Sarcolemming

End of the year Update: So a lot has been going on and I've tried my absolute best to keep pushing forward with developing this game. That said I have some news for everyone, the following list is things I've either been working on, writing down notes on, or strictly theory crafting to try and work out. Sorted by section to make it a little bit easier to read. Abilities Added a bar for abilities(done) Added a basic set of abilities with stats(done) need icons for abilities need sprites for abilities need to add on_click functions to abilities Eventually adding in class specific abilities once classes are in the game​ Because abilities needed the same effects as everything else, I added in a list of effects. These effects are essentially universal and while adding them I found it easy to make items with these effects as well. Hence we have... Effects & Random Item Generation! Wisdom, Force, Agility, Constitution Defense, Attack Reflect_All, Reflect_Melee, Reflect_Spell, Reflect_Range Block, Chance_Evade, Damage_Reduction, Hp_Boost Chance_Hit, damage, Enemy_Hit_loss, Enemy_Dodge_loss, Enemy_Max_Hp_Down Burn//Damage per second, increased damage taken Freeze//Damage per second, slowed movement Shock//Damage per second, ticks are skipped Poison//Damage per second, healing = 0 Bleed,ArterialBleed//Damage per second, flat or % To be added possibly are Traumas including; broken(function diminished), crushed(function lost no part loss), severed(function loss and part loss), sliced(no functional loss but large -hp/sec) The idea with the last bit here is that attacks will not cause direct hp loss(you hit Orc and did 3 damage, his hp is now 7/10), but rather cause you to lose function/blood or both and eventually die from blood loss(you cut off that orcs arm! that'll leave a mark...). It is more of a dwarf fortress style of combat in which characters function after being hit, but getting hit enough will start to impair you, instead of death by a thousand paper cuts in which you whittle away at an enemies hp bar until it finally explodes from the toothpick of doom. Items are generated by the following methods... First we randomly select quality type from a short list; whites(junk), blues(magically delicious), greens(awesome with a hint of guacamole), or reds(let the blood flow...) At the same time as quality selection the number of modifications is also chosen ranging from 0-5. Modifications are then chosen at random from the effects list and given a weighted value. Things that are percents obviously get %s and so forth. Before the modifications are placed on the item, they are limited by a hard cap. Later on they will be sorted based on the type of armor/weapon as well. So it will be impossible to find +arterial bleeding on a helmet. Unless of course you WANT a helmet that causes you to lose brain cells.. The hard cap is in place to prevent items with Chance to evade +90% from showing up, and that has happened more than once in my trials. Further more with all these effects in place I can begin working on attaching the abilities to the effects, and implementing all of this into actual combat. Finally we are starting to see some RPG elements come into play.

Will do, I'll try to keep overly clashing tones to a minimum for future reference. As well as not allowing creative input from my wife and her 11 year old brother. They were my inspiration for that color palette. As an aside, some more progress has been made, I'm currently implementing the abilities bar your character can play with. Once finished with this feature you should be able to select your abilities and pick which one you want in each of three slots(clicking to activate at first, and later also having the option of pressing a key of the player's choice). Note that adding additional slots shouldn't be a problem, three is just the number I picked out of a hat so to speak. With this bar I will attempt to add in some default abilities as well, also the main character is now a dark purple square so it's less vibrant, and enemies are dark red circles. Simpler shapes by far, and hopefully less annoying as well. In other news I am considering migrating this all over to Unity, whenever I feel the core mechanics are established that is. At that point a bigger level will be started with which the character should be able to freely roam about. However(!), before that I'd like your guys input on all the mechanical stuff, how skills feel and how well abilities work and what have you. I would also like the enemies to be less galaga and more asteroids coming from different directions. That way you have to turn and such to defeat them. Could probably work on that last part next after abilities are in. All in all it'll be a long while, and taking the long road is more tedious but I feel will help my understanding of it and help it evolve into a better game. =)

So you made a Galaga clone. Not bad. Has no high score, the help button doesn't work, the graphics are hard on the eyes, but it runs. Now, I don’t want to sound rude (it’s a nice game and all), but I think everyone who got your game running now wants to ask... Is this your latest result in programming training? Because so far this game is les of a spiritual successor to the first two games than Sacred 3 and Sacred Citadel. Maybe you want to try recreating 2 player chess without AI – the board can be updated to an RPG easier. Or try Asteroids if you want an RPG shooting system. Yes I know, it's pretty much galaga, but everyone has to start somewhere, and this is I suppose, pre-pre-actual alpha. But it's working and it's a first step. I actually started developing text-based games a while back, and so I am more familiar with the basic mechanical aspects of games than the graphical ones. It's difficult to jump from my comfort zone of mechanical processing into abstract graphical representation of things. It was a bit of a culture shock honestly, and I am embarrassed to say it shows. This is actually why I avoided chess, I feel it would have locked me into a turn-based RPG style. Not that I mind turn-based RPGs, I just would begin to compare myself mentally with disgaea, something I think would detract from where I'm attempting to go with this. This is my first attempt at (non-text based)game developing in general. Yes the help button does nothing, I was following some tutorials and I went a little nuts with extra buttons. OMG mode is also disabled it's just horde mode, I can turn it on if you wanna lag your computer in about 10-15 kills though. It creates something along the lines of about 800+ entities in only a few seconds. As I said before it was easier to get things spawning on one screen side instead of randomly across the screen(galaga style). Many things will change and among those are including the stats system, skill system, spawn system, and of course actual graphics representative of the time period. For now it's a first venture into a new world I am totally unfamiliar with. AI is non-existent at this point and I would rather keep it that way until it becomes a necessity. I could spend years programming a good solid AI that would kick your butt every time you tried to face it(but where's the fun in that?). On the graphics note I would like to make it easier on you guys to see, so any suggestions I can implement to that effect, will be immediately taken into consideration. To anyone not familiar with the scope of what programming entails, here's a short to do list. better(more accurate) hitboxes generic skills(with a clickable skill bar) menus(basic ones in game, have to equip stuff somehow!) equipment drops(almost there, still deciding on the (quality-of-loot mechanic and how that will be affected by enemy type) more varied enemy types enemy spawn needs to be more randomized across all borders of the screen(but only when the player is able to turn) more control of enemy spawns(less of that mucking about in the same spot while moving crap) turning of the player to face a specific direction attacking in specific directions swords and other melee hitbox weapons a skills database(shouldn't be too hard to cook one up in an hour or two to get things rolling) eventually convert graphics to fantasy/tech-fantasy (pretty low on the list as it's an easy to change, I may try to make things a bit easier to see though) Boss mechanics(how they spawn, where they spawn) Cameras! a fixed world or randomly spawned world, you guys can decide which you'd prefer here. Story(terribly low on the list, ashamed to say that as writing has been a passion of mine for many years.) Different characters I've been contemplating changing characters to simple polygons and I'm gonna see how that works out. A whole mess load more things that need to be done but I can't seem to really get the time to do atm. In any event, progress is being made, today I've gone through a whole bunch of homework that's coming due shortly. The end of the semester is a "crunch time" where plenty of things need to be done and in short order. I'll try to get an updated version up with less galaga and more RPG elements. But no promises can be made, unfortunately.

Edit:edit: My pc has Java issues, but the file does work on a fresh install of Java 7. So make sure you have Java 7 runtime! I think this deserves a full new post because, the file is uploaded! That's right, version 0-01 is now available to muck about with! Go ahead and copy the link in your address bar and download it today! https://www.dropbox.com/s/02o0r0ib2pggsfb/Demo_VersionST_0_01.jar Side note: It's a very tiny file, only about 34KB or so. Also only a tiny sliver of feature is included in this alpha launch, naturally. Features currently usable(some are there but not implemented fully); Movement using WASD (controls are on main screen for reference, eventually will be moved) Shooting using the Spacebar (mouse clicks are there, but disabled, I can turn on click-to-shoot if you all would like it.) Enemies will die when hit(automatic, see health note below) Health bar(enemy HP is W.I.P. also enemy damage is fixed, that will change hopefully soon.)

Update: So after beating my head against the wall all weekend I finally managed to separate one incredibly complicated and overly massive doing_everything_at_once thread into two separate threads. Hopefully if I can integrate everything else correctly it will run more smoothly and be a little easier to work with in the future. Also of note I am working on uploading the original version, thinking of calling it version 0-01. Nothing really better I can think up at the moment, especially considering this would be the "alpha phase" if ever there was one. Hopefully I will crush some homework for college(Php ugh.. ) and be able to hook up my laptop to the internet to upload it later today! Side note : my wireless sucks, and it is what I'm using on my main PC to type this with. I'd use it but it tends to be rather... volatile. Edit: Might Take a while before I can upload, dog decided it was a dumb great idea to munch on some weeds and well... yeah that didn't agree with his little tummy very well. Good news though, the file is ready to be uploaded, that is, all packaged up and executable as is. More details to come later after much cleaning, plus some more fun with my brains and the wall.

Thank you both for the Condolences and congrats. In regards to the posting here, I'd rather not. Not that I wouldn't be grateful it's just more I don't want to be posting a huge number of versions here and somehow end up flooding the server. That would probably be bad for the bandwidth and more than likely cause a few issues. I have actually started working on hosting the first files up on dropbox.com. It's a simple site where you can upload/download files for free, 10GB daily limit so I don't think I'd have too much of an issue with it. I'll be testing that later on this weekend more then likely. As for "demo" well it's more of a space invaders clone with some extra mechanics attached. It was vastly easier to create an enemy moving in one direction first, making hitting them easier to test. Otherwise though much of the basic to-hit mechanics are in place. Evasion, attack, defense, reflect(WIP), and block as well. Oh and the sprites are T.E.R.R.I.B.L.E. I really couldn't draw computer graphics to save my life. lol.

Well alot has happened so the project is currently standing still right now. To sum it up, got married, had honeymoon, last night of the honeymoon Grandpa died, so we took a trip to western NY. Then we came back, got another dog for whatever reason, hes a (small) lovable bundle of insanity and classes are wrapping up. All in all the last few weeks have been a major headache more than anything else. I have had some time to work on a framework for the game. Sprites are still terrible and I'm still using my original demo, though I suppose if I find someplace to post that I could share with you all what I have so far. It's not much but it's working and it has most of the basics ready to roll out.

Thanks =) yup we're finally getting married this Thursday. Been a bit of an uphill(and then all over the hill) battle so far but it's finally coming around. As for the swapping I've gone back to basics and am restarting from the ground up to figure out where exactly the issue is. I believe it's something in my mouse listener class. Never can get those damn things to work outside visual basic . Once it's finished I'll start figuring out where I'm going to post my updates, maybe sourceforge or something. I'll be sure to (attempt to)post the latest running version of what I've got so far there(where-ever there is).

I hope you feel better soon then =) Not that the alpha will be ready anytime soon though. Update: Been working on mouse input lately, seems tougher and tougher to get it to respond correctly. I guess swapping projectile types isn't going to work out as neatly as I'd hoped. But I shall try none the less! Progress has been slow though, have so much to do and so little time to research and create. I've got a wedding on Thursday, crap tons of college work, job searching, and the fiance seems to be developing an ulcer. On top of all that I continue to sift through information about the game industry and am a little disheartened by where all the major players seem to be heading. Feels like quality is a thing of the past. Looking forward to Sacred 3 I feel even more uneasy honestly, but then again it's why I started this project to begin with! To make sure the sacred heart and soul continues on in at least some fashion, as honestly and as true to form as it can hopefully be.

Update: Been a while since I said anything so here is the progress report! Progress has been made! I can now create numerous enemies at once without having to worry about lagggg issues. What's more I found a way to implement plenty of bad guys without a terrifyingly horror-inducing headache of code. More to come: so stay tuned ! Rough ETA to playable Alpha version: ~4 weeks

Naturally, maybe some sort of altered dog-human hybrid... oh wait... . I like the bears idea honestly. Bear cavalry(Yeah, you're pretty much fraked.) That subtitle pretty much says everything. For now I won't be using 3D models, I need more blender practice, damn armatures and flailing about like a light-saber duel on drugs I suppose it can wait until I iron some more of the basics. Status report: Building Class files for the classes today; Most will be blank for a while. I plan on filling out the Vampire's and then rolling it around from there. I'll check back later tonight, hopefully with good news

UPDATE: Thanks to youtube and several other sources I now have a working game engine! The game will be 2D and will feature a camera angle that is roughly isometric. I'll be using tile sets to create the levels and characters. Anyone who would like to contribute some jpg's or png's is more than welcome too and will be credited as well! Anyone who has suggestions is also welcome, as I am.... currently taking ideas for: Passive Stat gains Weapon and item names(sword of doombearing, or unholy mace of awesomesauce) Town themes Monster themes Boss baddie themes as well Any modifiers from the sacred franchise(or any other) you'd like to see added, (reflect melee, evade, etc) Hopefully in the coming weeks I can get an alpha version up and running for you folks to test out! After all, nothing beats a good Live-fire exercise.

It's funny cause this is actually what I'm working on at the moment. I find listing things here just lets me keep track of where I'd like to eventually go. Plus inspiration strikes randomly, never know when I might have another crazy idea to add to the mix! For the moment though, you are quite right 1 character, 1 floor, only a couple mobs. Once that is on it's feet I can start adding in more goodies. Combat is fairly essential to the game so that chance to hit mechanism is really useful right about now. Reflect and such is also important in nailing down the order of operations. Though actually calculating it can come in at a later point in the programming. Stats though, it really is nice having those worked out from the start. Without them I would have a whole lot of blank files with nothing to do Thanks poobah! Always nice to hear words of encouragement.

Funny thing about the clutter muck, all that junk tends to form a personal shield. Kind of like a T-energy shroud... but more awesome looking. Haha, very true. I did find it eventually, was buried in the back of a drawer underneath a bunch of random things the missus threw on top of it. x) Now that I've found the calculator I'm going to post some progress here and update the main post shortly after.... New Character! *bug person* Name pending... may make a contest/poll about this actually... Hell isn't all burning fire and lava, there are tundras, snowy plains, dense jungles and forests as well. In those jungles a mysterious tribe has created a most unusual type of magic. While the real name is unknown to any but those who practice it, outsiders refer to it simply as "bugromancy". Drawing apon the lifeforce of the jungle itself, "bugromancy" is the ability to control nearby insects to a degree most people would shutter to think about. Every "bugromancer" has a preference the most common are moths, spiders, and beetles. Spiders - Webs, traps, poisons, and other aspects of the spider are common place on this path. Focus is on deception and assassination style moves. Moths - Drawn to the flame, moths are some of natures oddest predators. With a wide variety of high mobility aerobatic moves the moth path offers some interesting ranged options not the least of which include poison clouds, pet flame-moths(burning all those in their path). Beetles - Hmmm how to describe the beetle path, how about unbelievably strong! Aside from having incredulous raw strength(the sort that could bench press a double-decker bus), these types also benefit from a remarkably solid carapace. This strange sort of shell can deflect arrows without a ding, and prevent some magics from ever even reaching the player. Stats and numbers... mostly for reference of how I'm going about things behind the scenes.. A sort of progress report if you will. =) how to calculate the percent chance to dodge, reflect, incinerate, meltfaces, etc. if X is the cumulative total acquired. That is, 30+20+20, then X = 70. And Y is the final value you will display... IF X<= 50 then: Y=X ELSE: Y=(0.15*X)+43 After this, we do one final Check... IF Y>79 then: Y=(.005*X)+79 The last bit keeps Y from rapidly reaching 100% chance to anything. Effectively it limits it to the extreme. You would need several Thousand points of reflect anything to reach 100%... It's possible, just highly unlikely. Chance to hit.(CtH) CtH = 50+(Player_Attack - Enemy_Defense)*0.1 IF CtH <0 CtH = 0 This creates a number roughly between 50% and 100%, Obviously numbers above or below that are possible but not really important. By modifying it I'm really just trying save a few calculations. Few spare bits and bytes here and there... Hit Order of Operations... Swing! ---> Hit = Yes --->Evade? ----> = Nope --->Block? -----> = Nope --->Reflect? --> = Nope --->Force Shield Available? --> = Nope --->Reduction - General like Damage mitigation --->Reduction - Armor specific --->Divisional Mitigation if any - Some characters will have the power to split damage they take between themselves and their summons. This happens at this phase of the attack. --->Blood loss - final stage, all damage has been calculated and what's left is going through to your health. That's it for today. All I could come up with

Thanks for the luck! I will need all I can get. Pretty complicated yeah, Sacred has so many inherent options it really is difficult trying to replicate them. Of course it doesn't help needing to figure out complex math formulas for percentages... For instance in order to get what % chance to reflect melee this is the current formula I'm working with... (10*X/(5X+100)) * 50 = % chance Ideally it would take ridiculous amounts of X to reach anywhere near 100%, roughly around 400 or so, although reaching 50% chance can be done fairly easily(only around 20 X or so). So there are some mathematical kinks needed to be worked out. I generally live by the rule simple is best, so I'm dead certain this will get simplified and ironed out at some point. But yes, complicated it is... and I lost my graphing calculator this morning, that does NOT help at all.