Messages

1

Programming / Re: Persistent world? Yes or no?

« on: July 30, 2013, 01:55:04 AM »

You can offset creation of the new character in time (of the world).
So that the world evolved a little during this time.
New monsters will appear in the cave where previous character died,
old traps could be already triggered, and new traps could be created.

This is the direction I was thinking in.  Let the world be "similar" but not identical.  Alternatively, you could formulate this idea as knowledge being passed down from the last generation, but the details getting mucked up a bit.  Mix up a lot of familiar terrain with some things that are new so that the player still sees roughly the same world, but can still be unsure of what's around the next corner.  You'll have to be smart about keeping everything however "near" to the original you want to be as many generations pass.

2

Programming / Re: What's the best simple graphics library for C++?

« on: July 24, 2013, 05:00:15 PM »

sfml is beautiful

3

Programming / Re: Releasing partly obfuscated code

« on: July 06, 2013, 03:56:38 PM »

I can't speak for everyone, but I don't open source because my code is me.  Most people I think care about the personal nature of the produced code more than the hypothetical benefits that you speak of.  I'd rather have worse code that is all me than better code that is partially not me.  But everyone has different reasons for why they write code, naturally.

4

Programming / Re: My roguelike lost it's lead programmer!

« on: June 27, 2013, 06:28:16 PM »

Thanks anyway, guys and girls.  I'll start looking somewhere more productive.  See you around, when the game goes public and you start playing it.

Just for future reference, this is absolutely the wrong way to respond to a Krice.  It just makes you look bad for no reason.  His words were harsh, but also relatively accurate based on the information given to us (as is his way ).  It looks like programmer art and you have a team of artists.

5

Programming / Re: My roguelike lost it's lead programmer!

« on: June 25, 2013, 09:44:14 PM »

I don't want to give the impression that this project is as small in scheme or scope as Spelunky

Um, what? 

6

Programming / Re: My roguelike lost it's lead programmer!

« on: June 17, 2013, 11:13:52 AM »

@ Uglytroll: The programmer left because he no longer had the free time to commit to the game.  It was sad, but these things happen.  He had told me that when his work picks back up he would have to retire.  We both just thought it would happen a little later than it did.

People always say they have no free time. Of course they have no free time. Time is not free, time is precious . I think this is a more subtle way to say "sorry guys, this project no longer interests me". Which leads to another question, what is wrong with the project? If this is something serious, the next programmer may quit as well.

Anyway, I can give you a piece of advise. When you want to hire someone, tell more about your project. You haven't provided too many details, except that the game is an RPG and is written in C++. That may sound great for newbie programmers, but experts may want to know exactly where they're sticking their fingers . Which platform is your target? What libraries you use? Which version control system? How do you communicate in the team? How have you been organizing your work so far? The more details, the better.

Yep, the easiest way to not interest me is to show no screenshots and give no details

7

Programming / Re: Input system and the "-More-" prompt.

« on: May 19, 2013, 12:55:16 PM »

I think Dredmor does something like that?

When I played dredmor back in the day the log did not function at all.  It did not negatively affect the game at all

8

Programming / Re: Input system and the "-More-" prompt.

« on: May 16, 2013, 11:31:51 AM »

My loop is

1) Read input - this involves an event manager, which will depend on your particular library to get keyboard/other data.  there is a global array that can be accessed like "if (keyHit[key_left]) {do something}"
2) Game logic - for instance, during the player turn I may check for key input and act on it.  If no input has been given then there is no logic to perform.
3) Draw logic - this includes animation
4) Render

If you only want to draw the screen and render when something changes, you can just have a trigger for the draw/render section instead of having it be automatic.  You can even be really lazy and have a global bool draw_update that you set to false at the beginning of the loop and toggle in the logic as needed.  Basically, all you need to do is keep sections separate.  You shouldn't have drawing muddled with logic for instance (you certainly can but you'll probably hate yourself later on).  Once you have that all your questions should answer themselves.  It isn't particularly complicated.

9

Player's Plaza / Re: Looking for Overworld/Story/Theme!

« on: May 11, 2013, 09:25:35 AM »

Rogue survivor?

Dwarf fortress for something completely different (although you may as well wait for df2013 if you haven't played it yet)

10

Development Process & non-technical / Re: Why I hate the term "Permadeath"

« on: May 10, 2013, 11:39:22 PM »

I prefer the expression "you can lose in this game."

I guess we need a better, catchy term that can convey this idea.  The problem though is that everyone can recognize what permadeath means, while new/better terms will potentially confuse people (and leave them wondering if you meant permadeath or not).

The heart of the problem, where some people think that permadeath is a "small feature" (in this thread even!), is something that is very difficult to fix.  I tend to think that some people "just don't get it", but that isn't a satisfying explanation for me.  We need a way to convince people the importance of it, why its inclusion is so fundamental.  Education breeds change.

The trouble is that a person can erroneously play a game identically with and without permadeath and come away from it thinking that the permadeath was meaningless (due to their own poor playstyle/tactics).  I don't know how to properly intimate the difference to such a person, and I also don't want to get into a discussion on "intended" or "ideal" ways to play a game.

I think anyone who spends the time and manages to beat a roguelike with permadeath can immediately realize the incredible difference in sensation compared to beating a game without permanent loss.  When there is no permanent loss the game has no tension, actions are meaningless.

11

Development Process & non-technical / Re: Why I hate the term "Permadeath"

« on: May 10, 2013, 04:08:15 AM »

It's a modifier for a genre that doesn't have it by default.  So I could say I made a turn-based rpg with permadeath to mean the same thing as saying I made a roguelike (assuming the underlying system is turn-based rpg).  We've actually talked a lot about this on here lately.  I agree that removing permadeath makes it a different genre, so it should be assumed.  The problem is not that developers list permadeath as a feature, but that there are developers that don't mention that they don't have it, causing people who do to need to clarify that their game is actually correctly categorized.

I do disagree about your claim that competitive strategy needs permadeath.  The problem is you are assuming vertical growth.  If growth is horizontal there should be a way to maintain strategy but also persistence.  I think loss is important, but total loss is certainly not.

12

Programming / Re: The Ultimate Roguelike Tileset

« on: May 04, 2013, 06:17:17 PM »

I still think straight ascii looks better, and I don't particularly like this aesthetic, but it's an easy-to-implement compromise if you want a "tile" option for people who won't play ascii.

13

Programming / Re: Tileset Help/Advice/Feedback wanted

« on: May 04, 2013, 05:59:41 PM »

The only reason I think it would be difficult to find a programmer to enact your design (at least in this location) is that most people are already working on a pet project.  In terms of finding a game that already is in production to use the tiles, that would probably be easy, assuming there are enough tiles to encompass what's in that game.

14

Programming / Re: Alternatives to Mana/MP?

« on: May 04, 2013, 01:09:29 AM »

Aether?

It's the stuff the fills the space between, but I could see it working for you.

15

Classic Roguelikes / Re: What roguelike do you consider to have the "best" graphics?

« on: April 30, 2013, 09:46:14 PM »

Brogue or Caves of Qud.

Dwarf Fortress for certain tile packs.

I haven't played a roguelike with tiles that I thought had particularly great graphics.  DoD, Tome4, crawl all have pretty lousy tiles to me.