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Author Topic: Wardens of Teros  (Read 10813 times)

Delioth

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Re: Wardens of Teros
« Reply #15 on: July 21, 2015, 12:19:42 am »

PTW; If you need it I might be able to look through code or bug-hunt sometime, depending on the language/system. Currently at University for Comp. Sci., so I might not know the language.

Best of luck, though. Post at me if you would like a hand anywhere, and I'll do my best.
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Araph

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Re: Wardens of Teros
« Reply #16 on: July 21, 2015, 07:53:08 pm »

Do you intend to program light and darkness and whatnot, making torches, lanterns, and fire magic more valuable against the demon? (naturally I think the demon should have dark vision.)

Also... here's one demon idea: The Troll. Despite looking... trollish... the Troll compensates... er I'll just summarize the idea.
[snip]

Lights are a pretty important part of the game. The Wardens are equipped with lanterns, which they can light and extinguish at-will. In the darkest shadows, it's almost impossible to see a hiding Warden, which is why giving the demon ways to track down careless players is vital to keeping the game playable.

I have a few comments about your idea as well as a little monologue about a things I noticed during testing, but my brain is not functioning well enough for me to put it into coherent sentences right now. I'll come back to your suggestion tomorrow, though.

So this is a thing again. Great!

It is!

PTW; If you need it I might be able to look through code or bug-hunt sometime, depending on the language/system. Currently at University for Comp. Sci., so I might not know the language.

Best of luck, though. Post at me if you would like a hand anywhere, and I'll do my best.

Thanks! I appreciate the offer. The game will be built in Unity 5 with C# as the scripting language.

One of the maps I'd like to include in the game is set in the city of Ancipes, which is the capital of Teros (aka where the last part of the title comes from).

Ancipes is full of old stone buildings, narrow alleys, and winding streets. Being built in a mountainous area, the city has lots of slopes, stairs, and bridges connecting the different levels' streets, which adds a new factor into gameplay: height. In the original game, there were several plateaus that players could jump up onto - a feature that I'd like to use more fully this time around. The alleyways should also provide the Wardens with plenty of hiding spots when trying to shake off the demon.
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Egan_BW

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Re: Wardens of Teros
« Reply #17 on: July 21, 2015, 08:45:17 pm »

PTW and what are your thoughts about female Wardens?
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Arx

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Re: Wardens of Teros
« Reply #18 on: July 22, 2015, 11:49:12 am »

Posting to watch, having followed the various tribulations of this from afar for a while.
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Araph

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Re: Wardens of Teros
« Reply #19 on: July 26, 2015, 06:15:38 pm »

Also... here's one demon idea: The Troll. Despite looking... trollish... the Troll compensates... er I'll just summarize the idea.
Troll like demon, large and strong.
Slow but effective in melee, has shockwaves. (can't jump very high)
Longer attack phase than normal, compensates by slowness.
Much faster and can jump higher in preparation phase. In the preparation phase the Troll is invisible, but can see further and should use that to its advantage.
The troll can choose when to come out of the preparation phase. If the timer is decremented.
To balance that the troll show up as a shimmer in light while in the preparation phase, making it possible to detect.
The troll can place Troll Oil in the preparation phase, which explodes when stepped on and either slows movement or makes the ground slippery.

When I said I would respond to this 'tomorrow', I really meant it at the time. However, I then proceeded to unveil my final form as a shiftless lump of shit and forgot to respond for the following eight days.

While playtesting the previous version of Warden, it became obscenely apparent that one of the largest sticky spots in gameplay was the demon's inability to figure out where the hell the Wardens are, so that's the biggest thing I'm focusing on when going through monster ideas. Because the original gameplay idea was basically hide-and-seek, I want to give each form a unique way of finding the other players, which means that each form should revolve around their method of tracking Wardens rather than their combat abilities.

Take the Hound and the Banshee, for example. There are two logical steps that went into planning their abilities: what the Wardens have to do to avoid them, and how (both mechanically-speaking and fluff-wise) they track down the Wardens if the players don't do what's necessary to avoid them. To avoid the Banshee, the Wardens have to stay still. To avoid the Hound, they have to keep moving. If the Wardens move when they shouldn't, the Banshee can see them with echolocation. If the Wardens don't move when they should, the Hound will catch up to them by following their scent trails.

The idea of a lumbering troll as a monster works in some areas, but it doesn't quite fit with the core of the demon's gameplay by having a unique means of finding the Wardens (something that is also putting the Mimic on the chopping block if a better idea comes up). I appreciate the suggestion, though! If you have ideas for how the troll can track down the Wardens, I'd love to hear them.

PTW and what are your thoughts about female Wardens?

I'd definitely like to have the game feature both male and female options for all the Wardens' classes, but it's most likely the game will feature either an all-male or two-male-one-female cast initially.



Update on game progress: I've been figuring out how Unity's new networking system works. Since the new version of the game will be built with Unity 5, I thought it would be best to take the opportunity to transition over to the fancy new system rather than clinging to the older (but still serviceable) OnSerializeNetworkView()-and-networkView.RPC() system that previous versions of the game used. The bad news is that I had to spend the better part of last week studying and experimenting, the good news is that I actually know what I'm doing now.

Right now the game's multiplayer lobby doesn't work as it will in the final game, but it lets players start servers, connect, and spawn their characters, which have basic movement and sync their positions across all clients. More technically speaking, the game is almost using the default NetworkLobbyManager and NetworkLobbyPlayer classes, but now that I understand how they work it shouldn't be too much of a challenge to add the necessary functionality to the derived classes.
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FallacyofUrist

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Re: Wardens of Teros
« Reply #20 on: July 26, 2015, 06:21:52 pm »

Heat. Fire, body temperature, all those things create heat.
The Troll could have heat sensing vision- which I think makes a bit of sense.
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Facekillz058

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Re: Wardens of Teros
« Reply #21 on: July 27, 2015, 06:54:17 am »

If we're talking about ways for demons to track down Wardens, why not a spider demon that can shoot strands of web between two points (Not unlike the grappling hook in Just Cause) shoot webs as grappling hooks, and walk up walls? That sounds like it might take advantage of your newer, more vertical map. You could also make it move slightly slower than a warden, requiring it to be an ambush hunter, but perhaps give it a venom that can paralyze temporarily so you don't need to be the mightiest ninja of all to play it.
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Araph

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Re: Wardens of Teros
« Reply #22 on: July 27, 2015, 12:55:56 pm »

Heat. Fire, body temperature, all those things create heat.
The Troll could have heat sensing vision- which I think makes a bit of sense.

Now THAT is an idea, especially since the Wardens could be able to use fire to mask their exact location.

If we're talking about ways for demons to track down Wardens, why not a spider demon that can shoot strands of web between two points (Not unlike the grappling hook in Just Cause) shoot webs as grappling hooks, and walk up walls? That sounds like it might take advantage of your newer, more vertical map. You could also make it move slightly slower than a warden, requiring it to be an ambush hunter, but perhaps give it a venom that can paralyze temporarily so you don't need to be the mightiest ninja of all to play it.

The ability to climb walls would be good (imagine the moment when the Wardens realize the demon has been directly over their heads the entire time), and the webs could be used as a way to track the Wardens: difficult to see while notifying the demon when walked through.
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sjm9876

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Re: Wardens of Teros
« Reply #23 on: July 27, 2015, 01:41:18 pm »

Perhaps give the spider more obvious paralysing webs that could be destroyed by fire, as well as some way to scare the players - perhaps to make the walking sound come from nearby shadows (also helps with ambushes, as they may not realise where it's coming from.) Force them to make the choice between burning webs or running and hoping for a free way out - also rewarding a clever monster who has laid down traps in advance.
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Araph

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Re: Wardens of Teros
« Reply #24 on: August 01, 2015, 12:32:31 pm »

I've started working on assets for a demo scene. Once the scene is done, I'll put up a build that includes the scene, basic multiplayer, and movements (including climbing walls and whatnot). It won't be much, but it's a start. After that, I'll start working on gameplay and Warden models.
Spoiler: Cursed Estate Concept (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: WIP models (click to show/hide)
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Araph

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Re: Wardens of Teros
« Reply #25 on: August 05, 2015, 03:19:47 pm »

Update: Working on buildings now.
Spoiler: Drawings (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Models (click to show/hide)
Buildings are put together with a set of parts: walls, different roof types, pillars, and doors. Doors aren't openable, but windows can be climbed through to reach the interior. The first screenshot (the one in Unity) is of a quick test I did to see if climbing through open windows was feasible with the current freerunning system (it was). Then I went back and started working on fitting all the different pieces together with a cleaner model, which is what the second screenshot is of.

As it stands now, I already have the following models sculpted, painted, and baked:
  • Two boulders
  • Lamp post
  • Broken stone pillar
  • Tree
  • Stone block
  • Stone fence
  • And a lantern
Buildings will be made out of the following objects:
  • Wall
  • Wall with window
  • Connecting pillar
  • Linear roof
  • Four-way intersection roof
  • End roof
  • Closed roof window
  • Plain door
  • Ornate door
For the time being, I'll be limiting it to walls, pillars, and roofs to avoid having to create models for interiors.

After buildings are altars, then Wardens and demons. For the PCs, I'll make simple placeholder models that will work until the gameplay is mostly complete before going back and replacing them.

Sorry if this sort of post is a bit too bloggy. It helps me organize my thoughts.
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FallacyofUrist

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Re: Wardens of Teros
« Reply #26 on: August 05, 2015, 04:18:43 pm »

Looks really nice. In the long term, do you plan to have openable doors? I feel that would add a bit more "horror". The players open a door, wincing as the demon is revealed directly behind it, or perhaps they see nothing, but walk through and step onto a sigil.
If the demon can't open doors, it adds a bit of strategy, in addition.
Moreover, openable doors add immersion to the game, in my opinion.
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Araph

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Re: Wardens of Teros
« Reply #27 on: August 12, 2015, 03:51:07 pm »

I finished the basics of the building parts a while back, but I've been otherwise occupied for some time.


A stables-lookin' thing. I still need to make the (unenterable) window boxes for the roof and an unopenable door.

Looks really nice. In the long term, do you plan to have openable doors?

I wrote a system to have openable doors a while back. It's a pain in the ass that might be added later, but I'm going to avoid it for the time being.

Also, I really like the idea of Assassin's Creeding through open windows.
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Generally me

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Re: Wardens of Teros
« Reply #28 on: August 13, 2015, 10:00:19 am »

If we're talking about ways for demons to track down Wardens, why not a spider demon that can shoot strands of web between two points (Not unlike the grappling hook in Just Cause) shoot webs as grappling hooks, and walk up walls? That sounds like it might take advantage of your newer, more vertical map. You could also make it move slightly slower than a warden, requiring it to be an ambush hunter, but perhaps give it a venom that can paralyze temporarily so you don't need to be the mightiest ninja of all to play it.
If you did make a spider thing. Maybe they could track simply by setting up tripwires that alert the spider when activated by a warden.
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Araph

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Re: Wardens of Teros
« Reply #29 on: August 21, 2015, 03:30:33 pm »

I decided to be a shiftless layabout for a while, but there's finally a bit of progress. With an extremely limited handful of finished models, I'm switching back to programming. Win conditions are almost complete, with altars working completely and Warden health coming up next.

Like in the previous version of Warden, the protagonists must stay within a certain range of the altar or risk the ritual being canceled by the demon. I did add in two small changes: the Warden who is currently channeling the ritual is marked with a particle effect and the radius within which he must remain is similarly marked (so the Wardens don't have to guess how close they need to stay). If the current channeler is under attack, another Warden can activate the altar a second time to take control of the ritual, leaving the former channeler free to retreat or flee. We'll see how well or poorly it works once a playable demo is ready.

If we're talking about ways for demons to track down Wardens, why not a spider demon that can shoot strands of web between two points (Not unlike the grappling hook in Just Cause) shoot webs as grappling hooks, and walk up walls? That sounds like it might take advantage of your newer, more vertical map. You could also make it move slightly slower than a warden, requiring it to be an ambush hunter, but perhaps give it a venom that can paralyze temporarily so you don't need to be the mightiest ninja of all to play it.
If you did make a spider thing. Maybe they could track simply by setting up tripwires that alert the spider when activated by a warden.

That was the sort of thing I was thinking of. Tripwires and snares.
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