Incline POST-ATOMIC Resumed

[rusty_shackleford]

Imagine being a young millennial/zoomer and never having experienced life before everything was hyper-politicized.

 

[Cleveland Mark Blakemore]

Imagine being a young millennial/zoomer and never having experienced life before everything was hyper-politicized.

Fixed.

 

[Cleveland Mark Blakemore]

Some more work hammering out the interface. In any RPG, the character review is one of the most critical parts of the interface. I am trying really hard to make it simple compared to Grimoire so it will not be necessary to read the manual in order to jump in and start playing. Tabbed folders are often the best approach because they encourage exploration and experimenting. The inventory in particular is going to be kept minimalist with just enough functionality to examine items, equip them, buy/sell and use them.

I intend to standardize this "Cleve Blakemore's RPG Blobber interface" so that it will be familiar and comfortable no matter what the genre, fairly identical with a different UI theme for Cyberpunk, Horror, Pulp Noir or Lost World. I want to respond to all the criticism of Grimoire by getting the UI really sleek and easy to use this time around.

I am working on a folding display for the inventory items so that it will be possible to expand the view on each item for advanced information and actions in inventory without leaving the listbox.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

How about "ITEMS" instead of inventory because inventory doesn't fit?

 

[luj1]

Doesnt really matter

 

[luj1]

Cleveland Mark Blakemore Love that you're using words instead of numbers for stats, originality was always a big plus in my book.

 

[Daemongar]

I like the Traits idea - kind of the gurps in Fallout we almost had but didn't get. Would be nice if it did follow one gurps convention. For every negative trait you take, you get... character points or some trade-off (it's been a while.) A player could get an extra point to put in ability scores, but they'd have to take -15% radiation resistance or fear of mutants, or some other negative trait.

Some things: in Fallout, traits were voluntary and allowed a bit of customization but not a lot. Would be nice if the traits weren't as less than inspired as Fallout had them - everyone took gifted and something else. May be hard to balance in a party based game. Most that use a system like this are solo games where a choice like traits may affect the playthrough dramatically. In a party based game, well, the effects could be watered down - unless you went the whole Shadows over Riva route.

Also - when I first thought about this I was trying to come up with how combat would work. For some reason I pictured Worlds of Xeen, but instead of firing bows while closing with enemies, you were firing RPGs or lobbing grenades. Probably has nothing to do with the game you are building, but, I am just stating for the record I'd like to see that.

 

[Cleveland Mark Blakemore]

I like the Traits idea - kind of the gurps in Fallout we almost had but didn't get. Would be nice if it did follow one gurps convention. For every negative trait you take, you get... character points or some trade-off (it's been a while.) A player could get an extra point to put in ability scores, but they'd have to take -15% radiation resistance or fear of mutants, or some other negative trait.

That's almost exactly what I am working on! It's nearly a line-for-line copy of the FUDGE system and it is really a superior RPG math to anything I could have possibly written from scratch. Even better, since it is based on the 7-point FUDGE system most modifiers amount to -1 +1 of traits instead of complex percentages. This means rapid automation in table dictionaries for programmers and very few IF-THENs! You think that sounds kind of baby simple until you discover that the system is supported by incredibly good curves of probability computed through logarithms based on that 7 point system and the way all traits work together to decide whether or not player actions succeed. FUDGE is the greatest thing to ever happen to RPGs and I was always planning to switch to it after I finished Grimoire.

If you create a character of a given type and caste, you get table values of ATTRIBUTEs that do not change. If you're willing to pick certain traits with both negative and positive effects. you get additional points to put into ATTRIBUTES and SKILLS over and above the baseline. This encourages players to bear up under shortcomings even as they benefit in other ways. This is exactly how balance works in the FUDGE system.

Traits have three categories to sort them in the list window now :

1. PERSONA : identity traits for the PC that involve actual roleplaying differences in characters ... quick tempered, diplomatic, addictive, greedy, etc.
2. MERITS : Similar to PERKS in Fallout, mostly concerned with enhancement to players
3. ANOMALY : Mutations, hardcore physical adaptations, permanent changes to makeup ... like ant-skin in FALLOUT 1 quest or cyborg grafted arm

I have had 25 years to get it right on my next time around and have spent so much time thinking about how to do it this time around ... I am betting that within minutes of starting this game players will see the underlying math has profound effects on gameplay based on these traits. During dialogue, instead of the same boilerplates you will get trees that are affected in major ways by your traits. An intimidating character sees options and discussions that do not appear to others in that same conversation.

Some things: in Fallout, traits were voluntary and allowed a bit of customization but not a lot. Would be nice if the traits weren't as less than inspired as Fallout had them - everyone took gifted and something else. May be hard to balance in a party based game. Most that use a system like this are solo games where a choice like traits may affect the playthrough dramatically. In a party based game, well, the effects could be watered down - unless you went the whole Shadows over Riva route.

Discovering the exploits, like for example finding that tolerating a major negative drawback in order to get a major positive, doesn't spoil gameplay. It makes it really fun in my experience. That's what makes strategy important in an RPG. Your club-footed mutant dwarf may be almost incapacitated except for targeted critical sniper shots but if they get a headshot almost every time then slow reloading is well worth it.

Also - when I first thought about this I was trying to come up with how combat would work. For some reason I pictured Worlds of Xeen, but instead of firing bows while closing with enemies, you were firing RPGs or lobbing grenades. Probably has nothing to do with the game you are building, but, I am just stating for the record I'd like to see that.

If I had the resources I'd show the M-16 pointed forward and firing at the enemy from the bottom of the viewport. I don't so what you will get instead is muzzle fire on the enemy that either hits or misses as a particle effect. Everything will be a visual effect ... I don't show a knife in a hand slashing forward but I do have the visual effect of the slash on the opposition and probably with some blood when it hits and penetrates the armor.

 

[luj1]

Traits have three categories to sort them in the list window now :

1. PERSONA : identity traits for the PC that involve actual roleplaying differences in characters ... quick tempered, diplomatic, addictive, greedy, etc.
2. MERITS : Similar to PERKS in Fallout, mostly concerned with enhancement to players
3. ANOMALY : Mutations, hardcore physical adaptations, permanent changes to makeup ... like ant-skin in FALLOUT 1 quest or cyborg grafted arm

This is so cool

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

Discovering the exploits, like for example finding that tolerating a major negative drawback in order to get a major positive, doesn't spoil gameplay. It makes it really fun in my experience.

Show this line to every developer in the world.

 

[Butter]

Discovering the exploits, like for example finding that tolerating a major negative drawback in order to get a major positive, doesn't spoil gameplay. It makes it really fun in my experience.

Show this line to every developer in the world.

 

[Cleveland Mark Blakemore]

Finishing up the Status tab that shows damage to various body parts, critical conditions that require first aid, anything broken or fractured (a broken hand means you can't wield a weapon, a broken head means you have a concussion and can't aim a weapon, etc.).

I have not had such fun working on a game since my Commodore 64 years. Blasting through the game with the help of the Unity IDE like a boss, if I had these kinds of tools available for Grimoire I'd have been done in 3 months like originally planned.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

I hope the game will be WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE if I break my legs.

BUILD THE RAMP.

 

[The_Mask]

Cleve, I never thought I'd say this to a boomer, but... you're pretty cool.

 

[Grauken]

Cleve, I never thought I'd say this to a boomer, but... you're pretty cool.

Cleve is no boomer, he's something more antediluvian, a primordial titan

 

[Kralidor]

I can't wait to ride a mutant turtle on a radioactive lake.

 

[Cleveland Mark Blakemore]

While working on this character review interface for the library/game, I had a great idea ...

Supposedly these "characters" you are putting together for your party are coming from cryogenic cannisters with previously frozen people stored underground at various times of famine and for other reasons.

The character "creator" would actually be really cool if it was a monitor screen with a retrotech OS running on it that you used to remotely operate to get cryogenic subjects and deliver them for wakeup. If I had a kind of wizard paged interface where you tell the OS to "search" for a match of this type and caste, then permitted you to modify/pick some traits/choose name&portrait, etc. before adding them to the "roster" on the right side, it would be AWESOME. It wouldn't really need a "review" screen if they were drawn out like this.

 

[The_Mask]

I don't know if you've ever played Pax Imperia: Eminent Domain, but it had a similar way of showing you the races that you could play: just tanks of the "specimen" sliding up on your screen. It's a rare technique used to showcase, so it can't hurt to employ it.

 

[Ghulgothas]

That Body-Damage diagram looks fantastic. Do you intend to keep it all a solid green, or for the bits to gradate through yellow, orange and red as the character gets more and more messed up?

 

[luj1]

That Body-Damage diagram looks fantastic. Do you intend to keep it all a solid green, or for the bits to gradate through yellow, orange and red as the character gets more and more messed up?

Good idea, it could be like Starcraft

 

[Ol' Willy]

This looks too good to be true. Tell me, what's the catch?

 

[GandGolf]

Finishing up the Status tab that shows damage to various body parts, critical conditions that require first aid, anything broken or fractured (a broken hand means you can't wield a weapon, a broken head means you have a concussion and can't aim a weapon, etc.).

I have not had such fun working on a game since my Commodore 64 years. Blasting through the game with the help of the Unity IDE like a boss, if I had these kinds of tools available for Grimoire I'd have been done in 3 months like originally planned.

View attachment 13901

From the picture are you saying that limbs are treated as pairs instead of individual right or left limbs?

 

[Syl]

From the picture are you saying that limbs are treated as pairs instead of individual right or left limbs?

* IRRADIATED
* BLEEDING
* INFECTED
* BLINDED

SEEK IMMEDIATE MEDICAL ATTENTION!!

This screenshot is not about you. Don't take it personally, dude.

 

[Cleveland Mark Blakemore]

That Body-Damage diagram looks fantastic. Do you intend to keep it all a solid green, or for the bits to gradate through yellow, orange and red as the character gets more and more messed up?

I was really trying to get it to look like an old Amiga RPG. The individual body parts will get a "broken" icon floating over them once that body part is damaged to being non-functional. Hand is assumed to be weapon hand for purposes of combat in the game.

The Amiga era never really ended and they are still building great blobbers for the engine to this day. The artistic excellence of these games was so far beyond the current era of tiny shriveled scrotum snowflakes they can barely conceive of such incline. Check out this blobber city in the cyberpunk PERIHELION. (!)

 

[GandGolf]

...
I am working on a folding display for the inventory items so that it will be possible to expand the view on each item for advanced information and actions in inventory without leaving the listbox.
View attachment 13892

The graphic for the uzi is not accurate. Charlton Heston must be spinning in his grave...