The Current Situation of the Super Immortal Role Playing Engine

So I was installing Rise of Nations Gold edition on my laptop on the 17th. Everything was going fine,until it just stopped at 99%. I wasn't really paying much attention, until I started to hear "click-click-click-click" from my hard drive. Then I noticed the mouse didn't move. Thought to myself, "this is weird," so I restarted. And that was the last time I was on my laptop.

Why this is bad:

I had no backups of the Super Immortal Role Playing Engine. Everything is lost,and it's literally back to sqaure one. Not to worry though--the engine is immortal :) At the start of the project, I knew things like this would come up, but I made a vow to myself to never let the engine die. I've already started working on a new version (and I promise to back things up daily.)

This new version is going to be a lot better. Instead of treating everything to this point as a failure, I've decided to see what I can learn so far.

Things I've learned:

Mainly, the way I approached the engine the first time around. I was making things up as they came along, and everything was messy as a result. Planning from start to finish, all the different values and files that are needed is definately a better way to go when making an rpg. This is a big thing I've learned. Everything is so much cleaner and easy and properly labled, making everything more simple and effective.

Secondly, to do lists. If I would have kept at the rate I was going the past few weeks, then engine would have been playable by the end of this weekend. And the reason why is to do lists. So much time is wasted staring into space, and lists of what to do make the work that has to be done mindless and fun.

Lastly, back things up. If you have any sort of sensitve data on your hard drive, BACK IT UP RIGHT NOW. GO GO GO! My hard drive failed out of nowhere, and it can happen to you. I plan to email myself the engine after each day's work on it, and also, back it up to re-writable cds from now on. Hopefully I won't have to start over.

Tommorow I'll tell you more about what I already have done on the new version, and also, what kind of computer I'm working on now. (Hint: slowwwwwwwwwwwwwww)

Known Abilities

Today, I worked on the "known" spell system. I made it so you can add and remove spells for debugging, but this will be done through various events in the game--say you find a special item, and it teaches you how to use fireball. Or say you meet a kung fu master, and he teaches you how to do round-house kicks.

It was mentioned earlier that it would be awesome if you could level up spells, and I wholeheartedly agree with this notion. However, because of time issues, it's a feature that I have decided to leave out of the initial versions of the engine. But I want it to be clear that this is something the engine will have. I also have an "age" system planned for the known moves, where if you don't use your known abilities enough, they actually "un-level"--basically a use it or lose it sort of thing. But this too will have to wait to be implemented. Again, this is so I can stay on schedule.

I'm going to start working on battles really quick here, so stay tuned. Things are just getting warmed up.

Name Entry

I realized today that I completely forgot about a name entry system, so I hammered one out.

Here are the results:

(Sorry about the sound on the video. Still trying to get that all calibrated.)

The best part is that this name is recognized throughout the game, and can be used by npcs to reference your name. I may later add a filter that makes sure you can't use curse words and vulgarities.

I think tomorrow I shall work on moves and leveling up.

Inventory Glitch

This glitch in the inventory is very frustrating. I've been messing with it and debugging today and I'm starting to think I might have to scrap the move feature for the time being. I really need to move on to the next features.

Here is some footage of the glitch:



Grrrr.

Tiny Little Update

Tiny Update: I'm working making the player stats screens spiffy.

Inventory Scminventory

Quick update: Did work on the inventory today. You can now use items and equip weapons and armor. I'm going to work out a system to move items around to organize your inventory later.

UPDATE: Been messing around with a moving system. Basically, it sets all the needed values to a counter, and imprints the counter values onto the new spot. It works, but it is glitchy. For some reason, when you switch an item from the bottom, it sets the quantity of the item to zero! So, one step forwards, two steps back on that front.

Progressive Letter-by-Letter Text

I've been messing around with bitmap fonts, and threw together a text engine that reveals text a letter at a time like in practically every older game.

Take a gander:


At the moment, the text engine for the Super Immortal Role Playing Engine is different. Instead of the standard "press a button" to talk to somebody, you automatically talk to them when you walk up to them. This is admittedly because of laziness--but a great idea came out of this. Instead of saying the same thing no matter what, each person says different things depending on which direction you approach them from. This is cool because you can get directions, or have people tell secrets and say stuff they don't want the others to hear. It's just cool.

I think I will keep the direction specificness, but implement this new system I've been experimenting with. It will take a little bit of extra work to put in a push-button, letter-by-letter system, but I think it will be worth it for legitimacy.

Also, GOOD NEWS! I read up on the recording software I've been using to capture video and did what had to be done to get sound to work. Now you can hear sound in the videos!

Cleanliness is Next to Godliness

Began work on the equipment system, but mostly did some housecleaning today.

Here's what I all did:
-fixed a glitch with the chest that would turn the first slot item into a potion instead of adding a potion to the inventory
-messed with the timing on the inn screen
-made the zeros on the sell screen hide
-tidied up the inventory menu.

Selling = Done!

So now you can sell items. And the inventory fixes itself. This is a load off my back because I have been putting it off for too long.



Things to do still:
-equipment
-using items
-changing maps (very easy)
-battles

After doing these things, I'll clean up a little and make the commentary look nicer, THEN a playable demo will be ready! I'm still not sure if I'm going to make a complimentary example adventure to go with it during release, or afterward.

Selling/ Inventory Conundrum

Working on selling/ removing items from inventory. I have the basic selection part of the code done, but I still don't know how to go about re-ordering the inventory if an item is removed from the middle of the stack.

Here's the dilemma:
Say you have
4 Potions
2 Herbs
1 Sword
1 Shield

And you sell 2 Herbs. With the code I have so far, your inventory would then look like this:
4 Potions

1 Sword
1 Shield

So basically right now, I am brain storming different ways to recompile the list of inventory--hopefully without making the code too complex. I want it to end up as this:
4 Potions
1 Sword
1 Shield


Shouldn't be too hard, but will take a little thinking.

Also, I hope to work out an "organize" feature, that organizes Items you can use outside of battle, Weapons, Key items, and so on. I'm guessing that the key to my first problem will lead me to the solution of this one.

----
EDIT: Actually, while typing this I think I figured something out that will work! The code will basically check if a slot is empty, and then check if the next slot is empty. If the next slot isn't, it will take the values and print them onto the first slot, and then make the next slot empty. The only problem I can see from this is if there is two slots open--the initial check will see the that next slot is empty--BUT I think it will fix itself because the "next" slot will be checking for its next slot, so the item will move from that THEN the first check will move it up again.

YAY! Now, to test it out...

Test Graphics

I've been playing around with some tile design ideas to use for the example adventure to be included with the Super Immortal Role Playing Engine. I want to capture and early NES feel, and have been trying to stick to the NES resolution restrictions of 256 by 224. The other NES restrictions are a lot more difficult to follow--FIRST OF ALL, there are only 56 colors total, and from those colors, you make a palette. A palette is made of 3 colors plus an alpha channel (for transparency), THEN, you can only have 4 distinct palettes in the background, AND 4 distinct palettes for the sprites, AND THEN, you can only have 1 palette per 2x2 tile. And it only gets more tough from there.

Anyways, here's the tiles I have so far:


And here is a quick mockup of a castle I've been putting together:


Tell me what you think! If there are any tiles I should include that you don't see, let me know. I know that for sure I'm going to add some trees, and maybe like, a waterfall, and those kinds of things. But let me know!

Buying Stuff

I finally ironed out buying stuff at the shop and adding it to the inventory. Before, it would only tell you if you didn't have enough money to buy something. But now, if you have enough money, it will added it to your inventory and subtract the price from your wallet. This might sound simple, but I was having a brain fart on how to get it to move to the next inventory slot. Anyways, I got it worked out.

Here are the results:


It's my highest task to finish the buying and sell system. I might work on the selling portion later tonight, but for sure tomorrow. Then I can move on to more exciting things, like battles...

Stay tuned!

Inn

There is now a working inn. The code here is pretty straightfowards. Basically re-using the store code and the chest code to make it usable for an inn.

Here's what it looks like in action:


Since the engine is getting closer and closer to being openly playable, I was planning on making a short adventure to go along with it, to demonstrate its power.

High priority to do:
-finish stores (selling, and adding to inventory)
-battles
-map changing
-save points
-name entry

Battles Battles Battles Battles

I've been putting a lot of thought about how to do the fighting in the Super Immortal Role Playing Engine. Standard turned-based with attacks and MP and items is fine, such as what you would see in the early Final Fantasy games or Dragon Warrior games, but the problem with these systems is that it doesn't allow for very much customization.

There is something I always enjoyed about the Pokemon series. You get to choose what moves to keep when leveling up. It adds a whole strategic element that just simple attacking and using spells doesn't quite achieve. So there's that. I also really like interactive type battles, like you see in most Final Fantasy games. You know, "Don't attack when the tail is up!" type of stuff. So I hope to for sure include those types of things.

So anyways, what I think I'm going to go with is a system where you have a "bank" of moves that you know. These moves are learned by doing various tasks for people, finding certain items, or growing to a certain level. Then, from this bank of known moves, you can choose and equip, or "arm" 3 of them. You then can use those 3 in battle. So when you are preparing for a boss fight, you might want to arm the skill that is more effective against dragons. Or, you might find that your fire-based skill will do nothing to a fire-y demon.

This will hopefully add the most strategic value, plus add more reason to do side quests and the like. Let me know what you think in the comments!

Would you like to buy a vowel?

Today, I worked out a buy system. Still need to plan a sell system. Also, I am a bit worried about how I will add new items into the inventory. That's what I have to work on next.

Here's some more footage:


Things to tackle after buying/selling:
-equipped items
-battle system
-map teleport
-set path npc
-save points
-inn
-name entry


Minor ideas:
-running icon
-sokoban chess
-mini games

Yes or No Box

Spent today working on the box that lets you select yes or no to options. It has a value that determines which event is being asked yes or no about, so that saying yes doesn't say yes for everything, just yes to the question in question.

Here is video of it in action:



I was initially having trouble making the box go away when saying no because it would just retrigger the event to happen again, so I had to fashion a timer (similar to the timer used on the chest) to limit when the event can occur. I am relieved that I got it worked out.

In theory, more options could be added rather easily. It would just be a matter of adding more values and more directions of animation for the box.

Next I will work on the store.

Sokoban and Chests

Working on things like inventory can get very boring--there is lots of copying and pasting and keeping track of numbers--so I figured it was time to work on something fun for a change. No console-style role playing game is complete without the traditional sokoban block moving puzzle.

Working out the sokoban engine went as smoothly as planned. As a reward for solving the puzzle, a door is unlocked, giving access to the next new feature: chests. Chests add items to the inventory.

Here is some video footage of it in action:

Player Stats and Inventory

Small update: Got the player stats and inventory done today. Now the game can interface with the player's hit points, defense, speed, and accuracy-- stuff like that. Also, the game can keep track of which items the player has.

Random NPC Movement

A randomly moving non-player character is essential to a role playing game. I dreaded the thought of figuring this out, but it came to me in a flash of genius when I was on a bike ride this morning.

How this system essentially works:
There are 3 values.
The first value, A, is assigned a random number 1 or 2. This number determines the distance that will be traveled by the NPC.
The second value, B, is assigned a random number 1 through 4. This corresponds to the direction that the NPC will be traveling. 1=right, 2=left, 3=down, 4=up.
The third value, C, gets a value based on what the first value, A, came out to be. For instance, if value A = 2, then value C is set to 16.
Whenever value C is greater than 0, the NPC moves a space over and value C is subtracted from, until it gets back down to 0.
When that happens, the whole process starts over again.


Here is some video footage of it in action:



Pretty dandy. There are still some collision detection bugs that need to be hammered out. With the current code, when the NPC checks to see if there is an obstacle in the way, it sometimes glitches up. This is bad because it knocks the NPC off of the 16x16 grid. I'm not too worried about it right now. Time for lunch!

Current Project: The Super Immortal Role Playing Engine

Currently focusing on:
-tile graphics
-menu system
-battle system
-saving



Things to be added in future versions:
-immunity shots
-running icon
-sokoban
-moving npcs
-alerting events/ congrats / you got key! messages
-multiple boxes of texts
-grocery store
-grandma's rat infested basement
-save points
-multiple player characters
-status effects / items to cure it