WR - General Chit-Chatter/Tidbits

[Humanity has risen!]

I like it where they are, but a sidebar with portraits would be cooler. Your fault for sticking to 800x600, what is this, 1998?

Fallout graphics simply don't look right on high resolutions, it loses detail and the claustrophobical feeling of "dungeons" or other interiors gets lost. I could never play it on ridicolously high resolutions, but maybe I'll change my mind later on and create some optional UI graphics for atleast 1280xblabla, after all it's just a matter to stretch out the interface with a few additional filler graphics (like the high res mod for Fo1/2 does). If not, you can always play it in window mode if you think the stretching on fullscreen is too much.

EDIT: 1000 posts.

Totally agree, I could never play Fallout or any Infinity Engine game at higher resolutions, it takes all the feeling of claustrophobia and suspense away.

 

[Nexxos]

1000 posts already? This is why we can't have proper updates.

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

I don't think it makes any sense to play games in 800x600 in 2011. I never felt any feeling of claustrophobia in the Fallout games, you just need to implement darkness and stuffies to make bases and caverns seem more sinister.

 

[shihonage]

The proper solution (one I am not likely to have the skill to implement) should be theoretically simple.

Render everything in 800x600 (800x480 for widescreen or whatever), then blit it onto an offscreen surface, then stretch that surface onto the monitor's native resolution, resulting in upscaling that is superior to most monitors' upscaling.

 

[Surf Solar]

1000 posts already? This is why we can't have proper updates.

This is only because you distract me with your IRC presence!

I like it where they are, but a sidebar with portraits would be cooler.

Messed a bit around with it, of course not final, also w/ placeholders.

I don't think it makes any sense to play games in 800x600 in 2011. I never felt any feeling of claustrophobia in the Fallout games, you just need to implement darkness and stuffies to make bases and caverns seem more sinister.

Well I felt/feel that way. But anyway, I've found some easy solution to make it available for resolutions up to 1280x768 (for widescreen users?), probably will raise it even a bit higher in the future. Though, I'm doing all my maps with 800x600 in mind, it might be possible that some map edges/borders might be fucked up at high resolutions, but we'll see when I'll release some alpha client to test.

 

[Surf Solar]

Everyone who wants to be a real bro needs to visit this link here and click on "vote" on the upper side of the page - I expect every bro to do this patriotic duty just like giving internets to the codex.

http://www.moddb.com/mods/what-remains

 

[WetWorks]

Voted. Keep up the good work, Solar.

 

[Excidium]

Voted too.

I like the sidebar mockup, and I know portraits are placeholder but that's a p. geriatric group.

 

[ghostdog]

My vote is yours

 

[Crooked Bee]

Voted, yay!

 

[Surf Solar]

Thanks peeps!

but that's a p. geriatric group.

Now that you mention it, yeah. "Wasteland is harsh, even old people have to fight " ;D

 

[shihonage]

I voted, but let's face it, the first place will be taken by some kind of sidescroller

 

[Surf Solar]

Yeah, ofcourse, I've seen lots of these "gems" on there already. ;DWas just thinking "eh, let's do it for th heck of it". At last, it brings some interested people to the game/or even to the codex.

Thanks btw!

 

[Nexxos]

I knew it, again asking for votes!
Voted.

 

[CrazyLoon]

Voted.

 

[Surf Solar]

Thanks again bros.

I've just decided that there will be more than 1 starting locations. The PC I aimed for shall be a true blank state, nothing like the chosen one theme like in FO2 etc. You will get thrown in the wasteland and will die, just a normal person if you are not careful. I will make it so that you start in a different area/different starting whatever starting trait you take (think of Arcanums background, or, *gasp* - Dragon Age's starting grounds.) I have a fuckload of maps I already created and scrapped, so it's not a biggy to expand them. It basically means, you create your character, select traits, perks, skills, and also your background.I hope it increases replayability. Thank god I was already clever enough to do the starting location so it allows all of these playstyles. All of these traits will somehow influence your game (although don't expect a full blown new adventure of each of these choices). I'm going the full Vault Dweller here and say that Combat Mechanics plus actual Consequences to your actions are the most important thing in this RPG.

It will mean (just like with other quests already fully working) that the initial playthrough will be rather short ( I am aiming towards 8-10 hours) but there can be a totally different adventure with each playthrough (and not only fluff, I mean really different playstyles).

Think of an Arcanum with PS:T dialogues. That's what I am aiming for (just in MUCH smaller dimensions)

 

[shihonage]

IMNSHO, multiple starting locations are a mistake. Too much work spent fleshing out content that will go mostly unused during a singular playthrough.

And no, it cannot be reused later due to difficulty curve of the game, which you'll have to take care of at some point.

And even if it can (by putting lvl req's on quests in those areas), it will be a weird area with high level quests surrounded by low-level mobs on the big map (because if you start player in those areas, you can't have high level mobs around them).

Finally, if the game is based around some non-linear principles, the rest of the areas will have to react differently based on who you are, without having to generate "different versions of the entire area", and the starting areas would make for an odd exception to this concept.

 

[Surf Solar]

IMNSHO, multiple starting locations are a mistake. Too much work spent fleshing out content that will go mostly unused during a singular playthrough.

Heh. Ofcourse you will never be able to see this content on one playthrough. This is the very nature of it. I don't know what you mean with all the difficulties either - it is just a matter of setting up a bunch of flags and such. If one would cleverly arrange locations around the starting place (which I did, but more out of luck, not foresight) it is really not a matter at all. Keep in mind most of the "event happens" stuff will get triggered via dialog. And the dialog tool is amazingly easy to use - no problem to do more content = players will be more happy. Don't see what's wrong with that. For some reason (based on this and earlier posts of yours) I think you overcomplicate stuff like variables, when they are actually very easy to use and script. Then again, I am not a scripter, so I think rather practical uses, not theoretical ones.

 

[Stinger]

Man this game gets better with every update.

Voted for your mod.

I really like the sidebar with portraits look over the tabs and the combat being party based now is pretty awesome.

About the different starting locations, in DA: Origins it just meant a different looking tutorial with minimal effect on the overall game beyond the occasional flavour dialogue.

Do you plan to make those varying tutorials have a lot more impact than that on the game? I'm not sure if it's worth it, since having a starting location have too much significance might take away from the 'blank slate' nature of the character but if it has minimal impact on the story then is that effort better spent on some more multiple branches in quests?

I dunno, just some rambling on my part.

 

[Surf Solar]

I didn't have internet the last 2 days, so much stuff to re-read and answer in the other topics.

Wanted to show something I'm working on at the moment, so it's still Work in Progress. It's one of the hunting-ground locations you can buy maps for from some people in the game world - this time some snowy/ashen wasteland.

Possible trap/ambush point (depending where you come from). I'm not sure about the snow weather effect, in motion it looks really pretty but it fucks up (my atleast) the game performance at some points - I tried to capture it on video to show here, but 3-4 fps were the highest I could achieve on this old desktop. :D

Some path towards the forest....

Frozen lake/small clearing (mainly testing out ground tiles/textures... )

Will now read and comment the other threads, thanks again folks!

 

[oscar]

Looking good.

 

[kaizoku]

that looks cool man.

It's one of the hunting-ground locations you can buy maps for from some people in the game world

what exactly do you mean by this?
that you pay some NPC to access to a hunting area, to kill some bears, deers, etc?

 

[Surf Solar]

that looks cool man.

It's one of the hunting-ground locations you can buy maps for from some people in the game world

what exactly do you mean by this?
that you pay some NPC to access to a hunting area, to kill some bears, deers, etc?

Yes, they are optional "dungeons" that you can clear, most of them give additional (rare) crafting items, a bit of loot, or some informations. They are however not required to play through the game, only serve as some additional maps to explore.

 

[Surf Solar]

I've revamped that snow stuff again because it drained serious computer ressources (the motion blur effect). Now it's ok, but it doesn't look as smooth. :<

Some demo here, (music used courtesy of my bro sgc meltdown who showed it to me )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0E6yf9iK4U

Sorry again for the outstandign replies in the other threads, was very busy lately. Will do it tomorrow then...

 

[Surf Solar]

I have done the "Automap" graphics today and inserted some small quests where you can "write" maps you first visited and sell them to people. The window looks like this (used is the older interface mockup you already know):

Used in this example is the data of the vault city courtyard from Fallout 2.

As I am some relative active member on the online boards of the engine I use, I noticed that almost no one uses the "map" feature of the game, aswell as no one used the same feauture in FO1/2. Why? That's what I want to know. What feels clumsy, what feels awkward, useless/useful. Please tell me, so we can upgrade it to something useful.