By request, I present... (RPGMaker produced game)

[Steve]

Some of you may recall that almost 8 years ago, in summer of 2002, Doomriser from ASVS/SDN released "Final Flamewar: Attack of the Trolls" made with RPGmaker 2000, a fun game mostly consisting of geek injokes and an ASVS-central take to dealing with the old Trekkie trolls of their forums.

That, of course, inspired me, and after mostly 16 months of work followed by another 18 or so months of off-on work and then waiting for people to add a sidequest they never finished (but allowing Rob Dalton to complete coding for an awesome world map), I released a sequel, "Final Flamewar: The Fiver Menace". Being more of a hardcore Square RPG fan than Doomriser, my game was longer, had more characters, more abilities, more bosses, a multi-party sequence, and a storyline that had forum injokes from SDN, ASVS, and Spacebattles as well as homages to the Square RPGs (including a few direct crossover elements).

Well, by request of a couple people due to some recent discussions of a sequel to this game.... I'm posting it here, for the enjoyment of those LibArc players who never got to travel the land of Youz'Net before.

Two versions of the game. Here's the normal one: Final Flamewar: The Fiver Menace

And, for those of you who've played it, beat it, and just want to see the story, or those of you who aren't man enough to play the proper version and face the fury of the dread Fiver Marine Elites (or as Nitram called them, "Pirate/Ninjas") or the horror that is Laird and his Pissing Monkeys, well, here is Final Flamewar: The Fiver Menace for WIMPS.

Some screenies:


The World Map that Rob Dalton coded in. It is awesome.


The Bad Guy capital. Tremble in fear!


Yes, that is Laird; yes, I picked that sprite on purpose. *maniacal laugh*


The immortal Kynes! He's actually one of your allies, surprising no?


The Four Horsemen of the Trekkie Apocalypse! Being an ASVSer helps in chuckling at this.


Babtekh: The Sky City of Lord Young (yeah, Brian Young's got a character. Take a wild guess who the game's "Three Sages" are).


A fairly important NPC character from SB.


Make sure to install the font in the zip files into your Windows\Font directory or the game's text won't display right.

Also, this is Rob Dalton's old DL page for the ASVS RPGs. You can find Doomriser's initial game here, unnerfed though, and if you have trouble running the game try to DL and install RTP1.0 and RTP 1.32.

The game works on XP, but I've heard Vista won't run it. Not sure if a compatibility mode will help or not. Sorry. :sad:

[Steve]

WTF?!

Edit: Okay, I had a bad URL bracket, but my images aren't showing.... mother fucker.

Edit 2: Okay, URL typo. Dammit. Images fixed. This game's releases are cursed, cursed I say. Last time it was fucking bugs for the whole damned weekend.

[Hotfoot]

That's fucking weird. I can read the post if I quote it, but when I previewed it, it wouldn't post.

If you disable the BBcode, it should post (with the BBcode laid bare), but I can't think of any reason it should do that.

That said, I know that in at least one version of these games, SG-14, myself included, made a cameo in one of the taverns.

Edit, well huh, there you go. Thanks for the heads up by the way.

[Steve]

Yeah, that would be the never-released special edition. Dalton inserted you guys into the SDN castle's pub area, but Phong never got around to coding in the fourth sidequest he and Chris Purnell (MarshalPurnell on SDN now) wanted to do. I had a copy that included the world map and stuff but I'm not sure I have one with SG-14's appearance.

Edit: Sorry, I don't have that version. I think Dalton coded it on his copy after giving me a version with the World Map coding and posted the screenshots from that copy. I have Phong's partially-enabled Zeon and that's it.

[Hotfoot]

Oh well, it was cool enough just seeing the pictures. The game itself, as I recall it, was fairly enjoyable by itself.

[Steve]

Heh, I forgot to trim the Lagmonster HP on the version for wimps, they're not that hard but will take a couple rounds to bring down when you first start running into them.

[Steve]

Uh... another word of warning for the wimps (and for the non-wimps too, but even moreso). Bring Flame Armor when you head to Ehsbeeah later in the game and equip it after you reach the save point in the cave path. I nerfed the boss coming up after the save but, well, couldn't really nerf his attack given its the same tech that another character uses as their Ultimate Tech. And have your main protagonist cast Ray Shield immediately.

Otherwise, well.... he's gonna fry you. Bad.

[frigidmagi]

I don't know who half these bad guys are. Also Marine Elite?

... You wouldn't be making fun of Marines... Would you Steve?

[Steve]

I don't know who half these bad guys are. Also Marine Elite?

... You wouldn't be making fun of Marines... Would you Steve?

Who do I look like, Shep? Perish the thought of me mocking the USMC.

No, it's just mooks of the bad guys who fight on ships. Ergo they are Marines. The Marine Elites were a terror when the game first came out, especially in the three mandated fights where you deal with a pack of 4, since they unleash Flame 2 on you for some damage buildup Real party-killers if you're not equipped with Flame Armors and have a healer along.

And keep in mind that the game was mostly done in 2002-2003, with just the final levels added afterward. A lot of people are no longer around...

[Mayabird]

I don't know who half these bad guys are.

We've got the thread. Ask away. Some of the stories are really entertaining like the explanation for the Burger King trash can.

Speaking of questions, was my NPC supposed to be part of that side-quest that was never finished?

[B4UTRUST]

I was told the Triumvirate of Lib-Arc is suppose to make an appearance this go around?

[Steve]

A sequel concept is being passed around that would see LibArc characters portrayed and LibArc incorporated as a town.

Maya, you're actually in this build, in Zeon. Zeon remains half-implemented - no quests, just shops and tidbits.

[Steve]

If people wouldn't mind, please re-upload either version. I'm fixing something in the end credits.

[LadyTevar]

well... this weekend I'll be uploading this to play once again :)

[frigidmagi]

So when you play what do you play as? Generic PC dude? Can you build a character or is this standard JRPG style? Keep in mind I enjoy both I just want to know what I'm getting here.

[Steve]

So when you play what do you play as? Generic PC dude? Can you build a character or is this standard JRPG style? Keep in mind I enjoy both I just want to know what I'm getting here.

JRPG style. You start with an "original" character, not a "poster" avatar character like most of the other PCs are. His origins actually play a part in the storyline.

Because of his "resemblance" to Newbie, hero of the Troll Wars (read: I used the same sprite as Doomriser did for his hero protagonist), he is dubbed "Newbie" at the first town he enters, and that resemblance is played with through the game until you find his true origin and his name and "class name" (starts at Hero) change.


(The Class name is entirely for flavor in RPGMaker 2000 games, its a field you enter in the game database and which an event command can change. RPGMaker 2003, OTOH, allows in-game class changes that alter character appearance and stats!).

In all, FFTFM has 18 PCs, though 2 are only with the team for a set time period. Among the posters of the time who are playable are Chris O'Farrell, Rob Dalton, Chuck Sonnenburg, Misty (Ryguy from SB), Connor MacLeod (the poster on SDN and SB), Marina, and, well, hee hee.... myself. Though I only become available later in the game save a scripted joining of the party for one particular boss encounter very early in the story. I was a SuperMod at SB at the time, so in-game I translated that into a fairly important "position" that meant my avatar had other things to do, for a while, instead of questing.

[Dark Silver]

Ahh...the Fiver Meanace....

I remember playing this back when I strolled the halls of SDnet...fun game Steve.

think I'll redownload it later, and play again.

[Dark Silver]

Also: If you do LibArc as a town in the next game...I humbly ask that it be represented as a Keep/Castle of some sort....

I always envisioned LibArc being a Castle....somewhat foreboding and the like...

[Steve]

Ooooh, RPGMaker 2003 is just supremely awesome. I'd create my own damned sequel from scratch to get a chance to play with this one.

[Steve]

EUREEEEEEEEEEEEKA!!!!!

I've found how to use an item to permit party changing while on the map! No more hiking back to a central "hub" area to switch characters!

Kinda wish I'd thought of it for FFTFM.

[SirNitram]

S'alright. I can't wait for FF:ANT.

[Steve]

It'll be a while. I know better than to give a release date.

The storyline's still being discussed and some concepts tested as I get a handle on RPGMaker 2003. Then comes the importation of custom sprites, tilesets, etc.

[Dark Silver]

So what does ANT stand for?

[Steve]

One of the tentative titles being bandied about is "A New Threat", in keeping with the SW theme of the naming.

For those playing/replaying, uhhhhh, hee.... I hope you didn't forget to check out the Minerva Temple on the way from SB to the mountain caves after you get Misty. You see, there's an item in the Temple, Dalton's awesome world map... but you can only enter the temple if you have Misty. And once you go through the mountain caves and head to ASVS (and then SDN) you, well, you can't enter the temple and get the map until the very end of the game, just before the final area, because that's the first time you have complete access to the world via Airship and have Misty available.

Heh, oops.

[frigidmagi]

Okay started playing the game yesterday. I've taken ship and and have landed.

Most of the characters I simply don't know (I know of Misty but never met her, no clue who Laird or JT are.) it is neat when I see someone I know in the game (Steve, Tev as a item shop keeper, etc). I'm enjoying it so far, however the random monster battles are happening pretty damn often like every 5 or 6 steps and it bogs you down after awhile.