The spell doesn''t get more powerful, but easier to cast (to draw the symbols).

Ahh.. so the trace for the circle becomes more visible to do... I think I understand you now...

I think it is a little difficult to do though, because it obstructs the view (which is not what my system does). Mine also requires the person to actually remember the symbol, which is bringing them into the game... Something that isn''t happening in a lot of games

I like your thinking though... Any more pearls?

-Chris Bennett ("Insanity" of Dwarfsoft)

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made due to popular demand here at GDNet :)

I don''t know if it''s in the DOC (haven''t read it yet...sorry) but I think it''s nice for the player to have a home/base.For example, Lord British gives you your own room in Ultima.You can let stuff you don''t need yet there.Or the castle in Might and Magic 7.It helps immersing the player very much, giving him a sense of ownership.

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Yeah, it is already in there. And the good thing about it is that you can have the player build it themselves (obviously solved as an implementation problem). So they actually own the construction and the placement of it too. I definitly think that would bring the player into the game

-Chris Bennett ("Insanity" of Dwarfsoft)

Check our site:
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Check out our NPC AI Mailing List :
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made due to popular demand here at GDNet :)

quote: Original post by dwarfsoft
You would have to find a way of explanation for Single player, because there aren''t too many buddies that wander around with you ready to pick up your carcass... But I am having a thought here... maybe this would give you a reason to take a buddy with you? (NPC Buddy). They could grab your body and run. hehe. There needs to be other possibilities...

I was thinking MMORPGs. For single player mode the player dies and his spirit is released -- the spirit must then get to a church and make a deal with the priest. The spirit gets transferred but he has to complete a task for the church. This can either be a quest as a spirit or live being, depending on how you set it up.

quote:
Maybe they get the chance to practice on NPC''s so as to increase their skills. But if they fail, then they get a bad rep. So then they might be exiled from certain places. There might be other ways of increasing these abilities too... Good idea

Perhaps they form a magical bond with the player? For the evil types there could be a spell that could force-switch the spirits of two live characters if both of them are down to there last 5% health or so.

quote:
Hehehe... this is the firts idea I had. You didn''t get a choice over the race of the character that was to play host for your spirit. This may give you new or enhanced abilities. It might cause you to lose others... more reasons to stay alive

The spirit only consists of mental abilities, so physical attributes such as strength and stamina depend on the new body. There would be modifiers for some of the attributes, like switching to an orc lowers your base intelligence.

quote:
Thats damn right, noone is an expert, which is where the skill based advancement system comes in. True that it is a little complex and requires a LOT of variables, but it really gets you using what you want...

It''s not too many extra variables. Just add the following variables to the spell class/structure:

DATE lastCast;
longint intCasts;

Then use functions to determine the effectiveness. The more times the spell has been cast, the stronger it will be. The sooner lastCast, the quicker the user can bring the spell to memory.

quote:
Note: Not all magic is earth, fire, wind and water... it is ONE of the MANY systems. You could use all, or one, it doesn''t require it .

I do like the system, it really goes along the Katherine Kerr "five humours" idea. You need to maintain the correct balance, but you can call upon the kings of the elements (humours) to aid you. You missed "Aether" as the fifth humour though

I couldn''t remember the fifth element for the life of me. The only thing that came to mind was Heart, but that''s from Captain Planet.

quote:
Looks like I have some more typing to do

-Chris Bennett ("Insanity" of Dwarfsoft)

This work will herald a new era in gaming.

I''ll be back later with my thoughts on how an economy fits in to games.

The 5th element is pizza (or Milla Jovovich ?).
Downloaded the doc.I''m gonna print it and read it, so I''ll log off for now.

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quote: Original post by Steven Edwards

I was thinking MMORPGs. For single player mode the player dies and his spirit is released -- the spirit must then get to a church and make a deal with the priest. The spirit gets transferred but he has to complete a task for the church. This can either be a quest as a spirit or live being, depending on how you set it up.

That is COOL. I should have thought of it. Curse me! No wait... I would rather complete the quest.... . This is a great way of expanding the story too. Excellent thinking

quote:
Perhaps they form a magical bond with the player? For the evil types there could be a spell that could force-switch the spirits of two live characters if both of them are down to there last 5% health or so.

Hmmm. I prefered the first solution . Stuff the NPC''s!

quote:
The spirit only consists of mental abilities, so physical attributes such as strength and stamina depend on the new body. There would be modifiers for some of the attributes, like switching to an orc lowers your base intelligence.

EXACTLY what I was thinking. Either great minds think alike or I am dragging you down

quote:
It''s not too many extra variables. Just add the following variables to the spell class/structure:

DATE lastCast;
longint intCasts;

Then use functions to determine the effectiveness. The more times the spell has been cast, the stronger it will be. The sooner lastCast, the quicker the user can bring the spell to memory.

Umm.. It is a LOT of extra variables for me.. You know the current experience and level system? Multiply that by all the skills. Now tell me that it isn''t a lot of variables

quote:
I couldn''t remember the fifth element for the life of me. The only thing that came to mind was Heart, but that''s from Captain Planet.

Captain planet.. He''s the hero. Gonna take polution down to zero... Ahh... hmmm.... Go go power rangers?

quote:
This work will herald a new era in gaming.

I''ll be back later with my thoughts on how an economy fits in to games.

I certainly hope so... for both of your statements there . I need to feed on some more

-Chris Bennett ("Insanity" of Dwarfsoft)

Check our site:
http://www.crosswinds.net/~dwarfsoft/
Check out our NPC AI Mailing List :
http://www.egroups.com/group/NPCAI/
made due to popular demand here at GDNet :)

I just thought of someting more for your passive/default/idle actions: You could let a warrior maintain his weapons (clean and sharpen his sword and such), a wizard study a book and a priest/cleric pray when (s)he has nothing else to do. Could be nice to have besides the easting/sleeping thing.

But you have to have a way to turn it off! Imagine the following situation: After having completed a great quest your party is finally given audience with the great king of the lands. And while the leader of your party gravely explains the upcomming dangers to the king, the rest of the party members sits idle and decides to take a nap in a corner of the throne room, or begins eating and drinking. That would most certainly get you all thrown out! Also, the characters must never be consdered idle when there are (potential?) enemies in their field of vision.


For something completely different, Steven Edwards mentioned Econemy in RPG games. I believe there was a thread on this subject some while back. Someone suggested that each city and culture should have their own currency and someone else suggested to drop currencies all together and just have a general ''social status'' to decide what items could be bought and what items was too expensive. I think that RPG games sometimes (if not oftent) requires the player to use too much time running around earning and keeping budget with their money instead of experiencing the game story. So I''ll suggest that all form of currency is dropped and you instead have to barter with NPC''s to get what you want.

Regards

nicba

quote: Original post by dwarfsoft
Hmmm. I prefered the first solution . Stuff the NPC''s!

Sounds good. I was just offering the force-switch as a suggestion for a spell or whatever. It would also teach people to keep their health and strength up.

quote:
Umm.. It is a LOT of extra variables for me.. You know the current experience and level system? Multiply that by all the skills. Now tell me that it isn''t a lot of variables

Well, I guess it would. Each spell structure would require an additional 8 bytes of memory.

As for using Runes are whatever for spells, I believe the game The Summoning implemented a similar system. It is an older game -- ''94 or so.

Economy

There are two main economic systems: one is based on barter while the other is based on a predetermined currency. Each of the two have their own strengths and weaknesses.

The strongest thing that currency-based economies have going for them is that people are used to them from the real world. Another pro is that it is easier to have only one standard [ie: gold] to keep track of. Everywhere you go uses the same denomination -- 5 gold pieces in Krynn are equal to 5 gold pieces in Brittania. Likewise, everyone uses gold the same way -- 5 pieces of gold to a warrior are equal to a wizard''s 5 gold pieces.

While currency-based systems are easy to implement, there are some inherent flaws. To begin with, you generally have to carry your gold with you. Why is this bad? If you die, you lose all of it. Also, carrying 10 pieces sounds reasonable -- but carrying five thousand or some ridiculous number? Your friggin'' pants would fall down! Then there''s monsters. What are they doing with gold? Where do they get it from? Why do all goblins carry 8 gold pieces and all orcs carry 12? And where the hell did the lepper get 45 gold? Can we get some diversity? Maybe some common sense?

So currency has it''s flaws -- yippee!

Now we look at barter-based economies. The major pro to this system is that everyone can contribute. When a character starts out they choose a job to specialize in -- they can do this while not eating or sleeping when the player is not playing. Or they can let their family work while they play.

Let''s assume that John decides to specialize in agriculture, Joe specializes in blacksmithing(?), and Diane specializes in medicine. John needs Joe to forge a new plow for him so he can increase his productivity, so Joe says "gimme 30 bushels of food and I''ll do it" and John agrees. John is hammering away at the new plow when he slips and nails his hand, rendering it useless. So John goes to Diane to get some magic herb [not mj ] and finds out that she needs 10 bushels of food for her family. John hands it over and she fixes his hand which lets him finish the plow. Joe grows more food and they continue to help each other out.

Sounds like a happy circle, eh? It''s a small example but it works. Now the cons -- what if everyone chooses the same job? All 400,000 people decide to become soldiers? Who produces their food? Who forges their armor and weapons?

To me, a barter economy sounds better. You can add NPCs to keep a balance of who does what. Barter also requires players to depend on each other more and helps to build a sense of community that may not be present in currency-based economies.

I think you can guess I''ll use runes in my game from the name
There will be many runes (many real ones, too) but you will start with only a few.You''ll find the rest later.But runes will be used in many ways.A warrior might use one on his weapon, a mage on his staff etc.You will also be able to use runes to cast runespells, but that will be a very rare technique (can''t say more or i''ll reveal too much ).Different combinations of runes will have different results.

Runemaster
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