Hi, thanks. Clint (FLARE's creator) has a tileset of modular houses in a medieval style, don't know if you've seen it. If not, I'll find the link in a while. About the amount of time to get to this point, I would say about a day, more or less. I don't have much artistic ability either, but I'm trying to level up on it. Reading/watching tutorials helps a lot.
Man, those stories from Divine Divinity sound awesome, I'll try to check it out this month. I really believe that good writing can do a lot for a game. It doesn't have to take the form of a novel-length story. A few witty lines can make all the difference, like those stories you mentioned about the goblin ambush and the lich.
@MedicineStorm: Yeah, I see your point. Hunting for cool loot can be really fun, it's one of the things that made the Diablo series so entertaining. I don't know, I'm kind of torn on this issue. I like both systems, but if I have to choose, I'll probably go with the IE style. It's true that the player is discouraged from profiting from standard items like halberds. I think that the developers discouraged farming in general, since the monsters usually don't respawn. I guess it all boils down to what kind of game mechanics you are in the mood for. Sometimes I just wanna hunt for cool loot, so I'll play Diablo 2, sometimes I wanna focus more on combat with a puzzle-solving mentality, so I'll go for an IE game. I think that FLARE can cater to both tastes. We'll see once I finish my new mod.
Cool, I'll check those out, I didn't even know them.
One of the things that I like about the Infinity Engine games is how the loot system works. Monsters drop loot that makes sense for them to drop. For example, in Icewind Dale, when you kill a yeti, it doesn't drop gold or weapons, it only drops a yeti pelt, which you can sell or craft into a leather armor. When you kill a goblin archer, it always drops a bow and some arrows. I think it's a really cool system. Right now I'm working on a new mod for Flare (my previous mod was not very succesfull), and I think I'll make the loot system like that one.
I'm slowly working on a documentation for the flare-engine. I think I may start by trying to write a general description of what it is, what it does, and what are the parts that it's made of.
Broadly speaking, it starts with the main function, found in main.cpp. There are also other functions in that file, together with an object of the GameSwitcher class. The GameSwitcher is the part of the engine that is in charge of switching between the main screens, the ones that occupy the entire view. Generally, these are called "game states" according to FLARE's terminology. For example, GameStateTitle, GameStateNew, GameStatePlay, etc. The saving and loading functions are controlled by a part of the engine called SaveLoad. There are also several managers that control other things, like the animations for example. There are some algorithms for pathfinding (such as "A-star"). There are also general purpose files such as CommonIncludes.h, Utils, and such. There is also a file parser that apparently is in charge of reading to/from .txt files.
Well you get the idea. There's a lot of work to do, but I actually find it quite fun to do, even if my skills are less than mediocre.
I see your point. I think that Flare's philosophy / design goal, as with many engines, is to give modders the most control possible. In theory, every aspect of the game should be controlable by mods, in the form of .txt files, so that one does not have to actually touch the C++ code. The source code should provide a bare minimum but flexible set of conditions. Modifying the C++ code should be a sort of last resort, it should be possible to do everything via mods.
That being said, in my case for example, my knowledge of C++ is next to zero. FLARE gives me the excuse for trying to learn that language, at least in a meaningful way. There's only so much you can do with making small "Hello World" programs and the like. Trying to contribute to something way more complicated like a game engine is a daunting, overwhelming task. But the things one learns by doing this are priceless.
Really, if I could start learning C++, then I assure you that anyone can do it. The syntax may be a bit daunting at first, but eventually you start to see patterns in what initially looks like pure chaos.
Yeah, Krita is free software / open source, it works fine on all operating systems. But even if you have some software that only runs on Windows, you can use an emulator such as WINE to run it on linux. For example, I have Baldur's Gate 2 and Planescape: Torment on my machine, and I can play them just fine with that emulator.
Personally I'm an Ubuntu fan. But there's a lot of awesome distributions out there. I've heard really good things about the new version of Debian, though I haven't tried it. Choosing a distribution is mostly a matter of personal tastes, I think.
Hi, thanks. Clint (FLARE's creator) has a tileset of modular houses in a medieval style, don't know if you've seen it. If not, I'll find the link in a while.
About the amount of time to get to this point, I would say about a day, more or less. I don't have much artistic ability either, but I'm trying to level up on it. Reading/watching tutorials helps a lot.
For isometric tiles in FLARE's style, I think nearly everyone uses Blender. Here's Clint's tutorial on how to make them:
http://clintbellanger.net/articles/isometric_tiles/
Ok, here's a progress report.
Thanks, it's great to have feedback from a professional. By the way, how's your game/mod comming along?
Here's a test in Tiled. The floor needs some work, I focused mostly on the walls today.
Man, those stories from Divine Divinity sound awesome, I'll try to check it out this month. I really believe that good writing can do a lot for a game. It doesn't have to take the form of a novel-length story. A few witty lines can make all the difference, like those stories you mentioned about the goblin ambush and the lich.
@MedicineStorm: Yeah, I see your point. Hunting for cool loot can be really fun, it's one of the things that made the Diablo series so entertaining. I don't know, I'm kind of torn on this issue. I like both systems, but if I have to choose, I'll probably go with the IE style. It's true that the player is discouraged from profiting from standard items like halberds. I think that the developers discouraged farming in general, since the monsters usually don't respawn. I guess it all boils down to what kind of game mechanics you are in the mood for. Sometimes I just wanna hunt for cool loot, so I'll play Diablo 2, sometimes I wanna focus more on combat with a puzzle-solving mentality, so I'll go for an IE game. I think that FLARE can cater to both tastes. We'll see once I finish my new mod.
Cool, I'll check those out, I didn't even know them.
One of the things that I like about the Infinity Engine games is how the loot system works. Monsters drop loot that makes sense for them to drop. For example, in Icewind Dale, when you kill a yeti, it doesn't drop gold or weapons, it only drops a yeti pelt, which you can sell or craft into a leather armor. When you kill a goblin archer, it always drops a bow and some arrows. I think it's a really cool system. Right now I'm working on a new mod for Flare (my previous mod was not very succesfull), and I think I'll make the loot system like that one.
Thanks! I edited the first post accordingly. I found the screenshots on Google.
I'm slowly working on a documentation for the flare-engine. I think I may start by trying to write a general description of what it is, what it does, and what are the parts that it's made of.
Broadly speaking, it starts with the main function, found in main.cpp. There are also other functions in that file, together with an object of the GameSwitcher class. The GameSwitcher is the part of the engine that is in charge of switching between the main screens, the ones that occupy the entire view. Generally, these are called "game states" according to FLARE's terminology. For example, GameStateTitle, GameStateNew, GameStatePlay, etc. The saving and loading functions are controlled by a part of the engine called SaveLoad. There are also several managers that control other things, like the animations for example. There are some algorithms for pathfinding (such as "A-star"). There are also general purpose files such as CommonIncludes.h, Utils, and such. There is also a file parser that apparently is in charge of reading to/from .txt files.
Well you get the idea. There's a lot of work to do, but I actually find it quite fun to do, even if my skills are less than mediocre.
I see your point. I think that Flare's philosophy / design goal, as with many engines, is to give modders the most control possible. In theory, every aspect of the game should be controlable by mods, in the form of .txt files, so that one does not have to actually touch the C++ code. The source code should provide a bare minimum but flexible set of conditions. Modifying the C++ code should be a sort of last resort, it should be possible to do everything via mods.
That being said, in my case for example, my knowledge of C++ is next to zero. FLARE gives me the excuse for trying to learn that language, at least in a meaningful way. There's only so much you can do with making small "Hello World" programs and the like. Trying to contribute to something way more complicated like a game engine is a daunting, overwhelming task. But the things one learns by doing this are priceless.
Really, if I could start learning C++, then I assure you that anyone can do it. The syntax may be a bit daunting at first, but eventually you start to see patterns in what initially looks like pure chaos.
Hope that helps
Sure, share it! Just out of curiosity, what did you find restrictive about the engine in relation to what you want to make?
Yeah, Krita is free software / open source, it works fine on all operating systems. But even if you have some software that only runs on Windows, you can use an emulator such as WINE to run it on linux. For example, I have Baldur's Gate 2 and Planescape: Torment on my machine, and I can play them just fine with that emulator.
Personally I'm an Ubuntu fan. But there's a lot of awesome distributions out there. I've heard really good things about the new version of Debian, though I haven't tried it. Choosing a distribution is mostly a matter of personal tastes, I think.
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