eytanz
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File: DRogue_mod.zip (21.2 KB)
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So, I decided to join in on the modding craze, and see what DROD would look like if it were created in the glory day of ASCII games, like Rogue, Nethack, or Angband.

This mod is still in development - I didn't do any of the monsters and quite a bit of the terrain yet, but I think it's shaping up quite nicely. The only real problem is that it will be very difficult to play because: A - Transparency looked really weird so I gave it up, but that means that something is standing on something else (say, Beethro's sword on a trapdoor), you can't see the lower thing. And B - I don't think I'll be able to perserve directions for eyes.

Maybe once the mod is completed I'll have two versions - a "pure" one, and a playable one with transparency and some sort of eye direction indication.

I did have to use color, so this isn't really faithful to the real old-school games. I'm mostly borrowing Angband convetions for symbols.

Edit: The mod is complete!

[Edited by eytanz on 09-20-2004 at 08:30 PM GMT]

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DiMono
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Heehee. ASCII games are so good. I'd use a 7 for a NE arrow, though, it's a little more intuitive.

And ADOM used colour, as well as a handful of others, so it's not really breaking the rules to include them.

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eytanz
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Good idea about the NE arrow. It'll also free up the T for tar mothers.

ADOM is a third-generation Roguelike, dating back to the mid ninties, as far as I know. Old-school roguelikes date back to pre-personal computer days and didn't use color.

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DiMono
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I think the problem with not including transparency is that if an arrow is down, you have no idea at all what it's covering. It could be open floor, a checkpoint, trapdoor, crumbly wall, or even pit. I think the best bet is to include color and transparency, or I fear it shall be unplayable. If not for arrows, though, I don't think you'd need transparency to pull this mod off.

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eytanz
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There's also a problem with monsters on trapdoors and open yellow doors; they won't make the game unplayable but they will make it very annoying.

Once I'm done with the tiles, I'll see if there's any way I can play with them to make transparency work. The main problem is that the traditional roguelike graphics for floor (.) and open doors (') are really small, so even with transparency, they can be easily obscured by other stuff. So there appears to be a tradeoff between looking authentic and playability - I'll see if I can find a decent balance, but if I can't I'd rather go with a style that looks good but is unplayable than vice versa, given that this is in any case a novelty mod intended as an homage and not really much more.

Note that in KDD, there are very few places where there would be a problem because arrows are rarely placed on anything other than open floor (in fact, are there any arrows on trapdoors in KDD?) So at worst, this style will only work with KDD.

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DiMono
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eytanz wrote:
are there any arrows on trapdoors in KDD?

Yep, there are a few on level 15

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eytanz
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Updated again with some monsters. Since I'm reserving the s's for serpents (lower case for body, capital for head), I've used A for spiders.

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gamer_extreme_101
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So much modding....makes me want to cry .

I wouold suggest just making the floors a solid color in order to get transparency to work. If you make it solid black, you should then be able to get all your transparency to work. As far as I know, the color it shows on transparency in-game is the solid tile used in the basic floor tile rhythm(Hope that made sense). If you still want to be able to keep the floor tiles "alternating" so you can see how close each object is, stick with small characters, such as , . ' ` .

I'm installing your version of DROD as we speak, and I'll see how it looks in-game. Once you get it all done, I'd also suggest changing GameScreen.bmp.

Wow, this is sounding WAY more critical than I want it to be. This is an awesome idea, and I can't wait to play it in-game!

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eytanz
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I know how to get transparency to work from a technical aspect. It's a matter of looking good.

As for the floors, they're all light grey "."s. I'm limited by the look of the games I'm trying to emulate. And as I said to DiMono, at least at this point, I'd rather match the look than maintain full playability.

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Stuwy
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Wow, you beat me to it Eytan. Fantastic so far. The Nethack idea is pretty fun. However another style can be something that is if you were playing an Atari back in the early 70's.

eytanz
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That'd be an interesting thing to see... Not quite my style, though. Especially since I never really had an Atari.

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NoahT
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Yeah, I think that would get interesting. DROD made up of Centipede features sounds like a nice idea, though Centipede doesn't have enough features to represent every single DROD feature...

-Noah

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DiMono
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Just remember to use a capital S for the head, and small s for the body, so we can tell the difference:

+%%%%+++++
+.........
+sssssS...
+s........
+s..ssssss
+ssss.....
++++++++++

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eytanz
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I just released a new version; it's possible to play through all of KDD level 1 with the new graphics now. Also, try out tar - it's a lot harder when you can't easily see where the corners are.

DiMono - that was my plan for the serpent, see above.

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wackhead_uk
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Cool! Hard to play...

eytanz
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Ok - final update. Everything is now converted, and the mod works fine. Note that this version of the mod replaces all the style bitmaps, though they are all identical. It now is possible to play the entirety of KDD with ASCII graphics! - it's harder, as a lot of information is lost (lack of transparency, precise serpent and tar shape, and eye directionality are the major issues), but it should be possible to imagine DROD was released in 1985, and play it like this.

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gamer_extreme_101
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File: DROgueD.ico (3.2 KB)
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License: Other
From: Unspecified

I tip my hat to you, Eytan. You mod is kick-butt awesome! Admitadly, I wouldn't use it for any evil-eye levels, but it rocks for everything else! I'd love to see the next mod you do!

And if anyone cares, I made an icon as I do for every installation of DROD to tell them apart. Yes, it isn't very original, but I don't do much creativity seeing as I have....oh....about 6 different icons/installations. Maybe later I'll do something cool and creative.

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