Out of boredom...

Growler · Post by **Growler** » Sat May 16, 2009 6:13 pm

Dim, is ewe fur reel?

Seriously, sometimes it sho seems yer just screwing around pretending to be dev'ing this sweetheart game.. but if yo fo *real* real, then hats off my furry head to ya.

btw, what's z ole Norse name for dwarves? -heard it, but can't recall.

Domhnall4h · Post by **Domhnall4h** » Sat May 16, 2009 6:57 pm

Growlers.

Dvergar. Not to be confused with the DnD Duergar, (which is Old English I think... or I may have it backwards...).

I'm really devving it, in my spare time. I just happen to be on vacation. So this gets a bit more attention than it has. I won't give an ETA, because I do let myself wander to other, less involving (or complete) game projects, or just let things sit for a bit.

However, I pretty much have the mechanics down pat. I'm just streamlining them, balancing them, and rewriting things for clarity. I've cut a lot, over 20 pages ended up on the cutting room floor already. I'm on the verge of trying an entirely different magic system, one which is already there but needing some filling out to cover some of the basics.

*Edit*
Well, there goes another large number of pages. 11 or 12, just with the basic spell summaries. My hand is tired, so no more tonight.

Growler · Post by **Growler** » Thu May 21, 2009 5:40 pm

Dvegar soundeth a tad familiar.. cool word.

So, how'bout a magic system whereby mages can combine for stronger spells? 8)

That's been done in some game, right??
If not--then Yer Welcome.

(send Royal-T chkz 2 Growler, Inc. / N.Pole / Earth ~ my summer home)

Domhnall4h · Post by **Domhnall4h** » Fri May 22, 2009 6:44 pm

And if 5 of them get together, each using a different damage type, then by their powers combined.... I AM CAPTAIN CHAOS!

Everything is on hold for now until I get rid of a virus on my computer. It's really my fault, I just had to have a laptop. And of course, just try to find one without the Vista Virus on it.

I got a OEM copy of XP, and a small flash drive for backup. But that stalled all development for a week, possibly two.

As to magic system development, I'm going backwards to the original model. The new one is unbalanced and flawed in premise. Testing has them able to stop all damage period in caster-heavy parties, and wipe out literal armies (which are technically not possible under the engine constraints at this time) in a round or two.

Bards! - information coming soon...

Growler · Post by **Growler** » Mon May 25, 2009 3:32 am

yeah, vister sux and not in the good way.

hey, make sure to really truly hard-wipe yer drive--at the least use the HD maker's own wipe utility & write zeroes to entire drive.

don't want any VV left now do ye?
well, punk--do ya?

btw, you may need to install a ver of xp with SP2 (slipstreamed if necessary) in order to recognize the new lapper's hardware..esp if it's a higer-end lap; otherwise yer xp install will likely crap out.. if ya don't have a ver with sp2 built-in, you may be able to go into BIOS and disable newer cpu features, then install xp, then pop sp2 on top, and finally re-enable advanced features in BIOS.

Domhnall4h · Post by **Domhnall4h** » Mon May 25, 2009 8:53 am

I had to enable the legacy drivers in BIOS for the SATA drive in order for XP to recognize it at first. After that, it was a matter of going to Toshiba's site and downloading everything I needed for my computer.

Of course, I had to spend a few hours googling for drivers instead of doing that, so it took way longer than necessary.

I still haven't installed my wi-fi or 56k, but everything else is up and running. Which includes Wizardry 8, Age of Wonders, and other games which would not work at all in Vista.

I've got to see if this voids my warranty, if it did I'm buying some RAM.

As an aside, it's fun installing really old games like Heroes of Might and Magic 1 and Diablo. They have no idea what the hell XP is, or a gb of RAM. They run fine, mind you.

I need to find some working no-CD cracks for these games. Some of these discs are getting old. I also need to copy them into an ISO file, so I can make backups.

Domhnall4h · Post by **Domhnall4h** » Fri May 29, 2009 3:48 pm

I myself have never trusted much to Drama.

Domhnall4h · Post by **Domhnall4h** » Sun May 31, 2009 10:03 am

I really need to stop starting new designs. After reading that a new TBS won't be allowing hotseat or play by email, I got mad and spent several hours designing a new TBS system. This after I joined their forum just to wench at them about not allowing PBEM/Hotseat.

I use hotseat for balance testing custom maps, as well as finding bugs, misspellings, and other unintended things; and seeing where I can change things for greater fun. I play PBEM because it's almost impossible to get a good game going online, and then it's generally a short game.

At any rate, it seems I have temporarily lost my notes on the class system. Which includes the Bard. Rather than go through all my back up CDs, flash drives, and virgins; I'm going to just recreate the entire thing from scratch.

Growler · Post by **Growler** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 2:34 pm

Growler's know a thing or duo 'bout scratch.

And recreating things from it. 8)

May as well assume yer warranty's void.

So toss in some real Ram.. kinda sux XP limits ya to 4 gigs ~ of which only 3 or so is typically usable for pseudo-weird reasons.

Feel free to explain/expound upon what the hectacre TBS, Hotseat & PBEM are..

Domhnall4h · Post by **Domhnall4h** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 4:53 pm

TBS - Turn Based Strategy. Heroes of Might and Magic, Civilization, Age of Wonders, etc...

Hotseat - Multiplayer using a single computer.

PBEM - Play By email. Multiplayer in which each player plays a turn, saves, then emails to the next player in line.

I need tires. So no RAM for a while. Not that it's really necessary; at 2GB, XP is lightning fast for Windows. Snail slow for a competent OS, but still...

. It runs everything I own fine.

As an aside, before having a flat tire, and another one attempting to disintegrate on the highway, I bought a game called Eschalon. It's another indie-RPG, using a isometric view, turn-based semi-tactical battles; and so forth. It has some very good production values; it's extremely solid and well made. Y'all should check it out.

Domhnall4h · Post by **Domhnall4h** » Fri Jun 05, 2009 9:50 pm

Ok, now I highly recommend Eschalon. It is easily among the most polished indie games I have ever had the pleasure of sampling. It's also been a constant cause of delay in work on Eclipse.

Without further ado, here's the Bard:

Code: Select all

Bard
	Class Skills*&#58; Music &#40;See special for more details&#41; 
	Special*&#58; At creation, the Bard can select 3 more skills that function as class skills. There are no restrictions on what skills they may choose for their extra skills.
	Restrictions&#58; Cannot wear medium or heavy armor, cannot wear gloves or gauntlets, cannot wear headwear. Casting Bardic Spell-songs requires an instrument.
	Description&#58; Here's to the Bard! Musician, magician, and scoundrel, the Bard is a wandering poet whose talents include powerful magical effects through the act of Music. While all forms of music have latent magic within them, only a True Bard can utilize them to their fullest.

	Legends state that the first True Bard sold his soul to a devil at some crossroads, in exchange for the magical knowledge. For the next several years, he traveled, sang, and taught; and brought up a legion of followers who formed the foundations of the modern Bardic culture. He himself, however, died shortly afterwards, under mysterious circumstances. One does not bargain with devils lightly! 

	A Bard tends to travel light and alone; or with a few other Bards as part of a band of musicians. As such, they are generally a Jack-of-all-trades of sorts; learning several necessary skills but never becoming proficient in anything other than their music.

Originally, the player would have selected a second class, and it would have been somewhat like the old AD&D 2E multiclass characters in that it shared the abilities of both classes. I changed it to 3 selectable skills to keep the variability up, without over-powering it. The restrictions help balance it out some.

However, you can still have a Magical powerhouse, picking up Sorcery, and Psionics to give one character access to every magical ability in the game potentially.

Any PC can learn the Music skill, which lets them use various magical instruments. However, only a Bard-classed character can learn and use the spell-songs. Other Bards will only train fellow Bards.

The origins is a reference to a certain Blues musician, Robert Johnson. Legend has it that he sold his soul to Satan (or possible a politician, hard to tell the difference) in exchange for being able to play guitar really well.

While his guitar work was still not outstanding by even the standards of the day, his songwriting was superb, and well remembered today. I'm sure you've heard of "Crossroads" and "Sweet Home Chicago".

I suggest picking up any handy collection you find of Mr Johnson, whichever has the most music on it, as well as Eric Clapton's "Me and Mr. Johnson", which is EC's versions of many of Johnson's songs. Clapton has long played many of those songs, such as "Have You Ever Loved A Woman", "Rambling on My Mind", and "Kind Hearted Woman".

Code: Select all

Bardic Magic

	Bardic Magic is the magic of music. Requiring skill and ability in some musical instrument, Bardic magic is somewhat tiring, and more limited with it's few spell-songs. However, it is very powerful. Obviously, Bardic magic can be silenced, and the user needs both arms healthy to use it.

Bardic magic is more general in application; it's spell-songs have general effects on a given area, or on all who hear it. Currently, there are 12 songs planned; each with a non-combat and a combat version. I may rework this into having specific songs for combat and non-combat. Depends on if I feel up to writing more than 12 songs for the game. Or if I adapt some of my existing, more modern pieces.

One of the original effects was to alter the weather; to give an idea of how it worked. Another was to grant a temporary HP Regen trait to everyone within hearing range (including enemies!), and yet another had the expected effect of preventing random encounters by causing all who heard it to fall in a daze. Which included the PC's, who had to make a save each step. Which is why I removed that song.

Domhnall4h · Post by **Domhnall4h** » Sat Jun 13, 2009 5:56 pm

Make a note: Eschalon can be blamed for the complete ceasing of work on Eclipse. The past two weekends have been spent almost solely playing instead of working on it. I still haven't even gone in to replace my tire! Today, it was only the work of Terry Prachett that kept me from making it an all day event; and the fact I had to run my check to the bank.

http://basiliskgames.com/book1.html

Basilisk Games have guaranteed a sale as soon as Book 2 hits the virtual shelf.

Anyway, in order to diversify the classes a bit, as well as give players a reason to use them (it's mostly skill based, so it's kinda pointless to have a Warrior vs a Fighter, when the Fighter can pick the same class skills almost, and then just pick the rest up as non-class skills), each class now has traits it earns at specific intervals. Most are yanked from the existing trait list, which lets me more easily code things. Some are unique, especially the Bard's, which are effectively hard-coded additional spell-songs.

Domhnall4h · Post by **Domhnall4h** » Sat Jun 20, 2009 6:45 pm

*Casts Summon Big Fish*

Domhnall4h · Post by **Domhnall4h** » Sat Jul 04, 2009 6:18 pm

After beating Eschalon, I started a forum for my game designs. While I haven't got a logo I'm happy with right now, (trying to find a neat font, or get Inkscape to work well enough to make my own), I have been posting some random thoughts. I'll be organizing and transferring the sneak peaks I posted here to the new forum as well.

So join, eventually I'll get around to making it look like something. It's a temporary forum most likely, but it should be useful for various things.

Growler · Post by **Growler** » Wed Jul 08, 2009 1:23 am

Dom, I'll sign up in a bit.. just to jab ya periodically and keep yo furry-luvin' butt awake, as it were.

Did the big fish arrive?