DROD Multiplayer
I remember 12th archivist has talked about turn based multiplayer version of Drod before. I've though a bit about it and think I have found a way it can actually be made possible, and really cool. And I'm absolutely in love with the idea!
Imagine two teams of sworded players battling each other in a normal but monsterless Dord room. (All the other elements could be there, walls, tunnels doors, trapdoors, briar etc.)
In the beginning all players will be allowed, say, four moves per second. In this stage of the game you can choose to gang up or prepare some other strategies, perhaps your team will be separated from the start. The instant someone gets within a 5 squares radius of an opponent the game will enter battle mode. The teams will then in turns be allowed one second for all the players to make their moves, starting with the team that was attacked.
If a player comes within radius of anyone, friend or foe, engaged in battle, that player will also enter the battle battle. Whenever a third person enters a battle the players will have one second each to move. First all players in one team moves then the players in the other, those who were early in battle will always be the last players in the team to move. The players not yet engaged in battle will have a second to move simultaneously with the last team mate in battle moving.
If the battle mode ends, (no players from different teams are within a five squares radius of each other), all players will be able to make four moves per second again. More than one battle can go on at the same time, if one of them only includes two players they will move simultaneously with the rest of their team mates not engaged in battle. You can't kill players moving simultaneously with you, but whenever you enter battle your sword will destroy anything it touches. If you enter a battle with your sword on another player you will have one turn to correct this.
It's important that it's always obvious to players when it's their turn to move, perhaps there could be a big light bulb at the left side of the screen that indicates that the player can make a move. If a player misses his move it will just count as a wait command.
The levels should definitely be symmetrical with a set number of possible starting positions. There could be lots of variation between levels, and the person starting a game should be able to make some customization. Set max number of players and play with or without re-spawning. (Players who die could be set in a queue. When there is one player from each side in queue they will re-spawn in an area separated from the rest of the level, perhaps by arrows.) I can imagine games where some people have to play as goblins or wraithwings, games with more than two teams, capture the flag…
But I really shouldn't get all caught up in the details. As said, I sure hope this idea will lead to a game sometime but I don't think it's possible if we don't get a
big load of new people interested in Drod
As it is now this is just a fun idea I wanted to share with you guys.
(I posted this in general because I think there’s most traffic here. Maybe this ought to go in development...?)
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Voligner is my very own DROD-like game. Please check it out!
[Last edited by Rheb at 01-14-2010 08:35 PM]
