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FLARE - Feedback
FLARE [ARCHIVED]
FLARE - Feedback
Clint Bellanger
Thursday, June 17, 2010 - 12:14
Have you tried FLARE? Let me know what you think!
Hi !
I'm not fluent in english, so excuse me if some sentences are not understandable or if there are some mistakes.
That's awesome ! Congratulation for the work ! I 've already played few hours. I'm egear to see next realeses !
@pfunked great job and art, this this the game I've always want to do (in my dreams)!
@tartos your random generation will be very helpfull, I tried them all, nice work !
The following things are just suggestions/ observations
Here are some questions :
could we have in the future axes ? Please please, I know it isn't a priority, but what a pleasure to slash zombis and skelton with an axe ! (I see a doc to cure this whim, sorry)
when I want to test my character on other map (without changing his attributes) I modify the save.txt, the name of the map and the numbers (the x, y position ?) I land on the right map but outside even if I re-change my position, is there something I didn't understand ?
Is it hard to color entrances and exit on the mini-map ? it would be cool (I'm thinking about dungeon)
to see monster's name/ health is a good idea (I read it somewhere), is it planed for the next release (0.11) ? I'm happier when I know what I'm slaying...
Some feedback :
I think it would be good to create a quiver, indeed wizard and cie are obliged to wait for mana, on the contary archers can shot as often as they want, that's a bit unfair
When my character is « high » level (ie chaman), I just have to run and curse tons of enemys life with the spell burn without loosing , that's a bit too easy : may be it won't be so esay with the next release with some enemies shooter, or increase a little the monster's speed...
about chaman I find strange to have in the same time powerful spells and powerfull shooter skills, even if I use the trick described above, I rarely spend all of my mana so I never used my archer skills, what a shame ! but I haven't any suggestions...
Long life to OSARE !
CyberTroll, thanks for the feedback!
Widescreen support?
Also can you update the title tutorial too 2.5?
I checked your enemy sprites, the goblin, skeleton etc. and I have some advice for your animation workflow in Blender:
Select the armature, go to buttons window -> object -> draw panel and enable x-ray. This will make the bones visible at all times, even through the 3d model (no need to be in wireframe all the time).
In 3d window, view -> view properties, disable relationship lines. Once you're done rigging they're not needed anymore and they only clutter the viewport. Hopefully this should make it easier to animate :)
Thanks for the answers
Just few ideas :
-Maye be it will be clearer if the name of the Proficiency would be eg "basic melee weapon" and then something like "light", "medium" and "heavy", instead of "dagger" so it won't depondend on the name of the weapon, it could be apllied to the other proficiencies
-Another way to solve the chaman problem could be to (re)create a skill which may use both archer and wizzard skills
Changes about saves are cool, you're fast !
keep up the good work !
Sir, you've just built something with great potential!
I've been playing for a while and even tho the game is still in very early stages it already has that addicting feeling to it.
I'll keep my eye on this game, visiting the website a few times every day.
Unlike what I've read a few times already, I hope you don't focus too much on "pets". For some reason that's what all games do nowadays, which makes is boring and repetitive, plus we always end up with 2 shalow characters instead of a well thought one.
Good job so far.
And feel free to contact me if you ever need some text translated to pt_PT.
Just compiled the game for Ubuntu 10.10; it works like a charm. I just have to say that the enemy powers are awesome! (But those teleporting antlions scared me the first time...) OSARE v0.11 is going to be great.
inu: once the game supports translations I'll put out a call for help!
pennomi: glad to hear it's working cleanly on Ubuntu 10.10! And hopefully monsters will get even more neat powers for 0.11.
Hello I'm Pablo, 23 years old from La Plata Argentina I install Osare from the arch user repository AUR, I use archlinux as my gnu distro I know osare recently I play it 2 or 3 days that's very nice i did a knight to go 4 offence 4 defense now lvl 6 well I got some ideas for the game
1st jump if the char can jump can find a zone or advance. can advance in the X Z plan (horizontally) or in the plan Y ( verticaly) or he can fall and die if don't jump or lose health if he fall and dont go out the square if he dont just walk or jump, like tramps, and maybe other idea would be skill to remove traps from a chest
2nd stores to buy default items and rare items that can't be buy it the storage
other idea it's put the game as a MMORPG
I'm learning how to program in C so see the source and understand how the code interactue it's fine I know that osare uses c++. but I like various languages
and I want to start some pixel tutorial i did find great programs to work like GrafX2, mtpaint, and gimp :P or blender in 3d I did tray to install Tiled qt but dont get it running yet, tomorrow i will try again and try to see why dont install, today it's too late i need to sleep
I know rpg games like tibia daimonin planeshift eternal lands ragnarok twm and a lot of games I did meet awesome features in diferents games and this game is really good and can grow, can you desing like server and client, to run it as mmorpg
well i need to go, cya all thanks for the work that let me play
Tried it. Compiled on Ubuntu without any problem and it is hmm... surprisinglly good. Awesome i might say. Game resolution could be improved, but its not that important for me. Good luck with this projects, i will surelly keep track of it.
archpablo, thanks for the feedback! I've been pondering whether I should add jumping to the game and what it could add. I'm not sure if just dodging traps or jumping over small obstacles would be fun. Are there any other isometric action rpgs where jumping is a big part?
Shops are definitely coming soon.
I'd love for this to eventually become an MMO, but the first version will definitely be single player only.
Anon, good to hear you like it so far.
Soon the game resolution will be configurable (e.g. the default is 640x480 but larger sizes do work). 800x600 is actually quite nice and will probably be the real default. Larger resolutions only show more tiles though, the tiles themselves don't get larger.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landstalker:_The_Treasures_of_King_Nole though a bit more action/adventure than action/rpg was isometric and the character could jump. Which was one of the things that set it apart from the rest of the genre IMO.
Thought I'd add that I've tried it, and it was wonderfully fun. I only had two suggestions (archers have it easy and it's too easy to split up enemies by drawing the attention of only one), but I see they've both been covered. Keep at it, this'll be awesome.
Hi i play the game, and... i like it! very much.
In fact the game inspired me to contribute with opengameart, and i'm making a free gui.
i'm waiting for the next release!
I've been playing this game on WINE recently, and I think it has a lot of potential. The skill/attribute/power system is very simple, yet elegant. I like it a lot! I think it just needs to be extended if the game is going to be getting longer (which I assume it is). Do you have any plans for that? I read on the site that you were planning on incorporating new weapon types into the game, so I think I can come up with an idea of how this might be used to stretch out the advancement. If you're interested, I'll put my ideas down in a spreadsheet for you.
johndh, I hope to make the attribute/discipline/power system flexible enough to fit several different game types. Currently I'm showing a simple version that has attributes 1-5, combining into disciplines level 2-10, and character level 1-9 for a main quest that lasts about 10-20 hours.
Some ways of extending:
I plan to make the engine flexible enough to handle either situation. The reason I'm sticking with a simple system for now is because its possible for 1 guy to create all the assets needed for a game like that.
Hello,
Your work is really impresive :) It's nice to have good open source action rpg game / engine.
I have one suggestion for you - what about posting your game to indiedb.com ? I think it could help making your game more popular (especially if you would post updates there too).
Anon, thanks for the tip. I'll be doing more promotion once the engine reaches Beta (maybe Summer 11).
Once again, the current version compiles well on Ubuntu 10.10. The enemy powers keep getting better and better! (Though I hate those ice bolt shooting monsters. I guess it's probably a good thing that the monsters can finally compete with the hero.)
Oh, and pfunked, I have a technical question: How do fire/ice resist items work? Will there be more damage types? I saw wind powers in the powers config file.
pennomi: elemental damage reduction from resistance isn't coded in yet. It'll be in soon though.
Example of how it will work: imagine you have 25% ice resist. You are hit with an ice spell for 8 damage, you resist 25% of it and only take 6 damage.
I'll probably make areas of heavy elemental focus. I might have a 75% resist cap; then I'll have areas that are only survivable if you wear full resist gear. Imagine an ice elemental who does about 20 damage per hit, but only 5 damage if you bring the correct gear.
I'll have support for plenty of types (eventually, user-defineable types). I have an enumeration somewhere that contains the western elements, eastern elements, and light/shadow: wind, water, earth, fire, wood, metal, light, shadow.
If you need need a translator for Dutch in the future, just ask me.. The only thing to remember is: Traduir, c'est trahir, translating is betraying, you can't expect a translation to be a full replacement of the original.
I would really like to see allied npc's, which you can communicate and trade with. A system like oblivion could be nice for talking.
Thanks for responding quickly!
I thought it had not yet been implemented, but I think it'll be an important feature for FLARE. I hate games where the character can become "untouchable" in every situation. Much better is a game where a fight can be difficult when wearing a certain type of armor (perhaps even powerful, just not in this situation), but an easy fight if the correct gear is worn.
Of course, I don't think it needs to be implemented now. That's much less important than what is needed to release FLARE v0.11.
FLARE is shaping up to be a great game! Thanks a million for working on it so consistently.
I think it could be interesting to see armor and weapons be more/less effective against different elements, too. For example, plate armor might be resistant to wood and metal but vulnerable to lightning and cold, whereas leather armor wouldn't be as resistant but also wouldn't be so vulnerable. This would require the player to think a little more about his/her gear in a particular situation.
Or even multiple damage types per weapon/effect. A skeleton probably shouldn't care whether you're beating it with a wooden club or a metal mace, but would be more concerned whether it were slashing or impact damage. On the other hand, another creature might be primarily concerned with the elemental nature of the weapon. Thus, a stone axe might be earth/slashing while an arrow might be metal/piercing, for example.
Hey pfunked. I just want to say that I'm glad you're continuing your dedication to this project and that it has not become vaporware. Looks like it's coming along nicely. Great work!
Also, is there an alternative way we can donate now that paypal is boycotted? I would like to chip in a bit to help with art commissions.
Anon, we can do Flare art commissions through OpenGameArt. Perhaps next time I need a set of art that might be popular, I'll get Bart to make it the monthly donation goal.
pfunked, have you thought about using this gui?
http://opengameart.org/content/moderna-graphical-interface
I get the feeling hiponboy designed it with flare in mind, seeing as he posted in this thread saying he was working on a ui for you, and then posted that ui. I had actually been thinking of working on a new UI for you just from looking at the screenshots, until I found hiponboy's, which is superb.
Also, there is obviously a lot of interest in the linux version, have you thought of creating an easy linux installer, rather than making everyone compile from source?
p0ss, I will probably switch over to that gui at some point. Though if there's high demand for it I can switch sooner.
Right now the positions of elements in my menus are fixed. I'd like to have it so every menu has a config file instead, showing which elements to display where. Then reskinning the game would not require recompilation.
As for releasing linux installers: I'm a linux noob but I would love to do this. It's on my to-do list. I don't know the best practices for releasing on linux in general, much less what each distro prefers.
Dunno if I already suggested that to you or not, but you might want to look into "opensuse build service", they make binaries out of your sourcecode not only for opensuse but also for other distros.
Pompei2, once Flare goes Beta I will pursue this opensuse build service. Thanks for the reminder!
Very interesting and promising, i will be waiting for future releases. Im not sure what kinda game this will be, like if it will be my kinda game, but very interesting. Compiled fine on Linux x86_64. Thumbs Up from Finland :)
In no particular order:
- [i] I don't like the suggested "Moderna" GUI.[/i] At least not the screenshots. It looks a lot like Warcraft3 / Diablo3, not like Diablo1. I like the current GUI for most part because it's more like Diablo1. Not too colorful (could use more colors, yes), not cartoony. Icons are symbolic.
- It would be nice to display skill information when you hover the cursor over it (icons on the bottom of the screen). Not just name "Block", but what it does.
- Tiles are quite monotonous, but otherwise high quality. A lightning system even like Diablo1 would help, but I'm much more eager to see Nox-like line of sight (not to be mistaken with light, not that light in Nox is bad). Colored lightning would be especially good, because with relatively small effort level designers could make the same tiles look different. (Jānis Legzdiņš who made Vavoom source port has made colored quake2-like lightning that works in DooM in software mode, let it serve as an inspiration for you !)
- Player character can stand too close to pits. I can stand so close that my feet are in the pit, it looks bad. A narrow "do not enter" area around the pit could solve this.
- monsters are very passive, don't react when their nearby comrades are attacked. In general, I don't think A* is a necessity, one flaw of pure A* could be that monsters always move in the same way. Take a look at DooM AI - it's stupid, it can't navigate past complex obstacles, but it will move around most simple ones and it moves unpredictably. It would be enough for a while, and better than current movement.
- it is clear that monsters don't shoot in my direction, but rather, like in GTA1 and 2, shoot in direction they're currently facing.
- when I try to put on a leather armour and fail, there's no message why it fails.
- the atmosphere would be much better if you had ambient sounds played in various areas (Quake2 called the entities "speakers"). The game feels quite empty because there are no ambient sounds. Once you get the basic functionality, stuff like volume changing depending on distance, it should be a simple(?) matter of getting nice ambient sound effects.
- health regeneration is quite boring. Maybe speed up the regeneration a lot, and disable it when player is moving or attacking ? And make health regen kick in after several seconds, to prevent healing in combat. Unfortunately melee combat seems to be based on having more AC or HP than opponent and enduring all hits. In Nox it's more about not getting hit and avoiding attacks.
-bug: Bleeding effect carries over death. This may not be an issue because the finished game might not have respawning.
- collision detection not implemented ? I can run through monsters.
- it would be nice to have melee weapons that differ in range.
- rpgdemo runs in window by default. In the heat of melee combat, when I need to run away alot, it is quite frequent for mouse to leave the window. This often causes death.
Very nice!
my two cents however:
1. where's fog of war?
2. i can't figure out where's configuration file is located(if it's even exists). How I can change the resolution? The default window is too small :(
Anon,
1. Fog of war isn't a concern of mine yet. It's tricky to implement correctly.
2. I don't have a configuration file yet. If you're compiling from source you could change the resolution in Settings.h
Just stopping by to say just how much FLARE is great.
I'm running Slackware Linux x86_64 and compiling FLARE just worked out of the box. And as if that by itself was not enough, the build system is very simple and the game doesn't require all sorts of exotic dependencies like too many Linux Games do. Just plain SDL and it's helper libraries.
I played FLARE for a couple of hours, and there were absolutely no crashes and it was fun. It's not on par with Diablo yet, but it shows really a lot of potential. Did I mention that the graphics are better than most open source games I've come across ? Can't wait to try out the next versions !
Thanks for your work on FLARE.
b]More feedback.[/b]
Tiles and graphics in general have very high quality, and the main thing holding them back is lack of even Diablo1 lighting. Even character animations look better than I expected from an open-source game.
Sounds are not as good, but - and this is very nice - they're not annoying and don't get in the way. Some are nice, some are plain at best.
The beds in one of levels look very out of place. They're in pristine condition and everything else is falling apart. And why do skeleton warriors reside in baracks ?
I really like control scheme - keyboard for movement, and mouse which can focus solely on aiming. In Diablo and Nox, both of which use mouse for movement, it gets quite tiresome after a while, and it's very hard to move and attack at the same time. I also like that - so far - spell hotkeys are used for [i]casting[/i] spells, like in Nox and not switching spells like in Diablo. Mouse movement can allow player to run in pretty circles, but it rarely makes for better gameplay I think.
I really like arrow trails in Nox. Those in FLARE seem to move with similar speed, so it could be good to implement such trails. Here's a gameplay video from Nox which shows them:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om8IdqCZVoo
Been playing around with the game for a few days... Sweet. Much to like about it, and strongly reminds me of Diablo...
Some suggestions, though.
Screen size. I've been playing on a *netbook* and, well, could full screen at least take wide screens into account?
It needs randomness. Random mazes/dungeons are one thing, but it's too easy to just back off to cleared parts of a level and wait for things to regen. There should always be an element of risk anywhere you go, even low risk.
What I'd suggest trying for this is:
1. allow for some creatures to respawn after a while. Not all, obviously, but lower level critters respawing would keep a certain amount of risk while discouraging the player from camping for XP.
2. allow enemies to wander around a bit. I mean, goblins are going to patrol, zombies are going to be constantly hunting brains, etc. I'd probably allow each enemy a "wander zone" in which they can move around at will until the player is spotted and they become "active". This increases the likelihood of one accidentally stumbling on the player sitting around in a "safe" place, and combined with limited respawning just makes things more interesting and dynamic. But having a restricted wander zone ensures they don't upset the level layout by being in the King's bedroom when they're supposed to be guarding the front gate.
I'm also wondering if there might be some use for a new stat like... call it "Presence"? It'd allow for the use of concepts like Stealth and Fear/Intimidation and whatnot. Stealth being, basically, Physical Presence while might be Mental Presence. This leads to powers like Invisibility, Silence, and you might be able to reshuffle some of the existing ones. Just an idea; it might complicate things.
Definitely need more equipment slots. Not necessarily as much as Diablo, but it just seems odd that boots and belts and rings can't be worn at the same time.
I'd love to see the entire range of Powers available as potions or scrolls. Probably scrolls.
I'm not sure the main hand/off hand distinction is really needed. It'd be more natural to think of items as one-handed or two-handed. In particular, having missile weapons all be two-handed might help balance down the Archer. It would also allow you to introduce axes as heavy two-handed weapons while keeping swords one-handed. Have to be careful with this as it might be a major balance shift...
Bah... never mind about the screen size. Just saw that update.
I almost forgot this one:
Sling[b]shots[/b] are out of place in this game. Slings are weapons from medieval and ancient ages, sling[b]shots[/b] aren't. Unless you're trying to invent some kind of alternate history where rubber has been invented very early. When I see a slingshot in this game, I think about car tires.
Sling[b]shot[/b] is a 20th century weapon. Some wikipedia quotes:
[quote]Home-made slingshots were popular children's toys for much of the 20th century because the low projectile velocity was generally considered to be safe.[/quote]
[quote]A slingshot can be powerful enough to hunt game such as small rodents and birds at ranges up to 25 meters.(citation needed)[/quote]
[quote]Slingshots have been used as a military weapon, but primarily by guerrilla forces due to the primitive resources and technology required to construct one. Such guerrilla groups included the Irish Republican Army; prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Saddam Hussein released a propaganda video demonstrating slingshots as a possible weapon for insurgents to use against invading forces.
Slingshots have also been used by the military to launch micro unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). One notable example of this is the AeroVironment Wasp UAV. The vehicle was propelled to high speeds by using a Saunders Wrist-Rocket Pro slingshot.[/quote]
That's it ! No more military use !
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slingshot
Ancient/medieval sling has no elastic material:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sling_%28weapon%29
(removed because it was uneccessarily snarky and did not contribute to the thread /ceninan)
b0rsuk,
the reason for slingshots is simple: I needed four tiers of Bow-like weapons and they all had to use the same animation. Slingshots use the same human animation as bows. Slings and Crossbows would both require new animations. I made that decision early on, primarily to keep art needs to a minimum. That's also why, for example, Flare uses few equipment slots: the less art needed, the faster a game can be put together.
As far as century, this isn't a historical game so I'm not concerned.
And, people using the Flare engine (when it's ready) will not be forced to use Slingshots in their games. As an example, the second Flare-based game I will make will probably be a modern zombie action rpg with pistols, shotguns, machetes, etc.
c,
Thanks for the extensive feedback! Let me see if I can respond.
Point taken on the art issues.
It occurs to me that Stealth and Invisibility could fall under a Physical+Mental Power column as they do combine both aspects, but aren't strictly offensive or defensive abilities. Heal, Teleport, etc might also be more natural under there. Plus, it opens up slots for more "obviously" defensive Powers (Reflect Attack, for example, would be a really neat Mental+Defense Power).
A waypoint-based patrol system would be awesome, although for some creatures a purely random "milling about" behaviour is more natural. I guess if you have enough creatures patrolling and colliding then a waypoint system would make it look pretty random.
I've been thinking about patrols for quite some time now. That would be one way to really power down a ranger character, because they might get attacked from behind while they are keeping the distance from the monsters they are currently attacking. I do agree with c that a random wander function would be nice too...
Maybe in the config file it could be "patrol=wander" or "patrol=3,3;7,3;(etc)"
c, I don't think that physical mental powers are supported in this engine (yet), just like offense defense powers aren't. This is because the stats are opposed to one another.
As far as scrolls are concerned, I just uploaded a 3D scroll model. I wasn't sure if I could match your animation style, Clint, so I didn't actually didn't animate it flying in the air or make sprites. I think I'd be able to turn it into an icon if you'd like. Since it takes some time to get through to the public, I can email it to you if you'd like.
Okay, "animations" + "someone may do a modern game with this" is a good explanation for keeping slingshots. Thank you.
[b]Feedback from revision 306:[/b]
When I try to walk into an impassable obstacle like a wall or pit, and I hit it at 45% angle, my character will slide slowly, while moving his legs much faster. Worse, my character doesn't even face his movement direction. This looks odd, breaks immersion and reminds me it's just a game. Some solutions:
- just make him stop completely instead of sliding. Perhaps not the most playable solution, but I don't think pressing 2 keys simultaneously is hard
- make the character face movement direction when sliding. This won't fix the "legs move much faster" issue.
On "Powers" screen, descriptions of powers are a bit misleading. For example Shock: "Requires Mental Offense 3". Initially I assumed it requires [b]both[/b]. In reality, either will do. So how about changing the descriptions to "Requires Mental/Offense 3" or "Requires Mental or Offense 3" ?
[b]revision 306[/b]
I can't make [i]Immobilize[/i] skill work. I have Physical 3, Offense 2. I've bound the skill to mouse2. Nothing happens when I press mouse2. I tried clicking from up close and from afar, holding it down. My weapon is a rusty dagger.
b0rsuk, Immobilize is a ranged power (if you notice, the icon is an arrow going through someone's foot). You must have a ranged weapon equipped to use it. Besides, it would be near to useless as a melee power since it simply pins the enemy down instead of stopping the enemy from attacking.
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