Here's another development update! As you can see, the killings and blood has been implemented. The rest of this post will explain what has been added recently, and what still need to be added before i can decently post a first official release.
As you can see in this screenshot, field of vision and a related fog of war are now implemented in-game. It works well enough. I may blacken the inside of buildings when the player is outside as it's kinda weird to see the floor from outside. The player can equip various weapons and use those to kill people. Shot people drop blood on the floor and walls. Dead ones drop their money and the player can collect it by stepping on it. Also, a few new tiles and objects have been added to give some variety to the maps.
An inventory screen and a city map have also been added, both can be called either via the main menu or via a hotkey. The character sheet and a trading interface are next. This done we should mostly be ready, at least for the user interface part.
Next part of the development will be to finish the combat system, implement stores to buy equipment and add the usual player commands (look, get, talk to, running). It would also be good to give something that look more or less like a brain to civilians, but it will be the topic of another article.
Then, the faction system will be added. The game will have two hardcoded factions, the civilians and the police. Both friendly to each other. When a new map is built, the engine will generate several randomized gang factions with different characteristics. Real work on the AI will begin at this point.
Once all of this will be achieved, the first Alpha version of GRA will be released and my work will continue on other parts of the game. No real ETA yet. I initially thought I would be done before 2011, but I was wrong. I think it will be available during January.
Next part of the development will be to finish the combat system, implement stores to buy equipment and add the usual player commands (look, get, talk to, running). It would also be good to give something that look more or less like a brain to civilians, but it will be the topic of another article.
Then, the faction system will be added. The game will have two hardcoded factions, the civilians and the police. Both friendly to each other. When a new map is built, the engine will generate several randomized gang factions with different characteristics. Real work on the AI will begin at this point.
Once all of this will be achieved, the first Alpha version of GRA will be released and my work will continue on other parts of the game. No real ETA yet. I initially thought I would be done before 2011, but I was wrong. I think it will be available during January.
nice!
ReplyDeleteDo you also plan to include vehicles (cars etc.), driving by bus/subway?
Would be curious how your ideas are in this area...think such issue are not addressed in current roguelikes.
Hi and welcome,
ReplyDeleteThe short answer is that cars will be implemented fully, not in first releases though, as they raise a few issues. A bus system probably won't be at all. A subway system may exists but it will more an easy way to teleport yourself from a point of the map to another than anything else.
Yes, I've noticed the lack of fast transportation system in roguelikes. There's a good reason for that. In a turn based game, a car doesn't pose a challenge as long as it's restricted to the player, you just can move X squares when the other NPC can move only by one. The issue rises when it's the NPC who are driving and you're on foot. On screen it results in cars teleporting X squares away when you're moving only by one. It doesn't look like fast moving vehicles.
To deal with this issue, I have a few solutions that still need to be experimented.
- The first one would be to implement sprite scrolling between turns. Theoretically, it would be the easiest way to deal with that issue, however it introduces a delay between turns. Not sure that's something I want, especially when i already know that the game will be heavy on the CPU. Moreover, the engine I have built for the game is not really animation friendly.
- The second one came from Tron. Vehicles will leave a trail (exhaust gas) behind them so the player can understand how the car moved during its turn. That's probably the solution I will use, at least until i can improve the 2D engine and know exactly how much CPU power is needed by the game's AI.
- I could also make the vehicle slow down when they come next to the player, but it would probably cause weirdness and issues with other cars movement.
Stealing the vehicle isn't too much of a big deal, especially with the second solution. granted that the player is next to the vehicle or to the beginning of its trail, it means he has an opportunity to hijack the car.
Also, NPC cars won't drive THAT fast, something like 4 times a player can walk or 2 times a player can run seems to be a good compromise.
Cars also raise a few issues related to the pathfinding of both cars and peoples, but i am pretty confident on this matter. And well, accidents happen :)
And about the handling of theses, when the player is in command (NPC will just use them as a very fast walking technique) that's another story. I have a design in mind, but it will be the subject of an article when i am done thinking about it.
This said, don't expect to see races and such anytime soon. Having some believable traffic in a roguelike is already a fairly large coding project in itself, we'll have to see how it works first.