Temple of The Roguelike Forums
Game Discussion => Early Dev => Topic started by: AgingMinotaur on April 03, 2013, 01:04:58 PM
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Name: Land of Strangers
Developer: Aging Minotaur
Environment: Windows (exe), Linux (deb), Python+pygame
Download: http://agingminotaur.blogspot.de/p/downl.html
Edit: This post left mostly unedited, but the download links should point to the most recent release. Check out later entries for more updated info about the project.
So, I didn't release anything for the 7drl (this year either), but the jam gave me some momentum to start a new project, currently entitled "Land of Strangers". It's a western themed RL that aims to incorporate some board/card game mechanics. I've uploaded a very early version, set in an endless desert populated by gunmen and scorpions. This version should give a pretty clear picture of how marksmanship and card mechanics are going to work, although there's no real game yet. Still, I'd appreciate all and any comments at this point – which is why I am writing this post.
My plan right now is to implement some of the ideas I was kicking around in my head prior to and during the 7drl week. After that, if I can convince myself that the idea scales well, I'll probably expand the game. It may also turn out it should just remain a tiny RL shooter, though.
Some of the current features include:
* Hitpointless/simplistic RL on a hexagonal grid,
* infinitely expandable world map with various enemies, obstacles, etc.,
* inventory-less, skill-less action system,
* pseudo-elaborate system for marksmanship,
* dual wielding revolvers while almost sober!
* Distributed as Python sources or Windows binary (binaries for Linux and OSX coming up)
As always,
Minotauros
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The western theme and board game-inspired mechanics are certainly interesting to me. Is there a way to reload your gun in this version, or is the initial set of bullets all you get?
How do you intend to prevent this game from feeling unfair when your player has only a single hit point? Will bullets have travel time? Will there be a way to attack without putting oneself at risk?
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Reloading is currently done through action cards. Whenever an enemy dies, there is a roughly 50% chance it will drop a starshaped token you can pick up to increase your action repertoire. Some of these grant "Reload". (Hint: Scorpions are defeated without the use of firepower.)
The general idea was to use ammunition to pace the flow of battle, forcing you to discard interesting action cards in order to reload, etc. But the current system probably won't stick. In this testing version, it strikes me now, the player should have started out with at least one "Reload" card :P
Regarding single HP system et al: On the one hand, I want gunfighting to be deadly – not a setting where you take dozens of bullets, and still trudge along – but I might implement some sort of health/wounds, and certainly more ways for the player to fight at an advantage. Right now, the straight-faced goons are very easy to kill (if you have bullets). The game also needs a system for taking cover. As it is now, firing over cacti or scorpions increases the chance of "your shot goes wild" – maybe the penalty shouldn't apply if you stand adjacent to the obstacle.
In any case, thanks for trying it, Vanguard! That in itself is highly motivational.
As always,
Minotauros
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Some more thoughts on HP-less combat in a system like this:
A solution I might try out, is to have wounds as tokens. They would be put straight on your open hand if inflicted, forcing you to discard a random action card if you have no free slots. Some such wound tokens may be timed and/or have adverse effects (eg. "stunned for 3 rounds"). Long term wounds could sit in your hand until you get to a doctor, for instance. If all your card slots get occupied by wound tokens, you are overcome.
Currently, the player starts out with 2 open slots (I'm planning that you can increase your hand size later on), so that would give a 2+ HP system. A regular gun shot should probably take a novice down, in any case :P But I could include grazing shots, bleeding wounds, make scorpions less deadly.
Anyway, expect a tweaked version with some balancing and more conent soon.
As always,
Minotauros
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To those it might concern: A new release is up. Get it here: http://code.google.com/p/land-of-strangers/downloads/list
I fixed some simple bugs, balanced the game to be easier (you now start out with ammunition, scorpions are easier to kill), as well as added some infrastructure, such as saving/restoring and a main menu. There's also the bare bones of an achievement system in place, inscribed on your tombstone when you die.
Overall, this release should be less deadly than the last one, with a more pleasant UI and at least the semblance of a topography. I hope to give map generation some loving next, and to find out what I can wrangle from this action system. The system needs something like currency/food clock/mana, to regulate the flow of the action cards. Of course, the action card system is envisioned a bit as an alternative to cool-down systems, but if the player ends up micromanaging his repertoire of actions between every shootout, that's no good either. And it can be difficult to scale to a bigger game, since the player can't reliably predict when s/he'll have access to which cards. Imagine, in a game like Crawl, waiting to enter a level where you need a particular resistance, but having to wait until that resistance turns randomly up on your hand. Or maybe not :P
Changelog:
* (Bug) Actors outside current map view no longer renders to screen.
* (Bug) Quick fix: Discarding "Dual wield" unwielded secondary gun,
even if another "Dual wield" card remained in player's hand.
* Some tiny tweaks, including a new action.
* Scorpions can now be shot.
* Pc now starts with a Reload action card.
* Started implementing main menu.
* Upon death, game resets rather than exiting.
* Saving/restoring implemented (for single save slot, but it works).
* Started implementing simple achievement/statistic system.
As always,
Minotauros
(http://i.imgur.com/KmHerb3.png)
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The system needs something like currency/food clock/mana, to regulate the flow of the action cards. Of course, the action card system is envisioned a bit as an alternative to cool-down systems, but if the player ends up micromanaging his repertoire of actions between every shootout, that's no good either.
This looks to be the biggest potential problem in this game. Being ready for an encounter is a matter of busywork rather than tactics or resource management. It might be a good idea to include the equivalent of a "rest" command, where the game auto-cycles through your deck until your gun is fully loaded, and your favorite set of actions are in your hand.
Here's an idea: what if you your game had safe areas where the player can freely reload their gun and select which actions are in their hand? That way the player would still need to manage their deck, but only in situations where it's worth their attention.
This would combine nicely with a mana-like resource management system. You could put every used or discarded action into a discard pile while in a dangerous zone. Cards in the discard pile can not be drawn again until the player reaches a safe zone, at which point the discard pile is reshuffled into the draw pile. That way the player is encouraged to not mindlessly discard their actions - even if they didn't get the card they want, they should still try to make use of it, since they won't get the chance to use it later.
Is LoSt at all based on the card game Dominion? It reminds me of that a little bit. You've got a bunch of actions that are enabled by randomly drawing cards from your deck as well as lodestone-like dead weight cards that don't do anything.
EDIT:
Oh, by the way, there doesn't seem to be a way to directly discard the action in the #2 slot. Pressing shift + 2 goes to the save/quit menu.
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Thanks again for your comments, Vanguard. I've also been thinking along similar lines as you ("rest" command, "safe area" where you reset your deck). There are some potential pitfalls, but hopefully I'll work out a system and UI that works. You mention Dominion, and that actually is a source of inspiration. I only played it a few times, but really liked the deck building mechanics1. Right now, I'm having a hard time transferring that kind of logic to a RL on a grid, where timing and spatial perspective is quite different. I'm also afraid some things that are fun in a physical game, can become a hassle on the computer (eg. "I'll just discard these three cards, lay this one down on the board, and trade these four in with the bank for new ones" translates to mashing a dozen keys). So we'll see ... will try to bring some fresh ideas to the table for the next release.
Oh, by the way, there doesn't seem to be a way to directly discard the action in the #2 slot. Pressing shift + 2 goes to the save/quit menu.
Oh, what a silly bug. Consider it squashed in the next version. In the meantime, I'd wager you can even fix it manually by editing the options file, changing "ctrl_cmds['cmdQ']=[113,27,64]" to "ctrl_cmds['cmdQ']=[113,27]".
As always,
Minotauros
1 I gave away Dominion for Christmas a few years ago, which was when I played it. I remember going to bed thinking: "Dominion+Kings & Things+RL=?" – maybe that is an idea that still merits attention :)
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Really like the sound of these ideas. I'll try to give it a go soon.
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Thanks Legend, for your motivational post. LoSt is a bit on the backburner these days, though I've been tinkering and thinking about it a bit. I'm currently unsure if the card mechanics fit the idea of a huge world, that I somehow also try to get at in the current version. (And I do like the idea of developing the setting of LoSt, with wildlife, natural expanses and resources, inhabitants of all kinds, their politics and legends …) A more constrained tactical space might work better, making the cards the meat and bones of the system, not just an extra layer slapped on top of a game mostly about walking, shooting, and bumping. Right now, I have the general idea for at least the next release, hopefully with some actual direction – probably a simple bounty system, where you visit a [sheriff/foo] to collect rewards, rest up, and get new scalp hunter assignments. If that version is more fun to play, I hope to pursue the game. If not, I might scrap either the card game ideas, or the lonesome cowboy setting, or both, and try something else. (I have another idea entirely that I would actually much prefer to make, but we'll see ;))
As always,
Minotauros
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Slow working on this, but I have what I believe to be a pretty good plan for the way forward. Stay tuned for a proper game in version 04 8)
In the meantime, I just wasted an hour on a random currency generator, too silly not to use for the game :P Behold:
[ ¢ ] centavo copper
[ ¢ ] bit
[ Au ] gold crown
[ ¥ ] yuan bill
[ Cu ] copper
[ Ag ] silver
[ € ] ecu
[ Rs ] rupee mazuma
[ Ag ] silver zig
[ Cu ] copper
[ ₱ ] peso silver
[ Cu ] zigzag copper
[ ¥ ] yen zig
[ ₯ ] silver drakhme
[ д ] gold dinar
[ ₩ ] cowry won
[ Au ] quasigold
[ $ ] dollar gold
[ £ ] gold pound
[ ¥ ] quasiyuan
As always,
Minotauros
PS. Here is the actual module, for anyone interested:
#!/usr/bin/python
# -*- coding: utf-8
import random
# Common, Rare, Mineral: currency names
Common=[("dollar","$"),
("pound","£"),
("yuan", "yen","¥"),
("peso","₱"),
("bit", "centavo","¢")]
Rare=[("ecu","€"),
("dinar","д"),
("rupee", "Rs"),
("baht","฿"),
("won","₩"),
("guaraní","₲"),
("hryvnia","₴"),
("naira","₦"),
("tögrög","₮"),
("lira","₤"),
("ruble","руб"),
("zloty","zł"),
("drakhme","₯")]
Mineral=[("gold","Au"),
("silver","Ag"),
("copper","Cu")]
# Prefix, Suffix: further currency epithets
Prefix=("piece ","pseudo","cowry ","quasi","mazuma ","nugget ","paper ","",
"soveriegn ","sterling ","zigzag")
Suffix=(" piece"," cowry"," bill"," coin"," chip"," mazuma", " nugget",
" crown", ""," mint","zigzag")
def print_random_currency():
prefix=""
suffix=""
currency=""
# Determine currency name
d6=random.randint(1,6)
if d6<3: currency=random.choice(Mineral)
elif d6==3: currency=random.choice(Rare)
else: currency=random.choice(Common)
if len(currency)>2:
# print "Currency:",currency
symbol=currency[-1]
currency=random.choice(currency[:-1])
elif len(currency)==2:
symbol=currency[1]
currency=currency[0]
# Determine "cute" pre-/suffix
if d6>2: d3=random.randint(0,3)
else: d3=random.randint(0,2)
if d3==1:
prefix=random.choice(Prefix)
elif d3==2:
suffix=random.choice(Suffix)
elif d3==3:
coin_flip=random.randint(0,1)
if coin_flip:
sfix=random.choice(Mineral)
suffix="".join([" ",sfix[0]])
else:
pfix=random.choice(Mineral)
prefix="".join([pfix[0]," "])
if prefix=="zigzag":
prefix=random.choice(["zig ","zag ","zigzag "])
if suffix=="zigzag":
suffix=random.choice([" zig"," zag"," zigzag"])
if prefix: pretty_string="".join(["[ ",symbol," ] ",prefix,currency])
elif suffix: pretty_string="".join(["[ ",symbol," ] ",currency,suffix])
else: pretty_string="".join(["[ ",symbol," ] ",currency])
print pretty_string
if __name__=="__main__":
print "SOME CURRENCIES:"
print ""
for i in xrange(0,10):
print_random_currency()
#Re/Rs (rupee*) *It is common to find a prefix before the digits
# denoting the rupee currency value written as "Re: 1"
# (for one unit), or "Rs. 140" (for more than one
# rupee). (SH: Eller rupie som Rs med gjennomstrøket R?)
# Further note: People and prose discussing money can write it
# shorthand like "5 $", "160 ¥" or more elaborate, using either or
# both of the currency name and epithet: "That'll be four pseudos, you
# brute!", "Want to earn some pesos?", "I pay 100 silver drakhmes for
# the head of Abraham Beston!"
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That rules.
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So, to anyone who might be curious about how this is coming along. I'm probably picking this up again, but I might be rewriting the thing from scratch, aiming at a more traditional RL. The card-based mechanics probably would work best either in a really confined tactical space, or else in a game where you control something like an entire civilization. I considered making the game bimodal, with an overworld-mode to organize your deck in between concentrated shootout scenarios. But that doesn't really fit the bill for me. If I'm to make this, I'd much rather aim for a feeling of a vast prairie/desert world with small settlements, mines, etc. to explore seamlessly.
Right now, I'm considering whether or not to keep the hex grid or to situate it on a regular grid of squares. I love the kind of tactical space offered by a hex grid, but hobbling together a good interface for navigating it is just damn hard, and stuff like houses do undoubtedly fit better on a square grid. I think hexes can work well in a game aimed to be played with a mouse or touchscreen, but I loves my keyboard, so ... I haven't really decided upon this, though, still rattling my brain with arguments for and against.
I'm doing sketches for a general design, where speed/initiative might play an important part. I envision the player acting simultaneously as other actors, with each turn divided into several ticks, which are qualitative rather than quantitative: Acts of pure thought go first, followed by melee, followed by missiles, followed by movement, followed by tool use, or something along those lines. This would be fitted into an otherwise simplistic system: You get to wield one item and wear one or just a few. In addition, I might keep the system with stances that you can toggle, and I'll definitely keep a system of special actions, that will rather have penalties/constraints instead of mana/cooldown – say, stuff like: pass one turn to fire with increased accuracy; fire faster with lower accuracy; do double melee damage at the cost of speed; spend one turn soaking X damage instead of acting.
As far as health and wounds go, I'm probably landing on a system with Body Levels. A typical human would have two BLs, visualized as hearts, or something. Suffering a single melee attack would "bruise" you, causing your "top" BL to blink in the next turn. Being hit again while in this state costs you the entire BL, but if you manage to stay out of harms way, the bruise is regenerated. So being slapped in the face every other turn leaves you unharmed at the end of the fight, but if you get ganged up on or struck repeatedly, you risk losing your precious BLs, which will only regenerate under special circumstances. Firefights should be deadly, so taking a bullet probably pops one or two BLs immediately. Of course, there should be stuff like bullet proof vests (granting perhaps an extra "bruise" tick to your BLs), and intrinsics like "fat" or "tough", that may grant a whole extra BL.
While thinking about all this stuff, I'm also fiddling with some random generation. The currency generator may have to go (if lead bullets are to be the gold standard), but I consoled myself with a random world name generator. I'm also picking up notes for random genotypes that I did for Squirm, originally. So there'll be some kinds of herds for the cowboys to deal with, but they may turn up in different worlds as six-legged bovines herded for meat, or wild ostrich-like fowls whose eggs nomads poach, or underground reptiles who secrete a poisonous oil also precious to the industries back in The Old World. Similarly, I might write up some culture generators to decide upon things like writing technology (do they use paper and ink, stone tablets, or something more esoteric, like quipu or nkisi nkondi?) But here I'm getting ahead of myself. I hope for a more modest release within a few months – I'm going to try out "7 Session RL" as a devel method, trying to finish something within seven coding sessions, but allowing for breaks in between.
(I have no blog, and I must rant. Might as well instead of working today, as I have to pop by the embassy to cast a vote for the Norwegian Communist Party (farting in the wind, it seems, the Conservatives are ganging up with the racist neo-con party FRP to take over parliament this fall) before attending a children's birthday party in the afternoon.)
As always,
Minotauros
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Interesting read, please keep on posting (about RL, not politics :))
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Gotcha :)
A final note on the world name generation. The world name will be used to set the random seed before generating the map, so that two equally named worlds yield the same map. The player will be able to manually set the world name or let the random generator come up with something. Maybe, just maybe, there'll be some system to keep track of what goes down in the worlds that have already been loaded by the player, so that if you revisit a certain world, your previous characters' actions and their repercussions will still be in effect.
The current generator focuses on getting very diverse names for the continent, so that two identical names won't crop up too often (it currentely generates a few thousand names before producing the first dupe). It still needs some work, though, as it now outputs anything from the appropriate, through the interesting and all the way to the downright silly:
Zenith Azimuth. Dust Downs Way. Desert Famished Crumble. Silt Fardale. Thacker's Dust. The Flat Watership. Yoama Gutexum. Pallid Black Ridges. Dancing Wounded Bluffs. The Nelson's Knee. Yonderjack Rutled Galls. The Nance Traitor World. Bodie's Pallid Fields. The Blow Sand-down White. Eaglejack Golden Hills. Settlers Brown. The Adauqua Uhaneuyak. Star Groping. The Benalamam Chauna. The Greenwolf Half Acre Union. Thirsty Elseborder. The Magdalene Orchard Starving. Badmoon Unsown. Astanahnee Gutetuk. Tephxa-yon Shelter. Far Dustful. Shulamoku Wild Bluffs. Hollow Amber. Mak'ac Dolamen. Carbon Moonship.
See if I won't make some mock-ups for hex and grid view, one of these days.
As always,
Minotauros
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I like the names. I think they are similar to Dwarf Fortress in that they consist of English words. Could you describe your algorithm? I use a markov chain and it can only produce very obscure names, like: Crematoril, Demiplanem, Abarantis, Underwick, etc.
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Oh, I have only now noticed that your western roguelike has its own thread, Aging Minotaur. With the currency generator for all to see. Cool.
Right now, I'm considering whether or not to keep the hex grid or to situate it on a regular grid of squares. I love the kind of tactical space offered by a hex grid, but hobbling together a good interface for navigating it is just damn hard, and stuff like houses do undoubtedly fit better on a square grid. I think hexes can work well in a game aimed to be played with a mouse or touchscreen, but I loves my keyboard, so ... I haven't really decided upon this, though, still rattling my brain with arguments for and against.
I'll provide three arguments for hexes (I think that hexes are great and would love to see more hex roguelikes, even though I'm making a grid based one myself):
- *all keyboards I've seen have at least one cluster of keys pretty good for hex gameplay (and arguably better for it than for 8-directional grid) - on my current one all the clusters from weasdzx to p[l;'./ are conveniently hexagonal and Insert/Home/PgUp/ [line break] Del/End/PgDown. There probably are keyboards setup in a different way, but are they more numerous than numpadless keyboards?
- *in a hexagonal world people might as well live in hexagonal buildings. it's not like no one does in reality!
- *however, if you are beholden to rectangular buildings the kind you'd see in the Real World Wild West (or maybe Hollywood Wild West), then there's another possibility (cribbed from a hexagon-mapped board game I have) - walls could be (thick) lines going along the border of tiles or through them. Connect centers of tiles. Treat tiles that have a piece of the wall as you would wall tiles, while tiles that have a wall border you can step on, just not cross to the tile on the other side of the border. If it's unclear, I'll try to find some examples if you ask. Of course, you might also want to adjust some fov/lighting algorithms here so it doesn't look stupid if you see a quarter tile inside the building e.g. in a corner
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I like the names. I think they are similar to Dwarf Fortress in that they consist of English words. Could you describe your algorithm? I use a markov chain and it can only produce very obscure names, like: Crematoril, Demiplanem, Abarantis, Underwick, etc.
Those names aren't half bad either, in my opinion ;) Anyway, the algorithm I use is very simple, based on how I generated random content in my childhood, with dice and two-column tables. See the currency generator earlier in this thread for a really simple example.
Starting out: names such as "Far West", "Wounded Silt", "Clay Wastes" are generated from three lists of words – one with prefixes, one with suffixes, and one with words that can be put in both places. These are just randomly pieced together. Adding to that, I put in a list of proper names like "Johnson", "Virgil", that can be used as prefixes. To make things a bit more interesting, I also put together a tiny generator for portemanteau words, that work along the same lines: A list of word beginnings and a list of word endings that are randomly put together, resulting in elements such as "Redwolf", "Starfoot", "Wingless", "Farwhere", etc. Finally, another tiny generator for exotic proper names, once again consisting of syllables that are just randomly put together (two, three, or in rare cases more); this is where words like "Nekenarat" and "Coram" come from.
To get an actual name, I start with a string, something like "<prefix> <suffix>", "<name>'s <suffix>", "<exotic_name> <exotic_name>", "<composite> <prefix> <suffix>". As long as there's a "<" in the string, the engine picks a random element from the appropriate list to put in that place, so that "<composite> <prefix> <suffix>" might yield something like "Boarvalley Barren Rocks". To make sure everything gets a bit out of hand, the lists of alternatives can themselves put in more elements to be randomized. So a valid prefix is "<prefix> <prefix>", which proceeds to choose two random words from the list of prefixes.
Some tiny tweaks to randomize further and clean up, include making sure the same word doesn't show up twice (as in names like "Dust Dust"), putting in a random "The" or genitive here and there, splitting up the exotic names with dashes and apostrophes ("Pum-ana-o Atxhu'ube"), and so forth.
Child's play, quite literally.
@zasvid: Yeah, your arguments are compelling. I did consider hexagonal architecture, but I think that may be too far over the top, even for this outlandish setting. But there's the solution you mention, as well as this fake isometric view, which does however make corners a bit strange, since they all end up having different tactical qualities:
. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
. . . # # # # .
. . # . . # .
. . # . . # . .
. # . . # . .
. # # # # . . .
. . . . . . .
So I'm certainly not giving up on hexes quite yet.
As always,
Minotauros
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As zasvid said, I think rectangular buildings are doable. Allow walls to be visually placed on tile border, and effectively occupying both tiles. It would require a demo, though, to see if it works out.
. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . .
. . . # # # # .
. . # . # .
. . . # . . # .
. . # . # .
. . . # # # # .
. . . . . . . .
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I envision the player acting simultaneously as other actors, with each turn divided into several ticks, which are qualitative rather than quantitative: Acts of pure thought go first, followed by melee, followed by missiles, followed by movement, followed by tool use, or something along those lines.
I really like how unconventional your ideas are.
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Thanks for all comments, people. That's highly inspirational. I've been stripping away parts of the code that I don't need, and started more or less afresh. I'll be testing out the combat system on a hexagonal grid to see how that works. To make matters worse, I figured I might as well implement explicit facing for my first tests ;D With that feature turned on, line of sight will be panoramic, but turning 60° will cost you (and other actors) half a turn. I made a mockup for two possible ways to do houses, as well as how the side menu might end up looking. I'm making this on a netbook with a tiny screen, so everything is a bit cramped. I'm unhappy about the fact, but with a y resolution of 500 pixels, I managed to squeeze in nine-ten lines of messages as well as fit the inventory interface on screen. This means there won't be a separate inventory menu, it'll all just be unimodal goodness. I feel like the menu needs at least one or two pretty separators or borders, though, to help keep the view orderly. Users with bigger screens will get a more spacious view, in any case.
(http://i.imgur.com/1ne7uOc.png)
Concerning the houses, the parallelogram looks kind of funky, but the square one may cause UI problems, as you'll have to zig-zag along the walls. If I skip explicit facing, that needn't be a problem, as the application can simply nudge you in the right direction whenever you're bumping into a wall. If turning should cost time, though, I imagine square houses could get frustrating. So I might go for slanted houses, or drop explicit facing, or end up using a regular square grid, depending on how my tests turn out.
I think I'll also include small animations, for those so inclined. Purists who don't want to wait 0.6 seconds between every turn will of course be allowed to turn off cosmetic effects. This mockup is a bit crude, but goes to show the principle I have in mind (inspired more than a little by this scene from a Harry Potter movie (http://youtube.com/watch?v=9G_SdCcYFJw) :P you'll bear with my vulgar allusions, and the crappy video quality of that link, but ever since I saw that movie I thought the way they did the marauder's map would make a fabulous interface for a RL, at least if executed by someone with more skill than myself)
(http://i.imgur.com/w7nqneO.gif)
I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, keep f*ing that chicken.
As always,
Minotauros
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What about hex houses? Make everything a hex.
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There's a new version up, 04 subtitled "An Anatomy of Melancholy". Mostly, it's another test run, trying out solutions to the interface and an engine for basic interactions (you can throw a die, smash a window, jump, and shoot stuff). The next version will hopefully feel more like a game ;) Download here (http://code.google.com/p/land-of-strangers/).
Comments are welcome, of course. I'm trying out some different movement schemes. You can currently toggle explicit facing on and off in the configuration menu. I like some aspects of explicit facing (like how the game always knows what you're aiming at), but it's a hassle to navigate, sometimes. I might settle for "implicit" facing with Shift+direction to change direction without moving – and just skip prompting the player for a direction when s/he shoots or similar. Other than that, I'd be curious as to what you people think of the inventory/action interface.
Remapping the keys are currently not an option, but will be put in very soon, probably for V05. You also have to use the keyboard to control the thing, but support for mouse and gamepad is on the todo-list, and I'm having this in mind as I'm designing the interface.
Controls:
* Arrows, numpad or weadzx to move
* Hold shift to turn in a direction without moving
* Enter: Primary action (A-command)
* Ctrl: Secondary action (B-command)
* Space: Enter inventory/actions menu
* Tab: Toggle between inventory/actions menu
* 1-9: Quick choose menu option
* Esc: Open game menu
Changelog:
* Rectangular houses
* Scrapped action card mechanics, mostly redid engine from scratch
* Introduced explicit facing, currently optional
* Reworked right-hand menu
* UI to navigate menus
* Inventory/action menus: Displays correctly. Wield, drop, etc.
* Basic item usage and a few sample props, including guns
* Basic action interface and sample interactions
* Implemented wounds, testing with thorn bushes and scorpions
* Basic turn/time system in place
* Field of vision
* In game configuration menu and various options
As always,
Minotauros
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Update: Binaries are now up for Windows and Linux. The Linux release is in the form of a *.deb-file. I'm curious to see if it gets any downloads :P If anyone gives a shout, I'll look into packing it as *.rpm, as well. As far as OSX goes, it's on the todo-list.
Now I'm more or less at the point where I can start making the actual game, here. Hah.
As always,
Minotauros
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You've got at least one linux binary download now! :) So far, it's pretty cool.
"Wait" action is sorely needed.
One bug encountered, while trying to change the font size:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "main.py", line 1269, in <module>
one_parti(screen)
File "main.py", line 1207, in one_parti
cur_parti.one_turn()
File "main.py", line 1141, in one_turn
pc_a=self.get_player_cmd() # (event,time_delay,target)
File "main.py", line 1054, in get_player_cmd
return self.get_player_cmd(t_delay) # if no command passed yet
File "main.py", line 911, in get_player_cmd
elif c=="cmdQ": main_menu()
File "main.py", line 242, in main_menu
config_menu()
File "main.py", line 342, in config_menu
if submenu_options[sub_b]=="scroll_edge":
NameError: name 'sub_b' is not defined
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"Wait" action is sorely needed.
You're quite right. So far in my own test runs, I've just pulled out and used the dice whenever I needed to skip a turn, but I'll definitely add a proper command to stand still.
Traceback (most recent call last):
<snip>
NameError: name 'sub_b' is not defined
Sigh. That should read "sub_c" in the code, not "sub_b" :P On the bright side, a mistake that stupid shouldn't be too hard to fix.
Thanks for playing.
As always,
Minotauros
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Some thoughts and ideas for coming releases (bug and feature request of zasvid already implemented):
On the side of the engine, I'll try not to focus too much on that for the time being. I'd like for the next version to have remappable keys (trivial, but a bit boring, to implement) and a start menu, rather than dropping you right into the game. More longterm plans include adding a function to zoom in and out of the map (scaling to 1:4 every time you zoom out allows me to fit ~16 true hexes in one "superhex") – this can effectively take the place of an overworld with long-distance travel options, without breaking game flow too much.
Leaving fancy stuff like that for later, I'll instead try to add some actual content for the next release. I want to work on the setting and give the map building routine some loving. That stuff is fun to work on, but also much more difficult than just assembling the engine. I envision at least within a few releases to have a game with a moderate scale, where you are assigned a mission in the beginning, something simple, like: You arrive from the Old World on behalf of some mining company to investigate weird (or missing) reports from a lead mining community. This means I get to set up your RL-standard village with a dungeon. Of course, there will be the option to head out into the wilderness to explore a practically infinitely expandable desert continent (which should also be more interesting than now, with meaningful encounters, settlements, and such).
On the bare-bone content side of this, I need more critters, props and abilities. There'll be various human archetypes, from humble proles, to natives, to different kinds of shooters (pistol wielding goons like yourself, mad prospectors firing shot guns that must be reloaded for every spread shot, shooters entrenched in ditches or hidden in trees …). There's also the possibility to expand on the animal life (here I want to do semirandom species based on templates: stuff like "small livestock" (~chickens, pigs), "cattle" (not necessarily bovines, though, might as well be huge lizards), "big predator" (quick or slow, and with various abilites, to spawn anything from alligators to tigers), "game" (your buffalo-likes) – and I wouldn't be ashamed to model something on buzzards or locust swarms, either). Same goes for the fauna (again, plants should be more or less randomized – there might be fruits, berries, roots and shrooms that are medicinal or poisonous, not to mention dangerous plants that sting, entangle, or even walk around; stuff like random growth patterns could also be thrown into the mix, so you might get anything from solitary plants with edible berries and a nasty stinger, to glades of weeds that impair your movement).
There should of course also come new props and weapons into play. I guess a western game needs a variety of firearms, from derringer-like small guns with a single barrel to rifles and carbines fit for elephant hunting, and even cannons and mounted machine guns. Melee weapons will also be added, of course, most of which might also be usable as tools (pick ax to clear rock, etc). Concerning utensils, I might add periscopes and telescopes (temporarily shifting your point of view a single hex or a whole screen away), lanterns, explosives and mining utensils, drugs, flammables, and maybe stuff you can wear (bullet proof vests spring to mind). The list of equipment isn't very long at the moment, though. It's not as if I'm adding wands of polymorph any time soon, but I guess some snake oilers might procure tonics with potion-like effects.
There's also a wide range of skills and activities to consider. Once I have some stuff that changes owners in the course of the game, there'll need to be trade going on, probably using lead slugs as the main currency. Gambling is also a must, and should be more than just automated card game outcomes. Cock fighting should fit the bill, as you can choose which bird to bet on, before the critters are actually pitted against each other in the game. This leaves possibilities for imaginative attempts to cheat and such – which in turn opens up for lynch mobs (rather than the gallows, I think breaking wheels (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_wheel) will be the preferred form of execution, and of course taring'n'feathering an option for lesser misdemeanors). For skills, I'm currently envisioning skill trees that grant various feats: Feats of Acrobatics to move around the map more efficiently, feats of Marksmanship to allow stuff like called shots, gun fanning, and dual wielding … at some point, there should also be a system implemented for riding, and maybe for taming wild beasts and almost certainly for driving cattle. And there should probably be a reputation system that shifts peoples' bias towards you (local heroes are loved by townsfolk and despised by criminals, cop killers get bounty hunters on their necks, and so forth).
Still on the fence regarding hunger/thirst. I guess it makes sense in the setting, but I've never been very fond of how food is managed in most RLs. Another issue I haven't really got to consider deeply is how character building is going to be done. I think character development should be based more on acquiring mundane skills and traits than piling up a gazillion magic items and superhuman stats. I might add traits like "strong", "weak" that tweak single properties or grant intrinsics, rather than a stat-based system. If I'm going to have a character creation system, I'm still not quite sure how it will be done. Maybe choose one of several starting archetypes (gambler, drifter, desperado …) and modify with a few traits – or I might let you always start out as a Nameless hustler, and develop the character from there.
Just brainstorming my head off. It goes without saying that a lot of this touches on stuff that will take a long time to implement, so don't expect a sprawling world with a living economy and an advanced culture for the next release. Instead, I'm hoping to have at least a single mission to aim for, with some skills/traits and props in place and a small handful of adversaries, allies and extras (human and animal). I haven't even touched on map generation in this post. Suffice to say, I was recently moved by a comment by Don Van Vliet (in a documentary on the same) – late in his life, he moved out into the desert to become a painter, and mused about how that landscape is extremely subtle. It would be nice to capture some of that subtlety: here a shrub or cactus, over there a far-away mesa, but enabling the player (and adversaries' AI) to take advantage of those simple variations. There can be steep hills (that block movement and impair firing accuracy from the low, but not the high ground), ravines fit for ambushes, etc. Maybe more on that later.
As always,
Minotauros
-
Sounds cool.
I approve of your decision to use traits instead of attributes. I think they're a strictly superior system that can do basically anything attribute systems can, and then some, while avoiding most of their flaws. Plus, they have more of a "feel," you know? If your gunslinger is "strong," but not yet "very strong," that paints a more vivid image than if your elf has 34 strength or whatever.
I think that for most roguelikes, it's better to start out with a blank slate character or at least make character creation very brief. You'll probably be doing a lot of restarting, and it's nice to get back into the action right away.
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Land of Strangers v05: "A Shrug and a Fistful"
Those who lived there, called it simply the land. It was the new frontier, riddled with riches and fraught with risks. A criminal in the old world, you left to become a settler on the outskirts of the badlands. The coin economy was measured in lead. During a skirmish between militias and native occupants, you were captured and taken to work in the lead mines. You bare life became the terror of slavery. There's no way but down. Or out.
Finally, a new release of Land of Strangers 8) I'm just uploading the Python source for now (requires pygame (http://pygame.org/download.shtml) to run). I may build binaries of this release, depending on how quickly I get the next release out. Still, it's a tiny game with a win condition now. You play as a mine slave with the goal of escaping into the open.
Download
Source (zip): https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21560242/LoSt_05-source.zip
Source (tgz): https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21560242/LoSt_05-source.tar.gz
All and any comments are very welcome, of course. The aim of this release is to try out the basic systems, so there's not much meat on the bones, yet. I need to balance basic combat, especially melee. Going toe to toe with a melee opponent is very dangerous atm, and similarly it's very easy to take down the shooters if you get up close (also has to do with their stupid AI). But I think it's shaping up to become a nice little puzzley RL, with some work on the systems as well as more content.
Gameplay
Navigate the hex grid with arrow keys, numpad, or weadzx. Press "s" to stand still. To aim in a certain direction, hold shift and press the direction key. Actions can be accessed with main key (bound to R as well as Enter) and secondary key (bound to C and Control). There's a context menu that shows either an extended list of actions, or the inventory. Use 1-9 or Space to access to access this menu, or TAB to switch between actions/inventory. Press ? for help :) The keys can be reconfigured in the game. Esc opens the main menu.
UI: Aims to be easy to pick up, so I'm interested to hear how convoluted y'all find it.
Damage: You start out with three clusters of three hearts. And each attack takes away some hearts in one or more of the clusters. A pick ax does (2x1) damage, meaning that one heart ("bruise level") is marked in two clusters ("body level"). A gun does (2x3), inflicting 3 bruise markers in 2 body levels. As long as a body level is not utterly depleted, you regenerate the bruises quickly. An empty body level doesn't regenerate at all.
Time: Each turn is divided into five time ticks (melee is performed before shooting, which is performed before movement, which is performed before tool use). This system, together with health, isn't really balanced yet. But I hope to get it working with a few tweaks, rather than having to resort to a D&D-clone with hit points et al.
Shooting: Shooting far targets decreases your accuracy. There is a system for cover in place, but no actual object to provide cover in this release.
Seed: Name the world "Long Northveld" for a fair tutorial level. It is challenging enough, but starts you out with a slight edge. (Hint: Best opening is to press "Enter" twice :P)
Short changelog:
=== V05 (A Shrug and a Fistful) ===
* Various tweaks and fixes, above and under the hood
* Bug: Cache was not flushed when new game started
* Bug: Game crashed when reconfiguring numerical values in the menu
* Bug: In config menu, window can no longer be manually resized
* Added main menu
* Added option to set random seed ("Name the land" in main menu)
* Added command to stand still
* Removed explicit facing and reinforced aim functionality
* Made help message (more) helpful
* Removed confusing scrolling options from configuration
* Added option to remap keys
* Added option to turn bullet animations on/off
* Added option to scale sprites to double size
* Added look function
* Added (and temporarily removed) plantlife
* Refactoring events architecture
* Added wounds and bruises
* Shooting: No accuracy malus from obstacles directly in front of you
* Shooting: Accuracy malus for long ranges, depending on weapon
* Melee: Basic melee system in place
* Content: Simple scenario with a cave generator and a win condition
Plans for the next few releases (and beyond):
* Balance combat, especially melee. Add evasion, parrying, or other manoevres?
* Skills and feats: Modelled on how jumping works now. Acrobatics, gunmanship, martial arts, meditation techniques, dual wielding, etc.
* Make straightfaced goons a tiny bit smarter, avoid being slaughtered in melee etc.
* More opponents and people: Hierarchy of slavers/guards, animals, slaves/workers …
* More melee weapons (slavers' props) and firearms (rifle, pistolsword, duck's foot gun, pepperbox)
* Explosives
* Barrels, sandbags, barbed wire, ditches …
* Some story elements, tidbits of lore about the land, probably framed as NPC speech bubbles, in item descriptions etc.
* Character generation
* Better graphics, probably with (optional) animations
* Overworld (which will be the longterm focus of the game) – with all that entains … ;)
As always,
Minotauros
-
(http://i.imgur.com/mrhdefD.png?1)
(http://i.imgur.com/FHDpEHR.png?1)
As always,
Minotauros
-
Impressive! I will give it a go on my long-awaited day off tomorrow. Thanks for the continued development. Westerns are awesome.
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Thanks for the encouraging words. To celebrate, I uploaded a new version. This adds about a dozen special skills to try out. Each game, you start out with two random skills. The download URL is the same as in the previous post. Next, I'll add some more enemies, weapons/items and some map features to provide cover etc. in the mines.
As always,
Minotauros
-
MELEE (ideas for the upcoming release)
Melee doesn't really work well in the current release, but I'm trying out some stuff which seems to be feasible. Seeing as how this is some sort of alternative/fantasy wild west setting, I'm taking a cue from the upcoming Far West rpg (http://intothefarwest.com/) (which mixes wuxia and western) to give melee fighters a more prominent role. While I'm probably not gonna add lots of sinophile kitsch (and I'll spare the katanas, I think), I'll probably add melee careers like swordfighters, fighting monks/priests, pugilists, etc.
Weapon anatomy: Each weapon has a few stats to make it stand apart. I'm currently experimenting with damage, range, and critical hits. I'm trying to keep the dice rolls a bit a bay. Currently, a single "six-sided die" is rolled to see if you might score a critical hit, just inflict a graze, or score a normal hit. The idea is to make combat slightly puzzley, with predictable results, just slightly nudged by the RNG ;)
Attack speed: Currently, all melee combat occurs simultaneously, one time tick before shooting. This means you can't shoot someone who is currently hitting you in the face with a pickax. Fair enough, once I get around to add stuff like pistol-whipping (using a handgun as a club). It also leaves the field open for exotic stuff like pistol swords and bayonets.
Damage: A successful hit inflicts X bruises to Y body levels. As noted earlier, bruises heal quickly (one bruise per turn) unless a body level is completely depleted. Blunt weapons will predominately have high Y values and sharp weapons high X values. This means that stabbing someone with a knife (X=2,Y=1) might inflict a deep and lasting wound immediately, but it's probably more effective to continuously clobber someone with a blunt instrument (X=1, Y=3).
Critical hit: Every melee weapon has a critical hit effect which occurs with a base probability of 1/6. A knife inflicts bleeding (no bruises healed for 3 turns), other critical hits might include extra damage, stun or blowback effects, etc.
Range: Melee weapons might have a limited range. A knife will probably just reach the very next hex, but a sword might reach over a single empty point. A pole arm might have an even longer reach, but not be able to attack adjacent opponents. This idea might or might not work – I like the idea of getting up close with your knife to get an advantage over an opponent with a hayfork, but probably need to avoid "impossible" situations. I also had the idea for a "hook-and-chain" type weapon favored by some of the more brutish goons in the slaver hierarchy. This weapon would have an extended range and the possibility to hook and drag your target towards you. Good against pistol wielders.
Skills: There will be some melee-related feats and skills available. I've redone the "Charge" feat to inflict extra damage based on how many turns you have been moving in a straight line before the attack. Currently, you can instakill opponents by charging 4 hexes. This seems to work well: It allows a careful player to avoid getting hit at all, but it's pretty risky to charge right at someone aiming to shoot you. I've currently also added a Feint skill, which lets you attack at increased speed if you just moved away from your opponent in the previous round. In the spirit of shamelessly stealing manoevres from PrincessRL, I might put in manoevres like Vault Attack (eg.: Jump one hex away from an adjacent wall to attack with increased chance of critical hit). There will also be skills that add intrinsic bonuses: Swordmanship, Staffplay etc. might increase the chance of critical hits with the weapon types in question. Skills like Close quarter fighting could give bonuses depending on the tactical surroundings. It also makes sense to add special manoevres available to certain weapon types. For example, a swordfighter could have skills like Circle blow or Riposte (try to parry an incoming attack, nullifying all damage and immediately delivering a reciprocal blow).
Martial arts: We'll need some badass unarmed fighting as well. There might be a few different styles, ranging from elegant fighting à la kung fu or judo, to more crude techniques associated with bar brawls.
As always,
Minotauros
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Hey there Veteran Cowlord. I haven't been able to play your game much, but I bought some cowboys and Indians to play with my nieces and I have some thoughts.
Pistols: Pistol armed cowboys can move AND shoot. Even at close/melee range.
Rifle: Move or shoot, not both. Cannot shoot at close range. Shoots 2x as far as pistols.
Bow and Arrow: May shoot over an obstacle the Indian is hiding behind. Any adjacent obstacle. Rifle range.
2 Pistols: Shoot twice!
Spear: Some indians had spears. They can be thrown at pistol range and over obstacles like bow/arrow.
This weapon differentiation allows Indians to attack from cover with bow and arrow, and spears. You might lower the damage of bow/spear to compensate.
Another idea is for tomahawks. They can count as a great melee weapon and also a pretty good short ranged weapon. Sort of like pistols but with only one shot. I say let tomahawks hit first for balance, the other weapons. Same rules can be used for bowie knives.
That stuff might not work for your game. It's a shame I've not played enough. Sorry about that.
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Yo, Jo. Comments appreciated nonetheless. The download linked in this thread is still very much aimed at getting even the most basic systems in place. There's more meat on the bones coming up in the next few releases, though, so I'm hoping for some feedback in the weeks to come. I like the rules ideas, and they resonate a bit with what I'm currently implementing. Moving and firing simultaneously is planned as a skill that can be learned ("Flashing chambers"), as are different kinds of dualwielding ("Main gauche", "Guns akimbo", "Theory of two heavens as one"). Hoping for some nice synergies here, eg. combining Flashing chambers with Guns akimbo to fire two shots while advancing, then cocking both guns in the next turn, without losing a step. Rifles will have a minimum range, as you imply, and a much longer max range than pistols. Cover is currently implemented as follows: Firing over an obstacle increases the chance of your shot going wild, except if you're standing right next to it. So you can hide behind a tree or a heap of sandbags and shoot with max accuracy, whilst reducing the chance of getting hit yourself. Bows, spears and the like are on my wishlist, but I've no concrete ideas yet. They'll probably have a speed advantage over guns, which must be loaded, cocked and fired in separate turns (but there's already a "Gun fanning" skill in place to skip the cocking phase, inflicting reduced accuracy to compensate).
In other news, melee is coming together fairly well at the moment. Shooting someone is vastly deadlier, but melee has some advantages, in particular, if you've queued up to fire a gun and get hit, your action is cancelled. Melee attacks currently deliver normal damage 2/3 or the time, a graze 1/6 (reduced damage), and a critical hit 1/6 (effect depending on weapon – bowie knife inflicts bleeding, sword does extra damage, pistolknife pushes opponent back one hex, whip stuns for one turn). So continuously bumping a melee enemy typically leaves you with permanent wounds, but you can mostly manage one or two enemies at a time by using your skills correctly. As I go on to implement some melee badassery, I'm pretty sure it will be possible to have character builds that can go on to take down a dozen gunwielding goons with only their bare hands and a pocketful of prayer beads.
The next release or two will stay in the lead mines to get all the basics in place. Tactics as well as various features I need for the engine, such as NPC shouting, in the style of Smart kobolds/Vicious orcs, and also typographic/onomatopetic sound effects: Eg. the letters "click" hovering over the head of a goon who just cocked his gun. That should enable the player to keep his eyes on the map most of the time, rather than constantly consulting the message log. And it should help the world come alive a bit, with situations like one mining company employee screaming "Cocksucker!", three guns simultaneously going "click", and a slave hollering "Get behind that rock, you fool!" In the long run, I'll be using the system to convey info concerning plot and setting, of course.
The one thing I'm sorely lacking at the moment, is a wand of slow monster to zap at my various employers. Several deadlines due in June, but I'll just whisper at them to hang on at least until v. 6 is out.
As always,
Minotauros
PS. Jo, your nieces must think you'se the coolest.
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Maybe I'm an idiot but I can't figure out how to use my gun. I've tried everything I can think of. :-\
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Oh, dear. More likely, the fault lies with defunct UI design. When you're wielding a pistol and carrying ammo, Enter should allow you to shoot. Pressing Enter (primary command button) is context-sensitive, so if you have a cocked and loaded gun, you shoot, else you cock or load it, as appropriate. If you already tried this, it may be that you had a gun, but no bullets. You can also choose between your actions from the menu marked Inventory/Actions. Tab toggles between inventory mode and action mode, Space or the number keys are used to access the menu.
I'll probably be putting out a new release tonight. There's a handful of different enemies and weapons at this time, so that upcoming release should prove more fun than the current build. I won't be amending this issue by tonight, but would love all and any comments, especially on how to better the UI. It's still early enough to make changes to the basic engine, which would be the whole point of these alpha releases.
As always,
Minotauros
-
New source release out:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21560242/LoSt_src_current.zip
I'll get out some binaries tomorrow. The current build is devillishly hard, I'm afraid. Maybe I'll tweak map generation a bit before I upload binaries. All comments welcome, of course :)
Changelog:
=== V06 (Like a Lead Mine Pony) ===
* Various tweaks and fixes
* Added more content
* BugFix: Saving/restoring properly working again
* UI: Added inventory shortcuts in action menu
* UI: Item/action descriptions displayed in menu
* Engine: Started implementing skills and perks
* Engine: Started on framework for AI
* Engine: Feint and T.Y.T are used automatically
* Added character sheet and basic character generation
As always,
Minotauros
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And here are binary releases for Linux (Debian, Ubuntu et al) and Windows:
Windows: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21560242/LoSt_win_current.zip
Linux: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21560242/LoSt_linux_current.deb
Source (python): https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21560242/LoSt_src_current.zip
As always,
Minotauros
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Notes on the current release:
I'm still getting the basics in place, but this is the first release that I personally find enjoyable to play. It is very hard, but it does have a win condition (you play as a slave in the lead mines, trying to break out). I personally manage to get quite far in most maps, but expect a steep learning curve, I guess. I'll be happy to provide general and specific hints in this thread, of course.
Features/highlights:
* 8 unique enemies, 7 weapons, 22 skills and perks
* Puzzley combat with revolvers and melee weapons
* Basic character generation
* Configuration menu with options for graphics, keyboard controls, etc.
* Saving/restoring, as well as the option to manually set the random seed for world generation
I'd be really grateful for comments at this point, especially concerning the stuff that doesn't work so well. For instance, is the UI clear (apparently not very, judging from Samildanach's latest post), does the combat system make sense? Is tactical play appropriately challenging? Is it any fun to play around with at all? And should the answer to any of these questions be "no", don't hesitate to tell me why, and maybe even what you think could be better.
Anyway, I'll be slowly working towards a next release, starting out be cleaning up my todo-lists, and hopefully adding/tweaking "something" at least a few times a week. For the upcoming version(s), relatively high priorities will be given to:
* Character generation (flesh this out a bit, generate a proper back story)
* Map generation (the underlying system needs to be formalized more cleanly, encounter tables balanced, more loot introduced)
* AI (currently using stateless AI, so I'll have to add some parameters, flesh out the system a bit)
* At least one other win condition is planned for the lead mine scenario
* Graphics (I plan ambient animations for movement etc., and the current sprites are really just placeholder bitmaps)
* Display typography over the map (for sound effects and monologue)
* Tweak systems and UI, hopefully based on community comments :)
When most of this is in place, I'll be looking at implement more interesting features, such as an overworld with landscapes, plot lines and quests, a reputation/conduct system, character advancement, a refined GUI, riding, gambling, gay sex, railways, and the kitchen sink.
As always,
Minotauros
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I found bug in current release. When I was trying roll the dice (named 'die', not 'dice'), game crashed to windows.
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Thank you, that's most kind 8) Puzzling, though, as I can't get the game to crash on my own machine by rolling dice. I'll have to investigate … I take it you're running the binary, so there are no error messages or anything to go by?
Also, "die" is the proper singular form, is it not?
As always,
Minotauros
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Oh, I could write something kind, fact. Although my english is poor then I decided to write only what is necessary.
Game is nice, and a real sense, not just politeness. ;)
I played the windows binary. After crash, there was no message. And any error-log. Simply program breaks.
And... Yea, true. 'Die' is singular form, my bad. As I said, my english is poor, escpecially gramatically. I hope that everything I write is understandable. :)
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Your English is more than good enough, Avagart. Hopefully, I'll find and fix the bug you encountered by the next release.
In the meantime, I've started to write the personal history-generator. Loads of fun to do :) The module is a real mess, just peppered with lists and random.choice()-statements, but I'm pretty happy with the strings it spits out (it also remembers details, such as parents' vocations, whether or not the character is an orphan, and/or grew up in a monastery, and so on – which may come in handy during world building later on). I've left childhood behind, and I'll be finishing up with a coding session implementing adolescence/early adulthood and start of adventure. So this will be implemented in version 7. Here are some sample results so far:
~~~ Backgrounds ~~~
* A love child born to a lone railway worker, you are native to a dreary village out in the colonies, and you never met your father. You spent your early years in a convent. You found life in the monastery trying.
* The lone daughter of settlers, you were born in the borderlands of The Shulet Prince Prairie. You quickly learned to look after yourself, brawling and pickpocketing.
* The lone son of a thief and a drifter, you were born and raised in one of the settled provinces in the new world. Your father was the best in the world!
* The youngest son of poor parents, you were born and raised in the terra incognita of Rivers Bloodwhistle. You have good memories from growing up.
* You come from the ancestral continent, the daughter of slaves, and you knew only hardship. You had a horrible time at that time.
* You were raised in the old world, one of six children of a servant. During a raid, you were captured and sold to slavery.
* You are native to the old world. Your mother was a gambler and your father was a prostitute. Life was trying.
* You were raised in a sleepy town in the old world, the oldest child of a circus family. You lived as a thief.
* You are native to the homelands. Your family was poor. Growing up, you started idealizing power.
* You were born and raised in a bustling city on the outskirts of the old world. A bastard, you were turned away by your parents, and you spent your childhood in a monastery. The reverends mistreated you.
* (Calculated 10 backgrounds in 0.00142598152161 sec.) *
As always,
Minotauros
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* You are native to the old world. Your mother was a gambler and your father was a prostitute. Life was trying.
Interesting role-reversal ;) Looks good so far!
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* You are native to the old world. Your mother was a gambler and your father was a prostitute. Life was trying.
Interesting role-reversal ;) Looks good so far!
That had me chuckling as well. I also got one orphan who was "taken in and raised by your uncle – a noblewoman." That was just hilarious enough that I put in a parenthesis to add for such situations, to the effect that the nobility are free to do as they f-ing please. In the long run, I'm planning to check if the setting is a patriarchy or not, and probably slant the results so that the obvious power roles usually land on what is considered the "stronger sex" in any particular world. Anyway, Land of Strangers will definitely need stuff like hunky, bare-chested, Tom of Finland-esque gigolos with shotguns, and the like.
As always,
Minotauros
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"your uncle - a noblewoman" is semantically wrong though, so take into account that while the results can be wacko, if they have errors like that, people will think that your generator is buggy.
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I couldn't agree more. So I added a clause to make it clear that the generator knows when that particular case arises, and made sure that similar cases are corrected (eg. "your aunt, the monk" gets corrected to "your aunt, a nun"). Polish if of the essence, absolutely. I just didn't have the heart to rip out transsexual noble uncles from the generator, once they showed up :)
As always,
Minotauros
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Slaves, and some foibles
lp;dr: tinkering with it ;)
The current released version place som fellow mine slaves as extras. Currently, they only work as meat shields. I've been thinking they should have a will of their own, and some might even join you in the revolt. In future releases, chain gangs may actually be chained to each other (use a pick on the chains to break them). If facing battle, some may want to run and hide, others fight against the masters, and some even backstab their fellow slaves, whether in the hopes of gaining the masters' favor, or because they've succumbed to the madness that accompanies lead poisoning.
If you can get fellow slaves to act as independant allies, it seems reasonable to add a skill to try and convince NPCs to join your cause. At first tier, it may only work on non-hostiles (ie. just your fellow slaves). Try once, 1/6 of success; if no success, the person gains a slight dislike (not much, but prohibit trying to recruit again). This skill fits quacks, agitators, officers, lynching artists, preachers, salesfolk, etc. Higher up a skilltree ("or something", however that might end up looking) you can have feats to appease hostiles and so forth.
I was also thinking about adding "foibles" to the character generation. They would entail weaknesses, from "animal phobia" (minus to rolls in presence of animals) to "epilepsy", various reductions in fighting stats etc. I might try a system where the player collects "points" by choosing a foible, and then buys abilities with the points afterwards. The game would keep three lists of foibles, ranked by worth. For each character, the player gets to choose between three random foibles, but we always make sure there is one foible of each worth (1, 2, 3 points). Then the player gets to choose one of three affinities/abilities, all three of which are worth the same amount of points as the chosen foible. So you might get to choose between the foibles "late sleeper (1 p)", "doppleganger (2 p)", and "one-eyed (3 p)", and choose "doppelganger". Then, you would choose from three virtues, all worth 2 points.
Before adding foibles to the mix, I have to rebalance encounters, since the game is much too hard at the moment.
Thinking more long-term, I'm envisioning one category of foibles as a "code of conduct". This might come together with a system for reputation, quests, conduct. The basic 1 point foible is that you receive a penalty to all rolls (lasting for a certain amount of game time) if you break your personal rules (indulge in alcohol, harm a member of the other sex, break the law, assume too much wealth, etc). It is worth an extra point if the restriction is very broad (never kill, vow of silence). For yet an extra point, call it "taboo" and make the punishment more severe: If you break your oath, you simply lose all/most skills and abilities, including the "taboo" foible. So a taboo against eating meat would be worth 2 points.
Some vaporware for y'all: Characters who start with the "taboo" foible might bump into an NPC called The Button Moulder, who resides either at Boot Hill (the cemetary where I plan to keep an in-game hiscore) – or at some crossroads, of course. The Button Moulder will use speech bubbles, inciting the character to break the taboo. If @ does so, losing all assumed experience (but not loot, physical conditions, etc), and returns to The Button Moulder, he/she will start the character off with a new career. Solving this quest once would work as an achievement (oh rly?), that unlocks The Button Moulder to the pool of NPC templates that any character may encounter. Meeting a PC without the "taboo" foible, Button Moulder offers to re-career the hero – free of charge – as if @ had broken a taboo and returned: stripping career-related foibles and abilities, and restocking with some skills fitting a ("level 0") random career. Towards characters with the "taboo" foible, Button Moulder acts as usual: suggests to break the taboo, and only then offers to assign a fresh career. I can see this NPC becoming an important player later in the plot.
The point of including Button Moulder as an achievement wouldn't so much be to appease min/maxers as to portion out the setting a little bit for the player. I hope for a rich setting in the long run, with details about species, culture, different factions (secretive societies, from revolutionary clubs to sororities of lynchers favoring the breaking wheel, as well as various circles of officials, trading companies, etc). The careers a player can choose from must obviously tie in with the setting. There are already careers like lynching artist and avenger, which could do with some backstory, plot relevance, and polish. Even the raillayers should be a recognizable social group, maybe renowned for their endurance or anarchistic inclinations. I could take a career like travelling salesperson and turn it into some kind of cowboy/bard (salesboy, salesgirl, salesfolk), who travels the land, peddling goods and picking up rumors, delivering messages and undertaking secret missions. Not to mention tropes such as cattle runs (maybe not necessarily with cows – how'bouts schools of blubber-yielding brutes of the deep that must be transported underground, or something like giant goats who graze in the mountainous outskirts of the desert) … My only hope is to slowly grow the setting from what I have, adding yet a few interfaces to put in the first few pieces of lore, maybe kickstart the overworld with a pseudorandom quest, like a bounty announced at the train station office. When/if I add something like, say, riding later on, it would be neat with mounted starting careers: cavalerist, circus rider, horse charmer. But to ensure the player learns the basic stuff first, I could implement these careers to be unlockable, only accessible after the player has tried to ride a horse with a character of a less specialized career.
In conclusion, well, thanks for reading my entire rant (if you even did (note to self, DDAP)). In light of all these vague plans, I'm quite happy about the stripped-down backstory I'm working with for the mine slave release: I can keep it simple (since the character, a slave, is dressed in rags and deprived of all juridical freedom), just hint at the setting by fleshing out a few details, such as the importance of lead in this society: it's rare, used both as ammunition and as a currency, and there is also a motif like lead poisoning, which may open up to stuff like mad miners retreating into natural cave systems and cohabiting with the underground bestiary, as well as representatives of this nadirian order of life making their way into the companies' mine shafts, rumors of certain things in the deep (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EldritchAbomination), which shamans or philosophers may begin to try to comprehend, etc.
Here's a screenshot of current character generation:
(http://i.imgur.com/ZbBZWsq.png?1)
As always,
Minotauros
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Sneak preview: Version 7 ("The Lustre of Freshcut Lead") now available as Python sources (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21560242/LoSt_src_current.zip) and *.deb package (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21560242/LoSt_linux_current.deb). Windows binary and more info coming up. In the meantime, check out (and comment? ::)) the tentative manual (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21560242/LoSt_manual.pdf) (which is also available from the game's main menu).
As always,
Minotauros
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Version 7 ("Freshcut Lead's Lustre") is now available:
Windows exe (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21560242/LoSt_win_current.zip)
Linux deb (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21560242/lost-roguelike_7.1_all.deb)
Python sources (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21560242/LoSt_src_current.zip)
Compared to v. 6, the gameplay has mostly remained the same. The game has been rebalanced, though, giving the player a fair chance (I am able to beat it most of the time). The other big thing is backstory generation, which hopefully lends the setting some life (I did eventually decide to lose transsexual nobles, as per reaver's comments – with a heavy heart, but «kill your darlings», I guess, and I can always come back later to implement this properly). Apart from that, there's mostly changes "under the hood", but I decided to release this, as it might be a while until v. 8, which will focus on a better AI for mobs and NPCs.
Also, for this release, I managed to compile the Windows binary from within my working Linux installation. Hopefully, this works well for y'all, as it entails several advantages: I don't have to seek out a Windows computer to pack the *.exe, saving a lot of time. Also, I managed to slim the Windows archive down to a much nicer format (just an *.exe, not a bunch of *.dll files). So at this point, I'm curious to hear if anyone gets it working under Windows :)
Changelog for this version:
* Various fixes, tweaks and refactorings
* Added random backstory to character generation
* Added brief manual
* Made dogs a bit more interesting
* Rebalanced and refactored encounter tables
* Bugfix: Game sometimes crashed when player's movement blocked
* Bugfix: Charge skill is working better
* Bugfix: Graphic glitch in character creation
* Bugfix: Fixed bug in world seeding
* Bugfix: Fixed bug in damage calculation
* Added option to delete savefile in starting menu
* Added more-prompt
* Added status line to menu (and tidied it up a bit)
The next release will feature better AI and "more stuff" (loot+features, as well as encounters for the (currently empty) side-tunnels)
All and any comments welcome ...
As always,
Minotauros
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Working under windows :)
Just a suggestion here: If you have somewhere a few screenshots or a vid of how the game should look like (for example on your machine) it will be easier to verify if a user of another platform sees what he's supposed to. For example, I saw some footsteps as my PC icon and I was wondering if there was a @ missing, but I could not say for sure unless I have a "definitive" video/screenshot that is the latest version.
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Thank for the heads up :) I'll put up some screenshots, or maybe even a video, as you suggest. The footsteps are probably correctly displayed, there's no "@" – although I could quite easily add that as a config option, if it's of interest. In any case, sprites and such are definitely just placeholders. I'm planning on rewriting the display code more or less from scratch, but I'm pushing that particular task ahead of me until the time comes for speech bubbles (probably v. 9). Then I'll do some sweeping changes, getting rid of graphical glitches (pixels that hang around after an actor has left a particular hex), drawing new and nicer sprites, and getting a system that makes it easier to plug in stuff like animations for hit/cricical/graze and such.
As always,
Minotauros
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I decided to move my rantings about LoSt over to a blog (http://agingminotaur.blogspot.de). I'll still make announcements about releases and such here, but spare more in-depth ponderings for that place. The first post already includes a screenshot of the current version :)
As always,
Minotauros
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edit: updated links
(cross-posted from http://agingminotaur.blogspot.de/2015/12/released-lost-v8-still-life.html)
Released: LoSt v.8 «Still Life»
I decided to release the game in its current state, This is version 8, titled «Still Life». Hopefully, someone might have interest in trying it, just to stifle their own curiosity, and perhaps to leave a comment or two.
Get your fresh bloodshed here:
Windows executable (https://dl.orangedox.com/tOg2icLY7SXgn1jPTg/LoSt_win_current.zip)
Python sources (https://dl.orangedox.com/oeERstldsFboRPDo0d/LoSt_src_current.zip)
Linux users: Apologies for delayed Deb package this time. I'll put it up shortly; in the meantime, Linux and Mac users can quite easily run the game from source, by following the readme inside the archive. Also note, save files are not backwards compatible. This even goes for the configuration file, so if you're reinstalling LoSt, your safest bet is just to delete your old configuration folder (named ".LoSt" and contained in your home directory).
«Still Life» is very much a pre-alpha release. Compared to the last version, which featured a dungeon and a win condition, I've rolled back to something even less reminiscent of a real game! Let's hope the one step backwards precedes a leap onwards … Highlights of «Still Life» include randomized species of plants and animals, basic overworld generation, and snazzier graphics (with configurable resolution and animation options).
There have been a lot of changes behind the scenes, which will make it easier to add more content to the game from now on. I guess the basic setting will take shape within a release or two, and hope to start working on humans in the next release. Implementing NPCs will entail getting more or the basic engine in place, including speech, trade and bounties (quests).
I'd be happy for any comments, even (especially) if it's just that someone didn't get the game to work or didn't understand how to play it. At the current point, I'm curious as to how people find the interface and combat system, both of which are quite unconventional.
Ideas and requests for content and features will be given high priority, as a carrot for those interested in the further development of LoSt. At the current point, the game is a bit lacking in theme. There are not many objects to find, and practically no lore. Also, the random animal species doesn't yet yield really memorable creatures. I'm sure the animals will get some more personality once text descriptions are added, but I'll also need some inspired ideas for how to take this feature a bit further. In general, I'm looking forward to getting the setting more or less in place. So if anyone want to see telescopes implemented before lassos, or would love to play a travelling quack in the next release, make your voice heard, and I'll try to accomodate.
As always, Minotauros
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Random screenshot:
(http://i.imgur.com/pCuePh2.png)
As always,
Minotauros
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Y..you really stole from the ol` Argyve? Barbarian! I love this guy ;)
Sorry, just got distracted by this comic. Feedback?...ah, yes...downloading....
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Ha, I know it's heartless, but I can never resist the temptation to rob Argyve in Caves of Qud. Later, when I lay my hands on some plastic trees, I head straight back to the same to Tam and Irudad ;)
As always,
Minotauros
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Some random thoughts (blame the lack of cohesion on weekday tiredness)
- the overall aesthetic is very impressive - if I was to use one word it`d be "elegant". What`s most refreshing is that your design is original and not just another Unity shop asset or one of the 2 indie gfx trends (Flash 2.0/pixelart)
- the "feet" - ha...too clever :) Must say, I just realised you always see your avatar or monsters from the top or side, never from the bottom. Videogame first? My inbuilt reaction is "I wish I could see more" but i`m sure I will eventually get used to it...especially with the more intriguing quadrupeds and hopefully more to come. Any snakes or fish planned (ha!)?
- I don`t find neither interface nor combat that unconventional...interface is slightly "different", perhaps, but nothing that should be particularly puzzling I`d say, even to a novice. In fact, it`s rather, as they say :p "accessible".
- I was extremely pleased to see someone implemented my trifecta of petty requests from the beginning - namely: redefinable keyboard, random char generator and fullscreen/choosable resolution. Phew! No, really, it seems unimportant to gameplay at large and yet these "small" things make a game soooo much more approachable - especially keybindings (at any time, without messing with .inis and such...Mr. Biskup, take note!)
- I didn`t play that long , since there`s not much to do atm - so no bugs to report. A possible one: a grouping of "happy stones" generated half on solid terrain and half in some water. Though, it could make sense if they`re ancient enough (erosion etc)
-are there any stats for my character apart from health?
-design is great like I said earlier, one niggle: there`s that big empty space between top and bottom windows on the right side - anything planned to fill it in the future? if not it`d be better to move the bottom window below the top I think or generally group it together somehow so my firstworldproblem eyeball doesn`t have to move too much
-I think more things to "do" would benefit the project more than more things to "read" - as in, gameplay before lore. So, animals for example - I`d prefer them to have a specific action or reaction than some text flavour - I think it would differentiate them much better...though of course you can (and should) combine the two.
Actually, too tired for any in-depth analysis - vide last paragraph :) All I can say I hope there is more to come - this could be another Qud in the making here and its about as high an accolade I can bestow on a prealpha... exciting times :)
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Many thanks for taking the time to test and comment, akeley! I'm pleased to hear that the interface is accessible, as that has obviously my goal. But there's always the danger of developing myopia with regards to one's own creations, so I wasn't sure if other people would find it cryptic.
Happy stones generated in water is a bug. I'm going to have drowning and swimming, so water isn't tagged as obstacles per se, but I'll have to add a clause in the object placement routines to make sure things aren't randomly generated in water unless specifically told so.
Also glad to hear you like the footprint aesthetic. I'm still figuring out how to use eg. colour to differentiate critter types. Snakes are definitely on the wishlist, along with centipedes, locust swarms et al. Here's a very early sketch I did, which also shows how snakes are planned to look:
(http://i.imgur.com/xCW2MTY.gif)
I wholeheartedly agree regarding the gap in the right hand menu. I'll try to move the tactical log a bit further up, as you suggest. In the future, a few more elements will probably be added to the menu (such as current time and date).
Apart from health, there are no stats like intelligence and dexterity, but every character has a few skills and quirks (which can be seen by moving the "look" cursor to your own position). In place of traditional stats, there will be quirks like "weak" and "strong" to reflect areas where your character differs from the norm. The plan is for such quirks to have quite specific effects rather than affecting your actions on a gliding scale. Say, a boulder might be too heavy to move for most characters, but possible to roll to the side for people with the "strong" quirk.
Also, I'll take into account your advice regarding adding stuff to do rather than stuff to read at this moment. I've been thinking perhaps to give each type of animal a fixed trait, for instance giving all pachyderms an extra body level. Also, rather than a complex routine to generate flavour text for the animals, a function to give species more evocative names might be just as effective, and quite sufficient in the short run. Consider something like: "This is a floobalux. The floobalux is a nocturnal feline that stalks the desert in search of its prey. It's lean body is covered in inch-long quills that it uses to defend itself," vs this much simpler string: "This is a quilly bobcat."
As always,
Minotauros
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I should run LoS via terminal - v0.8 crashes more often than 0.6 which was latest version what I checked.
Last time - I was wandering long time, killed some 'wilds' which was not aggressive. Later I spotted pair of green shoes (probably). After few steps game just crashes.
It's a bit sad, I really love setting and design of Land of Strangers.
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Thanks for your feedback, Avagart. Disconcerting to hear, but hopefully something I'll be able to fix. Are you running the Windows executable? I'm using a new method for packing the exe since v.6, so it might be buggy with certain versions of Windows … Stupidly, I disabled my primitive debug messages for the last release, as they were spamming the terminal. I'll try to add a more convenient log file functionality for the next release, which might be helpful in cases like this.
One thing you might try, is to delete the game's local folder (should be something like C:\Users\Avagart\.Lost\). If your options file from v.6 is still lying around, that could cause trouble. Configuration will hopefully stay backwards compatible from now on ::)
As always,
Minotauros
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Why is there a "cocksucker" word in your GIF? ;)
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@AgingMinotaur - OK, I deleted .LoSt folder, we will see... Yup, windows executable on 32-bit Win7 Ultimate. I will run LoSt via terminal - recently I saw something which could be form of traceback but it vanishes.
Maybe it not .LoSt in Users/user/.LoSt is source of problems.
WARNING: file already exists but should not: C:\Users\<user_name>\AppData\Local\Temp\_MEI17362\include\pyconfig.h
I deleted it, but message remains, just MEI folder changes.
e: Game crashes after try of loading fully loaded gun.
http://i.imgur.com/MsXJ02N.png
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@AgingMinotaur - OK, I deleted .LoSt folder, we will see... Yup, windows executable on 32-bit Win7 Ultimate.
Thanks, that's very nice to know. I have an old laptop with 32-bit Windows 7 stored away, so I'll be able to test the game on that.
Regarding the: WARNING: file already exists but should not: C:\Users\<user_name>\AppData\Local\Temp\_MEI17362\include\pyconfig.hI'm a bit puzzled. The warning seems to be coming from Python or the OS. It may or may not be the source of trouble. I'll research and keep it in mind.
Game crashes after try of loading fully loaded gun.
Excellent. That is a bug I actually discovered and fixed yesterday, so it's already on the changelog for v. 9 8) which will probably be out in not too long. The working title is «Broken windows» (the wordplay would be to add houses with windows that can be smashed and used as gun slits).
Why is there a "cocksucker" word in your GIF? ;)
It's a referance to the tv series Deadwood, of course ;D I plan on implementing dialogue as speech bubbles, and taunting will surely be among the earliest content in that department. The work:fun ratio in letting angry NPCs shout insults at random is just very favorable, so it'd be a good way to test the basic functionality. I'm estimating that the intended audience of the game can take a «cocksucker» every now and then, although if anyone requests it, I may add an option to toggle off explicit cussing. But I'm aiming for a pretty rough and queer setting, anyway, with stuff like dual-shotgun-wielding bull-dykes and oiled-up body-builder-bum-buggering cowboys.
As always,
Minotauros
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Out now: LoSt v. 9 «Broken Windows»
So, I've uploaded a new release 8)
windows (https://dl.orangedox.com/tOg2icLY7SXgn1jPTg/LoSt_win_current.zip)
sources (https://dl.orangedox.com/oeERstldsFboRPDo0d/LoSt_src_current.zip)
This is kind of an urgent bugfix release. There is a bit more content, but the world is still very barren. It's becoming noticeable how stupid the NPCs are (they haven't quite understood how to use their equipment yet, but I'll be working on that for version 10). And dynamite is back on track, among other things.
@akeley: The positioning of the action log is now configurable, defaulting to go near the top, as per your request.
@Avagart: I did some crash testing on my old Windows netbook, but didn't find it notably more buggy than on the Linux computer I'm working on. I did however squash a few crashing bugs, and I got rid of the warning you notified me about, as well as another warning I was getting from Windows. And LoSt now leaves a fat old log file. Anyway, I hope this version plays better with your machine. Maybe you get the time to give it a spin during the holidays :)
I'm also experimenting with the tileset, replacing some placeholder art. In particular, I've made props look much more abstract, and they're now color coded. It may mean losing some of the comic-y style the game had in the previous build, but this will above all make it easier for me to add new props, and just telling the game to use tile number X with color Y, instead of hand drawing every single tile. In the long run, I'll probably try to make the visual design resemble a field map, with rather abstract representations of everything, houses perhaps modelled to look like blueprints. I'm always interested in comments, even from the most cursory observer. So there's a screenshot below, showing the direction I'm taking with the visuals at the moment.
Unless I get some very pressing bug reports, this will probably be the last release this year. I think I'll be working on AI and more content for version 10.
Changes
* Bug: Game would sometimes crash when unloading gun in hand
* Bug: Chainhook critical hits could cause a crash
* Bug: Chainhooks could drag victims over/onto obstacles
* Bug: Crash when actions executed without a proper target/tool
* Bug: Spirit stone displayed false tile when carried
* Bug: Items would sometimes be generated in water
* Bug: Windows version warned about duplicate files
* Bug: Holy site animals would sometimes get "prickly plant" AI
* Props and features: Dynamite, rubble, smithereens, sledge hammer, elephant gun, sniper rifle, gun slits, windows
* Place template: pillbox bunkers
* Game: Inventory items can grant flags/intrinsics
* Game: Stackable inventory items
* Game: Simplified day/night cycle
* Game: Carrying heavy items encumbers the player
* Game: Demolishing house walls
* Game: Beings can trigger actions upon destruction/death
* Game: Worked on corpses and rubble
* Kits: Each species gets a random disposition (ornery, shy, docile)
* Kits: (Some) animal families now have set special abilities (cats sprint, dogs charge, horns penetrate, bears deal more damage etc.)
* UI: Placement of text log now configurable to center, top or bottom
* UI: Status line in menu displays timer for temporary flags
* UI: Menu displays current place and time
* UI: File structure for prop tiles now much more orderly
* UI: Testing out another style for prop tiles
* System: Game now keeps a log file
* System: Config and save files now track release version, tries to repair obsolete options
And if anyone wants to give me a piece of their mind, which looks best in the following image: the tiles on the left, or the tiles on the right?
(http://i.imgur.com/Z911LGZ.png)
As always,
Minotauros
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...I will spend my holidays in work :< But I have free time until this week ends, so I'm going to check latest version :)
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arrrgh....for the love of all that`s holy...LEFT!
I just feel that new modern trend creeping in here on the right - mostly prevalent in web/app design but also slowly appearing in games - the one where everything is simplified to a kindergarten-level "symbols" and "clean" design *groan*... And so the left side is full of character, while the right comes across as rather bland and generic. Look at the happy stone...awww.
As you might figure from the above, well...I`m not a fan - putting it mildly. Sorry...it`s a pet (monster) peeve at the moment. But that`s just me ;) I`m sure if you stick with it, it will still make sense and be playable anyhow, but...
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Lol, thanks for your feedback, akeley. I think you almost completely convinced me just there. The main drawback of the gritty tiles is that they take longer to produce. Apart from a few I stole, they're painted with brush and ink. But I can always churn out a couple every now and then (and I'm rather slow to add new content, anyway). I might try for a middle way, using color to distinguish some tiles, and maybe trying to find a slightly less figurative style, but still drawing stuff by hand.
Akeley, work is the true devil. I hope you will feel amply compensated ;)
As always,
Minotauros
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Well, I like the left hand side better apart from two things: dirt and that stone-something thing. As I can't tell what it's meant to be, a symbol would be better in this case.
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painted with brush and ink
ARTISAN GFX! Think of the all-important hipster demographic - put that blurb on the cover and the game sells additional 200k, surely!
Seriously though, maybe you shouldn`t listen to some guy(s) from the internets and go with the gut feeling...but I`d still insist the game would lose lots of character and atmosphere by switching to the abstract way...so hopefully you`ll stick with the arts & crafts. I`m sure it will payoff in the long run even if it means more "work" (come on - it must be fun, to draw that chain-hook for example! It looks great, like an imperfect print from an old newspaper...)
Downloading the new version now. I didn`t have a single crash on the old one, and I`m on Win 8.1 x64, which I`d thought to be more prone to bugging out.
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Thanks again for comments, people. Just dropped by to mention that the Linux binary is now back on track: lost-roguelike.deb (https://dl.orangedox.com/SPO3fVXw4tVupZffKy/lost_linux_current.deb)
I ran into some trouble with a halfbaked solution I was using to build the binary, but now I've learned the basics of how to do it from scratch, so there'll probably be no more bumps along the road on this department.
As always,
Minotauros
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Left :)
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Definitely left.
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Left of course. Right symbols could be clearer than left, but they are... unatmospheric. First time when I saw these symbols in game I thought that this is bug/glitch and 'informative icons' accidentally replaced great tiles.
Windows' placing is weird. (http://i.imgur.com/vDUbWpl.png)
edit: Looking at first row of images - these on left could be a bit bigger.
edit2: One suggestion. It's... 'harder than it could be' to manage items quickly. It's caused by - hard to explain with my poor English - lack of a permanent assignment of weapons to eq-numbers. So, you know, sometimes my sixshooter is bind to '1', sometimes '2' or '3'. Maybe it would be more intuitive if owned items would be bind permanently?
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edit: Looking at first row of images - these on left could be a bit bigger.
Yes, bigger would be good, almost fill the hex.
Also increase the line thickness, or simplify the drawings a bit.
Make them bold compared to thin.
The pick is a good example of a simplified drawing, solid areas, it could be thicker.
Versus the knife which is fairly complex with thin lines.
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I hear you. So it's back to the inkstone. I think the abstract icons were worth the consideration, if only to remember that it's usually best to hightlight and refine the unusual aspects of a project in development. Also, yes, the tiles will be bigger than in the screenshot I posted. And Tzan's reminder re: line thickness is sage advice.
Avagart, thanks for the funky window placement bug. With a bit of luck, it will fix itself once I implement doors :) Place building in general needs a bit of loving. Regarding this:
It's... 'harder than it could be' to manage items quickly.
I think I understand what you mean. I'll have to think a bit about how to solve inventory, with regards to system and UI. I think the player will only be allowed to carry 6 items, but maybe with containers, and traits/skills like "Burro = you can carry 2 extra items". It seems difficult to have eg. hotkey 1 always assigned to your sixshooter, because the player might be carrying zero or several handguns of different types. One idea might be to add shortcut keys, akin to "q"aff and "z"ap in traditional RLs, which scan your inventory and either filter the list or equip the first item of a certain kind. "G" might stand for guns, "M" for melee weapons, "T" for tonics, etc. (The player would be able to rebind the keys, of course.) Typing out the idea here and now, I get the feeling a system like this would need some adjustments to work. Anyway, I'll keep your comment in mind.
As always,
Minotauros
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I was in bad form in that day, I could write it in simple words. I think that the simplest way to making it 'as in my mind' would be just abandon removing item from slot when item equipped.
How the queuing of action actually works? There is hidden 'attack speed' implementation or something similar?
Some footsteps leaves footprints which looks very unnaturally (http://i.imgur.com/9HHD8l4.png).
AI is good in following player unless he enter 'home' (or another space in similar 'properties').
Sometimes creatures aren't displayed even if in FOV. I left house, I went straight and something blocks me. Tiles was empty (grass meadow), but 'This is mad prospector' has shown.
Another strange thing. I has three 'lives' when wagagab attacked me. After his first hit, I has... three lives and one 'waste life'. (http://i.imgur.com/okXNhUd.png)
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I much appreciate your comments, Avagart.
I think that the simplest way to making it 'as in my mind' would be just abandon removing item from slot when item equipped.
That makes sense, and would be easy to implement. I think you're right something like this might make inventory handling more straightforward.
How the queuing of action actually works? There is hidden 'attack speed' implementation or something similar?
Every action has a speed/initiative value, and actions are carried out simultaneously after each actor has decided upon what to do. The basic order of actions is this:
1) speed of thought
2) melee attacks
3) missile attacks
4) movement
5) tool use
Apart from movement, an action can be interrupted if the actor is attacked. So if you're trying to fire a gun (initiative=3), and you're hit in melee (initiative=2) in the same round, your action is canceled. It makes for some slightly tricky situations (for instance, the "ventriloquism" skill works best if used in the same round as an enemy approaches you, not when they're standing next to you). And there are skills like "iron mind" and "focus" which affect initiative.
The system is currently outlined in the game's rather messy manual. I'm thinking about rewriting and expanding that document. Maybe I should also add a line like "initiative=N" to skill/prop descriptions; displaying the value might help players get an intuitive grasp of the concept just from playing.
Some footsteps leaves footprints which looks very unnaturally (http://i.imgur.com/9HHD8l4.png).
I've noticed this, as well as the other display bug you mention, where critters become invisible for no apparent reason. Going over the sprite rendering routines is high on the todo-list.
AI is good in following player unless he enter 'home' (or another space in similar 'properties').
The AI is quite primitive at the moment. Things will improve as I add more definitions of "action patterns", but pathfinding in particular is really just a placeholder right now. A simple implementation of A* will make critters noticably smarter (including going around lakes and evading thorns when chasing the player).
Another strange thing. I has three 'lives' when wagagab attacked me. After his first hit, I has... three lives and one 'waste life'. (http://i.imgur.com/okXNhUd.png)
Wow, that's very weird, and something I wasn't aware could happen. Will have to look into it.
As always,
Minotauros
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So, I'm still tinkering on this. Visit the devlog (http://agingminotaur.blogspot.de/) for various tales of progress (although I'll be announcing releases here, as well). In broad terms, I'm working to "make the game world interesting" … whcih might include anything. Right now, I'm fiddling with a sustainable UI for speech, so that I can start adding dialogue, bounties (quests), etc. I have a couple of mock-ups, not sure if the text and border should just fade in, or if it should emulate a brush stroke, or something. Prepare to spammed with some gifs!
fade-in effect:
(http://i.imgur.com/9F7pwD3.gif)
animated border:
(http://i.imgur.com/EDegDom.gif)
A possible problem with the animated border, is that I'll need quite a lot of frames for big blocks of text, which makes it fiddly to set it up in a consistant way ...
(http://i.imgur.com/49iyHz1.gif)
In other news, I'm hoping to pin down some more permanent decisions regarding inventory items. Some ideas currently being kicked around:
* Constrained inventory: Beings will only be allowed to carry 6 items. This fits nicely with the hexagonal grid, as upon death, you'll just drop your stuff in a circle around you. If this gets too cramped, I may raise the allowed amount, or (in any case) add a "Burro" perk that allows you to carry more, or add containers. Containers tend to be a hassle to work with, though … There should be a good system for stashes (maybe even building a head quarters in town). What I hope to achieve, is a system where the player has to carefully choose which items to bring along on a dangerous mission.
* Encumbrance: There's no detailed weight system, but items come in three main categories: in addition to normal props, there are stackable items (several fit in a single inventory slot), and cumbersome items (carrying them slows you down).
* Lead slugs (♄): Lead slugs double as ammo and cash, and may serve as some kind of general "resources" stat. Certain skills might cost some ♄ to use, representing materials spent. And I'm considering, instead of a food clock, to have a system where you need to "camp/rest" once every 1000 turns or so. Camping would cost 1 or 2 ♄, and if you have none left, you might receive a penalty the next day. Conversely, some items (eg. sleeping bag) or skills (eg. cooking) might grant you a bonus. There'll be little incentive to waiting around the map in any case. In particular, lost health levels will only regenerate if you stay at a hospital or saloon for a prolonged time (costing many ♄, and possibly forfeiting current bounties).
* Crafting: I guess there may come a crafting system later on, although I haven't thought this through yet. With such a cramped inventory, I guess it could make sense to allow the player to invest in particular items, eg. improving his favorite sixshooter over time.
* Gift giving: I'm hoping to implement gift offering simply as dropping an item in front of an NPC. This can then be used to alter your standing with that person (and their faction), as well as trigger fetch quests and the like. Bounties on criminals' heads will probably be collectible by bringing their actual head to the right officials. This strikes me as an idea that sounds very obvious in theory, but might require being pointed out with flashing signs, to make sure that everyone gets it.
* Wearables: The kind of weird west setting I'm aiming for doesn't seem to fit so well together with the typical paper-doll RL hero, and at the moment there's no system for wearables. I'm thinking of adding items that grant some kind of boost if you keep them in your inventory, though. It may feel silly if in effect you're wearing three hats at the same time, but it could be explained as your character automatically switching to the appropriate wear. Such "carryables" might grant resistances (gas mask, bullet proof vest), or increase vision in dark areas (lantern), or give some social bonus, like the possibility of recruiting people (law badge) … Again, it feels like this may play well with the idea of a constrained inventory. In any case, there will be no stuff like "sombrero [0,+1]" or "snake skin boots of sneakiness" :P
* Item ideas: Again, there's not the huge array of stuff that you get with a fantasy or scifi setting. But I have some ideas, of course: Various bombs (smoke bombs are already in place, and I might add poison gas, perhaps, or "firecrackers" that stun and deal moderate damage?); fuses and trip wires (there's barb wire that you can roll out on the map, and a fuse might work similarly, burning one hex per turn until it reaches the bomb, with more expensive wires going off the instant someone steps on them, or with a detonator); ropes and lassos ("the lariot" should be a central object later on, it should be possible to capture live people and animals); poison and medicine (not like potions and venom in typical RLs – non-magical medicine takes time to work, after all, but there might be adrenaline syringes that you can inject in the heat of battle); periscopes and spying glasses (allowing you to see locations currently out of view); books and scripture (not sure how this will work … the newspaper might list some current gossip, a book could perhaps teach a skill) … And time will always bring new ideas.
As always,
Minotauros
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Love the taunts ;D. Keep up the good work!
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Thanks. Personally, I've always felt like sexually explicit swearing kind of misses the mark – the thought of genitalia conjures only fond memories in me ;) I'll probably make a random cuss word generator for LoSt, if only for the joy of having a module named "swear_engine.py" in the sources. Probably there'll be an option to keep it down a notch, for those who see no problem in a game portraying mass murder as the order of the day, but raise an eyebrow at dirty words. The censored version might produce exclamations like "fox-strangler" and "nose-wiper" (and, by extension, "fox-wiper" and "nose-strangler"), or just $@X#!!! and the like.
And I'll probably go for the hovering/fading speech scroll. It'll just be less hassle to work with each speech scroll as one sprite, instead of a bunch of frames that need to be rendered in sequence. Especially as the game should probably do things like take into consideration neighboring hexes, trying not to print text on top of important sprites/features. And, I'll be adding onomatopoetic effect. Hovering the word "click" above the head of a goon who just cocked his gun, I'm sure that'll add some suspense, as well as effectively putting as much info as possible on the tactical map, rather than constantly relying on the text log.
I'm about to add a simple bounty (quest) to the game world now, so let's hope that shakes things up a little. Once I have the basic systems for speech, trade and bounties in place, I guess I'll make an interim release to see if I can harvest any comments.
As always,
Minotauros
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I think fade is the best one though this incarnation ain`t smooth enough. Ideally you`d want (well, I would, of course :) the least fuss possible so you can read it instantly. It`s a pet peeve of mine if the text is being obfuscated ibn any way - probably from years of playing jRPGs (some will dole out descriptions letter by letter, literally)
Onomatopeias are a great idea. I was thinking the other day the lack of "sound" is what`s sorely missed in RLs in general - I mean "text" sounds of course. Why can we not hear heavy monsters round the corner, doors opening, traps being sprung and so on? It`d add an extra layer to strategy (yeah okay there`s that money being counted or something but it`s more abstract)
As for others, these sound great (roll out a barb wire? wow...and of course bounty system inspired by Sam Peckinpah can only be applauded) but as per usual, hard to say something without seeing it in action. Can`t wait for another release.
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Just downloaded this game - i like the hex based map
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abraksil, thank you. I'm glad the project generates interest at this early point. Hopefully there'll be something interesting in the next few releases.
akeley, I much appreciate your enthusiasm, and taking so many odd references :)
I think fade is the best one though this incarnation ain`t smooth enough.
Hm, from a usability perspective, you definitely have a point. It's fun to strive for cinematic/slapstick effects, but also important to remember that the player will see these effects a bunch of times. Animations, in particular, should utilize their timespan to communicate pertinent game information. Anything that reeks of flashy effects should be reconsidered twice. For this speech scroll, for instance, it might make sense to skip the transparency, and just hover the text in a pretty and legible fashion.
As always,
Minotauros
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The project is Lost, not dead. Here is an interrim release, before a proper beta, which will hopefully follow suit.
LOST #10: BLOODSHOT VISTA (http://agingminotaur.blogspot.de/) <=== download from the blog page, please :)
(windows (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21560242/LoSt_win_current.zip)) (sources (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21560242/LoSt_src_current.zip)) (linux build will be up in a few days)
MAIN CHAINGES
* BUG: Corpses etc. sometimes overwrote existing props on map
* BUG: Loading a saved game messed up screen settings
* BUG: Sprites left ugly residues, or conversely turned invisible
* BUG: Stackable inventory multiplied indefinitely when picked up
* BUG: Climates would skip filling some floor tiles
* UI: Reverted hand drawn tile set
* UI: Speech bubbles
* UI: Continuous tiling of walls etc.
* UI: Inventory items stay in same slot, even when wielded
* UI: The basic wizard modes (omniscient, savescum, immortal)
* UI: (Hopefully) improved item/action menu in various small ways
* Content: Scalping knives, derringers, severed heads, javelins, spear throwers, triguns, salt crystals, bricks, barb wire, smoke bombs, gravel, smithereens, stumps, splinters, shards, dust, ladders, doors, ditches, shit holes, gun slits, named corpses, adrenaline shots, armed proles, wheelin' judges, and more.
* Content: Rudimentary settlements layout
* Content: Shops, and other constructs and places of interest
* Skills and quirks: Steel chewer, the bone way, the meat way, trick shooter, fusileer, whip expert, long sting, magnetism, swimming, unpromising, everybody's asshole, unfancy shooter, musky, one-eyed, war wound, daft smiter, limp
* Starting careers: duelist, swordfighter, pilarist, neophyte, mudfaced goon
* Game/events: Simple drowning
* Game/events: Use anything as an improvised melee/thrown weapon
* Game/events: Sprinting as a default action (incomplete)
* Game/events: Extended actions (digging, demolition etc.)
* System: Rudimentary day and night cycle
* System: Tiles grant temporary flags ("drowning", "in the shitter")
* System: Slightly improved AI
* System: Basic functionality of critter factions/loyalties
* System: Basic system for dialogue
* System: Basic trading, cash value of props
* System: Still working on overworld/climate map generation …
* System: Fleshed out character generation a bit
* System: Outlined a system for careers and skills
* Kits: Migrated many effects from sources to data files
* Kits: Merged "sledge hammer" and "pick ax" as "sledge pick"
* Kits: Simplified several variables, added a few more
* Plus various many small tweaks under the hood
I'm more or less on the verge of starting to add content in earnest. I might write a few more lines about the release later. In the meantime, all comments are welcome.
As always,
Minotauros
(http://i.imgur.com/jbmRmge.png)
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Haha, I was re-downloading latest build just few days ago! Nice to see new version of LoSt :)
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The Linux build (*.deb) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21560242/lost_linux_current.deb) is up. Also. I updated the windows/sources downloads with a tiny patch that makes wheelin' judges a bit more interesting (version 10.1).
An annoying issue with the current version, is that the game sometimes freezes for a few seconds when building a settlement. I'll have to fix up the map building routines for version 11. Also, present in this version are "foibles and shticks", which I might scrap for the future. The shticks just feel too much like skills in how they're implemented, so the whole subsystem feels a bit obsolete. I may also want to find a more interesting/unique implementation. We'll see ...
As always,
Minotauros
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I keep bumping this thread :) I just posted on the blog (http://agingminotaur.blogspot.com/2018/02/lost-this-month.html) about January's development. I'm implementing a new system for wounds, and have been making some changes to the UI as well. Here's a shoddy gif of how it's looking at the moment:
(https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-R5MiS90ZCew/WnOkWVKBfCI/AAAAAAAAAa4/ypCTv70ibncuDlXP84O3cen-RieCnTWXQCLcBGAs/s1600/jan_thegif.gif)
I've gotten a very bare bones quest in place. Apart from a bit more content, the most important feature I need to add before next release, is a system for long term resting. So #12 is on the horizon, definitely ;)
As always,
Minotauros