Land of Strangers

[AgingMinotaur]

Thanks for the encouraging words. To celebrate, I uploaded a new version. This adds about a dozen special skills to try out. Each game, you start out with two random skills. The download URL is the same as in the previous post. Next, I'll add some more enemies, weapons/items and some map features to provide cover etc. in the mines.

As always,
Minotauros

[AgingMinotaur]

MELEE (ideas for the upcoming release)

Melee doesn't really work well in the current release, but I'm trying out some stuff which seems to be feasible. Seeing as how this is some sort of alternative/fantasy wild west setting, I'm taking a cue from the upcoming Far West rpg (which mixes wuxia and western) to give melee fighters a more prominent role. While I'm probably not gonna add lots of sinophile kitsch (and I'll spare the katanas, I think), I'll probably add melee careers like swordfighters, fighting monks/priests, pugilists, etc.

Weapon anatomy: Each weapon has a few stats to make it stand apart. I'm currently experimenting with damage, range, and critical hits. I'm trying to keep the dice rolls a bit a bay. Currently, a single "six-sided die" is rolled to see if you might score a critical hit, just inflict a graze, or score a normal hit. The idea is to make combat slightly puzzley, with predictable results, just slightly nudged by the RNG

Attack speed: Currently, all melee combat occurs simultaneously, one time tick before shooting. This means you can't shoot someone who is currently hitting you in the face with a pickax. Fair enough, once I get around to add stuff like pistol-whipping (using a handgun as a club). It also leaves the field open for exotic stuff like pistol swords and bayonets.

Damage: A successful hit inflicts X bruises to Y body levels. As noted earlier, bruises heal quickly (one bruise per turn) unless a body level is completely depleted. Blunt weapons will predominately have high Y values and sharp weapons high X values. This means that stabbing someone with a knife (X=2,Y=1) might inflict a deep and lasting wound immediately, but it's probably more effective to continuously clobber someone with a blunt instrument (X=1, Y=3).

Critical hit: Every melee weapon has a critical hit effect which occurs with a base probability of 1/6. A knife inflicts bleeding (no bruises healed for 3 turns), other critical hits might include extra damage, stun or blowback effects, etc.

Range: Melee weapons might have a limited range. A knife will probably just reach the very next hex, but a sword might reach over a single empty point. A pole arm might have an even longer reach, but not be able to attack adjacent opponents. This idea might or might not work – I like the idea of getting up close with your knife to get an advantage over an opponent with a hayfork, but probably need to avoid "impossible" situations. I also had the idea for a "hook-and-chain" type weapon favored by some of the more brutish goons in the slaver hierarchy. This weapon would have an extended range and the possibility to hook and drag your target towards you. Good against pistol wielders.

Skills: There will be some melee-related feats and skills available. I've redone the "Charge" feat to inflict extra damage based on how many turns you have been moving in a straight line before the attack. Currently, you can instakill opponents by charging 4 hexes. This seems to work well: It allows a careful player to avoid getting hit at all, but it's pretty risky to charge right at someone aiming to shoot you. I've currently also added a Feint skill, which lets you attack at increased speed if you just moved away from your opponent in the previous round. In the spirit of shamelessly stealing manoevres from PrincessRL, I might put in manoevres like Vault Attack (eg.: Jump one hex away from an adjacent wall to attack with increased chance of critical hit). There will also be skills that add intrinsic bonuses: Swordmanship, Staffplay etc. might increase the chance of critical hits with the weapon types in question. Skills like Close quarter fighting could give bonuses depending on the tactical surroundings. It also makes sense to add special manoevres available to certain weapon types. For example, a swordfighter could have skills like Circle blow or Riposte (try to parry an incoming attack, nullifying all damage and immediately delivering a reciprocal blow).

Martial arts: We'll need some badass unarmed fighting as well. There might be a few different styles, ranging from elegant fighting à la kung fu or judo, to more crude techniques associated with bar brawls.

As always,
Minotauros

[guest509]

Hey there Veteran Cowlord. I haven't been able to play your game much, but I bought some cowboys and Indians to play with my nieces and I have some thoughts.

Pistols: Pistol armed cowboys can move AND shoot. Even at close/melee range.
Rifle: Move or shoot, not both. Cannot shoot at close range. Shoots 2x as far as pistols.
Bow and Arrow: May shoot over an obstacle the Indian is hiding behind. Any adjacent obstacle. Rifle range.
2 Pistols: Shoot twice!
Spear: Some indians had spears. They can be thrown at pistol range and over obstacles like bow/arrow.

This weapon differentiation allows Indians to attack from cover with bow and arrow, and spears. You might lower the damage of bow/spear to compensate.

Another idea is for tomahawks. They can count as a great melee weapon and also a pretty good short ranged weapon. Sort of like pistols but with only one shot. I say let tomahawks hit first for balance, the other weapons. Same rules can be used for bowie knives.

That stuff might not work for your game. It's a shame I've not played enough. Sorry about that.

[AgingMinotaur]

Yo, Jo. Comments appreciated nonetheless. The download linked in this thread is still very much aimed at getting even the most basic systems in place. There's more meat on the bones coming up in the next few releases, though, so I'm hoping for some feedback in the weeks to come. I like the rules ideas, and they resonate a bit with what I'm currently implementing. Moving and firing simultaneously is planned as a skill that can be learned ("Flashing chambers"), as are different kinds of dualwielding ("Main gauche", "Guns akimbo", "Theory of two heavens as one"). Hoping for some nice synergies here, eg. combining Flashing chambers with Guns akimbo to fire two shots while advancing, then cocking both guns in the next turn, without losing a step. Rifles will have a minimum range, as you imply, and a much longer max range than pistols. Cover is currently implemented as follows: Firing over an obstacle increases the chance of your shot going wild, except if you're standing right next to it. So you can hide behind a tree or a heap of sandbags and shoot with max accuracy, whilst reducing the chance of getting hit yourself. Bows, spears and the like are on my wishlist, but I've no concrete ideas yet. They'll probably have a speed advantage over guns, which must be loaded, cocked and fired in separate turns (but there's already a "Gun fanning" skill in place to skip the cocking phase, inflicting reduced accuracy to compensate).

In other news, melee is coming together fairly well at the moment. Shooting someone is vastly deadlier, but melee has some advantages, in particular, if you've queued up to fire a gun and get hit, your action is cancelled. Melee attacks currently deliver normal damage 2/3 or the time, a graze 1/6 (reduced damage), and a critical hit 1/6 (effect depending on weapon – bowie knife inflicts bleeding, sword does extra damage, pistolknife pushes opponent back one hex, whip stuns for one turn). So continuously bumping a melee enemy typically leaves you with permanent wounds, but you can mostly manage one or two enemies at a time by using your skills correctly. As I go on to implement some melee badassery, I'm pretty sure it will be possible to have character builds that can go on to take down a dozen gunwielding goons with only their bare hands and a pocketful of prayer beads.

The next release or two will stay in the lead mines to get all the basics in place. Tactics as well as various features I need for the engine, such as NPC shouting, in the style of Smart kobolds/Vicious orcs, and also typographic/onomatopetic sound effects: Eg. the letters "click" hovering over the head of a goon who just cocked his gun. That should enable the player to keep his eyes on the map most of the time, rather than constantly consulting the message log. And it should help the world come alive a bit, with situations like one mining company employee screaming "Cocksucker!", three guns simultaneously going "click", and a slave hollering "Get behind that rock, you fool!" In the long run, I'll be using the system to convey info concerning plot and setting, of course.

The one thing I'm sorely lacking at the moment, is a wand of slow monster to zap at my various employers. Several deadlines due in June, but I'll just whisper at them to hang on at least until v. 6 is out.

As always,
Minotauros

PS. Jo, your nieces must think you'se the coolest.

[Samildanach]

Maybe I'm an idiot but I can't figure out how to use my gun. I've tried everything I can think of.

[AgingMinotaur]

Oh, dear. More likely, the fault lies with defunct UI design. When you're wielding a pistol and carrying ammo, Enter should allow you to shoot. Pressing Enter (primary command button) is context-sensitive, so if you have a cocked and loaded gun, you shoot, else you cock or load it, as appropriate. If you already tried this, it may be that you had a gun, but no bullets. You can also choose between your actions from the menu marked Inventory/Actions. Tab toggles between inventory mode and action mode, Space or the number keys are used to access the menu.

I'll probably be putting out a new release tonight. There's a handful of different enemies and weapons at this time, so that upcoming release should prove more fun than the current build. I won't be amending this issue by tonight, but would love all and any comments, especially on how to better the UI. It's still early enough to make changes to the basic engine, which would be the whole point of these alpha releases.

As always,
Minotauros

[AgingMinotaur]

New source release out:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21560242/LoSt_src_current.zip

I'll get out some binaries tomorrow. The current build is devillishly hard, I'm afraid. Maybe I'll tweak map generation a bit before I upload binaries. All comments welcome, of course

Changelog:

Code: [Select]

=== V06 (Like a Lead Mine Pony) ===

* Various tweaks and fixes
* Added more content
* BugFix: Saving/restoring properly working again
* UI: Added inventory shortcuts in action menu
* UI: Item/action descriptions displayed in menu
* Engine: Started implementing skills and perks
* Engine: Started on framework for AI
* Engine: Feint and T.Y.T are used automatically
* Added character sheet and basic character generation
As always,
Minotauros

[AgingMinotaur]

And here are binary releases for Linux (Debian, Ubuntu et al) and Windows:

Windows: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21560242/LoSt_win_current.zip
Linux: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21560242/LoSt_linux_current.deb
Source (python): https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21560242/LoSt_src_current.zip

As always,
Minotauros

[AgingMinotaur]

Notes on the current release:

I'm still getting the basics in place, but this is the first release that I personally find enjoyable to play. It is very hard, but it does have a win condition (you play as a slave in the lead mines, trying to break out). I personally manage to get quite far in most maps, but expect a steep learning curve, I guess. I'll be happy to provide general and specific hints in this thread, of course.

Features/highlights:

* 8 unique enemies, 7 weapons, 22 skills and perks
* Puzzley combat with revolvers and melee weapons
* Basic character generation
* Configuration menu with options for graphics, keyboard controls, etc.
* Saving/restoring, as well as the option to manually set the random seed for world generation

I'd be really grateful for comments at this point, especially concerning the stuff that doesn't work so well. For instance, is the UI clear (apparently not very, judging from Samildanach's latest post), does the combat system make sense? Is tactical play appropriately challenging? Is it any fun to play around with at all? And should the answer to any of these questions be "no", don't hesitate to tell me why, and maybe even what you think could be better.

Anyway, I'll be slowly working towards a next release, starting out be cleaning up my todo-lists, and hopefully adding/tweaking "something" at least a few times a week. For the upcoming version(s), relatively high priorities will be given to:

* Character generation (flesh this out a bit, generate a proper back story)
* Map generation (the underlying system needs to be formalized more cleanly, encounter tables balanced, more loot introduced)
* AI (currently using stateless AI, so I'll have to add some parameters, flesh out the system a bit)
* At least one other win condition is planned for the lead mine scenario
* Graphics (I plan ambient animations for movement etc., and the current sprites are really just placeholder bitmaps)
* Display typography over the map (for sound effects and monologue)
* Tweak systems and UI, hopefully based on community comments

When most of this is in place, I'll be looking at implement more interesting features, such as an overworld with landscapes, plot lines and quests, a reputation/conduct system, character advancement, a refined GUI, riding, gambling, gay sex, railways, and the kitchen sink.

As always,
Minotauros

[Avagart]

I found bug in current release. When I was trying roll the dice (named 'die', not 'dice'), game crashed to windows.

[AgingMinotaur]

Thank you, that's most kind Puzzling, though, as I can't get the game to crash on my own machine by rolling dice. I'll have to investigate … I take it you're running the binary, so there are no error messages or anything to go by?

Also, "die" is the proper singular form, is it not?

As always,
Minotauros

[Avagart]

Oh, I could write something kind, fact. Although my english is poor then I decided to write only what is necessary.

Game is nice, and a real sense, not just politeness.

I played the windows binary. After crash, there was no message. And any error-log. Simply program breaks.


And... Yea, true. 'Die' is singular form, my bad. As I said, my english is poor, escpecially gramatically. I hope that everything I write is understandable.

[AgingMinotaur]

Your English is more than good enough, Avagart. Hopefully, I'll find and fix the bug you encountered by the next release.

In the meantime, I've started to write the personal history-generator. Loads of fun to do The module is a real mess, just peppered with lists and random.choice()-statements, but I'm pretty happy with the strings it spits out (it also remembers details, such as parents' vocations, whether or not the character is an orphan, and/or grew up in a monastery, and so on – which may come in handy during world building later on). I've left childhood behind, and I'll be finishing up with a coding session implementing adolescence/early adulthood and start of adventure. So this will be implemented in version 7. Here are some sample results so far:

~~~ Backgrounds ~~~

* A love child born to a lone railway worker, you are native to a dreary village out in the colonies, and you never met your father. You spent your early years in a convent. You found life in the monastery trying.
* The lone daughter of settlers, you were born in the borderlands of The Shulet Prince Prairie. You quickly learned to look after yourself, brawling and pickpocketing.
* The lone son of a thief and a drifter, you were born and raised in one of the settled provinces in the new world. Your father was the best in the world!
* The youngest son of poor parents, you were born and raised in the terra incognita of Rivers Bloodwhistle. You have good memories from growing up.
* You come from the ancestral continent, the daughter of slaves, and you knew only hardship. You had a horrible time at that time.
* You were raised in the old world, one of six children of a servant. During a raid, you were captured and sold to slavery.
* You are native to the old world. Your mother was a gambler and your father was a prostitute. Life was trying.
* You were raised in a sleepy town in the old world, the oldest child of a circus family. You lived as a thief.
* You are native to the homelands. Your family was poor. Growing up, you started idealizing power.
* You were born and raised in a bustling city on the outskirts of the old world. A bastard, you were turned away by your parents, and you spent your childhood in a monastery. The reverends mistreated you.

* (Calculated 10 backgrounds in 0.00142598152161 sec.) *

As always,
Minotauros

[reaver]

* You are native to the old world. Your mother was a gambler and your father was a prostitute. Life was trying.

Interesting role-reversal Looks good so far!

[AgingMinotaur]

* You are native to the old world. Your mother was a gambler and your father was a prostitute. Life was trying.

Interesting role-reversal Looks good so far!

That had me chuckling as well. I also got one orphan who was "taken in and raised by your uncle – a noblewoman." That was just hilarious enough that I put in a parenthesis to add for such situations, to the effect that the nobility are free to do as they f-ing please. In the long run, I'm planning to check if the setting is a patriarchy or not, and probably slant the results so that the obvious power roles usually land on what is considered the "stronger sex" in any particular world. Anyway, Land of Strangers will definitely need stuff like hunky, bare-chested, Tom of Finland-esque gigolos with shotguns, and the like.

As always,
Minotauros