Messages

1

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn-based) / Re: Roguelikes with focus on ranged combat?

« on: March 21, 2021, 08:32:05 PM »

Do spells count as ranged combat? Because in my latest 7DRL, Found Magic (https://ekolis.itch.io/found-magic), melee attack is a last resort and the bulk of combat is done using spells.

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Temple of the Roguelike / Can't change my avatar

« on: March 21, 2021, 06:36:36 PM »

When I do so, I get an error saying that the avatar directory is non-writable... 😟

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Programming / Re: Looking for a language for minimum effort/maximum payoff.

« on: March 21, 2021, 06:34:34 PM »

Maybe I'm biased, but I would recommend C#. It's similar to C++ in terms of syntax, but you don't have to worry about memory management and pointers; instead, there's a garbage collector which automatically deletes unused objects. There are a number of game engines out there which you can use with C#, such as Unity and Godot. There's also some functional programming features such as LINQ which can save you some time, if you're into that (if you like arrow functions in JavaScript, C# has something similar which I think JavaScript borrowed the idea from). The main downside of C# is that it is still somewhat tied to Windows, depending on which UI framework you want to use. Unity should be able to run on just about anything, but if you want to use legacy stuff like Windows Forms then that will only run on Windows.

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Temple of the Roguelike / Re: It would be nice if I could search IRLDB by programming language

« on: July 27, 2016, 01:05:13 PM »

Oops, I'm an idiot... it's just a text field and not a selector! Assuming "language" doesn't mean "English" or whatnot...

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Temple of the Roguelike / It would be nice if I could search IRLDB by programming language

« on: July 27, 2016, 01:04:01 PM »

Was just talking with someone on #rgrd who was looking for 7DRLs written in C++ because he's trying to learn C++ by creating a simple roguelike, and I found IRLDB linked on Roguebasin... but while it's got lots of search options, none of them is "programming language"

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Programming / Re: Can someone explain "Dijkstra maps" to me, please? Are they even a thing?

« on: March 01, 2016, 02:30:12 PM »

You wouldn't really have to do anything special to deal with asymmetric movement costs - for locations that actors will need to pathfind away from, just make a second map using the cost values for movement in the opposite direction.

I thought you said in an earlier post that asymmetric movement costs rendered the algorithm useless? Or would I just have to modify it to filter out "neighbors" that aren't actually connected, and/or weight movement costs based on source/destination?

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Programming / Re: Can someone explain "Dijkstra maps" to me, please? Are they even a thing?

« on: March 01, 2016, 02:02:26 PM »

Thanks a lot, guys!

If I wanted to use an influence map for asymmetric movement costs or one-way movement, then I'd need to use a more sophisticated algorithm, I suppose? Traversing each location on the map through the map's topology, as with a traditional Dijkstra or A* algorithm? And that would be a lot slower, right? But if I just wanted non-grid-based movement, so long as it's symmetric (e.g. text adventure or MUD-style maps where you can go north, or south, or upstairs, or Dennis), the influence map would be just fine; I'd simply have a different definition of "neighbor"?

I suppose influence maps could also be used to generate terrain? I did something like that in my 2013 7DRL, "TriQuest" - I placed "hotspots" on the map, and designed "levels" of terrain such that higher level terrain would contain more dangerous monsters and might also be harder to traverse. (If you enter a "wasteland" terrain, expect very strong enemies!) But that was an open world, and I suppose it could also be used in a traditional dungeon, using the pathfinding algorithm to "dig" corridors between rooms?

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Programming / Re: Can someone explain "Dijkstra maps" to me, please? Are they even a thing?

« on: March 01, 2016, 10:28:34 AM »

Huh, interesting, I don't know why Google couldn't find those Roguebasin articles! Thanks!

I could have sworn Dijktstra's algorithm was an improvement on A*, not the other way around...

Oh, wow, I didn't realize these maps were that powerful, such that you can multiply them together to create nuanced AIs... - I've heard of influence maps, but I didn't realize they were so easy to compute! Now I can do things that I wanted to have in my 7DRL, such as having monsters pursue the player and NPCs, provided that the monsters are stronger, and having NPCs pursue weaker monsters and the player if he's stronger...

On large maps might they be rather slow, though? Especially if monsters/spaceships/whatever are moving about every turn? Given that you have to scan the entire map, and not stop as soon as you find a goal...

Now am I correct in reading the Roguebasin articles such that it's OK to reuse a map for multiple monsters, provided they all have the same goals? Even though the monsters are at different locations?

Also I suppose these maps could be used in reverse, provided there are no one-way paths? That is, instead of determining the path from any point on the map to the closest of points A, B, C, etc. it would determine the path from point A to any point on the map?

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Programming / Can someone explain "Dijkstra maps" to me, please? Are they even a thing?

« on: February 24, 2016, 11:05:12 AM »

I remember reading something about them a long time ago, but all I can find now is Dijkstra's pathfinding algorithm. I've already implemented it in my game (or at least A*; it's been a while and I'm not sure if I did it right), but I was hoping to speed things up a bit by caching the maps and only updating what needs to be updated when things move around. Wasn't there an article about this somewhere? Or am I completely imagining Dijkstra maps?

And actually, this isn't a roguelike I'm working on (it's a 4X!); I want pathfinding so the ships can move around on this huge map (well, actually numerous small maps connected by "warp points"), but the algorithms seem rather relevant even in this case

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7DRLs / Re: Question about 7DRL rules - previously written code?

« on: February 17, 2016, 01:32:22 AM »

Well, it's not something I was actually going to use, more of a proof of concept to see if the general sort of thing I wanted to do was even feasible So I guess it's not really that big a deal anyway... Not to mention, I spent maybe 15 minutes on this (well, and I asked around on IRC about a few things), so I could have easily done the same on the first day!

11

7DRLs / Re: Question about 7DRL rules - previously written code?

« on: February 15, 2016, 05:47:39 PM »

Yeah, I feel like what I did with testing out C#'s console functionality came REALLY darn close...

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Other Announcements / Re: Roguelike games written in VB w/ source code available?

« on: February 15, 2016, 12:10:56 AM »

I've written all my 7DRLs in C#... it's not quite VB, but since it's also a .NET language, it shouldn't be too hard to figure out.

http://edkolis.com

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7DRLs / Re: Question about 7DRL rules - previously written code?

« on: February 13, 2016, 04:10:20 PM »

Oh geez, now I feel like I REALLY cheated... I was chatting with some folks on #rgrd and mentioned I was planning on using the C# console class for display, and they said it was rather slow, so I decided to test it out myself and see how bad it is... Well, it's not awful, but I did have to make a few tweaks... Nothing too roguelike specific, but close enough! I rendered a bunch of random characters to the screen, and noticed that they were scrolling up the screen even though I was just rendering one at a time, so I got some help on that to make it work properly (apparently you can't render to the lower right corner or it scrolls)...

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Player's Plaza / Re: Worst roguelike you played?

« on: February 13, 2016, 01:47:47 AM »

Not technically worst gameplay-wise, but worst dev-philosophy-wise, but I'll nominate Dungeon X: Flesh Wounds, from the 2013 7DRL challenge. The gameplay itself wasn't too bad, and it had great artwork, but it was billed as a 7DRL, and what we actually got was a flashy tech demo for a future commercial project! (Wonder what became of that?) Yeah, that's not exactly what a 7DRL is supposed to be... Granted some 7DRLs do go on to be commercial or freemium games (such as Hoplite and 868-HACK), but the devs didn't plan this (it just happened due to the game's popularity), or at least didn't make it so blatant that they were doing this. But to use the challenge as an advertising platform is just... shameful. Oh, and they made all their art assets in advance, specifically for this project. Yes, I know the rules technically say it's just the *code* that needs to be written during the challenge (and even so you can use previously written code so long as it wasn't written specifically for your game), but this feels like bending the rules a bit TOO far, given the amount of effort they put into it...

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Off-topic (Locked) / 7drl.org still down?

« on: February 12, 2016, 09:06:43 PM »

Will it come back in time for this year's challenge? Or is it dead?