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[Angle]

I'm working on a Roguelike based on the forum game Perplexicon. Right now, all I have is a basic tech demo, but I hope to have substantially more in time. I don't really know how to distribute this, so I just put the dist folder from my netbeans project on mediafire. If there's a better way, I'd love to hear about it.

Concept: A bunch of random people are dropped down into a dungeon by powerful entities and told to fight to the death for their amusement. they are given scraps of paper with magic words on them. These words can be used to create a large number of magic effects, including creating objects, transmuting things from one material to another, taking control of things, etc.

Planned Features:
Item system, in which any item can be used as a weapon, and can be modified in a variety of fashions.
Wound System - Track wounds individually.
Enemy AI
Magic language system
Raw text encoding for much of the content
Variable difficulty and settings

Updates:
July 1st, 2014

Sourcecode: Oct 02, 2014

[flabort]

Define "Tech demo". 
I'm looking forward to seeing this progress, and eventually complete.
I'll be following closely.

[Anvilfolk]

I'm interested in the technical side! I assume you're using Java then, and what are you doing for graphics etc?

[Angle]

I'm using java, and using the AWT for graphics. I was thinking of rewriting that to use openGL or something, but that doesn't seem necessary right now. The main technical detail I'm working on right now is how to store and handle all the information for the Items. My current system feels just a little bit odd - I have a class for MaterialDefinition, and a class for ItemDefinition. Items remember both their material and their definition, which is basically their shape. They then also have a list of modifications that have been applied to them - they've been burnt, sharpened, cursed, etc. I'm thinking this is needlessly complex, though - It might be better to just have each item remember all of their stats individually, and dispense with the item mods system.

When I said tech demo, I meant there are rooms you can move around in, and one of them has items and enemies in it. You can currently attack the enemies yet, they just move towards the nearest adjacent thing and bump in to it. This includes each other so you can get them to just go and walk into each other if you move right.

[syvarris]

Hrm.  All I get is a repeating strip where I can walk left or right forever.  And the seekers just get stuck together immediately.  Ah well.

Still, I'm quite interested in where this will go, so Posting To Watch.

[flabort]

I figured that's what it meant, I just wasn't sure.
Java, that's unexpected from my perspective. Certainly a better choice than flash for a RL, but still surprising.
It's a good choice, though, most people can actually run jaca. Some of the RLs I wanted to try I couldn't because the player was not free at all. The RL was, but if you wanted to play it, you needed the player, which was like 20 bucks.

[Angle]

This was actually mostly meant to show off the area system, which allows for stuff like the infinitely repeating planes. I'm not so much interested in that kind of thing for this game, though I figure I'll keep the system because I already wrote it.

[Toaster]

PTW.  Will dig into it when I have more time.

[GreatWyrmGold]

I believe I already made comparisons between this and DF in how both are complex ideas intended to be expressed in ASCII graphics, once the game is complete.

I hope you can do as well with this as Toady has with DF.

[Angle]

Well, it's a lot to live up to, but I'll see what I can do. 

[Parisbre56]

The main technical detail I'm working on right now is how to store and handle all the information for the Items. My current system feels just a little bit odd - I have a class for MaterialDefinition, and a class for ItemDefinition. Items remember both their material and their definition, which is basically their shape. They then also have a list of modifications that have been applied to them - they've been burnt, sharpened, cursed, etc. I'm thinking this is needlessly complex, though - It might be better to just have each item remember all of their stats individually, and dispense with the item mods system.

Just an indea: Since Perplexicon allowed for the combination of materials and items, why not add those things into a list for every item? Then you just need to check the entire list for relevant things every time there is an action relative to the item. That way you can get things like catstaffs or diamondsteel or arm cannons.

[Angle]

But how would that work, exactly? I figured for when people used two elements, I'd just average their stats out to create a new element. I'm not sure how I'd do that for objects. Maybe have an ItemDef remember which of it's stats are it's good stats, and have combo Items just take all the good stats to make a new kind of item? Hmm. Right now, I think I need to have items remember their Definitions and mods, and then maybe also have them store all their local Data? Or I could have them calculate it on the spot each time. And maybe I should also make an interface and some classes for stat, cause some stats work different from others - mass, for example, is a product of volume and density.

[GalenEvil]

But how would that work, exactly? I figured for when people used two elements, I'd just average their stats out to create a new element.

This sounds interesting, especially if effects can be added, averaged, or multiplied depending on the combination used. IE: Say you have a very strong attack that just hits the target, and another that is pretty weak but has some sort of area of effect. Combining the two could come out with a still strong attack with a minor AOE component.

I'm not sure how I'd do that for objects. Maybe have an ItemDef remember which of it's stats are it's good stats, and have combo Items just take all the good stats to make a new kind of item? Hmm. Right now, I think I need to have items remember their Definitions and mods, and then maybe also have them store all their local Data? Or I could have them calculate it on the spot each time. And maybe I should also make an interface and some classes for stat, cause some stats work different from others - mass, for example, is a product of volume and density.

I'm not sure if it would fit here, but you might be able to work from components instead of objects. Your Items could have the following components: Stats, Materials{Density, Deformation statistics, ...}, Physics{Position, Dimensions, ...}, and probably way more to go with these.
You'd then have various ways to combine the information to make it more meaningful: Mass takes information from MaterialDensity and Volume (which could be calculated from PhysicsDimensions if a solid item). The Component model is decent at allowing mix-and-match things, and gives some implicit information about what the capabilities of an object/entity has. Not all of these components would be necessary for all objects, though the Position/Dimension component is most likely to exist on all objects/entities.

If this sounds like it might fit I'll do some research to get you some stuff to read, and will make a more thorough explanation of what you can do with it
Sorry if that sounded in any way confusing and will be happy to answer any questions. Good luck on the project!

[GreatWyrmGold]

But how would that work, exactly? I figured for when people used two elements, I'd just average their stats out to create a new element.

I'd also add in any special traits either had. Eg, Fire+Steel would be a weaker steel that would set things on fire.

[Parisbre56]

On the other hand, keeping a list of materials the object is made of can lead to interesting things, like having only the wooden part of a woodmetal sword destroyed by a fire attack. Or have a solid woodfire sword burn its wood and only keep the solid fire. These all depend on how complicated you are willing to make things.