Topic: The Legend Of Zelda: Oracle Of Hours (April Fools' 2008 Project) - Brainstorming Topic

[TerraEsperZ]

Here's a list of the dungeon items:



Oracle Of Seasons:

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-Seed Satchel (with Ember Seeds): Lets you carry seeds (lets you burn things and light braziers)

-Power Bracelet: Allows you to lift and throw things

-Roc's Feather: Allows you to jump

-Slingshot: Can shoot a seed of any kind in any of 4 directions

-Magnetic Gloves: Activates and switches polarity with each push of the button. Allows you either attract or push away magnetized balls and move Link in relation to magnetized pillars.

-Magic Boomerang: Has greater range than the regular boomerang and can be controlled while it flies

-Roc's Cape: Allows you to jump and glide farther than before

-Hyper Slingshot: Like the Slingshot but fires 3 seeds at the cost of 1



Oracle Of Ages:

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-Power Bracelet: Allows you to lift and throw things

-Roc's Feather: Allows you to jump

-Seed Shooter: Can shoot a seed of any kind in any  of 8 directions

-Switch Hook: Works like a Hookshot but makes you and the object you grab switch place

-Cane of Somaria: Can create temporary blocks

-Mermaid Suit: Allows you to swim

-Switch Hook L2: A Switch Hook with greater range

-Power Glove: Lets you lift heavier things than the Power Bracelet



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"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

[JonLeung]

If you didn't see, I edited the above Farore picture post with an updated version of this fun thing to play with while I was thinking up some ideas.



Getting there, but Farore's face needs work.  Okay, back to real thinking work.



So, what, the only items in both Oracle games are the Power Bracelet, Roc's Feather, as well as some kind of seed-propulsion device and a thing that changes ages/seasons, eh?  Both of them have two items that "upgrade", as well, it seems.



I had forgotten that there weren't many "classic" items in this one.  I guess then we'd be creating some of our own...  And looks like we may still want seeds?



And even if I didn't obsess over the number of a particular type of item, I guess we'd still need two upgradeable items, if it's because there's not enough room...

[JonLeung]

I'd held back on saying anything for a while because I wanted more input from you guys.



I felt that I would have been perceived as rather "bossy" throughout the Super Mario Bros. 3 and MMSX:GotM projects.  With SMB3 I felt like I was laying out all the rules (even if we did agree on most of them, but still) but ended up doing only a few "real" stages, and with MMSX:GotM I felt like I was just getting you guys to go along with an idea that I had.



And I gave the initial push (more like a shove) to get this project started.  I don't mind if I end up doing a lot of work like in the last April Fool's project, but I would MUCH rather this be "our" project.



Sure, someone should lay down some guidelines (after all, we want quality work here), but if I'm the one to do it again I want to feel like they're rules that we worked on together as opposed to me just saying "do this because I say so".



Am I making any sense?  Or am I just not that confident in how you perceived our varying amounts of work, enthusiasm, and overall satisfaction of the past projects?

[Revned]

Sorry, but I'm not going to help out with much of the planning. I'm rather busy. I'll just do the work after the guidelines are in place.

[JonLeung]

That's fair, so long as I don't feel like I'm being bossy.

[Revned]

Be as bossy as you want. It's your site and your project. I'm sure none of us will object to you putting in too much thought to the project.

[JonLeung]

I suppose if you guys didn't want to participate, you wouldn't.  



Okay, just don't think that every project is necessarily mine, so people shouldn't be fearful of projects if they have anything against working with me.



(That reminds me, how's Symphony Of The Night coming?  Though I guess you should update us in your own thread about that.)

[Revned]

There isn't anything to update about.

[JonLeung]

I've been busy with other VGMaps.com tweaks this Christmas break, so I haven't really gotten to work on this.  



I was thinking that for simplicity's sake, there really would be no point for a real-time clock, and we should only be concerned about day and night.  (We pretty much were anyway, but I will simplify my plans for the clockwork-themed dungeon.)  Then we may have an item for switching day and night, rather than depending on the player to be playing the game at the appropriate time.  This way too, areas could be "forced" into day or night rather than just having them blocked off by day-or-night obstacles.

[RT 55J]

One day should be 24 minutes a la Majora's Mask. Time could be sped up/slowed down by an item.



Also, here's a set of rough guidelines.



General:

-No more than 4 colors per 8x8 tile

-No more than 16 colors per screen



Dungeons:

-Rooms are 15 blocks wide and 11 blocks tall

-For you own sanity, please don't have any floors bigger than 8x8 rooms



Overworld:

-Each screen is 10 by 8 blocks

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Dot? Dot. Dot!

[JonLeung]

I'm pretty sure I counted out that rooms ought to be 8 x 10 tiles.  Or more accurately, "screens".  You can make rooms bigger than a screen, but you'd have to have the 8 x 10 tiled screens in consideration, also, there should be something (like a wall) in the corners of each of those screens, as while Link can move diagonally, he can't do so across screens.

[Revned]

Rooms are indeed bigger than a screen. It was quite a pain to take at least four screenshots just to capture the entirety of a room.

[JonLeung]

You're right, 11 x 15.  >_<



I guess we still need to figure out some items.



Since we'll pretty much want Roc's Feather in there, I'd say that should be an early dungeon's item.  Not necessarily the first, but definitely early enough.

[RT 55J]

The Power Bracelet is also a given, as is the Seed Thrower Thingy. You seem to like the Spinner, so we might as well include it.



We already have four items. Awesome!

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Dot? Dot. Dot!

[JonLeung]

TerraEsperZ, did you list the items obtained in those games in order?  Then, yes, the first three ought to be Roc's Feather, a seed-shooter of some kind, and then the Power Bracelet.  Not necessarily in that order, but perhaps that would be a good order to differentiate from the other two while following a similar sequence.



Perhaps I could check a FAQ but what non-dungeon items should we consider as well?  If we opted for a day/night switcher (which is what I'm leaning towards now) then we'll need that, of course.  What else?



I like the idea of jumping from open petal to open petal for the flowery/foresty stage, so that means that won't be the first stage since the Roc's Feather is a prerequisite.