May 11, 2011

What's next ?

Now that the general idea of localized damages, armors and damage types is out, I will dig into this a bit more in the next version.

I definitively need to implement splash damages and thrown weapons (grenades, molotovs). With this, I need to add optional graphics for special effects and allow them to be linked to a specific tile. With that, cool weapons that cause tiles to catch fire (molotov, rpg launcher), dealing small continuous damages on whoever is on it, should be relatively easy to implement.

Also, effects still need to be implemented on armors, and I would like to add a "body" editor. Allowing to give specific body parts to a NPC template. It should allow to add innate protection damage to each body part, specific critical/wounded effects, and set if a part going to 0 health leads to death or not. This editor isn't a top priority, and it may be wiser for me to wait a bit to see what are the features I really want to be easily moddable about it.

This done (+ fixes for the few bugs found in the 0.3.8) and we should be ready to start implementing a mission framework, dialogs and this kind of things.

6 comments:

  1. Yeahh!!!!

    Nice, (how would you feel about Master serial kicked?) Serial Kicked.
    This is amazing news. Will this finally be a use for the Fire Brigade? And if so could whole buildings go up in flames?

    And the body parts!!! My lordy, this is awesome, hopefully this means that we will be able to like savegly rip off survivors arms and legs during a Zombie Apocalypse. Thank you Serial Kicked. This truly is worthy of the Ass Kickery Award. Only very few men have ever obtained this. Congratulations Sir.

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  2. Utilizing tiles from my "Deonapocalypse" Rogue Survivor tileset, I've started to create a more ghetto-like tileset for a darker theme (the current "official" tileset is too cartoonish/bright for my taste, doesn't suit the "bandit city" theme).

    http://img.ie/53502.png

    As you se: aawww! Please fix the tile resizing if you can! It kills the pixel art :). I'd rather have less tiles which retain their original size and do not stretch/shrink when I change the size of the window.

    Also I won't change some sprites: these boxes plus some shelves and other stuff are really beautiful. Some of them require more detail (why do you even keep them in indexed colors?) and some of them needs a change of the perspective.

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  3. Hey SK, this save is corrupted.

    When I load it and try to save, it gives me I/O Error 32.

    http://www.filedump.net/dumped/saves1305104522.zip

    Could you check it?

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  4. A few problems which should be addressed... When you have time of course :).

    1) Containers in offices do not have items. I've made a "bank" and added a custom safe with "Luxury" subtype. I wanted to rob banks :P. But sadly those safes are empty.

    2) When I generate small maps (4x4 for example) sometimes I get "out of bounds" error when I try to look at map (it's black and shows nothing).

    3) Weird faction behaviour... I've made xenomorphs (Aliens from the movie) and made them "infested house" HQ. Graphics and stuff. However even though if they are listed as "hostile", they do not attack me. I've made them a "zombie" job, trying to simulate zombie mechanic, but no luck. They sometimes attack random people, but they ignore me.

    4) I can only assign weapons to NPC. I want to give them bandages and armor, at least innate armor for them to wear, and minor stuff to drop.

    Soooo it would be great to:
    1) Be able to have containers in other places than homes with loot. It would be nice if we could specify loot tables...

    2) Be able to make sure that "gang members" surely attack everyone, like zombies do.

    3) Be able to have small maps with proper map info :).


    I hope it's not too much feedback, I'm making a "realistic" tileset (check the bay12games thread) and I am going to make TONS of mods, staring with factions from other games, ending with total conversions :D

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  5. Hey man, did you lose internet during this month? Pleae say something :). I hope you are okay.

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  6. I had numerous issues related to blogspot and my other webhost. Blogspot was in read only mode for a while when I was about to release a new version, and being blocked, I decided to continue writing some code. That, and various IRL 'issues' forced me to stay away from posting in here. Sorry about that, i will try to post more often.

    Anyway,

    1) GRA modding handle variations of existing building types (restaurants/bars, houses/mansions,..). But it's not possible for the engine to understand a new building type. Banks and other building types will be handled soon, though.

    2) Weird, i will check. Smaller maps will cause issues until i rewrite the map generator (i am working on that, that's also why progress slowed down this month)

    3) Faction: First, the faction system is really basic atm, It kinda work but you can't expect much from it yet. I have yet to add a bunch of things in the code for it to behave properly and there's also a lot of rules that are not explained anywhere. Anyway, for a faction to be hostile toward the player its relation toward the "player" faction must be below -10. Only the guys with the "Thug" job will react, you can set the % of thugs comparatively to the other jobs in the editor. Also understand that thugs aren't always looking for enemies, they don't attack people when they are resting, eating, idling, they does it only when they need to work. Zombie is a *very* special job made especially for the related game mode, Theoretically they are a variation on thugs that are always "working" (no sleep, eat, idle) but they are not expected to work for a standard faction (never tested that myself tbh). But i see the point in having an "always working" thug type, i will alter the game code so they behave more properly when put in another faction. However if you have thugs in your faction and if you have set your relation correctly, then it's a bug that I will investigate.
    Also, I hope to add a "Job Editor" that will definitively help with this kind of concern. But that's a very complicated task (and it will be a *very* complicated editor too) as i definitively can't (and refuse to) rely on slow scripting languages like LUA.

    4) NPC gear : Fixed in current release :)

    Part II

    1) Loot tables aren't going to happen. First because it's an artificial "gaming" method i don't like, and secondly because the engine hasn't been built around that from the start (loot tables or leveled monsters aren't exactly something that happen 'by accident' on late development stage if anyone was wondering). Ideally, before allowing the player to "play" i should run the game for a few thousand turns so containers fill up naturally, but as the process takes too much time i rely on randomization based on container type. The process will be improved so instead of spawning random amounts of semi-random items, the engine will try to reach a given value/price for the container. The max value will probably be customizable in the furniture editor. I may also add the ability to black/white-list items from building types. It will come with the new map/building generator/editor.

    2) They are designed to attack foes to their faction *when they are working only*. Zombies are always-working-thugs, basically. It's the same for cops, sometimes they will completely ignore you even if you're most wanted because they are on vacation :). Notice that the engine enforce the thugs and cops to work even if they consider that they have enough money from time to time (75% chance to work instead of 'idling' for cops, 50% for thugs). More job types will come for improved flexibility.

    3) I'll check but it's going to be irrelevant with the new mapgen.

    Thanks for the gfx pack. On that matter, the new version handle graphic packs automatically and allow the player to choose which one to use at game start.

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