Stats in games with RPG elements

[Davros]

I've been mulling over both options.

Polygonal is harder to program and I'm not sure it would be suited to the style of the game. I also don't enjoy 3D very much.

Sprites would be easy to program, but require more drawing, because they need to be drawn at multiple angles, and animated.

- Facing player, 3 frames: left foot out, right foot out, attacking
- Facing left, 2 frames
- Facing right, 2 frames
- Facing away, 2 frames
total = 9 frames.

But those sprite sheets can be produced from 3D modeling programs to make the task easier. Either way, I'll probably need to find volunteers to produce monster models/sprites.

The similarity to Dungeon Master grows. Great work.

 

[Jadzia]

You need something crazy and original to be a defining image of your game, like Nemesis was for RE3 and Creepers are for Minecraft.

Yes I agree, like the magenta worms invented in dungeon master, the pink monsters and cyberdemons invented in Doom, and the creepers invented in minecraft. The mark of a good game is that it has defining icons like these, that play a role in creating the cult of the game.

The ultimate success is when these icons get exported from the domain of the game and become immortalised in youth subculture.

I personally kind of like the idea of there's a long shadow somewhere. You look into the shadow, and all the sudden two globes of orange light show up and this thing steps out. It's like a silhouette of a person, that's completely black with glowing eyes. It proceeds to stomp your face into the curb, walks back into the shadow, and disappears without a trace. I think that'd be pretty cool.

That's an interesting idea! I wouldn't want the game to be imbalanced by randomly appearing overpowered creatures, but I think it would be okay to have invisible units, that materialize some time after the player approaches their location. It could be scary to witness first time when you're not expecting it, and disconcerting to then walk through the dungeon knowing there might be another of those things hiding anywhere. Fear is good.

 

[Jadzia]

Well I managed to lose some of my program. The trouble with auto standby mode is that I don't always save things... But I am rebuilding.

Here is a crude example of a missile that produces light. I was unsure whether to have additional lights as the player should have to rely on torches, but I think light producing missiles like fireballs are going to be expensive enough to make it impractical to rely on them... and it's easy enough for me to include additional lights by shading vertices manually.

 

[Jadzia]

Betterness...

We have: missiles, a simple 3D particle system, simple 3D physics, and improved lighting. Lights can be attached to missiles.

 

[Kelthaz]

Very nice. I've dabbled in game programming myself, but I've always been too frightened to try 3D graphics.

 

[Jadzia]

I would say that 3D game programming is an order of magnitude harder than 2D game programming.

It feels similar to the leap from making a turn-based text-based game to making a real-time 2D game.

 

[Jadzia]

Here we have better particles, and the camera can rotate now. Rotation wasn't working properly before, because I forgot how matrices work.

I'm not sure if I will use free camera rotation, as it doesn't really fit with grid-based navigation. I may allow the camera to be nudged slightly according to the position of the mouse, so we can shift our gaze sidewards/up/down, while remaining oriented along the same direction vector.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I like the way your particles don't just go in a straight line but follow an arc. Will there be impact zones on your monsters, or will a hit just be a hit, regardless of where it lands on the baddie?

 

[Jadzia]

Each particle has it's own position, velocity and acceleration vectors, as well as a Stokes drag coefficient.

The particle generators are attached to the missiles, and throw particles out in random directions, with velocities roughly following the parent missile. This creates a trail effect that stays close to the missile.

The animation in the above gif isn't very clear, because it's sewn together from several screenshots from several different missiles. In the program, the particles all move smoothly.

The missile feels gravity, and arcs in a parabolic path until it collides with a surface.

I wasn't going to have impact zones, because I don't want combat to feel that tactical. The focus will be be on swift delivery of attack commands, dodging enemy projectiles by stepping to one side, and avoiding getting oneself cornered (that can itself feel like playing chess).

Mix into this the need to conjure and ply characters with healing potions, and keying in formula for casting fireballs, and the experience should be intense enough without having to aim shots too!

The monsters will sort of direct attacks however. Body parts that aren't armored will be vulnerable to injury, and injured body parts perform less effectively. eg, an injured hand will give less attack power, while an injured head will give less spell power. The player will also have to tend to these wounds if they want their team to stay in good shape.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Sorry, I meant your missiles arced, not particles.

And yeah, I understand not wanting to use "hit zones," although you could make it so enemies have a random chance to be physically disabled in some way. In the sense that your characters can be harmed in certain spots, you could have a simplified system on your monsters. So if you have a nasty, razor-toothed worm, and you punch it square in the mouth, it's stunned and unable to attack for a moment. But whether or not you hit a creature in its "weak spot" would be random and not something you aimed for. Perhaps a "critical hit" function?

 

[Jadzia]

Stunning a creature falls into the domain of buffs and curses. I planned to associate those with specific attack actions. eg, a mace might have three attack actions: Hit, Bash & Throw.

Hit -- Does a normal amount of damage, and drains a normal amount of stamina.
Bash -- Does twice as much damage, uses four times as much stamina, and applies a "stun" curse with some probability. Not all monsters can be stunned however.
Throw -- Attacks at range. Does less than normal damage, drains a normal amount of stamina. Loses the weapon.

Additionally, Bash will only become available if that character's Fighting skill is sufficiently advanced.