This is just a small update to compare the world of Forkémon with the world of Pokémon to give you a sense of scale. I'm not making it a 1:1 replica of the city after which it's modeled, Ordos. Instead I've decided on an approximate 1:2 ratio based on the traffic lanes; each lane is one tile width.
The maximum size of a square map in the Pokémon Ruby code is 86 by 86 tiles. To cover the entire central portion of the city this is 13 x 13 maps or 169 total over-world maps without converting the city into a more mapping friendly version. This doesn't include the underworld and underwater maps or any of the building interior maps. To make the scale more clear in terms of sheer numbers the over-world will be 1,118 tiles square and 1,249,924 total tiles. To compare, the largest Pokémon game included the Kanto and Johto regions for a ballpark figure of 1,000 tiles wide by 400 tiles high with only a very small percentage actually tiled.
A tile in the Pokémon Ruby game engine is 16 x 16 pixels and the Gameboy Advance screen is 240 x 160 pixels or 15 x 10 tiles. This equates to an over-world that's about 75 x 112 screens. But enough about numbers. I'm sure you want to see what this all means. Please note: the "thumbnail" that follows includes the outlying area in addition to the mapped area that will be included in the game. The Pokémon regions of Kanto and Johto are presented for comparison; the area in
RED is the size of one map in the Pokémon engine of 86x86 tiles; the area inside the red square in
GREEN is the size of the Gameboy Advance screen.
The image has been scaled due to the truly massive size (319,980,544 pixels just in the mapped area) and the embedded image
is just a thumbnail of that thumbnail due to the file size of the already reduced image (
3,482,038 bytes).
Full size.To be honest with you, I'm not even sure the Pokémon ROM can support a world this big. We're really pushing the limits of what's possible. Speaking of the impossible we're also adding a feature not even remotely supported by the game which we're proud to outline: guns and murder. The murder system will actually allow you to kill non-player characters in the game after which they'll be permanently removed from play. This can be accomplished many ways (for example; drug overdose) but the most interesting is with guns. In Forkémon you'll be able to carry and even equip a gun (with upgrades and ammo to purchase) and fire it at NPCs to injure and kill them.
Instead of health points the damage inflicted will be based on a more likely system that factors in body armor, type of gun/ammo used and who you're shooting. If you shoot a normal civilian NPC it'll take two shots with standard ammo and a basic gun to kill, the first shot will immobilize them. If you shoot a cop NPC with anything but armor-piercing rounds and a high velocity rifle he'll start shooting back at you and you'd better run. Bullets don't go through walls and travel only in straight lines so hiding behind cover will be an important aspect of conducting firefights and without body armor and bandages of your own you won't last long.
The gun system is implemented by equipping an item that's one of several types of guns and holding at least one round of ammunition. In the Pokémon game engine you may "register" items to the [SELECT] key and use them at a single press so you don't have to continuously go into the menu system for things like the ITEM FINDER or BICYCLE. The gun system will operate by running a script that performs a sequence of logic checks to determine if anybody got shot and what their response is.
The script will first determine if anybody is in front of you, then it will determine a number representing the damage the bullet will do, next it determines a number that represents the "resistance" to being shot of the NPC and if the NPC is still alive it determines if the NPC will become hostile or immobile. When an NPC dies they drop a corpse which will remain until the player leaves that map; this corpse will be a lootable object which will return a sequence of objects based on context. Cop NPCs will have money, ammo, guns, armor and family photos; little old lady NPCs will have dentures and nitroglycerin pills.
Once murdered the NPC will not respawn and other NPCs that normally interact with them will act differently towards you, possible attempt to murder you. If you murder a cop NPC the other cop NPCs will all attack you or arrest you if you talk to them; unless they're corrupt or some other factor. If you kill too many NPCs the game world will be noticeably empty and more and more people will hate you. Due to the size of the world you can simply go to another part of the game and start over to some extent.
When you move you'll need to establish a place to live or the game will send you back to your old home and you could end up very far away or even in jail. Thanks to the size of the world you can actually move, get various jobs and live an entire life; then kill everybody you know, move away and start over without any consequences. The world is divided into different police districts so you don't have to worry about every cop you run into after you burn one bridge. Forkémon is divided into five police zones and over a hundred neighborhoods each with their own full set of NPCs living their small, quaint lives blissfully ignorant of each other for the most part.
Then we have the feds. If you piss off all the police the feds get involved and they're not local meaning that they just keep coming. If the feds become involved then all the NPCs will know that you're a wanted criminal and only the criminal NPCs will treat you kindly; and how kindly they'll treat you. As Forkémon's most wanted you can actually build a small empire of sorts and live a productive life of selling drugs, killing people and running prostitution rings. Just because the world is out to get you doesn't mean the game is over.
All of this is the after quest: after you "beat the game" the word really opens up and you can begin to play for the various goals. That's not to say there won't be quests or bosses. Yet to be written are slots for many entire quests and games that can come after the main story. If you suggest it there's a good chance it'll be added to the game at some point. All of this is in the drawing board stages so changes and refinements are to be expected before the finished project.
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