Okay, as I've been saying I plan to start over on the code, both so that I can apply what I've learned from the ground up and so I can make some significant changes now that I've gotten a feel for how this game handles. So if you have anything to say about what the game should be like or care to poke any holes in my ideas, this is the time to speak up.
Here's the big list:
1) EDITOR
You'll get one. So you can make plenty of dungeons for each other to play, just like in DROD.
The current plan is to have no scripting - so no unfair hidden surprises for the player - but otherwise you will be free to design your own monsters, levels, magic items, and so forth. You can also add dialogue to your monsters, change the base values of consumables and determine how powerful the player will be when the game starts.
2) COMBAT SYSTEM
I'm not happy with the way the offense stat is overwhelmingly important compared to the other stats. I added mana and made all those stat-affecting scrolls so that the player would have some choices, but as it stands you just can't afford to skimp on offense. If you do, you'll be stopped by monsters you can't touch.
So here's the new system I'm considering: offense and defense no longer determine how much damage you do per blow. That will be a fixed amount. Instead, they will determine how often each combatant gets to strike.
Combat will proceed in rounds, and each combatant will have a counter. Each round, each side adds their offense to their counter. When your counter equals or exceeds your opponent's defense, you make an attack that round and your counter resets to 0. You can make 1 attack per round at most.
3) BRIBE SYSTEM
In the Game Maker forum, someone suggested that I expand the key/door system to allow the use of quest items for getting certain monsters out of the way. While it actually makes far more sense to use the bribe system for this, it's otherwise a great idea.
Instead of asking you for points from your stats, a monster will be able to ask for collectibles. They may ask you to give up precious magic items. Or they may ask for quest items that are worthless to you, but which you'll have to move Heaven and Earth to get for them (you'll still be able to express your dislike of fetch quests by gutting them, of course).
4) TRAITS
Existing traits will be expanded on a bit.
FACTION TRAITS) Instead of just having innocents, you can have up to four different factions in a dungeon. Each one will work just like innocents do now: kill a member of a faction, and they all become unbribable.
You can combine this with the expanded bribe system to make the player choose sides in a conflict between factions. Just give unbribable members of each side something the other side wants...
MASTER/SLAVE TRAITS) I don't plan to implement multi-tile monsters (like the octopus and dragon in TOTS), as there's not much you can do with them that you can't do with single-tile monsters. The one special thing you
could do, though, was kill the octopus' head and have the rest of the body die immediately. That's a mechanic with potential.
Thus, the master and slave traits. There will be 4 of each (like with factions), and each master trait will correspond to a different slave trait. If all the masters of a given type are removed from a level, all the corresponding slaves will disappear as well. If the slaves also have faction traits, this will not count as killing them.
RANGED ATTACK) Will probably change to work as soon as you step next to the monster, rather than when you try to walk into it. Will probably be renamed as well, to avoid confusion if I later decide to introduce something that
really works at range.
5) COLLECTIBLES
Some ideas I'm considering:
SCROLL OF ALTER SELF) Alienated everyone through indiscriminate slaughter? Longing to go back to those sweet, halcyon days when angry mobs of people you've wronged
weren't trying to kill you on sight?
Well, now you can! Just use one of these babies and in no time you'll look like a brand new person. Literally. Specifically you'll look like someone who
isn't, you know, a murderer.
Resets your standing with all factions when used.
SCROLL OF VISIONS) Give yourself the power to see ahead. After using one, you can travel one level higher or lower than you've normally reached. You won't be allowed to exit travel mode on those floors - so this won't get you past obstacles - but you'll have much more information to plan your moves with.
Each additional scroll you use will increase the range of this power by 1 level in each direction.
CREDIT CARD) Passive item. Will probably be given a less anachronistic name later. If your money reserves aren't already negative, you can go negative to make a bribe. But for each point below 0 that you go this way, you lose an additional point.
6) DISPLAY
Someone in the Game Maker thread made a screenshot of my game, which I've snagged and modified for my own sinister purposes. Specifically, so I could show you guys how I plan to change the displays:
http://dungeongames2.com/testScreen.PNG
You can see that the old text and command panels are gone, and most of their space has been merged into the title display at the top-right. This space will serve as the new text panel. When there's some particular text to display - such as when you step on a magic mouth - it will appear here. When there isn't, it will show the title, dungeon name and level as normal. The numbers in parenthesis are the lowest and highest levels you can reach via travelling (first set of parenthesis) and the highest and lowest levels you can see through visions (second set).
The stat panel is unchanged, aside from being moved down a bit.
Below the stat panel is a new panel showing (from left to right): how much damage you do per hit, how much the mana drain from a monster's hit is reduced by, the range of your visions, and your standing with each faction. Our intrepid hero can still deal with the blue faction, but has managed to tick off just about everyone else.
The key panel is unchanged, except for being slightly smaller.
Ditto for the collectibles panel.
The command panel has been expanded. Instead of having to hit a button to move the cursor to the collectibles panel, both panels can be treated as a single menu now.
7) INSERT YOUR FEEDBACK HERE
Okay, feel free to disect not only all of the above ideas, but anything else I didn't mention. Like the color scheme, for example... Does the red-yellow-green-blue pattern actually help anyone, or should I drop it?
____________________________
My gaming blog is at
http://dungeon-games.com/blog/
[Last edited by DGM at 01-23-2007 11:52 PM]
As I wrote before here somewhere, I like this game style a lot. I completed both the Tutorial and Main game. Below are some comments. You've probably already noticed, considered, or have plans for all of these, but I'll just throw them out anyway.
/dy
), blue is safest, then green and yellow, while red is most dangerous. Also, hotness of salsa/hot sauce comes to mind. BGYR seems to be a more common ordering from mild to extreme.
