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[JWK5]

The transparent squares were set to some ad hoc values, it wasn't something I'd adjusted properly (and thus why they look jarring).

In any case, I think I've found a better solution to how the view space is put together. Essentially it's going to be composed of 6 'slices' 3 rows of 2, and then a background image (which will shift and change depending on your position on the map and the direction you are facing). I am going to manually scale down the slices (thus creating 3 images per slice) and extend middle and background slices so that they reach the edge of the view space and also so that I can create their fading by hand (so that it meshes more natUrually with the background).





After reading around on the net I decided to bump up the minimum resolution to 1024x768 but I am going to support resolutions beyond that, up to 1080p (which is what I use), and thus offering more HUD space for more direct access to character info, etc.



I've been working on the battle system as well, the game is going to be somewhat card-based. Each time you enter a dungeon you put together a deck of abilities (or use a pre-made one). These are things like spells, special attacks, etc. but also cards that can be used to change certain things about the dungeon. Once you use an ability it is removed from the deck (but not from your collection) so you have to be careful about what abilities you are using where because you could wind up leaving yourself empty-handed for a critical fight. The cards are not randomly dealt to you in battle, though, you can choose any card the character can "play" from your current dungeon deck.

The ability cards have a specific "type" (sword skill, arcane magic, prayer, trickery, etc.) and each character has restrictions on what types they can use, so you want to build your dungeon decks around the characters in your party. In addition to ability cards each kind of equipment and item is also a card, and a character can carry up to 8 equipment/item cards (any combination of weapons, armors, items, etc.) All equipment and item cards have a durability value and if it is reduced to 0 the card is destroyed (though weapons and armor can be repaired, raising their durability, if they haven't already been reduced to 0).

Weapons use up 1 durability per attack (some will special abilities that can be used in lieu of a normal attack but cost more durability to use). Armor uses up 1 durability every time you take damage. Items use up 1 durability every time they are used (with things like potions, etc. usually having only 1-3 durability points to begin with). Relics will not have durability and function in a supplementary manner (for example, a Heart Pendant giving +10 HP while in your character's inventory). You can carry multiple weapon or armor cards (and thus alternate between any you carry during battle) so a big part of the strategy is planning the right combo of weapons, armor, items, and relics.

There will be no level gaining or required grinding in this game. Armor functions a lot like it does in Final Fantasy Tactics where the armor you equip determines your HP, this is the primary means (relics aside) of upgrading your HP. Weapons are the primary means of upgrading your damage. Etc. What this means is your "level progression" is your card collections. The better the cards you find the stronger you can make your character. It also means that at almost any point you can completely customize your party and form new strategies, you are not shoehorned into specific builds.

Each time you defeat a group of enemies you have a chance recieve X number of cards (at a minimum of 1). So rather than just gaining XP, every battle is like a mini-lottery where you might win big. There will also be a Persona-esque mid-battle mini game where you can try to acquire a summon card from an enemy (which let's you summon that kind of creature during battle  as the 5th character in your row).

Also of note, the game has a day and night cycle and time passes with each "step", or room transition, you make in the dungeon. Some events, enemy groups, abilities, etc. will function or be completely different depending on whether it is day or night (or in some cases evening or dawn). There are no random battles in the game, you can see the monster groups (well, in abstract form) before you encounter them and they move about the dungeon like the FOEs do in Etrian Odyssey. Once they are defeated they are taken off the dungeon map, but at each cycle change (day to night, night to day) the dungeon gets repopulated (so there is a certain sense of urgency in some cases).

I am working on a prototype of the battle setup and once I got something playable I will post it for feedback.

EDIT: I forgot to mention there are also Loot cards which are things like gems, metals and other repair material, animal parts like wolf fur, herbs, food, etc. which can be used to repair equipment, create potions, persuade (in the Persona-esque battle mini game), and so on (if you have the appropriate skills). Any loot card that is not used during dungeon exploration is "cashed in" automatically when you exit the dungeon and you are awarded money equal to the total value of all your cahsed in loot. While "in town" you can buy (and sell) equipment cards, buy ability cards, change your party roster, and so on.

Shades of Arcana on the SNES.

Ironically I had Arcana in mind when I started the project, it is one of my favorites dungeon crawlers.

Judging from your interface layout, the player will wander the dungeon alone right?

No, you'll have a party consisting of a character you create at the start of the game, 3 characters you convince to join you, and 1 monster/creature/character you summon in battle.

[baconman]

Any crafting/enchanting in those loot cards? Seems a quick and simple way of making basic equipment variations, if nothing else.

[JWK5]

Any crafting/enchanting in those loot cards? Seems a quick and simple way of making basic equipment variations, if nothing else.

Yeah, that is what I had in mind. You can have your party members carry (as one of their 8 item/equipment cards) repair tools (to repair or create new equipment using material loot cards), Alchemy kits (for potion brewing using various loot cards), thieves tools (for disarming traps and picking locks), etc.

I am starting to nail down the screen layout. I was going to have a separate battle screen from the walking (etc.) screen but I think this works much better. It is still far from final (still a little too cluttered, obviously not color balanced, not "skinned", etc.) but it at least gives an idea of the direction I am going.




I opted to ditch the traditional RPG "elements" setup for something similar but a little different. Each attack has a "Reach" state that your character switches to when the attack is made, thus if your attack was melee you are now in a melee reach state until the next non-melee attack you make. Each action also has a "Delay" value that determines how long it will be before you can make another action (and thus the turn order).

It works on sort of a counter system. Say last round a wolf had used a bite attack with a delay of 55, a warrior had used a sword attack with a delay of 25, and a wizard had used a spell with a delay of 65. The warrior would go first since his delay is the shortest (25) and his delay value would be subtracted from the wolf's 55 (now 30) and the wizard's 65 (now 40) and the turn order gets rearranged. Since the warrior still has a delay of 25, which is the least, he would go again. The round after that the warrior would have a delay of 25, the wolf's delay would be 5, and the wizard's delay would be 15 so the order would go wolf, wizard, warrior.

Because melee attack will always miss a ranged attack (as illustrated below) in it is possible to tactically "dodge" an enemy's melee attack by using a range attack with low delay so that your reach state switches before the enemy's attack gets in.

The second component of an action is its alignment. Good and evil aligned actions are generally stronger than neutral ones but are affected by day and night. Thus, you will fair better fighting the undead, for example, during the day than at night (unless many of your own attacks are evil-aligned as well).

The third component of an action is the resistance. Each action is either of body, mind, or soul origin. Many armors and relics offer a bonus against damage (reducing the amount inflicted) and resistance against status afflictions of one of the three types (for example, poisoning is a body affliction). All characters have base resistance values.



So a typical attack might look like:
Longsword: [Melee, Neutral, Body] 2x5 DMG

If the damage is listed as #x# that means it has multiple hits possible (for example 2x5 is two hits of 5 damage), with each hit making an accuracy check separately. Any bonuses to damage are added to each hit (as are any penalties or enemy resistances) meaning multi-hit attacks are affected more by buffs and debuffs (but single hit attacks tend to be stronger and harder to resist or debuff).

[Ashkin]

Mmmmm, so much delicious information in such little space. Perfect for a dungeon crawler, I love it.

[Valentino @ MMG]

This kicks major ass, it reminds a bit of wizardry and phantasy star. Definitely going to be watching this

[Jasmine]

I like your art style

Be cautious about having too much information visible at one time. Tab strips can be useful for keeping data out of direct view.

[alastair]

looks cool

[Eclipse]

looks awesome and I really like the idea of the card based combat :]

[Paul Jeffries]

I love the art-style you've shown so far, even if they are only mock-ups!  The screen layouts are in danger of being a little too busy though - I can imagine starting the game and having all that lot staring you in the face to be a bit daunting!  I would imagine that most of that UI you don't necessarily want to have up all the time, however - depending on how 'mobile' your combat system is you might not need the mini-map and location information on-screen during the actual fighting and likewise you might not need all those stats on screen when you're exploring.  What might be nice is if the relevant side bars 'swoosh' in and out as and when you need them, or perhaps if the entire screen were to scroll from one side to the other depending on what you want to display...

[poe]

That layout looks so natural.

[baconman]

About the only things that may need tweaking is some type of "masking" to cover the layering effect between your view cards (that "black space" in the upper/outer corners), and maybe a Perlin Noise check to see if the primary line of vanishing point should be drawn past. That can also be a togglable layer as well; just depends on whether you're trying to minimize the work or maximize your art assets.

You can clearly see the straightforward path in your mockup, for instance, but in every frame it looks as though you can turn left or right there as well. Seeing as you're facing North right now, you could in the further two frames, but not the present one you're in.

It's still looking really righteous, though! And that upper-inner window thing is just effin' brilliant.

[JWK5]

Sorry for the lack of updates, I'd been working on my Depressing Adventures of Galactic Emo game (that nobody plays... *sniffle*) and trying to catch up on lost sleep.

In any case, I've actually changed the viewspace greatly after having took some time to go back and play some old-school dungeon crawlers. I've pulled the front-most layer inward so that only it's rear most edges are shown and I am using "manually" scaled slices which take a little more work but look a lot nicer. This shot here is from the game Lands of Lore but you can see from the guidelines I devised from it the direction I am heading with the view space.


I've been more focused on the battle system currently because that will ultimately tell me what all needs to be on screen and when. I plan to use a combination of tabs and "card flipping" for most of the onscreen data, as well as slide-in/slide-out panels.

What you see in the mock-up wasn't really meant to show how the game will look, it was more or less just to give me an idea of space division for the menus. The final design will be color-balanced and have a solid composition, this is just the first baby step towards that (and solely focuses on space usage).

On another note, I am hoping for the game to be easy to mod but just how much will depend on the overall structure of things. I mean regardless I have to create a level editor because GM's standard just isn't going to cut it, and the resources have to be stored outside the .EXE because otherwise GM will just load everything all at once, and things like a "Monster Editor", "Card Editor", etc. will be needed by me. So those sorts of things would be easy enough to include with the game and allow players to fiddle with.

Where it will get tricky is things like story events and such, and whether or not I opt to craft them from within the .EXE or load them externally as well. Ideally I will go with the latter, unless it creates more work than being worthwhile.

[Mikademus]

Since you sounded so sad that no-one plays your emo something game, I decided to stop just lurking in this thread and actually make a post. I loved the 1st person square-based RPGs (or whatever it's called), and I really think you are making it justice with just the right amount of innovation and, well, JWK5 to make it fresh and interesting. Keep the updates coming and post something for us to try willya!

[JWK5]

Lol that was actually a joke (and a shameless plug... in my own topic), but anyways I am going to try to get a prototype of the battle system for this game up pretty soon here. I am still kind of testing various ideas with the battle system but I am getting pretty close to striking a good setup (with how the cards work).

[alastair]

Did you come up with a battle system yet?