Crypts of Avaritia - design discussion and feedback

[r3jonwah85]

I hope that groin slot is for my +1 Enchanted Diamond Codpiece of Itching.

That slot is used for equipment that protects you from STDs of the time, such as syphilis and gonorrhoea. Chastity belt is the highest ranking armor piece of course, but I guess the players will want their promiscuity intact and go for something less obtrusive.

But in all seriousness, noted that I should move the square a bit up towards the waist to avoid confusion as to where the belt is placed.

 

[thesheeep]

Awwww

The game is looking pretty good so far. I like that there is not too much light, giving more importance to the few sources.

 

[r3jonwah85]

Awwww

The game is looking pretty good so far. I like that there is not too much light, giving more importance to the few sources.

Thanks, appreciate the nice words!

In case anyone wonders why I have been so quiet lately it is because I have been working on this:

Now before you get started on writing that it looks like shit, I can add that in the present state I agree with you. But this is the beginning of the procedural world generator I will use. The idea when I started this project was to leave this pat out for now and focus on the underground portion, but it still kept lingering in the back of my head until I could not resist. This means that the game now has changed in scope, although this still might change if I feel like it is taking too much time.

Anyways, Daggerfall has been a huge inspiration throughout the project and this only adds to that.

 

[Ninjerk]

Wait, whatever this ends up being is going to be combined with crypts?

 

[r3jonwah85]

Wait, whatever this ends up being is going to be combined with crypts?

Yes, everything I have done so far will be combined with a over-world, so procedural placement of procedural crypts/dungeons in the over-world , plus some actual placed content. I want it to feel like a big survival RPG, you must gather resources before entering the depths, it may come from a village or you may go hunting, picking herbs or whatever. This has always been my intention, but i was going to split it into Crypts of Avaritia and then begin working on Kingdoms of Avaritia (or something like that), this may still very much be the case, only time will tell.

 

[Ninjerk]

Sounds exciting, please don't stop and disappear like CrazyLoon

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

And tell me when I can start doing sound.

 

[Durwyn]

Jesus, nice twist man. This is great, however I'm afraid this may end up too ambitious for one man project. I don't want to discourage you from your current aim because I love the addition of "surface", but I have seen to many projects like this go to dust just because authors bite off more than they could chew. Procedurally generated may be less of a burden however I think you are well aware how much actual content you must hand-create. Nevertheless, Godspeed Man

 

[r3jonwah85]

Sounds exciting, please don't stop and disappear like CrazyLoon

I will do my best, but I do not make any promises since life is so fragile, walking out your front door is dangerous.

And tell me when I can start doing sound.

Will do! The music needs have changed a bit now since I need some more cheery music above ground, so not just creepy dark tunes.

Jesus, nice twist man. This is great, however I'm afraid this may end up too ambitious for one man project. I don't want to discourage you from your current aim because I love the addition of "surface", but I have seen to many projects like this go to dust just because authors bite off more than they could chew. Procedurally generated may be less of a burden however I think you are well aware how much actual content you must hand-create. Nevertheless, Godspeed Man

Thanks! I know, I know, it is rather stupid to keep adding things, especially since it is my first project. But this is really fun and I am learning a lot as well, so I see it as a bit of investment as I hope to one day make this for a living.
But the plan is to make extremely little by hand, most stuff should be procedural. Not intentionally bland but there will be a lot of "empty" wood and desert e.g., adding to realism and scale. Of course this has to be accompanied by some form of decent travel arrangement, but that is a later problem. My graphics aim is not that high either (I love the graphics of Morrowind, Gothic, Quake, Thief) so that helps, keeping it simple but functional. This might change if I ever get an artist, but I do not really care at the moment...
Anyhow, I do have the same concerns as you do and agree with you, so thanks for the encouragement!

And another one with the improved tools (usage wise), working on procedurally adding foliage, hopefully implemented in the coming days. And by the way, the island is approx. 32x32 km, the highest mountain top is at 2048 m. Ignore the ugly z-fighting, the is because of the editor camera.

 

[r3jonwah85]

Colors/textures are not right (only used for value indication) but what you see is the wind and moisture system in place. The wind (comes in from the left towards right) brings moisture from the sea, then the moisture decreases over land depending on height, then picks up moisture again if the wind blows across any new water (as seen in the little lagoon). Again, horrible z-fighting but that is editor only.

 

[r3jonwah85]

Some progress I guess, I work on generating badlands/desert, still a long way to go. Trees are all wrong but at least they are placed procedurally, missing details and still a bit rough edges, but you have to start somewhere.

 

[r3jonwah85]

Round 2 for badlands generation, tossed out the old algorithm and wrote a new one after I came up with some new ideas, much more realistic in my opinion.



The biomes I am going for are tundra/mountains, forest (cold pine forest), desert, badland, swamp and volcanic. How do you guys feel about that?

 

[Ninjerk]

So far so good.

 

[r3jonwah85]

First test of generating a swamp, this is just the basic concept so trees, grass and textures will change. But now I have all the tools functioning, placement of trees, grass and mesh details.

 

[r3jonwah85]

Some changes, also started working on day/night cycle but it still a very much work in progress.

 

[r3jonwah85]

Small update on my day/night cycle, still a lot missing like the moon, effects for sun rise and sun set, fading between clouds and water etc. At least I wrote my first shader.

 

[Old Hans]

Oh no. You are starting down a dark paaaaath. You really should perfect the dungeon aspect of the game.

 

[r3jonwah85]

Oh no. You are starting down a dark paaaaath. You really should perfect the dungeon aspect of the game.

Thanks for the concern, I have struggled with that decision for a long time my self But since I am learning how to actually make a game I wanted to give this a shot and try to create my full vision of it. That said, I have been working on the underground and created assets, but that will be a future update.

 

[Ninjerk]

 

[r3jonwah85]

Updated day/night cycle and added dynamic weather:

 

[r3jonwah85]

Scrapped everything that had to do with the old dungeon generation, realized it will get to labour intense and to little variation. In comes the new generation algorithm, this time more based on the ideas used in rougelikes, but I also have some other inspirations and ambitions.

This is an example of a generated floor, what is shown is very basic and is only empty rooms and corridors, this will of course be fixed over time. The grey squares are used for automapping and is not seen in game (except on the map of course).

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

I can't wait to get my hands on the sound, come on, Jon, come the fuck on, man.

 

[r3jonwah85]

Looked at some dungeon pictures and realized that my system was setup kind of stupid. My system always used a full tile to represent a door, but it also supports changing tile size, so when very large tiles are used it will look weird. Also, the walls were always one tile thick which also gets ridiculous. Looked at some pictures of dungeons and thought for a while then re-wrote some parts, also added a lot of options I had planned since before but never implemented, now I can get a nice variety by changing some parameters. Below is a example with room probability = 1.0 so no corridors, and I think room extension probability (no wall between rooms so they together make up a larger room) is at about 0.8. Linearity is set to 0.0 so rooms get randomly placed each time (instead of building something from the formerly placed room/corridor always if linearity is set to 1.0). Looks a bit like Diablo 1 or Divine Divinity which is kind of nice.

 

[r3jonwah85]

Working on adding procedural "structures" that are pattern based but not size set, first out is a grid/sewer kind of structure:

So the idea is to program the grid pattern, but the number of rooms, room size and corridor length varies.
And since it was posted in the codexian development thread I might as well show of this variation as well (this is just an example of a room probability that is not 1.0, so some corridors are done in between, I think also linearity is set to 0.7 or so.):

 

[r3jonwah85]

And the latest update, might be hard to see but "looped" sections are now possible, next off is to kill dead ends altogether. After that I will probably do more "structures"/patterns and add some more options.