I hate this HTML forums. How about a bbcode format Forum ? :P
[quote]1. I won't be adding classes. I will be adding character portraits and allowing the player to pick two skills at player creation.[/quote]
This sounds good. Character classes could break the replayability and the freedom to experiment with different character builds.
[quote]3. All games have trees anymore. I kind of wanted to try something a little different.[/quote]
The problem to allow to choose every skill from the very first levels is that the player loses some of the character progression experience, so I can have access to "end-level" skills/spells too early, losing the sensation that i level up to earn more powerfull skills/spells. Skills tree was just an idea, but if you don't like it (and i can agree with you), you have two possible excellent solutions:
a) Skills/Spells with stat requirement: magic spells require certain amount of Int, Axes and Sword masteries require Str or Agi, and so on.
b) Skill/Spell affinities. This is, in my opinion, the best one: every skill and spell is classified into a skill/spell class. For example, Staves, Axes and Swords masteries belong to "combat type skills". Fire Spells belong to "Fire Magic type skills". Healing Spells belong to "Shamanic" or "Holy" type skills, and so on. Then, when the player levels up it's given a "learning point" that can invest into any skill type. Then, each skill requires a certain skill type level. For example: Fire Arrow requires 1 point into Fire Magic skills school. Fireball requires 3 points into Fire Magic school. But Lightning Strike requires 5 points into Lightning Magic school.
[quote]4. I like this idea. I'm not sure if I would do colored cells, but perhaps I can adjust the lightness/darkness of the item so that it is easy to pick out magic from non-magic items. This is pretty simple to do in the code. I could even make magic items pulse a little too.[/quote]
Your "pulse" idea sounds even better than colored cells. But you can even go further: make items with a pulsing light and also with a slightly different palette color that depends on the magics imbued. For example, +1 Str will make the item a bit reddish, and +6 Str will make the red ink even stronger. The same could apply for other magics: blue for +int, green for +agi, magenta for +vit, and so on.
[quote]5. I can add more sounds.[/quote]
Ambiance is really important in a game.
[quote]6. There are several people asking for more interesting magic items. Especially for weapons. I'm currently working on this.[/quote]
Then the next game release sounds quite promising.
[quote]7. Well, it used to be that you had to sell items to get money, but perhaps I could limit the number of items that drop and replace it with a gold pile instead and get rid of the automatic gold pickup from enemies. I imagine gold should pickup just by tapping on it.[/quote]
No, I think you didn't understand what i want to say. Probably i explained wrong (my english is not that good): right now, i don't even need to visit the shop to enhance my character since everything i need is dropped from monsters, from potions to armors and weapons. That makes the gold coins useless, but just like a "points" system, not a trading valuable. If you make the item drop chance lower, and the gold to drop from monsters, then we will be using the gold to buy potions, weapons or armor from the shop, so the gold becomes something with relatively high value.
[quote]8 and 9. I would say the current game is a kind of story mode. I've been thinking of making an infinite dungeons kind of generator that will totally randomize a new dungeon for players along with branches and puzzles. Then I can select random boss and such. This would increase replayablity by quite a bit, and I think many roguelike fans would appreciate that kind of randomness.[/quote]
I love Roguelikes, and they usually do not have a massive history. I like much the Deadly Dungeons "history" and intro (damn i felt into a unknown dungeon. No one was here before and the worst demons lies beneath... Do I will die here? Will this be my end? What forgotten treasures will i find here?). But yes, the diary pages, forgotten manuscripts etc... will give a lot of depth to the game history: why this dungeon is here? who built it in ancient times? what is it's purpose? how could it be forgotten for hundred years?... All of this history evolution makes the game not just a kill-and-levelup game, but also makes the player to advance to learn and understand more. About the infinite depth dungeon. It's an excellent idea. You can make a "History Mode", with 10, 12 or whatever depth levels, where the player plays as an actor in the world, and a "Dungeon Mode", with infinite random dungeon.
[quote]10. Diablo and Dungeon Hack have stronger than normal characters that appear on each level. Perhaps I could throw these in and give them double hp and an extra level or two and a special name.[/quote]
In DHack the level bosses usually have a special skill. Anyway, adding a random stronger boss to the level adds a lot of challenge: attack him to get better reward or just forget about it so i can avoid a possible death?
[quote]11. I'll likely have to improve ai over time. Perhaps I can add in an avoidance parameter and a fear level so that creatures will retreat if necessary. Fear level could be reduced by being near other monsters so they may not run if they outnumber you.[/quote]
Sounds pretty interesting. How about monsters AI that ambush player? This is, instead chase front the player, look for an alternative route to attack the player from behind or from another side.
[quote]12. I'm having the designer come up with some journal and tome entries that cover some of the backstory of the game. Hopefully I can have this in this month.[/quote]
Good news those are.
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