As you may or may not know, when I am done here on AGN, my next plan is to revive ZHQ. I am currently organizing my files and material for the place, and plan to contact some people for staff work, and then will begin work this fall when I return to college.
But...the suprise.
The real meat of this site will be the Interactive Story I am doing. Well, more like I'm directing 4 of my graduate friends on a project that will earn them credit, while helping me out (and they get paid).
Basically, it will be entirely in Flash. But, if you've seen DVD menus...imagine this:
On my site, when you click the Interactive Story, a window opens. You're racing across Hyrule Field, in 3D, and approach Hyrule Castle. The gate opens, you go in, race by some Market views, and then enter the castle itself. You reach a room, and a navigation map appears. With your mouse, you highlight what you want: Intro, Join, Rules, FAQ, Database Records (members, images, etc), and a list of Locations to go join.
You can't go anywhere unless you join. You have a username/password. It's like AGN...you get an avatar, a rank (class...not dependent upon a variable like posts) and your "equipment".
You go to different areas, and join the Interactive Story. Now, you can be any class of Hyrule...Gerudo, Hylian, Zora, Sheikah, Kokiri, Deku, Monster, etc. You have a home point, and you can only go to certain areas (Like, monsters are the "Dark Elves" from EQ in this game...hated by all). Within each area, you can interact with people, trade, go to shops and bars, and duel people. When you chose an area to go to, a nice flash shows you journeying there. When you arrive, you can click the flash menu of locations, and you'll go there with another nice movie scene.
Well, it's all complicated...but going into a shop opens up the "shop" menu. Dueling opens the "duel" menu. There's rule and etc that are explained in the "rules" and "commands" areas.
As for the story, there are Scribes. Each area has a scribe, and there is a scribe master. They dictate the story, and flow of events according to the Scribe master's specifications.
So if a war between the Gerudo and Sheikah breaks out, restrictions to each area are turned off, and dueling between a Gerudo and Sheikah member...the results are counted as a "point". If you lose, say...you can't go back...you're restricted, but the winner goes on. When time is up...whoever has the most "victory points" (level of difficutly of battle = more points), wins the war.
The Scribe masters will then make up a "story" to be incorporated with the changes that will result.
Sounds a lot like MMORPGs, well it is...but it's all text based with images and a 'menu' that's interactive. Well, navigation has some cool "flash" movies, but when you're typing and doing stuff, nothing's really going on visually.
As of now, we do not have any sort of leveling system. We do not know if we want this or not...it might get too complicated. We are currently trying to implement a guild type system. Our next goal will be "quests" for individuals to go on. And hopefully by the time we launch, we'll have a "group" system...but this might not be possible. Eventually, if there's enough time before they finish grad school and have to present this project, they'll work on the leveling system.
Of course, I'm just directing this...I've done no coding or physical work.
The expected completion date of this is Spring 2003, that's when their presentation is.