Could things potentially get violent?
The menu's background noise looks like it's lagging on my computer. Is this made in Python and then compiled to an exe?
Can you tell what python module are you using to play the music?
I am not saying that I could make any music here, but since the focus of this project is to deal with gods, shouldn't the music feel more mysterious and mystical rather than a generic medieval tune?
May I ask what sort of algorithm do you use for terrain generation?
Wow, this project is moving along rather fast Lord Dullard.
Terrain generation did go rather swimmingly, but I suspect history/civ generation will be quite a bit more complex to wade through.Having done something similar before--with individual people and families rather than civilizations as a whole, but on a similar scale--the coding part is unlikely to be the hard part. The hard part's likely to be tweaking everything to look good. ;)
I'm not sure as to whether that's a serious technical question or not. If it is, it's unlikely that I can help you unless you give me more information about the nature of the problem (i.e. what type of message you're getting when you try to delete it, what OS you're on, et cetera). If you're on Vista it's likely a permissions problem (which is endemic to the OS, not the program).
I'm not quite sure what you mean, but I'll interpret that as 'does the world map actually represent a table of values that will make a difference to exploration of the game?'
The answer is 'yes'.
However, in order to keep less processor-heavy computers from killing themselves by generating a new copy of the world (visually) in every single frame of processing, the code automatically saves the final visual state of the world to a PNG picture and uses that as its frame of reference. This means all it has to do is blit a single image on to your screen, not process through several giant Python dictionaries of information about terrain height, vegetation, et cetera. If the game then needs information about a specific (x,y) location on the map, it simply searches the dictionaries for that bit of information.
Named forests: in!Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The world will *try* to generate 40 named forests per world (with a minimum distance of 30 between each), but you are not guaranteed to get all 40 (in fact most maps won't). There's also a cutoff of forests being nameable at 50/96 forest tiles in a grid segment (each segment being twelve by eight).
The next thing I want to move on to is islands and water features (bays, oceans, lakes, etc). This will be slightly more challenging, but having named islands will be freaking cool.
This is all text - thus the 'roguelike' title.
Higher 'resolution' could be achieved by using a smaller text size, but this would be at the expense of readability, thus defeating the purpose.
Considering the fact that this is an all-text game, I'm fairly happy with the visual appearance at this point; if I ever decide to undertake an actual graphics engine to go along with it, that will be a different story (but yes, it's a low priority).
A single tile in DF is actually rather large, you might want to stick to something that can be displayed on a screen without scrolling.
I liked your old avatar :C
I found it on the internet, where most avatars tend to be found.Yeah I'm just messing with ya, although this one is much better than your second, and much less better than your first.
Who's Gwen?
ETA:
There, new avatar, since I apparently picked an already-used one.
(By the way, that's kind of a rude accusation to make, when it could have been an accident (it was).)
Woah, not trying to piss you off. I'm saying the size of one world tile in DF takes up a mighty large area, and it makes for a rather blah experience trying to hike through nondescript forests just to get to a cave that might contain four socks and a hobbled giant. Obviously you aren't planning on the same experience as DF, but vast swaths of undeveloped wilderness are boring. I'm not saying the screen shouldn't scroll; in fact, I don't think that makes sense for games with overworlds (though I know it has been done). You haven't really described the ground-level gameplay, so it's not shocking that suggestions are vague or so far off the mark that they don't apply.
You're showing me up!
Will there ever be a way to dump the entire post-named map image to an image file? The first thing I thought of when I saw the world being generated was "man, this would be great for generating a world image for a homebrew D&D setting"...
I haven't run into any bugs so far, so it's all clear here.
And ocean/sea and bay names are done! The difference between the two is determined by how many border tiles the body of water takes up. Of course, this can lead to some underestimating by the engine (for example, when a large island splits what is obviously an ocean in half at the border), but it's as good as I'm going to get without producing massive slowdowns on older CPUs. And at worst it'll just result in two bays/lakes instead of an ocean name.
Lakes have also been given a few new titles of British/Irish influence to go along with the somewhat gaelic/olde english flavor my pseudo-name generator seems to have acquired for human names so far (there's a possibility I'll rewrite the entire thing if I find somebody with more knowledge about language, but it does the trick for now).Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Onwards and upwards!
If you don't mind me saying, the cave icon doesn't quite fit the ascii style; something a little more abstract would fit in better.
That way corner "bays" become oceans.
Cannot wait for this to have some gameplay, it's really looking great.
You said you are using Voronoi diagrams. What algorithm do you use to generate them?
I don't like the mechanic of Gods gaining power through worship, though I could just mod it out and provide a new mechanic (and besides, every god game has that mechanic, why mess with a good thing).
Will this game have win conditions? Such as ascendancy, or global domination?
2 months off work? That must be a perk of the job.
Well, 'more power for your god' in this game directly translates to 'more ability for your god to imbue you/your followers with power'.
The only complaint I have is that there are no mountain ranges, and hence the world feels a little bit compressed, as if an island. Unless those mountains are really huge. Otherwise, I am really liking what I am seeing.
This sounds and looks fantastic so far, will keep an eye on this.
Incredibly. ;D
I must say, I really like how your game is shaping up, Outcast Orange. I do like wide scale strategy games / sims.
I'm slogging deeper into history gen day by day. It's a bit hard to figure out the best approach - to decide whether to first generate villages then populate them with original inhabitants, or to first create the inhabitants and have them found villages. I feel like it's a bit of a 'chicken and the egg' situation to code. I think I'm going to go with the 'original settlers found villages' plan, though, merely because it is more logically appealing to me.
Thinking about that brings back bad, Civ-related memories.Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Thinking about that brings back bad, Civ-related memories.Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Pirates can spawn from your own people.
You think they are their own civilization?
They had to come from somewhere.
Actually, I believe they are their civilization. You can generate new barbarian units by finding those "huts" for example.
This has a few river running resources,
http://pcg.wikidot.com/pcg-algorithm:fractal-river-basins
The last link caught my eye, but I am not sure if it can be adapted to your terrain generation.
http://algorithmicbotany.org/papers/mountains.gi93.pdf
The building system will be considerably more expansive
coincidentally the developer of UR just announced a name generator he developed for libtcod -- could be educational.
And for anyone who's been keeping up with 'Cult', I'll post a link in that topic once development is a bit further and I'm comfortable setting up a site with a forum for continuing development.
I will always follow this thread, Lord Dullard!
NEVAR FORGIT.
Would you mind releasing the source? Not only because that might enable to community to continue working on it but also because I'd like to learn about this thing called python .
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=48106.msg979296#msg979296
Maybe you mean culturedness? Or civility?
I like civility as a counterpoint to military
Also, black coffee is liquid goodness.
I'm really interested in learning about the rich history and culture of nation 18.
This looks really awesome.
I am very happy to see this thread progress.
This looks really awesome.
I am very happy to see this thread progress.
Lord Dullard, how are you taking those epic mega large worldmap screenshots? I'm a libtcod user and wasn't sure if there was an easier way than just opening an epic mega large window. Too bad you can't seem to take screenshots of offscreen consoles. (?)
True, or you could work with grades for every cultural belief, or even a floating value. And still make the list extremely long :p
Posting to watch development, this looks really awesome.
How's the coding coming along? I am curious about this awesome project! ::)
Super kick ass, I wish I knew maths & code as good as you.
Super kick ass, I wish I knew maths & code as good as you.
Super kick ass, I wish I knew maths & code as good as you.
It's the libTCOD library, available for many programming languages. It also has a number of algorithms useful for roguelikes built-in, like pathfinding and field of view.
Nice.
I love it when a simple optimization path becomes apparent. Always a nice feeling.
... that feeling of 'huh, now why didn't I think of doing that already?'.I think that's the single most encountered feeling in any programming project. Along with "Where's that damned bug."
If you're still having trouble with categories then I would suggest either deviding them by chemical make up (carbon based lifeform etc) or primary method of obtaining energy (photosynthesis, consumption of other entities, other chemical processes) as I can see both of these categories having a large affect on behaviour.
I'd like to find out how you will categorize your animals. What I imagine is probably a little unwieldy to actually code.
Post civ-spread:By the year 406, the Fjoygoysoy Empire had managed to spread far and wide. Historians trace their success to dropping all vowels from their language except for the diphthong 'oy'.
http://cultrl.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/wgspc1.png (http://cultrl.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/wgspc1.png)
That looks awesome. Am I allowed to nitpick? (Pick nits?)
There are two islands on the map which aren't islands, or the water that seperates them fom the water is not wide enough to show up on the world map. Neiwose Isle (top right) and Einigez Island (middle right, near the desert).
Also, I believe this is the single thread where I used the word 'awesome' the most.
I've noticed that your worlds all seem to look about the same. Are you going to do anything to get more varied continent shapes? Two distinct land masses, anything like that?
I'd much rather you skipped along and started working on the cult design. Sounds awesome, man. You can come back to world gen later.
Very cool!
Sill a little landmass-heavy, I think, which makes for a map that looks tailored to the rectangle. But A good improvement, and probably sufficient for now.
What do I do once I generate the world and the history?
Further nitpick: Is there any way to reduce the frequency or size of the inland seas?
Quick question; my knowledge on biomes is horribly small, but... are there some deserts next to tundras and snowy-fields?The largest desert (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert#Geography) in the world is actually in Antarctica.
Haha, I was more referring to the uneducated version of desert. Hot, sandy and wide. Though I think deserts are incredibly cold at night... eh. You're the boss. Dwarf Fortress often generates deserts where it snows (I thought the lack of rain made it a desert..?) so I guess it's just me.
Haha, I was more referring to the uneducated version of desert. Hot, sandy and wide. Though I think deserts are incredibly cold at night... eh. You're the boss. Dwarf Fortress often generates deserts where it snows (I thought the lack of rain made it a desert..?) so I guess it's just me.It is the lack of rain(precipitation) that makes a place
This is pretty cool, but is there any way to reduce the resolution of the game?
* Creatures need not be particularly interesting to be useful. Something like a sponge, which is seemingly useless and defenseless, might possess morphological traits which make it drop a useful item upon death (dye, processable skin or organs, medicinal substances). Similarly, larger creatures should drop appropriately relevant items depending on their traits. These sorts of items should eventually make it into cultural references and item creation/economies.
Unless this is going to be an ASCII game (not likely, as there are graphics in place already), fluff will make a difference visually. Tan Dwarves, Pale Dwarves, ones with beards, ones without- they all look the same right now. Perhaps the visual difference in this game will make it worth remembering?
Doesn't DF plan to have procedural sentient races and animals? Anyways, it's looking nice, keep up the good work.
Depending on how you arrange the creature generation, you could assign sprites based on some very simple classes. BI-PED, QUAD-PED, SNAKE, SNAKE-WING, WING-BI-PED, ect...
Quick update: The screen size is now adjustable. All display functions scale appropriately with user-specified screen size.
Quick update: The screen size is now adjustable. All display functions scale appropriately with user-specified screen size.
Huzzah! Tired of being harassed about it so much?
The land of Uraur
Long ago, the world was populated by the ancien Imor.
However, the Imor empire fell during the great cataclysm now referred
to only as the 'Yeodo'.
I like the planning so far. As for various derived/base stats, I assume body/limb types will affect them?
Also, where have you learned the Python you know? Could you link me to various tutorials/resources?
Just don't swamp yourself if you feel overwhelmed. I'd hate to see you burn out over extremities like this.
Oral tradition, I suppose? You could make natural land features like caves pop up more commonly, and a semi-intelligent race can create small packs around them. Not enough to make an entire city or town, but I'm sure a race of bunnies can support a 30-member pack around a bear cave. Oral tradition, if they can somehow speak, can also be an element. They tell their children about history and such."My father once got drunk and tried to pick a fight with some uber dangerous monster that killed him."
This would result in highly exaggerated history, though that's not a bad thing. A diplomatic and precise race of humanoids could have their own history to a T, but that tribe of sloths believe that their founding fathers fought a minotaur in hand-to-hand combat... all thanks to misinterpreted story about a sloth climbing on top of a cow!
Probably more that I can't think of at the moment
Oh god. Pun intended?
Rather than just assigning a religion with something like 'this deity relates to the sphere of Wealth, so having more money is good', a mythological reason for the deity favoring a certain set of actions should exist: 'According to legend, Urgard the Coinsmith hammered out the first coins and imbued them with his power, then cast them into the well of the sky, where they became the stars, moons, planets, and the two suns. As a sign of respect to Urgard, his temples mint coins bearing heavenly symbols. It is said that casting such a coin into a well once a day brings about the favor of Urgard.'
Lots of great input. I'll respond to as much as I can tomorrow morning if at all possible. For now I need sleep.
Religion can be complicated and I have yet to see a game REALLY use all aspects. Afterall there is Ferver, Favor, and Zeal.
For example you didn't include: Beaks and Proboscouses (or however you spell it)
Will you seperate magical abilities from magic spell ability? Will spirits be involved just like old fashioned magic?
On the topic of civilizations, if there are several species that happen to gain sentience, will the more developed and/or powerful species gain a bonus when expanding their territory?
It looks good. I understand and appreciate the attention to detail you're giving. Having deities with so much detail is... Awesome. Most statically made deities aren't so detailed.
So, will magic be an important part of the game?
I think it'd be interesting to form a cult, or have cults form on their own, that are opposed to deities and seek to remove them from power by force and/or disbelief (Without making it a one-sided commentary on RL religion). While it'd be cool to be able to do that using pure physical prowess, fighting a being equated with godhood with just a bit of muscle and cunning on your side would be a bad idea. Having magic would also solve the tools thing, since magic, or psychic powers (Avoiding the "Is magic magical if it's understood and controlled" thing) is a very potent tool, and would also allow for creatures that can't talk communicate mentally.
On that note, how far will people be able to progress physically? Far more than here on earth without magical assistance? How realistic do you plan on wounds to be?
Finally: Do you have some sort of plan for how and when you're going to do this? I just realized that that's one of the things I see in most successful indie games, but I didn't know if you had one or not. I'm asking these questions more for myself than to help with the design process, but I guess the result is the same.
So have you decided what to do about having world gen decide which creatures become sentient?
Well, to be fair....is that more a procedurally generated backstory that still ends up at "having money is good?" Or are the different ways to gain favor and worship going to be a product of the procedural gen that results in ultra specific stuff like "casting such a coin into....."
Would each aspect or sphere just be pulled out of the generated backstory...or would it work in reverse?
...it's just one more trait that is global among all creatures.
Sorry, havent read the thread much, so if it's been suggested, stupid me, but heres an idea:
Maybe worship could create the god, not the other way around, like, a species could worship a symbol, and a god grows from that. (Yes I have been reading terry prattchet lately).
I know they arn't creatures.
I am just wondering what exactly spirits are in your game and their purpose.
So is this game going to be like Dwarf Fortress? It sounds almost identical which is good :P
Bookmarked and gonna follow this. Sounds awesome!
Also the ability to found civilizations and religions? Time to create my very own cult.
Also will there be different game modes? Or will it be sim creation like current Dwarf Fortress?
Spirits, as far as I'm going to be defining them, are 'less than gods but more than mundane creatures'. Not that a creature is prohibited from being magical in some ways, but I think the difference is in that a creature would be considered 'more physical than magical' while a spirit would be the opposite.
Cult will be mostly in first-person, will not prioritize fortress/city-building over other gameplay elements, and will (hopefully) be experienced as something like a mix between King's Quest and Dragon Age (with elements from any number of other genres thrown in) on massive amounts of steroids. I think a love of reading about things will probably be a common trait of future Cult players.
Cult will be mostly in first-personso if it's going to be first person what graphics will it be using? correct me if I misunderstood.
I thought it would use ASCI like all the other rougue(did I spell it right?)likes, then again even I do not trust my word on such subjects...QuoteCult will be mostly in first-personso if it's going to be first person what graphics will it be using? correct me if I misunderstood.
@Carrion - Yes, sorry, that was a slightly awkward phrasing. The game will be top-down so I was referring to the story perspective, not the actual physical perspective.
Oh that is cool. I can't wait to see more. :)Seconded :P Once the game is coming together, maybe someone would even sketch some of the creatures?
Yeah, Reca's a bro.So true.
Yeah, Reca's a bro.So true.
Reca is so cool your adviced only too look upon him with sun glasses or else your eyes will melt from the awsome.
Which isn't so bad because just his presence cures blindness.
Reca's so cool he challenged Chuck Norris to a fight... And won.Reca is so cool your adviced only too look upon him with sun glasses or else your eyes will melt from the awsome.
Which isn't so bad because just his presence cures blindness.
Reca's so cool, he went up to Lord Dullard and insulted him.
Oh God I just created the next Chuck Norris. I pray this never catches on.
Hey.
Don't we have like 14 different threads for this kind of silliness in GD? Don't muck up the man's project thread with it.
[...] keeping in mind the fact that every world and every meta-plot will be procedurally generated to some extent, the names are just stand-ins. [...] If you ever want to play the game WITHOUT knowing the meta-plot, you should avoid reading this. [...]
Ddduuuuddddeee, it all reads and looks so clean! The creature descriptions really come together. Detail overkill for me, but still awesome procedural work.
Are you planning to quantify creature stats separate from the description? (Like a stats page that returns numerics.) Just curious, there's a lot of detail --> function to digest.
What's next for Cult then? Combat? God generation? It should totally be God gen :P You've got the obvious framework to start now.
This is a placeholder page. An updated alpha version of the Cult engine should be available soon (posted 1-17-2011).Might want to rectify that as soon as you release 0.16.
Hmm... Thanks for comments. Posting on mobile so I have to be quick. Clearly the audio needs some kind of fix. As for first-person, I was referring to character rather than visual perspective, but I can see where it would be confusing.
That said, is the video awful to the point where I should just scrap it and start over?
And yeah, change the transitions.
And did you just say first-person? Isn't the game going to be bird-view roguelike style? ???
Maybe I'll just scrap this version and reshoot, then. It would have been awesome to be able to devote a solid six months or so to coding this and getting something playable and enjoyable out, but perhaps it just isn't the right time.
I am having a massive nerd boner whenever you update, LD.
I am having a massive nerd boner whenever you update, LD.
I wouldn't call it that, but nevertheless, same here.
I figure at the very least the player will be able to wander around a procedurally generated (and hopefully interesting to look at) world, interact with procedurally generated/unique creatures (even if they're not completely fleshed out yet), and do some basic things like building, harvesting resources and planting crops, recruiting followers (not that cities are in place yet, but I may add sentient wanderers/adventurers just to test out recruiting), and actually generating the PC itself, of course. Mostly I want to get to work on some of the stuff that will give potential players something to do, along with incentive to give feedback and become part of the creative process.
hm, maybe not for early releases, but you could work something out to generate simple images for portraits of the creatures for an in-game (pokedex-like) encyclopedia
Yes, though I don't know what the timeline for this sort of thing is, yet. I'll have a better idea of when I'll plan on implementing features once the main engine is complete. Lots of things to code and test (and test, and test, and test) before then.i know it's a bit of a late reply, but this got me really pumped up. i hope it'll be at least as in depth as UrW
it doesn't really. that's just the map, the game will be in ascii, how else could you depict the randomly generated creatures?
hm, maybe not for early releases, but you could work something out to generate simple images for portraits of the creatures for an in-game (pokedex-like) encyclopedia
Yep - no true graphics. Though there will be imaginative use of subcell resolution and libTCOD's awesome ASCII capabilities to make a much more 'graphical' text game than ASCII roguelikes typically employ.Whoa! That's awesome! Reminds me of the old DSA Trilogy (Wikipedia says internationally it was called "Realms of Arkania").
Subcell resolution also allows me to play around with fun stuff like this, of course:Spoiler (click to show/hide)
So...that's the relations between the various civs? Most of them seemed pretty amiable.
It currently runs at 1200x800. I could pretty easily adjust this if need be. At the moment I don't have the time, because I need to get ready for work immediately, but I'll see what I can do for you as soon as I get out tonight. Sorry for the trouble!
Nope, that's not intended behavior, thanks for reporting. I'll fix it when I get home tonight. There will likely be a variety of other bugs to discover, since a lot of this is fairly new code and I've been the only one tinkering around with it.
Still following Lord Dullard, I have to admit you REALLY havn't let your game fall into the "just ASCII it" trap a lot of other roguelikes have fallen into.yeah, there are many ways to approach ascii, and well done ascii can look as good as a pretty good tileset, and much better than the average tileset of most roguelikes. ascii shouldn't be treated as an easy cop out of doing graphics, but as a graphical choice in itself, and should be thought out with as much aesthetic concerns as a tileset.
It actually looks beautiful and I don't have to use much imagination to understand what I am looking at. It is a lovely game so far.
Experimenting with tiled water/mountains:
Warning: Very Large Image (http://cultrl.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/tiled.png)
this (http://gas13.ru/v3/tutorials/sywtbapa_obliterating_grid.php)is an interesting simple tutorial you might find interesting
Warning: Large Image (http://cultrl.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/tiled2.png)
More experimentation with 'tiled' fonts. In this one the grass, desert, mountains, and water all have texture. Trying to decide whether I like it or if I should just go back to solid colors. I do like that it blends the edges of deserts into grass more evenly. Oh, and I edited the water tile to be (hopefully) less annoying.
Warning: Large Image (http://cultrl.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/tiled2.png)
More experimentation with 'tiled' fonts. In this one the grass, desert, mountains, and water all have texture. Trying to decide whether I like it or if I should just go back to solid colors. I do like that it blends the edges of deserts into grass more evenly. Oh, and I edited the water tile to be (hopefully) less annoying.
nice!
>.> the blending in is a nice addition.
and it could also be used programming side, right? like, to stop civilizations based on farmland to go on and civilize the desert. when there is a "blending" tile with desertic zone go "alt" . >.> (or similar dunno how you coded it)
Is it possible to dig out walls and build stuff?
I've opened a blog to make note of my musical exploits. There you can find tracks that I'm writing for Cult, as well as some of my older work. There is the completed version of the worldbuilding theme, and a new track for autumn.
http://sentientdeth.blogspot.com/
If you could choose randomly from more than one tile for displaying these textured regions, that would help to reduce the griddy visual artifacts further. (I don't know if libtcod imposes font size limits on you or whatnot.)
That image reminds me of SimEarth
Where the world actually seems somewhat nondescript until you strip away all the creatures and plants. and see that the map is actually quite detailed.
I hope you work on forest tiles a bit more so it doesn't hurt the overall map.
Well, I've got reflective water working. Having way too much fun with that. :D
Well, I've got reflective water working. Having way too much fun with that. :D
I am kinda dumbfounded by just the idea of ASCII reflections.
Now if only someone could copy IVAN's liquid code. (not a hint)
So, looking at your water reflections, can I assume you have an array of bytes for the density of each cloud, and you use that as a coefficient to lerp the original water colour and white?
If so, couldn't you use that same method except with black to have the clouds cast shadows that move across the ground? I mean it would add to the processing required per tick, and as the luminosity of the ground is already used to show the shape of the ground it might give the effect of the ground moving, rather than shadows on it, but still, might be worth checking out, see how it runs and looks, and if it is worth it.
Ah, I see. Always an issue when dealing with colour manipulation.
So if you don't mind me asking, where your trees cast shadows, is that derived while the level is in use each frame, or does it just darken those tiles on map gen?
Are you deriving the displayed value every frame?
I figure if you only do it once every second or so, and move it off to its own thread, it shouldn't impact performance noticeably. Clouds will move some what slowly at best, but it should only add to the majestic feel you have going.
Okay, cloud shadows are in. :DWonderful news! Are you planning on uploading a video of this new visual effect to your blog?
Still procrastinating on starting the gods LD? :P
And that may be some of the prettiest ASCII I've ever seen.The look of the game is pretty damn great. I like that when not actively moving your character, the environment is still moving, not frozen in time. The cloud shadows are a great idea. Same with the reflective water, it's still ACSII, but much more detailed and realistic.
I thought libcod came with path finding algorithms for you to use.Imagine how much libtcod clashed with how you wanted to work with the graphics and interface. Now imagine that same circumstance as applying to libtcod's pathfinding capabilities.
I prefer turn-based in games like this. Imagine DF with no ability to stop and smell the roses.
I'm ok with real-time, but if I had my druthers it would have an active pause key like DF, where you can punch it to freeze time but you can still operate the UI, look around, gather information, ect....
So is that with A* implemented or not? Because if it is, it seems diagonal moves 'cost' as much as orthogonal ones, which makes movement look silly at 00:23. The path along the shore may be one of several shortest paths, it just doesn't look like one because of the diagonal up- and downhopping. IMHO it would look much smoother, with straighter paths, and more realistic, if you gave diagonal moves a cost of 1.4 or so.
Of course, if that was just a temporary pathfinding algorithm, I'm sorry for the intrusion ;)
~3.5 days off after this morning's shift. I'm going to be cranking out some more code by the end of the weekend, methinks.
After next week I'm officially done with my current job. :D After saving up some subsistence monies, I have decided I will try to hammer Cult into a semi-playable state over the next couple of months. I may or may not get a part-time morning job or something, depending on how code comes along... with any luck I can avoid that, but then again, it's always nice to have a back-up plan.
Man, that main game splash screen is just awesome. Simple, bold and sets the tone along with the cool looking font. Well done.
How do you plan to make procedural generation work with a tileset? I think we sort of had this discussion a while back.
I could be spending on coding the actual game, and the product would be inferior, since I'm inexperienced and generally just not great at anything too artistically fancy.
Ohhh goodness I love the music
It REALLY takes me back and is amazingly fantastic and creepy at the same time. Giving the impression of traversing a harsh and dangerous world. Give my kudos to the guy who does your music.
Unlike the constant "Pixie dust" anthems I get from other roguelikes that try (which isn't bad, but I consider Cult better).
Also curse the law of Next page amnesia!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gobi_DesertHuh, I didn't know that. Apologies, LD.
As far as characters and death, I think there'll be a few options for players. The game will default to a save/reload system, since I think most people will be choosing that. There will be a hardcore mode available with permadeath, however.
It's a real problem to me when games are so demanding by design that half of people who play them never see more than 15% of the content
Then again, there's something to be said for societies that can do some of both, a la Zeal from Chrono Trigger.
I have to disagree. Roguelikes aren't made for the content, they are made for the rules. There is no save/load in Chess, there is no save/load in Go. Both are awesome games and at least Chess barely classifies as "hardcore". The same goes for any game that isn't on the computer and resetting to an earlier state isn't only to strike balance between different players but it's also in to allow the actual rules instead of the "content" to provide some sense of challenge. With save/load any game degenerates to brute force. It's obvious with almost any FPS - take out the story (which is not part of the game) and what remains is not a challenge but a series of retries. Your skill only determines how many retries you need.QuoteAs far as characters and death, I think there'll be a few options for players. The game will default to a save/reload system, since I think most people will be choosing that. There will be a hardcore mode available with permadeath, however.
Thank you, for this. It kills me that hardcore games like DF and Dungeon Crawl refuse to add this as a legitimate option. When I started writing up design docs for games I want to make, that was one of the first bullet points I put in. I like hardcore, but I want the option. And I hate juggling save files. And sometimes, you just want to see the next bloody area without having to go into autistic mode just to survive.
I think there are a lot of great hardcore/ironman games out there that many people never bother to fully explore, because they simply don't have the will/energy to die the requisite number of times to get there. It's a real problem to me when games are so demanding by design that half of people who play them never see more than 15% of the content.
You're still talking content and trying to make it into rules. If a Daemonspawn gets random mutations that let them do stuff, that's content. That's not the same as the game booting you out of the game and telling you to start over.As long as something has an impact on what your choices are, it's a rule. Good games are based on rules that create meaningful choices throughout play. The mutations of demonspawns change what kind of choices you have, thus they're rules. Content is purely names, graphics, flavor text, sounds and supposed rules that don't influence how the game actually is played. Mutations are game changing, so they're rules.
So no, it's not like asking for teleportation in chess at all. And even if it was....I'm playing myself, so the only person dictating the rules that are completely within my power to control....is me.Well, then modify the game! No one is stopping you, it's open source! It's not like they are really "forcing it down your throat". But save/load *is* part of a games design and including it is not a negligible change.
Well, then modify the game! No one is stopping you, it's open source! It's not like they are really "forcing it down your throat". But save/load *is* part of a games design and including it is not a negligible change.
And again, a permadeath version will be available for those who'd like it. I know I would definitely run a character on that setting because there are times I love it.
Could things potentially get violent?old quote, but I gotta say this:
it's a game. what else do you expect?
I'd kinda hope we could make disciples.
Which does sort of make shadenight's point....the @ really seems out of place now :P
Which does sort of make shadenight's point....the @ really seems out of place now :P
Yeah but given the flexibility of what that @ could be (many species to chose from) it being replaced may take a while
Well unless it is replaced with a placeholder that looks nicer.
Is the second a more accurate representation of the topographical layout of the world? Because it looks very hilly now whereas the first implied lots of wide open plains.
No, I think not. Honestly, you probably wouldn't want to look at my code, anyway. ;D I suspect by the time Cult is close to completion it might have the same sort of sanity-draining effect as browsing the Necronomicon. That said, I think one day when I'm a little less busy I'll do a series of tutorials for Python/libTCOD.
I fell in love with this project the moment I set eyes on it, and I will be thoroughly impressed and happy when it's finally done. However, I do have a couple of questions regarding certain aspects of the game.
1 - Will we be able to have control over the generation of certain aspects of our worlds? What I am asking is, will we be able to, for example: add humans into the world or create our own races altogether? I remember in your preview videos you mentioned that humans and other high fantasy races might have to be modded in, but could it be possible to give the player the option of developing certain species to their specifications? I would love to see this feature because I would be able to guide the development of the world to suit my play-style. As much as I love alien worlds and what-not, I also would like the option to make that world have that touch of familiarity, so that I may feel more connected to the world. I'll be the first to admit that I don't know a whole lot about coding, but, hopefully, a feature such as this wouldn't be too hard to implement.
2 - How will you handle aspects regarding magical elements? Will spells or magical practices also be procedurally generated? Will certain things like alchemy be present in each world, or will these aspects also be procedurally generated? Also, will the game procedurally generate magical symbols, if you add such things at all? I am rather curious about this, because I am always a mage when I play fantasy games :P
3 - How will the ethics, laws, architecture, etc. be handled in civilizations? I would assume that the customs of each civilization will be procedurally generated, but what about architecture? Will each civilization use pre-made architecture, or will it be procedurally generated? If it is the latter, how will these buildings look in-game?
Currently designing the inventory system. Deciding on a suitable layout for the damned thing is much more difficult than I thought it'd be.
I don't recall you talking much about the inventory system up until now, are you wanting to do something novel there?
And as long as we're on the topic, where does Cult stand on mouse support, either currently or in the grand scheme?
I do like the idea of using bags to expand the inventory to some degree, and agree that it probably shouldn't be able to add on TOO much inventory space. I may also consider weight restrictions.
I assume click-drag functionality is a whole 'nother thing though, right?
The only funky part would what happens to items in slots created by a bag when you take the bag out of your inventory.
Indeed, if you watch the video, mining not only takes a bit longer, it also produces one third to one fifth of the raw material (depending on the size of the tree) as forestry. I may exaggerate the difference even more eventually, but that's what I'm starting with for now.
After watching your recent video, I was very impressed with where this project is going and how quickly it's expanding. Also, I was digging around on YouTube and found a RL in development that has an engine very similar to yours. Hopefully, there will be more future Roguelikes that adopt this visually appealing style
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRwRudGpnR8&feature=BFa&list=UUdiQ5bQJATpW6ydwpoz-YPg
Now I have another RL to look forward to :P
While bearing in mind the pre-alpha nature of the build....
Something more visible than the organe-ish dot for the player would help. You can barely make out the player amidst all the glorious terrain.
Hey Lord Dullard, I've been following this project for a long time and I'm just chiming in to say it looks amazing. Regarding the player's @ symbol, I'm also having a hard time seeing it. I think it would help if you made the character darker, like libtcod.dark_red or thereabouts.
A silly question - how do you shade your mountains/terrain? Just cast a ray from one side of the map to another, and lighten the terrain color if tile X is lower than tile X+1, and darken if tile X is higher than tiler X+1?
I wish that guy who made IVAN would just reveal his secrets already.
Even today I hear people cannot replicate the splotches he made (Blood, acid, water, rust, and even firey and holy). It is something interesting for future graphics.
I wish that guy who made IVAN would just reveal his secrets already.
Even today I hear people cannot replicate the splotches he made (Blood, acid, water, rust, and even firey and holy). It is something interesting for future graphics.
Goddamnit IVAN was incredible. Are there still some groups of modders/programmers making alternate versions? I remember I tried one a few years back that was a bit buggy but expanded on it quite a bit.
Also, Dullard, your project looks great. I've been eyeing your work since you've posted this, really. It looks great so far and your work pace is pretty impressive.
The most recent news on IVAN (if there is any) is mostly on the attnam forum. There are a few spinoffs there you might want to try as well.
I'm planning on launching the Kickstarter within the next week or so, and obviously I'll post updates on that
I'm no expert, but I can imagine 'real' rewards can also entice people to contribute in the first place. I suppose you need to be sure that you can get your money's worth out of anything with a high overhead for time / mail / cost to produce.
Good luck with this, I will be contributing and I'll try and coax others to do so.
Something that is cheap for you to do and people tend to like is in-game references to them or to something they choose. Say, for instance, for €10 their name (or nick) gets in the world gen name list, for €20 they get to create a spell effect, for €50 they may create a race that may appear in the non-random races mode you talked about earlier. Extremely silly or in-game impossible entries would be denied and the people affected would be allowed to come up with something more serious, if necessary in cooperation with you, or something like that.
So if I donate trough the site instead of kickstarter, would I still get a reward? Don't worry, I won't not donate if I don't get anything :p
Also, you make me sad that I don't have $100 to spare.
Also˛, I just found out I've lost my card thingy. However you call it. Not a credit card, but you put it in the ATM, punch a few buttons, and get money. Anyway, I lost it, and I'll have to wait for a new one before I can donate. It'll take a few days at least, sorry for the delay.
No problem! Yes, I can definitely still offer you rewards via normal donations
Okay - Amazon has cleared my (new) account, and I'm now just waiting on Kickstarter to move the project through their queue and launch it. I have a preview link to share with anyone who'd like to check it out, though:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dhagar/1066891227?token=fad69742
Well I meant more like... If you get the King. Do you just give that king a name or is there more to it?
There is no god allowance in there. (though it is possible through civ creation)
Well that I can see. I can only guess that was supposed to be part of your $70 dollar backing.
There is no god allowance in there. (though it is possible through civ creation)
Well that I can see. I can only guess that was supposed to be part of your $70 dollar backing.
Great catch! Thank you. I fixed that right away.
You might want to emphasise the 'randomly appearing' part in every 'define a character' reward; having however many kings, queens and sultans in every game might be a bit odd.
Man.
How do you kickstarter folks always make the top reward tier sound so awesome?
Also good choice of music for the video. It gives a strong sense of wonder.
Also good choice of music for the video. It gives a strong sense of wonder.
Yes, Joe (aka Sentientdeth) made all of that. His musical abilities are truly quite badass. I can't wait for people to hear the battle track he's composing right now. I've heard the first bits of it, and it gave me the shivers. :D
I think your rewards just cheated me out of 15-30 more dollars than I was planning to give. Damn you.I agree with this statement. I don't have this money, dammit!
Your Kickstarter, in fact, is having me doubt what the game actually is. What is Cult? Is it a standard roguelike with many planned features and random generation being the main gimmick?
Or is it a roguelike combined with a strategy game, where you play as a cultist trying to restore your chosen God's honor, either through adventures into dungeons or establishing your own religious "cult" and conquering territories? If it is the latter, it should be mentioned in the first paragraph, before you start going into procedural generation.
Cult is an open-ended role-playing game set in a user-generated world with a strong focus on storytelling, exploration, and environmental interaction.
It's fine. I just needed to express my thoughts.
Love your video and kickstarter page, you might have me as a spirit in-game haha.
Aww...it's not live yet. I was looking forward to backing it today!
Likewise. I think that's far better than the equivalent of having your name in the credits.
Aw snap, looks like a mighty fine Kickstarter to me! Well, your part of it, anyways, but it's nice that i could contribute. I'm currently wondering whether it would be odd for me to donate moolah or not. (what with you intending to give me a little cut of it)
HMMMMMMMMMM
But, while i wonder, i'll say that them's some pretty cool rewards!
Might as well ask this here since this is Lord Dullard's thread
What are spirits now that we can apperantly get a donation bonus of showing up as one? At least as far as the game is concerned...
Might as well ask this here since this is Lord Dullard's thread
What are spirits now that we can apperantly get a donation bonus of showing up as one? At least as far as the game is concerned...
Spirits are supernatural beings that are associated with a place or region, basically. They range from benevolent to evil and their associated place can be either very specific or a generalized type (i.e. X Mountain vs. wanders various mountains).
Spirits are supernatural beings that are associated with a place (either a very specific place like X Mountain or a generalized type like 'wanders mountains') who embody that area in a metaphorical sense and have some degree of control and influence over it. They're essentially above mortal but below god, being tied to an area. Think of naiads and dryads, but extended to many more concepts than just trees/rivers.
By 'monstrous inhabitant of a dungeon' I'm referring to something more akin to a boss creature (not that the setup of dungeons will be quite that simple), not just your average above-ground happy fluffy critter.
I'm very impressed with your kickstarter page Lord Dullard! My only concern is that you'll be spending all your time integrating the prices people get for supporting the game :) The construction system for buildings looks really cool btw!
Those $250+ prices are very tempting though... ;)
Does the "full game" level include the alpha versions of the previous donation level?
I'm very impressed with your kickstarter page Lord Dullard! My only concern is that you'll be spending all your time integrating the prices people get for supporting the game :) The construction system for buildings looks really cool btw!
I think he will probably streamline it. As well there is no timeline for a lot of the stuff anyway.
Actually I kinda put my fingers in my ears when I think of the ways he will simplify the donation write ups...
Posted it on Attnam.com, I'll try to convince the people there to pool together for an attnam civ.
And still no news from my bank for a new card...
Well, it doesn't look like anyone else will contribute. Maybe I'll try to get to 70, to get one of the gods in. I'll let you know how this goes. Neonivek, would you be interested in contributing to this 'project'?
Well, it doesn't look like anyone else will contribute. Maybe I'll try to get to 70, to get one of the gods in. I'll let you know how this goes. Neonivek, would you be interested in contributing to this 'project'?
I am trying to get a job so I can donate myself... but I won't be able to for a while.
Even then my goal was mostly for myself.
Though EagleV it seems like you have two more people who may be able to contribute to your "Bring Attnam to Cult" goal.
Yes to everything.
What I'm working with now is monochromatic text characters. A tileset implies being able to use multicolored characters, at the very least. ;P
You can? I really need to brush up on this stuff again.What I'm working with now is monochromatic text characters. A tileset implies being able to use multicolored characters, at the very least. ;P
Oh, duh. I was thinking in the terms of a DF tileset, where everything is monochromatic. I forgot you can do more than that.
You can? I really need to brush up on this stuff again.
Actually, you can do pretty much anything 2D you want with libTCOD, since it provides access to SDL surfaces (http://doryen.eptalys.net/data/libtcod/doc/1.5.1/html2/system_sdlcbk.html?c=true&cpp=true&cs=true&py=true&lua=true). It may not be the best option out there, but it's possible.You can? I really need to brush up on this stuff again.
Not with libTCOD, but he certainly can if he switches libraries.
And I wish I was a backer (maybe by next summer >_<)
The official forums are rather asleep right now but I guess it is to be expected.
Can you shed some light on how you generated the dunes?
Pretty please?
Have any of you just checked out creature strength? it is rather interesting to see how powerful even the smallest creatures are and how almost unbeatable the largest ones are.
Dullard why are the creature descriptions messed up? they are there, they just don't show properly for some reason.
I just love how there is no answer.
But fine I will answer it myself
The descriptions are working perfectly but the ability to look at them properly wasn't set up yet. Thus what we are seeing is a badly centered top paragraph that cuts out at several points.
First off, creatures are in the process of being rewritten entirely. The way their descriptions are generated is included
They don't show up properly in the Atlas because it was unfinished in the pre-alpha build that was released for the Kickstarter. They will probably remain that way because it would be largely pointless to spend time on a soon-to-be-defunct GUI.
Can you shed some light on how you generated the dunes?
Pretty please?
:)
I may eventually do a small libTCOD guide, since I won't be using it for that much longer, but it would be a really lengthy explanation - and if I'm going to write out that much detail, I figure I might as well aim it towards being a bit more broad in scope. So at some point in the future, maybe.
Wait a minute...are you scrapping the best roguelike desert I've ever seen? Awwwhhhh....
then the actual promised delivery month pass
The fact that he doesn't have anything when "October" came about isn't something that surprises me.Yeah, it's certainly even forgivable, but you've got to at least talk to people.
Well he said he had worked on the project for two years before he started a kick starter... You don't just drop a two year labor of love because you made some money from it.
Although if Minecraft has taught us anything, it is that as soon as you take peoples money, they feel entitled to know what is going on... Sometimes a little too much.
Well I do agree that you don't take peoples money then go under a rock to work... Eh, maybe I will catch up on everything I missed while I was away. It is still news to me at least!