Paragons

[JayRay]

Welcome to Kharis-Yeshar, or rather the eastern lands of the New Lands, Calenthya, where the 7 kingdoms of the Pact of Swords lie in revolt, war, and outright defiance of the invading Shak-razul of the southwest, against the Khan of Time, the Khan of Deception, whose forces move in shadows and on stone, in robes of fire, and armor of iron. Take up the guidarm, the flag, the mantle of your nation, guild, or Yah himself, against the forces of darkness and the principalities in the highest of places. Courts and Courtiers, Guilds and Guildmasters, and malevolent forces stir in this story-driven action RPG by Jay Ray Games and Art Design, soon to be called Jay Ray Studios!

I have envisioned a game that is somewhat different each time you play, a new world for each game, kept within only a certain amount of variables. That shop keeper that you remember being a Burly dwarf before? Now, a tanned vixen plys her wares. That quest that took you to the dungeon within the DragonSpine, now sends you to an opposing direction.

Using PVGames Medieval Sprite templates, along with a customized version of SunRndmDde's Character Creator EX, I have began to allow for the creation, or FORGING of your hero, who also may very well be unique, depending on the world. In all you'd be responsible for the creation of four such heroes, even though those heroes may not necessarily be joining your party immediately. Let's call them "long lost allies" that you search out the world to find. In addition, I have scripts that will automatically 'create' dozens of NPCs and name them with the help of scripts first introduced in the Judge's Guide Archaic Names.

It's so hard to create a parallax map for each and every map you have, and can be quite a memory hog. Instead of that, I've gone a different route. Using Yanfly's Grid Free Doodads, I will create parallax archetypes. (Canyon path heading north, rocky ledge southwest, forested path, etc. In addition to that, the gridfree-doodads allows me to 'paint' each map as uniquely as if I had created a parallax map for each one.
What is planned are over 80 variations of flora, 120 rock structures, and bits and doodads for the natural scenes, and relying on structures and items from PVGames, Artieria3d, and Dexsoft Games, and more to 'flesh out' each map specifically. Tileset passability is relegated to the Regions themselves.

Remember HeroQuest? you had the board, the whole board, but often you'd never journey beyond say 10 rooms of it. Paragons takes that idea further, to allow for the re-use of different map archetypes, and the Grid-Free doodads to allow for not 40 different dungeon rooms, but hundreds of different types of rooms, each set to a specific switch that opens doors, closes them, hides them, replaces elements like pillars, with fountains, treasure chests with traps. Think of it like this... A dungeon grid might be 5 maps by 5 maps. Let's give them columns and rows, A, B, C, etc. for the columns, and 1,2,3 for the rows... We know that A1 can connect to B1, or A2. In one case, the variables for those doors are changed. A1 will have 1 variable, and that variable determines the doors, the events, the grid-free doodads, and the exits. It may also determine the VARIATION of A1. By itself with 25 maps, you can still have hundreds of combinations of maps, but with variations of each room, 50 maps entitles you to have literally hundreds of map locations, each one different. 50 maps for an archetype...

I believe I'll have around 12 archetypes to best illustrate the different environments for the 'dungeons'

Ok, I mentioned before that many NPCs will be randomized within the game. While many of the key players may stay the same (Royals and defining characters), Using the same SunRndmDde's Character Creator EX, several characters will be generated on the fly at the start of a new game. This allows me to do two major things.

First, it allows me to have a unique set of characters for each game
Second, it allows me to have a TON of NPCs in the game, pre-loaded and set for use with the awesome power of having SO many actors available. Actor Faces also allow me to have a ton of different actors without consuming a lot of space memory wise.

There will be quests, and a ton of them, all kept in journals that will easily be able to accessed from a quest journal. Whether I plan to have a seperation between the main quest journal, sidequests, and radiant quests is uncertain, but there will definitely be an emphasis on experience and fame points for those main quests. In addition to quests, hunting for puzzle pieces and recipies for non-written quests can help with immersion. (Spending an hour to get enough wolf pelts to create a set of Wolfpelt Leather Armor for instance)(Spending an hour mining, smelting and casting a suit of Glasteel Cuirass)(Hunting down enough herbs to create an herbal poultice or ingredients for a blank scroll) It's assumed that you should be able to make in game everything that can be sold in game. Items should also be able to be enchanted and modified.

Thanks to Yanfly's item and shop screens, a more versatile view of each item can be shown, and I like this, especially with the use of BSD_OtherIconSet by Bsides, I can actually show a true picture of the other icon, in whatever size I deem fit. I also want to use simple window changes to ensure the uniqueness of each window, in addition, each scene will ahve its own distinctive background, adding to the richness and immersion of the game. (Keeping this idea from previous works)

I was going to use Kino's EIS Librarium, but while the plugin has tons of options to work with, it doesn't address flagging the book so that map locations and clues can be "learned" by reading the book. This is crucial for the so called "Speak Friend and Enter" idea, where a book tells you how you can learn it. I want this to happen so badly, where map locations and more are LEARNED from various books and scrolls, skills are added, even profession points are earned. SO, with that said, unless I find another version, this will instead be done with common events, that cycle through pictures and ensure that the player can move from page to page and "read" the clues.


All battles will take place using the SV battle system, created by RPG Maker MV and modified by Yanfly Action Sequences. Using LexusX' Animation 180 pack allows for an incredible array of new and unique animations that match up quite well with the overall immersion of the game. (still got these, still using these.)

"Paragons" will follow your customized hero through a set of scenarios as the Meredian princess, must flee the throne room before her coronation after her father, King Hyvaron Mascul is defeated and killed in the concurrent seige of Merede's Ebonraven Castle, the seat of the province, by the warlord Gaschim Dral, a deserting chieftain of Eastern Jemiscra. In addition to determining your main character, you can choose up to three others, all from different walks of like, and begin your quests. Now depending on the path you've chosen, there will be at least 4 if not more customized characters to help you on your way, and using a specific variable matrix, attempts will be made to ensure the customized ally will be of a different class, skillset, or weaponset, something to ensure that you're not trying to take out Gaschim Dral with two bards and a druid,

Merede shares the continent with six other nations called together in a loosely based alliance called the Pact of Swords. These provinces are free to war with one another, but seldom do, instead unifying their forces against the Khan of Time's forces, in the kingdoms outside the Pact. In addition, there are several other factions that consider themselves outside the pact and free of the confines. In this game, to show the true size of the continent, you can NOT overland walk to all the different lands, but you can choose map-points ALA Dragon Age.

The Nations of the Pact

Sharistae - Hugging the eastern shoreline of Kharis-Yeshar, Sharista is often referred to as the Silver Coast, both for the high concentrations of Silver ore, as well as the devotion to an agent of Yah, Aaliana, the Silvermaiden. Ruled by Queen Ariste Dhamaer, Sharista bolsters a grand navy whose armada is unrivaled and helps repel any attacks from the old lands of Yesharya. Queen Ariste's rule is only rivalled by a rebellious province in the north called the Starthrone Brotherhood, who in a great seige took Sharistae's northernmost city of Kharlae, as well as the Isle of Saraava.

Merede- Merede is a feudal land ruled once by King Hyvaron Mascul until his assasination in 1512 AR. Beseiged by warlords in the west seeking glory and riches, from the north by Haz-Reydi cheiftains, and in the east by the draconic thralls of the Spine-Thorn, Merede struggles to assert dominance in its own lands, much less to help beleagured nations like Gharail to the south, and Jemiscra to the west, as the brunt of rebellious warlords in Jemiscra's eastern lands make travel and commerce difficult at best.

Jemiscra - The Empire of Jemiscra, once one of the reatest and feared empires of the entirety of Calenthya, is now in ruin, the Three Kings of power splintering their views into three disctinct factions, each loosely coming together only in matters of state, and each seeking resolutions that give them power over the other two. Warlords hae even sought there own power, as they feel they are loosely allegiant only to the lands of Jemiscra, not the bickering royals.

New Jede - Enjoying the power vacuum left behind, New Jede has annexed and liquidated several surrounding provinces, in hopes of gaining the power and prestige that Sharista in the far east currently hold, Currently ruled by Vath Ryvari, Holder of the Chalice, New Jede, otherwise known as Jedea, was founded and settled by the direct survivors from Jede in the Old Lands during the Third Reckoning. New Jede is also primarily elven in population, being one of the largest such bastions of high elven power in the land.

Haz-Reyd - In sharp contrast to the High Elves of New Jede, Haz-Reyd is the bastion of the Red Elves, the Reydi, who revere and are ruled by a Dragon King called Khar-Haz, or "Arm of Haz". The Haz-Reyd are very tribal by nature, and more warlike then their counterparts from several centuries earlier. Their main seat of power, Haz-Varak or "Heart of Haz" is actually the ashen field of a now extinct volcano. It is believes that beneath the volcano's caldera, lies the actual citadel where Khar-Haz rules, but outsiders are very seldomly invited in, and much less are allowed to look upon the revered leader.

Sorason - Known as the Crystal North, Sorason lies to the northwest of Jemiscra, and bolsters a cold environment, and a tough, hearty populace of humans who don't worry as much about the fight against the Khan, instead with battling the throngs of Orcs from the various clans within their holds.

Gharail - Known as the Lion of Calenthya, Gharail is ruled by the high Paladin of Yah, Marson Dramiir, who commands his forces well. However, forces plot against the Lion Crest, like the denizens of the three Sisters of Malice, Adra, Siithra, and Veshari. Steep in superstition and lore, Gharail has tracts of lands that do not revere Yah, but instead rely on the dark ways of the sisters, and seek not only Marson's downfall, but the removal of Yah's worship from all of Gharail.


Main Characters
YOU - After choosing your body, your class, your equipment, your perks, your land of origin (ALA Elder Scrolls), and your family name within those lands, a modest by enriching storyline explains your rise from a child to who you are today. I relied heavily on Paul Jaquays Central Casting for the storyline idea, and have thought about using it to create a DYNAMIC storyline backstory.

Allies - Like you, each ally will have a specific backstory created for them, but also like you will be UNIQUE per each game.

Sub-antagonists - Now while the main prtangonists and antagonists in the game, the NPC characters will be the same throughout, some of the minor players will change depending on the game... This can change some storyline elements throughout the game


Check out subsequent threads for screenshots, development blogs, and other information about Paragons!