I suddenly had a revelation about half an hour ago. Really, there's no need to create a separate website for this. It could all go on OGA.org. Originally I thought it would be impossible because it would require putting different kinds of art on the same page (sprites, blends, portraits, etc.) Then I realized that's actually very possible in OGA. (Funny how you forget things like that.)
So there would be a single OGA entry for a compilation of sprites, portraits, concept art and 3D models all based on the same creature.
Then this would shift from being a web project to being an "art crusade," the goal of which is to create a high volume of unified creature art.
@Tartos: Your support would be welcome. Did you take a look at my nethack list? Which of those should be prioritized? Are there any major creatures missing from the list?
Lastly, what basic style would be most useful to the community as a whole? FLARE style, which has mostly desaturated colors and a gritty feel to it? Or more like a JRGP, which has bright colors and exaggerated style? Or something else?
If there's enough interest, I'd be willing to head up this project and make a push to creating the OGA Bestiary.
As far as I'm concerned, Clint has been doing justice to the fantasy/RPG setting, and I've got confidence he (perhaps with assistance from the rest of us) will make a rich game, both visually and story-wise.
Edit: Actually, to tell the truth, Clint's plot is basically already more complex than Diablo II, and that's a very popular (and successful) fantasy/RPG. IMO, Diablo II doesn't really do justice to the fantasy setting, it simply creates its own setting, and does a good job of it.
Maybe the number of maps kept in RAM can be configurable? I mean, if someone enjoys playing the same map over and over again (or is farming xp), they could set that setting to 0. But for someone who likes clearing maps, they can set the setting higher (maybe no cap?).
As a side note, persistent maps would be problematic if you killed a quest monster before you received the quest. Then when you actually get the quest, you'd go to the appropriate map and find everything dead, including the boss. Then you'd have to travel far away and come back just to reset that map, so you can kill the boss and progress the plot. Maybe there's a way to check if the map would advance the plot before reloading from a cache?
On a larger scale, maybe you just store maps in a similar Area, rather than a number of maps (eg. Averguard Keep vs. The Caves). Then when you left the area (or reset the game) that whole area would be refreshed. Naturally this would require a new variable in the map files, but it could make the persistence feel more unified and predictable.
Heh, well no matter what all goes on there, you'll probably get at least something you can work with. Are you looking for more episodic, side locations/quests or overarching, main plot type locations/quests?
At any rate, I threw up some notes on a possible mining town, Barstone, and its plight with an antlion hive.
Also, Clint, if you wanted to put up some (semi-official?) notes on what the main plot would be, that would be great. I think there was an old thread on this forum that had some ideas.
Just tested the new quest tab in the log book. Everything looks shipshape. This will help immensely when there's multiple quests going on simultaneously, and when you resume a game from before.
I actually found myself often wanting tipped over mine carts while building the cave map. Also, while it seems the FLARE cave tileset has them, the TILED cave tileset has no barrels or crates. For other possible tiles, maybe sunken objects for the water? (Tracks sinking into the water?) Other than that, your cave tileset seems fairly complete to me.
While this would require new code, I've often wondered if there would be a way to make a tileset of objects common to all maps (eg. barrels, crates, dead bodies, summoning circles, portals, rocks, etc.). That way there would not have to be redundancy between different tilesets. One possible way to do this (though probably not the best way...) would be to have the "common tileset" always loaded and having alphabetical values in the save file (object layer: 121,10,0,0,a,0,121 #the 'a' being a barrel or something). Another advantage to having a common tileset is that it would be easy to add a new object to the whole game, rather than just one map.
Thanks, Clint! Your scroll art looks great. I've been looking for something to help out with lately, do you have anything needing done? (Maybe maps? Compiling art for a village tileset?)
wokste, the teleportation scrolls are exactly like the teleportation spell. In the future, it could be possible to do a teleport to place spell/scroll. (Though right now it seems kind of pointless, with a small map like this.)
Of course, the scroll files are hopelessly out of date now (thanks to Clint's awesome rate of development!), so don't use it if you want everything else to work correctly. If Clint adds them to the repository, they'll work just fine. (Now, they should probably be stackable items, etc...)
Clint, yeah, I figured that Shield would do that, but I thought, hey, why not?
CyberTroll, yep! All powers can be linked to a scroll. Unfortunately, like Clint said, right now, they are tied to magical damage, so a Scroll of Burn would only do 1-4 damage for non-mages.
Mumu, I thought about that, but I didn't want to make all of the icons myself (lazy me!).
I suddenly had a revelation about half an hour ago. Really, there's no need to create a separate website for this. It could all go on OGA.org. Originally I thought it would be impossible because it would require putting different kinds of art on the same page (sprites, blends, portraits, etc.) Then I realized that's actually very possible in OGA. (Funny how you forget things like that.)
So there would be a single OGA entry for a compilation of sprites, portraits, concept art and 3D models all based on the same creature.
Then this would shift from being a web project to being an "art crusade," the goal of which is to create a high volume of unified creature art.
@Tartos: Your support would be welcome. Did you take a look at my nethack list? Which of those should be prioritized? Are there any major creatures missing from the list?
Lastly, what basic style would be most useful to the community as a whole? FLARE style, which has mostly desaturated colors and a gritty feel to it? Or more like a JRGP, which has bright colors and exaggerated style? Or something else?
If there's enough interest, I'd be willing to head up this project and make a push to creating the OGA Bestiary.
As far as I'm concerned, Clint has been doing justice to the fantasy/RPG setting, and I've got confidence he (perhaps with assistance from the rest of us) will make a rich game, both visually and story-wise.
Edit: Actually, to tell the truth, Clint's plot is basically already more complex than Diablo II, and that's a very popular (and successful) fantasy/RPG. IMO, Diablo II doesn't really do justice to the fantasy setting, it simply creates its own setting, and does a good job of it.
Maybe the number of maps kept in RAM can be configurable? I mean, if someone enjoys playing the same map over and over again (or is farming xp), they could set that setting to 0. But for someone who likes clearing maps, they can set the setting higher (maybe no cap?).
As a side note, persistent maps would be problematic if you killed a quest monster before you received the quest. Then when you actually get the quest, you'd go to the appropriate map and find everything dead, including the boss. Then you'd have to travel far away and come back just to reset that map, so you can kill the boss and progress the plot. Maybe there's a way to check if the map would advance the plot before reloading from a cache?
On a larger scale, maybe you just store maps in a similar Area, rather than a number of maps (eg. Averguard Keep vs. The Caves). Then when you left the area (or reset the game) that whole area would be refreshed. Naturally this would require a new variable in the map files, but it could make the persistence feel more unified and predictable.
Heh, well no matter what all goes on there, you'll probably get at least something you can work with. Are you looking for more episodic, side locations/quests or overarching, main plot type locations/quests?
At any rate, I threw up some notes on a possible mining town, Barstone, and its plight with an antlion hive.
Also, Clint, if you wanted to put up some (semi-official?) notes on what the main plot would be, that would be great. I think there was an old thread on this forum that had some ideas.
Just tested the new quest tab in the log book. Everything looks shipshape. This will help immensely when there's multiple quests going on simultaneously, and when you resume a game from before.
Here's my entry!
http://opengameart.org/content/fantasy-librarian-portrait
I actually found myself often wanting tipped over mine carts while building the cave map. Also, while it seems the FLARE cave tileset has them, the TILED cave tileset has no barrels or crates. For other possible tiles, maybe sunken objects for the water? (Tracks sinking into the water?) Other than that, your cave tileset seems fairly complete to me.
While this would require new code, I've often wondered if there would be a way to make a tileset of objects common to all maps (eg. barrels, crates, dead bodies, summoning circles, portals, rocks, etc.). That way there would not have to be redundancy between different tilesets. One possible way to do this (though probably not the best way...) would be to have the "common tileset" always loaded and having alphabetical values in the save file (object layer: 121,10,0,0,a,0,121 #the 'a' being a barrel or something). Another advantage to having a common tileset is that it would be easy to add a new object to the whole game, rather than just one map.
Thanks, Clint! Your scroll art looks great. I've been looking for something to help out with lately, do you have anything needing done? (Maybe maps? Compiling art for a village tileset?)
wokste, the teleportation scrolls are exactly like the teleportation spell. In the future, it could be possible to do a teleport to place spell/scroll. (Though right now it seems kind of pointless, with a small map like this.)
Of course, the scroll files are hopelessly out of date now (thanks to Clint's awesome rate of development!), so don't use it if you want everything else to work correctly. If Clint adds them to the repository, they'll work just fine. (Now, they should probably be stackable items, etc...)
Clint, yeah, I figured that Shield would do that, but I thought, hey, why not?
CyberTroll, yep! All powers can be linked to a scroll. Unfortunately, like Clint said, right now, they are tied to magical damage, so a Scroll of Burn would only do 1-4 damage for non-mages.
Mumu, I thought about that, but I didn't want to make all of the icons myself (lazy me!).
Pages