Pyro_dragons' site

Interface Design

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 19:32:15 +0000

I've been working on the interface for a reboot of my game, The Elemental Stone, and I was looking to get some comment and criticism outside of the people I know.

http://img545.imageshack.us/img545/9858/screenie21.png

http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/8954/screenie20.png

EDIT:
New one http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/5518/screenie27.png

It still needs to have some decorational (apparently this is not a word, learned something today) stuff around it, but this should be enough to critique.

Ignore the tree. It's a placeholder. Everything else is 100% original.

Tales of Tournaments Update

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 02:53:59 +0000

Well, now that the holidays are over I thought it was time to get back to work on this.

TL;DR Version:
Video shows of Leon Magnus, extending attacks, using attacks in the air, and the CC system. Everything will be documented in the game.

This video will demonstrate several things, one of which is acting behind the scenes because I haven't done the screen objects yet.

First, it's demonstrating the character Leon Magnus from Tales of Destiny.

Second, it demonstrates Arte Extensions. An Arte Extension is an extra attack following up a regular arte. To extend an arte, simply press the same key that was used to execute the arte (A,S,D,F,C). The system looks for the key press by itself and ignores arrow key checks, so mashing the button works fine for it. Extended artes in the video, if they weren't obvious, are Demon Fang (Majinken) to Twin Demon Fang (Majinken Souga), Glimmering Dragon (Garyuusen) to Shining Dragon (Garyuusen Soukuga), and Moon Glare (Gessenkou) to Moon Fall (Gessenkouhou).

Third, and probably most important, is that it demonstrates Aerial Artes. Not every character is capable of performing an arte in mid air and not every arte is able to be performed in the air. However, those that are can be invaluable in extend your combo or interupting your opponents.

Finally, it demonstrates the CC combo system. This game will use both the combo system found in Tales of Vesperia and the system found in Tales of Destiny. It's not visible on the screen because I haven't done the HUD objects yet, but behind the scenes the artes use a certain amount of CC points. After standing still for a moment after a combo, your gauge will refill automatically. By default, you get 10 points (overlimit gives you 14) and each arte costs a certain amount. If you run out of points, your combo ends. Interrupting an opponents attack can give you extra points (1-3) depending on the level of attack it is. CC users also aren't limited to following the Low -> Mid -> High level arte combination. They are free to use almost any arte in any order as long as they have the CC for it. That said, high level artes have a high CC cost and using those constantly can end up doing less damage than a longer combo with more artes.

Artes that can be extended and Artes that can be performed in mid air will be marked as such in the Move list. CC characters will be marked on the character selection screen.

Criticism is wanted. And yes, I know the physics, direction detection, and keeping players from walking through each other could use some work.

Another little demo

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 04:07:17 +0000

A couple months ago, I showed off a little demo of a Tales fan game project that I was working on. Unfortunately, life (and games) got in the way of dev for a bit, so I'm not as far along as I'd hoped. Still, I thought another little demo is in order.

Everything explained below is demo'd in the video.

---------------------------------------------
Video Demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hwnzkvy5Sz0
---------------------------------------------

This time, rather than show off the melee aspects, I'm showing how magic will work and how it will be used in combos so magic characters are not out classed by melee.

Magic is in 3 levels, like melee: Low, Mid, and High level. Generally, the higher level of magic, the more damaging, flashy, and expensive it is. It also has a longer cast time. If no action has been performed, or the spell you're trying to use doesn't combo off from your previous spell, the full cast time is activated.

During casting, you have an increased resistance to being staggered by an attack. Higher level magic gives you a higher stagger guard, giving you a chance to get off a cast before the melee character breaks you. A few hits and your cast is broken though.

After a successful cast, you can then combo the next level spell immediately off of the lower level without having to cast. In addition, you can also combo magic off of melee attacks as well, in the same order.

Low -> Mid -> High

or

Mid -> High

or

Low -> High

During overlimit, a sort of limit break, all casts are immediate (for now). In addition, you can cast spells in any order during overlimit, rather than in ascending order only.

A short video, at both the top (for lazy non-readers) and bottom of the page shows off what I'm talking about.

---------------------------------------------
Video Demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hwnzkvy5Sz0
---------------------------------------------

There's still alot to go in terms of fine tuning, but the system itself seems to flow fairly well. What do you think?

Characters:

Jade Curtis (in green) -- Tales of the Abyss
Yuri Lowell (in black) -- Tales of Vesperia

A little demonstration

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 05:22:14 +0000

Now that pixel movement and such has become much easier due to being included in the BYOND engine, I decided to remake one of my older projects that I showed off awhile back. One of these day's I'll actually finish something I start here.

Anyway, it was a Tales series based fighter game called Tales of Tournaments. In comparison to what the new version is capable of, the first incarnation was lousy.

Here's a quick little demonstration of what the game will play like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeco2R_MDNc

There's not alot yet, since most of the tie what spent developing the first version of the engines. I'll likely refine them more over time, but they need to be working first.

Camera Positioning

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 00:58:51 +0000

For a project I'm working on, I'd like to have it so that the camera continues to remain in between the locations of 2 objects and repositions itself based on the location of those 2 objects. I'm just not entirely sure how to go about keeping a smooth transition of camera movement between the two.

How should I go about doing something like this?

Does FPS not actually alter the frame speed? (490.1109)

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 03:39:30 +0000

Problem description:

I'm not entirely sure where I should put this but I was wondering something.

Does changing the FPS not increase the play speed of an icon? I noticed that a game running at 40fps has icons that move at the same speed as 60fps, which should not be the case. Motion is most certainly smoother at 60fps than 40, but the icon play speed is the same for any fps.

I'm pretty sure I remember being able to increase the tick_lag in pre-pixel movement version and it would increase playback speed.

A bug maybe?

Open an HTML file in the player's browser

Sat, 18 Jun 2011 20:49:40 +0000

How would I open an HTML document that is included with the RSC into a player's browser, such as Firefox or IE, whatever their default is?

Runtime Error: Out of resources

Sun, 29 May 2011 22:27:44 +0000

Code:

mob/Move(NewLoc,Dir)
    var/slow = 0
    var/obj/spell/Darkness/Gravity_Well/G = /obj/spell/Darkness/Gravity_Well
    if(locate(G) in view())  //this one here was the marked line
        for(G.in view())
            if(G.owner == src) return ..(NewLoc,Dir)
            else
                walk_to(src,G,0,3)
                return ..(NewLoc,Dir)
    if(src.guardbrake)
        return
    if(src.is_struck)
        return 0
    for(var/X in src.ailements)
        if(X == "Slow")
            slow = 1
        if(X == "Freeze" || X == "Paralysis" || X == "Stun" || X == "Sleep")
            return 0
    if(confused)
        var/list/Turfs=list()
        for(var/turf/T in view(1,src))
            Turfs+=T
        Turfs-=NewLoc
        NewLoc=pick(Turfs)
        Dir=get_dir(loc,NewLoc)
    if(slow)
        spawn(4)
            ..(NewLoc,Dir)
    else
        ..(NewLoc,Dir)

Problem description:
I have never seen this runtime error before and searching the forums yeilds no results. What in the world does this mean? Besides the obvious, I mean.

runtime error: Out of resources!
proc name: Move (/mob/Move)
source file: The Elemental Stone.dm,2581
usr: Sacred Scion Guard (/mob/guard)
src: Sacred Scion Guard (/mob/guard)
call stack:
Sacred Scion Guard (/mob/guard): Move(Bridges (35,173,2) (/turf/Bridges), 4)
Sacred Scion Guard (/mob/guard): WalkAround()
Sacred Scion Guard (/mob/guard): WalkAround()
Load Lists()
: New()

I only got it one time. The code up there is associated with the line.

Something to look for

Fri, 27 May 2011 05:18:05 +0000

Just a little post discussing some stuff I've been working on. I tend to post few and far between around here, huh?

Right now, I'm revamping the UI. Here's how we're looking so far.

http://img851.imageshack.us/img851/268/screenie11.png

Working on the changes to inventory right now. Those include:

-Equipment pieces no longer stack. You can sell items you have equipped should you pick up another one, rather than just disappearing from the inventory.

-Items have stack sizes, varying for each item. Default and most common will be 20. When you reach the stack limit or pick up an item with a higher count than the stack limit, a new stack will be created.

-Inventory has a beginning limit of 24 slots. You will be able to expand this to at least 30. This is to give more purpose to the bank, reduce savefile sizes from large inventories, and promote the use of the auction house that will be introduced. In addition, materials harvested, items bought, and quest rewards will automatically go into your bank if your bag is full.

-Right click functions have been rewritten. There is no longer any drop down menu for items. Instead, right click will equip, unequip, or use an item.

-Double clicking an item now drops the item.

-Tooltips have been added. When you hover over an item in your inventory, on your status screen, when buying/selling items, or at the bank, a tooltip will appear on your screen showing information about that item. Moving the mouse off the item makes it disappear as well as clicking on the map. You can disable tooltips in the game menu.
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/2747/screenie12o.png

All graphical stuff is subject to change, but the UI will likely continue as is.

Window focus must be forced?

Fri, 20 May 2011 03:13:20 +0000

It's not really a code problem but I do have a question.

I know by default, window focus is false. By why when a window is clicked and comes "into focus", that window variable doesn't become true. Does it have to be forced? If so, that is incredibly annoying.