   Lore/Historian for a browser game
  Hey everyone,I'm Joseph; I'm currently making an online browser game with my friend who's pretty good at coding.  The game code currently has around 10,000 lines and has 3-4 people working on it (slowly and steadily), so it's not just a pipe dream;  however, neither of us is particularly talented at writing/coming up with backstories/descriptions of classes, so I'm looking for someone who can help us with that.So anyways, about the game:It’s an automatic turn-based strategy game with some RPG elements. In this game, players play as a "tactician" and manage multiple characters (each levels and changes classes individually), put them into formations, and battle them. It’s coded in PHP/MySQL, but battle will use C++. If you've heard of MyBrute, it's kind of like that but slightly more brain intensive and customizable.Players play as a tactician that manages characters. These characters can be arranged into a 3x4 formation (with max of 7 characters) and fight other players. Characters level up and change classes independent of each other (there are a total of 123 classes). As characters change classes, they gain abilities that affect their neighbors; some classes may help their allies become stronger; others may be incredibly strong individually but detract from their allies. Characters only have 2 equipment slots, weapon and armor, but it's like this to prevent players from becoming too confused, since they'll be managing lots and lots of characters.Here is some sample art I have for the basic classes:And some more art to show the the clear class progression:If you're interested in the class trees, here they are. Characters start as Novices and can change into either a Swordsman, Trainee, or Spellcaster. The parenthesized numbers next to the name of the class denote the required level.Descriptions of the classes when I created them: Download LinkThe sizes of the class trees are pretty big so it's better if you open them in a separate window.Swordsman Branch Spellcaster BranchTrainee BranchAlso, some interesting example classes:    * Tyrant class:Effect: -10% STR/INT/VIT to characters around it.Character concept: The Tyant falls under the "selfish" archtype. It decreases the stats of those around it, but has above average attack while having no apparent weakness.    * Marauder class:Effect: +2 strikes and +4 speed to the Marauder and those to either side of him for 1st 2 rounds of battle.Character concept: The buffs the Marauder provides allows his neighbors to strike first and more often, but only at the beginning of each battle. The Marauder also has relatively high attack but low defense, essentially making him a glass cannon.    * Sorcerer class:Effect: +60% Physical Defense to the character in front of the sorcerer and -50% Physical Defense behind the sorcerer.Character concept: The Sorcerer gives defense to the characters in front of it while taking away defense to those behind it, which shows its mixing tendency. Players can take advantage of these effects by putting classes with very high physical defense in front of the sorcerer while putting classes that wouldn't really need physical defense anyways behind him.If you'd like to take a look at what and how each class affects its neighbors, here's a spreadsheet of all the classes and their effects. To show what location the effects are present, I used a number system.1 2 34 5 67 8 95 is the character, 2 would be directly in front of the character, and 8 would be directly behind the character.Download LinkP.S. If you're interested in numbers, the second sheet of the spreadsheet shows some simple statistics on how each class fares stats-wiseThe game currently is structured around simply fighting other players; in the future, I hope to implement several things: A "Player Versus Monster/Computer" function, Guilds for players to group up in, and territories for guilds to fight over. I've thought up of a good way for the latter two, but they're currently not being pursued since the basics of the game need to be programmed. Battle is fully automated for simplicity, so the structure of formations is extremely important.Some other random things in the game:    * Characters have a specific affinity for an element. We are using the Chinese 5-element system (Water, Fire, Wood, Steel, Earth). Characters can deal extra or less damage based on its and its target's element; the affinity also gives small bonuses to make the character more "aligned" to that element, i.e. Fire affinity characters get +5% Attack and +1 speed.    * There are two ways to upgrade weapons: Refining and Imbuing. Refining adds simple stats (such as more attack for weapons and more defense for armor) while Imbues add special effects that have a range to keep players trying to get the "best" stats. Example: Desperation (Weapon Imbue): +20-30% Damage, +10-20 Critical, -3-2% Regen.Essentially, I'm requesting help on coming up with a world for these characters to be in as well as descriptions for each of the classes. (oh, also, if you saw the class descriptions spreadsheet or class stats and have suggestions to change the concept of a character or name of the skill, I'm open to those too.About the world: Since I'm planning to release a clan/guild function in the future (if this gets that far, heh) which is centered around fighting for land, I'd like a world that has many different types of terrain all in one place. A good example:[Map removed by admin at request of map copyright owner. See his post below.]If you feel anything is confusing about the game feel free to ask me questions, I'll do my best to clear up confusion. I left out some things (namely damage types, stats, substats, effects, and how battle progresses) which I feel aren't as relevant at the moment, but I'm happy to talk about these if you're interested.Thanks so much for your time!   
  Is the number system you are using a representation of how the characters are standing or fighting in your game like a text based game or will be art content top view battles? Love the character artwork and the world Map.   ;Quote:Original post by GhostknightIs the number system you are using a representation of how the characters are standing or fighting in your game like a text based game or will be art content top view battles? Love the character artwork and the world Map.The number system is assuming you are looking from a birds eye view. Example of a formation:So if "chartestsword" had an ability that affected position 8, "chartestspell" would be affected by itWhen 2 formations go into battle, it looks sort of like this: (in this example both formations are the same)Characters that have a range of 1 can hit any enemy in a 1 row away, range of 2 can hit any enemies 2 row away.  So, in the example, (assuming chartestsword has a range of 1 and chartestspell has a range of 2) both chartestsword and chartestspell can attack chartestsword and chartesttrainee. When a is eliminated, the next row is moved up. In the example, if all the characters in 1 of the green rows is eliminated, the yellow row of that formation would be moved up. This way, characters with low range have less choices of what to attack (thus dealing damage less efficiently in the long run). So, back to the example: let's say chartestsword and chartesttrainee on one team is eliminated. This will bring the corresponding chartestspell and RAWRAWR up.  That chartestspell would be able to attack anyone in the first two rows of the other team (chartestsword, chartesttrainee, chartestspell, RAWRAWR).Hopefully those explanations weren't too confusing... the names were a little too similar, heh~ ^^;[Edited by - conix on February 22, 2010 12:26:22 AM];  Yeah the character names are a bit similar. I had to reread the names a few times thinking you had put them name for the characters twice. (lol)Were those example names or final names for your characters?Have you written some sort of backstory for your game?Did you draw the character art work or have a friend do it? Either way like I said pretty sweet art.For your number system or battle field configuration I have a similar idea for Strategy Warefare CCG. There are a few ways to play the system. Example:On one side of the starting positions of your field there are two sections.One: For the land you are protection Two: For Infantry set up Each row has 3 rows.First: Close combat: Short Range weapons, Spears, Lance, Swords, Daggers, Throwing Stars, Bolas, Nets etcSecond: Mid Range Combat: Spears, Flag Staffs, Bow And Arrows, Bolas, etcThird: Long Range Combat: Bow And Arrows, Ballistas, Cannonades, etc.The player can move up into any position he or she desires for their own unique strategy. In the game there are 14 different infantry troops that can be used on the battle field or protecting your land , temple, castle and the like. The list goes on and on. For the Attack and Defense System:Let just say it took me three months to come up with a plan to make it work with such a large infantry base units. For each infantry card: Like I said there are 14 different classes but you will only need 30 cards for each class to play. For example: Instead of having one card for each rank that signifies that infantry. I have put 100 soldiers for that single card. Card 1: 100 SoldiersCard 2: 200 SoldiersCard 3; 300 Soldiers And so forth.With so much information about my card game I won't get into the details. Plus I wouldn't want to over throw your post anyways. lolBeen working on the project since 1998 to present day. But all in all that battle field configuration is what I also had in mind to. ;  I think your ideas are very interesting. I would like to participate in your project if the spot is still open.   ;  @Ghostknight:Those were example names of the characters; we currently have a site up where you can create classes, promote them, or equip them with items.  Players will actually be able to name their characters whatever they want.There is no backstory for my game yet, that's why I'm looking for one here.About the art: I actually hired a sketcher and a colorist for the art. Oh, before I forget, I don't own the map; I just found it online and thought it looked similar to what I had in mind.About your game: Our game is fully automated for simplicity; players simply set up formations and battle each other.Also, in the early stages of the game, we also had an Army-Size stat, but later dropped it because we felt it didn't contribute that much to our game.@RedEyedKiller:Hey, thanks for the interest! Do you have any info that I can contact you at?Here's mine:E-mail: tehmuffinman[at]gmail.comAIM: sk121bbl3MSN: sk121bbl3[at]hotmail.com   ;.About the world: Since I'm planning to release a clan/guild function in the future (if this gets that far, heh) which is centered around fighting for land, I'd like a world that has many different types of terrain all in one place. A good example: Hi-I'm the artist who made that map you grabbed and posted here.  It is a commission piece from my portfolio http://www.cartocopi...rtfolio/ascadia and I'd like you to remove the image from your post.  Feel free to provide a link to my portfolio page as provided above if you want to have an example of the type of world/map you want.Thanks,-Rob A>   ;  I needed to remove that map at the request of the copyright holder. Sorry that our "edit post" function butchered your formatting. I assume it was because you did a copy/paste from something else originally?   ;  This looks to me like a Help Wanted post (not a Writing post).con9, you need to post in Help Wanted, and use the required Help Wanted format.   