Vapourware Codexian Game Development Thread

[Lord of the Files]

I got multiple equipment slots working!

Obviously this UI exists only to be functional, and the actual game won't have generic HTML bullets.

Equipment other than your weapon has no effect on gameplay yet. That will change in the coming weeks/months as I add proper game systems. That will be an iterative process where I implement features I'm interested in, such as possessing your foes, animating items, hurling potions and sneaking around and try to make them feel fun and intuitive.

Also, weapons now do random damage specified by a dice string, e.g. "1d8+1".

 

[Nathaniel3W]

Coincidentally, I'm also working on inventory slots. Right-clicking on an item to equip it is so easy to program. Now I'm trying to program a left-click-drag to do the same thing and it is annoyingly complicated and I don't want to do it.

 

[Zep Zepo]

left-click-drag to do the same thing

Define hot-spots, if you release the mouse over the hot-spot (and the item is valid for that spot), pop the image in the slot.

If not, pop it back to inventory.

There are other more complicated ways too.

Zep--

 

[Nathaniel3W]

Zep Zepo Yeah, at its core that's basically what I'm doing. But then there's making mouse up/down events, making a semitransparent copy of the icon that you're dragging, making sure that the dragged icon doesn't interfere with what gets detected under the mouse, getting rid of the dragged icon when you're not dragging it, highlighting valid equipment slots and graying out invalid slots, and then there's dragging stuff off to unequip it. It's not like it's an insurmountable task. It just has an annoying number of little complications.

 

[Lord of the Files]

Zep Zepo Yeah, at its core that's basically what I'm doing. But then there's making mouse up/down events, making a semitransparent copy of the icon that you're dragging, making sure that the dragged icon doesn't interfere with what gets detected under the mouse, getting rid of the dragged icon when you're not dragging it, highlighting valid equipment slots and graying out invalid slots, and then there's dragging stuff off to unequip it. It's not like it's an insurmountable task. It just has an annoying number of little complications.

I was in the process of typing something very similar to this. It's a feature I want, but it's a whole lot of work that requires a new subsystem.

 

[Lord of the Files]

In recent news, I improved the AI to consider hacking through enemies while pathfinding to a destination or target, and friendly NPCs will now turn against you if you attack them.

Next will be stealth, but first I need to make a subsystem for persistent visual effects -- in this case, a pulsating translucency to indicate stealth. Hopefully that will be the last major engine addition.

 

[Mustawd]

In recent news, I improved the AI to consider hacking through enemies while pathfinding to a destination or target, and friendly NPCs will now turn against you if you attack them.

Same.

 

[Nathaniel3W]

Working on a new level. I made three desert mesa meshes in World Machine plus a background mountain range mesh I made previously, then I took some existing materials and changed the textures for a desert setting and added new splat maps for the new meshes. And with four unique meshes, I'm blocking out the new level. Here it is with super low shadow detail and preview lighting, with a couple of mistakes that weren't obvious until I baked the lighting.

The sandy floor of the valley is a landscape that I'll be able to paint on to add some more variation. Usually I like paths through the landscape to be a lighter color than the default, but I don't think that's going to work here because the sand is already so bright.

I also changed my bluish fog to yellow. You can see how in the foreground the rocks are more purple and they turn greener toward the horizon. I think the effect looks pretty good, makes it look like there's dust in the air.

 

[Punch]

It's been a while since I first saw your project and I must say that your game progressed in my eyes from "neat" to "HERE'S MY MONEY, TAKE EVERYTHING". Please tell us when your game goes gold immediately so I can spend some bux on it.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

It's been a while since I first saw your project and I must say that your game progressed in my eyes from "neat" to "HERE'S MY MONEY, TAKE EVERYTHING". Please tell us when your game goes gold immediately so I can spend some bux on it.

Thanks, dude. I'd say I'll take another month+ -- currently got a day job while finishing it whenever I have time, so the progress slowed down a bit.

Currently I'm finishing the last bits of tutorial (will most likely end up in a patch early next week) and then the second half of the game (prolly August).

 

[levgre]

Been working on the mission map system, almost done putting all the basics in (spawning, turns, movement, vision, etc.).

It's not evident from this video, but between each player movement, the enemies takes a turn. Spawning more guys, moving to objectives, so on. OBS also skipped a bit, so when the player jumps around some that's just the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGM8IfWLTqo

In the last movement the player does, you can see that vision was blocked but not movement. Blocking requires something being in the across the whole edge. Vision is determined by a straight line from the player's party to the center of the other tile (right now the player is always in the center of their tile as well).

 

[Lord of the Files]

Nice progress. Is that UI the Unity editor?

 

[levgre]

Nice progress. Is that UI the Unity editor?

thanks and yup that's Unity editor

 

[Lord of the Files]

I see now why so few RPGs implement stealth. But it is done.

What it still lacks is a balancing mechanism -- a reason NOT to use stealth. The typical answer is to slow the player down, but I want to avoid drastic movement speed variations, as they don't work well with the step-turn style. Remember how goddamn frustrating SLOW PROGRESS was in U4?

So I've turned my thoughts to long- and short-term resource management. I've thought about a "food" resource for some time. Maybe there could also be a fatigue resource which gets replenished by food?

I'll leave prototyping such resource systems until after a few more player skills are prototyped, so whatever I come up with works harmoniously with various skills.

 

[levgre]

I see now why so few RPGs implement stealth. But it is done.

What it still lacks is a balancing mechanism -- a reason NOT to use stealth. The typical answer is to slow the player down, but I want to avoid drastic movement speed variations, as they don't work well with the step-turn style. Remember how goddamn frustrating SLOW PROGRESS was in U4?

So I've turned my thoughts to long- and short-term resource management. I've thought about a "food" resource for some time. Maybe there could also be a fatigue resource which gets replenished by food?

I'll leave prototyping such resource systems until after a few more player skills are prototyped, so whatever I come up with works harmoniously with various skills.

There's definitely a variety of ways to implement stealth costs, viable options depends on the exact gameplay.

In my game I'm having stealth be limited by armor, and party size (party has to be size X or less to hide in certain places).

If you want to go the magical route, stealth can require mana to maintain (or just mimic that with some sort of non-magic energy).

One other random idea I have, is a character can some number of passive abilities toggled on at once.

i.e. a character has 2 focus points

stealth mode takes up 1 focus
detect magic takes up 1 focus
detect traps takes up 1 focus
etc.

So they could only choose from 2 of these at once. there could also be some generic benefit to having unused focus points (perhaps higher xp gain, since they are more able to scrutinize what's happening and learn from it).

 

[Mastermind]

It's been a while since I first saw your project and I must say that your game progressed in my eyes from "neat" to "HERE'S MY MONEY, TAKE EVERYTHING". Please tell us when your game goes gold immediately so I can spend some bux on it.

Thanks, dude. I'd say I'll take another month+ -- currently got a day job while finishing it whenever I have time, so the progress slowed down a bit.

Currently I'm finishing the last bits of tutorial (will most likely end up in a patch early next week) and then the second half of the game (prolly August).

Is 1 month enough to make all the textures?

Spoiler

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

It's been a while since I first saw your project and I must say that your game progressed in my eyes from "neat" to "HERE'S MY MONEY, TAKE EVERYTHING". Please tell us when your game goes gold immediately so I can spend some bux on it.

Thanks, dude. I'd say I'll take another month+ -- currently got a day job while finishing it whenever I have time, so the progress slowed down a bit.

Currently I'm finishing the last bits of tutorial (will most likely end up in a patch early next week) and then the second half of the game (prolly August).

Is 1 month enough to make all the textures?

Spoiler

Why of course.

Spoiler

Just assign a 1x1 texture with desired color to every mesh in the game.

 

[Lord of the Files]

Nice. I think the armor restrictions and focus points would make sense for passive use of stealth, but I'm shooting for a more active feel. Rather than the typical roguelike implementation, I want sneaking to be something you actively toggle, like in Divinity OS or NWN. That leaves me with resource consumption, but it can't regenerate too quickly or easily or else the optimal thing is to always move with stealth, occasionally waiting to regenerate.

 

[Tavernking]

My choose your own adventure story in going really well.

The plot is interesting, the characters interact with each other naturally, and I've been told my writing style is good.
I've written 32,800 words in 8 days. Out of an estimated 100,000 words. There's a big rush to finish writing the first draft before August, because after then I won't be in the right mindset to write (back to university)

 

[Agesilaus]

so I have about 100 global variables in my game to monitor player location, stats, inventory items, and various triggers. I implemented a save load feature today and guess what that involved?

copy
paste
manually type the variable name
copy
paste
manually type the variable name
copy
paste
manually type the variable name
copy
paste
manually type the variable name

fuck you programming

 

[Lord of the Files]

Showing off some recent refinements to stealth.
AI has been improved to track "noticed actors," paving the way for more robust use of stealth - and eventually, repurposing large parts of the stealth system for hidden objects (secret levers, trap doors, etc). In the future, stealth checks will also be effected by distance and whether you're standing in a vision-obscuring location such as a shrub.

NPCs wander a bit when idle now. I added a music note above their heads to indicate that they're in an idle state, and not moving toward the PC. Hopefully it gets the point across. In the future, I would like to add a very basic idle configuration system to set up NPCs with simple routines like patrolling waypoints or returning to a post after disturbance.

Inventory UI has been improved but still needs work.

Next feature will be a basic skill system, which will provide the foundation of character advancement. Skills and abilities (perks) will be purchased with character points, like in a certain "Generic tabletop RPG" that I love.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

like in a certain "Generic tabletop RPG" that I love.

Wait, this sounds familiar, is this that one called Groupies?

 

[Lord of the Files]

GRoUPieS, GLORPS, BURPS -- something like that.

 

[dmonin]

Finally I finished those heads... And it's currently my first retopology too! Zbrush -> 3D Coat

 

[The Avatar]

Looks good. This thread needs more artists. Too much "programmer art" in here.