a little something

Commodore · Post by **Commodore** » Sun Oct 22, 2006 2:51 am

I'm a good 3000 miles from my computer so right now whatever I was working on is somewhere in limbo. In desparation in my free time (when my housemate is at school) I have started working on an rpg engine since I never really made one successfully (always got to ambitious). So I'm going to probably make something that's more like a clever assemblage of engines rather than a game. (story for example will be throwaway)

It might work out, we'll see. I'll probably get too ambitious with this too and make it like 3 files long of 20 kb packed engine boards.

gingermuffins · Post by **gingermuffins** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 1:24 am

I love those kinds of elaborate zzt rpg engines!

What direction will you be taking it in? Can you describe it, or should it be a surprise?

Post by **Zenith Nadir** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 11:20 am

i only ever used an rpg battle engine once, at the end of dragon woods

i made it myself and it sucked a lot!

Post by **MadTom** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 12:20 pm

I had three in GREED - Part Two, and that didn't work either. It's really only worth it if you can be bothered to program in a lot of different moves so that it takes real skill.

Usually I skip them in ZZT games. They're almost invariably boring. Chase Bramlage's Boof was an exception!

Post by **Alexis Janson** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 4:02 pm

i used one in the revival of richard ravenshead

it was the best rpg engine ever

Post by **Dr. Dos** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 7:15 pm

I always get too lazy but I always wanted to port the engine legend of Legaia uses where you input how you attack and can do combos if you get certain moves.

Rogue Fur in So Long and Thanks For All the Yiff has one started.

Commodore · Post by **Commodore** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 7:25 pm

my plans (which seem workable right now) have two characters one a fighter, one a mage with 5 spells. I'm using health and torches as the two hit point counters. You can only fight one baddie at a time unfortunatly. What lacks in zzt rpg battles is a stratagy more complex than picking between a weak attack that hits often and a strong attack that misses often. I'm trying to beat that by adding a defend command, a run command, and by having spells like sleep. I hope to have three weapons for each character.

For the map segments I think I'm going to mangle my wasteland engine.

I think towns will be a menu based system, maybe not though.

There will be potions for overworld use only (too hard to code them into battle) There will also be experience points, and probably three or four levels which would affect your max hp and how successful you are at casting magic. Since I'm not using a MP counter, you'll be able to cast spells as much as you want but the chance of them backfiring is based on level.

Post by **MadTom** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 9:38 pm

Well, may I suggest you make the rules and system as simple as you possibly can? One of the things that used to deter me was having to read like eight screenfuls of rules before starting the battles. That's why I couldn't even begin to like Appliance's Card Prime.

I really just like run-and-gun fighting better for that kind of thing. It's still possible to be quite creative with the AI.

Commodore · Post by **Commodore** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 10:32 pm

rules are pretty simple. Attack, Defend, Spell(five spells), Run. All selected by touching objects. (no blue screen menu)

risk casting a spell and you may or may not hurt yourself based on level of experience. Try and kill the baddie. Weapons and potions are dealt with entirely outside of battle in towns or on the world map. No blue text boxes will pop up during battle.

I'm trying to make it fast paced.

The thing that is hanging over my head the most is making a clean way to enter the battle board over and over again which entails reseting the board and teleporting in and out.

I think I can get away with complicating the rules slightly so long as the user interface I design is intuitive.

Post by **MadTom** » Wed Oct 25, 2006 1:22 am

Commodore wrote:so long as the user interface I design is intuitive.

Yeah, and interesting.

Post by **mania-[ker]** » Wed Oct 25, 2006 4:58 pm

how about for a battle you try and shoot the bad guy but you also have to avoid the bad guy shooting at you

Commodore · Post by **Commodore** » Wed Oct 25, 2006 8:22 pm

i don't know, sounds hard to program.

Commodore · Post by **Commodore** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 3:42 am

I made a title screen, without the title (CAUSE I DON'T HAVE ONE YET)

Post by **Zenith Nadir** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 11:14 am

cool beans

Zandor 12 · Post by **Zandor 12** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 11:25 pm

Wish I had a rocket car that nice.