CRPG's

[stu]

Id be interested to know if anyone is developing any non-roguelike CRPG's... (Since I'm developing both right now at the same time lol!). I'm talking about old Ultima II/III style, not this new oblivion style stuff

I'm hoping for simultaneous GP2X + PSP release one day...

[Slash]

Well, not really "developing" yet... but my next "roguelike" will have some CRPG elements... I am talking about old Ultima IV/V style here

[stu]

nice. I'm guessing two things here

1 - flat world, ie, the overlandmap etc contains the towns, rather than you walking onto 1 tile, which explodes into a town map?

2 - lots of tiles for chairs and spoons and other odd items that ultima liked to include

hehehe

my sequel will move from a u2 style game to a u3/u4 style. More tiles + party based. I need to get the first one out the door.

Have lots of my old roguelike code around really helps with the development

[Slash]

1. flat world == Ultima VI onward, IV and V still had an overworld with exploding town maps (but I guess you already knew), but yes, I am still debating whether or not use an overworld (the hard part been not making wilderness feel empty and boring while keeping the world "big" enough.)

2. right, and baking bread

I am also deciding about a new project: A remake of Ultima VIII using a modified version of my Drash engine; the idea is to use the original plot and all items, etc of the game, but in an old-fashioned engine (I cant express how much I hate the Pagan engine)

Speaking of which... Ultima I IS a roguelike

[stu]

yeah pagan sucked. Imo all U's post 6 were too arcadish for my liking, and I really didnt like VII very much at all but thats the one everyone else seems to love (I saw you post on the reliving every ultima game blog)...

more interesting to me would be a remade u3 in a u6 engine

i hated u1 it may be roguelikeish but imo it still sucks hehehehe

Did you see someone is doing the same thing as the ultima blog but for the DragonQuest games... mildly interesting but I had jrpgs/console rpgs.

[Slash]

I tried (hard) finding that post on Bloggin Ultima, but no luck... what did I say?

I am definitively into "demakes" but a unified Ultima engine in which all the series can be revived has been a dream for a long time. I heard about Project Britannia, which may make this posible in one of these super cool ultra 3D advanced engines (NwN? Morrowind?), I would rather make them all in a retro engine

And yes, Ultima I sucks, Akalabeth is worse, Mt. Drash is straight out crap, but they are definitively roguelikes

No, I dont know about the DragonQuest blog... but then, I am not a big fan of the series (only played them after all the Final Fantasy games were over, in my search for equivalent games )

[stu]

something about can only play underworld with qwezxc keys or something.

anyway, need to work on my game

[Slash]

Yeah, less English, more C/C++/Java whatever strikes you fancy

[copx]

I would like to, but it seems to be an almost impossible task. Writing all the dialogue, designing all the quests and NPCs.. just too much work for one person if you ask me. Especially if no one pays you to do it. The low replayability compared to roguelikes is another problem. You cannot really play your own CRPG, because you know every inch of the world, what will happen if you do this or that.. totally kills the enjoyment for me. 

[Karry]

The low replayability compared to roguelikes is another problem.

Dunno about that, i cant count all the times i played Wiz8, for example...

You cannot really play your own CRPG, because you know every inch of the world, what will happen if you do this or that.. totally kills the enjoyment for me.

You never know what might turn up. Classical example is invention of rocket jump by players, back in Quake1, id guys had no idea it was possible.
On another note, there is Kornel, who says he never actually finished DooMRL, and some effects he didnt expect turned up.

1 - flat world, ie, the overlandmap etc contains the towns, rather than you walking onto 1 tile, which explodes into a town map?

I dont know why people love that so much, its really a pain in any RPG, having to check all those houses. Well, i guess it depends on your focus, maybe there is a game somewhere the whole point of which is going from one house to another, lol.
Personally, i prefer how it was done in Darklands, town is represented by a menu system, you quickly find and do what you had to do in a town, and go about your adventuring business elsewhere. Efficient, very much so, and not really detrimental to the game atmosphere.

[stu]

addressing two replies in one;

I would like to, but it seems to be an almost impossible task. Writing all the dialogue, designing all the quests and NPCs.. just too much work for one person if you ask me

actually its really easy. you have an overall arching story. you plan a start game/mid game/end game.
tie in a few side quests, make sure knowledge is kinda area specific (ie: none of this go from one side of the map to get a clue. why would someone on the other side of the world know the gold key is hidden under the dog bowl!. and yo ustart small and go epic ). Plus every NPC doesnt need a 10 page monologue.

You cannot really play your own CRPG, because you know every inch of the world, what will happen if you do this or that.. totally kills the enjoyment for me.

uh, you have to do that for playtesting anyway. its kinda required.

1 - flat world, ie, the overlandmap etc contains the towns, rather than you walking onto 1 tile, which explodes into a town map?

I dont know why people love that so much, its really a pain in any RPG, having to check all those houses. Well, i guess it depends on your focus, maybe there is a game somewhere the whole point of which is going from one house to another, lol.

Buildings in town will be required, Ive no plan on adding 100 buildings to a town. A town will have only whats required, NPC's and pubs

[Slash]

uh, you have to do that for playtesting anyway. its kinda required.

Yeah but where is the fun?

I dont know why people love that so much, its really a pain in any RPG, having to check all those houses. Well, i guess it depends on your focus, maybe there is a game somewhere the whole point of which is going from one house to another, lol.

Brings to my mind Legend of Dragoon for PSX... it was tiring to me arriving a new town, as I knew the "house exploration phase" was about to begin.

Buildings in town will be required, Ive no plan on adding 100 buildings to a town. A town will have only whats required, NPC's and pubs

Yeah, reallistically talking, it doesn't make sense to have the small population that is shown in almost all RPGs (for example, Ultima IV... Britannia is a whole world but there are less than 200 people IIRC). However realism cannot be more important than fun here

[stu]

Yeah but where is the fun?

in the programming!