Messages

1

Programming / Re: WIP: Chaos Fortress

« on: April 23, 2011, 09:08:03 AM »

Just a status update, few more screenshots for anyone following this project.

In the screenshots, you can see I have functional doors, including a few starting door trap types. In one shot, a flechette door trap riddles me with tiny blades, inflicting BLEEDING for a number of rounds.

Also, there's some basic spellbook items lying around. I can pick things up, but I haven't implemented the inventory interface screen yet. Coming soon!

* Contextual Interface (A and Y buttons, actions picked from most obvious interactions with the selected object)
* Intrinsics engine is working (on the player atleast)
* Doors work (Including locked and trapped doors, and the ability to KICK them down!)
* Stairs work (Up and down, no branch entrances yet)
* Basic Items
* Dying!

2

Programming / Re: WIP: Chaos Fortress

« on: April 15, 2011, 09:20:14 PM »

No shortage of cool stuff on the way! I have a deity planned based off a Shadow Demon that's taken up home in a dark cavern in a branch. You can worship him like any other deity and he'll not only function as an awesome stealth god, but make the shadow creatures in the game neutral. KILL HIM, and you genocide the shadows in the game entirely for that play. ;-)

No shortage of neat things. I even have some neat ideas using XBOX Live. Indie games aren't allowed to access the internet on the console, but they ARE capable of quietly connecting to other players in the background - so I can quietly distribute both the high score table and possibly bone files to other consoles. I want bone files to result in random 'graves' in the game, containing one item from the dead player. If you choose to dig up the grave, the player's ghost is spawned somewhere on the level and set to hunt you, for defiling the grave site. ;-)

@languard: I'd love to take a look at your utility library. I'm picking up on C# pretty quickly, but i've never used it before. I am impressed with how powerful and easy it's object development is though. (I've spent a lot of time in PHP, so I appreciate strong OO design, heh)

Question: I slapped together a basic attribute system last night before bed then got to wondering really what the point was. I mean, they affect things like max health and mana, possibly hp/mp regeneration rate, etc. But they do so very subtly, while I already have a powerful skill system. I was going to use the attributes as prereqs in the skill system to help limit what you can learn early on, but.. i'm wondering if I should just axe the attribute system entirely and make characters entirely dependent on skills (using only character level and skill cost as a prereq system) - What do you guys think? It almost seems silly to have a complex attribute system with growth curves and +2 STR amulets and such for minor effects. Then again, I wanted to have certain skills use stats to improve them, like Hammer knockback was gonna be a factor of Race Size (big races hit harder :p) + Hammer Size + STR. That +2 strength could be the difference between ~2 tile knockback and ~3. Still, i'm leaning towards axing the whole thing and going attribute-less, make maxHP and maxMana be based entirely on race and maybe a few skills.

3

Programming / Re: WIP: Chaos Fortress

« on: April 15, 2011, 11:45:20 AM »

I appreciate the advice, i'll definitely do that.  I have a horrifying amount of ideas written down, but i'm working on prioritizing what I need to make a playable game. I just finished the core of the turn update engine, including vitals regeneration (HP, MP, Stamina) - should be fairly easy to implement the basic combat next, and death.

Getting the basic item system in will be a bit more tricky, but i'll figure it out. The tough part isn't avoiding working on the less critical ideas, it's designing the engine in a way that I can use those ideas down the road - I don't want to end up with a crippled item engine or something that's impossible to expand with new items.

Balance will be hell, but the challenges should be varied enough that no combination is perfect. Each skill set is focused around core areas, so with a maximum of 8 trees (out of about 30 so far) you just won't be able to cover all your bases. Ideally, each tree has abilities that lets you handle a certain variety of obstacles, but no combination covers them all - leaving you to inevitably rely on items and clever tactics to succeed. Of course, the rest of the time you can be smashing things into paste with a Warhammer, or summoning animated weapons to fight at your side.

The example builds is a good idea. I am a little worried that it'll be pretty overwhelming to new players. Hopefully the skill set summaries on each will give players a decent idea if they want to pursue that area, and skills have prereqs so unlocking a tree won't just flood you with options immediately. Classes in the game mostly just affect your starting items and skills, so if you go with a 'Fighter' and start with a sword, Sword Skillset and Armor Skillset, you might as well keep pursuing them. Then again, advanced players may find themselves in a situation where they want to veer off, which is totally plausible too.

Current Tasks:
 - Items
 - Basic Inventory System (Equipping might come later)
 - Interacting with Doors
 - Interacting with Stairs
 - Basic Combat (No items)
 - Death!

4

Programming / Re: WIP: Chaos Fortress

« on: April 15, 2011, 09:19:49 AM »

I love the idea of having a roguelike on the console. I was really disappointed with Dungeon Adventure. The engine has great potential, but I feel like he focused on all the engine design and none of the game play. The level generator loves to spit out tiny dead-end levels, etc.

Many of the early mechanics in my rogue are inspired by Crawl, but I have a lot of new features that will make the game play quite a bit different.

Skills, for one, are handled entirely different. Players earn points every time they level up, and pick up to 8 skill trees to focus throughout the game, each tree contains a number of subskills, most with multiple ranks. The cost of the skill doubles with each rank, so focusing on specific things can get expensive after a while, but quite powerful. Of course, you're a little more limited in your options with that route, so if you prefer you can spread your points out over a variety of skills. In addition, races use a DCSS style affinity system - so any race can learn any skill, but skills are more or less expensive depending on if your race is innately good with them.

It's ambitious, but i've got an excel table with almost 180 skills planned so far, many of them active abilities players can utilize. This should lead to some interesting hybrid combinations. For instance, the 'Hammer Mage'. Hammers are extremely slow weapons, but have a chance to knock opponents back. Skills in the Hammer tree can increase that chance. If you play a race that's large enough and has enough STR to reliably abuse knock-back, you could combo that with low-level spellcasting to riddle them with Magic Darts and such while they try to keep closing the distance. Naturally the large brutes best suited to abuse the hammer won't be an exceptional spellcaster, but if you stick with just the lower-level spells I suspect it would be a powerful class combo.

And many of the skills are extremely easy to implement, but present interesting tactical options, especially when combined with other abilities and such. For instance, "Razor's Edge" is a Throwing subskill that gives a high chance for thrown blades to inflict BLEEDING on struck enemies. (Those with blood, anyway) Easily implemented, with a lot of potential.

I'm borrowing from the branch and rune style, but with different branches. Also, the Chaos Fortress poses it's own interesting dynamic - Each of the rune-bearing branches actually provides the Fortress with some bonus. Claiming the rune from a branch slightly weakens the fortress. For instance, Clearing the Dwarven Mines reduces the quality of weapons and armor belonging to monsters in the Fortress. Clearing the Gnomish Workshops reduces the number of traps and mechanical beasties in the Fortress. This allows more thorough players to wage a war of attrition on the final dungeon, especially in dealing with weaknesses. Hate ranged attacks? Kill off those pesky crossbow-building gnomes. Want some allied help? Free the imprisoned warriors from the barracks branch and they'll appear on Fortress:1 to provide backup!

I'm hoping the new gameplay dynamics draw away from the 'Crawl clone' feeling, potentially giving veteran roguelike players a familiar environment with new tools and mechanics to abuse. :>

5

Programming / WIP: Chaos Fortress

« on: April 15, 2011, 07:15:12 AM »

I'm sure there's a ton of new rogues that crop up all the time and then vanish just as fast, but I hope to avoid the same fate. I've been playing roguelikes for a few years now, and i've always wanted to create one to call my own. I've programmed in a few languages before, but i've recently acquired a student license for developing with C# and XNA on the XBOX 360. I've spent a few days reading articles and hammering out a basic engine, and i'm staggered by how fast this is progressing. I've already implemented:
 - Basic Dungeon Generation
 - Mingos' Restrictive Precise Angle Shadowcasting
 - Character Movement
 - Basic Monsters (they wander, but there's no combat yet)
 - Speed System (using the 'energy' model)
 - A*Star Pathfinding

My design is heavily inspired by DCSS, my personal favorite. But i'm doing a lot of reading up on roguelike articles and design discussions, and looking for ways to improve my design. POWDER is another of my absolute favorite rogues, and I intend to try and use a similar 'slimmed down' control interface, as the XBOX lacks that 3000 key options keyboards clearly do. :p

Basic objective is to dive 25 floors, unlock the Chaos Fortress and kill the boss within, then escape with.. some obscure artifact i've yet to name. In true Crawl style, the main dungeon is riddled with entrances to other branches, and many of these contain the keys necessary to open the Fortress at the bottom of the dungeon.

I've attached some screenshots if anyone is interested in seeing the progress so far, and if people are interested i'll definitely keep the community posted on development. It's aimed as an Indie Game release for $1, but I plan on creating a windows build down the road. (Just as soon as I get a computer that can run the XNA framework's graphic requirements. Silly laptop)

Oh, and if anybody can help me come up with a less stupid name then "Chaos Fortress" i'd appreciate it.