Re: Daggerfall Mechanics thread: Volunteers welcome
Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2016 12:04 am
Yeah, I wish there was another way. If we had the original code, even Unity would be unnecessary; we could just modify the game code however we want, likely implanting it with an HD engine when the time came. For 19 years I wished that was possible, but now we have Unity to make up the difference.
I don't intend to perfectly duplicate Daggerfall's formulas by the time we're finished. It'd take far too long to work down every variable, especially the blind and conjoined variables. I also recognize this topic isn't strictly necessary in many regards; for example, Interkarma could just use the base combat formula given by the Daggerfall Chronicles and I'm sure that'd have at least an 85% fidelity to vanilla, beyond the perceptivity of the average player; or just substitute in any general formula for Spellmaker and item costs. Sooner or later, though, someone would stop and say, "Wait, this isn't what Daggerfall really played like." That's what I hope to catch prior to a full release. We could whittle everything down over a period of years (months?) through natural gameplay, but some precision testing will get us close enough, maybe like a 96% fidelity to vanilla, where we can stop and say, "Any further testing provides conflicting results, so there's nothing we can do now." That is what I call "finished." Sooner or later it'll get done, and I prefer sooner.
Thankfully, the testing I've done so far hasn't taken nearly as long as it might sound. I estimate that everything recorded in the first post has so far taken me four hours, which sounds like a lot, but I feel like I'm getting a lot done. I'm just using an editor called DaggerEd, which lets me modify nearly everything in a character, and a test character who I'm attaching to this post. I can test, for example, 100 willpower vs a Vampire Ancient for 3 tries, and then reduce Willpower to 1 and see the difference in a matter of minutes. A series of 10 tests can take as little as 5 minutes. Recognizing and isolating the variables, and being creative enough to find a test for them, is the most difficult part, so the time commitment is minor. Also, we're far enough away from release that a gradually accumulated testing time should be enough to reach sufficient fidelity. Daggerfall appears to be remarkably consistent in its programming, too, which could make the work much simpler than it sounds.
Above all, I guess this is just a way I feel I can give back to Interkarma and the other programmers while they're bringing DFU to life. If everyone works in unison, it all seems to feel easier.
EDIT: One concrete example is the falling damage testing I did. I think it took me about 15 minutes, and it looks like I tested every possible variable. Now the only part remaining is using a stopwatch to correlate air time and damage taken, after which a high-fidelity formula could be written within minutes. This is what's really great about it: a little work tends to go a long way. Shops and the combat formula will most likely be the most time-intensive parts of the matter, with spell cost formulas in a distant third.
I don't intend to perfectly duplicate Daggerfall's formulas by the time we're finished. It'd take far too long to work down every variable, especially the blind and conjoined variables. I also recognize this topic isn't strictly necessary in many regards; for example, Interkarma could just use the base combat formula given by the Daggerfall Chronicles and I'm sure that'd have at least an 85% fidelity to vanilla, beyond the perceptivity of the average player; or just substitute in any general formula for Spellmaker and item costs. Sooner or later, though, someone would stop and say, "Wait, this isn't what Daggerfall really played like." That's what I hope to catch prior to a full release. We could whittle everything down over a period of years (months?) through natural gameplay, but some precision testing will get us close enough, maybe like a 96% fidelity to vanilla, where we can stop and say, "Any further testing provides conflicting results, so there's nothing we can do now." That is what I call "finished." Sooner or later it'll get done, and I prefer sooner.
Thankfully, the testing I've done so far hasn't taken nearly as long as it might sound. I estimate that everything recorded in the first post has so far taken me four hours, which sounds like a lot, but I feel like I'm getting a lot done. I'm just using an editor called DaggerEd, which lets me modify nearly everything in a character, and a test character who I'm attaching to this post. I can test, for example, 100 willpower vs a Vampire Ancient for 3 tries, and then reduce Willpower to 1 and see the difference in a matter of minutes. A series of 10 tests can take as little as 5 minutes. Recognizing and isolating the variables, and being creative enough to find a test for them, is the most difficult part, so the time commitment is minor. Also, we're far enough away from release that a gradually accumulated testing time should be enough to reach sufficient fidelity. Daggerfall appears to be remarkably consistent in its programming, too, which could make the work much simpler than it sounds.
Above all, I guess this is just a way I feel I can give back to Interkarma and the other programmers while they're bringing DFU to life. If everyone works in unison, it all seems to feel easier.
EDIT: One concrete example is the falling damage testing I did. I think it took me about 15 minutes, and it looks like I tested every possible variable. Now the only part remaining is using a stopwatch to correlate air time and damage taken, after which a high-fidelity formula could be written within minutes. This is what's really great about it: a little work tends to go a long way. Shops and the combat formula will most likely be the most time-intensive parts of the matter, with spell cost formulas in a distant third.