[Micah]

To be honest, I think footstep sound effects are obnoxious in a text mode setting. I suppose if they were really quiet...

[KKairos]

I don't necessarily think they're obnoxious but I do sort of feel that footstep noises in MZX games are far from necessary.

[weasel]

If the footsteps are fairly quiet and only occur once every two or three spaces, they'll be fine.

[Padz]

Ok i've done a few of the changes koji mentioned (in New Game Releases), the texboxes are smoother now they only open/close at the begining/end of convo.

Also put in some more HINT boxes explaining keys.

Just to clarify the combat room in the demo was just my combat test board that I attached to the demo for you to see, its not meant to be an intro to combat.

I am however working on a combat/skill tutorial now. It will be quite extensive as it could become fairly complicated. I'll also write up a seperate help menu that you can bring up ingame which will explain the tutorial again in text format. There will be an option to skip the tutorial when starting the game.

T-bone, Galladin: If you've had a look, what do you think?

Also I prob wont be putting footprint sounds in just yet, but if anyone has any ambient music with similar styles to the 2 tracks in the demo i'd be grateful. And if anyone could help me locate some weapon sound effects and other usefull sounds that would be spiffing

[T-Bone]

Micah, on Aug 4 2008, 04:36 PM, said:

To be honest, I think footstep sound effects are obnoxious in a text mode setting. I suppose if they were really quiet...

ZZT had step sounds haha does anyone remember that?

As for the game, I did a quick run through, didn't get very far (I'm at work on a computer with no sound). The design is great and your text boxes are pretty decent. I noticed that if the last name in the beginning is too short you can't proceed.

This post has been edited by T-Bone: 04 December 2008 - 07:26 PM

[Padz]

The demo is short anyway, It just shows a basic town level connecting to some combat areas. It has the beginning of the tutorial also.

I also set a 3 character minimum on 1st or 2nd names.

[T-Bone]

This game's pretty awesome man. I love the graphics as I've said before and the music goes well with the scenery. I noticed though there's a part of outside where you can go underground and then your just in a big open space. Think there's a hole where there shouldn't be (this was in the version posted in your original topic... so this may not be the right version i'm playing).

Oh and the character limit of 3 is fine.

[Padz]

Hmmm I dont know about that bug, it may already be fixed. That demo was literally just a teaser to see what peoples thoughts were.

I'm working on a combat tutorial at the moment and smothing out some of the engines. I'll release an official Demo which will basically be the 1st tutorial chapter of the game including some basic missions and exploration areas but most likely no more than 10% of the final game.

And that'll probably be it for a long while as I am by no means a speedy Mzxer!

I'd also love some idea's on what anyone wants to see in this game and if anyone can help with music/sounds.

[Galladin]

Right, like I said in the New Game Releases, I tried it out. However, all I had to "complain" about had already been pointed out by Koji. You're on the right tracks, just keep going!

[Padz]

Hello everyone,

I'm back Mzxing, for a few weeks a least! I'm not in Hiveworld mode at the moment I'm feeling some work on the RPG. I don't have any major plans but I do want to work on making the world design and history random, I've tried before and had problems with how the different area types connect, I generally don't like messy links. But I will try again and see what happens.

If anyone has ideas or indeed any input please don't hesitate, you may just tip me into a massive MZX drive!

[KKairos]

Keep it simple. One gimmick, two max. Battle system first.

[Padz]

Ha! Okay I'll try and keep the gimmicks to the minimum. I have no plans what so ever for the battle system though. It is eluding me. I'll probably go similar to ADOM style but real time. But I'm really not sure how it will turn out.
I want to make it so there is more than just enemies attack player as well, Maybe the player walks in on a massive battle or other warriors battling monsters and chooses what side to help, that sort of thing.

[Padz]

Ok after a little think, I reckon my best bet for a least a semi-random clean looking world map would be using lots of pre-made tiles with certain special random location points within them. If it works no map should be the same, but area tiles may be recognised. A worthwhile sacrifice I think.

[Padz]

Okay I've been designing my map tiles, these are some of them so far, they are 5x5. I started using 10x10 but they were just unmanagable. I'm not sure how many different tiles there will be, at the moment there's only 5 terrain types and there are quite a few as the amount needed gets exponentially bigger for every tile type added.

I've tried a few method of tile placement, it basically starts in the top left and works across in rows checking the previous and above tiles to decide it's own, added in with some randomness. It's by no means perfect. I cannot figure out code that'll do it all for me yet it's a bit too complicated with the amount of tiles. But I can get it working if I do it tile by tile as a last resort.

I plan on having huge maps so the tile amounts will be in the hundreds. Once the tiles are set the engine will create random locations, events and histories and modify the locale appropriately. The scope of this seems quite large even for me! So I don't know what'll actually end up of this idea.

[Padz]

Okay this is another system I'm playing around with, it still uses the tiles, just in a different way. It can create some hugely random landscapes but it needs neatening up. Point to note this is only a basic version with 6 tile types.

[Padz]

Okay I've refined the world generator, it is all cosmetic at the moment. The next stage is the location placement and interlink, basically town/city/quest area and roads that will link them.
I'm also going to keep refining the basic world generator to have more tile variety, oceans and overall map types.

This demo takes a minute or so to design the map(500x250 so a fairly large world) on my PC set on mzx_speed 1. But the way I see it is that it will only be done once per game and is worth the wait.

Enjoy, Padz

Attached File(s)

•  AL_V1.03.zip (11.8K)
  Number of downloads: 116

[Koji]

I am thoroughly impressed with the results of your engine, the ONLY thing that might be a problem is making sure that a generated map can be fully explored by the player or explored ENOUGH such that the game can be completed.

To this end you probably want to make a system that will derive the "story" by placing the key spots FIRST, and making sure that they have connected paths (ala simple dungeon gen) then using that as a heuristic you can force each tile to have an exit on each side that the determined paths require. Everything else of course could stay randomized, but this would allow you to be sure that the game is playable.

[Padz]

Arrr good point, but I have a plan! Basically the next stage of the map creation is plotting the towns and cities which will have connecting roads to a certain extent. so at least a large enough part should be explorable. For the parts that aren't reachable early on, all terrain types will eventually be traversable with the correct training and tools.

For example, There are 3 types of mountain - Average/Sheer/Extreme and to cross each type will require a certain level in the mountaineering skill and mountaineering tools.
This will be the same for all terrain types (note that in the above demo there are only the basic 6, there will be more)

It will take some playing with to get right, but I think it is possible. (Also note that all rivers wont be southerly like in this demo I was just too lazy to do more types)

Regards

[Koji]

Ah sounds cool, cant wait for this to be completed as well as your other game(s). Just remember to keep things simple and not let them get to involved otherwise you will finish neither

[Padz]

I've been refining the world creation and attempting to make it a little quicker as it is quite slow on my laptop. There are now less straight edge anomalies and the division between different terrains is better.

I've also created a randomized underground layer which will link in to the top layer via caves as other means of travel around the map (cave crawling skill and tools may be required)

I'm now finishing off the river generation, then moving on to towns and roads.

[Koji]

This is just a thought, but perhaps you shouldn't worry to much about the time it takes to generate a map, and use the map generation more like a tool like Ken uses a generator to make his umpteen million planets for SF (do not do that) you could use this generator to make medium to large map areas and then have it save the board into mzm's so you can call them up into an editor to edit them.

Of course this probably wouldn't be the game you were aiming to make, and if that's the case then never mind, but if it comes right down to the map generation taking too long and you thinking it's not worth it, cut your losses and use it as a tool to generate content you can tailor to a scenario.

"People who can't DO advise "

[Padz]

It's a good idea for testing and such but you're right in saying it wouldn't be the game I want to make. My thoughts on getting round the world generation time (I expect somewhere between 2 and 10 minutes depending on processor power) is to have an intro movie/game clips/minigame/or whatever comes into my head, run on the overlay while the map is building. This will have to be of low processor use though as to not affect the map build time much.

[Hoof]

you know, i tried your download. it was cool, but slow. Then I added a "set commands to 30000" or something like that at the top and it only took like 15-20 seconds. Any help?


Very cool results, though. I can't wait to see the future incarnations of this.

[Padz]

If you set MapX or MapY to 30000 then it would be trying to place tiles off the board area which would make it go quick but not a very good map lol. If it was 'layers' then it would take a lot longer so not that one. i dont know lol. but like i said i've got plans for covering the generation time.

[astral]

http://www.digitalmz...?title=Commands

He's talking about the built-in counter "commands" which changes the number of commands Megazeux performs before ending the cycle for that robot. Increasing it increases the number of operations done, in this case it would improve the speed of your generation to operate at an astronomically high number of commands and then return it to 40 when finished. You have to be extra careful to put your cycle 1/wait 1 in there in order to end the cycle manually in busy loop situations, otherwise you'll bring the machine to a crawl.

[Hoof]

astral, on Feb 3 2009, 03:51 PM, said:

http://www.digitalmz...?title=Commands

He's talking about the built-in counter "commands" which changes the number of commands Megazeux performs before ending the cycle for that robot. Increasing it increases the number of operations done, in this case it would improve the speed of your generation to operate at an astronomically high number of commands and then return it to 40 when finished. You have to be extra careful to put your cycle 1/wait 1 in there in order to end the cycle manually busy loop situations, otherwise you'll bring the machine to a crawl.

This is indeed what I was referring to. Useful to keep in mind.

[Padz]

Wow! that command worked wonders! Cant believe I forgot about that command! Cheers guys!

[Captain Failmore]

So THAT'S what 'commands' does.

I WILL ABUSE THIS GREATLY.

EVENTUALLY.

I STILL NEED TO GET SOME CRAP FIGURED OUT by the way awesome stuff, Padz.

[Padz]

i've now made the world map into a full continent surrounded by ocean. the continents aren't random at the moment but the type will be randomly chosen from a few pre-made ones. unless i find a good way of making a random continent. there will be random island placement in the oceans however.
I've been working on town placement methods and how the engine will scan the completed board and place event locations. I'm also looking in to random history(city/place names, wars, natural disasters all sorts) generation and how it will effect the world map.

[Padz]

Well I haven't been MZXing much recently with work and whatnot, but I have been working on ideas on paper.

Along with ideas for Hiveworld and Unnamed RPG I've started up two new projects outlined below:

(unnamed)

Set in a world where magic once ruled, now technology has evolved to a level similar to the medieval ages combined with the industrial age but electricity has not yet been discovered. The civilisation has learnt to use steam, clockwork and harnessed magic combined to form powerful engines and advanced cities. all magic is controlled by one order who harness it within certain crystals and the is no free magic in the world.
I wont discuss the characters plot at this time, but I do have one. It's loosely based off hiveworld engines and will be adventure/rpg. I'm also I designing a one-on-one battle engine where you control each part of combat and attacks in a very detailed way. rather than the traditional limited attack in this engine you will choose each stage of an attack and the enemy will react to each stage. I'll explain in more detail some when.

Dante's Equation

If any of you have read the book you'll know what i'm on about, if not i'd look it up and buy a copy ( http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dantes-Equation-Ja...2697&sr=8-1 ) it's a fantastic read about alternate universes and quantum physics. basically my adaption from the book as a game would be adventure/rpg (thats all i do!) where you are a scientist researching into wave theory and stuff and discover a way to affect the wold and travel between alternate universes by changing your alignment. basically depending how evil/good you are depends on what universe you go to when you enter a wormhole. and each universe will have ways to change your alignment

these last two are just n concept at the moment with not much done in mzx yet.