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I'll think about extra exp maybe, but in any case I won't put any time limit for sure. I hate that in games

jack1974 wrote:I'll think about extra exp maybe, but in any case I won't put any time limit for sure. I hate that in games

Now that's what I want hear. I think its for the best!

On a seperate note, I was reading your blog and it occurred to me have you given any thought to auto-mapping yet? I'm not sure if each level of the tower will be maze-like or not, but certainly a nice auto-map which places symbols whenever you encounter something major or minor would really help the player, especially if you decide to go with a maze-like environment.

For example, the auto-map will make a symbol whenever the player encounters the following on the level:

Light Red Star for weak monsters (your everyday normal monsters)
Dark Red Star for strong monsters (bosses, etc.)
White Star for items not yet picked up.
Gray Star for items dropped.
Yellow Star for treasure not yet collected.
Brown Star for staircases.
Green Stars for positive events (like health fountain, mana well, etc.)
Black Stars for negative events (known traps, pitfalls, etc.)
And the list goes on....

I was also thinking as the auto-map fills these stars in; whenever, the player moves their cursor over the symbol it will give them more info. about what is contained in that spot.

So for instance: I have discovered five green stars which are scattered about the map. If I mouse over the green star in the far right corner of the map, it tells me that a rebirth shrine exists there. If I mouse over the green star in the bottom left corner of the map, it tells me that a merchant exists there. And so on and so forth for the other three green stars and any other green stars I come across.

Yes the automap SHOULD work like that! I hope that it won't take too much time to program it, but I'll try to implement it as you're describing... player should only think about which strategy to use, not trying to remember what there was in that dark corner...

Read the latest blog and I like all the red/white/yellow etc. magic classes. One minor thing I don't like is that druids would be a fighter/mage hybrid class. This could be a mistake as later you mention paladin and skirmishers as the hybrid classes. Still I couldn't envision druids(seem like pure mages who specialize in nature magic) and skirmishers(seem like a beserker/barbarian type) as hybrids. I'm pretty much anti-hybrids in general, why not take the specialist?

Well I'm currently revising all the skills. Initially I put min-max values, then I thought a better idea: a skill increase multiplier instead.
Basically says how fast that class learn a particular skills. There are some exception like wizard, healers etc that can't use 2h weapon (I don't see a wizard with a giant sword on hands). But apart for some obvious limitation, the rest is open-ended.
I mean, if you want you can have your wizard use his dagger (piercing weapon) and, with LOT of time, he would be able to get to piercing skill 100 - same as a warrior, but of course a warrior would be able to get to level 100 much faster.
This is just a stupid example of course there are lot of combinations possible this way, even for fighting classes.

In practice every skill (unless the class forbid it) can be mastered if you continuously practice it in the game - just some classes increase some skills faster than others.

So you can specialize. Two druid can be very different, one unable to fight but excellent in green magic, the other excellent fighter with sabre and shield and just average in magic

I like this system. Is like Oblivion, but with a different class multiplier - interesting idea. Also, since you mentioned that you'd have to use up to 25 "heroes" (characters) through the game, that would be even more interesting. Having some fighters specialized in one kind of weapon, then going back to town to switch hero if I find a new powerful weapon of a particular kind (axe, mace, etc).
This is something I've never seen before in a single player CRPG. Will be interesting to check it out!

jack1974 wrote: So you can specialize. Two druid can be very different, one unable to fight but excellent in green magic, the other excellent fighter with sabre and shield and just average in magic

Roleplay wise I don't like the idea of a druid with a sabre and shiled. I wouldn't be bothered if he had a shield of nature or a Sabre made from elephant tusks. I could see a druid fighter as long as wielded weapons like Axe of the Elephant, Sword of the Lion, etc. I wouldn't be bothered be a wizard wielding a super powerful axe as long as it was something like the Axe of Magical Mastery. Just change the nature of the weapons/armor to make them line up roleplay wise to their class.

Or you could do it like:

Your party finds the uber powerful Axe of Bashing. You want to give it to your druid. You go back to town. Your party goes to the druid guild and the guild adds some enhancements to the Axe to make it the mighty Axe of the Forests. Now in the druids inventory screen the Axe is made of bark and looks more druidy.

Now as for the skills are there going to be any geek skills like:

Diplomacy
Bartering
Dancing
Economics
etc.

Well while I would like to add such fancy skills, I am unfortunately forced to concentrate on fighting skills only
But once the system works, I'll be able to expand it - but for the first episode surely I want to concentrate in finishing the basic rules for fights first.
Believe me, it is already much more complex than any other games I've made in the past!

KnockOut wrote:

jack1974 wrote: So you can specialize. Two druid can be very different, one unable to fight but excellent in green magic, the other excellent fighter with sabre and shield and just average in magic

Roleplay wise I don't like the idea of a druid with a sabre and shiled. I wouldn't be bothered if he had a shield of nature or a Sabre made from elephant tusks. I could see a druid fighter as long as wielded weapons like Axe of the Elephant, Sword of the Lion, etc. I wouldn't be bothered be a wizard wielding a super powerful axe as long as it was something like the Axe of Magical Mastery. Just change the nature of the weapons/armor to make them line up roleplay wise to their class.

Or you could do it like:

Your party finds the uber powerful Axe of Bashing. You want to give it to your druid. You go back to town. Your party goes to the druid guild and the guild adds some enhancements to the Axe to make it the mighty Axe of the Forests. Now in the druids inventory screen the Axe is made of bark and looks more druidy.

Now as for the skills are there going to be any geek skills like:

Diplomacy
Bartering
Dancing
Economics
etc.

While I appreciate all the suggestions you have made, I think your trying to make this a needlessly Complicated Role Playing Game (CRPG, sorry I couldn't resist).

I'm not sure if you are getting your inspiration from Vogel's Spiderweb games, but I think ToD should be like Jack's other games: simple and to the point.

The amount of games out there that make you think like your back in school are plenty enough, and for me that is where the fun gets lost. Sure, I want a challenging game just like anybody else, but not at the expense of continuous gameplay.

Maybe I'm in the minority but I for one don't feel like being overburdened by a game, because everything requires detailed information and thought in order to execute. I want to be able to step away from a game for a week, and still be able to come back to it without missing a step.

Magic Stones is a perfect example. At one point I went several months without playing, but when I came back to it the time gap seemed non-existant. The reason is because the game is kept simple (read: NOT dumbed-down) so you don't feel like your mind is going to explode.

Heh well is clear what kind of RPG knockout would want
But as I said, I'm not so stupid to try to make something bigger than I can. I'll start simpler first, and expand later. I like those kind of games, one of my preferred RPG is Fallout. But I'm not going to attempt to make such a HUGE game alone now!
Beside, there isn't much to socialize in a dungeon infested by monsters, so those skills would be useless right now