Thought this would be a good topic since so many are probably beating Diablo II right now. Anyone have any suggestions for improving the gameplay of isometric view games? Here''s two suggestions: 1] Better use of terrain and manuevering. Combat gets kinda dull when you stand in one place, go click-click-click, run away, and repeat. We need more crouching, taking cover, and such. The old game Crusader: No Remorse did a good job of this, I think (except it had sucky movement response). 2] Better line of sight. Iso games would be a lot more suspenseful if enemies could hide behind pillars and caskets and such. There was a recent game that did this, can''t remember the name, but it looked cool. What else? -------------------- Just waiting for the mothership...

Adding A 3rd dimension (like UFO: enemy unknown ) and adding THE 3rd dimension... Its listed in my doc...

Having a larger area... Like unlimited random maps... Mind you, it would be difficult to come up with a worthy random map generator

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difficult but not nearly impossible
i think it would be cool to make a good random map generator - with a _VERY_ large library of small items (trees,bushes,pillars,broken brick, items in level)
everything else (ground, rocks, sky, other) could be created randomly (procedually)

-mike

What role would sky have in iso? you are looking down on the world . Maybe there is a hole in the middle of the earth or something ...

I am going to attempt to make a decent random map generator, but I think it will take me a LONG TIME to do it


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quote: Original post by dwarfsoft

Adding A 3rd dimension (like UFO: enemy unknown ) and adding THE 3rd dimension...

Hmmm... this brings up an interesting issue I''m facing right now: aiming. Are you aiming at the monster on the level right in front of you, or the explodable barrel right above him? Depth can be tricky when you only have the iso view.

There''s only been one game that I know of that has this, an old game called Take No Prisoners. You had a key to aim up, straight, or down. It worked until you died because you were friggin'' aiming up when you meant to be aiming down... *sigh*

--------------------
Just waiting for the mothership...

The way I would handle it, is that you are only ever targeting the current level. But the current level does not necessarily have to be the level that your character is on. press + or - to choose that level... but it would be hard to do it in real time...

What you could do is always target a baddie in any overlap... I can''t see this being a problem in my system anyway, because you have a field of view which is fairly small. There won''t be much within your sphere... but you bring up a valid point

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In relation to the line of sight thing:

You can''t see behind you. Ever. Why is the character in the middle of the screen? How about a 360° rotating ISO map, where your character is permanently stuck in the middle at the bottom, and the universe rotates around him. Combine that with a view angle of slightly less than 90° in front of you and it gets fun. It''s not 3D, but it captures the same FOV (in 2D). I wouldn''t do layers too much in ISO though, after all, if you want 3D, go full-on 3D, there are too many complications to the control mechanism to do a hybrid.


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I think that they do it because it obeys strict laws (and therefore you can optimise it) and also because they want to show off how cool their character looks. I am planning on just fogging anything that is not in FOV. But I think your idea has merit so it goes into the doc

-Chris Bennett ("Insanity" of Dwarfsoft)

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You could always use a toggle system for aiming. Hitting space will toggle your aim between levels or enemies and objects or something like that?! (shrug)

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I like it, but it still would be difficult to do in real time. Maybe the key would just toggle those things that were in your vision and underneath your cursor. Just a thought. I think I am definitely going to THINK about this. Because it is a rather difficult idea. But basically, the closest creature will ALWAYS be clickable because you are fogged behind you... but I think I will have to think more on this

-Chris Bennett ("Insanity" of Dwarfsoft)

Check our site:
http://www.crosswinds.net/~dwarfsoft/
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