Indie Lurking II: A Madness

[oklabsoft]

Thanks for the interest. I actually began Lurking II in .NET but got frustrated at my lack of progress after about a week. Since I wasn't trying to do anything I didn't already know how to do in VB6 I switched back. I do intend to make a switch but what I really need to do is start with some very small side project to get going and at this point from the conversations I have had I would probably seek out the C/C# route as it sounds like that is the best option for porting to other systems. Additionally, I have a friend at BlitWise who writes in C that I can actually talk to and ask specific questions which for me is way better than hunting around the net. I will post some pics of two of the tools I made although you can't really see much of the functionality. At some point maybe I will make them available along with the source code although that would feel a bit like a surprise guest at your house when you haven't had a chance to clean up. The only thing I used from Lurking I was the experience gained from my massive amount of mistakes. Both of these projects have been HUGE learning experiences for me and what I have in L2 would not have been possible without making L1 first. Even now I have a whole list of things that I would do differently next time but our next slated project, Vermys, is quite the different animal altogether.

 

[oklabsoft]

 

[oklabsoft]

 

[oklabsoft]

I forgot one other thing that we used from L1 and this is kind of interesting. I wrote a util that pulled in the 300x300 single layer world map from L1 and converted it to the 900x900 2-layer map used in L2... so that the layout of the world is identical. Since there are so many more tiles in L2 it required a ton of cleanup and revamp but at least it should feel somewhat familiar for those that played L1 and it was way easier than redoing the overworld from scratch. The same process was tried for the underworld but was not useful so the underworld maps, town areas, and building interiors all had to be done from ground zero.

 

[EveryoneIsAWeebButMe]

C# is absolutely brilliant. To give you an idea of how scalable and transferable it is between projects and use cases, I first used it writing simulations of subsea sensors, then I used to make complicated benchmarking web-apps, and now I am using it to make a game engine. You can do everything so easily, and there are so many useful libraries and frameworks for it. When you couple it with Visual Studio you've got the best language + IDE combo I've ever came across.

Those development tools are also cool as fuck.

 

[Reapa]

what's the point of making it so ugly?

 

[oklabsoft]

what's the point of making it so ugly?

Helps attract trolls.

 

[Reapa]

what's the point of making it so ugly?

Helps attract trolls.

except i'm not trolling.
i realize it's poor criticism to not provide arguments but i thought maybe you knew what i meant.
the game looks blocky, samey and "dotty".
i honestly wonder why you went with such a graphics design decision. and i'm not gonna let something like "graphics are expensive" slide. there are plenty of games out there with a lot more clearer tiles... probably in the same price range.

 

[oklabsoft]

what's the point of making it so ugly?

Helps attract trolls.

except i'm not trolling.
i realize it's poor criticism to not provide arguments but i thought maybe you knew what i meant.
the game looks blocky, samey and "dotty".
i honestly wonder why you went with such a graphics design decision. and i'm not gonna let something like "graphics are expensive" slide. there are plenty of games out there with a lot more clearer tiles... probably in the same price range.

That's a valid opinion. I personally like the look for nostalgia reasons and the fact that it allows for more personal interpretation and imagination as to what the world actually looks like. It is probably not for everyone I will acknowledge. I appreciate the input and thank you for clarifying.

 

[Reapa]

what's the point of making it so ugly?

Helps attract trolls.

except i'm not trolling.
i realize it's poor criticism to not provide arguments but i thought maybe you knew what i meant.
the game looks blocky, samey and "dotty".
i honestly wonder why you went with such a graphics design decision. and i'm not gonna let something like "graphics are expensive" slide. there are plenty of games out there with a lot more clearer tiles... probably in the same price range.

That's a valid opinion. I personally like the look for nostalgia reasons and the fact that it allows for more personal interpretation and imagination as to what the world actually looks like. It is probably not for everyone I will acknowledge. I appreciate the input and thank you for clarifying.

i've spent a few minutes thinking about the stones / pebbles / dirt + stones + pebbles ground in the ??village?? pic and there is definitely room for imagination. well done.

 

[k0syak]

OK, have some complaints already

NPCS
- (Urth) Diana – doesn’t react to ‘Sickness’
- (Urth) Barnabas doesn’t react to ‘Room’, should get same response as 'buy' (FYI he's also a filthy unbeCleiver)

GAMEPLAY
- walking diagonally through a door (when indoors) – only the sound plays
- no option to cast/sing without entering character sheet
- in combat: must remember active character’s # in order to enter inventory/cast/sing – need separate keys to enter inventory, cast or sing with the active character!

GUI
- active/leading character not distinct enough
- party roster overlay is distracting

(played a little bit so far: created retarded PCs, killed a giant in Urth, managed to reach Despertine with 3 people dead from poison)

 

[ShaggyMoose]

I just need to finish Ultima 6 Project and then I am in...

 

[Citizen]

Also, the way that objects overlay the frame in the screenshots is a nice touch.

Interesting how it immediately makes you assume the world is three-dimensional. Without it the game would appear absolutely flat, but the tree tops overlaying the frame make it look as if the trees are really growing out of the ground and not just some flat tiles.

 

[oklabsoft]

OK, have some complaints already

NPCS
- (Urth) Diana – doesn’t react to ‘Sickness’
- (Urth) Barnabas doesn’t react to ‘Room’, should get same response as 'buy' (FYI he's also a filthy unbeCleiver)

GAMEPLAY
- walking diagonally through a door (when indoors) – only the sound plays
- no option to cast/sing without entering character sheet
- in combat: must remember active character’s # in order to enter inventory/cast/sing – need separate keys to enter inventory, cast or sing with the active character!

GUI
- active/leading character not distinct enough
- party roster overlay is distracting

(played a little bit so far: created retarded PCs, killed a giant in Urth, managed to reach Despertine with 3 people dead from poison)

Thanks for checking it out, will fix these.

In battle, C ast/S ing can be shortcut to by pressing [C TRL] or [S HIFT]. In travel, you can still use these but add roster#, like [CTRL]-[4] for char 4's spell book.
In battle, pressing [ I ] will also will work to bring up active character's view. (might need to get you updated for this it was added jan 25?)

Lastly, it is not obvious but hidden in the ReadMe: [CTRL]-[M] will hide/show the game in case you want to use other apps like notepad or whatever.

 

[Tycho Brahe]

Getting serious Ultima vibe from this. Great job, man, it's one of very few games I'm looking forward to in 2018.

 

[oklabsoft]

(Urth) Barnabas doesn’t react to ‘Room’, should get same response as 'buy' (FYI he's also a filthy unbeCleiver)

Purely coincidental. However, this would be a good time for the following disclaimer:

All Lurking II characters are fictitious. Any similarity to Codex members living or dead is purely intentional and all in good fun.

Getting serious Ultima vibe from this. Great job, man, it's one of very few games I'm looking forward to in 2018.

Thanks!

 

[Merlkir]

Bought it! Should I start playing the alpha, or is the release real close?

 

[oklabsoft]

Bought it! Should I start playing the alpha, or is the release real close?

Awesome, and thank you! There are bound to be minor fixes and such from things that come up but I tend to be very devoted to fixing them quickly once I am aware of them. The game is 'complete' (meaning although it has not yet been played through start to finish, all aspects have been individually tested) so it is winnable; and I would love to get more perspectives and feedback on what should be tweaked so please play away.

EDIT: Upon updates, save games will NOT be broken and I don't anticipate that this will ever be the case.

 

[oklabsoft]

Here are a couple of things that have been identified that I have already corrected for next update:

• Fixed diagonal movement through non-portal (interior) doors.
• Fixed wake up times from camping.
• Keyword 'ROOM' = 'BUY' for Innkeepers.
• Lead character now highlighted out of battle mode and when idle.
• Urth Inn room location fixed.

And I am trying to solve:

• Occasional freeze on game options view.
• Issues with 'GIVE' from character view not working properly.
• Issues with ADD/DROP at adventurer guild (party suddenly switches to a separate location).
• (***I have not been able to reproduce any of these so please send me any details you can remember if it happens to you)

And as per request:

• Looking to add tool tip keyboard values when mousing over icons in tray on Gameview.

Thanks for playing and for all feedback.

 

[oklabsoft]

L2 a02.10.18 is now available on itch. This first update addresses a few minor bugs reported and some content has been added/updated. Thankfully, not a single game break or dead end has reared its ugly head yet. Thanks to all.

 

[EveryoneIsAWeebButMe]

Awesome, will be downloading this ASAP.

Anyone else hate themselves enough to try and get this running through WINE? Managed to get the executable to run OK, but for some reason the game always freezes. Managed to fix the typical VB6 library error, but can't seem to get around this. The error log WINE spits out is supremely unhelpful too.

 

[BlackGoat]

Bought this and played a very tiny bit but kept crashing when I walked into buildings in the very first area. Would've messed around a bit more but it was late and I was tired. Will fire up again soon

 

[oklabsoft]

Bought this and played a very tiny bit but kept crashing when I walked into buildings in the very first area. Would've messed around a bit more but it was late and I was tired. Will fire up again soon

ARGH! Sorry! Trying to lock it down. It is an issue with starting a new game so I didn't notice it in testing... must have been introduced. I am working on it.

 

[oklabsoft]

Bought this and played a very tiny bit but kept crashing when I walked into buildings in the very first area. Would've messed around a bit more but it was late and I was tired. Will fire up again soon

I reverted to a02.10.16 on itch which seems to be ok for starting a new quest. So sorry. I will figure this out.

 

[oklabsoft]

Awesome, will be downloading this ASAP.

Anyone else hate themselves enough to try and get this running through WINE? Managed to get the executable to run OK, but for some reason the game always freezes. Managed to fix the typical VB6 library error, but can't seem to get around this. The error log WINE spits out is supremely unhelpful too.

I suspect this is not WINE issue but same issue as BlackGoat. I figured out what is causing the crashes/freezes but just need to work around it now. You could try the older executable I reverted to on itch. Please let us know if that one runs ok in WINE. Thanks!