Thanks, Vistaer; and again, thanks to you and everybody else in this forum for your suggestions! Apart from the things I woudn't even have thought of, there have been many things I wouldn't have undertaken of my own accord because I considered them too difficult or impractical, when actually, after a bit of consideration, implementation turned out to be quite simple.
In the past couple of weeks I've also been working on a number of additional features previously discussed here:
- cutting down trees - implemented; you can now use an axe to cut down any kind of tree, everywhere, and that will result in a beam of wood and a number of poles and a heap of foliage. Beam and poles are too heavy to be carried but can be dragged&dropped to a nearby location and used as building material. Or you can use a pickaxe to dig out the root, thereby making the place where the tree had stood suitable for building on.
- building houses - prepared; I've rewritten the house-data-table in order to accommodate changes made during playtime; thus, new buildings can now be recognized, including registration of positions of doors, containers, fireplaces etc (necessary to enable npcs to navigate a house). And I've set up a basic repertoire of walls that can be retroactively placed over existing grass/earth ground tiles (thanks to AdamP for this), and recognized and treated as walls (this was an internal problem). So if I now add some building commands, and rules for tile arrangements in corners/crossings( -- + | = T etc), plus checking for the required material per field, constructing houses would be complete.
Right now I'm still trying to figure out whether to do this via the Actions Menu (command 'build a wall', select start and end), or field by field by simply double-clicking on the building material (stones, or wood/foliage) accumulated thereon. Also I'm not yet sure what kind of menu/command I should offer for adding doors/windows etc. Since, as always, the main work lies with implementing the countless details, I may still decide to give up this house building system for the time being, and finish it at a later time; however, I can and will definitely implement this (sooner or later).
- downloadable full versions - prepared; immediately after an order is completed, a customized full version would be automatically created and made available on the internet, and the buyer would receive the download link and password to start the download, i.e., he or she could install and play the full version within a few minutes after ordering.
- trade - I've been setting up a table of required raw materials and skills for every tradeable object, i.e. chain mail : requires 15lbs of metal chain links + hammer + pliars + smith skill>=average; and metal chain links : require iron wire; and iron wire : requires iron bar + pliars + hammer + fireplace + coal + smith skill>=average (thanks to Igor for the basic idea).
Such a table would enable yourself (the player) to create every object (provided you have the materials/skills).
And for merchants, all I need to do is to define what finished products they should offer (e.g. Smith A in town T: helmet 1, sword B, axe, dagger, chain mail, scale mail), and they'd automatically buy the materials they need (coal, raw iron, iron bars, or iron wire/chain links/scales etc if you have any to offer, plus used equipment).
Thus commercial merchants would form part of the demand for goods in every town; the other part would be constituted by the town's non-professional inhabitants who would buy an average quantity of food, coal, tools, clothes, luxury goods etc. This way I can compute how much demand for how many goods of what type there is in every town; and according to this demand, I can automatically, bit by bit, 'sell' (take away and replace with gold) the goods in your storehouses (if you have any). This is quite simple and easy to implement; and once that is in place, I can add caravans, workshops, additional hired workers etc. I'm not sure how far I can take this right now, but sooner or later I'll implement this fully.
- crafts(blacksmith, leather) - as discussed above, once I've finished the requirements list (raw materials/skills/working hours/required tools), you will be able to create any object. E.g. animal carcass + knife -> animal skin + knife + water/chemicals + (leatherwork skill>=average) -> leather; leather + spindle + skill level x -> shoes/leather armor/helmet/shield(with wooden boards+metal buckle) etc; or raw iron + furnace + coal = iron bar; iron bar + fireplace + coal + anvil + pliars + hammer + skill = iron wire/plate/rod; iron rod ->sword; or rod -> wire -> chain links -> chain mail; or tree + axe = beam + poles; and so on, according to your skills (which would have to be learned from a master and would then grow by continued practice).
On the whole, there's been a good deal of progress, and I think the game is actually quite enjoyable - regarding gameplay action, much more so than Teudogar was, and for a much longer playing time, too.
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