Magic & Mercenaries: The Curse of Eternal Darkness

[RPK]

Looking great! How is the game part of it coming along? I'm curious about enemy AI. GoldBox is a good point of reference, but KOTC2 has raised the bar for the entire genre on its own.

What exactly makes KOTC2 AI so good?

It's smart. Play it and find out.

 

[anvi]

It can find the perfect place to go and the best move to make etc. Avoids your spells etc. It's good ai. Brutal game though, or it was, the patches seem to be making it easier.

 

[RPK]

still pretty brutal, but not as bad as it was, from what I hear. I didn't buy it until it officially released on steam, so I have nothing to go off of besides what others had said.

But, yeah. that AI is smart enough to use the environment, avoid AOE spells, grapple spellcasters so they can't cast etc etc.

 

[ProphetSword]

Let's be clear: This game is *not* trying to replicate the experience of KOTC2. This game *is* trying to replicate an experience similar to the Gold-Box games. If you're looking for something more than that, you're looking for the wrong thing in this game and will likely be disappointed.

 

[AdolfSatan]

I don't actually expect anyone to match the AI of KOTC2, specially not a solo dev, it's the kind of shit that only happens once. But I was still curious on how you'll approach enemy behavior/tactics and encounter design.

The Avatar you don't even have to play it, you can fire up the editor and check the routines and conditions.

 

[ProphetSword]

I'm just trying to establish what the game is and what it isn't.

In this thread (as well as the Game Development Thread prior to starting this one), I keep getting "helpful" suggestions from people who clearly don't understand what I'm trying to do. My design might limit the audience; because it won't appeal to everyone, and that's fine. I'd rather build a game I'm passionate about than create something to appeal to a wider audience.

 

[ProphetSword]

I'm at the beginning stages of creating a mapping system that reveals as you go (highly requested by many people). No promises it will work out.

At the moment, I've got it working, but I'm trying to figure out the best method to "remember" where a player has already explored, so when they load a save game or return to an area, they don't have to explore it again...

 

[ERYFKRAD]

At the moment, I've got it working, but I'm trying to figure out the best method to "remember" where a player has already explored, so when they load a save game or return to an area, they don't have to explore it again...

My primitive screwhead brain would probably just squash the map into a number which when translated into binary tells if each tile is explored or not. Probably too much work and unwieldy for big maps though.

 

[ProphetSword]

At the moment, I've got it working, but I'm trying to figure out the best method to "remember" where a player has already explored, so when they load a save game or return to an area, they don't have to explore it again...

My primitive screwhead brain would probably just squash the map into a number which when translated into binary tells if each tile is explored or not. Probably too much work and unwieldy for big maps though.

That's very similar to a method I'm considering. I don't think it's that much work, honestly.

Each section of the map has an X and Z coordinate which can be tracked in a boolean array (set to true if the square has been explored and defaulting to false if not). So, for example, exploring coordinate 2,3 on the map would correlate to a two-dimensional array point at 2,3 that would be set to true. Then, when the game is saved, that information is saved as well.

Before doing all that, though, I wanted to see if Unity had any way to just "remember" the state of an object between loads so I didn't have to do all the extra work.

 

[ProphetSword]

Just as I suspected, it was as simple as I said. Created a system and tested it and it's working as expected at this point, so that's great. Just have to implement it on all the maps that are built do far, do some testing, and make sure it's available in all future maps as well.

 

[shadowwot]

I loved the Gold Box games and so I am very impressed with what you have been doing. Are there any specific tutorials or courses you took that you found really helpful to make a party based RPG in Unity?

 

[RPK]

I loved the Gold Box games and so I am very impressed with what you have been doing. Are there any specific tutorials or courses you took that you found really helpful to make a party based RPG in Unity?

I took this course once upon a time and I seem to remember thinking it was pretty good. Don't remember if it fits the bill exactly for a party based RPG, but really, if you're going to realistically make a game, you're going to have to learn the basics and extrapolate from there anyway.

https://www.udemy.com/course/unityrpg/

oh, also, never pay full price for anything on udemy. wait a day or 3 for a sale or a coupon.

 

[ProphetSword]

I loved the Gold Box games and so I am very impressed with what you have been doing. Are there any specific tutorials or courses you took that you found really helpful to make a party based RPG in Unity?

No. I played the Gold-Box games a lot (still do). I also built a lot of well-regarded and highly-rated modules for Unlimited Adventures and I'm one of the head administrators of that community, so I've had practice making games like this for nearly 30 years.

On the programming side of things, I learned programming back in the early 80s and always had a passion for it (essential if you want to code). Got two degrees in software development a couple of years ago and learned quite a lot during that time...enough so that I decided to make my own game. Started out building it in Visual Studio using Visual Basic, but once I got good at C#, I swapped out to Unity to handle the 3D part of it.

None of this is probably going to help you, though. But, the #1 thing you need to do something like this is passion. I work on this thing just a couple of hours a week. I push myself to at least do an hour a day, even when I don't want to. I occasionally take a week off and don't touch it (which usually energizes me and makes me want to work on it again).

The game won't be perfect. It probably won't be liked by everyone. But, I've always believed that if I built the games I would want to play myself, others would want to play them too. It always worked for Unlimited Adventures, it will probably be true here. And anyone who doesn't want to play this kind of game is not who I'm trying to target anyway. You can't please everyone, so my motto is to not even try.

 

[shadowwot]

I also still play the Gold Box games and Wizardry 6-7, and I have been hoping that someone would remaster them for years. I would love a new Unlimited Adventures with expanded rule sets so you could choose between Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, Ravenloft, Dark Sun, Buck Rogers, etc. for when you are creating games. I've actually played a bunch of your modules, which is where I first heard that you were making your own game. As the years went on I figured that if I ever wanted to see remastered versions of those old games I might need to just learn coding and make my own game inspired by those classic RPG's. I decided to go with a Wizardry style game cause I figured it would be easier than the Gold Box style due to a simpler combat system.

So I picked up C# and Unity and I've been learning coding over the past 18 months or so. I've followed several courses from a few different sites including Unity Learn, GameDev.tv, and Udemy - including a couple RPG courses. I'm at a stage where I know a lot of the basics and a few intermediate stuff - but between craziness at work and with family there are some months when I can focus on this and other months where I just don't have the time. However, one of my frustrations with learning coding has been that the RPG courses I find are either single character action RPG's or something closer to Final Fantasy - so I figured that if you had any recommendations on courses or tutorials closer to this style that would be useful - but no problem!

I 100% agree with you about making games that you enjoy, I feel like some of the worst games I have ever played are those that are focused on 'being the next Skyrim' or whatever, as opposed to just having a great idea for a game and going from there. I think your game looks great and look forward to one day playing it!

 

[ProphetSword]

Another minor update. The mapping setup now shows you your immediate surroundings in the small navigational map that is always available on screen (seen near the compass and coordinates):

The MAP button, on the other hand, shows you your progress overall in whatever map you're currently on, giving you an idea of where you've been, where you haven't and how much is left to reveal. Unlike the smaller navigation map, which is used to give a player a sense of direction and to inform them if there are unexplored areas nearby, the larger map definitely can help see how big an area is left to explore and in which general direction a player might want to go:

 

[ProphetSword]

Switched to using AI artwork instead of the artwork I purchased from the Unity Asset Store. So many of the images I was using kept showing up in other games, and I didn't want someone playing this game to think to themselves that they had seen an NPC in four other games they recently played. I'd rather have unique artwork.

Instead, I've been teaching AI to create artwork that is reminiscent of old-school D&D style art. I use Photoshop to correct the errors and make it look the way I want (so the AI gives me a base foundation to work from, and then I just fix it to suit my needs).

Here are some screenshots for example:

 

[Mustawd]

Freelance fantasy artists on suicide watch. Images look good though.

 

[Grauken]

Freelance fantasy artists on suicide watch. Images look good though.

I doubt it, it's no push button and you get automatically what you want, it's a low-cost effort that still requires you to spend considerable time to make it look good.

 

[ProphetSword]

Freelance fantasy artists on suicide watch. Images look good though.

I doubt it, it's no push button and you get automatically what you want, it's a low-cost effort that still requires you to spend considerable time to make it look good.

You're 100% right. I wish it was as easy as saying "Give me what I want" and then getting exactly what I want with no additional work required that can sometimes take an hour or more. That happens maybe 0.1% of the time.

 

[Mustawd]

Freelance fantasy artists on suicide watch. Images look good though.

I doubt it, it's no push button and you get automatically what you want, it's a low-cost effort that still requires you to spend considerable time to make it look good.

It’s barely been a year and AI art already won an art contest. Not trying to derail the convo, but let’s not pretend we don’t know where this is all going.

 

[Grauken]

Freelance fantasy artists on suicide watch. Images look good though.

I doubt it, it's no push button and you get automatically what you want, it's a low-cost effort that still requires you to spend considerable time to make it look good.

It’s barely been a year and AI art already won an art contest. Not trying to derail the convo, but let’s not pretend we don’t know where this is all going.

SkyNet creates furry porn?

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Freelance fantasy artists on suicide watch. Images look good though.

I doubt it, it's no push button and you get automatically what you want, it's a low-cost effort that still requires you to spend considerable time to make it look good.

It’s barely been a year and AI art already won an art contest. Not trying to derail the convo, but let’s not pretend we don’t know where this is all going.

SkyNet creates furry porn?

If you want it to.

 

[Grauken]

Freelance fantasy artists on suicide watch. Images look good though.

I doubt it, it's no push button and you get automatically what you want, it's a low-cost effort that still requires you to spend considerable time to make it look good.

It’s barely been a year and AI art already won an art contest. Not trying to derail the convo, but let’s not pretend we don’t know where this is all going.

SkyNet creates furry porn?

If you want it to.

If we can train AIs to write new novels in the same style as some of my favorite dead writers, I would be pretty happy.

 

[Ysaye]

Freelance fantasy artists on suicide watch. Images look good though.

I doubt it, it's no push button and you get automatically what you want, it's a low-cost effort that still requires you to spend considerable time to make it look good.

It’s barely been a year and AI art already won an art contest. Not trying to derail the convo, but let’s not pretend we don’t know where this is all going.

SkyNet creates furry porn?

If you want it to.

If we can train AIs to write new novels in the same style as some of my favorite dead writers, I would be pretty happy.

Will AI advocates then seek to get said books censored?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Freelance fantasy artists on suicide watch. Images look good though.

I doubt it, it's no push button and you get automatically what you want, it's a low-cost effort that still requires you to spend considerable time to make it look good.

It’s barely been a year and AI art already won an art contest. Not trying to derail the convo, but let’s not pretend we don’t know where this is all going.

SkyNet creates furry porn?

Well as long as it is kept busy.