I'm still highly intrigued as to what the next version will be like! So i was wondering (again) what you think the estimate on the release will be? If you have one, if you're unsure no worries. I jut like to know when i should expect these things! :)
Not to be annying but....
(12 posts) (3 voices)-
I never mind being pestered about these things!
I'm currently on a short trip, and so haven't been getting much actual coding done. But with that said, I've been doing a lot of thinking about larger design issues.
One of the exciting new things I'm planning for 1.1 is the "start from scratch" game mode that everyone wants; the one where you get to specify absolutely everything, rather than having the game automatically generate class names and monster names and suchlike.
It will also start much more constrained and focused than 1.0 did; you'll start out with just one region, and won't be able to expand until you have a functioning starting area up and running. The game tutorial will be built into this mode (as an option), so it'll serve as a nice gradual introduction to the game mechanics, rather than tossing people into the deep end, as happened in 1.0. The current "instant access to everything in a randomly generated badly designed game" mode will remain as well, for those who might prefer it.
Regions will now, by default, have impassable borders on all sides. The only way for an adventurer to move from one region to another will be along a road, or if the player removes the barriers.
Really, the only major design thing that I haven't figured out yet is how road placements are going to work. I really don't like the current "a road is a straight line between two buildings" system. I've been thinking about dividing regions into smaller subgrids, where each subgrid element can be marked as 'road' or 'non-road', so you can use that to build a real road network. Or maybe you just place road "nodes", and nodes that are close enough to each other will join up together. That's probably the better system, really.
Still no idea when it'll happen. But it's taking long enough that I'll probably start doing point releases early, to get early feedback as individual systems are implemented. More on that in a couple of days. :)
Posted 1 year ago # -
lemmily
MemberThanks for the low down... as it were. It's really nice to know what's going on behind the scenes rather than just eagerly awaiting the next version, heh.
My vote's with the node road system as, I think that the nodes would probably be easier to use, though my only question- would the nodes connect to all the nodes near enough could the player select which?
But then again the grid structure could prove just as easy to use, my question for that would be, would the road have to be built block by block, as this could be quite time consuming?
Thanks again, :)
Posted 1 year ago # -
Aeon
MemberIf you've ever used Google Maps, you can tell it to give you a route between two points and it'll find the shortest way there. But if you want, you can drag the route to another street, and it'll add a node to the point where you dropped it, and it'll recalculate the route to pass by that point. I think something similar would work very well with your road system.
You already have roads that go from point A to point B. If you want to adjust the route that the road takes, you can just click on the road and drag it somewhere to create a road node.
Alternatively, you could just have free-form roads where the player does a point-to-point placement of the roads. You could detach roads from towns and spawn points and such altogether, and just have roads go from point to point wherever the player wants them.
That solid borders on areas idea sounds good too. It would be good to have more control over how users can enter an area, since right now the only way to prevent access from certain sides is to leave an area blank.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Aeon
MemberAnother hokey idea might be to create dungeons that will allow players to retrieve key items which are required in order to access a new area. Items could be represented by numbers, just give each dungeon an item number and each area a lock number, or something along those lines. Might be fun to watch users progress from area to area by conquering dungeons and retrieving the items necessary to progress.
I figure if you just make item retrieval a number that gets incremented when the user retrieves a new item, then it won't be too hard to keep track for each of thousands of users.
Posted 1 year ago # -
How about this:
Using the road tool, you may click on (a) empty space, (b) a road node, or (c) a road.
If you click on empty space, you'll get a road node placed there.
If you click and drag from a road node, you'll drag a new road node to where you release the button, with a road extending back to the road node you initially clicked.
If you click and drag from a road, a new road node will be inserted where you clicked, and you'll be able to drag that new point around.
You'd be able to use the existing 'move' and 'remove' tools to move and remove road nodes and roads, and from the interface's point of view, all buildings would act like road nodes.
Does that sound good to people?
I do like the idea of being able to put locks on exits from regions, with quests offering keys to those locks, and that makes a huge amount of sense in single player RPGs, but I'm not sure about in MMORPGs; I worry that it has the potential to trap high-level heroes in a low level zone, and so it might be something that nobody ever actually puts into their maps, as it doesn't really give any benefit; just potentially annoys those subscribers who don't have the key they need. For it to work, I'd need a better idea about what benefit the player will have from having this sort of mechanic in place.
Maybe when someone finds the key item and uses it to access the next region, his "addiction" value goes up? That'd be a big benefit from the player's point of view; a cheap and relatively easy way to make his subscribers more addicted to the game. Or maybe I need to start keeping stats for the MMORPG overall, and use those stats (compared against stats for competitor MMORPGs) to help influence the rate at which new subscribers join the game; that could also be a compelling reason for a player to do set up this sort of thing.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Okay, I've now implemented a first draft of this new road node placement system.. it's not bad at all, I think. Road nodes behave exactly like regular buildings (except that adventurers totally ignore them), and you can easily use the road tool to place new road nodes, connect them, and split existing roads.
Other buildings also act as road nodes, so you can still have roads lead straight up to your town, and only add explicit road nodes where you really want bends in the road.
Road-related TODO items:
- Improve player AI so that they know about and can follow the new road network.
- Make the road nodes only be visible when the Build pane is selected.
- Make roads prettier, instead of being randomly jagged lines
- If you draw a road to the middle of an existing road (instead of to a building or a road node), then add an extra road node on the existing road, and connect the new road to that.
Posted 1 year ago # -
lemmily
MemberThe road tool you've described sounds perfect for the game i think!
The idea that some areas can only be entered by users who have a certain item or key, or whatever item it is, is a good ida. And i agree that this should raise addiction levels and also possibly satisfaction? It is pretty satisfying when you unlock something new! But I think if you were to have these almost like 'bonus areas' it could be a nice addition. So instead of it being a necessity just a bonus! hence cutting out the problem of keeping high levels in low level areas.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Well, in the end, whether they're unlocking 'bonus areas' or the main progression line is really going to be up to the player who's setting this up in their own MMORPG map. :)
To be able to have a bonus area would require there to be something good in that area, which wouldn't break mainline progression for any adventurers who missed it. Maybe extra loot? Maybe stores that sell things cheaply? I don't know.. I'll need to think about it more.
I'd already been talking about having the player place "key quests" which would push adventurers into the next bit of the MMORPG map. Perhaps one of these "key quests" could be configured to give one of several types of keys as loot, when completed. Then I could have matching locks on particular road nodes, so only adventurers who have the appropriate key could pass through.
On the other hand, roads are currently optional. If a road node was closed, then an adventurer could just step off the road while crossing the locked road node, and step back onto the road on the other side of the locked node. So maybe road nodes aren't the right thing to lock, to block off adventurers from particular areas until they have the necessary key..
So there's still plenty of stuff to think about! :)
Posted 1 year ago # -
Aeon
MemberDon't need to lock roads, just allow the player to lock different sides of the area. It would have a double purpose of allowing the player to block access to certain areas from certain angles, instead of having to place blank areas in between as a barrier, and it would allow you to allow progress for users with the proper key to unlock access through that side.
So basically you'd just need to give the area editor an option to lock each side, and if locked, which key is required to unlock it? If there is no such key, then the area is simply inaccessible from that direction.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Interesting. But I can sort of foresee someone wanting to be able to have two different locked exits across a single border. Maybe it would be worthwhile to have a new building type; a "Tunnel".
A "Tunnel" would act as a pair of buildings; enter one building and you'll come out of the other one. So you could place these buildings on opposite sides of an impassable barrier, and players could then use them to pass over the mountains dividing one region from another. This "Tunnel" could then easily be locked to a particular required key.
I could use basically the same structure to implement teleporters and WoW-style rapid-transit flight paths as well, just by adjusting the speed at which people travel along them, and how nodes in the system are unlocked by adventurers.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Aeon
MemberI was actually going to suggest something like that a while ago but I forgot to - I was going to say it would be nice to have some kind of portal that would allow players to transport across the map instead of having to travel there, which would be useful for islands and isolated areas.
Kill two birds with one stone.
Posted 1 year ago #
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