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So how's Darghul coming along?

Igor

Novice
Joined
Jun 26, 2005
Messages
31
Location
Rand of the lising sun.
I know i ask this question a lot, but i need to know :)


So how is the game coming along? Will it be done soon? You should start posting regular updates on how the game is progressing and how much you have left to do in a thread in this forum. That way we'll all get a better idea of how much is left, which will make the wait more bearable. I really want the game now!!! Also, what about beta testers? Would you mind letting a few forum regulars (such as myself :D) get an early beta version of the game so we can report bugs (and of course play the game before anyone else)?
 

Wolf Mittag

Wolf Mittag Software Development
Developer
Joined
Dec 18, 2003
Messages
331
Location
Shanghai
new fantasy rpg 'DARGHUL':

Hello Igor,

> progress
Well, I just returned from 4 weeks in Asia (thanks to the strong Euro, traveling through China is cheaper than staying at home; and of course it's a bit more interesting and fun). But now I'm back at work.
What I did before I left was to convert everything to absolute coordinates (instead of coordinates relative to the currently loaded map, as inherited from Teudogar), convert all maps into smaller chunks, and make all NPCs global. These internal changes meant a good deal of work but fix many problems, make the game engine much more powerful and stable, and make numerous extensions possible (among others, I could now implement followers).
Right now, I'm working my way through the mountain of incomplete features, bugs, improvements yet to implement and so on. It's always like this - the game's basic framework and functionality is fairly easy to write, but the huge amount of details takes up so much time - nothing big, but an endless number of small things that need to be fixed/finished one by one, resulting in an awful lot of work (which will take several more months).

> get an early beta version of the game so we can report bugs
Of course; I'd be grateful. I may post a download link when I've gotten most known bugs out of the way. (But I think playing an incomplete or buggy game isn't too enjoyable; beta-testing probably isn't much fun.)

Anyway, I'm sorry about the endless development time. Thank you for your continued interest in this project!
 

Vistaer

Novice
Joined
Mar 1, 2006
Messages
27
Location
Massachusetts, USA
Great to hear from you wolf! I've been considering a vacation later this year and am currently torn between Aruba (plain old relaxing) Rome (Rome and Istanbul are the 2 biggest places in euro I want to see, simply for their affect on the western world) and china, which looks fun and different.

> (among others, I could now implement followers).

*sniff sniff* Do I smell the potential for well written party members? (ALA KotOR, Ultima VII, and Baldur's Gate) ;)


> I may post a download link when I've gotten most known bugs out of the way. (But I think playing an incomplete or buggy game isn't too enjoyable; beta-testing probably isn't much fun.)

Biggest issue to me would be possibly to cut out story elements? I dont want the story to feel spoiled by a buggy game (but I'll be happy to beta test in some of my free ttime :P)



Great to hear from you again wolf. Was a bit worried by that couple-month haiatus, but glad you got a chance to relax and explore another culture :)
 

Ladonna

Arcane
Joined
Aug 27, 2006
Messages
10,639
Still interested here too. Just start throwing out the spam when the game is getting ready.
 

Gold

Augur
Patron
Joined
May 18, 2007
Messages
504
Dead State Project: Eternity Wasteland 2
Since AoD and Darghul are the only games I forsee buying anytime soon, hurry up. ;) Actually I can't wait for another envelope covered in cool German stamps. I still have the one from Teudogar...
 

Jora

Arcane
Joined
Mar 14, 2003
Messages
1,115
Location
Finland
Wolf, over a year ago you said that you would take a look at some of the quests in the game and see if you could implement more ways of solving them. My question is, have you done this or are you planning to do it? RPG Codex is a strong advovate for multiple solutions (moral and/or skill-based) in role-playing games, and many of us would be happy if you did this.

You also mentioned that you would implement a skill-dependent system that warns the player of hostile creatures on the world map and elsewhere. Have you done this/are you planning to?

-------------------------------

I don't know if you're aware of Spiderweb Software's Nethergate. It's currently being remade and should catch your interest because of its setting:

Britannia is a land ravaged by war. The natives of this land, the savage Celts, have long been subjugated by the Roman invaders. At last, they have risen up in bloody rebellion. Battles rage across the land. Cities are sacked, the inhabitants massacred. And, lost in the chaos, in the small, forgotten valley of Shadowvale, a plan is being formed.

Soon, a band of barbarians will rediscover the lost secrets of magic. They will find a way to rid their lands of their oppressors forever. And you, as the Celtic warriors, will attempt to free your people.

Or you, as the Romans, will attempt to crush them. For the good of the Empire.
http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/nether ... index.html

I'm also curious about what other RPGs besides (obviously) Ultima 7 you like. Have you played the Gothic games? Arx Fatalis? Fallout, Arcanum, Baldur's Gate?
 

Wolf Mittag

Wolf Mittag Software Development
Developer
Joined
Dec 18, 2003
Messages
331
Location
Shanghai
Hello Igor, Vistaer, Ladonna, Gold, Jora,

thank you for your postings, reflections, ideas and encouragement!

update on progess: I agree; and I ought to update my darghul.com website much more often. I still need to add at least some new screenshots...

vacation: I'd recommend to go to China now and visit Rome and Istanbul later (though both are great), because I think one will never have it as good as right now in China: Due to the artificially low exchange rate, everything is unbelievably cheap; and the present boom (Shanghai and nearby cities) and drive and activity and general mood of boundless optimism are very impressive to witness; and because there are still so few Western tourists, people tend to be extraordinarily friendly and helpful. The historical sites (Xian's clay army, Beijing's wall) are truly amazing; and the culture and mentality is quite fascinating. And China is one of the easiest countries to travel in on your own; all street signs are in English, most people speak English, service everywhere tends to be good, domestic flights and buses are easy to use, and everything is generally extremely well-organized and reliable, which makes it easy to relax and enjoy your travels (i.e., there's no chaos, dirt, delays, cancellations, run-down infrastructure and security hassles like one is used to from Western countries).

followers / party members: yes, these would now be easy to implement. What's harder (more work) is the long list of consequent necessities like better artificial intelligence for party members, strategic group combat, dealing with everyone's inventory/health/provisions and so on. So while I made room for this as a future extension, I think I'll put it off for the time being for the sake of finally completing the damn thing first.

multiple solutions: After I introduced choice of character (male/female, warrior/mage/rogue etc), I started adding alternative solutions wherever possible (or earmarked the passages where these need to be added). So e.g. when you play the game as a rogue, you would cheat/steal, or as a woman, you might rather rely on persuasion (charisma/dialogue) than physical force, which might be a better solution for an uncharismatic warrior. (I.e., if charisma too low then persuation won't work, if strength too low, violence won't work, if you have enough of both, you can choose your course of action.)

detecting enemies based on your skills: What I have on my to-do-list is a function that will display living creatures on your map, even if they are out of sight, if they are in a cave/room connected to where you are and if your perception skill is good enough that you ought to be able to hear/sense them.
The second, probably more important thing I need to do is to output some sounds (footsteps, low-volume grunting etc) if enemies/monsters are nearby, with the time you are warned in advance - and possibly the intensity of the sound as well - depending on your perception skill. (I tried outputting text messages at first but these are hard to notice while maneuvering around and spoil the atmosphere.)

Nethergate: I think that's great. There are far too few games dealing with this epoch, or any historical epoch, for that matter (though from what I read Nethergate still seems a good deal like a fantasy game to me).
As to role playing games in general, one problem I suffer from is that writing rpgs has somewhat impaired my ability to enjoy playing rpgs. It's probably a bit like being a porn actor or a chef or a pianist - when you do something fun in a serious way, it becomes work, to a certain degree at least. So in my leisure time I tend not to play any computer games at all, or, if I do, then what I enjoy most is the old 'Civilization' strategy game...
 

Gold

Augur
Patron
Joined
May 18, 2007
Messages
504
Dead State Project: Eternity Wasteland 2
And once you get tired of Civ, you can do what I did, move on to Alpha Centauri...

Personally I prefer small-no parties, that was one thing I enjoyed about Teudogar. There were 'mercs' for the one big battle against the roman patrol but mainly going it alone trying to figure it out yourself.
 

Vistaer

Novice
Joined
Mar 1, 2006
Messages
27
Location
Massachusetts, USA
Hmm, long time no postings. Figured I'd drop one and say I noticed the screenshots on the Darghul page. Looks like everything's coming along nicely. I think I see my suggestion for a prison system, I can see PC in a cell talking with a fellow inmate PC proclaiming he's the only one to admit he's actually a criminal, everyone else acts like they're political prisoners ;).

I also see the suggestions for more in depth char info... I see character alignments, titles, as well as others' suggestions for being able to target parts of the body. Looks very nice Wolf!
 

Wolf Mittag

Wolf Mittag Software Development
Developer
Joined
Dec 18, 2003
Messages
331
Location
Shanghai
Thanks, Vistaer; and again, thanks to you and everybody else in this forum for your suggestions! Apart from the things I woudn't even have thought of, there have been many things I wouldn't have undertaken of my own accord because I considered them too difficult or impractical, when actually, after a bit of consideration, implementation turned out to be quite simple.

In the past couple of weeks I've also been working on a number of additional features previously discussed here:

- cutting down trees - implemented; you can now use an axe to cut down any kind of tree, everywhere, and that will result in a beam of wood and a number of poles and a heap of foliage. Beam and poles are too heavy to be carried but can be dragged&dropped to a nearby location and used as building material. Or you can use a pickaxe to dig out the root, thereby making the place where the tree had stood suitable for building on.

- building houses - prepared; I've rewritten the house-data-table in order to accommodate changes made during playtime; thus, new buildings can now be recognized, including registration of positions of doors, containers, fireplaces etc (necessary to enable npcs to navigate a house). And I've set up a basic repertoire of walls that can be retroactively placed over existing grass/earth ground tiles (thanks to AdamP for this), and recognized and treated as walls (this was an internal problem). So if I now add some building commands, and rules for tile arrangements in corners/crossings( -- + | = T etc), plus checking for the required material per field, constructing houses would be complete.
Right now I'm still trying to figure out whether to do this via the Actions Menu (command 'build a wall', select start and end), or field by field by simply double-clicking on the building material (stones, or wood/foliage) accumulated thereon. Also I'm not yet sure what kind of menu/command I should offer for adding doors/windows etc. Since, as always, the main work lies with implementing the countless details, I may still decide to give up this house building system for the time being, and finish it at a later time; however, I can and will definitely implement this (sooner or later).

- downloadable full versions - prepared; immediately after an order is completed, a customized full version would be automatically created and made available on the internet, and the buyer would receive the download link and password to start the download, i.e., he or she could install and play the full version within a few minutes after ordering.

- trade - I've been setting up a table of required raw materials and skills for every tradeable object, i.e. chain mail : requires 15lbs of metal chain links + hammer + pliars + smith skill>=average; and metal chain links : require iron wire; and iron wire : requires iron bar + pliars + hammer + fireplace + coal + smith skill>=average (thanks to Igor for the basic idea).
Such a table would enable yourself (the player) to create every object (provided you have the materials/skills).
And for merchants, all I need to do is to define what finished products they should offer (e.g. Smith A in town T: helmet 1, sword B, axe, dagger, chain mail, scale mail), and they'd automatically buy the materials they need (coal, raw iron, iron bars, or iron wire/chain links/scales etc if you have any to offer, plus used equipment).
Thus commercial merchants would form part of the demand for goods in every town; the other part would be constituted by the town's non-professional inhabitants who would buy an average quantity of food, coal, tools, clothes, luxury goods etc. This way I can compute how much demand for how many goods of what type there is in every town; and according to this demand, I can automatically, bit by bit, 'sell' (take away and replace with gold) the goods in your storehouses (if you have any). This is quite simple and easy to implement; and once that is in place, I can add caravans, workshops, additional hired workers etc. I'm not sure how far I can take this right now, but sooner or later I'll implement this fully.

- crafts(blacksmith, leather) - as discussed above, once I've finished the requirements list (raw materials/skills/working hours/required tools), you will be able to create any object. E.g. animal carcass + knife -> animal skin + knife + water/chemicals + (leatherwork skill>=average) -> leather; leather + spindle + skill level x -> shoes/leather armor/helmet/shield(with wooden boards+metal buckle) etc; or raw iron + furnace + coal = iron bar; iron bar + fireplace + coal + anvil + pliars + hammer + skill = iron wire/plate/rod; iron rod ->sword; or rod -> wire -> chain links -> chain mail; or tree + axe = beam + poles; and so on, according to your skills (which would have to be learned from a master and would then grow by continued practice).

On the whole, there's been a good deal of progress, and I think the game is actually quite enjoyable - regarding gameplay action, much more so than Teudogar was, and for a much longer playing time, too.
 

Vistaer

Novice
Joined
Mar 1, 2006
Messages
27
Location
Massachusetts, USA
Awesome job Wolf!

I can't wait to see this as it gets closer to final state. Keep the great work up Wolf, I really am shocked with what I see and just how much this has grown, and can't wait to play it.

With online purchases possible you can also really reach a broad audience as people read news leading up to and of the release of Darghul on gaming new websites. Heck, I am half tempted to buy a bunch of copies and give them to friends who like RPGs as christmas gifts (if its out by then of course) :p
 

Ladonna

Arcane
Joined
Aug 27, 2006
Messages
10,639
In the past couple of weeks I've also been working on a number of additional features previously discussed here:

Hi Wolf,

Just wondering, will these features be useable for anything? IE: Cutting down a tree to get some wood...what can then be done with the wood? Does the player need wood for anything in particular?
 

Wolf Mittag

Wolf Mittag Software Development
Developer
Joined
Dec 18, 2003
Messages
331
Location
Shanghai
well, the main idea behind these additions was to flesh out the non-combat/non-dungeoneering parts of the game. In Teudogar you were more or less forced to play the game as a warrior, since there wasn't much you could do in alternative careers such as 'merchant'. That's something I wanted to change in DARGHUL.

Cutting down trees: The idea is to get building material and clear the space in order to build houses. Besides, you need some wood in order to create some kinds of weapons (axe, spear). And finally, wood is a tradeable raw material, which could be picked up by one of your caravans and traded for finished goods from a city.

As usual, this feature is optional from the player's point of view: You can play (and finish) the game as warrior, without doing a single trade, casting a single spell, building anything, or, for that matter, cutting down a single tree. But likewise, you could also decide to ignore the plot, avoid all combat, and spend your entire gaming time with creating/trading/building things, in which case all these production/handcraft functions would give you something profitable to do.
 

Jora

Arcane
Joined
Mar 14, 2003
Messages
1,115
Location
Finland
It would be nice to have a quest or two taking advantage of the interactive environment. One silly thing that comes to mind, for instance, is being ordered by a client to acquire a piece of land, cut down the trees and build a house for him. The client could be a merchant from another city seeking to expand his business or something.

What I'm saying is, it never hurts to have the main and side quests use all the features of the game, not just the basic functions (speaking, fighting, giving and receiving items). Too often interesting mechanics are restricted to leisure time activities instead of proper quests. For example, using the pick locks skill to break into peoples' houses is amusing for a while but ultimately pointless.
 

Ladonna

Arcane
Joined
Aug 27, 2006
Messages
10,639
+1 to what Jora said, however, since I wish to play the game before 2021, I would say showcase anything you are especially proud of, any new mechanic, etc, into one or two nice quests.

Its not critical to me in any case, just a thought. Looking forward to playing this game when it is finished.
 

denizsi

Arcane
Joined
Nov 24, 2005
Messages
9,927
Location
bosphorus
I agree with the above. I find your feature update here and in the other thread very heartening, but one really hopes they could be means of progress for tje main plot. For instance, when you expand your business, you could be influencing things on a different side or scale through either economic power or political influence (if possible), or simply hire (economic power) or demand (political) fighters and order them around.

Some of these would quite probably necessitate a different approach to the design from the start though, not that anyone's on your throat for these.

What Jora said about picking locks goes for every feature. Fighting, dialogue, etc. This is why I think any kind of skill should emphasize social connections. You're skilled in fighting above other skills? Then maybe you know masters or other associates who could help you here and then, add to your reputation and not necessarily fight your way through the whole game. You are a roguish type? You may have an upper hand in gaining knowledge then, who-where-when etc. Anyway, just rambling here about my fetish of ideal gameplay.
 

Wolf Mittag

Wolf Mittag Software Development
Developer
Joined
Dec 18, 2003
Messages
331
Location
Shanghai
Hello Jora, Ladonna, denizsi, thank you for this!

Using things like cutting down trees or producing items for subplots definitely makes sense, especially since the main plot action really mostly consists of 'talk to A, kill B, get items d+e+f'.

I like the idea of your position/wealth/connections directly influencing the political situation (and thus, the main plot). However, since it's a Fantasy plot, it's lacking the nuancedness, gradualism, and realism of Teudogar: When you're up against an evil Wizard and his supernaturally strong Orc armies, subtle stuff like wealth or connections are pretty irrelevant - rather, you obviously must find the 7 magical objects in order to defeat him. (I believe this simplification is one of the reasons why the original Darghul was much more successful than Teudogar; most people want simple, easy-to-grasp concepts instead of complexity and ambiguity.)

So I think the main field for using your specific skills and strengths, and the place where the program needs to offer different courses of action, are the subplots out of which the main plot consists. Your experience of solving these ought to be different depending on what kind of character, skills, reputation, connections etc you have - regarding the way you can proceed, how difficult it will be for you, how people will initially and reactionally treat you, and so on. (Of course that's an ideal that's pretty hard to reach; but there are a number of quests where I can at least move in that direction.)

By the way, regarding the primitiveness of the plot, I think this game can actually be all things to all people, namely the subtlety-hating majority, and the intellectuals, by hiding the complexity and differentiatedness beneath the surface. People who want simple concepts in order to feel oriented and comfortable will get these, and probably won't notice the depth; however, people who take a closer look will (and may enjoy that).

Now, once more back to the trade/production/building systems: As discussed above, the plot should make at least some use of these. However, the main advantage of these features is precisely that you can continue to use and enjoy them independent of the plot - even when you've already finished the plot several times. For example, Teudogar was too much like a novel in that, once you had finished the main plot, you were basically done with the entire game, since there wasn't much else to do. Thanks to these plot-independent features, DARGHUL should be a bit more like chess or Civilization, which you can play over and over - basically, forever.
 

k_bits

Scholar
Joined
Mar 26, 2005
Messages
210
Hi Wolf

Can you give us a estimate of release date?

Say...March 2008? Sooner? Later?
 

Wolf Mittag

Wolf Mittag Software Development
Developer
Joined
Dec 18, 2003
Messages
331
Location
Shanghai
I'd love to say, 'when it's absolutely perfect and I'm 110% content with the result'. But since I really need to finish this before 2021, I will not add any additional features anymore, and will simply work on finishing off the existing systems, and, in some cases, adding some final improvements or polishing.

E.g., today I finally completed the combat system by implementing, as previously discussed, different health levels for different parts of your body, plus special wounds like broken bones, pierced lungs, cut stomach etc, and lots of different additional ways of attack, like e.g. attack opponent's sword arm, yell, feign attack, grapple, grab opponent's right wrist, dagger stab to eye/neck/torso, kick, bite, and many others, all optionally available via a menu (in addition to regular generic attacking via simple mouse click).
(These extras add much tactical variety, giving you the chance to use your specific strengths or react to your opponent's specific weaknesses. E.g., if you're lightly armed and facing a fully ironclad knight, you might chose to avoid his first attack and then grapple and work with your dagger; or if you're the knight, don't worry about defense or forcefulness, but instead aim at speed and accuracy to make sure you hit your opponent before he can grapple with you; or if your empathy is good, you could think of and yell an insult that really upsets your opponent, and thus renders his attacks less accurate, and so on. Besides, your ethical alignment will also determine how dirty you can fight, and vice versa. All of this makes combat much more immersive and fun.)
- So this is the kind of finalizing and polishing work I'm currently doing.

As to timing, in December I won't have much time for this project, and in January, I'll probably be in Taipei, Kuala Lumpur, and Cairo (very strong Euro, still fairly cheap oil; both won't last: so I'm now traveling as much as I can, rather than doing so in later years). After returning, I will work full time on DARGHUL from late January to end of April, and should be able to basically finish everything by then, and release a fully functional (German) beta. Given my way of programming, there probably won't be many bugs to fix; but depending on the feedback I'll get, I may decide to do a bit of extra work on areas that got too much criticism. So it'll depend on how smoothly the remaining work goes, and on how well the beta gets received; but it shouldn't be more than a couple of months til final completion.
 

k_bits

Scholar
Joined
Mar 26, 2005
Messages
210
Thanks wolf. I think we'll all look fwd to it quite eagerly, especially knowing it will likely be out in April / May.

Have a fun time in KL...the heat amd humidity are something else, but it's pretty and quite cheap. You can still make your money stretch a very long way in Phuket and Bali too...5 star resort hotels for around U$80-120 a night
 

Wolf Mittag

Wolf Mittag Software Development
Developer
Joined
Dec 18, 2003
Messages
331
Location
Shanghai
Well, thank you all. I just got back home a few days ago.

I can recommend Taipei as an inexpensive and interesting destination. Since no one ever goes there as a tourist, you'll have the place almost to yourself. People really friendly and kind (and many women amazingly beautiful). Their archeological museum contains all the best treasures of Chinese civilization (the Kuomintang took everything from Beijing and elsewhere when they fled to Taiwan, leaving only third-rate items behind in mainland China). - Kuala Lumpur was surprisingly good, too. Very clean and safe, and fun. Nice for shopping and relaxing. - Cairo: Pyramids and Egyptian museum are overwhelming, and a must-see. But Egyptian civilization has been destroyed by the Arab conquerors since 640 AD; so this is now a very Mid-East/African country, with chaos, disorder and dirt everywhere. And the younger generation seems to be turning particularly Islamic, and often anti-West. Seems like a good idea to go there now, since it may no longer be safely possible in the future.

Enough said. I'm now back at work on DARGHUL, and will complete the damn thing over the next couple of months...
 

Fez

Erudite
Joined
May 18, 2004
Messages
7,954
Welcome back. Glad to hear you had fun, came back in one piece and (most importantly of all) you are not far from finishing Darghul. ;)
 

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