Idea Info Name: Eight Leviathans Index: Primary Category: RPG Submitted: 3/15/2003 10:27:16 PM Written By: ArcticSwan360 Game Architecture and Design: A New Edition Book Highly Recommended !

Eight Leviathans Chapter One: Trendion

This game idea is an RPG/Strategy Hybrid.  I came up with the idea by first reading a review of Skies of Arcadia and the reading a part of the Bible that night.  I read the sections about Noah, the Great Flood, and the Ark.  Instead of taking place in the sky, this will take place underwater.

       This is how the story starts.  At the beginning of time, there was one giant piece of land.  There were seven artifacts created by the gods, called the Rods of Earth, were placed throughout the land.  They were all hidden and people unaware of their existence.  One day a maniacal wizard, named Phagon sent out a large group of his henchmen on an expedition, lead by ancient maps and manuscripts.

            They bring back many treasures of high value, both in gold and magical measurements.  He kept almost all of the magical items for himself, and then sold the few that remained.  He studied them from sunup to sundown and even into the after hours of midnight.  Phagon had nightmares while he studied them, evils and demons trying to take control of him.  During the earliest hour of the morning he was studying a white rod with a black ball at one end.

            The demons in his mind were chanting and chanting in some weird language.  They did this ever since he obtained these items.  Since it had been happening for many months, this chanting became one with him.  And now he was caught up in it as if he was chanting the same words with the demons.  Then he realized he was.  The black ball on the rod continually flashed white, growing in speed and brightness.

            Parts of the huge land broke into pieces and were swept to different corners of the world.  This created seven lands, each very far away from one another.  Ages and more Ages pass…

            The world has many technologies.  During one of these days, all the Prophets of the world, on ever continent, fell under a trance.  They spoke a foretelling of what was to come.  This is what they said.

            “Listen as we speak for Creator’s Voice: ‘THE SHADOW ARE GATHERING FORCES AND PLAN TO UNLEASH A FLOOD OF GREAT MAGNITUDE UPON THE WORLD.  YOU HAVE A VERY SHORT TIME TO BUILD A FLEET OF ARKS.  ARKS TO US ARE SHIPS TO YOU.  DEVELOP UNDERWATER ARKS BECAUSE ABOVE THE SURFACE OF THE FLOOD WILL BE AN UNBREATHABLE AIR OF THE SHADOW.  YOU HAVE ONE DAY TO DO THIS.  THAT IS A DAY IN MY TIME, WHICH IS A MILLENIUM TO YOU.  VERY SHORT TIME.  YOU NEED A FLEET OF MILLIONS.  THE GREAT FLOOD WILL LAST UNTIL YOU DESTROY THE EIGHT SHADOW-LEVIATHANS.  THESE ARE GIGANTIC MONSTERS OF THE SHADOW THAT SWIM IN THE SEAS AND OCEANS.  THEY ARE BIG ON MY SCALE.’”

            Then the Prophets fell into a sleep where they didn’t wake for seven days.  Every continent builds underwater ships of awesome technology.  Motherships are huge ships about a city’s length long and wide, and high as well.  Every Mothership has about a thousand to five thousand Warships.  These are powerful ships meant for battle.  The Warships are lead by a Galleon – the most powerful ship designed specifically for battles.  Transporters are ships that carry up to five Warships.  The underwater world is full of satellites of a sort.  A continent’s base is the center floor of their continent – a huge base that can hold up to ten Motherships.

            For the ships to work they created magnetic force armor for ships.  Once the Great Flood takes place, the story starts.  Let me name the seven continents: Trendion, Karion, Westron, Jebaroon, Verrix, Alexandria, and Athena.  Instead of killing the eight Shadow-Leviathans, each continent captures one and puts them over a spell.  Every continent has one, and uses them for dominance.  One Leviathan is missing and it is also the strongest.

            Except the biggest continent – Athena – who has the second strongest Shadow-Leviathan.  Instead of using this creature for dominance, they use it and its fleet to attack the other monsters.  They wanted to stay to the requirement of their god.  They believe if they succeed they will be awarded with his greatness – by that they do not mean treasures but as his favorites.

            Adam Mettson is a warrior and captain of Athena’s biggest Galleon.  The first part of the game is for Adam to recruit three people for his newest mission.  Adam picks Gwendolyne, a Sage - that is a wizard/priest combination – Treegor, a Blade Sniper, who uses bladed weapons and sniping rifles; and Sarrik, a magic gunman.  Adam can be any thing the player chooses him to be.

            Their mission is to take a MA-SUB, meaning Miniature Artillery Submarine through a cave filled with water that leads into a tunnel system with no water.  Since this is not surface air, they can walk in it.  They journey throughout the tunnel systems, fighting strange beasts along the way.  Finally they come to treasure of several minerals.  They are used to make weapons more powerful, both for hand and ship use.  This could be by the means of minerals that had plasma energy or nuclear.

            But in the middle of it is a gigantic Tunnel Worm.  This is the first boss.  It can suck some of the minerals and unleash Fusion Blows, depending on the combination of the minerals.  After you defeat it, you take samples of the minerals to the continent base.  They send more people up there to extract all of them for their use.  Your party is paid a lot of money and given some of the minerals for your hand weapons.  Your next mission is controlling a fleet battle.

            Trendion invades Athena.  This is how the gameplay for the strategy fleet battles work.  It will look very realistic, not like FF Tactics or Warcraft.  Instead, it takes place in a complete 3D environment where you can rotate the camera in any direction.  You are given Squads.

            A Warship Squad is ten Warships; there are many types of Warships, and each type can be upgraded countless times – many different metal for armor to many different weapons and ammo (nuclear beams or plasma beams) to Navigation Systems for better accuracy to cooling and ventilation equipment because it can overheat if it fires too much.

            There are Geneva ships.  These are small two-manned vessels that move very fast and can only have two weapons.  They are very cheap, but in a force of many squads can overwhelm the enemy.  You can upgrade these.  Depending on the different ships, there are different Squad Types.

            When in battle the world is 3D, so how do you control these Squads?  Adam is already in his Galleon, the commander of the battle.  Through the Galleon he clicks on the Command/Control Screen where all the Squads are listed.  When you click on a Squad on the screen it takes you to where they are in the 3D water environment, and you are in the middle of the Squad in First person view.  You move like you would in a first person shooter then, and when your move points for that squad runs out, you have to go to another squad or attack.  Once you choose all the Squads you click an end turn button and you see your actions taken place through the window of your ship.

            The reason I consider this more an RPG than a strategy game – even though strategy battles take place a lot more than does RPG battles – is because a Squad’s Status is like a character’s status menu in common RPGs.  Occasionally you get more missions like going into the tunnels to get minerals, and through this and getting money, you can upgrade and buy ships.

            The story unfolds all the while, from first to last of these missions.  Trendion is planning a final attack on you with a huge, huge fleet, and even its Leviathan.  This mission will take along time because there will be so many forces to destroy.  But the good thing?  You get to use your Leviathan.

            It attacks the other’s fleet without your control, to make it easier and less complex.  Also, it mainly attacks the other Leviathan.  If some people get too close you can be damaged from their mighty blows; the same goes for the other side.