Hedgerow Hall

by Hedgemistress
Hedgerow Hall
Serious role-playing-oriented game world, with animals.
ID:1808530
 
CONTROL SYSTEM:

The game is designed to be played with a combination of keyboard and mouse. Right-click context menus are restricted to items in your inventory and other things that exist off the map. Interacting with items on the map is a matter of holding a key down (G for Get, H for Harvest, L for Look) and clicking. Double-clicking uses the most obvious default action (i.e., get an item).

Movement can be done using both the arrow keys and the WASD keys. Holding shift down while moving allows you to run. I'm trying out some concepts for a visible endurance meter that appears briefly each time your character is fatigued, so you can see how your energy level is as you're running.

Jumping can be done using the J key to click on an exact location, or by pressing alt and a direction.

DAY/NIGHT/TIME:

I have the day/night cycle coded in. I am using what is--as far as I recall--the same time scale as the old version. 5 real minutes is an in-game hour, so 2 hours of realtime is a full 24 hours. Right now the day/night cycle just happens at the top of every hour; once I add seasons, I'm going to make the days shorten and lengthen accordingly.

One real-world week is a season consisting of three months of 28 days (56 hours). Every four weeks is a year.

Night time is currently represented using BYOND's native luminosity function with a screen overlay that tints the world dark blue.

BURROWS:

Burrow size is currently 49 by 49, though this might change through testing. I'm still using an abstracted map system for the underground. 7 squares underground corresponds to 1 square above ground, so when you claim your plot you gain control of the ground 3 squares in every direction. ("Control" here meaning that other people can't put burrows there.)

Burrows now save and load independently of their owners, which means there is the possibility of abandoned burrows "rotting" and becoming open for pillaging, as well as more possibilities for things like burrows used as common halls. The old burrow saving architecture saved and loaded a list of burrow entrances that served as a sort of index for the burrows, which made implementation of secondary entrances problematic. Now each burrow is its own distinct entity that loads its own entrance(s).

A burrow entrance provides illumination when it's open during the day.

Closed entrances are now represented from the inside by having the ladder pulled up.

I haven't implemented digging/building/editing yet, so a burrow just consists of a chunk of hollowed out space in the middle of the allocated space. Once I do, multiple entrances will be pretty easy to implement. The only real wrinkle is the correspondence problem (since the scale is different underground)... it might just be that you can only have one ladder within each 7x7 square underground.

TREES:

In contrast to the previous version, trees can now occupy multiple tiles. Accordingly they are drawn in a complete topdown view, with the tree's trunk occupying the actual turf tile. The tree's canopy is represented by an area. The canopy is drawn semi-translucent so that items, land features, and characters underneath it are visible. I considered having them only fade out when a character was underneath them, but they wouldn't block your character's line of sight period.

Entering the canopy requires you to climb the trunk. This is an automatic action for arboreal characters such as squirrels, and requires a skill check and fatigue otherwise. Walking off the canopy results in a fall (knock down and brief stun effect, Acrobatics check to avoid). Arboreal characters also automatically succeed on the "dismount" getting out of a tree. There's a low-level green magic buff that lets other animals use these benefits temporarily.

Actual arboreal characters (not ones using the buff) can place their burrow entrance in a tree. The hole appears in the center square of the tree, over the center of the trunk. You have to be in the tree (not just beneath it) to enter it. There is currently no difference between a tree burrow and a ground burrow... the assumption is simply that the hollow trunk connects you to an underground lair. Once multiple burrow entrances are enabled, it will be possible to have a ground-level entrance as well as a tree top one for the same lair.
As of this morning, burrow editing is enabled. When you're in Build mode, clicking on a dirt square changes its type. You can cycle through in different directions with left and right clicks.

I've also added speech and language to the game. Anything you say shows up in a text box over your character's head. The text appears one letter at a time; I may eventually make the rate at which it appears depend on your language skill, which will also set the limit of how much you can say at one time.

The speech box is actually an invisible/empty icon with no maptext. It generates two images, one containing the correct text and one containing what people who don't understand your language see. The two messages are always of identical length (so they'll finish at the same time). The garbled version is randomly generated from words/sounds chosen to represent the language; e.g., Esquirrel shows up as chittering and Rhodens shows up as squeaking.

(Most characters understand the common tongue automatically, but to allow for those who don't, its mistranslation is generated using sounds from all languages available.)
Sounds cool, will that be done using the BYOND native map text?

Will there be a writing system to go with the languages or will it be like the old system? (1 skill 1 written language, I think?)

A long time ago I was thinking of the writing system in HrH and working on one of many prototypes outside BYOND I expanded upon it. If you're interested (and BYOND is now capable enough) I'll give my suggestion below:

I don't know how expansive BYOND's font support is but dependent on whichever has custom font support (native map text, or skin text... if it were me I'd try to do the whole reading/writing system via BYOND's skin) this suggestion could be done quite easily.
Basically, depending on the writer's skill level, they get access to more impressive (hand written-style) fonts.

Starting with something like this: http://www.1001fonts.com/ tommys-first-alphabet-font.html#gallery
Pretty good writing skill: http://www.1001fonts.com/jaspers-handwriting-font.html
High-end writing skill: http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/canadatype/tupelo/
Signatures: http://www.1001freefonts.com/a_glitch_in_time.font
An insane person: http://www.1001fonts.com/jo-wrote-a-lovesong-font.html
Someone with zero writing skill: http://www.fontpalace.com/font-details/Illiterate/
Magic runes: http://www.dafont.com/harpers.font

The applications are pretty numerous. That's just some examples you could choose whatever fonts, there's lots available for free.

Edit:
I was also trying to develop a system where paper could only be written on once, taking the cursor back to insert words would simply overlay the new text (like a typewriter does), and backspace/delete would use a random character from this font http://www.fonts2u.com/marker-scribbles.font for a 'scribbled out mistake' effect.
It uses the native maptext.

I don't plan on getting too fancy with the writing system, though only being able to add text to a paper (and only up to a certain limit) is part of my general plan to increase scarcity/limit reusability. Paper will already be valuable for magic scrolls.
Ah I see. Would you be interested in integrating if I were to develop this writing system in BYOND?
It's possible. A lot would depend on the specific implementation, and how the HRH project develops. I'd like to keep things simple as possible while still providing a lot of depth to play.
I agree with that. I'm sure you'll keep posting as the HRH project develops. Assuming it's even possible to do this in BYOND, I'll keep it simple but deep, I believe that it would add a lot of immersion and another reason to level up the writing skill (I'm can't remember what the other reasons for leveling up writing were though).