Fall 2009 Design Contest

[Uatu]

Very nice page for the design, Dinonykos! I will make one, too... if my design ever sees the light of day

Looking forward to having summoning spells work

[Dinonykos]

Originally Posted by Uatu Very nice page for the design, Dinonykos! I will make one, too... if my design ever sees the light of day

I would really like to see a design of yours, even if it was only one level. I am so much (too much, maybe) appreciating consistent looks, and an adventure with "pure" Uatu graphics will surely look awesome.

Originally Posted by Uatu Looking forward to having summoning spells work

I am more or less ignoring spells in my contribution ("Friedrich's Quest"). Perhaps, the evil overlord will be able to throw fireballs (I know this is not very original ), but this will only be a graphic gimmick, not "real" magic following the ADD/FRUA/DC approach. On the other hand, it may affect the items the main character is carrying (burnt clothes...).

I am still wondering if magic will play an important role in "Helmetlands". It depends on whether or not Version 1.0 will include a functioning script to remove a spell from a characters memory.

[manikus]

I am also going a route that will not put the focus on spells. Thanks to nologgie, I've discovered a lot more bugs in the spell database than I thought - bugs being something wrong with the code and not the script. But, he's also shown me which srcrpts are bad too. Basically, low level Magic User spells have fewer problems than high level ones.

I do plan on magic being key, however, but through the use of events and graphics. I might even through in some psionics in this way.

[Uatu]

Ha ha... Well, I will do my best to have at least a 1 level dungeon ready for the contest... (Must... make... walls...)

I like magic! I hope magic has less bugs more than more bugs...

[manikus]

It's not actually magic that has that many bugs, well one area does, but it's Special Abilities that are the main issue, which thanks to Paul, should be taken care of quite nicely.

I am all in favor of less bugs more over more bugs less (I think).

Uatu, a 1 level design would be awesome.

[Dinonykos]

No progress, anybody?

[manikus]

I'm making progress - a main NPC added with 2 different portraits and a sprite with all 3 frames. I also finished 2 wall overlays last night. I have to do a couple of more overlays and then I'll be ready to start laying out the non-story specific events in the main level.

Edited to add:
I work on DC all the time, I just don't post about it here if I'm the only one around. No point in holding conversations with myself online, I can just save myself some effort and talk out loud.

My rule of thumb - if I have the last post on every subject and/or have read a final post by another at least 3 times and still can't think of anything to say; I move on.

[Budzo]

I am also plodding along. My biggest problem in making progress towards a finished product is the same that I have with my main design, namely distractions. I am still learning DC and as I discover things I get sidetracked teaching myself. As an example I was all set yesterday to do some programing, but then had got an idea on art from the Ironworks site and so spent a chunk of the afternoon working on that. The good news I really like the effect (although it is probably old news to you folks) and more importantly learned a lot about my graphics software (layers), but my list of to do programing tasks didn't get any shorter.

In any event, I am not sure how good the final product will be, but I am learning and having fun.

Regards,

Budzo

[manikus]

I am the king of getting side-tracked. Like right now for example, instead of working on my submission, I'm messing around with changing the layout of the editor so it shows my square 3D viewport better.

Glad to hear you're still working away, though. If you have any questions about DC, just ask.

[Dinonykos]

I fear I found several bugs while playtesting my contribution. I still have to make mini mods for Paul (I was too tired last night ). However, I think I tell about them so you can tell me if they are real bugs and if they also occur to you... I am quite sure that none of this is mentioned in the bug tracker.

1. After training in a training hall, some sounds attached to walls (e.g. going through doors) are "shifted", this means e.g. that suddenly a door sound is heard when stepping through clear borders between squares, or that a sound assigned to a door is not heard. Once the party changes to another level (and even after returning to the level where the training took place), the error is gone and the sounds are played where they should be played. I actually use a teleporting event now to avoid this problem, because it is very annyoing to hear a door opening and closing with every step while you are walking through a garden.
2. I un-equipped a scale mail to put on another armor, but the game kept telling that a similar item was already worn, even after I un-equipped all items. This error occured only for armor/things worn on the torso, not for weapons or shoes etc. Could this be a mistake of mine? However, since I got the message even when nothing was equipped, I think it should be a bug.
3. I am not sure about the way the different test modes are handled in DC, however, I assumed that all quest stages should be removed from the party when I chose "test game from the beginning/start", or start it with directly using the "UAFwin.exe" file. However, one quest was always present in the party even after I deleted all characters and restarted... I am not sure if I can reproduce this one, I never had that problem earlier...
4. This is not neccessarily a bug, but I do not like it that the "camp music" always restarts while doing different thing in the camp mode. This issue is similar to the fact that background music in levels is always restarded when you use an event with the "random chance" trigger - but even more annyoing.
5. Changing walls from blocked to not blocked does not result in an opening in the map mode. The borderline between the squars still looks blocked. I guess this may also be no bug, but maybe this can be solved somehow...