tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17222863888707690542024-03-13T22:02:56.604+01:00Land of StrangersOpen Western Fantasy RoguelikeAging Minotaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14701033750426053918noreply@blogger.comBlogger45125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722286388870769054.post-53608523862844187562022-11-23T01:00:00.000+01:002022-11-23T01:00:05.633+01:00Hiatus Update<p>To anyone who still have hopes for <i>Land of Strangers</i>, apologies for infrequent updates are not something I'm going to give. The year hasn't been booming for LoSt, but the project is simmering, and I can at least say a new release is in the works.<br /></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY-iL16adUKkGny9ErL1a8Iy1eVNdpH_sgEtCGHAprLs5s6E9gFEWoUiYK5TeBmLUlNIMPeYiOWYBLzr66XKF7Fdby_ICg7TqSZGX3-io-zPYbrl-6FcQaN7ebkU0fFijZWdcBZbVOG5SZi1SQF6ifWdvYcR-2oE2Z8b-FN733TXDiWkv8zIftGT0y/s854/terminal_mode-testing.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="562" data-original-width="854" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY-iL16adUKkGny9ErL1a8Iy1eVNdpH_sgEtCGHAprLs5s6E9gFEWoUiYK5TeBmLUlNIMPeYiOWYBLzr66XKF7Fdby_ICg7TqSZGX3-io-zPYbrl-6FcQaN7ebkU0fFijZWdcBZbVOG5SZi1SQF6ifWdvYcR-2oE2Z8b-FN733TXDiWkv8zIftGT0y/s320/terminal_mode-testing.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">still doin' the work of the lord<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Some refactoring had to be done, including porting to updated versions of the Python tool chain, so version #14 will have changes to the engine and interface. Last week I had a fit and added basic terminal support, which went as well as could be hoped. I'm confident that that it will be doable to add more UI tweaks later.</p><p>For the terminal mode, the greatest challenge was how to make the hexagons, and how big … in the end I chose the smallest resolution (with each hex 1 line tall and 2 columns wide), to fit as much of the map as possible in a terminal window. With that decided, input and output was easy to implement. Rather than using external libraries, I wrote the functions using ANSI escape codes directly. It's a solution that's portable across major OSes, and workable as long as I don't get too fancy.<br /><br />While LoSt has been ported to Python 3 and a saner architecture, work on content has been on hold. Ideas are not lacking, and I'm nearing the point of adding stuff back in, as I will get to world generation and NPC behavior, two big topics with pending redesigns ;) It's a really big piece of the puzzle, but necessary to populate the open game world of LoSt. </p><p>In short, once the new engine is off the ground, I can concentrate more on adding content and fun stuff to the game. Current mood is optimistic regarding a working release in the near future. At that point I might make a github repository for LoSt, although I don't know if it interests anyone except myself.</p><p>As always, Minotauros</p>Aging Minotaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14701033750426053918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722286388870769054.post-72166368226934612202022-01-15T19:08:00.004+01:002022-01-15T19:08:41.565+01:00Slow Results II<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgdUAjqVihVLBbDk-IZGKr9ed967yAcTVMZcNPLCAkzDY6UyAglfk5gpS90CvIREnN44sMj6iZ9YzM2LL4kwVMA7qubsKbpbxi0HmG39JrEJbs1FAw0d1uJiL8LRDZ5cDtoWvLYW3Z3zh35CcxkMAdBI-Ufl4Z1C_v88P6GchEllQe6q2cjnVYykWoj=s606" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="606" data-original-width="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgdUAjqVihVLBbDk-IZGKr9ed967yAcTVMZcNPLCAkzDY6UyAglfk5gpS90CvIREnN44sMj6iZ9YzM2LL4kwVMA7qubsKbpbxi0HmG39JrEJbs1FAw0d1uJiL8LRDZ5cDtoWvLYW3Z3zh35CcxkMAdBI-Ufl4Z1C_v88P6GchEllQe6q2cjnVYykWoj=s16000" /></a></div>The last few years, <i>Land of Strangers</i>' development went into a hiatus, while <a href="https://agingminotaur.blogspot.com/2019/02/lost-polls-feature-feeler.html">ye olde questionnaire</a> about content wishes stayed around in the sidebar. Now that I'm hoping to put more time on LoSt again, it felt about time to close the poll ;) We clocked in at 82 voters. (On a side note, I think 82 must be a lucky number in The Land, being the atomic weight of lead.)<p></p><p>I will compare the results to my own wishes and plans, of course, always happy about any feedback from interested parties. It helps understand how people are perceiving the project, and what I might do to further my own plans, increase overall "readability", as well as scratch the potential fan base's itch ;) </p><p>With that said, here are the results in order:<br /></p><p><b>Dawgs </b><b><span></span>(1st – 4th; more than 30 votes)</b> <br /></p><p>38 Mounts and vehicles<span></span><br />37 Camping, survivalism<br />31 Changing world<br />31 NPC companions</p><p>The contest for gold and silver is tight between Riding and Camping. I think horses and trains are a given feature for a game like LoSt (as well as boats and some oddities, like pogo sticks). Camping/survivalism is a feature I've personally been on the fence about. Seeing that it's a popular wish has of course made me think about possible designs – if so, definitely something in my own, slightly experimental style</p><p>… On a shared third place are "Changing world" and "NPC companions", both among my personal favorites. Going ahead, I'm definitely focusing on game world factions and groups, including the possibility for the player to form alliances, gain rumor etc. Being part of a posse should be a feature (and not necessarily as their leader).<br /></p><p></p><p></p><b>Second Lead (5th to 11th; 25 votes or more) <br /></b><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhwS3nD6FQsRQquobuMLAd1uRehTKk-0_lpHkv8q9-gfz_TfZwk2v4CO16BGjrhNh9y3TNsF1rNizi1EdR_5gKd6q4F-BnMUiT_JptOSxb7ijE3oqeN6L_JR1eHwInycsnPTUL59cLcBq_NMo30W4v6OJ3M9L_B1cYw9xeqBmAMbY0glR3UBb5dfN5B=s720" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="522" data-original-width="720" height="145" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhwS3nD6FQsRQquobuMLAd1uRehTKk-0_lpHkv8q9-gfz_TfZwk2v4CO16BGjrhNh9y3TNsF1rNizi1EdR_5gKd6q4F-BnMUiT_JptOSxb7ijE3oqeN6L_JR1eHwInycsnPTUL59cLcBq_NMo30W4v6OJ3M9L_B1cYw9xeqBmAMbY0glR3UBb5dfN5B=w200-h145" width="200" /></a></div>29 Drinkin' and drugs <br />29 Rumors and investigation<br />28 Non-lethal combat<br />27 Dice games, gambling<br />26 Ropes and lassos<br />26 Tinkering, farming<br />26 Visions, dream quests<p></p><p>This tier of results have some strong contenders. Some feel genre-inherent in the psychedelic wildwestworld of LoSt, like booze (29), gambling (27), and rope use (26). Others relate to planned open world concepts like NPC companions and changing world (investigation mechanics and non-lethal combat). Regarding tinkering, we'll see – to me, it feels like a feature so prominent in many RPGs that doing anything new or interesting with it really demands a lot of work. It probably won't be a main concern in the next few versions, but I might yet find some fun way to add a tinkering system.<br /></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><b>Miscellaneous (12th to 20th; 20-25 votes)<br /></b><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgRJnVCdHJDYp6VHyQUklfYNBqOCCmh9lGUElvg3PJKwe0HPkSPhpGRXi4NXrQxi6fQotJLl8oF9k6p4-N1gwYNMbFS7739kJMVPQVj0a7sPN613Hb-YUy1vLIH8auw0BbfzK60H3KyLJcDabfnDRSMWipKzKkiZNe557B2MuKo5ZxfUi0Yd8RALuK7=s300" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="215" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgRJnVCdHJDYp6VHyQUklfYNBqOCCmh9lGUElvg3PJKwe0HPkSPhpGRXi4NXrQxi6fQotJLl8oF9k6p4-N1gwYNMbFS7739kJMVPQVj0a7sPN613Hb-YUy1vLIH8auw0BbfzK60H3KyLJcDabfnDRSMWipKzKkiZNe557B2MuKo5ZxfUi0Yd8RALuK7=w143-h200" width="143" /></a></div>25 Fire and water<br />24 Calendar, seasons<br />24 Mines, caverns<br />22 Aging<br />22 Construction, base building<br />22 Dynamite and traps<br />22 Light and darkness<br />20 Disease<br />20 Height map<br /><p></p><p>Some interesting options here; most of these are nifty ideas that can be implemented to enhance simulationist aspects of the game world. Which of these make it to the game, will depend on various factors, like whether they serve as auxiliary features to other content, or if the ratio between amount of work to add a feature, and how much fun it will bring, seems promising. A few are on my definite todo-list despite lukewarm responses in the poll, like a simple system for landscape elevation, at least as a way to create borders and bottlenecks in the landscape with ravines and plateaus.<br /></p><p><b>Backwash (less than 20 votes)</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><b></b><p></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhsKv3RkxL-hyKS_icPCIRNF7s02UEPZ0uD6BqXOaF2csSmndSwxCXH5V4nXS5kBJ4b2i7z9nOO9dV7GK6-3Ea9SfrfexOhMrti_mScFytyMEfvYCCiSwzZtzzaEqZrWl60bHhONIpiaHX4O1vE75785OUEZUhUG-t66fasbHMH9A7ah8eDVYyzQNua=s189" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="186" data-original-width="189" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhsKv3RkxL-hyKS_icPCIRNF7s02UEPZ0uD6BqXOaF2csSmndSwxCXH5V4nXS5kBJ4b2i7z9nOO9dV7GK6-3Ea9SfrfexOhMrti_mScFytyMEfvYCCiSwzZtzzaEqZrWl60bHhONIpiaHX4O1vE75785OUEZUhUG-t66fasbHMH9A7ah8eDVYyzQNua=w200-h197" width="200" /></a><b></b>13 Add better interface!<br />12 Retirement, ghosts<br />2 Other (Comment)</p><p>The "Add better interface" option is actually a jocular throwback to a previous poll about UI, most of which I've haven't gotten around to reacting to, although I've been working on it ::) So the next version will include important features like mouse support and a better graphics engine (another feature high on the todo-list is to add sound effects, and hopefully an original soundtrack). The option to retire player characters and have previous character runs affect later playthroughs did not garner a lot of support, although I can't guarantee that it won't pop up if it feels natural at some point. In the "Other" section, one voter left a comment asking for trading as a feature, and I've got to say it's a good idea, and frankly not overused in open world games, although I'll have to chew on it for a while to see what might come of it. Another voter clicked Other along with every single other poll option, but left no comment, whether that might have been a bot or a very enthusiastic player who simply wants more of everything.</p><p>With the poll closed, all that remains is to extend thanks to all who participated. I can now happily get to work on the system for dynamic NPC factions, which should scratch some of these itches. I will keep you posted as work progresses. </p><p>In the meantime I think it's not yet too late to wish you all a happy, prosperous year ahead. Stay Lost, and keep fucking that chicken!</p><p>As always,<br />Minotauros<br /></p>Aging Minotaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14701033750426053918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722286388870769054.post-48086897209855010502022-01-12T14:58:00.000+01:002022-01-12T14:58:17.607+01:00Slow results<p>Me hearties! It's been a whole year with no progress reports on the blog, after I started refactoring the whole project last winter. I've been concentrating on other stuff – publishing a book and also going back to university (starting a course in computer science). So it's been a slow year in development, but on the flip side I've cleared time and headspace to fiddle more with programming in the time to come. <br /></p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhmnTCgYysofp5F-yyW-cBsRd--Z3Tbk6zo7pt5m_9UIRrw-EJO0HlYJZspQSlZmY2NUCom68_V_VCraoOxamcWBYPJzfs-dx_78iU6s_zryOK94Rs7KyefJhCnpU9Xg0QpmjTycYXwr9YeSKhPKGsGiXrjdQ4Pxh8_TwcCx8XxeHlR9VHjaftkJkTv=s602" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="516" data-original-width="602" height="274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhmnTCgYysofp5F-yyW-cBsRd--Z3Tbk6zo7pt5m_9UIRrw-EJO0HlYJZspQSlZmY2NUCom68_V_VCraoOxamcWBYPJzfs-dx_78iU6s_zryOK94Rs7KyefJhCnpU9Xg0QpmjTycYXwr9YeSKhPKGsGiXrjdQ4Pxh8_TwcCx8XxeHlR9VHjaftkJkTv=s320" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The latest tech<br /></td></tr></tbody></table>Regarding the current state of the code, I did put in some work last spring, updating the tool chain and reassembling many basic features. What I have at the moment is a slimmed down code base with the base functionality, but no real content. Where I left off last year, it was time to reimplement world generation, and after that NPC behavior. Both of these will see some redesigns, and both are systems I find highly motivational to code, since the game world comes more alive with every step of the road.<p></p><p>I think Roguelikes can make up for their lack in linear storytelling, by making the world capable of generating meaning in its own right. In <i>Moby Dick, </i>Herman Melville writes: «Out of the trunk, the branches grow; out of them, the twigs. So, in productive subjects, grow the chapters.» I'm quoting this for no particular reason other than my immense love of Melville. In LoSt, I want the narrative structure to be less like a tree, but rather a mesh of interconnected roots, or perhaps something akin to what Derrida described as a «dredging machine» (<i>machine à draguer</i>).<br /></p><p>Going forward, I'll try to imbue the game world with a sense of direction and vague purpose, by focusing on factions and other forces of influence as fundamental building blocks of the game world. Last week I've picked up the old code base and design notes, and have started some simple prototyping for generating these forces and representing their relations in a graph, which should be used to inform stuff like terrain generation and quest lines. A working system will not come overnight, but should crystallize in not too long if I put in some time and effort.<br /></p>Aging Minotaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14701033750426053918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722286388870769054.post-33102665174096158272020-12-31T11:12:00.000+01:002020-12-31T11:12:30.911+01:00LoSt this year<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9UjXXhzrrKE/X-06jsOoSpI/AAAAAAAAAr0/hYBRsxLTpN4y60ehJRlX44VW3Vi_YimpQCLcBGAsYHQ/s592/big_croc.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="444" data-original-width="592" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9UjXXhzrrKE/X-06jsOoSpI/AAAAAAAAAr0/hYBRsxLTpN4y60ehJRlX44VW3Vi_YimpQCLcBGAsYHQ/w320-h240/big_croc.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">non-obligatory pic of a big croc</td></tr></tbody></table>The blog stayed literally dead silent this year, reflecting the equally sad fact that 2020 was a pretty slow year in the development of Land of Strangers. But I did recently tell some interested commentators I'd write a status report for the project, and I have grown fond of writing a little piece to sum up the year, anyway ;)</span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">At the end of last year, I had already started refactoring some parts of the code, in particular the graphics engine. Since then, I've been tinkering on and off with the project; albeit, mostly off, to be perfectly frank.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Early in the refactoring process, I decided while I'm at it to port the whole game to Python 3 (as well as the newest version of Pygame). This has thankfully turned out to be a quite straightforward transition; it's mostly a question of modernizing the syntax of print() statements – whether because I'm very pythonic in my style, or just a terribly primitive coder ;) Anyway, the timing turned out to be auspicious, as this was also the year that Python officially discontinued the 2.7 branch (which LoSt has been using up to and including the current public release). </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">In spring, I lay down some coding sessions and got the basic graphic functionalities up, to the point that I have working menus and a "@ walking around the map" interface with basic event handling and such. I'm bringing in the old code in chunks, trying to streamline a bit along the way, and planning to put in some small and big redesigns that have been on the project's Todo-list.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">In autumn, I've been streamlining how I add end edit random content, hoping to lay the grounds for more rapid development later on. But I try not to get lost in the here and now of making the engine as flexible as possible – try to keep focus on what is needed for game worlds in LoSt, and accept some quirkiness in meeting those needs rather than put in complex, catch-all solutions.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Once I nail the basic functionality of editing LoSt's so-called kits (≈plugins/components, used to define in-game beings and concepts), I can probably pull in most of the already written content, along with basic parts of map generation, to start building on the game in an actually playable state again. lol almost eight years after the initial release of LoSt as a 7drl.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wLAXHxjxhZ8/X-0dbAosM-I/AAAAAAAAArc/yXCPud4gPuc3QKXf1kiUqAjyTaAfM4DXACLcBGAsYHQ/s353/alchemy.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="307" data-original-width="353" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wLAXHxjxhZ8/X-0dbAosM-I/AAAAAAAAArc/yXCPud4gPuc3QKXf1kiUqAjyTaAfM4DXACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/alchemy.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">𝅘𝅥 𝅘𝅥𝅮 distill-ay-shun 𝅘𝅥<br />𝅗𝅥 can … be … fun 𝅗𝅥</td></tr></tbody></table></div><div style="text-align: left;">Not directly related to user interface, I will be slipping in some design changes with the ongoing update, though I will probably write more about these another time. Suffice to say, the system for <b>health and time</b>, combat etc. gets the hopefully final do-over, and some fleshing-out of (macro scale) <b>world generation</b>, as well as the <b>AI</b>. I also have been thinking about text generation … We'll see what comes of that, in LoSt and/or other projects … </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">A lot of this is related to narrative, as I've been thinking about ways to strengthen the game's original setting, as well as giving more direction to play through «quests» and the like. I think my next milestone release will contain a <b>manual</b> (to get most of the non-generative text out of the way) as well as a themed <b>tutorial</b>, probably a nod back to early releases that cast the player as a revolting mine slave<b> </b>(the tutorial should be notoriously hard to clear in itself, and maybe with simple(r) achievements to unlock the basic backgrounds for the «proper game», eg. fire a pistol for the option to start as a duelist/gunslinger, win at unarmed combat to start as a pit fighter/brawler).</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Regarding release #14, it may become Yet An Interrim Release™, or more or less fleshed out in certain compartments. I don't have a current time plan, but believe I will be working more on LoSt in the coming months, so it's hopefully on the not too far horizon. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">At the moment, having said that, I think I'll say no more than a happy healthy new year to you all.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">As always,</div><div style="text-align: left;">Minotauros</div>Aging Minotaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14701033750426053918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722286388870769054.post-84691911145901839282019-12-20T01:42:00.000+01:002019-12-20T01:42:32.390+01:00Status updateGreetings me hearties, here's a long overdue status report from the Land. The year, in retrospect, has been busy on other fronts than development. Since my <a href="https://agingminotaur.blogspot.com/2019/03/say-yes-to-drugs.html" target="_blank">last blog post</a> last spring, I did start to flesh out rules and effects of alcohol and drugs, making some changes to how the Grit stat (♥) works.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mAGA0J9HDN4/XfwEht_FDrI/AAAAAAAAAnw/8nabBLJhORoH5NZiPR0Ho8chGlFQ5qTkgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/grit_uitestdrugs.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="552" data-original-width="1172" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mAGA0J9HDN4/XfwEht_FDrI/AAAAAAAAAnw/8nabBLJhORoH5NZiPR0Ho8chGlFQ5qTkgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/grit_uitestdrugs.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Grit UI outline with wounds from the right and<br />state («giddy») from the left. ©placeholder art</td></tr>
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The new design is using ♥ to track, in addition to wounds, various states of being (including intoxication).<br />
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Extending how ♥ works, to accomodate the new designs re: drinkin'n'drugs, affects various game systems. (At the end of the day, status effects will probably be implemented as a kind of data kit. That way, statuses will be very flexible to deal with in the game engine. Different kinds of drugs/poisons, special rules for swimming and sprinting, etc. will all be possible, at least ;)<br />
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At some points, elements of the GUI need to change. And frankly, it's becoming increasingly difficult as LoSt's graphics rendering has become an ugly bugly mess over the years. This time, I started to implement some changes I've been thinking about for a while, and the whole graphics engine is currently in the middle of a refactoring.<br />
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It means the game itself is in a bit of a limbo, but it's okay. I'm taking my time and making sure the next iteration is designed in a way that will be robust with regards to future plans. By now, I think I have a pretty clear idea of what I need.<br />
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Depending on how various factors in my «other RL» (real life) pan out, I may get some more time to tinker on LoSt by the end of the winter, or come spring. In the meantime, I wish you all the best.<br />
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As always,<br />
Minotauros<br />
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<br />Aging Minotaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14701033750426053918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722286388870769054.post-88058588081134712772019-03-06T03:48:00.001+01:002019-03-06T03:48:39.474+01:00Say Yes to Drugs<blockquote>
<i>Just say No <br />
to family values, <br />
and don't quit <br />
your day job. <br /><br />
Drugs <br />
are sacred <br />
substances, <br />
and some drugs <br />
are very sacred substances</i></blockquote>
<blockquote>
–John Giorno, <i><a href="https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/just-say-no-to-family-values/" target="_blank">Just Say No To Family Values</a></i></blockquote>
In development, certain features give instant gratification to implement. From getting "a @ walking on a map" and onward, it's thrilling to see your game take form. Other features require more extensive work before they start to become noticeable in the game. Seeing these grander plans gradually unfold carries a joy of its own, but for motivation's sake, it's good to sprinkle some short term design goals into the mix here and there.<br />
<br />
After I announced the <a href="https://agingminotaur.blogspot.com/2019/02/lost-polls-feature-feeler.html" target="_blank">feature poll</a> a few weeks ago, some votes have started to come in, and the option that currently seems to be getting ahead, is to add drinking and drugs to the game. Cheers. So, on the side of working on random sites and factions (which I'm starting to realize will be quite a big undertaking), I started to make sketches for intoxicants for Land of Strangers. It's something I can probably add without too much hassle, but with a lot of potential depth.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Starting to experiment with drugs</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
So, how to implement drugs in a Roguelike? I think it's a point to keep the presentation tight, as fluff-free as possible. Since this is a one player game, it was clear to me from the onset that the character needs a mechanical incentive to ingest drugs. Another point that felt natural in LoSt, was to opt for random drugs.<br />
<br />
Thinking about taxonomies and making plans for drug effects, it struck me that some of the substances that cropped up, would be "drugs" in the wider sense of actual medicines, but with possible side effects. It will be appropriate to add "druggist" saleskids who peddle anything from psycho serum injections and hallucinogenic meat, to painkillers and natural medicine. Additionally, substances that come from plants and animals can be linked to species in the random biomes.<br />
<br />
When it comes to random content in LoSt, I sometimes imagine the templates as something akin to tarot readings or solitaires, with "cards" (kit plugins) laid out in patterns. If the reading is for a person, each node or card represents a strength, weakness, or other detail. If the reading is for an objective, the nodes represent obstacles, helpers, ulterior motives, etc. These nodes branch out and connect, and may spawn nodes of their own (as the random artifact gets an effect, the effect gets a random duration). A prop template for a random drug can probably be structured with nodes in about six different categories:<br />
<br />
<b>Form/source, method, dosage: </b>Is it a powder, beverage, flower, etc? Some forms are available in nature (raw or prepared biotic/mineral parts), others are synthesized in a lab. Method and dosage indicate how to administer the drug. This data is at least used to generate the drug as an actual prop in the game world, and provide a skeletal "consume" event with pending effects.<br />
<br />
<b>Effect:</b> Most drugs should have a (potentially) beneficial "main" effect. There is a subset of pure combat drugs, but also some effects for other stimulants, depressants, hallucinogenics and miscellaneous. Effects of drugs are typically not instant, but have an onset duration/curve, which can itself be randomized.<br />
<br />
<b>Side effect: </b>Potential or guaranteed side effect, typically a penalty, like a hangover.<br />
<br />
<b>Overdose, extradose:</b> In excessive doses, the substance can have extra potent (side) effects, including death. Overdose effects will need a probability of incurring depending on dosage and other factors. There can also be a possibility of other "extradoses" that could be outright positive, expanding on the normal effect.<br />
<br />
<b>Long term effects:</b> Side effects which can be temporary (chronic as long as you keep using) or permanent (even after you quit). Again, I probably need to randomly set thresholds, timers, etc. for each separate effect. Addiction could be classed as a form of this, but may also merit its own category.<br />
<br />
<b>Addiction:</b> Drugs are more or less addictive, with more or less severe withdrawal symptoms, etc.<br />
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There may be other systems I'm overlooking that should be proper to the drugs as actual props and related events in the game world. But I think that covers the basics. Other questions come on top of the actual prop design, however, including how to put drugs in the game world, and how to present them in the interface.<br />
<br />
For intoxication itself, a simple interface may work well. Being influenced could tap one ♥ with a flag describing your feeling. The effects themselves need to be implemented, but a lot can be done with simple status flags. Finer points, like long term effects and poly drug use, will have to be ironed out along the way.<br />
<br />
Setting the dials to max random in a prototype generator yields some pretty varied results, like "Murphy (PBUH)", a plant juice to be ingested in the rectum, causing hallucinations, but with the possible side effect of strong and fast on-coming diarrhea. Frankly, that's one of the less weird ones. Transitioning from the prototype generator to data modules will definitely incur some fine-tuning, although hopefully with room for the occasionally utterly absurd.<br />
<br />
One thing to make sure of, is that some sane default templates are more or less guaranteed to be generated. For balance' sake, there should probably be at least a few stimulants that increase healing or combat capabilities. We also can't have us a Western without booze, although the drink of choice across the Land may vary from banana wine to corn spirits. Some of the weirder drugs may come with factions and sites of their own, from Delphic cults who gather at natural gas sources to inhale the intoxicating fumes, to outcast colonies that willingly inflict themselves with a euphoria-inducing virus. Other encounters may include junkies/pharmacists paying for rare substances, ranches/pens with psychoactive herds, and other silliness. Sinister drug dealers may be a thing, but there will probably not be any legal sanctions against drugs as such, seeing as how the game plays in a land that hardly has had the time to get any laws at all. There may be abolitionists or a Temperance League, of course, possibly even zealots that sort rather in the general category of "homicidal maniac".<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Morality studies in the Land</td></tr>
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One funny thing that struck me in all of this, was that the question inevitably cropped up whether it could be alienating or inappropriate towards some audiences to add drugs in the game. I had the same thought about swearing at one point. And had to laugh at myself for questioning this in a game that's basically about killing vaguely defined "enemies". If anything, it shows I'm a product of cultural cliches.<br />
<br />
On the other hand, I think the random generator will be spitting out some quite dangerous drugs, so I probably can't be accused of glorifying drug abuse. Regarding ethics as such, LoSt was never ever intended to be a showcase of goodness, and it's rather been a stated design goal to grey out "the alignment scale", aiming instead to focus on factors like reputation and social standing. If the game has an age rating, it's some Parental Guidance shit at least, although I can't imagine most kids would take any damage from messing around with my little game. I think the best I could hope for, would at least be to teach them some naughty words.<br />
<br />
As always,<br />
MinotaurosAging Minotaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14701033750426053918noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722286388870769054.post-29300997470106208332019-02-16T12:50:00.001+01:002019-02-16T12:58:56.899+01:00LoSt Polls: Feature Feeler<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>First we had a couple of feelers down at Tom's place.</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
–T. S. Eliot, <i>The Waste Land</i></blockquote>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: left;"><form action="https://poll.pollcode.com/84134366" method="post">
<div style="background-color: #f5eecb; color: #504020; font-family: "arial"; font-size: small; padding: 2px; width: 250px;">
<div style="padding: 2px 0px 4px 2px;">
<strong>Which feature(s) do you want in LoSt?</strong></div>
<input id="answer841343661" name="answer" style="float: left;" type="checkbox" value="1" /><label for="answer841343661" style="float: left; width: 200px;">Aging</label><br />
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<input id="answer841343662" name="answer" style="float: left;" type="checkbox" value="2" /><label for="answer841343662" style="float: left; width: 200px;">Calendar, seasons, weather</label><br />
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<input id="answer841343663" name="answer" style="float: left;" type="checkbox" value="3" /><label for="answer841343663" style="float: left; width: 200px;">Camping, survivalism</label><br />
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<input id="answer841343664" name="answer" style="float: left;" type="checkbox" value="4" /><label for="answer841343664" style="float: left; width: 200px;">Changing world, news flashes</label><br />
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<input id="answer841343665" name="answer" style="float: left;" type="checkbox" value="5" /><label for="answer841343665" style="float: left; width: 200px;">Construction, home building</label><br />
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<input id="answer841343666" name="answer" style="float: left;" type="checkbox" value="6" /><label for="answer841343666" style="float: left; width: 200px;">Dice games, gambling</label><br />
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<input id="answer841343667" name="answer" style="float: left;" type="checkbox" value="7" /><label for="answer841343667" style="float: left; width: 200px;">Disease</label><br />
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<input id="answer841343668" name="answer" style="float: left;" type="checkbox" value="8" /><label for="answer841343668" style="float: left; width: 200px;">Drinkin' and drugs</label><br />
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<input id="answer841343669" name="answer" style="float: left;" type="checkbox" value="9" /><label for="answer841343669" style="float: left; width: 200px;">Dynamite and trap rigging</label><br />
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<input id="answer8413436610" name="answer" style="float: left;" type="checkbox" value="10" /><label for="answer8413436610" style="float: left; width: 200px;">Fire and water</label><br />
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<input id="answer8413436611" name="answer" style="float: left;" type="checkbox" value="11" /><label for="answer8413436611" style="float: left; width: 200px;">Height map, slopes and terraces</label><br />
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<input id="answer8413436612" name="answer" style="float: left;" type="checkbox" value="12" /><label for="answer8413436612" style="float: left; width: 200px;">Light and darkness</label><br />
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<input id="answer8413436613" name="answer" style="float: left;" type="checkbox" value="13" /><label for="answer8413436613" style="float: left; width: 200px;">Mines, caverns, underworld</label><br />
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<input id="answer8413436614" name="answer" style="float: left;" type="checkbox" value="14" /><label for="answer8413436614" style="float: left; width: 200px;">Mounts and vehicles</label><br />
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<input id="answer8413436615" name="answer" style="float: left;" type="checkbox" value="15" /><label for="answer8413436615" style="float: left; width: 200px;">Non-lethal combat</label><br />
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<input id="answer8413436616" name="answer" style="float: left;" type="checkbox" value="16" /><label for="answer8413436616" style="float: left; width: 200px;">NPC companions</label><br />
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<input id="answer8413436617" name="answer" style="float: left;" type="checkbox" value="17" /><label for="answer8413436617" style="float: left; width: 200px;">Retirement, ghosts</label><br />
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<input id="answer8413436618" name="answer" style="float: left;" type="checkbox" value="18" /><label for="answer8413436618" style="float: left; width: 200px;">Ropes and lassos</label><br />
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<input id="answer8413436619" name="answer" style="float: left;" type="checkbox" value="19" /><label for="answer8413436619" style="float: left; width: 200px;">Rumors, investigation</label><br />
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<input id="answer8413436620" name="answer" style="float: left;" type="checkbox" value="20" /><label for="answer8413436620" style="float: left; width: 200px;">Tinkering, farming, crafting</label><br />
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<input id="answer8413436621" name="answer" style="float: left;" type="checkbox" value="21" /><label for="answer8413436621" style="float: left; width: 200px;">Visions and dream quests</label><br />
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<input id="answer8413436622" name="answer" style="float: left;" type="checkbox" value="22" /><label for="answer8413436622" style="float: left; width: 200px;">Never mind, add more interface!</label><br />
<div style="clear: both; height: 2px;">
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<input id="answer8413436623" name="answer" style="float: left;" type="checkbox" value="23" /><label for="answer8413436623" style="float: left; width: 200px;">OTHER (Comment)</label><br />
<div style="clear: both; height: 2px;">
</div>
<div align="center" style="padding: 3px;">
<input type="submit" value=" Vote ">
</div>
<div align="right" style="font-size: 10px;">
pollcode.com <a href="https://pollcode.com/">free polls</a></div>
</div>
</form>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
It's pollin' time again, my bois and gyrls. This round of voting is all about feature requests. I've tried (not with great success) to keep the options at a sane-ish amount, but you're of course welcome to mention other wishes in the comments.<br />
<br />
You can vote in the blog's sidebar for as long as the poll is open, or use the widget in this post. (People on phones may not see the sidebar.) So if you have an opinion – informed or not – go ahead and vote, already!<br />
<br />
In the meantime, keep reading for my own comments regarding each option, after a word or two about the background for this poll :P<br />
<br />
I was happy about <a href="https://agingminotaur.blogspot.com/2018/09/lost-polls-interface-inquiry.html" target="_blank">the previous poll</a> (results <a href="https://agingminotaur.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-lost-polls-interface-poll-results.html" target="_blank">here</a>), and wanted to chug out another one quickly.<br />
<br />
What I'm really working on these days, is to add more world factions/influences, with assorted places and plots. Adding each faction is a big task. I've already put many hours into Arken Town, and it's far from finished. Influences like "religious faction", "toppled civilization" and "mafia network" will be even bigger. So it's a question of development strategy which groups to put in and in which order. Some ideas may be too similar to another be worth adding, others just similar enough to slip in with few modifications. Some will require entirely new systems to realize.<br />
<br />
For inspiration's sake, then, I decided to ask which new gameplay features y'all would like to see in upcoming releases. I'll probably be consulting the results for the next few releases of LoSt, as always taking your advice to heart while keeping the privilege of the dictatorial vote ;) But if the crowd is shouting for animal handling and underground levels, there could be mining companies digging deep and ranches running cattle across the Land. Heck, maybe even underground cowboys herding cave beasts in that nadirian biome.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-h4fcsCUB4Tg/XGPpK-i8ciI/AAAAAAAAAjw/d5a8TaBsDZoqVZkzDMbpPBrkQe_G1MSygCLcBGAs/s1600/stetson_small.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="139" data-original-width="620" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-h4fcsCUB4Tg/XGPpK-i8ciI/AAAAAAAAAjw/d5a8TaBsDZoqVZkzDMbpPBrkQe_G1MSygCLcBGAs/s1600/stetson_small.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">«Stetson!»</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h3>
</h3>
<h3>
Rundown of the options</h3>
The options are hopefully rather self-explanatory, but I'll jump at the opportunity to continue ranting for a bit. I think the options can be roughly divided into five parts: Time, Activities, Physics, NPCs, and Miscellaneous.<br />
<br />
<h4>
☞ Passage of time</h4>
<b><br /></b>
<b>Aging:</b> Experience as well as adverse effects of age and trauma. Start young and die old, or quit at the height of your fame, maybe to show up as an NPC in another game (see below: Retirement). Or something like that ;)<br />
<div>
<div>
<b>Calendar, weather and seasons:</b> Keep track of months, with scenery/world changes for each season. Random seasons with special effects? There might be the option to stay at a location for months or years, and gameplay effects of that.</div>
</div>
<div>
<b>Camping, survivalism:</b> Probably not a flat-out food clock. But maybe something like requiring to rest daily: It could spend 1♄ and carry a small chance of healing a wound. A simple resting interface <i>might</i> offer some welcome pacing, if done well. </div>
<div>
<b>Changing world, news flashes:</b> Events that change the world state. Anything from "bandits besiege monastery" to "you contract green fever". Mainly, these events should appear on the game board, as dialogue and action.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h4>
☞ Activities</h4>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<div>
<b>Construct or buy a house/home base:</b> 'Nuff said.</div>
<div>
<b>Dice games and betting on fights:</b> Probably betting by dropping ♄ on the table. Races and fights can be played out on the game map. A simple dice game should also be doable like that. </div>
<div>
<b>Disease:</b> Probably randomized diseases. The basic formula would start at picking values for variables like effect, duration, incubation, contagiousness, and remedy.</div>
<div>
<b>Drinking and drugs:</b> The motivation to use anything (including drugs) in the game, should be game related. So intoxicants need beneficial effects, as well as dangers of abuse.</div>
<div>
<b>Dynamite rigging, trap setting:</b> Tactical: set up the perimeters before a fight, and lure enemies to your preset bombs and traps. Props and shticks related to TNT and trap engineering.</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h4>
☞ Physics and world features</h4>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<div>
<b>Fire and water:</b> Wildfire, burning fuses, volatile matter, flowing water, etc. Swimming and diving probably also falls in this category.</div>
<div>
<b>Height maps, slopes and terraces:</b> Maybe simplistic, with terraces as special obstacles. But an altitude system could shine if it allowed for stuff like climbing up on rooftops and speeding trains.</div>
<div>
<b>Light and darkness:</b> Wouldn't have to be too deep, some touches to add tactical and aesthetic variation.</div>
<div>
<b>Mines, caverns, underworld:</b> Underground levels and lore pertaining to them.<br />
<b>Mounts/riding, wagons, trains, boats…:</b> Probably using a velocity/inertia system, with riding as "merging" the rider and the mount into one being temporarily. For moving platforms, brush up on Galilean relativity.</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<h4>
☞ NPC interactions</h4>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Non-lethal combat:</b> When your last ♥ is greyed out, you get incapacitated but not necessarily dead. Depending on who defeated you, they may spare your life, rob you, leave you to bleed out, finish you off, etc. The player could get similar options when winning a non-lethal fight. Could also be put in as functions of the AI, making NPCs run away more often, and/or adding a gesture of surrendering (like dropping your weapon), that NPCs should also recognize if the player does it.</div>
<div>
<b>NPC companions:</b> NPC means Non Player Critter (human or animal :) There could be ways to solicit help for single missions, or gain long-term allies. In some cases, enslaved or captive NPCs can be an option. And of course a possible shtick to start out with a dog or equivalent animal.</div>
<div>
<b>Retirement, ghosts, legacies of players past:</b> It could be possible to retire characters, who may even show up as NPCs in later games. Actual ghosts is another option. Something like Shiren's mechanism of mailing items to your future selves could also be used.<br />
<b>Ropes'n'lassos:</b> Really a utility feature, but ties in (sorry) with social interaction. From bringing hogtied criminals to the tribunal, to parking your horse, ropes can be an interface helper. Lassos would be non-lethal weapons, and rope physics could be used for tripwires, fuses, nets, etc.</div>
<div>
<b>Rumors, investigation, lore gathering:</b> I loathe to put in dialogue trees or spamming the villagers for rumors, but may yet try my hand at this. Look for interesting ways to convey and connect in-game lore and info. From learning about the flora and fauna, to simple whodunnit puzzles. </div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h4>
☞ Miscellaneous</h4>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Tinkering, farming, crafting: </b>The nature of crafting would probably lean on existing content. The game works well without, but it might be interesting to add something here.</div>
<div>
<b>Visions and dream quests:</b> Thrown in for good measure.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
If you read through all of that, I salute you! If you did scroll down to the bottom, I don't blame you. Now go and tick off some options here or in the sidebar! And walk in peace, and all that.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
As always,</div>
<div>
Minotauros</div>Aging Minotaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14701033750426053918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722286388870769054.post-52283833675965591742019-01-11T12:16:00.001+01:002019-01-11T12:16:33.588+01:00LoSt this month: Enemy of the state of the artAt the turn of a calendar year, it's customary to take stock of the year that went and the current state of affairs ;) Regarding <i>Land of Strangers</i>, 2018 was a relatively slow year, although I did manage to release version #13. And have been going at it (slowly) since then. 2018 actually marked the 5th anniversary of LoSt, and development, I guess, is going more or less <a href="https://agingminotaur.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-slow-application-development-sad.html" target="_blank">according to plan</a>.<br />
<br />
Looking ahead, my current goal is to make the game more "presentable", a two-fold task. For one thing, the current interface is still a bit rough around the edges, though mostly complete now. Second, the game needs more encounters, places and things to do in general (and reasons to do them).<br />
<br />
In December, I did some work on LoSt.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-w0uSnFl2IOo/XDhzZE6DG2I/AAAAAAAAAi4/9Aq-Byry4xURjjrpW5Diy3YXJnW1da4oQCLcBGAs/s1600/Peek_mouse.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="573" data-original-width="417" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-w0uSnFl2IOo/XDhzZE6DG2I/AAAAAAAAAi4/9Aq-Byry4xURjjrpW5Diy3YXJnW1da4oQCLcBGAs/s320/Peek_mouse.gif" width="233" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">LoSt with a mouse (but as you see,<br />sprite rendering is still buggy)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The game now has a mouse interface. It's click to walk towards a tile or bump into an adjacent being (open a door, attack a target). Right clicking will bring up a menu next to the cursor, where you can choose an action or prop. The new action menu, that hovers over the map, is now also bound to the keyboard's "action hotkey" (Space/C). The keyboard bindings were thus switched around, since the "inventory hotkey" became obsolete. Instead, I added a pure utility command to toggle through your inventory. This made sense now that inventory handling doesn't cost any game time.<br />
<br />
I'm still testing out the default configurations, but think the details will iron themselves out naturally as development and testing continue. For instance, I still want the game to register a mouse grab/long click (default to the same as right click, for anyone with a one-button mouse?), as well as double clicking (autowalk to a visible hex on the map).<br />
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Regarding content, I've been hacking away at some of my "sites", as I call them. They're just glorified place templates/blueprints with moving parts and various variables. I have some sites to play around with now, and plan on adding to them as I go along. At the moment, I'm working out basic patterns for placing them in relation to each other. The sites themselves are currently quite insular, in that there is little direct interaction between them, although this is going to change.<br />
<br />
The long term plans are quite grandiose, of course (and I easily see another half-dozen years before the game is feature complete). There might be something like pseudo-random factions, each with their influence in the form of sites and encounters across the map. Random quests should reflect faction enmities, alliances and goals, and provide the player with a means to influence the story. While some factions will mostly be guaranteed, like robbers and law kids, some should be optional or highly random, such as ranches and trading companies, a traveling circus, or the ruins of a toppled civilization scattered across the Land.<br />
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In the short term, I'm concentrating on adding some plot hooks and bounties that might later work as side quests, or as segments of longer quest lines.<br />
<br />
Also on the short term todo list is to make a few last fixes to the interface, to improve graphics rendering a bit. This shouldn't be too big of an undertaking, and needn't happen asap, but I probably want that in before the next release, at least, in the name of "presentability".<br />
<br />
<h3>
Meanwhile, in the future</h3>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MdHHrYWtEz8/XC9E-SF7t9I/AAAAAAAAAis/yVh9Nfy46rQiZAnD7DE1uZcEiuo7xQNFQCLcBGAs/s1600/punt_gun_long.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1520" data-original-width="558" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MdHHrYWtEz8/XC9E-SF7t9I/AAAAAAAAAis/yVh9Nfy46rQiZAnD7DE1uZcEiuo7xQNFQCLcBGAs/s320/punt_gun_long.jpg" width="117" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">yet another<br />
punt gun pic</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Going onward, I'll continue fleshing out sites and factions, and making interactions more detailed in general. Regarding long-term plans and feature ideas, I've glossed over some old notes and todo lists, and might at least give a rough outline of some of the ideas that have persisted over the years and may perhaps come into fruition one day…<br />
<br />
<b>Non-lethal combat:</b> There should be the option of running away, also on the NPCs' part. I might add a "neutralized" state, when a critter doesn't have any untapped grit (red hearts) left. At this point, the critter is immobile and at the mercy of the environment. Defeated NPCs can be dealt with as the players wants (leave them, rob them, kill them, etc). Likewise, NPCs might opt to spare a defeated player character's life, typically incurring some other loss. Ending up in prison, or tarred and feathered in the middle of the desert, can work as an appropriately harsh, but not final, defeat in a game that on the one hand features permadeath, but on the other doesn't offer to advance the player character to godlike abilities.<br />
<br />
<b>Posses:</b> I'm thinking of a more detailed system for defining units of NPCs, from a flock of birds to a band of robbers. There is also no reason why the player shouldn't be able to join or gather up posses of their own. In fact, I intend the game to encourage it. There should be shticks and props to recruit NPCs, depending on factors like your reputation. Again, adding NPC allies might be a way for the player to increase survivability. More importantly, perhaps, I imagine it fun with scenarios where the player has to cooperate with computer-controlled units.<br />
<br />
<b>Expanded usage of Grit ♥ and Lead ♄:</b> I might to try to make small changes to how these traits work. I think ♥, aside from being a health bar, could be used to measure fatigue and other ailments, and maybe even as slots you can fill with status effects (for instance, being hasted from mercury bubblegum might tap a single ♥, or sprinting makes you accumulate fatigue markers). ♄ (lead) is also a stat that might be expanded a bit, perhaps to represent resources on a more general level. Some actions could cost a few ♄ to use, like tinkering shticks.<br />
<br />
<b>Ropes and miscellaneous:</b> Rope could be an option to deal with prisoners, like hog-tying a neutralized foe and bringing them alive before their perpetrator. There could also be props like fuses and trip wire, or shticks to set traps. On the topic of "tinkering and utility" shticks and props, I can currently only say that all of that might or might not make it into the game. There will certainly be <i>some</i> rules for harvesting/building in the Land. I've set this up with destructible terrain and all that – but it remains to be seen which directions these ideas will take.<br />
<br />
<b>Riding, velocity:</b> I've pretty much worked out in my head how I'll try to design this. When a being is moving fast, the game will assign it a certain velocity/inertia. Sprinting humans will be moving 2 hexes/turn, with some animals going faster. The next logical step would be to add mounts – probably some kind of hossies, broncos or other equines ;) That entails rules for animal taming and more, and while I'm at it, I'll probably want to add a system for pets in general :) The velocity system can be expanded to some pseudo-Galilean rules for moving platforms (boats, carriages, trains). I think riding as fast traveling can work well with the game's "reasonably big" overworld. Walking from town to town might be a bit of a chore, but it should be bearable on horseback and outright luxurious to ride a train.<br />
<br />
<b>Fire and flooding:</b> I'm gonna want at least some rules for the elements, including wildfire setting off dynamite and other slapstick situations.<br />
<br />
<b>Landscape elevation and such:</b> This is another feature I hope to somehow kludge through. There will probably not be a proper z-axis in the world's coordinate grid, but some tiles may serve as terraces or slopes, almost like the old Zelda-games, with unclimbable cliff sides segmenting mountain areas, balconies that can only be reached by a staircase, etc. I do also have ideas for something similar to Rogue-stairs, which lead to a separate map, for places like mines and cellars. It would be quite cool if I could implement standing on the roof of a house, or even atop of a moving wagon or train. In general, I can think of a lot more landscape features that could be added, like quicksand, ravines, landslides, dust devils, swarms, etc.<br />
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<b>Gatling guns:</b> At that point, you should be able to get scenarios like going down a dangerous river arm on a boat with a mounted machine gun.<br />
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<b>Gambling:</b> Current ideas include a simple dice game, as well as betting on fights between animals and/or humans (or even becoming a professional pit fighter). I want the interface to be pretty simple, most likely betting by bumping or dropping some ♄ on the bookie/table. By striving for a seamless interface, I hope to include ways to influence the outcome and proper responses. You might get away unnoticed with feeding some Kraft-Futter® to give "your" bird the edge in a cock fight, but maybe not shooting one of the contestants in a dog race.<br />
<br />
<b>Drinking and drugs:</b> I'm still not quite sure how to bring this into the game, but it certainly deserves a place in the setting. Since it's a one player computer game, I want some technical incentive for using intoxicants, as well as punishments for abuse and addiction. It seems hard to balance. I guess you can have "speedy" combat drugs, or effects like sipping whisky to shake off negative mental effects, or even eating a weird root to go on a spirit quest. For adverse effects of abuse, that topic is probably tied in with the next …<br />
<br />
<b>Passage of time:</b> The current public release features the very bare bones of a "passage of time"-system, used to heal long term wounds and "cash in" on your achievements, getting new shticks and reputations. There is certainly room for expansion and improvement. In the long run, I imagine a several systems coming together here. With each passing week, there may be a chance of "newsflash" events which affect the current state of various sites and factions. For instance, if there is a conflict (quest/drama) with a village being plagued by a group of bandits, and the player just passes time, something might happen, like the robbers besieging the village, or the villagers organizing a militia to strike back. There may also be changes occurring in the longer run, including aging and other effects of wounds, abuse, trauma and karma.<br />
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<b>In-game hall of fame:</b> Surprised that not more games feature this, I'll definitely add an in-game graveyard/high score in LoSt. Boot Hill should be an actual place you can visit, with gravestones for some of your former top characters. There are some more far-flung ideas for features that could let a player character influence future playthroughs, from a postal service à la Shiren, to options for retiring a character, to actual vengeful spirits of characters past.<br />
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<h3>
LoSt this year</h3>
Rounding off 2018's installment of monthly status updates with yet another week-late post, I don't think I'll extend the series into the coming year. Whilst writing "LoSt this month" has helped me keep my eyes on the road, I hope to use the blog for some other ramblings in 2019. Stay tuned, of course, and in the meantime, cheers to an auspicious future, and to all of you, players, developers, dabblers and lurkers.<br />
<br />
As always,<br />
MinotaurosAging Minotaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14701033750426053918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722286388870769054.post-54836440768015448062018-12-14T15:49:00.000+01:002018-12-14T15:49:22.906+01:00The LoSt Polls: Interface poll resultsThe results are in, as LoSt's UI poll closes at the respectable number of 42 voters (I can think of no number more respectable than 42). A heart-felt thanks goes out to all who participated.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jLKZDCxhea4/XBOGQiOGhHI/AAAAAAAAAh8/6MNWXtcnvsYIbz7TAH1PqMDpWGLQztSzQCLcBGAs/s1600/poll_results.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="301" data-original-width="435" height="220" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jLKZDCxhea4/XBOGQiOGhHI/AAAAAAAAAh8/6MNWXtcnvsYIbz7TAH1PqMDpWGLQztSzQCLcBGAs/s320/poll_results.png" width="320" /></a>Participants were allowed to pick multiple options, which is why there are slightly more ballots cast than people who cast them.<br />
<br />
To test everything, I did leave a vote myself, ticking "Other". It bears noting, perhaps, that I put up the poll in part to gauge interest in the project, and I feel like I'm coming out on the other side with increased motivation, as this shows that LoSt does indeed have a little base of interested players.<br />
<br />
Now, to get to the meat of the matter – the results, in order of popularity:<br />
<br />
<b>More gameplay (24 votes):</b> Not surprisingly, this option got the most votes. The current interface is certainly acceptable, but the game absolutely lacks content. In the time ahead, I'll try to concentrate on this, adding more encounters, bounties, critters and props, and things to do in general.<br />
<br />
<b>Mouse support (13 votes): </b>I'm partial to the keyboard, myself, which is probably why the mouse has gotten so little love up until now – but I am also aware of the fact that a pretty big chunk of computer gamers prefer a workable mouse interface, so had anticipated this option to get a fair amount of votes. The good news is that I've started, and the current testing version on my own laptop is already 100% playable with the mouse. I just need to polish off some rough edges before I can call it officially done, which shouldn't take more than a coding session or two. Expect to read more about the details in the monthly update for December.<br />
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<b>Sound and music (7 votes): </b>Moving on, we get to the less obvious options, perhaps. Among these features, audio came out on top. I tend to mute Roguelike games, myself, playing either in silence or with my own preferred soundtrack (The Residents' <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VL4f7oXtpSM" target="_blank">Mole Trilogy</a> is a personal fave in that department, for that good ol'e chthonian feeling). Also, while I do possess a modicum of musical ability, I really don't have the know-how, or the equipment, to make decent recordings. But I aim to please, and have taken note that music and sound would be a welcome addition to the game, although it may still have to wait for a while. Sound effects I can probably rip from various free sources. Regarding music, I could try to solicit outside help – although being a one-person shit storm does have its benefits. Conversely, I may find the time and motivation to learn some music making on the computer, or make recordings using the equipment I have available (a crappy microphone, some string instruments, plus my kids' electric pianos and various bits of percussion). Surely, I'd have a lot of fun hacking together a grainy sounding, psychedelic honky tonk soundtrack befitting my overall vision of The Land.<br />
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<b>Smoother graphics (6 votes):</b> This one would entail an improved gaming experience without demanding too much work, and is something I do hope to sink my teeth into in the not too distant future. First of all, a lot of the choppy graphics in the current release will be fixed by defining dedicated layers for drawing backdrops, sprites, speech bubbles, menu popups, etc. Currently, everything is painted to a single <a href="https://www.pygame.org/docs/ref/surface.html" target="_blank">pygame surface</a> – a horrible design decision dating back to earlier releases, when there was much less happening on the screen. At some point, I'll have to retrace my steps and implement a more robust engine. Fixing it shouldn't prove too challenging, but will take some manual work, so it may or may not be something I get around to before the next release. Secondly, some graphical problems (like unevenly tessellating wall tiles) stem from the fact that LoSt uses dynamic scaling. While it's cool that the player can set the tile size to any value their heart desires, the result will look better if I set some predefined sizes, and then go over the sprite sheets by hand. But this may still be a while – it's going to entail a pretty big overhaul, as I'd probably take the opportunity to repaint some sprites I'm not quite satisfied with, fine-tune the walking animations for each critter type, etc.<br />
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<b>Gamepad support (3 votes): </b>I don't own a gamepad myself, but I've had this option in the back of my mind since quite early in development. Getting it in the game should probably not be too hard. The Pygame framework, which LoSt is built with, includes support for various joystick peripherals, so it's probably just a question of adding some lines to the code here and there to let the game register gamepad input in the same way as it does keyboard events and the like.<br />
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<b>Other (3 votes):</b> As noted, one of these votes was my own, to test that the poll was working. The second vote was cast without any comment, so what that player had in mind remains an open question. The third vote for "Other" came with a comment, namely to add an Android version of LoSt… I have to say, it's a pretty compelling thought, and I do believe the interface itself could bear being ported to a smaller touchscreen. The biggest hurdle, however, would be that LoSt is written in Python, and to my knowledge, there isn't any easy way to get Python applications working under Android. I'll certainly look into whether or not it's feasible at all. Barring that, I would have to port the game to a language or engine with native Android support, but that's not something I've planned at the moment. If I were to start using <a href="https://godotengine.org/" target="_blank">Godot</a>, for instance, it would probably either be something like LoSt 2, or more likely a different game altogether (maybe a Roguelike with superheroes, or a more puzzle/story heavy game in a world inspired by Carl Barks and Tove Jansson). So while I'm sympathetic to the idea of LoSt running on mobile devices, I wouldn't hold my breath to see it happen.<br />
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<b>OS X version (2 votes):</b> Most likely, LoSt is coming soon to a Mac near you. It's not a big deal to "compile" Python applications for personal computers (I'm using <a href="http://www.pyinstaller.org/" target="_blank">pyinstaller</a>, myself) – if you have access to the appropriate hardware. Since my partner just got a new computer, and it's a Mac, I'll try to put my filthy hands on that, and start shipping native binaries for OS X in the near future.<br />
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<b>Terminal support (2 votes):</b> I was rooting a bit for this option myself, but the community didn't give it a lot of loving. It means I'll be postponing a terminal version for now, since it'll definitely entail quite a lot of work, and not just of the brainless sort, either. But further down the road, I <i>do</i> hope to get a proper terminal version. It would bring some sweet bonuses, like being able to play LoSt over a ssh/telnet connection, and adding features to support playing with a screen reader.<br />
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<b>Integrated content editor (2 votes):</b> This is also an idea I've been kicking around for a while, including a dynamic editor for game data, and the option to enable various mods. Even if it didn't garner many votes, it's still something that might make it into the engine soon. The game's content is kept in human readable text files, which I'm writing by hand. However, I have done some experiments with an automated editor, and found that the process of adding game data became easier and less bug-prone. So while I'll still be relying on my trusty text editor to meet the demand for more content, I would probably be able to chug out more stuff if I put a bit of work into making the editor more streamlined. If and when the editor reaches a certain point of polish, it might as well be included with the public release. I don't see a huge modding community for LoSt emerging, but it certainly won't be a problem if the game at some point supports custom extensions.<br />
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That's all, folks. I hope to be able to shoulder the immense responsibility given to me by the poll results ;) Also, since I felt like the poll was a success experiment in and of itself, I'll be broiling my head to come up with another one soon. In the meantime, feel free to drop me a line with comments of any kind, regardless. I'm all ears.<br />
<br />
As always,<br />
Minotauros<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zEiWklUC7C8/XBO-v0drGLI/AAAAAAAAAiI/W_xBd6LyQZ0vxZTAMAuzLOLNQCaUofKDwCLcBGAs/s1600/comanche_council.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="466" data-original-width="1000" height="297" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zEiWklUC7C8/XBO-v0drGLI/AAAAAAAAAiI/W_xBd6LyQZ0vxZTAMAuzLOLNQCaUofKDwCLcBGAs/s640/comanche_council.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />Aging Minotaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14701033750426053918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722286388870769054.post-5605252144872983872018-12-09T02:32:00.001+01:002018-12-09T02:32:22.781+01:00LoSt this month: Persistence of sloth<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>No shadow<br />No stars<br />there's no moon and<br />No cars<br />November</i> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
—Tom Waits, «November»</blockquote>
<br />
I'm sorry to report that this was another slow month in LoSt. For once, I'll try also to keep the blog post short to reflect this. Besides, November's update is way overdue. I did add a few shticks, in particular making way with some plans I have for unarmed combat. The idea is for players who start climbing the martial arts skill tree to tailor their natural attack into something unique for each playthrough, by combining shticks that each determine different aspects of their fighting style. The skill tree will have several tiers, each with a handful of mutually exclusive shticks, so that a given character can only acquire one "critical" effect, for instance. Hopefully, this will turn into a system with some interesting synergies and strategic choices to be made.<br />
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I also started to add a new site of interest, a hunting lodge where you can collect bounties on animals, much like how you're currently able to visit judges to collect on the heads of criminals. I'm starting to get to the point where there are enough random sites that it'll make sense to begin ironing out the system for placing those sites on the world map, and determining their internal relations. I do anticipate this to be quite a big undertaking, but hopefully worth it in the long run, and probably something that can take shape over the course of several releases.<br />
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Finally, I put in some work to improve the mouse interface, which should probably be prioritized in the next release, judging by the preliminary results of the current poll. By the end of the month, I do hope to have mouse support properly implemented, so that I can concentrate on sites and other content in the time ahead. With a bit of luck and self-discipline, I'll wrap up the year with a meatier blog post outlining some plans for upcoming releases.<br />
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In the meantime, I wish y'all a happy and prosperous conclusion to 2018.<br />
<br />
As always,<br />
Minotauros<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L5GuaKRCRbQ/XAxtXG_74dI/AAAAAAAAAhw/QOMcIOrP144BG0LcTGRFrnj_36gCx6crACLcBGAs/s1600/larson_sloth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="829" data-original-width="638" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L5GuaKRCRbQ/XAxtXG_74dI/AAAAAAAAAhw/QOMcIOrP144BG0LcTGRFrnj_36gCx6crACLcBGAs/s320/larson_sloth.jpg" width="246" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sloth will prevail!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />Aging Minotaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14701033750426053918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722286388870769054.post-35659652429554690742018-11-03T09:46:00.000+01:002018-11-03T09:46:18.267+01:00LoSt this month: Counting words<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-15kGjJ9byDA/W9uMYYDB10I/AAAAAAAAAg8/HfOHhk2tkAIq9Di2ASoDYBb5mU3F3M7WACLcBGAs/s1600/bison_skulls.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="801" data-original-width="1024" height="250" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-15kGjJ9byDA/W9uMYYDB10I/AAAAAAAAAg8/HfOHhk2tkAIq9Di2ASoDYBb5mU3F3M7WACLcBGAs/s320/bison_skulls.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bison skulls at a refinery (1892)<br />
Michigan Carbon Works, Rogueville, Detroit </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I've been stretching these semi-monthly updates to the point that there will probably only be 11 entries by the end of 2018, but hope to pull a Phileas Fogg-like and deliver December's post in such a fashion that year's updates will feel well-rounded overall ;)<br />
<br />
October was a busy month, albeit not on the gamedev front.<br />
<br />
In between life, I've been making some notes and plans related to Lost. More locations and encounters remain the over-arching todo task. In addition to "random roving reavers" (that I mentioned <a href="https://agingminotaur.blogspot.com/2018/09/lost-this-month-night-errands.html">before</a>), I've been elaborating some sketches for something like a hunting lodge. The current template is a house with stuffed heads on the wall, where you can gain favor and experience by handing in rare specimens. As the game world grows, hunting will likely become a topic that interests and connects various factions, from lone trappers to colonial trading houses. Further on lies the theme of strategically destroying nature to gain geopolitical dominance, which would sadly be one of the few situations directly inspired by history, ie. the mass slaughter of American bison. Of course I'd have to connect it to other themes in the game, and turn the dials up to 11, to get workable content. Unless the player outright seeks employment with the exploiters, running errands clearing out dangerous biomes and the like, they might become adversaries in ongoing plots and shoot'em-up sequences. I already have sketches for an encounter akin to a death squad, currently as a template for my "random reavers", that could surely be used and fleshed out along with story lines on speciecide and terror.<br />
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<h4>
Markov the mole </h4>
One "little" thing I did start to kick around in October, was a prototype for a loosely <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markov_chain">Markov</a>-based dialogue generator :P Just dabbling, toying with ideas for later implementations.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0k5PX7XektA/W9t8Yq4rAUI/AAAAAAAAAgw/L83LqrM_b24Mcdk57op1Gn_n3ZDKOzlwgCLcBGAs/s1600/markov_dialog.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="246" data-original-width="701" height="112" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0k5PX7XektA/W9t8Yq4rAUI/AAAAAAAAAgw/L83LqrM_b24Mcdk57op1Gn_n3ZDKOzlwgCLcBGAs/s320/markov_dialog.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Text goes here</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I went and got some source text (screenplays mostly, lifted in all Freundschaftlichkeit), and made a very basic Markov generator. It doesn't give anything I can use straight off, but gives a feeling for possible ways of randomizing text. There would have to be an organizing system, to make the text (seem to) recognize certain topics and follow some syntactic principles. Such an engine can be hand-tuned over time, with the "puzzle pieces" themselves, the snippets of words to string together, stripped from the text source and stored in some kind of database or (more likely, a convoluted) python dictionary. I can't say how fine grained it's plausible to make something like that. Or if the ideas I'm currently experimenting with will turn out useful at all. Surely, it won't be easy to make the output actually reflect the state of the game world. Ideally, NPCs should talk about other people, places and phenomena, so such a system would have to be purdy clever. I'll report back in a few years, hopefully, or who knows, maybe even before that?<br />
<br />
Anyway, still with the Markov chains, you typically want as large a text source as possible, to offset the effect that words which rarely occur, also link to fewer other words. They become less dynamic, tending to crop up in the same context over and over. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UetIZTGMXMs/W9tsZMRwhYI/AAAAAAAAAgk/8s7NHH47m2AKh0HkLwPG7P8ikpwOrM1igCLcBGAs/s1600/markov_dialogue.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="650" data-original-width="650" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UetIZTGMXMs/W9tsZMRwhYI/AAAAAAAAAgk/8s7NHH47m2AKh0HkLwPG7P8ikpwOrM1igCLcBGAs/s320/markov_dialogue.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Comparing word counts with/without thesaurus</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
While repetition has its uses, a well written <i>text</i> can often benefit from a larger vocabulary. But in
Markov chain source texts, you want the ratio of word count to
vocabulary to be as high as possible; because that gives each
word/sequence a greater number of possible follow-ups. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hapax_legomenon" target="_blank">Hapaxes</a> are the worst in this sense.<br />
<br />
I considered a thesaurus to bypass the problem somewhat. I tested by running the input/output of my basic generator through a custom dictionary, that was premade with an actual thesaurus (<a href="http://moby-thesaurus.org/" target="_blank">moby dict</a>). The basic idea was to find clusters of words with similar meanings,
like "robbers", "rogues" etc., and substituting all of them for
one vanilla synonym like "villains", but with the rule that when the generator comes across "villains", another randomizer substitutes that word
for one of the synonyms. <br />
<br />
moby-thesaurus, while a great asset, didn't yield fantastic results with my primitive algorithms. Some coupled phrases are quite wonky, like "good piece of desert" equaling "honorable master of mare". Stuff like that can possibly be pruned away, and there's the occasional stroke of random coherence, like this generated insult: "You wretched, double-crossing natural! Nincompoop, futile bluff." So there may be an idea hidden in here somewhere. As of yet, it mostly sounds like someone is definitely speaking about something, but it's not very clear what <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: small;">Cut me free! Now why are you got opposite it. As a united in the British I destroy it! 'Cause I've got to break the activities destroy. And my performer normal our guns are what are you how. We hit the province. That don't you? You had a bleeding … High, huh? – No … tight.</span> </blockquote>
As always,<br />
Minotauros<br />
<br />Aging Minotaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14701033750426053918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722286388870769054.post-37288020294660894382018-09-27T10:27:00.000+02:002018-09-27T10:27:32.532+02:00LoSt Polls: an Interface Inquiry<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DjuN9cavZrA/W6wpBsG61FI/AAAAAAAAAgY/zrdMCGafHfoYf6xjJTsZiBm76cJvP6GFQCLcBGAs/s1600/polling_booth_Emmeline_Pankhurst.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="775" data-original-width="634" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DjuN9cavZrA/W6wpBsG61FI/AAAAAAAAAgY/zrdMCGafHfoYf6xjJTsZiBm76cJvP6GFQCLcBGAs/s320/polling_booth_Emmeline_Pankhurst.jpg" width="263" /></a><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DjuN9cavZrA/W6wpBsG61FI/AAAAAAAAAgY/zrdMCGafHfoYf6xjJTsZiBm76cJvP6GFQCLcBGAs/s1600/polling_booth_Emmeline_Pankhurst.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a>Land of Strangers has gotten an official poll, located on the right hand side of this page. It's intended as a simple way for anyone who might have tried the game to offer their opinion. I have my own plans and hunches going ahead, of course, but am glad for any outside influence. The plan is to use this informal poll to inform further development. The result will be made public when I close the poll. If the process feels like a success, there will probably come follow-ups.<br />
<br />
So if you have tried the game and have any opinions either way (you can also pick multiple options), please take the chance to exert a little influence on the developer. There are a few options I anticipate will get the most votes, but I'm also interested to see what may be the most popular fringe choices. And hope I haven't missed any options :P<br />
<br />
As always,<br />
MinotaurosAging Minotaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14701033750426053918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722286388870769054.post-65458258269946371072018-09-17T03:29:00.000+02:002018-09-17T03:35:07.484+02:00Released: Lost #13 (One Crawled out of the Foxhole)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-y9JkgBtL0FA/W57_xxCkasI/AAAAAAAAAgM/vPLXj7xWM_sg520uL1_ta7K_tXtPV3hDwCLcBGAs/s1600/foxhole_cropped.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="549" data-original-width="740" height="238" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-y9JkgBtL0FA/W57_xxCkasI/AAAAAAAAAgM/vPLXj7xWM_sg520uL1_ta7K_tXtPV3hDwCLcBGAs/s320/foxhole_cropped.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
Get it <a href="http://agingminotaur.blogspot.com/p/downl.html">here</a> or <a href="https://agingminotaur.itch.io/land-of-strangers">from itch.io</a>, or click to download the game directly:<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/ri4opk6la5j0wsa/LoSt_13_win.zip?dl=1">Windows binary</a><br />
<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/nghuq3s0d6xon3o/lost-roguelike_13_all.deb?dl=1">Linux deb installer</a><br />
<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/33aiqxo2lx0jx36/LoSt_13_linux.tgz?dl=1">Linux binary</a><br />
<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/kxtxu0dvpcj8uh7/LoSt_13_src.zip?dl=1">Python sources</a><br />
<br />
This is mostly a bugfix release for Windows users, who reported frequent crashing with the previous version. With a bit of luck, number 13 will work better for everyone ;)<br />
<br />
I also fixed some minor issues and rebalanced some items and shticks. I think the biggest addition is that NPCs now can accept generic gifts. If you get a green speech scroll in reply to giving a gift, it means your favor with the individual in question has increased, which may in turn increase your long term reputation with that NPC's factions. Once I can confirm that the game is working as expected, I'll get on with the plans for the next release.<br />
<br />
As always,<br />
Minotauros<br />
<br />
<h3>
Changes</h3>
Grid view generated too big for screen (crashed in Windows)<br />
Trying to give/drop props crashed in Windows<br />
Typo in data files sometimes caused game to (region hogging ai)<br />
Plants sometimes marked as dead (when not)<br />
Newly dead corpses no longer curse at you for killing them<br />
Sprites in upper left corner vanished between turns<br />
Speech bubbles flicker less in this release<br />
Some speech bubbles were getting supressed<br />
Drifting smoke wasn't spawning/working properly<br />
Dilettante didn't have access to "shooting" shtick tree<br />
Skills with direct damage (eg. Butt whipping) weren't working<br />
Spawning corpses could cause game to crash<br />
Game sometimes crashed when sightblocking objects were destroyed<br />
Shtick T.Y.T. didn't show up during character generation<br />
Removed msg "You stand in uffish thought" when passing a turn<br />
Removed "Trick shot" shtick (not very interesting)<br />
Sledgepick damage set to 1♥<br />
Modified critical hit of knifes (always inflict 1☠ extra)<br />
Nerfed shtick Feel no Pain<br />
Removed shtick Iron Mind (obsolete)<br />
Renamed shtick The Breathing Way to The Blood Way<br />
Shtick Burro is back in the game :)<br />
New critters: Traveling saleskid<br />
Added more cash to the game world<br />
Description of shtick Skillful -> "Gain a random skill."<br />
Scissors now tagged as a blade<br />
NPC AI can use distance measuring in more varied situations<br />
NPCs now accept gifts (and are pleased at getting things they like)<br />
Autopickup no longer works on items marked as corpses or trash<br />
(chargen) Random choice won't pick 3 point foibles (most severe)<br />
Skip repeating messages in log<br />
Crashlog now includes python traceback, when applicable<br />
<br />
<br />Aging Minotaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14701033750426053918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722286388870769054.post-22730291852400512232018-09-11T00:55:00.000+02:002018-09-11T00:55:44.048+02:00LoSt this month: Night Errands<div style="text-align: right;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sF-XWqePHFY/W47ng7OVYcI/AAAAAAAAAfg/SU49aPvS6yUDV0mLUj7HJfSJlr_rtKBMgCLcBGAs/s1600/farside_surecleanedup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="305" data-original-width="236" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sF-XWqePHFY/W47ng7OVYcI/AAAAAAAAAfg/SU49aPvS6yUDV0mLUj7HJfSJlr_rtKBMgCLcBGAs/s1600/farside_surecleanedup.jpg" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
The big news in LoSt in August was of course the release of LoSt #12 «Night Errands». I tried to cast the net a bit wider with this release, creating <a href="https://agingminotaur.itch.io/land-of-strangers">an itch.io page</a> for LoSt as well as mentioning it in one or two forums. Interest in the project remains steady, but limited ;) The entry at itch.io generated 20 downloads the first week, which is less than I get at the blog, but probably not bad for a project that's young and quite niche. If anything, the niche part is why there's a potential target group for the game at all. If you're looking for a turn based, hexagonal RL about slightly trippy cowboys and cowgirls, the field isn't very crowded.<br />
<br />
For a final note on statistics, the biggest chunk of traffic is directed from the «New Releases» section at the front page of <a href="http://www.roguebasin.com/">RogueBasin</a>. So there's at least a hot tip to other fledgling developers.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Off to err another night</h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
I got a decent yield of bug reports, in particular of LoSt crashing under Windows. Most have had quite simple fixes, though I'll admit to slapping on the occasional dirty hack, when the deeper issue is something I want to come back and fix, ahem, but not just yet.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XA78SQvuhhI/W48NEGN6PNI/AAAAAAAAAf8/JIPcwROMzs4k0gAtHYvo__pRiq5siU_1QCLcBGAs/s1600/samurai_w_kanabo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="950" data-original-width="736" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XA78SQvuhhI/W48NEGN6PNI/AAAAAAAAAf8/JIPcwROMzs4k0gAtHYvo__pRiq5siU_1QCLcBGAs/s320/samurai_w_kanabo.jpg" width="249" /></a></div>
In the meantime, I'm making sketches for more encounters and places of the same scope/kind as Arken Town and the bandit lair, that can get a marker on the world map, may be connected to boons/missions, etc. The kinds of places could include anything from a ranch, to renegade soldier laying in ambush, to a really big fish in the river. I'm currently doing some work on an encounter with random marauders. The system is reminiscent of how random fauna is generated (adj+noun to give templates like «cannibalistic amazons» and «shotgun-totin' killer monks»), to be expanded later. I'm still defining the mechanics to dynamically generate, place and link these sites, which is probably about where the interesting stuff will start to happen. The general idea is that, as I get more and more varied templates for sites, each game world will pick its limited number of important places from a vast pool, and then randomize and generate relations between different factions, locations and so forth, hopefully yielding a unique mix for each playthrough. Even if the string of events is just so many fetch quests, it would be fantastic if you could play one game running errands for a mountain monastery, and the next aiding an infamous bandit in trying to take down a certain banker.<br />
<br />
This level of realization isn't just around the corner, but I live in ambiguous hope ;) Reviewing old notes, I come across some long-term plans that correspond okay to how the game evolved in the years following. And most planned features on the official roadmap have expected dates set to «trop tard! <i>jamais</i> peut-être!» («too late! <i>never</i>, perhaps!»), as Baudelaire put it in his masterly poem «To some hot tail who passed in excruciatingly short skirts one midsummer eve» (or what it was called).<br />
<br />
Anyway, given the buggy Windows version of #12, I should rather make haste to release #13, but careful not to deliver another broken package. Once I have a working, hopefully not too ugly release with the latest improvements, I can start sinking some work into these sites as I see them, and hopefully get the game world to shape up a bit in the coming time.<br />
<br />
As always,<br />
MinotaurosAging Minotaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14701033750426053918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722286388870769054.post-14823441843252757842018-08-20T22:38:00.000+02:002018-08-20T22:38:38.124+02:00Released: LoSt #12 (Night Errands)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tPrQh3Ocz6g/W3sRUpRULuI/AAAAAAAAAeg/m8mA5wAH9vYqhrpiBGkw1h3qryiA5Al9wCLcBGAs/s1600/logoshot_12.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="232" data-original-width="432" height="213" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tPrQh3Ocz6g/W3sRUpRULuI/AAAAAAAAAeg/m8mA5wAH9vYqhrpiBGkw1h3qryiA5Al9wCLcBGAs/s400/logoshot_12.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<a href="http://agingminotaur.blogspot.de/p/downl.html">Download Land of Strangers #12</a><br />
<br />
I finally decided that the time was ripe to release Land of Strangers version #12. This version has been in the works for a year (on and off), and represents the meatiest changelog in the project so far. Some of the more notable changes include a basic infrastructure for bounties (quests), the option to heal long term wounds by resting, a zoomed out view of the map, and a rehaul of the combat system, UI and controls. In addition, #12 is the first version with (rudimentary) mouse support, as well as a (placeholder) system for character advancement by shtick aquisition.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cImrvgv-CLc/W3sk8sguKpI/AAAAAAAAAe4/X6RA_sYMOEQpaMImgmmqUGmkg24c8Q2BACLcBGAs/s1600/Lost_12.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="740" data-original-width="1302" height="180" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cImrvgv-CLc/W3sk8sguKpI/AAAAAAAAAe4/X6RA_sYMOEQpaMImgmmqUGmkg24c8Q2BACLcBGAs/s320/Lost_12.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">LoSt joys</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The current scenario starts you in Arken Town, a sleepy settlement in the unsettled outskirts of the young world that some simply call The Land. By some ill-boding twist of fate (yet, ill-boding still unbeknownst to whom), you have gleaned the location of an infamous fugitive. So you find yourself drawn to the jailhouse, at least to ogle the Wanted-poster and count your options …<br />
<br />
As always, player comments are very welcome, here or on appropriate discussion boards or to the e-mail address supplied in the archives. Players should be advised that the game is still sparse on the content side. However, picking up the plot hook with the bandit campsite should offer a challenging little game in itself, enough to showcase the new features and give some indication of the direction I'm hoping to take the game in.<br />
<br />
Version #12 is quite experimental, rolling in a lot of systemic changes. It is intended to be somewhat of an interim release, as I'm
hoping to add more content for the next version, as well as doing a
quick turnaround of important bug fixes that will hopefully become
apparent in the time to come. There are some obvious issues, especially a lot of graphical glitches. Take it as a late entry to the "glitch roguelite" subgenre, if you will, but feel free to take the opportunity to point out errors and make more general comments regarding the graphical interface.<br />
<br />
As always,<br />
Minotauros<br />
<br />
PS. And now, what we've all been waiting for, here's the changelog (a few minor changes may have fallen between the cracks and been left unnoted):<br />
<b> </b><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IwtoxwqbaSY/W3sceGztjhI/AAAAAAAAAes/R8yF0VBuUxEzuOJua9B-WxNdoUQF8OYwQCEwYBhgL/s1600/fuck_that_chicken.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="903" data-original-width="564" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IwtoxwqbaSY/W3sceGztjhI/AAAAAAAAAes/R8yF0VBuUxEzuOJua9B-WxNdoUQF8OYwQCEwYBhgL/s320/fuck_that_chicken.jpg" width="198" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Keep fucking that chicken.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>SYSTEM</b> Started work on travelogue mode (zoomed out map)<b> </b><br />
<b>SYSTEM </b>Scaled everything up a bit in size<br /><b>SYSTEM </b>Added base system for boons<br /><b>SYSTEM </b>Added long-term resting (incomplete)<br /><b>SYSTEM </b>Added individual reputation stat for Critters (incomplete)<br /><b>SYSTEM</b> Dynamic nicknames (incomplete)<br /><b>SYSTEM</b> Experience/shtick acquisition (temporary)<br /><b>SYSTEM</b> Disabled sprinting (temporary)<br /><b>SYSTEM </b>Drop/pickup now works on adjacent tiles<br /><b>SYSTEM </b>Give items by dropping them onto an adjacent NPC<br /><b>SYSTEM </b>Replaced wound system with a flat Grit meter<br /><b>SYSTEM </b>Interrupted attacks not blocked, but always graze/go wild<br /><b>SYSTEM</b> Increased inventory space<br /><b>SYSTEM</b> Flumadiddling (inventory handling) counts as a free action<br /><b>SYSTEM</b> Flumadiddling with cocked guns can be dangerous<br /><b>SYSTEM</b> Better support for instantaneous events<br /><b>SYSTEM</b> Perks and skills merged to one category, shticks<br /><b>SYSTEM</b> Character generation changed to reflect new shtick system<br /><b>SYSTEM</b> (testing) Set all shtick costs to 1 point in character generation<br /><b>SYSTEM</b> Kits for unarmed combat moddable (like prefixed guns etc.)<br /><br /><b>CONTENT</b> Start game in Arken Town, a small settlement<br /><b>CONTENT</b> Basic bounty: Bring a wanted bandit to justice<br /><b>CONTENT </b>Changed intro text to reflect sample, soft "win condition"<br /><b>CONTENT </b>Simple rivers and mountains added as climate types<br /><b>CONTENT </b>Added some props: [redacted] and more<br /><b>CONTENT </b>New shticks: Muster, Circle blow, The breathing way, Leatherbrain<br /><b>CONTENT </b>Made bricks stackable and gave them stats as thrown weapons<br /><b>CONTENT </b>Derringers and pepperbox guns are now two separate types<br /><b>CONTENT </b>Changed effect of adrenaline syringe to: heal all bruises<br /><b>CONTENT </b>Changed effect of bleeding to: inflict all bruises as wounds<br /><b>CONTENT </b>Changed feel no pain to: always heal for 3 turns<br /><b>CONTENT </b>Changed war wound to: increase chance of wounds healing badly<br /><b>CONTENT </b>Changed tough as nails to: decrease chance of healing badly<br /><b>CONTENT </b>Removed Swordfighter career, added Barber instead<br /><br /><b>UI</b> Started to implement mouse support (incomplete)<br /><b>UI</b> Configuration wizard for first-time players<br /><b>UI</b> Message log now oriented to center of the menu<br /><b>UI</b> Message log not flushed between turns<br /><b>UI</b> Added option to cancel character creation mid-process<br /><b>UI</b> Replaced dual-button system with main button (experimental)<br /><b>UI</b> Separate shortcut keys for inventory (default [F1-F10])<br /><b>UI</b> Shortcut [G] and [,] to get/give/drop command<br /><b>UI</b> Commands to zoom in/out on map<br /><b>UI</b> Menus reorganized to put option 0 on top<br /><b>UI</b> Scrolling menus are still ugly and buggy, but less buggy :P<br /><b>UI</b> Distinct animation for grazes and several other events/effects<br /><b>UI</b> Support for onomatopoeta (sound effects) on tactical map<br /><b>UI</b> Added colored messages (signals pleased/annoyed status)<br /><b>UI</b> Speech scrolls now take a few seconds to fade out when dismissed<br /><b>UI</b> Removed all non-free fonts from the game<br /><b>UI</b> Modified font (Linux Biolinum) for better unicode support<br /><b>UI</b> Redid the in-game character sheet a bit<br /><b>UI</b> Disabled player survey (at least for now)<br /><b>UI</b> Removed obsolete manual (temporarily)<br /><b>UI</b> (debug) print_me() to log/stdout when looking at beings slightly prettier<br /><b>UI</b> (debug) Game now makes a backup log when the game crashes<br /><br /><b>WORLD</b> Place templates can contain player's starting position<br /><b>WORLD </b>Merged Region and Climate classes<br /><b>WORLD </b>Added Superregion class (named region on the map)<br /><b>WORLD </b>Region name generation takes climate etc. into account<br /><b>WORLD </b>Lots(!) of small and big changes to how the world is built<br /><br /><b>AI</b> States can be pure switches<br /><b>AI</b> State machine can remember several distinct targets at once <br /><b>AI</b> Can prompt the player to choose an alternative and react accordingly<br /><b>AI</b> Can test (simple) scripted conditions directly from the data files<br /><b>AI</b> Some tactical changes to reflect new combat systems (incomplete)<br /><br /><b>BUG</b> Time system with simultaneous actions wasn't simultaneous<br /><b>BUG</b> Shtick descriptions weren't displayed during character generation<br /><b>BUG</b> Sometimes crashed when critter ai had no target<br /><b>BUG</b> Game crashed with manually inputed world seeds<br /><b>BUG</b> Trying to draw off screen crashed (hopefully fixed)<br /><b>BUG</b> Various other small bugs that would crash for no reason ;)<br /><b>BUG</b> Post mortem "screensaver mode" sometimes hung<br /><b>BUG</b> Impossible to demolish house walls<br /><b>BUG</b> Certain places didn't spawn at all<br /><b>BUG </b>Savescumming may have been buggy, should now be more fool proof :)<br /><b>BUG</b> Help screen didn't print command keys properly<br /><b>BUG</b> Game window sometimes started maximized when it should not<br /><b>BUG</b> Reset some attributes when patching beings with certain kits<br /><b>BUG</b> Some speech scrolls were rendered twice (fixed, but reappeared )-:<br /><b>BUG</b> Some speech scrolls didn't get painted to the map<br /><b>BUG</b> Speech scrolls flickered for a split second between turns<br /><b>BUG</b> Sprites disappear when several gets drawn to the same hex<br /><b>BUG</b> Certain "steppable" objects, like thorns, didn't work properly<br /><b>BUG</b> Random characters always started with "animal friend" shtick :P<br /><b>BUG</b> Character sheet listed inventory's kit names instead of prop titles<br /><b>BUG</b> Typo in /kits/desert_life/brains.yug made tool wielders unable to attack<br /><b>BUG</b> Dilettante sometimes got same skill twice<br /><b>BUG</b> Attack forms without crit effects did no damage on crit hit<br /><b>BUG</b> Typos "pilarist", "omniscinet", "likelyhood", and a few more ...Aging Minotaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14701033750426053918noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722286388870769054.post-2017830613182967842018-08-15T11:44:00.001+02:002018-08-15T11:44:35.211+02:00LoSt this month: State of the art<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Early GUI mockup</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr>
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Surprising as it may seem, the first release of LoSt was a bit more than five years ago. I've come a short way since then. However, if LoSt is currently lacking even something as basic as a win condition, it has seen some more "rounded" releases in the past. Regarding the win condition, that's something I actually had in #4-7, when LoSt was a light crawl with the necessary features to constitute a bare bones, but complete, little game (it took place in a mostly unicursal labyrinth, as you played a mine slave ascending from the depths of the shaft). <br /><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Current state of the art</td></tr>
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With release #8, the game was reset to alpha stage, but by widening the scope somewhat. This is where the overworld, with its randomly generated flora and fauna, was introduced, and I also started on simple animations. Speaking of the graphics engine, suffice to say it's an incomplete mess at the moment, but not top priority with the next few releases. There should come a refactoring at some point ;)<br /><br />Regarding this month in LoSt, I've had the project on the backburner, tying up some loose ends for the upcoming release #12; from a change in how the message log is displayed (the last on my list of player requests in response to #11), to strengthening the "main bounty" a bit and fixing some minor AI bugs. The last big thing that remains, is still to somehow balance the acquisition of new shticks. I'm thinking I'll just count "experience points" very crudely (more from seeing new areas of the game world, than defeating enemies), and then "bumping the player up a level" at intervals. The more I've been thinking about it, the less inclined I am to settle with something too much like good ol'e XP. But for that precise reason, I'm more eager to just get anything in place right now, so that I can put out #12 (heavy on engine-related changes, but not extremely meaty content-wise) and get on with it.<br />
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If I have any general long-term vision at the moment, it would probably be to make #13 rather quickly, adding some more content/encounters, whilst fixing issues that become apparent in #12. My personal view is currently that the game isn't very fun to play, mostly because there's not much to do in the game world. If I make some interesting bounties and places for #13, I should have a solid base to build from. After that, there are still some features I'm looking forward to adding to the engine, including riding and rope use (which will probably also be used for taking prisoners in non-lethal combat). Some other stuff will come in organic relation to the content I manage to add. For instance, if/when there are ranches, there should come systems for things like herd handling and branding; and if/when we get lumbering and floating logs down the stream to the mill, that would go hand in hand with more fleshed-out systems for water movement, as well as platform riding (carriages/boats/floating logs). A log drive down the river, getting attacked by hostile humans and animals along the way, could be fun (or leading a cattle/post ride through the outlands, which could be modeled along a similar arc). We'll see about all of that, of course. Here and now, I'm crossing my fingers that the next update on this blog will concern the release of #12.Aging Minotaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14701033750426053918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722286388870769054.post-38063743759724071522018-07-11T13:53:00.001+02:002018-07-11T13:53:25.071+02:00LoSt this month: Petrichor<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Fame is the worst thing that could happen to your reputation.</i> </blockquote>
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– Kate Tempest, «These things I know»</blockquote>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">LoSt's loyal fanbase never lost faith.</td></tr>
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When May turned to June, I decided to push my so-called monthly update ahead of me, just a few days, to make some progress that I could report (May had been another slow month). Well, here we are squarely in the middle of July already!<br />
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Since last, I did sink some hours into character advancement (≈leveling up). It's hard to fit it into the game at this moment, since it would rely on some more content to get the right scope. At the moment, I scrapped the original idea (described in <a href="http://agingminotaur.blogspot.com/2018/03/making-time.html">an earlier post</a>) of letting the player influence skill advancement by presenting them with story options (à la «choose your own adventure» books, reminiscent to how they did it in <i>Shattered Planet</i>). A system like this <i>may</i> come at a later date ;) What I did keep, was the idea of tying up character advancement with a resting mechanism, that also encompasses healing long-term wounds and amassing reputation. I got in place a very rough system, that just looks at the player's recent conduct tracker and decides how/if to modify character traits. The current design will need a lot of refinement, but the bare bones may still be deemed enough to cut it for release #12.<br />
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<h3>
Goals and Achievements</h3>
A long term plan I've been having for LoSt, is to have a rather involved system for renown and faction relations. I have now added a reputation stat, which is a step in the right direction. The new mechanism builds on an existing framework of «causes», data plugins dictating critter behavior, which I've also been using to simulate a faction system, by giving each cause a list of other causes and flags that they have a particular bias towards. Favor between critters is a simple positive or negative integer that's set randomly each time a critter sees another critter for the first time, and the cause-related modifiers work by simply adjusting the (min,max) range. Thus, predatory animals attack prey more or less on sight, because the «predator mentality» cause has a (-2,-2) favor modifier to any critter tagged as «prey». Likewise, shticks like «Animal friend» and «Musky» work by flagging the player so that animals get an extra modifier of (0,+1) or (-1,0), respectively.<br />
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The main addition to this in #12 is that individual critters can now have a dynamic reputation stat. It works by listing a set of causes and assigning each cause a modifier. Reputation is modified between missions, whenever the player rests at the saloon (or other resting hubs that will appear). The game tracks and stores the player's conduct as «karma», so I have info about who @ has interacted with and how, which tools/shticks have been used, success/failure at missions, places visited, etc. Reputation is currently modified by looking up the causes of critters @ has pleased or annoyed, and making a few random checks to see if @'s reputation should be modified with one or more causes. It can be fleshed out later, especially as I'll want to flesh out a more detailed system for factions, which could be much more than just glorified AI plugins, as is currently the case.<br />
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Related, a sketchy system has cropped up for something I call «boons», tangible achievements and missions the player can fulfill. Currently, the main mission is to bring down a wanted bandit, and I'm testing with some minor boons, including collecting the bounty on any random mudfaced goon, visiting a new place, or drinking milk (perhaps the first in a series of boons related to abstinence, for careers like ascetics and abolitionists). At the moment, boons cheesily yield a kind of experience points, which at certain intervals trigger a «levelup» function that improves the player's stats upon resting. It's at least fun to test, since we now get characters that scale up and gain new shticks (skills) as time passes.<br />
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Defining boons as the source of coveted experience points may be hard to balance, in that it could easily encourage grinding to collect'em all. I might offset this by tying shtick acquisition more directly to what you do on the map: as instantaneous rewards for collecting particular boons, through books or paid tutoring, etc. Another system I've been thinking about, is to introduce a stat like decrepitude. (The term is ripped from <a href="http://pitofdespair.randominsanity.org/pdf/Ars%20Magica/Ars_Magica_-_5th_Edition_Core_Rulebook_%5BAG0205%5D.pdf">Ars Magica</a>, where wizards become slowly more old and gnarly
and in danger of drifting away from the world). In LoSt, decrepitude,
or whatchammacallit, would work to impose a soft time limit by amassing over time as new foibles and negative stats (trauma, wounds, addictions, bad reputations, etc). I think a system like that might work well, especially in conjuncture with some other long term ideas about the option to retire your character, and other ways characters' legacies can have an effect across several playthroughs.<br />
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Be that as it may, I'm trying to restrain the todo-list for the upcoming release #12. It's better to put out some crude implementations, and hopefully getting player feedback that can inform further development. It's really high time for the new version to come out, and it's going to be a meaty one, even though it may end up as a short interim before #13, if I can quickly turn around and fine tune some of the bugs that will undoubtedly become apparent upon release. There are some minor things I will definitely (hope to) fix before #12 is ready, but nothing too big, mostly just tying up loose ends.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ugly bugly.</td></tr>
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☞ Fix flickering text bubbles when the map scrolls. In fact, there are a bunch of graphical glitches that I'm loathe to fix one by one, simply because the whole display engine needs an overhaul; small patches now would be a waste of time in the long run, but this exact bug is so disturbing that it's probably right to label it release critical.<br />
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☞ Brush up AI: This is another topic I don't want to do too much with at the
moment, but changing the combat system around did leave a few
bugs. In particular, I need to fix some causes/beings that won't enter
their attacking states properly. <br />
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☞ Make boon system release ready: To get some more to test with, I
might define a few more minor boons. And although I am happy to leave the character advancement system as a prototype, some fine-tuning would still be in order there. I may also have to look into the UI
department, for instance whether the player should receive a
notification when they collect a boon. It's tempting to start adding more places and missions, of course, but I'll try to save that for later versions. Regarding the prototype boss
fight/starting quest, I have it working from a technical perspective,
but the actual fight/encounter is a bit uninspired, so maybe I should fire up
my content editor to give that particular challenge a bit more zazz.Aging Minotaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14701033750426053918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722286388870769054.post-15650218834773886962018-05-02T08:17:00.001+02:002018-05-02T08:17:36.864+02:00… breeding lilacs out of the dead land<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FB4ou_3dSDE/Wujej1OEmBI/AAAAAAAAAc8/7VZMO-Fdp84X0-EV2_8cE22w8gpWDNktgCLcBGAs/s1600/eliot-wasteland_ed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="296" data-original-width="600" height="158" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FB4ou_3dSDE/Wujej1OEmBI/AAAAAAAAAc8/7VZMO-Fdp84X0-EV2_8cE22w8gpWDNktgCLcBGAs/s320/eliot-wasteland_ed.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="320" /></a>There will be another short update this month. After March, April was really the kind of month where the project went from running on the backburner to more or less coming to a pause. There have been more urgent matters to see to in my life (mostly good things), so it felt natural for LoSt to come into the background for a bit. I'm not too worried about taking a short break, it's how LoSt have always been developed, and I've found one can often benefit from leaving a project for a short while, and returning with new energy and perspectives later. Technically, LoSt is very close to a new release, so I do hope to get in the saddle again shortly to make the last few adjustments. Then again, there's no gain in rushing a release, and I would ideally also like to add a least a bit of content to go with the new engine features. Precisely when it comes to finalizing changes and coming up with new content, taking a step back to gain an overview is the kind of technique I like to employ.</div>
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Oh, and in case anyone wondered, the title of this post is only to provide context for the half-assed pun in last month's title. I'll make another update by the beginning of next month, at the latest. Let's see what I have for you then.</div>
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As always,</div>
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Minotauros</div>
Aging Minotaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14701033750426053918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722286388870769054.post-10199807276211110852018-04-02T02:24:00.001+02:002018-04-02T02:24:29.792+02:00March is the coolest month<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hgM7lG7-CeE/WsF0KYQ6gYI/AAAAAAAAAcg/2rWIi-X9_pIYBHFavI8g7lKG30ScM5LfQCLcBGAs/s1600/march_sendak.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="742" data-original-width="564" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hgM7lG7-CeE/WsF0KYQ6gYI/AAAAAAAAAcg/2rWIi-X9_pIYBHFavI8g7lKG30ScM5LfQCLcBGAs/s320/march_sendak.jpg" width="242" /></a>(At least it's been pretty friggin' cold up here.) March has also been a rather slow month for LoSt. I'm chugging away at the short term todo list, and have been sinking some hours into a system for passing time and learning from your experience. I'm not too concerned about balancing character development or making any final decisions at the moment, just getting a prototype for the kind of system I have been envisioning.<br />
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The system merges current skills and perks into one pool of special abilities (shticks), mostly for simplicity's sake. I have to make some small changes to character creation to reflect this. Once that's in place, I should have all features that are necessary for the planned #12 release. I anticipate April to bring bug squashing as well as authoring content, to make use of the various additions since the last release.Aging Minotaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14701033750426053918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722286388870769054.post-76660181155437222532018-03-03T21:26:00.000+01:002018-03-03T21:26:36.824+01:00Making timeLast month, I wrote about reimplementing wounds, and some of the changes that prompted. This month, I've mainly been working on time systems.<br />
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Sometimes, incremental changes to a project come in a surprising order, at least to an inexperienced developer like me. For instance: LoSt is designed with a simple interface in mind, and has no separate commands to use objects in different ways, like so many genre classics, with their mappings for "q"uaffing and "z"apping and whatnot (and to be fair – these interfaces are difficult to learn, but quite snappy once you do). LoSt's interface, instead, requires you to always wield an item before you can use it. Problems arose with props like cigars and syringes (consumables, really like those "q"uaffables and "z"appables of yore). The fact that they couldn't be used directly from the backpack meant it took too long to use them to be worth it in most situations.<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jfYPUrDLDfw/WprfqdqwbEI/AAAAAAAAAcE/JuDFVmuxNbA9gk_ZH81LVfdGJTDro1cTACLcBGAs/s1600/meeting_mercy.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="728" data-original-width="1199" height="194" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jfYPUrDLDfw/WprfqdqwbEI/AAAAAAAAAcE/JuDFVmuxNbA9gk_ZH81LVfdGJTDro1cTACLcBGAs/s320/meeting_mercy.gif" width="320" /></a>I try to circumvent the problem by making inventory handling not taking any time. This change ups the tempo and gives the player more options, so I'm generally happy about it. It does change the value of some skills and props, like pistolknives (whose main selling point was that they could be used for melee or ranged combat). One scummy tactic that became apparent with the new system, was to keep a stack of loaded guns in your pack and fire them in succession, to save the time of cocking between each shot. So be it. To penalize the behavior, I instead added the rule that moving a cocked gun around in your inventory has a small chance of the gun going off. I don't know how realistic this is in terms of gun engineering (as a European pacifist, my personal relation to guns is limited ;) Should it be grossly inaccurate, I guess my last defense would be that LoSt plays out in a fantasy world, where many small things are different, so there, and in any case, nothing is funnier than shooting yourself in the foot, and I <i>do </i>think the system retains the sense of the basic motif: the rhythm of drawing, cocking, and firing a gun.<br />
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On the topic of short time spans: One thing that has baffled some players of LoSt, is the turn order. One reason is undoubtedly that a bug caused the system to behave weirdly, which I've finally gotten around to fix. But the system itself is a bit unusual for a crpg, and not really well documented. I'm taking steps to fix this, to make it easier to understand what's going on. If I can solicit some feedback for the next release, I'll hopefully manage to finalize the rules for combat some time soon-ish ;)<br />
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<h3>
Rest for the wicked</h3>
One important feature that's missing in #11, is healing. This month, I've been implementing the bare bones, by adding the option to rest for a prolonged time and going back to full health, so it's now officially in. At the time of writing, the local saloon is the only resting hub, but other options will come later. Before that, I'm facing a chunk of work just to get the basic mechanics in place.<br />
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In addition to healing, the passage of time is planned to include systems for advancing the player character, as well as story lines/world events. The basic idea is to make resting a big deal, something that affects strategy. You currently pay for healing by paying rent for your room, but I'd like to further underline the importance of time by letting (potentially) "something happen" when the player rests. The nature of the changes imposed on the game world should reflect the player's recent behavior. Character development will include modifying reputation and the opportunity to gain new shticks. Furthering the "world story" will, I think, pertain mostly to world factions and bounties/quests (this last bit not planned for #12, so I honestly try to disregard it for the time being).<br />
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<b>Modifying reputation:</b> The engine already has a pretty detailed conduct tracker. For instance, if you massacred everyone at the saloon, you will have a lot of hostile karma in relation to the villagers. I think I might just try to take this data and generate reputation procedurally. If I manage to do it right, it should be more flexible and unpredictable than simply stating, "doing X modifies your standing with faction Y by N points". Although there should be systems for such corner cases, as well. The "proto-bounty" I'm working on now, which involves capturing a specific, named criminal, is a good example and a testing ground for this. Resolving the conflict by collecting the bounty on said criminal's head in Arken, flags the player with a special achievement, which amongst other things should be weighed extra when reputation is calculated between missions. In short, I must start out with a simple and open ended system, that I can expand on later.<br />
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<b>Getting shticks:</b> My current vision of how this should be implemented, involves quite a bit of foot work, and I'm still not sure if it's going to be any good. I hope to get in a kind of prototype for the next release. What I'm envisioning is basically for the engine to pick three options for the player and let them choose one. But I had an idea to make the interface less gamey by presenting the options as flavor text. Instead of: "You rest at the saloon for two weeks. 1) Get pistol shtick, 2) Get science shtick, 3) Increase local reputation", it could say something like: "You spend two weeks recovering from your wounds at the saloon in Arken Town. You eat a lot of soup, but at the end of the stay, you start to get back on your feet. 1) Go target practicing in the wilds, 2) Read a book, 3) Hang out with the locals" The place you're resting, and special NPCs stationed as the player's neighbors, should affect the available options, as well as the pseudo-randomized outcome of choosing each option. The end-result as I'm envisioning it, would be a bit like choose-your-own-adventure books, where the outcome is not given. So you won't get to cherry pick the shtick you want, but are allowed to nudge the system. If you opt to practice gunmanship, you might get a random pistoleering shtick, or a reputation bonus related to guns, or if you've used a particular pistol a lot on your latest mission, that particular gun may turn into an "artifact" with a random prefix. Likewise, "spending time with the locals" could have many outcomes, from a simple reputation boost, to learning certain rumors/plot hooks for new quests, or maybe your plan backfires and the villagers end up lynching you (especially if their bias towards you is negative in the first place, of course). It's a system that certainly has its hurdles and slopes, but I believe it has potential.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wzSFe0--s64/WpCQvu8TZtI/AAAAAAAAAbk/xEBXRmJ3w1UyYqEUr-spjZ-NR7G1SKlFwCLcBGAs/s1600/calendar_maya.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="300" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wzSFe0--s64/WpCQvu8TZtI/AAAAAAAAAbk/xEBXRmJ3w1UyYqEUr-spjZ-NR7G1SKlFwCLcBGAs/s400/calendar_maya.jpg" width="400" /></a><b>Story advancement: </b>As noted, this lies even further in future, since I'd rather release #12 in not too long to get a better idea of how the current changes work out on their own. Suffice to say, everything will be tangled together with world factions, their relations and current objectives. Some questlines and bounties may have time limits and random outcomes, depending on player agency. Using my protobounty with the wanted-poster in Arken Town as an example, there might be a window of opportunity to get the bandit. The actual plot could be tested by querying the game world for the bandit's status. Maybe, at the end of each week, there is a chance of the bandit making a move. World events could be almost as Markov chains, with possible continuations depending on the actor's state. For a fugitive criminal, follow-ups could include a raid on a certain place, or fleeing the game world, or switching base to a small fortress somewhere on the map. From the new situation, the options would change again – if the bandit settles in a fortress, it probably means they're not "fugitive" any longer (although they are still wanted by the law), so the option to flee the Land might go away. It will probably have to be more involved than Markov chains, maybe more like a behavior tree. The different states should be abstract enough to be applicable to differently flavored scenarios. For instance, there are many kinds of shootouts and raid scenarios, which share a lot of similarities, especially on a tactical level. You basically drop a bunch of units in a hostile place and give them a certain objective (free the prisoner, find the macguffin, kill the enemy), and if then the player comes walking along, the units will become active and havoc ensue. I think it would be possible with a system where each faction and NPC of interest can have pretty simple flags regarding their narrative status and relations to other factions. The "fugitive/persecutor" conflict is archetypical, and will have a similar narrative dynamic if the story is about a political figure in exile/hiding, or someone fleeing the wrath of a mafia boss. As I'm working now on the ramifications of capturing the bandit in the protobounty, it should be possible to leverage the same rules to make it possible for the player to do stuff like joining the bandit's side by offering them the head of someone <i>they</i> are out to get. How you build reputation will inform who are more likely to chat to you about their lore and objectives and even actively hire you, and who are likely to attack you on sight. And yet, reputation needn't be an end in itself, in any technical term. There could be objectives generated on the map that are better performed incognito or require other maneuvers, like finding a hidden treasure.<br />
<br />
Oh, the dreams one has. If only I could make time.<br />
<br />
As always,<br />
MinotaurosAging Minotaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14701033750426053918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722286388870769054.post-13713080387575818252018-02-02T10:11:00.000+01:002018-02-02T10:11:51.706+01:00LoSt this month<div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>“How’s it look to you?” Bill said. He was handling the reins, sitting tall and handsome, nodding at voices when somebody called to him from the street. The word of who it was in the wagon got through town before Charley and Bill made a hundred yards.</i> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>“Like something out of the Bible,” Charley said.</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>[…]</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>“What part of the Bible?” Bill said, when they were alone again.</i> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>“Where God got angry,” Charley said.</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
—Pete Dexter, <i>Deadwood</i></blockquote>
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xKPRAAtRGHg/WnNpdQ44UEI/AAAAAAAAAaA/v8BeAN9IqyUexuGSv8EZTsxWRMRSjecCwCLcBGAs/s1600/dali_goat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="410" data-original-width="728" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xKPRAAtRGHg/WnNpdQ44UEI/AAAAAAAAAaA/v8BeAN9IqyUexuGSv8EZTsxWRMRSjecCwCLcBGAs/s400/dali_goat.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Full speed ahead!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />Last year saw some sporadic updates under the header of "LoSt this week". They weren't exactly the most ambitious posts on this blog, but still a way to document progress, at least. I figured I'd try a model of more reliable monthly updates this year. We'll see how reliable I manage to keep'em.<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
Back to the Meat</h3>
January saw some slow, steady development. Most notably, perhaps, I've reimplemented wounds in accordance with some old plans. I'm now testing with a flat counter à la hit points, although I call it "grit" rather than hp. The player will probably start with about 9-12 grit (a bit more than your average neighbor, owing to the natural determination and character that sets a wannabe frontier hero apart). Grit is marked out when an actor gets wounded. Currently, there are markers for bruises and grievous wounds. Wounds are semi-permanent, and typically only heal between missions, whilst Bruises regenerate every turn that is passed without taking any action or receiving any damage.<br />
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That's the gist of it, but I'm still ironing out the details and making related changes. The idea is to make bruises "inexpensive" (in that there is no <a href="http://www.roguebasin.com/index.php?title=Hunger">food clock</a>), so the player can freely gambit their grit in any local situation – if they feel confident on winning the fight. Wounds, on the other hand, will force the player to touch base every now and then, and some bounties and other story related content will certainly have time limits and thresholds; the world should not stand still if the player spends two weeks at the saloon to recover from a bear attack.<br />
<br />
Expanding on the current implementation, I'll test using grit for status ailments and buffs in addition to wounds. For instance, being temporarily blinded or confused might occupy a grit marker. Likewise, positive modifiers from skills/props could tap your grit when active. I think this can work well as "payment" for certain skills, having decided early on that I don't want skills with cooldown periods, as that may encourage techniques like <a href="http://www.roguebasin.com/index.php?title=Cheating#Pillar_dancing">pillar dancing</a>. Instead, each effect should be designed with built-in weaknesses. For example, the "fan gun" skill allows you to cock and fire in one turn, but at the cost of reduced accuracy. Another available effect is sprinting (move at double speed for some turns), and I hadn't been able to come up with a good penalty for that. Now I'm thinking grit may offer a solution. Let's say you accumulate "out of breath" markers the longer you sprint, meaning that you must spend turns to recover, or else come into the next encounter at a disadvantage. That should cap the amount of running around it's feasible to do, without nerfing it too much as a defensive strategy. I don't mind if running away is an effective "panic button" for many situations. Knowing RL players, each and one will die by the dozen, anyway; and it bears mentioning that I'm hoping to add non-lethal combat: in particular the option to surrender – so why not an option to run away? The villain should really just stand back and shout insults then, all the while depleting the player's reputation as a valiant hero.<br />
<br />
<h3>
UI Overhauls</h3>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BziNRTr0trI/WnOOQWInVEI/AAAAAAAAAao/9CbMGg7D7C0MvAFOPJ39ffwnGHsxlbdOACLcBGAs/s1600/hud_w_wounds.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="836" data-original-width="1268" height="210" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BziNRTr0trI/WnOOQWInVEI/AAAAAAAAAao/9CbMGg7D7C0MvAFOPJ39ffwnGHsxlbdOACLcBGAs/s320/hud_w_wounds.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Testing #12: «Wanted» poster in Arken Town<br />
Note random truism in the bandit's generated name :) </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Changing the combat system has many ripples. For one thing, the tactical menu had to be rearranged. Working with visual interface design is something I find at once painful and strangely compelling (a bit like masturbating with a branding iron). There's a lot of relative coordinates to keep track of, especially if you take into account varying resolutions and font sizes, and more often than not I'll stumble over cryptic pieces of algebra in the existing code, that my previous self sucessfully used to put things where they belong on the screen, but which my present self is utterly unable to understand.<br />
<br />
The new UI puts some info in a top panel. I've kept the right hand menu for inventory, actions and message log, but I was thinking it might be nice to add a "wide screen" mode as well. You'll notice the new interface has flashy menu buttons. I added these since LoSt now has basic mouse support. Yay. The icons in this screenshot are place holder art, by the way. They are more or less hand made, but some are direct ripoffs of Mayan glyphs that actually mean something completely different. So I may or may not keep the visual style, but I'll want the designs used to be original, in any case.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YWb6K1RHBgs/WnOIxH5PuKI/AAAAAAAAAaU/GZy9IUuV9xkmAyEJ_gfRUE2QINH-tBjVACLcBGAs/s1600/menu_11.1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="1136" height="112" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YWb6K1RHBgs/WnOIxH5PuKI/AAAAAAAAAaU/GZy9IUuV9xkmAyEJ_gfRUE2QINH-tBjVACLcBGAs/s200/menu_11.1.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fonts: Before…</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
While I was at it, I did some font work. Earlier versions used (and embedded) a few fonts with restrictive "freeware" licenses. I've been wanting to clean up that whole mess: reduce the amount of embedded fonts and make sure everything is open software. So I went font hunting, and found <a href="http://www.1001fonts.com/">1001 Fonts</a> quite usable, especially as the site has the option to filter for only open source fonts. I also used <a href="https://fontforge.github.io/">Fontforge</a> for the first time, making a very basic Frankenstein font by merging some glyphs into <a href="http://www.1001fonts.com/linux-biolinum-font.html">Linux Biolinum</a>. I pulled the glyphs from various free sources, but was especially thrilled to discover <a href="http://www.quivira-font.com/">Quivira</a>, a font with pretty good Unicode support. In fact, that's where I got the glyph ♄ for lead, arguably the most important letter in the LoSt alphabet.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RwaZ-Absf44/WnOIpq_1HgI/AAAAAAAAAaQ/OX2srP3XhCgMkzzif0I7-3qvVPuC4hHpwCLcBGAs/s1600/menu_12.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="760" data-original-width="1200" height="126" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RwaZ-Absf44/WnOIpq_1HgI/AAAAAAAAAaQ/OX2srP3XhCgMkzzif0I7-3qvVPuC4hHpwCLcBGAs/s200/menu_12.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fonts: After!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I also redid the logo, using <a href="https://www.gimp.org/">Gimp</a> to draw the letters with filled rectangles, that I then ran over with a bunch of filters. The new menu font <a href="http://www.1001fonts.com/im-fell-english-font.html">IM Fell</a> was just added for being pretty great and having probably the second most fantastic license I ever read (donated to the Oxford University by its creator upon his death in 1686). It may be too old fashioned for LoSt in the long run, but here and now it's quite functional.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Questin' fer Bounties</h3>
Since I need to test out the new wounds system, as well as the basic content for defeating the bandit scourge of Arken Town, I had to zoom back in on tactical aspects of the game, which has been refreshing after mostly doing macro-level world building stuff for the last period. I had completely "turned off" encounters (houses, animals, and even plants), but now switched them back on to get a trajectory back and forth to the bandit to slay him/her and bring back the head to the sheriff in Arken. If I do that (currently not trivial, but there's always the cheat options in the main menu :) it raises a little "karma flag" that I plan to use later, to influence reputation and skill advancement, whenever the player passes time between missions at one of the game world's resting hubs (eg. saloons, oases, hospices, cloisters).<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EJrg6HEo_60/WnOn-z9v5lI/AAAAAAAAAbE/qD8APk49iTwyMuTGW-BEgORvKTtzRlKuACLcBGAs/s1600/decapitation_Toshimitsu-The-wealth-chiefs-inspect-the-heads-of-their-enemies.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="599" height="160" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EJrg6HEo_60/WnOn-z9v5lI/AAAAAAAAAbE/qD8APk49iTwyMuTGW-BEgORvKTtzRlKuACLcBGAs/s320/decapitation_Toshimitsu-The-wealth-chiefs-inspect-the-heads-of-their-enemies.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I want you kids to get ahead</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The infrastructure for implementing this basic kill/fetch quest, where the parameters are ultimately written in the human readable data files, can be used to track smaller achievements as well. There will probably be other "little karma flags" for conduct like giving to beggars, (not) shooting someone in the back, flaunting your pistol in church, and just generally pleasing/offending members of this or that faction/group in one way or the other. In the long run, I hope that the life time of more accomplished characters will span several years of game time, with slowly developing reputation, skill set, as well as global faction relations and story lines. If the game should come to that point, the "original bounty" I'm working on now will probably just be folded into a repertoire of random situations, that can be repeated, omitted and randomized over many replays.<br />
<br />
So I'm walking a bit in the desert, getting killed some on the way, trying to imagine what the game will be like a few iterations down the road… <br />
<br />
As always,<br />
Minotauros<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-R5MiS90ZCew/WnOkWVKBfCI/AAAAAAAAAa4/ypCTv70ibncuDlXP84O3cen-RieCnTWXQCLcBGAs/s1600/jan_thegif.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="686" data-original-width="1000" height="436" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-R5MiS90ZCew/WnOkWVKBfCI/AAAAAAAAAa4/ypCTv70ibncuDlXP84O3cen-RieCnTWXQCLcBGAs/s640/jan_thegif.gif" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;">Gif of the month looks decent, but there's a lot of<br />graphical glitches too, as when simultaneously <br />scrolling the map and fading out dialogue bubbles!</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Aging Minotaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14701033750426053918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722286388870769054.post-17127596628716634912017-12-10T23:03:00.002+01:002017-12-10T23:03:34.502+01:00LoSt this week (yearning for Arken)<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sTMEyzPUJK0/Wi2VDBhVfAI/AAAAAAAAAZU/qxSH6CT74G0gezzZLgJZGKafv7J1l1cCACLcBGAs/s1600/sites_as_blobs.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="975" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sTMEyzPUJK0/Wi2VDBhVfAI/AAAAAAAAAZU/qxSH6CT74G0gezzZLgJZGKafv7J1l1cCACLcBGAs/s320/sites_as_blobs.png" width="195" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An easy bug fix, which I still<br />struggled to get just right. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I'm still working on Arken Town (the settlement where the game is set to start), and making lots of small engine tweaks along the way. I've been refactoring the world generation routines for a while, and even if the changes don't make a huge visible difference, I spend quite some time just thinking the designs through. Organizing the data associated with the settlement, for instance, had me setting up some infrastructure to handle other important places on the map.<br />
<br />
I've also changed to the climate map generator, so I can access more detailed info pertaining to regions and landscapes later. It's mostly stuff I need to generate bounties and story lines (ie. at the sheriff's/post office in Arken hangs a wanted poster, and the game must generate details regarding the fugitive's whereabouts).<br />
<br />
The map generator just needs a few finishing touches before I can leave it for now, I think. So I'm zooming in again on the minutia of Arken to get this baby up in the air.<br />
<br />
<h3>
The gunsmith</h3>
Since I don't have a lot of time to muck about with LoSt these days, I'm trying to divide development into small chunks that can be handled in short, sporadic sessions. (In that light, it may be detrimental to the project that I take a few hours to write a blog post like this, but I hope it's part of the fun to some people at least who might drop by here from time to time :)<br />
<br />
Now that I'm starting on Arken in earnest, I've decided to do it house by house. Each of the planned "places of interest" that can be generated, will demand that I fine tune the engine a bit. First out is the gunsmith, a pretty inconspicuous kid that offers some services. In addition to selling guns (and possibly special ammo), the smith can repair or enhance guns you already own (by adding a prefix, basically imbuing the gun with a special shtick).<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-V0FxJgqfyjA/Wi2j_8e_0sI/AAAAAAAAAZk/k8I_zULibxwpTbPnL87J0C_7MJ6io5fWQCLcBGAs/s1600/bittner_lever_action_repeater.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="1024" height="166" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-V0FxJgqfyjA/Wi2j_8e_0sI/AAAAAAAAAZk/k8I_zULibxwpTbPnL87J0C_7MJ6io5fWQCLcBGAs/s320/bittner_lever_action_repeater.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bittner lever action repeater, by a German gunsmith</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Regarding engine tweaks needed to get this in the game, it's mostly AI-related. I have been working up to this, and already implemented the basic interface for giving items to NPCs. Now, I just need to make the gunsmith react appropriately if someone offers them a gun. It could be done by adding some states to the content database, but looking at practical solutions, it strikes me that the current AI module is very shaky. It may be a good time to go in and do some basic changes, since I'll only be facing increasingly complex NPC behavior as development continues. It's honestly something I've been mulling about in my brain for a while, so I have some ideas…<br />
<br />
Adding the gunsmith will entail another addition to the engine, again quite moderate, but with possibly wide reaching consequences. When you offer the gunsmith a gun, I decided I'll have to pop up a window with a prompt to the player, like: <"I can fix this for 30♄." (Y/N)?> I already have <more>-prompts, so making it happen won't be a big deal (just get the confirmation, pay the bill and upgrade the gun). But it's something I might need later for popups connected to other game changing events. For instance, when resting at a saloon, the player may just see: <You rest for a week. Press Space to continue.> But the game should do a lot of things, like healing the player's longterm wounds, passing game time, and (if appropriate) grant the player new reputations and shticks, just to mention a few things. So, even this silly little popup becomes an issue to ponder on the metro after I've delivered the kids to school (whether I should compare that to a calligrapher meditating for hours before executing a simple stroke, or just admit analysis paralysis). In any case, it would be meaningless to hack my way through this to the benefit of the gunsmith, just to have to redo the whole thing when I come to the saloon a few houses down the road.<br />
<br />
As always,<br />
Minotauros<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cq5ia040rdA/Wi2oom2KgzI/AAAAAAAAAZw/Alv3RP6oWgkfmb1IYGNB4WAgnR7mw6STwCLcBGAs/s1600/climates_dec10.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="754" data-original-width="841" height="357" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cq5ia040rdA/Wi2oom2KgzI/AAAAAAAAAZw/Alv3RP6oWgkfmb1IYGNB4WAgnR7mw6STwCLcBGAs/s400/climates_dec10.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(1 hex ≈ 1 screen) A last change I <i>must</i> do before #12, is to make<br />the world larger with "bulkier" regions. The Land isn't supposed<br />to be huge, but the current scaling makes it feel too small.</td></tr>
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Aging Minotaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14701033750426053918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722286388870769054.post-58118286962469100512017-06-18T18:59:00.001+02:002017-06-18T18:59:56.717+02:00Breaking habits<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dXGLYzGh8jU/WUajhsHrSPI/AAAAAAAAAYk/bL7Hf3QpcCYLyEIFDl8rfA9Hx3PInbQVgCLcBGAs/s1600/phrenology.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="953" height="214" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dXGLYzGh8jU/WUajhsHrSPI/AAAAAAAAAYk/bL7Hf3QpcCYLyEIFDl8rfA9Hx3PInbQVgCLcBGAs/s320/phrenology.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Seeking fresh ideas … Hum!</td></tr>
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Accomplished creators will sometimes say something to the effect that one needs to master the formal conventions in order to bend them and innovate. (In the arts, I suspect there is some deeper truth about the historical transition from Romanticism to Modernism, but I digress as always).<br />
<br />
When I first started making LoSt, the idea was for <a href="http://7drl.org/2013/03/17/boothill-failure/">a small 7DRL shooter</a> with card based mechanics and no hit points (getting hit was game over). That didn't scale well, however, and was gradually transformed into the current combat system.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WGM1A7fQMUo/WUaqNokEYII/AAAAAAAAAZA/YIWLSb81LEYRAuGW4vAQSQWNiuXKRjQEwCLcBGAs/s1600/health_ui.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="32" data-original-width="100" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WGM1A7fQMUo/WUaqNokEYII/AAAAAAAAAZA/YIWLSb81LEYRAuGW4vAQSQWNiuXKRjQEwCLcBGAs/s1600/health_ui.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wounds UI</td></tr>
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<b>Health:</b> Actors have a number of health levels (HLs), each with a number of bruise levels (BLs). If an actor spends a turn not getting hit, they regenerate one BL. Once a HL reaches zero, however, it won't heal naturally, and the player needs to rest at a saloon or hospice.<br />
<br />
<b>Initiative:</b> All events have a speed value, with actions performed in a fixed order each turn. Melee precedes missile attacks, which in turn precede movement. If you're next to an enemy, you can back away, but giving your enemy a free attack. Also, actions can be "interrupted" by incoming attacks. The idea was to give melee an edge in close quarters: If you're wielding a knife and facing a shooter, your best bet should be to get up close and stab your foe before they get a chance to shoot you.<br />
<br />
<b>Randomness:</b> The system is mostly deterministic. Attacks have fixed damage, and there is no probability "to hit". Instead, melee sometimes deal grazes (half damage) or critical hits (effect depending on weapon). Firearms have a chance of going wild, depending on conditions like cover and skills.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x2v3GaVzyx0/WUahM56hYYI/AAAAAAAAAYY/sXrQTR9bDxoyQXqo3Hjzkts27Ovn9W_dwCLcBGAs/s1600/goban_nasty.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1036" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x2v3GaVzyx0/WUahM56hYYI/AAAAAAAAAYY/sXrQTR9bDxoyQXqo3Hjzkts27Ovn9W_dwCLcBGAs/s320/goban_nasty.jpg" width="221" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Game changer</td></tr>
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This may sound good on paper, but I've been vexed by the fact that melee in particular doesn't work well in practice. There was a problem of getting ganged up on, since taking more than one hit in a single turn almost invariably depletes a whole HL, something that should be avoidable with clever tactics. On the other hand, the rapid bruise regeneration means the player often has to land successive blows to properly wound the enemy, in turn taking as many hits himself. Likewise, it doesn't make any sense for instance to stab once and then spend some turns to wield and cock a gun, since the stab wound will be fully healed by the time you pull the trigger.<br />
<br />
There's also been a problem with balancing damage. Comparing a club and a knife, they both deal 2 BLs, but the club spreads the damage over several HLs, whilst the knife puts all of it in a single HL. At the end of the day, the knife is almost unambiguously better, since it has the chance of depleting HLs more quickly.<br />
<br />
However unbearable I find the current states of affairs, this system has been in place for years now, and me stumped as to how to fix it. Should I try to make something different altogether? Introduce a standard hit points system? God forbid! I'm giving the current rules another chance, and started by just tweaking the existing values.<br />
<br />
Here are some of the changes I'm trying out currently:<br />
<br />
<b>Damage output:</b> I made mostly everything deal a little less damage. I figured the lower tier weapons (bowie knives, tools, whips) can deal just a single BL in damage, and still be better than unarmed fighting, since unarmed fighters are unable to score critical hits. Increasing the player's health might also be an option here.<br />
<br />
<b>Bruise regeneration:</b> Bruises now regenerate every second turn, and healing the last BL of a HL takes another extra turn.<br />
<br />
<b>Interrupted actions:</b> I've disabled this almost completely. If an actor gets hit right before carrying out an attack, that attack is no longer blocked, but rather guaranteed to be a graze/wildshot. At point blank range, a wildshot will hit the target about 50% of the time.<br />
<br />
This already works better than before, even if it's basically the same rules. For one thing, a couple of angry animals won't kill you in a single turn, even though it's still bad to get surrounded. The slowed regeneration rate means that there is more time to apply actual tactics, like spending a turn to reposition, without all bruises being reset. The fact that the last bruise in a HL takes an extra turn to heal also gives an advantage to weapons which deal damage over several HLs. A weapon dealing 2 BLs to a single HL still has an edge when it comes to quickly whittling down your enemies HLs, whilst a weapon dealing 1 BL to two separate HLs is less of an immediate threat, but will give an advantage a few game turns down the road.<br />
<br />
I may still have to make some more fundamental changes to how combat works, but it's refreshing just to see the game work slightly different from what I've grown accustomed to.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Props unbound</h4>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aIfUbYEzzJA/WUaoiFrdG4I/AAAAAAAAAY0/X7n9UO_TzHk88PK1Its0HjQ-LMVuQ5gmwCLcBGAs/s1600/burro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="696" data-original-width="1181" height="188" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aIfUbYEzzJA/WUaoiFrdG4I/AAAAAAAAAY0/X7n9UO_TzHk88PK1Its0HjQ-LMVuQ5gmwCLcBGAs/s320/burro.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Burro!</td></tr>
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<div>
Inspired by the moderate success with switching around combat rules, I'm also trying some changes to the inventory system. Again, some pretty arbitrary principles had grown out of the original game (some of them outlined in an <a href="http://agingminotaur.blogspot.no/2016/12/fragments-of-principles-of-prop-design.html">earlier post</a>). For instance, I felt that limiting actors to carry only six items at any time was pretty neat, since dead dudes would just drop all their loot in a nice circle around themselves.</div>
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Now, I've upped the inventory cap to 12 items, which really just lets the player carry more trash around (although balance issues may arise later). Secondly, props are now dropped and picked up from adjacent hexes rather than the one you're currently occupying.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
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The effect on gameplay is minimal, but I may keep it this way, just because it offers a solution to a problem I've been having: how to give props to NPCs? I didn't want a separate "give" command, so instead I implementing a heavy-handed system for offering NPCs stuff by dropping it in their field of vision. This is how you currently collect bounties from judges, by plopping the severed head of a goon in their vicinity. God only knows if a single player has yet picked up on the fact that this is a thing, as it's only vaguely hinted at in the dialogue. But if props are dropped onto the hex right in front of to you, the system pretty much gives itself: Simply invoking the "drop" command when facing an NPC should make for a pretty intuitive and smooth interface.</div>
<div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ebvBkfpnkjA/WUade4wqLGI/AAAAAAAAAYM/yf0xf-kbW5QiD4KVeydr_eMBq_dmCACfQCLcBGAs/s1600/bigger_shop.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="252" data-original-width="508" height="158" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ebvBkfpnkjA/WUade4wqLGI/AAAAAAAAAYM/yf0xf-kbW5QiD4KVeydr_eMBq_dmCACfQCLcBGAs/s320/bigger_shop.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Current shop layout, and more spacious mockup<br />D=door, s=shopkeep, c=counter, p=props</td></tr>
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<div>
I'm slightly concerned that some veteran RL players may find this counterintuitive. It's still possible to pick up items you're standing on, but that has the disadvantage of not properly teaching how it "should" be done. Players who fall into the habit of walking on stuff to pick it up, will in effect be wasting a turn as opposed to players who fall naturally into using the new system. There are some possible ways to fix that, either by making it a free action to pick something up, or even let props on the ground block movement. This last solution would mean some pretty drastic changes to tactics, but might even work when I start making everything a bit more spacious, which is something I've planned in any case.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Come what may, it's always good to break habitual thinking by changing the rules around a bit. Every dead end explored is a step in the right direction.</div>
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<div>
As always,</div>
<div>
Minotauros</div>
Aging Minotaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14701033750426053918noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722286388870769054.post-68418704549392250582017-06-17T22:22:00.000+02:002017-06-17T22:34:22.524+02:00LoSt this week (2 steps ahead, 1 step back)<form action="https://www.reddit.com/r/roguelikedev/comments/6hqc5j/sharing_saturday_159/#" class="usertext warn-on-unload" id="form-t1_dj17y1s07n" style="color: #3b3b3b; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
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<span style="font-size: 1em;">It's been a while since I found the time to anything substantial with LoSt, but this week I managed to put in a few coding sessions and implemented some features that I've long been wanting to have. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kXraBXpRVJc/WUVuE-6hGNI/AAAAAAAAAXY/8YuivUIu18IDSQ3AFhhpIbPoQub_LFvWgCLcBGAs/s1600/lost_travelogue.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="1200" height="186" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kXraBXpRVJc/WUVuE-6hGNI/AAAAAAAAAXY/8YuivUIu18IDSQ3AFhhpIbPoQub_LFvWgCLcBGAs/s320/lost_travelogue.gif" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">So I fired up old trusty byzanz to make a gif, which came <br />
out slightly discolored, but I kind of liked that crusty feel. </td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: 1em;">First, I got in a basic function to zoom in and out of the map. This will provide the framework for waypoints/travel, a logbook, etc. later on. Even in its current bare-bone condition, it provides me with a nice tool to examine my maps. It is an example of something which it is perfectly lovely to make. Since it'll help me as a developer, I'll of course be furnishing that map with icons to represent waypoints and other points of interest. And I probably won't be able to resist adding some ornament, like a compass rose or a smooth transition animation. All of this will only enhance the play experience.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-u6qldQZRxtE/WUVwGw4f9YI/AAAAAAAAAXk/gwzQCVb_GA4CuOx5SX6ldsq8ZI4sGXzNACLcBGAs/s1600/hexpaint.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="481" data-original-width="734" height="209" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-u6qldQZRxtE/WUVwGw4f9YI/AAAAAAAAAXk/gwzQCVb_GA4CuOx5SX6ldsq8ZI4sGXzNACLcBGAs/s320/hexpaint.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Coming soon to a GUI near you?</td></tr>
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Today I sat down and wrote the outline of an editor for place themes/blueprints. It's been cumbersome to use a text editor to make these, and the simple little application I hobbled together this afternoon is already more comfortable. It just makes the blueprints, so I still have to write the map legend by hand (rules like eg. fill hexes marked "E" with walls, put 1-3 shooters at "s", pick and put features/loot at "a", "b", and/or "c"). But it might make sense to add the function to set those parameters straight from the blueprint editor. It would have to be able to write blueprints as well as regular kits, which are the data syntax I use to store almost everything in the game. A few releases down the road, the actual game might even ship with a full fledged content editor that can be used to add/mod places, critters, props, bounties, skills, etc. :)</div>
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I hope to use these tools to do a rather extensive overhaul of the world building routines, that I've been dreading on the horizon for quite a while. The thing is that the current Python class used to build places is very all over the place. So I want to go through it and remove crud, as well as adding some tweaks and variables that I'm going to need to implement the next big thing in LoSt, namely bounties (random quest lines). Let's hope I manage to be clever about it, not leaving too many traps for myself later on. There are details I would like to get right sooner rather than later. <span style="font-size: 1em;">For instance, I've been feeling that the game world is a bit too constrained. To amend this, I must above all make some inspired changes to the combat system, but I want to try to tailor them to fit a world with more space. Ideally, a house should have room for a table with some chairs that several people can comfortably walk around. For this alone, I only need some minor tweaks to the code, but when the time comes to remake all the old blueprints, I'm pretty hopeful that my little editor will be a nice tool to have. I've been digging up some maps of Western towns, thinking it should be possible to generate something similar, using map chunks. Typing out big map segments in a text editor was a great hassle, though, and is going to be much easier now.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-x0qeY-URBzw/WUWJc0ZblMI/AAAAAAAAAX0/pqJqwc-YNpUkHId4o5ceQwdB9BGIZAKGACLcBGAs/s1600/map_town02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="610" data-original-width="430" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-x0qeY-URBzw/WUWJc0ZblMI/AAAAAAAAAX0/pqJqwc-YNpUkHId4o5ceQwdB9BGIZAKGACLcBGAs/s320/map_town02.jpg" width="224" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A sleepy settlement</td></tr>
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<h3>
Nail Soup</h3>
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<span style="font-size: 1em;">I mentioned that bounties are the next major feature to show up. They introduce a whole new feature to design, and it's a feature that touches on practically every other part of the game. From the world map, to dialogue, to props, to combat, to the skill system, everything seems to come together around bounties. It's also a point where the setting is bound to become much more defined, which is a Good Thing™. Although I've always liked that early stage of creative development where everything is still lying quite open, I'm also looking forward to getting some meat on the bones with a starting settlement to provide the player with plot hooks, a place to rest, important NPCs, etc. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 1em;">Long term readers will note that I've already touted the coming of bounties as a feature for quite a while already. But it feels now as if I have to deliver at least a rudimentary fun game within the next few releases, or I might as well abandon the whole thing. Not said in a pessimistic note, rather hopeful that I might manage to reach the next stage of development in not too long a time.</span></div>
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Bounties will provide some sense of purpose and direction to the game, by stating explicit goals and pacing healing and advancement of skills/reputation between missions. But as I mentioned earlier, I also have to fix the combat system somehow, to make melee a more interesting option. As is, fighting happens too fast and is too deadly. There is usually no time to do any fancy footwork before you're dead, even if the game points in that direction with "fancy footwork" skills like Tumble and Feint. I may test "slowing down" combat a bit, giving everyone (at least the player) a tick more health, and making most weapons deal a bit less damage. Maybe even natural regeneration of bruises should be slowed, as long as the system stays transparent. The player should be able to take a hit or two as he spends a turn repositioning, switching weapons or using a skill. If I start with gentle tweaks of what I have, it's hard to say in advance if I will stumble upon something that works, or get some completely other idea for how to do it.</div>
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And really, it's not just a question of rebalancing the actual combat system. Other planned features will have an effect. For instance, there will be more ways to gather posses to aid you in battle (currently doable with the Populist shtick), and I am planning AI templates that will allow non-lethal battle, in particular surrendering (by dropping your weapon) and capturing (using rope or chain). And so maybe it will be okay for the combat system to be on the lethal side, if the player can (un)reliably hope to solicit the aid of NPCs or let himself be captured by the bad kids rather than outright killed (leading to possible interesting escape scenarios).</div>
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<span style="font-size: 1em;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 1em;">It feels a bit like I would want to do all the changes at once, just to be able to see how they interact. But I guess it's more like cooking. You start by frying the garlic and then the onions before getting on to the saucy parts. And a good saucier can predict how a sauce will turn out in advance, when it still only tastes like flour and salt. Me, not so much. I have this floury soupy slop, for sure, but no inkling of how it's going to turn out in the end.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 1em;">As always,</span></div>
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Minotauros</div>
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PS. The current working title of LoSt is "Nail Soup", which is obviously an allusion to Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup, although the allusion itself may be less obvious: "Stone Soup" is (so I've heard) a Portuguese fairytale about a vagrant who fools some villagers into believing that he can teach them how to make soup out of nothing but stones and water. They gather round, and the vagrant starts cooking, after a while remarking how the soup would be even better if they added a few carrots, perhaps. One of villagers happens be in possession of that precise vegetable, and so they add a few. After a while, the vagrant says this is gonna be good, but it would be even better if they added some chopped potatoes, and so it goes. In the end, the soup turns out pretty awesome of course, since everyone chipped in, which is the morale of the story. "Nail Soup", on the other hand, is the Norwegian variety of that same fairytale. Here, the protagonist vagrant meets with a single old crone in a house, asking to spend the night if he promises to teach her how to make soup just from nails. The story proceeds more or less as its Continental cousin, except here the hero is just ripping off a single person, so that the productive/social morale of the story is flipped. When a Norwegian speaker talks about making nail soup, that means rather to make something with no or meager resources.</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pcF_aUU04DU/WUWKPGSlq3I/AAAAAAAAAX8/5JZbuLssp9AXvIRC9_jRZ_7EzG9-eJu3ACLcBGAs/s1600/el-topo-8.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="703" data-original-width="1200" height="233" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pcF_aUU04DU/WUWKPGSlq3I/AAAAAAAAAX8/5JZbuLssp9AXvIRC9_jRZ_7EzG9-eJu3ACLcBGAs/s400/el-topo-8.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And there was much rejoicing</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.4285714285714286em; margin-bottom: 0.35714285714285715em; margin-top: 0.35714285714285715em; padding: 0px;">
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
</form>
Aging Minotaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14701033750426053918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1722286388870769054.post-52459858600600683812017-05-12T12:09:00.000+02:002018-08-21T08:05:11.697+02:00The Slow Application Development (SAD) Methodology<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iBNr-1mBh1k/WRTRnbylTOI/AAAAAAAAATE/1ybN_4O2fXIGxRQav1StaIguFmKGQJPIwCLcB/s1600/headspace.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iBNr-1mBh1k/WRTRnbylTOI/AAAAAAAAATE/1ybN_4O2fXIGxRQav1StaIguFmKGQJPIwCLcB/s200/headspace.jpg" width="158" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Head space!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i> C'est à un combat sans corps qu'il faut te
préparer, tel que tu puisses faire front en tout cas, combat abstrait
qui, au contraire des autres, s'apprend par rêverie.</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
—Michaux<a href="http://agingminotaur.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-slow-application-development-sad.html#1" name="top1"><sup>1</sup></a></blockquote>
<br />
A rant about very little in particular (which is incidentally also
how, if ever my exploits as a Roguelike developer are to be mentioned in
some footnote of history, they will be described).<br />
<br />
I found some notes for an old blog post, and decided why not go ahead and publish this scrambled mess?<br />
<br />
I was going to start by mentioning <a href="http://www.tobiasgame.co.uk/">Tobias and the Dark Sceptres</a>,
which had just been released for free after 13 years in the making.
This was in 2014, so bringing it up now might feel a bit late. In that sense, I guess
everything is going according to plan.<br />
<br />
This is
supposed to be a blogpost about the Slow Application Development (SAD™)
Methodology, the professed in-house design philosophy here at Domus
Daedali. The rules of the SAD Methology are as numerous as they are
fickle…<br />
<br />
Thou shalt start in the middle.<br />
Thou shalt code under the influence. <br />
Thou shalt add empty variables with vaguely suggestive names, in case thou needst them later.<br />
When too late, refactor.<br />
Release sometime, release sometimes.<br />
Embellish details. <br />
Thou shalt never monetize thy project!<br />
<br />
The guy who released <i>Tobias</i> had
been tinkering on and off since he was a kid, and the whole thing was made
in klik'n'play or something like that. Now, some of the commentariat were
boggling at the fact that he didn't charge any money for the game, and I
remember thinking: If you have to ask why someone chooses to give away
something they've been working on for thirteen years, you probably won't understand the answer.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
As always, I find comfort in the SAD methodology.<br />
If it's not broke, fix it. </div>
<div>
Never monetize!<br />
It's one step forwards and two steps back, so the way ahead may be to walk away from your project. </div>
<div>
Procrastinate!<br />
Take out your money and shoot it in the head! </div>
<div>
We have to build cabins.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ujjmvbl0t6Y/WRWBGlVqFwI/AAAAAAAAAUE/YaUAVtp8vI8jRJJnIuJY_lqlGbXRLnLYQCLcB/s1600/voodoo_excerpt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="218" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ujjmvbl0t6Y/WRWBGlVqFwI/AAAAAAAAAUE/YaUAVtp8vI8jRJJnIuJY_lqlGbXRLnLYQCLcB/s320/voodoo_excerpt.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">LoSt's business plan</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The
SAD methodology is not applicable to professionalism of any kind:
From struggling artists to celebrities and mainstream developers, movers and
shakers of the mindscape… We bid them farewell, with a thanks for paving
the way nonetheless.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The crux of
the matter is that having no real stakes in the project means you've
less time in the day-to-day, but so much more as the years accumulate.<br />
<br />
Though it remains unclear what we are trying to gain freedom <i>from</i>, we are willing to spend every ounce of our patience and monomania to get it.<br />
<br />
A tiny shelter.<br />
<br />
Developing
commercially entails another mindset entirely. Mind to say, it is not one less
respectable. On the contrary, it demands an admirable
effort and excess of ideas to achieve the degree of polish needed to
set something afloat in the vast ocean of cultural products. In fact,
one of the things that prompted me to pick this post up again after all
this time, was <a href="http://www.gridsagegames.com/blog/2017/01/pricing-roguelike/">a post about monetizing RL devlopment</a> over at Cogmind's excellent blog. (That's already been four months, so I'm staying true to my tenets, if nothing else.)<br />
<br />
In
any case: As fascinating as I find that pursuit, and as much as I
respect and understand the decision to venture in commercial game
design, I am also glad this is not the way that Land of Strangers is going. Even
if I were to try to tidy it up, finish and sell it as an "indie open
world wild west roguelike", the work/pay ratio would just be weepable,
and I might risk the overall vision by making "concessions" to some
imagined demands from the paying public. Developing in accordance with the SAD Methodology, I get instead to focus on the work/play ratio.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
What I <i>like</i>
about making my "little open acid western roguelike" is that I don't
have to take all that stuff into account. I can choose to just say no,
or whatever, to wholesome values and clever design choices. Proper graphics and overall polish? Yawn. Audio, who
needs it? (Or maybe I will, but just slap on <a href="https://dl.orangedox.com/4aTvIH1LgBLSHerOVt">a sub-par recording of me mishandling my youngest son's ukulele</a>.)</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Never finish.</div>
<div>
Work in the crevices.<br />
Start side projects.</div>
<div>
(Don't) quit your day job.<br />
Just in case.</div>
<div>
Have kids.<br />
Stand in a pedestrian island reciting sutras whilst meditating on the cars coming to rape you. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-us5B12TXHTI/WRV7kzs4kwI/AAAAAAAAAT0/okmNpVdbRiAfh_HstKYQFRjvi_EQzNShwCLcB/s1600/bosch_01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-us5B12TXHTI/WRV7kzs4kwI/AAAAAAAAAT0/okmNpVdbRiAfh_HstKYQFRjvi_EQzNShwCLcB/s320/bosch_01.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Psyching up to do some coding </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The
SAD Methodology depends on a circular definition: The refusal to
monetize and the refusal to finalize enable one another, defining a
space, like a protective chalk circle where any (in)conceivable project can be allowed
to grow. In many cases, it becomes a question of necessity.
Lately we're seeing how old giants like ADOM and Caves of Qud are
monetizing updated versions of their classic games. One thing these two
have in common (and an article could be devoted just to discussing the
differences), is that the colossal games which were already in place as
the business model started to kick in, had taken many years of hard,
unpaid work to achieve. If ADOM and CoQ had started out as commercial projects, they probably would never have seen the light of day.<br />
<br />
I
suspect this is part of the reason why Mark Johnson has refrained from any kind
of crowd funding scheme for his grand opus Ultima Ratio Regum. It also seems
that <a href="http://kaduria.blogspot.de/2017/05/on-success-and-failure.html">Krice professes to the SAD Methodology</a>, so what in the world could go wrong?
It certainly is the fuel of much vaporware – and honestly, we would be so much worse off without classic never-mades in the vein of <a href="http://www.roguebasin.com/index.php?title=ShockFrost">Shockfrost</a>'s game and <a href="http://www.roguebasin.com/index.php?title=World_of_Rogue">World of Rogue</a>.<br />
<br />
It might be tempting to say that sites such as Kickstarter have been doing us
a disfavor by blurring the lines between professional and amateur
development. But the problem doesn't really lie with concepts like crowd
funding, even if there is a deep-set problem with how capitalism is
carried out these days. Be that as is may, the SAD Methodology isn't mainly about Smashing Capitalism™ (though let's do that as well, while
we're @ it).<br />
<br />
Rather (with the risk of becoming too pretentious even to
the tastes of a reader who made it thus far), I'd say it's akin how a
painter or author is never able to step back from the work and say: It is finished. Such a grandiose image can also be applied to humbler endeavors. </div>
<div>
<br />
Never finish!</div>
<div>
Never monetize!</div>
<div>
Go and live in the desert! </div>
<div>
We're all blessed. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
You know the drill.</div>
<div>
<br />
We have to build cabins.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
As always,</div>
<div>
Minotauros</div>
<br />
<hr width="50%" />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="1"><b>1 </b></a>
"You must prepare for a battle without body, to be able to take a stand no matter what; an abstract battle which, unlike others, is learned through reverie." (Henri Michaux, <i>Poteaux d'angles</i>)
<a href="http://agingminotaur.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-slow-application-development-sad.html#top1"><sup>↩</sup></a><br />
</span>
Aging Minotaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14701033750426053918noreply@blogger.com0