Lands of Adventure: A Gold-Box Inspired CRPG

[Magellan]

Definitely looks Goldbox-tastic!

 

[ProphetSword]

Okay, here's a more up-to-date video. The combat engine is coming along. As you can see in this video, a complete melee-based combat can be fought with monsters. At this point, there are no buttons to do anything else, there's no ranged weapons or spells, and there's no feedback on how hard the monsters are hitting the characters (or if they're hitting at all). I've also come to realize that I need to simplify the feedback message given to the player when they hit. I went for something rather random and descriptive, and it worked in the previous version of the game, but it does not work here.

As always, I'll be happy to hear feedback.

 

[Piety]

Looking good! I actually really like the verbose combat descriptions, though I agree that (in this video, anyway), they go by too quickly to be very readable. I'm assuming that's why you say they don't work here? I'd say simplify/shorten them, but don't eliminate them entirely. A complete sentence is always more evocative than a flashing "HIT +13!!1!".

I'd been hoping a while back that you'd talk a little bit about your content-building tools -- how you built them, how they work, how you store the data for the engine to read, etc.

 

[ProphetSword]

Here's an updated video. The combat engine still isn't done, but it's getting there. These videos will hopefully show where I'm going.

New in this updated version is:

* Ranged weapon attacks (both friendly and enemy)
* Spells and effects
* Sound effects
* Buttons and Hotkeys
* Interactions with Inventory
* Interactions with Spell Screen
* Better feedback messages
* Players are able to undo actions (ESC key)
* Targeting System That Remembers Previous Target
* Victory Screen
* More I Probably Forgot...



In this video, a purposely went slow in the beginning to show the interactions with the Inventory and the Spell screen. It sucks that the mouse isn't visible in the video (I need to figure out how to make that happen), so I had to hover over buttons to allow them to turn red so that the viewer would get an indication of what was going on (I usually fight test combats with hotkeys and don't use the mouse much, so for those who like that, the option is there). The sound effects are real basic (there's only three different effects) and you will hear the "hit" sound effect used for a couple of different things. At this point, it's just a placeholder.

I'm sure there's a lot more I could say. It isn't perfect. The spell effects, for example, are just images. I don't have a budget or an artist (aside from what Alchemist has donated), so I work with art that has been donated or is free to use for gaming. Believe me, if I had an artist, I could do much better.

 

[ProphetSword]

Here is an executable version of the game that covers Character Creation. Just download, unzip and run the executable. When the Main Menu comes up, just press "New Game." Aside from the "Exit Game" button, none of the other buttons do anything at this point. Run through and create some characters. The "Start Game" button won't do anything once you're done, since I haven't included any other parts of the game.

I just want feedback on this. Need to know if it feels old-school and Gold-Box while being a bit more modern. Don't expect high-budget game menus out of this. The big blocky words are there to remind you of DOS based style gaming while being a little bit easier on the eyes. Feel free to tell me it sucks, but if you do, provide reasons.

Here's the link: https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=F017AC647BF80891!2780&authkey=!AAE0xltERVU1-SU&ithint=file,zip

 

[Dorateen]

I'm getting a crash when trying to run the application. I'm on a Windows 7 machine, 64 bit. From the output log:

Loading script assembly "Managed/UnityEngine.dll" failed!

And from the error report:

mono.dll caused an Access Violation (0xc0000005)
in module mono.dll at 0023:100f0493.

Probably missing something on the user's end. Also a number of the dll files caused the antivirus to act up.

 

[ProphetSword]

Weird. You may have to install the Unity player. Don't know what's up with the dll files. What antivirus are you using?

 

[Dorateen]

Norton, and I do think it has to do with not having the Unity player installed. I didn't know that was required.

OK, I downloaded the free Unity web player, and that did the trick. The character generation screen opened, and I was able to go through the process quickly. I'd like to spend more time checking this out, and will give more feedback later. After rolling for stats, they cannot be re-assigned, or adjusted, right? The only option is to chance one of the re-rolls available.

Just so you are aware, Norton is still reporting all the unity .dll files as unsafe, but I guess that's a software conflict.

 

[ProphetSword]

It is probably a false positive. I will look into it more to be sure, though.

 

[Dorateen]

Some more helpful feedback, I hope. The screens are clean and straight forward, providing useful information to the player.

But check the descriptions on the Class Selection screen. Some of the classes, like Scout, Assassin, Monk and Sorcerer, the description is long and bleeds over the bottom of the box. Not sure if you want to adjust the font size, or make a scroll bar to view the longer passages.

Also, when I run in Full Screen mode (instead of windowed) clicking Exit from the Main Menu, does not end the program. I had to tab out and close the application.

 

[ProphetSword]

Interesting. I had the descriptions set so that they didn't bleed over in any aspect ratio, using even a small screen size like 1024x768. I'll have to shorten them or change the font size, I guess.

EDIT:
I just tested it at 1024x768, and sure enough, it bleeds over. I'll work on that.

 

[V_K]

Three things:
1) The limit on the number of rerolls is useless, since you can just click discard and start the character creation anew.
2) Would be nice to see which classes need which stats, maybe even put a hard limit on available classes depending on your stats.
3) The bouncing windows are annooooooying.

And one little interface issue: if one of your stats is below average, the modifier on the final character confirmation screen is shown as "+-X"

 

[ProphetSword]

Let me address these issues:

Three things:
1) The limit on the number of rerolls is useless, since you can just click discard and start the character creation anew.

I agree with you on that. Like many experiments, it didn't work out as I hoped. I'll likely remove it.

2) Would be nice to see which classes need which stats, maybe even put a hard limit on available classes depending on your stats.

I can probably put something in the attributes window about which classes benefit from which stats. Good thinking.

As to the other point, I had a "requirement" setting for the classes, but I removed it in the most current build. My thought on this is that if you want to build a Warrior with a Might score of 5, that's totally up to you. They won't do as well or be as optimal as one with a higher Might, but who am I to decide that you can't play that way?

I'm considering adding skills to the characters anyway, and attributes will play into that. So attribute choice will end up being important.

3) The bouncing windows are annooooooying.

Okay. If other people also feel that way, I have two choices on those:

1) Remove them altogether. Don't like that option because it sucks when you push a button you didn't intend to push.
2) Remove the bouncing animation and just have the windows appear. Might be a bit jarring, though.

And one little interface issue: if one of your stats is below average, the modifier on the final character confirmation screen is shown as "+-X"

Noted. I'll fix it.

Thanks for the feedback.

One other interface issue I forgot to mention in my post is that the "Random Name" generation doesn't work. That's because I haven't programmed it yet. I had it working in the other version of the game, so I know what needs to be done to make it work. I just haven't done it in this version. So, that button does nothing. Just be aware of that for the moment.

 

[ProphetSword]

Long time since I posted in this thread. Had a few minutes today and whipped up a couple of old-school walls to see how that would work out, since people seem to want their level of abstraction high...

 

[V_K]

Long time since I posted in this thread. Had a few minutes today and whipped up a couple of old-school walls to see how that would work out, since people seem to want their level of abstraction high...

 

[ProphetSword]

What about this? I think I'd have to go with a more simplistic border to pull it off.

 

[Keldryn]

Definitely need a lower-res border for that monster and environment art. That screenshot has a definite Bard's Tale Trilogy Remastered look to it.

 

[Jaesun]

 

[Wayward Son]

Just found this while randomly browsing the net. Looks great, keep at it ProphetSword I want this.

 

[ProphetSword]

Some updates. I had been working on another side project, but decided that a lot of the work being done there could also be utilized in this project, so I stole a bunch of my own work and started importing it into this game.

I want the game to have a high level of abstraction, in the same way that the Gold-Box games do, but that doesn't mean that I can't take advantage of some improvements in technology that have happened since their release. So, I've utilized some lighting effects to create a day/night cycle that also includes torch light. You can see it utilized in these screenshots, which also include the Gold-Box style walls I have been working on.

This is what the game looks like in the daytime when the character is outdoors:

This is what that same scene looks like at night:

Thoughts?

 

[Jaesun]

Seems a bit to colorful (the buildings). But the lighting idea is pretty cool.

 

[V_K]

Agree with Jaesun.
Also, the houses need roofs. They can be very simple, just textured in like e.g. in Blade of Destiny or Amberstar. But I've found out that the lack of roofs is one thing that could be really immersion-breaking in abstracted blobbers.

 

[ProphetSword]

What other games had colorful walls without roofs?

Sometimes, I feel like you guys just don't get what I'm trying to do.

 

[V_K]

Goldboxes didn't have two-storied building either

 

[ProphetSword]

Fair enough.