Messages

1

Early Dev / Re: Rogue Survivor Alpha 3.21

« on: July 07, 2010, 02:01:58 PM »

Hello,

I have just red the blog about sewers. I have some comments about reducing the number of zombie rats. There might be another solution : do all creatures actually have to be tracked all the time ? Some creature types could simply be created on the fly, the number depending on the density level.

This would allow to have more to fight. For zombies, where there is barricading it is not really suitable, but for small creatures such as rats which could slip between barricades, find holes where we thought everyhing was closed the approximation shoudl be OK. And even for them, the critter density could be for buildings (or a limited area) instead of the whole level. So you might find less in a closed room that you cleaned than in the middle of the street.

Also a question about rast : would they be attracted by food/decaying food that a character is carrying or that has been dropped somewhere ?

2

Early Dev / Re: Rogue Survivor Alpha 3

« on: June 06, 2010, 08:59:39 PM »

Marking the location on the minimap is there already. You need to paint it.  Paint spray can be found in parks.

Regarding scripted events, it depends what you consider as atmosphere breaking. For example changing the maze generation to include a specific vault is quite common in roguelikes, and is kind of script taking over for a while. Scripts do not have to be fixed things, but can include a lot of randomness. It could be considered as a way to help AI creating some interresting situation...

@roguedjack : Thanks! I am pleased that it helps. Ah, with time I have finally learned to refrain making huge suggestions... It is hard to resist!

Edit: Aargh, actually I can't resist... But yes I agree that a good road for improvement is more the addition of tiny fun stuff that huge complicated systems. I fell that you are more on the track of "survival crisis Z" (a zombie game, full of quick funny things. All of them are rather simple. But put together it makes something quite rich with most features quickly accessible if you know how to get them) than Dwarf fortress. So, well the suggestion is to add funny little things adding flavor : I mentioned the human corpses being eaten by nearby zombies. There could other survivors shouting something once a while, mother with babies... For example human with the same name might like to stick together (such as a familly), and then complain when then lost or a being chased by a friend or a relative. (For familly, we just need to check the last name. For friends, when a character is being generated, he could be linked to a few others...)


Actually what I thought about orders, it whether there could not be another type of interraction, such as "suggestion" to any human. The interface would be the same as orders, but the list would display every humans in FOV (with an option to shout to everybody?). And you could give basically give the same orders as to followers. However there is even less garanty that they would do it. Also they would not follow you. It is like temporaly teaming with someone in the same room as you to survive one fight, but with no guaranty that both lads will stick together after that.

Ok, this suggestion might not be very complicated (It is just a second list applied to an existing system. With one more test: will I do it or not), but now I am getting a bit annoying: it could the other humans who propose you, or the others in their FOV, to help them doing what they are doing. It could be simple. If they are fleing something, they could shout "be carefull, there is a zombie there". If they are baricading "Can you help me close that room", if they are fighting "lets kill that bastard..." and so on.

3

Early Dev / Re: Rogue Survivor Alpha 3

« on: June 06, 2010, 05:47:26 PM »

Ok, I have played a bit more with the order system. Here are some impressions and suggestions:

- I confirm that I find that there are too many key presses before the order is given. What I would suggest:
-- Skip the followers list if you have only one
-- I guess that we will used "Give orders" 10 times more often than "set directives". So once the follower has been choosen go straight to the "Give orders" screen. Among the orders, "Set directives" is one of the options.

This way, 2 key presses will be avoided most of the time. (Because I don't expect that many characters to survive long enough to have more than 1 followers..)

- I don't really like having to move my hands from the keyboard to the mouse. So maybe include an option to point to the order target by moving a cursor which starts from the follower. (actully, I was the same problem with dropping and taking objects. Maybe "Shift-number" and "ctrl-number" would be good perfrom these actions...)

- With the orders too, there is that slightly annoying issue: it is possible to go in the barricading mode even if the follower has no material. When he tells you that he can't perform the action, we stay in the barricading mode. If we don't wan't to do the test before, we shoudl at least leave the mode after...

That's it for now.
I quite like the game!
Maybe some human corpses now and then and zombies eating them would be a cool addition...

I saw you mentioning some potential scripted encounters cheating the full AI district generation. Yes! I think that it would be fun.

4

Early Dev / Re: Rogue Survivor Alpha 3

« on: June 06, 2010, 04:45:20 PM »

Another annoying thing:
I used the left clik instead of the right to drop 4 bags of food. So I basically ate all of them! (and lost them).

Of you are already full the action should maybe be aborted with a warning message...

5

Early Dev / Re: Rogue Survivor Alpha 3

« on: June 06, 2010, 04:09:14 PM »

In terms of interface, what I have seen so far seems okay. Maybe you could skip the question on who you give the order to when you have only one follower.

There another more common thing that I found annoying: when you are too tired to break something you can still start the mode, but are told that you can't do the action once you choose the direction.
Maybe before opening a mode, there should a check that at least one solution is possible...
Also once you are told that you are too tired to do the action, you still are in the break mode and have to leave manually.

6

Early Dev / Re: Rogue Survivor Alpha 3

« on: June 06, 2010, 01:30:59 PM »

That's quite tough!

Ok, here are a few quick suggestions that might have been made already:
So far there is only order for barricading.It would ne nice to ask the guys to do a few more things:
- Close the door/window
- attack that zombie
- break that object
- follow me

But I guess that these sort of things were already planned...

7

Early Dev / Re: Rogue Survivor Alpha 3

« on: June 06, 2010, 11:39:28 AM »

Hello !

I am trying right now your game. It looks interresting!

Ah! I can't resist to make some suggestiond already... I dream to play a game with a zombie Outbreak starting from day 1: At first there are just a few infected, and mostly civilians. As the infection grows there is the panick in the street, the shops being sacked. And slowly survivors are getting organised, better equiped. The zombie change from fresh corpse to older more decaying one...

I have made a spreasheat about zombie outbreak simulation with some of these ideas. You might have fun playing with. And who knows, it might be a source for inspiration !
http://www.flap.fr/grenier/ZombieSpreadsheet.zip

Well, I stop commenting something I don't know yet, and will spend more time on your game now.