Section 1: DoC progress
* Remade many (more to come) building models in Blender, adding smooth shading and creating cinematic-quality models.The following image succinctly summarizes the changes:
* Added new Dock building, which can build war galleys and up.* Implemented War Galley, War Elephant, and Scout Cavalry units* Created custom models (and team textures) for the various units: Spearman (armed with a 6-meter-long horse sticker), Bowman, Archer, Clubman, Axeman, Javelineer.* Fixed some 30 bugs of various sizes and descriptions.* Messed with bump-mapping buildings. This may make an appearance as a complete feature in the future, but for now, there are enough problems with my technique that it's not worth implementing.It looks like this: (bumpmapped reed hut)
My main problem is that the "shadows" - the non-lit side - currently display as a matte, featureless gray. If I could get the bump-mapping to act as an additive effect, it would be much easier to implement.* Begun to add proper loading screens/logo movies to the game.Now, on to the main topic of discussion: A little programming experiment of mine. I am attempting to make a roguelike. But not just any roguelike - I hope to make this a "life simulator" of sorts.Here's what I mean:* Anything you think you should be able to do, you should be able to do. If you want to light a fire (by Using a piece of flint with a rock, or an axe head, or …), you can do so - you can burn a log from a tree you cut down, or burn the handle off an axe to give you a sharp, heavy throwing implement. If you want to dig your own dungeons and populate them with baby monsters (those things have nesting holes and eggs, you know) you should be able to do so. If you want to wield a bread loaf, go ahead.* The world should be malleable. You should be able to cut down forests, mine holes into mountains, build houses, pens, towers, walls…* Time should have a real effect on gameplay. If you plant a seed from a berry bush and come back half an in-game year later, the seed should have sprouted. Similarly, by buying a suckling pig and taking care of it, you can obtain a good-sized portion of meat.* The world should be consistent, yet different for each player. By creating one "game world" at the first run, I hope to make a variety of experiences for different players; yet keep the sense of a single, massive world.* There should be a great variety of classes. By having five "critical decisions" for a new character to make, I can introduce a great variety of different classes - without actually having classes. Will you be a mage/martial artist? A ranger/soldier? A thief? Will you have a lot of influence with the rich and powerful, or will you start as a banker with money to spare? Your classes, your stat points, and your starting items will be determined by your choices. Designing characters will be much more in-depth with this system than with others.* Adventurers should have a home life as well. Combat may be fun, but it won't necessarily pay the bills. By introducing a selection of "mundane" professions such as smithing and hunting, I hope to give ingame characters more depth. And, when your adventuring is over, you can pass the torch on to your child (controlled by yourself) and the next generation.* Development should be fast and easy. At the moment, I have one command which defines "interactions" - such as "use flint with hard object" - which then translate directly into the game world. A few lines of code allow me to accurately describe the function of many in-environment objects. This also will make modding extremely easy - just specify a new interaction, and it will become possible in the game world.
as long as it has a thing that simplifies graphics based on lag.
Actually, the bump-mapping didn't noticably detract from the framerate…
The rogue-like game seems rather ambitious, though it is exactly the kind of game that I like. Do you plan to make it 3D? I think to streamline things, you should just have the basic "Use X on Y" and if there is more than one logical option then you give them those. It would actually do quite nicely with a text parser, like in old adventure games (Leisure Suit Larry comes to mind). Is the main obstacle going to be survival?
For your class system, I think best would be just using skills. The player chooses what skills to specialize in, and can possibly mix them anyway they want. Skills could be progressed at important milestones (eg, making first meal, building first house) or by experience, though experience tends to make it a chore, and you feel like it is necessary to repeat tasks just to gain skills.It will not be 3d; it will have an ASCII-based graphical appearance (!) and simplified commands (Use, Combine, Interact, Throw, Drop, Eat, Apply, etc.) It will not feature a text-parser; instead, it will be controlled (and look) quite similar to Nethack.
What I meant by classes is this:When you start a new character, you are given a series of situations as follows: "From age 8 to 14, you…" with the options being "attended school," "trained physically," "were a street waif," etc. According to what you choose, you may gain intelligence; gain strength; gain skill at tasks related to the Thievery profession; etc.Many options repeat; and some are cumulative - for instance, training physically twice in a row will also increase your Constitution.By selecting good choices, you can create a character with the stats you want - but you may have to make compromises. For instance, military training (which unlocks the Soldier profession) is available at the same time as the university (which allows you to become a Mage, Priest, or Monk, and is unlocked by taking two years of school)I haven't yet decided on the method of increasing skills; however, one thing I want to implement is the concept of "player experience" - things such as formulae for potions are constant, and a player who discovered how to create an anti-Lycanthropy potion as one character can make it in his next time through as well. There would still be an alchemy skill; however, this would affect how successful you were at creating potions, rather than what recipies you knew.Awesome graphical update.
News: I fixed the main problem with bump-mapping. (Yes, I know - I work fast.)
This means that I will probably be including a bump-mapping option in the final version of DoC - perhaps allowing my little project to go head-to-head with some commercial games.I ment globally, not just bump mapping (ie if the original would be 20/30 fps on my cpu and and bump mapped one was 20/30fps on my cpu..)
Very nice!
The Simulator sounds awesome!
X3D bumpmapping crashes on me :(