From The Mana World
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==WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!==
If you're interested enough to read the following ideas, please consider leaving some feedback.


I left the "Creatures" page with a yellow concept status because it still conforms with our going plan.  It will act as our roadmap for race design/implementation.  Please try to be patient and not get too frustrated that I'm moving things around and seemingly removing data.  I am taking everything that I am touching in to strong consideration, before doing anything.
==swimming & oceanwalking==


==WHY WEREN'T YOU ON IRC TODAY?!==
Swimming does not work in the same manner as it does, on the real world.  On the mana world, the only place where one can swim, is where the water meets air.  Any level of swimming ability probably determines how fast you're able to move across this top layer of airy water.  You can only swim on the surface of the water and can not simply sink, or dive downward to access the ocean floor; No Z-axis.


My stupid connection has been timing out over and over again, since last night; I'm not even bothering with IRC until it stops acting upHopefully when I awake tomorrow to keep updating stuff, it will be better and I can actually drop in like I'm supposed to.
However, if you have gills or some other method of waterbreathing, you can walk safely on the ocean floor.  As stated, this can not be accomplished by sinking or diving, since the layer of airy water can not be penetratedThe only common places to access the ocean floor, are beaches.  Beaches serve as ramps to and from the ocean floor.  There probably aren't very many access points to the ocean floor.


With this contrast between swimming and oceanwalking, we can allow people to swim without ever having to depict under-water swimming. (which would require more sprite frames) Swimming can be portrayed as simply as it is in other 2d games, like Zelda and Graal.. where the character's head is (partially) above water, with some simple splashing graphics and sounds to assist the illusion.


==PS==
Under-water travel on the other hand, could be done fairly exactly as it's done in the SNES title "Breath of Fire".. a method of which I am very fond.


I'll remove this lump of discussion tomorrow.  Also tomorrow, I will be cleaning up the Geography page and temporarily (indefinitely?) eliminating the Organizations page.  After that, I will begin to make necessary changes to the Backstory, in order to make it more consistent and readable.  Pajarico recently brought up the claim that the backstory inspires too many perspectives from a single tale, to which I could not agree more.  At some point after finishing the minor changes to the backstory, I would like to add some concept art to set a few things in stone, but this will probably end up being done much later, since I still have to actually continue working on the timeline and history AFTER what is currently written.


No need to respond either, just letting everyone know what's up.


==elements and materials==


I've been trying to come up with a material tree, based on three fundamentals: The fantasy-style elements that we've adopted, the real-life table of elements and of course, as the governing guideline, the rule of cool.  Unfortunately, I was once again unable to come up with a complete idea on my own, but this is the gist of it.


[[User:Dabe|Dabe]] 07:19, 4 February 2007 (CET)
 
===energy to matter===
Using the following forces, elemental energy can be converted in to various types of matter.
 
*fire = heat
*lightning = electricity
*air = gas? wind?
*ice = cold
*water = moisture
*plant = acid
*earth = pressure
*metal = magnetics? gauss?
 
 
 
These could be some of the basic forms of matter that we're able to create from elemental energy.  ''Metal is the only complete set amongst these examples.''
 
 
;Earth:sulfer (heat), lithium (elec), silicon (pressure), carbon (magnet)
 
;Metal:iron (heat), aluminum (elec), titanium (gas), cobalt (cold), tin (moisture), zinc (acid), lead (pressure), nickel (magnet)
 
''Aside from the potential to be blended in to alloys, each type of metal could have various forms of modification applied to them.''  (hardened, tempered, galvanized, etc..)
 
 
;Air:nitrogen (cold), hydrogen (moisture), xenon (acid)
 
 
 
''obviously, it's a little easier to do with Metal than the others.''  I imagined this might somehow lead to a the development of a metal / alloy-tree, that would actually have some sort of function beyond sounding cool.  Another purpose was to provide a foundation for at least some level of familiarity.  For example, it's fairly common knowledge that steel is usually made from a mixture of iron and carbon; wouldn't it be cool if that mixture ''actually'' resulted in a steel product, when you tried it in-game?  It would definitely take some discussion to make it usable, but I would love to see a material tree developed beyond a generic list of things like, "ore, wood, blah blah blah.."
 
 
Another piece of the idea was to reference historical alchemy.  The above mentioned metals could be basic forms of the precious metals.  Iron could be turned in to Gold, while titanium could be turned in to Silver.  Aluminum (being relative to electricity which is between Silver and Gold) could be turned in to Electrum.  If we did this, an imbalance in currency value could be avoided, by using fiat currency in all civilized areas.  Precious metals might then be reduced to a value more relative to their usable qualities.
 
 
 
 
==comments==

Latest revision as of 16:28, 8 January 2009

If you're interested enough to read the following ideas, please consider leaving some feedback.

swimming & oceanwalking

Swimming does not work in the same manner as it does, on the real world. On the mana world, the only place where one can swim, is where the water meets air. Any level of swimming ability probably determines how fast you're able to move across this top layer of airy water. You can only swim on the surface of the water and can not simply sink, or dive downward to access the ocean floor; No Z-axis.

However, if you have gills or some other method of waterbreathing, you can walk safely on the ocean floor. As stated, this can not be accomplished by sinking or diving, since the layer of airy water can not be penetrated. The only common places to access the ocean floor, are beaches. Beaches serve as ramps to and from the ocean floor. There probably aren't very many access points to the ocean floor.

With this contrast between swimming and oceanwalking, we can allow people to swim without ever having to depict under-water swimming. (which would require more sprite frames) Swimming can be portrayed as simply as it is in other 2d games, like Zelda and Graal.. where the character's head is (partially) above water, with some simple splashing graphics and sounds to assist the illusion.

Under-water travel on the other hand, could be done fairly exactly as it's done in the SNES title "Breath of Fire".. a method of which I am very fond.


elements and materials

I've been trying to come up with a material tree, based on three fundamentals: The fantasy-style elements that we've adopted, the real-life table of elements and of course, as the governing guideline, the rule of cool. Unfortunately, I was once again unable to come up with a complete idea on my own, but this is the gist of it.


energy to matter

Using the following forces, elemental energy can be converted in to various types of matter.

  • fire = heat
  • lightning = electricity
  • air = gas? wind?
  • ice = cold
  • water = moisture
  • plant = acid
  • earth = pressure
  • metal = magnetics? gauss?


These could be some of the basic forms of matter that we're able to create from elemental energy. Metal is the only complete set amongst these examples.


Earth
sulfer (heat), lithium (elec), silicon (pressure), carbon (magnet)
Metal
iron (heat), aluminum (elec), titanium (gas), cobalt (cold), tin (moisture), zinc (acid), lead (pressure), nickel (magnet)

Aside from the potential to be blended in to alloys, each type of metal could have various forms of modification applied to them. (hardened, tempered, galvanized, etc..)


Air
nitrogen (cold), hydrogen (moisture), xenon (acid)


obviously, it's a little easier to do with Metal than the others. I imagined this might somehow lead to a the development of a metal / alloy-tree, that would actually have some sort of function beyond sounding cool. Another purpose was to provide a foundation for at least some level of familiarity. For example, it's fairly common knowledge that steel is usually made from a mixture of iron and carbon; wouldn't it be cool if that mixture actually resulted in a steel product, when you tried it in-game? It would definitely take some discussion to make it usable, but I would love to see a material tree developed beyond a generic list of things like, "ore, wood, blah blah blah.."


Another piece of the idea was to reference historical alchemy. The above mentioned metals could be basic forms of the precious metals. Iron could be turned in to Gold, while titanium could be turned in to Silver. Aluminum (being relative to electricity which is between Silver and Gold) could be turned in to Electrum. If we did this, an imbalance in currency value could be avoided, by using fiat currency in all civilized areas. Precious metals might then be reduced to a value more relative to their usable qualities.



comments