Using TROS in CRPGs

[Lance D. Allen]

Ingenious,

I can see your point. However, I wasn't really expecting to have the combat selections be real-time in that they only take 1-2 seconds per exchange. My god, that would require unreal mouse and keyboard reflexes to keep up with. Select a maneuver (fairly quick once you get your F-keys set up the way you want them) select target (even with the mouse movement suggestion by kenjib, which I can see as being problematic, esp. with thrusting zones.) then die allocation.

Either way, I can't think of a quicker way. I am definitely open to suggestions, and it's going to be quite some time before I can even get out of conceptualization phase, and someone still might beat me to it.

[kenjib]

The programmable hotkeys can include target as well as maneuver selection to really speed things up.

[Lance D. Allen]

That is possible.. But rather that'd require the player to either look at hotkey gumps, or simply try to remember which hotkey matches up with which target area. I don't see this being a factor with maneuvers because generally people are going to have certain tactics they like, so they'll assign those to their primary hotkeys, and the other, less often used maneuvers, they'll be able to look at the gumps before the need comes up. I do see issues for a graphical popup for targeting, but so far graphical has the best intuitive feel to it.. I usually hear, when running games, things like "I'm gonna stab him in the throat!" or "I'm going to chop off his leg below the knee!" or suchlike. I never hear them give me a numerical zone for where they're trying to strike, because generally they don't think in numbers, which is effectively what they'd have to do if target zones were assigned to hotkeys.

The way I'm seeing the targetting menu is something along the lines of a translucent man-figure that appears in the middle of the screen, laid over the view of the combatants, with perhaps a reddish tinge used to designate unarmored areas, and colors ranging toward the violet to designate more heavily armored areas. you'd simply click on the body or around it to designate your zone (over the shoulder on the left side, if the attack was a cut, would mean a zone IV, right around the abdomen for a thrust would be zone XI, etc.) No numbers to designate chances of hitting, and no requirements to hit a specific button, a la the Fallout targetting system.

In this manner, it would be very similar to your "flick of the wrist", only there'd be a quick click worked into the mix. It could be very quick once you'd gotten used to it.

Further on Ingenious' comments about story design: I love the Fallout games in the way the story is extremely flexible, but the fact is that replay value drops dramatically, because there's really only so many things you can do. Playing different types of characters give you different options on how to do certain things, but the main things all have to be done; The storyline is very linear, once you clear away all the side quests.

Sidequests are definitely great, and I'd think they'd be something worth working into the game, but I think I'd go more for Final Fantasy sort of side-quests, where they're mostly character driven, rather than location driven. More, however, than sidequests, I'd want entirely independent storylines.. I mean, I'd probably have to have some sort of flow-chart sort of thing, where you have to hit certain checkpoints on the way, but those checkpoints don't all eventually converge on the same ending for every character.

Now sorta free-associating:

I'd also want to incorporate something from the Resident Evil series of games: where you can play as one character until the end, save, then play another character, and the events of your first game can effect how the second game plays out.

For character creation, I think I'd have a set list of characters, but each would be customizeable to an extent; You might have a Stahlnish knight, but you'd choose certain aspects of his prioritization, and set his attributes, Gifts/Flaws, and additional skills, as well as choosing from a variety of SAs available to him. The SAs you choose would be applicable in certain situations, and would have certain triggers that would cause them to raise, plus they would also effect the story-line followed by that character.

Whew.. This'll be a complex game to conceptualize, let alone code.

[Mokkurkalfe]

If ye're going after full 3d-graphics, then you might as well let the player click on the opponent, rather than on a picture from the book. Hold the mouse over head-zone, left-click for cut, right-click for thrust. With a smart enough camera, it would be quite possible.

[Lance D. Allen]

That's something I did consider, but it could be quite difficult given the angle of the camera. Hit locations available to the character may not be click-able to the player because of other portions of the body in the way, the player's character in the way, or even bits of terrain which block the player's visibility.

::taps chin:: Hm. Perhaps a "glowing outline" of sorts for target location could work. The targeted player would be outlined, and any click within that outline would be defined as a hit to the specified location, regardless of intervisibility issues. That could definitely work.

[kenjib]

IMO if you get too ambitious it will never get done.  Games nowadays are built by very large teams of people all working 60 hour weeks.

[Thanaeon]

Just a thought here... Maybe instead of building the whole game, it might be better to create just an engine and a scenario-building kit... I'm not sure quite how much faster it would enable the program be completed, but then the TRoS community could swap scenario files with each other. (Or maybe even upload them to the TRoS website.)

[kenjib]

Hi Thaneon - even if you were to build the entire game, you would pretty much want to do that first anyway, so I think it's a good idea.

[Jake Norwood]

There are also a few cheap or free programs with built-in graphics engines, so that all you have to do is model the world and its characters in a pre-written engine. They look pretty nice. If I looked around I could find the name of one.

Jake

[Callan S.]

Can I just point out a very handy and well made program that helps to make neat little games.

http://www.cs.uu.nl/people/markov/gmaker/

I'm giving the link so anyone who's in the 'I'd like to but I don't know a good langauge/don't know any language/don't want to code too much' have an opportunity.