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TOD: map problems

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So I’ve finally a working prototype of map. I’m proud of it, it has zoom in/out, pathfinding (with unpassable walls and doors), and fog of war (so as you discover it, some zones clear out). But – I have some serious bugs 😀

First performance problem – had to use batch to blit all the various tiles, since there are 4 layers… background, terrain, moveable objects (party and monsters) and fog all over it. Now with batch, I have some problems with zooming since I can’t now just use one single function to zoom in/out… 😐

Well I guess that was too good to be true to have such a system ready in only 2 days of part-time work. I’ll have to spend more time on it. Anyway, I’m also wondering if is better to have big maps with realtime movement , or smaller ones with turn based movement.

The pathfinding algorithm works fine – so that’s not a problem. It is mostly about playability, not sure if exploration should be such an important part of my game, or just focus on combat (after all, in Magic Stones you go straight to the battles and people seems really to love it…!). With realtime, to make a level last some minutes, I would have to make a bigger map. With turn-based, would be more a matter of avoiding monsters or even using sneak attacks, and so on. Actually I was even wondering if to discard the first person view and use only the topdown even for the combat…
I’ll have to think carefully about this aspect since it would influence all the game.

TOD: map decisions

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I had a bit of troubles recently, can’t make my mind on what system to use for the map and in general for the game. I want to avoid long walking, as I already said. But at same time I don’t want just a series of icon connected with passages, each one representing a room in the game. That would mean the game would be very short.

Instead I finally came up with what I think a good idea. A topdown map, in which you’ll see an icon representing your party moving on it, and the monsters as well. I’m thinking of making it real-time, with possibility to pause it. The combat instead will be turnbased, unless I change my mind at last moment. In any case, even if it will be real-time, I’ll add the possibility to pause the game any moment.

What would be cool with the map made this way, is that you could see where the monsters are positioned, and so try to avoid them. I want also to implement a sort of line of sight, variable for each monster, so if there are monster particularly blind you can move just behind them. Or if there are others too slow, you can outrun them. Then once you are near (on same cell of the map), the view zooms in and you start the first-person combat with the view I showed you in the previous post.

I’m making the map editor right now – since I plan to make a trilogy of this game, better build up proper tools, which probably will be released to the public after the 3rd episode so people can make mods.

TOD: encounter!

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I’ve taken a break from the spells – because I need first to “visualize” the game. I made a topview map, which went out quite good I think. The problem now is, how to display the main view? the first person view? I made another mockup with photoshop using a background and some sprites that should be in the game, and looks like this:

tower of destiny encounter

I don’t think is bad: but I’m not sure if is clear, when playing. The graphic is a bit dark, but is obvious since is a dungeon. I hope that the visual is fine. The first line of monster is clearly visible, I think the problem is only in the 2nd line. In the other “dungeon crawler” games usually you have only one line of monsters so there isn’t that problem. I could do the same but I really liked the idea of having more “depth” in the battle, with close-combat first line and long-range 2nd line, similarly to what happens in Magic Stones.

Time to do some tests with this configuration now…!

TOD: point of views!

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I paused doing the spells because I realized I haven’t yet decided what visual the game will have. I would like to make a first person visual like dungeon master, but I’m not sure it is an easy task to simulate a whole dungeon in 3d (even if is not real-time).

I mean, I should render several layers based on what the player see on the dungeon, with distant objects, monsters, etc. Also this would mean having a huge map to walk on. Exploration would take an importan part in this case.

However I’m thinking to use another system. That is, fewer “cells” (rooms were you can move) but with more interaction. Why have the player travel for hours into the dungeons, maybe looking for an item they should have found in a quest? I don’t like that pixel-hunting. One of the most tedious tasks in Diablo or even the recent Fate, is when you re-explore a whole map because you haven’t yet found monster X or item Y – and this takes several minutes of frustration, not fun.

So what’s my solution? my solution would be to have a map, yes, but smaller than the usual ones, in practice connecting directly all the rooms with something to do – so no more “empty rooms” with no purpose. But every room would have an encounter, a quest, a riddle, a door/chest to open, stairs going up/down to other levels, etc.

I am even thinking of displaying directly on the map what kind of stuff you can expect in it – not exactly which monsters/items of course, but just a generic icon that represent what you can find on it. I’m really thinking this would be a good idea because would cut my development time a lot (so could release the game sooner) but also would enhance the player gameplay, eliminating another frustrating part that is present in many other CRPG games.

I’ll soon post a screenshot of this system so you’ll understand better!

TOD: train your spells

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I’m still adding the spells, and had what I believe a nice idea. In most RPG games, your spells at level 1 just sucks 🙂 then when you level up, you gain more/new spells which are more powerful, and so on.

In many games like the most popular million dollar budget RPGs, the spell at level 50 is just the same spell at level 1, but instead of being named “Spark”, it is named “Infernal Flame”, and instead of doing 1dmg, it does 150 dmg!

What if the same spell you get at level 1 can be trained up and become that level 50 spell? why there’s the need to change the name and everytime replace it in your spellbook? it is wasted time for the player on a boring task!

In my game Tower Of Destiny, you’ll be able to train the spells you get at level 1. How? practicing it. In combat only, except for non-combat spells. For example, a spell like “summon food”, will increase everytime you cast it even if outside the combat. But a spell like “Heal” or “Summon Giant Rat” and so on will increase only if you cast it during the combat (to prevent cheating or bots).

I think that’s much better. This way every new spell you get, will be really a new spell – and not just a replacement for your old one. For a Red Wizard for example you’ll be able to learn the “Fire arrow” spell at level 1 and it will do just 1-3 dmg. But as you keep using it, you’ll be able to raise the damage as you level up.

Of course, there will be some checks: if you level up too fast for some reason, or if you use other spells, the basic damage value will scale accordingly to your level (I don’t want a level 10 wizard doing 1-3 dmg!) but at the same time it won’t be so powerful as it could be if you kept using it during combat.

This way each caster will shape up as you want it – and even if you get a new spell every 3 levels, they’ll be really new ones, not just older one renamed.