ID:116187
 
So, here's a different view from the game:



As I said, the dungeons are pretty boring right now. I'm using Shadowdarke's dungeon generator (circa 2001) with some sanity checking to make sure doors are removed from positions where they aren't actually between walls when the dungeon is finished. I've got a system rigged up where I define a dungeon level as an instance of an area, drag it over the area of the map I want it to cover, and then drop in the elements I want to make up the dungeon... I can make a representative dungeon with a random sampling of monsters and traps, or I can do something like drop a bunch of spider webs and different types of spiders in. The same principle would let me put a quest item/trigger or unique NPC on, say, the third level of a dungeon.

When I say "different types" of spiders, the main difference is behavioral. There are small spiders that skitter around, move quickly, and tend to try to clump two or three around the bigger spiders. There are hunting spiders that roam and actively hunt. There are trapdoor spiders that attack suddenly from concealment. And there are giant spiders (currently identical visually to hunter and trapdoor spiders, but I want to make a more bulbous icon for them) who just sort of lumber around unless you get very close, attack one of their little friends, or get caught in a web.

The webs were one of my prototypes for the trap system. Most traps are invisible (though after I'd tested the concept, I made a visible variety of spider web that will be used way more often than the hidden ones.) You do an automatic search check in your search range (normally 2) when you move. There's a small chance you'll spot a trap at 2 squares and a larger chance at one. This seems sporting. If you spot a trap from one square away, you may or may not stumble into it, but it's still avoidable. Making traps 3x3 squares or larger means they'll end up in people's paths without blocking one square corridors.

If you walk into a spider web, you get stuck. The activity progress bar becomes a countdown timer showing your progress unsticking. Fighting interrupts it and starts the process over, but you're not at a disadvantage while fighting (except for not being able to move). It also alerts all the spiders in the immediate area as to your presence and location. In an ordinary dungeon this is kind of a crapshoot if it'll matter or not, but in the dungeon this is a prototype for... called the Silk Mine... there are no doors, and spiders will be the majority of the monsters.

Of special note in this screenshot is that I've switched out companions, trading badger in for bear. Two unintended but kind of hilarious consequences of the fact that the bear is much larger than any of the other animal companions so far: it's burst completely out of its HUD icon, and it appears to be holding its friendship indicator.

Frankly, I'm not sure that I care to fix either of those. The HUD one is going to need some adjusting as it obscures the slot above, but I kind of like the idea of the upper half being there, arms popping out of the frame.
That's probably the most terrifying bear in existence.
It's actually less terrifying than the attempt directly before it, which is basically the same bear but with a teddy bear head.
I like. I like lots.
Deffinity got to consider giving the player the ability to set the interface and game color scheme from green to whatever they want.

And since your still early in development, now would be the best time to work it into the system and art.

Everything looks interesting though, keep it up!
For the rest of the interface, that would be easy enough... but I can't quite get my mind around how I'd do that for the map, given that it's meant to be online and with a shared world. Sending images for everything the player sees seems like it would get cumbersome pretty quickly, especially since I'm already doing quirky things with the built-in vision stuff.

Though I suppose I could "de-color" the base icons and make a translucent screen overlay. That might even make it look -more- like an old timey computer screen. You know, I have multiple back-ups of the projects, so I'm going to go ahead and try that.

Edit: Just tried that and the results are interesting, but not at all what I'm going for. Too much of the sharpness is lost.

If you have any implementation tips for doing it with the icons themselves, I'm all ears.