Last time on #tigCOOP:
vortexcortex: I've got the procedural noise functions working in JS now, so we need to decide on a number of settings to use with it.
Stimor: coor
vortexcortex: I'm thinking 3/4
vortexcortex: or... 4 settings, but one is the realm of the dead or Etherial planes and exist in conjunction with the others...
vortexcortex: ... but can only be seen if, blah.
vortexcortex: So, essentially, folks need to decide on the actual main settings that will be used.
vortexcortex: I think some form of futurisitic and ancient magics themes are a given.
vortexcortex: If the land of the dead is another dimention or the Elysium (sp) field, etc. is up for interpretation.
vortexcortex: IMO, that leaves specifics of the futuristic part, and one more theme: I suggested present day/not to distant future.
Folks, we need to at least solidify the base settings / themes. That way folks can know what world(s) they're writing for and creating pixel art in.
These are the main base themes I'm talking about, not the strange patched on additions like an Egypt ruled by Cats:
vortexcortex: IMO, that leaves specifics of the futuristic part, and one more theme: I suggested present day/not to distant future.
Stimor: cats in egypt.
Stimor: theme set
vortexcortex: I like it.
Stimor: surprisingly low amount of games about cats in egypt
vortexcortex: Egypt instead of present day.
Stimor: which is a logical setting and character
vortexcortex: Perhaps the Cats rule Egypt, and all that other stuff we know was merely disinformation so we would continue to provide them free food... like willing slaves.
Stimor: ya
Stimor: history is written by the winners
Stimor: history is written by cats.
Stimor: all of it.
vortexcortex: That explains Nyan Cat.
vortexcortex: And the Internet in general.
vortexcortex: We built it, they use it to send secret cat-encoded messages the world over.
Stimor: yes
Stimor: catuminati
Stimor: familiar logo with a cats eye
^-- That's a great example of a theme that could be patched-in / added-on over part of the main world. I'd like to go there someday -- If I'm not already there...
For the base worlds however we need settings that are a bit more flexible, that can contain non-cat-centric plot lines, for example.
I think 3 or 4 distinct base settings will be plenty of variety.
As it stands we've got on the table:
- Medieval / Ancient Magics
Your typical warriors, wizards, goblins and what-not.
- Not to distant future
(relative to today - Imagine yourself in 20 years?)
- Post Singularity
Post (human) Apocalypse the Cyborgs and Machine races live on.
- Alternate Demention
The alternate planes of existence rolled into one.
This setting is special because it exists parallel to all the other planes, and can only be seen when [the writers figure that out].
AKA: Land of the Dead, the Nether realms, the Ethereal Plane, ect. Ghosts, Elder gods, cosmic intelligences are found here.
IMO, It's basically the same as folks in the dimensional gateway that opens if you're using an original IBM model M w/ Dvorak and press [Ctr] + [Alt] + [Shift] + [Space]... Be warned, you can never ever [Return].
Regardless of if these worlds turn out to be islands (as was suggested) or forking outwards from a central wizard tower hub, mixed and matched via procedural world generator, etc, we need to have at least the base settings solid before further work can progress.
So, unless there's objectors to the above main world settings, then those will be the base world sets we'll go with.
Variations like a magic Realm of Fire, Atlantis, a crashed bunch of aliens from Andromeda, StarGate:Feline Force, etc. can be bolted on afterwards.
Bluesnake4: I really like the idea of the ethereal planes vortex!
Bluesnake4: it could be a hub where you go when you die ( an easy way to include permadeathish mechanic ) but it is filled with other lost souls and you can trade, talk...
...
vortexcortex: Yeah, I was thinking we could even put some hard quests in the deep dangerous parts, like reset C'thulhu's alarm clock or something.
Bluesnake4: hehe
Bluesnake4: yeah that sounds cool!
I think we're still undecided as to how death works. I mean, I love the save-stones idea for saving the game / re-spawning. But leading up to that re-birth there could be a couple failure modes.
E.g.: Reach Zero health and stave off the Grim Reaper by killing a nearby enemy comparable to your exp. level (he takes their soul instead).
Or, perhaps you're transported to the ethereal planes when you die -- The save stone could be a part of the Ethereal plane, and you're linked to the save stone, so when you die, you appear near your save stone in the etherial plane.
Since it could exist in unison with the other realms, it would be easy to switch back to the 'real' world... or something. Any ideas on how that's achieved. I think a WOW like spirit healer is too much of a time-sink, so any other options?
Everything is open to suggestion. What do you think?
vortexcortex: I actually have a funny idea about sprite sizes... We should totally agree on a [base] tile size / resolution.
Bluesnake4: okay, yeah I agree
vortexcortex: However, I can scale the tiles to fit together so that folks can drop their 12x12 tiles into the world if we have 16x16 and it'll just work.
Bluesnake4: small sprites would be the easiest to fire out and would probably mak eit easier to combine themes since there would be little tweaking needed on such a small scale?
Bluesnake4: okay great so 16x16? if i wanted to start making some random ones?
vortexcortex: Yeah, I think 16x16 is perfect actually, since we have those ones from Derek to use as placeholders and that other awesome tileset too.
Bluesnake4: okay great!
In the sprite / tile code I've got going the world has its own cell size on screen, and folks can zoom in / out. So, we'll be able to blow up the smaller res tiles to see their sweet pixelated goodness.
Larger sprites / tiles can also be used, but down-sampling will make thinks look funky.
The upshot is that you could mix tile set sizes. So, say the world grid is set to be 48x48 px per tile. That means the 16x16 tiles get 3 pixels for each 1 pixel of the tile image (3x zoom).
If you load up a 12x12 tileset it gets 4 pixels for each single pixel (4x zoom) or if you're crazy and use a 6x6 tile set, then 8x zoom = 48 scaled.
The user We will be able to set the world scale. So, they could set their view of the world to be 64x64 px per tile and all the tiles will get scaled to that size. I use image caching code to speed up rendering, so tons of scaling ops aren't done each frame.
What's interesting is that the 12x12 tileset will work with the 16x16 tile set, or 24x24, whatever. The tiled sections won't match up perfectly between 12 and 16 width tiles, but once you're in 12x12 or 16x16, etc. area it'll all look fine and smoothly tiled.
Also, we can select between smooth or pixel-art zoom on a per tile-set basis. Eg: you might want to enable blurry resize when going from, 64x64 down to 48x48.
All that said, what should the "optimal" base tile size be? I was thinking 16x16. Any thoughts?