Brainstorming Thread, This topic has absolutely NO priority!!

I find it quite funny that whenever I don't have time to work on this anymore, everyone else stops caring too. >_>

Well I guess in February I'll have to put a bit of work into this.

We need our leader!

Well, ok. When I'm soooo important to you, we'll have more IRC conferences. Let's say once a week, starting this weekend (friday or saturday).

You're welcome.

And I agree that there should be another workshop.

I think we are using new, custom bosses so should we start to brainstorm ideas for them?

Sure, go ahead. As usual, nothing in the BST is official, just idea collecting.
You can also go to the concept art topic and draw bosses.

I've had a lot of boss ideas...

First of all...


Para Bros:

Two flying hammer bros. They can spit fireballs, throw boomerangs, throw hammers and throw bomb-ombs.

You can either try to jump on them, or throw a bomb-omb back at them to damage them.



A giant pirahna plant with many many heads. popping in and out of pipes on the floor walls and ceilings, but they are more like bungee pirahnas in that they have super long necks, you have to climb up and jump accross them to reach a large head at the top, and damage it. You can only stun the small heads, because otherwise you might make it impossible. Every time you damage it the heads retreat and you have to climb back up.



Also, we should have king boo in any kind of haunted place.

About the IRC chat that I wish I didn't miss

I love what you guys did with the story, but I think we're bordering close to over-complicated. I don't think all of backstory should be mentioned in the game, but instead assumed by the player.
Basically what I mean is that we should only see the game through the bros. point of view, for at least most of it.

This post has been edited by Glukom on Feb 1 2009, 11:27 AM

The detailed story is only there to help us not losing track of the in-game story elements.
Not every single detail in the story will be clearly visible in the game, don't worry.

Ok good, that's what I was hoping for

see this is why i really wish i didn't miss the chat :[

Ok.

Trying to explain this problem I'm having is proving IMPOSSIBLE on the irc. So I'll explain in DETAIL to clear some things up.

- THE "PLANS"
Apparently, in the beginning of the game, Bowser goes to the desert to find the important artifact-collectable thing, and Syrup goes to Peach's castle to find plans for the Midas Machine.
Here's the problem. If they don't have the plans, how does Bowser know to get the artifacts? How does Syrup know about them? Why does Bowser start acting to get these artifacts before they even know what they're doing, without this plans?
Here's all I'm proposing. Instead of Syrup getting plans at Peach's Castle, she's going to get another one of what Bowser is getting. Why? Because they already have these plans. They already know about the Midas Machine, right from the start of the game. We don't have to explain why or how, they just do.

So here's what happens. Before the game begins, Bowser and Syrup decide to collaborate and build this machine to turn all the mushrooms to gold, or whatever the main story thing was (keep in mind, this will not be in the game, it's just to explain things). They both discover they need these artifacts to power the machine. They discover where two of them are - somewhere in the desert, and in Peach's Castle. They both split up to start the search.
Now the game begins.
MARIO BROS: The Mario bros. are happily going to Peach's castle (or something) when Captain Syrup barges in and and orders her minions to find this artifact. They find it, then the Mario bros come in. They fight, and Syrup gets away. Peach briefly explains that they stole the artifact, so Mario and Luigi go and chase them.
WARIO BROS: The Wario bros are in the desert, looking for treasure - the same treasure, or artifact, Bowser is looking for. They run into Bowser and fight for the artifact, and they lose. Bowser gets away, but holding a grudge, Wario and Waluigi go after him to get it back.

The story then becomes a little more in-depth when the mushrooms are turned to gold, which happens shortly after the fights, whether you chose the Mario bros. or Wario Bros. This is because both bros failed to stop Bowser or Syrup, and they now had two of the artifacts, providing them with enough power to turn the mushrooms into gold. It becomes even more apparent to the bros that there's evil afoot, so now they have even more of a reason to go after Bowser and Syrup.

Of course, there are still more artifacts, so Bowser and Syrup keep going to get them, as do the brothers. In parts of the game, slowly the main plot will be explained. For example, lets say you find another artifact, but have to fight one of Syrup or Bowser's boss minions, who was there to protect it while Bowser and Syrup search for more. After beating it, it tells you a little about the artifacts and why Bowser and Syrup are after them - the Midas Machine. Now the story is starting to unfold, and this will continue as the game progresses.
_____

NOW, did I not just say the original story with only changing one thing? Yes. I don't want everything changed, just what Syrup steals, only because what I'm suggesting makes more sense.

Hopefully my point makes more sense now.

Ah Glukom, it didn't sounded that simple in the IRC! Sorry for anything there.

So, here's the thing: "If they don't have the plans, how does Bowser know to get the artifacts? How does Syrup know about them? Why does Bowser start acting to get these artifacts before they even know what they're doing, without this plans?"

- I thought that when I re-read the plot, too, mainly because I'll try ilustrating it. But I came up with a reason that could cover it and still keep the story intact:

With that, I thought something like this could fit:

With that, Peach never knew about the plans and all the stuff that were actually parts of a machine that were inside the castle (it was her grand grandfather secret), and Wario and Waluigi supossedly could get past all the ruins traps, even if Bowser got there after that and stole it from them (the book told there was one source there).

After that, Syrup steals the plans and parts, and get to build it in her flying ship. When Bowser and Syrup meet, they try out the machine by using it one Golden Essence on it. It fails to transform the bros. into gold, but their mushrooms are goldenfied anyway. Syrup them suggest that maybe they need more Golden Essences in order to transform humans into golden statues and sets out to look after to sources for more Golden Essence.

That.




Oh also, I should also say your version is pretty nice too, since it's less complex and a little more organized so we could end up using it, anyway. In this case, the book itself already contains the plans and means to build it, so they only need to gather Gold Essences (or whatever it is, if that's the matter).

This post has been edited by Drezus on Feb 8 2009, 08:55 AM

I like what Drezus wrote up there about the story how the plans could have ended up in the Toadstool Vault.
Also, I've come up with the following idea after reading it, answering a question "Why would Midas want to build such a machine?". Answer: Probably Midas is just playing with the greediness of the people and the machine (even though it does transform things into gold) can resurrect him to life when enough gold has been feeded in. That way we could insert the final World 9, which comes once we have found a good deal of Golden Shrooms, so Midas is actually resurrected and is fought in this last bonus world.


Anyways, Glukom's idea is also okay and not as much off the orginal idea as I thought in the beginning. We'll give this a decision next week on the chat.

Yeah, Nice! It could end up something like he had "anger" for all the world's greediness (since he now learned not being greedy with that strange happening), thus leading him into making a machine that could show everyone how much he "suffered" from all of his greed.

The final boss stuff is also an awesome idea! I can picture it as a World 9 - "Gold" World, with some of those psychodelic, Earthbound battle BG-ish backgrounds. His revived form could be all tinted of gold, and he just fights the bros. because he actually didn't want to be revived (since he hated the humanity's greediness etc). I can even picture Wario's side: "I'm-a Wario, and I luv gold!" "YEARGH your infinite greediness makes me angry now let's fight"


But-- eh.. I think we're already deep enough into details


EDIT: Oh, I forgot to say, but I don't really think all that "Wario tells Mario to get mushrooms" stuff is really needed because, even if Mario and Luigi aren't greedy, they would already keep the mushrooms anyway since it's quite obvious that maybe they could revert them back into standard mushrooms if they do something to the machine.

This post has been edited by Drezus on Feb 8 2009, 04:52 PM

This still brings up the problem of how Syrup and Bowser know how to make this machine without the plans.

Now here's a better suggestion. Let's say Syrup makes these plans for the machine, not Midas (Besides, it makes a lot more sense to link Midas specifically with the golden essences than with plans to make a machine, when machines hardly existed in Midas's time). The "golden essences" should be the focus. Lets say Syrup finds one of these essences and creates this idea for a machine to turn things to gold, to help make her more rich, which is what all pirates want anyway. But she realizes that she needs help to build it, so she makes a deal with Bowser to help - Bowser's end of the deal being to destroy the Mario Bros, and keep some of the gold. Now we have no problem with plans, just the essences.
Then, after this, we go back to my idea where one essence is in the desert and one in Peach's castle, where Bowser and Syrup go to get them and meet up with the bros.

This post has been edited by Glukom on Feb 8 2009, 05:28 PM

Sounds good to me, Syrup writing the plans herself.

I agree that one essence should be in the desert, but if one is in Peach's castle, how did it get there?

And I also like the idea of fighting a revived Midas as the final boss.

It makes more sense for one of the essences to be an ancient passed down item previously thought to be nothing but nice looking than some secret Midas Machine plans.

Wasn't that somewhat close to my idea?

Only, with my idea, it was the soul of Midas. I like the idea of a reserected Midas better though.

Those two are basically the same things, and yes, I was taking your idea here.