The Unplanned Adventure

[cloud9003]

Oh ok.  ( So it can be magic shields... )

[DomReardon]

Oh ok.  ( So it can be magic shields... )

Yes, absolutely. I've done a little work on the magic system, but really not much yet. Magic won't be available at the beginning of the  game. Ultimately I will definitely include a magic shield spell and I think I will make a separate bar for that to show how long it will last. What kinds of spells I should include is something that I'd be very keen to hear peoples ideas on.

[cloud9003]

Good idea! How many spells have the player at the end of the game?

[DomReardon]

Good idea! How many spells have the player at the end of the game?

We'll see, I don't have an end in mind for this project yet, I'm just going to keep on adding. My current thinking is to have spells and weapons as icons along the bottom left of the screen, like the weapons in the demo. But they wouldn't appear until you have learnt the spell or found the weapon. It may be better to have two separate lists, one for spells, one for weapons. I'm working on the first melee weapon at the moment.

[.Minimum]

I think any spells of the kind which have an effect on the player over a period of time (Like some kind of shield would) should also have a slight downside while it is active. This way the player won't just be able to spam all his magic buttons to win fights, he'll have to use them at the right time to his advantage.

[⑨]

Maybe you could put them into categories. Each category has an icon at the bottom of the screen and a corresponding key (number keys, I suppose).
Pressing the key cycles through the items in that category. You could have an inventory that way, with potions or scrolls etc.
You could also limit the number of weapons for each category and force the player to decide which to keep and which to throw away.
Categories could be:
Small melee weapons (daggers, short swords, hand axes)
Large melee weapons (long swords, battle axes)
Ranged weapons (bows, crossbows, slingshots, throwing stars)
Shields (only useable with one-handed weapons)
Spells (maybe two categories, offensive and defensive)
Items (potions, scrolls, stuff)

[danielR]

 you should only be able to use 1 spell at a time. that would make  you think do I want to do a defensive spell or an offensive spell.
this is going to be a very hard game to make; best wishes
also make sure when you are coming up with moves that use the different "elements" like fire, water, ice, earth, grass/tree/plant, etc. like pokemon

[Oddity(007)]

this is going to be a very hard game to make; best wishes

Not at all.

[DomReardon]

Thank you guys, there are some nice ideas being thrown my way here, which is exactly what I was hoping for.

Maybe you could put them into categories. Each category has an icon at the bottom of the screen and a corresponding key (number keys, I suppose).
Pressing the key cycles through the items in that category. You could have an inventory that way, with potions or scrolls etc.
You could also limit the number of weapons for each category and force the player to decide which to keep and which to throw away.
Categories could be:
Small melee weapons (daggers, short swords, hand axes)
Large melee weapons (long swords, battle axes)
Ranged weapons (bows, crossbows, slingshots, throwing stars)
Shields (only useable with one-handed weapons)
Spells (maybe two categories, offensive and defensive)
Items (potions, scrolls, stuff)

Yes, I like this idea (nice category list too!). I think the only thing that puts me off this idea is that you would be cycling through spells and attacks from various different keys and one thing that I am hoping to achieve is a 'pick up and play' kind of feel whereby I would not need to include much in the way of instructions, so I am slightly wary of having lots of key commands. This may be because most of the games I play are console games, so I am used to having a very limited number of possible commands. I'd be very interested to hear peoples thoughts on this, is it OK to have a lot of keyboard commands? They are easy to set up, but I think it may be better to keep them to a minimum as I'm not sure that people will be bothered to learn complicated key commands for a free downloadable amatuer game. The option I was thinking of is trying to create an inventory screen with a chooser, so you would have categories exactly as you suggest but you'd set up which spell or weapon from each category you wanted to use via the inventory screen rather than by key shortcuts.

you should only be able to use 1 spell at a time. that would make  you think do I want to do a defensive spell or an offensive spell.
this is going to be a very hard game to make; best wishes
also make sure when you are coming up with moves that use the different "elements" like fire, water, ice, earth, grass/tree/plant, etc. like pokemon

Elemental magic is also a definite (assuming I can achieve it), it's not an RPG without it!

this is going to be a very hard game to make; best wishes

Not at all.

Hehe, it's true, nothing about this so far has been hard. I may well not manage to include some elements that I would like to include, but that's fine. The magic system is something that will be interesting to experiment with. The point is that I'm not attempting to make a complete game here, my aim is to release progress to the forum and keep on adding to that, to make an interesting and evolving project.

[⑨]

Thank you guys, there are some nice ideas being thrown my way here, which is exactly what I was hoping for.

Maybe you could put them into categories. Each category has an icon at the bottom of the screen and a corresponding key (number keys, I suppose).
Pressing the key cycles through the items in that category. You could have an inventory that way, with potions or scrolls etc.
You could also limit the number of weapons for each category and force the player to decide which to keep and which to throw away.
Categories could be:
Small melee weapons (daggers, short swords, hand axes)
Large melee weapons (long swords, battle axes)
Ranged weapons (bows, crossbows, slingshots, throwing stars)
Shields (only useable with one-handed weapons)
Spells (maybe two categories, offensive and defensive)
Items (potions, scrolls, stuff)

Yes, I like this idea (nice category list too!). I think the only thing that puts me off this idea is that you would be cycling through spells and attacks from various different keys and one thing that I am hoping to achieve is a 'pick up and play' kind of feel whereby I would not need to include much in the way of instructions, so I am slightly wary of having lots of key commands. This may be because most of the games I play are console games, so I am used to having a very limited number of possible commands. I'd be very interested to hear peoples thoughts on this, is it OK to have a lot of keyboard commands? They are easy to set up, but I think it may be better to keep them to a minimum as I'm not sure that people will be bothered to learn complicated key commands for a free downloadable amatuer game. The option I was thinking of is trying to create an inventory screen with a chooser, so you would have categories exactly as you suggest but you'd set up which spell or weapon from each category you wanted to use via the inventory screen rather than by key shortcuts.

That's sort of why I suggested limiting the number of items. You won't have to scroll through endless lists.
You press "2", the large melee weapons list pops up, showing a longsword a two-handed axe and a spear with the sword selected.
Pressing "2" again selects the next weapon, clicking or waiting for a second confirms the selection and closes the menu.
Of course while the menu is open you can still walk and do all the other stuff.
I *think* Half Life 2 uses a similar system for this.

this is going to be a very hard game to make; best wishes

Not at all.

Hehe, it's true, nothing about this so far has been hard. I may well not manage to include some elements that I would like to include, but that's fine. The magic system is something that will be interesting to experiment with. The point is that I'm not attempting to make a complete game here, my aim is to release progress to the forum and keep on adding to that, to make an interesting and evolving project.

So it's kind of a never-ending, constantly expanding project?
Maybe you should set up a git repository for it? (I suggest github.com)
People could always get the current version and derive their own versions from it, adding weapons or enemies, etc. which you could then merge back into the main version and so on.

[cloud9003]

Is there a regeneration rate for the mana? Or the player has to find a potion ( or something else... ) to regain his mana?

[DomReardon]

That's sort of why I suggested limiting the number of items. You won't have to scroll through endless lists.
You press "2", the large melee weapons list pops up, showing a longsword a two-handed axe and a spear with the sword selected.
Pressing "2" again selects the next weapon, clicking or waiting for a second confirms the selection and closes the menu.
Of course while the menu is open you can still walk and do all the other stuff.
I *think* Half Life 2 uses a similar system for this.

OK, Yes, this makes a lot of sense. Half Life 2 (which you recommended to me a while back and I have been looking at since) is truly a great source of inspiration. I'll look at that again. Cycling through weapons and spells with the number keys, as you suggest, does sound like a good way to go for me. I'll try to make this happen. I think I need an inventory screen as well though, so there's a fair bit of coding for me to attempt to get my head around.

So it's kind of a never-ending, constantly expanding project?
Maybe you should set up a git repository for it? (I suggest github.com)
People could always get the current version and derive their own versions from it, adding weapons or enemies, etc. which you could then merge back into the main version and so on.

Yes, exactly.The git thing does sound interesting, but I think this project will just be for the dim3 forum. For me the point is to create something with dim3 for the dim3 enthusiasts.

Is there a regeneration rate for the mana? Or the player has to find a potion ( or something else... ) to regain his mana?

At the moment I have a timer for it, so yes, it has a regeneration rate. Quite slow though, so the player will also need to collect potions, I don't have a potions system in place yet, it should be easy enough to implement, hopefully.

[⑨]

So it's kind of a never-ending, constantly expanding project?
Maybe you should set up a git repository for it? (I suggest github.com)
People could always get the current version and derive their own versions from it, adding weapons or enemies, etc. which you could then merge back into the main version and so on.

Yes, exactly.The git thing does sound interesting, but I think this project will just be for the dim3 forum. For me the point is to create something with dim3 for the dim3 enthusiasts.

That's what I was talking about, sorry if that wasn't clear enough.
You'd just put up the data folder there and everyone from the forum could get it and modify it. Not modify your copy, of course. Just their own. However you can pull the changes they made into your version if you like them. And it's free hosting for your project. Even though it would be visible for everyone, people who don't know about Dim3 probably wont bother looking at it, trust me. And if they do, they'd learn about dim3 that way, which could be a good thing, right? Mostly they just don't care though.

EDIT: Oh and it's good for working alone too. You can keep track of your changes and revert them, if you want to go back to an earlier version or you can make a branch to test a new feature without messing with the stuff that already works, so you wont accidentaly break stuff. I use git for absolutely everything.

[DomReardon]

So it's kind of a never-ending, constantly expanding project?
Maybe you should set up a git repository for it? (I suggest github.com)
People could always get the current version and derive their own versions from it, adding weapons or enemies, etc. which you could then merge back into the main version and so on.

Yes, exactly.The git thing does sound interesting, but I think this project will just be for the dim3 forum. For me the point is to create something with dim3 for the dim3 enthusiasts.

That's what I was talking about, sorry if that wasn't clear enough.
You'd just put up the data folder there and everyone from the forum could get it and modify it. Not modify your copy, of course. Just their own. However you can pull the changes they made into your version if you like them. And it's free hosting for your project. Even though it would be visible for everyone, people who don't know about Dim3 probably wont bother looking at it, trust me. And if they do, they'd learn about dim3 that way, which could be a good thing, right? Mostly they just don't care though.

EDIT: Oh and it's good for working alone too. You can keep track of your changes and revert them, if you want to go back to an earlier version or you can make a branch to test a new feature without messing with the stuff that already works, so you wont accidentaly break stuff. I use git for absolutely everything.

I see. That sounds like a good idea. I'll set up an account.

[.Minimum]

Im wondering if you are going to add rifles/firearms in this game. Not automatic assault rifles from cod/halo or whatever, Old-style muskets and such which would just act as a more powerful crossbow/longbow, because they have got to be invented at some point, and you can only make a bow so powerful without breaking believability. Just an idea, as some kind of rare weapon. Dunno if it would fit with your theme though.