Poll for my RPG Campaign

[131ueDragon]

Alright I am currently making a huge scale custom campaign RPG game. (It will feature over 10 races with least 5 characters for each race, 20 or more nations, Over 25 Cities and over 50 towns, and more...) As I am almost finishing with the beginning stages of the game, I decided I wanted to ask whether I should have the game set so you enter the buildings. Currently, like other online games, when you go into the building, it will take you actually inside the building. The cool thing is you actually enter the building and leave other than just buying it from some merchant infront of the shop. The downside however, is that the shops will have to be a seperate map, and therefore the game has to reload the maps everytime you enter or leave the building. So let me know if you think entering is good idea, or if you got a suggestion.

 

[beantony]

Loading another map just for shopping will takes time, leave the shop outside the building is better. But try to modify the ...camera bounds (if I'm not wrong), transport the unit to another places in the same map.

 

[RH.Vol]

Yeah just lave em outside, extra loading for shop would be really crazy...

 

[131ueDragon]

Well..

Thx for the replies. More would be helpful. The thing is that most official games will enter the buildings. I've tried to put the shops on the same map on a different camara bound, and just move the character to there, but then it shows up on the minimap where you are and looks strange. The Shop maps are really small (32*32 and the camara bounds basically make it about 12*16) and the shop maps take about 10~12 seconds to load. But more replies would be helpful thx

 

[RH.Vol]

Hmm i would add that it will depend on how many shops you will have and how often you will normally visit em!

Btw have you to reload the normal map too after you visit the shop?

 

[Raptor--]

you could designate a small area and repdatively use that same area for different shops
ie destroy everything in the area, reload doodads and such, people, triggers, etc...
unless u can be in 2 shops at the same time, then i suppose that doesn't work

either way, whatever works

 

[RH.Vol]

I think he dont want to make an extra area on the map for the shop and just teleport the player to it, or i misunderstood his post

 

[Noobie.Mapmaker]

Make it load another map when you enter a shop.
More realistic, or fun, don't you think?
I wouldn't like a shop to be visible when you're not in it.

 

[RH.Vol]

But whats the problem when they stand before there shops?There was often such Traders, at least if they got no money for a real shop ^^ and i wouldn´t like to load every 5mins just to get into a shop and sell/buy...
But maybe you could combine both so the really big and good shops get there EXTRA Map but common stuff can be buyied "on the streets"

 

[131ueDragon]

Hmmm

Volrath is right. I didnt want to designate an area for the shops because it looks strange on the minimap. Currently, I have like 3 shops, conbination of the weapon/armor shop, a bank, and a Mill (There is a small field to the outside of the town where you can harvest crop and make something in the mill). However what I didnt think about is the reloading time for the town map again. Currently I just have the beginner's village, which is relatively small, and only takes short time to reload. However, even if the shop only takes about 10~12 seconds to load, as the cities get larger, their loading time will get larger as well, and could waste lots of time in transition between shops to cities.
And for the comment about what happens in the outside of the shop, the ones you use frequently are outside. (Ex: the merchant, who sells you potions, food, etc. sits around the campfire.) Thx for all these replies. I might consider having the shops within a city. Any suggestions are welcomed.

 

[131ueDragon]

Info on my map

Heres a more detailed info about my RPG game:
1. Its a custom campaign game. (due to the sheer size of the map and the size of the game, it cannot be fitted onto a regular map.)
2. There are three "powers"- The Alliance, The Horde, and The Damned.
Alliance consists of these races: High Elves, Humans, Night Elves, Dwarves, and Titans.
Horde consists of these races: Orcs, Trolls, Taurens, Giants, Satyrs, (And possibly Naga...)
Damned consists of these races: Undead and Demons

3. Eace race will have at least 2 major cities, there will be smaller towns scattered acrossed the map. There are several nations, mostly between the races, but some races have many nations. (Ex: Humans have over 5 nations, some constantly at war with each other.)

4. The game itself is more free. It is an RPG, there will be many main quests and side quests to guide you to the story of the game, but there are everyday works you can do as well. (Mining, Lumbering, farming, etc.) Also randomly the nations will wage war against each other, which will effect your transportation between the nations in war. You may in these cases of war, decide to fight for one side and participate in the war, or decide to remain neutral.

5. To simulate a multiplayer environment, computer user heroes, NPCs will be walking around. Like the Warcraft WoW on this page, you can party with them to hunt.

6. Extended bag system to give you extra room with your items.

7. Extended skill book system, to give you more spells then just the limited 5. When the levels go higher and you're stuck with 5 skills, it can be frustrating.

8. High or unlimited Level Cap. This is almost going to be a never ending project. I'll keep adding more maps and more worlds onto in until I finally quit with WC. Items will also have level caps too, so your level will match the item's ability

9. Save/Load system to keep you going. Any RPG campaign without a save system is pointless.

10. Current plan is to finish the map first, then maybe look into a multiplayer map, where you can use your save codes, trade items, play team battles or do PvP. Of course this will be very last and I'd need a good save/load code that will be harder to crack...

***Currently need help with how to set up the defence system so your defence points knocks out the damage instead of reducing them (Ex: your defence:5 Enemy Attack: 10, 10-5=5 total damage recieved:5)

This is the plan for the RPG so far. Its going to be an massive project. I hope to release the first beta version in about a month or so, featuring the beginner's village and its surroundings + Some major quests. Thx for your inputs. Comments or suggestions are always welcomed. Thx

 

[deathbedeli2]

Blue could i help you on your map? (Triggering, Terraning)

 

[RH.Vol]

Really the ideas looks good...party with npcs... yeaha ^^ Save/Load is really important for longer maps thats right! And the shops in one big city isn´t a bad idea either, maybe add some wandering merchants to your map too, some with nice gear to buy+ normal stuff like food, like in WoW or Gothic...

I months for first beta... but good maps take there time

 

[131ueDragon]

Help?

Yea that was the next thing I was going to say. I am a pretty good terrainer/triggerer myself, not saying I am the best, because I have my limits too. I dont know how to use jass at all, so someone who wants to help with jass maybe could be helpful.
Deathbedeli I guess it would depend on your skill on editing. (I'm not trying to sound ignorant but I just don't want to have new map editors trying to help me out. I want someone who is at least exprienced and somewhat familiar with the subject.)
If anyone wants to help out and stuff, leave a message here or mail me at [email protected] (This is an e-mail address strictly for the game itself lol)
Thx
~BlueDragon

 

[131ueDragon]

some with nice gear to buy+ normal stuff like food, like in WoW or Gothic...

I months for first beta... but good maps take there time

Yea there is already a food system. There is also a stamina system, which I hope will enable you to run and walk.(draining stamina) Currently, as you run out of food, its triggered to slow you down, and you'll eventually die. When you run out of stamina, it will automatically put you in a sleep mode until your stamina is charged back (Im thinking about removing that though, because that could be really annoying especially when you suddenly fall asleep in the middle of combat...) I had the basics of the game about two monthes ago, and I was doing a pretty bad job of it as I went, and mistakes just kept on building on itself. So I decided that was it. But the ideas seemed good, and I came back to it, completely reworking the maps and games.
But I am liking the wandering merchant ideas. Itd make the game more realistic. Also what I meant by the beta is the very very basics of the game, just to give you a glimpse of the game. I might not even release that seeing as the units require much balance and the towns and maps will have to be created.

 

[deathbedeli2]

If you want i can show you maps i made and stuff

 

[131ueDragon]

sure

If you want i can show you maps i made and stuff

Sure I'd be glad to have a look at them. I mean theres all these ideas flying around in my head, but I'm really short handed, bymyself, working about 1~2 sometimes 3 hours a day.

 

[beantony]

Well, good luck to you Anyway, is this a multimap campagin? or a multiplayer map with wandering NPCs (So it'll looks like MMORPG instead of MORPG)

 

[131ueDragon]

campaign

This map is a multimap campaign. Due to just the sheer size the game is going to be, if I reduced it down to a multiplayer map, no one will ever host it anyways...(its currently about 10mb or so with all the imported models and more to come...) Thats why Im trying to give it a mmorpg look becuz there are plenty of campaigns that are really boring especially becuz its single player

 

[RH.Vol]

Anyway you cant host maps bigger then 4mb on the b.net ^^ what i really wonder about is, you talked about different nations who wage war against each other, lets 2 nations battle against each other and i join one of them and "my" nation wins, will there be the chance to take the defeated nation over and become the new King?Or "at least" gain a rank and special status by the winning Nation? Maybe become a General with some special influence? ^^I really would love the option to battle my way from a little "peon" up to the ruler of a whole Kingdom!

 

[131ueDragon]

Hmmm

You bring up an interesting point. Currently, my system of war was going to be as following:
1. Enemies you kill during the war are counted like creeps, but gives you extra gold.
2. Rewards would be given for your achievements in goals.
3. Possibly, you will be able to join a nation and would get some sort of rank as you engage in war.

But I've never thought of being a king of a losing nation. That is a good idea. However, that concept will have to be added on after the map comes to its completion, becuz I have to think then on about the borders changing. I was never thinking about becoming a king or high ranked officer, but itd be a good idea. Thx for the input, but currently the game is about 0.5% done and I got too many things to worry about to think about that

 

[RH.Vol]

No Problem , i´m pleased that i could help you with a good idea

P.S i send you a message

 

[131ueDragon]

Hey

If anyone else got any good ideas or want to help out with my project, feel free to just leave a note here or email me at [email protected]. Thx
Oh, by the way I got your message volrath, and I'd appreciate your help. I sent you a message too.

I just added a anti cheat system to the game, since it is single player. So if anyone types any cheats, they are automatically booted from the game.

 

[RH.Vol]

good idea the anti cheat system

btw what do you think about the ability to either play as a good/evil character i mean there could be quest with more then one way to complete, like some farmers get attacked by bandits and then you have to decide if you want to help and kill the bandits, over your help to the bandits or simple kill both bandits and farmers and depending on that you gain either Good or Evil Points which determindes if you can start some other quests or not or maybe even restrict some items for Good/Bad people...and so one

The neutral way would be to simple ignore the bandit attack ^^

there could be nearly unlimited options to solve a quest...

 

[131ueDragon]

interesting

I like the idea. maybe instead of stamina what I might do for lumber is something like fame. As you do good things your fame goes up or goes down as you do bad things. Maybe there will be mulitple quests like when your fame is high, a guard captain might ask you for a quest, but when its low a bandit asks you. That could be interesting. I think we got to get more people started in the project though, deathbedeli might be helping us, but I still think 2~3 ppl is way short for such a huge project.

 

[RH.Vol]

Exactly that was what i meant, the stamania thing could be really annoying, at least when you play a longer time .
The Fame would simple start by 50 (neutral) and then due to your actions increase/decrease up/down to 100/0

And i think so too, some more people would be really helpful...

 

[Raptor--]

you know ideas are good and all but i really hope you're set out a reasonable pace to implement all these features, as well as a general idea of how you're going to trigger everything, or else you'll be bogged down by a feature you overlooked, which compiles into other things not working as planned and it all becomes a mess

i mean, i have been working on my rpg for (well in terms of actual working time) a few months and i -finally- got around to scripting my own bag system which is still only in its preliminary state

 

[131ueDragon]

bag system i hope to keep it simple, by just adding a "flying backpack" unit. Or if I can get help with Jass then I'll make it more complicated. Thx for the imput

 

[RH.Vol]

I look forwards to the map and the Fame System for example isn´t that hard, surly there is many to do but if we get enough people this surely will become a great project with an even greater outcome

a backpack unit which is invis and follows you around is fine, its just like my predator cannon i used in my old map, because there is only one player at the moment things becoming easier, and if MP support should be added we still can improve the system ^^

 

[Raptor--]

if you plan to have more than one triggerer you better modulize things well

if theres anything i've learned from group projects at school, 2 programmers is usually not better than 1 if they are working on the same or overlapping things unless the interfacing is well defined

 

[beantony]

agree with Raptor.

For multimap campaign, first, you have to decide what are the systems you're going to use. After the systems were decided, then pour it unto triggers. Never change or add or reduce the systems. Or you'll end up modifying each map triggers. Maybe you could make a systems list for this thing. And make sure the systems are major-bug-free. Minor bug still can be tolerated (That's a bit from my experience doing a multimap campaign)

I used to do triggers in singleplayer WoW, which also a multimap campaign, and it's quite annoying to add or modify systems after you've done with several maps.

I could help with suggestions and ideas, but can't help you with triggers since I'm still doing my campaign.

 

[deathbedeli2]

Ok im ready to start trigginering/terraning whenever you are,if you could give me a list or so of stuff to bedone ill start on it

 

[131ueDragon]

Okk

Leave a post here as soon as you are ready and I'll send you guys the files around 7~8 PM.
I've sent both of you guys a message about what I need to have done. If you guys can give me your email address, then I can send you the file if you want.

Thx.

-Blue