Undead work in progress....

[jack1974]

Hmm well I was actually thinking to let the player choose at the beginning if she wants to be good or evil. The battle animations are all done with those two characters so can't add a neutral one now, and it would be basically used only for the short intro. So probably will just let the player choose at the beginning of the game which "side" she wants to play.
This way, or either she starts good by default and then can become evil, but at this point I'm not sure it's a good idea anymore to use this system!

[pysali]

I'll toss my two cents in.

I think letting the player decide if they want to be good or evil is a nice option. It would require you to have two separate intros (unless everyone starts in the same place regardless of orientation and then branches off to their side after some starting combat/conversation). It could be as simple as Welcome to Undead Lily choose your affiliation. Will you be chaotic or evil and desire to rule limbo with an iron fist or will you be ordered or good and try to keep the balance/bring about peace?

Or more complicated and involve running a character creation screen kind of like in Spirited Heart where the player can either instant create and randomly get good or evil or more intensively create with background perks (I don't know if you're doing stat raising or anything in the game though). Like: In life Lily was (poor and struggling, from a rich family, self made) okay you've got this perk. Next Lily ran into a Bullying situation and she (did nothing, helped the bully, helped the victim) now you've got that perk and then you died and let's get this rolling.

[jack1974]

Yes your second suggestion is interesting, and is fun because I was thinking the same thing just today, how cool would be to have a character creation (optional) like Spirited Heart. I'll make optional because I'm sure that some people will prefer to choose the perks/stats manually.
I am not sure yet about the perks but there will be stats since the game is also light RPG, but you could get starting bonus stats or even some items.
In the game only the two leaders can use special items to fight that give bonuses (daggers, whip, maces, etc).

[pysali]

With the stat raising it could be as simple as if they run character creation they get stat changes based on their decisions and it can also influence their slide to good/evil. Or they can option to skip creation and then get a pool of points to choose from to adjust their stats (say like ten so they can make their Lily better at magic, physical combat, charisma/charm or something) and manually choose their alignment.

[jack1974]

Yes, I plan to do exactly as you described indeed sort of character creation of old-school RPGs!

[pysali]

That's what I was thinking and like DnD. :D

[jack1974]

Since the characters in the game are after death, I could simulate (quickly) the earthen life with choices reflecting some key moments of the life (and that would also shape the personality good/evil). It's an interesting idea, I'll think to make it this way

[Carmentis]

If you didn't want to go into to much detail like that I had an idea. Sorta like what pysali said with the Spirited Heart intro but it could be more like a personality test. Like:

When I was alive I saw an old lady struggling to pick up her bags, I proceeded to:
1) Definatly go help her!
2) Think about helping her.
3) Smirk at her struggling.
4) Push her from behind as I passed her and laughed to myself.

and each decision could be like
1) +2 good
2) +1 good
3) +1 evil
4) +2 evil

and at the end you could total up which way they would end up as.

[Moussey]

So once the player chooses an alignment at the beginning of the game, does the player have to maintain that same alignment for the entire game? Will there be any chances for the player to go into the other alignment if they choose? Or if not, will there be different degrees of evilness or goodness within their alignment?

[jack1974]

If you didn't want to go into to much detail like that I had an idea. Sorta like what pysali said with the Spirited Heart intro but it could be more like a personality test. Like:

Yes could be something like that indeed

So once the player chooses an alignment at the beginning of the game, does the player have to maintain that same alignment for the entire game? Will there be any chances for the player to go into the other alignment if they choose? Or if not, will there be different degrees of evilness or goodness within their alignment?

Change alignment no, about several degrees well that could be done. Already in the romance dialogue you can behave more or less friendly even in the "good" alignment. Of course nothing very bad as whipping Humus' ass (lol) but you can be very harsh in some situations.

This game since has also the strategy part is more different from my other ones, though there is still the romance subplot. The endings will mostly (if not exclusively) be influenced by who you romance during the war.