Currently I don't have to write any map data; all the maps are read-only. This is very easy to work with, at the expense of having monsters respawn when the map reloads.
It's especially noticeable for now because of two things: 1. the current test maps involve backtracking to complete the quest, and 2. I don't yet have something like a "Town Portal" scroll to quickly return to the quest hub. I think it'll be less an issue once the game grows.
I'm considering having bosses stay dead as an optional quest trigger. Though in games like Diablo, continually fighting bosses for treasure is a feature some players enjoy.
Once the game gets more mature and much more content, if monster spawning is still tiresome I'll visit the option of writing recent maps to the user's save file. If I end up doing random dungeon generation I might have to save maps to the user's save file anyway (unless I just store the seed).
Thanks for your feedback. These kind of gameplay issues are harder to see for me, because I've played the same content a few thousand times by now.
I will make a real game. I hope to make several games, and make the engine stronger each time.
It's not easy right now to add custom attributes. If people want new stats I'd probably consider adding them at the engine level.
Right now there are only 4 equipment slots so that art is easier. Compare Flare to Diablo 1 and 2:
Flare: body slot, main and off hand. (also: artifact slot not visible on the character).
Diablo 1: body slot, helmet slot, main and off hand. (also, ring and ring and jewel slot not visible on the character).
Diablo 2: added gloves and boots (also, belt slot not visible on the character)
I will be adding a "head" slot to Flare to match the character's portrait (chosen when creating a new character). Later I want to add support for configurable equipment slots.
At some point I hope to add scrolls that return players to a warp point, usually in a town or near a trader. It will probably be one-way though, and not two-way like Diablo's Town Portal.
Ranged creatures are smarter now in 0.13 -- if they can't see you anymore, they go looking for you.
I see the teleport bug -- I should make it not usable directly from the inventory. To use the scroll properly drag it to the Action Bar and you will teleport to where your mouse is pointing.
I'll look into a screenshot feature.
I like the idea of a coordinate feature
Theoretically large mobs will work, but they might visually clip into walls under the current implementation. I do plan to add larger creatures.
I can probably make it so that some creatures have a set of loot that might drop instead of random or quest loot. That way skeletons can often drop shortswords and bucklers, for instance.
Currently there is a small number of after-effects a power can have: bleed, stun, immobilize, slow. I could add support for various new after-effects that could be combined to make diseases.
I don't plan on reducing item requirements. Though I will probably change the XP requirements per level as content gets added, and that might affect how quickly/slowly heroes gain access to the better weapon types. Flare doesn't have classes, so much of the visual distinction for players will come from equipment.
I know at some point, someone will hop onto that wiki and pour out a story they've been writing their entire lives, and it will be worse than mediocre. And I'll have to break their heart.
Good writing is tough. 90% of everything is crap, and without a filter on that wiki it could end up being a sea of bad ideas.
Pleasantly surprised so far though. Pennomi and Zear have added solid ideas.
The mouse-over highlight is something I definitely want to do for enemies and map objects. With the current SDL libraries I'm using, I don't have an easy way to e.g. blit a sprite brighter in real time. I could have regular and bright versions of each enemy and tile, but that would take up a lot more memory. Maybe I need to just bite the bullet and include something like sdl_gfx (which might also allow per-tile lighting).
At least an enemy menu appears when mousing over an enemy. I can probably add a tooltip when mousing over an interactable map object (sorta like how loot is shown now).
I don't have a great solution yet in mind for enemies behind walls. I sometimes use it for ambushes. Maybe that's just cheap and frustrating though. I could show a faded/dithered enemy when he is clipped behind a wall, as in your example. Currently I'm not doing any other masking like that though, and it might involve needing sdl_gfx as well.
I do want to add optional floating combat text. Should be easy once I take the time.
I think the engine would handle 60fps. I'll consider converting all the animation data to millisecond-based instead of frame-based, I just don't know I'd be gaining enough by doing that. E.g. the hero walk animation will always be 8 frames, whether it's displayed at 30fps or 60fps. If I were using e.g. vector or 3D art it would be a different story.
Yeah... if I tried to add multiplayer the game would never be complete. It would be easier to start with an existing multiplayer engine and build an action RPG onto it.
"Clint, what is your vision for Flare, what are you trying to ultimately achieve ?"
Yikes, that's a big question! Let me move this to a new thread...
Currently I don't have to write any map data; all the maps are read-only. This is very easy to work with, at the expense of having monsters respawn when the map reloads.
It's especially noticeable for now because of two things: 1. the current test maps involve backtracking to complete the quest, and 2. I don't yet have something like a "Town Portal" scroll to quickly return to the quest hub. I think it'll be less an issue once the game grows.
I'm considering having bosses stay dead as an optional quest trigger. Though in games like Diablo, continually fighting bosses for treasure is a feature some players enjoy.
Once the game gets more mature and much more content, if monster spawning is still tiresome I'll visit the option of writing recent maps to the user's save file. If I end up doing random dungeon generation I might have to save maps to the user's save file anyway (unless I just store the seed).
Thanks for your feedback. These kind of gameplay issues are harder to see for me, because I've played the same content a few thousand times by now.
Anonymous,
I will make a real game. I hope to make several games, and make the engine stronger each time.
It's not easy right now to add custom attributes. If people want new stats I'd probably consider adding them at the engine level.
Right now there are only 4 equipment slots so that art is easier. Compare Flare to Diablo 1 and 2:
I will be adding a "head" slot to Flare to match the character's portrait (chosen when creating a new character). Later I want to add support for configurable equipment slots.
Anonymous,
At some point I hope to add scrolls that return players to a warp point, usually in a town or near a trader. It will probably be one-way though, and not two-way like Diablo's Town Portal.
Thanks for this feedback!
I know at some point, someone will hop onto that wiki and pour out a story they've been writing their entire lives, and it will be worse than mediocre. And I'll have to break their heart.
Good writing is tough. 90% of everything is crap, and without a filter on that wiki it could end up being a sea of bad ideas.
Pleasantly surprised so far though. Pennomi and Zear have added solid ideas.
These are great suggestions.
The mouse-over highlight is something I definitely want to do for enemies and map objects. With the current SDL libraries I'm using, I don't have an easy way to e.g. blit a sprite brighter in real time. I could have regular and bright versions of each enemy and tile, but that would take up a lot more memory. Maybe I need to just bite the bullet and include something like sdl_gfx (which might also allow per-tile lighting).
At least an enemy menu appears when mousing over an enemy. I can probably add a tooltip when mousing over an interactable map object (sorta like how loot is shown now).
I don't have a great solution yet in mind for enemies behind walls. I sometimes use it for ambushes. Maybe that's just cheap and frustrating though. I could show a faded/dithered enemy when he is clipped behind a wall, as in your example. Currently I'm not doing any other masking like that though, and it might involve needing sdl_gfx as well.
I do want to add optional floating combat text. Should be easy once I take the time.
I think the engine would handle 60fps. I'll consider converting all the animation data to millisecond-based instead of frame-based, I just don't know I'd be gaining enough by doing that. E.g. the hero walk animation will always be 8 frames, whether it's displayed at 30fps or 60fps. If I were using e.g. vector or 3D art it would be a different story.
Starting to use some elements in Flare (buttons on the main menus). Thanks for these.
manwesulimo2004, I plan to add this at some point.
Yeah... if I tried to add multiplayer the game would never be complete. It would be easier to start with an existing multiplayer engine and build an action RPG onto it.
Pages