hey everybody, i have been workin on an RPG in my head for a few years and this here project me is me trying to hardcode it out of there! like i said its an RPG, and i am working hard to try to get the combat engine as strategic as possible. right now it is in the form of a turn based strategy, with movement range per turn, and limits on how far each attack goes/effects etc. i have one partner in crime at the moment, hes helping out with the music and will prolly take on any other responsibilities as he can. i am making a little journal about how far the game has come, here is a link:

http://youtu.be/kcg6ttnRctk

i hope to have the engine fully functioning by the end of this summer, but we will see what happens.

edit: project moved to another platform

Dude, you need to speak up and articulate better in your videos! I could make up only about half of what you were saying... Also experiment with screen recorders and their settings a bit - the low frame rate made this video rather unrepresentative to how the game itself plays.

Other than this feedback on making a video log, though, this seems pretty interesting so far. Looks like you got some background code in place, at least for debugging.

Are you using Sphere's built-in features for the parallax and automatic scrolling? These are mighty useful and can make for some impressive maps, even if I haven't seen people use them much (especially the parallax scrolling!).

sorry, i think my mic was turned down or something, as for the video quality, i havent used the recorder much im still playing around with the options but ya the 5 fps doesnt do the game much justice but for now its wat i got. i tried to speak up in this next one.  = p

yes i am using the built in paralax and scrolling, it works like a charm and i will be able to layer stuff really well for the maps, i explained this in another thread but iwanted a 'water bottom', with a paralax 'fish' layer and then a scrolling 'water surface' layer on top. the video i have doesnt even show it at all so im not gunna post that but

what i am here to link is a little video about a small snippet of combat engine! let me know if the sound is any better.

http://youtu.be/nnkC1OorKas

i tried to speak up in this next one.  = p

Much, much better!

New video looks interesting. Technically, very solid! Some thought has been put into the interaction... and all the systems are even in place! Impressive.

I've got some criticism on the GUI and element positioning, though.

I can't help but notice that all the user interface elements are all very tiny. I suppose that's temporary? Perhaps it's an idea to show all the battle actions below the character instead of at the bottom of the screen (improves visibility greatly)? Since they're icons, this is very doable in a nice style. As for the rectangle around attackable enemies, you can play around with that concept too (like putting a red shadow under them or something).

Also, always keep the HP bar that is doing something on top! (During the attack, the player's HP bar, which is now being depleted, is hidden behind the enemy's bar, which isn't changing).

Have you made sketches of what your interface is going to look like (in different states and at different moments)? Doing that really helps you see and play around with what works (and looks!) well. Your buttons should also be fairly big (since you have the space anyway) so the player can just kind of throw the mouse around and still easily select any of the actions on screen.

Is having small graphics a large visible area a conscious choice? Like, can we expect big-scale battles with many characters at once?

ya i explain a little about why the hud looks the way it does in this video, basically its placeholder, i am not sure about wat screen ratio i should even use, if i need to support multiple ratios, or what level of pixel quality i want/need the game images at. that why things look the way they do at the moment, the UI elements will be larger, the field of vision will be smaller, and i definately know that the text alone is quite small and i will largen that. the battles wont be very large at first, the first episode is just planned for one character, so any battle in the first episode will be against only a couple of badguys at once (unless u run around the map dragging everything into combat (which u can do, attack a non-combating combatant while in combat)

as for the targeting highlighting, and well, pretty much everything else is placeholder too. im not settled on anything final wise, im really just trying to get combat where i want it, so i can make an in game menu to access ur items and character stuff.

and i fixed the health bars so it draws them all, then after i draws the acting entity's on top of them, then if the acting ent has a target, it draws that healthbar last on top of everything. check it out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbBJRhwrYk0

psst, video is set to private mate.
please set it to public when possible.

--[edit:]--

Watched the other video, and the combat is definitely interesting.
I had something close in mind for a project I'm working on now, but not totally the same, really just menu-wise.

Something I think you should add though is limit player choices down to one choice each turn.
Meaning you can either move or attack, but not both. Leads to more tactical decisions.
I think Final Fantasy Tactics did something similar, which may be where it's popping into my mind from.

Or if you want to keep the turn-base appeal you already have, add a limit by steady increase choice amount.
Meaning, instead of only one, add more choice counts based on the level of the player.
With a suitable amount of level ups, the player obtains an additional number to his choice amount/count.
Same applies for enemy.
Just a little something to think on if you want.

And decrease the screen resolution if possible. Makes the characters seem to be ants. [edit:] Davince already hit this point I see...
Love the perspective layout though. Neat take.

Works now, Vakinox!

Ranged attacks and bombs, neat! I can see this turning out to be really fun, if you have these large scale one-against-many battles where you have to play it smart. Could be nice if you involve the terrain, visual obstacles and a field of view so you might have to sneak around and stuff or catch them by surprise or something.

But uh, fix the frame rate already!

As for the resolution, may I suggest 640x360? It's half the resolution of a standard widescreen HD resolution (1280x720). I think that might work fairly well. (Fullscreen would work if you set the render size to 2x in config.exe.)

Something I think you should add though is limit player choices down to one choice each turn.
Meaning you can either move or attack, but not both. Leads to more tactical decisions.
I think Final Fantasy Tactics did something similar, which may be where it's popping into my mind from.

Makes sense, but at the same time, I think it should stay 2 actions and rely on different things to implement strategy... Heck, you could maybe walk a smaller distance and still attack, or walk the longer distance and lose your chance to attack. Since the ratio seems to be few vs many, always having just 1 action per turn seems harsh.

i havent settled on the exact overall design, about the turns and actions and such, but my original idea was was, 1 action per turn, 1 item usage, and as much movement as ur movement allows. but of couse people will be able to boost their speed to preform turns quicker, and then even use an item or ability that will allow u to preform two turns in a row (or two actions a turn or w/e). this design overall is practically a mirror of other such tactical rpgs, like tactics ogre, final fantasy tactics (& advanced), and super robot wars. the more i think about it the more i like an alternative idea like the ones u r suggesting in this thread. ill have to give that part more thot. i did want to put in fog of war, stealth, and directional weakness. the last two i already have the support i just need to build the methods. as for the fog of war, i know i could handle it i just dont know where to start.

i did do some work this weekend on the movement itself, i made some upgrades, u can now backtrack ur last movement, and make multiple moves per turn as long as u dont run ur mobility into the ground. here is a new video (with a better frame rate):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfT4bmFCFbo

the better frame rate didnt really help the video tho, i think i have to turn it up higher, or maybe its just my video card that sucks. i raised it from 5 frames to 50 but the playback still chops so hard it looks like its no more than 20.