[SC] New game/engine in the making

[Teruri]

Consider Viedeux either dead or a side project. I don't like it anymore... Gee, I have to learn to only post a topic when the project is finished... wait.

Anyway this is a new project I'm working on. It's an RPG, but somewhat different then the simple turn based ones. It works like this:
There are three zones, a green, a yellow and a red one. The battle is played in turns and phases. The movement phase and the attack phase. In the movement phase you can move from zone to zone.
The zone you are in determines what attacks you can use. Physical attacks can only be used in the green zone, and your opponent has to be in his green zone too! Long range attacks are stronger in the red zone.
However... moving from zone to zone isn't free. Each turn you are given 10 points. Moving up or down costs 1 point. Attacks also cost points. Strong attacks cost more then weak ones.

What I have so far: the movement phase is done, also the AI for the movement phase (this one is really basic. If I have more kinds of enemys I might improve it; mages with long range attacks stay in the red zone, and physical warriors stay in the green zone). I’m going to work on the attack phase.

[Silverwind]

Sounds simple enough to get finished. Very nice Teruri.

[WarHampster]

That sounds a lot like my engine, let me know if you need any help

[Teruri]

That sounds a lot like my engine, let me know if you need any help

From what I read from your game, this is diffrent. This engine is going to be turn based, not real time. Also there are only 3 zones you can be in, not a full map you can navigate. Yeah, they might me simmilar, but in the end they are going to be diffrent (altough I haven't played your engine, so I'm not sure )

Also... some names of attacks and characters are going to be easter egges. Can you guess what they are based on?
Note: These are just beta/test names. I might change them in the final game.
Fist of Yen
SupaPown
pikaThndr
Rickroll
longCat
FirnLezah

The problem is that I have to fit the name, the points the attack costs and the type on the button. Like this: Fist of Yen (1p-P)
Where Fist of Yen is the name, 1p is the number points the attack costs and P is the type (P = Physical, R = Range, L = Long Range)

I'm working on the attack engine right now.

[Tireas Dragon]

However, if you give up one project it gets easier and easier to give up and eventually you rarely finish anything. Trust me I know from experience. I have started like 100 GM projects that I have never finished. Only 5 I have actually finished, 2 of them I have lost (due to hard drive reformat). 1 of them is a short movie. In reality I have finished only 2 GM games.

[Teruri]

I know, but thats way I said "consider it an side project". I might pick it up again. The hard thing is to think of new and original mini games.

Anyway, the battle phase is done too.
And here is a small clip: http://screencast.com/t/u5XApUSdHM

There is still a lot work to do, but the main battle engine is roughly 75% done. (Where 25% is your movement, 25% is opponents movement, 25% is your attack and the other 25% (the undone) is the opponents attack)

[WarHampster]

Never mind, this is nothing like my engine.

I like the idea of having different zones, but I suggest adding more of them. For example, the first zone could be dark red and only really long range weapons would work from there, and by moving up in the zones you have access to more weapons, until you're in the green zone where you can only melee. That would add more strategy as the player would have to better conserve their movement points.

Looking good so far

[Teruri]

For now, I'm going to keep it this way. But in the future I might add it as an function. I also could devide each zone in squares. Some weapons fire in an straight line, so you have to be on the same line as your opponent.

Also... I'm thinking about giving some attacks special abbilities like:
When you use this attack, go back one space (from green to yellow, from yellow to red). You can't use this attack in the red zone.
Kinda like the blowback of a gun.


The posibilities are endless (not really). I think this engine has to evolve itself as time goes one. What I have so far is just a one day job. If I'm going to work on it some more, it would improve.

I'm going to get some sleep now. It's over eleven at night here.

[Teruri]

Wow EqwanoX made it really easy to make big maps. I was going to write my own map system, but because it was going to have all features EqwanoX code has, it is easier to use that code. I made a small map, but thats just for testing the game.

There are random encounters, there is a 1/50 chance you encounter an enemy. You are taken to the battle screen. When you win you are send back to the map (on the same spot, of course)

The basic idea I have is to make a really big map with 5 area's. They correspond with the 5 Chinese elements. All mages are from one element, so these 5 elements come back a lot in the game. Here are the area's:
Water - A sea with some small islands. You can walk from island to island on small bridges.
Earth - A mountain area
Fire - On the top of the mountain, there is lava (so it's a volcano)
Wood - What could it be? A forest of course!
Metal - A city with factories and a mine.

As said before, the mages in this game all have one of the five elements. If you use an attack that corresponds with your element, the attack will get stronger.

I am really looking forward to completing this game.

[Gan]

And I'm looking forward to playing this game.


-Gandolf

[Tireas Dragon]

what Gandolf said

[WarHampster]

Me too, it sounds cool ^_^

[Teruri]

This is just a test map (but the overworld sprites are final):


The final map is going to be in the same style (drawn and not in a sprite style, to make the characters more stand out).

[WarHampster]

It looks ok... the brown kind of clashes with the rest of the map.

Did you make those sprites? They're really good ^_^

[Teruri]

Well I made them, but not 100%. I kinda used the pokémon overworlds as a base (drawing humans is hard for me, I sprite since 2004 or 2005 but still suck at humans). The shading is 90% done by me (except on some parts of the hair, but that is just because the shading was fine that way). The colours are all custom (so no ripping colour pallets here).

I have some custom made humans here, but they are kinda big to fit in a game.