item set.

The quest paths are not meant to be linear...you can do them all at once, or one-at-a-time...but in order to get a 'perfect' quest fame score in any 1 quest path, you HAVE to use the highest-level quest tools from the very beginning...which means (usually) avoiding that quest path completely until you have the best tools. Since the tool sets are all found (mostly) scattered within the 8 quest paths, this means that you have to do some other quest paths before you can get a perfect score in another one.

The rewards for completing a quest path vary, but you always get the highest-level quest tools for another quest path. The rewards for completing a quest path with a perfect score vary also, but include things like being able to marry that questmaster, or access to other lands, characters, or items which are exlusively obtained this way.

A general overview of each quest path:

ARTIST Gain fame by making sculptures and portraits of people
THIEF 8 Highest quest tools...8 quests to steal them. It's your karma, dude.
SAINT Atone for your sins by living virtuously
COOK Gain fame by cooking, and make money by opening your own restaurant.
TRADER Learn the ropes of trading, and ultimately open your own chain of trade depots.
ARCHAEOLOGIST Uncover and explore ancient ruins for fun, fortune, and glory!
ROMANTIC Regardless of your character's gender, you can flirt with ANYBODY (almost) in the game. How well you do can ultimately result in either rejection or marriage, and after a sucessful union, you can either have a child, or adopt one.
MUSICIAN Locate and 'gather' your fanbase by playing for them. Become famous when you achieve 'standing room only' at your shows...where you actually perform for your adoring fans!

At this point I've made a good start on a map...basically a town on a small, flat acropolis in the center of a larger area, which is divided into 8 different areas by water, mountains, or other obstacles. I've also made most of the characters, and tested most of the quest event concepts...they all work great. WuHEWww!!


NPC Modes:

All NPC's will wind up having many different modes, and these will be switched mainly by your overall fame, but also by things like your quest levels and life stage.

MODES that each character will need (so far):

1 - Child hero mode - Only active during main character's child stage.
2 - Adolescent hero mode - Only active during main character's adolescent stage.
3 - Basic mode - This is your 'mode switchboard'. Choices you make here give you access to the others.
4 - Shun mode - No one will talk to you until you convince them you've turned over a new leaf.
5 - Fan mode - Gives special messages after achieving high quest/overall fame, then goes to mode 3.

MODES that only CERTAIN characters will require:

- QUEST MODES - 10 modes total
* quest level 1
* quest level 2
* quest level 3
* quest level 4
* quest level 5
* quest level 6
* quest level 7
* quest level 8
* quest complete
* Quest Item Stolen

- 'Love mode'
...and 1 mode (hopefully) for each of the following:

NPC Options:

- Chat
- Quest
- Flirt
- Info
- Join
- Play Music
- Portrait
- Cook
- Trade
- Steal

Of these, ALL characters will have FOUR.

Here's two possible examples:

Character A -
- Chat (this option can alter your fame, give items, etc.)
- Trade (this character is looking to trade treasures)
- Join (this character is a possible party member)
- Flirt (this character is a possible spouse)

Character B -
- Info (this character provides helpful clues)
- Quest (this character is one of the 8 questmasters)
- Cook (this character is hungry...you want to feed em?)
- Play Music (this character is a potential fan)

So...there are 10 potential audience members, 16 potential mates, 8 potential questmasters, 4 people
you can cook for, etc. But figuring out who gets what may prove to be REALLY hard, especially since they overlap. :-/

I have a plan, though. I'm just going to finish making ALL of the characters, and see which 8 I want to be the questmasters, which 16 I want to be marriable, etc...until I start running into characters who have all 4 slots full already...or I start running into characters with 1-2 slots open...in that case, THOSE I'll just give 'INFO' or 'CHAT'

IF I HAVE 30 CHARACTERS:

that's 30 x 4 = 120 possible 'action' slots

- 4 have 'cook'
- 16 have 'flirt'
- 8 have 'trade'
- 8 have 'quest'
- 12 have 'steal'
- 12 have 'portrait'
- 10 have 'play music'
- 7 have 'join'
- 20 have 'chat'
- 19 have 'info'

That allotment is probably going to be adjusted a bit here and there, but it's a good start.

I REALLY need to work out just EXACTLY how many modes each NPC action will take...because I will probably not be able to give them 'quest' and much else...'quest' alone will take up 10 modes out of the 20. this means that if someone has 'quest' as one of their options, their further options will be limited...they only have 10 modes left. Also, ALL of the NPC's will need some slots to remain open...for things like 'shun mode', 'baby hero mode'...etc.

I'm going to try DESPERATELY to fit all of these into that amount of modes...without having to add modes, or segue to other events. Also, these are ALL just ideas...I haven't actually tried to code any of this yet. It can all be easily done, but whether it can be done in 50 lines of code per mode, and 20 modes remains to be seen.

*A few experiments later...*

JOIN - 1 mode (2-way val-conditional branch, checking for 'number of people in party' variable, and maybe other things)

STEAL - 1 mode (4-way val-conditional branch, checking for your 'glove' quest item level, within a 2-way val-conditional branch, checking for whether you've already stolen from them or not, within another 2-way val-conditional branch, which checks to see if you have the 'glove' item)

INFO - 1 mode (4-way choice branch)

CHAT - 1 mode (4-way val-conditional branch, checking for 4 different levels of overall fame)

COOK - 1 mode (4-way val-conditional branch, checking for your 'Dish' quest item level, within a 2-way val-conditional branch, checking for whether you've given it already or not, within another 2-way val-conditional branch, which checks to see if you have the 'dish' item)

TRADE -

FLIRT - 1 mode (4-way val-conditional branch, checking for your 'romance' quest item level, within a 2-way val-conditional branch, checking for whether you've already married or not, within another 2-way val-conditional branch, which checks to see if you have the 'romance' item)

PORTRAIT - 1 mode (4-way val-conditional branch, checking for your 'art' quest item level, within a 2-way val-conditional branch, checking for whether you've drawn them already or not, within another 2-way val-conditional branch, which checks to see if you have the 'art' item)

PLAY MUSIC - 1 mode (4-way val-conditional branch, checking for your 'music' quest item level, within a 2-way val-conditional branch, checking for whether you've played for them already or not, within another 2-way val-conditional branch, which checks to see if you have the 'music' item)

I'm actually rather surprised that a lot of these won't require more modes, so even if I have to add a mode here and there, I should still have enough modes to give anybody pretty much whatever I want them to have. I mean, I'm looking at the list...and a LOT of them say '1 mode' when I expected them to say '2-3' when I was first thinking about it.

Musician Quest Path...I've been doing a bit of experimenting with this quest path...and I am 100% excited by the prospect. My initial trials were very encouraging!

I set up a 'Musician's Guild', and a 'Music Hall', and decided that 10 of the characters in the game would ask you to play your harp for them, if you have one of the 4 harps in your inventory. If you say 'Yes', then your 'Musician Fame' will go up, but the amount will vary, depending on which harp you use. Also, those NPC's will say 'When will you be performing? I'd love to come and see you play!'

At that point, their 'audience' display in the music hall is turned ON...you just scored a fan! Whenever you're ready to accept a musician's quest, you go to the guild, and speak with the guild head. Answer 'Yes', and you are immediately teleported to the spot where you perform from in the music hall. You can't move from there, all you can do is activate the podium in front of you. Begin concert? Y/N

...silence, please...all eyes are upon you...

Say yes, pick an instrument,
and the concert begins.

The number of people (up to 10) at one of your shows is determined by how many fans you have gathered, and each will give you a certain amount of fame after the show, depending on which instrument you play. As you might imagine, it's a FAST way to build your fame...the problem is finding the highest-level instrument to really exploit that fact...which makes the thief quest to STEAL it all the more enticing...if you want to sell your soul for rock-and-roll...just make sure you don't choke on your own vomit. Doing it the evil way, you will STILL have to find the 8 pieces of music...or else you won't have anything to play! At the end of each quest to find the music scroll, you give a concert where you perform that piece of music.

The individual audience reactions are based on the QF you scored when you played for them, but with the 4th-level instrument, they ALL go into fan mode. So now, if your overall fame is enough, people REALLY get into it when you play!

Right now, there are 4 levels:

At level 1, the audience fidgets nervously, acts totally indifferent, or just stands there.
At level 2, some people begin to act like they enjoy it
At level 3, some people are really excited
At level 4, raise the roof

You get the idea I know 10 people doesn't seem like a lot, but in a smallish space, and in game terms, it actually does seem like a lot. BTW, does anyone have a suggestion for a good 'theater' type interior? The one I'm using currently is rather lackluster. I wish there was one with a stage...

[EDIT] I found a decent room for concerts...can you tell which one it is from the 2nd picture? Hee hee...I had my first concert, with a full house...and it was pretty cool! They reacted favorably...but then, I told them to. LOL!! NPC 'idle' animations are a bit sparse, though...they spend a lot of time just standing there. It comes off ok, though...because the music's not exactly rage against the machine.

It kinda sucks having only 10 audience members, but that is the limit for NPC's in a single building :-/ Oh well, it still looks ok...just more of an intimate 'club' type feel than a major arena. It's really cool looking out into the audience and seeing the people you got hooked on your music! It's a small, but dedicated following...they are all there for EVERY one of your shows! The idea is that you don't have many fans at first, but as you progress through the game you 'collect' them, and in some cases 'win' them, until you have a full house. This is also a good way to make serious cash, as each member of the audience that's there will pay you a certain amount of gold after each performance.

This quest path is divided into 3 parts:

- Obtaining art supplies
- Creating sculptures
- Making portraits for people

When you accept the artist guild quests, it's basically as a stonecarver. The guild recieves commissions from people for commemorative statues and monuments mostly. When you take one of these jobs, you arrive at the site, to find a huge marble boulder there, ready for you to carve it. If you have the 'art supplies' treasure item, you can carve the stone into a statue! During this event, your 'art supplies' quest item level is checked, and your overall fame and quest fame awards are adjusted according to it.

Sculptor Path experiments:

First, I set up some simple stone-carving events. they all 3 worked GREAT!! Hu-zah! It was one of those 'YES!' moments. The stone models completely covered the statue models, so I didn't even need 'display-ON/OFF' codes for them. I even found stone models that matched the texture of the statues they spawn!


Originally, I was going to have different statues produced, depending on which level quest item you used, but now the resulting statue is always the same...the only difference is your awards. That will give variety to the 8 stonecarving quests. Instead of getting the 'scary' statue with the lower-level chisel and the 'warrior' statue with the higher one, which statue you get would be determined by the order placed for the individual commission. So now I just have seperate messages for each instance:

'Your FAME in stonecarving has increased by 1!' as a result of using the lower-level chisel, or:
'Your FAME in stonecarving has increased by 10!' for the highest-level chisel.

This quest path has 6 parts:

- Finding cookware
- Finding ingredients
- Finding recipes
- Making the actual dishes
- Opening your restaurant
- Recruiting customers by tempting them with the right dishes

I think I've decided that...like the musician having to track down the pieces of music, the cook will have to track down not only recipes, but ingredients to make them with. I'll have to track the individual dishes made with a variable, but if I make the actual 'cooking' process around an event, I can set 3 ingredients and the recipe (treasure items) as the requirements for the event...without having to use any of my variables. Now, the 4 NPC's that have the 'FEED' option when you speak to them can look for a specific meal. If you have it, they'll show up at your restaurant. Each one will spend a little money there each day. In this way, it's similar to 'collecting stores' on the trader quest, or 'collecting fans' on the musician quest (except that the reward for collecting is FAME, not money in that case).

I'd like to make it where, if you choose the 'trader' quest to complete during your adolescent stage, and therefore have all of the stores that you can, then when you start as an adult, you'll begin with lots of money...because of all of those days that went by while you were collecting 100-500 gold a day. I could do the same for choosing the 'cook' quest, but maybe not give as much money...maybe give some other reward, in addition? Hmm...Maybe I could give a different award for completing each of the quest paths that first time.

Here's how cooking is going to go:

There's an NPC in the tavern who is the head cook there, but she can't cook anything, because the other cook just quit, and took all of their cookware and supplies with him! If you choose to accept her quest, you must track down the 4 pieces of missing cookware. When you've found a cooking utensil, bring it to the cook lady, and she'll turn on one of 4 'cooking events'. Once activated, the events will look for 4 items: a specific recipe, and 3 ingredients. I will need about 24 treasure items, just for this ONE quest path! Once you have all of the required items for making a dish, you can cook them, to make the FINAL item...the actual dish.


Cooking Utensils:
Wok
Hibachi
Brasier
Steam Tower

Ingredients:
* Fresh Herbs
* Vegetables
* Pork Loin
* Rice Noodles
* Spices
* Sesame Oil
* White Rice
* Hot Peppers
* Beef Strips
* Sugar
* Soy Sauce
* Seafood

Recipes
**Vegetable Sashimi Recipe (cooked in steam tower - requires Vegetables, sesame oil, soy sauce)
**Pork Cutlet Recipe (kooked in hibachi - requires pork loin, white rice, spices)
**Mongolian Beef Recipe (cooked in brasier - requires beef strips, sugar, rice noodles)
**Neptune Platter Recipe (cooked in wok - requires seafood, fresh herbs, hot peppers)

Final Dishes:
***Vegetable Sashimi
***Pork Cutlet
***Mongolian Beef
***Neptune Platter

Once you've sucessfully made all four dishes, the restaurant can be opened again! Now it's time to get some customers. There are 4 NPC's throughout the game that LOVE to eat, and each one is looking for a specific dish. Give each one their favorite dish, and they'll appear at your restaurant, and spend some money there. They will show up as a customer no matter what you feed them, but the amount of money that they spend there depends on which dish you let them try.


This quest path will probably be the least linear of all of them.

This quest path is divided into 2 parts...thief quests, and stealing from NPC's.

At first I was reluctant to put stealing into the game...I mean it's one thing to steal from goblins who are trying to kill you anyway, but to steal from your neighbors? In the end, I decided that yes...this too is a life path...but I made it so that it is VERY, VERY, VERY DANGEROUS. You can get away with it if you're really good...and really lucky...but if you're not? Um.....yeah.

All NPC's in the game start out on the slightly positive side of neutral. The only ways that players can make their overall fame go down, are to either cheat in a buisiness deal, or outright steal from someone. Whether you get caught or not, your overall fame will go down...it just goes down a LOT more if you get caught. The effect of stealing (either in quests or from NPC's) on your fame is cumulative...it erodes people's opinion of you slightly...until you enter 'infamy'...welcome to the wonderful world of 'shun mode'. That's just one of the lovely new concepts introduced by this quest path...the others are death, and imprisonment...aw.

When (and if) you accept the first thief quest, you are given a set of bandit's clothes. When you change into these clothes, you're actually switching out your main character for one of the 2 bandit versions of...you. This character must always fight alone, and his/her stats SUCK. You don't have to equip the bandit's clothes before you go pilfering, but if something goes wrong, it's YOU that takes the blame. With the bandit's clothes on, people will still suspect you, and your overall fame will go down a little bit each time you steal...but they can't ever prove it unless you don't disguise yourself...or if you're sloppy in your crimes (there are 'traps' EVERYwhere). In that case, you're not only shunned, but you go to jail.

Most of the sub-quests within the thief quest are to steal a different highest-level quest item. Since these are all held by questmasters, it's their house you'll be breaking into. If you trigger the guards, you'll have to fight them. If you lose, you wake up in jail...and everyone in town goes into 'shun mode'. If you win, there is about a 50/50 chance that the guards will trigger a burglar alarm. If this happens, the owners of the house wake up...and you have to fight them. If you win this time, you KILL that questmaster...they are gone from the game.

If you do this WITHOUT your bandit's clothes on, the jig is up. You're arrested, put in jail...and have to sit there and wait for morning, so that you can be executed. GAME OVER.

Being shunned by society (either by stealing repeatedly or being arrested), means that you can't continue on any quests...because nobody will talk to you. In this situation, the ONLY people that will still talk to you (more like yell at you) are the thief questmaster, and the SAINT questmaster...who can help you get out of 'shun mode', and provide you with items to bribe the guard when you go to jail. If you don't have one of these, you'll have to spend as much time in jail...doing stupid tedious tasks...as you have earned in your sentence. This amount of time increases by one day every time you're caught.

The thief quest path is the only one which cannot increase your overall fame...it can only hurt it.

This being the case, the quest item for it (the bandit's glove), only affects stealing from NPC's...not your fame. If you try and use a lower-level glove to steal, you may get a small award...but you'll probably get caught...and go to jail. Even if you get away with it, your overall fame will go dawn a bit, because people will strongly suspect you...even though they can't prove anything.

Messing up on a thief quest either means resetting, or you pretty much HAVE to do the saint quest path. At least there's a way to redeem yourself.

This quest path revolves around a woman who has lost all hope that true love still exists in the world. She was once truly in love herself, and was rather horribly betrayed...that, and Mercer's prior ravaging of the land pretty much turned people's minds away from romance to survival, and the gossip fence (of which she was the queen), has been dull for years.

When you take her quest, you're actually showing her...bit by bit...that love is still in the air. She doesn't even care about her own love...she's over that, but she glows when it's around her. Each time you complete a sub-quest within this path, she hears echoes on the grapevine, and her faith in love is restored a little more. The better you are at pitching woo, the more impressed she is ('romance' quest fame).

16 of the NPC's in the game can be flirted with, and any (ONE) of them can be married. There are 8 male, and 8 female characters that can be bonded with in this way. The quest item for this path is the 'cologne' (hey, at least it's better than the 'phrase book' or 'breath spray'...LOL!). If you use the lower level cologne when you flirt with someone, you'll get one reaction, but with higher item levels...the reactions are different. These reactions are different from person to person, but using the 'supreme cologne' will make ANY person at least respond favorably to you. Nobody in the game will actually marry you based solely on this, but it's a prerequisite in any case.

Hmm...I'm thinking I may have more 'flirtable' people in the game, but have it be that only 16 of them can be married...it's something to think about.

In the higher ranks of the romantic quest, you have to find a place to live. This place will be your house for the rest of the game. You don't have to accept the romantic quest to get the house, you just have to have one to finish the romantic quest.

Once this place is established, you just pick one of the 16 people to marry. Each person's requirement to answer 'yes' to your proposal is different, and some are quite tricky...but once you've won a mate, you've completed the quest path. In addition to this, one of 16 NPC's is turned 'on' in your house, and each one will do something different for you...like healing you, curing you, reviving you, making you special dishes, and other things...like provide a bit of conversation.

Once you're married, you can continue to flirt...but it begins to erode your image after a while. This reminds me...I need to add a 'love mode' to my list of modes that certain characters will have.

And yes, there is a way to marry the romance questmaste...mistress. It's a bit heartbreaking, but...it works out for everybody in the end (almost everybody). *SPOILER*...You have to prove to her that her husband is dead, and so he will never come back to her.

The questmaster for the archaeologist quest is a cantankerous old fart...he's the only one who starts out in shun mode. If you played Shining Force 2, then you'll see a similarity between him, and the character named 'Rohde'. Neither character will give you the time of day unless you have something truly ancient to get their attention with.

Once you've done that, you can accept the archaeologist quest.

Throughout the map, there are places that can be excavated using the quest item for this quest...the 'archaeologist tools'. Like the other quests, which level tools you use yields a different bonus to your fame. Within each excavation site are items (including quest items for other paths), and even dungeons to be found.

Probably the coolest thing about this quest path is that if you complete it, you gain the title to a completely undeveloped land (the other world map). Within this land are many, many ancient sites to discover and excavate! This new realm is dangerous, but rewarding. Several side quests (treasure hunter, inventor, and librarian) can be completed here, as well as the gold lying buried within the ruins.

The trader quest begins with an old man who is standing outside of his shop...which is now closed. This man was once a mogul, with a chain of 3 stores...but after Mercer's rampage, his business collapsed, and he was forced to close all three of them. He earned his fortune by working his way up from his humble trader background, and to earn his respect, you have to do the same.

There are several NPC's in the game that have the 'trade' option. Each one is looking for a different item, and will trade you a different item for it. The questmaster is looking for certain items, and if you can manage to obtain them through trading, the old man is able to open his shops once again...one by one. In order to complete the quest path, you must open all three stores. Like most of the other quest paths, the level of your 'trader's scales' determines the amount of fame that you receive from each instance where you use them in the quest.

This quest path introduces two characters who provide sub-quests...the old man's 2 sons. They both have left the small town of Moyos, and moved to the much larger, nearby town of Karn to seek their fortunes. One is a treasure-hunter, and the other is an inventor...who is the reason why you've been finding all of these weird things through trading. It seems that the old man hid a good bit of gold by burying it...but now he can't remember where he buried it. His inventor son is working on a device called a 'metal detector' to find the stashes...but he needs the parts first. Once you've had him make the metal detector, you can use it in many places throughout the game. Hidden events all over the place wait for the metal detector to be in your inventory before you can see them and dig them up. You can walk right over them a million times without knowing it...but once you have the metal detector, you can find them. There are other items that he can invent...like a 'sonar' for finding underwater treasures.

The other son, the treasure hunter, simply buys treasures from you if you no longer need them.

Once you complete the quest path, certain...drastic events occur. If your quest fame as a trader is high enough, you become the owner of the store chain. The passing of each day is tracked with a variable in the game, and each day that you are in posession of a store, you recieve a certain amount of gold. The amount will probably correspond with your quest fame...maybe in 4 tiers.

Even if you complete the path with low quest fame, you still have opened all of the stores, and as a result you can now buy from them. Most of the best equips (but not all) are bought...all of the others are found in other quest paths...especially the archaeologist path. This being the case, it's in your best interest to open them as soon as you can.

This path requires you to trudge through enemy-infested areas, and do other unsavory activities...all for the good of humanity. There are people who need the 'relief supplies' that you carry...and you have to make sure that they get them. This often includes many encounters with enemies, but that makes this quest path a good choice if you want to train up for another quest path.

One of the main purposes for this quest is to pull your name out of the gutter. If the people in town are in shun mode, you'll need to talk to Hugo in the church (he's one of only two people that will talk to you). There's a certain religious token that can be won on this quest...you can sell it to the treasure hunter for a LOT of money...or you can sacrifice it at the shrine. If you do this, then Hugo will vouch for your ernest intentions, and people will resume talking to you again. Also available in this path are tokens that allow you to bribe the guards, and get out of prison (very few of them). These will not work if you are scheduled for execution...you're explative is deleted.

Thank you, Ix!! I hope it's ok if I quote you on this clone thread...I meant to ask you to move the old one, but wound up copying it over here for some reason. I should probably lock that one, or if you would rather, you could just axe it.

I think I'm done with the basic outline for the game mechanics, and a good start on each quest path. Now though, some questions remain:

- How will I interconnect the quest paths? I like the idea that the 8 paths are non-linear...and so I'm going to try as much as possible to maintain this. You won't HAVE to complete part of one path to open part of another...usually...but I think a certain amount of this is inevitable...especially with quests like 'archaeologist', which opens up dungeons that almost all quest paths will use. The quest tools, however, are the key. Let's say a player completes the romantic quest without first completing any part of any other quest path. That's possible, but the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th-level colognes are all found in other quest paths.

- How will I distribute the treasures within the subquests of each quest path? I guess I'll just have to wait until I get to the 'questmaking' stage of development, and see how it goes. I have a vague idea how the 8 levels will be designed for each quest path...but it's still fairly amorphous at this time. I know that (probably) every quest path will have at least one trip through a map with battles (of one sort or another), or a dungeon...but which quest levels include these will probably be different for each quest path.

- I know I'll be tracking the passage of time for several reasons, but will certain game events happen on certain days? What about the weather? I know the weather is going to change every day (at least once), but will that be carved in stone (on October 20th, it will be stormy), or will it be controlled by a variable that changes throughout the game somehow (simulated random weather)? I'm leaning more toward the last one. Some events will probably be set to occur on a certain day, or a certain number of days after another event...but I'd like to keep that to a minimum, because I hate time limits in games. If I can, I will most definitely have a yearly cycle, with spring, summer, fall, and winter. I'll probably make a season be 30 days, so in 120 days players will see an entire year elapse. I'm probably going to have 3 invisible events for this...one which adds one to the 'time of year' variable at nightfall each day, and 2 which respond to this variable...one by changing the weather, and one by changing the season. Maybe those last 2 could be combined into one. If I track the weather and season with two seperate variables, then I may even be able to add a special 'weather mode' to NPC's...and if it's winter and raining, people could say 'it's snowing!' when you enter 'chat mode' with them...maybe. I actually don't think you can set an event branch to occur if X=3 AND Y=3...I'll have to check and make sure. This could also work if it was Summer, and Sunny NPC's could say 'It's HOT today!'

- The possible main characters need to be grouped somehow...maybe 4 groups with 2 each within? There also needs to be similar divisions in the 8 quest paths, and these 2 divided systems need to correspond with each other somehow. I need to do this, because I've decided that which adult hero form you become will depend on your interactions within the 8 quest paths. I know this is the opposite of what I envisioned initially, but I'm liking the idea.

Here's how the life-events are going to go (as of right now):

At the beginning of the game, there's a knock at the orphanage door. The proprietor (you) opens the door, and finds a basket on the doorstep. "Why, it's a..." (boy/girl). You select which one it is, and you begin the game as either Victor or Zoey. During this stage, your interactions are limited...you don't have access to anybody's 'basic mode', so stealing, flirting, quests, etc. are out for now. However, key people will ask you questions which will determine which adolescent form you take.

During your adolescent stage, the NPC's greet you with a similar (non-adult) message, but this time it gives way to 'basic mode'...which means you now have access to any NPC options that they might have. During this time, you can still talk to people...especially the 8 questmasters, who again ask you questions. Your responses to these questions will determine your adult form. I still haven't quite worked out how.

Any comments? Suggestions?

I just want to say that this and Siren's Reef (Whispers in the Woods 2) are the two RM3 games I'm really looking forward to.

Oh wow... I like all the effort you are putting into this thread.

I'm highly interested in your game. Great concepts.

THANK you BOTH!! In about a week I should be done with some duties over at the Pavilion, and for the first time since I first got the ideas for the game there won't be any other RM3 games I've promised to play, or screenshots I've promised to make...nothing but Tree of Lifeness for a while.

Um...YAY!!

I already have a plan of action for what I'll jump right into first...making the game intro, and both characters' beginning game storytellers. Once that's done, I'll focus on the quest paths...probably just picking one and taking it sub-quest by sub-quest until it's done. Since the quests are one of the most important things in the game, designing those will require me to design dungeons and edit land areas on the map to suit them as I go...the building of them will revolve around the quests, as the game revolves around them.

Once the quests are done, I'll worry about enemies, weapons, skills, equips, and item distribution within the paths...all of that will be last.

Then mechanics, polish, playtest, rinse, repeat...yup...can't wait. LOL!!

...I really can't...

I've been working on a checklist to plan and document my progress in the production of the game...I'll post it here soon.

Thanks again!!

This topic was a fascinating read. It sounds absolutely epic in scope, and
much more intricate than anything I'm working on or even planning on
working on. Kudos, dude. I don't know how you came up with all of
this, but it's quite amazing.

When you pull this off, you will be a legendary master of game design.

I agree with Crythania! I hope you're still pluggin' away at it.

I love you guys.

Guess what?

What?

THE DEMO VERSION OF TREE OF LIFE IS READY!!!! :D:D:D

Yup...it's playable up to the adolescent stage! It's only about an hour of gameplay, but since the story splits in half, and then each half splits again, it's actually quite a bit of coding done. The demo goes like this:

- You choose whether you play as Zoey or Victor, and see the storyteller.
- There are 9 people you can talk to in town. 8 of them are mandatory, 1 is optional (but potentially very important).
- You will talk to these people, and each will ask you a question. Depending on whether you are optimistic or pessimistic in your responses, you will either be adopted by family 1, or by family 2.
- You'll can see the storytellers for each branch, and get to talk to your adopted parents...but that's about all for the demo.

I tried to make each story branch different, yet tied into all of the others somehow. Players who check out the demo can play 4 times, and each time can be different!

I'm also about to release the FINAL version of Shadow of the Towers, and I want to release it first, before anything else. I wanted to have it playtested by someone other than me, but nobody can do it for me...unless someone HERE can? Pretty please? I'd really like to get that out before I release the demo version of Tree of Life, even though it's finished. I can always work on polishing it up some more while the first game is being playtested, but if not I think I'll have to go ahead and upload the final version. I've tested it 3 times, but it's probably still not enough.

This is probably going to be the biggest update since I started this thread.

Ok, well a few days ago I had only done about 5 of the 14 people that had the 'Trade' NPC option. I knew (about) how much data was required to do 1 of those NPC's, and so I just added it up in my head. I estimated that by the time I got done with the rest of the trade modes, I'd be at about 88.5%, As it turned out, however, I finished the trade modes at right at 88.2%. Also, 'steal' is only on 2 NPC's, and it required little data. Thirdly, 'Join' was by far the simplest, least-mem-using NPC option yet. As a result, I wound up finishing all NPC modes at under 86%! But then I still had to worry about finishing all 8 quest paths...even WITH that good luck, it didn't seem like I was going to have enough room.

Then I actually started seriously planning and executing the quest paths...and found that I had alotted WAY more modes to 'quest' than I needed. I'm glad I did it that way, it's better to have too much and get rid of some than to not have enough...and have no more room to add anything.

Now I'm totally done with 1 quest path (cook), VERY close with 2 others (romantic and trade), and my DU is right at 89%. It looks like I'm ACTUALLY going to be able to fit all modes...including all quest modes...into my projected goal of 90% DU or less! I can't believe it...I just can't.

Speaking of the Trade quest, Wiring that thing up was a HUGE headache. Ok, here's how 'trade' goes: There are 14 people in the game with the 'trade' NPC option, and 8 items to be traded. I had to track all 8 items with a variable, but it worked well. Basically, for any trade item that you can have, there are 2 people who want it. One person will trade you 'X' for it, and the other will trade you 'Y'. All 8 items are required for either the Cook quest or the Trade quest, so you can trade your cookware for Chester's invention materials when you're done with them, or vice versa. It's even set up so that you can 'use' an invention part, trade it for another one, use that one, and trade it for another one, use it, trade that for a Wok to use on the cook quest, use it, then trade that for a Hibachi....on like that. It's a cycle (actually 2 cycles) that you can use to get whatever you want from it whenever you want...if you know how to do it. Using that, you can complete the cook quest and the trade quest in tandem. Like I said, it was a roaring monstrosity to build and playtest, but it works! With all that out of the way, the rest of the Trade quest was EASY...so far. I stll have to make 1 'minigame' to complete the trade path all the way. It's a minigame where you lower one of Chester's inventions down into a cave through a shaft, and steer it remotely to find the last important stash of Maximillian's, and open the 3rd shop (jewelry store). Once you do that, the 'trader' path is complete.

Another NPC option that I've finished (like I already said) was 'join'. I had a fairly major problem at first. You see, there's no way to prevent someone from switching another character to be the main hero...and the game is based on how ZOEY OR VICTOR interact with the people of that world. Nothing was preventing some smartass from putting the damn DOG in the lead party position and then flirting with everybody...while ZOEY took all the credit! That aint right! I had to figure some way around it.

It was another one of those moments...where I'm mad about something not working out, but my solution to the problem actually exceeds my expectations, and works even better than it would have otherwise. I decided that, given Moyos' violent past, there was a town ordinance passed that forbade armed bands from setting foot in Moyos...upon threat of imprisonment or worse. If you want to have some people join you for an adventure, you have to meet them beyond the gates of town. Makes sense, right? The thing I really love about it though, is that when you step past the 'no-party' zone, it checks to see who's agreed to meet you there...and one by one they appear and utter their battle calls...it's like a roll call or something. Anyway, I love it. When you come back from the other side, you don't even realise anything happened, but it kicks everybody out of your party so that you can enter town. I like how all of that works, but more importantly it keeps it so that ONLY the main character (whichever one it is) is in the party while in town.

And here's another incentive to do battle. The real estate agency of Moyos only accepts one kind of currency as payment for a house...INT points. The town of moyos was struggling to survive in the wild area of the world, so it was decided that the only way to own property was to help rid the area of dangerous pests, and encourage the town to grow. When defeated, these enemies drop 'Indiginous Nuisance Tokens' which can be collected and traded for a house. Since there's only one house for sale, and it costs 100 INT points, you'll have to defeat 100 enemies in order to collect enough tokens to buy the house. So far, there are only 2 ways of getting INT points...the way I just mentioned, and by completing the Romantic quest. When you do that, Althea will grant you 75 INT points to go toward the house, but you'll still have to fight for the other 25. Enemy parties with 3 enemies will grant 3 INT points, parties with 4 will grant 4...etc. It would make sense that nobody had bought the house, since the armor, weapon, and accesory shops had all been closed for a while. And yes, I'm actually hijacking the 'INT' stat. It's at least one variable amount that can be displayed in-game. If your current INT is '97', then you only need to fight one more party of 3 enemies to earn enough points for the house.

And you know...90% of the game will be honing, directing, and customising your character to achieve the adult form that you want with the stat bonuses, items, and weapons that you want. The result of all that is for the remaining 10%...the battles. Honestly, I've found that when you've spent 8-10 hours making and building your character, you start to have some time/energy and maybe even emotion invested in them, and so you really want to see them in battle if for no other reason than to see them in a new way, doing things besides interacting with people. You earned those skills and that character by guiding their actions through the...years! Not only that, but when you consume an order of 'Mongolian Beef' in battle, it's not just something you found festering in a chest...or bought for 150 gold. You tracked down all of the ingredients, the cookware, and the recipe to make it...YOU were the one who actually made it for the first time, and went around recruiting customers to the restaurant simply for the PRIVILEDGE of BUYING IT from the store once you opened it. Also, that sword you're using wasn't just found in a field (or in a stone, for that matter). You traded for the parts to make the metal detector to find the buried stash of gold to open the weapon shop just so that you could buy that sword. Things like that give a whole new dynamic to the battles, and makes them far more enjoyable. Plus I've tried in any ways possible to MILK the battle engiene in RM3 for every single drop of joy that can be generated with it. I learned a lot from making Shadow of the Towers...the battles in that were much more central, but I learned a few tricks to speed things up and keep things interesting to spice up Tree of Life...and that's all battles really are in it...the cinnamon...on the icing...on the cake.

I guess I should also mention that the explanations of the NPC mode dynamics in the first post of this thread are now out of date. And yes I know I should just update it but I'm not...I'm going to just tell you about it instead and then go pass out. So there. I realised that it was possible for someone to find the highest-level quest item for another path without ever accepting even the first subquest on that quest path. The problem with THAT, is that when you finally DO accept that quest path, you're given the lowest-level tools for that path, and your 'quest tool level' variable is altered accordingly...which would over-ride your current (higher) quest tool level. I had to add a VC branch in all 8 quest paths that checks your current quest tool level before it gives you the lower one. It was another major headache...but it works now, and as a result one of the main fundamental concepts of the game was spared from a grizzly demise.....................and it STILL only took up one mode! (With 0 lines of code to spare). I'm still truly amazed by the number of NPC option modes in the game that took up EXACTLY 50 lines of code. Seriously...wtf is up with that?

Oh, and I've done a lot of work on the world map. You can now leave the acropolis in the center of the map where Moyos is, and venture onto the world map's other areas. There are stone bridges over many of the rivers, and other areas which are not accessable yet. Overall I'm liking it so far, but I wish you could have more than one kind of tree/forest per climate per map. I love how the 'temperate 1' trees change with the seasons, but the evergreens of 'european' suit the ancient theme of Moyos much better, as they look like Greek cypresses...sort of. Anyway, I wish I could have both on the world map, because it's going to be hell to decide. I guess it all depends on whether I'll have enough room to keep the bonus map (gained from the archaeologist quest), or whether I'll have to axe it. If I DO have to axe it...'Lembria' will be the only map in the game...and I'll go insane. If I can keep that map, then it won't matter so much. I can just have the Lembria map be 'temperate' to show off the fact that the seasons are changing, and 'europen' for the other map to accentuate it's ancient...ness.

While I'm overjoyed that it looks very strongly like I'm going to have plenty of room for battles and extras, there is one slight detail that I've overlooked....If I have 13 (total) join-able characters, then I'm going to have to have 13 CLASSES to attatch to them. Never MIND the quest masters that can be fought on the thief quest if you **** up. For each questmaster you can fight, there's another class I have to add. Umm...duh. I at least had the foresight to make classes for all of the 14 possible hero forms (including the 'thief' forms), and a few more...but not 13. That's ANOTHER thing that's going to have to be accounted for in the final stretches...that, in addition to the enemies and enemy parties that I already accounted for (the last 10%).

This is a rollercoaster ride. It's a good thing I like rollercoasters, but this one might just kill my fat ass.

In closing, I can't believe I'm typing this...but this damn game is almost finished. It'll be at LEAST a good strong demo soon, where you can achieve all 8 possible adult forms, and all 8 quest paths are complete-able. I know I might as well just complete the game at that point, but the demo will be completely playable without getting into one single battle if you don't want to. In order to release the full version of the game I'll have to make enemies (including stats and skills), enemy parties, hero classes (including stats and skills), and finish designing all of the blank equips that I've already made as placeholders. That's still quite a bit...I guess...so I guess it's premature to say I'm 'almost finished', but a HUGE portion of the game is done. I guess I should put it this way: All I have to do before I can release a good, solid demo is to enter text into a few (a lot of) empty dialogue boxes, and finish 5 quest paths...and that's not a whole lot. The event which brings about the adult stage could use a little work, but it's already there for the most part.

Still a fascinating read, dude. You are a master of gameplay dynamics in my book.

Using the Int stat as a visible counter for collectable items...
That is the most brilliant gameplay idea I've ever seen posited! And
so elegantly simple, too. Wow! Truly inspired.