zuwel wrote:

Okay. How do you feel about using hacked blocks? I'll probably be using them quite a bit for the gui system when the time comes around to make it.

I'm generally not a big fan. You can look through many big collections of hacked blocks and find hacked blocks that don't work anymore due to later Scratch updates. So building a big project with them, especially with 3.0 about to be released is just too risky.
Besides, I am doing the code on Shadowlands, at least until the basic stuff is done and that is going to take a while. As I keep mentioning, we are trying to put together 2 more projects for you and our other coder to code on right now.

As for Shadowlands, here is the current development plan.. We create the most necessary assets and code for parts 1, 2, and 3 listed below…
1. The game opens with the player as Rocky in his room. Yriza appears, shows Rocky a vision of Oblivion via a cutscene and sending him on his quest to form his team of heroes.
2. Gather Supplies quest
3. Player travels to tavern
4. Tavern Info on Kara quest
5. Kara appears from dungeon under tavern.

This is just a simplified outline form of the current story line.
We will build simply, focusing on the most necessary components first. Our cut scene may just be text for now, then we can add a picture, then later see about animation if it is feasible.

Hey loco, could you look at my earlier posts about armor? I could use some feedback

Locomule wrote:

As for Shadowlands, here is the current development plan.. We create the most necessary assets and code for parts 1, 2, and 3 listed below…
1. The game opens with the player as Rocky in his room. Yriza appears, shows Rocky a vision of Oblivion via a cutscene and sending him on his quest to form his team of heroes.
2. Gather Supplies quest
3. Player travels to tavern
4. Tavern Info on Kara quest
5. Kara appears from dungeon under tavern.

This is just a simplified outline form of the current story line.
We will build simply, focusing on the most necessary components first. Our cut scene may just be text for now, then we can add a picture, then later see about animation if it is feasible.

ok, got it.

Alright, that makes sense. I guess basic things for right now include things like interaction and entities?

BirdLover198 wrote:

ok I'm starting off with giving rocky some silver looking armor. Then I will give our mage some colored clothes. Sound good Shal0w?

Well, shouldn't it match what their current sprite is wearing?

Shall0w wrote:

BirdLover198 wrote:

ok I'm starting off with giving rocky some silver looking armor. Then I will give our mage some colored clothes. Sound good Shal0w?

Well, shouldn't it match what their current sprite is wearing?

yeah, I'm just recoloring. A lot of advanced mages have colored cloaks right?

BirdLover198 wrote:

Shall0w wrote:

BirdLover198 wrote:

ok I'm starting off with giving rocky some silver looking armor. Then I will give our mage some colored clothes. Sound good Shal0w?

Well, shouldn't it match what their current sprite is wearing?

yeah, I'm just recoloring. A lot of advanced mages have colored cloaks right?

I mean, no, it really depends on the person.
EDIT: Especially considering that it would be much easier to have a plain robe than dyed robe, and cost less. So, for a lot of mages, they'd probably choose to have uncolored robes. Same goes with anyone's armor, to be honest. Even though this wouldn't play into the game itself, it makes sense to keep it consistent. In fact, most armor would be left as is, based on the material used. For instance, a town's guardsmen would likely just have plain Leather armor with mail links, maybe some full plate in certain areas (Shoulderpads, etc)

Also, I'd like to have a final vote on this: Do we want the single customizable character to be added to the game, not as a replacement for the character system, but to spice it up? This would give the game AND story more flare, since we'd be less limited in the way for how we write the story (Since right now Rocky, Jamison, Kara, and Yriza have to be permanent)

So as I take it, the player will be controlling these crafted characters through the story. I'm curious as to how we would include a unique player character? I would like to have one if we could.

zuwel wrote:

So as I take it, the player will be controlling these crafted characters through the story. I'm curious as to how we would include a unique player character? I would like to have one if we could.

Storywise, it would be a preset character, given a gender-neutral name and no specific identity so that players can make them male or female and any class. So, it wouldn't screw with the story much, and give a custom character you can actually change stuff about. For instance, if we do it, I'll be drafting a few hair colors, around 8 Hairstyles per gender, etc. If we want, you could even get to customize their armor.

If we add the customizable character, all we are doing is defeating our own purposes. We said the point of the team was to add classes to the game and enhance the player's ability to use strategy during a fight. Adding a customizable character makes all that redundant.

As I keep saying, plan simple, build big. We keep trying to do the doing the opposite.
As for the story, we need to be finalizing the main story so we can create a working outline from it for the game. I'm not sure why we are talking about changing the story again?

Test

Locomule wrote:

If we add the customizable character, all we are doing is defeating our own purposes. We said the point of the team was to add classes to the game and enhance the player's ability to use strategy during a fight. Adding a customizable character makes all that redundant.

As I keep saying, plan simple, build big. We keep trying to do the doing the opposite.
As for the story, we need to be finalizing the main story so we can create a working outline from it for the game. I'm not sure why we are talking about changing the story again?

Well, it wouldn't change it too much, hence why I suggested it. But alright, that's fine.

Anybody still working on this? Lol, just kidding! Here are some project updates for anyone interested..
- the door system is mostly working although it needs a couple more functions and editor functionality
- fixed some object editing bugs
- added Shall0w's bigger house objects
- drew and added a simple fence (the go-to way to create a border around a town map) Walk out Rocky's door to see it in action
- added an object editing feature so you can move placed objects with the mouse instead of having to delete and replace them (probably going to add a Nudge feature so you can move placed objects 1 pixel at a time to aid in lining stuff up while mapping)
- added the first cut scene of Yriza's message to Rocky (don't laugh when you see it, is just a pop up text message for now)

..and who knows, probably more stuff that I forgot at the moment? We need some graphic assets for map #2, the outdoor map Rocky enters when he leaves his home. Trees, a well, I dunno, outdoorsy stuff. I know Shall0w is busy with Cozy Lil Campfire so I will draw some placeholder stuff for now.

Looks good! The fences look great and the path is wonderful! If there is anything you guys want me to tell me. Also some comments in our main chat place.

oh, derp

Thanks but the path is just temporary. Gonna be adding more temp stuff, got 3 trees drawn tonight. I also found an issue with object layering that may require a layering system for map spawning and had an idea for map layering that will let us extend objects off the edges of the map for more natural looking maps, but I gotta get door editing via our map editor completely working first.

But hey, it is starting to look and play like an RPG so yayyyyy

ok

More updates..
-Fixed an object editor problem that automatically added new objects layered behind existing object on the screen
This raises an issue.. layering objects while creating a map. Right now, if you start creating a map by placing the farthest (highest Y position) objects first, most things layer fine. But that isn't the most intuitive way to draw a map. So there are 2 fixes that come to mind..
1-adding the ability to raise or lower a single objects layer that it gets spawned in when a map is drawn. The problem with this is we have two kinds of map objects, blockers and passers and right now blockers gets stamped first, then passers, so you can't make a passer go behind a blocker
2-the big solution is to add something we mentioned back at the beginning of this project, a layering system consisting of the background layer, then a layer on top of that (the player's layer) then a third layer above all other layers. The benefit is mappers have total control over object layering. The downside is a chunk of code dedicated to drawing each game screen in this way.

so.. For now, we will stick with the current method. If it becomes a big issue, I will add 1. from above and if we have room left once the basic code is done, we may implement the full blown layering system from 2. See, your cool ideas aren't the only ones on hold. I have quite a few myself but sticking to the plan of “simple first” will ensure the development on this game actually reaches an end, and a good one at that

-added 3 trees, more outdoor assets on the way
-added the zuwel's custom theme music
-did a little work on the splash screen (added Oblivion coming through a rift)
-started a .pdf compilation file on my pc of Shall0w's graphic assets so I can create more in Shall0w's style
-I still want to get the door code finished first, but I have what I think will be a great idea for the GUI. I'm going to make the rectangle of solid black around the game screen into a separate layer that floats above everything else. The screen won't look any different but mappers will be able to place objects that run off the edges of maps but will not overlap the black area. This should allow us to create more natural looking maps than having to place every object inside the black border (think of roof tops, trees, etc)