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[JasonPickering]

yes the gamble is part of it, but its forcing the player to make a really important gamble. imagine if you were playing a game and each treasure chest either had a healing potion or killed you instantly. you would probably just stay away from all treasure chests. doing something like the push back is a good idea though. perhaps I could use the mimic in a way that doesn't damage the player. much like the floating eyes currently work they move the player around.

[JasonPickering]

everything is still going and I decided to post a build.

Try it out

Right now I have a base tower all set up. I am using a combination of static design and random generation to make it easier for the player. Right now its 3 floors of fighting. the 4th floor will be a rest much like the town structure in Shiren the Wanderer. its then followed by 3 more floors of monsters and then the boss.

Also you can shoot a fireball, by clicking the fireball icon in the upper right, and then a direction.

let me know what you think. I might talk about monster designs in my next post see if anyone has any good ideas.

[Franklin's Ghost]

Had a quick play of the new test build. Looking good, like the attack action animations. And the shooting fireballs is a great addition. Think the animation could be enlarged for the fireball though. Also like the floor texts before each level, but it's too quick, think it might work better slowed down a fraction.

[happymonster]

It looks really nice, I also like the fireballs. I kinda feel that the levels should be a bit larger so there is more room to manoeuvre around the enemies. At the moment it feels a bit mechanical with the moving / combat though. Are you going to add chances to miss, or more randomness?

[Franklin's Ghost]

I kinda feel that the levels should be a bit larger so there is more room to manoeuvre around the enemies. At the moment it feels a bit mechanical with the moving / combat though.

Have to agree with that. Seems like you had more space to move in the earlier versions.

[JasonPickering]

Franklins ghost: yeah I will make that transition last longer

Happy monster: yeah the levels are much thinner and more corridor like. I might up the numbers to make it more open. I probably won't add randomization that takes away from the player. If the player attacks and misses this could cost them 1/5 of their total health. One thing that I might add in is randomness the is always in favor of the player. So enemies might miss. This doesn't hurt the player and can only work in favor for the player.

[JasonPickering]

So I made the levels a little more open. its much easier to maneuver around now and get at some enemies

[W3REWOLF]

I probably won't add randomization that takes away from the player. If the player attacks and misses this could cost them 1/5 of their total health. One thing that I might add in is randomness the is always in favor of the player. So enemies might miss. This doesn't hurt the player and can only work in favor for the player.

Be careful to not make this too easy, but I actually agree with you for the most part. I've always had trouble with games that involve strategy that also don't have very predictable mechanics.

It's one thing to randomize a level or items, but once you get into dice rolls for attacks or a "luck" stat, things just start to get frustrating and planning becomes difficult.

Games like Binding of Isaac (which is my biggest inspiration in design right now) handle this really well by randomizing what kind of character you have, but once you get there, the stats and combat are all very hardcoded in place. This makes gameplay for these types of games come down much more to skill and not chance.

[JasonPickering]

yeah I totally agree. I have been looking at that game too for inspiration because of its short play time. I think building a different character is a good idea though. one idea I had worked well with the story. basically the king tells you to go destroy this monster in the tower. one thing that never made sense to me was play progression in roguelikes. design wise it made sense, but story wise not really. using diablo as an example. "I am going to go defeat the demon Diablo. Am I strong enough? no but I am sure I will find everything I need on the way" it almost seems like "I am going to climb mount everest. Gear? I am sure I will find it along the way".

well anyways back to my point basically you are sent to fight this monster and the king would gives you full run of the armory. then I give the player like 3 slots for gear. this gear is what builds your guy. so maybe you take a +1 health helmet, a +1 fireball sword and a +1 health shield.

 Also another idea was making a large number of playable characters all with different stats. basically the king calls in his heroes. there are 4 of them. you choose which one to play and off you go.

[W3REWOLF]

you could have a class builder based on equipment, like you said. But for the true random fans you could also throw a random button on there. Have it basically build a character from scratch and you have to just adapt to what you end up with.

You could either put restrictions on it so you get a fairly balanced character that makes sense or just let everything be available to any type of character. You could end up with some really unique weapon/stat/armor combos that someone might not try on their own.

[JasonPickering]

yeah the way binding of issac does it with the just handing stuff over to the player and them not having much choice is kind of cool. I only have a few stats at the moment (Health & Magic) so there wont be to much variation unless I start adding in other spell types and then I dont know if I always want them to be projectiles or not.

[W3REWOLF]

the mix ranged and melee/short ranged could be cool too. personally with my game Im gonna try to work in a system where ranged characters can be forced into melee by stat decreases and vice versa for melee characters. Im going to try and balance this by giving them unique perks to this along side the obvious negative effects that this would have.

This is just me though, im really into the randomized elements in a more arcade style roguelike. You seem to be going a bit more traditional.

[JasonPickering]

yeah I think I am going with mostly melee where spells will be used for extra Stuff. Originally an idea I had was the Player had Items instead of spells and all Items were 1 time use spells. the main thing I was afraid of was explaining it all, but I realize that the player will learn as they use them.

I also had an idea to do all weapons like the range system in Advance Wars. and swapping weapons took a turn.

[W3REWOLF]

Have you considered doing something similar to Desktop Dungeon with the spell items that can be swapped out? Im not sure how much you want to mess with mana, but im sure some kind of system could be figured out. People love their fireballs.

[JasonPickering]

I might do something. originally I was going to make different characters, and they had different spells, but I think the single character is a better idea, but now I am delving into the magic system, since I got the melee combat to my liking. So I Need some help with designing a magic/inventory system. I am working on getting the magic in and cant decide what would be the best option. here is what I have so far.

1. Player has normal Spells and they use mana (Currently implemented). they also have a limited inventory for 4 potions.

2. Spells use mana, but also take up one of your limited inventory slots. you can carry up to 4 spells, but that gives you no room for any potions. the player must find the balance they want.

3. There are no spells, but everything is a one time use item. so you can carry a healing potion and 3 fireballs.

4. Player has spells, but they have a cooldown and each use the cooldown gets longer. cooldown is based on kills not turns. this removes mana from the game entirely, meaning the only stat is health.

I suggest giving the game a try and see what you think would work best.

After this I will be moving into the idea of gear. I don't know if it will work, with such limited gameplay. I will probably do something very barebones, Cardinal Quest would be a good example. It will probably be mostly derived from hats.

[JasonPickering]

small update:

swapped out the monster wandering for pathfinding AI

Try it

[Franklin's Ghost]

Nice update, like the extended titles  Also noticed that when you use a spell the character doesn't turn the way you fire.

[st33d]

It will probably be mostly derived from hats.

Heh - this is how I solved the armour issue. And all you have to do is make an overlay graphic as well.

[JasonPickering]

Still going strong. Its been a few steps back though as I rework the new combat system. one of the main problems that has arisen in this game is the Wait command. lots of people have wanted a wait command, because there were many situations where you had to step into a space adjacent to a monster and take damage, but the wait command had no drawbacks that a normal roguelike does so adding one would severally over complicate the game to balance. well I am going to be trying a movement system instead to solve that problem. basically the player will still be able to move in the cardinal directions but they will have the option to take 1 or 2 steps. they will have to plan ahead using a combination of one and 2 steps to get the enemies into striking position. Below is an excellent example.



thinking ahead allowed them to get to the enemy and take them out without any damage.

[happymonster]

I think I suggested something like that before.. hehe!