In case ya'll didn't pick it up in the battle sprites thread, I've been working on Viridia chapter 3 for a while. (Incidentally, I'm getting sick of writing "Viridia Chapter X" over and over, so from here on out I'm referring to this game as
Expedition.) I've gone through all sorts of designs for the female protagonist (who, unfortunately, doesn't even
appear until the last quarter or so of the chapter), and I think I've come up with one that's simple and satisfactory.
Once again, this is a standalone chapter that operates independently of the scrapped chapter 1 and the questionable chapter 2, though the player characters from these chapters will make small appearances at the beginning and end of the chapter, respectively.
Gameplay-wise, I want to make this one as different as possible. Scrapter 1 had an automatic "ride a [s]chocobo[/s] ostrich to the next town" sequence, but in
Expedition I'll give the player some control over moving the bird and introduce obstacles and enemies that will slow you down if you don't avoid them. Chapters 1 and 2 had different approaches to enemy encounters: In #1, there were a few random battle areas, but your biggest threat was getting too close to animate cacti, which led to harder battles. #2 had a sequence of 7 battles fought in a straight order without time to prepare.
Expedition will grant much more freedom and maneuverability, with all encounters being visible as NPCs that use nothing more than the preset OHRNPC movements and possibly Zones. If possible, I would like to make the enemies generated on the map randomized every time the player enters the map, but I honestly have no idea how to pull this off. (Actually, if any good scripters have some free time, there's some other tricky stuff I'd like to be able to pull off in this game)
In the end, it's just one long hike up to a tall mountain with no options whatsoever, right?
A very important factor in this game's dungeon is
when you decide to tackle it. Feeling energetic, want to clear the road and climb the mountain ASAP? Or would you rather clear the road, but take a break and come back in the morning? Heck, you might just be lazy and want to leave the road workers to their own devices, spending the rest of your day chillin' at the inn. Whether you go during the day or at night makes a sizable impact on what happens on the mountain.
What's left? Oh, right, the story. Don't worry, that's what I've been spending most of my time on, and I'd say I'm around halfway done. If you enjoyed learning about this desert world in chapter 2, you'll adore the little events that transpire in
Expedition, which introduces a handful of NPCs with quite a lot of gravity to them. Some of them will drop foreshadowing on future chapters, others are just around to tell a good story. Most all of them are optional, too, so they won't get in the way of the gameplay if you don't want 'em to.
Mini-update complete.
