Posted by vasiliy, Feb 10 at 6:23 pm
tbh, i doubt that mana concept fits to IVAN, at least as i see the game. even if i'll ever implement "wizard training route", it will only allow the player to direct their wands in more than 8 directions, that's all. 
as Yancakes wrote: "Our hero is a schlub! A fast learning one, but a schlub nonetheless." there are more than enough games with classes, magic systems, and such. i don't think that we need to follow them.
IVAN is a complex game which hides its complexity under relatively limited number of options, so let it stay as that. new players need not to think which class to choose, which traits to take, and so on. and this is the first of many traps IVAN prepared for unsuspected players, lol. "look, this game is so easy!" the limited number of stats helps to better setup this "metatrap", i believe.
as Yancakes wrote: "Our hero is a schlub! A fast learning one, but a schlub nonetheless." there are more than enough games with classes, magic systems, and such. i don't think that we need to follow them.IVAN is a complex game which hides its complexity under relatively limited number of options, so let it stay as that. new players need not to think which class to choose, which traits to take, and so on. and this is the first of many traps IVAN prepared for unsuspected players, lol. "look, this game is so easy!" the limited number of stats helps to better setup this "metatrap", i believe.
Posted by vasiliy, Feb 10 at 1:33 pm
yeah. willpower is useless in k8I. mana was hidden in 0.50 too, and i always felt that it is something devs are not happy with. it is not used in original code (althrough it is modified by new ommel blood code, and 0.50 equipment bonuses). tbh, i am thinking about completely nuking those stats from the codebase: i don't believe that i will be able to properly balance them.
as for weight and height… it's fun to see, yeah. but most of the time they are not useful. inventory weight can be seen in inventory screen, and character weight currently doesn't matter. "Siz" (height) is useless too, i simply forgot to remove it. ok, height can be useful for polymorphed chars, but i'd better introduce special "character info" screen instead, akin to stethoscope.
the idea is that useless or mostly useless info should not clutter stats panel. and numbers should be slightly brighter than labels, it is easier to catch them this way. shading on all text was introduced for the same reason: it is easier to read.
IVAN font is quite ugly and small, it doesn't give enough space to break monotony even with 10-px line height. text shadow doesn't help much too. that's why i added shading.
also, there is another fundamental typography flaw in IVAN font: digits are of the different width. this is common flaw of many monospaced bitmap fonts, and it bites when the code tries to use such font for proprotional printing. so i had to uglyfy some numbers to fix this.
p.s.: and changed blue color of stats to greenish/purplish. blue is almost unreadable on my display.
willpower is useless in k8I. mana was hidden in 0.50 too, and i always felt that it is something devs are not happy with. it is not used in original code (althrough it is modified by new ommel blood code, and 0.50 equipment bonuses). tbh, i am thinking about completely nuking those stats from the codebase: i don't believe that i will be able to properly balance them.as for weight and height… it's fun to see, yeah. but most of the time they are not useful. inventory weight can be seen in inventory screen, and character weight currently doesn't matter. "Siz" (height) is useless too, i simply forgot to remove it. ok, height can be useful for polymorphed chars, but i'd better introduce special "character info" screen instead, akin to stethoscope.
the idea is that useless or mostly useless info should not clutter stats panel. and numbers should be slightly brighter than labels, it is easier to catch them this way. shading on all text was introduced for the same reason: it is easier to read.
IVAN font is quite ugly and small, it doesn't give enough space to break monotony even with 10-px line height. text shadow doesn't help much too. that's why i added shading.
also, there is another fundamental typography flaw in IVAN font: digits are of the different width. this is common flaw of many monospaced bitmap fonts, and it bites when the code tries to use such font for proprotional printing. so i had to uglyfy some numbers to fix this.
p.s.: and changed blue color of stats to greenish/purplish. blue is almost unreadable on my display.
Posted by vasiliy, Feb 10 at 1:15 pm
thank you for confirming. i found it in in my crusade against `RAND() % n`, and decided to ask.
Posted by vasiliy, Feb 10 at 2:34 am
i think the rod should be just like a wooden stick. but… if you use it near the water, you could get a fish. as for buckets… dunno. prolly yep, good for blocking. but i believe that the bucket should have some other use too. just can't think out what it should be yet.
p.s.: and the bucket should be wearable as a helmet, of course. blocks vision, lowers Int permanently (because the hero should be very dumb to try this.
…and now we need medusa monster, which can be approached only with a bucket on your head.
p.s.: and the bucket should be wearable as a helmet, of course. blocks vision, lowers Int permanently (because the hero should be very dumb to try this
.…and now we need medusa monster, which can be approached only with a bucket on your head.
Posted by vasiliy, Feb 10 at 12:28 am
k8I has Alien Queen. you can try at it — one-line flavor text for worldmap when Alien Vessel dungeon is generated (currently it is "You heard rumors about some strange creatures roaming the continent..."), flavour text for Alien Queen level, and maybe description of Alien Queen herself. currently there is no special texts for "Look" command, but it is easy to implement them, so the more — the better. ideally, we should have "Look" descriptions for all unique monsters.
p.s.: i am storing your texts in Fossil wiki (with links to the posts), so they won't be forgotten!
p.s.: i am storing your texts in Fossil wiki (with links to the posts), so they won't be forgotten!
Posted by vasiliy, Feb 9 at 4:10 pm
slightly changed status panel. if you don't see anything wastly different, then i did my work right.
Posted by vasiliy, Feb 9 at 12:20 am
Wow, yeah, I completely forgot about the fishing dialogue. Having said that, was that the original 0.50?
Posted by vasiliy, Feb 8 at 3:13 pm
also, started to fill ticket database with ideas and such. it is quite boring to move all ideas there, so i'll prolly keep putting things there at a slow pace.
Posted by vasiliy, Feb 8 at 2:23 pm
made it so smith can open locked chests and boxes. sadly, the only tool the smith have is a hammer, so he simply STRIKES THE CHEST WITH EXCESSIVE FORCE!!111 usually it works.
p.s.: it's sad that the game doesn't have broken configurations for chests and boxes. anyway, one day i'll prolly allow the smith to shatter the whole container to pieces.
p.s.: it's sad that the game doesn't have broken configurations for chests and boxes. anyway, one day i'll prolly allow the smith to shatter the whole container to pieces.
Posted by vasiliy, Feb 8 at 12:10 am
SPOILER ALERT. Click here to see text.
he also talks about that in original I.V.A.N. (friendly replies):
p.s.: we need a fishing rod object and a bucket. he should have them in his inventory.
p.p.s.: amazon doesn't give me the image. sigh.
"\"Fishing is fun! Do you fish?\"",
"\"And then I got that perch weighting fifty stones...\"",
"\"I only want to talk but everyone is rude and dies when I try.\"",
not that you have much chance to talk with him, tho…p.s.: we need a fishing rod object and a bucket. he should have them in his inventory.
p.p.s.: amazon doesn't give me the image. sigh.