Crypts of Avaritia - design discussion and feedback

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

I have this formula:
baseDamage = damage (16) on minDistance (1000 meters). distanceMod is a current distance to the target. Modified by slight random (between 0.9 and 1.1). bodyPartMod - depending on a limb (head|torso|hands|legs). armorType - the amount of damage armor allows to get (still overthinking that one). modDamage - damage modifier (e.g. with weapon upgrade).

function Damage () {
damageFinal = baseDamage * modDamage * randomMod * armorType * bodyPartMod / (distanceMod / minDistance);
}

You are right, of course armor will also play a role at the enemy side of it, I just thought about the player side of it Handling of armor is actually a very nice topic that I have not researched yet. I do not really now what is the most common system, but something like this may be used?:

damageDealt = Mathf.Max(0.5 * damageDealt, (damageDealt - armorValue)), for example I have a armor with value 5, someone hits me hard with 30, I absorb 5 of those resulting in 25 damage dealt. We must use som kind of threshold as well otherwise the character can absorb infinite blows from a weak enemy. But like I said I have not researched this so this just from the top of my head.

We are on the same page regarding using a random element to the dealt damage, I think that is needed for "realism" and suspense.

I probably won't use something like bodyPartMod since then we go towards relying on the skill of the player (FPS style) more than relying on the skill level of the character we play, it is definitely tempting (everybody likes headshots I guess) but will cripple the roleplaying aspect of it I think.

I think it also is a bit harsh to use a linear dependency for calculating the impact of the distance to the target. If we use that we might force the player towards keeping close to the enemy with a ranged character for increased hit damage. If one chooses to be a ranged character I assume they want to stay away from the enemy and not use heavy armor and such, forcing them to be close to maximize damage will put them in danger in a way not really suited for the chosen character type.

A modifier that I had in mind is to use elemental arrows, as in fire, ice, wind, earth and spirit, to add damage over time once hit unless the character is immune to said element. Might just use enchanted bows instead for the same effect, but some form of magical modifier at least.
If a sort of crafting system would be implemented (thinking of doing a bare bones one, not really sure) you could combine poisonous herbs with arrows to make poison arrows, but we will see about that.

I appreciate the discussion, this is gold to me for making the best possible game

My code is based on my development ideas (I have in mind some sort of a FPS/RPG mix), so they might not fully apply to yours, but may give some ideas concerning the gameplay and stuff. Though I am still a noob in coding.

The linear distance modifier could be called an 'awesome button' by some players, because it may actually help out a player with little ammo left. The tests will show how it works - for now, I am still implementing.

 

[r3jonwah85]

The linear distance modifier could be called an 'awesome button' by some players, because it may actually help out a player with little ammo left. The tests will show how it works - for now, I am still implementing.

Ahh, that is also a very nice idea! Desperation forces the player to give up the comfort of fighting at a distance... What about something like this (distance on x-axis, damage multiplier on y-axis):

And in code (just the distance modifier is seen in the graph), possibly screwed some parentheses up but you get the idea:

damageDealt = (dexterityLevel / (dexterityLevelMax + Random.Range(0,3)) * bowDamage * Mathf.Max(0.0, Mathf.Max((Mathf.Pow(maxDistance/10, 10) - Mathf.pow(hit.distance, 10)) * 2/Mathf.Pow(maxDistance/10, 10), (Mathf.Pow(maxDistance, 4) - Mathf.pow(hit.distance, 4))/Mathf.Pow(maxDistance, 4)));

Might want a smoother connection between the modes but that can be fixed. Also might want to set a constant distance for when the "close to enemy" curve takes over instead of using a relative distance.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Hmm, as far as I understood, you want to decrease damage over distance if distance is larger than x. Well, arrows are not rockets, so this might be a good thing.

 

[r3jonwah85]

Hmm, as far as I understood, you want to decrease damage over distance if distance is larger than x. Well, arrows are not rockets, so this might be a good thing.

Ahh, I think I misunderstood you a bit then, you mean like this (which is practically the same as the red line in my previous post, mine is just a continuous equation instead of using an if-statement, and a bit smoother cut-off ):

Thougth you were talking about this (which would force the player to be close to the enemy for maximum damage in a unwanted way):

But I think actually the misunderstanding might lead to something good in the end; if the player is a ranged character and running low on ammo he can flee or go berserk and run up really close to the enemies and get a higher damage rate. Otherwise you will punish a ranged character harder (must find bow/crossbow and need to find arrows) compared to a melee character (just uses his weapon once found). One way to fix this without having damage bonus close up for the ranged character is to make melee weapons break with use. That way both type of characters need to find weapons/arrows continuously.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Sorry, misunderstood you a little, the second pic describes the thing I use.

 

[Mastermind]

I have this formula:
baseDamage = damage (16) on minDistance (1000 meters). distanceMod is a current distance to the target. Modified by slight random (between 0.9 and 1.1). bodyPartMod - depending on a limb (head|torso|hands|legs). armorType - the amount of damage armor allows to get (still overthinking that one). modDamage - damage modifier (e.g. with weapon upgrade).

function Damage () {
damageFinal = baseDamage * modDamage * randomMod * armorType * bodyPartMod / (distanceMod / minDistance);
}

You are right, of course armor will also play a role at the enemy side of it, I just thought about the player side of it Handling of armor is actually a very nice topic that I have not researched yet. I do not really now what is the most common system, but something like this may be used?:

damageDealt = Mathf.Max(0.5 * damageDealt, (damageDealt - armorValue)), for example I have a armor with value 5, someone hits me hard with 30, I absorb 5 of those resulting in 25 damage dealt. We must use som kind of threshold as well otherwise the character can absorb infinite blows from a weak enemy. But like I said I have not researched this so this just from the top of my head.

We are on the same page regarding using a random element to the dealt damage, I think that is needed for "realism" and suspense.

I probably won't use something like bodyPartMod since then we go towards relying on the skill of the player (FPS style) more than relying on the skill level of the character we play, it is definitely tempting (everybody likes headshots I guess) but will cripple the roleplaying aspect of it I think.

I think it also is a bit harsh to use a linear dependency for calculating the impact of the distance to the target. If we use that we might force the player towards keeping close to the enemy with a ranged character for increased hit damage. If one chooses to be a ranged character I assume they want to stay away from the enemy and not use heavy armor and such, forcing them to be close to maximize damage will put them in danger in a way not really suited for the chosen character type.

A modifier that I had in mind is to use elemental arrows, as in fire, ice, wind, earth and spirit, to add damage over time once hit unless the character is immune to said element. Might just use enchanted bows instead for the same effect, but some form of magical modifier at least.
If a sort of crafting system would be implemented (thinking of doing a bare bones one, not really sure) you could combine poisonous herbs with arrows to make poison arrows, but we will see about that.

I appreciate the discussion, this is gold to me for making the best possible game

I've been designing a massive elder scrolls inspired RPG for years. Some suggestions:

Highly abstracted game mechanics look like shit in first (and third) person real time games. In the type of game you're making, it's better to embrace some standards of realism even if it interferes with the player to character skill ratio and build character skills around it. Otherwise you get melee combat like Morrowind's. At the end of the day, this is a game, not a simulator where you plug in some numbers and it plays itself. It's ok to have player skill involved, as long as the character skill part pulls its weight.

body parts - my game has the option to go slow mo (called focus). The higher the player's agility is, the more effective this is. This reduces player skill considerably since any retard can press the focus button and hit an arm or a leg. Even if this isn't implemented, you could have the parts picked partially at random on every strike, maybe partially based on stats. It would of course be best to tie the animation to this. IE: enemy is right in front of you, you press mouse button to attack. System picks leg strike, your character strikes at the leg. Next attack it might pick chest and your character swings at the chest level instead. You could then also have different abilities you can pick. IE: you get the Wide Slash ability and there's a chance you'll hack through an opponent's arm and chest, or both legs on a sword swing, or get the Decapitate ability and you will take swings at the head more often.
dodging - play Jedi Academy from beginning to end. Note how force users (particularly those without lightsabers) are scripted to dodge shots/lightsaber swings and push projectiles back at you with the force. Implement that (tied to a stat of course). It's a disgrace that an action game does this better than virtually all rpgs.
Armor - it's ok for the attacks of weak enemies to bounce off your full plate. It's how full plate functions in real life. I SHOULD be able to just sit there and let a dumb goblin hit me with a spiked club all day long without a dent in me. Not everything needs to (or should be) dangerous to the experienced knight, especially in a fantasy setting with abundant magic. You could also make the goblins dangerous in other ways: IE, if there's a bunch of them they all bum rush you, knock you down, take off your helmet and one of them bashes your face in while the others hold you down. Or if it's too much of a paint to animate give rogue type enemies armor penetration bonuses if there are a other enemies engaged in combat with their target.

 

[Borelli]

Comments and suggestions?

Are you planning to implement (cross)bows and how do you plan to calculate damage?

Yes, that is the plan. The system will be stat based (dexterity) but you will always get a hit if you aim correctly (which will be up to the ability of the player), only the damaged done will be modified. So a higher skill level will increase the "accuracy" by dealing more damage in the same way that hitting a arm versus hitting the head would deal more damage (alright, both would probably hurt as hell, but this is video game logic). I want it this way since I find it frustrating when a game does not register a hit even though the player is sure there was one (Elder Scrolls), the same will go for melee weapons.
The damage dealt will probably be something like this:
(dexterityLevel / (dexterityLevelMax + Random.Range(0,3)) * bowDamage , but that is just from the top of my head, have not really thought it through. Might also add a modifier that uses strength, but at the same time this might force the player to increase both strenght and dexterity, which I would hate since then you practically got your standard melee character, and I would like keep the ability to stray away from melee as much as possible (since practically all games end up with a warrior type of character as the "best" way to go).

On the technical side of it I will probably use raycasts instead of rigidbodies, cheaper and more accurate (unless fiddling with a combination of the two to prevent arrows going through walls) when registering hits.

At least this is my idea of a intuitive system, opinions are most welcome.

How about a crosshair which gets smaller the higher your skill is and thus you get more accurate? Like in Deus Ex. Although this is only noticed if a fight is in large spaces, don't know how it would in narrow dungeons.

 

[r3jonwah85]

I've been designing a massive elder scrolls inspired RPG for years. Some suggestions:

Highly abstracted game mechanics look like shit in first (and third) person real time games. In the type of game you're making, it's better to embrace some standards of realism even if it interferes with the player to character skill ratio and build character skills around it. Otherwise you get melee combat like Morrowind's. At the end of the day, this is a game, not a simulator where you plug in some numbers and it plays itself. It's ok to have player skill involved, as long as the character skill part pulls its weight.

body parts - my game has the option to go slow mo (called focus). The higher the player's agility is, the more effective this is. This reduces player skill considerably since any retard can press the focus button and hit an arm or a leg. Even if this isn't implemented, you could have the parts picked partially at random on every strike, maybe partially based on stats. It would of course be best to tie the animation to this. IE: enemy is right in front of you, you press mouse button to attack. System picks leg strike, your character strikes at the leg. Next attack it might pick chest and your character swings at the chest level instead. You could then also have different abilities you can pick. IE: you get the Wide Slash ability and there's a chance you'll hack through an opponent's arm and chest, or both legs on a sword swing, or get the Decapitate ability and you will take swings at the head more often.
dodging - play Jedi Academy from beginning to end. Note how force users (particularly those without lightsabers) are scripted to dodge shots/lightsaber swings and push projectiles back at you with the force. Implement that (tied to a stat of course). It's a disgrace that an action game does this better than virtually all rpgs.
Armor - it's ok for the attacks of weak enemies to bounce off your full plate. It's how full plate functions in real life. I SHOULD be able to just sit there and let a dumb goblin hit me with a spiked club all day long without a dent in me. Not everything needs to (or should be) dangerous to the experienced knight, especially in a fantasy setting with abundant magic. You could also make the goblins dangerous in other ways: IE, if there's a bunch of them they all bum rush you, knock you down, take off your helmet and one of them bashes your face in while the others hold you down. Or if it's too much of a paint to animate give rogue type enemies armor penetration bonuses if there are a other enemies engaged in combat with their target.

Well these are all good ideas, and is probably something that you will aim for in a Skyrim-budget kind of game, but I think that much of this is a bit too ambitious for a first-timer-one-man effort. I probably won't go for different hit zones, the enemy will have one to just register the hit, and then calculate the damage done depending on other stuff. The random element and character skill will act as a modifier and you will "theoretically" hit differetn body parts. This might be a bit abstract but i think Morrowind combat is fine except the constant misses, I rather have smaller amount of damage done. This is not a combat centered game unless the player really wants it, and I they will have to live with functional combat rather than flashy.

Regarding the armor you do have a point, but I am aiming a bit for a Gothic kind of feeling, in the sense that all creatures will pretty much be a threat unless you are focused on what you are doing. Taking on more than 2-3 enemies will kill you, and if the are high level/strong you have to use caution. So in that context I think enemies should always post a threat, perhaps excepting small rats or bugs.

How about a crosshair which gets smaller the higher your skill is and thus you get more accurate? Like in Deus Ex. Although this is only noticed if a fight is in large spaces, don't know how it would in narrow dungeons.

I have thought about this and I am still not sure on which way to go, but personally I think this can get a bit annoying. I think it is more intuitive and fluent gameplay wise to register hit where the player points at, but modify the actual impact depending on the character skills and some random element. But I do agree that it makes perfect sense to have a loose aim when the skill is low if the goal is to represent how things work in reality. I will keep on thinking about this for sure...

Have been a bit busy at work lately, the whole week I have been doing fire experiments from early mornings to late nights on sight (so have not been home at all), and before that just setting all the equipment up the whole weekend, so not much has happened development wise. I have put in some weapons and worked on melee combat. The player now has 3 attacks, quick slash, proper swing and a thrust. The gives the player some tactical options for the melee combat to prevent furious clicking. The way it works is the time the player holds down the mouse button determines the attack type; a quick click does a slash, between 0.3-1.0 seconds give a swing and anything above that gives a thrust (the player can charge it and upon release the character swings and thrusts).

Other that that there has been some fixes to force two-handed weapons to equip both hands and unequip both hands as well, the inventory has been worked on to enable storing more items, the idea is to only be limited by weight and not space (1000 items for now, identical items gets put on stack and only takes one slot), the window is now scrollable (seems pretty basic but GUI programming is pain in the ass in Unity).

Changed some stuff regarding filling up water and drinking water, now a meny pops up and player choses action (drink from source or fill bottle with water). Added similar functionality for fires, you can now cook raw meat (so you do not get poisoned, unless you increase your poison resistance), boil dirt water (again, otherwise you can get poisoned) and also burn wounds to stop the bleeding (doing so stops the bleading but your health takes a beating, so it is better to use bandages if you have some).

Thats all for now, will hopefully get more done next week.

 

[r3jonwah85]

And a video update of the latest stuff, some of it mentioned in the post above.

 

[r3jonwah85]

Doing some weapon generation algorithm now, I think I have set it at 16 weapon types, 14 materials on the blade/blunt end and 5 enchantments (fire, water, earth, wind, spirit) for a total of 1120 unique weapons. At first I had random handles on each weapon as well for a total of about 15 000 unique weapons but felt it was abundant, will probably look worse and feel too generic. I have added random elements on the damage modifiers and weight modifiers as well so there will be slight differences even though the material and weapon type is exactly the same.

I have also been working on equipment and item effects (such as potions, herbs, food etc) and it is actually really fun work. Potions will be able to temporary affect any stat of the character, so one can play a sneak/lockpicking oriented character but still buff the strength if you wan't to try a heads on approach at some point. Potion effects do add on to each other so you can buff your character to immense strength (or any other attribute/skill) for a brief while (depending on potion effect duration).

I have also scrapped the old system with levels of 0-5 on each attribute and skill, from now on 1-100 (like Daggerfall/Arena) is used and I am re-writing code to adapt this. One thing I am debating with myself is if it should be allowed to temporary buff your stats above the permanent max (100) to allow for some really powerful modification of your character for a short while (for example jump and run reaaaally long, or slay a big monster with ease). Of course these potions will be rare so I do not really foresee abuse. What do you guys think?

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Hej bro.
Actually, ability to buff beyond the limit would be nice, but I think of this - if you're planning to implement some character states (tired, stressed, etc), wouldn't it be nice, if player encounters an opponent way stronger than him, he is stressed and gets his abilities a little bit buffed when he's close to his death. I didn't think about it much, but I think it's something to consider.

Also, I had some thoughts concerning the enemy's reaction to the player. Do you think it's possible to implement enemies that ignore the player unless the player acts aggressively (e.g. just swings weapon left and right or attacks)?

 

[r3jonwah85]

Hej bro.
Actually, ability to buff beyond the limit would be nice, but I think of this - if you're planning to implement some character states (tired, stressed, etc), wouldn't it be nice, if player encounters an opponent way stronger than him, he is stressed and gets his abilities a little bit buffed when he's close to his death. I didn't think about it much, but I think it's something to consider.

Also, I had some thoughts concerning the enemy's reaction to the player. Do you think it's possible to implement enemies that ignore the player unless the player acts aggressively (e.g. just swings weapon left and right or attacks)?

Yo broder från en annan moder!

That would be easy to implement, just add a "panic" modifier to all stats and change this when some player state is reached. I guess it would make sense in a permanent death oriented game, give the player one last chance to get it all together. I do however (for the sake of argument) have some cons to the approach;
It will remove some tension and planning that so desperately was needed in Gothic (at least for me since I sucked at the swordplay) before approaching your enemy, worst case scenario this will run into something like modern shooters where you have regenerating health. I do not mean exactly the same but the mindset will be similar, you run towards an enemy without thinking (and try to fill your health etc before) ahead knowing that this buff will save you (or at least increase your chance) instead of trying to stay as healthy as possible at all times and sometimes actually avoid combat since you are not sure what the outcome will be. I really want to put the player in such positions that avoiding conflict is mostly a good idea unless the character is really focused on monster slaying.
Another con could be the skewed favoring of melee character once again, since I see this panic buff as less useful for characters that avoid combat or take their battles on a distance.

That said, I do like the idea. It will however take careful thought to implement in a suitable and neutral way (character direction wise).

Yes, I do hope so! I plan on doing tiles that contains villages and small underground towns that populates this world. Their will be both human and other races, but due to actually wanting to release the game within reasonable time I have not planned on implementing factions or a economical system (as in there will be no stores to buy stuff in). In some of these tiles I have planned so that the inhabitants will be neutral, and you can sleep and perhaps drink water at these places, maybe some basic interaction. But if you start slaying people of course they will attack you.
Other than that I have not planned on no attacking enemies (except when the player is sneaking, but that is different), the AI will basically be a simple "follow AI" with variations in move and attack patterns to mask this fact, like for example in Doom and Quake. Do not expect co-ordination and cover shooting enemies, then you will be disappointing I am afraid.

Like I said in this wall of text I am trying to restrict some aspects without loosing the core, this is because I really wan't to finish this game. I do make notes and sketches about Avaritia as a whole gameworld where these crypts/dungeons will be part of a larger world, but that is a undertaking for the future.

Another new thing by the way (you could see it partly in the video), all items in your inventory now display what they do (mana value, health value, potion effect, damage output etc) which was really needed. I do feel as if a snippet of gameplay can be released in the near future if I put some time into it.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Hej bro.
Actually, ability to buff beyond the limit would be nice, but I think of this - if you're planning to implement some character states (tired, stressed, etc), wouldn't it be nice, if player encounters an opponent way stronger than him, he is stressed and gets his abilities a little bit buffed when he's close to his death. I didn't think about it much, but I think it's something to consider.

Also, I had some thoughts concerning the enemy's reaction to the player. Do you think it's possible to implement enemies that ignore the player unless the player acts aggressively (e.g. just swings weapon left and right or attacks)?

Yo broder från en annan moder!

That would be easy to implement, just add a "panic" modifier to all stats and change this when some player state is reached. I guess it would make sense in a permanent death oriented game, give the player one last chance to get it all together. I do however (for the sake of argument) have some cons to the approach;
It will remove some tension and planning that so desperately was needed in Gothic (at least for me since I sucked at the swordplay) before approaching your enemy, worst case scenario this will run into something like modern shooters where you have regenerating health. I do not mean exactly the same but the mindset will be similar, you run towards an enemy without thinking (and try to fill your health etc before) ahead knowing that this buff will save you (or at least increase your chance) instead of trying to stay as healthy as possible at all times and sometimes actually avoid combat since you are not sure what the outcome will be. I really want to put the player in such positions that avoiding conflict is mostly a good idea unless the character is really focused on monster slaying.
Another con could be the skewed favoring of melee character once again, since I see this panic buff as less useful for characters that avoid combat or take their battles on a distance.

That said, I do like the idea. It will however take careful thought to implement in a suitable and neutral way (character direction wise).

Gotcha. True, I planned stuff ahead in Gothic too - didn't think of cons of the idea, though. But if you're still thinking about this, you can add a very slight chance of it, surprising the player (like, 0.01%).

Yes, I do hope so! I plan on doing tiles that contains villages and small underground towns that populates this world. Their will be both human and other races, but due to actually wanting to release the game within reasonable time I have not planned on implementing factions or a economical system (as in there will be no stores to buy stuff in). In some of these tiles I have planned so that the inhabitants will be neutral, and you can sleep and perhaps drink water at these places, maybe some basic interaction. But if you start slaying people of course they will attack you.
Other than that I have not planned on no attacking enemies (except when the player is sneaking, but that is different), the AI will basically be a simple "follow AI" with variations in move and attack patterns to mask this fact, like for example in Doom and Quake. Do not expect co-ordination and cover shooting enemies, then you will be disappointing I am afraid.

Like I said in this wall of text I am trying to restrict some aspects without loosing the core, this is because I really wan't to finish this game. I do make notes and sketches about Avaritia as a whole gameworld where these crypts/dungeons will be part of a larger world, but that is a undertaking for the future.

Another new thing by the way (you could see it partly in the video), all items in your inventory now display what they do (mana value, health value, potion effect, damage output etc) which was really needed. I do feel as if a snippet of gameplay can be released in the near future if I put some time into it.

I don't expect any coordination and cover shooting, though it would be fun to run into some dungeon filled with armored skeletons that unexpectedly start to coordinate their attacks, turning the player into a joke in a matter of seconds, causing massive rage.

 

[r3jonwah85]

Gotcha. True, I planned stuff ahead in Gothic too - didn't think of cons of the idea, though. But if you're still thinking about this, you can add a very slight chance of it, surprising the player (like, 0.01%).

I don't expect any coordination and cover shooting, though it would be fun to run into some dungeon filled with armored skeletons that unexpectedly start to coordinate their attacks, turning the player into a joke in a matter of seconds, causing massive rage.

Yes, a small percentage would be a better implementation of it, then the player can not rely on it, but instead be positively surprised by like you said. I think 0.01 % is a bit harsh, most players probably won't be on the edge of dying 10000 times which they statistacally would need to do to get the save, maybe 5-10 % which would mean once or twice every 20th time?

There will be some coordination in the sense that they will surround you instead of all of the enemies just running right at you, much like in Gothic once again. There the wolves (and other animals and enemies) would form a circle around you and most often kill you, stabbing/biting you in the back and from the sides, often by surprise. I think this will be even more scary in a first person perspective, compared to 3rd person.

 

[r3jonwah85]

So, walking to the car today I came up with an idea for a puzzle, made some sketches and drew it up in 3D just to remember everything. But once I had done that I thought "why not just fix the basic features and release it as a gameplay snippet..?". Said and done, here is the first gameplay for you guys to try out, everything is early pre-alpha and the looks is thereafter, but at least there is something to try for those that are interested.

Could not find out if Unity webplayer could be embedded at the codex so you will have to click the link for now:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u...PreAlphaWeb/CryptsOfAvaritia_PreAlphaWeb.html

To get rid of the mouse pointer just toggle the inventory on and off using the "I" key. As per ususal, comments, ideas, critique etc. is most welcome.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Gotta play it later today.

 

[r3jonwah85]

If anybody has tried the game I just want to say it has been a bit updated, the right pathway can be found using the hint that you get, before it was just pure trial and error. Had to think a bit on a way to help the player but still leave some interpretation and thought to the player, will probably improve even more on things like this when puzzle design is in focus.

 

[r3jonwah85]

Ssince nobody has commented on anything I am just going to post this video on how to get by the first trial of the puzzle, there is still one thing to solve on the top.

Spoiler

 

[r3jonwah85]

So I have been working on some stuff for the menus, none of the graphical stuff you see is final but the parameters should be what you will find in the final game (more stuff will also be added). I think the most interesting things to note is in picture number two, there you can see some game settings for a new game similar to Dungeon Hack.

 

[r3jonwah85]

Got some pretty big updates coming, I have coded a completely new dungeon randomization algorithm and now the dungeons are practically limitless, although I have set a max of 2.5x2.5 km^2 per floor and a maximum of 99 floors for now while I am testing it out, but that still totals at around 620 km^2 of gameworld if maxed out. A nice thing is that there are no load screens, I get a couple of seconds (almost none if the floor size is in the smaller range, a couple of seconds with big floors) of waiting when taking the stairs from one floor to another but that is pretty much it. The same goes for the first time you start the game.
I will probably try to find a balance in the user settings so that the gameworlds do not get to big since I still have to fill it all with interesting content...

Have also fixed some other stuff but I will have to save that for later, it is almost 4 AM here now and I have to work tomorrow

 

[r3jonwah85]

And update time!



From IndieDB:

So finally I am ready to show you guys some magic and working enemies! I have been pushing it these last couple of days (mostly nights, haha) and took a day of work to get more done. It is nowhere near perfect, but it gives you an idea of how things might work in the final product. As always this is very early pre-alpha and as such there will be changes in the final product. I like to show you stuff early and give you the chance to bring input and changes early in the process, so please excuse the rough edges

Of course we will start out with a known bug (the aura of magic gets strange colors when highlighted, I have to tweak the shader change when highlighting objects). Anyhow, in the video you will show some magic and how it can interact with the environment (only 3 spells for now, have 25 planned like I mentioned in a old update, might also go for some special magic to solve puzzles, but I keep that a secret for now ). The water element puts out the fire and the fireball ignites it again, clean and simple. The spirit spell is just for show for now (will be used to summon and drain life over time etc). Although I do not really show it, you can equip 2 spells, one in each hand (as long as nothing else is in your hands).

Next we move on to the enemies. I placed a couple of skeletons in a room and throw a fireball at one of them. When a enemy is hit by you you will be targeted, and he will tell his nearby friends to come with him (in code that is, no voice acting... ;P). They all start to follow you around and since you are outnumbered it is best to flee. In the video I run like hell to be able to show off the pathfinding of the enemies. Since all content is generated at run-time I could not use navmeshes (without messy solutions at least). So all you see is dynamic real-time pathfinding They are not the smartest bunch in the world (at least not for now, and probably never, they are monsters after all ), but they find you and hunt you down to their best ability, even when the area is cluttered with objects.

You will also see me fighting back a bit and kill one of them, just to die a couple of seconds later. As always I play to showcase features, not to showcase gaming skills

And for those traditional cRPG players out there, don't worry. The combat shown in this video is really hectic, once balanced so many enemies will cut you to pieces in no time, the encounters will be fewer in number. And as I previously has stated, my goal is to make it possible to avoid combat almost altogether, and for those moments that calls for brute force, there will be potions to buff your weak, sneaking, lock-picking peaceful miner.

All feedback is welcome as per usual.

 

[Bitcher1]

Since I don't have much feedback to give (apart from stuff you're likely well aware of) I just want to say your project looks pretty cool and I'm following the updates with interest.

 

[r3jonwah85]

Since I don't have much feedback to give (apart from stuff you're likely well aware of) I just want to say your project looks pretty cool and I'm following the updates with interest.

Thanks man, it is always nice to hear that people seem to like what I do! Hopefully I will bring you something better than the previous "demo" to tinker with in a near future, today I have implemented melee combat from both on the player side (before the weapons were just equipped for show) and on the enemy side, so ranged and melee works pretty OK, just have to fix bows and crossbows and refine the system. But at least I get killed pretty fast by the simple AI if they are large in numbers, just the way I intended.

 

[r3jonwah85]

So I have been working on the spirit side of magic, and of course a central part of that is the summoning of creatures. First up is the same skeleton that was used for the enemies AI, but it will pretty much work the same for other creatures. Keep in mind that the summons are overpowered in this video (they kill the enemies with 2 hits) and that is done for display purposes. They also seem to disappear into thin air, but they have a set life time before vanishing, will add a particle effect to enhance this event. Again I am aiming for less chaotic battles in the final product, but it is more fun to have small groups duke it out



And if you like what you see you can vote for me on IndieDB : http://www.indiedb.com/games/crypts-of-avaritia

 

[r3jonwah85]

Just a little video with a swarm of enemies following the player and put on a world of hurt (god mode is on though). The new addition is the tiny creepy spiders. They have just a basic poor animation to try stuff out, it will of course be changed later on.