Jay's game thread (The Towers of Trembolon)

[Juutis]

Wow, that's a nice story! I think dividing it into many games is a wise idea. Now we can (hopefully) have a nice little game every few years instead of one big game with the whole story in 20 years, when the whole game would be awfully outdated. The story is so long it's hard to pick any parts which I like and which I don't like. I'll read it again some other time and try to find something to criticize . Though one thing that caught my attention is the timelessness and rules in the towers. I really like it. You can have some pretty weird stuff going on in there. The imagination is your limit.

[Jay]

Yes i love this idea too! It adds more diversity to all the places you will visit. I am already thinking about rooms with upside down gravity,instantly freezing water pillars, so that you can walk on them (a puzzle in the upper part of the water tower will be that you create a path to the other side of a magnificent room using this instant freezing water pillars.) Or ice that leds you slide upwards instead of downwards, water pillars that are just there (normally they would fall down).

Also i finished the training system, it's like this:
Skills/spells can be learned when you are with a trainer.
You can learn up to 32 skills/spells, but you can (not like before) learn any combination of skills/spells that you want.
up to 4 trainings (the class-system)
There are no 'levels' of skills, you either have them or you don't have.
But you can train your ability to make better use of your character attributes (which is like you learn how to use your talents) - there is one training type for each character attribute:

Strenght-Training: more weapon damage
Dexterity-Training: better chance for weapon crit, more weapon crit damage
Intelligence-Training: better chance for spell crit, also a better Magic-value, which results in stronger spells
Wisdom-Training: raises Attack, Defense and Magic by a small amount, also more crit damage (both weapon and spell)
Stamina-Training: more health
Knowledge-Training: more mana

Each point you invest in one of those gets more costy. But also, the higher your base attribute is, the more training it will benefit you. When you have more wisdom, the effects of one point wisdom-training are bigger.

It's hard to imagine, i know...But right now it works really good.

[Jay]

Here is a screen of the spellbook. Right are the character skills and spells, left are the character stats and the amount of training. Also the thinghs like knight-training and so will be on the left side, right under the character stats. Training is already possible - this whole system begins to actually take shape.



Those two show the huge difference between a low stat and a high stat when your training points are maxed out (will occur only at the end of the game, i simulated this case here):

Dioran, average stamina and average knowledge:


Kriston, high stamina and low knowledge:


compare health and mana of both and you will know what i mean.

[FragMatic]

That game just rocks! Keep up the good work dude!

[Juutis]

Yes i love this idea too! It adds more diversity to all the places you will visit. I am already thinking about rooms with upside down gravity,instantly freezing water pillars, so that you can walk on them (a puzzle in the upper part of the water tower will be that you create a path to the other side of a magnificent room using this instant freezing water pillars.) Or ice that leds you slide upwards instead of downwards, water pillars that are just there (normally they would fall down).

You could also make it affect certain spells and stuff. Like if you cast a magic that somehow involves water (that is, if you have such spells), the water would freeze instantly and change the nature of the spell. Like a spray of water would become a spray of sharp icicles.

In Baldur's Gate II there was a something similar, I think. There was a room that changed every spell you cast. So that if you cast a heal on an allied character, it might very well change to an offensive spell killing the friend.


I like the stat and skill ideas. They really affect the characters, and that's good!

[Jay]

Yes that sounds like a good idea. Especially for puzzles, i can make rooms that change the 'natural flow of magic', which means, altering the magic you're doing. Maybe i can make some 'show'-fights in such rooms. I imagine that this can be really fun becuase it's something different suddenly.

sooo....
I am nearing the demo release. Here is a quick progress diagram:

Level Geometry - 100% done
Puzzles - 90% done
Quests - 100% done
Conversations - approx. 60% done
Monsters - 100% done
Scripting - almost 100% done
Story related stuff - 90% done
Atmosphere objects - approx. 85% done

There is the main quest and four side quests (one mini-side-quest). Through the side quests you get expierience and items.

[Jay]

I forgot the music! Because of that i composed a set of 4 music files that may get the soundtrack of the demo. (warning! Synthesizer music ahead). Calming, sometimes sad, sometimes lively, yet myterious music...

Here are 3 of the 4: (One i will keep secret until the demo )

http://www.bestsharing.com/files/zEipbR ... 1.mp3.html
http://www.bestsharing.com/files/88gv9x ... 2.mp3.html
http://www.bestsharing.com/files/o5xICY ... 3.mp3.html

The third is a bit long, i first wanted to use it for the intro of the game.

Those are my intellectual property... Of course they are not the best quality, but i think if it weren't synthesizer music it would sound a bit better...
Conversations are now finished to 80%. Now there are only the non-important converations left.

[bernie]

That's great stuff Jay. Very impressive music. Just the right mood for the game you are writing. Nothing wrong with synth music. How did you record it? Was it a sequencer or a keyboard you used? If it was a sequencer what program did you use?

[paradoxnj]

The music is not bad. Nice melody. It could use some different instruments though. I would have a 12-string guitar do the arpeggio and a flute do the melody in the third one. What software are you using for music? There are some free DAW programs out there that you can utilize to make it sound more realistic.

[Jay]

Sorry that i didn't reply any sooner, but i didn't want to say something unless i had something new (i thought this would be very soon)

The music was made with Oktava, a german composing program. I have the trial version, and because of this i can only have 4 instruments playing at one time. But it's very easy to use, this software.

If anyone would like to try it out (or if anyone here can talk/read german and is also interested in thinghs like this) here it is: http://www.obtiv.de/

I used the windows Stereo Mixer to record the sounds (records everything that comes out of the soundcard) and then i cut them with Acoustica MP3 Audio Mixer (or i think it was called like that) to the lenghts i needed.

[paradoxnj]

Jay, have a look at this. It's a very nice DAW. You can find many free VST instruments all over the place to use with it.

[Jay]

Yes i have looked at it, but it does not seem exactly the type of program i am searching for.

So...demo is 99% done and here are some of the last-minute-adds:

It is now possible to select all thinghs like you would select enemies. This is needed so that you can cast spells and use abilites on objects (which must be done to solve some puzzles). You can also order other characters to use the object. This may be used in a puzzle which has 2 switches and they have to pulled in a specific time.
Every Character has some 'puzzle-spells' that have a certain effect.

Dioran
- Moonbeam (this is the only spell of those in demo)
- New Moon / Waxing Moon / Full Moon / Waning Moon (Environment spells)

Kriston
- Grow (Plants)
- Move
- Gravity
- Magnetism

Tim
- Northwind / Southwind / Westwind / Eastwind (Environment spells)
- Icebolt
- Windbolt
- Frost

Fia
- Ocean Wave
- Snowfall

Sarah
- Lighting bolt

Kia
-Fire bolt
-Phoenix fire

Xavier
-Sunbeam

The Environment spells can be seen as some kind of 'Aura' like Paladins normally have. You can only have one active and they give special bonuses. The Southwind from the hot deserts of Canaas adds a dry-attack to the wind-spells, making them effective against water creatures. The strong Westwind from the steppe of Ilonar makes your wind spells less costy. The cold Northwind from the ice-desert of Achan makes your ice-spells stronger and the Eastwind from the great sea gives water-based attacks a damage bonus. Diorans Environment spells also give bonusses: the Full Moon makes light-based damage stronger, the New Moon increases Diorans mana regeneration, Waning Moon strenghtens healing spells, and Waxing Moon has an effect on the light spells: Light damage will not be a 'stream of energy' anymore, but rather come in small portions...That just means that instead of doing one time 120 damage, you will do 12 times 10 damage. I know this does not sound very spectacular, but indeed it is, because let's say an undead has -10 light resistance. Without Waxing Moon you do 1x(120+10) damage, but with it you do 12x(10+10) damage. You can even go this far and HEAL targets that have light absorbtion. Say Kriston has 10 light absorbtion and you cast Moonlight-Surge with Waxing Moon on him. Let's just say you had done 120 damage normally. Now you will heal Kriston for 120 health points. But without Waxing Moon you had done 100 damage on him (He absorbs 10 which means he heals himself for 10 HP and then gets 110 damage). Though there are more efficient ways to heal - 57 mana is not very mana-friendly for a healing spell. On the other hand, Waxing Moon is not good against enemies with light-resistance because their resistance gives them the opportunity to fight off the small particles.

Also, i think there are going to be 3 dificulty levels:
-Fairy Tale: This is easy mode and the normally selected mode. NPCs are only angry if you do somthing fataly wrong.
-Legend: This is hard mode. Fights are ~4 times harder.
-Tragedy: This is 'dark'-mode. Well fights are even a bit unfair, and you can break the story... This means you can for example kill Foran in Tos An during the Time-shift in part III... This will lead to an ending where Dioran, Kia, Xavier, Fia and Sarah go back to their home towns always feeling something had not gone right in the adventure. Tim will never get his memory restored... Kriston is dead because his actions have led to himself not being found after he was hit by the rock, and Dioran and Kelini will never find out that they are related (simply because they will never meet)... In this mode, you must take responsibility for your actions and this way you kind of write the story yourself...

So here is one last screen that shows selecting the door to the potion shop:


Good night...

[fps]

not to change the subject, but when are you going to put out that whole rig with the scripted projectiles. I'm really looking forward to that one.

[vrageprogrammer]

AWESOME(The last screen is COOL)

[Juryiel]

I can't wait for this game to be released so I can steal all your code (And maybe also play )