17 replies to this topic

[Huruyami]

Hey, I was thinking, there are alot of members (including me) who are having trouble and/or confused by the whole a-life system. I was wondering if you guys could help me make an a-life guide about making mepians and king pians and stuff. we could submit it and see if TRiPPY would host it. I think it could help alot of members. If anyone has any explanations or screenshots, youtube vids or anything, could you let me know? i think this will be cool if it ever gets done.

[Purgatory]

Here's a start. ^^ http://www.nightsintodreams.com/forum//ind...p?showtopic=222

[gsk]

Yeah Malans done a great job at his site, loads of good stuff. I think the NiGHTS jpn site has some stuff tucked away too.

[Huruyami]

oh yeah. i remember that topic purg. thanks. Anybody else got any info?

[YamiLover13]

I put a very long reply to this topic : http://www.nightsintodreams.com/forum//ind...p?showtopic=271

Like I said in the topic, I have a lot of pictures. They are not all great pictures, but they are pretty good. If you need some examples of mepians I have a ton of them. Just ask.

I agree, we need a pian guide. I can't belive TRiPPY donesn't have one on her site. She is very busy though.

[Purgatory]

Even busier now. XD Since she'd been away.

[Blue Fantasy]

I feel dumb. All this time I thought the Mepian thing was something Archie made up. XD I never messed with the Pians except accidentally paralooping them or hatching their eggs cause I got stuck on them. I didn't even know what A-life was. I wasn't on the net back then. =/

[YamiLover13]

I feel dumb. All this time I thought the Mepian thing was something Archie made up. XD I never messed with the Pians except accidentally paralooping them or hatching their eggs cause I got stuck on them. I didn't even know what A-life was. I wasn't on the net back then. =/

lol I can understand you not being able to see what is truth and what is lies with the Archie comic. But mepians is one of the few true things that the comics had in it. You really wouldn't know they were an A-life system unless you were really observent or read it on the net. That is why it is a good idea to make a guid. There is so much to them and I think everyone should know about them. I think this was a great idea.

Also Purg...I know she is even busier now. I have been off for almost a month and I have a lot of posts to read, images to view, updates to make, messages to read, and tons of little personal things. I can imagine how hectic it must be to have to update a website after a couple of weeks. Its nothing compared to what I do.


Also I forgot to mention that a mepian can be breed into a full fledge maren or bad pian. That is when all of there body parts are maren parts. If this happens then that pian will go around eating other pians. However, when you finish the level the maren will dissapear.

Maybe I should all of my information a little bit more formally and summed up better? What do you think? Does the info I provided earlier too confusing?

---Edit---
Here is my take on pian information in a more formal format. I am not done. I have a lot of other infor to write for my take on the breeding section. However, I am sure Malan will be able to say more about it then me. I also need to put some pictures in the write place so that everything can be explained better. It is a work in progress. The really sad thing is though....I wrote all of this from memory!!!

What are Pians?
In the video game, NiGHTS into dreams there are little inhabitants in each level called Nightopians. These creatures are governed by an A-life system. That means that they are programmed to be like an artificial life form. But it is not extremely advanced. But it is still fun though. You system allows the pians to sense hostility, sense friendliness, and they are breed able.

How does it affect my score?
Now playing with the pians can only improve your score in one way. If you don't kill any nightopians within a level then on the a 4th mare of the level there will be a pian holding a sign above the ideya palace. If you touch this pian on the 5th mare you will get bonus points depending on the amount of stars you have collected throughout the entire level.
So it is best to avoid killing them. However, if you go around trying to hatch a lot of eggs, it will slow you down and possible affect your overall score.

Also if you make a mepian and then kill the mepian you will get points. Mepians are not nightopians and are considered bad even though they are needed to make a superpian. So if you kill them then you can still get the star bonus. Super pian doesn't do anything good other than make you feel special.

Are you naughty or nice?
The A-life system enables the pians to sense when you do something they like and what they do not like. Pians like you if you do not kill them, paraloop enemies, and if you hatch a lot of eggs for them. They do not like you if you spin dash a lot near them, kill them, or throw a lot of marens at them. Now depending on what you do with change two things…the music and the pian’s reactions.

If you have been nice to the pians they will either wave or sing when you pass by. In Soft Museum, they will make statues of NiGHTS. In Frozen Bell they will make more snowmen. If you have been mean then they will get scared and run away whenever you come close.

Music changes?
Like I stated before, the way the pians feel toward you will affect the music. Each level song is divided up into parts. There are at least 5 parts per level song, but other levels have more than this. I think the max is 7. Each part of the song has 4 different tunes it can make. The tune it will make depends on the mood of the pians. However, it won’t happen to all parts at once. For instance, you can have the beginning part of Spring Valley the really happy tune, but then the second part of the song can be the really mad tune. The music reflects how you treat the pians. It will take a little while before all the parts get to the same tune. (I mean like the entire song being mad.)

You can view some of this information by pressing L+R+Y on the Pause menu screen. A row of numbers will pop up. Each number is in a spot that represents a part in the current level's song. Each number means the kind of tune that will be played. (Please correct me if this is wrong.)

3=Angry pians
2 = Neutral pians.
1 = Happy pians
0 = Default (When a level is first played this is what it starts out like.)

Breeding..How is it done?
Nightopians can mate and create eggs. This is done by spin dashing a maren into another pian. When this happens, the pian will lay an egg. I am not sure but sometimes a pian/mepian and another pian/mepian can bump into each other and produce an egg on their own accord. Sometimes the egg will be a normal pian egg, and sometimes it will look different depending on the maren that hit it. Now to hatch the egg you can either make NiGHTS touch it and then let go for it to hatch, or you can walk over it when you are one of the kids. (Yeah step on an egg for it to hatch. O.o ) If you grab it as NiGHTS you should hold the egg for a moment and let your star trial die down before you let go of the egg. This will reduce the chance of you paralooping the newly born pian/mepian or it's parents.

What is a Mepian?
A mepian is a pian that has some maren parts. Like you can have a mepian that has the body of a Party maren, but the rest of it is a normal pian. However, pian comes out will all maren parts then it is now a maren or really bad pian. This maren will start eating pians. However, at the end of the level the maren will disappear.

Different breedable forms.
As for combinations there are a lot. You can have pians with two completely different maren parts. The parts are split up into head, arms, legs, body, and back. You can have a mepian with only Kirckle parts. Or you could get a Kirckle Party mepian hybrid going. There are tones of things you can do. But you don't have any control over exactly what happens. It all has to do with the parents.

Here are some examples of different kinds of mepians you can breed.
Verol/Party Hybrid Maren
Full Party bad pian/maren
Mepian with Party legs
Almost complete Crewle Pole pian

As you can see in the picture, the Party maren doesn't look like the normal party marens. Marens created from breeding will look diffrent from the normal maren it comes from but it still has the same traits as any other maren.

Superpian?!
Yes there is a Superpian. This pian has a pink body, a King like crown on its head, and its wings change colors. This pian cannot be killed by marens. It will only live for 5 days just like every other pian. While it is alive the Superpian will go to a certain part of the level and begin building it’s giant pink tower. The tower comes in stages. Each time you visit the level you will see the next stage of development.

Here are some short clips of the Superpian
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sY5qBCxdaM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO8yqVFxQes

Here is where you can download the previous mentioned videos:
http://www.utc.edu/Desiree-Garza/

Here are some of the Superpian's tower stages:
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f21/Yami...7/PianTower.jpg
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f21/Yami...PianTower02.jpg
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f21/Yami...PianTower03.jpg
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f21/Yami...PianTower04.jpg
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f21/Yami...PianTower05.jpg

Picture of the Superpian:
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f21/Yami.../KingPian01.gif
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f21/Yami.../KingPian02.jpg

More mepian images: (And that is still not everything I have...I forgot the eggs and some others. )
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f21/Yami...r777/Pian01.jpg
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f21/Yami...r777/Pian02.jpg
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f21/Yami...r777/Pian04.jpg
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f21/Yami...r777/Pian05.jpg
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f21/Yami...77/PianSing.jpg
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f21/Yami...7/PianSleep.jpg
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f21/Yami...r777/Pian06.jpg
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f21/Yami...r777/Pian07.jpg
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f21/Yami...r777/Pian08.jpg
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f21/Yami...r777/Pian09.jpg
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f21/Yami.../PianCrying.jpg
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f21/Yami...7/PianFunny.jpg
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f21/Yami...PartyPian01.jpg
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f21/Yami...PartyPian02.jpg
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f21/Yami...777/GaoPian.jpg
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f21/Yami.../PianBack02.jpg
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f21/Yami...an_sleeping.jpg
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f21/Yami...VerolPian01.jpg
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f21/Yami...VerolPian02.jpg
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f21/Yami...ePolePian01.jpg

[Huruyami]

O M G. YAMI. THANK YOU BUNCHES... now, can you help me put it all together in a fancy document/html format thingy? (sorry, cant use sophisticated words at the moment)

[Tangocat777]

simply inspirational. I hope they have Superpians in JoD. It'd also be nice if they didn't disappear after 5 days.

[Huruyami]

Ok, im gonna make this into a html file and send it to trippy. Thanks for helping!

[Tangocat777]

does the a-life system really need its own page? The only parts that really count are making mepians and badpians for points and the superpian.

[Huruyami]

well tango...thats alot of parts that alot of people are confused on. I mean if theres a page about the games music and pictures, i think an a-life page could fit in.

[Malan]

Ok, if you want I'll try to translate my website's articles about Pians ( http://www.nightsintodreams.fr/nightopian.htm ) into English, but I'll need your help to correct some sentences because my English is far to be perfect XD

[Tangocat777]

well tango...thats alot of parts that alot of people are confused on. I mean if theres a page about the games music and pictures, i think an a-life page could fit in.

hmm.. good point. anything that puts an end to confusion must be benificial.

[DMN]

Ok, if you want I'll try to translate my website's articles about Pians ( http://www.nightsintodreams.fr/nightopian.htm ) into English, but I'll need your help to correct some sentences because my English is far to be perfect XD

From what I've seen of it, your english is pretty darn good, (easy enough to understand) and most americans aren't perfect either. Ever heard a deep south accent?

[viperxmns]

Very intriguing! I didn't know about Superpians/King Pians/Towers until just now. I wonder if the Japanese manual mentioned much about the A-life system, because the American one hardly said anything.

[Malan]

Yes my english is easy to understand but it must be enough good to be published, so if there are some fans who want to help me (after the first translation), it would be great ^^