Collaborating

Discuss Daggerfall Unity and Daggerfall Tools for Unity.
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LypyL
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Joined: Sun Mar 22, 2015 3:48 am

Re: Collaborating

Post by LypyL »

The random Dungeon Generator I made with this project in mind is in a functional state, you can take a look at here. Of course we'll still need some level-setup-code to go with it.

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LypyL
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Joined: Sun Mar 22, 2015 3:48 am

Re: Collaborating

Post by LypyL »

I'm setting up a google docs collaboration for this project so we can better keep track of everything and communicate clearly. If you're currently working on this (or want to ;) ) please PM with your gmail address, and I'll send you the info when it's ready.

mingorau
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Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2015 10:54 am

Re: Collaborating

Post by mingorau »

If you are planning on going with the Xant versus hero story i can contribute with a few characters, dialogs and puzzles later on (start of August). For the moment i know a few tricks from when i used to play and design my own pen-and-papers (a long time ago) that can help you fine-tune dungeon generation.

Daggerfall dungeon related, it would be better to avoid a few cronically hill designed dungeon blocks and use only border blocks that don't create loops. That is, just close the sides and don't link the upper part with the lower part of the block with a corridor. Daggerfall dungeons are already intimidating enough without border blocks adding extra loops.

There is a page at UESP that lists all dungeon blocks including the very bad ones to avoid:
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Daggerfall:Dun ... ck_Details

A useful trick when creating a dungeon crawl is to organize it in levels and levels into groups. Say five groups each with three levels and each level being a Daggerfall dungeon with 2 to 4 interior blocks. Each group contains one or more of drama/interest creating elements like a important treasure area, a secret room, an npc helper, a major enemy, an ancient artifact, devious optional puzzles or anything you find interesting and of course the exit to the next dungeon. It doesn't have to be linear either. You can have the player visit and revisit different areas.

OK so here's an example for the first area:

Motivation: Xant has imprisioned you (the Hero) in a forgotten dungeon in the desert, you must escape and arrest Xant. During the process you will visit Xant's lair in the astral plane, Xants old teachers in the Mages school, a King with in his minor kingdom and an Oblivion realm as well as battling your way through hard enemies, convinient temporary alliances, and puzzle solving as well as collecting damn good loot.

Area 1: the desert prison dungeon

Level 1: a typical dungeon 1-2 blocks Privateers Hold style.
Level 1 - Interest: a few diaries of previous Xant victims; a small secret room with treasure with a skeleton.
Level 1 - Exit: to level 2

Level 2: 1 block dungeon followed by a 1-2 block cave system
Level 2 - Interest: find the ghost of a old Xant prisioner; it must be calmed first; when that is done he will tell his story and give you the ghost enchanted necklace which reveals portals.
Level 2 - Exit: underwater to level 3 (needs water breathing or water walking potion).

Level 3: 1-2 block underwater cave system, 1-2 block with a dungeon large open space area.
Level 3 - Interest: find another secret treasure room; an impossible to beat flesh atronach stands in the middle of the large room;
Level 3 - Exit: activate the hidden portal and exit to area 2
Note: the atronach should be very easy to dodge, it's only purpose is to force the player to think out of the box and imprison the flesh atronach him in a room .

Area 2: the lair of Xant in the astral plane

Level 1: the lair of Xant includes the undergound area (area 1) and the palace (area 5), this is the undergound area where the lowest cast servants and ghouls do the slave work; 2-3 blocks
Level 1 - interest: find the fake ghoul (some guy faking to be a ghoul); secret treasure room, avoid the other ghouls and the lowest cast servants; get a sygil from the fake ghoul (do a quest for him, he his stuck) which will allow you to reuse the portal into the next area (area 3)
Level 1 - exit from the portal you come, using the sygil, directly into area 3
Level 2: TODO, will come here later using a non-linear path
Level 2: TODO, will come here later using a non-linear path

Area 3: TODO

This is only a template you may follow or change at will. Even so many aspects of the adventure are set in stone there's plenty of room for adding procedural and random elements:
* the layout of each level
* the location of the secret treasure rooms
* the loot available
* you can choose a few puzzles procedurally (for example the way to imprison the flesh atronach) random
* add special/random encounters that may occur at special marked places inside a dunegon

And if you seek inspiration to create your own puzzles or adventures then play a pen-and-paper with your friends (GURPS is my favorite system) or read a playable book like The Wizard of Firetop Mountain from the Fighting Fantasy series.

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LypyL
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Joined: Sun Mar 22, 2015 3:48 am

Re: Collaborating

Post by LypyL »

I'm actually playing around with the idea in my head of randomly generating the final boss. Generate a random name, and a type for a limited list (Ancient lich, vampire, giant, centaur, orc warlord, orc shaman, some of the humans etc.) It could tweak the story a bit and change the final battle depending on which enemy the player got.
Daggerfall dungeon related, it would be better to avoid a few cronically hill designed dungeon blocks and use only border blocks that don't create loops. That is, just close the sides and don't link the upper part with the lower part of the block with a corridor. Daggerfall dungeons are already intimidating enough without border blocks adding extra loops.
There's definitely some merit to that, there's also a very limited # of border blocks to begin with. Once we start cutting them out, they're going to get even even more repetitious.


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The Dungeon Generator has been updated to save / load levels. Just need to incorporate player information down the line.

When the player clicks on an dungeon exit that isn't in the root block (those are where they came into the dungeon) it will now lead to the next level loading. The player is automatically placed at the dungeon start on load.

Ernisius
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Joined: Fri Jun 26, 2015 8:51 am

Re: Collaborating

Post by Ernisius »

I'm still working (albeit slowly because of some health issues) on the inventory system. and would like to invite some feedback on the best approach.

I am currently using the Daggerfall character sheet for the inventory, so I can pick up and drop items in the Streaming World demo.
I can select info and get information on the item, or remove to drop it again. When I kill an enemy it drops items that I can pick up.
Also if I drop items I can go back to the location and pick them up again.

I am currently doing some equip functions.

So when I select equip then an equipable item it is removed from inventory and added to Player equipment, the sprite appears on the body of the character, but there are many bodies in daggerfall and and they are different sizes, also some female bodies are sized for female armour.

Is it worthwhile configuring all body types with appropriate sizes and pixel locations for each clothing/armour or should we stick with just one for now.?

HeadClot
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Joined: Wed Jul 29, 2015 9:11 am

Re: Collaborating

Post by HeadClot »

I would be interested in collaborating on something.

I am no programmer but I am a 3d artist that uses 3DS Max.

Feel free to shoot me a PM or something :)

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LypyL
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Joined: Sun Mar 22, 2015 3:48 am

Re: Collaborating

Post by LypyL »

Ernisius wrote:I'm still working (albeit slowly because of some health issues) on the inventory system. and would like to invite some feedback on the best approach.

I am currently using the Daggerfall character sheet for the inventory, so I can pick up and drop items in the Streaming World demo.
I can select info and get information on the item, or remove to drop it again. When I kill an enemy it drops items that I can pick up.
Also if I drop items I can go back to the location and pick them up again.
It's great to hear, and sorry about your health problems! I've been working on trying to get dungeon blocks working better in DFTFU. While play testing, I started to realize how often players would find themselves in unwinnable situations due to things like teleporters and moving platforms not working. This ended up being a much larger project than I anticipated, but I hope to have it more or less wrapped up in a day or two, and then I'll get back to working on this directly.
the sprite appears on the body of the character, but there are many bodies in daggerfall and and they are different sizes, also some female bodies are sized for female armour.
That's interesting, and something I hadn't really thought of. You know what you're working on better than anyone, so do what you think is best ;) If you want to stick to one size for now, that's fine! It might be all we need.

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