ID:121634
 
So here's an up-to-the-minute screenshot of the landscape graphics:



Without resorting to autojoin, I've made the river bends less abrupt and the forests rounder. I've made the individual trees smaller so they can fit into a symmetrical 3x3 grid, which will be important for when I make the world dynamic.

I've made the grasslands less bare-looking, which improves the overall appearance and will again be important for the dynamic world.

The biggest conceptual change is that I've changed the "mountain" tile type from representing a series of mountain peaks to something that's supposed to be more just like a big solid natural rock wall/outcropping. I think it looks better this way (though the final rock icon will probably be rockier looking... this is a quick-and-dirty thing I made by slightly editing the mountain peak icon, hence the triangles) and more importantly the rock landscape serves the same purpose as the mountains (blocking movement) while making more sense in the dynamic world... one could harvest rock more easily than a mountain.


And here's a screenshot from a fight scene:



Apologies for the "crowdedness" around where the action is... this was a mid-action shot. Basically, this is the Proxy combat style in action... the player hangs back while the companion (in this case, a bear) grabs as much aggro as possible and attacks the enemy you indicate. (The little thumbtack thing in one of the bandit's torsos is a target indicator.)

I've just reached the point of adding set-dressing to fight scenes... the trees and weeds you see are randomly distributed/generated. The weeds obviously need a little work in terms of not just being a square.

Weeds give you a bonus to stealth but slow movement. Trees also give you a bonus to stealth for being adjacent to them. Right now trees are opaque and dense, but I'm working it so that they will only be opaque if they're adjacent to another tree or similar obstacle... so you could hide behind a cluster of trees, but not a lone one.

Combat is the part of the game that's getting the most of my development time/attention right now, because I want it to be more interesting than a lot of GMUD combat tends to be, with more emphasis on movement than standing around mindlessly trading blows. This is why I switched the fighting style system from a fairly straightforward weapon proficiency system to things that actually change the experience of fighting.

Similarly, different enemies have different behaviors, and those behaviors can change based on events during the fight. Some enemies become bolder, more cowardly, or more desperate when they lose enough HP. Taking damage from an unseen assailant will make them move around more erratically or move towards where the shot came from (depending on their intelligence), taking a lot of damage in a single blow will make them draw back.

Why do you use that shade of green? Doesn't that burn your eyes?
Tripppppy.
In my day if you didn't want to stare at green phosphorescent fire, you didn't get to play Oregon Trail. :P

The game has adjustable brightness and contrast like an old monochrome CRT monitor would have. This is what it looks like with maximum brightness and contrast. The default brightness will be a few steps lower, but I'm going to wait until it's been playtested a little so I can collect data on what setting the playtesters prefer.
I love you.
Vrocaan wrote:
I love you.

If you get her number, pager it to me ( I happen to be an adept prank caller ).
If your prank calls are half as adept as your apparent trolling by asking a perfectly legitimate and reasonable question with an equally reasonable answer, then... well, half of nothing is nothing. Still, thanks for tipping your hand before you escalated to something twice as nefarious.
LOL... just saw on another thread where someone's calling you "BYOND's second local troll."

Second.

Seriously, do you kids all think BYOND popped up the day before yesterday or something? BYOND used to have good trolls.
Awww man. That thread is EPIC!
AlexandraErin wrote:
LOL... just saw on another thread where someone's calling you "BYOND's second local troll."

Second.

Seriously, do you kids all think BYOND popped up the day before yesterday or something? BYOND used to have good trolls.

I'm going to have to agree with you. 2008 was like the sickest time for me on this website.