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Jay's game thread (The Towers of Trembolon)

Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 9:23 pm
by Jay
A month or two ago my harddrive crashed again, i was really sad about my lost work (both of them were crashing, well at least i had my actors and some bitmaps that were spared)

But that gave me teh opportunity to make everything better. I finally found out how to produce nice shadow effects with the sunlight-entity (i was using a way too high LightmapScale for a PlayerScale of 0.2) I made some kind of photoshooting of the first level as i really liked the lighting in that level.

ok, here are the pictures:

Temple
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The main character's house
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Left: the inn. Right: a watchtower
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My favorite one:
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What do you think?

Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 10:06 pm
by psYco
very nice looking level I like the character, the red robe looks awsome... Sorry to hear about the crash but im glad it worked out in the end.

Oh just the bricks on the buidlings look a lil bit to big, but that may have been intentional, i dont know... anyway looking good.

Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 10:50 am
by Juutis
Wow, looking good! The shadows are great and I like the main character too. :)
However, I think you could use some different textures with the houses to spice things up a bit. A couple of houses could have a similar texture but with a different color or something. Anyway, that's just an idea. I think it looks great the way it is.


Is this game going to be a RPG, BTW? It sure seems like it. :)

Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 2:24 pm
by Jay
yes it is going to be a RPG. Currently i am trying to get the doors looking good because i replaced them with SEPs so that you can select them with the Mouse and then you are teleported into the house.

The idea of the slightly different textures is a good one. I will also look if it looks better if i scale down the textures.

Until the next post :wink:

new WIP pics

Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 7:19 pm
by Jay
I am currenty working on the indoors. Here a few WIP pics of the silo, where the first 'dungeon' will be:

On the outside:
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Silo entrance:
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Down in the cellar: (still a few props missing, come later)
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Hm, there's a rat coming out of this tunnel?
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Die, evil rat!
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What could be behind this tunnel?
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Looking back from the other side:
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Ok what could be improved? Afar from the bricks size, i kept it this way, it seems more like the people don't really know how to build really good anymore. This is because i want the old ruins to look more impressing.

Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 9:42 pm
by psYco
Hmmm, well I think that the brick size was a nice improvement, and so far everything is looking really nice! :D

I like the rat (tho i think they are being disenfranchised by too many games making rat killers of us all :lol: ) I like vastness of space feeling that you get, and the adventuring feel that I seem to get from looking at the screens, like you dont know what you will find, the same feel i remember from back in the days when i first played the Tomb Raider series... :)

Good work and nice to see you making even MORE progress :D

Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2007 12:41 pm
by Juutis
Impressive. I love the screens. :)
With those bigger pictures I got a better look at the main character. I love him too! The cape looks fantastic! The dungeon definately needs some props and stuff but otherwise it looks good to me. Maybe use a different texture for the floor and ceiling? It might eventually get a bit boring if the walls, floor and ceiling all look alike.

Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2007 10:25 pm
by Jay
Ok. Some updates. I don't have any screens, because they would be showing parts of the puzzles and i want you to find out how they are solved yourselves ( once i release the demo)

I have planned out the system for developing the characters.

First there are 6 Stats:

Strenght - Increases weapon damage.
Dexterity - increases frequency and strenght of weapon criticals.
Stamina - Increases HP.
Intelligence - increases frequency and strenght of spell criticals.
Wisdom - Increases strenght of criticals, both spell and weapon criticals.
Knowledge - Increases MP.

So far, everything's like we know it from other RPGs, but now come the differences:
-The Stats cannot be risen when you level up. I am currently not sure if i even should make level ups or if you pay for skills and spells directly with EXP. You must go to trainers when you want to rise anything. Some skills and spells could also be learned without going to a trainer.
-The Stats can however rise when you do special quests or collect sets. There will be one set for each character that will rise his/her outstanding ability/abilities. So Tim, the smartest of the group of characters you will control, gains 1 point of knowledge for every book of a special enzyclopedia (don't want to give away the name yet) he carries. When you have collected all the books (there are 5) he will gain 2 knowledge points extra.
-The stats reflect the potencial of a character as well as his birth-given talents. Let me explain:

Dioran (the main character) has the following stats:
Strenght 14
Dexterity 13
Stamina 12
Intelligence 13
Wisdom 15
Knowledge 13

The stats are taken into account when the character learns new skills/spells and rises his/her HP/MP. You can rise the HP just that many times like you have stamina and the MP just that many times like you have knowledge. This represents the potencial of the character. But also, a character with more knowledge will gain more MP when he trains his to get more MP because his talent is higher.
The other stats are used when you learn skills and spells. Each skill/spell has a 'value' for each of the stats strenght, dexterity, intelligence and wisdom. When you learn a new spell/skill, the total values of all the skills and spells learned can never exceed your base stats (strenght, dex. and so on). This way a more talented character can learn more different skills/spells of a special field than a lesser talented character. But also, the benefits from theses stats i mentioned above are still taken into account when you're doing stuff.

Hope you understood that. Can be a bit confusing.

Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 4:18 pm
by Juutis
I think it sounds great! :D At least if I got it right... The more, say, strenght a character has the more powerful skills he can learn that include using strenght, right?
Well anyway, I think it'll be a lot easier to understand when actually playing the game.

Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 4:46 pm
by Jay
Yes the more strenght he/she has the better (more powerfull) or more (more in case of numbers) skills that include using strenght he/she can learn. So you can focus on having like 1 powerfull and 2 less powerfull skills or like 5 less powerfull skills (but more different).

There will also be a sytem i call the 'star system'. That's only a word i have taken for that because i will represent the points of this system as little stars inside the inventory. Each character has 10 stars which are drained slowly when he uses skills or spells. When he has no 'stars' left, he cannot use skills or spells. But do not worry, they regenerate over time. A more powerfull skill/spell drains more 'stars' (so you can say it's a five-star-attack for example lol). Sometimes it is indeed wiser to attack with several 'weak' skills after another to quickly weaken the enemy, then you recharge your 'stars' while you are noramlly attacking the enemy. And then when you recharged, you move on to the more powerfull skills and spells.

Each character will learn a special spell or abiltiy, which i call the 'Ultimate' (short for ultimate spell), through the story. The Ultimate is like the crown of the characters abilities. It's a 10-star-ability. The ultimate is like the last thing you do when you think you already have lost to give you a last chance. Like when your mana is drained and you have used up all of your Magic potions. And you still are in this boss fight and you know the dungeon is over when you did it. Ultimates do not cost MP, but instead they cost HP. They do the variousest (does this word even exist lol?) thinghs. Here are the ones i already planned out:

BEGIN EDIT:
Dioran: Silver Moon: A dual spell which heals everyone of your party by a cretain amount and while it also damages undead that are in a specific range. Not completely planned out yet.
Kriston: Not sure yet. Maybe an ultimate where he throws his weapon onto the floor, breaking it, while a he summons an earthquake?
Tim: Wind walker: He gets incredibly fast (like 5 times as fast, his attack speed also rises, maybe like 3 or 4 times as fast); he also gains at least 10 points of dexterity. The usually physically weakest character now is like a storm raging over the battlefield. He may still be physically weak but he is so fast and precise that he makes up everything with it. Lasts 20 seconds. During that time he cannot recharge his 'stars'.
Fia: Asuras Glow: Summons the true power of the half-goddess Asura to regain MP for the whole party.
Sarah: Boltpeak's shatter: A giant lightning bolt which ravages everything on the battlefield (including your party!!!!), doing immense damage.
Kia: Phoenix call. Will Heal all party members.
Xavier: Ejaculatory prayer: Increases all stats of all party members by 4 for 30 seconds. Because of that, they will also gain HP and MP over that time. But beware, they will lose them again after the 30 seconds have gone.

Ok i have to tell you some thinghs about the characters now. Each character has one element on which his/her spells are based. (There are also 'Clans' of a specific element which live in different areas throughout the land. Inside the 'Clans' there are also undergroups like in the fire clan there are for example 'The Red Sword' and 'The Followers of the Phoenix' which also have different magic spells sometimes.) Here are the characters and their Clans, and the undergroup they belong to, if they do (also in some cases there is extra information):

Dioran: The Moon Clan (the moon clan is called the 'Lost Clan' because its members are nowhere to be found, well i know i am building on clishes sometimes, but however sometimes i do not); Dioran's mother died after his death and so he was raised by his father. Dioran never wanted this to happen.
Kriston: The Earth Clan; Kriston is Dioran's best friend; He has 2 older brothers and a younger sister. He is the one who is 'responsible' for all of this. He is not
Tim: The Wind Clan; is an orphan who has been raised by Dioran's uncle (who doesn't live in the same town as Dioran and Kriston, instead he lives in Triodon, a city buld in the sky itself); He has been studying books and such for most of his life now. Yet he is still quick with his fingers. He works as a sorter at the great library of triodon. He has NEVER EVER left Triodon(ok it's the biggest city there is, so no need to get out). Time to change that.
Fia: The Water Clan, "The priestresses of Asura", she was risen in a convent. But, no fear, she's not one of those ultra-conservatives which are not into love and are way too strict and bla bla bla (whatever you might think when you hear convent). She just has MUCH control over her emotions.
Sarah: The Bolt Clan, am not sure about her yet, she will join the quest as a guide when the party wants to pass a special mountain range.
Kia: The Fire Clan, "The Followers of the Phoenix", has two elder brothers.
Xavier: The Sun Clan, "Knights of Valor", he is the eldest brother of Kia and like her part of the royal family of Otos Pyr. But, etticeque demanded that he had to leave because he as the next to get on the throne didn't have the element of fire (in the city of the Fire Clan!!!) but instead that of the Sun. As soon as he turned 16, he had to leave and was educated by an very old paladin (kind of like yoda :) )

Boah that was much info.
END EDIT

I have decided that there will be no levels. You will pay everything directly. You only have to learn the base technique at the trainer's (and it will mostly cost money), once you have it you can invest EXP without going to the trainer (the trainer thaught you the foundations and you do the training) to get better in it.

Skills and spells will be treated totalyy equal. Only that skills normally do not drain MP.



EDIT:
PUH THAT WAS A CLOSE ONE! I thought the harddrive died again, but it was 'just' a overheated cpu. Computer crashed during saving the level and it was lost, BUT i had made backups! so i didn't really lost anything (just some small part of the level, the player script is still there and that was the thing that would hurt me most because it now has grown to a file size of 50KB and was the most work). Just did a complete backup of the RealityFactory folder and the Complete source code again, so that nothing will be lost when it happens again.

Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2007 3:53 pm
by Juutis
Boah that was much info.
Agreed. :D

'five-star-attack'
I love that one! :lol:

Overall, you seem to have thought about everything pretty well. I really like the clan idea. Will you be able to change your clan in the game? I would really love it if you could change the 'subclan', and thus gain new spells/skills while still keeping the 'element'.

Anyway, good work on the story and characters. I can't wait to get my hands on something to play. :)



I once had a similar idea with the spells and skills, BTW. I think gaining levels is a bit old idea, I like your style more.

Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2007 7:22 pm
by Jay
Some progress and some pics to feed your interest:

This is a prototype of the inventory:
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If you right-click on the stats a character has then there comes a brief explanation of the stat (strenght, dex, etc), as seen above.

Swimming is already possible, i made this possible using one of my self-implemented script commands:
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Something i am proud of, it is a fire golem:
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I still got plenty of work to do, next comes the scripted hud.


You will not be able to change your clan/underclan. This is because i want the characters to be truly unique, also some spells have counterparts in other clans, like 'Silver Sword' from the Moon clan and 'Crimson Sword' from the Fire Clan (the last one is used by 'The Red Sword'). I am not sure how to balance the game then (the challenge of the game is to solve the situations with each characters unique abilities, this would get lost if you could just 'refit' the characters)

Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2007 8:07 pm
by Juutis
Looking good!!! :D

I love the inventory. Even though it's only a prototype. I know how complicated those things can be to script, so well done!


the challenge of the game is to solve the situations with each characters unique abilities, this would get lost if you could just 'refit' the characters
Ahh yes. That makes sense.

Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2007 11:41 pm
by Jay
even if you are the only one that looks at this topic Juutis, i have two screens again of what i did today: (we have holidays right now, i finally have time to work again and since i registered milkshape3d everything is faster now)

This is the underearth cavern/complex where the rats came from:
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This is a pic of the (unfinished) temple interrior:
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It's the temple of the earth god, Igrat, who also is the patron of the guards and knights. This is why the statue representing him looks like a knight out of stone.

(The statue model actually has more polys than the main character lol)

Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2007 1:18 am
by Silmeria
really nice man. sucks for your hard drive.