2D MMO for Firefly in the works. by dreamlarp

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

2D MMO for Firefly in the works.

POSTED BY: DREAMLARP
UPDATED: Friday, July 16, 2010 21:18
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Saturday, July 3, 2010 6:30 AM

Terraforma: The Border Moons
http://bordermoons.webs.com/index.htm

I am Just starting to put together a 2D MMO game where players can roleplay out life in Joss Whedon's Firefly/Serenity like Universe.
Firefly had a great overall theme and the episodes were "hilarious". The whole concept is just perfect for a mmo.
Besides there are so many in the various Firefly fan communities that have been waiting for the official game since 2005. This will give them something to chew on till all the huha gets settled.
The FF fan community is more social than just grind/quest oriented. I can see city wide rever invasions being a big hit. The monsters are simple since they are all humans. Revers, space pirates and brigands. Quests are mainly heists, protections and smuggling. Most of the border moons are old school western or oriental. Lots of gun slinging.
I would love to make this gave isometric.

Almost all of these features are in the scripts section of the website. I do need some of them tailored for this game. I would like to pick the time and sprite set and have these scripts put in before all the mapping.

I am in the planning stages and I could use some help with some things.
Sprites for western and oriental char's and buildings.
Some firefly like ships. All isometric if possible.
The engine I am using is the Eclips 2D mmo maker http://www.freemmorpgmaker.com/index.php Its a VB6 based engine so is anyone has skill in VB6 I could use your help.

FEATURES D-Done X-Not Done I-In Progress

X Player housing. Ship/planets.
X Skill sets, mining, farming, fishing,lumberjacking, mechanic, pilot,
X Maps
X Quest system. Quest logs also
X Crew/Guild system.
X GUI/Graphics.
X Skill menu's
X Mounts horses/vehicles
X Containers Bags/boxes/chests.
X Player shops
X Achievement system
X Crafting system
X Invasions system.
X Raid system

Player housing. Ship/planets.
I need players to be able to have a house on one of the planets only and one ship. The problem with ships is that I don’t know how to give each player a ship without making a separate map for each player.

Skill sets, mining, farming, fishing, lumberjacking, mechanic, pilot,
I would like them to be able to pick only one profession such as miner/farmer. If the player picks pilot or mechanic they can not pick miner or fishing ect..
However all players will be able to pilot their ship in a basic fashion like auto pilot to the next planet. But only pilots can maneuver in space to do things like space mining.

Maps
Every planet will have a space port that is exactly the same. I’m not sure how to copy a map in EE yet. Each planet or zone like space/ space station or planet should start with the port and have like 50-100 maps between space port numbers. Exp Osiris space port map#1 Zues space port map# 50.

Quest system. Quest logs also
Most will be clear an area/kill so much mobs, protect the homestead, escort the farmers, smuggle these items ect.. However I would like many several parts quests and a couple of raids. All players will have to clear the area around the house, farm, ranch before they can buy it from the magistrate. I will also like to have class/profession quests to advance.

Crew/Guild system.
The guild system will be for the crews of larger ships. Players can get together and trade all their single player ships for a guild ship. Or trade in their houses for a guild house/worlord’s/priates hideout.

GUI/Graphics.
I just need GUI’s and a few items like rocket launchers, most isometric if I can find any. I will probably use a lot of Riener’s ect.

Skill menu's
I’m planning to use spells like class abilities and weapons like rocket launchers ect.
I will need passive skill system for pilot/miner.

Mounts horses/vehicles
I would like horses and four wheelers or other ground vehicles.

Containers Bags/boxes/chests.
I would like bags for extra inventory space and also crates, boxes and chats for ships and houses.

Player shops
I would like the player to be able to set up his own shop and stock, price and describe his items.

Achievement system
Quest log/kill counter.

Crafting system
For ship parts, furniture, weapons, Medicine and food. Maybe other items.

Invasions system.
I would like to be able to spawn a large group of mobs on any map for a set amount of time or until so many are killed in a time period.

Raid system
I would like up to two groups up to 12 players to get a quest and go on raids. One for each 10 level block.
I.E. Kill the pirate king.

Classes
Commando: You've seen every trick in the book and have made up a few that none's caught on to yet. Still, everyone has a price, and everyone plays by the system. Heavy weapons are your specialty. Blow it up is your moto.

Mercenary
A mercenary is a hired warrior, usually proficient in a number of firearms. Anyone involved in shady dealing aught to have a mercenary at their side. Implied with this cliché is a mind for money matters, if only tangentially.

Trooper: You are new to the uniform and are still so proud the creases haven't shown the slightest sign of dimming. You have the boundless energy to work hard and show the brass what you are made for. That it occasionally makes you a mark, well, you'll show them.

Monk Martial Artist: Monks have hand to hand combat skills, and can fight with or without weapons, using fists or staves, and able to use only leather armor and lighter because of their weight limit restriction.

Mechanic: Like the doctor, the mechanic is all about putting things right. A starship is the most important thing the PCs have. If it fails, it can mean the death of the entire group. Beyond just fixing the ship, a mechanic may also be able to coax it into performing beyond normal expectations.

Doctor/Surgeon: Because the 'Verse is a dangerous place, a doctor is indispensable to the crew. The doctor should be able to heal any kind of damage inflicted in combat, given the correct tools, within reason.

Pilot: Every ship in the sky needs a competent pilot to make sure it gets pointed in the right direction. As a pilot grows in ability, they can make their ship perform increasingly complicated maneuvers.

Professions
Miner
Farmer
Lumberjack
Fisherman
Herbalist

Craftsman
Smith
Mechanic
Doctor
Cook
Carpenter

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Saturday, July 3, 2010 10:32 AM

BYTEMITE

Mechanics could also be useful for some on-job activities, like deactivating security systems, shutting off power or video monitoring, and etc.

Might I recommend you look into altering some of the old Fallout character sprites? There might be a few other games that could be useful, also.

For the ships, you could just have a dock area in the major towns with all the kinds of ships available for purchase in the game, this could double as where people go to open up various crew/"guild hall" related menus.

You could then have pilots be able to reach different options from these same menus.

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Saturday, July 3, 2010 5:54 PM

DREAMLARP

I was thinking of doing all those things you said. I have space dock on each planet were you can Buy ships and also enter your ship inside.
The doc and mec are going to have jobs during off ship play. I.E. the dock makes para gas and doubles as crowd control. the mec can throw emp's to stop robots.... I am still looking for a graphix guy to help with sprites, GUI's and tiles. I have planned and wrote out most of the game. I also spent some time getting to know the engine and finding the scripts for these features. I still need a developement team to help me with this game. The VB6 scripter is probably the first team member I will need. I will post updates of the team and game progress.
Keep flying peeps.

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Sunday, July 4, 2010 10:13 AM

MICJWELCH

I'd suggest heading over to http://fireflyprops.net/ and seeing if anyone there would be willing to contribute some artwork. Those guys are very good.

Keep us updated. I think it's probably obvious, but you'll have a lot of people willing to play once it gets up and going.

"Always be yourself. Unless You suck." - Joss Whedon

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Sunday, July 4, 2010 7:16 PM

BYTEMITE

Hmm, another thing you could maybe do is go check out some of the other Firefly games being made, someone might be doing something similar, and they might be farther along.

If you do try to continue to making your own, all you need at first for people to play is a starter town and a simple map for PvP. Then you can add more as you make it.

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Friday, July 9, 2010 9:09 AM

DREAMLARP

I am comming along with this project. I have only a few features left to add to the game engine before I start mapping.

I have looked for other firefly based games and all have stopped production. And the only graphics one thats not a mud was a nwn mod.

I still need a good graphics person to help with sprites and items. But I have a great isometric tile set for the game already. I am missing the sprites and items sheet with guns, lots of guns.
Most sprites are 32x64 and items 32x32.

I have seen some good fallout rips but none that are bmp. And none for player mobs.

I will keep you guys posted as the features get done and I make progress on the game.

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Friday, July 9, 2010 9:29 AM

BYTEMITE

Does this help?

It's a viewer for various file formats sprites can come in.

http://www.duckandcover.cx/tactics/modtools/redviewer.ace

If that doesn't work, the frm2gif program here apparently will take an input file and convert it to a gif, which you could then open in mspaint and save as a bmp.

http://members.fortunecity.com/noid84/utils.html

I notice a lot of Fallout stuff comes in something called a frame file, you might be able to use this to rip the frames and save as bmps, and some there cobble together into a sprite sheet?

Here's a bunch of Fallout frame packs.

http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/dload.php?action=category&cat_id=53

I've actually done some spriting in the past, modifying character sprites to give them their own style and also improve aesthetic quality, like face and clothing. I'm afraid I have a lot of stuff going on though, otherwise I'd happily try to help you add some multi-cultural accents and colour to this. Maybe in later versions, after you get this main version running?

I'm pretty crap for landscapes though... Not so great at making sprites from nothing, usually need a base to work from.

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Friday, July 9, 2010 9:51 AM

BYTEMITE

I also found this really nice sprite sheet for Max Payne, you might be able to use it, might not. I'm not really sure how big the frame file sprites look in comparison. Size disparity not good!

You're makin' me really wanna help, you know, I like spriting, just, so busy... ._.

http://www.spriters-resource.com/gameboy_advance/maxpayne/sheet/9600

Tell you what, I'm writing this story right now, if I could get the next freakin' chapter done, I could try to work on this some weekends... But it's going to be tricky.

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Sunday, July 11, 2010 9:33 AM

JTHEI

Just came across this thread and I'm extremely interested. I've worked as a graphic designer for a little over a decade and I'm about 2/3 of the way through a second undergrad degree in Video Game design. That being said, I may be able to help out with your project in some way (never done sprites but I don't think it would be a huge challenge).

As it turns out, I'm about a week away from three solid weeks off of work - so I will have some time on my hands really soon. I'll watch this thread.

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Sunday, July 11, 2010 11:24 AM

DREAMLARP

Thank you all so much. Sorry it took so long I have been working on the engine features. I wanna give the players lots of shiny features.

The engine is comming a long great. and I am happy that jthei came by and joined the team. The features may take only a few more dayz. Then its all graphix and mapping. It wont be that long folks.
No power in the verse can stop us now....

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Sunday, July 11, 2010 4:00 PM

BYTEMITE

Taking a long time? Trust me, you seem to be flying along if you already have your engine almost scripted. That's part of the reason you have enticed me. That, and sprites are both a really easy kind of game to make, a good choice for compatibility for players, good for representing what my impression is what you want to do, and something I know how to do.

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Sunday, July 11, 2010 4:22 PM

DREAMLARP

Go take a look at the photo's section.
http://bordermoons.webs.com/

These are going to be the first 3 systems we have in the game.
With Osiris system being the first for release.

The Osiris system will be the first. it will have 3 moons, a space staion and a reaver ship raid dungeon.

This first system will be for levels 1-30.

I have 9 systems planned for the long run with one system comming out per patch.each patch will raise the level by 10 and have a new system, items, dungeons, raids and maybe advanced classes and skills(spells).

This project is gonna be great!!!

P.S.
Next I'm working on the player housing/ships.
Players will be able to buy houses as well as ships. but they both will be Guild/crew owned.
This should promote a good serenity feal. Ships will be able to travel from planet to planet. Players will be able to walk around in them and only a pilot can fly one. I dont want to give too much away so just pop by the site from time to time. I'm gonna get a good site soon. That will wait for the engine to get done. I will need a host for the server so the team can work on it.

Keep flying peeps.

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Sunday, July 11, 2010 4:28 PM

BYTEMITE

Yeah, I saw some of your maps, at first I was slightly confused because it's different from firefly, then I reread the basis you're working on.

You're creating a slightly different setting so Fox and Universal can't shut you down. :D smart move.

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Sunday, July 11, 2010 4:54 PM

DREAMLARP

Thx byte, ha ha some pleaple didnt get that. I trying to create the feal not the exact theme.
I want people to get together and do stuff. To see what fun it is to be a part of a crew in a mmo. The ships will be guild houses so it should be a lot of fun.

stay shiny.

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Sunday, July 11, 2010 6:39 PM

DREAMLARP

Ok I chacked out the fallout sprites and I cant realy use em. I did find some great sprites here:
http://reinerstileset.4players.de/englisch.html

There free to use and one of the guys in the game site already used em. I can use most as they are, just Put into the engines sprite sheet format but I will need some moded for my classes. Most of them are for fantasy games.
I do have a blank chactor of his sprites for our spriter to use and mod.

jthei came by and joined the team. I hope our sprite need will be solved now.

Well back to work.

Stay shiny.

[URL= http://www.freemmorpgmaker.com/files/imagehost/#25d5d90a904ffcc248efe0
023523e170.bmp][IMG]http://www.freemmorpgmaker.com/files/imagehost/pics/25d5d90a904ffcc248efe0023523e170.bmp[/IMG][/URL]

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Monday, July 12, 2010 9:02 AM

DREAMLARP

Opps, I forgot sound effects,If anyone is good at midi's sfx plz stop by the site and let me know if you can help.

Keep flying!!

[URL= http://www.freemmorpgmaker.com/files/imagehost/#25d5d90a904ffcc248efe0
023523e170.bmp][IMG]http://www.freemmorpgmaker.com/files/imagehost/pics/25d5d90a904ffcc248efe0023523e170.bmp[/IMG][/URL]

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Thursday, July 15, 2010 4:18 PM

DREAMLARP

Getting together the quests and stuff. I could use some help with the writting.

The quests are in this format.

Start text:

Acual, (what the npc sais while the quest is still not complete)

Finished text:

After text:

The quests will mostly be kill this mob get collect these items.

I will need lots of them for skills.
If anyone has writting skills please send me a message.

[URL= http://www.freemmorpgmaker.com/files/imagehost/#25d5d90a904ffcc248efe0
023523e170.bmp][IMG]http://www.freemmorpgmaker.com/files/imagehost/pics/25d5d90a904ffcc248efe0023523e170.bmp[/IMG][/URL]

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Friday, July 16, 2010 9:18 PM

MICJWELCH

I sent you a message. I'm pretty busy with a bunch of other projects, but I would still love to be able to help with the writing.

"Always be yourself. Unless You suck." - Joss Whedon

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