The Temple of Torment

[Aukustus]

I wrote a small GUI program with C# for the conf.txt. It should be now easier to modify the conf file just by clicking checkboxes and radiobuttons.

[Aukustus]

I released beta 7: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/95372567/TToTd20_Beta7.rar

Change log:

Code: [Select]

Bugs
- Some armors bought from the shop had wrong AC displayed
- Some undocumented minor or not so minor bug fixes
- Fixed a bug where entering equipment shop after loading save crashed game
- Fixed a bug where items bought spawned at 0,0 coordinates if inventory was full

General
- Game has a icon now
- A new graphical tool for editing conf.txt; TToTd20Conf.exe
- Minor fixes to messages
- New stat raise screen
- New fonts supported: 8x12 and 10x16
- Menus related to items grouped by 5
- Improved shop screen
- New shop: Cleric Silywyn sells now books and scrolls
- Minor undocumented improvements or changes

Heroes
- Class restrictions are removed; equipment now require attributes
- Rogue and ranger start with a dagger now
- Cleric's start mace is now 1d4+0 instead of 1d6+0
- New stat: Armor Penalty; this comes from wearing heavy armor and applies to ranged combat and spellcasting, is negated by constitution
- Cleric's and sorcerer's mana point increase on leveling lowered by 1
- Start gold increased back to the 150 from 100
- Charisma now affects prices by 5% for every 3 points in charisma instead of 1gp for every 3 points
- Fighter's javelin removed from game
 
Spells
- Turn Undead is now Nova-like spell with radius of 2 from caster
- Radiuses of Fireball and Frozen Orb decreased to 2 from 3

[Endorya]

What would be really nice is if you developed the game entirely in C#. You could do so much with it. C# is where I really ascend so I could supply you with tons of help. Anyway, going to try your latest build.

[Aukustus]

What would be really nice is if you developed the game entirely in C#. You could do so much with it. C# is where I really ascend so I could supply you with tons of help. Anyway, going to try your latest build.

My skills in C# are limited pretty much to creating basic wpf softwares for companies. My university taught me C# and that's how I learned programming. Only reason I was able to start developing this game is that there was a complete tutorial which included all the basic algorithms that were needed such as FOV. Also the bases for objects and classes were already there.

I try to make my game also playable outside of .NET.

[Endorya]

What would be really nice is if you developed the game entirely in C#. You could do so much with it. C# is where I really ascend so I could supply you with tons of help. Anyway, going to try your latest build.

My skills in C# are limited pretty much to creating basic wpf softwares for companies. My university taught me C# and that's how I learned programming. Only reason I was able to start developing this game is that there was a complete tutorial which included all the basic algorithms that were needed such as FOV. Also the bases for objects and classes were already there.

I try to make my game also playable outside of .NET.

You can play .NET apps through MONO on Linux and Mac but even without mono you can still emulate windows and run .NET apps flawlessly, though this last approach is not too user friendly but i believe roguelike fans can handle it just fine.

Regarding your game, the interface is way better now! I still suggest (what can I say, I'm an interface designer) the items that cannot be used by the player - due to attribute requirements - to be highlighted in another color, I suggest orange in case you agree with this.

[Aukustus]

...the items that cannot be used by the player - due to attribute requirements - to be highlighted in another color, I suggest orange in case you agree with this.

Yeah, I really agree about this. However the code that lists items takes in only texts and not objects so it doesn't transfer the item attributes. This means that I can basically add the (unusable) text back to the name instead of coloring. At least without changing a lot of code.

[Aukustus]

I managed to improve my AI a lot. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/95372567/AI.gif

Previously the monsters numbered 4 and 5 got stuck behind the other 3. Now they are capable of moving around the 1, 2 and 3. It's not optimal but that's a lot better now.

[Zireael]

That's a great thing indeed!

[Endorya]

I was doing the bandit quest and I noticed that dungeons always change when you revisit them; I really thought this was an exclusive feature of the Temple of Torment itself. Not that I dislike the idea of having this particular functionality justified with the story line but it does take the sense of progression away, I mean clearing levels just so they can be replaced with new ones feels annoying to me. The more I play your game the less compelled I feel to fully explore levels but going deeper the minute I found new stairs leading downwards. This happens because I will be forced to deal with those levels again once I start exiting the site.

Just a thought.

[Aukustus]

I was doing the bandit quest and I noticed that dungeons always change when you revisit them; I really thought this was an exclusive feature of the Temple of Torment itself. Not that I dislike the idea of having this particular functionality justified with the story line but it does take the sense of progression away, I mean clearing levels just so they can be replaced with new ones feels annoying to me. The more I play your game the less compelled I feel to fully explore levels but going deeper the minute I found new stairs leading downwards. This happens because I will be forced to deal with those levels again once I start exiting the site.

Just a thought.

Yeah, the mines resetting is lore breaking but I haven't figured out an alternative yet since I'm not sure about how to make the levels persistent but that's my intention to make them somehow persistent. I'll look in to making the mines persistent.

I've pretty much designed the game for scrolls of recall for teleporting in and out of dungeons. Maybe I'll add one scroll of recall to the starting items.

I've had some ideas for sort of waypoint used in Diablos in the beginning of every new section, one in the first level of the temple, one in the first level of the catacombs and so on.

[Endorya]

Sorry if this sounds too obvious but can't you just save the map into the HD or into a 2D array? I never worked with libtcod so I really don't have a clue of how it works nor how limited it might be.

[Aukustus]

Sorry if this sounds too obvious but can't you just save the map into the HD or into a 2D array? I never worked with libtcod so I really don't have a clue of how it works nor how limited it might be.

Libtcod isn't here an problem since libtcod basically just renders. My maps are just 2D arrays already. I just got working persistent map layout, now I just have to make the objects and stairs persistent locations.

Basically my persistent code works that it stores the array into variable "mapcave1" the first time the map loads and then it loads the array from variable instead of generating new array. Basically the idea here

Code: [Select]

map = newmap() // returns array
if mapcave1 == None
    variable mapcave1 = map
else
    map = mapcave1


[Endorya]

How about making it 3D instead [X,Y,Level]? This will naturally take up more memory but it will make everything run smoother, including accessing maps, saving them and changing them.

What kind of 2D array are you using? Integer? I would actually store the map class inside a List<> Array object. This would probably be the most elegant way to handle maps, assuming you are able to use such object or anything close to it.

Anyway I'm really glad dungeons in your game are now turning persistent. One thing you could do, which I really like, is having a shortcut escape route when fulfilling the site's objective. In other words, the player would return to surface just in just a couple of turns even though he descended many levels bellow ground. Skyrim has this and it really rocks, because going back through all those now empty explored areas is very tedious.

[Aukustus]

How about making it 3D instead [X,Y,Level]? This will naturally take up more memory but it will make everything run smoother, including accessing maps, saving them and changing them.

What kind of 2D array are you using? Integer? I would actually store the map class inside a List<> Array object. This would probably be the most elegant way to handle maps, assuming you are able to use such object or anything close to it.

Anyway I'm really glad dungeons in your game are now turning persistent. One thing you could do, which I really like, is having a shortcut escape route when fulfilling the site's objective. In other words, the player would return to surface just in just a couple of turns even though he descended many levels bellow ground. Skyrim has this and it really rocks, because going back through all those now empty explored areas is very tedious.

It's basically an array of x,y coordinates and whether it's blocked or not. My programming skills are pretty limited but I'm definitely looking for some persistence.

I'll probably make only the mines at least somewhat persistent. If I can't program it, I'm able to handcraft the maps and put hand placed monsters which stay dead when killed. That shortcut could be quite nice, maybe exchange for hunger points. The shortcut system in Skyrim was nice but I think it was somewhat realism breaking.

[Endorya]

I'll probably make only the mines at least somewhat persistent. If I can't program it, I'm able to handcraft the maps and put hand placed monsters which stay dead when killed. That shortcut could be quite nice, maybe exchange for hunger points. The shortcut system in Skyrim was nice but I think it was somewhat realism breaking.

Honestly, handcrafted dungeons with hand placed mobs sounds just as perfect. The shortcut system is however open for discussion. If you want hunger to be taken seriously when travelling than shortcuts should be avoided, however, travelling 20 levels back (hypothetically speaking) just to exit a site sounds bloody boring. Balance should be considered in this case. Maybe the shortcuts shouldn't be that short. As far as realism is concerned, it was also a common thing to have multiple exits in temples, secret exits. Maybe you could add some sort of puzzles to open that particular door. This would be brains vs time and resources